“ To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”
—ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
THIS IS THE GREATEST TIME in all of human history to be alive. There have never been more opportunities and possibilities for talented people in our economy than exist today.
The rate of new business formation in the United States has passed more than one million new companies per year. Millions of new jobs are being added in almost every industry. Unemployment levels are at an all-time low and employers everywhere are looking for talented, committed people to help their businesses grow.
The only real limit on business success today is the ability to attract and keep good people like you. More people are becoming financially successful today as a result of doing an excellent job and being paid well for it than ever before. Your job is to participate fully in the new economy and to realize your full potential by getting and keeping an excellent job and then moving upward and onward in your career for the rest of your working life.
I have personally worked in 22 different companies and industries. I have worked my way up into the position of chief operating officer of a $265 million company. In my various positions, I have not only applied for and gotten a series of jobs, but I have also hired numerous people for numerous positions in a variety of different industries performing a variety of different functions. In addition, I have worked as a consultant, trainer, and advisor to more than a thousand corporations throughout the United States, Canada, and worldwide. In this capacity, I have consulted and advised extensively on hiring practices and given insights and ideas to many executives that have enabled them to select the ideal people for their organizations.
Over the years, I have trained many thousands of men and women on the subject of Creative Job Search and taught them how to get good jobs, get better jobs, get paid more, and position themselves better for rapid advancement. Many graduates of my Creative Job Search programs went on to new or better jobs within days of completing the seminar.
In this chapter, I will share with you some of the very best ideas, strategies, methods, and techniques ever discovered for getting a great job in any economy. By applying these ideas and methods, you can put your career back onto the fast track.
This is the starting point of career success and maybe the most important point of all. Most people wander out into the job market, go on interviews, and then accept the best job that is offered to them. But this is not for you. Your goal is to take complete charge of your career from this moment forward.
With the rapid changes in the workplace, the average person starting work today will have 11 full-time jobs lasting two years or more and as many as four or five different careers over the course of his or her working lifetime. To weather these storms of lifelong career change, you must be proactive, not reactive. You must take complete control of your career and guide yourself into those industries and jobs that can give you the very best pay and the greatest opportunities for the future.
Self-directed job search enables you to take control of your career and your life. It puts you behind the wheel. It makes you the architect of your own destiny. It gives you a sense of control and develops a positive mental attitude.
The starting point of taking control of your career, as I said, is to begin to view yourself as self-employed. See yourself as the president of a company with one employee: yourself. See yourself as having one product that you sell in a competitive marketplace: your personal services. See yourself as 100 percent responsible for your life and for everything that happens to you. Remember that no matter who signs your paycheck, you are always self-employed. The biggest mistake you can ever make is to ever think that you work for anyone else but yourself. You are always on your own payroll.
You are the president of your own personal-services corporation. Every day, every week, and every month you go into the marketplace and you sell the services of your own corporation to the highest bidder. As president of your own personal-services corporation, you are completely responsible for marketing yourself and for presenting yourself in the marketplace in the most attractive way. You are responsible for producing the highest quality and quantity of services of which you are capable. You are responsible for quality control and for doing excellent work in whatever is entrusted to you.
You are responsible for research and development and for continually upgrading your knowledge and skills so that you can do your job better and faster. You are responsible for finance and for organizing your financial life in such a way that you accomplish your financial goals. You are the president of your own company.
This attitude is the starting point of getting the job you want not only in the short term but for the rest of your career.
Before you go out and look for a job, you must sit down and take stock of yourself. You must look deeply into yourself and make some clear decisions about who you are and where you want to be in the future. It is only when you have a good understanding of yourself and your own desires and ambitions that you can go out and get the job you want.
Look into yourself and identify your most marketable skills. Make a list of all the things that you can do that someone in the marketplace would be willing to pay for. Here are some questions that you can ask and answer for yourself before you go to your first interview:
1. What are your basic skills? What can you do? What have you learned through education or experience that enables you to make a contribution and to get results that a company values and will pay for?
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2. What have you done especially well at your various jobs in the past? What sorts of activities have been most responsible for your success in your work life up to now?
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3. ___________________________________
3. What sort of activities in your work and your personal life do you most enjoy? You will almost always be most successful doing the things that you enjoy the most.
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3. ___________________________________
4. What parts of your work do you do most easily and well? What you’ve done well in the past is often an indicator of what you would do best at in the future.
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2. ___________________________________
3. ___________________________________
IN MEDICINE, it is said that accurate diagnosis is half the cure. In your personal situation, accurate self-analysis—that is, taking the time to sit and think through the answers to these questions—is half the job of getting the ideal position for you.
The good news is that you will always do the very best at something that makes you the happiest. In fact, the situations in which you have been happy and successful in the past are the very best indications of where your true talents and abilities are. Your goal is to find a job doing something that enables you to use your very best, most developed qualities and abilities.
Most people take whatever job is offered to them. They allow employers to determine the direction of their careers. Many people have never really given much thought to their careers since they took their first job. They have merely reacted to the demands placed upon them as the years went by. But this is not for you.
