The Job Search Solution

The Ultimate System for Finding a Great Job Now!

Author: Tony Beshara
Pub Date: 2007
Your Price: $24.95
ISBN: 0814473326
Format: Hardcover

 

• The Job Search Solution
• Sample Chapter
• Sample Chapter
• Praise for this book
• Table of Contents
• Request an Evaluation Copy, INSTRUCTOR ONLY!

Chapter 3

The Key to the Whole Process: Getting Face-to-Face Interviews

Those who say some people are just lucky because they are in the right place at the right time don't realize that the lucky ones show up at a lot of places a lot of times.

—Tony Beshara

The most important thing you can do to get a job is to interview. Nothing else matters unless you can get a face-to-face interview with the hiring manager-a hiring manager with authority and pain (an urgent need to hire someone).

No matter how well you might interview, in spite of what you might think, you can't really control getting a job offer. You can influence a hiring manager to offer a job by interviewing well and proving to the employer that, based on the interviews, you are the best person for the job. However, when it comes down to the event of offering someone a job, the real control is in the hands of the employer.

Key point: While you cannot control job offers, you can control interviews, the number of them, and how they are conducted.

Getting interviews is hard work. It requires tenacity, persistence, determination, and the courage to thrust yourself upon people even though it doesn't come naturally for you to do so. Most people are not comfortable with selling other people on interviewing them with the possibility of being hired. It can be daunting, burdensome, and an excruciating task.

No one likes being rejected. The risk of being rejected goes with the interview. The sooner you face that reality and prepare for possible rejection, the sooner you're going to be able to find a job. Pristine résumés, brilliant research, great contacts, even superior previous job performance, do not help you to find a job to anywhere near the extent that getting numerous interviews and performing well in each interview does.

Exploring All Sources for Interviews

The initial interviews, if they're successful, will lead to subsequent second, third, or fourth interviews that will eventually land you a job. The most effective vehicle is going to be you picking up the phone and calling anyone and everyone you can, whether you know them or not, to find people who might be able to grant you time for an interview.

Studies have shown that most job seekers consider several different ways of getting interviews, especially in the beginning of their job search. And after a month, or so, they abandon many of the ways that they might approach getting interviews and stick with one or two methods. This is a mistake. The key is to use every one of the methods until you find a job. You need to be relentless about this.

It has been estimated that 60 percent of the people who find jobs find them through networking. I guess that depends on how you define the word networking. If you define networking as calling people whom you know, this estimate of 60 percent is probably an exaggeration. If you consider networking calling anybody and talking to them regarding a job with which you're somewhat familiar, then this statistic may not be too far off. I personally think that you should get an interview with anybody who will listen! Call and try to meet with as many people as you possibly can.

Previous Employers, Peers, and Subordinates

People you have worked with who have gone to other companies are great sources of opportunity leads. This group of people should be the very first to approach when you need to find a new job. Sit down and brainstorm the names of all the people you have worked with, or for, or have worked for you, in every company that has ever employed you.

Don't hesitate to call previous employers, even if the individual people you worked for or with are gone. Just because you did not like working at a place five or ten years ago, doesn't mean the same group of people, ownership, or culture is still there. Over a period of fifteen years or so, I placed the same packaging engineer with the same company three times. The company had changed hands four times during that time.

Caution: I do not recommend going back to work for an organization you have left unless the culture has completely changed. All the reasons you left an organization the first time are usually still present. Even if you were laid off or downsized, the truth is that the organization thought more highly of its own self-survival than it did of you. They really don't change that much. The principle should be to never go back to work for an organization that either you left or one that left you, unless there is a complete change in management, ownership, or culture.

Family

The bigger your extended family, the better off you are. During the first few days that you begin looking for a job, you should call every member of your family-brothers, sisters, parents, uncles, aunts, first cousins, second cousins, third cousins, any cousin, in-laws, and their cousins-to let them know you're actively looking for a job and you would like to talk to anybody whom they might suggest.

Some people are embarrassed about calling people in their family and letting them know that they are either out of work and looking for a new job or looking for a job change. Get over it! Would you rather be embarrassed by not being able to pay the mortgage or by letting your family know that you need a job? Call them, tell them that you're actively looking for a job, and ask them if they know of anybody who might be interested in your type of background. Offer to send one of your résumés. Keep a record of everyone you call and their responses. Tell them that you would like their help, and that you would like to call them back in a week or so.

Friends

Talk to your friends just as you would talk to your relatives. Call them and let them know that you're looking for a job and ask them if they would know of anybody who might need someone with your kind of background. Offer to send a copy of your résumé. Make a note about when you called them and ask if you can follow up with them in a week or so to see if they might have thought of anybody with whom you can interview. Even ask your friends for their friends who might be of help in your job search and ask them if you can use your friend's name in calling them.

Acquaintances

Acquaintances are different from friends. They are people you know, but not that well. They're people whom you occasionally, or even rarely, run into or contact from time to time. A study back in the 1970s found that people looking for jobs were more likely to find opportunities through acquaintances than through friends. The study concluded that often people make friends with people they work with or who occupy the same world. So when a large organization has a layoff, it's likely that a person's friends will be laid off too. But acquaintances may operate within a completely different work world.

People in your church, athletic club, neighborhood, social club, golf or tennis club, volunteer organizations, and parents of children who are friends with your children are all people you should make aware that you're looking for a new job. Even acquaintances of your spouse are people who might be able to help you.

 

 

Competitors

Most of us know who our business competitors are. After talking to previous employers, it is a logical idea to call and solicit all of your company's competitors for a job. Capitalize on your familiarity with them. Candidates often tell me that they know a lot about their competitors but they just would not want to go work for one of them. This usually stems from an organization painting their competitors as people with horns and tails. The truth is that most of us don't really know much about our competitors except in relation to competitive situations with them. We don't intrinsically understand them. No matter what the party line has been about your competitors, you need a job and it is in your best interest to call them and see if they have an opportunity for you.

