Like all marketing efforts getting a job
requires proactive, hard work. It is not enough to answer want ads
and blanket the world with resumes. Operating under the correct
assumption that good companies are always looking for impact
players, you must take control of your destiny and seek out and
find one good company. The company may or may not be in the market
for you. The company may not know it needs you. The company won't
even know who you are. That matters not a wit. If you can improve a
company's top line or improve its economics in any way, you will be
in demand.
If you know a company
for whom you would like to work, target them first. If you do not
know any target companies, pick one or two or three cities or towns
where you would like to live. Then get out a map, and with the
desired town as a centerpoint, use a companss and draw a circle
with a forty- or fifty-mile radies. This is the area where you wil
begin your job search.
Next, go to the
library or use the Internet, and begin researching the reference
books that detail the businesses in your search area. Good
reference materials include the various Dun and Bradstreet
listings, the Standard Directory of International Advertisers
and Advertising Agencies: The International Red Book, and the
state-published directories of companies. Unless you have a burning
desire to work in one industry, be totally indiscriminant as to
potential companies. Don't negatively prejudge a company or
industry, assuming, for example, that the products are too
technical or that the company sounds boring or that it is too big
or too small. Every compay has appeal to someone. Obviously, you
can eliminate any companies that are in an industry that is
distasteful to you, or that sell products that you find personally
offensive. Identify five or six companies which, for any reason,
appeal to you in some way.
These companies are
where you must focus you efforts. Learn all you can about these
companies. Read all their sales literature and annual reports, if
available. Visit their web site. Buy their product(s) if possible.
Talk to retailers, distributors, and customers. Research your
target company's competitors. See what's been published about your
company, its industry, its competitors. Then, based on what you
have learned, write an impact letter to the CEO of the company
outlining five or six ways the company could be improved. A good
letter will get you an interview.
If the first
forty-mile circle is a bust, draw another one in a different place.
There are lots of companies out there that will hire you when they
learn how you can improve their top or bottom line.