JOB SEARCH MANUAL

Talk to your contacts and complete the following chart. If neither your previous research nor your contacts could provide the name of the decision maker, phone the company and ask for the name, but do not ask to talk to the individual at this point.

The approaches are:

• A. Ask your contact to set up an appointment for you with the decision maker.
• B. Ask your contact if you can use his/her name and phone the decision maker yourself.
• C. When your contact knows someone in the company other than the decision maker, ask if it would be worthwhile talking to the person in the company and, if so, if he/she would either set up an introduction for you or let you use his/her name and you initiate the contact. You may "interview" the person by phone or in person, preferably on neutral ground, e.g. over coffee. See the section on information interviews. The objective is to enlist this new person as a contact that can move you along to A or B.
• D. Follow the procedure in the section "Developing Key Contacts" to cultivate a new contact where you have no connection.