Caution: If you are in most forms of sales, and/or some tactical development types of positions, you may have signed a non-compete agreement with your current employer that, at least theoretically, prohibits you from working for your competitor. If you signed a non-compete agreement when you went to work at your current organization, pull it out, read it, and be aware of what you can and cannot do and the risk you might run.

Suppliers and Distributors

Write down all the people to whom you currently supply goods and services, as well as all the people who might distribute your goods or services to end users. The knowledge you have is probably applicable to the people who supply you goods and services or to the people to whom you distribute your goods and services. A software developer, for instance, develops software that may be sold through distributors. If you worked for the software vendor and you know how the software works, you were of value to the distributor. If your company manufactures parts that are sold to and by another manufacturer, you may have a great deal of knowledge that is of value to that other company.

Customers

In some situations, customers might be great people to approach for a new job. If you have sold to them or had reason to have contact with them and built a good relationship with them, customers may have a great opportunity for you.

Caution: If you are presently employed, do not, I repeat, do not call and solicit your competitors, suppliers, distributors, or customers about a new job. No matter how trustworthy you think they are, you cannot afford to lose your job. No matter what you think, the probability of it getting back to your current employer that you're looking for a job from one of these sources is almost 100 percent. I cannot tell you the number of times that I've encountered candidates who have lost their jobs because they told a competitor, supplier, distributor, or customer that they were thinking about changing jobs and got fired when it got back to their employer. The value of talking about a new job to a competitor, supplier, distributor, or customer is limited only to people who are unemployed and looking for a job full-time.

Trade and Professional Associations

Some professions and trades have more active associations than others. Some businesses are heavily involved in professional and trade organizations and some are not. The Encyclopedia of Associations lists twenty-three thousand national and international groups for just about every occupation you can imagine. So if you haven't been active in an association, you can at least find the ones you ought to become involved with or at least become a member of. The most important aspect of being an active member in an association is that you receive a membership directory, which can be used for contacting potential employers. Some associations publish job opportunities for their members.

Trade shows for trade and professional associations not only give you great personal exposure, but you can often find out which companies are expanding and which are contracting. Often trade shows have placement committees that organize publications of job opportunities. If you are out of work, these trade shows are a great place to interview many organizations in a short period of time. If you are presently employed, it may not be advisable to be that obvious; but as you introduce yourself, collecting business cards and information about other people, this information can be helpful for contacting them later on a more confidential basis.

Alumni Associations, Fraternity and Sorority Members

Don't hesitate to take advantage of any contacts in these kinds of organizations that you might have. This is an excellent source of many potential employers outside your normal sphere of influence. Alumni directories will give you the list of names and addresses and business affiliations of all members. Call fellow alumni and speak to them about their careers, companies, and industries. They may have job openings in their organization or know of openings somewhere else.

College and University Placement Offices

If you are out of undergraduate school more than a year or two, it's not likely that the undergraduate placement office at your college or university could help you that much. But you never know. Often, organizations that are expanding will list their current openings with the college or university placement office. You may be overqualified or too experienced for the positions that they might list, but as we will see and discuss in a future topic, knowing which organizations are expanding, no matter how much or little, provides great prospects for you to call.

It also doesn't hurt to list your name and experience with graduate school placement offices or at least call them and find out the listings that they may have. I have known of organizations that listed short-term project assignments in the graduate school offices of some MBA programs. It is amazing how often these short-term projects become long-term permanent positions. Take advantage of every resource that might be available to you. You're only limited by your own imagination.

Job-Search and Career Counseling Programs

The only difficulty I have with these kinds of organizations is that they can often be sophisticated pity parties. Sitting around with a group of people who are all bitching and moaning about the difficult employment market isn't going to find you a job. Make your own judgment! Go to these kinds of organizations and meetings if they indeed help you with your attitude. It's even possible that one of the other people in such a program will come across a job in your field that they are not qualified for and pass the information along to you. Just don't expect much in the way of actual job-search results.

Job Fairs

Job fairs were more popular when the employment market was much easier than it is now. These fairs are designed to have several employers come together and interview many people in one day. In recent years, job fairs have attracted thousands of people who are exposed to very few hiring organizations. If you are presently employed, do not go to a job fair. I have known of a few employed candidates who, since they were looking for a job, attended a job fair-only to discover their own organization was there. They were promptly terminated.

Religious, Community, and Social Organizations

It is important to tell people you know in these organizations that you are looking for a job. Common values are one major criterion that most people use in hiring others. This factor may not be obvious or even conscious to most people, but as I've mentioned before, we all have a tendency to hire people we like. And we have a tendency to like people whose values and beliefs are very much like our own.

Bankers, Loan Officers, Venture-Capital Firms, Lawyers, CPAs

These groups of people will be surprising sources of many opportunities that might lead to the job you need. Bank and loan officers, especially in small communities, know a lot of the businesses that are expanding or looking for people simply because they lend money to these organizations and often know who is on the rise. Small businesses, which make up 97 percent of the employers in this country, often establish great relationships with bankers, so the bankers can help them expand when they need to. These relationships are usually personal between the banker and the owner or owners of the companies. So it certainly doesn't hurt to ask the bankers and loan officers you know if they are aware of any organizations that might be expanding.

Venture-capital firms are organizations that provide money, typically, for start-up companies. These companies have a tendency to fund many homogeneous types of organizations. It is not uncommon for these companies to impose one of their own members on a company that they have funded to see to it that their investment is protected. Whether they are just providing money or also have someone on the inside, these firms can be excellent sources of information on available jobs.

Attorneys who specialize in medium to small businesses, labor law, or certain other kinds of legal specialties often know organizations that are expanding because they represent them or give them advice. I personally know an attorney who specializes in legal advice to high-tech firms. He knows just about every high-tech company in the region. He may not necessarily know of their expansion plans, but he certainly knows who they are. He helps the smaller ones incorporate and helps the larger ones with their legal issues. It is not uncommon for a company's external legal counsel to know their growth plans.

Recording All the Names to Contact

Everyone knows at least 200 people.

