Choose Your Frames of Reference Wisely

I spent the summer following my first year of law school working at the Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) in Washington, DC. The entire summer and the events leading up to it resulted in one of the strangest experiences I have ever had. After I got the job with the DOJ, I was required to undergo a security clearance with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. After contacting and questioning many people I knew in the past, the FBI also required me to take a physical and a drug test. In late spring, I went in for the physical [Read more]

Communicate With Relevance and Connect With Your Audience

One of the biggest secrets in marketing is the more relevant your communication, the more willing people are to respond. You can read and study everything you want about marketing, but if you are not communicating with relevance to your audience, nothing else really matters. When you apply for a job, or when you work for someone, you need to make your communication as relevant as possible. I’d like to tell you a quick story about someone I hired four years ago who communicated to me with relevance. One day, I received a phone call from a man in Europe, telling me he intended to move to the United States for work. He told me he’d researched our organization and was impressed. He told me what areas of the organization needed work. He communicated in ways that were relevant to me and despite the fact I didn’t know this person, I opened up and began speaking about our company. He then told me if I would like to speak further with him, I was welcome to fly him to the United States for more discussions. When I took him up on his offer, he discussed with me what he felt the organization needed, and he continued to communicate with relevance. I ended up having this person come to work in the U.S. I had him live in my house for six weeks of training, and even paid all sorts of immigration and other expenses to bring this person over. He now manages one of my most important companies. Since he started with the company, his salary has doubled. This person never sent me a resumé. This person never applied in response to an advertisement. This person contacted me, the CEO of the company, by calling and doing everything he could to make a connection. This person never would have been hired had he simply sent a résumé or gone a more traditional route. He might not even have been hired had he volunteered to fly himself over. Making our organization pay for the flight got the company invested, and certainly made me pay attention. This person probably never would have been hired had he not researched exactly what our [Read more]

The Power of Gratitude in Your Job Search

Many people who order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their lack of gratitude. -Wallace Wattles After years of counseling attorneys in their searches for new employment, I’ve realized most attorneys do not appreciate what they have, and are, for the most part, ungrateful. I think there is an epidemic of sorts of ingratitude among attorneys. Most do not appreciate their jobs and are enormously critical of themselves and others, regardless of whether they are earning $30,000 or $2 million per year. This lack of appreciation holds most attorneys back from reaching their full potential and results in a great deal of dissatisfaction within the practice of law. Most attorneys are extremely aware of what they do not have and what others do have. They are aware of where they are working and what their employers pay compared to other employers. They are aware of what other attorneys in their offices are working on, how many hours they have billed, and what sorts of cars they are driving. Because attorneys continually obsess over these sorts of things, few of them are able to find happiness in their careers. Compared to most professionals, attorneys are more aware of what they are lacking. This awareness probably has its roots in the way attorneys are taught to think and the way their arguments are constantly attacked and critiqued. A constant awareness of weakness, a constant need to be on guard, and a constant need to cover all shortcomings does not necessarily make for a happy person. In order for attorneys to be effective in their existing positions and to successfully obtain new ones, they need to express gratitude and appreciate what they have achieved, and what they are becoming. In this profession there is very little time spent on learning to appreciate the good, and a great deal spent on comparing and cutting down. Attorneys can use the power of gratitude to become more effective in their current jobs, job searches, and careers. As part of my job, I often find myself having conversations with colleagues regarding attorneys’ states of mind. Invariably, much of this conversation turns to issues such as how depressed many attorneys are, the prevalence of suicide in law compared to its prevalence in other professions, the fact the average litigator dies in his or her 50s, and the higher incidence of divorce among attorneys. The list of maladies goes on and on, and I frequently learn about new problems and pitfalls that appear within this particular career path. I cannot judge the specific origins of these problems. However, I can definitely say they exist, most likely because attorneys are simply too hard on themselves. Attorneys often inflict their critical views of the world – which they need in order to be good at their jobs – on themselves. Negative thinking does little good. There is a quote attributed to Buddha: “All we are is a result of what we have thought.” This is very true in the practice of law. By constantly focusing on what is negative about their jobs or careers, most attorneys attract more negativity to their lives and careers. When you focus on the negative in your career, you attract further negativity. For example, if you believe there are no opportunities in your law firm, your working environment will remain a place with limited opportunities – for you. When you see your world in a certain way, you perceive everything around you as something that supports your particular belief system. If you do not get a good assignment, you will believe there are no opportunities. If you see someone leave your firm, you will believe there are no opportunities. If you hear something negative about your firm from a co-worker, you will believe there are no opportunities. In 1957, Leon Festinger wrote A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. This book has generated thousands of studies and has offered an extremely influential theory of social psychology. According to Festinger, if two cognitions are relevant to one another, they are constant when one follows from the other, and they are dissonant when the obverse (opposite) of one cognition follows from the other. Because dissonance is uncomfortable for people on a cognitive level, people are motivated to reduce dissonance and avoid information likely to increase the dissonance. In Eddie Harmon-Jones and Judson Mills’ Cognitive Dissonance: Progress on a Pivotal Theory in Social Psychology, the authors write:

