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 when I was studying for my final exams. It was like something out of a Frankenstein movie. There was a skeleton hanging by a wire inside the doctor’s office and the whole place was very disorganized. He started telling me strange stories about grisly things like a decapitation case he had been involved with at the morgue, for example. The doctor looked like a mad scientist—his hair was disheveled and his comments were bizarre.
I was the last patient of the day on a Friday afternoon. The doctor had to let me out of the building because everyone was gone for the day. On Saturday I went to the library around 5:00 pm and did not return until around 1:30 am. When I got home there was a message on my answering machine. The machine said it had been received about 45 minutes previously, at 12:45 am:
“Hello, this is the doctor who did your physical on Friday. It is important that I speak with you right away… please call me immediately! Your exam was fine. This is about something far more urgent!” He left no number, and I searched frantically for the number of the clinic. I could not imagine why the doctor would be calling me at such a strange hour. I called the clinic and an answering machine picked up. I did not leave a message. On Sunday I called again and the machine picked up again. I still did not leave a message.
On Monday I came home from the library around noon or so and called the clinic again. This time someone did pick up. I asked to speak with the doctor.
“Who is this!?” the person on the other end of the line demanded.
“He left me a message early Sunday morning,” I replied.
“That’s impossible,” the person said. “He was found dead this morning in the office. He had been dead since Friday night.”
This was the start of my bizarre summer at the DOJ.
A few days into my job at the DOJ, my boss (an important government official who had been appointed by the president) came into my office and told me he had heard I was living in a skid row hotel and that I could stay at his house if I watered his lawn and fed his bird. At the time, I was paying $100 or so a week to stay at the hotel – the cheapest place I could find at the time.
My boss wanted me to live in his home while he and his family traveled throughout Europe for the summer. I took up residence in his basement, where I was surrounded by boxes and a collection of hard liquor bottles. Despite the surroundings, the living conditions in the basement were much better than the skid row hotel.
There were lots of things I did not enjoy about working with the DOJ. In addition to the supernatural death experience with the doctor a few weeks before, and the time I spent in the skid row hotel, I was now living with a bird in a basement surrounded by liquor bottles and boxes of old albums. My job was strange as well. I was working in a huge building with hardly any windows. The pay was low and the people I was working with did not appear happy. (There are numerous different divisions within the DOJ, so my experience was perhaps not the norm; however, I found the entire experience thoroughly unpleasant.)
One of the strangest things about my experience working with the DOJ was the group of people with whom I shared an office. Every day a very large woman would come in with a man who looked no more than 20 and they would sit in the office with me all day. They would do nothing but spend the majority of their time eating and looking at me. There were no computers on their desks and I never saw them on the phone. As far as I knew, they did nothing.
When I would type, they would seem annoyed. “Gotta hit those keys,” one would say. “Yep, hit ‘em up!” the other would chime in.
I was involved in research projects that made no sense to me. One of them involved a bunch of hypothetical questions about nuclear powered airplanes exploding over subdivisions in North Carolina. The job, the people, Washington, DC… none of it was very appealing.
Many of the people I was working with seemed like zombies.
I remember the phone ringing in the house late one evening, and I rushed upstairs from the basement to grab it. It was a relative of mine I had not spoken to in some time who was working overseas. There was a delay in the communication because he was in Poland at the time (I think for the CIA) and he was calling on what sounded like a satellite phone.
I told my relative I was not interested in working for the government, the pay was low and that the work was not that exciting – and was, in fact, bizarre. This was, of course, due to the division I was working in at the time, not just the government affiliation. I will never forget what my relative said to me.
“Isn’t this the most you can expect out of your life? If you do this, you will have really succeeded.”
For me, this was not what I wanted in my life. At that moment this person was trying to provide me a reference claiming this was what I should expect out of my life and was the best I could do. This was not the reference I wanted. My idea of what it meant to be a lawyer was much more than this. Had I chosen to believe this relative and accept that assessment, I may have spent my life doing something I did not enjoy.
I have provided you so much detail about my experience because I quickly created a reference for myself that the worst possible thing that could happen to me was to work for the government. I had such a strange and bad experience I came to believe I needed to expect something far different for myself. Working for the government had gone from being my dream to my nightmare.
This makes no sense, of course. Working for the government offers incredible opportunity, but our references are what control how we think about things. People (like my relative) provide us with references as to how we may choose to view our lives, and we can either accept them or deny them. Here, I reacted with rage.
“Are you kidding? This is the last freaking thing I’ll ever want for myself!” I think I may have hung up on the relative and not spoken to him for weeks afterward.
I know my relative must have been perplexed by my reaction. His implication that this was the best I could expect made me furious. I did not want to be judged as being part of the government world.
When I got back to law school in the fall, I made sure I did everything I possibly could to get a great job with a law firm. I tried to get as far away from a government career as I possibly could.
How has your career been shaped?
Have you allowed yourself and your career to be shaped by early experiences you have had?
Have your early interpretations of the world and what has happened to you made you a better or a stronger person?
In your career, have you been so turned off by certain early experiences that your version of the world and your place in it is different from what it needs to be?
Are you allowing early interpretations of the world to shape and control your destiny?
We need to take what we experience and frame it in a way that makes us stronger and makes life work for us the way it should work.
At the age of 21, Billy Joel had been playing in bars for seven years. The life he saw in front of him was something very depressing to him. He was not always treated well in bars and, according to one account, drunks had actually spit on him when he was playing the piano. He had a series of misfortunes, was drinking too much, and simply wanted to die. He was not even making a very good living playing piano. In a 2002 essay in Time magazine, Joel wrote:
“The band thing wasn’t working. I had no money. I had had a series of jobs like oystering, landscaping, pumping gas. I was homeless. I slept in laundromats or in cars. I was crashing at friends’ houses. I’d sneak into my mom’s house and sleep there. I didn’t want to move back home; I didn’t want to admit defeat.
I actually tried to commit suicide at 21. I drank furniture polish. I had no purpose in life, and I thought it was all over. I checked myself into an observation ward [in a hospital] for a while because I knew I was suicidal. I wanted to get some help, and I had an epiphany. I saw people who had profound emotional problems. These people were manic-depressives and paranoid schizophrenics. I looked around and said to myself, I don’t have any problems. I realized all I was doing was being absurdly self-absorbed and giving in to self-pity, and I wanted to just get out. So I told them what they wanted to hear. I took the medicine. I walked around with the bathrobe open in the a__, like in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. People were moaning and groaning all night, and I thought, please, just let me get out of here, and I’ll never be that stupid again.