-Joe Girard, Author of How to Sell Anything to Anybody

Here are simple forms to help you brainstorm and recall the names and telephone numbers of the previous employers, peers, subordinates, family, friends, and acquaintances you need to call.

 

PREVIOUS EMPLOYERS

(Think back on every supervisor/boss you've ever had. Where are they now?)

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Name:
Company:
Phone:

 

PREVIOUS PEERS

(Force yourself to think of at least four for every job you have had.)

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Name:
Company:
Phone:

PREVIOUS SUBORDINATES

(Force yourself to think of at least four for every job you have had, if you have had subordinates.)

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Name:
Company:
Phone:

FAMILY MEMBERS (no matter how distant)

Name:
Phone:

Name:
Phone:

Name:
Phone:

ACQUAINTANCES

(Pull out that church directory, PTA directory, Neighborhood Association directory, and so forth)

Think about this long and hard, you know more people than you think!

Name:
Phone:

Name:
Phone:

Name:
Phone:

 

COMPETITORS

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Name:
Company:
Phone:

 

SUPPLIERS AND DISTRIBUTORS

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Name:
Company:
Phone:

 

CUSTOMERS

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Name:
Company:
Phone:

Posting Your Résumé on the Internet

You can post your résumé on Internet job boards, but don't expect much in the way of interviews. Only 2 percent to 5 percent of the résumés on the Internet ever get any response. And 40 percent to 50 percent of the résumés emailed unsolicited to companies end up in spam folders.

The biggest concern about posting your résumé is security. You have lost control of your résumé. It will float around in cyberspace indefinitely, even if you remove it from the job boards. Long after you find a job, your résumé will still be out there. (We placed one candidate who, six months after she was on the job, was called on the carpet because her résumé had been accidentally found on the Internet. It was a vestige of her earlier job search that had migrated to several job boards without her knowledge.)

On top of that, all kinds of crazies have access to your personal information. You can expect to be contacted by people who will try to sell you something other than a job, knowing that you are in a vulnerable position. Private investigators and lawyers looking for people to subpoena use the job boards. Thieves will ask you for your social security number or driver's license number in the guise of doing an employment background check before you are interviewed.

So, post your résumé if you must, but be careful!

Finding Crazy Ways of Making Contacts

As long as we're talking about making contacts, it might be good to mention here some of the more zany ways that I have seen people either look for a job or get interviews. We're going to talk about the more traditional ways of getting interviews in the rest of this chapter, but I might as well bring up here some of the more crazy ideas that I have seen work.

Cold Call a Building

Start at the very top of a building and walk into every office on every floor of the building, introduce yourself and ask for an audience or appointment with the highest-ranking manager in the office. If you don't get an appointment, leave a résumé with the receptionist.

Stand on a Street Corner

This is not all that crazy of an idea. Most of us have seen people do it. This is not too far off from what Jeff Mills did, except he got more elaborate by setting up an office on a flatbed truck. If you were going to stand on a corner or a busy intersection, the most effective way to do it is to dress in a nice business suit and either carry or wear a great big sign that states what you're trying to do. Not too long ago, less than a mile from our office at one of the busiest intersections in Dallas, Texas, a new MBA grad stood at an intersection in his suit with a briefcase and a stylish sign that said, New MBA needs work. He took his station at 7:45 a.m. and by noon he was hired.

Have a Party for Yourself

Throw a party and invite everyone you know, and have them invite everyone they know. One of my crazy rugby buddies did this. (We were younger then.) He rented a warehouse, hired a cheap band, bought ten kegs of beer, and threw a party! He had napkins printed with a short résumé and his telephone number. He got a bunch of interviews from people he didn't know and three or four job offers. He had a great time, too!

Along this same line, go to lots of parties, especially around the holiday times. Be highly visible. Let lots of people know that you are looking for a job!

Rent a Billboard

Put a picture and a brief description of yourself on a billboard. It could be a little pricey depending on where the billboard is, but it sure is effective.

Following the Script

This part of the instructions needs to be followed to the letter. Most people will read this, get the meaning of it, and then go off and do it their way. And that is where the mistakes will begin. Here, and in other places, I'm going to give you a carefully researched script that is likely to work. If you follow the instructions and do it exactly the way I teach you, the system will work. If you don't follow the script and end up ad-libbing on your own, you won't be as successful. These scripts will work 90 percent of the time. So, please, for your own sake and for the sake of those who love and support you, follow the instructions exactly like I'm teaching you.

I will provide for you the same kind of script to be used in different scenarios. Unless you have been using this kind of script on a daily basis, you need to practice this script before you use it. At first, the script isn't going to sound natural to you. To many people, some of this script is going to appear to be very pushy and aggressive. No matter how difficult it might be for your personality to be this aggressive, the sooner you do it, the sooner will you be successful in your job search.

Eventually, the pain of either not having a job or of needing to change jobs is going to get so great, most people will opt to be painfully pushy in getting themselves interviews. All of the scripts I recommend take lots of practice. Most of them will be ones that you are going to deliver over the telephone. So, it is simple enough to practice them with someone who is supporting you in your effort. They are simple but very specific. So, practice the scripts to the point where they sound natural to you.

Throughout this book, I am teaching you to sell yourself. I am teaching you to sell yourself very, very, hard. The kind of aggressiveness and assertiveness that I recommend is necessary in these days of a changing economy. To the vast majority of people, this kind of aggressive selling of oneself does not come naturally. It may be uncomfortable at first, but needing to find a job or change jobs is uncomfortable too. It all depends on what you find to be more uncomfortable.

Contacting People You Know

It is important that you record the telephone number and date you call people. You may be calling the person back again in thirty, sixty, or ninety days. Many people will not respond to you positively for a month or two. You want to remind them that you need a job!

 

PREVIOUS EMPLOYERS, PEERS, SUBORDINATES, AND ACQUAINTANCES

Name:
Phone:
Date:

SCRIPT: Hello, __________, this is   (your name)   and I am presently looking for a new job. We know each other from __________. I called to ask you if you might know of any job opportunities available either with the firm you work for or any others that you might know about. For the past   (period of time)   I have been working at   (name of company or what you have been doing)  .  I am presently looking for a job doing __________. Can you think of anyone who might need what I can offer?   (very long pause!)  .

