When Does Career-Promoting Behavior Cross the Line Between Admirable Persistence and Annoyance?
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Persistence pays, as the saying goes, and you won’t find professional opportunities if you don’t actively pursue them.
Many of us have been the one pursued–by vendors, those new to the profession who want to get their foot in the door, or others somehow convinced of their own brilliance. But there’s just nothing we can do for them, at least not right now. Yet we keep hearing from them. So we start to screen their calls and delete their emails without reading them–or, at least, we start wishing we could. Their persistence has stopped paying and has started to backfire.
No one pursuing their dreams wants to become the nightmare of all of his or her valuable contacts. So this week, we’d like to ask you: When does career-promoting behavior cross the line between admirable persistence and annoyance? We are also interested in your thoughts about whether you think excessive persistence can backfire if you are too zealous of an advocate for a client.
Answer in the comments.
Read the answers to last week’s question: How Do You Deal with Unsolicited Letters from Prisoners?
Featured answer:
Posted by Pacific: “I received a letter from an inmate asking for me to set up a hit on a judge and prosecutor. I notified the FBI. To others, I have considered their request and if it was not my area of expertise or if I felt their claim was not warranted, I responded with a letter declining my services. Thus far, I have not received any letter with a request in my area of expertise or for a potential client that I felt I could help. With these I tried to be professional and courteous.”
Do you have an idea for a future question of the week? If so, contact us.
