Читать книгу Reinventing You - Dorie Clark - Страница 30

Write your thank you note; it does make an impact. Elizabeth Amini, an online entrepreneur, recalls that after one informational interview, “a year later, when I went into that office, my thank you note was pinned to the wall.” But, while most people treat informational interviews as stepping stones to job leads or onetime data infusions, the real goal is turning a thirty-minute meeting over coffee into a relationship. One of my favorite business books from the 1980s is Harvey Mackay’s Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive. Mackay ran an envelope company—the ultimate commodity business—yet was able to prosper by differentiating his firm through great service. He mandated that his employees use “The Mackay 66,” a list of questions that they should answer about their customers, not through a onetime interrogation, but by getting to know them over time.

During your informational interview, in addition to facts about a person’s job, you ideally want to form the building blocks of an ongoing relationship by finding out key details you can follow up on. Maybe they’re just back from a vacation to Fiji, or you both like the Dodgers, or your kids went to the same school. That’s your starting point, so make a point of sending them interesting travel articles, shooting them a note when their team makes the playoffs, or inviting them to sit with you at the school fund-raiser. With each interaction, strive to learn more about them so your relationship becomes more three-dimensional. The process of learning someone’s hometown, college, names and ages of children, favorite hobbies, favorite restaurants, previous jobs, and long-range goals provides a raft of opportunities to connect with her over shared interests and keep up a dialogue.