Personal Contacts
Arranging interviews through personal contacts is the only strategy that's effective for all job-seekers, regardless of their level of seniority, objectives, or the circumstances under which they're conducting a search. It should therefore be the first strategy you consider using. As stated above, approaching potential employers through personal contacts increases your chances of generating interviews as well as offers. There's a reason for this: You have immediate credibility When you're introduced to someone by a mutually respected third party, you've been prescreened and aren't regarded as "one of the masses."
Employers see you as a choice prospect and look for reasons why they should hire you instead of reasons why they should not. There isn't any of the skepticism that usually accompanies the interview situation. In fact, no matter how impressive your resume and accomplishments might be, they won't mean as much to a prospective employer as the recommendation from an individual whose judgment he trusts. This recommendation will guarantee an interview when an opening exists. It will sometimes produce an interview even when there is no opening. And it will increase the likelihood of being selected for hire when you're one of several equally qualified candidates under consideration for a position. All this is borne out by the statistic that approximately 75% of company hirings are the result of employee referrals. The second benefit of meeting potential employers through personal contacts is that you can have interviews without competition from other job-seekers. This situation can occur in three different ways:
- When you meet potential employers through personal contacts, you automatically gain exposure to the positions that are not being advertised or listed with employment agencies. These are the 80% of the openings that actually exist-the hidden job market. With many of these positions, there will be no applicants under consideration. This is because the other job-hunters are focusing their efforts elsewhere, on the openings that they know about, the other 20% of the job market.
- A manager is always interested in improving his department by hiring additional talent. Once he meets you, he can then decide to create a position for you. Here, there is no competition because the position did not even exist; the manager had no reason to be conducting interviews.
Further benefits also accrue from this situation. While being interviewed, you aren't evaluated against an existing job description or profile of "the ideal candidate." In addition, there are no predetermined limits on the scope of your responsibilities or your salary. The position is being created around your capability and is being tailored to meet your needs.
- A manager often has future plans to hire additional staff members. If you have the type of background he'll be looking for, he may decide to move up his schedule and hire you at this time. It's advantageous for the manager to do so; Not only is he assured of finding the right individual, but he avoids the time-consuming task of conducting interviews and thus eliminates the steep recruiting costs that would come from his budget.
The Yellow Pages groups companies by products and services within a limited geographic area. This source will be especially useful for finding small firms in the industry of your choice. The directory you need might be at the library. If not, you can purchase it from the regional telephone company. A town's Chamber of Commerce will often have a list of the major employers in the area. A final way to identify companies is to purchase a mailing list. Dun's Marketing Services and Standard & Poor's Corporation will compile a list of organizations according to your specifications for industry, location, and size (either in dollar volume or number of employees). Contact Dun's Marketing Services, Three Sylvan Way, Parsippany, N} 07054 ([800] 624-5669), or Standard & Poor's Corporation, Dept. CDS, 25 Broadway, New York, NY 10004 ([212] 208-8300).
