Leaders often have to ask outsiders to invest their time, energy, or financial resources to promote the good work they are doing. These requests range from fundraising to capital investment, and from investing time to serving as advisors to a new project or enterprise.
This works for getting hired too. I've counseled many people who've had success using this strategy to land their next job. Especially early career professionals who have not yet established a name or reputation yet. Instead of asking someone if they have a job opening, ask them how they got to where they are at and what their team currently does. I learned this one on my own when I applied for an internship with the Southern California Gas Company in 1997. After several weeks went by after applying and not hearing anything, I contacted who I thought might be the hiring manager directly. I asked her if she received my resume. She told me she did and it was in the 'not enough experience' pile. I was 23 at the time and I asked her for her advice on how she first got started. I threaded in the 10 or so jobs I had since I was 15 and how that experience led me to my chosen field. I think it also might have helped that I asked her questions about a couple of published papers I read of hers. I've given this advice to several early career professionals over the years with a decent success rate. As a team member and I get ready to start on a seemingly impossible new project, I'm going to keep this Field Note close to my hip as we go out and try to gain acceptance and commitment for the initiative. Thanks!
I recently found myself in this exact conversation with a young job seeker.
I am consistently surprised how counter intuitive the thinking is. I think most people feel like they only have “one shot” and shouldn’t waste it on anything except asking for exactly what they want.
This works for getting hired too. I've counseled many people who've had success using this strategy to land their next job. Especially early career professionals who have not yet established a name or reputation yet. Instead of asking someone if they have a job opening, ask them how they got to where they are at and what their team currently does. I learned this one on my own when I applied for an internship with the Southern California Gas Company in 1997. After several weeks went by after applying and not hearing anything, I contacted who I thought might be the hiring manager directly. I asked her if she received my resume. She told me she did and it was in the 'not enough experience' pile. I was 23 at the time and I asked her for her advice on how she first got started. I threaded in the 10 or so jobs I had since I was 15 and how that experience led me to my chosen field. I think it also might have helped that I asked her questions about a couple of published papers I read of hers. I've given this advice to several early career professionals over the years with a decent success rate. As a team member and I get ready to start on a seemingly impossible new project, I'm going to keep this Field Note close to my hip as we go out and try to gain acceptance and commitment for the initiative. Thanks!
I recently found myself in this exact conversation with a young job seeker.
I am consistently surprised how counter intuitive the thinking is. I think most people feel like they only have “one shot” and shouldn’t waste it on anything except asking for exactly what they want.