Now come the tasks of the campaign strategy, which put what you have learned into practice. These six steps move much faster. They are:
1. making your contacts
2. having interviews and keeping records about them
3. writing thank you letters
4. letting your contacts know how you're doing
5. having job interviews, and
6. negotiating for your starting pay and for a pay increase
The key ways to make contacts and have successful interviews without turndowns have been detailed in herein. We'll summarize them again, and also point up the contact and interview system given in the Job Cooperative .
You'll need a small notebook, one you can easily carry in your pocket. Rule off six spaces, one for each weekday and one for Saturday/Sunday, on each of the first ten pages; put day and dates at the top of each space. This is your Contacts Calendar, a way of keeping track of what you do and what you intend to do. The great majority of people who use this campaign strategy can expect to land jobs within six weeks, maybe even in the first week. This time is shortened when you work with a Job Cooperative. The other pages of your notebook are for making notes on the interviews you have and what you do about them.
The Contacts Calendar is the way you schedule what you want to do, what you have done, and the events and changes that take place. It's a kind of scoreboard. And as you know, when you start any game a scoreboard helps you to know how you're doing.
Not everyone uses a Contacts Calendar, and the process will work without it. It just works so much better with it that we especially recommend it. We believe you know that a car can run without oil, especially if you stop every few miles and let the engine and parts cool down. Your Contact Calendar, like oil, helps you to be sure that the job campaign is operating smoothly and on schedule, and that you have control of the changes you want to make.
You'll need your hundred Job Power Reports, the card on which you've written your Social Security number and other facts that go into job application forms (perhaps you should have two of these cards, and staple one inside the back of your notebook). And you should consider having a self-confidence and "staying cool" card. This is a 3x5 index card with a few words about your top three achievements on one side, and on the other side very short reminders of a couple of views which have given you feelings of happy peacefulness. This card is something you should look at, read and relax with for a few minutes before you have inter-views. It has an important physiological effect-enabling you to take a deep breath, fill your body with a little extra oxygen, and become less tense. (If you don't want to carry that second card, you should take three or four deep breaths before you have an interview).
Another Hiring Viewpoint
Perhaps we should tell you about the employment game from the executive viewpoint, the viewpoint of the employer. It isn't really a game, but it often is spoken of as a gamble. When you know the rules, you can make the most of them; but if you don't know the rules, you can win only by accident. And the way employment is set up, the rules are kept very secret. First, an executive with a critical mass of money and equipment decides to make a profit by using them to provide a new product or service. To make it available he needs many different kinds of employees: executives, assistants, professional and technical men and women, record keepers of various kinds, typists, messengers, porters, etc.
Let's say that in his far-off headquarters he decides to build a new factory with a scientific testing laboratory and office in your small city. He arranges to get a low-interest loan and tax exemption for a number of years from your state and city in return for bringing his operation there. He first needs construction labor, a few construction clerks and timekeepers. The word about those jobs goes out usually through building trades unions, superintendents and foremen. Almost all the better jobs are filled that way. Then some more are filled by employees bringing along buddies and sons or daughters just in case there might be openings they could fill. A few are filled by persons who hear about the new construction job and drop by to see if there might be openings. And the remainder (about one in five) is recruited through newspaper ads, the Employment Security Office and employment agencies.
As the building nears completion machinery and equipment of all kinds, together with office supplies, arrive and are put into preplanned places. Executive staff and some lower-level personnel arrive from headquarters, and hiring begins on a serious basis for daily operations. As higher-level persons get their jobs, they are asked to recommend others for lower-level jobs. The top boss knows that hiring mistakes will be made, and that some new employees will only last a week or two, others will stay for a few months, others will become regulars. And all the while the new people hired will be asked to recommend others who are needed.
Now here is how the hiring process begins. The top people are likely to be recommended through members of the local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, political leaders, the Business and Professional Women's Club or other women's organizations, local professional, business and service clubs. These are the first groups that get news of a large hiring activity.
Every applicant is asked to complete a job application form, but for some of them it is after they have been hired. The person doing the hiring is almost never the employment or personnel manager, but a large number of applicants do get interviewed by someone in the personnel department; that's where you get screened out, or stopped from entering the employment process. The persons who come in through public and private agencies and newspaper ads generally get their first interviews in the personnel department.
