In Transition, Step Three; Pick Your Target

In Transition, Step Three; Pick Your Target

The Job Or Work You Want!


When picking your target, remember that you are selecting a place, a team. you will enjoy and take pride in being a member of. If you can't be proud of the company and the team you work with, you will fail to make a positive difference there. You will be unhappy when you leave for work in the morning, unhappy when you come home, and your family, friends, will feel the unhappiness.

What you should target is places where you will make a positive difference, do something different, and grow your list of proud accomplishments. Now answer this question.

How will I make a positive difference to this company?
In which department or function?

Write down your answer: Tomorrow key it into your computer and print it. Do you like what you see? Change it so you do, then give to five people, who know you and make the changes they suggest, or that you think of while answering their questions and listening to their comments. Give this changed version to a person, who employees people, not one of your target companies, and get her/his comments.

Now write a final version.

Tomorrow speak it out loud, with conviction. The words do not have to be exactly the same when you speak it, but you must say it with the tone and force that tells someone else you really believe it. If you do not really believe what you have written, start over.

The next step.

This is the fun part: Call the company that is lowest on your target company list. Listen to the person that answers the phone; ask a question that will allow you to hang up gracefully, e.g. I'm sorry, I dialed the wrong number. Listen to what follows, say Thank You, and hang up.

Write down your feelings, your perception of the company, and the person answering the phone.

Was it a live person, or recorded?
If live, did the person sound happy?
Interested in you?
Would you like to be a customer of this company? Why? Why not?

Next, visit this company; look at the building, the lobby, note the way you are greeted, when, by whom; are the people happy?
Do you want to work with them? Why? Why not?
Remember; at this point in your transition to a new season in your life, you are the buyer. When you go to work in a company, you are making a commitment to become a part of the company's success or failure; you are buying the company.

= = = = =

My appointment with the Vice President, who was hiring, was at five in the afternoon. I arrived in the dimly lit, underground visitor parking lot at 4:30. I dodged water dripping from the ceiling as I found my way to the lobby. There I signed in with the security guard, took a seat with the executive recruiter, who had arranged the appointment, and waited. At two minutes after five, people came streaming down the stairs and out of the elevator. They were employees leaving work. Three things I noted were,

• The first people reached the lobby two minutes after five.


• The building, all six floors, was empty within 20 minutes.


• No one smiled, laughed, said see you tomorrow, or some other pleasantry. They all left in silence, not a word was spoken; no comments to the security guard or by him; just silence, sober faced silence.

Then we were told the VP was ready to see us. We walked past rows of empty desks and cubicles on the way to his office. We shook hands, sat down; his first question was

"Why do you want this position with us?"

"I've decided I don't want it."

"What?"

I stood up, thanked him for his time, shook hands, left the recruiter with him and went home.

It was a very good decision. No one in the organization was happy. My perception was that he wasn't happy either. Why would I want to be unhappy with them? The six-digit salary would not have been worth it. I was buying; the sale was lost in the parking garage and the lobby.

= = = = =

Next time we'll talk about the next steps, when you are selling, and I'll tell you the strange twist to the end of this story. It will convince you that when things don't feel right, it is time to get out, as I did.


Wes (Wesley) Zimmerman
480.628.2450
wes@perceptionofdifference.com