Here are ten exercises that you can practice throughout your career to make sure that you are on the right track.
1. Describe your ideal job. Remember you can’t hit a target that you can’t see. Imagine that you could do anything you want in the world. Exactly what would that job look like?
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2. Look around you in the marketplace. If you could have any job that you see, doing anything, what exactly would it be?
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If you do see a job that you like, phone or go and talk to someone who is doing that job and ask for the person’s advice. You’ll be amazed at the insights that people will give you in just a few minutes of conversation.
3. Project yourself into the future. What sort of work would you like to be doing in three to five years?
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Everyone has to start at the beginning in a new job or career, but you must be clear about where you want to be and what you want to be doing in the future. This enables you to make a much better decision with regard to taking a job in the first place.
4. If you could work anywhere in the country, taking into consideration weather and geography, where exactly would you like to work?
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3. ___________________________________
Many people pack up and move to a different part of the country before taking a new job because that is where they have always wanted to live. Could this be true for you?
5. What size or type of company would you like to work for? Would you like to work for a small, medium, or large company? Would you like to work for a hi-tech or low-tech company? Would you like to work for a service or a manufacturing company? Describe the ideal company for you in as much detail as you possibly can.
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3. ___________________________________
6. What kind of people would you like to work with? Describe your ideal boss. Describe your ideal colleagues. Remember, the quality of your co-workers and your social relationships at work are going to have more of an impact on your happiness and success than any other factor. Choose your boss and your colleagues with care. What kind of people would you like to work with and for?
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7. How much would you like to earn? How much do you want to be earning in one year? Two years? Five years? This is very important. You should be asking questions about your earning ability and earnings ceiling at the job interview. Be sure that the job is at a company or in an industry that enables you to achieve your earnings goals within the time horizon you’ve projected. What are your earnings targets?
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8. Who else is working at the kind of job that you would like to do or earning the kind of money that you would like to earn? What are they doing differently? What qualifications do they have that you still need to acquire?
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3. ___________________________________
9. Whom do you know who can help you position yourself for the kind of job you want? Who can give you advice? Who can point you in the right direction? Whom should you ask for help? Remember, everyone who succeeds does so with the help of other people.
1. ___________________________________
2. ___________________________________
3. ___________________________________
10. What level of responsibility do you desire? How high up do you want to rise in your career? What level or position would you be most comfortable with?
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3. ___________________________________
THE MOST AMAZING THING IS THIS: The greater clarity you have about exactly what it is you want to do, where you want to do it, and how much you want to earn, the easier it is for someone to hire you and pay you the kind of money you want to make. Go back over these questions and answer them one by one before you go out looking for your next job.
More than 3,300 studies have found that one of the characteristics of leaders is that they have the ability to create a vision. This is something that you can develop by simply deciding to do so. You develop vision by projecting forward five or ten years into the future and thinking about how you would like your life to be if everything were ideal in every respect.
Here is an exercise that will help you develop “back from the future thinking.” Imagine that five years have passed. Write out a description of what your career would look like if it were perfect in every way. Create a clear vision of your ideal job, company, and work environment. Write out how much you would be earning, what you would be doing, the kind of people you would be working with, and the level of responsibility you would have achieved.
Once you have a clear vision of your ideal future, ask yourself, “What would I have to do today to begin making my five-year vision a reality? What would have to happen?”
Leaders create a clear ideal picture for themselves and then they continually look for ways to make that ideal a reality. When you develop a clear vision for yourself and your future, the only question you then ask is, “How do I create this?” Failure is not an option.
How can you go about finding or creating the kind of job that you want where you can achieve your full potential? When you are clear about your vision for yourself and your future, you will be amazed at how much more likely you are to find the best job for you.
Goal setting is the “Master Skill” of success. Success is goals and all else is commentary. When you are absolutely clear about your goals in every area of your life, the probabilities of your achieving those goals increases by several times.
This is a version of the seven-part goal-setting formula in Chapter 3. Once you learn this formula, you can practice it for the rest of your life. Here it is.
First, decide exactly what you want. Most people never do this. Decide exactly what you want in your career, and with your health, your finances, your family, and your future. You cannot hit a target that you can’t see.
Second, write it down in clear, specific language. Only 3 percent of adults have clear, written goals, and they accomplish more than all the others put together. Remember, a goal that is not in writing is merely a wish or a fantasy. It has no energy behind it.
Third, set a deadline for your goal. If it is a large goal, set subdeadlines. Program your subconscious mind with a specific date upon which you wish to achieve your goal. Don’t leave it hanging in the air.
Fourth, make a list of everything you can think of that you can do to achieve your goal. Think on paper. When you think of new things, keep adding them to your list until your list is complete.
Fifth, organize your list into a plan. Decide what you need to do first and what you can do later. Decide what is more important and what is less important. Once you have a goal and a plan, you will run circles around people who are just trying to figure things out as they go along.
Sixth, take action on your plan. Do something. Do anything. Put your plan into effect immediately. Hesitation and procrastination are the stumbling blocks upon which many of the greatest plans fail.
