Four Techniques That Get Employers To Return Your Phone Calls

By Deborah Brown-Volkman 

Are you frustrated when you receive no response after you send out resumes, no follow-up calls to hear how you did on interviews, no replies when you are trying to gather more information about a prospective employer? 

Well, you are not alone. Over the past few years, it seems like it has been impossible to get people to return phone calls. The truth is this has always been the case. The employment decision making process often moves slowly. As a result, getting back to you happens slowly too. But when you are out of work, or are trying to jump from your current position, the waiting hurts more, because the stakes are higher. In many cases, you can't afford to wait, because you need an answer now. 

However, if you are proactive and creative, you can get people to return your calls. Here are some tips that work:

1. Don't Expect People To Get Back To You.

This means follow-up on a regular basis. People get busy and do not always remember to get back to you because they get sidetracked on other projects. They are not avoiding you, they are just working on other priorities, or do not have an answer for you yet.

The person who wants something is the person who is responsible for following-up. This means you. You cannot make one call and then say to yourself "if the person wanted to get back to me they would" and then give up. You have to be persistent. This is how you will get what you want.

2. Schedule A Follow-Up Call At The End Of Each Call Or Meeting.

Try not to leave any meeting or telephone conversation without another one scheduled. This way you have a time and a commitment from the other person to talk again. So when you are following up you do not have to feel like you are being pushy, rather you are fulfilling on a commitment you made to have another call.

3. If They Cannot Give You A Follow-Up Time, Ask Them When Would Be A Good Time Or Day To Call Them Again.

This way you do not leave the conversation hearing the dreaded "I'll get back to you." or "I will call you." These words only keep you sitting by your phone for days waiting for it to ring. In the meantime, you are going over the last conversation in your head over and over again, looking for clues of what you did wrong. Don't waste your time and energy. Let people know you will be calling again.

4. If They Give You No Commitment (Or You Were Afraid To Ask) Call Them

Here's a trick that is very effective. Wait 3 days after you've had a conversation with someone, and call them. Then, call them once a week until they get back to you. Many people feel funny about this, but it does work. The goal here is to be as nice and gracious on the first call as the 16th (or later.) If you get angry and it comes across in your voice mail messages, you will not get a return call.

Side note: Please do not think I am telling you to stalk someone or be overly pushy. If someone says they will get back to you, they should. Following-up is your way of ensuring that they do. One rule to the follow-up calls: if someone says stop calling, then stop calling. But this happens very rarely.

In many cases the person you are trying to reach just got busy and is grateful that you were persistent, and thanks you for following-up. You both win, they get a stellar employee, and you get a new job.

How To Encourage People To Change Their Own Minds

 

Self-persuasion: let people talk themselves around to your point of view.

Changing people's minds is hard. We resist having our attitudes adjusted by others, especially when the message isn't directly relevant to us and we aren't paying that much attention.

But what if you could get people to change their own minds? People will listen to themselves and will automatically generate arguments that have personal relevance for them.

It's not as crazy as it sounds. Actually people are being encouraged to persuade themselves all the time. Here are a few examples:

1. When a parent wants to change a child's behaviour they might ask them why it is wrong, rather than just telling them it is wrong. 
2. When we're encouraged to take part in role-playing exercises, we might espouse attitudes and values we don't believe in.
3. When we want to change our behaviour, say, to healthier eating, we might try to convince ourselves we don't like the forbidden foods as much as we do.

So, there are all kinds of situations in which we are arguing with ourselves, whether it's because we've initiated it ourselves, or because we've been subtly encouraged to do so by someone else.

Self-persuasion

But does it work? Does self-persuasion make any real difference? Janis and King (1954) tested this by having some participants give a talk while two others listened. Then they swapped around and one of the passive listeners gave a talk to the other two on a different topic.

What emerged was that, on average, people were more convinced by the talk when they gave it themselves than when they merely heard it passively. This suggests that we really are persuaded more strongly when we make the argument ourselves, even if it isn't in line with our own viewpoint.

The same trick works with attitudes to smoking. People are more put off smoking when they deliver an anti-smoking message than when they passively receive it (research described in Brinol et al., 2012).

We see the same effect for self-confidence. When people are told to present themselves in a self-confident way to others, they actually feel more self-confident themselves.

The explanation seems to be that we are very good at convincing ourselves because we know just what sorts of arguments will sway us.

So if you want someone to persuade themselves, you can try asking them to put aside their own attitude for a moment and try getting them to generate their own arguments for the point you want to make.

Whatever the cover story, as long as the person is encouraged to generate their own arguments, it has a chance of changing their mind.

Thanks to Spring Org / Psy Blog

http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/05/how-to-encourage-people-to-change-their-own-minds.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PsychologyBlog+%28PsyBlog%29

When Choosing a Job, Culture Matters

By BILL BARNETT

Bill Barnett led the Strategy Practice at McKinsey & Company and has taught career strategy to graduate students at Yale and Rice. He now is applying business strategy concepts to careers.

  Some organizations will excite you. They'll stimulate your success and growth. Others will be stressful. They may lead you to quit before you've accomplished much or learned what you hoped to. With the pressure (or excitement) of finding a new job, it's all too easy to pursue a job opportunity
or to accept an offer with only a hazy view of how the institution really operates. The path to an institution you'll like is to investigate the culture you're thinking of joining before you accept the position.

Sean (name has been changed) is a master at this. He pursued a job offer at a Fortune 500 company to be the first Chief Administrative Officer (CAO). He was well-qualified, presented himself well, and got the offer. He'd been competing with capable people. He was proud he'd "won the contest."

