Milton Friedman
His office was bustling when I got there. In August yet a vacation time when job placement almost stops, a very good sign. I understood why when I met him. The man was a pro - about 50, easy to talk to, knowledgeable and very sharp. The job was perfect, too. And best of all, he was on retainer to fill it, not a competitive assignment. If he recommended me, it was almost certainly mine. And we were getting along very well indeed.
For two hours now, we'd been talking about the company, the job and my background. He was obviously comfortable with me. We were into small talk now.
"So Greg, what've you been doing to make ends meet while you're looking?" he asked.
"Oh, a little consulting for small, local companies," I answered truth fully, "helping them write business plans to get working capital or expansion loans from the banks."
"Really? Say, would you have time to take on a small pet project of mine? I could use that kind of help. We'd pay you, of course."
He was on the board of a non-profit group providing free job services to minority professionals, he told me, and needed a strategic plan to get corporate funding. "If you're interested, write up some ideas about how you'd do it and how long it would take. Then give me a call and we can discuss an appropriate fee."
It seemed like a perfect opportunity to make some extra money and at the same time get on the good side of a man who could help my career. Over the next few days, I read all the material he gave me and wrote a step-by-step outline of how a strategic plan should be prepared - not the plan itself, but exactly what I'd do to create one. It came to ten type written pages.
I sent it to him with a cover letter and called Monday morning to talk about the plan, my fee and an interview date for the CFO Job. He was in a meeting. That day, the next and the next, all week, every time I called- "In a meeting."
He never got me an interview for the CFO Job. He never hired me to finish the strategic plan. And he certainly never paid me for the work I'd done.
He got a free guide on how to write a strategic plan and, I suspect, wrote it himself and charged the organization a hefty fee. I'm not even sure the CFO Job really existed.
There are companies that conduct interviews to get free consulting.
