In Defense of Long-Term Employment With a Single Employer

If you go into any business that has been around more than twenty or thirty years, you will inevitably find a handful of people who have been there from the very beginning of their careers. These well adjusted souls will typically report to work each day at a similar time and have managed to be the only ones presumably left in the organization after generation upon generation of people coming and going.

Many people do last for decades in the same organization and there are characteristics which uniformly seem to characterize these sorts of people.While I am a recruiter, I do have a great deal of respect for people who in this day and age are able to “stay put” at the same organization for a long period of time and remain at single organizations throughout their careers. None of this is to say there are not really good and solid reasons for leaving an employer if the going gets impossible. I am the first to admit that there are employment environments that can be intolerable for many. Nevertheless, you need to keep in mind that if an employer has been around for 30+ years, there is a chance the employer is doing something right. Before leaving it is often wise to take inventory of yourself.

There are certain characteristics that people who stick with the same employer for long lengths of time tend to exhibit and also certain characteristics of this sort of employment situation. These characteristics are as follows:

1.People Who Remain With the Same Firm for Long Lengths of Time Are Generally Very Committed to Their Jobs

Many people were raised with the idea (or have the idea) that fidelity to an employer is something that is simply expected. The unwritten rule is that if you are not treated horribly, then there is really no reason you should leave a job.

One of the saddest (but also the most refreshing) things I have seen as a legal recruiter is when I interview and meet with attorneys who have been with the same firm for 20 years or more and whose firms are going under, who are in a position of being forced to look for other opportunities. When attorneys like this look for a new position, their rationale is most often that something profound has happened at the firm that is making their separation necessary. These attorneys appear as if they are going through a divorce or have just had a death of someone they are very close to. For them, leaving a position is a traumatic experience.

This sort of fidelity between employers and employees reminds me often of people who have been married 50 years or more. There is a mutual respect that comes out of this and a thinking that both need one another. I believe that this sort of thinking is really missing in this day and age. While this may not seem related to careers, a statistic I once saw in a social science class showed that as divorce rates went up in society, so did rates of drug abuse, suicide and other associated societal ills. The bond between an employer and an employee is a powerful force that in its best form is much like the bond between a husband and wife with a very committed relationship. Both sides respect and accept one another with certain conditions, but for the most part unconditionally.

2. People Who Remain With the Same Organization Are Not Interested in Office Gossip or Negativity

In every organization there are typically people who are not succeeding at their jobs. These people generally are looking for ways to cut corners with their work and are not producing satisfactory results for their employer. Most organizations will generally call out this behavior and then speak with the employee. Some employees correct their behavior and others simply get mad at the organization. Some employees may be mad at their organizations for no particular reason at all—or may be angry with a previous organization and simply transfer their anger to their most recent organization. I remember a recruiter once telling me never to hire someone who had been fired from their last job. People who have been fired from their last job will typically take out their anger on their next organization, he told me.

There are always going to be people who have a lot of anger towards their employers. These angry employees will start rumors, attempt to share their anger with others in the organization and often subtly (or not so subtly) forecast “gloom and doom” for their employer. This is how rumor mills get started and these sorts of rumor mills are prevalent in every decent sized organization.

People who remain with their employers generally do not participate in these rumor mills or even pay attention to them. Every business goes through boom and bust periods, or faces various crises. Loyal employees barely notice the difference because they’re too busy getting their job done day in and day out.

3.People Who Remain With the Same Organization for Long Periods of Time Generally Are Not Interested in Being Grandstanders—They Are There to Do Their Jobs and Do Them Well

I once heard someone say that the most successful people are often the most screwed up. I am not sure if this is true, but there is some wisdom in every saying like this. People who are able to remain with the same employer for long periods of time are generally not concerned with “getting ahead” to the same extent as many others are. Many people who are extremely concerned with getting ahead will often leave, saying they are looking for better opportunities because they are interested in immediate advancement. In other cases people will try and show up others in their workplace.

People who remain at their organization for long periods of times are generally most interested in just doing their jobs. They have faith in their organizations and that things will work out for them. They are not loud and do not go out of their way to attract attention to themselves. Their main concern is to simply do the best job possible.

What ends up happening to people who remain focused on their work and not grandstanding is they end up getting ahead while others end up putting their foot in their mouth. I remember when I first started practicing, there was an attorney who was first in his class from a major law school and the Editor in Chief of his school’s law review. Everyone thought this particular attorney was really on his toes and someone likely to have major success at the firm. This attorney wrote articles in his spare time, and argued with firm partners about the finer points of law (and was right when he argued). While this attorney was very smart, he thought he was so good that he ended up sabotaging his career when he called a newspaper to discuss a case he was working on. He ended up being quoted on the front page of the Los Angeles Daily Journal. The fallout from this incredible incident was that the attorney left the law firm a month or two later and never worked for a large law firm again.

These sort of incidents aside, it is important to keep a moderately low profile in order to have long-term success in any job. It is never wise to raise your swords and capture the limelight. While someone can win a sword match for some time, they will eventually lose—and in a sword match (which your career could be compared to)—the loss is usually permanent.

4.People Who Remain With Their Employer for Long Periods of Time Typically Do Good (But Not Necessarily “Brilliant” Work)

Someone who remains at their employer for long periods of time typically has learned to “pace themselves” and manages to do work on a day-to-day basis that is good but not necessarily extraordinary. This does not matter. I believe that the majority of the battle of being an excellent employee is simply showing up. Sure, some people can do extraordinary work. However, the brightest flame is not always the longest burning flame. The ability to consistently show up and do the work is the most important aspect of being a long-term performer in most organizations.

The smartest people out there are often the ones who end up having the most problems. People who can consistently show up for work and do an excellent job send the message to colleagues, clients and others that they have the ability to get the job done.

5.An Understanding of ‘Insiders’ and ‘Outsiders’ Typically Develops Between People Who Remain At Their Jobs For Long Periods of Time

After someone has been with an employer for an extended period of time an understanding develops between that person and others who have been with the employer for a long period of time. An institutional understanding also develops. This understanding seems to say something to the effect of “people may come and go, but we are the ones who are committed to this organization and we are the heart and soul of this place.” A similar sort of understanding that develops is that “we owe each other because we have each demonstrated a commitment.”

Bonds form between people who have been part of the same organization for long periods of time. These bonds are often invisible—but they are real bonds. These bonds are powerful and make the organization and forces within it come to the defense of those who are committed to the organization during times of change and reorganization. These sorts of bonds are something that get stronger over time as an organization changes. After some time people who have been with the organization for decades are simply treated as part of the very fabric of that organization and are virtually unquestioned.

Conclusions

While it may seem odd for a recruiter to write a story in defense of people who remain with their employers for long periods of time, remaining with an organization for a long period of time is something that is meaningful in this day and age. There are many characteristics of people who remain at their jobs for long periods of time and these characteristics, in my experience, are usually found in stable people.

A final factor is that, in my experience, people who remain with an organization for long periods of time are often less tormented than the average person. By looking for reasons to like and respect their organization rather than find fault, they find themselves in organizations which ultimately welcome them.

Finally, it is always important to remember that if an organization has been around for 20 years or more the chances are it is doing some things very right.There will always be people who succeed in these organizations and, of course, always those who leave or fail.

How to Survive and Succeed in Your Job

What You Will Learn It is crucial to be well informed in order to succeed in any job. Information is the key to survival in any company or organization. When you are interviewing for a job, it is extremely important that you understand exactly what the employer would expect from you as an employee. An employer will never hire someone for a job who does not take the time to understand what the job is. Good listeners always end up doing the best.

Working in a company or any organization is often competitive and scary. The reason that it can be so scary is because around you there are so many unknowns, and there is so much information that you do not have access to. Having access to information, both about how to perform your job and also about the state of the company you work for, is crucial to your survival. I love to read the business section of the paper each day. While I am not an investor, I think someone who is familiar with the field could make a lot of money just by what they are reading in the paper each day, by looking at what the people who have information inside various companies are doing with (1) their careers and (2) their money. I am certainly not mentioning anything that others have not; however, the information I am sharing with you is relevant to your career and is solid career advice.

Every week in the paper there is a story about the CFO of one company or another resigning from his or her job. Often these CFOs resign when their companies appear to be in trouble. If the CFO has been in the position for several years and is resigning without another job lined up, it is generally an indication that the company is in some sort of serious financial trouble. Throughout the years while I have been observing this pattern, the companies in question have generally filed for bankruptcy, undergone mass layoffs, or experienced something of the sort not too long after the CFO’s departure. I have seen this pattern over and over again.

You need to understand that the CFOs are most often leaving their jobs because they have information about the company that they believe is extremely relevant to whether or not they should stay with the company. In leaving the company, these CFOs are often saving themselves from being laid off or being held accountable when the company goes down later. Information is the key to your survival and ability to do a good job in any company or organization that you join and want to remain part of. You absolutely need access to information.

