Pick up the phone. Senior officers at most of your competitors will accept your call or call you back.
So will lots of other high-level people who do business in your industry from direct customers, wholesalers, and distributors to suppliers of raw materials, components, sub-assemblies, and packaging to providers of services such as engineering, contract manufacturing, accounting, banking, advertising, management consulting, market research, and PR.
A few of these people have hire-and-fire power over jobs that could be excellent next steps in your career. And many more are in a position to hear about openings that might interest you, and possibly even to make an appropriate introduction.
Personal contacts are the resource you'll turn to first, when you think of changing jobs.
There's a big difference between talking to someone you've known a while possibly very well, and maybe for years and talking to a stranger whose name you've just been given. In the next chapter, we'll discuss "networking" the strangers you meet at the suggestion of someone else. But let's start right now by getting in touch with people you already know.
True Personal Contact has advantages over Networking, Executive Recruiters, and Direct Mail:
Greater Impact: Talking with friends and associates is easier and more effective than with strangers.
Better Confidentiality: Long before you're ready to "go public," you can speak to the people you trust.
Less Need to Persuade and Sell: People who already know your professional skills and like you personally don't have to be convinced.
Maximum Efficiency: Why bother writing a resume? And why deal with lots of letters, phone calls, and appointments, if you don't have to?
No question about it. If you can get the career-advancing job you want through Personal Contact, it's the quickest, easiest, and most pleasant way to go.
Unfortunately, LUCK plays a starring role in what you accomplish through personal contacts. Who do you know? And does your inquiry come at the opportune time when someone you know happens to have, or know of, the right position? If so, great! If not, you'll have to proceed to other job-changing methods we'll discuss later on.
But now let's look at my all-time favorite "case history" of successful job-changing through a Personal Contact. We'll see one of America's most gifted marketing-oriented general managers get into the position of needing a job change and then actually achieving one. And he does both in what I believe to be the prevailing world-record time. These events happened. Only the identities have been changed to protect the guilty:
Several years ago Matt Market-builder, a suave, marketing-oriented general manager from New York City, became President of Specializer Foods Company in a smallish city we'll call Oaktreeville. Specializer markets nationwide under a famous brand name, just like a big corporation. However, it's actually a cooperative owned by growers of the main ingredient of the company's products.
Unfortunately, at the time Matt arrived, America's appetite for foods containing the key ingredient was declining, and supply was increasing, trends that threatened the financial health of the farmers who owned the company.
Happily, within just a few years Matt accomplished a management miracle. He brought out hugely successful new products based on the special ingredient, and producer prices rose 300%, while costs declined slightly. The growers were delighted.
Matt was assisted by his brilliant secretary, Lucy Local, wife of Larry Local, a lifetime Oaktreeville resident. Besides accompanying Matt to his frequent business meetings in the nearby town of Midday, which were usually held at the Midday Motel, Lucy also took care of his expense reports, which she documented by saving his American Express bills and vouchers from Midday Motel.
On Monday of the eventful week that interests us, Matt determined that Lucy's services were no longer required, strictly a management decision, and one in which Lucy did not concur.
So, resourceful to the very end, Lucy filled an envelope with expense account documentation, and mailed it to Matt's clever wife, Sylvia Fox Market-builder. Lucy didn't bother to include a note, figuring that Sylvia would know what to do.
Mrs. Market-builder indeed required no explanation, and added none herself, as she merely transferred the data to a fresh envelope, which she then forwarded to Lucy's husband, Larry Local, at his business address.
That's why, early Saturday morning, when Larry might otherwise have gone squirrel hunting, he arrived on the front lawn of the Market-builder residence, with his trusty rifle, and opened fire on the front windows. Matt grabbed a pistol and returned the fire, while Sylvia hurriedly summoned the sheriff.
That afternoon, with Larry safely in custody, a hastily convened meeting of the Board of Directors of Specializer Foods accepted Matt's resignation.
Early that same Saturday evening, Matt made just one phone call which proves, more graphically than any other example I know of, the advantages of Personal Contact over all other job-changing methods.
Matt called Bernie Bigdeals, who'd been Matt's boss several years earlier. Bernie, now Chief Executive of a huge diversified corporation, picked up the phone at his home, halfway across the U.S., and received an unvarnished account of the circumstances under which Matt was now offering his services.
