Most of us have heard stories of how some firecracker wouldn’t take no for an answer. In the end, he got the girl, got the job, landed the contract, innovated a valuable new technology or made some other sort of positive impact. When it comes to your executive job search, is tenacity really a tool you can leverage to get what you want or is it perceived by others as pushiness? (Not sure if you’re actually being pushy? Check out this article, “Persistent or Annoying?” by The Ladders.)
Tenacity is a quality that is respected in the entrepreneurial world. To some degree, it can serve to get you ahead during your executive job search. But the actual results of your efforts depend on variables that are simply beyond your control. So here are a few rules of engagement:
- Build relationships before you need them.
Tenacity works best before the search officially begins. It’s always in your best interest to look into your professional future and plan your strategy for the years to come. You can’t tell the future, but you can usually determine just by working in a position or with a company if you plan on sticking around for the long haul. If you don’t, start gathering the contacts you’ll need and forging relationships that will prove valuable when you exit the company in a few years. Not months. Years. Building relationships before you need them is the best and most natural way to leverage a go get ‘em attitude in an executive job search.
Build transparent relationships when you need them.
This one can be tricky. If you are on a self-imposed deadline or you have already left a position, the time you spend investing in new relationships will be significantly shortened and your new contact will notice. It is better to be transparent about who you are and what you want in the beginning rather than to pretend to be forging a relationship only to call a week later to see if this new contact may know of any open positions “by chance.”
- Take no for an answer on the position, not the relationship. Once you have interviewed and sent your thank you note within a 24-hour period, you can plan to follow up again in another two weeks if you haven’t heard back from the recruiter. If the recruiter went with someone else for the position you were targeting, you may wish to follow up once more in another month or two, after the new hire has settled in. If the hire isn’t a good fit, it will usually start to become apparent within the first 3 to 6 months of the hire. Think in terms of building your relationship with the hiring manager. For all intents and purposes, the job has been filled and you should have taken no for an answer, but don’t let a potentially valuable relationship slip through the cracks because the hiring company went with another candidate. Assertiveness is part of the “Likeability Factor.”
For every executive recruiter who finds your demonstrations of steadfast commitment charming, there will be two or three who may find the same demonstration obnoxious and a waste of time. So you have to be wise in how you use your natural stick-to-itiveness to make sure it is a productive use of your time and energy, and not just an exercise in boosting your own ego. USA Today article,”At Work: Nothing magical about persistence in job hunt,” encourages perseverance in spite of the today’s hiring methods.
If you’re thinking about your next position, Stewart, Cooper & Coon would like to consider your candidacy. Click here to send us your resume.