I would like to walk you through the process of how to get access to information when you start a job, and how to use information to keep your job. If you follow this advice, you will be suited to do well in just about any work environment.

Over the years I have had the opportunity and privilege to work with some very intelligent people, people who went to the very best schools and have gotten jobs with the very best employers. A lot of this has to do with the fact that my main career has been working as a recruiter in the legal field and also as an interviewer for a top college. In the legal field, I have worked with people who were among the top five students in their graduating class at places like Harvard Law School. In working with people like these, I have noticed some commonalities among people who do exceptionally well in the schools that they attend and people who are able to get excellent jobs; the two are not always one and the same.

I want to add first of all that I think intelligence is overrated. I have seen people who scored in the 50th percentile on standardized tests be among the top students in colleges. I know of many happy and successful people who never even finished high school or who barely speak English, who came to the United States from other countries and have become extraordinarily successful. I think virtually anyone can be successful if they follow certain rules and develop certain habits. Success leaves clues.

What I have noticed almost universally about the most successful people is that they are very good listeners. These listeners find the right people and ask the right questions so they know exactly what they should be doing, whom they should stay close to, and whom they should stay away from. In an academic setting, the good listeners will listen to their teachers so they know what is expected of them and what information is most important. In a business setting, these listeners will know what work is expected of them, who to avoid, and what their employer likes best.

Listening and getting information from your employer or potential employer are crucial.

When you are researching a firm, it is important for you to know exactly what the firm is looking for. The company has a job available and, in order to do the job, you need to understand exactly what that job entails. When you interview for the job, you need to be very clear that you are willing to do the job. I know that this sounds like a very basic piece of advice; however, believe it or not, I have seen many people completely blow their interviews, based on doing very poorly in this category during an interview. Below are a couple examples of this:

Several years ago, I was interviewing a senior copywriter for a marketing position with our company. The copywriter had a résumé that was excellent in all respects, and he did quite well in his interviews with various people inside the corporation. After his interviews, I took him out to lunch. I was prepared to make him an offer either at lunch or, at latest, the next day.

The job of the copywriter was going to be to simply writing letters and emails that we could send out about our various products to potential users. This was something for which I needed someone with relevant expertise, since at the time most of the work in this category was being executed by people whose only prior experience had been writing résumés. I was very excited to have someone with this man’s level of expertise to assist with this task.

Having so much experience, the copywriter actually came across as arrogant during lunch. I suddenly got the impression that he would be very difficult to manage. None of this was fatal, however, until he said something along the lines of the following:

“I have so much experience at this point that I am not really so interested in writing anymore. Instead, I see myself more as someone who will walk around and supervise the younger writers in the company, and provide them with solid management and input on their writing.”

This was actually the last thing that I needed someone to do. I needed someone who would sit down and write emails and letters–nothing less and nothing more.

With this statement the man immediately painted himself as someone who wanted to be a manager and did not want to do the work he was being interviewed for. The man had actually been out of work for several months, and I knew the job we had open was very important to him. Despite this fact, he ended up saying something that was fatal to his obtaining the position. I did not offer him the job and learned a valuable lesson in hiring that day: never hire someone for a job who does not take the time to understand what the job actually is.

When you are interviewing for a job, it is extremely important that you understand exactly what the job entails. You need to be very good at asking questions early on in your interviews so that you can tell your interviewer and future interviewers exactly what they want to hear, and avoid saying what they do not want to hear. It is important that you do everything you can to get the job when you are being interviewed (but always be honest), including shading your information towards what the employers want to hear.

At the interview stage you can gather this information from the advertisement you saw for the job; incidentally, your résumé and cover letter should be geared towards exactly what the employer is seeking. When you get into the interview you should be asking lots of questions about what the job requires, if at all possible, until your interviewers start asking questions of their own.

Remember: good listeners always end up doing the best and getting ahead. Excellent listening is absolutely crucial.

With the information you gain, you can then go on to perform up to par in interview after interview. Let other people do as much talking as possible.

Once you are hired you need to continue being good at getting access to information. When you are hired in a new job, you will never know anything about your expectations and what is required of you until you get access to information. Knowing what each employer requires is absolutely crucial to your survival in the company. I want to tell you a quick story about one of my first jobs and how I was able to learn by getting access to information in the company.

My first job as an attorney was with a law firm that has since gone out of business in New York City. I write about this firm in a negative way only because it no longer exists; (here’s another word of advice: never say anything negative about a past employer if they are still in business). It was a summer job between my second and third years of law school. Specifically, it was a 10-week job that required me to do various legal tasks and then report on the work I had done via a billing system. Essentially, I was given various types of assignments and then needed to bill my time for each assignment to the firm’s clients, by writing down the client number and documenting the hours I had worked on each task.

After five weeks on the job, I was given a formal review. I had worked very hard on my tasks but none of them had taken very much time. I was billing on average about 7-8 hours a day to the clients. When the partners and others who assigned me tasks received my work, they were almost all pleased with the quality. However, when I got into my review it went terribly. I was told that I was not working hard enough on tasks. I was told that I did not produce enough work and so forth. It was very crushing to me because I thought I had been doing an excellent job. The firm told me that I had done so poorly that it was unlikely that I would receive an offer from the law firm at the end of the summer to work there after graduation.

I knew an attorney in the law firm who had been practicing for around four years and was a really nice guy. I had become friendly with him throughout the summer and he had taken a liking to me as a younger attorney. I remember telling him about the horrible experience, and as I told him this he began smiling.

“You have nothing to worry about,” he said. “I know how to solve this. All you need to do is start turning in your time sheets and working at least 12-15 hours every day. Just bill whatever you possibly can and they will beg you to come to the firm. This is 10 times more important here than even your work quality.”

Since this was the only information that I had to go on, I followed it. Sure enough, in my final review at the end of the summer, I received absolutely stunning and glowing recommendations. I was told I had a future at the firm, was loved by the management, and all sorts of other positive things. I was even taken out for a few drinks by a partner, and the most important partner in the firm ended up taking me on a trip with him to Washington, DC to watch a congressional testimony in my last week. I was one of the only people in the summer program whom the firm wanted to return after my summer there.

This was all because I had access to information about what was required at this firm. Sure, the quality of my work did matter; however, foremost on the employers’ minds was the number of hours I billed, and how hard I worked.

If I had not had access to this information about what the job required, I would have failed. I am 100 percent sure of this. I would not have gotten a position at the end of the summer, and I would have had issues with my legal career and getting other jobs for years to come.

Your job, no matter where you work, also has a set of rules that can result in you succeeding or failing. There are also people inside your company or organization who know exactly what you need to do to succeed, and they might tell you if you just get close to them and ask. When you are doing your job, you need to ask lots of questions. You need to find out what your predecessor did, and what did or did not make that person successful. You need to understand every piece of information about your job that you can.

Getting access to information is important in good times and in bad. Knowing where your company is making money can allow you to apply your efforts in this direction. Knowing who is about to lose their job can potentially save you from “guilt by association”, and knowing who is succeeding can also help you.

You need information to get a job and to succeed in your current job. Be information conscious!

The Importance of Fitting In

What You Will Learn Develop the ability to fit in – it is one of the single largest contributors, in both getting and keeping a job. Employers want to hire people who will embrace, on philosophical and moral levels, their approach towards business and the world. Your happiness and the success of your career depend on the ability to recognize when you fit in and when you do not.

One of the most persistent mistakes people make is not fitting in with their work environments. Fitting in enables you to both get and keep a job. In terms of what it takes to succeed in the long term, fitting in may actually be more important than your skill level. This little-known observation is lost on many people, and overlooking this can result in unhappy and unfulfilled careers. Conversely, being aware of this often results in very happy and fulfilling careers. The problem is that it is often the very best people and those with the best academics and technical skills that end up not fitting in.

Having been raised to believe that the true success is measured purely by how well people perform academically, many people enter the working world like shooting stars. They arrive at the very best organizations and soon leave one organization for the next, and then the next. If they are smart, though, they learn the importance of fitting in; otherwise their careers quickly end, and they are left blaming a self-imposed set of circumstances and people for their career problems.

I have been a legal recruiter for several years, and I am constantly speaking with firms that are hiring, laying off, and firing attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries. I am constantly seeing both good and bad things happen to people searching for jobs. The interesting thing about my work is that I often get firsthand accounts regarding why people are getting hired and why people are losing their jobs. If there is one thing that stands out to me, it is that the people that get hired and keep their jobs are generally those who fit in with their surroundings at work. The people that are losing their jobs and are having the most problems landing employment, are those who are not able to fit in.

