Networking

[resonant]

Did you know that you can send people e-mails requesting thirty minutes of their time and they'll just, like, talk to you? Even if you have nothing to offer in exchange but punctuality and gratitude?

This week, as part of my job hunt, I've had in-person meetings with high management people at the newspaper, the museum, and the city government -- none of which have any openings at all. The conversations have had varying degrees of usefulness¹, but the point is, nobody said, "What qualifications do you have for taking up my time like that?" or "I can't hire you, so let's not waste our time."

About a third of the people I contacted never got back to me; the rest all said yes.

Sometimes I complain about having gone to journalism school. I do think that for a person who hates talking to strangers and doesn't like to have people mad at her, journalism was maybe not the very best career choice. But when it comes to being prepared to just contact people out of the blue, it sure has been helpful.

¹ Kind but not so useful: "You should be secretary for my church." "Are there this many hills where you come from?" "You should totally be secretary for my church." "Why not remove this whole section of your resume and just say you can do anything and everything?" "Our dream employees have X, Y, and Z incredibly specific and arcane characteristics/backgrounds, so I don't know what to tell you." Extremely useful: "Uh-huh, uh-huh, you're saying project manager but that skill list also sounds like developmental editor to me, or possibly marketing coordinator. Hang on -- I'll send a couple of former co-workers an e-mail and see if they'll talk to you."

Comments

[china_shop]

That is so cool!

But when it comes to being prepared to just contact people out of the blue, it sure has been helpful.

Heh. It's funny what aspects of job training turn out to be the most useful and transferable. :-)

[resonant]

That's so true! I spent one summer working in a mailroom when I was a teenager, and it's amazing how often mailroom skills come in handy. (Things like being able to handle an 18-inch piece of tape without getting it stuck to anything you don't want it stuck to.)

[malnpudl]

Things like being able to handle an 18-inch piece of tape without getting it stuck to anything you don't want it stuck to.

I think that qualifies as a minor superpower.

[retrofit]

Wow, that extremely useful bit is indeed -extremely useful-. That's the kind of thinking that makes interviews like this a good use of both parties' time.

[resonant]

There's a sort of polite fiction in informational interviews where both parties are supposed to pretend not to know that one party is really hoping that the other party will help her find a job. This guy had no patience with that; he had contacts and knowledge, and by god, he was going to use them. (He was taking kind of a chance with his reputation, since he had only known me for about seven minutes, but if anything comes of it I will definitely try to justify his trust.)

[princessofgeeks]

Yeah, my journalism training has been invaluable in life. No fear of talking to strangers, cutting through red tape politely, bugging people nicely until I get what I want, summarizing, etc. It's such a huge part of my life.

Good luck on the job search, and what a great thing you're doing, those meetings. Absolutely setting your self up for a stroke of serendipity down the line. I am sending you good thoughts.

[resonant]

Absolutely setting your self up for a stroke of serendipity down the line.

That's what I'm hoping for!

In the past, I always kind of tried to go where the jobs were, but fandom has taught me that the best things have come to me not by pursuing something that I would identify as "success" but by following (1) my curiosity and (2) my desire to improve my skills and help others improve theirs. I'm trying to use that in this job hunt.

[princessofgeeks]

best of luck to you.