This experience was one of the best things I have ever gone through. I have never given in to any kind of self-pity for longer than two minutes since then. I realized I can solve my own problems. It showed me that what I thought was my own hell was nothing compared with the hell of others. I have taken that 21-year-old with me throughout my life. He has helped me through the deaths of friends, family matters, personal-relationship issues, minefields of the music business, writer’s block.”(Time, Jan. 21, 2002)
The most important things we have in our lives are references. What determines the quality of our lives is how we evaluate our situations. When I think about Joel, I also think of my early experience with the government. I formed beliefs about what the government was like and used this to propel myself away from it. Joel used his experience “going crazy” to propel his mind away from feeling sorry for himself and towards being grateful for what he was and the life he could have. The reference and association he made in his mind made him change the way he approached life and his place in it.
Years later, of course, Joel would go on to be one of the most famous musicians in the world, become fabulously wealthy, and marry one of the most beautiful women in the world, Christie Brinkley. How can a man go from drinking furniture polish at the age of 21 to the heights of stardom and greatness that few ever experience? According to Joel, having seen people who were really suffering made him realize there was no reason why he should ever feel sorry for himself again. By having seen the other side, he very quickly realized how much his life meant and how much he had to look forward to.
I have never used drugs, or even tried them. There is a reason for this. When I was growing up, I saw numerous lives practically destroyed by recreational drugs at a very young age. A drug-crazed maniac shot and killed my stepsister when I was in second grade. My school also had a program where the police came around a couple of times a year and showed people in our class pictures of drug related deaths. Speakers came to our school and talked about the dangers of drugs, how people died or had their lives otherwise destroyed by them. From the time I was seven or eight years old until now, I have always been terrified of drugs – my reference to drugs.
The references you have for the way the world is will impact everything that happens to you. These references will shape your life. The people who achieve the most in the world are the people who are empowered by, and not dragged down by, references. One of the best things you can do is allow your references to empower you in a positive and not a negative way. So many people create negative references from their experiences, and their lives are paralyzed and hurt forever by these references.
One of the saddest things that can happen to a person is to be sexually abused when they are young. While growing up, I knew two girls who had been sexually abused by their own fathers. Each girl reacted differently to the experience. One gained a lot of weight so she would not be attractive to men and became angry, hateful, and bitter. The other girl became incredibly attractive and also promiscuous. After years of therapy, the promiscuous one told me she had used sex as a control mechanism over men to prove she owned her body and her father did not. She viewed sex as a way to have control instead of something that was about bonding. Both of these women allowed a bad experience and reference to control the course of their lives and affect how they saw themselves in the world and interacted with it. I often think about these two women because the contrast is so remarkable.
People use their experiences and what happens to them in different ways. Some people use their references for good and others for bad. People who achieve the most in the world and in their lives do so because of the references they hold in their mind.
Your references do not need to be things that have happened in the past. They can also be references you set up for your future and what will happen in your future. When Sony first started marketing radios in the United States in the middle of the 1950s, Bulova offered to purchase 100,000 units, but insisted they be marketed under the Bulova brand name. This was to be the largest order Sony had ever received and would give the floundering company money to grow and prosper.
At the time, Sony co-founder Akio Morita barely had any money. With some of the last money he had to his name, Morita called Sony headquarters in Japan from the United States and told them about the order. They encouraged Morita to take the order. Morita was firm he did not want to accept the order and told headquarters that he was not going to take it. Headquarters thought he was crazy.
When Morita told Bulova about his decision, they stated, “Our company name is a famous brand name that has taken over fifty years to establish. Nobody has ever heard of your brand name. Why not take advantage of ours?”
Morita remained steadfast in his views and refused to accept the order.
His rejoinder to Bulova: “Fifty years ago, your brand name must have been just as unknown as our name is today. I am here with a new product, and I am taking the first step for the next fifty years of my company. Fifty years from now I promise you that our name will be just as famous as your company name is today.”
The references you create for yourself about what you will be and what you can be control your destiny. The filters we view life and the world through have a stunning effect on what ends up happening to us and shaping our futures. Your beliefs and values come from the references you give yourself. We use references to give us certainty about the way things are.
When Thomas Edison was designing the light bulb and failing again and again, he did not say “Aw, what’s the use?” Instead, he told himself he was one step closer to creating the light bulb each time he failed. He used failure as a reference to show he was getting closer to his goal. How do you interpret the world around you?
You succeed in life by creating references that empower you rather than dragging you down. In my job with the government, I could have taken my early experience to mean there was something “supernatural” about me working there and that people would “come to my aid,” such as my boss who offered me a free place to live. I could have decided I was working on the most incredible projects of all time, projects that would shape national policy and what happened in the world. I could have told myself my experience was something that could lead to me being the President of the United States and to helping millions of people both in our country and around the world. I could have easily given my experience that meaning.
You can do the same thing with your work and life experiences. Let your experiences empower you. Give them positive, not negative, meaning. When you look at your past in a way that empowers you, every single day is a new opportunity for growth. When you look at your past in this way, you may realize the worst days of your life were actually your very best.
Link a different meaning to your experiences so you can be stronger. Billy Joel took a horrible event and linked something incredibly positive to it. The transformation of this experience made him strong and gave him a life that would empower any one of us. He also used this experience to empower the world through his music. You can rationalize any experience you have the same way Joel did.
When I was growing up, I was exceptionally good at soccer. At one point I was so good I was not allowed to play on regular teams. Instead, I was on a special team for all of Detroit that traveled around playing different teams in other parts of the state.
After a couple years of this, however, I rapidly lost all interest in soccer and sports in general. It was too much pressure. Too much was expected of me, and the game was no longer fun. It was so competitive and brutal I would feel badly about myself after virtually every game, unless I got a “hat trick” (three goals). Because I had great talent, I was expected to practice all the time.
After a while, I intentionally stopped doing as well as I could at soccer and instead sabotaged myself. I did not play as hard as I could and started to fail at the game.
My life was never the same.
Although I played varsity soccer my first year of high school, I stopped playing after that and was no longer interested. I did not want the pressure. I made different kinds of friends and dropped out of the game forever. I became friends with the sorts of kids who did not play sports and got into trouble. I was escaping life as an athlete. It made no sense.
I formed the wrong references and made the game represent something other than what it was. The fact is we give things the meanings we choose. Have you ever stopped doing something at which you were talented? If so, the chances are very good you stopped doing it because you allowed yourself to form a different meaning of what it was. We view things through the lenses we choose. Everyone looks at the world based on the experiences they have had in the past and what they mean.
Different religions view the world in different ways. If you were to eat a steak in India, a Hindu would be horrified. If you tried to shake the hand of an Orthodox Jew of a different sex, they would pull their hand away in shock. If you tried to take a practicing Mormon to a bar and have a drink with them, they would be repulsed. We view the world based on the sorts of experiences we have had and what we tell ourselves the world and different things mean. We view the world through filters, and it is important we realize the filters we are using are not always the correct ones. We use references to create the filters we use to see the world.