A. The Importance of Academics and Technical Skills to Your Job Search

In order to get an interview with certain organizations, you do need (for the most part) to have certain qualifications. For example, if a company is seeking someone with three years of prior experience, you are going to need to at least come close to this. If a company hires people out of the top third of their classes–from only top-notch universities, you are also going to need to come close to meeting these qualifications. With very, very rare exceptions though, once you get beyond these types of hiring criteria, you are going to be competing with a large group of people. Who do you think is going to get the job?

I’ll tell you exactly who is going to get the job: the person who meshes best with the hiring committee.

Most professionals presume that the most important thing that employers are looking for in an interview is whether or not they have the skill set to do the job. Whatever the qualifications of the job may be, the fact of the matter is that employers would not even be interviewing you if they did not think you could do the work. Whether you are applying for a blue-collar opening or a c-level position, virtually every employer out there is smart enough to know that you can be trained to do the work for which they are interviewing you, even if your skills are not immediately on target. Employers may use your skill set as an excuse NOT to hire you after the interview. More often than not, though, the person who gets hired is the person that employers feel would fit into their organization best.

B. What Is Fitting In?

The remarkable fact is that it the concept of fitting in will vary depending upon the organization you join. Fitting in will mean something different if you want to work for the government or military from what it will mean if you want to work for a private company or a public interest organization. Fitting in simply means that you will be comfortable around your coworkers and they will be comfortable with you. Fitting in can also be akin to being part of a family: Everyone may not be the same; however, everyone shares a certain set of beliefs and philosophies about the world.

Your employers do not want to have to feel uncomfortable around you, nor do they want to feel as though you are going to be critical of them. Your employers want you to embrace, on philosophical and moral levels, their approach towards business and the world. Your employers want you to get along with everyone in the office, and not to be a source of tension. Your employers want you to identify with them and be sympathetic towards them. To your employers, you should seem like a kindred spirit, someone towards whom they can take a maternalistic or paternalistic approach.

The more easily you are able to meet these needs of your employers, the more likely you are to get hired and remain hired once you are with a particular organization.

While the analogy is far from perfect, an employer, in many respects, can be viewed as akin to an immediate family member. In any family, there are likely to be a variety of different personality types. Nevertheless, most families share a lot. They tend to share the same religion; they tend to share certain values among their members; they tend to have similar beliefs about the importance of education; and they may enjoy doing certain things together. They are also likely to come from a similar economic background and to know a lot of the same people. These commonalities bind family members together on multiple levels, despite all of their differences. These commonalities are what make the family cohesive.

In order to fit in with an employer, you need to be seen as a member of the family. In order to be a member of the family, you need to be bound to the employer by a set of commonalities. On its basest level, going to a good school or getting good grades may be enough to break the ice. This is not something that enables you to fit in over the long term, though. In fact, having a shared experience and outlook towards the world is the one thing that is likely to help you the most. This is the essence of fitting in. The most successful people are those who are able to fit in with their employers’ environments.

At the risk of not being PC, I will simply note a few things. If you examine most organizations closely, you will almost always notice some very strong similarities in terms of the types of people that are most often hired. The people are never the same; however, their tolerance (or lack of tolerance), for certain types of behavior, is usually quite similar. In addition, many organizations are comprised of people with a very similar set of life experiences. Many organizations may be male-dominated bastions, made up of groups of men with an affinity for football. Other organizations may be comprised of a great deal of former military men. Other organizations may be dominated by people of a certain race, religion, or even sexual orientation. Whether or not any of this is “correct” is not for me to say. What I will say, though, is that none of this is the least bit surprising. People want to be around others with whom they feel comfortable, and share a similar set of experiences.

And this brings me to another significant point that few professionals ever take the time to realize. You cannot fit in with every group of people. Certainly there are companies and employers in every city of the United States that are considered the most prestigious. You may have the academic and other qualifications to go work at these places. The question that is important, though, is not whether you have these credentials, but whether you fit in. You are likely to experience the most success and longevity in your profession if you find an organization where you fit in. If you do not find an organization where you fit in, you may be in for a rough ride.

The drive to succeed for certain people dictates that they only go to the hiring organizations that are the most universally recognized as the best. Job seekers often ignore the concept of fitting in in these cases, when it is really the most important aspect to consider, in my opinion.

C. Fitting In at Different Stages of Your Career

I would like to walk you through a typical career from (1) being hired out of school to (2) being hired laterally after working for some time to (3) being a senior person in a company.

1. The Importance of Fitting In When You Are Interviewing with Employers During School

In school, certain employers will generally only interview you if you (1) are coming from a certain level of school and (2) have a certain grade point average. Once you get the interview, though, it is all up to you. The most important factor determining whether or not you get a position will be your ability to fit in.

Many of the best minds in every profession are not able to get positions in prestigious companies precisely because they cannot fit in. There are, of course, companies out there that will hire people because of their sheer academic prowess. Indeed, the better your school and the better your academic performance, the more likely it is that employers will look the other way if you do not fit in perfectly. Nevertheless, at least on some level, you are going to need to fit in. As you move down the food chain in terms of your school and academic qualifications, the importance of fitting in increases.

If you are currently working at a Fortune 500 company, take a few minutes to consider the following. The people with the worst academic qualifications are often the people that fit in the best. They act as people from the company are expected to act. They have the right level of professionalism. They get along the best with others. These same people are often the ones who do best in the long term in their chosen profession. The ability to fit in will only continue to increase throughout their careers.

I want to give you a couple of illustrations from my own law school experience.

In my second year of law school, I was in an interview with the hiring partner of a law firm that, quite frankly, was at such a rarefied level that I did not think I deserved to be interviewing there. This high-powered law firm came to my law school (a top-10 law school) and only interviewed five people for a half hour each before jetting back to New York. Most other high-powered law firms came to our school and interviewed candidates all day long. Some even interviewed for a couple of days straight. Suffice it to say that this particular law firm is often considered the very best New York law firm, and its interview schedule simply reflected the fact that it did not believe more than five people in the entire second and third year classes of nearly 800 students merited interviews. While I am sure that not everyone in my class tried to get an interview with this firm, I am confident that at least around 100 students did. I had no idea why I had been selected to interview with this law firm. The other four people that the firm was interviewing were widely known to be at the very top of their classes. While I was a good student, compared to those people, I was not all that special.

I entered the interview cognizant that I did not belong there based on my grades, and I was surprised to see that the partner was very welcoming. During the interview he asked me when I could travel to New York. At the end of the interview, I rose to shake the man’s hand, and when he held his hand out, he gave me my fraternity handshake! I realized right then and there that this was the entire reason I had been interviewed. While I did not ultimately get this job (after a callback), I was the only student in my school that received an invite to visit this firm’s office, despite the fact that I did not believe I deserved the initial interview.

If you think about what was going on in this situation, I am sure that something similar to this has probably happened to you in your own career or job search at some point. If I did not have the academic qualifications to be interviewing with this law firm, why did I get the interview? The reason was because the partner had also been involved in the fraternity I was in, a small national fraternity with not too many chapters throughout the United States. He knew that I had endured some of the same hazing experiences he had endured when he was younger. He also knew that we had sung the same songs and been indoctrinated into many of the same philosophies. He probably took a liking to me because he saw me as being somewhat like himself.

Many people that do not have a good understanding of the political nature of work environments often presume that the purpose of an interview is for the employer to gauge a candidate’s skills and technical acumen. This is wrong. People who succeed in interviews are people who the organization perceives will fit in the best. Every single job I have ever gotten, I have gotten because of this factor.

The people that do not fit in with the group are always easy to recognize. They tend to be more critical of the group. They tend to create problems.

Most interns realize that success within an organization is all about fitting in. This is one of the main reasons that stories circulate each year about interns that do not fit in during the summers, at companies all over the country. Companies typically hire students to work there for the summer to see if they will fit in. Below is one of the most unusual intern stories I have ever heard. This particular story is told by Tucker Max, an individual who was a summer associate at Fenwick & West in Palo Alto, California, in the summer of 2000:

—–Original Message—–
From: [Suppressed]
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2000 2:51 PM
To: [Suppressed]
Subject: The Now Infamous [] Charity Auction Debacle…

Here is the story of what happened to me this weekend at my firm’s retreat. That’s the last time I ever drink before an auction:

Aaron and I decide to leave for the Silverado Ranch by car instead of taking the bus at 2 pm. You have not lived until you’ve ridden through three hours of Bay Area traffic with Aaron at the wheel. By the time we got to Silverado, he was madder than fire.

The first reception starts at like 6 pm. There are finger foods, etc., and lots and lots of wine and beer. Not really liking any of the food, I start drinking. Heavily. By the time I know what’s going on, I’m talking to the name partner, Bill Fenwick, in a redneck accent. Of course, he is from Kentucky, so we talked about basketball for an hour. It was great.

