Question – Part 2
Last week [see Part 1] I tried a version of your advice to send a letter offering 10 minutes of my time to to a hiring manager. I also used advice from one of the commenters (Astoria Jim) about writing a first line that “hooks” the reader by discussing a big pain point. (Yes, you’d think this would be obvious to an award-winning writer but I’ve always stuck to the formal cover letter mode.) Using LinkedIn, I saw a promising job posting, identified the hiring manager and uncovered their e-mail address.
I researched the company, website, press releases, and, because the company is publicly traded, I read the transcript of the last earnings call. Like a good Boy Scout, I was prepared, finding one business issue (pain point) that would directly involve the hiring manager’s department (client communications).
The good news: it worked. I ended up talking with her for an hour.
The bad news: Every time I tried to steer the conversation toward the hiring manager’s current business pain (“what hurts?”) she responded, at length, with generalities about the company and the department. Finally, after 45 minutes, I had no idea what the specific duties of the job were, let alone any issues to solve.
So I asked, “What would you want your new hire to accomplish in the first six months in the position?” The goals were incredibly basic, things that are just a given at most communications jobs and should have been in place years ago. The big pain point I had found was nowhere on the manager’s radar.
Then I asked about the salary, which was $40,000 under what that position should be worth in that market, especially for a job that’s on-site 5 days a week. Now, this is a very big, international hospitality company, millions of clients, and the job was the No. 2 person running the day-to-day functions of several digital client verticals. At that salary, it’s more likely a glorified administrative assistant with added uncompensated responsibilities.
So, not the outcome I hoped for but, on the other hand, I now know that your letter technique works, and I’ve figured it how to pull it off in a way that reflects my strengths and personality.
So, thanks for the great advice. It’s the most movement I’ve had in my job hunt in years!
Nick’s Reply
[Read Part 1]
Nice work! You’ve discovered that this method for getting the meeting works — but we can’t control whether the manager is adept at interviewing or at their job!
Find a pain point
Sometimes these methods help you stand out and get an offer. Sometimes they elicit information no other candidate will ever get from the employer. In this case, by trying to focus on what the manager needed you to deliver (a pain point you could help with), you learned (a) this is what I call a broken job and (b) the pay makes no sense given the description of the job.
Sounds like maybe you’ve dodged a bullet. That counts as success, too!
I’m glad you’ve mastered this new approach of reaching out directly to the hiring manager with an offer to explain how you can help, instead of sending a mere cover letter. If anything I said was helpful, I’m glad, and you’re welcome! Thanks for sharing your story!
How would you summarize what this reader did differently to get in the door? Do you have examples of a pain point you’ve used to get a manager’s attention? How did you identify a pain point?
: :
Nick, I think this method only works with professionals. Anyone that’s in a plebeian administrative job (think administrative assistants) doesn’t get the time of day to use this method.
@Laura: Please see Michael’s comment below. I know AAs, accountants, even one blood lab technician that used this method successfully. They all found ways to learn what an employer needed help with and navigated via mutual contacts to the hiring manager. Please see:
https://www.asktheheadhunter.com/17724/executive-interview
I commend the reader’s initiative in doing the homework necessary to secure an intelligent discussion with the hiring manager. At the very least, it helped the reader decide that this particular company wasn’t the right opportunity while validating the technique. I’ve long been of the opinion that the best job leads begin with a conversation, not with a résumé.
As the reader noted, public companies provide a trove of information that can be scoured for pain points. I’ve found that 10-K reports are especially enlightening because they reveal ongoing litigation that has the potential of impacting company financials. I’m not an attorney by trade, but the subject matter of lawsuits can often uncover product and service deficiencies which my skills might be able to prevent in the future. It’s a bit tougher to uncover pain points at privately-held companies, but networking with lawyers, bankers, consultants, vendors and even former employees can reveal valuable insights.
Where does one find 10-K reports?
Chris:
There are a couple of places.
Try looking at the SEC, last I knew, you could search filings (the 10-K is a required filing for publicly traded companies IIRC)..
Also try the investor relations of the company.
@David: Investor relations is one of my favorite channels for making contacts in a publicly held company. These folks hear mostly from investors and they tend to enjoy chatting about their company. They can be an excellent source of introductions if you ask respectfully.
You can also look at yahoo finance. Under the profile section after the management listing is the SEC documents. Look for 10k. It will open in a pdf.
https://www.sec.gov/search-filings
and explanatio here
https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/glossary/form-10-k
Ahmen, the OOP doged a bullet due his dilent pursant of the potential job offer. Unfortunatel. largish coproraions have seen fit to offer below rate compensation in the hopes of gaining a fractrion of a percont in emplyee compensation. To them I say FAFO.
I’d say that the writer uncovered the real pain point: That the hiring manager either is unaware of how unaware she is, or that she is restricted by her own managers from being allowed to run her department effectively.
If the writer thought the company was still a good place to work because they are providing a worthwhile product/service, the writer could pivot and look for another position, including one at the level of the manager with whom the writer interviewed, to provide some guidance on how to clarify the goals of the company.
Again, this would only be valuable to the job seeker if they thought the company had value and was worth the effort, otherwise, move on.
I disagree with the person who commented that this doesn’t work for front-line folks. It does, for the very reasons the writer showed: It demonstrates which companies are worth working for. Why would someone want to work for a company that proves during the interview process that they devalue their employees?
If someone needs money, of course, take what you can get when it’s available. But then, between the unpaid overtime, taking care of the kids, running errands, taking care of health issues, worrying about the news, and cleaning the cat box, use those two minutes to keep moving forward on finding a better job.
Working on improving one’s life always pays off, even if all one gets out of it, at first, is a few moments of the feeling of self control. That feeling can be expanded, bit by bit, as one finds more and more ways to take charge of their own life.
Nick – As you and I have talked about several times over the years – ‘Make sure you understand the symptom/problem before going after a solution’ ?
@Sam: Exactly! A good manager is not going to hire you “to fill out head count” or because your credentials are good or because you have a nice resume. (Nowadays, resumes are less than worthless because you can have your AI buddy write it so it’s “perfect!”) A good manager hires you because you understand the problem and know how to marshal your skills (or quickly develop new ones) TO DO THE WORK!
You can’t understand the problem until you understand the business, the product and the team. So why is it when a job seeker recites their “elevator pitch,” it’s always about THEM and not about the employer, the manager, the work, the problem? (A: Because everything else is easier to “get.” It’s in the “job description!” NOT!)