I've been reading William A. Cohen's Building a Mail Order Business (John Wiley & Sons, 1991). It's an excellent manual on starting a mail-order business, but what caught my eye was the following (p. x): "In addition, I began to apply mail order techniques to obtaining research for the university with which I became associated. One mailing gave us a response in excess of 30%, and in one short period I sold more in funded research through direct mail techniques than we were able to obtain over the previous three years through other methods." On p. 73, he says "Some years ago I used this same technique of inquiry and follow-up to sell $20,000 worth of research by mail. The first mailing was a direct mail letter to a number of senior aerospace executives. It outlined the general research I wanted to sell and provided a tear-out coupon to request the full proposal for the research. Those executives who responded with this coupon were mailed the expensive proposal, which contained all of the follow- up information and allowed me more space to sell the product." It's a good book, and I highly recommend that you study direct-mail techniques if you are interested in starting your own business.

If you just want a job, you might check out John Lucht's Rites of Passage at $100,000+ (1991). It's about fast-track executive job hunting -- engraved stationery, expensive suits, etc. -- but there's a lot that applies to any job search. Lucht disparages the now-common networking method of getting interviews, especially pushy telephone sales techniques. He sees direct-mail marketing as the best way to reach all of the potential bosses in an area within a short time. One or two percent are likely to respond, the rest would not have a job for you no matter how you contacted them. (If your first mailing doesn't get you the right job, another mailing in two months should land a different 1%.)