 The holiday season is upon us (Happy Chanukah!), which means that between all the celebrations, gift giving, and good cheer, you have the perfect opportunity to check back in with your contacts. But how exactly should you go about doing that? First, make a list. Check it twice. It should include all your contacts, from the external contacts you interact with regularly through work to the person you met for an informational interview months ago to the person you chatted with at a virtual mixer. Include notes about each person, like how you know them or how they might be connected to your dream company. It's best if you create this list over time and continually update it, but if you haven't started one, now is a good time! Next, figure out how to reach out. If you have the bandwidth, you can email everyone on your list, but it's also totally okay if you triage it -- and when you do, you may decide that different people get a different form of outreach, or you may remove people from your list altogether. Some people opt to send a newsletter recapping their year, but we don't recommend this as a way to build strong connections. A mass email is a more effective strategy if you're sending out a note on behalf of your whole team, if you already regularly send out newsletters, or if you have a major project or life announcement. If you go this route, make sure you have permission to email your contacts in that manner, expect a decent number of "unsubscribes," and don't anticipate many notes back. Think of this more as a targeted social media post, and consider sharing your update on LinkedIn instead. Another option is to send handwritten cards. Most people opt to do this for personal contacts but there may be some people on your list who fall in between personal and professional. This method is more about well-wishes than establishing a rapport, so don't expect this to spark a conversation with a contact you haven't chatted with in a while. But it is a nice gesture. If you're looking for a more in-depth exchange, or even just open up communication channels, a personalized email is best. You want to keep this short and sweet. After the season's greetings, you can let them know what you're up to in 1-2 sentences, as candidly as your relationship allows (e.g. "I'm still looking to transition to a full-time role in development" or "I plan to start looking for a new role in 2022 and am hoping to land at a streaming service in the production department" or "Since we last spoke pre-pandemic, I wrapped production on the latest season of X and am gearing up for my next show in late January!"), and ask how things are going for them. You can also ask if they'd like to catch up in the new year, as long as you make sure not to overcommit yourself. Draft a new message for each contact and note the outreach on your handy-dandy list so that you're set up to track your network in 2022. You don't have to email everyone all at once, either. Make a schedule for yourself (again, based on how you prioritize your list!) and start sending notes as early as the week leading up to Christmas break and as late as the first week back at work (that said, if you are hoping for a response, avoid sending your note the Friday before Christmas break). You may not get a response from every contact, but if you're genuine, polite, and professional, you'll get back on the radar and keep your network up to date. -- Angela Silak & Cindy Kaplan
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"ASK HR" is our advice column where we answer readers' questions about pressing work dilemmas, job search queries, resumes, and navigating Hollywood. If you have a career-related question, email us, and the answer could appear in a future newsletter! All submissions will remain anonymous.
Dear Hollywood Resumes, How do you manage your network? I have a lot of contacts, but I'm not sure how to stay in touch with them. Is there a way to know whether someone's not responding to an email because it got buried or because they're annoyed by the outreach? I don't want to come off as a bother to them, nor do I want to waste my time chasing down a contact who isn't interested in a relationship...but I also don't want to fall off someone's radar entirely if they were just busy when I happened to reach out! How can I decide when to "let go?" -- Persistent or Pesty? Dear Persistent or Pesty, There are a few ways to manage your network, like meeting contacts for drinks/coffee (in person or virtually) and sending check in emails from time to time, including around the holidays. Eventually, you amass different tiers of contacts -- close friends, people you work with regularly, and people you can reach out to a couple of times a year. You might find it helpful to track your contacts in a spreadsheet, especially if you're currently searching for a new job and planning to reach out with requests for referrals. This way, you can note who's responding, when, and what you discussed, and you can easily set reminders for yourself to get another date back on the books. It's also okay to let the relationships form and grow naturally and reach out to your contacts when there's a specific reason, like congratulating them on a promotion or because you really want to get together. It's impossible to maintain the perfect relationship with every single person you meet, so you'll have to find a balance. When it comes to staying in touch, the best answer -- as unsatisfying as it may be -- is to use your gut. If someone hasn't responded to an email after one follow up, and they aren't someone you know very well, it's not worth being too persistent unless there's a very specific reason to reach out -- like you just applied to a job at their company, or you saw that their pilot got picked up to series. If the person not responding is someone you've met a few times in person or worked with directly, and you didn't do anything offensive to them, it's likely that they're just busy -- reach out again in a few weeks. In general, with contacts you don't know too well or haven't been in touch with recently (think: someone you did an informational interview with 6 months ago, or an internship boss you haven't spoken to in a year), it's helpful to give context when you're reaching out, either by emailing on top of an existing thread and/or reminding the person who you are and how you know them, and then including a little sentiment about why you've decided to contact them. Is it to congratulate them on something? Ask for a favor? Check in because there's something exciting happening with you? You should be reaching out from time to time without a specific "ask," but it's always good to give the person something direct to respond to, like a question, kudos about a new project announcement, or a request to meet up. Simply asking, "What's new with you?" won't generate a lot of responses from casual contacts who are likely too busy to offer a rundown of their goings on to a virtual stranger. Overall, your most useful contacts will be people who go from being "contacts" to people you have relationships with. It can be hard to make that transition, and don't expect it to happen with everyone you meet. Lean into the relationships you have with colleagues, people you've worked with on various projects, friends of friends, and anyone you've met that you had an easy time talking to. With time, you'll build a rapport with enough people, and as your career grows, you'll have a wider net of people you can reach out to with ease. -- Angela & Cindy "ASK HR" is our advice column where we answer readers' questions about pressing work dilemmas, job search queries, resumes, and navigating Hollywood. If you have a career-related question, email us, and the answer could appear in a future newsletter! All submissions will remain anonymous.