(If no) Then say: I really appreciate your time. I'd like to send you my résumé, and if you can think of anyone who might be interested, please pass it along to them.

By the way, I am not sure how long my search will take; I'd like to call you back in a month or so to see if you might have thought of anyone who might be interested. Would that be all right?

Results:

 

 

FAMILY

Name:
Phone:
Date:

SCRIPT: Hello, __________. This is   (your cousin, brother-in-law, etc.)   and I am presently looking for a new job.  I called to ask you if you might know of any job opportunities that might be available. For the past   (period of time)   I have been working at   (name of company or what you have been doing)  .  I am presently looking for a job doing __________. Can you think of anyone that might need what I can offer?   (long pause)  .

(If no) Then say: I really appreciate your time. I'd like to send you my résumé and if you can think of anyone who might be interested, please pass it along to them.

By the way, I am not sure how long my search will take; I'd like to call you back in a month or so to see if you might have thought of anyone that might be interested. Would that be all right?

Results:

 

 

(I will present a different script for competitors, suppliers, distributors, and so forth when I discuss cold calling in general.)

Finding Businesses That Can Help You Get Interviews

There are many types of businesses that can help you get interviews in your job search.

Private Employment Agencies

This kind of organization is very dear to my heart because it is basically the kind of firm that I am the president of and the kind of organization that I've been with for more than thirty-one years. Over the years, our profession has evolved to the point where applicants are hardly ever responsible for the fee. The fees are paid by the companies that we work with and we work as much for the companies as we do for the applicants.

Our organization, however, is an exception to the traditional employment agency. We do as much recruiting for our clients as we do work for our applicants in trying to find them openings. We earn our fee when we successfully find a candidate who accepts a position with a company to which we referred him or her. Our firm has interviewed close to three hundred thousand candidates on a face-to-face basis in the past thirty years.

Read the classified newspaper ads (as well as yellow page listings and Internet listings) to find the most successful agencies in your area. If the individual who is assigned to help you has any decent experience in the business, he or she will be able to give you a realistic idea about the opportunities that might be available to you. When the employment market is tight and there are many, many candidates to choose from, a hiring company expects to get exactly the experience they desire because they're paying a fee and the kind of experience they want is readily available.

Talk to as many different agencies as you think you can to get qualified interviews. I would not recommend limiting yourself to any one or two, at least in the beginning. You will quickly find out who is going to be productive for you and who isn't. You need interviews! It is in their best interest to get you good interviews because that is how they're paid. If you aren't successful, neither are they.

Executive Search Firms

Traditionally, executive search firms-or search consultants-were never oriented toward a candidate. Their client is the organization that pays their retainer. They do not operate as an agent for the candidate. They are an extension of the client and usually specialize in specific industries or professions. Whereas a recruiting firm that might work in a certain geographic area may work, from time to time, on a retainer basis, executive search firms usually work on a worldwide basis. They usually have offices all over the world and deal with only upper-level management positions. Over the past few years, boutique organizations have cropped up. They may have only one or two offices in a major city but specialize in a narrow category of executives.

A true executive search firm will claim that it is not interested in seeing or collecting résumés from individuals. The firm's stock-and-trade is to reach out and actually recruit certain types of talented people on certain levels that are not actively looking for a change in jobs. Traditionally, they have exclusive arrangements with their clients, and their clients, having paid part of a fee as a retainer, agree to the exclusivity. Along with exclusivity, there is usually an agreement not to solicit executives from the client for a period of time.

If you are aware of these kinds of executive search firms that are specific to your industry or profession, don't hesitate to contact them and see if they might help you. Just don't expect the same kind of results that you might get from a traditional employment/placement/recruiting firm that is more candidate-oriented.

Temporary, Staffing, and Consulting Firms

These used to be called temporary agencies. Traditionally, they were only oriented toward secretaries and other office workers. Along with the secretarial and administrative type of staffing, general labor staffing firms have been around for years. Today, these organizations staff all kinds of professional positions on a temporary basis. There are even staffing firms that place doctors, CEOs, CFOs, accountants, lawyers, technical writers, nurses, all kinds of healthcare professionals from phlebotomists to X-ray technicians to medical insurance clerks, HR professionals, drafters, designers, and engineers.

When you work for a staffing firm, you are actually an employee of that firm and you are contracted out to another business. Liability for payroll, taxes, workmen's compensation insurance, benefits, and so forth are all the responsibility of the staffing firm. The advantage to the client company is that it doesn't have to be bothered with any of these kinds of things and is free to terminate the relationship with the individual at any moment with no serious business or economic consequences.

In recent years, information technology (IT) consulting firms have grown to take on a significant amount of information technology development. These firms hire out their technical expertise, from very narrow and specific types of software development to general software applications. Most of these firms do not see themselves as staffing companies. They see themselves, and present themselves, more as consultants. They often work on specific projects for their clients; often these projects can last for many years. The client pays a high premium for this kind of expertise, and, as with general staffing, does not have the burden of long-term employees. The client can pay for the service on a time and materials basis, a project basis, or a flat hourly basis. Many of these firms spun off from the large consulting firms that developed technical, IT expertise. Business for these kinds of organizations has been difficult for the past few years. The overbuild in the technology arena as well as the outsourcing of many of these jobs to foreign shores has eroded the phenomenal growth of this sector of business.

Advantages to you: Working for most temporary staffing firms has many advantages. Depending on the kind of job you might get through staffing firms, you can often gain flexibility of hours; faster, almost immediate employment; a great entree into a company to experience what working there might be like; and a relatively fast paycheck.

One major benefit of working for a staffing firm and being assigned to another organization is that, 15 percent to 20 percent of the time, the position can become permanent. This happens most often on the secretarial, clerical, and administrative level but it is common in the higher-level consulting types of positions.

