The Benefits Of Starting Small

I read an intriguing article on Courting Your Career the other day called Contacting the CEO should be a no-go during your job search. In it, the author suggests that it may do more harm than good to approach senior executives directly with cold calls or letters. Instead, he suggests starting small:

Instead of going straight to the top, start small. If you’re about to graduate from college or you only have a few years of full-time work experience and you want to get noticed, identify contacts in junior-level positions that can help you navigate the application process. Because they aren’t as far removed from finding a job straight out of college, if you slip up they are more likely to be forgiving because they can better relate to the challenges you’re facing. Plus, many college recruiting teams are comprised with junior alumni from your college or university. If you push them to the side in your attempts to connect with someone more senior within the organization, you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

I couldn’t agree more.

A few years ago I was asked to give a walking tour of our offices to a group of about ten new graduates who were being interviewed. There was one rule: be quiet and courteous (as people are working). For the most part, everyone was respectful of my colleagues as we toured the office. Questions were to be held until the end.

However, one particular candidate decided that he wanted to set himself apart from the crowd. While walking through the executive wing, he walked right into our CEO’s office and introduced himself. He then sat down and proceeded to engage in a conversation. This caused two things to happen:

1. The rest of the candidates started to get nervous, most likely feeling as though he was getting ahead by “breaking” the rules of the tour.
2. The candidate missed an important part of the orientation.

So what was the end result? Ultimately, this particular candidate’s interview process ended early. In our internal debrief, our CEO made light of the fact that this particular job seeker was unable to follow simple instructions. He wasn’t a “team player” and so was not going to be part of our team.

The lesson here is that, as a new graduate, you need to be mindful of your interactions with senior executives. Once in a while you might strike gold, but more often than not you will be hurting your chances.