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Mr. Perry teaches candidates a technique that borrows from his recruiting research: target 10 or 15 companies you want to work for. Then use Web search engines to identify some of their former employees and their current contact information. Phone them, and ask them about the company, the potential boss and the department you're interested in. "You'd be surprised what people will tell you," says Mr. Perry, who wrote about the strategy in his book "Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters" (Wiley, 2005).

First, I'd like to read the full book. Second, the advice sounds sound. Third, would this strategy work on the Romanian labour market? Are professionals ready to share past experiences? Are they easy to find via web search engines? I have serious doubts on all three accounts. Full article here.

Update, September 29th 2009: I've had this update in mind for, well, three years. I put the advice above to work in the fall of 2006, months after writing the post, while considering applying with Hill&Knowlton in London, as they advertised vacancies on their door (!). I got in touch with two former H&K employees in my LinkedIn network, one even a former VP, and they replied promptly, at length.

Both gave an amazingly honest and balanced account, also suggesting I speak with someone currently employed in the office I had in mind. I then tried to contact the digital manager (or some such) in a variety of ways. I've never heard back and that cemented the feeling, built by the letters, that H&K wasn't a match for me. Happy to say that staying freelance worked much much better, meanwhile, in terms of opportunities, invested effort, results and flexibility to pursue bigger dreams, professionally and personally.