To Land a Job, Contact Companies that Aren't Hiring

Wall Street Journal
June 30, 2009
By Alina Dizik

With so many other applicants, going through human resources or a recruiter to land a position isn’t always the best way to get hired, says Nick D’Ambrosio, founder of California-based career coaching firm FirstHired. Instead, Mr. D’Ambrosio tells job seekers that “the goal is not to land a job — it is to get a dialogue started,” and to beat the competition by getting in touch with their potential managers directly to start a relationship.

You’re both a recruiter and career coach, have you noticed a shift in the ways some job seekers land new positions?
Over the last couple of years it’s been difficult to reach certain clients — some are saying they have openings but are not using recruiters right now. But as career coaches, we know that companies are hiring if a candidate knows how to get in front of them; as recruiters, we know the jobs are open and the companies are hiring. I have one person I am coaching who sent out 12 emails to companies that showed no openings on their Web sites. He was contacted by four and ended up with three interviews. Even if they are not hiring, many employers do not want to run the risk of losing a potential employee to a competitor.

How can someone start this type of search?
Identify at least 100 potential companies who would recognize your market value. The mistake we often see made is people think 20-30 companies is a sufficient enough number of companies to approach. In this market it is not. So if you’re working for Morgan Stanley, you would build a list of companies that are in and around the same ’space’ who you could approach. You would want to include smaller investment firms, brokerage companies, and niche players. The key is finding companies that are somewhat off the radar and not being inundated with hundreds of resumes.

Once you’ve identified the companies, what can you do next?
Know who you would work for, such as a VP of finance, and call them up — that’s what we do as recruiters. Or send an email to the person that you’d actually be working for. A good hiring manager is always sort of recruiting even when there aren’t jobs. I think that when targeting smaller companies picking up the phone and calling can sometimes be effective. But statistically speaking we find a properly written email sent to the appropriate person is ten times more likely to generate a response.

What should you say in your phone call or email, and is it a good idea to attach a resume?
Don’t attach your resume. And what you say depends on your background. If I went to Yale and Wharton I would mention it, because you have to quickly convey some value to this person. In the subject line write whatever gets their attention, but obviously you can’t misrepresent yourself. I like to mention a competitor; if I’m contacting someone at Goldman Sachs, the subject line could say ‘top talent at Morgan Stanley.’ Or if you are at IBM and you mention Oracle, the email gets opened. Sometimes, it’s not necessarily the company you’re coming from, it’s what you’ve done there. The email has to be a short paragraph and somewhat conversational, you definitely don’t want it to look too formal or too stock.

Will going the less traditional route hurt your chances with some managers who say you should go through human resources?
That’s a touchy subject, if you go around the HR person you can alienate yourself as a potential hire. But if you do go through traditional methods of HR you are probably not going to get in anyway. As long as you’re not over-the-top aggressive you stand very little to lose.

Why are so many companies reluctant to list jobs, especially with recruiters?
Part of it is the cost, it’s typically 25% of the base salary and most of these people are earning between $150,000-$200,000 so fees can add up. They think we’ll just post an ad and we’ll do it ourselves. As far as creating new jobs that aren’t posted, companies won’t necessarily get approval for an opening but if the right person approaches them they are likely to respond.

Readers, have you reached out to companies that aren’t hiring? Share your thoughts in the comments section.