I want to encourage you to stand guard at the door of your mind. Do not let your past represent something negative that can hurt you now. None of us have had perfect life experiences. There is something inside of you, however, that is holding you back from reaching for the stars in your career. You are capable of so much. How different would the memories of high school been for me if I had allowed myself to be a star soccer player? How different would Billy Joel’s life have been if he’d allowed himself to stay depressed? How different would your life be today if you allowed your past to empower you? How different would your present be if you knew you were capable of greatness and accepted nothing but the best for yourself, like Morita of Sony?
There is no limit to your life except the limits you impose on it. Your career and the world are wide open to you. Try to look at everything you have done in the past as a powerful lesson that is making you stronger and better today. Never allow yourself to be limited by your own mind. Allow your mind to interpret the world for your benefit, and not your detriment.
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 company did, or exactly who we were and what made us unique. The fact he was able to speak in terms of what made us unique was very meaningful to me, and also established a connection.
And here’s an incredible secret: I hired him despite the fact the company had no openings whatsoever. In fact, this person was hired for a company that was not even operational, which only got off the ground about 30 months after the person started! Companies and employers will hire people who go out of their way to make a connection.
When I was at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco in 2008, I learned about the different ways people communicate, and how it relates to the future of the Internet. I saw the founder of Facebook, the CEO of Twitter, the CEO of Salesforce.com, and several other very high ranking people in the Internet sphere. As I looked around at these people, I thought, why are sites like Facebook so popular? Why is Twitter so popular? Why are so many sites on the Internet growing so quickly? The growth of sites like Google and others is absolutely stunning.
There must be something these sites and the people behind them are doing that others are not. There must be a common thread that drives their success. What do these companies mean for you? What does this have to do with your job search?
These companies are surrounded by legions of venture capitalists and others who are not only interested in giving these companies money, but also in understanding what they do. What these companies do is really something that is as old as the hills, but far too many people miss that.
What companies like Facebook, Twitter, and others do is allow people to reach each other. They allow people to form connections. Companies like Google allow advertisers to communicate with relevance when people are searching for information. It used to be if you wanted to find car buyers, for example, you needed to put a huge advertisement on television and hope the buyers would see it. Today, a manufacturer can sponsor ads for, say, “four-wheel drive, hybrid pickup trucks,” and every manufacturer that has relevant products can reach this demographic. Businesses and brands that communicate with relevance are the ones to which consumers always flock.
The importance of communicating with relevance has always been around. Direct-mail advertisers have long known that the more focused and personally directed an advertisement is, the more likely you are to open it. Publisher’s Clearinghouse, for example, would write: “HARRISON BARNES OF PASADENA HAS WON $1,000,000!” on its envelope, in order to get me to open their package when it arrived.
When looking for a job, the more focused you are on exactly what the employer wants, the more likely you are to get the job. Facebook allows users to connect with people they know. Like Facebook, you need to connect with your “audience” – in this case your future employer, through commonalities and direct and relevant communication.
When you are on the job it is also important to connect. Professionalism is stressed in many workplaces, but you also want your employer to understand you and to know who you are. This connection is necessary and is what makes you human. It is much harder for an employer not to give someone a promotion or to fire someone with whom he or she has made a sincere and legitimate connection. You need to make a serious connection with your employer both before and after getting hired. It’s important to understand your employer’s motivations and to let him or her know that, on some personal level, you share those motivations.
In the 2008 presidential election we saw two very different candidates. If you think back over the last 100 years, this election was no different from many others. The person who connected with the most people ultimately won. ‘Connection’ means different things at different times and places. Our recent election winner was the one who did the best job of communicating. He text messaged his supporters and communicated in the language of the people whose approval he was seeking.
Always communicate with relevance and you will connect with your audience.
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 are an attorney practicing law, or one looking for a position, when you are not grateful and are continually looking for negativity, you will find it. In fact, you will almost always find it.
In 2001 and 2002, the market was catastrophically bad for corporate attorneys (especially junior corporate attorneys in the United States). Most corporate attorneys knew how bad the market was, and were very aware of the complete lack of opportunities. Many corporate attorneys faced with such dire prospects and knowledge about the market simply gave up. I saw many enormously capable attorneys walk away from the practice of law completely.
In terms of cognitive dissonance, these attorneys were simply looking for information that supported their belief system, which asserted the market was bad. Everywhere they turned they saw evidence to support their belief the market was horrible. This ultimately led many of them to leave the practice of law.
However, I saw many other attorneys keep going, despite the slow market. In fact, these attorneys seemed grateful they had a chance to look at new opportunities in the market. Some of these attorneys said things like, “Well, I am not sure if I want to work in Hong Kong or in New York. I’m going to have to think about this.” I remember thinking to myself while listening to these attorneys, “Are these people insane? They think they have a choice?”
Looking back, though, I realize there was something very powerful in the psychology of these attorneys. They believed they would consistently have good and exciting careers, and they looked for information in their environment to support this belief. What ended up happening, of course, is they consistently found good positions and their careers actually improved during an otherwise horrible time.
In order to be happier, to do better in your current position, and to find new positions effectively, it is essential you learn to be grateful. Gratitude has to do with the sort of emotional energy on which you choose to focus. People who focus on negative emotions and are ungrateful will likely attract more unsatisfactory outcomes. Whether you feel you do not make enough money, resent others, or are dissatisfied with your work, negative emotions will not take you forward. In fact, these emotions will build upon themselves as they attract more of the same negativity over and over again.
Cognitive dissonance theory says if you are upset with the world and your job, you will look for evidence that supports your views. Is this what you do? If so, you should immediately begin focusing on something positive. Like attracts like.
People who do well are able to focus on positive emotions, and are generally grateful. As you begin to focus on what you are grateful for, you will be amazed at how much there is to continually be grateful for. If you are an attorney, you should be grateful you have come as far as you have. You should be grateful for the opportunity to work on other peoples’ problems. The process of being grateful and looking for the positive is never-ending. Being happy with what you have and who you are is a very powerful feeling that will enable you to consistently improve and advance.
When you view the world and your job positively, others will feel good when they are around you. Your employer or potential employer will feel appreciated. You will be excited about your work and will look to make a difference. Clients will pick up on your enthusiasm and gratitude and will want to give you more work. The more you focus on being excited and charged up about your work, the better your work will look to you.
Instead of focusing on what you do not have, focus on what you do have and what is positive about your career. Your career has tons of potential, and so do you. Make lists of what is right about your career and what you are doing well. Make lists of what is good about your employer and why. Make lists of colleagues you like and why you like them.
By focusing on the positive you will draw more positive elements into your life. In addition, focusing on the positive will improve your outlook and how you feel about the world and your life.
