Reinventing You. Dorie Clark

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СКАЧАТЬ with folks they know who are breaking into the workforce or looking to change jobs. The people are generally delightful, and I’d love to help them, but many are so vague that I honestly don’t know how. When you need a job and aren’t totally sure what you want, it can seem like a good strategy to leave yourself open to fate. “I’d like something in communications.” Well, yes . . . but what kind of communications job? Marketing? Advertising? Public relations? For a nonprofit? A big corporation? In health care? Consumer products? It becomes a monumental task to even think about how to provide assistance.

      It’s far easier to help people with specific, targeted requests. Francine, who took a marketing class I taught at Tufts University, asked for advice on getting “a job in marketing for a food-related business.” Thanks to her specificity, it was immediately apparent how I could help. I set her up with informational interviews with my friend Stephen, a restaurant consultant, and Larry, who ran an artisanal chocolate company. She ended up helping Larry with some product demonstrations and he connected her with an internship.

      But what if you aren’t sure what you want or you’re interested in multiple potential careers? Just make something up for now. Being specific will expand your options, not limit them. People are likely to say, “I don’t know anyone in New England archaeology, but if you like historic preservation, I know someone who works at the Victorian Society.” You want to paint a picture so clear that your contacts are thinking about real-life people they know who can help you.

      Finally, a caveat—you’re likely to hurt your cause if your informational interview is actually a bait and switch. Don’t call up your contacts for a casual get-together, only to surprise them with the news that you, too, want to get into their field. Instead, be up front about your motives and they’ll likely say yes.

      Step 2: Respect the Fact That They’re Doing You a Favor

      Let’s face it: you’re the one asking for someone else’s time, so you want to make it very convenient for him. Let him pick the date, time, and location, and be sure to pay for his drink or meal. (I’ve heard some friends who are unemployed grouse about spending money taking out folks who are earning a healthy paycheck, which is exactly the wrong perspective. Their hourly rate is probably high enough that it’s costing them hundreds of dollars in lost productivity to meet with you. The least you can do is buy them a damn cup of coffee.)

      You also want be sure you’re not misusing their generosity by taking too much time. Says Landolt, who estimates she’s done well over a hundred informational interviews in the past decade, “If they say they have twenty minutes, I’ll keep track. I’ll say, ‘It’s been twenty minutes, and if you have more time, I have more questions, but if not, I want to respect your time.’”

      Step 3: Ask the Right Questions

      Here’s the wrong one: do you have any jobs for me? Because if they don’t, it’ll shut down the discussion permanently. Good questions reflect a basic understanding of the field (you’re not bothering them with banal questions) and focus on their lived experience, so you can get a sense of what their job is really like. Stein suggests questions like:

       What is your typical day like? Typical week? (And if there’s no such thing, ask them to describe the most recent.)

       What do you like most and least about your job?

       What does it take to be successful in this field? In this company?

       What is the average salary range at this level?

       I’m planning the following steps toward obtaining a job in this field (name them). Have I overlooked any strategy or resource you think might be helpful?

      Step 4: Leave with Other Names

      You can learn from salespeople here: be sure to ask if there are other people in the company or in the field they think you should connect with, and would they be willing to make an introduction? LinkedIn is also helpful here, because you can easily see if your colleagues have connections to, for example, other marketers, Comcast employees, or specialists in Argentinean culture. And don’t forget alumni networks, whether they’re from college, grad school, or former employers.

      Recalls Landolt, “When I was making a transition, I was at a huge firm with 450 attorneys and a turnover rate of about 70 percent. There were attorneys all over who had worked there, and I used the network, because we’d been through the same war. We didn’t know each other, but I’d talk to current employees at the firm and ask, ‘Can you introduce us?’ And they’d say sure.”

      Try This

       Write down your one-sentence positioning statement that you can share with others. (If you have multiple possible goals, create one for each.) An example might be, “I’m exploring a transition from intellectual property law to entertainment law,” or “I’d like to learn more about how others have handled moving from manager to vice president, and what skills are necessary.”

       Spend an hour at a bookstore (online or real-world) searching for titles that intrigue you. Make a list of at least a half-dozen books you plan to read. Buy them now, or request them from the library.

       Write down a list of ten people you’ll ask for an informational interview. E-mail three of them right now.

       Make a list of the five to ten questions you intend to ask, so you can get the maximum value from your informational interview. Don’t forget to include questions that help you learn more about the person as an individual, so you can identify ways to stay in touch and possibly help them in the future.

      Step 5: Keep the Connection Alive

      Write your thank you note; it does make an impact. Elizabeth Amini, an online entrepreneur, recalls that after one informational interview, “a year later, when I went into that office, my thank you note was pinned to the wall.” But, while most people treat informational interviews as stepping stones to job leads or onetime data infusions, the real goal is turning a thirty-minute meeting over coffee into a relationship. One of my favorite business books from the 1980s is Harvey Mackay’s Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive. Mackay ran an envelope company—the ultimate commodity business—yet was able to prosper by differentiating his firm through great service. He mandated that his employees use “The Mackay 66,” a list of questions that they should answer about their customers, not through a onetime interrogation, but by getting to know them over time.

      During your informational interview, in addition to facts about a person’s job, you ideally want to form the building blocks of an ongoing relationship by finding out key details you can follow up on. Maybe they’re just back from a vacation to Fiji, or you both like the Dodgers, or your kids went to the same school. That’s your starting point, so make a point of sending them interesting travel articles, shooting them a note when their team makes the playoffs, or inviting them to sit with you at the school fund-raiser. With each interaction, strive to learn more about them so your relationship becomes more three-dimensional. The process of learning someone’s hometown, college, names and ages of children, favorite hobbies, favorite restaurants, previous jobs, and long-range goals provides a raft of opportunities to connect with her over shared interests and keep up a dialogue.

      Step 6: Master the Follow-Up

      Just as your contacts are helping you, you want to try to add value to СКАЧАТЬ