Personnel people are usually aware of the decision as to the kind of impression the new company wants to make. And it is customary for each interviewer to interpret differently what that impression means in regard to the kinds of persons who are employed. Some might like long hair, some have a bias against women in pantsuits, some want everyone to speak perfectly, some feel that high school and college dropouts are no good, some are partial to those with chemistry courses, some don't like blacks and other colored persons, some don't like persons over forty, some are partial to dark-haired persons and others to light-haired ones. There are any number of prejudices we all have them in some degree hidden in the personnel office and often without clear knowledge by the people who have these prejudices. They do exist even though they violate Equal Opportunity laws.
When you pass the first hurdle in the employment office you get referred to a supervisor or manager. He or she has responsibility for getting certain work done. If you can help him get that done, or if he believes you can, you will be hired. But he knows he must guess, on the basis of your past history, your studies, grades and perhaps recommendations from your teachers and occasionally from psychological tests—whether you will be able to help him. He usually will hedge his guess by saying you'll be on probation for thirty days, ninety days, or 12 months. Then you get to talking about pay rates or salary, and it is customary for the starting rate to be a fixed one for beginners.
That's about the way it is from the employer's end.
What you need to do in your job campaign is recognize how you can take advantage of what we've just told you. It is clear, to begin with, that you're more likely to get a job if you are recommended to an executive or supervisor. Nearly eight jobs out of ten are obtained that way, and only two out often are known right off to the personnel department and through ads and agencies.
You will notice that a business operation has a schedule for doing things. But the same principle applies with any organization. In fact, scheduling is mentioned in the Bible in relation to the construction of a house. Scheduling something means keeping track of what is going on, and knowing and deciding what things should be done first. It should even be clear that you cannot change your mind about what comes first until after you've made up your mind.
More on Contacts
You need ignorance in order to make good contacts. Most teenage men and women believe they have no contacts, and by that they mean they don't know where the job openings are. Knowing about job openings is one kind of ignorance. Knowing that you don't know if someone else knows about job openings, that's the kind of ignorance you need. If you think you know someone who wouldn't know of any job openings, then you're getting too smart. Everyone who buys or sells or gets anything repaired has contacts that can lead to job openings.
The way to reach those contacts, and get referred to other persons who might have contacts, is given in detail in 4, Interviews, More Interviews. We'll summarize those instructions here, and add an idea.
First, you can avoid being turned down by never asking for a job. Instead, tell your contact that you don't expect him to have a job or to know of one that would use your skills. What you want from him is some advice on your Job Power Report. Does he think it tells things about you that would interest an employer?
This process nearly always gets the person involved in knowing about you and advising you. It frequently influences him to ask you some questions about yourself based on your Report. Then, to suggest one or two persons that he either would like to show your Report to or that you should see. If those suggestions are not made, you will need to ask if he knows someone who might be interested in having a copy of your Report, or a person who although he is unlikely to have a job for you occasionally hears of job openings. Either way, three out of four people you approach along these lines will give you at least one more referral. This means that if you make ten contacts on your own, you will gain between seven and twelve more from them; and those seven will lead to at least another five, and those five to at least another three making a total of 25 from your original ten.
Now it takes time to have these R & R interviews, which is another reason why you need your Contacts Calendar. It helps you to keep track of who you see, when you saw them, and who you are to see in the future.
Each time you see someone and are questioned about your Job Power Report, you have influenced that person to remember you, and to keep you in mind if he or she hears of a possible job you could have. This makes them your allies in the job hunt because they are looking even though you are making the actual contacts. When someone is helping you in this way they deserve your gratitude; so you should send each of them a short note of thanks. It helps you in more than one way. First, it shows you appreciate their helpfulness and encourages them to remember you; second, it can keep them informed on how you are progressing; third, it can stimulate them to get in touch with you and give you some more contacts—even though you shouldn't ask for them.
This is the kind of "thank you" letter to write:
Dear Mr. (or Ms.) Blank:
I really do appreciate your help with my Report, and especially your introduction to Mr. So-and-so. I'll be seeing him next Tuesday. And I'll write you again in about two weeks and let you know how I'm doing.
your name/address
A letter or postcard like that will take less than two minutes to write, so don't make excuses as many people do by telling yourself you've got too many other things to do so you don't have the time to write it.
Your job campaign, if you want to win it fast, is a full-time job that needs seven or eight hours a day of work five days a week and sometimes weekends. You'll need to make contacts, put appointments in your Calendar, make notes on what happened at your interview, keep more appointments and have more interviews, write letters, make telephone calls, sometimes feel very disappointed or even depressed when your efforts don't produce immediate results, get over your depression and go to work on your campaign again.
