Never Apply for a Job Again!: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Rest (22 page)

CareerGuy Tip: If you fail to keep asking, the no is assured.

Here’s a story that proves the point. A client once wanted to move from her role in sales and account management for a graphic design firm into a hands-on graphic design position within the entertainment industry—specifically in the
design of DVD packaging for home video. She was working full time, but she built her stealth campaign into her already full life.

For her research, she focused on senior executives in the Hollywood movie studios. One of her approach letters was sent to the VP of home video for a certain studio. She resent the same letter for several months, one after another, befriending the administrative assistant, leaving a voicemail every couple weeks, and simply showing no signs of stopping her patient, yet relentless pursuit of her research project. (Of course, prodding and encouragement from me, after her initial tendency to give up, helped a bit.)

She consistently left messages for the target through the assistant and made each bi-monthly call such a fun and playful game of “catch the target” that she enrolled the assistant in playing with her! “Oh, darn, you just missed her…but I did give her the message from last week!”

Four months later
, she received a call from her target contact, apologizing profusely, saying how guilty she felt that she had never been able to call back because of simply being too busy. My client’s patient, yet persistent behavior gave her brownie points in the end—the VP was apologizing to
her
! Of course, she did not make the VP wrong, but deftly used the apologetic energy as an inroad to schedule a meeting for the following week. She capitalized on the relationship equity she had built up by getting to meet the VP for an extended period of time…
and
even found a way to get the VP’s opinion on her full portfolio!

Not all stealth campaigns take months but, when you’re working full time, the steady and plodding ability to expand the world’s awareness of you is priceless…and worth it. This
is a perfect example of how patient, upbeat, relentless determination can pay off in a big way.

I want to focus a bit more on staying away from casual settings for the first meeting. This advice applies even more strongly if you’re setting up meetings with people you already know, because they will
especially
want to chew the fat over what’s been happening in your respective lives, families, and so on.

Lunch and dinner meetings are great opportunities to get to know someone better on a personal level, or to enjoy an already existing personal relationship. Once again, this is smart in building or maintaining long-lasting relationships
after the initial stealth research meeting
. Just make sure you engage in this more casual networking only
after
you’ve accomplished your interview objectives in a formal setting: the target’s office. If a long-term acquaintance suggests meeting over lunch, agree that you’d love to have lunch
and
you would receive much greater benefit if you can do so
after
meeting him in his office.

CareerGuy Tip: For stealth purposes, meet friends and family where they work to shake up the old ways of relating to them.

Realize that you are conducting a professional career exploration campaign, so you want to call on the
professional
side of your personal contacts. Though it may initially seem
unusual to approach them strictly professionally, these people often have a “business world” life that you may be insufficiently aware of. So, for these individuals in particular, as well as all others that you’ll approach completely “cold,” you always want the environment to be strictly about business.

To address the obvious weirdness in contacting your current relationships in such a formal way, I advocate using a first-paragraph “disclaimer” at the top of the Approach Letter. For example, let’s say you actually knew Thomas O’Malley. You’d simply add a weirdness-reducing section to the top of the standard Approach Letter format.

Close Relationship Approach Letter

Thomas O’Malley, Chief Engineer

EcoFan, Inc.

11467 Hillcrest Drive

High Pointe, OR 97031

Dear Thomas,

I know this may seem a very formal approach given our long relationship. However, I write specifically for two reasons. First, in beginning a systematic industry research campaign, I believe there may be knowledge and information you have that I’m not already aware of and, in this way, I want to open up a different kind of dialogue between us. Second, frankly, I am just beginning a very structured way of conducting my campaign and need a guinea pig on whom to practice my approach. Please bear with me.

I am writing to you because of your unique position within the renewable energy industry. I have observed the development of EcoFan as a significant player within the wind energy field, and am particularly fascinated by the new technologies being adapted to wind turbines in the Central Valley.

Frankly, I don’t know as much as I’d like about the direction wind energy is headed in the Pacific Northwest, which is why I’m seeking information. I’m particularly researching the engineering requirements for municipalities to take advantage of these growing technologies.

Because of your senior role as a leader within this burgeoning field, I thought you might be able to give me some information regarding my research. Please be aware, I don’t expect you to have a job or to know of any. However, 5 minutes of your time would be most helpful as I gather information on the subject.

Hoping you could offer me five minutes of your time when most convenient for you, I’ll call your office in the next week to schedule an appointment. I have enclosed my pertinent information, just so you have a sense of my background.

