Creating Your Pitch

Integrate that into your pitch. "Ever since I completed my undergraduate work at Harvard, I have been committed to X."

The reputation of your collaborators

Incorporate that into your pitch. "I have been working with a team of engineers from Hopkins and Georgetown to X."

Now you are ready to make contact with your key gatekeeper. How do you get past the secretary?

To contact the gatekeeper, choose one of three strategies: snail mail, e-mail or a phone call. Each has its benefits and drawbacks. Snail mail is formal. E-mail is less formal. Both have the added advantage of allowing you to carefully delineate your pitch, without any interruption. You avoid the secretary. E-mail makes it easier for the gatekeeper to contact you. Of course, not everyone appreciates the informality of e-mail.

You may want to call the gatekeeper. Before doing so, role play your pitch with a friend. Ask your friend to play the most difficult scenarios, including that of the over-protective secretary. Another strategy is to call when you know you will not reach the gatekeeper - and, leave a well-planned message on their voice mail.

In fact, you can use a similar strategy to get past the secretary. Try calling before or after work hours. People often answer their own phone when they stay late. If you do get the secretary knowing her name will come in handy. Open the conversation by addressing the secretary by name, "Hello, Mrs. Smith, this is Bob Jones, I'd like to talk to Mr. Gatekeeper, please." You may get lucky, she may assume that she should know you, after all, you know her, and she may connect you.

Alternatively, she may say, "May I ask what this is in regard to?" Say something like, "It is in regard to a professional matter" or "It is complicated, I am sure you understand." Or, if you have sent an email, you can say "It is in regard to the email that I sent." If you are refused, you may want to ask the secretary if she will put you through to the gatekeeper's voice mail. If she will, use that forum to make your personal pitch. In any case, no matter what her response remain professional, warm and gracious, with the hope that she'll remember that when you try again.

Lynn Friedman, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist/psychoanalyst and work-life consultant in full-time, private practice near the Bethesda metro. She is on the adjunct faculty in the Organizational Development-Human Resource program at Johns Hopkins. More of her work can be found at http://www.drlynnfriedman.com/.