Seventh, and finally, do something every day that moves you toward your most important goal. Discipline yourself, every single day, to do something— anything—that moves you in the direction of what you want most at that time.
Write down ten career goals that you want to accomplish in the next twelve months. Once you have these ten goals, put a circle around the one goal that is more important to you than any other single goal.
Transfer this goal to another sheet of paper. Write it down and set a deadline. Make a list of everything you can think of that you will have to do to achieve it. Organize the list into a plan, take action on the plan, and then do something every day to achieve that goal.
This goal-setting exercise can change your life almost overnight. It is the single most powerful process I have ever seen. Thousands of people worldwide tell me that their lives and careers were transformed, sometimes within a few days, by this seven-part goal-setting formula. Try it yourself and see.
There are certain principles of work and employment that are all basically facts of life. Some of these are practical and some of these are economic. They are principles that you have to take into consideration as long as you work for a living.
The first fact of work life is this: Your rewards in life, both tangible and intangible, will always be determined by the value of your service to other people. Your income will be determined by three things: (1) what you do, (2) how well you do it, and (3) the difficulty of replacing you. You can only ensure a higher income by doing something that is important, something for which there is a demand in the marketplace, and something in which you are difficult to replace.
A second fact of work life is that your labor, whatever you do, is a commodity in the marketplace. It is a factor of production. Your effort is a certain quantity of labor of a specific kind that can be applied to produce a certain quantity of products or services. All labor, including your own, is subject to the economic law of supply and demand.
A change in technology, market preferences by consumers, or the economy can make a particular skill obsolete almost overnight. A person who is fully employed and working 12 hours a day can find himself or herself out of work on Monday because of a rapid change in the marketplace, the company, or the demand for his or her work.
And here’s the key point: Everybody works on commission! In a free society such as ours, everyone who works for a private business is on commission. Everyone receives a percentage of the sales and profits of the organization. No matter where you are in the organization, your salary or paycheck represents a part of the revenue generated by the company. And where there are no revenues, there are no paychecks. For this reason, the work you do is not determined so much by your background, your knowledge, your skills, or your ability as much as it is determined by what people need, and what people are willing to pay for.
You must be continually adjusting your offerings, your talents and skills, and your work and effort so that they conform to the needs of the current economy. Understanding this is essential for you to navigate the job market.
This is the great principle that gives you complete control over your career. The universal hiring rule simply says that wherever you can find an opportunity to increase revenues or to reduce costs in an amount greater than the cost of hiring you, you can actually create your own job.
The laws of economics state that an employer will continue to hire people as long as each additional person contributes more in dollar value to the company than that person costs in salary to the company. This means that you are surrounded with opportunities to create the kind of job you want by simply looking for ways to contribute more in value than you represent in cost. For the rest of your career, your salary will be determined by the financial impact that you have on your employer.
Perhaps the most important time-management principle is the Pareto principle, named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who developed it in 1895. This principle can be applied to the things that you do or can do for a company. The principle says that 20 percent of your activities account for 80 percent of the value of those activities. In fact, your ability to identify the most valuable and important things that you can do for an employer is the critical determinant of how fast you get the job you want, how much you get paid, and how rapidly you get promoted.
You have many different talents and abilities. Your responsibility is to think through and determine the few things that you can do that represent the highest and best use of your time for an employer. Sometimes, your ability to do a specific task in an excellent fashion can make you one of the most valuable and highest-paid people in the organization.
Thus, whenever you interview for a job or think about different jobs, you must continually analyze the jobs in terms of the most critical and valuable parts of them that you can do extremely well. One of the most important questions you should ask each day is, “How can I add more value to this particular job or position?”
When you have a job, or even before you get a job, you should be asking about and determining your highest value-added activities. And the more you can make your potential financial contribution clear to a prospective employer, the more rapidly he or she can hire you and put you to work. The universal hiring rule is also the universal rule for getting ahead in your career.
There are thousands of jobs available at any time in any economy, no matter what the economic situation. Even in times of high unemployment, usually more than 90 percent of people are working and earning good money. Most anyone who is really serious about getting and keeping a job can do so. There are no limitations. There are thousands of jobs around you that need to be done right now.
For example, every company, large or small, is a separate job market. There are approximately 50,000 companies per million people in the United States. Some of these companies are large and employ thousands of people. Most of them are small. But the fact remains that there is approximately one company, or one job market, for every 14 people in America.
In addition, every department in every company is a job market unto itself. Every department is like a small business. It has revenues and expenses. It has functions it must perform and responsibilities it must discharge. Every department hires and fires, advances and promotes, and deploys and utilizes different forms of labor.
Every individual in every department in every company who has the authority to hire people is also a job market. Even in a company with as few as 20 people, there are four or five individuals who have the authority to hire others. Each of these four or five people is a job market unto itself, with specific needs and requirements, with problems unsolved and needs unmet.
This means that in every city or town, in every economy, there are literally thousands of companies, departments, or individuals who are job markets and who have varying levels of needs for specific services. Your job is to find the right one for you.
