The decision is easy:  They meet with the candidates who don’t give up. 

One of the great things about job-searching in ’10 is the Internet.  No longer do candidates have to leave telephone messages pleading for meetings.  Gone are the carefully typed letters, printed on elegant-yet-professional stationary and mailed with a not-too-garish stamp.  We have the great fortune of being able craft an email, hit send, and wait for a response.  That probably won’t come. 

But then we can craft another email, hit send, and wait for a response.  That probably won’t come.

And then …  we can send another email, and wait for a response.  That probably won’t come.

Most candidates give up after the first or second email.  It’s reasonable, isn’t it?  After all, if they wanted to see you, they’d respond, wouldn’t they?  Well, the flaw in that argument is that that don’t want to see you.  They’re busy, on deadline, and concerned about their own business.  Answering your email goes to the extreme bottom of the to-do list, with the unconscious thought “are you kidding?  I don’t have time for this!”  But why not keep going? What do you have to lose? Here’s what your third, fourth or fifth email might say: 

Dear Mr. Polenta,

I know how busy you are, and I’m sorry to be so persistent.  But I’m still so hopeful you might make time to meet with me. I’ve been reading about your company’s growth and would welcome the opportunity to learn more about what you see for the future of our industry.

To refresh your memory, I’ve been (insert  two or three lines of your background here).  I know it’s unlikely that you have a position open at my level but any advice you might give me would be valued.  Might you be open to a short meeting?

Thank you so much, in advance, for your time.

Sincerely,

Gillian Gabriel

At the point, the guilt of knowing that meeting you would be a good deed overtakes their busy-ness, and they finally hit “Reply.”  Success!

So how many times should you reach out?  That’s easy.  Keep going until someone tells you to stop.  Why wouldn't you?  As long as your emails are kind, optimistic, and understanding, they’ll be well-received.  I promise no one will point and laugh.  The email may still go to the bottom of the pile without any action, but something has registered and when that next email comes, it’ll register again.  It’s your job to keep them registering until a reply comes your way.  And then … go in prepared!



 “I was hoping to hit $60M --  I’m just a bit under that right now.* But I’m sure whatever you think is reasonable will be just fine.”

 *(Note:  don’t be specific with your current salary.  Either you’re worth your new salary or you’re not, but your current salary doesn’t necessarily determine that)

 Then (and here’s the trick), stop talking about it.  Don’t explain, don’t defend your needs.  Change the subject, ask another question, get your interviewer talking about something else.  If your number is reasonable, they’ll hit it.  If you’ve overshot and they like you anyway, they’ll make an offer they can afford and let you decide if you can live with it (the “whatever you think is reasonable” phrase lets them do that without feeling as though they’re insulting you.).  If they didn’t like you, it doesn’t matter what you say– you won’t get the job anyway, even if you underbid yourself.

 “Whatever you think is reasonable” also sets you up as flexible, foreshadowing the great employee you’re going to be.  And in my experience, companies will work extremely hard to meet your goal – everyone wants a new employee to be thrilled with everything about their new job, including their salary.  If they can afford to hit it, they will.

 But what happens if you ask for $60M and they offer you $40M?   I can only think of three scenarios in which someone would do this: 

1: the job simply isn’t at the level it needs to be for you

2: the company is in financial distress

3: someone there lacks integrity and is simply trying to get something for (almost) nothing.

 Any of these scenarios suggest this might be the wrong place to work, don’t you think?  So the answer’s easy:   Say thank you, but no.  Say you’d love to be able to accept, but it seems the job isn’t quite at the level you were hoping, after all.  Say if anything changes you’d love to be reconsidered, but you just can’t quite make ends meet on such a big drop.  Thank them profusely, write a lovely note, and then move on.  This one’s not right.  The next one will be.

We both sat back and laughed, suddenly aware that he came across with a weird combination of petulant and defiant. 

