Utilizing Your Contacts

        Friends, relatives, acquaintances, and business contacts can all provide useful leads if you approach them in the right way. Before they can help, people must know what you’re looking for and what your qualifications are. About 26% of all job seekers find positions through such leads. This number could be increased substantially if people made better use of this method. Include your banker, barber, broker, and butcher. Every person who has an interest in your success can be helpful.

        Use the methods described below to develop your list of contacts:

        1. Start by listing the names of friends, relatives, and contacts in your area (assuming you plan to stay in your present location). Include each person’s home phone and address, and, if possible, each one’s employer and title.

        2. Develop an A‑list and a B‑list. Your A‑list includes people most likely to hear about the type of opening you’re interested in and those who could refer you to other key people. If your parents live in the area, include many of their friends on your list. Perhaps you haven’t spoken to them in years, but they will still be glad to help you. These people are likely to be either retired or near the end of their careers. In any case, they are likely to have high-level contacts. Your B‑list consists of people you know who are less likely to hear of job openings in your field. You’ll still want to contact them but they won’t receive the same priority as your A‑list people.

        3. Mail resumes first to your A‑list people with a short, handwritten note indicating the type of work you’re seeking and stating that you’ll call in a few days to explain the resume more fully. Also send a list of 70-100 of your top employer prospects. If you include a longer list, people won’t pay as much attention to it. The resume is important because most of your friends probably don’t know much about your background or qualifications. The note attached to your resume might read like this:

Janice — I’ll be calling you in a few days to tell you about my career goals. I plan to move out of teaching and into sales. I don’t expect you to know of any openings right now, but you may hear of some in the coming weeks. I’ve enclosed my list of preferred companies. If you know anyone at all who works there, please let me know. Thanks.

                                Joyce

v

Dear Kemper,

I’ll be calling you next week to let you know what I’m up to. Please read my list of potential employers and let me know if you know anyone who works there.

                 Bob

        4. When you call or visit one of your contacts, explain how they can help. Indicate that you’re not asking for a job, but simply asking them to keep their eyes and ears open for leads, either within their own organization or other organizations. Also explain that you don’t expect them to set up any appointments for you, but do ask them to pass leads on to you so you can follow them up on your own. Indicate that you would like to use their name whenever it is appropriate. Ask for any advice they might have for you. Get them involved in your search. After people have given advice, they feel they have a stake in your success.

        5. Get referrals. Ask your contacts if they know anyone at all who works for any of the organizations on your list. Emphasize anyone. It’s great if they know a key person in a particular organization, but the name of anyone in the organization can be useful. Don’t rule out people such as secretaries, bookkeepers, janitors, and truck drivers. They will know others within the organization, and they may have insights about the organization to share with you.

        Let’s assume you’re seeking a position as a purchasing assistant. Perhaps a contact knows the very person you need to reach in a particular organization. If so, that’s excellent! Learn as much as you can about that individual—his or her likes, dislikes, management style, good points, and bad points. If the contact knows someone in a different department, by all means call that person and ask about the purchasing department and its supervisor. If you mention your friend’s name, the person will most likely be open with you. If you simply make the cold call and start asking specific questions about departments or department heads without mentioning your contact, the person may react defensively and will be less inclined to give you useful information.

        Establishing rapport with these new contacts is crucial. Initially, the only thing you have in common is a mutual friend. Although that will help a great deal in the first minute, in order to get the information you really want, you will need to build your own rapport. This person may be open to listening to you, and may have some desire to help because of the mutual friend, but you will need to take it a step further.

        Begin by introducing yourself and then give the name of your mutual friend. Describe the reason for your call. Explain exactly what you want from this person. In explaining the purpose of the call, indicate that you are considering working for this company. Very briefly, describe your background, taking less than a minute to do so. Then briefly describe what you know about the organization and indicate which department you think is the best fit for you. You should have already gained the name of the person with power to hire—give that name, asking for confirmation that he or she is indeed the right person.