Disadvantages: The drawbacks are obvious. A temporary position-even on a very high level of a president or CEO-is still perceived as and is just that-temporary. The attitude toward a person like this is often less than professional. The care and respect that is normally given to a person perceived as a permanent or regular employee is not given. The premium or markup that the client pays is higher than for hiring a permanent employee. That premium is paid for the right to terminate the job for the temporary person at any time.

The major concern from your point of view, however, is that often keeping a temporary position becomes more important than interviewing for a permanent position. It is not uncommon for an individual to have to work interviews around the temporary position. Since a temporary assignment is temporary, the individual knows that it can end at the whim of the client. Therefore, the candidate is often reluctant to schedule interviews for permanent positions during normal business hours while working at the temporary assignment. The immediate short-term benefits become more important than the long-term. So, when accepting a temporary assignment, the thing to do is to be sure the client knows that you are actively seeking a permanent job and let him or her know that your schedule will have to allow the opportunity to interview for permanent positions.

Executive Marketing and Career Management Firms

The existence of these firms ebbs and flows with the economy. Their purpose is to counsel people in their executive career. They supposedly give advice on how to market one's self and provide career management counseling. Because of many scams associated with this kind of consulting, many states have instituted licensing procedures for these types of firms in recent years. These firms often purport to know a hidden job market and have secret connections to job opportunities. These firms charge a fee. I have spoken to individuals who have paid up to $12,000 or $15,000 for this kind of expertise.

Caution: These kinds of firms do not find people jobs. They supposedly provide career counseling. I can only speak for personal experience, but in the thirty-one years that I have been finding people jobs, I have never met any people who used this kind of career consulting service and felt like they got what they paid for. There is no such thing as a hidden job market. Also, paying a fee for advice from someone who is not involved in actually finding jobs for people is a questionable investment.

Résumé Services

There are fewer of these organizations since the advent of online résumé-writing advice sites. An experienced résumé-writing service may not hurt; but unless the organization is involved in helping people find jobs, its opinions about what might be of value regarding your résumé may be incorrect. Chapter 5 will discuss a simple form of résumé writing that is the most effective you can use. The problem with writing a résumé is that just because the individual writing it thinks it is good, does not mean it will be an effective résumé. There is a big difference between what works and what doesn't.

Other Types of Firms

There are other types of employment-oriented firms that provide employment services to employers, but they normally cannot help a candidate actually get an interview.

Employee leasing firms undertake responsibility for an employer's workforce, payroll, benefits, administration, legal obligations, and sometimes other HR functions. They do not, however, recruit, screen, test, or interview prospective employees.

Outsourcing services provide personnel who can handle functions ranging from the mailroom to a telephone call center-all the way to totally revamping a company's information technology system. Over the past few years, outsourcing has connoted offshore. This often means that the function is sent to a foreign country or the work is done by non-American citizens who are employees of the company itself or employees of the firm that is hired to perform a specific function. The most notable kind of outsourcing has been associated with large call centers in IT functions. The majority of true outsourcing services for U.S. companies are done on the site of the company that did the contracting.

Outplacement services usually provide a facility for use by its terminated employee. This is where the former employee can base a search for new employment. The service may include office space, telephones, fax and Internet access, message center, and so forth. The former employer usually pays the fee for this service.

Newspaper and Internet Advertisements

The odds of finding a job by responding to a specific newspaper ad are probably about one in 350. Although Internet advertising hasn't been around as long, my sense is that the odds are about the same. The sheer volume of résumés that are received from these types of advertisements is astounding. It is common to receive 200 to 300 résumés in one day from a newspaper or Internet advertisement. It is a very deep and wide black hole.

You might respond by actually calling the hiring authority for the position that is advertised. Delivering a résumé to a hiring authority is a great way to respond. Many ads will state that applicants should not phone the company doing the advertising, let alone show up personally, without an appointment. My opinion is that you've got nothing to lose. The probability of getting an interview is close to nothing anyway, so you might as well run the risk of calling or showing up unannounced. Call and ask for the logical hiring authority for that position. If you get the person on the phone, follow the script I have recommended for this kind of cold call.

Where advertisements can help you get a job does not have as much to do with the particular job that was advertised as it has to do with the company or industry that might be advertising. Those in motion tend to stay in motion. If you see a company advertising and expanding in one area, it might very well be expanding in another. So, if you see an organization advertising in one area that may not have anything to do with what you have done in the past, you may consider cold calling the department where your experience would apply.

Getting Interviews with People You Don't Know

We now come to a portion of the process that can make one of the biggest differences in how fast you find a new job. The procedure is simple: You get on the telephone and present yourself to a prospective employer and ask for an interview. It's called a cold call. It is simple and direct. The results you get will be immediate. The cold call will either result in an interview or it won't.

The process of doing this is very simple, but the manner in which you do it is sophisticated and takes a lot of courage. The reason it takes courage is because you are running the risk of being rejected and refused in ten seconds. On top of that, you are going to have to make forty or fifty of these calls before one results in an interview. So, you have to expect rejection and refusal one heck of a lot before you get positive reinforcement.

I prefer to call these warm calls because neither you nor the prospective employer are cold. Keep in mind that when you do this, you are trying to get an interview regardless of whether there is a position opening or not. You are selling an interview, not necessarily selling the idea of getting a job. It is extremely important that you recognize this difference. The purpose of this call, this warm call, is to get in front of that prospective employer so that you can sell yourself and your skills. You are purposely going to ask for a meeting with the prospective employer without asking him or her if there indeed is a need. You are selling a date-not marriage. Don't confuse getting hired with an initial interview. All you're trying to do is sell an audience with that person.

The reason that you are just trying to sell the initial audience, or interview, is that, very often, hiring managers will interview potential employees whether they have an opening or not. As you will see, the script does not ask if there are any openings, it asks for an appointment, an interview, and only presupposes a current or upcoming actual position opening.

