• Volunteer Work. Another useful way to research a place before you ever ask them to hire you there, is to volunteer your services at the place that interests you. Of course, some places will turn your offer down, cold. But others will be interested. If they are, it will be relatively easy for you to talk them into letting you work there for a while, because you offer your services without pay, and for a brief, limited, agreed-upon, period of time. In other words, from their point of view, if you turn out to be a pain, they won’t have to endure you for long.
In this fashion, you get a chance to learn about organizations from the inside. Not so coincidentally, if you do decide you would really like to work there, and permanently, they’ve had a chance to see you in action, and when you are about to end your volunteer time there, may want to hire you permanently. I say may. Don’t be mad if they simply say, “Thanks very much for helping us out. Goodbye.” (That’s what usually happens.) Even so, you’ve learned a lot, and this will stand you in good stead, in the future—as you approach other organizations.
After anyone has done you a favor, during this Informational Interviewing phase of your job-hunt, you must be sure to send them a thank-you note by the very next day, at the latest. Such a note goes to anyone who helps you, or who talks with you. That means friends, people at the organization in question, temporary agency people, secretaries, receptionists, librarians, workers, or whomever.
Ask them, at the time you are face-to-face with them, for their business card (if they have one), or ask them to write out their name and work address, on a piece of paper, for you. You don’t want to misspell their name. It is difficult to figure out how to spell people’s names, these days, simply from the sound of it. What sounds like “Laura” may actually be “Lara.” What sounds like “Smith” may actually be “Smythe,” and so on. Get that name and address, but get it right, please. And let me reiterate: thank-you notes must be prompt. E-mail the thank-you note that same night, or the very next day at the latest.
Follow it with a lovely printed copy, nicely formatted, and sent through the mail. (Most employers these days prefer a printed letter to a handwritten one, unless your handwriting is beautiful.)
Your thank-you note can be just two or three sentences. Something like: “I wanted to thank you for talking with me yesterday. It was very helpful to me. I much appreciated your taking the time out of your busy schedule to do this. Best wishes to you,” and then your signature. Do sign it, particularly if the thank-you note is printed. Printed letters sent through the mail without any signature seem to be multiplying like rabbits in the world of work, these days; the absence of a written signature is usually perceived as making your letter tremendously impersonal. You don’t want to leave that impression.
What If I Get Offered a Job Along the Way, While I’m Just Gathering Information?
You probably won’t. Let me remind you that during this information gathering, you are not talking primarily to employers. You’re talking to workers.
Nonetheless, an occasional employer may stray across your path during your Informational Interviewing. And that employer may be so impressed with the carefulness you’re showing, in going about your career-change and job-search, that they want to hire you, on the spot. So, it’s possible that you’d get offered a job while you’re still doing your information gathering. Not likely, but possible. And if that happens, what should you say?
Well, if you’re desperate, you will of course say yes. I remember one wintertime when I had just gone through the knee of my last pair of pants, we were burning old pieces of furniture in our fireplace to stay warm, the legs on our bed had just broken, and we were eating spaghetti until it was coming out our ears. In such a situation, of course you say yes.
But if you’re not desperate, if you have time to be more careful, then you respond to the job-offer in a way that will buy you some time. You tell them what you’re doing: that the average job-hunter tries to screen a job after they take it. But you are doing what you are sure this employer would do if they were in your shoes: you are examining careers, fields, industries, jobs, organizations before you decide where you would do your best and most effective work.
And you tell them that since your Informational Interviewing isn’t finished yet, it would be premature for you to accept their job offer, until you’re sure that this is the place where you could be most effective, and do your best work.
Then, you add: “Of course, I’m tickled pink that you would want me to be working here. And when I’ve finished my personal survey, I’ll be glad to get back to you about this, as my preliminary impression is that this is the kind of place I’d like to work in, and the kind of people I’d like to work for, and the kind of people I’d like to work with.”
In other words, if you’re not desperate yet, you don’t walk immediately through any opened doors, but neither do you allow them to be shut.
And don’t say to yourself: “Well, I see what it is that I would die to be able to do, but I know there is no job in the world like that, that I would be able to get.” Dear friend, you don’t know any such thing. You haven’t done your research yet. Of course, it is always possible that when you’ve completed all that research, and conducted your search, you still may not be able to find all that you want—down to the last detail. But you’d be surprised at how much of your dream you may be able to find.
Sometimes it will be found in stages. One retired man I know, who had been a senior executive with a publishing company, found himself bored to death in retirement, after he turned sixty-five. He contacted a business acquaintance, who said apologetically, “We just don’t have anything open that matches or requires your abilities; right now all we need is someone in our mail room.” The sixty-five-year-old executive said, “I’ll take that job!” He did, and over the ensuing years steadily advanced once again, to just the job he wanted: as a senior executive in that organization, where he utilized all his prized skills, for some time. He retired as senior executive for the second time, at the age of eighty-five. Like him, you may choose to go by stages.
What you need to keep in mind is how important passion is, to your dream, and to your job-hunt:
THE VIRTUE OF “PASSION” IN YOUR JOB-HUNT Whether in stages or directly, it is amazing how often people do get their dream job or career. The more you don’t cut the dream down, because of what you think you know about the real world, the more likely you are to find what you are looking for.
Hold on to all of your dream. Most people don’t find their heart’s desire, because they decide to pursue just half their dream—and consequently they hunt for it with only half a heart.
If you decide to pursue your whole dream, your best dream, the one