        Feel free to spend some time talking about your mutual friend if this person asks a question about your friend. If, in fact, you barely know the person (perhaps the person is a business associate of your father’s whom you’ve never met) indicate that and then move on to your request. An up-front response works best: “Actually I’ve known her for just a short time. But when I was speaking to her a couple days ago she suggested I call you.”

        Ask if the organization is a good one to work for. The person may return with a resounding yes, or you might get something like this: “This used to be a great company, but we were purchased by another firm two years ago. If I didn’t already have 20 years in here, I’d probably be looking myself. For a person like yourself just breaking into the industry, I would look more at ABC and XYZ.” This is extremely helpful information. Ask the person to describe what he or she likes and dislikes about the organization. As the conversation comes to a close you might say, “I really appreciate the information you’ve given me. I may or may not pursue a position there, but your information will be very helpful. If I do speak to Mr. Rathman, can I say you suggested I call?” Rarely will your request to use another person’s name be turned down.

        Occasionally, the person will not want to be mentioned by name. It may be that the two barely know each other, but more likely it will be because they don’t get along. The contact is really saying that he or she would not be a useful reference. In such a case, of course, you would not use the contact’s name.

        When the person does permit your use of his or her name, you have a real advantage. When you call the hiring authority and get the secretary, you will be able to say, “Jeanette Horner suggested I call.” The use of the name will help you get through to your person. Then when you get the hiring authority on the line, you would repeat that Jeanette Horner suggested the call. Ultimately, you will have to sell yourself, but just mentioning the person’s name will raise the level of attention you receive from the employer. That attention level can make the critical difference regarding whether that person will meet with you.

        The best way to illustrate the difference between giving a name and not giving one is to use some figures based on my experience. A person who is getting appointments with 75% of the hiring authorities when a reference name is given, will probably still succeed in getting appointments with 60% of the hiring authorities when no reference is given.

        Most of the time you will probably not be able to say that a particular person referred you. Without a doubt, giving a name as a reference is valuable, but when you don’t have a name, you simply have to work a little harder at selling yourself on your own merits.

        As you can imagine, the process of contacting all of these people takes time. It takes time to call all of your target organizations to determine who is the person with power to hire. It takes time to call friends, relatives, and associates and ask for assistance. It takes time to call people within your target organizations or those people who know about your target organizations. Then it takes still more time to call the employers and ask for appointments. Just remember: the results you get will make it more than worthwhile.

        You’ve been presented with a systematic way to learn about openings and to get appointments with employers. This method is far more effective than the methods the average person uses. Even using haphazard and inconsistent techniques, 26% of all people get their jobs through the help of friends, relatives, and contacts.

Follow Up With Contacts

        It is extremely important to follow up with your contacts. For the first two or three weeks after you initially contact them, they will think a lot about you. If they overhear a conversation on the bus or in a restaurant which might be of value to you, their ears will prick up and they will take appropriate action. After about three weeks, however, their ears will become a little dull. The same overheard conversation that three weeks earlier caused the ears to prick up now stirs up nothing. This is human nature: we tend to forget people if we don’t hear from them. After about six weeks, those people you contacted who do not know you well will have almost totally forgotten you. If they happen to see a job posting, they will probably still think of you, but they will not be actively pursuing leads on your behalf.

        Following up with your contacts will keep them thinking about you. They need to hear from you. Your initial call usually requires the most time since you will be explaining your plans and answering any questions the person may have. It’s also very likely that you will get into a conversation about old times, especially if this is a person you don’t see or speak to frequently. Or the person may ask what you know about some mutual friends. Your initial call, therefore, can easily take 15–20 minutes. Your follow-up calls, however, can usually be kept to under five minutes.

        In those follow-up calls, quickly bring the person up-to-date on your activities and progress. If the person gave you any referrals or ideas, you should mention what you did in response. The main thing you’re doing is simply reminding the person that you are still actively and systematically conducting your job search. It’s important to let people know you are both active and systematic. If people believe you are not doing all that you can, they will feel less responsibility for helping you.

        In this initial follow-up, you could also ask about some additional organizations. If you have a list of 100 target companies, but on the list you sent you included only 70, you could verbally mention another 20–25 organizations and ask if the person knows anyone who works for any of those organizations.

