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How to Get Names of Employees

Are you now telling yourself this all makes sense?  You should've suspected there had to occasionally be an inside connection in acquiring job interviews?  Are you also wondering how you too can land a meeting with someone at the company where you desperately want in on?  Well, then consider trying the following:

Visit the company’s website.  Scan their online employee directory and choose an employee to contact.  If the company doesn’t have a website where this information is readily available, as most of them won't, then see if you can turn up articles about the company written by different publications through the Net. 

Just type the company's name or the company's name and the word "employees" and see what the search engine turns up for you.   In scanning the different articles that it produces, look to see if any of them include names and or titles of employees.  Make sure to check the publication date of the article, that's if available.  If the date is recent, then there's a good chance that the employee mentioned still works there, and there's a better chance your letter won't get tossed in the garbage by a new or overworked mail handler unfamiliar with the name.  

Now, if you can't turn up anything through these sources, consider visiting your school’s career placement office and see if they have an alumnus list representing employees that still work at the company.  Most colleges are very good about updating their alumnus records so this information should be fairly accessible to you. 

In choosing an employee to obtain a meeting with, you should, ideally, look to get a meeting with an employee who has been with the company for some modest length of time and who also holds a position of some moderate importance.  Employees fitting this criteria usually will have more leverage with a stern staffing department in getting a job interview for you if they end up liking you.   

Informational Meetings

Now, let the person you’ve chosen know of your interest in pursuing a career similar to his/her employer's industry and see if he or she would be willing to meet with you briefly to answer some questions you have.  These meetings are usually referred to as informational interviews or courtesy meetings and they usually last for 30 to 45 minutes.  They can provide jobseekers with lots of valuable information about the company that they might not have been able to obtain otherwise. 

During these meetings look to gather information about the company’s history, the different departments that exist there, what their functions are, the requirements for entry level positions, opportunities for career advancement, and see if the employee would be willing to share the personal details of his or her own career history with the company.

Also, during the meeting make sure to be on your best behavior, ask intelligent questions and be prepared to answer any questions the employee throws your way.  Remember you’re looking to later drop the employee’s name in your cover letter.  So do your best to win over his respect and work your hardest to wow him with your capabilities.

Post-Meeting Details

Immediately after your meeting you should make sure to put a thank you card or thank you letter in the mail to the employee to show your gratitude.  Next, you’ll need to whip out a fresh copy of your resume and send it along with your updated cover letter to the company’s hiring department.  In the first paragraph of your cover letter, usually the very first sentence, you should mention your meeting with the employee.  The wording is usually something as simple as:

Phone Meetings

If you can’t get an employee to meet personally with you then see if he or she will agree to a phone meeting.  Either way, whether it’s an in-person meeting you land or just a 15 or 20 minute phone discussion, you’ll still be able to reference the employee in your cover letter.  For discussions that take place over the phone, you’ll need to word your cover letter somewhat similar to the following. 

Benefits of Adding Name to Cover Letter

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, but adding a familiar name to your cover letter will really help give you a leg up on your competition.  By including the name of a current employee, the company's human resources department can be more thorough in investigating you before deciding on whether to invite you in for an interview.  They can conveniently call the employee you met with to find out his thoughts on you instead of just relying solely on the information provided on your resume. 

Also, most human resources departments feel a lot more pressured to invite in applicants who have had the luxury of meeting with someone at the company beforehand and who are also heavily endorsed by that same person.  Again, human resources departments will feel even more pressured to invite you in for a job interview if the person you met with holds a valued title or performs an important function at the company.  

Final Word

Before closing this article, I want to mention one more thing.  That is, just because your cover letter may land on the recruitment director's desk with a familiar employee name planted smugly in the opening paragraph doesn’t mean that you still won’t have to sell your talents, if invited in for an interview, just as aggressively as any other job applicant who lands a job interview without a familiar name included in his or her letter.  You’ll still have to persuasively show the staffing director what separates you from other applicants he may be considering for the job.  So always make sure to prepare extensively for job interviews.  To help you in this very important department, be sure to review the following articles:  The Fail-Proof Guide to Successful Interviewing and Behavioral Interviews. 

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This article is © 2003-2005 by Tracy Miller and may not be reposted without written permission from the author and may not be reprinted for profit.