Getting your player ready...
Dear J.T. & DALE: My friend works at a company I admire. It had a job posted that I’m completely qualified for. I reached out to my friend to see if he would help me out by giving them my résumé. He agreed. That was two weeks ago, and I haven’t heard anything. My friend said that he submitted my résumé and that I should just wait, but something feels wrong. Can I go around him and call to see where they stand with the hiring? – Jason
DALE: First, two weeks is nothing in the life of most corporations. Unless you mistrust your friend and think he secretly trashed your résumé rather than turn it in, I don’t know why you wouldn’t do as he suggested. After all, his submitting your résumé probably has moved you ahead of 90 percent of the others. J.T.: I disagree. Email your friend and thank him for submitting your résumé. Then, tell him you plan to call HR to follow up on your candidacy, and ask if he has any pointers. That way, he’ll know what you’re planning to do and can either help you out with a contact name, or wish you good luck. Either way, he’ll know that you want to be in charge of it from here. DALE: In charge of what? Calling HR? Good luck. Here’s how that’s likely to go, assuming you actually reach a person who bothers to figure out what you’re asking about:YOU: Can you tell me the status of the hiring decision?
HR: It looks like we’re still accepting résumés.
YOU: Can you tell me the next steps?
HR: It depends.
YOU: Can you tell me who I might
check with?
HR: No. You’ll hear from us if there’s interest. Have a nice day. CLICK. If you want to be in charge of something, work at networking your way to the hiring manager; your friend is the ideal connection for that. You risk alienating him by applying too much pressure, now that he told you to back off. Maybe you can offer to take him to lunch as a thank-you, and see how the conversation progresses. Dear J.T. & Dale: Years ago, when I first graduated from college, I was a male stripper. That was 20 years ago. Today, I’m a manager for a great company. I never put the stripper job on my résumé. Recently, the past came back to haunt me. I got an email from a guy I worked with. He saw me online and wanted to connect to see if I could help him get a job at my company. I don’t want anyone to know about my former job. How can I introduce him to the company without giving it away when they ask where I worked with him? – Ron J.T.: To start, I would contact your old co-worker and explain that you don’t want your current employer to know about that old job. Then, see if he agrees to be introduced as an old friend. You still can vouch for him, then leave it up to your company to decide if he’s a fit. Of course, I’m sure you are concerned that if he doesn’t get the job, he might tell them. So, I would suggest to him that if you can’t help him get a job there, you are willing to facilitate introductions elsewhere to be of help to him. DALE: I’d start by calling him and catching up. Perhaps you’ll learn that he, too, keeps his past quiet, and then you can follow J.T.’s suggestions. However, unlike J.T., I would worry that the word will get out if he GETS the job, not if he doesn’t: Eventually he’s going to mention it to some co-worker. If you truly are paranoid, I’d simply tell him you wish you could help but you can’t. End of story. On the other hand, you could just relax and not worry about it. The day is coming, maybe in a few more years, when you’ll be bragging about that old job and you’ll get a call from HR telling you to stop showing people your old pictures.
