Part 6: Get Your Foot In the Door

Patricia Kitchen | Change@work

November 2, 2003

Part 6 of a weekly series helping people with job searches.

Too many job hunters drive themselves nuts by spending all their energy knocking on the employer's door. It's much more effective to set yourself up for a job from the inside.

This is called the foot-in-the-door approach, and it usually means spring-boarding to a permanent position from a temp job, internship or volunteer experience. But it still calls for strategy, which starts with targeting the doors you want to get that foot into.

Why go intern for a small manufacturing firm in your hometown when you really want to work for the Knicks, asks Ellen Tashie Frisina, a public relations professor at Hofstra University. When students come in looking for internships and say, "I don't care. I'll do anything anywhere," she sets them straight. Come back with a "wish list" of where you want to end up, she tells them. And that's where they start the search for an internship.

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This targeting is especially important toward the end of college. What a beautiful thing -- to "slide" right after graduation from your internship into a permanent job. She sees about one-third of the 40 students placed each year in internships staying right there -- on the payroll.

Make this happen by going the extra mile, even if it is a temporary or not-for-pay assignment. Being on the inside allows you to see just what the boss needs, first-hand, as well as plug into the company grapevine.

And whatever the job, don't do what many temps do -- blend into the background because you're left on your own. Sure, you may end up stacking boxes in the back room with no one speaking to you, but it's up to you to take the initiative, says Joseph Wickes, 24, a 2002 graduate of Indiana University.

His advice: No matter what the job, "look beyond the scope of the assignment."

It's an approach that worked for him when he knocked and knocked on doors last summer and found no work. The failed efforts led him to sign on with TemPositions, a Manhattan-based staffing firm that sent him to wait on tables and do administrative work.

On a waiter job for a food-services firm in Manhattan, he caught the eye of the food services director. Impressed with his attitude and work ethic, she later called to ask if he had a brother, someone with the same attitude who would be interested in a full-time job as a conference coordinator. Needless to say, he jumped at the chance, and he's been on the job about two months.

"Make yourself indispensable," says Wickes, who grew up in Lindenhurst. "Make them want you to be there."

And how do you do that? One of the most important things is, instead of waiting for an assignment during down times, get a fix on what needs to be done and suggest you do it. You should also use the onsite experience to:

Keep an ear out for employees at your level who indicate they may be resigning soon.

Ask if you can peruse copies of the employee newsletter; they often tell of new initiatives, which just may call for added staff.

Check the intranet or bulletin boards for internal job openings.

Check out industry publications and Web sites to learn what's going on with your employer. There may be staffing needs in other departments, and the news hasn't filtered to your area yet.

And, have you done the obvious? Check the company's Web site or help wanted ads online and in the paper to see what positions are open.

Which leads us to what placement executive Bill Heather calls the "painfully obvious." That would be coming right out and telling your boss and co-workers that you're really enjoying the assignment -- assuming you are -- and would like to come on board with the company permanently. Ask if they can advise you on how you might help make that happen.

Too often, says Heather, senior vice president in the Melville office of Right Management Consultants, a career and outplacement firm, those on contract assignments assume that the boss knows they want a permanent gig.

Stung when a job then goes to someone else, they ask the boss why, only to hear, "I didn't think you were interested."