Sex and Your Job Search 2013: A Guide to Scoring Your Dream Job (16 page)

The longer you speak to them, the more connected and emotionally invested they are in you. Remember what I mentioned earlier about an average-looking person hooking up with a hottie. Facetime equals successtime. However, balance that with not wearing out your welcome.

If no one is available, ask the receptionist (who you’ve been nice and polite to) to give your portfolio to the recruiter in charge of hiring for the area. If you do not have that person’s name, ask for their name and business card to get the spelling exactly right. I say this because when I’m unable to talk with people who stop by and they follow up with an email addressed to “Dominique” instead of “Dominic,” I don’t respond. Sorry, I can’t trust you to pay attention to details and there is a huge difference between those two names. My name is also on the company’s corporate Facebook page. It’s not rocket science.

Before you leave, smile and patiently ask the receptionist for their name and business card. Getting the exact address is key. Do this because before the sun sets on the day you will have sent
the
receptionist
a handwritten thank you note as well. Want to make the day of someone who is one of the most underappreciated people at a company? Someone who deals with (potentially) hundreds of people a day and never gets thanked? Send the receptionist a thank you card.

She was gorgeous. Blond hair and a smile that could light up a room. But none of that mattered.

This was Lauren’s second time applying for a marketing internship. She had been rejected the year before because she did not get her letters of recommendation in on time. When it comes to qualifications, looks don’t count.

Lauren called to make an appointment with me because she wanted to be the best applicant that year. When she arrived, the receptionist called me and said giggling, “There’s an angel here to see you.” You see, within two minutes of arriving, Lauren had bonded with the receptionist over attending the same university. Lauren had asked about the receptionist’s experience at the school, and by the time I went to meet her, they were BFFs.

Lauren was trembling and nervous at first. I could see her hands shaking and her voice quivered once or twice. Despite this, she handed me a copy of her resume that she pulled from a professional black padfolio and launched into her questions. The first question was about her application status and if all of her letters of recommendation were in. She then asked what she could do to make herself a better applicant and how the interview process would work. I gave her several hints about the format of our interview questions, like I do in detail later in the next chapters. Lauren showed me that she did her homework by quoting our company’s mission statement and values. After our meeting that day, she sent me a thank you email.

When it came time for interviews, I briefed the director of marketing about Lauren’s initiative and her knowledge of the company. Building on the success of our first interaction, Lauren knocked it out of the park in the interview and was hired as a marketing intern.

The Receptionist Can Be Your Biggest Cheerleader

Why should you send the receptionist a thank you card? Because in the ten years I have been at my company, only two applicants have sent the receptionist a thank you card. How do I remember this? Because the receptionist walked up and down every aisle of our office saying, “Hey, look what I got, they were so nice. Can you check their applications? I think they are a company fit. Just wanted to tell you.”

Picture a stoic receptionist giddily putting in a good word for
you
. Nice, huh? I hope knowing that you are about to make a friend, regardless of how they treat you at first, relaxes you when you walk in.

In addition to helping you, the receptionist is bragging to ensure her job security by sharing that someone outside the company thinks she is awesome. Well played.

FOR HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS

Recently I sat in on a “how to get hired” panel presentation at a local university.

I was curious what students were being told. A healthcare management student about to graduate lamented, “How are we supposed to get jobs when most employers are looking for experienced workers?”

I wanted to shout from the back of the room and say, “Uh, stop by the HR department of the healthcare facility you want to work for. That’s what we are here for. Get to know us.”

Maybe one or two students a month, maximum, come to talk to HR and network with us. HR knows every hiring manager in every department in the hospital where I work and can tell them, “Hey I have this superstar student who is friendly, eager, presents well, and is open to feedback. They stopped by my office once and touch base with me every month or two. Definitely a solid applicant for when you decide to hire a new grad.”

SOME QUICK CONNECTING BASICS FOR EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY SHY PEOPLE
(LIKE ME)

Like Lauren in the example earlier in this chapter, a lot of people are a little shy or can get nervous easily. Myself included. I have spent a lifetime battling this because I know that life favors outgoing people.

One way to deal with shyness is to practice talking to people who share the same hobbies and interests as you. The reason being is that people are less shy when they talk about what they love. They are also more enthusiastic. Practicing will allow your enthusiasm to carry over when you talk about your dream position with your dream employer.

Another way to feel more confident while networking or talking to your dream employer is to read up on tips and techniques of how to communicate better. The best book I have found that focuses on ice-breaking skills, making a good first impression, and building instant rapport is
How To Talk To Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships
by Leil Lowndes. Larry King said this about the book: “You’ll not only break the ice, you’ll melt it away with your new skills.” I highly recommend it.