About 9 pm the charity auction began. There were lots of “Fenwick” type items, like a dinner cooked by the managing partner, etc. One of the items was an entire night chauffeured by the hiring partner, [John]. In my inebriated stupor, I thought that if I won this, then they would have no choice but to give me an offer. The bidding starts at $50. People are bidding here and there, but I get tired of all the slow bidding, so I stand on my chair, and hold up my bidding card. Without getting down. So the auctioneer takes this as a cue to just start yelling price increases, without even identifying other bidders.

When the price hits about $800, [John] says that he will pay half if a summer associate wins. The bidding automatically doubles (John is a litigator). As the price gets to $2,000, I think I have the thing won. I get the “going once” call, and then this other summer, Aparna, goaded on by some partners, decides that she has to beat me. So the bidding hits $2,600, and before I know it, I’m on stage, taking the mike from the auctioneer, and yelling at Aparna to stop bidding. My exact quote, “Aparna, seriously, stop. I have to win, this is the only way I’m getting an offer.”

So that just inspires more partners/attorneys/recruiting staff to contribute to Aparna’s pool. When the bidding hits $3,400, I start yelling, on the mike, about how this isn’t fair, because she has partners bankrolling her, but I only have a “few scrubby summers in my corner.” I keep trying to bid only like $5 more than her, but the auctioneer gets all mad at me, and is making me bid in hundred dollar increments. When her bid hits $3,800, I get back on stage. After some banter, the auctioneer asks me if I want to bid $3,900.

I ponder this for a second, and in front of the whole firm and spouses/significant others, with the mike in my face, say, “Fuck it–go ahead.”

I won the auction.

This particular email was rapidly circulated among most summer associates in large law firms around the United States after it was written. From a social standpoint, the reason this email was so widely circulated is because it shows the antithesis of fitting in and highlights the importance of doing so.

Regardless of where you work, chances are that you will be working in close proximity to a relatively small group of people. Because you spend so much time at work, these people are going to become quite aware of your style of work, your personality, and like it or not, a lot of details about your personal life. In all of this, these people are going to want to feel comfortable around you. In addition, these people are going to want to feel that they can develop a relationship with you over time.

2. The Importance of Fitting In When Being Hired as a Lateral

After you have been working for a few years and want to transition into a new employment environment, the importance of fitting in will arguably be further amplified.

Shared experiences take on a different form when someone is trying to move laterally to a company. As a legal recruiter, my job is made easier by knowing the sorts of shared experiences that are likely to get people in the door in different sorts of law firms. For example, if someone is in Los Angeles and has worked for the Los Angeles office of a major New York law firm, I know that other New York-based law firms in Los Angeles are more likely to be interested in that attorney than Los Angeles-based law firms of a similar prestige level. The perception is that these attorneys will share a certain “New York outlook.” The same can hold true if one is moving in Palo Alto from one major law firm to another. He or she is more likely to be hired by another major Palo Alto firm than, say, somebody who has been working in another area of California.

All of these similarities are based on shared experiences and the perception that these people will fit in. Certain organizations will simply not hire from certain other organizations (even those that are generally considered better than they are) because they believe that people from these companies will not fit in. Most often, these organizations will say things like, “These professionals are all too arrogant,” or something of the sort.

When professionals are in the job market, an exceptional recruiter will instinctively know which candidates are likely to get interviews with certain organizations and which ones are not. This calculation is based first on externalities such as the school and company the person is coming from; however, it is ultimately based on other important factors in the professional’s background that are often less evident.

Recently, I have seen professionals ultimately hired over many other applicants for what I believe were the following reasons:

• I believe one executive was hired for a $200,000-a-year job over more qualified candidates because he, like the CEO that hired him, enjoyed surfing;
• I believe one manager was hired because she attended the same religious group as the hiring manager;
• I believe one executive was hired because she had formerly followed the Grateful Dead, like a director in the company did;
• I believe one professional was hired because of his military background; and,
• I believe one executive was hired because of her ongoing participation in a controversial protest organization.

I could continue this list indefinitely and give you countless examples. People always say things like, “You have to know someone there to get a job,” and so forth. Indeed, it does help if you know someone. The reason is that you have already proven that you can get along with someone who fits in with that company, which means you too will be more likely to fit in there.

I know of dozens of instances at various major organizations throughout the United States where laterally hired employees with, frankly, horrible academic qualifications are working alongside people with first-rate academic qualifications. Why do you think this is so? In many cases, these people with horrible academic qualifications may have some unusual and highly valued skill. Still, more often than not, I have discovered that these people knew someone.

This is how things work in the world. If you fit in, you are more likely to get a job and succeed in an organization. I can also tell you that there are organizations out there that are somewhat racist, and hire people that are likely to fit that mold. My purpose here is not to be judgmental. There are certainly other factors that organizations consider when making hiring decisions, too. Nevertheless, when all is said and done, many hiring decisions are the products of people’s ability to fit in.

3. The Importance of Fitting In as Your Career Progresses

In order to survive in a company, you will need people higher up than you in your corner. You can get people in your corner by working hard. Nevertheless, there will always be people working hard in large companies. The people that most often get higher-ups in their corner are the ones who are able to establish bonds. These bonds will make people go to bat for the employee. These bonds will also humanize the employee to their employer and make it much more difficult for an employer to fire an employee.

D. Conclusions

Most of the conclusions from this article can be derived on your own. You need to understand, however, that fitting in is probably the most neglected topic when it comes to discussions about success. Fitting in can be accomplished on several levels, and oftentimes you might not even be able to articulate why you do or do not fit in with a particular group. Fitting in is also something you cannot fake. You can often get a job without fitting in, but you will have a very difficult time keeping it and advancing if you do not fit in.

When you were in elementary school, junior high school, high school, and then college, there was probably a group or groups you naturally fit into. Think back about the reasons why you fit in with those groups. Certainly, you have changed over time and will continue to change. The most important aspect of why you have fit in with various groups in the past, though, was based on how comfortable you felt with that particular group of people, and how comfortable they felt with you. Your happiness and success in your career depend on the ability to recognize when you fit in and when you do not.

Fight for the Right to Work

What You Will Learn          Never give up at the first sign of difficulty. The harder you keep trying and the more effort you put in, the more things are likely to go your way. If there are people around you who are undermining your efforts and your potential, make sure that you fight back. When you have a job to do, you need to find every means within your power to complete it. You need to fight on.

In a bad job market, the most important thing you can do is to keep trying.  Never give up.  Life is a race and your career is also a race.  The problem with most people is that they are often willing to give up at the first sign of difficulty.  The harder you keep trying and the more effort you put in, the more things are likely to go your way.

From the time I was about 12, I had paper routes that required me to home deliver hundreds of papers all over my neighborhood by 7:00 am each morning.  It gets very difficult to do paper routes in the winter in Michigan, and it was not a fun job.  The worst part about the paper route was that I had a corrupt manager.  I think he was paid based on how many papers were being delivered on his route, so he kept increasing the number of papers I had to pay for, despite the fact that my customer base was not increasing.  I tried to keep up with this for some time but eventually it got to be too much.  He was raising the numbers of papers he sold me each week faster than I could cancel the newspapers.  Eventually I gave up.

This was a huge mistake.  There are people around you like my manager, who are trying to undermine what you are doing, often for their own personal gain.  You should always fight back against people seeking to undermine you–and hold them accountable.  Had I fought back, I am sure I would have made a lot more money back when I was delivering newspapers.

Each day I would be left with a huge pile of undelivered papers, for which I would still have to pay.  For years these papers accumulated in my mother’s garage.  Rats came and created elaborate nests out of them.  I knew this because when I would throw the undelivered papers into the garage each morning I could hear the sound of the rats scattering.  I became alarmed to set foot in there.  Even my dog refused to go in the garage.  She would yelp and scream if anyone tried to take her in there.  It was as if she was being given a death sentence and knew it.  

I have never heard of a hunting dog that is afraid of rats.  My mom had grown up with Brittany Spaniels and her dad had used them to retrieve various birds that he shot when he was not working in his hardware store.  Our dog loved to hunt, but was simply terrified of the rats that were nesting in our garage.  

I didn’t blame him.  I started making sure the doors to the garage were closed at all times because I did not want to get attacked by a rat either.  They were big rats and they must have been living off of the newsprint.  Each morning I would open the door a crack and throw the left over newspapers in there as rapidly as possible, and then run 10 feet or so to insure none of the rats had gotten out and were attacking.

I would finish my paper route and come home exhausted around 7:15 am each day.  I was so tired by this work that it was too much to also contend with the corrupt manager, who was charging me for too many newspapers.  I still look back on these days with a certain amount of awe because I worked so hard–and barely made any money.  I was simply in the business of purchasing newspapers and delivering them to hundreds of people for nearly free, at a ridiculous hour, and then supporting a huge colony of rats.

