Monday, July 7, 2008

Say Thank You or Lose an Important Contact

"Thank you."

So simple. Yet so often overlooked.

And you'll be overlooked if you don't take the time to thank the people who help you.

I've had people whom I've never met (or don't know well) contact me for advice. I spend time reviewing their resume or portfolio samples, answering questions, whatever and then don't hear from them again. That is, until they need something else from me.

Needless to say, they get nothing else from me.

Please keep in mind that things as simple as reviewing resumes, looking over samples or answering your questions take time out of somebody's busy day. They don't owe you anything, so they're doing it to be helpful. At the very least, say thank you. Want to go a step further? Tell them when and where you land a job.

The benefit? I remember those who thank me. I especially remember those who keep me up-to-date on their progress and where they land. Those people receive my help in the future. I may even consider those people when I have a job opening.

How do you think my intern got his position with me?

Thanks for reading.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Kevin,
I've had similar experiences...and it makes me furious.
I may never forget the young woman who sent me a business proposal for a magazine. It was an ambitious plan. But the truth was that it was too ambitious. She had set her sights too high. Her projected costs were outrageous.
So I spent NEARLY AN ENTIRE WORKING DAY redoing her numbers, getting her some contacts for services, etc.
I did this for free because she was a college kid about to graduate and borrow money for her launch.
And she never sent me so much as a simple thank you. (As you would guess, with such a lack of business or social skills, she never did get that magazine started.)
But as crazy as that made me, the worst has to be when I agree to help someone (again, usually a college kid) meet one of my business contacts. I make the introductions, grease the skids a bit, and then sit back. But at least a half-dozen times in the past few years I've made the follow-up call to one of those contacts to ask "What did you think of that kid?" only to find that the kid had never bothered to call.