Ten Ways to Help Your Client’s Child Find a Job, Part 1
One way to advance a relationship with a contact is to help him, and few kinds of help are more appreciated than help to the contact’s child who is looking for a job. It may be a summer job or a first full-time job. But it’s urgent for the job seeker and a source of concern for the parent, whose advice isn’t always welcome at this stage in the child’s life.
Helping out can be fun for you, too, if you like to help young people come along in the world. Here are five ways you can help a child. Five more will published in a later post.
1. Provide a tour of your firm. Learning how a business works fascinates most of us and more so, the young and inexperienced. Of course, an architect’s office, with its models and drawings is easier to show off than is an actuary’s office. But, properly explained, most businesses are interesting.
2. Provide them with information on your profession. Most people just entering the workforce know little about a profession. The internet doesn’t provide a basic mapping of the major players in the profession, the kinds of specialties a person can pursue, typical career paths and much else. A session during which you go over such things can speed up their job search.
3. Help them set realistic expectations. Most young people go into their job searches with little idea about how to interpret what then happens. They are hurt, angered and discouraged by unreturned phone calls, expect—briefly—every resume they send to get a response and have dozens of other misconceptions that can slow down their search. One young man came to me devastated after learning that the first company he had interviewed with had hired someone else. “That’s a good thing,” I pointed out. “If you aren’t being told no from time to time, it means you aren’t out talking to enough people.” A month later I overheard him with a friend, joking, “I got turned down twice this week, so I feel twice as good as I did then.” They were laughing rather than moaning. By helping them interpret what is happening during their job search, you teach them a lesson valuable for a lifetime.
4. Edit a resume. Most young people are inexperienced at writing resumes. A little help from an experienced professional can greatly enhance most resumes that they write.
5. Provide an introduction. Introduce them to people you know who might be hiring or who might provide them with additional introductions or information on the profession.
November 12th, 2008 at 10:00 am
I still vividly recall my first break in business. I was finishing my junior year in college and had applied for an IBM summer internship. Like 90%+ of applicants, I was rejected via form letter.
I told my dad (who sold Fords). He said, “Let me make a phone call.” He called a customer of his who happened to be an HR executive at IBM headquarters. A week later I had a phone interview, and in another week I had a job offer.
It was a great summer job, but also a great leg up into the job market. Twenty-five years later, I can’t help but believe that my dad’s phone call helped shape my career.
Just a reiteration of how much the above stuff could mean to a student or parent.
regards, John
November 12th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
John:
Good story.
And this help is fun to give, too.
Ford