So, how do you go about asking for a job once you use connections to get a sit down?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Well… you could call him and suggest times for the interview. No need to be passive about this, right?

"Hi, Bob, this is Zsofia Aifosz, <dad’s name>'s daughter. I know that you’re busy so I would like to schedule a quick 15-30 minute meeting with you to talk about ABC Inc and what I can bring to the table in helping the organization achieve your* goals for it. Next week is Thanksgiving, but that doesn’t matter to me - would you want to meet Tuesday afternoon or Friday morning?

<schedule the appointment> (you should have your calendar in front of you)

Thank you so much! Looking forward to seeing you on <scheduled time and date> - I’ll send out an email to confirm - should I send it to “MyDadsEx-Partner@ABCInc.com”?"

In this simple script you have the five elements you need:

  1. Introduction
  2. Connector (I’m <Dad’s> daughter>
  3. Benefit (to him, not you!)
  4. Schedule the appointment
  5. Confirmation

Don’t wait! Be proactive!

:slight_smile:

*You might want to accentuate this word… “Achieve your goals for it…”

Also, write the script you want to use and practice it a few times. Don’t wing it!

22

That’s a really good script, and I’m totally gonna use it, but I do want to give a day or two to make sure he got a chance to take a look at what I sent. (The e-mail address on his business card was slightly different from the one on the website, so at first I figured error, and then I thought, maybe a sly filtering system? So I sent it to the card one and a day later second guessed myself enough that I also sent it to the website one.) I know he’s been out of the office a lot this week, because Dad mentioned he’d tried to talk to the guy. A little worried that my dad’s bugging him about it.

Then again, my dad has earned a shit ton of capital in this company and maybe I should let him bug him about it.

Added difficulty is that we are very understaffed so it’s going to be a bit harder for me to get away to be able to make it to an interview. My mom asked my dad offhand if I should try to do it over dinner and, I mean, HELL no - that puts me in a bad check-wrestling position. Because if I were a guy he’d probably let me pay for dinner but this is the South and I’m his old partner’s daughter and… please don’t introduce that, ugh. Of course I’ll meet him over dinner if he wants to, but I’d really like to avoid that.

ETA - I keep trying to remind myself of what cher3 said and my husband mentioned - it doesn’t even cross anybody’s mind in the 1% to not use connections.

23

Sounds great so far. As for dinner, it is not the best place to do an interview, but the interviewer always pays, no matter where you are. A good interviewer is selling the company and the job as much as the interviewee is selling herself. So to speak. Plus, he has more money and paying for your dinner is a legitimate business expense.

24

Coffee, not dinner. That is, if you have to meet outside the office. If you think that’s going to happen, find the nearest Starbucks to the office and have that address ready to suggest.

Don’t know what your work hours are, but they’re probably irrelevant in regards to his work hours. He’ll be glad to meet you @ 7:30am or 6:30pm - people who run successful companies usually don’t keep 9-5 schedules.

Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t leave this in your Dad’s hands. I cannot stress this enough. Don’t.

Also, really… don’t wait to call. There’s no need to wait, not even “I want to give him time to look at what I sent.” He’ll look at what you sent after the call, and even if he doesn’t, print out copies so you can hand it to him @ the meeting.

And since I’m on a roll with the "Don’t"s, don’t call it or think of it as an “interview.” You’re having a meeting. The actual interview (if you have one) will likely be conducted by somebody below Bob. Bob doesn’t conduct interviews, Bob has meetings*. Phrase it to meet his expectations, not yours. :slight_smile:

You might have a gatekeeper (i.e., a secretary or somebody who screens his calls.) To get past them you would say

“Good morning, this is Zsofia Aifosz. Is Bob McKenzie there? He’s expecting my call.”
“Let me check. What is this about?”
“My father, David Aifosz, used to be Bob’s partner at ABC until he retired <X> years ago. Last week, Dad and Bob discussed having me call Bob to discuss some items of interest to Bob, and Dad said to give Bob a call.” (SILENCE - LEAVE IT AT THAT)
“OK, let me see if he’s in.”

OK, two things are going to happen here. 1, you’ll get transferred to Bob whereupon you give the little spiel in my first post. 2, she will come back and say

“Bob is not in/too busy. Can I transfer you to his voice mail?”
“Yes, please.”

Have a VM script written just in case this happens. You’ll want it to look like the following:

“Hello, Mr. McKenzie, this is Zsofia Aifosz, David Aifosz’s daughter. I was calling to schedule a quick meeting with you to discuss ABC Inc, its needs and challenges, and how I may assist in meeting them. I will call you back tomorrow <date> at <time>, or if you wish to call me back, you may reach me at my personal** number at 212-555-1234 to schedule this meeting. I look forward to connecting with you. Goodbye.”

Again, have this written out, scripted, and practice a couple of times. DON’T WING IT.

*Depending upon the size of the company, of course. If it’s a small operation, less than 25 people, Bob might actually be the one who does the interviewing. But still… call it a meeting, OK? :slight_smile:

**Not “Cell”. “Personal.”

25

Oh yeah, this is totally a “meeting”. It might even, depending on the tone, be a social meeting. My dad all anxiously was “You remember his late wife’s name, right? And his kids? You know you ask about…” “Dad, his late wife taught me how to swim. I got that part of this.” I did hear that he’s out of town for the rest of this week.