Whom to Warm Call

If you don't know the name of a hiring manager within a firm when you call an organization, simply ask the name of the manager of the department

dthat you would normally report to. If you are an accountant, call and ask for the name of the controller. If you are a controller, call and ask for the name of the vice president of finance or the CFO or, when it comes down to it, anyone who is in charge of the finances for the company. If you are a salesperson, you should call and ask for the sales manager, the regional sales manager, the vice president of sales, and so forth. If you are an administrative support type person, then you would ask for the administrative support manager. When you call, ask for the manager of the kind of department that your skills and ability would fit. It is that simple.

If you have skills that can transfer from one industry or profession to another you can warm call just about anybody. Any kind of administrative experience, accounting experience, bookkeeping experience, sales experience, and so forth can carry over to a lot of different businesses. So, you can warm call from just about any reference book that might provide names of companies and telephone numbers. Don't overlook the telephone book itself.

WARM-CALL SCRIPT

Hello, who is your   (controller, vice president of sales, IT Director, CEO, etc.)   Fine, let me speak with __________.

Hello __________,  my name is __________ and I am with   (feature)   and have a great track record of   (advantage and benefit)  .

I would like to meet with you to discuss my potential with your firm. Would tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. be good for you or would tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. be better?

 

If you get a response like, I really don't have any openings, then your response will be:

I understand and the kind of people whom I want to work for probably do not presently have an opening.

I would just like to take fifteen or twenty minutes of your time because I am a top-notch performer. I am the kind of person whom you would want to know to either replace your `weakest link' or to know of my availability when the next opening does occur. Now, would tomorrow morning be good for you or is tomorrow afternoon better?

 

You will either get the appointment or a more insistent response of, I really don't have any openings. There is no reason for us to meet.

Your response:

I understand that you don't have any immediate openings, but I have a great track record of .

Mr. or Mrs. , I am the kind of professional who is better than 90 percent of the employees that you might have now. It is to you and your company's best interest that you at least talk to me and be aware of my availability. If not for now, then maybe in the future. My experience has taught me that, often, great talent comes along when you don't need it. But, it is always a good idea to be aware of talent on a face-to-face basis. I will only take a few moments of your time and it may wind up being beneficial for all of us. Would tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon be better?

 

If the response is, Well, can you email me a résumé? Then your response is:

I can, but my résumé is only one-dimensional and it is of value for both of us to associate a face and a personality with a résumé. I'd like to bring it by, hand deliver it to you, and spend maybe fifteen minutes of your time so that you know what my accomplishments are and how they can benefit you and your company. Is tomorrow morning good or would tomorrow afternoon be better?

 

If the response is an emphatic, Just email me the résumé! (which is just a nice way of saying no.) Then, your response is:

I will, right now. I will call you back tomorrow to be sure you have received it, and then we can set up a visit.

 

If you get a very emphatic no and it is clear that you're not going to get any kind of face-to-face interview, you then need to pause for two or three seconds and say:

(pause) Do you know of any other opportunities that might exist in your firm with any other manager?

 

If you get a person's name, ask:

May I use your name as a reference?

 

If you get the name of another manager, also ask for his or her phone number. If the answer is no, then ask, after a two or three second pause:

(pause) Do you know of any other organization that you might have heard of through the grapevine that might need someone of my experience?

 

If you get the name of an organization or a person's name, ask:

May I use your name as a reference?

Script for Following Up on a Referral

If you get a referral to a particular person or organization and the person who referred you said you could use his or her name (this is an indication of how strong the ties the people might have), here is the script:

Hello, Mr./Ms. __________. I was referred to you by __________. I am __________ with __________ and a great track record of __________.

I would like to meet with you to discuss my potential with your firm. Would tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. be good for you or would tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. be better?

You will be amazed at the number of job opportunities you will uncover this way. Controllers know other controllers. Vice presidents of sales know other vice presidents of sales. Engineering managers know other engineering managers, and so on. It is not uncommon for one type of manager to know a number of other types of managers both within and outside of their own company. These managers are often asked by their counterparts in other organizations if they indeed know somebody to fill vacant positions. You may get a productive response once out of every forty times you try this approach. But don't be discouraged. The one interview you get as a result of asking that question is worth the forty or fifty times of asking.

Whether you get a referral or not, it is a very good idea to end the conversation with the following:

Thank you for your time, I would at least like to email you my résumé in case something might change with you or someone you know.

Nine out of ten times, the person on the other end of the phone will be willing to receive the résumé. No matter what the person's response, whether it be positive or not, end the conversation by saying:

I'd like to give you a call back in thirty days or so to see if there might be any openings there or if you might know of any with friends of yours.

Again, nine out of ten people will agree to your doing that. To a certain extent, that lets people off the hook for the moment; but they know, in the back of their minds, that they could easily have a position open up at any time.

Key point: Warm calling is a numbers game. The more calls you make, the more likely you are to get an interview.

If the hiring manager just plain dismisses you or insists that you deal with the HR department, you can say:

My experience with company HR departments, (as far as identifying top talent when there isn't an immediate need), just hasn't been good. I am sure they are wonderful people; but I need to be talking to decisive managers who can make immediate decisions. Is there any other decisive manager in your firm that has an opening?

Analysis of the Script

This is very simple but very strong stuff. The idea is to sell a face-to-face interview whether the hiring manager has a position opening or not. You are not asking if there is a job opening or asking to be hired; you're simply getting a face-to-face interview. The script is meant to be forceful and to the point.

There are a few crucial aspects of this script. First, you do not ask the person answering the phone who might be doing the hiring. If you ask who does the hiring, nine out of ten times you'll be relegated to the HR department and that for the most part is a dead end.

Once you get a hiring authority on the phone, you have to provide features, advantages, and benefits as to why you should be interviewed. This is very important! If you simply call and ask for an interview without giving specific features, advantages, and benefits to the prospective employer, you won't get to first base. This is, again, simple stuff if you are aware of what you are doing. Here are some examples:

Hello, Mr. or Ms.  __________. My name is __________ and I am (features) an accountant. I passed my CPA exam in one sitting and I have fifteen years of very stable accounting experience. I have worked my way up in two organizations from the ground floor to an assistant controller position. The advantage that I bring is stability and performance. The benefit to you and your organization is that you would have a long-term employee with a great track record.

