The Career Intensity Guide to Getting a New Job: Identify the Hiring Manager

Your career is your most valuable financial asset, offering you many financial benefits. You can make the most of it by getting a college degree and managing your career to its full potential. Doing this well can earn you millions of dollars in extra income throughout your lifetime.

To help us all make the most of our careers, here's this week's career guidance from David Lorenzo, author of Career Intensity (I loved the book) and blogger at the Career Intensity Blog:

In a previous article we discussed the importance of visibility in a personal marketing campaign.

Now we will start the discussion of how to create visibility by using a direct mail campaign.

Before we get to that, let's re-cap:

You need to have 4 qualities in order to market yourself effectively. Those qualities are:

• Confidence
• Discipline
• Persistence
• Capability

If this does not sound familiar to you, please review The Career Intensity Guide for Getting a Job - 4 Key Qualities You Must Have for a Successful Job Search.

You will need every bit of discipline and persistence you can muster to use a direct mail campaign to land an interview for your dream job.

The payoff comes when you finally get a call from the hiring manager and he or she says that they absolutely must meet you. Getting to that point in the process requires preparation.

The first step to landing the job interview is to identify who is doing the hiring.

Although most ads and job postings will ask you to send resumes to the Human Resources Department or to a generic e-mail box, this is usually a waste of time.

If you know the company name, you can find the hiring manager. Here are four quick ways to find the decision-maker for some of the best jobs on the planet:

1. Use social networking sites - LinkedIn, Plaxo and Zoom Info are three great places to start. Find people who work in your target company and connect to them in these forums. Once you have connected, ask specifically about your desired job. You need to fish for clues like a detective fishes for information before solving a big case. Don't be coy. Be direct and disclose your intentions. In most cases, people will be willing to help if they can. These sites exist for networking purposes. Press on until someone helps.

2. Call the Company's Sales Department, Public Relations Department, Customer Service Department and Investor Relations Department - All of these areas of the company exist to answer questions and field inquiries. When you call them, start out by asking questions about the firm and the products it sells. This information will come in handy when you write your letters and go on the interview. As you close out your call with people from each of these areas, you should ask who is in charge of the department where the job exists. If the person on the phone asks why you want this information, simply say that you are doing research on "how to get hired" in that area (the area of the firm where your dream job is open). In some cases, the person on the phone will set up an "informational interview" with the hiring manager directly. Believe me - it has happen more than once.

3. Talk to someone from the firm's competitor - Many industries have close-knit communities of experts. Call a competitor and ask questions about the qualities that are necessary to be effective in your dream job. Again, this research will come in handy. If they ask why, tell them the truth and then ask if they know anyone at your target company. This is also a great opportunity to find out about your target company's reputation. Be direct yet respectful. Ask open-ended questions and let the person on the phone spill their guts. If people tell you they don't have time, ask if they can put you in touch with someone who can help you. If they hang up on you, call someone else. Be creative as well as aggressive.

4. Call the company's switchboard - This is a long shot but it's always worth a try. Call into the switchboard and say that you need to send an important notification to the person in charge of XXXX (put the name of your desired department here). Explain that you are calling to verify the mailing address. Take down the address (you're going to need that anyway) and say something like, "I can't seem to find the name of the person in charge of XXXX. Can you help me?" (Shuffle some papers around while you ask this question.) Now, this is not a lie (I don't advocate lying at any point in the job search process) but it is a bit of play-acting.

If you have tried these four tactics SEVERAL TIMES and you are still unsuccessful, you can use the name of the person who is in charge of that discipline for the entire company (for example the Executive Vice President of Sales - if you are seeking a sales job). This information can be found on most company websites or in directories such as Hoovers. If you go this route you will decrease your odds of actually getting your letters through. This tactic becomes effective only if you call that person's assistant and explain your desire (to get hired in the role of XXX). The assistant to the big cheese may then give you the appropriate person to write to.

The bottom line is that you need to find out the name and address of the hiring manager. This is critical. Do not give up until you have it. This one tip alone will dramatically increase your odds of getting an interview.

Next Week: Get Your Letter Into the Right Hands

Comments

[Lin]

Er, steps 4 and 5 are the same. Is this a trick question?

[FMF]

Ha! You're right -- I fixed it. Thanks.