Dissonance can be reduced by removing dissonant cognitions, adding new consonant cognitions, reducing the importance of dissonant cognitions, or increasing the importance of consonant cognitions. The likelihood that a particular cognition will change to reduce dissonance is determined by the resistance to change of the cognition. Cognitions that are less resistant to change will change more readily than cognitions that are more resistant to change. Resistance to change is based on the responsiveness of the cognition to reality and on the extent to which the cognition is consonant with many other cognitions. Resistance to change of a behavioral cognitive element depends on the extent of pain or loss that must be endured and the satisfaction obtained from the behavior. An example used by Festinger (1957) may assist in illustrating the theory. A habitual smoker who learns smoking is bad for his or her health will experience dissonance because the knowledge that smoking is bad for his or her health is dissonant with the cognition that he continues to smoke. He can reduce the dissonance by changing his behavior. That is, he could stop smoking, which would be consonant with the cognition that smoking is bad for health. Alternatively, the smoker could reduce dissonance by changing his cognition about the effect of smoking on health and believe that smoking does not have a harmful effect on health (eliminating the dissonant cognition). He might look for positive effects of smoking and believe that smoking reduces tension and keeps him from gaining weight (adding consonant cognitions). Or he might believe that the risk to health from smoking is negligible compared with the danger of automobile accidents (reducing the importance of the dissonant cognition). In addition, he might consider the enjoyment he gets from smoking to be a very important part of his life (increasing the importance of consonant cognitions).

If you [Read more]

Be Proactive in Business and in Your Job Search

The gloomy estimates you’ve heard about business failures are not exaggerated. As many as half of all small businesses launched in the United States this year will not be around by the end of next year. These businesses will remain as little more than painful memories in the minds of the people who launched them. The big question is why do so many businesses fail? Is it because of lack of venture capital? Bad location? Inexperienced ownership or management? Simple miscalculation of market demand? Every week for as long as I can [Read more]

How to Choose a Recruiter Based on Recruiting Style

Every recruiter’s individual style has certain merits. However, there are recruiters who are truly exceptional at what they do. Choosing an exceptional recruiter is even more important in a bad market because the methods he or she uses determines if a candidate will find employment. As the CEO of a recruiting company, I am constantly astonished by the methods many use. We train our recruiters very carefully to recruit a certain way and we are always very aware of how they are performing. I have been in the recruiting industry for a long [Read more]

Job Opportunities Are Everywhere

The job market is tough, isn’t it? During times of economic uncertainty businesses lay people off, or undergo hiring freezes. People are losing their homes, the housing market is down, and people are scared. It seems like the world is getting tougher and tougher, and many of us wonder what the future will hold for our kids. If you are looking for a job or you were planning to start a business, it may now seem as though there are no opportunities out there at all. However, that is only one way to [Read more]

Finding Jobs Through Contacts

I work in the employment industry and a large part of my business is devoted to (1) helping people identify job opportunities through consolidating job listings from hundreds of sources, (2) creating new résumés and cover letters for people from scratch and (3) mass mailing résumés to targeted employers that match the interests and the geographical preferences of the applicants. However, I believe one of the best ways for people to get a job is by utilizing their own personal contacts. The easiest way to procure work through people you know is to simply send an email, or pick up [Read more]

Keep a Broad Perspective When Looking for a Job

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for circumstances they want, and, if they cannot find them, make them. -George Bernard Shaw Experts have predicted the American economy may fall into such dire straits it might become impossible for anyone to obtain a loan. The time may come when everything needs to be paid for in cash. Imagine if the situation became so dire that the few jobs available didn’t even pay well. Or that even those professions known for bringing in six figures or more saw their incomes cut significantly. Imagine if people across the land rode bicycles because they couldn’t afford their cars anymore, and the roads went left in disrepair. And [Read more]

Never Fib or Stretch the Truth on Your Résumé or in Interviews

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. -Abraham Lincoln

Don’t exaggerate your qualifications on your résumé or in your interviews. The fact of the matter is there is no good reason to do this. I have a secret to tell you, and it is something far too many people fail to understand when they are conducting a job search. It is something that can change how you approach your job search forever. Before I share this with you, however, I want to tell you a quick story. It is a story that has stuck in my mind for a long time, and it relates to why you never need to exaggerate in interviews or on your résumé. Several years ago, I was once interviewing with a New York law firm for a position. I went out to lunch with a group of associates and they told me that the attorney I would be speaking with after lunch “did not like anyone.” They also made some statements about [Read more]

The Dangers of Getting Jobs Through Friends and Family

Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure. -Tacitus (c. 55-120 A.D.) “Oh, I already have a friend there. I’ll just contact them.” In the legal recruiting realm, this is one of the more common things we hear after informing an attorney that a certain law firm has a job opening. There is a lot you need to consider before you decide to apply to a job through a friend or relative or take a job working for a friend or relative. First, it is exceedingly rare that a friend or family member will ever be able to get you a position. The reason for [Read more]

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