It got me thinking about the language people use in interviews.  Have you ever been in a meeting that was going along just fine and then felt like you lost your connection?  Think about what you actually said just before that happened.  Could your choice of words been the culprit?

I was once having lunch with a creative director candidate, interviewing him for a big, leadership position he really wanted.  Things were going along pretty well; I knew he was talented and he came across smart and confident.  Then I asked him to talk about his management style and he launched into his philosophy:  “I’m actually pretty firm with people,” he said.  “I think everyone needs to know at all times just where they stand.  I’m here to help.  But if they’re not performing, they need to know I’m watching them and if they don’t improve, they’re out.”

I blurted “Well, that sounds just awful.”  I couldn’t help myself – was he kidding??   It doesn’t matter that he was right (people SHOULD know where they stand.  And if they’re not performing, they SHOULD leave the company).  It was his tone.  In his effort to sound strong and in control, he came across like a bully.  How would things have felt if he said this instead: 

“I really believe in giving feedback.  If one of my team members is struggling I want them to know they can come to me and I’ll help them as much as I can.  But if someone’s obviously in over their head, I hate to say it but I think it’s best if I can help them find their way towards something else where they can be more successful.”

Same thought, much better tone.  Who wouldn’t like this guy?

Over the years, we’ve been trained to build arguments, push back, defend, defend, defend.  But don’t you think the world has changed?  Who wants to spend their days locked in argument?  Wouldn’t it be better to take a client by the hand and lead them towards your thinking gently?  Collaboratively?  If you were hiring someone, wouldn’t you want to know they’ll be reasonable and thoughtful with clients and co-workers? 

Ted and I worked out a mantra for his interview the next day.  His job was to keep repeating to himself “flexible, collaborative, eager to help.”  His words and tone through the interview reflected those images and sure enough, the interview, which was supposed to be informational only, ended with an offer for a contract role to try things out. 

You have great strength and confidence (I know you do!)  Combative language, during an interview or, frankly, any other time, can only get in your way.

I’ve been working with Joanna for the few months.  She’s a strong candidate with great, brand-name companies on her resume.  She’s sophisticated, confident, and extremely senior.  She’s also unhappily out of work and getting a touch nervous about her options; there are very few positions open at her level even in great economic times.  But something opened up and very quickly, Joanna became one of two finalists for a leaderly position in a large, well-established company with a slightly less pedigreed name than those in her background.  And that’s when things began to slip.

I told Joanna it was down to two.  I let her know what the company liked about her and what about her made them just a touch nervous.  I encouraged her to be ready for certain questions and have case-studies at hand to address some of the obstacles I expected her to face in her last rounds of interviewing.  Joanna was ready.  But she decided to overlay one more element into the mix – she wanted the company to know just how lucky they’d be to get her.  And she did this by playing hard-to-get. 

First, when we tried to book her in for her last rounds of interviews, she suddenly wasn’t available, openly noting she was interviewing elsewhere.  But when she learned their next meeting opportunity was far in the future, suddenly she made things work – it seemed those “interviews” were really coffee dates with old colleagues and could easily be rescheduled. 

Then, she called the owner of the company directly to let him know she might be heading into final rounds at another company so  her candidacy with them might be short-lived (the not-so-subtle message:  “Act Now Or Else!!).  His response was not what she was looking for:  “Oh … I’m so sorry our timing won’t work out.  We need to finish our process so just let us know if you land somewhere else.”

And a week later, she wrote to the hiring manager, offering to pull herself out of the running for other jobs if they would offer this job to her immediately.  They would avoid a bidding war, she reasoned.

In my experience, none of these strategies ever work. The first is obvious game-playing, the second is a threat and the third shows desperation.  Games, threats, desperation.  Who wants that in a new hire?

My client hired the other guy.  His calm, even demeanor showed up even better in light of Joanna’s activities.  And so will yours.  Be available, be honest, and be patient.  Be yourself.  Don’t play games and that job will come to you.

