Company-Announced Job Campaign
Following up current or upcoming job openings that are announced by firms represents an important campaign for generating many immediate job interviews. A job campaign must clearly describe the logical step-by-step procedure you should use in waging this campaign.
While you may hear of a few openings over the radio or on television, most direct-to-applicant advertising appears in the written media. These include external publications and internal company publications and bulletins to employees.
Although companies often retain professional job-search firms or contact employment agencies to find qualified personnel, this campaign deals exclusively with your efforts to locate and follow up direct-to-applicant announcements.
Classified sections and business and financial sections of newspapers, as well as professional and trade journals and magazines, are popular external sources of immediate job openings. If you are a member of a professional or trade organization, job announcements in your trade or professional journals should be of direct interest to you. If you are interested in remaining in your present geographic location, then a regular search for appropriate job ads in your local newspapers could be emphasized. If you are interested in relocating to another city, check with college or public libraries which generally maintain up-to-date subscriptions to many large-city newspapers. You may also consider subscribing via mail to a particular out-of-town newspaper. As soon as you spot an interesting job announcement, respond to it by sending your written packet-application letter and resume to the firm, expressing your desire to move to that location in the near future. If you consider the job of greater importance than its location and are willing to go where the work is, you should regularly read and even subscribe to some of the big-city newspapers that are known for their national and regional coverage of job opportunities. Two such newspapers are the Sunday New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Desire and freedom to accept good job opportunities wherever they may exist are outstanding applicant traits for two important reasons: they help increase your job market enormously, and such mobility indicates to employers that your job skills could be used in the company where they are needed.
If you currently work for a large organization, your firm's in-house employee publications can provide job notices for advancement within the firm. Definitely take advantage of these announcements if you see a possible future in your present company. In many large corporations and government organizations, hiring preference is for employees who want to improve themselves. Obviously, proven loyalty and dedication matched with proven job performance are qualities that smart managements want to retain and promote. Therefore, if you work for a large company and have the skills, knowledge, and desire for growth within your firm, follow up in-house job leads. They could prove to be invaluable to you in your job search.
Walk-In Sales Campaign
In searching for a job, you are the seller and must actively seek to generate good job leads on prospective buyers of your personal services. The company-announced job campaign is rather straightforward to conduct, for your leads are already compiled in publications and merely await your discovery. While you follow up published leads, you could also be creating your own job leads as well. The walk-in sales campaign is a creative, nontraditional approach for locating prospective buyers. To successfully conduct this campaign, you must be prepared in the following ways: first, have a clear idea of your job goal and job qualifications; second, find out the name of the person in charge of the area in which you would like to work (this person should be the one to make the ultimate hiring decision); and third, carry several copies of your resume with you.
If possible, plan to conduct this campaign in a few consecutive days that could be set aside. The best setting is a business center where there are many company offices, such as New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, and Atlanta. Whether at home or in some distant city, plan to do quite a bit of walking, for that is a basic requirement of this campaign. If you have done prior research on the executives in your field, you can move along more quickly. Of course, it is a simple matter to pick up the phone, dial the firm you want to visit, and obtain the name and office number of the person you want to meet.
If you are near an office building with many different company offices, simply walk in and get the name of the appropriate executive from the billboard in the lobby. If, for example, you want a sales representative position with a particular firm, find the name and office number of the manager of sales or marketing; then go directly to that office.
When you arrive at the outside of an office, you may find a secretary-receptionist guarding the front door. Don't let the secretary block your access to the sales manager. Rather, by being self-confident and businesslike, and by using the boss's name, try to enlist the secretary's cooperation in getting you an interview.
The secretary may ask you, ''Is Ms. Jones expecting you?" Respond, ''This is an important (personal or private) matter which I can discuss only with Ms. Jones." Try to avoid answering her question with a direct "No," for then she may tell you, "Tm sorry, but Ms. Jones only sets interviews by appointment." She may ask you to state your business. Once again, try to avoid the direct response, "To get a job." This response may get you immediately referred to the personnel department with a comment, "Ms. Jones does not discuss jobs with candidates. All personnel matters are handled in personnel, room 4503 on the 45th floor." In general, use as much tact, courtesy, imagination, and aggressiveness as possible to get past the secretary. If you can then impress her boss with your qualifications in a live walk-in interview, this will surely give you an advantage, for the boss may inform personnel that you look like a good candidate.
While many executives of large corporations do not want to be bothered with interviewing "off-the-street" job applicants, there are many who are quite impressed with people who take the initiative to walk in and express interest in firms without the help of prior job announcements. If you can't convince a secretary to give you access to the boss, you may want to try the direct approach. Tell her who you are, that you are in the area for only a few days, that you have been planning to work for this company in a particular capacity, and that it is very important that you see the boss while you're still in town. Try to gain her sympathy and understanding, for the secretary can be of great help in arranging that interview. You, of course, enhance your chances of making a good impression with the secretary and getting through to the boss if you look professional. Personal neatness and professional appearance are a definite plus when waging this campaign.
Be realistic when conducting the walk-in sales campaign and anticipate a high turndown rate. Since you are not following up an announced job lead, there may not be any current or upcoming job openings. But then, there is a possibility that a vacancy may very well exist or even be created for you if you are sufficiently impressive and present your ideas persuasively.
Be certain to use an important sales technique when conducting the walk-in sales campaign. For every job turndown you receive, generate at least one new job lead. Before leaving your meeting with the executive, simply ask for the names, numbers, and addresses of other executives who may be hiring now or who may soon be interested in someone with your credentials. Even though an immediate job is generally not secured, the walk-in sales campaign is successful when every turndown provides new job leads. This ''snowball," or ''domino," effect should work for you as you continue to acquire names of executives. Follow up these new leads and use the names of the individuals referring you; the use of a reference's name and position makes it easier to get an interview. If you're lucky, you may be able to find a friendly executive who is willing to personally call other executives and introduce you in that manner.
The walk-in sales campaign, if handled with courage and determination, may help you land a superior job and will almost certainly provide you with an experience to remember. It should not be launched alone but should support other serious efforts within your master plan.
The walk-in sales campaign allows you to get an interview directly, without having to seek one with your written packet and risk the chance of being screened out on the basis of your written presentation alone. You must have your resume in hand, however, so that the interviewer can quickly glance over your qualifications. The well-prepared job resume is particularly important in this "off-the-street" interview in which the executive wants to see what you can offer in a few seconds.
