If you send out one hundred resumes and receive no results, then send out three hundred! If three hundred does not work, then send out eight hundred. A very successful insurance salesman once told me that he felt each time he was turned down for a sale, he was just one step closer to obtaining one. With that kind of philosophy, how can you lose?
If you are having difficulty getting past the secretary on the telephone, do not be concerned. Every time you call back, she will feel she knows you a little better; and if you keep on calling, you are bound to get through to the boss. If for no other reason, just so the secretary can get rid of you! The secretary is liable to extend you a "left-handed-compliment" by telling the boss that you just will not quit-you keep calling. The boss may be looking for someone like this.
While going through the interview process, you may sense that things are beginning to lag. The progression is at a stand still. You have to get the wheels turning again by calling the boss and dip-lomatically coaxing him into making a decision. Sometimes you may want to use the counsellor or recruiter for this task. You may want to drop hints that you do have other opportunities that you are considering, but their's is the best, and is your first choice.
Employers sometimes just cannot make decisions regarding who they should hire. A recruiter's role is to screen the candidates down to a final few-but the employer makes the final selection. Where an employer has difficulty in making a selection decision, it has been seen on more than one occasion where an aggressive candidate got the job. You should be quietly aggressive or another way of putting it is: If you were a surgeon, your scalpel should be so sharp and your skill so adept that the patient does not realize he is being operated on-of course he has an anesthetic. Another analogy might be that your persistence should be like those commercials they use to have in the movie theatres. You hardly knew they were there suggesting "delicious, hot buttered popcorn," but before you knew it you had a taste for some and did not know exactly why-habit, you assumed!