Result? Monday morning, approximately 38 hours after a single Personal Contact phone call. Matt reported to work as President of the Foods Division of Bernie's conglomerate.
Before Larry was even out on bail, Matt was already at his desk in a stylish office more than a thousand miles from Saturday's unpleasantness, holding meetings and making decisions as the much-more-highly-paid President of a corporate subsidiary several times the size of Specializer Foods in Oaktreeville.
How's that for an eventful weekend? As they say, "Truth is stranger than fiction."
In 23 years of executive recruiting, plus almost that long as an executive myself, I've never come across a more perfect example of job-changing by Personal Contact. Absolutely every aspect was at its optimum, including the accident of timing. Not only did Bernie Bigdeals have hire-and-fire control of an attractive job, the job happened to be open. And not only did he know Matt; he'd directly supervised him, and had firsthand knowledge of his ability and personality. Moreover, there was no possibility that Matt's performance had declined since they worked together, because his success at Specializer Foods had been widely publicized in the trade press. And of course Matt's reason-for-leaving couldn't have been clearer.
The moral of this story, if there is any, certainly isn't that crime pays. In the long run, it doesn't...for marketing geniuses, or anyone else. But we can all have a lucky, or an unlucky, day. And apparently it's possible to have notable amounts of both kinds of luck on the same day.
The point is that luck is fully as important...and often more so...as skill in determining what you'll achieve through your personal contacts on any given day, or in any three or six-month period that you happen to be interested in a career change.
Fortunately, however, there are techniques that will polish your proficiency and improve your odds. Let's look at them.
Personal contacts can be time-consuming.
True, just one out-of-the-blue phone call to a former boss that lengthened into a three-hour employment interview, solved Matt Marketbuilder's problems with possibly-world-record speed. But everything just happened to work perfectly. Matt enjoyed a moratorium on Murphy's Law on that one day in his life when he needed it most. Unfortunately, Murphy keeps pretty close watch on you and me. Personal Contact, for us, involves a long series of lunch and breakfast dates, other appointments, and countless phone calls which, added together, take up lots of time.
Therefore, it's extremely important to plan your personal contact campaign carefully. Before you reach for the phone, try to think of everyone you know who might be worth contacting. Only when you've identified all the people you might call, can you determine whom you should call, and in what order.
Matt Market-builder obviously chose to make his first call to his most likely contact. And if Bernie Bigdeals hadn't solved Matt's problem, you can bet Matt's second call would have gone to his second-most-likely contact, not to his thirteenth. Moreover, if a more subtle across-the-lunch-table approach would have been more likely to succeed, Matt would surely have employed it.
Obviously, if you know her well, the Chief Executive of the company in your industry you'd most like to work for should be number-one priority. She controls at least one job you'd want...maybe several. But if you merely shook hands at a convention four years ago, and she's unlikely to remember, then you'd better get a new introduction. Or write her a letter, as you would any other important stranger.
On the other hand, a first-class former subordinate who's always considered you a genius, and who now runs a small but respected supply, distribution, or service company in your industry, might also be a high-priority contact. There's no spot for you in his organization. But he knows what's happening in your field; he's enthusiastic about you and eager to help; and he's intelligent and discreet...not an oaf who might smudge your image while trying to polish it. His eyes and ears could be very beneficial.
Above all, beware of the perverse natural tendency we all have, to get in touch with the people we know best and are most comfortable with, rather than the ones who can do us the most good. Remember: Allocate your time accordingly.
Here's a hierarchy for ranking the twin tradeoffs:
Relevance
- Control of Jobs. These top-priority people have hire/fire power, or at least influence, over a job you'd want. Think of CEOs, outside Directors, and heads of functions such as Human Resources, Finance, Marketing, Manufacturing, R&D, etc.
- Vantage Point. Lower-priority, but still valuable, these contacts are extra eyes and ears. Consider middle managers in companies that interest you, and other people in your field-suppliers, customers, and consultants.
- Neither Control nor Vantage Point. Lowest in relevance are the people outside your field altogether. Some may be widely connected, and you may be interested in off-the-wall suggestions. So there's no harm in an occasional try for serendipity. But give it low priority.
