Follow up the leads you have created through the research you have done. Don't excuse delay with the plea that you don't want to receive several calls at once. Don't kid yourself into inaction by saying it's best to avoid interviews with the least desirable employers on your list until you've heard from your prime prospects. If that should happen, by the way, consider yourself very fortunate.
When to Call? If you want to reach the individual directly, call when he or she is most likely to answer the phone—when secretaries and receptionists are least likely to be around. Call 15 minutes before the start of business hours or 15 minutes after the close of the organization's day. If those times don't fit your schedule, call just before lunch- time. You are likely to find your prospective employer just returning from a meeting and preparing to go to lunch. You might also try calling right after the lunch hour. Your prospect may have just a few minutes to spare before heading for another meeting.
Any of the above choices give you the advantage of being able to keep the call brief. That will enable you to avoid being interviewed by phone and thereby lose your opportunity for a face-to-face meeting.
Worst Times – Several candidates have told me that the worst times to try to reach a prospective employer are between 10:00 and 11:00 in the morning and between 2:00 and 3:30 in the afternoon. "If it's not meetings, it's something else" was a complaint they shared.
SCHEDULING INTERVIEWS
If you have a miraculous stroke of good luck and several prospects call you for interviews, schedule them at your convenience. If the lower- priority prospects call, at least they are contacting you because they are on your list. If you happen to have interviews with them before the prime prospects come in, you'll still have plenty of time. Most interviews take a week or more to set up, and you rarely get feedback for another week or so—if you hear at all. It isn't as though you have to give an answer overnight.
Should a prospect press for a quick answer, however, you should stall: It is prudent to wonder why the urgency. In fact, you might find a courteous way to ask that very question.
If you do interview with your least desirable prospects and get no offers, consider yourself fortunate in another way: You've gained actual interview practice before your prime prospects invite you to talk with them.
Again, if you're going to do things right, send out all your letters at once. Be done with it. Get your main marketing tool out there and working for you, so you can get hired.