I would like to meet with you to discuss my potential with your firm. Would tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. or tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m. the best for you?

Or, another example would be:

Hello, Mr. or Ms.  __________. My name is __________ and I am a (features) salesperson. I have ten solid years of experience with two Fortune 500 firms and have never been less than 110 percent of quota. I continually (advantage) perform in the top 2 percent of the sales organizations that I've been with. I would like to (benefit) continue this kind of a performance with an organization like yours.

I would like to meet with you to discuss my potential with your firm. Would Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m. or Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. work the best for you?

The purpose of this script is to briefly and succinctly tell a hiring authority your personal features and advantages so that they can be perceived as benefits to the hiring authority's company. So, your job now is to come up with a features, advantages. and benefits statement on yourself. The question is, and always will be, on the part of that hiring authority, Why should I hire you? The whole interviewing process centers around this question.

Keep in mind that features, advantages, and benefits regarding you and your possible employment do not have to be mystical, miraculous, or mesmerizing. They can be simple and rather uncomplicated. In fact, simple and uncomplicated reasons for hiring somebody are the best. So, the next exercise is to come up with a features, advantages, and benefits statement about you.

A feature is an aspect of you or your career that makes you unique. It can be the number of years of experience. It can be grades in school. It can be things like hard work, determination, persistence, and dedication. A feature, in a job-seeking situation, is simply a unique aspect about you that is going to be translated into being a good employee.

An advantage is something that the feature does to set a person apart from the average. So, if a person graduated cum laude from college and worked his or her way through college with two jobs (features) that person demonstrated hard work and commitment way above the average person (advantage).

A benefit would be the gain that a company would realize from hiring a person who brings unique features and advantages. So, the features of graduating at the top of your class as well as working two jobs demonstrated your advantage to perform on a higher level than average, therefore you will perform in the same way for whoever you work for and the company will benefit from your work.

So now, write out your own:

Features:
Advantages:
Benefits:

Now, remembering that you are selling yourself and that you are briefly giving a prospective employer a reason for why he ought to interview you, write a features, advantages, and benefits statement about yourself:

Hello, Mr. or Ms. __________. My name is __________. I am a __________. I (features) __________ , which are (advantages) and, therefore (benefits) you and your firm.

Practice writing this and in just a few minutes you can write three or four features, advantages, and benefits statements on yourself to fit just about any situation. Remember, the purpose of this statement is to intrigue a hiring authority enough to want to interview you. Do not try to sell the whole idea of hiring you in one phone call. The purpose is to get the interview by giving a hiring authority a brief statement about what you can do for him or her.

The closing question of, Could I see you tomorrow morning or would tomorrow afternoon be better, is a minor choice resulting in a major decision, which most salespeople learn in their first training class. This concept is so simple it is almost too good and yet a phenomenal number of people will avoid using it because it appears to obviously manipulative. It definitely is simple, but it definitely works! At the end of your features, advantages, and benefits statement, ask the minor choice and major decision question. It works. Do not ask questions such as: Would you be interested in talking with me? or Could I come by and see you? or Can we set a date for an interview? None of these questions are nearly as effective as:

Could I see you tomorrow morning at __________ a.m. or would tomorrow afternoon at __________ p.m. be better?

Please, please don't try to be coy or cutesy by making this more complicated than it needs to be. Simply make the features, advantages, and benefits statement and ask the alternative choice question. Then, shut up! Don't say another word until you have a response.

Now, most people who are not in sales, and even some that are, will have a difficult time using this statement and question, especially in the beginning of their job search. I have been using this format for finding other people jobs for more than thirty-one years. It works better than anything you can imagine. So please, you want to start getting results, or interviews, as fast you can. It works-don't fix it!

So, there you have it. A features, advantages, and benefits statement followed by an alternative choice question that will get you the results that you need. Now all you need to do is to practice! You have nothing to lose but your anonymity.

USE THIS FORM FOR EVERY CALL

Company:
Phone:
Date:

Hello, who is your (controller, vice president of sales, IT director, etc.)? Fine, let me speak with __________.

Hello, __________. My name is __________ and I am __________.

I (features) __________, which are (advantages) __________ and, therefore, (benefits) __________.

I would like to meet with you to discuss my potential with your company. Would tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. be good for you or would tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. be better?

Response: Well, we really don't have any openings.

I understand that you don't have any immediate openings, but I have a great track record of . I am the kind of professional who is better than 90 percent of the employees that you might have now. It is to your and your company's best interest that you at least talk to me and be aware of my availability-if not for now then maybe in the future. My experience has taught me that, often, great talent comes along when you don't need it presently. But, it is always a good idea to be aware of talent on a face-to-face basis. I will only take a few moments of your time and it may wind up being beneficial for all of us. Would tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon be best?

or

I understand and the kind of people whom I want to work for probably do not presently have an opening. I would just like to take fifteen or twenty minutes of your time because I am a real, top-notch performer. I am the kind of person who you would want to know to either replace your weakest link or to know of my availability when the next opening does occur. Now, would tomorrow morning be good for you or is tomorrow afternoon better?

 

Response: Well, we just don't have openings and there is no need for us to meet.

(pause) Do you know of any other opportunities that might exist in your company with any other manager?

 

If you get a person's name, ask:

May I use your name as a reference?

or

(pause) Do you know of any other organization that you might have heard by the grapevine that might need someone of my experience?

 

If yes, get the person or organization's name and ask:

May I use your name as a reference?

If you get the name of a person or organization, use this script when you call the person:

Hello, Mr./Ms. __________. I was referred to you by __________. My name is __________ and I am __________.

I (features) __________ that are (advantages) __________ and, therefore, (benefits) __________.

I would like to meet with you to discuss my potential with your company. Would tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. be good for you or would tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. be better?

 

Results:

 

 

If the conversation does not result in an interview, ask:

May I call you back in thirty or sixty days to see if the situation in your firm has changed?

Call back on __________. Thank you for your time!