The thing about this job, however, was that I never gave up.  For 365 days every year for years and years I continued to deliver the papers.  I found every means within my power to get those papers delivered.  This is what you need to do with your job too.  You need to find every means within your power to get it done.

One of the most amazing things about paper routes is that I do not think I was ever sick, not once during the 4+ years during which I did this job.  In fact, I cannot think of another kid who was ever sick when they had a paper route either.  Perhaps this is because we were in better shape, but I also think it is because when you cannot afford to get sick, you simply do not.  We had to get those papers delivered and there was no one else out there who could do it if we didn’t do it.  Hundreds of people depended on me each day to get the news.  Some of the people were old or handicapped and never left the house.  Others read the paper before going to work in the morning.  The fact is that a lot of people relied upon me, and getting the paper to them was extremely important to me.

In my years in business I have seen countless employees abuse sick days.  I do not like this.  You are not really sick until you cannot deliver a paper.  I got those papers delivered though countless colds and other ailments.  You need to be strong, to get out of bed and get to work.  People are depending on you.  This is something I learned early on.  In my entire career of working for people I only missed work for one half day.  I was sent home from a law firm after throwing up in front of my secretary’s desk.  

The best employees never call in sick.  If they really are sick, they will be so laid up that I will bring them flowers.  People need to be tough because they are being relied upon.  Not getting sick sends a great message to your employer.

When I was 13, a 17-year-old neighbor of mine told me he would sell me his used motocross motorcycle to use for my paper route, for $250.  My neighbor had been adopted from a wilderness area in Northern Michigan and he had all sorts of interesting habits and toys that he had brought from the area he was from.  I never asked him much about where he was from, or what had happened to his family.  I alluded to this once and he turned very serious.  His blue eyes appeared to start glowing like a character in Star Trek.  I never said anything about it again.  I was afraid I might be killed.

I liked this guy a lot and he used to drive me to school.  He would generally brag about how he was going to be cheating on a test that day, or was going to take a look at some sort of illegal weapon after school.  He kept a gun in his glove box.  On one occasion he showed me how he had copied 50 pages worth of notes on to one page of a book in between the lines of text, so he could cheat on a test that day.  He bragged that it had taken him days to do this.  It was beautiful work and the words were the size of pinheads.  I wondered why he did not simply study for the test that was coming up.  This seemed to me as if it would have been much easier, and less time consuming.

He looked like the lead character out of Revenge of the Nerds, but he was into things far more macho than any typical nerd.  For example, he collected shotguns and hunting knives.  He also liked to go deer hunting; he had several pictures of him sitting on the corpses of dead deer that he had killed.  He just appeared one day in our neighborhood and proceeded to purchase all sorts of old cars and brought a touch of Grizzly Adams rural Northern Michigan with him to the suburbs.  Unfortunately, he died when he was around 18, while doing some sort of military exercise demonstration.  It involved twisting a shotgun to his head in a rapid fashion.  He had invited some students from his school, and had been showing them how adept he was with a gun.  The gun discharged and shot him in the head in front of his astonished peers.  People I knew never talked at all about this incident because, apparently, it was incredibly disturbing–beyond words.  

I heard through my mom years later that the guy had still been talking to the group and performing his exercises, for several seconds after he had shot part of his head completely off.  He had been oblivious to the fact that he was missing half of his head.  His body continued operating on autopilot for some time before he finally expired in front of the screaming group.

The motocross bike I had purchased from the guy was that it was not street legal, as it turned out.  In addition, I was living in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, which was a very suburban area, probably at least 60 miles away from the nearest dirt bike trail.  Also, the dirt bike had no muffler and no kick stand.  After a ride, I had to lean it against a garage or just put it on the ground.  In addition, the bike was quite tall and I could barely fit on it. Finally, since it was built for motocross, it had no lights on it.  It was clearly not built for riding on roads.

It was, however, built for riding on people’s front lawns, through topiaries and more.  It also fit a bag of newspapers on its long seat quite conveniently.  Incredibly, I was suddenly able to do my paper route in less than 45 minutes with this new tool.  Around 20 minutes of the expedition consisted of me balancing the bike against a tree while I loaded up my newspapers.  I literally rode this awesome machine right across front lawns, barely ever riding on the street.  Since I was operating at 5:00 am people were sleeping and I never got any complaints.  The bike was loud, but I darted so quickly in and out of doorsteps that I am sure I was long gone by the time any one ever woke up.  People would get woken up due to the motocross sound, and probably saw tracks across their lawn the size of small car tires; but I am sure they never imagined these were caused by the 13-year old kid with the paper route bike.  I knew that I would be in serious trouble if I were ever caught by the police on this incredible motorcycle.

This was how I did things.  I had to deliver the papers.  I knew I had a job to do and I took every action within my power to get it done.  

Word soon spread to the kids in my neighborhood that I had this amazing toy.  In fact, word spread for miles around, and lots of kids started coming over just to see the bike.  In some cases these kids would ride their bikes from five miles away or more.  When I had purchased the bike I knew I would be in serious trouble if I were ever caught riding the bike during the day.  One time I was sitting around the house with a good friend of mine and we realized that a store we wanted to get to would be closing in the next 10 minutes.  It would take us at least 25 minutes to get there on our regular bikes.  Somehow my friend convinced me to fire up the dirt bike.  My idea was that if I were to ride the dirt bike fast enough on the streets, no one would see us.  I still to this day do not understand what I was thinking.

I fired up the dirt bike and drove like hell.  I was riding on side streets and had no idea how fast I was going because the bike had no speedometer.  I knew the speed limit was 25, however, and when I heard the sirens behind me I was very scared.  We had been going along, having the time of our lives, and had made it at least 2 or 3 miles.  When I pulled over, the policemen that approached the motorcycle looked speechless.  Here were two young kids in the suburbs, who had just been pulled over riding a motocross motorcycle.

“You were going 71 miles an hour in a 25 zone,” the officer said dryly as I finally managed to get down off the motorcycle and lay it down in the middle of the street.  “Do you have a license?”

I explained I had no license, no registration, no identification, and no insurance.  Plus, I was only 13, so the officer did not seem to have any idea what to do.  The first person he dealt with was my friend.   I had been wearing a helmet.  He radioed the station and they called my friend’s parents, who rushed over to pick him up.  The officer gave him a ticket for not wearing a helmet.  My friend’s father was a very important and respected man in the city.  I think he was the mayor of one of the Grosse Pointes.  This was despite his having a huge collection of pornography (and sex toys) hidden in his bedroom closet, about which every thirteen-year-old kid in the entire city knew–and sometimes watched while he was at work.  After this episode, many children would be banned from associating with me, as this smut king mayor spread word that I had been caught on my nuclear powered paper route bike with his son going 70 miles an hour in a 25 miles-per-hour zone.  I gave a false telephone number for my mother, so the police could not reach her.  My parents were divorced and I was living with my mother at the time.

“He’s ok.  I know who he is,” my friend’s father, the porno mayor, told the many policemen who had gathered.  “Do not take him to Wayne County Juvenile Detention.  He’ll be dead in an hour if he’s taken there.  Just release him. ”

I got a ticket for driving a vehicle without a registration, going 71 in a 25-zone, reckless driving, driving without a license, driving a vehicle without lights or signals, and other infractions I do not recall to this day.  There were so many tickets I could not fit them all in my pocket.  I was told to give them to my mother.  They sent a tow truck to pick up my motorcycle and I walked home.

The worst part about this was that I was going to have to do my paper route without the motorcycle in the morning.

I have no idea how I did it but within two days I got my motorcycle back.  I think I got the guy I had purchased it from to pick it up and give it back to me.

You can always find a way to get your work done.  You need to do everything within your power to get your job done.

He made me promise to never ride it during the day again.  The most serious problem came a few days later, when I opened a very official letter addressed to my mother.  I then realized I had a court date that I was expected to attend in a few days, with my parents.  I realized that if my mother found out about all of this I would be screwed.  I did the only thing I could possibly think of.

I called the judge.

I needed a good story and to this day I am still not sure how I came up with the story I did.  I explained to the judge that my father had just died a tragic death, when he was attacked and killed by a group of rabid bats during a caving expedition in South America just some days back (I do not think my father has ever been in a cave, and he is alive and well to this day) and that my mother was really shook up by this.  I explained that the shock of the bat attack combined with this would really send my mother over the edge.

“Is she drinking a lot?” the judge asked.

“Yes.  She’s very upset,” I lied.

“I would be too if I were her.  Damn!  A crazy bat attack.  I bet they have really sharp little teeth.”

“The sharpest!” I cried.

I am not sure how I delivered this monologue, but I do remember crying.