Nearly all people who are job hunting need company some of the time, someone to exchange ideas with, someone who will support and encourage you when things look dark. There are three kinds of "company" which are beneficial. The best is a Job Cooperative; next best is a group of three or more people like yourself who are also looking for jobs, especially if you all are using this system; third, and still very good, is family or an older friend with whom you feel comfortable.
Job Interviews
In the contact or R & R interview you were trying to get the person to hear your skills, remember you, and re-commend you to another contact. The time comes, often after ten and usually by the time you've had thirty inter-views, when you are interviewed for a job opening. Then you must change your approach. You are being interviewed for a job when an interviewer says something like this: "I have a job that could use your skills," or, "I'd like to get you into our beginners' training program." Your concern then is not how to be remembered and referred, but how to get a firm job offer with a starting date and rate of pay. Change tactics and start asking questions that get job facts. First of all say something like this: "I'd like to work in your organization. It seems like there will be opportunity to develop my skills and get ahead. Can you tell me just what this job requires?"
You need to listen carefully and answer your interviewer's questions constructively. Because you have thoroughly studied yourself, and have plenty of facts about what you can do in your Career Journal, you have the facts you need to know for a good interview virtually on the end of your tongue. So you can afford to listen carefully. Make some notes (in a notebook that should be with you at all kinds of interviews). Remember that you can't write and listen completely at the same time, so check the correctness of your notes with your interviewer.
Listening carefully, and asking questions about what you are not sure of, makes a very good impression at job interviews. It shows you might listen to instructions, and make fewer mistakes than others who might not listen so carefully. It shows you try to understand, and are willing to ask questions when you are not sure.
If the job is what you want, you should ask (and write down correctly) the name and title of the person who would be your supervisor. You should also ask when they would want you to start, and the starting rate of pay. Make a note of those items, too. And don't overlook asking when the working day begins and ends; you might otherwise be late or too early on the first day. Because an increasing number of organizations have what is called "flextime," you could ask if the organization permits earlier and later starts and stops for the day's work.
There are plenty of questions that employers often ask, and a list of these is given in the interviews . You'll also find there a list of some questions you should consider asking.
When you are asked about your skills in a job interview, with a suggestion something like this: "Why don't you tell me something about your skills?" be careful. Take a good breath (which relaxes your tension), and reply along these lines: "Would you like me to start with examples of my hand skills, or my skill in persuading people, or my skill in organizing?" (You would use three important skills you mention in your Job Power Report.)
The employer would then either suggest one, or say "Start wherever you like."
And you either repeat the one he suggests, and speak clearly but briefly about the best experience you had which proves that skill; or you say, "All right, I'll start with my skill in organizing. It's a beginning skill, but this is what I've done which proves I have it." Then you go on with your experience, but be brief (not quick-speaking). After that, the employer will probably suggest you talk about some other skills, or else you name another skill and give another experience which proves it. It's true you have most of those things on your Job Power Report, but many supervisors like to hear the person speak about his own experiences.
Usually within twenty minutes the point will be reached where the employer either offers you the job, suggests that he'll let you know in a few days, or turns you down. If you're offered the job he'll talk about salary or pay rate, (see 4) and when you get started on the job. Let's deal with what to say if he's to let you know in a few days, and what to do if your interview is with a personnel or employment officer of an organization.
Your response to the "few days" comment should go like this: "I'd like to enter this in my calendar; if I don't hear from you by about Wednesday (make it three or four days away), would you mind if I called you about when you'd want me to start?" Nearly all the time you'll either get a "yes" to that or an explanation for a longer delay. Then you get the supervisor's telephone number and enter his name and number in your Calendar on the day when you should call him if you haven't heard. Another way you might respond is by asking if he would want you to be interviewed by someone else, now or at another time. If the reply is "yes" in this case, be sure to inquire and write down the name of the person who would be interviewing you on the next occasion. This could lead to his trying to arrange an immediate second appointment before you leave; and otherwise, it could lead to his suggesting that you call the other person to arrange the appointment.
If your interview is with "Personnel," the chances are that you are being screened for an interview with someone else. In this kind of situation the job of the interviewer is to make a judgment as to whether or not it is worthwhile for the supervisor to spend time with you. The interviewer does not have power to hire you, but does have power to reject you or to pass you through to the person with the positive power. So you want to make the earliest possible link with that positive power.