I actually read this book right before I attended a New Year’s Eve party in the Hollywood Hills a few years ago. I felt so much more confident heading into the evening. At the end of the night I had talked my way into the VIP area, gotten two numbers, and had met over ten new people. Success breeds success and confidence. It gets easier with practice.

GIVE GOOD THANKS:
SEND A HANDWRITTEN THANK YOU NOTE

I talk a lot about handwritten thank you notes. They are important. In dating, these take the form of a follow-up text that says something to the effect of “I had a great time tonight. Talk soon.”

However, in the job-search process it is
so
rare to get this type of memorable follow-up. I’ve worked in HR for ten years. I’ve gone through nearly one hundred thousand applications and hired thousands of people. And I’ve only received twelve handwritten thank you notes. I still have every one of them. If I count emailed thank you notes, the count goes up to around thirty-five.

The best applicants send thank you notes. As do the successful and rich employees in a company, when they recognize good work. Want to be like people who make the big bucks? Write a thank you note. Want a hiring manager to never forget you? Send a handwritten thank you note. If all things are equal, a thank you note is a game changer!

Think about the value you get for the price of postage and the cost of the card and envelope! Say it costs you $1.50 and propels you to the top of the list for a position that pays fifty thousand dollars a year. That is over a 30,000% return on investment.

There are thousands of thank you note examples on the Internet. You’ll notice that most of them are specific in thanking the person for their time, advice, and referencing something that was talked about. Feel free to modify the ones you find to meet your situation.

Think about it this way. Imagine that Barney from
How I Met Your Mother
is hiring someone. Picture him saying, “Marshall was a good applicant, until he sent me a handwritten thank you note. Then he became Legend…wait for it…dary.”

FOLLOW UP: HOW TO GET THE HOT MODEL

Following up and remaining top of mind brings success. It’s how you get the job search done. Remember, facetime equals successtime.

Follow up on the schedule outlined in this chapter and continue in the intervals suggested. Vary phone calls and emails. Since you want to add value, consider sending news articles of relevance or just continue to express interest in working for the company.

There is a time and place for following up on your application or resume. The pool is not one of them. This is a true story of what happened to me after a tedious day at the office.

As I’ve mentioned, I work at a university medical center, and one of the sweet benefits I have is a free health club on the university campus. This includes a weight room, heated pool, gym, etc.

I had finished lifting weights after a particularly draining day of interviews and I didn’t want to talk to anyone. My Hurley baseball hat was pulled down low and I was about to leave the locker room, which connects to the pool.

I washed my hands, and as I turned toward the towel machine, I see, in my holy personal space, a dripping wet, hairy-chested, euro-bikini wearing, pudgy, balding, very inquisitive European man with a cocky “I just found you” grin on his face.

He was a current employee and I had met him through another hiring manager.

The conversation went like this:

Dripping Wet Guy: “I wanted to follow up on my application for the analyst position-do you know what is happening-I mean I have not heard anything, Dominic. Is this a good or bad sign? I stopped by to talk with the director, but he was not there when I went by.”

Me: (Waiting and wondering if these run-on questions would ever end.) “Not sure. Call me tomorrow morning and I will look into it.”

Dripping Wet Guy: (He takes none of my verbal and non-verbal clues that I want to get the heck out of the gym.) “Do you know how many other people have applied? It seems weird that I have not heard back. Are they considering someone internally? What do you think I should do, Dominic?”

Me: (Hurried voice) “I don’t know, since the position is not in my area. Let’s talk tomorrow. Give me a call around 8:15am and I’ll look into it.” (When someone offers a specific time to talk with you and is responding in a rushed manner, you should end the conversation immediately.)

Dripping Wet Guy: (Moving closer, he starts using hand gestures and points at me. He thinks we’re bonding in an amazing kind of way. I’m noticeably fidgeting. A few minutes have passed.) “Dominic, what do you think my chances are? You are in HR!”

Me: “Listen, man. Zip it. I’ve given you every sign that I want to stop talking to you and go home. I feel very uncomfortable right now.”

Is what I wanted to say. Instead, I took a deep breath, cut him off, and said “Look, I have to run. You have my number. I have all morning free, give me a call then. Have a good rest of your workout, man.”

He got the point and started to backpedal. I considered listening to his apology, but I just smiled and tried not to slip on the wet tiles while making my escape.

What Should He Have Done?  

Fifteen-Second Conversation!

Dripping Wet Guy: “Heyyyy Dominic, can I call you tomorrow about a job I applied for? I can see you’re on your way out.”

Me: “Sure, let’s talk then. If I don’t answer, leave me a message and I’ll get back to you for sure.”

Done.