While I have always been interested in studies that focus on the reasons attorneys supposedly have so many difficulties, I also know they wouldn’t experience most of them if they kept their focus on being grateful. Being grateful for what you have now will lead you to enjoy success and fulfillment in your career and life.
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 remember, there is a giant pullout advertisement for an electronics store called Fry’s in the Los Angeles Times. I have not seen giant ads for any other electronics stores in the Times – just this one. In the past five years, I have also read in the same paper about one electronics store after another experiencing major financial troubles, and eventually closing. I think Fry’s has probably survived for one reason: the company does not sit passively and wait for customers. Instead, it goes out and finds customers by advertising as aggressively as it can every single week, all year round.
You need to be just as proactive with your career. If you are looking for a job, you need to broadcast yourself to everyone the way Fry’s does. Fry’s may have the best locations in Southern California. Fry’s may even have the best merchandise, the best managers, and the best salespeople in its stores. But none of that matters if Fry’s is not being proactive and letting people know it exists.
In late 2008 the unemployment rate in California was above 7.8 percent. Today, in 2010 it has risen to over 10 percent. When you see unemployment numbers like this and read the related stories, you always see something else as well: the papers talk about a percentage of people who have simply given up on looking for jobs. This is the last thing I would ever want you to do. I do not want you to give up. I want you to be proactive.
The main reason people fail in their job searches or in business is due to a lack of proactive strategy. You need to be proactive in order to survive.
First, make sure you are in fact seeing all of the job openings available. If you are spending your time on job boards like Monster or CareerBuilder, you need to realize you are seeing only the jobs that employers are paying to have advertised on those specific sites. You need to look at all job search sites, in all newspapers, and on all employer websites. You need to have complete access to every available job in the market. Not being aware of every available job in the market is a huge mistake that can lead to missed opportunities.
This is what we do at EmploymentCrossing: we consolidate every job in the market that we can find into one place. We gather jobs from employer websites, newspapers, and other job boards.
However, being proactive goes further than this. You also need to apply to every single job you can possibly find for which you think you may be a good fit. Even if there is no current opening – give it a shot. Most people only apply for a few jobs when seeking employment.
I have seen people refuse to apply to a company because they knew someone there who did not like the management. This is not a smart decision. Companies have numerous departments and depending on the company’s size, potentially hundreds of different supervisors. Refusing to try a company due to one person’s bad experience, or even a group of people’s bad experiences, is not wise, and there is no place for this within a proactive strategy.
In addition to applying for every open job you can find, you need to track down “hidden” and unseen job openings. How many times have you made an impulse purchase? How many times have you purchased something because you saw it at the right time? The same idea applies to how employers often make hiring decisions. Someone happens to be at the right place and time, and they are hired.
One of the most effective ways to get a job, in my opinion, is through the targeted mailing of your résumé. This is what our company, Employment Authority, does. This almost always generates a significant number of leads when someone is looking for a job. Targeted mailing involves sending your résumé to a group of employers in the area who match your career interest. For example, if you were searching for a bank teller job, you would mail your résumé to a group of companies in a given city that typically hire bank tellers. This method of pursuing employers is most likely to secure you the sort of job in which you are most interested, and it is highly proactive.
When you cold call an employer, or send an unsolicited résumé, you are also being proactive. You will stick out in the employer’s mind much more than the average person who is applying for a job in a classified ad. The employer is also likely to believe that you are interested in them specifically. Furthermore, the employer is given the chance to evaluate whether or not they have a need – all without having to do any advertising, since you are going to the employer proactively.
Businesses often fail for the same reason that people fail to get a job: a lack of proactive measures. Be proactive in your job search. Do everything you can to track down a position and get hired.
How to Choose a Recruiter Based on Recruiting Style
What You Will Learn
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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 time and I have certainly come to appreciate all recruiting styles. One thing I would suggest you do when choosing a recruiter is take time to really understand how he or she works. Below, I discuss some of the most common recruiting styles and the merits of each, as well as the bearing their methods may have on your search for employment.
1. The Cougar-the Cougar lies in wait, seeking out ideal job candidates–or sometimes hunting them down. They know the exact jobs to submit the candidate for and the best candidates likely to fill those jobs. The Cougar’s method of recruiting and placement is based on the idea that (1) he knows the jobs that he is placing very well, and where a candidate is likely to get placed; and (2) by having a very highly developed sense of the market he is likely to get his candidates the best interviews.
Under the Cougar’s method of recruiting and placement, the recruiter spends a great deal of time thinking about firms and potential candidates for those firms. Very few candidates may be represented by the Cougar at one time; however, each candidate represented is likely to get interviews. A candidate may be submitted to as few as one or two firms. In addition, the recruiter tends to form very close relationships with a limited number of firms. This, in turn, results in the recruiter’s candidates being looked at quite closely. This type of recruiter also forms an excellent and very close, trusting relationship with each candidate he or she represents.
In situations where there are as many as ten potential opportunities in the market for the candidate (i.e., ten active jobs), the recruiter may submit a candidate to as few as two or three jobs under the belief the candidate is most likely to be the best fit at those specific firms. Cougars know their market.
The Cougar’s method of recruiting and placement is based on having a very strong focus. It bears noting this is the most typical method of recruiting and placement among recruiters nationally, and it can be quite effective. It is not necessarily the primary method advocated by me. However, the effectiveness of this method cannot be disputed.
The advantages of the Cougar’s method of recruiting and placement are (1) they form close relationships with law firms, which helps them make placements other recruiters would likely not make (because they often learn about the available jobs before everyone else does); (2) they have a very good understanding of the types of candidates firms are likely to hire; (3) their candidates typically get a high number of interviews vis-à-vis the number of submissions made, and (4) a close, trusting relationship is formed with the candidate.
The disadvantages of the Cougar’s method of recruiting and placement are that (1) by taking on so few candidates they miss numerous opportunities to make placements; (2) they develop fewer new jobs and less of an in-depth understanding of their markets through proactive marketing of candidates, and (3) their candidates are not exposed to the highest number of potential opportunities (i.e., possible fits) in the market.
2. The Market Penetrator-this style of recruiter believes (1) each respective candidate’s goal is to get the best job possible and (2) the candidate needs to be aggressively marketed because (a) they will find a job (through the recruiter or otherwise) and (b) the recruiter should be the one who gets them that job. This method is also based on the belief that the recruiter cannot possibly know everything that is going on in his or her market, and therefore must constantly be pushing to market the candidate to new opportunities matching the candidate’s interest.
The Market Penetrator’s method of recruiting and placement is based upon sheer force and aggressiveness. The recruiter will seek to represent a high number of candidates under the belief that they are constantly taking the pulse of the market (through submissions) to see where the opportunities are most likely to be. This, in turn, enables the recruiter to make choices about proper submissions due to the constant feedback the market provides.
