The most obvious and unfortunately the most popular (I say unfortunately because it’s the least effective) way to look for a job is through job ads. Job ads easy to find, and easy to interact with – but especially on mega sites like Monster or CareerBuilder, you are up against hundreds of other resumes, no to mention the keyword search elimination robots. So the chances of landing an interview are really low (zero in my case).

Some job ad boards are better than others though, and I’ve had good luck with CU Career Services (because only CU students and alumni are allowed to see the jobs) and craigslist.

Of course, the best and most effective way to get a job is through a referral – through a network of friends and family. And I’m trying to network the best that I can, but it hasn’t been as helpful as I would have wished because I am looking for work in an industry (start-up/technology companies) here I don’t have a lot of contacts.

So, with the risk of running out of leads, I’ve decided to try what I call a “Top Down” approach to finding work. Rather than look for a job that needs to be filled, I will look for companies that I, at least on the first glance, would want to work in. The benefit of this approach is that it’s proactive, I don’t have to wait for jobs to be advertised, it gives me something that at least feels productive to do, and it’s an opportunity to learn about all the different companies in the industry.

I don’t know how much I should expect from the “Top Down” strategy – but it seems worth the effort.

“It doesn’t really much matter where it’s going, he says, as long as the fare is right.”

I was surprised that he was able to engage so many people on an airplane without immediately turning them off. But then again, Mr. Topus flies first class, and I would imagine (I can only imagine, I’ve never been) that conversation is easier to come by there. Though I am a little skeptical by his claims of his abilities to be able to identify a qualified decision maker:

“In a hotel buffet line, it used to take me till the dessert section before I could figure out who near me was a qualified decision maker that I wanted to talk to. Then I got to where I could do it by the entrée line. Now that I’m at the top of my game, I can usually do it by the salad,” he said.

When I was looking for my way into the profession, I focused mostly on applying to entry-level positions at companies I thought I’d enjoy working in. I was looking for companies that had a product I could get excited about, and seemed to offer some prospect of professional growth.

But what I quickly discovered is that simply applying for a job is only half the battle. The other half is focusing on yourself – and really thinking about whether you have what it takes to succeed on the job.

After applying to only a couple of jobs, I found myself at an interview with the CEO and the Sales Manager of one of those companies, having to demonstrate what I knew about Sales. How would you carry yourself on the phone? What would you say? What insightful and thoughtful questions would you ask a prospect? How would you engage with them, and gain their trust? And these questions weren’t hypothetical, they actually made me participate in a role-playing exercise to see how I would do in real-time.

Needless to say I didn’t do too well on that interview, and after a few more embarrassing role-playing exercises, I was referred to a company called Three Value Logic Sales Institute in downtown Denver.

Three Value Logic (3VL) is an unusual company that provides free intensive sales training. They are also a sales outsourcing company, providing their clients with qualified appointments with potential prospects.

It’s my third week here, and so far I am learning a lot, and enjoying the experience. I am very impressed by management here, and will write about what’s like to go through their sales training in future posts.

For the last year and a half, since officially moving to Denver, I’ve been working for a corporate benefits consulting/brockerage firm. When I think back to two years ago when I applied and accepted the job, it’s not hard to see why I did it. I was completely broke, in a job that was about to self-implode (consulting contract expiring), and looking for a ‘real job’ in Denver. The company offered a great salary, had stellar staff and as an added bonus, it was physically very close to where I was living at the time. So I didn’t care that I knew nothing about the insurance industry, or whether that was something I wanted to learn more about.

Long story short, at the end of last year I decided that I should really think long-term and do something that I could really be passionate about.  And, as I’ll elaborate more on in future posts, I decided that I want to work for a technology startup.

What kind of people work in a tech start up scene? That’s a very broad category of companies and people, but generally speaking, and for the purpose of this post, I see following type of people:

• creative founder – the person who was a great idea and the know how to make it work;
•  investor – who have the money the passion/vision for the idea;
•  engineers/technical – who do the actual work of building/researching/day-to-day implementation of the original idea;
•  business- who help the enterprise actually function as a profitable business (marketing, sales, accounting, etc..)

