Are You Conducting a Good Campaign?
by Kate Wendleton
The thing is to never deal yourself out . . . The Quality of Your Campaign
Opt for the best possible hand.
Play with verve and sometimes with abandon,
but at all times with calculation.
L. Douglas Wilder
Getting a job offer is not the way to test the quality of your campaign. A real test is when people say they'd want you--but not right now. When you are networking, do people say, "Boy, I wish I had an opening. I'd sure like to have someone like you here"? Then you know you are interviewing well with the right people. All you need now are luck and timing to help you contact or recontact the right people when they also have a need.
If people are not saying they want you, find out why. Are you inappropriate for this target? Or perhaps you seem like an outsider, and outsiders are rarely given a break.
During the beginning of your search, you are gathering information to find out how things work.
Why should someone hire a person who does not already work in the field? There are lots of competent people who have the experience and can prove they will do a good job.
There is a test to see if you are perceived as an insider. If you think you are in the right target, talking to people at the right level, and are not early on in your search, you need feedback. Ask people, "If you had an opening, would you consider hiring someone like me?"
Become an insider--a competent person who can prove that he or she has somehow already done what the interviewer needs. Prove that you can do the job, and that the interviewer is not taking a chance by hiring you.
If you seem like an outsider trying to break in,
you don't have a chance at a good job.
When you seem like an insider,
you have a chance.
The Quantity of Your Campaign
You need to find a lot of people who would hire you if they could. You know by now that you should have six to ten things in the works at all times. This is the only true measure of the effectiveness of your campaign to get interviews in your target area. If you have fewer than this, get more. You will be more attractive to the manager, will interview better, and will lower the chances of losing momentum if your best lead falls apart.
At the beginning of your search, Stage 1, your contacts will simply be networking contacts with whom you want to keep in touch. At that stage, your goal is to come up with six to ten contacts you want to recontact later, perhaps every two months. In the middle of your search, Stage 2, the quality of your list will change. The names will be of the right people at the right level in the right companies. Finally, Stage 3, the six to ten names will represent prospective job possibilities that you are trying to move along.
If you have six to ten job possibilities in the works, five will fall away through no fault of your own (job freezes, or hiring managers changing their minds about the kind of person they want). Then you'll need to get more possibilities in the works. With this critical mass of ongoing possible positions, you stand a chance of getting a number of offers and landing the kind of job you want.
Developing Momentum in Your Search
A campaign builds to a pitch. The parts begin to help one another. You focus less on making a particular technique work and more on the situation you happen to be in.
In your promotional campaign to get interviews, you see people who are in a position to hire you or recommend you. Keep in touch with them so they will . . .
When you are in the heat of a real campaign, a critical mass of activity builds, so you start:
- think of you when a job opens up
- invite you to create a job for yourself
- upgrade an opening to better suit you
- give you information to help you in your search.
- hearing the same names
- seeing the same people
- contributing as much as you are getting
- writing proposals
- getting back to people quickly
- feeling a sense of urgency about this industry
- writing follow-up letters, making follow-up phone calls.
. . . the secret is to have the courage to live.
If you have that,
everything will sooner or later change.
James Salter, Light Years
Eventually, and often after the survival of a long and
profound crisis, often after the painful shedding of one
skin and the gradual growth of another, comes the
realization that the world is essentially neutral.
The world doesn't care, and is responsible neither for
one's spiritual failures nor for one's successes.
This discovery can come as a profound relief, because it is
no longer necessary to spend so much energy shoring up
the self, and because the world emerges as a broader,
more interesting, sweeter place through which to move.
The fog lifts, as it were.
Frank Conroy,
The New York Times Book Review, January 1, 1989
People commonly seem to work on the assumption that they aren't succeeding in a job search until someone says, "You're hired." Therefore, when they are asked, "How is your job search going?" they are likely to respond with, "Well, I don't have a job yet." The Only Way to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Search
Five O'Clock Clubbers would never answer the question like that. It is not productive. No job searcher has a new job yet. But there is a clear way--developed by The Five O'Clock Club--to measure the effectiveness of your job search.
The correct answer to
"Where are you in your search?"
"I have 10 things in Stage 1, 6 in Stage 2
and 3 things in Stage 3."
"How are you doing?" can be answered in terms of Stage 1, 2 or 3. There are levels of success. The ultimate success is having three excellent and concurrent job offers--and then selecting the one that positions you best for the long term. Along the way there are milestones: there is a progression which ought to be taking place--and which you can measure.
