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• Classic-Fiction

Tack your callback card on the bulletin board too (Do 14).

City Manager’s Office

Whatever the title, a city manager is the civil service equivalent of a chamber of commerce CEO. (Many are called chief administrative officer—CAO.)

He’s a person you should meet, and who may be an excellent lead source. If he’s in a meeting (most are all the time), his next-in-command is fine.

Very often an assistant knows more because he’s not in a meeting all the time.

Public Utilities Department (Water, Electricity, Gas)

These offices are very much like the business license ones, but the records are not public.

Ask a likely clerk what businesses have signed up for new service.

If you find someone who’ll talk, write down the business names.

Police Department Community Service Office

If the police department is nearby, stop in.

Police do everything possible to polish their image. They expend considerable resources in community outreach programs to reach people like you.

Find the reacher and reach (slowly) in your left front pocket for your pen.

Police are everywhere all the time. They know what’s really happening in the city.

Be friendly and ask. He’ll be friendly and answer.

Instant yourself on any offerors you spot, and leave your card with every person you meet.

Within a few hours you’ve zipped through a valuable series of lead sources.

You can’t find this instant-intelligence information anywhere else!

Do 77: Accepting Temporary Assignments

It’s natural to instant while you’re on a temp assignment!

Temp services have historically sought jobseekers interested in short-term or part-time employment. Many are actively interviewing for regular jobs too.

Office support and factory openings were the original temp market. But their services have now fully expanded to filling technical, executive, and professional openings everywhere at every level. It’s not unusual for these temp assignments to be full-time for years.

Most of the services dispatch their employees and charge the client on an hourly basis from the time cards submitted. The temp is paid an hourly rate too (obviously lower than the billing rate).

The service is responsible for all payroll deductions. Many offer additional benefits and bonuses for their employees. To some clients, the temp markup is worth not having to interview even for otherwise full-time employees.

A temp assignment gives you a no-obligation look at offerors that no other way can provide.

Here’s an example of an assignment that worked into a direct hire:

A business decided to upgrade its computer system so a large accounting department could be reduced. The manager of IT called a contract service (another name for a temp service that places nonclerical employees) for a three-month systems analyst assignment.

The jobseeker was at a regular gig. He learned the instant interviewing techniques and was having so much fun getting offers that he wanted to do that without hassles from his boss.

So he registered online with the contracting service, filled out the payroll paperwork, and was dispatched.

Free of the worries about losing his job, he was a different person on the temp assignment. Everyone loved him, and within 45 days the offeror decided our friend should run the accounting department!

So he instantly interviewed with the director of finance and was hired.

He literally made his own opening! (Don’t we all.)

The contract service graciously waived their temp-to-hire conversion fee when the temp transferred to the client’s payroll. They knew the client would want more temps as the transition was completed.

It did, and still does.

Whether it’s staffing down to automate jobs or staffing up to add them, temp assignments are a great opportunity to instant.

You can also interview for other jobs posted internally by the client (Do 30).

Accepting temporary assignments means accepting instant interview invitations!

In the next Do, I show you how to leverage that powerful