on Career Survival - IEEE-USA

Cold Calling Your Way to a New Job
By Debra Feldman
Cold calling may be the lifeblood of selling, but very few people actually enjoy doing it. Combine the
discomfort and awkwardness of making an unsolicited phone call to a complete stranger with normal
job hunting anxieties and you can get a pretty stressful experience. So why would anyone put
themselves through the agony of making cold calls when clicking on the Web and licking envelopes
are the alternatives? The obvious answer: cold calling works.
Cold calling — the art of calling on prospective employers who don’t know you from Adam — produces
leads that result in job offers because personal connections are established very early in the
process. Cold calling jump starts a successful job search campaign by establishing a relationship between
you, the candidate, and a real live employer representative. You needn’t wait for the employer
to call back in response to your résumé or inquiry, because you skipped directly to speaking with a
hiring manager. Critical “face time” with hiring managers early in the process will translate to a faster
campaign.
Cold calling is among the most effective job search techniques, especially for accessing the hidden
job market (i.e., jobs that aren’t advertised). If you don’t use cold calling, you may be missing out on
those opportunities. Cold calling is more effective than just mailing or emailing a résumé because it
establishes a personal relationship with a specific contact person, with whom you can follow up later.
Cold calling also provides real-time feedback on your candidate status, and expands your network
to include representatives at companies on your target employer list. Even if there isn’t a good fit
immediately, cold calling provides opportunities to get your name short-listed for when the suitable
opening occurs. And there’s an added bonus sweetening your candidacy for employers: your
unsolicited inquiry means they don’t have to pay any expensive recruitment fees. Any competitive
advantage you have over other applicants is a help.
The following tips will help you minimize nerves and maximize potential. By streamlining your approach,
your calls will be more effective and easier to execute:
1)
2)
Target the right company. Maximize your potential for success by choosing target companies
that, based on your research, can benefit from your skills and knowledge. The closer you fit the
profile of an ideal candidate, the easier it will be to sell yourself. Match your background to the
industry, your interests to their apparent strategy, and your talents to a specific challenge you
can address without any learning curve.
Target the right contact. Initiate contact with a company representative who is appropriate,
usually not the President, CEO or COO. Find someone in a functional or operational role that
will quickly assess your capabilities and recognize your value to their organization. Human
Resources (HR) is more likely to screen you out than to add you to the headcount. Cold calling
HR may boost your status when responding to an advertised position, but HR is not the right
place to learn about unadvertised jobs in the hidden job market. To get the early leads and be
an insider, begin to cultivate a lasting relationship with hiring managers who will help you and
18
ieee-usa eBooks