And no, it’s quite a large company. Not huge but larger than the large library I work for now by a long shot. This guy surely interviews, say, regional heads himself. But not the girl who answers the phone. Which is not, of course, who I’d like to be.

MsWhatsit, I ILLed that book. Thanks again, this is really useful stuff.

26

just wanted to repeat JohnT’s excellent advice. Script and role play the call and the meeting. It’s great to have notes for the phone call. Role play gives you a few fall back lines if you get stuck and gives some guard rails so you don’t get into stream of consciousness rambling answers.

I would role play with your father. Not necessarily take his advice but at least use him for practice since he knows the company so well. I’d role play with 2 or 3 different folks.

Think of likely questions and how to answer.

Most interviewers will ask “do you have any questions for me?” Have a couple of questions up your sleeve and no matter what do NOT say “you’ve explained everything so well, I don’t have any questions.” If you don’t get this question, IMHO I would ask one just to show you’re on the ball. “I do have one question I would like to ask…”

(Heck, I bullet point or script just about every call ever do just to make sure I sound as professional as possible and don’t forget a key point to cover. I’ll never forget the advice of a hot shot salesman at UBS gave to us newbies, and it was “always think before you pick up the phone.”

27

I learned my lesson years ago on the question thing - I haven’t been able to get a damned interview in years, but if I did get one I sure wouldn’t make the mistake I used to make as a dumb 20-something of not having any questions to ask. (I figure “where do you see this position/this industry/this company in five years?” is a good thing to hold back for that unless conversation has already dwelt on the future a lot.)

28

To add more to China Guy’s excellent advice to follow my excellent advice (sorry! Just had to do that - compliments are rare on this board. :wink: ), remember the following:

THE POINT OF THE PHONE CALL IS SOLELY TO SECURE THE MEETING.

There are no other objectives. If he says “Well, let’s talk about this over the phone, now”, you should respond with

“That’s a great suggestion Bob, but I think that what I bring to the table is far better conveyed with a face-to-face meeting. If you’re too busy next week, I’ll be glad to meet you on the week of December 2nd. Do you prefer Monday afternoon, or Wednesday morning?”

Regardless, keep in mind the objective: To get that meeting!

29

Mmm. Hadn’t thought of that. That’s a good point too.

30

Yeah, Bob isn’t going to say “What do you know about ABC?” or “Tell me about your work experience” over the phone. Right now, your objective is to get the meeting - once that is done, come back to the thread and we’ll tell you how to handle it. :slight_smile:

How many people are at this company? Private or public?

31

Zsofia, what’s the big deal? He either needs someone or he doesn’t. If he needs someone, well, why shouldn’t he hire you? If he doesn’t, then you’re out an hour of your time.

Consider this.

  1. You know the business.
  2. You know the company and its history.
  3. You know the job.
  4. You can do it better than the next guy.
  5. You want the job and you want to be successful at it.
  6. You’re available.
  7. You’re reliable.
  8. You’re honest.

Now, tell me why he shouldn’t hire you?

Oh, and asking parents for help is fine.

32

JohnT, at this location they have about 50 people, nationwide around 6,000 spread out over 8 locations (but most of those people almost never walk into a company building; they work in various factories, schools, etc.) It’s private. According to Reference USA, annual sales are around 90 million.

33

That’s sales of 15,000 per employee: that sounds far too low, as it wouldn’t even pay the salaries. One of those figures has to be wrong, or they are making money other than just by sales.

34

If they’re 1099 part time commissioned sales reps, it might be right.

35

Probably the ReferenceUSA sales figures. To pick a business at random, they show QVC’s annual sales at $1.8 billion, but the actual sales as reported on QVC’s website are $8.6 billion.

36

Yes, that would explain it. Sorry for the hijack – carry on with the OP’s question.

37

That’s why I cited that source, it seemed low to me also. The employee figure jibes with what Dad says but the funding seems low. On the other hand, a lot of these employees may be part time, and a lot of them are low paid by the nature of the business.

ETA - just goes to show the uncertainty of researching private companies. I’m headed to the university’s business library to take a look at their resources, although it’s hard as hell to find stuff on private companies that aren’t particularly big.

38

Ugh, I can be such a scaredycat sometimes! Fear is the mind-killer, right? Finally sacked up and called and of course it was awful - got dropped on a transfer, had to talk to somebody who as far as I could tell was just wandering by and noticed a ringing telephone, etc. - but I left the message I practiced.

39

You go girl! (I assume?)

Don’t sweat it - the only part he knows about is the VM. Now… aren’t you glad you practiced the VM prior to leaving it? :slight_smile:

Give a call on Tuesday (not Monday, likely a lot of catch-up from the 4-day weekend) and you can now use your VM as a touching point.

Sounds like you didn’t have any trouble being transferred to him… was that scripted as well?

40

His business card had a direct number. (It also did have a cell number but I didn’t want to call that one in case I got “I don’t have my calendar with me…” but if I don’t hear from him I can try that one.)

And, hell, if the best I can do is secretarial I can sure improve their phone procedures.

Thank you guys so much for all your help, by the way - especially in terms of thinking in phone scripts. I feel much more confident about selling myself in person than I do in dealing with this phone business.