If they have nothing and know of nothing, they will have to let you down. Many personal contacts don't know how to do this very well. If you’re not careful, they may begin a "daisy chain." Paul sends you to Sylvia, who is willing to see you because of her connection with Paul. Sylvia has nothing, but she passes you along to Brenda, who sends you to Harry. Many cups of coffee later, you will be no better off than when you started, and you will have lost valuable time.
If you want to use personal contacts, use them wisely. Ask them the information-gathering questions or ask them to review your resume. Better yet, give them a list of questions and ask them to role-play a potential employer and interview you.
Employment Agencies
For most job-seeking executives, employment agencies are another waste of time. You will spend hours waiting to see a "counselor," who may well envy your past salary. You will fill out countless forms and applications. You will be promised a follow-up call and may not receive one. You may follow up with such agencies yourself only to find that your counselor is "no longer with the firm" and you are back to square one. This is not a productive approach.
If you want to register with agencies, pick only those that have demonstrated knowledge of your field and that have a strong presence among employers in that field. To register, ask an agency to send you its forms so you can fill them out comfortably and at your leisure, not in a waiting room where you have to balance a clipboard on your lap and are perhaps in the company of some of life's sadder cases. Get the name of a principal of the firm who is likely to be there a few weeks later. Mail your resume and a cover letter to that individual.
Follow through with a single call in about a week. Then forget about it. The agency and your contact may already have done the same. Let's move on to a related source that usually functions in a different manner.
Search Firms
Search firms pride themselves on finding rather than on being found. If you want them, it seems, they may not want you. Rarely do candidates walk through their doors uninvited and walk out with appointments with their clients. Their searches are often so specific that only a chosen few are contacted at the firm's initiative. And "chosen" is an accurate word for what frequently takes place. Many employers and firms have already identified the candidates they have in mind before contacts are made, and quite often the candidates have no idea that they are targets. Often the search firm begins by asking the candidate to suggest "others who might qualify."
To get the attention of search firms, first know the right ones and then appear to ignore them, conveying that you have no interest in an employment change. If they perceive you as needing a job, they are most assuredly not going to take much interest.
Professional Associations
Frequently the organizations that represent your field have placement services. Some are better than others. If you must conduct your search in confidence, don't contact them. Not all of them are irresponsible, but I would be wary of the potential for gossip among people in such positions. On the other hand, you might find them of some value either as your grapevine or as additional sources of information.
Advertisements
Most ads are vague and describe jobs that are hard to fill, often with employers that have difficulties recruiting for a wide variety of reasons. If the job is easy to fill, why has it reached the advertising stage? If it is not easy to fill, you may well wonder why. Salary, location, and reputation for turnover are just a few of the reasons you may find when you have an interview with an employer you found through a recruitment ad in a newspaper. Remember that most of the good jobs are gone before they ever find their way into advertisements.
Even ads that name the organization are fraught with pitfalls. (Don't waste your time on an ad that asks you to send your life history to a box number.) Employment ads tell you little but ask for much. In return for a few teasers by way of job description, they may ask for not only your resume but also your salary requirements. The odds are strong that the information you provide will be used to screen you out rather than to invite you in.
If you feel compelled to respond to a help-wanted ad, here is the only approach to take: Read the ad thoroughly two or three times. Jot down the points that it makes. Observe the sequence in which the points appear. Then follow the advertiser's formula in writing your reply.
