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Subject:Researching companies (was Testing) From:Melissa Hunter-Kilmer <mhunterk -at- BNA -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 10 Mar 1995 10:12:59 EST
On Wed, 8 Mar 1995, Karen Kay wrote:
>> 2) How do slant it towards the company if you don't already know the
>> company? (This is a serious question: I live in Silicon Valley,
>> and there are a LOT of companies, big and small. Some of them I can
>> look up, but not all of them are listed in various sources available
>> to me.)
>>
>> 3) Most of the job ads in the San Jose Mercury News don't list a
>> company name. So how do you slant your letter in those cases?
On Wed, 8 Mar 1995, lori m long <llong -at- UNM -dot- EDU> said:
> I'm a newcomer to this group, so if I've done this incorrectly, I
> apologize (and please, somebody yell at me so I don't mess up again!)
The form looks fine. It's just the content that bothers me!
> If you have a phone number for the company, my favorite trick is calling
> and making friends with the receptionist. The person who answers the
> phone usually has a tremendous amount of information about the company
> and the people working there. (HINT: Call around 3:00 in the afternoon,
> or some other suitably dead time of day for phones.)
Argh! This brings back horrible old memories.
Long ago, I was a receptionist for a branch of Xerox. I hated it when
callers tried to chat me up. I was there to connect them to their party,
period. I was not there to become their friends or give them job leads.
Those who tried to monopolize my time got on my bad list very quickly and
when I recognized their voices, I cut to the chase as soon as possible.
While I tried to get rid of these misguided folks in a polite way, lots of
other people were trying to call in and were *not* pleased to get busy
signals. There was *no* time of day when the phones were dead.
I recommend networking instead. They say that you can network your way to
the President in, what was it, seven steps? Put out the word that you are
interested in finding out about XYZ Company. Eventually -- and yes, it
can take a while -- one of your contacts will say, "Oh, yeah, my husband's
cousin used to work there. I'll give you her number." You'll get far
better results this way.
//\ /\\ **************************************************
|| * \ . . / * || * Melissa Hunter-Kilmer (mhunterk -at- bna -dot- com) *
\\____\X/____// * Bureau of National Affairs (NOT the government!) *
/ * /O\ * \ * Washington, DC *
\__/ " \__/ **************************************************
