How Cold Calling Can Land You A Job by Susan Adams The conventional wisdom about finding a job is that networking is the most effective tool. “People find jobs through people they know,” goes the saying. I’ve found all of my jobs that way and I’ve written dozens of stories exhorting readers to use personal connections in their job search. But Robert Hellmann, 52, a New York City career coach with more than a decade of experience, says that a good 40% of his clients have landed jobs with a method that’s counter-intuitive: They decide where they want to work and then they reach out to the person who they think would be in a position to hire them, while being honest about the fact that they have no connection to the person or company. In other words, they make a cold call. Example: One of Hellmann’s clients was a senior vice president of strategic planning at a New York City-based insurance company. Unhappy in his job, he had his sights set on a competitor. Using LinkedIn, the competitor’s website and a call to the switchboard, he figured out the CEO’s email address and direct dial number. Next he drafted a pitch letter, with three bullet points suggesting what he could do to bump up profits. He emailed the letter directly to the CEO, waited three days and then, at 8am, he called the CEO’s line. The boss picked up and the would-be applicant launched into a 15-second pitch, including an invitation to meet for 20 minutes at the CEO’s convenience. Before he could speak further, the CEO jumped in, saying he was too busy to even think about it and promptly hung up. Dejected, the vice president figured his tactic had failed. But the next day he got a call from the competitor’s human resources department, inviting him in for an interview. “People in business development and sales totally understand this approach,” says Hellmann. “They do it every day and they know that it works.” Read the full article at: Forbes