Having what it takes to land a job
Six seekers who found posts in tough market share their strategy
By Martha E. Mangelsdorf, Globe Correspondent, 8/24/03
Janet Crystal had begun to believe that she wouldn't find another job as a database administrator - at least not any time soon. Crystal, who is in her 50s, started job-hunting right after she was laid off from Lucent Technologies in March 2002. Most recently, she was doing entry-level work at a grocery store.
In July, her phone rang.
It was a software company, ProfitLogic in Cambridge, where, a year earlier, she'd submitted a resume. Nine days later, she had a job - a technical position that uses her database skills. She started last week.
''I couldn't be happier,'' said Crystal, who lives within walking distance of her new workplace. ''I'm very excited about working there.''
What did it take to land the job?
The Globe posed that question to six job seekers, including Crystal, who found jobs in 2003 despite a slumping economy. Here's what they said:
1. Network as much as you can
In Crystal's job hunt, networking was key.
''I networked like I have never networked before,'' said Crystal, who got involved with WIND/East, a Cambridge-based branch of the networking group WIND for professionals in job transition. She said her initial connection to ProfitLogic came through a conversation she had last summer with someone at the company.
''I talked with this man who was the husband of a colleague of my brother's,'' she recalled. One lesson from her job-hunting experience? ''There is no causal relationship between what you do and what happens - except they can't call you if they don't have your phone number,'' Crystal observed.
Another piece of advice she has for current job seekers: Make sure you have business cards. And ''carry them with you everywhere you go.''
''You don't know, walking around Fresh Pond [in Cambridge], who that person with the standard poodle knows,'' she said.
2. Take part in groups and associations where you will hear about job leads.
Bill Cohn, 46, is scheduled to start his new job this week as a product marketing manager for Copyright Clearance Center, a Danvers-based nonprofit. A licensing agent for text reproduction, the firm has about 175 employees. Cohn, a product management and marketing professional, said he is a member of the Boston Product Management Association and heard about the job opening in July through an e-mail that goes out to the association's members. (Cohn had been working at a high-tech company called Genuity until his position was eliminated in February of this year.)
After he applied for the job at Copyright Clearance Center, Cohn said, he realized that a former colleague was already working there. The former colleague ''was able to give me really good perspective on the organization,'' said Cohn. During his job search, Cohn said he was ''open to possibilities'' and also found a two-month consulting project.
3. Keep track of contacts and job openings at companies that interest you.
Two summers ago, Ken Okaya, now the director of marketing at Fishman Transducers in Wilmington, had what he describes as a very good job in the telecom industry. But, in an article in BostonWorks, he read about an executive who loves music and had made a career transition from software to Fishman Transducers and its affiliated company, Parker Guitars.
Okaya, who plays the bass and guitar as a hobby (and started playing the bass in ninth grade), was intrigued. He got in touch with the executive, Drew Hannah, to learn about the transition from high-tech to music-related work - and the two stayed in touch periodically.
After Okaya was laid off in February, he applied for a marketing director job that he had seen posted on the Fishman website. Okaya got the Fishman job, which he started in mid-May; he said he finds the work ''very fulfilling.'' According to Okaya, Fishman, which makes pick-ups and amplifiers for acoustic musical instruments, is a profitable company with approximately $13 million in revenues.
Throughout his job hunt, Okaya, 36, said he networked, trying to reach people by phone early in the day (8:30 to 9:30) and at the end of the day (5:30 to 7). He said he tried to have two face-to-face meetings each day with contacts, to discuss trends and opportunities in their fields. Finding a job ''felt more like an investigation,'' he said. ''I felt like I was going to find a job, and a job was not going to find me.''
4. Follow up a job lead by identifying additional contacts within the organization.
Nina Jurewicz, 38, started her job as vice president of business development for eLoyalty Corp., handling client relationships in New England in January of this year. Jurewicz, a Harvard Business School graduate, heard about a job opening at eLoyalty, a customer relationship management consulting firm based in Lake Forest, Ill., through a jobs newsletter available to HBS graduates.
She called and discovered the job was for another area - but that there was an opening in New England, too. She said she then identified an eLoyalty vice president who is an HBS grad - and cold-called him asking if he could help put her in touch with the hiring manager.
In general, Jurewicz advised ''identifying more than one path into the organization'' you're interested in. For example, she suggested, maybe the wife of your buddy at the gym works at the company where you're applying; if so, ask to talk to her. ''You want to surround that job lead,'' she said.
5. Look for organizations where you'll be a good fit.
Monika Heidemann, 27, a recent graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music with a master's in jazz vocal performance, wanted a part-time daytime job that wouldn't conflict with her work as a musician. Heidemann walked into the Cantata restaurant in Jamaica Plain (formerly Coffee Cantata) and thought it looked like a place she'd like to work.
So Heidemann asked owner Edith Murnane if she was hiring. Heidemann has always liked baking as a hobby, and, in the beginning of August, she began working as a part-time cook and baker in the Cantata kitchen. And Heidemann isn't the first musician to work in the business; according to Murnane, a former owner of the Cantata also was a professional musician.
6. Try a variety of job-hunting techniques and build a support system for your job hunt.
When Marcia Lara, who has a doctorate in integrative biology, thought she wanted to make a career transition from academic science to biotech, getting started last fall wasn't easy.
''I had no idea about networking,'' said Lara, 43, who had been working as a senior research associate and lab manager at an area university. Starting to network ''was very, very hard.'' One thing Lara found helpful was attending job fairs. She also got involved with an organization called WEST (Women Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology, www.westorg.org). ''It's the support group you weave around yourself that's important'' in a job search, Lara said.
Lara remembered that at a job fair in November 2002, she gave a resume to a representative of the Whitehead Institute. Some time in June of this year, she said she got a call about an opening at the institute. And when she heard about the job, she thought it was perfect for her, combining the academic and biotech worlds.
Today, Lara is the manager of the library construction group at the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research. She started her new job at the end of July. Lara thinks that the lead came about through the job fair contact - and some networking she did may have helped.
During her job search, Lara discovered she enjoyed networking. ''I had the best time contacting and getting to know people in this process'' of looking for a job, she said. Her advice for job hunters? ''Get to know people,'' she said. ''Have a good time.''
Martha E. Mangelsdorf is a freelance business writer and editor.
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