Ben, I’ll just share something that always helped me.
The interview and your position towards the job is the secret.
You asked about being too aggressive, worse is not being aggressive enough – passive is the fly on the wall that doesn’t get noticed:)
I always interviewed the company. (my comments are verbatim the message is what’s important) My early comments in the interview were “Do you mind if I ask a few questions, I don’t want to waste your time if this isn’t going to be a fit – job descriptions don’t really tell the whole story.
The first thing I do is to tell the interviewer my position on this job – why I think I want it. I’ll use my story from Memorex years ago to give you the main idea.
I interviewed with the VP of Sales. They wanted to set up an inside sales effort. He told me they really didn’t have anyone that knew inside sales.
Here’s what I told him.
This is the perfect job for me for a few reasons…
First off, you need someone that knows this stuff cold – I do.
Second, my favorite thing is the development of new groups, I’ve done 7 of them and they all were profitable in month 2.
Third, I am dying to get into the tech industry and this would be fantastic.
I shared some other data but the basics of the above is I told the VP I was vested completely in the job he’s trying to fill.
I showed him multiple reasons I was highly motivated to not only do this job but wanted to do it.
He basically hired me on the spot.
I use to be able to get to the hiring manager – I think its harder today. When it was tough I used to find someone in the company that could forward my info if I couldn’t get through.
One way I might use today is to try and get connected on LI to someone that works for/with them. Tell that person you’re looking into working for the company and ask if they could tell you what kind of person this decision-maker is. Is he fun to work for? Does he take care of his folks and so on?
This conversation may give you enough pull to successfully ask if they would forward a cover letter to his admin or him for you. Make sure they and he knows you have sent your resume and cover to personnel if that’s how the job is being handled – you must go through them before trying to go around.
I hope this is useful.
I never hire anyone who can’t prove they are motivated to have my job and have a personal reason for having it. I believe this is the most powerful thing you can tell a hiring manger.
I hope this is useful. If you have questions I’m happy to answer and if you connect I’ll give you something that will help with navigating LinkedIn.