“He never knew you cannot disturb bats while they are sleeping during the day.  Thousands of bats just descended on to him from everywhere!”

“I know…I know…” the judge said.

After what must have been an unprecedented 20-minute discussion, the judge told me that he was not sure that he could do anything and that I would need to bring my mother to court the following week.  He promised me he would check to see what he could do, however.

A few days later, another letter arrived from the courthouse.  I intercepted this one, just like I intercepted the previous one.  I remember it started with something like, “I spoke with your son and am so sorry about your husband’s death at the hands of so many rabid bats…”  The letter then detailed the charges and the judge said that he would be dismissing the charges, and that we did not need to show up for court.  The judge admonished my mother to watch me, despite her time of unprecedented grieving, and urged her to not drink so much.  I could not believe it.

My friend went to court for not wearing a helmet and ended up being fined a lot of money.  His father even hired a lawyer to represent him.  Since he was a local mayor, the small hearing had been a little spectacle in the area.  I went to the hearing and my friends’ parents were there together with the lawyer.  I was called on to testify in front of the judge about the event surrounding my friend not wearing a helmet.  My friend broke down and cried in front of the judge.  He was wearing a suit and tie.  I was testifying in sneakers, shorts and a tee shirt.  My friend ended up getting grounded for quite some time and I continued to ride my motorcycle.

The motorcycle was not without its problems.  For example, the chain frequently came off, which was very annoying.  But it did the job.  Eventually I got some sense and put a classified ad in the paper and sold the dirt bike, so I could purchase a real motorcycle with the proceeds.  That bike was much better because it had a license on it and everything.  Despite being years away from being old enough to have a license, I rode that motorcycle everywhere.  I even took it across the American border on a bridge to Canada, and spent hours riding it throughout Canada.  I’m probably the only 14-year old who ever did anything as crazy as this.

What I learned from my motocross episode is that you need to figure out how to get your work done.  You need to use every means within your power.  When you grow up street smart, you learn that you cannot always count on things to go they way you want them to.  You need to fight on.  Fight for the right to work.

The Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon and Your Job Search

What You Will Learn One of most important things you can do for your job search is to ensure you get inside the place you want to be in. Once there, your hard work and resourcefulness can ensure your position is maintained. Starting small is also the secret to getting the results you want from people or organizations. This is similar to superstores giving away samples of a product to create a presence in the customer’s mind – eventually translating into sales.

One of the most powerful and important things you can do in order to get a job and achieve anything in life is learn how to just get your foot in the door. Once you are able to get your foot in the door, everything really changes.

My entire life, I have seen firsthand the power of people getting their foot in the door. A large part of the battle for success in your career revolves around your ability to do this, because once you get your foot in the door incredible things can happen to you. Once you are in, the people you are working with will protect you, if you work hard. You will also be in a position to impart massive change on the world.

Several years ago I was in a relationship with a woman who worked for David Geffen, who is one of the most powerful and richest men in Hollywood. This woman used to work at Geffen’s house, and when she was there she would see people like President Bill Clinton walking around. Amazingly, Geffen never completed college. He started out his career working in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency. In order to get the job, he had needed to prove that he had graduated from college, and he forged a letter showing to that effect. Geffen was such a hard worker that, once he was able to get his foot in the door, he was able to achieve what his true pedigree would not have allowed him to achieve. While people may not approve of Geffen forging the fact that he went to college, doing so got him in the door. The rest is history; getting his foot in the door gave Geffen the opportunity to become a powerful agent and, ultimately, hang out with presidents, make movies, become a generous benefactor and more.

All of his successes came from the ability to get in the door.

Several years ago, I was speaking to an attorney who was working at what is widely considered the most difficult law firm to get hired by in the United States. The attorneys who work in this law firm all seem to have graduated as the top one or two students from the best law schools in the United States. Simply stated, it is all but impossible to get a job at this law firm. When I looked at this woman’s transcript, however, I realized that she had done very well in law school, but nowhere near well enough to get a job at this particular law firm. Then I realized something else – she had started working at the law firm at the age of 18, as a secretary, and had worked there for almost 7 years before finally going to a third tier law school. Nevertheless, the law firm had happily hired her once she had graduated from law school, because she already had her foot in the door.

During the Korean War, Chinese Communists used the foot-in-the-door phenomenon with American prisoners. Unlike the North Koreans, who were very savage with the American prisoners, the Chinese were very nice to the prisoners. The Americans who were captured had been trained to provide nothing but their name, rank and serial number. The Chinese, however, managed to be extremely successful in getting the prisoners to be informants, to denounce the United States and more.

A prisoner might be taken to a room, given a cigarette and something to eat. Then they would sit there with the Chinese for some time. They could potentially sit there for hours chatting about this or that, but really nothing in particular. The prisoner would feel like he was being treated very well, and would let his defenses down to some degree. Then the prisoner might be asked to make a very simple statement that, on the surface, did not sound all that bad:

“In Communism there is no unemployment and in the United States there is. Therefore, America is not perfect.”

However, where this gets interesting is in regards to what the Chinese would do later. According to one account of this in Readings in Managerial Psychology by Harold J. Leavitt, Lewis R. Pondy and David M. Boje wrote:

But once these minor requests were complied with, the men found themselves pushed to submit to related but more substantive requests. A man who just agreed with his Chinese interrogator that the United States is not perfect, might then be asked to indicate some of the ways in which he thought this was the case. Once he had so explained himself, he might be asked to make a list of these “problems with America” and to sign his name to it. Later he might be asked to read his list in a discussion group with other prisoners. “After all, it’s what you really believe isn’t it?” Still later he might be asked to write an essay expanding on his list and discussing these problems in greater detail.

The Chinese might then use his name and his essay in an anti-American radio broadcast beamed not only to the entire camp, but to other POW camps in North Korea as well as to American forces in South Korea. Suddenly he would find himself a “collaborator”, having given aid and comfort to the enemy. Aware that he had written an essay without any strong threats or coercion, many times a man would change his image of himself to be consistent with the deed, and with the new “collaborator” label, often resulting in even more extensive acts of collaboration.

A huge secret of getting the results you want from people, organizations and others is to start small and get them to make larger and larger commitments. For example, when a man asks a woman out he never says, “Hey, lets go have sex and then spend the next 60 years of our lives together in a committed relationship.” Instead, he invites her to have coffee, go see a movie, take a walk and so forth. Everything begins with very small steps, and these small steps lead to greater and greater commitment.

When a religious organization comes to your door, the people do not say: “Hey, we would like to invite you to renounce every other religion on the planet, come to our church every Sunday for the rest of your life, and give us as much of your money as you can until you die.” Instead, they offer you a pamphlet and then ask if they can come back to see you at another time after you have had a chance to review the pamphlet. They seek smaller commitments from you at first. They know that the most important thing they can do is get their foot in the door. Once they get their foot in the door, everything else falls into place much more easily.

The Scientologists do not ask people on the street if they are interested in getting therapy for the rest of their lives, in order to get aliens out of their body. No, they know it would be “crazy” to do this. Instead, they ask people to take a personality test, and then they build upon this. You need to start small with anything, before you can build upon it. Organizations are all smart enough to know that the first step and challenge they face is getting their foot in the door.

One of the funniest things I have seen that business schools, college career counseling offices and other organizations often do with their students is encourage them to ask for “informational interviews” with various alumni of the school, who work in important positions, and in the cities they are seeking to work in. For example, the counselors will coach their students to go out and contact various alumni and tell them they are planning on working in a given industry, in a certain city (the industry could be large and very broad such as banking, retail, law, health care, etc). The students tell the alumni that they are interested in getting some information about what it is like to work in a given industry in that city and to “learn from someone in the trenches” or something along those lines. Since this is such a small request and seems quite harmless–”I’d love to provide this alumnus of my school some information”–the alumni of the school almost always agree. They figure that since there is some sort of affiliation between them and the student (having attended the same school), and the student is simply seeking some harmless information, there is nothing wrong with speaking to the student at all.

The student will invariably show up at the person’s place of business well dressed, with a folder containing their résumé, and with a list of a few prepackaged questions to which they already know the answers. The student will then sit down with the employer and commence speaking with him/her. The entire time the employer is speaking he or she is, on some level, evaluating whether or not the student could potentially make a good hire. The student is not really there to get information 99% of the time, but to “get his/her foot in the door” and hopefully get a job, or future interview at the least. While the employer has easily agreed to the small request of an informational interview, he or she suddenly starts feeling a small tug to potentially hire the student. The “informational interview” is an incredibly effective tactic, and a brilliant example of the foot-in-the-door phenomenon.

