- Call to set up the appointment (first, build up your courage).
When you call, you will probably have to start at the beginning. Do not expect a person to remember anything in your letter. Don't even expect him to remember that you wrote. Say, for example, "I sent you a letter recently. Did you receive it?"
Remind him of the reason you wrote. Have your letter in front of you to serve as your script because you may again have to summarize your background and state some of your accomplishments.
If the person says the company has no openings at this time, that is OK with you you were not necessarily looking for a job; you were looking for information or advice about the job possibilities for someone like yourself, or you wanted to know what is happening in the profession, company, or industry.
If the person says he is busy, say, "I'd like to accommodate your schedule. If you like, I could meet you in the early morning or late evening." If he's still too busy, say, "Is it OK if we set something up for a month from now? I would call you to confirm so you could reschedule our meeting if it's still not a good time for you. And I assure you I won't take up more than twenty minutes of your time." Do your best to get on his calendar even if the date is a month away. (Remember that you are trying to form lifelong relationships. Don't force yourself on people, but do get in to see them.)
Don't let the manager interview you over the phone. You want to meet in person. You need face to face contact to build the relationship and to be remembered by the manager.
Rather than leave a message, keep calling back to maintain control. If no one returns your call, you will feel rejected. But be friendly with the secretary; apologize for calling so often. An example: "Hello, Joan. This is Florence McLaughlin again. I'm sorry to bother you, but is Mr. Johnson free now?"
"No, Ms. McLaughlin, he hasn't returned yet. May I have him call you?"
"Thanks, Joan, but that will be difficult. I'll be in and out a lot, so I'll have to call him back. When is a good time to call?"
Expect to call seven or eight times. Accept it as normal business. It is not personal.
- Prepare for the interview.
Plan for a networking meeting as thoroughly as you would any other business meeting. Follow the agenda listed in step six. Remember that it is your meeting. You are the one running it. Beforehand:
- Set goals for yourself (information and contacts).
- Jot down the questions you want answered.
- Find out all you can about the person, and the person's responsibilities and areas of operations.
- Rehearse your two minute pitch and accomplishments.
Develop good questions, and tailor your questions to get the information you need. Make sure the questions are appropriate for the person you are meeting with. You wouldn't, for example, say to a senior vice president of marketing, "So, tell me how marketing works." That question is too general. Instead, do your research both in the library and by talking with more junior people. Then when you meet the senior vice president, ask questions that are more appropriate for someone of that level. You may want to ask about the rewards of that particular business, the frustrations, the type of people who succeed there, the group values, the long range plans for the business. Prepare three to five open ended questions about the business or organization that the person will be able to answer.
If you find you are asking each person the same questions, think harder about the information you need, or do more library research. The quality of your questions should change over time as you become more knowledgeable, more of an insider and more desirable as a prospective employee. In addition, you should be giving information back. If you are truly an insider, you must have information to give.
- Conduct the interview
If this is important to you, you will continually do better. Sometimes people network forever. They talk to people, but there is no flame inside of them. Then one day something happens: they get angry or just fed up with all of this "talking" to people. They interview better because they have grown more serious. Their time seems more important to them. They stop going through the motions and get the information they need. They interview harder. They feel as though their future is at stake. They don't want to "chat" with people. They are hungrier. They truly want to work in that industry or in that company. And the manager they are talking to can sense their seriousness and react accordingly.
