By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter answers a question from a viewer about letting a firm know how committed he or she should be to them.
Hi, I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. And I received another question from from someone um looking for some advice. So let me just read the question to you before I go into the answer. That’s a good way to do it, right? So, after applying to a job with only one other applicant, as a non-citizen, how can I contact the hiring manager to let him know how committed I would be?
Okay. So, there are two dimensions to this. One is about the contact, and one is about being a non-citizen. So, I want to work with the assumption—I’m actually not work with the assumption, I’m going to do it on two layers. The first one is they know your you’re in the country on an H-1B visa. So you’ve already had an interview and now you want to contact the hiring manager. I would suggest sending an email. So, uh you might call up the firm if you don’t have their email address, uh uh ask for the hiring manager’s email address, um if they’re unwilling to give it to you, uh just and and you just basically tell reception, uh “I interviewed with so-and-so, I want to get their email address to send a thank-you note.” Real simple. And then the note basically says, “Thanks for making time to meet with me. Um I really enjoyed talking with you. I think the opportunity would be a terrific one for me.” And then you talk about how your qualifications. And then conclude in the last paragraph by saying, “In case there’s any doubt, I just want you to know how committed I would be to this role and to the organization. And I look forward to hearing from you about next steps in the process.” That simple.
Now, let’s assume that you don’t have an interview and you’ve just been to a job board or website where they clock the number of responses, so you know there’s only two people responding, you and one other person. Uh and that they don’t know that you have a visa, um or let’s assume that they do uh and you just haven’t gotten a response yet. So, you basically do the same thing. You get an email address for this person. Uh don’t know who the person is, call up reception, say, “I understand there’s a position open for such-and-such, who’s the hiring manager for that?” They’ll try and send you to HR. Uh politely accept the transfer, and then from there, you know, duck the phone call, um and then add ask Call back uh a little while later, ask for the name of the CIO, call their office, ask for the name of the hiring manager who’s responsible uh for that position or that function. And then do much the same thing. You send them an email uh letting them know of your qualifications, indicating that you’d responded, and that you wanted to talk with them about the role um and about your background. Uh talk about how your experience fits, just like I explained in the in the previous one. Um and you can conclude by saying, “I haven’t heard from anyone about my candidacy. I just want to simply say that this role looks terrific, I have a background where I could deliver for you, and, you know, I would work very hard for you.” And, you know, you you write it in a way that demonstrates your commitment to the organization and to the position, just like in the last example I gave.
Uh and try not to be too polite. You know, one of the things that’s culturally different about US society and US culture in business and others is if you’re too polite, it’s not looked at well. You can be cordial without being obsequious, slave-like, demonstrating extreme obedience. American culture doesn’t really respect that.
So, again, two ways to respond to that. I hope you find this helpful. Uh I also have many other answers to questions on YouTube. Uh you do a search for “Ask The Big Game Hunter” and you’ll find many more. Also, I want to suggest coming over to my website, which is thebiggamehunter.us. There’s a lot of information about job hunting that you can watch, listen to, or read uh that will help you find work more quickly.
A few final things: First of all, if we’re not connected on LinkedIn, send me a connection request at linkedin.com/in/thebiggamehunter. Uh if your current firm is trying to hire someone, send me an email at jeffaltman@thebiggamehunter.us, let me know who to contact and whether I should mention your name. I’d love to help your firm staff positions.
Finally, when you get to the point where you’re going to be negotiating salary, you know, athletes, entertainers, you know, celebrity people all have agents doing negotiating. That’s not going to be the case with you. However, you can get preparation so you’re as well-rehearsed as possible to help you through the negotiation. Schedule time with me through my website, and I’d be happy to go through that with you and get you prepared for your negotiation.
This is Jeff Altman. Have a great day. Take care.
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS job search coaching and career advice globally because he makes job search
38 Deadly Interview Mistakes to Avoid
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He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 3100 episodes over 15+ years.
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