Your line with the personnel interviewer could be, after perhaps speaking about one or two skill-proving experiences, "Are you screening me for a job in another department?" And after you get your reply you might say, "Could you tell me who would be interviewing me in that department?" Try to be sure of the spelling of that person's name, and write it in your notebook. When you've done that, you'll have linked yourself with the final interviewer who has power to say "you're hired."
Now for the salary question. In the interviews we said that employers almost always have basic starting rates of pay, and also that they are nearly always willing to hire good persons above that basic rate. Another thing to know is this: Most jobs have a pay rate with 30% difference between the highest and lowest rate of pay. This means that a job with a starting rate of $3.25 an hour is likely to have a top rate of about $4.15 an hour. On a weekly basis of 40 hours the figures are $130.00 and $166.00. If you are able to present your motivated skills while other applicants do not, the employer knows more surely how valuable you are to him and how valuable you are likely to be. So he can afford to pay you more than ordinary beginners at least another ten percent, and perhaps even more than that.
If you don't ask for it, there's little reason for him to give it to you. As 4 suggests, you should feel comfortable about negotiating for it; or if you can't get it that way you should ask for an early review of your work, your worth, and what you are being paid. You really should be able to get a commitment of an early pay increase on the basis of good and dependable work.
If an employer turns you down, thank him. No good employer likes to turn down a good job applicant, so a turn down is painful to an employer and also shows he feels the job is wrong for you. This could mean that he knows of one that might be right for you. But you'll never get to know about it if you let yourself feel bad and slink away.
When you get turned down, try to tell the truth about your disappointment and then try to turn the situation around. If you can negotiate that turn-around you'll have a respecting friend in the employer and very likely a good lead to a better job. You could think along these lines, and say: "I guess you can see I'm disappointed that you don't want me, Mr. Jones. I suppose that's because you think the job isn't right for me or I'm not right for your organization. So I can't blame you for turning me down. But now that you've interviewed me, and gotten to know me, maybe you can think of some other place that could use my skills. I'd welcome any suggestion, and appreciate it."
We know that's tough to say when you've been hit by rejection. But if it makes sense to you, as we know it does, why not try practicing it? If you're in a Job Co-op, you'd be sure to get some help then. You could act out a scene with another Co-op member taking the part of an employer who's going to turn you down,, and then see what he says after you try out what we suggested. You could do that just with a friend, too, but the Co-op is a continuing operation that will give you opportunity to test out things like this.
The employer who turns you down when you made so much effort feels he has hurt you. And that feeling makes him willing to do something to compensate for the hurt. If you give him the opportunity, by letting him off the hook and asking him for a referral, he's likely to come through to salve his own conscience.
The First Offer
You don't have to accept the first offer that's made to you. And you don't have to turn down a lousy job offer. If that first offer comes almost immediately after you start your campaign, try to put it on ice for three or four days unless conditions are too rough for you. That amount of time will permit you to look into possibilities for other jobs, some of which may be better opportunities. The same timing problem can occur if you get a lousy job offer. Here's how to deal with it.
The employer who makes a lousy job offer is either trying to do you a favor (which he may not be able to afford) or he knows he's offering you a lousy job. Either way, he'll be willing for you to take a little time to decide about getting started. So you could consider saying something like this: "I know this is a starting job and that maybe it could lead to something better. I would like to think about what it could lead to and would like you to keep that job for me for just a few days. Is that okay?" Then ask for four or five working days to think about it and talk it over with some friends.
In the meantime, contact as many people as you can (including those you've seen before) using the R & R Interview system. Tell them you have been offered a job but you would prefer something that comes closer to one that would use your skills. And could they refer you to someone during the next couple of days who might hear of or know of a job that you might like.
Believe us, there's nothing so electrifying to a person as the idea of helping someone who already is a success has already been offered a job. Your contacts will, most of them, call their friends and write to them about you. They'll give you introductions. They'll do everything possible to help make bigger your success in finding a job. And there's a good possibility that they'll be successful within the four or five days so you'll be able to accept another new offer and tell the old one two things: first, you accepted a better job offer and second, that if he doesn't mind you'd like to see if you could recommend someone else for his job. What seems to be a lousy job to you might appear to be a good one to someone else. Then you could turn that first offer over to a friend, or to the Job Cooperative if you are a member of one.
There is another alternative on that "lousy" job offer. You could send your Job Power Report to about thirty organizations and ask if they have an opening for your skills.
