Cold Calling and Cold Contacts
Looking for help with cold calling? Perhaps you need help with cold call scripts or cold contact letters. You may be wondering about using email to contact employers who might have a job for you. Since so many jobs are not advertised, it is an important part of the job search for anyone actively looking for a job.
A few months ago, we told you about cold calls but I thought you would find it useful if I pulled it together for you in one place.
First, start with our blog post Cold calling and cold contacts: finding the hidden jobs for the basic steps and some great links from experts. You will learn how to find company names and how to contact potential employers by mail or by telephone. The post also has some sources of scripts – what to say when you telephone and how to write a cold contact letter.
Identify whom to call:
You need to know what kind of job you are looking for and what kind of industry hires people to do that job. Perhaps it is relatively easy – you want a job in retail and you need to find names and contact information for shops and retail chains. But if you want a clerical or admin assistant job, you have a broader area to search. It would be useful to decide what kind of industry you would like to work in – perhaps financial services, pharmaceuticals, real estate, or even a "green" job.
Once you know that, you need to identify companies and their business so that you can market your skills to them correctly. The first post you read gave you some ideas and resources – especially Contact Toronto. This publication is available for reference at many branches. It is published by the Toronto Board of Trade and it profiles the 3,500 largest organizations plus more than 15,000 executives in the Toronto region, including private companies. See this sample – scroll down to see some company profiles.
Need more help? As I mentioned, you will need more than just names and phone numbers! Jennifer wrote about finding company information through the library. Some of the information is in print and means a visit to the library. Some is available online. Her post gives a comprehensive overview of our company directories.
Check out Lily's post about Canadian Company Capabilities (used to called Strategis). You can search for companies in this online resource from the Canadian government.
Use networking to meet people in your field or in companies where you would like to work. You may be able to get introductions to hiring managers or at least, hear about opportunities. A recent survey says that employers prefer to hire people that are referred by current employees or by people they know. See this post about the survey. Two free websites that are valuable for networking job hunters are LinkedIn and Twitter.
Next – create your script or letter:
Take a look at the links on this page: Cold Calling and Cold Contacts. It has some great links to writing your script and writing letters.
You will need to telephone or send a letter. Remember that email spam filters would probably delete or block your
email so that isn't your best first step in approaching an employer.
Get help – free!
Employment Resource Centres can help you with your very first task – figuring out what kind of job and what industry may need your skills and training.
They also have help with cold calling. Job Finding Clubs teach you how to do cold calls and give you support from other job hunters. Usually you must attend a workshop before you can participate in a Job Finding Club. Attend a Transitions to Employment session to learn about your options and all the free programs and support available to you.
Here are two lists of Job Finding Clubs in the Toronto area:
Or go to an Employment Resource Centre near you. They are free too!
More advice from the web:
- Tapping into the hidden job market
- Cold calling your way to a new job
- Don't get stuck in the web
- Access the hidden job market
- Cold calling and voicemail often go hand in hand
- Cold calling – British article has some good tips.
Visit us again at torontopubliclibrary.ca/jobhelp or subscribe to our updates with your favourite RSS reader. Use our Google search box to search our site.
Comments