Anatomy of a Backdoor(TM) Campaign-Part 2

In continuing the docu-drama of putting my own teachings to the test, let’s discuss what you do after you’ve decided which fields of interest give you intrigue.

Step 2 in an effective Backdoor(TM) campaign is to research, research, research.  Did I mention that research is important?  What is so cool today compared to when I did my first backdoor campaign 20 years ago (which landed me a corporate position at MGM/United Artists without ever meeting anyone in HR) is the ease of research available.  Back then, to find out about an industry, or the people who make up that industry, you had to virtually prostitute yourself to the local reference librarian: nagging them for this source and that, digging through volumes of corporate information often years out of date, or screening your way through microfiche of magazine articles related to your research.  I did that.  Who knew it wouldn’t always be that way?

Today, any and all information on virtually anything is available instantly at the touch of a Google search.  It continues to amaze me that I can immediately find more than enough to research and dig as deep as I want about anything and anyone.  The “anyone” factor is huge as, 20 years ago, you knew virtually nothing about the folks in the games you wanted to play, save for a specific magazine article profiling them.  You were lucky to simply know, for instance, the name of the CFO of MGM/United Artists Pictures, much less where he/she went to college, what their previous jobs have been, or what organizations or causes they are affiliated with.

With social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook, along with the plethora of general information that a Google search will elicit, you can become conversational on any field–it’s current players, issues, and trends–or any person virtually overnight.  Be careful, however.  As we move into subsequent steps for an effective Backdoor(TM) campaign, you’ll realize that the personal information you gain about someone can be helpful, but don’t blurt it all out if you happen to meet them.  Kinda gives the feeling of a stalker, and not the best way to initiate a relationship. 

So, the crucial second being to research what is happening and who the players are, I Googled, LinkedIned, FaceBooked, and overall milked the cyber world for everything to do with my areas of passionate exploration.

RPO (Recruitment Placement Outsourcing)–This field didn’t even exist 10 years ago, so outside of the traditional headhunter role I was accustomed to and focused on for 15 years, this movement had come along without my notice.  My bad, but as I’ve said, when we’re focused on our job, we don’t always keep up with the whole industry.  I found articles, specific publications, and the names (and pictures) of the players in the field.  This gave me what I needed to have an intelligent conversation and a short-list of folks to begin personal research with.  Remember, you don’t have to know everything about an area, but you want to be at least familiar.

Outplacement–specifically the Big Three of corporate outplacement (Lee Hecht Harrison-LHH; Right Management Consultants-Right; and Drake, Beam, Morin-DBM)–This research gave me a sense of how throngs of laid-off folks are guided through career and job search training on a massive scale.  Again, I knew the subject area very well, having taught in it myself for years.  Yet, I wanted to learn how it was administered in a larger-organization, institutional kind of way.  Besides giving me the roadmap to the new relationships I wanted to initiate with folks in the business, it surprisingly highlighted many career colleagues I knew from past industry dealings who were now part of these organizations.  BINGO!  Foot in the door!

Academic Career Counseling–A little tip from a fellow career practitioner alerted me to another former relationship who headed up a major school MBA center.  This woman had actually attended one of my Learning Annex workshops 6 years ago when my first book came out, then a consultant with one of the outplacement organizations mentioned above.  Now, she was the head of career initiatives for one of the country’s biggest MBA schools.  As I’ll outline in the next step–meeting people–this one reminder of a former connection opened up a whole world of information and contacts in this arena.

Reality TV–Well, after all, I live near Hollywood, right?  If there isn’t information to be gained or people to connect with around that, who am I fooling?  And, that is exactly it: I was fooling myself.  For years I had held onto an idea of bringing career guidance issues into a bigger format such as reality TV, but thought I just didn’t know the right people or was too busy with other things.  Funny how setting your mind to something and taking it off the back burner causes all-of-a-sudden, out-of-the-woodwork synchronistic events to happen.  This is going to be JUICY!

More next time!  Stay tuned, and Always Keep Yourself In The Line of Hire!

Anatomy of a Backdoor(TM) Campaign-Part 1

A couple months ago I finally began blogging…after knowing I should blog for a couple years.  I did so with one specific idea in mind: to put to the test the career management techniques I’ve taught for the last 20 years in the career management field.