 When we met, Ron was full of energy.  “I’m an ad guy,” he said.  “I need a job where I can do old-fashioned TV and I’ll be fine.”

 Well, Ron, I hate to break it to you, but I’m not sure where those jobs are anymore.  It’s hard to imagine an agency with the luxury of hiring writers to focus on television when television as a major advertising medium is dropping like a stone in our town.  Production companies have shut down, edit facilities have had layoffs, agencies have shifted their staffs out of broadcast and into other creative tactics.  Ron was out of touch.

 Ron was also easy to talk to and my NY roots came out:  “That’s never going to happen, my friend.  The world has changed.  You’re not going to get that job.”  Ron sat back.  In a few minutes we talked it through and he had his marching orders:  pull together a portfolio that showcases everything but television.  Show that you can write copy (long and short) through collateral pieces, direct mail, any internet sites you’ve been part of.  Show that nothing is beneath you and every creative assignment is an opportunity to do something great. 

 If you want a job, you have to become a great candidate for the jobs that are open, not hold on to the hope that the job you’re best at is simply going to return.  Maybe it will, maybe it won’t.  But you have lots of interests and more skills than you’ve been using – shouldn’t you tap into them?  Let your career adapt to the environment.  You never know where it’ll take you.

 (Status update:  Ron redid his portfolio, presented himself has a unique resource for highly creative collateral, and landed a creative director position at a small agency after a remarkably short search.  Success!)

One of my candidates, “Maya” just eagerly accepted a job offer.  She’d been looking for a new position for over a year and finally, the right job opened up.  My client called the second Maya left the interview, letting me know he thought she was perfect.  And Maya echoed the sentiment; “that’s my job,” she announced.  Salary negotiations went fast – everyone wanted this to happen.  My client made a fair offer and Maya accepted the next day and committed to a start date three weeks out.

Maya went in to resign.  She had never done it before, and I coached her through the process (be specific, be gracious, stay on script, offer a reasonable lame duck period, thank everyone profusely, and leave.  Click here for more).  She was ready.

Until her boss started begging her to stay.  They need her, the clients need her, the company will never be the same without her.  Maya stayed on script and stayed firm.  Then her boss asked her to stay just through the end of the year. “If they really want you, they’ll wait,” he said.  “That’s reasonable, isn’t it?”  And for some reason, Maya thought it was.  She called me, explained that she felt responsible and wanted to help her boss out.  She’d start in two months.

Hmmm.  Maybe this was my fault.  Maybe things moved too quickly and Maya felt too confident.  When I reminded her the new company had work that needed to be done right away, she countered with “I’d feel too awful abandoning my client in the middle of this project.”  I went through the obvious:  her first commitment to her new company was her start date and she was reneging on it – how does that make her look?   The new company would find someone else to manage the work in the interim, discovering they wouldn’t need her after all.  And why did she start a job search if she wasn’t ready to make a change?  Maya was firm.  “Just ask them,” she said, “what could it hurt?” 

So I asked.   And my client responded as expected:  “Oh well.  Just let her know to apply again when she’s ready, and we’ll see if we’ve got a job available.”  When I conveyed this to Maya, she bounced back to earth.  She backed up, apologized, gave her three weeks notice and started as originally promised. 

The lesson?  Of course you feel responsible for the work you’re doing right now – that sense of responsibility is one of the reasons you’re such a great candidate now.  But you have to look forward, not back.  When that new job finally materializes, focus your attention on leaving gracefully and quickly, and start your new role not with an apology, but with energy and enthusiasm.  Leave the past behind you.

Well, the impossible seems to have happened.  I never thought it would come to this, but here we are:

I've run out of things to say.

Those of you who know me well are sitting back, aghast, in your chairs right now.  How can this be?  Gillian?  Silent?

