“Foot in the door” means gaining access to something of interest by starting small and working up. It can refer to jobs or relationships. The phrase originated from jamming one’s foot in a door to continue a conversation. It is also a psychological technique of starting small and working towards a bigger goal.
The idiom “foot in the door” means gaining access to something, such as an organization, that the person is interested in pursuing further. By getting their foot in the door at a company with low-level entry-level work, one person could open up more opportunities for the future. The idea is that by starting small, a person will be able to reap a greater benefit later on because they have established a foothold.
A common way this phrase is used is to describe the phenomenon of starting with a low-paying entry-level job in a company as a way to get “foot in the door” with them. Later, a person could use this smaller position as a stepping stone to a higher level one, which would be much more possible because he or she had already started working for the company, though not at the level that was ultimately desired. The whole idea is to start small and then work your way up the enterprise.
This technique might also work with people instead of jobs. A man who wants to ask a woman out on a date might, for example, strike up a mundane, everyday conversation with her, hoping to develop the relationship further. After getting his “foot in the door,” he could use these daily exchanges to get to know her better.
As an idiomatic expression, the phrase “foot in the door” must be interpreted within every context in which it is used to understand it properly, because it is normally used in a figurative sense. However, the beginning of this sentence was literal. The earliest known references to the phrase “foot in the door” come from the United States, where the term was used to describe the technique of literally jamming one’s foot into a door to prevent the door from closing, thus allowing the conversation to continue. This is a technique sometimes used by political party workers and door-to-door salesmen.
The term “foot in the door” is also the name of a psychological technique similar to the common usage of the phrase, because that’s where it was developed. In this context, it means that instead of asking for something big to begin with, one should start by asking for something small and then work on bigger and bigger things until the goal is achieved. Instead of asking for a very expensive video game, for example, a child might ask his parents for a cheaper one first. After the child’s parents agree, the child might continue until finally asking for the real goal of getting the expensive game, knowing that asking for and receiving the smaller ones first would make it more likely that his or her parents will eventually agree to buy the big one.
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