Remember, a job is merely a problem that is not yet solved. A job is an opportunity to render useful service, to help someone fulfill a need, or to achieve a goal. Whenever you can find a person with a problem or an opportunity, you can create your own full-time or part-time job.
Read the newspapers and magazines advertising job openings. Check the Internet regularly. Speak to placement agencies and executive recruiters. Cast a wide net. And always remember, there are vastly more jobs available than skilled and talented people to take them.
When you start looking for a new job, you must accept complete responsibility for using every minute of every day in the very best way possible. You should look upon your job search as a full-time job, taking 40 to 50 hours each week, starting first thing in the morning and continuing all day long. The more active you are, the more people you see, the more information you get, and the more opportunities you investigate, the more likely it is that you are going to get a far better job than a person who waits at home for someone to call or who goes out on an occasional job interview.
Remember, you are the president of your own company. As the president, you are responsible for every aspect of your company’s operations. You are responsible for planning, organizing, setting priorities, delegating, self-supervision, and especially, you are responsible for getting results.
Get up each morning and plan each day in advance. Make a list of everything you have to do that day and organize the list by priority. Select the most important item on the list and begin with it immediately. All day long, work from your list and challenge yourself to get through everything as quickly as you possibly can.
Arise early, exactly as if you were fully employed. Get up, get dressed exactly as if you were going to work, and then get ready to go. Eat a light, high-energy breakfast. Go to the table or desk that you have set aside as a workplace for your job search and get on the telephone. Make your first call by 8:30 a.m. Whenever possible, schedule your first appointment for early morning, even before regular working hours.
Getting up, getting dressed, and looking good not only increases your self-confidence and improves your attitude, but it positively impresses other people, both those inside your own house and those on the outside. Remember, you should never see yourself as unemployed. You are merely a fully employed person who is in a temporary state of transition.
Ask yourself the key question, “What is the most valuable use of my time right now?” And whatever the answer is to that question, be sure that you are working on that every single minute.
The final and most important question in getting the job you want is to continually ask yourself, “Is what I am doing right now leading to a job interview or a job?” Do not drop off your dry cleaning, pick up your laundry, read the newspaper, watch television, or chat with your friends during work hours. See yourself as fully employed at getting a position in which you are fully employed. Don’t waste time. Develop a sense of urgency. Move quickly. Cover as much ground as you possibly can every single day. Use your time well every single minute.
When you are looking for the job you want, you are in the same situation as a professional salesperson. You are selling all day long.
The three keys to sales success are prospecting, presenting, and following up. Your job is to prospect thoroughly and to develop the greatest number of leads that you possibly can. Then, meet with and make presentations to as many prospective employers as possible. Third, follow up with the very best opportunities until you get the job you want.
One of the most important keys to success in selling today is what is called precall research. This means that you find out everything that you possibly can about a prospective employer before you call on that employer. Fortunately, with the Internet, you can do more and better research in a few minutes than has ever before been possible in human history. You cannot imagine how impressive it is when a job candidate calls on a person and has a file full of information on that individual, organization, and industry. It builds credibility instantly and gives you a critical edge in the final decision. This winning edge can open a door for you that can change the entire direction of your life.
Do your homework. Find out everything that you possibly can about the individual, the organization, and the industry before you call on them the first time. This is very impressive!
In professional selling, the difference between the amateur and the professional is summarized in what is called precall planning. This means that you take a few minutes in the morning to develop your plan for this interview. You review all the information you have on this industry, this organization, and this person. You develop a series of questions that you want to ask. You review what is going on in the industry and both the types of jobs and the potential incomes that are possible. You read the newspapers and you check the Internet to find out what competitive organizations are doing and offering.
Preparation is the mark of the professional. It is absolutely amazing to me how many people have applied for positions in my company but have no idea what my company does. They somehow think that they are such good talkers that they can get away with fast talk and phoniness to cover up the fact that they have not spent any time preparing for the interview. Don’t let this happen to you.
Put yourself in the position of the employer. Think through what the employer will need to know in order to offer you the kind of job that you really want. The better prepared you are, the more impressive you will appear and the easier it will be for someone to hire you.
Fully 85 percent of the jobs available in your market are not advertised or publicized anywhere. This is called the hidden job market. They are not posted on any employee bulletin board. They are not advertised in the newspaper. They are hidden and waiting for you to discover them, like buried treasure.
Perhaps the most important part of the hidden job market today is the Internet. Though virtually nothing a few years ago, the Internet is now home to approximately one-eighth of all job advertisements. You should not only surf the Internet job sites regularly, you should also make sure that your qualifications and your interests are on every job site that might be visited by employers who are looking for someone like you.
Getting a job via the Internet is not easy. It is a skill that you can learn through practice. You start by visiting the main Internet job sites that you see advertised. If you don’t know where to start, go to a search engine like Google or Yahoo and click on Jobs and Job Opportunities. Visit AOL and go to the employment section. Craigslist.com has become increasingly popular for job seekers. Examine the various job categories and read the descriptions of the jobs that are being offered.