Stage 1 of Your Search:
Networking Contacts with whom you want to keep in touch
the beginning of your search
Measure the effectiveness of your search by listing the number of people with whom you are currently in contact on an ongoing basis, either by phone or mail, who are in a position to hire you or recommend that you be hired. The rule of thumb: if you are seriously job-hunting, you should have six to ten active contacts going at one time. At the beginning of your search, these will simply be networking contacts with whom you want to keep in touch. You are unlikely to get an offer at this stage. You are gathering information to find out how things work--getting your feet wet. You look like an outsider, and outsiders are rarely given a break. Keep adding names to your list because certain people will become inappropriate. Cross their names off. You should probably have some contact once a month with the people who remain on your list.
A contact is included in one of the stages
only if you intend to contact that person again.
If you have no intention of keeping in touch,
that contact does not go on your list.
Stage 2 of Your Search:
The right people at the right levels in the right companies
the focus of your entire search
The nature of your "six to ten things in the works" changes over time. Instead of simply finding networking contacts to get your search started, you meet people who are closer to what you want.
Getting a job offer is not the way to test the quality of your campaign. A real test is when people say they'd want you--but not now. Do some people say: "Boy, I wish I had an opening. I'd sure like to have someone like you here."? Then you are interviewing well with the right people. All you need now are luck and timing to help you contact (and recontact) the right people when they also have a need.
If people are not saying they want you, find out why not. If you think you are in the right targets, talking to people at the right level, and are not early on in your search, you need feedback. Ask : "If you had an opening, would you consider hiring someone like me?" Find out what is wrong.
Become an insider--a competent person who can prove that he or she has somehow already done what the interviewer needs. Prove you can do the job, and that the interviewer is not taking a chance on you.
You still need six to ten contacts at this level whom you will recontact later. Keep adding names to your list because certain people will become inappropriate. Cross their names off. You should probably have some contact once a month with the people who remain on your list.
The focus of your search
should be on having a solid Stage 2.
If it's working, do more of the same.
Stage 3 will take care of itself.
Stage 3 of Your Search:
Moving along actual jobs or the possibility of creating a job
the final stages of a search
If you have an effective Stage 2 search, that's great! All you can do is simply more of the same. Get more things going in Stage 2. Stage 3 will take care of itself. In Stage3, you uncover six to ten actual jobs (or the possibility of creating a job) to move along. These job possibilities could come from any of your target areas or from serendipitous leads. Find a lot of people who would hire you if they could. If you have only one lead that could turn into an offer, you are likely to try to close too soon. Get more leads. You will be more attractive to the manager, will interview better, and will not lose momentum if your best lead falls apart. A good number of your job possibilities will fall away through no fault of your own (such as job freezes or major changes in the job requirements).
To get more leads, notice which targets are working and which are not. Make additional contacts in the targets that seem to be working, or develop new targets. Recontact just about everyone you have met earlier in your search. You want to develop more Stage 2 activity, which will lead to Stage 3 activity.
Aim for three offers: this is the stage of your search when you want them. When an offer comes during Stage 1 or Stage 2, you probably have not had a chance to develop momentum so you can get a number of offers. When choosing between offers, select the job that positions you best for the long term.
How you know you are in a campaign:
You feel as though you know
a critical mass of people within your target industry.
When you go on "interviews," you contribute as
much as you take away.
You have gained a
certain amount of information about the industry
that puts you on par with the interviewer--
and you are willing to share that information.
You are a contributor. An insider.
You know what's going on.
You feel some urgency and are
more serious about this industry.
You are no longer simply "looking around"--
playing it cool. You are more intense. You don't
want anything to stand in your way because
you know that this is what you want. You
become more aware of any little thing that can
help you get in. Your judgment becomes more
finely tuned. Things seem to fall into place.
You are working harder at this than you ever
could have imagined. You read everything there
is to read. You write proposals almost
overnight and hand-deliver them.
Your campaign is taking on a life of its own.
At organizational meetings, you seem to know
everybody. They know you are one of them
and are simply waiting for the right break.
When someone mentions a name, you have
already met that person and are keeping in
touch with him or her. The basic job-hunting
"techniques" no longer apply.
You are in a different realm, and you feel it.
This is a real campaign.
There is a tide in the affairs of men, The preceding is an excerpt from The Five O'Clock Club Book Series by Kate Wendleton. The Five O'Clock Club, Forty-Year Vision and Seven Stories Exercise are registered trademarks of The Five O'Clock Club, Inc. All of the concepts presented in these articles were developed by and are the property of The Five O'Clock Club, Inc. All rights reserved.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
. . . On such a sea we are now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
