91.

Target Companies

By now, no doubt you're voraciously reading everything you can get your eyeballs on about your industry of choice. And in doing so, you may have found that certain companies—their culture, their mission, their vision, their products and services, how they treat the people they work with—resonate for you. You can envision yourself working with them or for them.

This presents yet another route you can take to find work that is both creatively and financially satisfying. Dive in to your granular database and locate people who work for said company or know someone who does. In addition to reading about the company, try “reading” the people who have worked there. Begin modeling yourself after them. What type of person does this company like to hire? Do you fit that mold? If not, what do you need to do so that you are recognized as someone who belongs there?

As always, be open to coaching from people who have preceded you there. Follow their advice. Get the additional training they suggest, if that's what you need. That could be anything from learning Mandarin to getting another degree to changing your wardrobe. Begin spending time with the company's employees and consultants by joining industry associations to which they may belong. Go where they go—softball leagues, bars, charity events, etc. Learn if you really would be a fit to their culture, and be open to the possibility that the answer may be no. But if you do feel a kinship, make friends and have those friends “invite” you to join the company.

I'm hoping you'll apply all the resources in this book to your quest. But perhaps one of the most important tips you've discovered is how to use the people you know—and those you will meet and get to know—as resource centers. Everyone has ideas. Think of these people as walking books—or libraries—who need to be mined to open you to the ideas, options, and possibilities you hadn't thought of before.