We see the foot-in-the-door phenomenon in shopping centers, grocery stores and all sorts of places every day. The “free sample” in the grocery store is an example of the foot-in-the-door tactic. You are offered a piece of something to eat or drink, and you try it. You then end up buying something you normally would not have bought. Someone sprays some perfume on you while you are strolling through a department store, and you decide to purchase it.

What does the foot-in-the-door mean for your career? It means that you do not always need to ask for the moon when looking for a job. You can start out small and build from there. David Geffen started out working part time at the William Morris Agency. You can start out working in your dream job part time. You can start out as a contract employee. If you want an important job inside the company you can start out doing something that is relatively unimportant. Who cares what it is? Starting out doing something unimportant is a good way to get your foot in the door.

This is what internships are in many companies. Numerous companies and other organizations have unpaid internships for students. People come from all over the country to work for one organization or another for free each summer, or during the school year. You might ask, why would someone want to work for an organization for free? This is a great question. Working some place for free does not seem to make a lot of sense, until you realize that the person is really just doing everything within their power to get their foot in the door.

If you really, really want to work for a particular employer, the most important thing you can do is get your foot in the door. In a bad job market you can really make the foot-in-the-door phenomenon work for you. For example, many people are looking at the prospect of being unemployed for potentially weeks (or longer) in a bad recession. If you are going into a job interview where there is a lot of competition with an employer you really want to work for, a good strategy might be to say something along these lines during the later stages of your interview:

“Listen, I have really wanted to work at this company for a long time. Financially, I am okay and do not have any pressing need for money at the moment. I am more concerned about having something to do during the day. I like working. I like the atmosphere here, and I really like this company. I would like to come work here for free for a month so you can see what I am like. Regardless of what happens, I will make the best effort I can during this time; you will have someone doing the job right away, and it will not cost you anything.”

This strategy is incredibly effective and it can work wonders. Why? Because you are showing a commitment to the employer. You are showing that you like to work. You are not making the employer feel guilty about not paying you. You are not obligating the person in any way, and you are giving the employer something for nothing. This strategy works and it is like a guided nuclear missile you can use against your competition for the jobs you are most interested in. Try it if you really want the job. If you pull it off right, it will get you a foot in the door, and once you get your foot in the door, this can lead to a full-time job later.

You need to get your foot in the door and knowing how to do this will pay huge rewards. The most successful salespeople, job seekers and others all know that the biggest step they make in their march towards a job or sale is getting the employer, or prospect, to open that door.

The Importance of Culture in Organizations

What You Will Learn An organization culture relates to your success and happiness. In any business environment, when the employee and employer are on the same plane, success is much more likely. When making a lateral move, it is important to select your employer based on your preference of work culture. The key to defining job satisfaction is to determine which culture suits you the best. You need to feel comfortable and appreciated in your work environment.

Employees’ level of success and overall happiness has more to do with a particular culture (which is sometimes also referred to as the personality of an organization) than with any other factor. This article discusses (a) the importance of organizational culture, (b) why some employees do not give strong consideration to culture, (c) the reason that failure to seriously consider culture prematurely ends many careers, and (d) why making a lateral move provides the best opportunity to evaluate culture and the course of your career.Just as the work, salary, and prestige level can vary from employer to employer, the cultures within each organization can be very different. Consider the following examples:

• There are organizations in which style is definitely valued over substance.
• There are organizations in which substance is definitely valued over style.
• There are organizations in which people wander around in Birkenstocks and call each other ‘dude’.
• There are organizations in which employees are expected to call superiors ‘Mister’ and ‘Ms.’.
• There are organizations in which employees need to make appointments with superiors before speaking with them.
• There are organizations in which supervisors chew tobacco in the office and during meetings.
• There are organizations that value your having string family connections more than your work ability.
• There are organizations that are extremely secretive with their employees.
• There are organizations that believe everyone who puts in a solid effort over the course of six or seven years should be promoted.
• There are organizations in which employees work around thirty hours per week, which is considered a good effort.
• There are organizations in which employees are hired and are then almost universally encouraged to leave after five or six years of service.
• There are organizations that have been collapsing for years, but which portray themselves to employees as strong and secure.

I could go on and on. Suffice it to say, however, that your success and happiness in your career may have more to do with your thoughtful and intelligent decision to join an organization that best fits you culturally. People simply want to be around people they like, and when people like each other in the workplace, both sides of the relationship benefit.

OBSERVATION:

We all have certainly heard that Albert Einstein flunked out of grade school. Perhaps Einstein was too concerned with the theoretical rather than the practical. Whatever the reason was, Einstein simply did not experience success in the environment he was in at the time because the school, and the people in it, could not understand or appreciate where he was coming from intellectually. Do the employees in your organization understand where you are coming from? In a business environment, when the employee and the employer see eye to eye, success is far more likely than in situations where they do not.

Employees Often Fail to Give Strong Consideration to Culture When Choosing an Employer.

The problem with the way many employees manage their careers is that, when choosing a job, they are motivated primarily by prestige and money, more so than by the cultures of the organizations they are considering.

When an employee instead evaluates offers based upon where she believes she fits in the best, that employee is far more likely to find happiness and success in her career. The problem, however, is that most employees simply do not think this way, the reason being that employees are competitive by nature, and “fitting in” is not nearly as easy to quantify as things like money, company cars, etc.

In almost all respects, it is most difficult to gain the best positions with the largest, most prestigious, and highest-paying employers. Yet, the pressure to join these organizations typically commences while an individual is in school.

The problem with this type of thinking is that it can often lead employees to make horrible career decisions. If an employee is always thinking in terms of what he can do to look best to others, he will often neglect what is best for him personally. None of this is to say that there are not numerous advantages to come from being part of a truly significant organization. Nonetheless, this should not be the only consideration on which an employee bases his career choices.

OBSERVATION:

Many people, in fact, have subordinated much of their happiness in life in pursuit of money, respect, power, and admiration from their peers. This leads many people to base their entire concept of happiness on things like having the largest house, the most expensive car, and other traditional accouterments of the American Dream.

Failing to Consider Culture Ends Many Careers Prematurely–

Careers that Could Have Otherwise Been Highly Successful.

It is easy to find out an organization’s compensation structure, but this is a simple and superficial distinction to make between organizations. It is not as easy to gauge an organization’s prestige level; however, it is much more difficult to evaluate a organization’s culture and whether that working in that culture will keep you happy over the course of your career.

One of the largest mistakes employees make when evaluating competing offers from organizations is believing that money is the most important factor they should be considering. While money is certainly an important component of any analysis, it is not the most important factor. Making any career decision solely based on money can be a horrible mistake. If you properly assess all variables, including culture, and you choose the right organization, you may have a stable career and life. If you go to an organization just because of monetary considerations, you may wind up so disgruntled that you are eventually not working at all.

OBSERVATION:

On a day-to-day basis, in each of our offices, we speak with employees who began their careers with ultra-prestigious, high-paying law firms. Many of these attorneys stopped practicing law two to seven years into their careers because they became disillusioned. Most of these lawyers say things like “I would never work in another law firm. I would only work as an in-house attorney. The résumés of these attorneys are sometimes littered with one firm job after another, where the next and then the next firm were virtually identical in terms of culture to the very first firm that the attorney joined right out of law school. Of course these attorneys are not happy practicing in a law firm. They have only worked for one type of law firm during their entire career. The problem is that these attorneys have worked in a firm culture that was such a bad fit for them that they never got the opportunity to experience practicing law with a group of people they like, respect, and emotionally profit from. Not all law firms are the same. Fitting in with the community of lawyers that make up a particular firm is the key to long-term success and satisfaction in law firm life. Not fitting in is often the key to failure, and can even lead to one changing one’s career path altogether.

Consider the choice of where to live, and compare the process of making that decision with choosing to join any particular firm or organization. Some people prefer the lifestyle in New York to Los Angeles, or prefer San Francisco to Seattle. Preference for one city or neighborhood is entirely personal and individual. The considerations are whether we feel accepted and appreciated in a community and whether we see people around us that share similar goals and aspirations. Whether that community supports and enhances your lifestyle becomes a driving force in your deciding where to live. And, just like you need to feel that you can thrive in the community in which you live, you should feel that you can thrive in the environment in which you work.

You should constantly ask yourself these questions: Is this organization a place where I will feel accepted? Will I be surrounded by people with the same values and goals? Will this organization complement my lifestyle? Boiled down, what is the culture of the organization?

Making a Lateral Move is Your Best Chance to Find Your Perfect Firm Culture

Many of our candidates, when preparing for an interview, want help identifying those questions that will help them unearth the true culture at a firm. In short form, the question that needs to be answered for each lawyer and every employee is simply, “Will I like it at this firm or organization?” Unfortunately, try as we might, we cannot always answer these questions as well as we would like. The culture of a firm may vary from practice group to practice group, and it is impossible to pin down with any meaningful certainty whether or not a good firm is always a good fit. Often, the only way to learn this is to actually go to the interviews and speak with the attorneys or individuals you may be working with.