I stated in my first blog, “In the Pool of Job Search?  Let’s Dive in Together!” that I would engage in my first “career campaign” in the last 20 years for two reasons: to create a “docu-drama” of using my tips in a real way (rather than simply teaching them), and to open myself up for opportunities outside of my current portfolio of activity to see what some pointed exploration in my areas of passion could deliver.

I committed to letting you, the reader, in on all of it–the good, the bad, and the truth on whether the stuff I teach really works.  So, I begin a series of blogs now to document what I’ve uncovered.  The results are very heartening.

Realize that before an effective Backdoor(TM) campaign can be pursued, however, there is some requisite introspective career-inventory and branding work to be accomplished.  This gives you not only the self-understanding of your own value and unique “essence” to make you confident, but also the written and spoken tools by which to fly your branded “Flag-of-Self” while in the game.  From my past work and understanding, I put those together easily enough for me.  So I begin this series with the assumption of those integral parts being in place.

(NOTE: These are trained professionals.  Do not attempt this at home without the proper foundations intact!)

First, I decided to use the backdoor techniques I teach to investigate and explore a few particular areas of passionate interest for me.  This is the requisite first step: to choose areas of investigation based on legitimate passions. To just go out and “look for a job” carries no deeper energy or meaning to enlist people’s attention or excitement.  Anyone can look for a “job.”  But to explore what ignites you, what causes you fascination and intrigue, not only gives you a reason to get out of bed, but actually makes a contribution to those you will connect with.

Yes, your legitimate, gut-based “ticklement” (the state of being “tickled”) in a profession, industry, or field of work actually makes a contribution to those on your path.  Why?  Because all of us need validation and re-ignitement in every aspect of our lives, be it our relationships, our faith, or our plans for the future.  Why would our careers be any different?

When an authentic “newcomer” comes along displaying intrigue in a field of endeavor we have made our way into (though not necessarily mastered), it can’t help but remind us of what got us here in the first place.  What were the elements of our own interest in this area?  How have we grown in it?  Where are we now compared to when we first came here years ago, wet-behind-the-ears like this newcomer who is coming to pick our brains?

So realize that the people you will be meeting in your campaign will experience a gift of introspection and validation when you truly come from passionate interest.  Plus, they will further benefit from your meeting with them because you are likely to have a good bit of fresh perspective to offer them from your recent research and other meetings.

Remember: they are often too busy doing the job to have the time or space to see the overall view of the field or industry.  If you’ve done your homework well of connecting with others in an exploratory, fact-finding way, you will likely come with news and angles they have been too wrapped up to notice.

So, Step 1 in an effective Backdoor(TM) campaign is to choose areas to explore which light you up and give you juice. The areas I chose to explore were some related to fields I’ve plowed in the past (to see what’s currently hot or not) and some new and outrageous areas of “dream job.”  Here they are:

Recruiting–specifically the area of RPO (Resource Placement Outsourcing)

Outplacement–specifically the Big Three of corporate outplacement (Lee Hecht Harrison-LHH; Right Management Consultants-Right; and Drake, Beam, Morin-DBM) to investigate how they do on a massive scale what I’ve done for years in one-to-one or smaller group settings

Academic Career Counseling–specifically to investigate how the academic world prepares its graduates in MBA and other programs (I sure know what I didn’t get), while at the same time exploring my own question of pursuing a graduate degree

Reality-TV–specifically to put legs to an idea I have nursed for years which would provide career-guidance education on a massive scale in an entertaining way

So, these were my areas of passionate exploration.  Tune in next time to follow this series in the evolvement of this Backdoor(TM) campaign…and remember to Always Keep Yourself In The Line of Hire!

Job Action Day 2008

My good friends Drs. Randall and Katharine Hansen at QuintessentialCareers.com have declared today, November 3, 2008, as “Job Action Day 2008,” and asked a bunch of us long-time career folks to add our bit to making this world work better these days.  I am happy to participate.

You can see the host of blogs and articles at the links below, but first let’s talk about what you’re going to do after reading all this wisdom.  You’re going to take ACTION with at least 3 things you learn.

All the wisdom from all the career gurus on the planet won’t avail you anything without ACTION.  The problem many folks searching for a new job run into is that today, with the wealth of advice on the internet, they get overwhelmed and simply just do things the same way–or only slightly differently–than they have in the past.  Take on a commitment that today, just for today, you’re going to swing out and do something different.

