Contacting Potential Employer

I like blunt.  If he has “a very small firm”, he will appreciate it.  If you haven’t talked to him in 3 years, he will be annoyed at a coy approach. 

Letters are more formal than calling. If you have a casual relationship, calling would be more appropriate than a business letter.

If you are looking for work, ask him if he has any. You can’t expect him to have ESP. You’ll be doing him and yourself a disservice by being insincere and allusive about your intent. Personally, I’m horrible at reading between the lines. Sometimes it takes a sledgehammer to get the point across to me, so I prefer the direct approach. Anything else leaves too much room for interpretation and misunderstanding which creates uncertainty and distrust in a relationship. i.e. “What does he really want? What is he trying to say?” Mixed signals are never good.

Honesty is the best policy.  

It is like calling someone and getting the answering. If you leave a message and no one gets back to you, you look like a jerk if you keep leaving messages. If you hang up before leaving a message, you can keep calling back util someone picks up the phone.

My first office job was offered to me 9 months after I first met with the employer. It happened to be a civil/survey office with no licensed LA (owner is an MLA from Harvard). I approached him because it was listed as an LA, but the two LAs both had left and went on their own. He neither offered me a job nor did I ask for one as I wanted to work for an LA to finish some intern requirements. However, we stayed in touch so when he needed help and knew I had not found work in an LA office, he called me and hired me.

It is not ESP or avoiding the subject all together, but had I asked him for a job when I met him, it would have been no. Then what? I call him every two months and go through it again? It is much better to check in and be familiar than to be refused.