To mount an effective career campaign, you will need other people for information, ideas, and support. You will definitely need help to uncover the more than 80% of all quality openings that are not found through recruitment offices, employment agencies, and advertisements. If you choose to actually create your own tailor-made opening, an extensive referral network will be required. Effective contact development will involve a series of orderly steps such as the following:
Consider every formal and informal group to which you belong. Even if you are not a joiner, you participate in informal groups made up of your neighbors, business and professional contacts, and others who can provide information and valuable referrals. You also join many temporary groups by going to bars, clubs, sports events, campgrounds, etc. Membership in an academic community automatically connects you to its students, faculty, administrators, and alumni. Involvement in churches, service organizations, hobby clubs, trade groups, and professional associations connect you with numerous others who share your interests and concerns.
The same is true for fraternities and sororities, political parties, social action organizations, and so on. Links started in any one of these can extend to include contacts throughout your city, state, the U.S., and ultimately the world. Think about each member of each group. Where do they work, who do they know, to what other groups do they belong? Find a connection between the people you know or can get to know and the market you want to search. With time and patience, you will find yourself moving beyond your immediate friends and acquaintances to a much wider circle that includes all of their contacts. If you are clear about what you are seeking and what you can offer, you will find people among this greatly expanded group who can give you the names, introductions, and information you seek.
Prepare brief talking points and be ready to take notes about names and positions. Ask for informal introductions to the people whom they recommend. Formulate some fairly clear ideas about the specific questions that each of these referrals can answer. Also, be ready to ask them for additional referrals and plan to leave a résumé. And finally, be sure to ask if you can come or call back if you have any additional questions and if they would be willing to contact you should they think of anything else. In a step-by-step process, you are forging a chain that will lead to actual employers and opportunities. Each chain may have several links. Each link will depend on the goodwill and helpfulness of the people you deal with along the way.
Continue cultivating the people who have helped you along the way. Check back with your most productive contacts for additional ideas and thank them personally or at least with a note or card. The network building can take significant time and energy, but it can definitely be rewarding. You may be surprised at how quickly you get results. In addition, meeting and getting to know new people can be of value in itself.
Informational interviews are face-to-face meetings with people who have direct experience with a particular job, employer, industry, or occupational field. These personal exchanges may provide a more subtle, "inside" look into your career options. The goal is not a job offer; however, the networking you accomplish in the process may ultimately lead to just the opportunity you seek.
Unlike the conventional job interview, you direct the course of the meeting. The observations you make and the answers you obtain in the informational interview may be critical to your career decisions. Prepare for the meeting by carefully considering and writing down the questions you intend to ask. Make sure that they are clear and easy to understand. Be ready to say enough about yourself to enable your informant to speak to your concerns and current situation. Include open-ended questions to draw forth information that you may have otherwise missed. Such planning will help keep the interview going and shows respect for the informant's time (15 to 45 minutes).
Remember to ask the informant if she knows of anyone else who could provide you with additional information such as other people in her organization or counterparts in related businesses or agencies. At the very least, you will gain an implied reference. But the informant may also go so far as to make introductions for you. Open the way for continued contact by asking if you might call again should you have more questions. Do all you can to include the informant in your referral network. Always follow-up with an appreciative phone call or letter of thanks.
Since the hiring process is costly and stressful for decision makers, they may find it reassuring to be in touch with qualified people who could fill a position should the need arise.
They may also be receptive to a meeting as a welcome break in a perhaps routine schedule. The informant gets an opportunity to talk about herself and her work to an interested listener--something most people find both pleasant and flattering. They may also find satisfaction in being helpful without being under pressure to offer a job.
Gather as much background information as possible before-hand so you can take full advantage of the time you have with your informant. For example, if you are just beginning to explore a company, its human resource department can usually provide initial information such as mission statements, PR handouts, and recruiting literature. If read critically, this material can give you a sense of the work environment, which can be useful in formulating substantive questions for an informational interview. Don't waste your informant's valuable time getting information that you can easily gather from other resources such as the internet and old-fashioned, brick-and-mortar libraries. The informational interview is your opportunity to gain a human, more subjective perspective on a job, company, or field. Be honest with yourself and the informant about what you want to learn.
The quality of information you gather through the course of the interview depends largely on your informant's perspective and comfort level. As the initiator of the meeting, you have a say in determining the time and setting. Set up a comfortable situation for the informant so that she will respond in the most candid, complete way possible. She may appreciate meeting away from the workplace so that she may express her opinions more freely or she may simply wish to stay in-office. Be flexible, but consider the interview setting when later evaluating the information you gathered.
Ask your informant not only about her own experience with a job, employer, or industry, but also what changes she anticipates in the near and more distant future.
- What tasks are performed in a typical day? What periodic projects are completed each week and / or year?
- How and when did she get involved in her work?
- What is the best way to obtain a starter position in the field?
- What education is required? Is on-the-job training available?
- What new technologies and skills are needed to perform well?
- What type of person would do well in her position and advance in her organization and industry?
- What are the major rewards and frustrations of the job?
- Is there demand for people in the field?
- What would a man who wishes to apply for the job need to know? Would it be the same for a woman? How about a younger versus older worker?
- What starting salary range and benefits package can be anticipated? How can this compensation be expected to change with increasing experience?
- What are the major strengths and weaknesses of her organization? How do they compare with others in its industry?
- What plans does the organization have in mind for the future, and how do they match up with others in the industry?
- How has the total work environment in your informant's field changed in the past and what is expected in the future?
- Who are other knowledgeable people who would be in a good position to give another point of view?