Get as much information as you possibly can about the various job sites. Some Internet job sites specialize in one kind of employee and some specialize in another. Some are local and some are national. When you list yourself on an Internet job site, your résumé and your information become instantly available to potential employers nationwide.
There are many free opportunities for you to post a brief description of your abilities and the job you are looking for at no charge. Some sites do charge a listing fee, but they are usually worth it because they are much more aggressive in attracting potential employers to the site. Remember, you generally get what you pay for in life.
There are also job fairs held in every community each year. These are advertised in the newspaper and on the radio. Visit these job fairs and talk to the various employers exhibiting there. Find out what they are looking for today and what they will be looking for in the future. Even if you are currently employed, keep sowing seeds everywhere you go so that you can prepare for a rich harvest of employment in the future. The more seeds you sow the more likely you are to get the job you really want.
Your success in getting a great job is a numbers game. It is based on the law of averages. It is based on probability. It simply means that the more people you see and talk to, the greater the probability that you will be in the right place, at the right time, with the right person and the right opportunity to get the job you want.
To increase the likelihood of getting a great job, read the newspapers in your city carefully. Especially study the business and career sections. Read with a red pen or a highlighter in hand and make careful notes for follow-up. Make it a point to be aware of the trends in business in the city in which you wish to work.
You should also read the trade publications in your field or in the field in which you desire to work. You can subscribe to these, buy them at your local magazine stand, or find them at your local library. Often they are available at no charge on the Internet.
When you begin interviewing and asking around for a job, ask people what magazines or publications cover that particular field. When you read these magazines, look for stories about companies that are growing, expanding, or engaging in innovative activities. Remember, heightened business activity creates demand for new people.
Read all the business magazines, both local and national, keeping an eye out for stories about companies and trends in the industry in which you wish to work. Read the local business journal from cover to cover and look for the companies that are announcing new positions or introducing new products or services. Business journals usually contain information on jobs that are available as well as people who are moving up within their existing companies.
Look for the names of key people in various companies and departments of companies. Especially look for the names of those who have been recently promoted. People who have been recently promoted often make immediate staff changes and create job opportunities for people who call.
Look for active, growing organizations that are announcing new expansions or increased profitability. These companies are always looking for more good people. They offer lots of opportunities and they pay well. Look for new product releases and the introductions of new services. Wherever a company is expanding its products or services, there are job opportunities to sell the product, distribute the product, service the product, install the product, and handle the administration and details associated with the new product or service. These represent new job opportunities.
Whenever you see a company that is expanding and an executive that has been promoted, phone the company immediately and tell the person you talk to that you are looking for a job in that industry and this company is of interest to you. Ask the receptionist to transfer you to the new executive. He or she is probably not yet receiving many phone calls. Arrange to go in and see the person and interview for a job.
It is absolutely amazing how many great job opportunities you can uncover by simply taking action on the news and information all around you about the business and industry that you want to work in.
There are three basic components to getting the kind of job you want and earning the kind of money you want. These three elements stay constant throughout your working career. They are contacts, credibility, and competence.
1. Contacts. The more contacts you have in the marketplace, the more likely you are to find the job you want. The more people you know and who know you, the more likely you are to uncover the 85 percent or more of job openings that are never listed anywhere.
This is why it is so important for you to network continually. Join clubs and associations. Ask people for referrals and references. Tell your friends, relatives, and associates that you are in the market for a new job. Make sure that everyone you know is aware that you are available and are looking for a job. Nothing can be more important than your circle of contacts.
The great majority of jobs that are filled in the hidden job market are filled because of someone who knows someone else. And you can expand your range of contacts just by telling people that you are available and asking for their help and their advice.
2. Credibility. This is a combination of your reputation and your character. Credibility is your single most important quality in terms of getting recommendations and referrals from your contacts.
Make sure that everything you do is honest and consistent with the highest ethical standards. Make sure that you never say or do anything that could be misconstrued as anything other than excellent conduct on your part. Remember, people will only recommend you for a job opening if they are completely confident that they will not end up looking foolish as a result of something you do or say.
3. Competence. In the final analysis, it is how good you are and how good you have been in your previous jobs that will determine, more than anything else, how good you will be perceived to be at the job under consideration.
Your level of competence will be the single most important factor in determining your career success. This is why you must continually work to maintain and upgrade your levels of competence and skill through personal and professional development activities all your working life.
Every employer has had a certain amount of experience with both good employees and bad employees. For this reason every employer has a pretty good idea of what he or she wants more of and less of. Here are the big five.
The first quality that employers look for is intelligence. More than one study has found that intelligence is responsible for 76 percent of an employee’s productivity and contribution. Intelligence in this sense means the ability to plan, to organize, to set priorities, to solve problems, and to get the job done.
Intelligence also refers to your level of common sense or practical ability to deal with the day-to-day challenges of the job. The way you demonstrate your intelligence is by asking intelligent questions. Curiosity is a hallmark of intelligence. The more you ask good questions and listen to the answers, the smarter you appear and become.
