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Approaching an Employer for a Position You Have Applied For

Addressing an employer is an essential part of the non-traditional marketing campaign.  If your efforts to get into the organization are being headed off by a gatekeeper (e.g. HR Department, Secretary, etc…) then your LAST resort is to go directly to the decision maker in a non-threatening manner.

The typical communication should follow the following timeline:

Day 1 - Send application and/or resume with a personalized piece of work that you have developed for the company.

Day 7 – Follow-up with the HR Department or hiring person (if provided or allowed) to ensure successful receipt of your materials.  Ask when a call back or decision will be made.

Day After Call Back Date:  If you receive no response by this day call the HR Department back and inquire.  If the position has been filled or they are still accepting applications inquire about an additional time frame.

If Position Filled:  If the position has supposedly been filled there is no harm in contacting the Manager/Decision Maker for an “Informational Interview.”

If Additional Time is Needed:  This is a difficult spot – If you are very qualified then it may behoove you to contact the Manager as indicated above.

However

You may also wait for the additional time to pass before doing this.  Many organizations want to see that prospective employees will respect organizational constraints and not go outside the line of command.

How to Get Around This

Contact the Manager/Decision Maker for a 10-15 minute “Informational Interview.”  DO NOT indicate that you are an applicant for the position available, this is all about them!  Probe into how they got their job, the requirements, happiness with decision, etc … 

At the end of the interview provide them with one of your “Personal Employment Cards” or a “Resume” (although this maybe too formal) and indicate to them that you are extremely interested in this type of work.  Reinforce the items they indicated that you need to be in their position with experiences from your past.

Remember – Show, don’t tell! (This is where a personal inventory assessment is pivotal!!)

If they believe that you have the qualifications for a position, let them bring it up!  If they say, “We have a position for XYZ open right now; you should send an application over to our HR Department.”  Thank them for that advice and for their time.

Now you’re in! – What to do now?  You have already submitted the application, but now have pivotal information as to what the organization is looking for.  Can you change your submission?

 We will look at that issue and how to follow up with the Manager in our next post!

Show Me!

When applying to a career or educational opportunity take every advantage to "show" the prospective school or employer why you're an excellent candidate.  For example a part of our "Attack PLans!tm" is a personal inventory and assessment.  Within that we have a number of tools to help clients critically analyze their background and skills, but one of the most important is the "show-me" section.

A good example is whn a client says they are organized in the skill set inventory.  Our next quetion is . . . how do you know?  Show-me!  This requires the client to think about their past experience and indicate something like: "Over the past 10 years of professional development I have been the primary fundraiser for XYK Corportation.  Included in that is an essential requirement to be able to be organized myslef, but also to organize others, events, deadlines, and goals.  It is not just a process of doing things the correct way, but an extensive personal intuition I have developed to know when something is not working correctly.  Let's look at . . . . "

This is the exact thing you need to do in your written pices and face to face!  Be creative, designers have long brought portfiolios to interviews, but even before that send a piece with a resume!  ut not just any piece! 

For example if you are applying to a marketing design position.  Take the time to redo their logo, or a mock-up web page, or facebook page.  Always ensure that you watermark it with your information and copyright on it because it is your intellectual property in the design of their materials.

You would be supprised how many call backs you will get and how impressed managers will be that you took the extra step and can see yourself already in the organization working!  If the letter/resume never makes it past the gatekeeper - go up on the ladder!  We all want to respect top managements time, but if you have a great idea and it is not being convayed after many tries then finout who your boos would be and contact them directly with your piece and a letter explaining why you came to them and why it was important that they recieve this information.

This is a tricky avenue to manuover to ensure you are not stepping on toes or completely blow your chances at that organization.  Thus in our next post we will go over the non-tradition approach letter!

Google to offer travel services ...

Travel experience? Former Travel Agent? Customer Care Rep with an IT background?

Google or their competitors may be looking for you!

Google has begun to establish a flight search travel portion to their host of business ventures.  Other travel companies are not pleased and have been pushed down the search engine list while relying on google searches for a large amount of their “hits” or business.

This is an excellent chance for someone to market to the other companies for a top position using a position development non-traditional letter.  Additional creative ways will need to be developed to keep their companies afloat if they are going to try to compete with google.

Google may also need you!  If you have the right background they are sure to consider the development and implementation of a full scale travel program if this goes well! 

Opportunities are always around . . .

 

Employment Success Story!

Today we were privileged to here of a great motivating success story that we wanted to share with everyone to show there are still jobs out there for young people.  Recently a young person was one of over 150 applicants to a scientific managerial position.  Through their ability to convey their interest, abilities, and satisfaction of education requirements they were able to compete with applicants with twice the experience and win the employment offer. 

Success is about the ability to be in the right place at the right time; with the right tools to ensure you have the best opportunity possible.