Knowledgeable Enthusiasm
- Co-Workers. First-priority goes to your former supervisors, subordinates, and peers. No need to convince. Just update them on your latest exploits, and they're automatically enthusiastic. On the other hand, if you suspect their opinion from the past is negative, don't bother. Nothing you say now will overcome what they believe they saw with their own eyes.
- Closely Dealt-with Outsiders. Suppliers, customers, consultants, and others you've dealt with also have enthusiasm...or lack of it...based on prior direct experience. Moreover, they've probably heard about you from your superiors and subordinates. They can't be quite as sure as if they'd seen you from inside your company, but they're capable of justified enthusiasm. If it exists, take advantage.
- By-Reputation-Only Contacts. You've met these people and know them slightly. And, although they've never done business with you, they've surely heard others speak about you. Consider trade press editors, trade association executives, competitors you've met at industry functions, suppliers who've solicited you and customers you've solicited where no business ensued, etc. There's a little more going for you than with a stranger, but not much.
- Non-Business Connections. These are the very same people listed as number-3 under "Relevance." You may know them very well indeed, but they're not part of your business milieu. Hence, they're "long shots" as job-advancement contacts.
The purpose of these lists is merely to encourage you to think about all your possible contacts and emphasize the ones most likely to be helpful, rather than the ones you'd most enjoy getting in touch with.
However, you can use the lists for a combine-the-numbers game, if you temper it with judgment. The lowest combined number, 2, is obviously best, as Matt Market-builder demonstrated. The highest, 7, is least likely to be helpful. And the numbers in-between provide roughly comparative rankings.
This technique was pointed out to me many years ago by the President of a New York advertising agency. And the logic behind it is so compelling that...to this day...it's still my most helpful tip on personal contacts.
Imagine the following conversation. You're not out of a job. However, you could be, and all the same logic would apply. But for our example, let's just say you're unhappy, and want to make a change. Today you've asked a former boss to lunch. You admire each other and enjoy working together, and you've both made outstanding progress since leaving the company where he supervised you. So you pop the question:
YOU: "Laggard Corporation has been a great learning experience, and they've taken good care of me financially. But I've gone about as far as I can, until my boss's boss retires in about five years. Meanwhile, the company itself is going nowhere. We're in three markets...and they're all declining.
"So frankly, Jim, my reason for wanting this lunch with you is to see if you might have anything for me over there at Upward Corp. I tremendously enjoyed working for you at First Corp. What do you think? Is there something I can do for you?"
JIM: "Gosh, Bill, I'd love to have you on my team again. In fact, you're one of the best people I've ever had the pleasure of working with."
"But, unfortunately, no. I just don't have anything for an outstanding manufacturing-oriented general manager right now. In fact, I just went outside a couple months ago to fill a Divisional slot that would have been perfect. Got a good person. But I'd rather have you. I wish you'd called me then. I'll definitely give you a ring next time a job like that opens up."
That's it. You asked. He answered. Matter closed. You both order coffee, split the check, and get on with the remainder of a busy day.
But now let's go back and change your script. Let's have you ask for a reference instead of a job:
YOU: "So frankly, Jim, my reason for wanting this lunch with you is to ask a favor. I've decided to leave Laggard Corporation within the next few months to a year or so...as soon as I can line up something worth moving for. I'm already putting out feelers. And at some point I'll need some confidential references. Would you be willing to talk to a few people about what I did for you at First Corp?"
JIM: "Yes. Absolutely! I'd be delighted. You're one of the very best people who ever worked for me. In fact, as you recall, / was the one who persuaded you to get out of finance and go into manufacturing, working for me. I told you you'd get into general management faster that way. And of course you did, because a year and a half later I gave you that sick little division in North Carolina, where you not only had your own plant, but your own marketing as well. And then you turned out to be a 'natural' in marketing."
YOU: "What was it that made you think I'd do well in manufacturing?"
JIM: "Well, you were such a practical finance person...not just a 'green eye-shade' type. You had so much curiosity and creativity. In short, you were a problem-solver. I was particularly impressed when you went down to Savannah and worked out that inventory-control system that we later installed in all the plants.
"Of course the rest is history. I moved you up to Division Manager in the shortest time of anyone who ever worked for me. The skeptics fought me tooth and nail. But I said, 'What can we lose? We've been trying for years to sell that operation, and nobody will touch it. We'll probably have to shut it down anyway, so why not give the kid a chance?'