I haven’t updated for two weeks and I realize it’s because I’ve covered the topics I planned to when this blog started late last April.  Here’s what we’ve talked about so far:

Surviving The Layoff

Taking Some Time

Figuring Out What’s Next

Assessing the Job Market

Research Before Interviewing (still a sore topic – please, do more of this!)

Networking for Informational Interviews

Resume Writing

Cover Letters

Interview Protocol  (you all liked these posts)

Thank You Notes

Dealing With The Money Question

Negotiating

Accepting A Job

Resigning

Your feedback has been wonderful and I’ve so appreciated so many of you continue to let me know that you’ve been helped by this information.  But now I’m at a crossroads.  Should I continue this blog?  Is there anything left to talk about?  The traffic on the site is still high but maybe we should try some user-generated content – are there topics you’d like me to cover or do you think we’ve reached the end? 

A technical fluke of this site doesn’t allow for anonymity when people comment on a posting, so most of the comments I’ve received over the past six months have been to my email address (gilliang@aol.com).   Send me a note and we’ll take a vote.  All in favor of continuing?   Any ideas for topics?

 Love,

Gillian

I neglected to mention, though, that Annie was openly unhappy in her job and just the week before had called asking me to keep an eye open for her next opportunity.  I knew her criteria:  she wanted better life-balance, a leadership role, and enough of a marketing budget to be influential in the market.   But senior jobs are few and far between, and now she’s overlaying “cool” into the mix.

This happens at all levels.  Our town does quite a bit of agricultural marketing communications work, and quite often over the past few years, I’ve gotten calls from agencies looking for people with 3-5 years of experience to work on ag business.  When I call candidates in town, they’re eager to talk, thrilled when they learn the name of the agency, and quick to back away when they hear they’ll be assigned to an account without cache.  On one level, I can understand this.  Who wants to spend the next 18 months working on crop yield issues? 

On the other hand, though, this line of thinking gets me crazy.  How many criteria are we going to load up before a job becomes perfect?  I think it’s reasonable to look for a great environment, strong, interesting co-workers, and the opportunity to grow and learn and practice your craft at a high level.  But every time we start adding other factors, particularly “cool,” the list of options gets tinier and tinier and soon we’re shutting ourselves out of the game. 

If you’re a true marketer, the issues you have to address for success in your field are exactly the same whether you’re selling upscale cars or industrial cleaners – you still have to figure out how to connect with target audience and make a compelling reason for them to buy.  Shouldn’t that intellectual and creative process still be interesting to you no matter what the product?   I’m not talking about candidates who have turned down opportunities to work on business they find morally objectionable; I completely understand that.  But please, keep your eyes open for jobs at good companies doing honorable work with good people.  What more could we ask for?

Status update:  It’s a year later and I’ve just heard from Annie.  Her environment has now gotten untenable and she ruefully admits she’d do anything to have an opportunity at that “downscale” company she snobbishly dismissed last year.  She’s terrific, so of course I’ll do my best to help.  But lesson learned!

 I’m sensing exhaustion. 

On Sunday I was biking the 37-mile loop in an event sponsored by the Minneapolis Parks and at Mile 30 I was going so slowly (I’m a terrible biker) that I was able to eavesdrop on two young women riding in front of me.  “I know I’m supposed to be cheerful and upbeat in interviews,” one said, “but after a year of rejection, what do they expect from me?” 

The next day, I got a phone call from a former colleague trying to reenter the business world after a substantial break.  I remember her as a naturally ebullient, optimistic person, but half way through our conversation I interrupted her to ask if she was tired.  She sounded so worn down I couldn’t imagine her having the energy to demonstrate her capabilities in an interview.

 What’s going on?

 It seems that with the beginning of Fall, people are starting to lose steam.  It’s easier to be unemployed during the summer … there’s lots to do at home, people are on vacation, and there were so few jobs out there anyway that it hardly made sense to job-hunt.  But now the economy is starting to improve, kids have gone back to school, and suddenly it seems that everyone else is working.  And you’re still home.