Sincerely,

Steve Stealth

Notice that everything after the first paragraph is the same as Rita Researcher’s letter before. After the initial disclaimer, you want to use the same basic approach because it is this different kind of conversation you will conduct with him that will net you different outcomes. You’ll get information and contacts who have always been right at your fingertips if you had only known how to tap into them effectively.

As mentioned, most people’s approach to those they (think they) know well goes as far as, “Hey, I got laid off. Let me know if you hear of anything”…which generally gets
them nowhere. But realize that it’s critical to have a real research project even with people you’ve known, for it is this unique way of interacting with them that creates results beyond the inept standard method of asking for “anything.”

CareerGuy Tip: Be careful when asking to hear of “anything” because you just might get it!

Principle #8: Building Relationship Equity…One Meeting at a Time

The job now is simple: to meet face to face with as many “experts” as possible in your fields of interest and to begin stockpiling information and relationships. Following up on your Approach Letters skillfully will net you meetings, and the more you practice those follow-ups and meetings, the better you’ll get at the whole process.

There are four steps for the preparation and conduct of an effective stealth meeting.

Step 1:
The first step is, as you know, the Approach Letter you sent. Ideally, it is based on a creatively designed research project in which your target—someone you already know or someone new—is the expert and has unique information to offer you.

Step 2:
The second step is to follow up on your Approach and set the face-to-face meeting.

Step 3:
The third step is to create 20 questions to ask them about your research project. That’s easy: If you are really discussing something you’re passionate about, it won’t be hard to come up with questions about the subject. Refer back to the exercises you did in Principle #3 to discover what you are truly passionate about. Create a list of 20 questions that this person could provide insight on to help your exploration of that area. You’ll hardly ever ask those questions point blank, but you want to clearly have in your mind the areas in which this specific person could be of most informational insight before you go into your meeting.

As described earlier, the questions could range from very technical or future growth matters concerning an industry you already know about and in which you can hold the interviewee up as an expert. Or, perhaps you design questions about a new field of interest or fascination, in which you hold this interviewee as simply a “smart person” from whom you could get input.

Whatever the approach, you want to have a specific reason why this particular person can offer you unique advice and direction…and to construct questions along those lines. Write them down and bring them with you—along with a copy of the “pertinent information” (resume) that you included with the Approach Letter—inside a folding portfolio that you can flip open to take notes.

Step 4:
The fourth step is to conduct the meeting following the The 5 Stages of a Stealth Interview.

It is critical to the success of your interviews that you organize and run your meetings to provide you with exactly what you came for: information, input, advice, a personal connection, referrals, and so on. You’ll never actually use the
terms “stealth interview” or “referrals” in the conversations themselves—those are terms used only for teaching purposes.

While engaging in this process, be clear that
you
are the interviewer and you will be sitting down with
your
interviewees. In this way, you are controlling the process yourself, which allows many more possibilities to arise than in a standard conversation or traditional, overt job interview.

T
HE 5
S
TAGES OF A
S
TEALTH
I
NTERVIEW

Stage 1: Acknowledgment and bonding

This first stage is the most important opportunity to establish rapport and relationship. Remember, first impressions are everything! The first several seconds of a meeting can greatly influence the character of your entire time together. Therefore, you want to point the attention of these first moments toward that area most likely to receive favorable response: the interviewee. What one thing do people most enjoy talking about? Themselves! So, you want to focus first on them, and use your authentic interest to begin obtaining the information you need.

EXAMPLE: While in the process of sitting down in the interviewee’s office, or even on the way to the office during the initial handshake, you want to deliver a statement such as this: “First off, let me thank you for giving me the opportunity to chat with you. I appreciate that your time is important and I have a list of questions in areas I’d love to explore with you. But first, before we even get started, if I could take a moment, I’d just love to know how you got here. Where were you before this? Why did you choose this industry or company? What background enabled you to get into such a position?”

It doesn’t matter what you initially ask, just make sure it’s something that will get this person talking about herself. I’ve stated several times throughout the book that it’s always better to be interested than interesting. You’ll notice, if you just probe a person and her professional life by being very interested, moving from one naturally occurring question to another, that you will probably get many of the questions on your list answered without even looking at it. (That’s why you prepare the questions and know them inside and out before-hand…so you don’t need to look at them!) Better yet, you’ll get those questions answered from their experience rather than just a cold list of Q & As…which could be over in a matter of minutes.