"Frankly, I was as surprised as everyone else with the turnaround you accomplished. And your strong financial and systems background had a lot to do with it.
"Bill, I'd be delighted to be a reference. I just wish I had a spot for you at Upward. That opening a couple of months ago would have been perfect! Damn! I'd much rather be getting you myself, than just recommending you to someone else!"
See the difference?
In both instances you told Jim you've decided to leave Laggard. And in both he told you he's sorry, but he doesn't have anything for you at Upward.
However, something very different happened when you asked for a reference than when you asked for a job.
Answer to a reference: "Yes. Absolutely!"
Answer to a job: "Unfortunately, no."
So you could say that the answers are as different as Yes and No. That's true. But, in fact, they're even more different. When you asked about a job, you got one answer: No. But when you asked about a reference, you got two answers: the job answer, No, plus a resounding Yes on serving as a reference. The reference inquiry achieved everything the job inquiry did, and more, too.
Moreover, the reference question served as a springboard for further conversation about you. Jim did what all newly-recruited references do: discussed the background of the "reference." If we'd listened longer, we'd have heard him probing for even more information...further recollections of what you did for him, and news of how you've "kept up the good work" since he lost track of you.
Above all, the biggest advantage of your asking for a reference, rather than a job, is the positive and open-ended frame of mind Jim takes away with him as he leaves this thoroughly enjoyable lunch with you.
Ordinarily, under similar circumstances, Jim is directly asked for a job. The accident of timing almost always guarantees that he won't have an opening. And it's always awkward to have to say so...especially to a colleague who, unlike you, may be out of work, and whom Jim might want to think about for several days (and possibly meet alternative candidates) before offering to rehire.
So when Jim is asked if he has an appropriate job, he normally hastens to say No...and then piles on convincing reasons why not. That way the asker won't suspect that Jim has any hesitancy about him. Your requesting a reference rather than a job was a refreshing change. It allowed Jim to reassure you by talking about your merits, rather than why he has no job. You let him say:
"Bill, you're great! And here s how great I think you are." You didn't force him to say:
"Bill, you're great! And here's proof that I have no job for you."
Therefore, Jim's commitment to you is far more open-ended...both in outward promise, and psychologically as well. If you'd asked for a job, Jim would have coped with your query right on the spot by explaining that there wasn't one, and why not. The matter would be finished and disposed of. No follow-up to come.
But you asked for a reference. Request granted. Jim accepted an assignment. Follow-up is forthcoming. Far from disposing of your inquiry and closing the matter, Jim leaves the lunch table recalling what it was like working with you, and preparing to tell others.
Too bad, Jim muses, that I don't have something for Bill. Everything I said was true. He really is one of the best people who ever worked for me. So versatile! And a real problem-solver. Wish I could be hiring him, instead of just recommending him.
A month goes by. You've almost forgotten your lunch with Jim. And then out-of-the-blue, your secretary says he's on the line:
JIM: "Bill, I've just had an idea. You wouldn't consider going back to Finance, would you?"
YOU: "It's certainly nothing I've had in mind. I love general management for the same reasons you do. And besides, it was you who took me away from Finance back in 1980. Are you admitting you gave me a bum steer?"
JIM: "Well, hear me out. I've kept thinking about you off-and-on since our lunch, and frankly I couldn't quite figure out why. But then the light clicked on. It's because I'm bucking for President and Chief Operating Officer of the entire corporation over here in about four years, when Caroline retires, and Ken moves up to Chairman.
"So I've got to groom a successor. My General Managers are doing okay with their own relatively small units. But they're all up from Manufacturing or Marketing. None is really strong in Finance. And I have a hard time believing that any of them will ever be able to monitor and supervise several businesses.
"Now, what brought all this thinking to a head is that Friday our President asked me if I might consider giving up my Financial Officer to our Energy Industries Group. They've got problems, and I'd like to cooperate. You don't score points for being selfish. But up to now, he's been my ace in the hole. I've been bringing him into monitoring the businesses, and in a couple years I planned to have one or two of them report to him...sort of gradually building him into my successor.
"But Bill, in terms of my agenda, you've got even more to offer than he does. So here's what I propose: Come to my Group as CFO. Since you're already a proven general manager, I'll announce that the two large businesses we have 'on probation' for possible divestiture will report directly to you...I'll remove them from our regular divisional structure. And I'll also announce that you're our key person in looking for acquisitions for the Group-something we're actively interested in, especially if we can dress up and sell off something we already have.