        The telephone call completes your first follow-up. About six weeks later, follow up through the mail. Write a letter describing what you’ve been up to. Include an interesting story about an experience you had or someone you met. Photocopy the letter and personalize it by handwriting the person’s name and perhaps add a personal paragraph. These letters will cost you postage plus the reproduction costs, but they will save time and long-distance telephone costs. Letters are an excellent way to maintain contact with your resources.

        Six to eight weeks later, and every six to eight weeks thereafter, you should follow up again with a brief, three-minute phone call. Not only will your resources appreciate it, it will make them much more aware and helpful.

        Many people fail to make contact with friends, relatives, and associates because they really don’t want people to know that they are job hunting. Job hunting is not a sin and unemployment is not a disease. These people want to help you. Remember, you are not asking them for any great favors. They will spend next to no time on your behalf; you are merely asking them to keep their eyes and ears open to opportunities.

        As I’ve mentioned, 26% of all people get their jobs through leads supplied by friends, relatives, and associates. The research also shows that people usually make contact with friends and relatives very haphazardly. People often tell only three of their closest friends about the job search, and over a period of time, five or six relatives may find out as well. If people can get such results from such a haphazard effort, imagine what you can do with a systematic approach that involves 30–80 people looking out for you.

        You will quickly find yourself getting lots of leads. Like a detective or salesperson, you’ll need to prioritize your leads. If you start getting more than you can follow up on, prioritize them according to the likelihood that the lead will get you closer to your goal.

        A few days after your calls to friends, relatives, and associates, send a thank-you letter to each one. It can be handwritten and does not need to be more than three sentences long. Even if the person was not able to help you at the time, a quality lead may still come from that person. In any case, the person gave some of his or her valuable time, and common courtesy says the person should be thanked. Furthermore, this thoughtful gesture will also cause the person to be even more impressed with you than before. As a result, the person will be more likely to pass future leads to you.

        After you obtain a position you should once again send thank-you notes to all those who helped you. This one could be a form letter describing your new job, with perhaps a sentence or two at the bottom which personalizes the letter. It could be a special thank you concerning a particularly useful lead or piece of advice.

Even Haphazardness Can Lead To Job Offers

        That 26% of all people have their current job because of a lead is somewhat amazing given how haphazard most people are about letting others know they are looking for a job. The following examples illustrate how most people approach the job search. These examples are quoted from Getting A Job, by Mark Granovetter. Granovetter performed one of the finest research projects to date demonstrating how people actually obtain their jobs.

Carl Y. was doing commission sales for an encyclopedia firm, but was not doing well. He decided he would have to find a different job; meanwhile he started driving a cab to bring in extra money. One passenger asked to be taken to the train station where he had to meet a friend. This friend turned out to be an old friend of Carl Y’s, and asked him “what’re you doing driving a cab?” When Mr. Y. explained, the friend offered him the job he now holds—labor relations manager for a small company owned by his friend.

Edward A. had graduated from high school and been in the service. After returning, he resumed his practice of driving to the local park, in the evening, where his friends hung around; bars and restaurants in the vicinity made the area a popular teen-age hangout. The usual procedure was to drive by and see if anyone was there that you knew. On one occasion he ran into an older friend who was employed by an engineering firm. The friend told him that there was an opening for a draftsman in this firm. Mr. A. applied and accepted this position.

George C. was working as a technician for an electrical firm, with a low salary and little apparent chance for advancement. While courting his future wife, he met her downstairs neighbor, the manager of a candy shop, a concession leased from a national chain. After they were married, Mr. C. continued to see the neighbor when visiting his mother-in-law. The neighbor finally talked him into entering a trainee program for the chain and arranged an interview for him. Within three years, Mr. C. was earning almost four times his previous salary.

            So you can see what rather extraordinary things happen to people almost by chance. Of course, some people do deliberately talk to friends and relatives, and end up with excellent leads by doing so. But the vast majority of connections are made in ways similar to the examples above.