Job Search

Ask A Progeek: Networking When You Can’t

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Ah, job ads.  How many times they have instructions that have our heads spinning.  Let’s take a look at our latest Ask A Progeek:

If a job posting says that “only qualified applicants will be contacted” and “no phone calls please,” it seems like they don’t want you to contact them after applying.  In that case, how do you follow up? (or should you?)

This is a case of a fundamental job search issue – two different principles colliding.  In this case the rules of “networking” and “followup” with the other rule of “don’t annoy the people who may want to hire you.”  Your job search plans grind to a halt when something like this happens, because where do you go?

Actually you don’t let the problems butt into each other head on – you go around the situation.  Just like any obstacle you find away to go around it.  You circle around the obstacle.

In this case?  The obstacle is the HR department policy.

Now this policy may make sense.  As much as it heads off your plans, they may be too busy, too concerned, too careful, or too antisocial to want you contacting them.  Ask yourself if you were recruiting or hiring, wouldn’t there be situations where you wouldn’t want anyone contacting you?  The answer, by the way, is yes.

So you can’t charge on ahead and bug HR.  So you turn around and find another way to follow up.

The big way is networking.

See you can probably find people at the company you want to work for, or find people who know people there.  These people, if you know them or can get to know them, can follow up with you personally.  It’s not going and bugging the HR department (who are probably overwhelmed), its just good networking

Now this is going to take persistence and can have you running round and round to find the right people.  But if it’s a job you really want, then it’s worth the effort to go around the barriers . . . that they kind of put in the way anyway.

A final tip – no matter how friendly they are on followup, give potential employers MANY ways to reach you – phone, email, web page, etc.  Make it easy for them to get back to you.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Offense, Defense, Whyfense: How We Got To The Defensive Job Search

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Last Column I put out the theory that there’s Offensive and Defensive job searches, and we may want to focus more on “offense” and active career planning and pursuit.  This begs the question – if my theory is correct (let’s assume I am of course) then how did we end up in a state where there was so much defensive job searching – or when it became such a bad idea.

First I think that people have often played defensive with their jobs because that’s where the money is.  There’s an inherently conservative approach to where the cash-flow is.

Secondly, I think for years (but not the last 20 or so) that people often didn’t worry career-wise as much as they do now.  Paths were more defined.  Companies had promotion systems.  The economy hadn’t been ruined by morons.

Third, though I feel that people got more “careerist” 20-30 years ago, more aggressive (coinciding non-coincidentally with globalization, the tech booms, and ideas about economic ownership), this didn’t last a long time.  I think people need to be more “On Offense” in careers, but the idea we’re all Internet-dot-bomb era super-go-getters who lapsed is terribly wrong.

Fourth, then we had repeated economic meltdowns all engineered by various “go-getters” who were unethical, greedy, and ignorant.  Also, probably ugly.  Anyway, you then had people playing Defense on careers because we kept having dot-bomb meltdowns, economic collapses, and of course finally the big ol’ financial meltdown.

Of course people play Defense a lot – they always have, they didn’t have to in a lot of cases, and any era of super-careerist go-getterism was short and got wiped out by the big economy-go-booms of the last decade or so.

So now we’ve got to play more Offense and I don’t think the “cultural infrastructure” is really there for it.  But it’s time – we don’t have much choice, and I think more active engagement may let us solve the problems.

Kind of makes me wonder if we’d had more people on Career Offensive if they’d have stopped some of these problems – and how many aggressive people actually helped cause them . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Getting Offensive On The Job Search

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We all know the classic line “The Best Offense is a Good Defense.”  I of course believe the opposite is true many times and sometimes you’ve got to go on the offense as a form of protecting yourself.

I also believe that a job search and career plan can be both Offense or Defense.  The “offense” job search/career plan involves aggressive planning, moving forward, and following plans that lead to various goals.  The “defense” job search is one where you preserve what you have, plan “horizontal” moves to escape bad situations, and in some cases just take any job.  I’m sure we’ve all done both.

However, I meet a lot of people doing “defensive” job searches (indeed I’ve done them myself).  Based on my experiences I think the “defensive” job search and career planning predominates as we have an unstable, unpredictable, economy.  It’s understandable, of course – but I’m thinking it may be taken too far.

I see so much defensive job searching, that I’m thinking far, far too much time is spent in defense mode.

When you’re defensive, you’re not planning ahead (usually).  You’re responsive.  You’re protective.  This may make sense, but when the economy is in such a shambles there may be no defense, there may be no protection.  In a state without sanctuary you need to build one – you need to get defensive.

After all, when you go “on the offense” in your job search you’re planning, you’re moving forward, staking out territory, making things happen.  You’re not letting the crisis define you – you’re doing your own definition – and you may even be redefining the crisis.  You’re also not letting yourself be defined by the situation.

How many of us are being defined by a situation?  How many of us are just responsive?  How many of us have no grounding and are really just preserving what little we do have?

I think it’s time more of us go on the offensive:

  • Preemptive low-level job searches may be great – but get an eye toward career advancement.
  • Keep your career plan moving forward, with training, coaching, looking at new positions, etc.
  • Make that new business of yours anyway – even if its part time or erratically.
  • Keep your career plan going and chart it.  Even if it’s delayed, you know where you’re going.
  • Define yourself.  Don’t’ let someone else or something do it.

Let’s try to ramp up the career plans and the job search. Let’s go on the offense.

But how did it get that way?  Well that’s for the next column . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.