The second quality sought by employers is leadership ability. Leadership is the willingness and the desire to accept responsibility for results. It’s the ability to take charge, to volunteer for assignments, and to accept accountability for achieving the required results of those assignments.
The mark of a leader is that he or she does not make excuses. You demonstrate your willingness and ability to be a leader in the organization by offering to take charge of achieving company goals and then committing yourself to performing at high levels.
Integrity is the third quality sought by employers. It’s probably the single most important quality for longterm success in life and at work. Integrity begins by being true to yourself. This means that you are perfectly honest with yourself and your relationships with others. You are willing to admit your strengths and weaknesses. You are willing to admit where you have made mistakes in the past. Especially, you demonstrate loyalty. You never say anything negative about a previous employer or person with whom or for whom you have worked. Even if you were fired from a previous job, never say anything negative or critical.
The fourth quality that employers look for is likeability. Employers prefer people who are warm, friendly, easygoing, and cooperative with others. Employers are looking for people who can join the team and be part of the work family. Men and women with good personalities are almost always more popular and more effective at whatever they do.
Teamwork is the key to modern business success. Your experience in working as part of a team in the past, and your willingness to work as part of a team in the future, can be one of the most attractive things about you to prospective employers.
Competence is the fifth quality sought by employers. Competence is terribly important to your success. It is really the foundation quality of everything that happens to you in your career. In its simplest terms, competence means the ability to get the job done. Competence means the ability to set priorities, to determine the most important things to do, to separate the relevant from the irrelevant, and then to concentrate single-mindedly on the most important task until the job is complete.
In the final analysis, it is your character, which is the sum total of all your positive qualities, that will have the greatest impact on whether you get the job you want. Your job is to continue working on your character by practicing the behaviors of top people at every opportunity.
Your résumé is a combination sales and promotion tool. Just as a company produces brochures and promotional materials for its products and services, your résumé is your promotional tool for yourself. It is a way of presenting yourself as a person who can perform specific duties and services. As an advertising piece, your résumé must be interesting, inviting, factual, attractive, positive, and upbeat. It must entice the reader to want to meet you, talk to you, and learn more about how you can perhaps help him or her to achieve his or her goals.
The fact is that it usually requires a large number of résumés to get a single job offer. It turns out that very few people are ever hired simply because of a résumé. It is like a business card. Many people are actually hired without their résumés ever being read in the first place.
The ideal length of a résumé is one page, with a maximum of two pages. People today are extremely busy and they don’t have time to read long documents. Therefore, make your résumé short and to the point.
There are two types of reésumeés: chronological and functional. The chronological reésumeé lists your previous job experiences with the most recent at the top of the reésumeé. The reésumeé goes back month by month and year by year, describing your work experience and education from the beginning of your adult life.
You use a chronological résumé when you’ve had a career path that shows consistent growth and development. A chronological résumé is best when you started with a simple job and then moved up gradually to more complex jobs. A functional résumé, on the other hand, groups your experience by skill, job function, or previous achievements. It is helpful to use a functional résumé when you have spent a good deal of time with a single company but have performed a variety of different tasks within that company.
In a functional résumé, you identify the various job functions that you have performed. You list your accomplishments and achievements in each of these job areas. For example, if you started with a company and worked up from a lower position to a higher position, you would start off by listing your title in the highest position and the things you accomplished. You would then list your title in the second position and the things you accomplished in that job.
The most important part of a résumé or a job interview is called transferability of results. What employers are looking for is proof that you have already achieved the results that they need.
Ideally, you should avoid giving an employer your résumé until after you have had a personal interview. Whenever possible, avoid mailing your résumé in advance. If, however, you are responding to an advertisement and you have no choice but to mail your résumé, always send it with a cover letter that refers specifically to the advertisement and to the job for which you are seeking. Even if your letter is handwritten, you should send it as a cover letter with the résumé.
Finally, once you have either sent your résumé or left your résumé behind, be sure to follow up with a phone call in a couple of days to hear the reaction. Don’t be afraid to be persistent as long as you are polite. Employers generally consider persistence a positive attribute.
There are several things that you can do to make each interview as successful as it can possibly be. Each of these steps will have a significant impact on helping you to get the kind of job you really want.
1. Always be punctual. Allow yourself enough time to get there, taking the address and the traffic into consideration. As a general rule, employers never hire a person who arrives late for a job interview.
2. Dress well for the interview. Your clothes can account for 95 percent of the first impression you make on your prospective employer, because first impressions are almost always visual. Dress the way you would expect to dress for the job for which you are applying. Many people are hired for no other reason than that they are the best-dressed candidates.
3. Before going into the interview, take a few moments to breathe deeply and relax your shoulders. Breathing deeply six or seven times will actually release endorphins in your brain and give you a heightened sense of well-being and calmness.
4. After breathing deeply, close your eyes for a few moments and visualize yourself as calm, confident, and relaxed. Create a clear mental picture of yourself as smiling, positive, and completely in control of yourself and your emotions during the interview.
