Discussion
I was talking to a prospective coachee who shared she emailed a friend that works at one of her target companies, and got no response. Avoidance and ghosting are common, especially when you're unemployed. It's sad, especially when it's coming from people you know. Sometimes people are just too busy (it's not personal!). Others simply don't want to inconvenience themselves (usually because they have never been unemployed). This is also common behavior by HR, recruiters and hiring managers, even after you've had a great discussion with them about how you can contribute to a role. If this is happening to you, don't lose faith... try these three things instead: 1- Pay attention to your contact's social media updates. Like, comment and share to help them showcase their expertise and accomplishments. In your next email, tell them about one of their helpful posts or congratulate them for their achievement. 2- Set up Google alerts for all your target companies. That way, you’ll know whenever there’s news about your contact's or hiring manager's business. Besides congratulating them, you can use the news to craft an impact email. For an impact letter template, see #4 in my cheat sheet "How to Land a Great Marketing Job: Seven Reasons Why Your Job Search is not Working and What To Do Instead" . 3- Share a relevant slice of your expertise. When emailing to follow-up, provide a tip, link to a helpful article, or share another company's success story. Unless it's an impact email, your follow-up message does not need to request a meeting or any other kind of response. And if you need a response at some point, then email the person three times, making no request in the first two emails. How soon you should follow up depends on the nature of your interaction. If you're following up on a open position that you were screened for, you'd send an email after three days, then after a week, then after two weeks. But for a networking contact, the frequency might be two weeks, one month and three months. A friend who was being ghosted after being told she would get an offer, tried the 3rd approach. She emailed the hiring manager saying, "Saw this article and thought about you" without a request. The hiring manager responded right away apologizing for the delay and she had an offer a few days later. I also liked this follow up message from a candidate that I had promised to talk to once she sent me her resume. I had not responded in a week. She wrote, "How are you today? So I understand you are probably super super busy but I just wanted to loop back around regarding coffee or a phone call whenever your schedule allows." I replied right away. Found these tips useful? Put these ideas into action within 24 hours, and click here to comment on this post on LinkedIn . Let me know what worked, didn't work or questions that came up as you applied them.
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