Look back at the research suggested in Sections 1 and 2, and recall that it focuses on getting an inside understanding of jobs, organizations, and industries. You are trying to understand exactly how the job, organization, or industry works and how it is structured so that you can interact in and among people of that job, organization, or industry, ultimately landing in the exact department and in front of that hiring manager where you’d like to work.
For a specific job within a specific organization, you want an organizational chart that answers the following questions:
- What is the exact title of this job?
- What is the name of the department where this job resides?
- Who manages the people in this job?
- Who runs the department? What is the relationship among the people in the job, the direct manager, and the department head?
- Are there other departments that interact with this one?
- Are there other decision makers who will influence the hiring decision?
- How does the department report into senior management?
- Will senior management be involved in the hiring decision?
As you research the responsibilities, day-to-day activity, and reporting structure of a job and the locations and structure of an organization, you want to keep this organizational chart in mind and try to fill in as much as you can. Sometimes you will see specific names cited in a news article or as part of an online community. Mostly, however, you will have just overall department head names and the senior-most staff, and you will need to use networking to get the actual names of people beneath the senior staff. Even though you need networking to get the rest of the way, the research to date is crucial to get an overall outline and to establish your credibility as an insider who people are willing to help.
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