I got a question this morning from one of my contacts and I thought I would share it with you all:

“There’s a company that I really want to work for in HR, and I just found the VP HR’s profile on LinkedIn. I noticed however, that (s)he is not open to inMail. Does that mean that they are not open to networking or receiving calls at all? I really wanted to call them and just have an exploratory discussion so that they’ll keep me in mind should an opportunity arise.”

I’M SHAKING MY HEAD I WRITE THIS…

If an HR professional is not open to receiving inMail or invitations on LinkedIn, it does not mean that they are closed to networking or “exploratory calls” from other HR professionals, or candidates for that matter. That would be the corporate equivalent to suicide. The reason they are ‘closed’ is because recruitment sales agents are constantly on LinkedIn looking for HR professionals to network with. Some people block ”outsiders” via inMail believe that that the spam received is not worth the networking opportunities.  Personally, I think this is misguided, but to each their own.

I SAY…

Here was what I wrote back to this guy:

As an HR professional yourself, when is the last time you received a call from another HR professional saying, “Hi, I would just like to explore your organization right now, and would like to talk to you about it, without any obligation or expectations to hire me”. Then compare it to the number of calls from sales agents/telemarketers you get. Whose calls/messages would you return?

Very few HR professionals will pick up the phone and cold call a VP of HR. I understand, it’s tough, but in an employment market this tight, doing the tough things is what will make you stand out, and have your call returned.