The Market Penetrator typically takes a candidate and researches (1) their current jobs, (2) their past jobs, and (3) all potential jobs. First, the recruiter will examine the current jobs where the candidate is or is not a good fit, and he will then compare these jobs to a list of active jobs in the database. Second, the recruiter will look at the candidate’s past jobs and, depending on the candidate’s practice area or the strength of a given market, the recruiter will select a certain type and amount of prospective jobs for the candidate. Third, the recruiter will use reference sources and knowledge of the market, gained from periodicals and so forth, to develop a potential list of firms to “hit” with the candidate’s materials, in order to see if the firm has any interest. In some instances, the firms the recruiter “hits” will be firms the recruiter and/or recruiting firm has not dealt with in the past, some of which may not even have any immediate openings.
The advantages of the Market Penetrator’s method of recruiting and placement are that (1) she is likely to cover a substantial number of the places where a candidate is likely to work, (2) she is constantly turning up new jobs at firms she may approach (i.e., firms with inactive jobs or no jobs at all) express interest in her candidates (a Market Penetrator may sometimes get a new fee contract from a law firm every week); (3) she gives the candidate the broadest possible choice of opportunities to make an educated decision about where the candidate may work; and (4) the recruiter approaches firms that other recruiters do not approach, therefore her candidates have a better opportunity for employment, due to less competition.
The disadvantages of the Market Penetrator’s method of recruiting and placement are that (1) it takes a lot of work and time in terms of research, (2) it emphasizes the candidate’s interests over strong relationships with individual law firms,(3) it generally results in a lower percentage of interviews vis-à-vis submissions as compared to other recruiting methods, and (4) firms may become annoyed because they are receiving unsolicited résumés.
3. The Database Lover-this style of recruiter relies principally on the use of the recruiting firm’s database to make placements. Candidates are sent to firms with “active” openings in the database. Incidentally, this is where your résumé typically ends up when you email it to any established recruiting firm.
This recruiting method is based on the belief that (1) if there is a real job, the candidate should be marketed to it, (2) the most likely source of a placement is with a real available job, and (3) firms should be treated with respect and should therefore only be shown candidates when they have made it known that they have a specific opening.
Under the Database Lover’s method of recruiting and placement, the recruiter will monitor active jobs closely and watch for candidates matching those jobs. Here, the recruiter will typically submit candidates to active jobs both within and outside of his or her territory.
The main advantages of the Database Lover’s method of recruiting and placement are (1) he is able to provide firms with candidates matching their openings on an ongoing basis (and not upset firms with unsolicited résumés in the process); and (2) if he is aggressive, he can “hit” openings in odd areas (e.g., Maine, Sacramento, Indiana, Saudi Arabia) with appropriate candidates who are likely to be direct hits. The Database Lover can be an extremely effective recruiter.
The disadvantages of the Database Lover’s method of recruiting and placement are that (1) he does not necessarily get thorough market coverage because he mostly only responds to current openings; (2) he may not take on candidates when there are no actual openings; and (3) his candidates are competing with every other candidate in the market that is being submitted by a recruiter to the same firms.
While there are many more different types of recruiters, I believe the above characterizations show three key types of recruiting techniques. Make no mistake about it: the Cougars think they do the best work, just as the Database Lovers and the Market Penetrators believe they do the best work. The fact that there is tension between competing methods is a sign of a healthy organization.
No method is wrong. Instead, I believe that a combination of each style leads to the best recruiting system. Personally, I believe I am too much of a Market Penetrator, and would likely be an even better recruiter were I more of a Database Lover or Cougar.
Ideally, you should be working with a recruiter who understands all three methods of recruiting. I call this type of recruiter a “Parthenon Recruiter.” When you see pictures of the Parthenon in Greece, you can see it’s lasted for thousands of years, partly because it’s supported by so many columns. If one column fails, the Parthenon will remain standing.
While using an ancient temple as an analogy may seem strange, the fact is your career needs to be supported by more than one type of job search style. Use multiple methods in your job search, and a recruiter who supports your efforts on multiple fronts. This will make for a stronger job search, and likely one that is very successful.
Job Opportunities Are Everywhere
What You Will Learn
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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 look at the current situation. What you need most in order to succeed in the job market is a strong, positive mindset. You need to understand that getting a job – any job – has a lot to do with how you think and the way you put your mind to use. A positive mindset can create a great deal of opportunity for you. But first you have to think and believe that opportunity is everywhere.
After September 11, 2001, the market for corporate attorneys in Silicon Valley – my main location for legal recruiting at the time – was at an absolute standstill. Law firms were glutted with corporate attorneys, and most were letting them go as quickly as possible. I remember getting calls from hundreds of laid-off attorneys looking for jobs. One day, I got a call from an attorney and proceeded to tell him the same story I’d shared thousands of times before:
The market is horrible.
There are no jobs.
Firms are laying people off as quickly as they can.
This is the biggest crisis in the history of Silicon Valley.
No one has ever seen a market this bad.
I basically told him everything I had told countless others before. There was nothing particularly impressive one way or another about this man’s experience or education. He was pretty much just an average out-of-work corporate attorney in Silicon Valley. I saw his job prospects as rather grim.
“I am going to a retreat for a week this Friday,” he said, “and I plan on starting work in the next week or two after that. If you’d like I’d be happy to meet with you in your offices tomorrow.”
He was calling me from Mountain View, several hundred miles from where I was sitting in Los Angeles. I agreed to meet with him. He took a flight down a few days later.
Morrison & Foerster had an opening for an attorney at his level in a very small corporate group. I got him the interview and, somehow, he landed the job. Granted, he made a good impression in person, and I did do my best to get him the job; nevertheless, I believe it was his desire and his energy which really got him the job. I cannot imagine how else this occurred; there were many other candidates who were more qualified for the position. As it turned out, this man was the only corporate attorney I knew who secured employment in California in the first six months after September 11.
As a recruiter and as someone who now runs various employment companies, I have seen countless examples like this over the years. Some people just know they have “it” and they refuse to take no for an answer. A similar story appears in the book Think and Grow Rich about the power of persistence and knowing your end result right when you start:
Shortly after Mr. Darby received his degree from the “University of Hard Knocks,” and had decided to profit by his experience in the gold mining business, he had the good fortune to be present on an occasion that proved to him that “No” does not necessarily mean no.
One afternoon he was helping his uncle grind wheat in an old-fashioned mill. The uncle operated a large farm on which a number of colored sharecrop farmers lived. Quietly, the door was opened, and a small colored child, the daughter of a tenant, walked in and took her place near the door.
