I am forced to tell these people that there is no way in the world to look for a new job and guarantee that it can be kept secret. Nothing is absolutely full proof. You take a risk in everything you do. You can, however, minimize the risk in a number of ways, always with the hope that if you are found out you will be so far along in your job campaign that it will make no difference.
These are some of the ways people use in trying for a better job without jeopardizing their present one:
A. Tell friends they want to make a change.
B. Enroll with an employment agency.
C. Place advertisements in newspapers.
This is costly and time-consuming. You may get a dozen or more answers, but they may come from all kinds of people. Too few of them will be from actual employers. Many will come in from individuals who want to sell you something or want you to make an investment in their business. If you are called in as a result of an ad, it will be by the personnel manager and you will have to talk to him and not to an officer. This is seldom to your advantage. If an officer should see your ad, it would be quite by accident.
D. Register with school and alumni placement departments. These usually ask you to forward a resume which they, in turn, mail out to prospective employers. Do not permit these to be mailed out unless you have been consulted in advance about the list. Your resume might be sent to your own employer.
E. Get in touch with executive search firms (or consult ants). Instead of going to a recruiter at the beginning of a job campaign, concentrate on answering ads and writing letters, both on a third-party basis. Your chances of getting a job through recruiters are extremely small. Fortune magazine, in an article entitled "How Executives Get Jobs," has this to say: "Consultants estimate that less than one per cent of the men who approach there are eventually placed in client's firms." This figures out to i in loo.
F. Answer ads. This, if done under your own name, is extremely dangerous. It can get you in serious trouble since you do not know the recipient; it may be your own company.
Answering ads the third-party way can be extremely effective. I have answered advertisements for many individuals using the third-party approach. They were overwhelmingly successful.
Here are some of the letters I sent out:
Dear Sir:
As Chairman of the Alumni Placement Committee of Harvard Business School, I am writing to you in regard to the position of Vice President of Marketing which is advertised in the February 16 issue of The New York Times, I know an individual whose business experience and accomplishments qualify her for this position. For obvious reasons, she would rather not have her identity revealed until she knows who you are and has more information regarding the advertised position. If you are interested in pursuing this further, I may be reached at RE 2-7878 or, if you prefer, you may write me at the above address.
Very truly yours, Carl Boll
I used this letter in answering four blind ads for this woman. I received three telephone calls and one letter, a 100-per-cent return. My job-seeking friend got four interviews. She now is vice-president of sales for a well-known national organization.
For another person, also on a confidential search, I answered the following advertisement:
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
Four functions required:
- Successful food sales, heavy supervisory experience.
- Home office experience in planning, marketing, administration, and organization building.
Looking for a Job in Secret
- Experience in meeting continuous sales targets.
- Chain Headquarters contacts.
The rest of the advertisement told about salary, bonuses, advancement, etc. It was signed by a national firm. Here is my letter:
Dear sir:
Your advertisement in The Wall Street Journal interested me. As Chairman of the Alumni Placement Committee of Harvard Business School, I know a prospect who measures up to all the requirements listed in your advertisement. I would like to put you in touch with him. He presently is a successful Field Sales Manager for a grocery manufacturer whose products have 100% national distribution.
For reasons you will understand, he prefers to contact you through me.
He has an outstanding record of sales in "problem" markets. He selected and trained both company and brokers' salesmen. He has succeeded in establishing his company's products in such chains as A&P, Kroeger, Colonial, and Winn Dixie where territory salesmen had failed.
As a member of the Sales and Advertising Committee, he participated in the forming of advertisements for television, magazines, and newspapers.
He prepared market surveys upon which advertising and sales promotion was based.
I shall be pleased to put you in contact with this man. There is no fee or charge for this service. Very truly yours,
I received an immediate written reply expressing a desire to talk to this man. In a subsequent telephone conversation with the advertiser, I established the fact that he was not the applicant's employer. My friend got the interview. I have a record of l00 per cent answers to my replies to ads.
I have recounted this example to show you how closely I tied this man's accomplishments to the functional requirements of the advertisement. Except for the fact that this is a confidential approach, this follows strictly the outline given in the chapter "How to Get Interviews through Advertisers."
If you can get one reply out of four answers, you will be batting 25 per cent. Even if you don't get this high a percentage of replies, at least you are in there waging an active campaign, instead of sitting around and biting your nails in frustration.
Do not be any more of a burden than you need be to the friends who have agreed to send out letters in your behalf.
Get them to supply you with some of their letterheads and envelopes. You can then write the letter which you have agreed on in advance. Mail the copies of the ad and also copies of the letters. They are now prepared to cope with any request. This takes the burden of writing off their shoulders.
It benefits you, too, for you are now a free agent to answer any advertisements which seem to fall within your job scope. Send out third-party letters. This is by far the most effective way to get a job in secret.
