The Power of the Follow-Up Call

Have you sent an email with your CV to someone you didn't know and are still looking to hear back from them?

I woke up this morning thinking about all the things I have hanging. Three emails in my inbox came immediately to mind. You see, I have three people's emails with their CVs awaiting a respose from me. I know what the response is, no, but among all the other things I have to do, I just haven't got round to sending those emails.

But then again, none of these three people have called me to follow-up their emails either. So how much do they really want a job with the company I'm an associate for? (And I know they have my number as it's on the website on the row right above my email address, which they clearly have found).

It was interesting to be at the receiving end of this, as this relates strongly to five top tips I give out to clients:

1. Do not send your CV asking for a job to people you don't know - instead send them an email with a short description of your background, your career aspirations and a request for a brief phone conversation to get some advice on how your experience fits what employers are looking for and what are the best methods to look for work in that particular industry
2. Then follow this email up with a phone call about a week later. Show them you really want the conversation. You might still get a no, but my experience is that 70-80% of the time you'll get some sort of conversation and answers to your questions.
3. Don't leave a conversation without asking if the person has anyone else they suggest you have a conversation with - and permission to use their name when getting in touch with this new person.
4. After you've had your conversation, follow this up with a thank you email with a few short lines of what you found most useful about the interaction. If appropriate (you'll know from how the conversation has gone), now you can attach your CV.
5. Keep everyone you meet posted on how things progress for you, e.g. when you get a new job, this way they'll keep you on their radar screen in the future too.

Now I kept on thinking about these three people in my inbox. None of them have done their homework. If they had, they'd know we aren't hiring people, and they'd also know that their qualifications don't match what we would be looking for if we were. Had they emailed me to request a conversation on how to get into the industry, I'd have booked that already. In fact, I had one such conversation yesterday with someone who contacted me last week requesting such a conversation.

If one of them did decide to call me to follow up and only asked if we have jobs or not, then I'm pretty sure the average person at the other end of the line would answer this question with the two options that a closed question usually offers: yes or no. But if they called me and asked if I'd received their email and if I could give them some advice, I'd be open to discussing this.

And whilst I'm using myself as the example of the employer in this case, my experience is that this is a good representation of how it works with other employers too.

So go and have conversations, be proactive and pick up the phone, ask for advice, find out from the experts (the people actually working in the industries you are interested in) what the best way in is. Don't spray your CV around and sit at home praying that someone (like me) will email you with all the answers and a job on a silver platter. In all my years in both talent management and coaching, I've not heard of many (can't actually think of any) examples where that method bore much fruit.