The uncle looked up, saw the child, and barked at her roughly, “What do you want?” Meekly, the child replied, “My mammy say send her fifty cents.” “I’ll not do it,” the uncle retorted, “Now you run on home.” “Yas sah,” the child replied. But she did not move. The uncle went ahead with his work, so busily engaged that he did not pay enough attention to the child to observe that she did not leave. When he looked up and saw her still standing there, he yelled at her, “I told you to go on home! Now go, or I’ll take a switch to you.” The little girl said “yas sah,” but she did not budge an inch. The uncle dropped a sack of grain he was about to pour into the mill hopper, picked up a barrel stave, and started toward the child with an expression on his face that indicated trouble.
Darby held his breath. He was certain he was about to witness a murder. He knew his uncle had a fierce temper. He knew that colored children were not supposed to defy white people in that part of the country.
When the uncle reached the spot where the child was standing, she quickly stepped forward one step, looked up into his eyes, and screamed at the top of her shrill voice, “MY MAMMY’S GOTTA HAVE THAT FIFTY CENTS!”
The uncle stopped, looked at her for a minute, then slowly laid the barrel stave on the floor, put his hand in his pocket, took out half a dollar, and gave it to her. The child took the money and slowly backed toward the door, never taking her eyes off the man whom she had just conquered.
After she had gone, the uncle sat down on a box and looked out the window into space for more than ten minutes. He was pondering, with awe, over the whipping he had just taken. Mr. Darby, too, was doing some thinking. That was the first time in all his experience that he had seen a colored child deliberately master an adult white person. How did she do it? What happened to his uncle that caused him to lose his fierceness and become as docile as a lamb? What strange power did this child use that made her master over her superior? These and other similar questions flashed into Darby’s mind, but he did not find the answer until years later, when he told me the story.
Persistence can get you a job. Knowing your end result ahead of time is a good way to bring results. When I think about the people I have seen conquer the odds and secure good jobs, even in a bad economy, I am reminded of the power of a positive mindset.
According to Michael Basch, one of the founders of Federal Express, it takes three things to succeed. I believe people who succeed in business or in the job search market typically accomplish these three items very well:
1. They change their mindset from “I am owed this” to “how can I add value?” Projecting this mindset to potential employers or colleagues shows you are an asset. For example, a corporate attorney out of work in a tough market may talk about how he can create work, how he can grow the department, etc. This is what truly successful people do to add value to their workplaces and communities. People who do this continue to succeed, even in challenging financial times.
2. They give direction to that value in order to ensure they’re producing results for the organization. In the same regard, people who give the most value also direct it toward that which helps the organization the most, and they do so in the most efficient manner possible. Time is money, and utilizing time effectively shows employers your value in a clear way.
3. They have a system to apply their energy so their results get better and better. When you are with any organization, you need to show improvement, and willingness to improve. Well-directed energy becomes even more efficient and effective over time if you constantly fine-tune your processes. This is what employers want to see: a salesperson who regularly takes self-improvement courses to increase his sales; a litigation attorney who spends his weekends at camps, brushing up on his trial advocacy skills. These things impress employers and increase your value as an employee. Being committed to the study of what you do and having a system for improving is what makes all the difference. Looking back on the people I have seen hired against the odds, this is exactly what they did. They kept learning and growing even when the state of the market and economy looked dismal.
The only secret to finding a job is to believe you will, and then to show your potential employer you’re highly valuable. Understand that in order to succeed, even in the worst of markets, you have to believe there are opportunities available. Tune out what seems wrong with the market, and put your heart into your job search. If you do this, nothing can hold you back.
Finding Jobs Through Contacts
What You Will Learn
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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 the phone, and (I am not kidding) speak with these people about nothing at all. If the subject of your job search comes up during the conversation, great. If it does not, that’s fine too. I feel this simple tactic may be the easiest way to get a job that I know of.
In sales, one of the things I’ve seen over and over is that salespeople are always the most excited about new leads. Salespeople spend most of their time trying to find new people to buy products and are mostly concerned with people who appear ready to buy right here and now. I see this a lot in automobile sales, for example. Picture an auto dealership where you pull up to find 10+ salespeople standing outdoors waiting to ask if they can help you. Imagine instead, if each time someone came into the dealership, the salesperson asked them for their contact information? What if that salesperson proceeded to call all his compiled contacts periodically to see if they were interested in a new car? Imagine the number of contacts this salesperson would have after 30, 60, 90, or 180 days. Would this make a difference for his sales?
This is, in fact, what the greatest car salesman of all time, Joe Girard, did in his work–he never let a customer out of his grip. According to one website:
After building homes for 13 years, Girard turned to autos. He sold cars from 1963 to 1977, starting at 267 units a year, rising to an all-time record of 1,425 units, and retiring at 855 units to write books. Girard had his own office at the dealership and hired two assistants out of his pocket, one to help recruit and market sales, one to prep new cars, assess trade-ins, and coordinate service requests. He sent out nearly 13,000 greeting cards a month to his customers, celebrating everything from Halloween to Groundhog Day. He paid out thousands to a network of people who referred sales–priests, teachers, plant foremen, students, and mechanics–before the practice was discouraged by the Big Three.
This sort of follow up–making sure that people remember you and staying in touch, is what truly builds relationships, and, in the sales market, is what translates into results. There are lessons here that can be learned regarding the job market in general as well.
Throughout your life and career, chances are you’ve met innumerable individuals who can assist you in your job search. Many of these people have job openings they can help you interview for, or know people who can assist you in finding employment. Look at your life and the people you have known in the past. How many people have you lost track of? How many of those do you wish you would have kept in touch with? Imagine what a difference it would make if you could reactivate just 10 or 15 percent of your old professional contacts to come to your aid in your job search.
You certainly can find jobs by hanging out on a job board or contacting employers directly. You can also find jobs by doing a targeted mass-mailing to employers. And still, one of the best ways to find a job is by networking with people who already know you or you’ve known in the past. Re-establish as many connections as you can while you are conducting your job search. It can only help you.
Once you have identified those who may be able to assist you in your job search, I would recommend you very earnestly and deliberately re-establish contact with them. Send an email or place a call to them and reconnect, then simply update them on what you are doing. You do not need to tell these people you are looking for a job at the start of the conversation–it will come up as the conversation progresses. Most people are inclined to want to help, or at the very least, offer career advice.
Everyone wants acknowledgment and needs to be heard. Part of what you’re doing when you contact people you’ve spoken with in the past is acknowledging them. If it’s your fault you haven’t spoken with them in a long time tell them so, and apologize. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by contacting people from your past and enlisting them in your job search. Very often, you will find you need not even ask for help. Just letting people know you are searching is often enough. Once people realize you are available, you may find referrals come your way without even looking for them.