A cover letter to go with your Report would read something like this:
Dear Sir:
I have carefully studied my experience and identified which skills are most likely to be successful and satisfying for me and my employer. The job which I've been offered fails to make use of them.
You will find them on the attached Job Power Report. Will you please read it and let me know who might want to use them.
I'll be waiting for your call. And thank you for considering me.
Yours truly,
C/John Jone s Tel. 123-4566
99 West First St. Jackson, Colo. 61434
A letter like this can be printed in the same way that you did your Job Power Report, so all you'd have to do is sign it and put it into an envelope addressed to the heads of organizations in your city or community. You can get the names of these executives through your local Chamber of Commerce, the nearest Business and Professional Women's Association, with the aid of someone in Service Clubs like Rotary, or, particularly, with the help of your local librarian who probably has a listing of these executives. Pick out about thirty, hand address the envelopes and be sure to put the right amount of postage on them. Because this will enable you to be thirty places at once, in the next day or two, no later than the third day, you should be getting telephone calls. Jobs won't be offered over the telephone, but you're likely to get some job interviews which could lead to offers.
You can follow a very similar procedure to deal with a job offer that comes right at the start of your campaign. If you can get the employer to hold that job for you while you talk about it with some friends and advisors, perhaps you'll have time enough to test out the possibility of getting additional offers with some of your other contacts just as was suggested in regard to the lousy job offer.
Either way, one thing is certain you don't have to stay in a job if it is a dead end. The strategies given in this book enable you to make contacts, create contacts, even get potential employers to telephone you. Because good employees are not easy to find, employers usually are willing to window-shop your skills after work and during weekends and lunch periods. In addition, it is possible that a job you feel is a dead-end could turn out to have good possibilities. For instance, one young man of 17, who was unemployed and sick of dead-end cafeteria porter and dishwashing jobs, studied his achievements and found out that his skills belonged in the restaurant field—but he had potential for being a manager. Here's the first paragraph of the Job
Power Report he wrote:
Potential Restaurant or Cafeteria Manager, willing to start at the bottom as dishwasher or porter and learn every operation. I can prove I am very observant, have some experience working with foods, service and cafeteria cleanliness, have lots of physical endurance, get along well with all kinds of people, have a good memory and work O.K. with figures and records.
The first afternoon he got his Report copies he tested it out with four restaurants in areas where he didn't want to work; he got four job offers. That happened after he had been unemployed for two months. Then he went to his own area and four days later accepted employment with a cafeteria chain.
Every beginner in a job should have assurance of a first pay increase. But it should be dependent on doing a good job, not just sticking around without being a nuisance. You can get that assurance during your first few days on the job.
Here's what to do, and why it is reasonable.
As soon as you find out who your real boss is, the person who can recommend you for a pay raise that you'll get, find an opportunity to speak to him alone for a couple of minutes. Say something like this to him: "I want to do a good job here, Mr. Smith, and I'd like a little help from you. Will you keep an eye on me to make sure I'm learning, and when I make mistakes tell me about them in time to correct them before it's too late? I'd really appreciate that, Mr. Smith." He's sure to agree if he has any time at all for you, and he should have. Then you say, "After a month or two, when you see I'm doing o.k., will you give me a raise?" While Mr. Smith may balk a little about the time factor, he's almost sure to agree with the general idea that when you have proved you're doing good work you should get a raise.
After you get started you should thank your new employer, in writing, for the job. You could write something like this:
Dear Mr. Brown:
Thank you for the job I started three days ago. I have a lot to learn, and I shall be following instructions and doing the best I can. I appreciate the pay of $130.00 weekly, and especially the idea that when I prove I am capable for a month or two I'll be considered for a raise. I want to get ahead and show you can depend on me.
Yours truly,
You should also thank all the contacts you made, because that will get them in a mood to help you in the future if you need their help. So write them a letter along these lines: "Your helpfulness has now resulted in my getting a job with the (name and organization), where I started (give date). I do want you to know that I appreciate your advice and the contacts you gave me. Yours truly ………… " And that's the end of a good job finding campaign.
Summary
The way to win your job campaign is to get interviews without turndowns, keep records and a schedule of what you are doing and what you have agreed to do, survive the blues when you feel that progress isn't fast enough. When you get interviewed for a job listen carefully, negotiate on salary and when you are to start working, decide whether or not to accept a job offer, and set a date for your first pay increase.
