It’s not as creepy as it sounds and a warrant was not put out on me.
I moved to New York because I wanted to be in magazines. Not just any old magazine, but teen magazines. After spending a few months going through HR totem poles I realized I needed a different approach. So I sat down one day and thought, “who do I want to be?” “who has my dream job?”
I picked out two or three Editor in Chiefs and asked all of my family members and friends if they had any connection to these magazines. Boom. I got results. And 5 years later I’m still in touch with this Editor in Chief.
Meeting your CEO…
- Tell everyone you know what kind of company you want to work for. Lets say you’re dying to get into a top advertising agency. Chances are you will know someone who has a connection to the CEO.
- Your schedule is their schedule. Be flexible with the date and time. My EIC had to reschedule 3 times, but I just let her choose the date and cancelled whatever else I had planned.
- Know everything about them…Including their favorite cereal. Find out what their background is before going into the meeting. The obvious is the company website, but search for blogs and articles too.
- Dress the part. Obviously you don’t want to dress better than they do, but look like you belong at the company. You can do a little research online and see what types of outfits they’ve worn to functions. I made the mistake by dressing like a stuck up consultant. The EIC actually told me!
The meeting…
- Don’t huff and puff if they’re running an hour late. It happens. Suck it up. If you’re feeling bitter think about how long you would wait to meet a celebrity and hopefully that will help shake it off.
- Treat them like a celebrity. You know this from experience, but people love love love talking about themselves. Ask them how they got to where they are (even if you know) and what their advice is to you.
- Follow-up immediately after. Letters are out. Email is in. Send an email when you get home or from the corner Starbucks. Bring up 2 or 3 pieces of advice that they mentioned and how you look forward to applying it. End it with “I look forward to being in touch”, or something along those lines.
- Stay on their radar. This may not be applicable to all CEOs, but the EIC taught a 1-night class at the Learning Annex and I signed up for it immediately. Stay up to date with what your role model is doing.
Even if you’re not going in for a job, you’re making connections. I didn’t get a job with this magazine, but the Editor in Chief gave me the opportunity to pitch article ideas and sure enough I got to write an article for a hot teen magazine.
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If anyone can relate to where you're at in your career, it's Nicole Crimaldi: Nicole spent 5 years in corporate America, switched career paths, worked at a start-up, survived a layoff and is now self-employed. Nicole believes that career satisfaction is a huge part of overall happiness. Therefore, she started Ms. Career Girl to help other women get off the treadmill and onto a more fulfilling path.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article, Rachel! The only thing I would change is that I would probably send a handwritten thank you note, in this case. Your average VIP must get hundreds of emails per day, so sending a handwritten letter, on nice stationery, will be much more memorable.
A hand written note is a great thing to add, I agree.
It is very important to meet with your CEO, great post!
In my current job, I’m lucky enough that I can talk with my CEO everyday. It is valuable for me because he listens to me, I can bounce ideas off of him, listen to his feedback and learn from his brilliance. This is the value of startups. In addition, by gaining a relationship with him (not everyone puts in the effort to do so) I know that in the future, down the road he will support me with his enormous rolodex with the work I did with/for him.
Thanks Rachel for these tips! Meeting the ceo is very crucial as we can learn from his experience a lot among other reasons. Thanks for sharing
Great points! Do you think it’s overkill to send an email immediately after meeting with the CEO as well as a followup handwritten note?
Hi Rachel! I wouldn’t say the two together are overkill, but if I only had time to write one followup, I would write it out by hand.
These are some great tips. Just goes to show how much networking can help further your career. It’s not what you know, but who you know these days. Thanks Rachel.