 It’s time to get back on the horse and kick it back into gear (sorry for the mixed metaphors.)  Get on the phone.  Reconnect with your network. Send emails to people you may have contacted when you were first laid off and invite them out for coffee.  I received one “Janice” on Monday which was perfect:

 Hello Gillian,

We’ve exchanged a couple emails over the last couple years, but have not actually met.  Stephanie Poodle encouraged me to set up a meeting with you; she says you’ve been a huge asset to her. I would truly appreciate your insight on finding the right job. Can I buy you lunch, or coffee? You name the time and the place, and I’ll be there!

Thank you, I look forward to hearing from you.

Janice Schnauzer

 Why was this email so great?  In just a few sentences, Janice reminded me of our connection, flattered me (hard not to respond to that!), and showed energy, enthusiasm and flexibility.  We met for coffee today, and she took me through her job history and search activities.  Although she’s been working hard at unearthing opportunities for months, her whole demeanor showed that she’s up for the challenge and excited about rejoining a team.  I don’t currently have an opening that’s right for her, but we were able to brainstorm a few ideas which she can pursue.  It’s so much easier to help people who can demonstrate they’re going to be terrific employees when they land.

Get back out there … it’s time!

 Now what?  Just how are you supposed to keep in touch?  Are you supposed to Friend him on Facebook?  Call him for coffee in a week?  What’s the right thing to do?

 My candidate, “Jake” interviewed for a technology position at a large company here in town.  They liked him, but his particular expertise didn’t quite fit the job that was open.  The told him they were heading into his arena but it would take a bit of time before they got there.  “Stay in touch,” they said.  “When we start thinking about expanding into your area, I know we’ll want to talk again.” 

Stalking Isn't The Answer

A week later I got a phone call from my client asking me to please keep Jake away from them.  Apparently, he left a message for every single person on his interview team, asking for a coffee date to talk about upgrading their technology.  When he didn’t hear back within two days, he left more messages.  And at the end of the week he left more.   I had to call Jake, let him know he was scaring them (was there a psychosis I missed when I interviewed him?) and had him back off.

 I’m sure right now you’re saying something like “well, of course … that guy sounds like a nut,” but while Jake’s scenario is obvious, candidates often make subtle missteps while trying to keep in touch.  Consider my client’s experience with “Evelyn:”

An Avalanche Of Contact

Evelyn was looking for a senior creative role in an advertising agency at a time where jobs were unbelievably scarce.  She’s polished and gracious, and easily scored informational interviews where she showed her portfolio to great fanfare.  But nothing materialized, and Evelyn made it a point to follow up with charming cards, letters, tweets and LinkedIn messages every couple of weeks.  She sent articles, ideas, connections, and web links (“I hear you’re doing new work for your kidswear client.  My good friend is a great photographer!  Check out his work at messykids.com.)  Time passed. When the company actually had a job open, Evelyn was old news – she had become the candidate that was still out there, advertising every two weeks that she was still unemployed.  The company hired someone else.

 So what do you do?  Follow up your interview with a great thank you note (there was an earlier post on this – click here) and then hang back.  Wait.  If you hear about something happening at that company for which you’re supremely qualified, call and tell them.  This happened with Lisa (note:  no quotes ... it's her real name).  I had interviewed her, thought she was terrific, but had nothing at the time.  Three months later, she called.  She had heard (before I did!) that one of my clients had just landed a piece of business and would likely be hiring. “Gillian…I’m perfect for that job.  Get me in for an interview!”  I did, they hired her, and and she happily joined on.  She handled it perfectly.

 Know that no matter how persistent or charming you are, it’s highly unlikely, in this shaky economy, that a company can manufacture a job just because you’re available.  Go ahead and stalk them, but from afar.  Keep reading and researching their company.  Stay on top of their press releases (they’re on their web site).  When things are starting to happen, you’ll hear it.  And then ... only then...  you can get back in touch.