Within those rough categories of people, the only one that really appeals to me is the businessman, and more particularly the salesman of the org.

I can really see myself falling in love with a technology, and working hard to make other people see what I see. I have the technical background and the people skills to do it. 

So what am I waiting for?

Here is one of the best descriptions of what an information interview is, from one of the best online guides on the subject:

Informational interviewing is just what it sounds like — interviewing designed to produce information. What kind of information? The information you need to choose or refine a career path, learn how to break in and find out if you have what it takes to succeed. Informational interviewing is an expanded form of chatting with your network contacts. It’s the process of spending time with one of your network contacts in a highly focused conversation that provides you with key information you need to launch or boost your career.

The term “informational interviewing” was invented by Richard Nelson Bolles, author of the best-selling career guide of all time, What Color Is Your Parachute? Bolles refers to the process as “trying on jobs to see if they fit you.” He notes that most people screen jobs and companies after they’ve already taken a job, while informational interviewing gives you the opportunity to conduct the screening process before accepting a position.

This week I had my first informational interview in which I was the one being interviewed. It was a lot of fun for me and I can only hope that it was at least some what educational for the other person.

Also, just because I am being informationally interviewed now, doesn’t mean that I can’t continue to informationally interview others, higher up the food chain. I am going to try to arrange some meetings with real life lawyers – considering that despite contemplating going to law school, I’ve never even set foot in a law firm before.

This brings me to the issue of affordability.  Graduate school will cost around $50,000, not to mention the opportunity cost of lost wages.

If I am serious about going to school, I will need to make a serious effort to finance my education by means other than student loans.

There is one opportunity which particularly stands out to me as being worth pursuing: The NSEP-Boren Program. I first learned about this program when I attended an information session about it at CU, and I was the only one who bothered to show up.

There are interesting requirements to receive support from NSEP. First, I will have to work for the federal government for at least one year – which I have absolutely no problem with as this is something I’ve wanted to do anyway.

Second, the program has a strict foreign language requirement – in addition to a fairly strict criteria for the choice of the language. Luckily, both Japanese and Russian are on the list of “approved” languages.

Third, to qualify I will have to create a proposal for a project. As I understand it, the project is a central piece of the application and is meant to serve as a kind of a thesis during my graduate education.

My new source of frustration and subject of countless internet searches is figuring out what I could do for a project.  It will have to be, in a significant way related to something about law, business and japan.

Any suggestions or ideas?

I am not sure if I want to be a lawyer per se, but am very intrigued by the idea of understanding the subtleties and complexity of the practice. Other than being a lawyer what else could I do with a law degree?

Well, according to North Carolina Bar Association, “law school graduates can be found in all of the following posts:”

Educational & Non-Profit Organizations

• Alumni Director for private liberal arts college
• Fund raiser for private liberal arts college
• Law school librarian
• Vice-President of Donor Services for a large foundation

Corporations

• Banker/trust officers
• President of operations for large manufacturing corporations
• Executive recruiter
• Insurance Sales
• Financial Planner
• Community and Public Relations Director
• Manager of regional office of title company
• Risk management/consultant
• Real estate developer

Political Field

• Elected Official, e.g. Governor, Senator
• Political Campaign worker
• Political advisor to elected official

That’s a pretty interesting list and I am particularly intrigued by the last category.

In fact, even a casual search on Google reveals a wealth of information available about career opportunities for whose with JD’s who don’t want to be lawyers. There even a list of 300+ such occupations.

I am very intrigued indeed.

This was my first serious effort in job hunting. Before I’ve only had to ask. So, here are a few stats accumulated over the last 5 months:

• 32: employers resume sent to
• 14: interviews; 8 in person and 6 phone interviews.
• 7: rejections; most in the form a phone call.
• 4: offers for jobs I no longer wanted.
• 3: attractive offers.

That’s a 44% response rate, if you don’t count the leads that didn’t result in an interview. I suppose it also means that there was less than 10% chance that I would receive an offer from a job applied for. But after an interview, there was 50% chance that I would receive an offer, half of which turned out to be unacceptable.

Let me know if you’d like more specific information, and I’d be happy to share it with you.