Atlanta Journal Constitution BIZ VOICE

BIZ VOICE AJC Article

Finding a Job is like finding a soul mate
Here is a strategy to build a network that multiplies opportunities for that perfect match

I have always told people, if you ask for advice you get a job and if you ask for a job you get advice. This is no different than dating. If you ask someone on a date, you might end up finding a wife. If you ask someone right of the bat to marry you, you might never get a first date.

My husband, Fred, didn’t ask me to marry him out of the gates. He got to know me. He realized I watched more ESPN than he did, and that when we walked into a stadium we walked down not up – but he also realized I couldn’t cook quite like his mother. Meanwhile, I found out as much as could about him as well. He was smart, funny, and would be an even better husband and father than a boyfriend. It didn’t bother him that my phone rang late at night with players who wanted to discuss each pitch from that evenings outing and it didn’t bother him that I couldn’t whip up a gourmet meal.

Treat business meetings like you’d treat dating. Start by being prepared:

• Make a list of at least twenty people, ten people you know, like and respect and ten people you don’t know. On that list should be people you think you want to be or people who work closely with people you think you want to be.


• Find out everything you can about these twenty people – personally and professionally so you are "in their world."


• Call or email them and ask if they would be kind enough to meet with you for fifteen minutes in an effort for you to get their advice.


• Secure the meeting. Once you have the meeting, send a hand written note thanking them in advance for the meeting, their time and their advice.


• Once the meeting is secured, be prepared in the meeting– by that I mean know everything that you should know about their world and know a few things they don’t think you should know about their business.


• During the meeting, secure three names of people they like and respect and that they believe you should meet with in light of what you have shared as your career passions.


• After the meeting, continue to "date" the person by sporadic, phone calls, handwritten notes, informational emails about your world and their world – show value by being respectfully aggressive.

Done right, you should have been on twenty "dates" and have twenty people who are aware of your career aspirations. Equally as important, you should have sixty more people to meet with.

It may take sixty dates to find the person you want to marry. Hopefully it will take less then sixty meetings to find the job you love.