Finding a Job
Over the past few months, life got in the way of my posting to this blog. You see, I took a short-term job that completely engulfed me. Don’t get me wrong — it was a great job. One of the best of my life, in fact. But it was one of those things that if there were 80 hours in a day, you’d need every one of them to get things done! 
I was hired to replace two people as the company was downsizing; my contract ended when the division closed up shop for good.
What I wanted to write about today, though, was how I got that job in the first place. I know a lot of you are looking for work. And it’s a crazy competitive market out there. So how do you make yourself stand out above the crowd?
My story started with a bit of luck, in that I met someone at a networking event. His wife was a VP of Marketing for a small company and would soon be needing someone to do a little bit of everything — from tradeshow management to writing to graphic design. I sent him my resume and was contacted for a phone interview the next week. It went well. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. My breakthrough came when I attended a job fair, and learned about a guy who had written a free analyst report for a prospective company and later got the job. Aha! I went home that night and wrote up a proposal for my prospective new company on a couple of possible marketing campaigns in their new brand.
I immediately received a return email asking if I could come in the next day (Saturday!) for an in-person interview! Portfolio in hand, I went in and had a great meeting. I sent a thank you note, included a design concept for a tradeshow booth executed to one of the two proposed marketing campaigns, and waited.
Monday morning, the phone rang! I was asked to come in Tuesday morning for another meeting. At the end of the meeting I was asked to stay, and ended up working 10 hours!
The moral of the story — do what you need to do to go after the job you want. Provide free advice and free reports — no strings attached. Taking the initiative shows a prospective empolyer that you are serious and motivated; it also gives them a current and relevant example of your work. Good luck out there!
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