Keeping Track of the Process

This may not come as a surprise, but you absolutely must keep good records of all these calls. Your job search, whether you like it or not, may take six,

deight, or nine months. I hope, for your sake, that it doesn't, but you need to be prepared for that possibility. If you follow my advice properly, you're going to talk to numerous people whom you have warm called many times. Just because a company, or an individual within the company, says there is not an employment opportunity today, it does not mean that there will not be an opportunity in the future.

The probability of you discovering a vacancy when you initially warm call like this is about one in fifty. You will almost double those odds by calling back a second, third, or fourth time. So, it is important to recognize that warm calling the individual or organization is not simply going to be a one-time thing. Your odds of getting a face-to-face interview at the second or third call are much greater than they were on the first call simply because the person that you're calling is more aware of who you are and what you're doing. Even if it was slight, you made somewhat of an impression on the person the first time you called. By the second, third, or fourth time you call, the person has become more aware of possible employment opportunities that might be available in the organization. If you are going to make the investment of the warm call to begin with, you will reap greater rewards by following it up with subsequent calls.

I suggest simple manila folders to keep records of each organization that you approach or interview with and a daily planner that you can make notes in every day or into the future. Although there are computer programs that can probably help, simple manila folders to store records and a large daily planner will suffice.

When a person first starts out looking to either find or change jobs, he or she usually has no idea how long it is going to take to be successful. There is a tendency to have a lot of activity in the beginning of the process: however, the process may carry on for a lot longer than a person would imagine. Good record keeping helps the momentum in the beginning to be sustained over however long it takes.

Should You Leave a Voice Mail Message?

Somewhere along the line you're going to be faced with leaving a voicemail. You diligently practice a warm-call presentation and then you get voice mail! Well, there is a lot of debate as to whether or not you should leave a message on a hiring authority's voice mail. Try your own experiment and see what works. I recommend doing it.

First off, I would call the same hiring manager two or three times, trying to make a presentation to him or her before I would leave a message on voice mail. If I concluded, after even the second time, that I'm not likely to catch this hiring authority answering the phone, I would leave a voice mail message. The script for the voice mail message isn't much different from the script used when a live person answers the phone. The ending, however, is slightly different. It goes like this:

Mr./Ms. __________. My name is __________. I am a __________. I have (features) __________ that are (advantages) __________, which would be (benefits) __________ to you and your firm.

I would like a chance to meet with you. My phone number is __________. Again, that is   (your name)   and my phone number is __________.

Be sure to repeat your telephone number at the end of the message at least once, and repeat it very s-l-o-w-l-y so the person can write it down as you record it the second time. Many people find it too hard to go back and listen to your voice mail message a second time just to get your telephone number. If you say it slowly and repeat even more slowly at the end of the message, people are more likely to write down the number and return your call.

If you don't get a response the first time that you leave a message on voice mail, don't hesitate to record a similar message two or three times for the same person. This sounds a bit excessive, but my experience has been that if there is even the slightest pain of needing someone now or in the near future, this kind of message will get the attention of a hiring authority.

After leaving four or five messages similar to this and not getting a response, you should stop calling, at least for now. If my experience had been with a similar kind of organization where my value might be greater than the average candidate looking for a job, I would certainly call back a number of times down the road. But, for now, I would stop calling after four or five messages.

If you don't get the courtesy of a call back from a hiring authority, don't take it personally.

The In-Person Cold-Call Visit

One great way, and one of the most effective ways of getting an interview and the attention of a hiring authority (the person with pain), is to simply show up in his or her office and ask the administrative person if you can have a few moments of the hiring authority's time. Then you just wait in the office until he or she sees you.

Once you are meeting the person face-to-face, even if it is a brief moment in the lobby, you state the following as you hand the person your résumé:

Mr. or Mrs. (Employer), I understand that you are looking for an excellent candidate to fill your position of  __________. I am an excellent candidate and would like to spend a few moments with you to discuss my qualifications. Do you have a few moments?

Do not expect that you are going to get an interview right then. That will only happen occasionally. If the hiring authority says that he or she does not have time right then, ask when there will be a better time: be persistent about setting a specific time.

When you have the boldness to do this kind of thing, you have everything to win and nothing to lose.

Jeff and Amy's Thoughts on Getting Interviews

Neither Jeff nor Amy ever thought it would take so long or be so difficult to find a job. Since Jeff had always been able to find a job easily in the past, he confused activity with productivity in looking for a job. He did many things, especially in the beginning of his job search, that really didn't have any bearing on him getting interviews. He spent hours, days, and weeks sending résumés over the Internet and responding to newspaper ads. This activity is common for people when they first start looking for a job, especially if they haven't looked for one in a few years.

Even though Jeff performed well in interviews when he got them, he didn't get enough of them. I mentioned earlier that when people start out looking for a job, they use all kinds of different approaches. After a while, they often stop working most of the approaches that they used at the start and resort to only one or two ways of getting interviews. Jeff did exactly that. At first, he was excited about the opportunity of finding a new job, but when it didn't happen after a long period of time, he basically shut down most of the process.

The part in the chapter about approaching family, friends, and acquaintances was especially pertinent for Jeff and Amy. They found many friends and family members simply couldn't understand how someone as talented as Jeff could be out of work for any length of time, if he was really trying to find a job. People just don't know how hard it is to find a job until they need one.

Jeff did seek out some permanent recruiters before he came to us, but they didn't get him many interviews. He was approached by a consulting firm that wanted $2,500 to rewrite his résumé and give him advice. Jeff was besieged with all kinds of other huckster angles like, for $69.95 we will post your résumé on 10,000 sites and numerous pyramid marketing programs that required up-front investments.

The concept of how many calls it takes to get a face-to-face interview was not a revelation to Jeff and Amy after all they had been through. They wished they had known this in the beginning. Understanding the numbers and how they work prepares people for the process that they are going to go through. It is a process of getting in front of as many people as you can to eventually get hired. Rejection is part of this numbers game. Jeff and Amy were amused at the idea that counting the rejections was just one more way of keeping score toward the successful interview.

Amy suggested that people read this chapter twice before they even start looking for a job.

© 2006 Tony Beshara.
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