I am a major proponent of using every means necessary to find a job. Our websites are a valuable tool for many job-seekers. In the end however, what it really comes down to when you want a job is people and relationships. People are the ones who give you jobs–not computers, not letters or email. Your contacts are one of your greatest assets.
Get people in your corner. Enlist everyone you can in your job search. Contact those you know from your past (professionally and personally) to chat about how they are doing. The reward for human interaction and putting yourself out there is you’ll know the market better. And you may just find your dream job–all without the aid of any job search service. This is how people typically found employment in the past; now may be just the time to get back to this way of doing business.
Keep a Broad Perspective When Looking for a Job
What You Will Learn
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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 your country was at war.
How bad does this sound to you? While some may be suggesting this is where our economy is headed, the fact is this is already happening in many places around the world.
One of the largest mistakes people make when thinking about their job search is failing to maintain their perspective. People do not realize how many opportunities there are in the market, how much they are capable of, and how much they can personally achieve. They fail to factor in their own potential.
You may not realize this, but, regardless of the sort of job you are seeking, you can find it. There are probably lots of people out there who think otherwise. You may think otherwise. However, it is important to remember and believe in your personal potential.
Despite your current situation, no matter how dire it may seem, you are literally surrounded by a smorgasbord of opportunities. If you are not taking advantage of them, you are missing out. Sometimes you have to seek out the opportunities or create them yourself. Being able to do this is crucial, and can make all the difference in your quest for success.
Let me share with you some of the opportunities that exist of which you may be unaware. In sharing each of these opportunities with you, I also want you to understand the only thing preventing you from taking advantage of these opportunities is your perspective.
Consider the following career advice:
-There are opportunities with employers with whom you’ve already interviewed;
-There are opportunities with employers you’ve worked with in the past;
-There are opportunities with co-workers with whom you’ve worked in the past;
-You can apply for jobs for which you are underqualified;
-You can apply for jobs for which you are overqualified;
-You can apply for jobs that are in cities, states, or countries other than where you are now;
-You can send your résumé to employers to whom you have already sent your résumé in the past;
-You can send your résumé to employers who are not hiring in your city, just to see what happens;
-You can send your résumé to employers who are not hiring all over your state, just to see what happens (you can use EmploymentAuthority to do this);
-You can cold-call employers all over your city to see if they have work;
-You can ask friends if they know of any openings;
-You can visit the website of every employer in the United States to see if they have jobs (you can use Hound to do this);
-You can visit the websites of every employer and every job site in the country, and apply to the jobs that match your interests (you can use EmploymentCrossing to do this);
-You can apply for jobs all weekend;
-You can reapply for jobs all weekend;
-You can read about how to be a better interviewer in your spare time;
-You can practice your interview skills with an employer or loved one;
-You can research how to write good cover letters;
-You can get your résumé professionally written (you can use RésuméApple to do this);
-You can meditate about the best ways to get a job, and visualize securing your perfect job;
-You can ask your grocer, doctor, and others if they know of any job openings.
When you shift your perspective, you will see opportunities you might otherwise have missed. When you keep your mind open, you become aware of all the potential that exists. You will see the world is wide open for you, no matter what the experts might say.
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
What You Will Learn
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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 how strange the guy was. When I went into the attorney’s office (he was a tax attorney), I immediately noticed that the chair he asked me to sit in was turned at an odd angle to where he was sitting at his desk. Essentially, this meant that I had to turn my head very awkwardly to the side in order to speak with him. The sight of me sitting in such an awkward position probably would have appeared freakish to any onlooker.
Given the extreme order of his office, I realized before I even sat down that I should not move the chair. I understood that this attorney had a sense of order that could be considered obsessive, and that I should not disturb that sense of order.
Around this same time I had read a book about neurolinguistic programming (NLP), which discussed how we tend to like people who are like us. The meaning of NLP is much more complicated than this; however, it essentially states that we can better relate to people by “modeling them” in terms of their posture, body movements, breathing, language, and so forth. I liked what I read about NLP and believe that, in some respects it did work in terms of helping me gain trust and get into the minds of other people.
Sitting there in that chair, I tried to imagine why this guy would want me seated in such a strange posture. I looked at his desk and noticed that everything was very well centered. The books were in excellent order. I realized after a short time that he probably liked me sitting the way I was because of the fact that it made him feel like he was in control, and that I could not make any sudden movements towards him. It made him feel like he was guarded and protected.
In my interview I spoke about the importance of order, the importance of protecting oneself (in general terms) by doing good work, and other topics I thought he would appreciate, in response to his questions. I could tell this made him very comfortable, and it seemed to make him like me a great deal. What I realized right then and there was that it did not really matter how good my qualifications were or how good my résumé was. What mattered most was that I was likable to this interviewer.
Over the years, having worked with thousands of people as a recruiter and having spoken with thousands of individual employers about their interview experiences, I do not think I have heard more than a few times of an interviewer complaining about someone’s qualifications. What I have heard employers complain about, however, is that an interviewee was awkward, rude, or bragged too much. This response, which I have heard from numerous employers, has shown me how important a candidate’s likability in the interview is–over his or her résumé.
A few years ago I was interviewing a potential manager for our company. Everyone around this manager thought that he was exceptional in all respects. His mind picked things up very well and he was always able to rapidly recite various statistics about his department. All of his statistics were accurate and he had, by all accounts, a lot of potential.
When he interviewed, I had left the decision of whether or not to hire him to other managers at our company. The other managers made the job offer to him, and then came back to me stating that the individual (who was already very highly compensated) would not accept a new job unless he was paid an additional $200 a month. His justification for this demand was that he was changing jobs to make more money than he was currently making with another employer.
I told the managers right then and there that I did not approve of this hire. I told them the manager would probably leave for a higher-paying job the second it came along. The man also told me he was leaving his current job because he needed to gain more experience. All of these reasons signaled to me that the guy would probably be doing the same if he worked for our company, regardless of how the job went. Despite my protests, the manager was hired.
The manager started and, after a year, he was doing very well. I was spending a lot of time with him discussing various projects. One day I asked him how he liked his job.
“I am getting very good experience here,” he told me. “Which is good for my résumé.”
When I heard this I knew the manager would not be around for much longer. I was reminded of the events that had happened when he was hired. I realized that this was a person who would simply move on, in order to gain more experience or better pay.
Every few months, I get calls from former employees asking for references. I want nothing more than success for my former employees because their success is a reflection on me. In these telephone calls, the former employees often ask me to lie about their experience and responsibilities at the company. I have had people who work in my call center ask me to say that they were computer programmers for our company. I have had people who were recruiters ask me to say they had previously worked for us, managing a team of twenty people. Of course, this was not true either.
What is so sad about these telephone calls is, deep down, I know that the employee must feel a profound sense of inadequacy. I have always cautioned employees and job seekers to be truthful. People are typically hired because they find common ground with an employer and they are likable, not because of some isolated accomplishment from their past.