Dear Hollywood Resumes, I know you always say to get your resume into the right hands by networking, and that a great way to build my network is to conduct informational interviews. I've set a few with people who work in my dream companies, in the departments I'd love to work in. But now what? What's my goal in these interviews? Should I be asking them to recommend me to join their team? Keep me posted for when there's an opening? What should I "get" when I hang up the phone with them? If the goal is a relationship, how should I nurture it -- especially now, when we can't meet in person? -- Not-so-sure Networker Dear No-so-sure Networker, It's great that you're setting these interviews and getting going on a strong job search strategy. Taking that first step is often the hardest, so kudos to you for reaching out and getting these calls set! Informational interviews can serve a variety of purposes, depending on your career goals. In some cases, you'll want to meet with as many people as you can to learn about various career paths, so you can determine a direction for your career. For those conversations, your primary goal would be to learn -- yes, a relationship may come from the call, but it's more of a fact-finding mission. In your case, though, it sounds like you have a clear idea of where you want to take your career and already have a list of target companies. So your "ultimate" goal is obviously to get a job at one of those dream companies! But in practice, it's a little less straightforward. If you want to know what you should "have" when you hang up the phone -- though we hesitate to frame it that way, for reasons we'll explore below -- the answer is knowledge and a contact. You'll want to learn about the company and make sure it really sounds like a place you want to work. Can you get insight into the department or culture beyond what you've read in the trades? You also want to sow the seeds of a relationship with someone in the side of the industry you're pursuing who can let you know about openings at their company, or otherwise. You should always research the person you're meeting with to see if there's a particular thing that you would like to learn from them -- you might find there's a specific "ask" you have for that individual. But your goal is manifold and nebulous, and not really something you can check off right when you hang up the phone. There are no KPI metrics for an informational interview, but rather a hope that you've established a meaningful connection. And that meaningful connection could have many beneficial results -- your contact may forward you job openings, pass your resume along when there's a job that seems up your alley (maybe even at their company!), introduce you to other people in the industry so you can expand your network, and/or become someone you can build a lasting relationship with. But really, it's less about "what you get" and more about a symbiotic, ongoing relationship. There are many ways to nurture the relationship, even without meeting in person. Keep a list of who you're meeting with, when, and what was discussed so you can track the relationship, and then follow up every couple of months to check in (the holidays are a great time for this!) or send a friendly note if you read something interesting about them or their company in the trades. You also have a baked-in reason to reach out once in-person meetings become normal again -- something like, "I really appreciated the advice you gave me back in May. I'd love to meet up for a drink/coffee to say thank you now that we can do so safely! Please let me know if you'd be available." You don't want to be a pest, so you'll have to gauge how the person responds to your overtures, but as long as you are polite and checking in when it doesn't only benefit you (meaning you don't just ask for a favor every time), you should be able to build a relationship. And if the relationship doesn't pan out long-term, that's okay -- we encourage you to take this as a learning opportunity too, since some people offer great advice, even if they don't become trusted contacts. You can't really control the outcome of the informational interview, but you can control what you put in. To that end, we recommend coming prepared with a list of questions, ideally based on some research on the person and company. Recognize that this person is doing you a huge favor by giving you wisdom and time, and they expect you to show respect by being prepared, not being pushy, and having an open mind. The less you're concerned with your "goal," the more likely you are to achieve it! -- Angela & Cindy  Have you ever sent an email to a work contact asking to reconnect, pitching a project idea, or requesting a referral, only to never hear back? You're not alone. Pretty much everyone has been work-ghosted at one point or another. But what do you do in this situation? Especially the ghost is someone you aren’t close with, it’s likely that you had an important or sensitive reason for reaching out, and getting ignored can trigger a lot of insecurities around your relationship. Your gut instinct might be to think they hate you and will never speak to you again. The first thing you need to do in this situation is to avoid letting your imagination come up with worst case scenarios. The most likely explanation for ghosting is that the person didn’t see your email. Or saw it, meant to respond later, and forgot because it was marked as “read” in their inbox. This becomes more and more true as you reach out to contacts higher up the food chain. The number of emails department heads are getting each day is mind-numbing, so it’s no surprise that they miss emails frequently. And this gets even worse around the holidays or other busy times of year! You never know what’s going on, but be aware that if there’s a holiday or big industry conference coming up, it might not be the best time to email. Most importantly, don’t automatically assume they are ignoring you and write them off as a bad person. 99% of the time, the ghosting was unintentional. If you haven’t heard back in a couple of weeks, follow up! Simply reply to the same chain and say that you’re checking in to see if they received the previous email and ask your question again. Most likely you’ll get an “I’m so sorry, I didn't see this email!” response pretty quickly. And you can continue the relationship from there. If you still don’t get an answer, this could be a red flag. If you’re trying to pitch a project or have a professional inquiry other than asking for a favor, you could try reaching out to a colleague of the person and explain the situation. They’ll probably be able to offer a reason that the other person couldn’t respond or get an answer for you. But it’s possible that the original contact doesn’t want to get back in touch. And if that’s the case, move on. There are plenty of other people to maintain relationships with. One thing to note – none of this applies when it comes to job applications. It’s quite common not to hear back after you’ve applied for a role. Even when you’ve gone pretty far down the interview path. Is this right or fair? No. But it’s a reality we all have to deal with. You can always follow up with the recruiter or hiring manager every couple of weeks, but if you don’t hear anything, don’t take it personally. They were probably considering many other qualified candidates who all got ghosted as well. The bottom line is: you have to give people the benefit of the doubt and don’t get too offended when you don’t hear back after sending an email. Instead, get comfortable with following up – a quick check in email is the best way to get an answer on something while maintaining the relationship. -- Angela Silak & Cindy Kaplan |
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