5. When you meet the interviewer, smile and shake hands firmly. Look the person directly in the eye and say, “How do you do?” A good handshake is full and firm, where you grasp the entire hand and squeeze in a firm but nonaggressive way. Both men and women should give a full-palm handshake when they meet a person for the first time.
6. Interview the interviewer. Most interviewers start off with a series of questions that are aimed at drawing you out and getting a better idea of who you are. You should instead take control of the interview by asking questions about the company, the industry, and the kind of person the interviewer is looking for.
The more questions you ask and the more you focus on uncovering the real needs of the prospective employer, the more likely it is that the prospective employer will see you as being the kind of person who can fulfill those needs.
The job interview is really a sales call. When you are looking for a job, you’re in sales. You are going out to sell yourself to someone else. The type of job you get and the type of salary you command will be a measure of how well you have sold yourself at this critical point in your career.
Many people don’t like the idea of selling. They don’t like to see themselves as salespeople. Unfortunately, this is the type of attitude that leads to underachievement in life. The fact is that people who want to sell their ideas or themselves to others are salespeople. The only question is whether you are any good at it.
Every employer has needs that are not yet satisfied. Every employer has problems that are not yet solved. Every employer represents an opportunity for you. In many cases, employers will actually create jobs for people who can satisfy needs and solve problems.
Your prospective employer has only one question in mind when interviewing you for a job. It is the same question that every customer asks when considering whether to buy a product or service. And your employer is a customer. You are the product or service that is for sale. And your prospective customer’s question is: “What’s in it for me?”
Your prospective employer is thinking, “How will I personally benefit from hiring you?” He or she is asking, “What can you do for me, specifically?” And finally, your prospective employer is silently asking, “How can I be sure that what you say is true?”
Your aim in the job interview is to demonstrate that you can achieve, avoid, or preserve something for your employer. You must be absolutely clear about what it is you expect to achieve, avoid, or preserve. Your other key goal in a job interview is to convince the employer that you can achieve a result that he or she needs, or improve a situation that he or she is facing, at less than the cost of hiring you. The better you plan and prepare, the better you will be at convincing the employer that you are the ideal person for this job.
Informational interviewing is the key to creative job search. When you interview for hire, you are the interviewee. You sit there and the prospective employer asks you questions and grills you about your background and ability.
However, in informational interviewing, you are the interviewer. You have control over the interview. You are actually screening the employer rather than being screened by the employer. You can ask hard questions about the business and the industry without worrying about whether you make a good impression.
Some form of informational interviewing is used by virtually everyone who gets a good job with high wages in a short period of time. It is one of the most powerful job-seeking techniques ever discovered, and it will work for you if you practice it.
You begin by making a list of prospective companies that you would like to work for. You then identify one of these companies and gather information about both the company and the person in the company whom you want to talk to. Study the company website and download it so that you can make notes. At the very least, telephone the receptionist and say you are a potential customer. Ask him or her to send you a complete package of promotional literature on the company and its products and services.
Then phone and ask for an appointment with the right person. Tell the person, either by phone, voice mail, e-mail, or letter, that you would like to interview him or her to get some ideas about working in this particular field. Say, “I’m doing some research in this industry. I’m thinking of making a career change into this field and I am talking to several authorities in this industry to get some information and ideas on how to make the best choice.” Surprisingly enough, people who are normally too busy to talk to you or who do not have the time for interviews will actually make time to give advice to someone who is looking to move into and up in an industry in which they work.
Tell the prospective employer, “I would like to interview you for about ten minutes and ask you some specific questions.” People usually love to be interviewed. And if you ask for only ten minutes, you will almost invariably get an appointment within a few days.
You are now the interviewer. Before you go to the interview, create a list of about seven questions about the industry and the company. In the interview, thank the employer for his time, and then ask these questions about the industry, the company, the prospects for the future, and the prospects for different people in different jobs. Make careful notes during your interview. At the end of ten minutes, be prepared to thank the individual and depart. Almost invariably, you will be invited to stay longer.
Never accept or respond to a job offer during the informational interview. If the employer asks you if you are looking for a job, you respond by saying, “No, not at this time. I am still in the process of doing my research and I’m not far enough along to make that kind of a decision.”
After the interview, immediately go home and write a thank-you note. This is a powerful part of the informational interviewing process and it virtually guarantees your ability to go back at a later time with your findings.
You have done your research and your informational interviewing. You have met with the prospective employer and you have sent your follow-up thank-you letters. You have researched the company and the industry, and you have taken complete control of your career. You have now decided where you want to work and for whom you want to work. You are now ready to close the sale.
Telephone the employer who, on the basis of your research, you have decided you want to work for. Say, “I have completed my research on this industry and I would like to show you what I have found.” When you meet with the prospective employer, explain that, of all the companies you have researched, this is the place you would like to work. Then explain why. Then go over your findings about the industry and tell him or her why this is the best company, with the best future, and exactly how you and your special skills can help this company be even more successful in the future.
