Creating a job for yourself
March 1, 2005 12:46 PM Subscribe
If you've ever approached a company and impressed them enough to create a postion for you, I'd love to hear how you went about it.
I've actually done this a few times.
I've interviewed for junior positions, talked about how much more I can do and how I have reservations about the pay and the title, but that I'm really dedicated to getting into the company and am willing to negotiate. They created a mid-grade position for me.
I've also sent a resume, cover letter and a portfolio to a company with the suggestion that they use me freelance for 30 days at a fair rate so I can prove to them how good I am. I was hired in 15 days, even though they had no positions available. I worked there for 2 years.
Combining job skills from various positions throughout the company -- I'm a writer, but I have strength in brand strategy; I'm a designer but I also do HTML coding -- tends to work well for me. I create my niche and let them figure out whose budget to pull from.
Then again, I work in a creative field. I think having a portfolio of work and case studies of performance help me prove my potential benefit to the company.
posted by Gucky at 12:52 PM on March 1, 2005
I've interviewed for junior positions, talked about how much more I can do and how I have reservations about the pay and the title, but that I'm really dedicated to getting into the company and am willing to negotiate. They created a mid-grade position for me.
I've also sent a resume, cover letter and a portfolio to a company with the suggestion that they use me freelance for 30 days at a fair rate so I can prove to them how good I am. I was hired in 15 days, even though they had no positions available. I worked there for 2 years.
Combining job skills from various positions throughout the company -- I'm a writer, but I have strength in brand strategy; I'm a designer but I also do HTML coding -- tends to work well for me. I create my niche and let them figure out whose budget to pull from.
Then again, I work in a creative field. I think having a portfolio of work and case studies of performance help me prove my potential benefit to the company.
posted by Gucky at 12:52 PM on March 1, 2005
All my jobs so far have been created for me and many times, the company wasn't hiring at the time but still they made room.
First, you gotta get a name in the company. For me, I get them via the help wanted ad they may have been running, through newspaper research, maybe the owner wrote a book, whatever. Then you contact 'em via letter, email or phone. "Hire me", or, "I loved your book, let me know if you want to work on something else in the future." Words to that effect. From there, play it by ear.
The short answer is this: somehow get in front of someone from the company who either has the authority or can easily get the authority to hire you and ask what processes they implement. Bounce ideas of doing things alternately or, if you see them ignoring something big, suggest they do that big thing and, if they need help managing that then-by golly-I can help you out there.
Also, it helps to be a jack of all trades. Though my resume shows me bouncing from responsibility to unrelated responsibility, it's because I'm too techy for sales and too salesy for techs. Since my skills and personality straddle this corporate netherworld, I chose marketing.
Let us know how you did and good luck. If you have any questions, I'm usually on #mefi.
posted by Tacodog at 1:34 PM on March 1, 2005
First, you gotta get a name in the company. For me, I get them via the help wanted ad they may have been running, through newspaper research, maybe the owner wrote a book, whatever. Then you contact 'em via letter, email or phone. "Hire me", or, "I loved your book, let me know if you want to work on something else in the future." Words to that effect. From there, play it by ear.
The short answer is this: somehow get in front of someone from the company who either has the authority or can easily get the authority to hire you and ask what processes they implement. Bounce ideas of doing things alternately or, if you see them ignoring something big, suggest they do that big thing and, if they need help managing that then-by golly-I can help you out there.
Also, it helps to be a jack of all trades. Though my resume shows me bouncing from responsibility to unrelated responsibility, it's because I'm too techy for sales and too salesy for techs. Since my skills and personality straddle this corporate netherworld, I chose marketing.
Let us know how you did and good luck. If you have any questions, I'm usually on #mefi.
posted by Tacodog at 1:34 PM on March 1, 2005
This is a very minor example.
A new weekly arts newspaper appeared in Minneapolis a few years ago, and I thought it had potential. However, it was full of typos and bad editing and other signs of nonprofessionalism. So I called them up, told them that they had a good but problem-ridden paper, and that they should employ me as a proofreader. They were stunned, I think, and took me on.
I only worked there a few hours a week, and in fact bartered my services there for ads in their paper for my main job, but, still, it worked. They were good people. I think they appreciated the constructive criticism. I would imagine, however, that this approach would not work for every business.
posted by Dr. Wu at 2:10 PM on March 1, 2005
A new weekly arts newspaper appeared in Minneapolis a few years ago, and I thought it had potential. However, it was full of typos and bad editing and other signs of nonprofessionalism. So I called them up, told them that they had a good but problem-ridden paper, and that they should employ me as a proofreader. They were stunned, I think, and took me on.
I only worked there a few hours a week, and in fact bartered my services there for ads in their paper for my main job, but, still, it worked. They were good people. I think they appreciated the constructive criticism. I would imagine, however, that this approach would not work for every business.
posted by Dr. Wu at 2:10 PM on March 1, 2005
I've been contracting for the last four months as a temp writer/producer at an entertainment website. Right after I started, it was announced that they were doing a blog-related content initiative, and what do you know? Turns out I've got five years of blogging production experience. They created a blog-related position for me and offered me a salaried position.
Basically the key is getting your foot in the door, and then finding a way to make yourself indispensable.
posted by arielmeadow at 3:10 PM on March 1, 2005
Basically the key is getting your foot in the door, and then finding a way to make yourself indispensable.
posted by arielmeadow at 3:10 PM on March 1, 2005
My boss at my last permanent job hired me because of my tech writing + tech background to develop what he called leveraged material rather than just hire another tech support engineer. Worked out very well for both of us but he was the one who had the idea after seeing my resume and meeting me. Later in my tenure he and his new boss were figuring out a reorganization (iPlanet, if you've heard of it) and asked me if I wanted to move into product management, which I did but again no input from me.
posted by billsaysthis at 10:05 PM on March 1, 2005
posted by billsaysthis at 10:05 PM on March 1, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
Basically, I already knew enough and had enough education to do the job that all of the full-timers were doing, but I also had the computer skills to take that full-time job and make it easier. So I spent some time learning what the full-timers did as an intern, and then asked if I could spend half my time programming every day on a couple of projects I came up with ... and after the first project launched, they bumped me up by $2/hr, made me a 'permanent technical intern' and I worked there for like nine months before I went away to school.
I think the general idea is to show them that you can innovate well enough to really "add value" ... but it has to be an INCREDIBLE amount of value. It's easier if you can get a foot in the door first.
posted by SpecialK at 12:51 PM on March 1, 2005