Before interviewing, be prepared: know exactly what you want and what you have to offer. In the next chapter, you will prepare your pitch to companies. Have your pitch ready even before you contact anyone just so you are prepared. Be a polished interviewer. Remember the cliché: "You don't get a second chance to make a good first impression."
After you have practiced interviewing, contact the people on your "hit list." Start with those who are less important to you, so you can practice and learn more about your target area. You will want to know, for example, your chances in that market and how you should position yourself.
After you have met with someone, follow up. This method works. Once you have contacted a target area, contact it again a few months later. Keep following up on the people you meet.
Read magazines and newspapers. Attend organizational meetings.
Keep abreast of what is happening in the field. Keep on networking.
A Promotional Campaign To Get Interviews
Sometimes I say to a client who is shy, "So far, you and I are the only ones who know you are looking for a job." Get your name out there. Get on the inside track. You must conduct a promotional campaign to contact as many potential employers as possible. "Campaign" to make sure they remember you.
Make a lot of contacts with people in a position to hire or recommend you. If there are sparks between you, and if you help them remember you, you will be the one they call when a job comes up. Or they can give you the names of others to contact. They may even create a job for you, if it makes sense.
The goal of your promotional campaign is to let the right people know what you are looking for. Some discussions will become job interviews, which will lead to offers. Get a lot of interviews so you will have a number of offers to consider. You want options.
Focus on getting interviews in your target area. People who focus on "getting a job" can get uptight when they interview. They do not think of themselves as "looking around" or "finding out what is out there." They act as if they are in a display case, hoping someone will buy them. They may accept the first offer that comes along even when they know it is inappropriate because they think they will never get another one.
If you aim to make lots of contacts and get lots of interviews, you are more likely to keep your perspective. If you are an inexperienced job hunter, talk to some people who are not in a position to hire you. Practice your lines and your techniques. Get experience in talking about yourself, and learn more about your target market. Then you will be more relaxed in important interviews and will be able to let your personality come through.
You Are The Manager Of This Campaign
You are in control of this promotional campaign. After reading this book you will know what to say, how to say it, and to whom. You will select the promotional techniques to use and when, and learn how to measure the effectiveness of your campaign.
You will also decide on your image. You can present any picture of yourself that you like. You present your image and credentials in your written communications resume cover letters, and follow up notes. You have complete control over what you put in them and how you present yourself.
How you act and dress also importantly affects your image. Look like you're worth the money you would like. Watch your posture sit up straight. Smile! Decide to feel good and to feel confident. Smile some more. Smile again. Smiling makes you look confident and competent and gives you extra energy. It is difficult to smile and continue being down. Even when you are at home working on your search, smile every once in a while to give yourself energy and the right attitude to help you move ahead. This is true no matter what your level. Even executives are better off doing this as they go through their searches. The ones who cannot tend to do less well than those who can.
Whether direct contact or networking, search firms or ads, choose techniques most likely to result in a good response from your target techniques appropriate to your situation. When you become expert, change a technique to suit yourself.
Modify your approach, or even abandon an effort that is ineffective. You want a good response from your promotional efforts. A "response" is an interview. A polite rejection letter does not count as a response. Some companies have a policy of sending letters, and some have a policy against them. Rejection letters have nothing to do with you. They do not count. Only interviews count.
This is a campaign to generate interviews. Your competition is likely to have polished presentations. Decide on the message you want to get across in the interview, and practice it. There are two kinds of interviews: contact ("networking") interviews, and actual job interviews. Do not try to turn every meeting into a job interview. You will turn people off and lessen the chances of getting a job. In the beginning, you are aiming for contact, or networking, interviews.
When things do not work, there is a reason. Be aware and correct the situation. There is no point in continuing an unsuccessful campaign. Remember, when things go wrong as they will it is not personal. This is strictly business. It is a project. With experience, you will become better at managing your promotional campaigns to get interviews.