Take, for example, why you’re going to contact someone today, whether by phone, email, or letter.  What if you didn’t even mention that you were looking for a job?  What if, instead, you authentically found a reason that you wanted to talk to them outside of your pressing need for a job?

Why do that, you ask?  Because you’ll stand a lot better chance of actually getting to meet up with this person, that’s why.  As much as you want to keep things quick and to the point by getting right down to the facts of your job search, telling folks on the phone that you’re looking and to “keep their eyes open,” you’re shooting yourself in the foot in multiple ways:

1. Whether you already know the person on the phone or they are someone you were referred to, talking on the phone is the most impersonal and ineffective way to ever really connect with someone.  People are social animals.  We travelled in tribes in cave man times, and in most ways we still do.  People need to be in the energy and flesh-to-flesh presence of one another for the unseen affinities to catch hold.  It’s these unseen affinities that you want working for you as you venture out to find your next great opportunity.

2. Telling someone you need a job, again whether it’s someone you know already or not, is the best way to ensure that you won’t get those face-to-face affinities cooking on your behalf.  Why?  Because they don’t want to be put in a position where they will be in the same room as a desperate person, and definitely don’t want to set themselves up where they might have to say the “n” word: NO.

Think about it: how do you feel, what are the energies it brings into your own day of challenges ahead, when you sit down with someone scared and searching, or even desperate?  Look, we all want to help each other, that goes without question.  But in challenging times, when you have to maintain your own sense of positivity about the issues you’re facing in your own day, you’ll tend to limit the amount of meetings that can put you into your own concerns.

Everybody out there is facing concerns all the time, good economy or bad, so don’t put people into the position of magnifying them.  Rather, find something other than the challenge you are facing (getting a job) to interact with them about.  How about a “research project?”

What if you found people to speak with who are in the fields and doing the things that interest you and simply created probing questions so as to learn more about that?  And, better yet, rather than simply rattling off a list of questions when you meet them, what if you got all of those questions answered inside of merely asking them to talk about themselves and their experience.

Now that is an effective way to job search.  You don’t even mention anything about needing a job.  You stand a way better chance of actually meeting people, and you ingratiate yourself to this person by giving them an avenue to validate themselves and their experience by being interested in them.  Always better to be interested than interesting.

Look, people aren’t dummies.  If you’re out there doing research projects in the areas that fascinate you, they can only figure that you must be considering making a career move at some point.  So you don’t even need to say it.  And, they’re also not dummies in the sense that, if they see something in you that could help them or someone they know (like a “job” you could do), they’re going to tell you.  So, you don’t have to promote “Hire me!  Hire me!  Hire me!”

Drs. Randell and Katharine Hansen asked each of us career guides to answer a simple question for one of their Job Action Day 2008 blogs.  We were asked to finish the question: “If you could offer one piece of advice for how workers and job-seekers can be proactive regarding their jobs and careers at this difficult time, it would be ________________________.”

Now you know why I said:

“Do something different from everyone else! Be contrarian. Everyone else (95 percent of job-seekers) will be looking to see what other opportunities are available through front-door means (e.g., ads, online job boards, headhunters, etc.). The best way to ensure your ongoing job security, in bad times and good, is to always build and nurture a career tribe through back-door means, which means building relationships outside of needing a job. If you currently need a job, that’s fine…you just can’t use that to meet people, because they won’t meet you! Nobody wants to be put in a position to possibly have to say “no.” You have to find reasons, such as research projects, to create the necessary willingness for people to meet you. … This method is not about tricking anyone and done well, can serve as the door opener to opportunities and entire career changes you would have never imagined. I know; I’ve done it and taught it for years!”

See all the expert responses at www.quintcareers.com/attacking_job_market.html and the one above, in particular, under the subsection entitled “Market and Differentiate Yourself.”

For the entire Job Action Day 2008 plethora of articles, advice and ACTION-able wisdom, go to www.quintcareers.com/Job_Action_Day/2008.html.

When you’re done, before overwhelm kicks in, make sure you write down at least 3 ACTIONS you’ll take, and remember to always keep yourself effectively In The Line of Hire!