Perhaps the most powerful tool of all in a job interview is called self-selection. It’s the fact that you really want the job. Your intense desire for the job, demonstrated by everything you say or do, is extremely impressive and influential in getting you the job you want.
When you are closing the sale for the job you want, your job is to convince the employer overwhelmingly that this is the right job for you and that you are the right person for this job. Describe your experience as it relates to the position. Describe what you feel you could do for the employer. Explain the contribution you feel you could make to the prospective employer and to the company. Don’t be afraid to be enthusiastic and assertive in “selling yourself” to the prospective employer.
Be active, direct, and straightforward in the interview. Smile, nod, and make it clear that you are fully involved in the discussion. Show that you are really eager to get this job with this company and with this person. Especially, tell the prospective employer that you really want this job. There is probably nothing that you can say that is more impressive to a prospective employer than, “I really want this job. If you give me a chance at this job, I promise you I will do a terrific job in this position. You won’t be sorry.” Sometimes, this is impressive enough to cause the person to hire you rather than someone else.
Remember, employers are emotional, and emotions are contagious. Your excitement and enthusiasm for a job can have a greater impact on the employer’s decision than all the résumés you ever write. Your success in persuading the employer that you are the right person will determine the quality of the job you get and the salary that goes with that job, as much as or more than any other factor.
You have interviewed and successfully persuaded the employer that he or she should hire you for the job. You now come to the issue of salary negotiations. What you do at this point can have a major impact on your income, your lifestyle, and your future. Follow these instructions carefully.
First, you should have a good idea of how much you want to earn in this position. You should have done your research and spoken to other people. You should know what the salary range is for a position of this kind. You should never go in blind, having no idea of how much money to ask for.
Whatever salary is offered to you, never accept either the job or the salary the first time it comes up. Always ask for time to think it over, even if you want this job very badly. Use the 24-hour rule: Always allow yourself, and ask for, 24 hours to think about a job offer before you accept it. If you ask for time to think it over, the better job and job benefits you are going to get when you make the final decision.
When an employer offers you a salary, he or she usually has a salary range in mind. The salary range is usually 20 percent above and below the average amount paid for that position. For example, if a position pays roughly $2,000 per month, the employer will be thinking in the range of $1,600 (20 percent below) to $2,400 (20 percent above) per month.
The employer will make every effort to hire you at the lowest possible amount that you will accept. Your job, on the other hand, is to aim for the very highest amount that the employer is prepared to pay. Your job is to ask for an amount at the top of the salary range in the employer’s mind.
Here is how you do it. When an employer offers you a salary of $2,000 per month, for example, you should suggest a figure that is between 110 percent and 130 percent of that amount. This is called bracketing. In this example, if the suggested figure is $2,000, you should say that you feel that excellent performance in this position would be worth between $2,200 and $2,600. You raise the limits of the bracket in the employer’s mind and in the conversation.
Surprisingly enough, the employer will often settle for an amount that is midway between the two figures that you are proposing, or in this example, $2,400. This is the upper end of his or her salary range, and it is usually more than he or she planned to pay, but the employer will often give it to you if you ask for it in this way.
In some cases, you will have to settle for a lower salary to start. In that case, you immediately ask what you will have to do to get an increase in salary. Be specific and ask the employer to put these terms in the job offer letter to you.
If you cannot get a higher salary, you can negotiate the benefits that come with the job. You can negotiate for a longer vacation, for example, and receive more days off and more sick days. In addition, you can ask for more perks, such as an office, a car, an expense account, and other things.
In any case, whatever salary, benefits, and package you negotiate, immediately ask if you can get an increase within 90 days if you do a good job. Your ability to negotiate for a better package at a higher salary later is better at the moment of taking the job than it ever will be again.
Be sure to take lots of time to think through and discuss all the details involved in the job. Make sure you understand and write down every agreed-upon term. You will then be ready to put your career onto the fast track.
The thought that you put into your career and into the job you get will have as much of an impact on your life as any other decision or series of actions you ever take. It is vitally important that you become absolutely excellent at conducting a creative job search and that you review and practice these ideas over and over again until they become habits that you practice for the rest of your life.
Remember, you are a truly excellent person. You are engineered for success and designed to have a wonderful career in the months and years ahead. Getting the kind of job you want is both an art and a science. It is a learnable skill that you can develop by reviewing this chapter over and over again and then by taking action on what you have learned. There are no limits to what you can accomplish in life—except for the limits you place on yourself.
1. What are the best jobs you have ever had, where you were the happiest and felt most fulfilled?
2. What did your best jobs, and best parts of those jobs, have in common?
3. If you could be guaranteed success at getting and doing well in any job, what job would you go after?
4. What kinds of people, as employers, co-workers, and customers, do you most enjoy working with?
5. Imagine that you could wave a magic wand and create the perfect job for you; what would it look like?
6. Where do you want to be in your career in five years, and what additional skills and knowledge will you have to have at that time to be successful?
7. What is the first thing you should do as the result of your answers to these questions, and what you have learned in this chapter?