Achievements are important. What you have done is important. The most important thing, however, is how likable you are. This is generally why people are hired. Your achievements can be shaded any way the interviewer wants to shade them.
The thing that upsets me most about people who lie on their résumés or exaggerate their achievements is that they are missing the boat. All of us are human, and no one is perfect. You don’t need to exaggerate. Potential employers will either sense in an interview or find out shortly after you are hired that you do not have the skills or experience you boasted about. My career advice is that it is more important to be yourself and to present yourself as a likable individual and a team player.
The most important thing you can do when going into interviews and writing your résumé is come across as someone who is interested in trying hard and making an effort. Someone who learns from mistakes. Someone who is going to help the company and be very loyal. Someone who is going to be a stable addition to the company.
Your résumé is what it is. There is no need to embellish it. There is no need to try to make yourself out to be more than you are in an interview. You want people to like you. You do not want to be seen as insecure or pushy. You want the company to like you. Being caught up in a lie or exaggeration is not in your best interest and it weakens your case dramatically in the eyes of an employer.
The Holidays Are the Best Time to Search for a Job
What You Will Learn
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If you are serious about finding a job, it is entirely possible that your search may extend into the holiday season. To many people, conducting a job search during the holidays may seem like a bad idea. After all, employers have other things on their minds during the holidays, right? The last thing they are thinking about is hiring.
I disagree with this rationale. In fact, I believe the best time to look for a job is during the holidays. If you could pick the perfect time to look for a job, I would say the holidays are it. There are numerous reasons for this.
First, most people don’t look for jobs during the holidays. Accordingly, if you are looking for a job during the holidays, you have immediately narrowed down your competition. Having the advantage of competing with hardly anyone for a job is about as good as it gets in my book. How many times have you heard people say, “I’m going to wait to look for a job until after Christmas”?
Good for those people. Everyone else is saying the same thing. The problem is that companies and organizations with job openings are hiring now. The fact is that everyone is sitting around eating, traveling, and shopping; in the meantime, this may actually be a great opportunity for you to get hired.
In fact, if you plan on looking for a job any time within the next four to six months, the recommended time to start looking is now. Once many executives and others receive Christmas bonuses (around late December and into January), a large number of them will start looking for jobs. Once this starts, you might as well forget it. Your competition will be radically increased. Start aggressively looking for a job right now and you will not have to compete with all of these people.
In Kramer vs. Kramer, a great film from the mid-1970s, Dustin Hoffman decides to look for a job right before Christmas. He interviews during an office Christmas party. While the job was not the precise one that he wanted, I can tell you that he was hired, and from what I remember it was the only interview he went on. He had no competition for this job and was hired right in the middle of the Christmas party! Let Dustin Hoffman’s job search motivate your own search over the holidays.
In any job search, a contrary strategy is always recommended. Let others make their New Year’s resolutions to begin their job searches in January. That is, in fact, what scores of others will do. Who knows why they do this. It is a national custom. Avoid making resolutions to find a new job some time in the future. Make your resolution to find a job before others start looking.
In many large companies, human resources coordinators run a lot of the hiring process. In the fall and up through Thanksgiving, HR coordinators are swamped with thousands of résumés, and are busy scheduling interviews for eager college and professional students for entry-level positions. The hiring of soon-to-be graduate students is a national ritual at most large companies in America. At this time of the year, the last thing HR coordinators want is to help you make a speedy transition into their company. They have too much to do.
After the fall recruiting season, however, HR coordinators are at their utmost efficiency and can get you interviewed, called back, and hired in less than 48 hours in some cases. I’ve seen this happen. You now have their full attention. Come January, the situation will change again. These same HR coordinators will be swamped again. They will resent you and everyone else applying to work at their company or firm because it is more work for them. Apply between Thanksgiving and Christmas and these HR coordinators will be much more helpful. They may even welcome the activity your application provides.
As a recruiter, I have always noticed that candidates interviewed on Friday have a much, much better shot of being hired and/or called back than those interviewed earlier in the week. There are several reasons for this, in my mind. On Mondays, and early in the week, the person conducting the interviews is likely to be much more “sharp,” and therefore more critical. They will see more things wrong with their interview subject. Additionally, the person they interview is likely to be an annoyance because most people tend to have more work on their plates at the beginning of the week. Accordingly, they often resent the person for even showing up for the interview. As the week goes on, the interviewer completes the majority of his or her scheduled tasks, is exhausted mentally, and is therefore less critical of the person he or she is interviewing. Therefore, in my experience, people who interview at the end of the week fare very well.
If you interview between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the interviewer will associate you with the holidays and not their pressing workload. Most companies have much less work between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is an excellent association to have attached to you. In fact, it is said that people almost always remember others by their first impression. Get associated with the holidays and you are likely to have a fantastic career with your next employer by virtue of this association. Become associated with happy times in your future employer’s mind.
Although many interviewers may not celebrate Christmas, many others do. The Christmas season has a lot of meaning for many people. Because people spend their year arguing and being critical of others in their jobs, members of their families, and most everyone they encounter, Christmas is a time when many people remember such tales as How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Thankfully, our culture believes it is bad to be a Grinch. Incredibly, if you interview during this time, there is a subtext suggesting that the interviewer should not be “Grinchy”, and should give you a break!
Additionally, because Christmas is associated with giving, during the holiday season you will likely encounter interviewers in the process of buying gifts for family and friends. This creates a subtle attitude shift whereby the interviewer will feel more giving. They may feel giving enough to want to give you a job. Even if the people interviewing you do not buy their families presents, they may still not want to be associated with the Grinch. Therefore, they may give you a job.
Christmas is a time of holiday parties. Holiday parties start immediately after Thanksgiving and continue right up until New Year’s Eve. As you are no doubt aware, holiday parties can get pretty crazy. Certainly, there are almost always inebriated people at these parties. If you interview with someone the day after a holiday party, they may be so out of it that they do not have the energy to be critical and will simply “rubber stamp” you at the application stage. Moreover, a lot of people may simply feel good overall from the camaraderie of holiday parties. They will think everyone is a big happy family (despite mass firings that may have occurred several months earlier). They may see you as part of that family, too.
Additionally, a lot of people take their annual vacation during the holidays. This is outstanding because the company’s customary decision makers may not even be present. Instead, someone without experience aggressively scrutinizing potential hires may be in charge. You could get hired for a position that’s perfect for you but above your experience level–by mistake. Do not laugh; I have seen this happen! Let the holidays work for you, no matter who you are!
In sum, the holidays are the best possible time of the year to look for a job. If you really want to get a job within the next month or so, no other time of year will present a better opportunity than the holidays.
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it, you will land among the stars.