Aggressive Job Networking 1 of 4 - How to Contact People You Don’t Know

Developing a list of organizations and job positions to target should be the main task of your job network activity with family, friend and colleagues. Getting help from the people that know you best is not only practical but it gives them a way to help you, even when you are not entirely certain about where you want to work next.

It really helps if your old network can help you identify career plan related target organizations and introduce you to someone who works in the target organization. But often, all they can do is suggest organizations where you might look.

Here are some rules to help in making telephone contact with people that you learn about by doing your research on-line. All you know about them is information that they posted on Linkedin or that you learned about using Google search:

1. Let them know the reason for your call: “I am researching your company…”
2. Be respectful of the organization: “I admire the company and the work they do…”
3. Keep the first call short; no more than 10 minutes: “Can you talk right now or can I call you back. I need just 10 minutes.” If they are busy find out when you can call back.
4. Ask for help in understanding what it is like to work at the organization. It is an easy question and personal. Most people will respond to a request for help.
5. Ask the person how they got their job. What was the hiring process like and do they like working for the company.
6. Now it is time to ask about the company. Take your questions about the company that you developed in your research. Is the company growing? And what areas seem to be providing the most growth?
7. Ask about other companies on your target list, since you should have organized your target companies into small groups. If the person knows someone at another one of your target organizations. If so, ask for the name, phone and email; also ask if you can mention that you were referred by this person.
8. When you have completed your 10 minutes (do not go over), ask if you can stay in touch from time to time as your research continues. If they say yes, send them a Linkedin invitation to join your network.
9. Put in a note in your calendar to call back in 3 weeks. Make sure that you share the information learned in your research when you call back. This makes the relationship mutually beneficial.

Avoid job interviews when doing research

One of the things to stay away from on the first call is a job interview or asking about job openings. This puts the other person on the spot and gets in the way of developing some rapport. As a rule you want to postpone any job interviews until after you get to know the person and the organization. The first call is too soon. Schedule job interviews for later when you have time to research the position and determine if it is appropriate for you. If you interview for a job too soon, it typically ends the conversation and eliminates any hope of developing a relationship with the person. The whole goal of developing a job network contact is to gain a relationship with a person that is willing to help you with your job search. Once they know you and what you are looking for, they can look far into their whole network. If you can get 10 people who agree to help you on your job search that work within your target industries, you have successfully expanded your network.

The next part of this blog will concentrate on Finding Targets Through Family and Friends

This article is part 1 (How to Contact People You Don’t Know) of a 4 part blog titled: Aggressive Job Network Tactics With Target Organizations

Categories: Networking, Job Search Help, Job Search Coaching