"Clearly you'll come in with Group Officer overtones. As CFO and basically my chief lieutenant, you'll be in on the Management Reviews of all the operating units. Plus you'll have two good-sized businesses of your own. They're sick ones, but that's not so bad, because if they stay sick it's not your fault, and if they get better, you're a hero. So you're line, as well as staff. You'll update your credentials at a higher level as a Financial Officer. You'll get experience in acquisitions and divestitures. And you'll have one foot in the door as Group Officer and my successor, if we both play our cards right and you help me look good.
"What do you say, Bill? Can we have lunch and talk about it?"
Wow! Sounds like a great opportunity. Aren't you glad you didn't get to Jim until after he filled that Division Manager job that "would have been perfect"?
And aren't you also glad you asked him for a reference, rather than a job? That was a good tactical move. You left Jim with a refreshed-memory of your skills and achievements, and what it's like to work with you. When you and he shook hands outside that restaurant, he walked away with an open-ended assignment to think about you and to tell others about you. As it turned out, the person he convinced was himself.
What about purely social contacts?
Generally they're low-priority in advancing your career. But the rare exceptions can be wonderful!
So far, we've only concerned ourselves with your business contacts.
Indeed, our priority-list "numbers game" ranked purely social contacts at the bottom...3 on Relevance and 4 on Knowledgeable Enthusiasm. They don't control or influence jobs in your industry...or even know about them. And, not having worked with you in business, they probably haven't observed your professional abilities closely enough to be knowledgeably enthusiastic about them, even though their unbounded personal enthusiasm for you may have them convinced...rightly or wrongly...that you're outstanding in your work.
When it comes to asking you to work for them, your close friends may subscribe to the generally wise policy against hiring personal friends as business subordinates. Hence, trying to nudge them in that direction may prove both embarrassing and frustrating. Certainly it puts your friendship at risk.
And when a purely social acquaintance recommends you to someone else, the potential employer may be wise enough to realize that the recommendation isn't backed by any firsthand knowledge of your professional competence. You might be better off, if possible, coming in under more knowledgeable and less biased sponsorship.
And if you take a job-changing campaign with you into the recreational parameters of your tennis, golf, or athletic club, there's the very real danger of becoming thought of as "poor old Joe, down on his luck and bending everyone's ear"...a hapless aura that will lower your self-esteem, further depress your spirits, and probably rub off on your family members in the same social orbit.
Now, having duly pointed out the downside, I must also tell you that there are marvelous exceptions to the generally wise policy of not trying to use purely social contacts to advance your career.
Time and time again I've seen marginally appropriate...and even marginally competent...executives catapulted into prominent positions they would never even have been considered for on any objective basis. On rare occasions I've seen these appointments occur even when the employer had a slate of ideally qualified candidates, several of whom he or she would actually have preferred to hire. An opportune personal contact tipped the scale!
Nowhere is it written that you have to be the best obtainable candidate for a job in order to turn in an acceptable performance. Therefore, I cannot report to you that less-than-optimum choices inevitably fail and are thrown out. It's just not so. Indeed, some have become my clients, and I've watched them succeed brilliantly...largely because they're very intelligent and have lots of common sense. But in part, too, because together we quickly recruited outstanding subordinates for them, who really do know the fundamentals of the businesses involved. And of course, within a year or two, the competent "surprise" choice will have filled in any significant gaps in background.
Moreover, serendipity knows no bounds. A widely-connected social friend just might introduce you to an employer who needs precisely what you offer. Stranger things than that happen every day.
The Bottom Line: Diminishing Returns
After you've depleted your ideal business contacts, you may indeed want to try a few of your likeliest social contacts. Only your own good judgment can tell you what you should and shouldn't ask of someone you know.
However, here's a suggestion that applies to every form of job-changing activity, including every variation of Personal Contact: Don't do too much of it!
There are several techniques to advance your career, and we'll look at all of them. Since the amount of time you can devote to career development is necessarily limited, it's important not to spend so much time on any one activity, that you neglect the others. Take advantage of the most obvious opportunities that all the techniques offer, and don't pursue any to the point that your time could more productively be spent on something else.
