Start with your family. Ask them to think of all the people they know who might be able to provide a job lead. Your mother's old roommate is the manager of a bank. Will that bank need any management trainees? Does your father's fraternity brother have any openings in his advertising agency? Does your brother's girlfriend know of any vacancies in the Post Office in which she works? Remember, everyone you've ever met is a potential contact. That includes relatives and friends, families of friends, neighbors, college classmates, alumni who majored in your field, faculty in your major, faculty outside your academic major, former employers, sports partners, or people who know you profession ally, like your clergyman, doctor, dentist, or hair dresser.
Once you meet with these people, it's up to you to take advantage of the meetings. They're not automatically going to know how to help you unless you tell them what you want. In most cases, the more specific you can be about your career objectives, the better. It's obviously much easier for someone to know which of their contacts to give you if they know what kind of a job you're looking for. In other words, it would be much easier for someone to help you if you said you were interested in a job in computer sales than if you said you were interested in "business", Being "interested in business" is so broad an objective that it's almost as bad as having no objective. On the other hand, you should also make sure that your objective is not outside the realm of your con tact. For example, if your contact has a management position in a bank, chances are that many of their contacts will be in the financial industry.
In that case, if you want to use this contact, it would not make sense to specialize yourself out of their realm by saying, "I only want to work for an advertising agency." They may not know anyone in an advertising agency, and then your relationship is finished. So obviously, if you are interested in advertising but your contact is from the banking industry, it makes sense for you to say, "I am interested in working for the advertising department of a major financial institution,"
As you review the traditional sources listed above, you might be interested in this comment from Julie C. Monson, the Director of Career Counseling and Placement at the University of Chicago: "I have been musing over your questionnaire, and find that I prefer to respond with one huge qualification. The effectiveness of any traditional job source depends more on the attitude of the job-seeker using the source than anything else."
The authors of this book agree. The job seekers who have been the most successful are the ones who have had a positive mental attitude. They have experienced the same rejections as everyone else; they've suffered the same disappointments, but they've always bounced back and moved ahead. If their resume wasn't getting the response they wanted, they would write another resume. If their phone calls weren't being answered, they would keep on calling. If their contacts dis appointed them, they would search out new contacts. In short, they per severed until they were successful.
Executive search firms
Executive search firms and employment agencies are related as personnel organizations, and both fill employer vacancies. However, executive search organizations are rarely appropriate for recent college graduates. They usually work at high levels, filling slots for experienced executives.
At this point, there are a few possible scenarios. One is that the secretary has either been instructed to make the appointment with you, or to tell you her boss is not interested in meeting with you. This is the easiest to deal with because you know where you stand immediately. This is rare. A second possibility is that she has been given no instructions, but that she remembers your letter since one of her jobs is to open the mail. This is rare, but not unheard of. The third, and most likely, is that she has been given no instructions and doesn't remember your letter. In that case, she will probably say, "Mr, Bauman is in a meeting right now. May I ask you what this is regarding?'' Your immediate response is to say, ''It's regarding a job.*? Bite your tongue because you don't want her to say, "I'm sorry.
We're not hiring now." That's a typical response, and what she's trying to do is to protect her boss from the hordes of job-seekers who call daily. It would be better for you to refer to your original letter so she knows once again that you've written to her boss, and that perhaps he is interested in meeting with you.
