Harland was enthusiastic about the networking lead he had received from a friend. A job for which he was qualified had just been vacated in a desirable company where his friend worked. As far as his friend knew, no one inside the company immediately qualified for the position.
Harland sent the hiring manager a letter of introduction with his resume, using his friend’s name in the letter to “warm” the introduction. Harland waited about a week, then followed up with a phone call. As might be expected, he got the manager’s voice mail, where he left a brief but articulate message.
After three business days he called again, expressing interest in the position for which he was qualified. After the second message was not returned, Harland called his contact inside the company. He explained what he had done so far, and asked his friend if he could find out the status of the position or if the manager had any interest in meeting him.
After a few days the friend called back to let Harland know that the manager was interested, but he was out of town a lot and had quite a few irons in the fire. The message was to be patient and that the manager would be getting to him in the next week or so.
When that did not happen, Harland called the company and asked the department’s administrative assistant for the hiring manager’s email address. He knew that this could be a gamble: either the hiring manger would appreciate the email contact, which would make it easier to respond from anywhere, anytime, or he would be seen perhaps as intrusive or overly aggressive.
Since the manager had told his friend he was interested, Harland took the risk of sending him an email. He was careful to keep it brief, and asked for a specific action from the manager:
“I heard from Donna Donohue that you felt I might be a viable candidate for your open position of Manager of Customer Service. I know how busy you are and that your position requires a significant amount of travel. However, could you please let me know when we might have the opportunity to meet to discuss your position? If there is an internal or external candidate who is likely to be offered the position, please indicate so, and I will not follow up with you further. Thanks for your time and consideration.”
Five days went by without a response, and Harland was about to let the situation go. Then he received the following return email from the hiring manager: “Thanks for your interest and tenacity to follow up with me. My schedule has been very demanding. I do not have a candidate of choice at this time, and would be happy to meet with you the week after next. Please call my administrative assistant to schedule an interview at the end of that week. Thanks for your patience and I look forward to meeting you then.”
Harland was able to sustain his visibility to the hiring manager through multiple communications modes: letter, voice mail and email. This approach has been successful when candidates stagger the modes and time frames. The key is to not give up until you have a confirmation from the contact that they no longer wish to hear from you. More and more, busy executives are appreciating professional associates and candidates who have something valuable to offer, and who keep trying until they make personal contact. Candidates may sometimes feel they are being a “pest”, but when the communication is done professionally and appropriately (you should not attempt to contact more frequently than once or twice a week), it will generally not be interpreted in a negative way.
In Harland’s case, there was the added benefit of a third party who could also assist in the attempts to reach the hiring manager. While this is certainly not the case in every job search situation, candidates should approach their attempts with the same tenacity and patience as the scenario above. The mindset for success is to assume that what you have is valuable to the contact and that to not connect will be a mutually lost opportunity.
