What Color Is Your Parachute? (20 page)

Then you ask them:

You then phone them yourself and make an appointment to go see them (“
I won’t need more than twenty minutes of your time.”
). Once you are talking to them, after the usual polite chit-chat, you ask them the question you are dying to know. Because they are
inside
the organization that interests you, they are usually able to give you the exact answer to the question that has been puzzling you: “Who would have the power to hire me at
Mythical Corporation
, for this kind of position
(which you then describe)
?” If they answer that they do not know, ask if they know
who
might know. If it turns out that they do know, then you ask them not only for that hiring person’s name, address, phone, and e-mail address, but also what they can tell you about that person’s job, that person’s interests, and their style of interviewing.

Then, you ask them if they could help you get an appointment with that person. You repeat this refrain:

“Given my background, would you recommend I go see them?”

“Do you know them, personally? If not, could you give me the name of someone who does?”

“If you know them personally, may I tell them it was you who recommended that I talk with them?”

“If you know them personally, would you be willing to call ahead, to tell them who I am, and to help set up an appointment?”

Also, before leaving, you can ask them about the organization, in general.

Then you thank them, and leave; and you
never never
let the day end, without sitting down to write them a thank-you note.
Always
do it.
Never
forget to.

If the contact you talked to doesn’t know the
person-who-has-the-power-to-hire-you
well enough to get you an interview, then you go back to your other contacts—now armed with the name of the person you are trying to get in to see—and pose a new question. Approaching as many of your contacts as possible, you ask each of them, “Do you know Ms. or Mr. See, at
Mythical Corporation,
or do you know someone who does?”

You ask that question again and again of
everyone
you know until you find someone who says, “
Yes, I do.”

Then of course, over the phone or—better—in person, you ask that person these questions, carefully, and in this exact order:

• “What can you tell me about him—or her?”
  

• “Given the kind of job I am looking for
  (which you here describe)
  , do you think it would be worth my while to go see them?”
  

• “Do you have their phone number and/or address?”
  

• “May I tell them it was you who recommended that I talk with them?”
  

• “Would you be willing to call ahead, to set up an appointment for me, and tell them who I am?”
  

Whenever a job-hunter writes me and tells me they’ve run into a brick wall, and just can’t find out the name of the
person-who-has-the-power-to-hire-them
, the problem
always
turns out to be: they aren’t making
sufficient
use of their contacts. They’re making a
pass
at using their contacts, but they aren’t putting their whole heart and soul into it.

My favorite (true) story in this regard, concerns a job-hunter I know, in Virginia. He decided he wanted to work for a particular health-care
organization in that state, and not knowing any better, he approached them by visiting their Human Resources Department. After dutifully filling out a job application, and talking to someone there in that department, he was told there were no jobs available. Stop. Period. End of story.

Approximately three months later he learned about this technique of approaching your favorite organization by using contacts. He explored his contacts
diligently
, and succeeded in getting an interview with the person-who-had-the-power-to-hire-him for the position he was interested in. The two of them hit it off, immediately. The appointment went swimmingly. “You’re hired,” said the person-who-had-the-power-to-hire-him. “I’ll call Human Resources and tell them you’re hired, and that you’ll be down to fill out the necessary stuff.”

Our job-hunter never once mentioned that he had previously ap-proached that same organization through that same Human Resources Department, and been turned down cold.

Just remember: contacts are the key. It takes about eighty pairs of eyes, and ears, to help find the career, the workplace, the job that you are looking for.

Your contacts
are
those eighty eyes and ears.

They are what will help you get the ideal job you are looking for, and they are key to finding out the name of the person-who-has-the-power-to-hire-you.

The more people you know, the more people you meet, the more people you talk to, the more people you enlist as part of your own personal job-hunting network, the better your job-finding success is likely to be. Therefore, you must try to grow your contacts wherever you go. This, of course, is called “networking.” I call it “building your grapevine.”

