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Alternative 1

Guerrillas know the most direct way is often the easiest. Use your telephone. I always call first and ask who is responsible for “X.” “X” is the title of the executive I want to speak with. Seven out of 10 times this will work. If it doesn’t, call back at lunchtime and ask the noon hour receptionist; generally, they are not as guarded about the information they give out.

Figure 4.6 “Without the words.”

Alternative 2

Go to each company’s web site. If you are lucky, it will identify all their senior executives. Web information should be up-to-the-moment, but phone and verify.

Alternative 3

Google your way in. If you are having difficulty finding the name, go to Google’s advanced search box. Type in the company name in the first box and the title of the person you think your future boss reports to in the third box. Try doing this with the company “Google” in the first box, “vice president” in the third, and “free” in the fourth box “without the words” (see Figure 4.6).

If you run the search, you will find a list of Google’s executives at: www.google.com/corporate/execs.html. This is a simple way to find information fast.

Once you have the name, run a search on the individual through Google. This time you put the first and last name in the first box and the company name in the third box. This will produce a list of conferences the person has attended, speeches, press releases, news articles, clubs the executive belongs to, and so on.

■ A GUERRILLA RESEARCH ALTERNATIVE

What if you don’t have time to do a full search because you need a job now or at least by tomorrow afternoon? Is there a faster way? Yes!

Here’s a super-fast way to find nearly all the companies in your area that can use your skills:

• Decide what job you are going to look for. In our example, we are going to look for retail management jobs in New York City.

• Choose key words that are specific to the type of job you are looking for. In Figure 4.7, we use Retail and Manager. You can use a job title if you wish, in which case you need to enclose the term in quotation marks: “retail manager.”

• Add these 4 words: “job,” “resume,” “submit,” and “free” as illustrated in Figure 4.7.

As constructed, this search string instructs Google to return web sites that have retail manager jobs but are not ads for resume-submitting businesses.

In the “without the words” option, we type the word “free.” Why specifically ban the word free? Because the word free is not used on corporate web sites nor is it used in job descriptions. It is, however, used to sell resume-submitting services, and we don’t want to waste time wading through those sites to find the real jobs.

You can see the number of hits that are returned by adding the words one at a time (see Table 4.1).

Figure 4.7 Advanced Google search.

Table 4.1 Search Term Results

There are still too many hits, so we add the area code 212, which in turn reduces the hits to local retail manager jobs in the 212 area code only. This is a good list to start with.

Note: Your results may vary because Google changes minute by minute.

GUERRILLA MISSION

Now you try it. Fire up your PC and connect to the Internet. Go to www.google.com. Click the Advanced Search link and you should see a screen like the one shown in Figure 4.7. Replace the 2 words “retail” and “manager” with 2 words that are specific to your job search. Next, replace the 212 area code with your area code or the area code of the city you want to research. Click the “Google search” button and start reading. This research is fast and accurate. It won’t uncover every opportunity, but it will enable you to find many more offerings than you would see using just the job boards or newspapers—and you will do it much faster, too.

■ FINDING LISTS OF PROSPECTS

Using the Internet is not the only way to gather information. Here are some easy ways to find lists of prospects for your job-hunting campaign.

➤ Chambers of Commerce

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