The next step was a return visit, after which he'd decide to accept the offer. Sean had already learned a lot about the company's businesses and some things about the organization. His priority now was culture and how the new position might fit: "I asked people, 'What are you excited about? What are you proud of? Who are your close friends in the company? How does the group function together?'"
Sean learned things like who the heroes were, what made them successful, and what his biggest challenges and opportunities would be in the job. The different people he met with were learning from his questions. It was almost like he already worked there, and they were jointly determining how to make the new role successful.

Surprisingly, Sean turned down the offer. The new role was a misfit in the company's culture.

As he learned more about the company, Sean questioned how he'd be viewed as the first CAO in a company where everyone else focused on bottom-line results. It was a highly performance-driven environment with lots of business units. Corporate staffs were secondary.

"I asked how they'd keep score on me, how they'd really know I was making a difference," he said. "We never got to satisfactory answers to that question. They weren't hiding anything. This CAO position was a new one, and they didn't really know."

Sean was concerned that this new position wouldn't fit in the company's culture, that he wouldn't really be accepted, and that it wouldn't be a springboard to the line job that he really wanted after two or three years as CAO. He might have made it work, but why take the risk?

It's not uncommon for job seekers to enter organizations without understanding the culture and come away disappointed. When considering a new job, be sure to investigate the institution's culture. Consider these questions to guide you:

1. What should I learn?

 Understand the organization's purpose — not just what they say they're doing, but also how their purpose leads to decisions and what makes them proud. Learn how the organization operates. For example, consider the importance of performance, how the organization gets things done, the level of teamwork, the quality of the people, how people communicate, and any ethical issues.

Except for ethical issues, there's no absolute standard of what's best in organizational culture. Different purposes and different organizational features can be more or less appealing to different people. When you understand how the potential employer operates, you'll need to consider how well that matches your goals. Your target organizational culture is an important part of your aspirations.

2. How should I learn? 

Read everything you can find about the institution, but read with a critical eye. Institutions have formal vision statements, and they often mention cultural topics in other public reports, but these documents are written with a purpose in mind. Independent writers take an independent perspective. They can be more critical, but they can miss details and get things wrong.

Discuss culture with people in the organization. You'll talk to people in the interviewing process, of course. But you may learn different things if you meet others there who aren't involved in your recruiting process. Also talk to people outside the organization who know it — customers, suppliers, partners, and ex-employees. Their different experiences with the institution will affect their views, so ask about situations where they've seen the culture in action.

3. When should I learn? 

It's hard to learn about culture at an early stage in your search. But your impressions can guide you to target some institutions and avoid others.

Culture may come up in job interviews, although it may be complicated to do much investigation when you're trying to sell yourself. People sometimes worry that discussing culture might make people uncomfortable and put a job offer at risk. The culture topic is certainly not off-base, and it is necessary to know for future growth in the company. Hiring managers should expect it. Whether it's in interviews or after you have an offer, you'll do best if your questions show you're learning rapidly about the organization, taking the employer's perspective, and beginning to figure out how to succeed there. Culture questions can cast you in a positive light. Sean's line of questioning confirmed the CEO's judgment to hire him, even if Sean didn't like the answers.

What's your view of how culture affects the job search? Has culture played a part in how you choose your future employer?

Share your experience with us.

How To Choose The Right Employer

When we are desperate for a job, 90% of the time, weland up being dissatisfied. Has it ever occurred to you why this happens?

Here’s why: The anxiety and stress of being jobless makes you degrade your own skill set. Your desperation for finding a job makes you take a hasty decision. While you are on a look out for a job, it is very important that you grade your employers before you generate an interest in working with them. So, grab a pen and a notepad to make a list of your options with the help of the pointers we ask you to keep in mind:

Do they know what they do?

It is of prime importance that each employee at the firm knows everything about the product. Blame departments or the system, but these days the transparency at work has reduced many folds. If the person appointing you does not know about his own product, then there are bright chances that you might have to go through a tough time understanding your work. Also, if they know their product well, ask yourself how updated they are with it? A lot of companies start bang-on with a website and a few big clients and that’s the end of their enthusiasm. You are trying to find a job in the 21st century and the least you should expect from the firm is an updated website.

Is the leadership sailing fine?

Working under a leader who is not well aware of the happenings in the market is like a death call. Consider this as late hours at work and a lot of research that you might have to do for him so that you and he are on the same page. Read about the founder members and Board members and see where they come from. A good foundation (leader) makes a good wall (organisation). So stay safe and opt for a firm that is being run by the stalwarts or famous names in the allied industry, otherwise you might be the first to fall into debris.

What is their future plan?

Every successful business proposition has a 5 year plan and a way ahead. So what is it for your employer? Do they have a vision for growth or are they happy doing what they have been doing? It is important for a firm to grow as it is directly proportional to your career growth. Make sure that your growth graph will always remain parallel to that of your new organisation. Because if the organisation goes down, it will take you down with it, so be careful with this one.

How is the work environment?

It is exactly like how you choose your university. Check on how the office culture is? Is there a flexible balance between work-life and fun? Do you think you will be able to adjust at a place like that? Are the employees well motivated or are they terrorised by the bosses?

Even before you type that mail saying ‘please consider my application’, be sure if you really want to be a part of that firm. Make a list of firms that have job openings and then prioritize them as per the above points. Remember, finding a job and finding a life partner is almost the same and you definitely don’t want to go wrong anywhere on your resumé.