Here’s how some people have gone about doing that. If they go to hear a speaker on some subject that interests them, they make it a point to join the crowd that gathers ’round the speaker at the end of the talk, and—with notepad poised—ask such questions as: “Is there anything special that people with my expertise can do?” And here they mention their
generalized
job-title: computer scientist, health professional, chemist, writer, or whatever. Very useful information has thus been turned up. You can also go up to the speaker afterward, and ask if you can contact him or her for further information—“and at what address?”

Conventions, likewise, afford rich opportunities to make contacts. Says one college graduate: “I snuck into the Cable Advertisers Convention at the Waldorf in N.Y.C. That’s how I got my job.”

Another way people have cultivated contacts, is to leave a message on their telephone answering machine that tells everyone who calls, what information they are looking for. One job-hunter used the following message: “This is the recently laid-off John Smith. I’m not home right now because I’m out looking for a good job as a computer troubleshooter in the telecommunications field; if you have any leads or just want to leave a message, please leave it after the tone.”

You may also cultivate contacts by studying the
things
that you like to work with, and then writing to the manufacturer of that
thing
to ask them for a list of organizations in your geographical area that use that
thing.
For example, if you like to work on a particular machine, you would write to the manufacturer of that machine, and ask for names of organizations in your geographical area that use that machine. Or if you like to work in a particular environment, think of the supplies used in that environment. For example, let’s say you love darkrooms. You think of what brand of equipment or supplies is usually used in darkrooms, and then you contact the sales manager of the company that makes those supplies, to ask where his (or her) customers are. Some sales managers will not be at all responsive to such an inquiry, but others graciously will, and thus you may gain some very helpful leads.

Because your memory is going to be overloaded during your job-hunt or career-change, it is useful to set up a filing system, where you put the name of each contact of yours on a 3 x 5 card, with addresses, phone numbers, and anything about where they work or who they know that may be of use at a later date. Those of you who are extremely computer literate can, if you prefer, use a database program to do the same thing. Go back over those cards (or their electronic equivalent) frequently.

That does add up to
a lot
of file cards, just because you’ve got
a lot
of contacts. But that’s the whole point.

You may need
every one
of them,
when push comes to shove.

As you can see, getting in to see someone, even for a hiring-interview, is not as difficult as people will tell you. It just takes some
know-how,
some
determination,
some
perseverance,
some
going the extra mile.
It
works because everyone has friends, including this person-who-has-the-power-to-hire-you. You are simply approaching them through
their
friends. And you are doing this, not
wimpishly,
as one who is coming to ask a favor. You are doing it
helpfully
, as one who is asking to help rescue them.

Rescue? Yes, rescue! I cannot tell you the number of employers I have known over the years, who can’t figure out how to find the right employee. It is absolutely mind-boggling, particularly in hard times when job-hunters would seem to be gathered on every street corner.

You’re having trouble finding the employer. The employer is having trouble finding you.
What a great country!

So, if you now present yourself directly to the person-who-has-the-power-to-hire-you, you are not only answering your own prayers. You are hopefully answering the employer’s, as well. You will be
just
what the employer is looking for, but didn’t know how to find…

• if you first figured out what your favorite and best skills are, and
  

• if you then figured out what your favorite interests or special knowledges are, and
  

• if you took the trouble to figure out which places
  might
  need such skills and such knowledges, and
  

• if you researched these places with the intent of finding out what their tasks, challenges, and problems are, and
  

• if you took the trouble to figure out who has the power to hire you there.
  

Of course, you don’t for sure
know
they need you; that remains for the hiring-interview to uncover. But at least by this thorough preparation you have
increased
the chances that you are at the right place—whether they have an announced vacancy or not. And, if you are, you are not imposing on this employer. You are coming not as “job beggar,” but as “resource person.” You may well be absolutely rescuing him or her, believe me!

And yourself.
“The hiring-interview! I actually got in!”

Yes, and so, it’s time for our next section.