Third-party letters can be an effective tool in the secret job campaign, provided they are properly written. Here are paragraphs from two letters written for the same individual, each by a different professional job consultant. Neither was productive of interviews.
This is the first:
Dear Sir:
Can you use a good man in marketing, advertising, promotion market research and intelligent "Public Relations Hidden Selling"?
The man we have in mind is mature, has considerable depth and breadth, and has an outstanding national record dealing with products allied to your field.
His background has been with leading companies and a recognized advertising agency. He knows the teen-age market, the adult market, and the "adult-plus" market.
He has "Mass Sold" and "Specialty Sold" on a national basis. His appearance, personality, genuineness, and service-mindedness are outstanding. He is a graduate of-University.
May we put you in touch with this man, or answer any questions?
One hundred copies of this letter number one were sent out. Two people asked for information. The result was one interview only-a return of 2 per cent.
Here is the product of the second job consultant:
Dear Sir:
Locate, evaluate, and create that demand necessary for broader distribution. Modern techniques are the keys to this client's success record.
During the past ten years as VP of Marketing and Advertising, the most effective sales channels were developed and national product-recognition achieved.
In his early 50's, rugged, with plenty of intelligent drive, Married and with two children-fine personal appearance and a personality synonymous with accomplishments.
A strong believer in personal contact in all areas and well-liked by people at all levels. Genuine and thorough, he is a man who works objectively getting the job done right and on time. May we present the man with the talent for strengthening your sales, profits, and teamwork?
Two hundred and sixty copies of the second letter were mailed to a picked list, resulting in two requests for more information and one for an interview. This is an interview return of less than .4 per cent.
After reading this far, you will have no trouble ascertaining the reason these letters did not pull interviews. Each of them is trying to fashion an image of the applicant merely by using glowing words of evaluation. The letters are vague, trite, and intangible. In the first letter you read, "His appearance, personality, genuineness, and service-mindedness are outstanding." What appeal has that to an employer unless he is looking for a doorman?
The last paragraph in the second letter reads, "May we present the man with the talent for strengthening your sales, profits, and teamwork?" Now this is presumptuous in the extreme. An employer reading this will resent it, and rightly so. He will wonder how this man could possibly know enough about his business to make such an assumption.
When working with a consultant, the job-hunter pays for printing, addressing, and mailing. The letters are mailed by the counselor and the answers come in to him. The counselor gets a fee, depending on the contract, either from him or from the employer. Remember, the pulling power of a letter should be rated not by the answers received but only by the number of interviews secured. Do you realize how costly it is in both time and money to get a return of only 1 per cent from a letter written by someone else, when you could get from 6 to 8 per cent return if you went to work and produced the letter yourself? Many of the third-party letters I have seen over the years should never have been mailed. If you do get a consultant to write it for you, ask that person to show you some looking for a Job in Secret samples. If they are anything like the ones I have quoted, pick up your hat and leave.
If you are already in a job the third-party letter can be a powerful interview getter. Furthermore, it is one of the very few means you have to wage an active job campaign. I used to think that in order to be effective you needed some well-known person such as a lawyer, banker, or a successful businessperson to mail out the letters for you. Recent experience, however, has proved that this is not at all necessary. You can use any friends who are willing to "front" for you. They must be willing to have the answers come to them. They should give only their name and address, but not their telephone number. Otherwise, they may get some calls from people who wish to inquire about you on the phone. Your entire job campaign is predicated on getting personal interviews.
Here is a sample letter that pulled:
Dear Sir:
I am writing to you about a man who, as controller of I25,-000,000 company, discovered $240,000 of neglected stock. He turned this into a $30,000 profit and thus avoided a loss of $60,000. If your company needs someone in its controller's or financial department, you may wish to talk to this man. I am writing on behalf of this man as a friend. No fee of any kind is involved. He saved 40 per cent in factory labor expense by initiating company expansion into a low-cost labor area.
• Suggested discontinuing 30 unprofitable items and increased profit 10 per cent as a result.
• Organized a 1500-man inventory team which completed taking stock of $6,000,000 in five hours.
• Initiated automatic billing, reduced office personnel by five, and still got out bills five days sooner.
• Eliminated production delays and faulty deliveries due to lack of raw materials through new inventory controls.
This man graduated with honors from-University. He majored in accounting and control.
I will be glad to put you in touch with him for the purpose of a personal interview.
Very truly yours,
The job-hunter picked his names from a list of companies each having over $50,000,000 in sales. One hundred twenty letters brought eleven positive responses and six interviews. The format of this letter follows the letter-writing technique outlined in Chapter 3, '*The Broadcast Letter." In recounting the accomplishments, instead of using the first person, he used the third person right through the letter.
There is not a single intangible function mentioned here. Instead, he has skillfully turned the functions into measurable deeds, reciting profits and cost reductions. Is it any wonder this letter produced interviews?