It’s important to remember that the interview process for a lateral move is much different from when a law student interviews for a summer clerkship. This is a plus. Unlike summer associate openings, which can sometimes number in excess of 100, when a law firm conducts a lateral search many candidates are interviewing for one, or possibly two available openings. In these situations the law firm is not as concerned with competing for any one particular candidate. Conversely, when a firm is in a heightened state of competitiveness, it can sometimes be more difficult for the lawyer interviewing for the job to get a sense of whether the particular law firm is comprised of people with whom the lawyer would want to spend the rest of his or her career. But this is the kind of firm you should be seeking. Keep your best interests at heart, and do everything you possibly can to ensure that you find a good fit. Obviously, your task is to get the job; however, you also need to understand the firm’s culture. At BCG we have identified several ways in which you can evaluate whether a particular firm is right for you.

Preparation is the First Key to Evaluating Culture.

You’ve gotten an interview. Before the interview, you should research as much as possible to determine the objective factors: How big is the office? What is the salary? In our opinion, this objective fact gathering is helpful in determining how well the firm or organization is doing financially, and how it has grown over time.

Diversity. It may also be important for you to look at the firm’s or organization’s commitment to diversity. We don’t know of any organization that doesn’t have an anti-discrimination policy. However, some organizations are more proactive in this area than others. Is it important to you that there are employees of color or of various sexual orientations?

Location, location, location. Where is the office located? Of all these factors, we find that this tends to be the least important factor in evaluating culture. A California company known for having employees that wear Birkenstock sandals around the office might have a New York office with that same type of atmosphere. However, even in Hawaii or Miami, there are going to be radical distinctions amongst organizations. These distinctions are important. The city makes little difference, in regards to the type of culture that exists within the organization. There are laid-back firms and organizations in Chicago that are down the block from offices where you wouldn’t think of entering without wearing your most formal business attire. The key is identifying and understanding the various cultures of the organizations themselves.

Governance. How an organization conducts its day-to-day business is important. Employees have to run the business of their organization, and how they choose to structure the organization can say a lot about its culture. The business model often reveals the core values of the organization. Generally, organizations are governed in one of several ways:

The democratic organization allows each employee to become involved in the decision-making, regarding anything from new hires to compensation to long-term planning. For many organizations, the democracy may only include supervisors, so it is not necessarily realistic that a junior employee will be making high-level management decisions, or even weighing in with an opinion. However, many democratically run organizations do have some level of junior involvement within the organization’s governance, such as on pro bono committees or with respect to summer associate entertaining and recruiting. This type of culture is entirely inclusive, although sometimes it is the result of too much administration bogging down each individual lawyer’s already heavy workload. The values reflected here are participation and integration, which may come at the cost of expediency and/or consistency.

Many organizations govern using a small, centralized committee of decision makers, which results in greater consistency, in terms of vision and management. However, this culture is more exclusive in terms of firm governance, which may turn off the young attorney or employee who wants to be a part of the decision-making and planning efforts of an organization. In this system of governance, it’s important to find out how the leaders are chosen and the values they hold dear.

At the end of the day, however, what is more important than the method of governance is the reason behind why a particular organization chooses the business model it does. Asking an organization’s superiors why things are the way they are helps define an organization’s culture and vision for the future. If you hear that the goals of the business match yours, you have likely found a culture in which you will be succeed and be happy.

Word on the Street. You probably know the reputation of the organization where you’re interviewing. Is it known around town as a sweatshop or a quality-of-life organization? BE CAREFUL! Even if a reputation is mostly on target, you could end up joining a practice area or working with a partner that is decidedly unlike the overall firm or business culture.

“Lifestyle” or “quality-of-life” are other ways the business community may refer to a certain organization. These terms have become somewhat hackneyed of late, but still have value in terms of defining a particular organization. A quality-of-life organization is fairly self-explanatory, which is to say that the organization has placed a premium on allowing associates to have lives outside of work. What does that mean? Sometimes, it means a slightly lower billable hour requirement than at other firms. Other times, it may mean that the firm’s or organization’s management is more amenable to situations other than typical full-time associate positions, including part-time, telecommuting, flex-time, or non-partnership track. The popularity of this term has caused it to be somewhat diluted. Don’t take these types of labels at face value, and investigate what that term means within a particular firm.

Again, be careful. Sometimes attorneys and job seekers interviewing for a position swing too far in terms of evaluating. Spending all of your time in this process wondering, “What can the law firm or business do for me?” will prevent you from showing a potential employer that you are a good match for it. This is a two-way street, so showing a law firm or other organization what you are made of is just as important during an interview as evaluating the organization.

Conclusions

The key to true job satisfaction is determining which organization’s culture suits you and your career. Finding the right culture will allow you to find a job that won’t feel like work. What is going to make the difference over time is not a $5,000 per year salary differential, but whether or not you feel comfortable and appreciated in a particular environment. No matter what the reputation of the organization is, going through the process of discovering who the people are and what they think of you and your skills will be the best indicators of your potential long-term satisfaction and success.

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Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Taking Your Thoughts and Life Out of the Shadows

What You Will Learn Seeing things differently can help you succeed in your job and life. Take advantage of the opportunities that are in front of you. Step out of the shadows to see some new way of doing things. Open your mind and challenge your mind – the rewards are huge.

One of the largest challenges to finding a job, changing direction in our lives and becoming the people we are capable of becoming, is learning to see the world in different ways.  Several years ago I was on a jet with one of the wealthiest men in the country.  This guy had recently purchased a jet that I estimate was probably worth at least $25,000,000 at the time.  He used the jet to hop around the United States for leisure purposes.  He really did not do any business at that point anymore, and had been retired for a few years.

I had been brought along as a passenger with him at the last minute because we were both traveling to a wedding together.  I want to be clear with you at the outset that this is not the sort of society I normally travel in.  However, on this day I had the opportunity to spend a few hours with one of the richest men in the United States, and someone who by the time he was in his mid-40s was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

What I am about to tell you right now is not about how this guy got so rich.  What is most interesting about this particular guy is how he thought about the world and the opportunities in it.  I spoke with him during the flight that day and then I spoke with him for several hours once we arrived at the wedding.  This was some time ago and I was just starting out in some respects, and was very eager to learn the secrets of someone who was so successful.  In fact, I thought this person had a tremendous amount to teach and the more I spoke with him and asked him questions, the more I realized that he had a way of looking at the world that was much different from mine.

A few weeks before traveling with this mogul, I had been to a party at one of his friend’s houses.  His friend was an electrician.  The two of them had gone to high school together and stayed best friends ever since then.  His friend was uneducated and had not gone to college, but was someone who worked very hard.  The house I visited for the party was the most unbelievable house I ever saw.  They guy had done so well as an electrician that he had actually had gold laid between the cracks in marble on his floor.  The home must have been at least 20,000 square feet. I had never seen anything like it.  On the airplane that day the guy started telling me about how his friend had gotten so rich.

“When I made all this money I started getting disappointed that all my friends were uncomfortable around me. If I ordered a $300 bottle of wine at dinner, they would be worried they would have to contribute to the bill and then would not order entrees .  It was very uncomfortable.  People did not want to travel places with me because they were uncomfortable with me paying for their hotel rooms.  So at some point I decided that my best friends needed to be ridiculously well off as well, and I made sure they were.”

“What did you do?” I asked him.

I was expecting him to tell me that he gave them the money they needed.  Instead, he really opened my mind about how some of the wealthiest people out there think.

He explained that his friend who was an electrician had spent 20 years with a little ad in the Yellow Pages driving around doing electrical work in the blue collar area of Los Angeles he worked in.  The guy had one helper and they worked Monday through Friday traveling around doing some work, giving estimates and so forth.  When the electrician’s friend got really rich he sat him down because he realized they could not be friends if they were not both obnoxiously wealthy.

“How much do you make a day?” he asked him.

He explained how he billed out at $65 an hour, his helper at $32.50 and hour, and how the two of them spent about half an average day giving estimates and the other half actually doing work and making money. When the tycoon listened to this, he thought the solution to the problem sounded really easy.

“All you need to do is get 200+ guys like you billing $65 an hour, seven days a week and not have to give any estimates and you’re going to be fabulously wealthy!”

“That’s impossible!” the electrician said.

“Absolutely not.  We’ll figure it out.”

A few days later tycoon took the electrician to Beverly Hills, got him a haircut and bought him a $1,500 suit.  He paid someone $500 to put together a little write up about the electrician’s company on expensive stationary.  Without being dishonest, he made sure the write up sounded like the electrician had one of the largest electrician outfits in the country.  A week later the electrician was sitting in a conference room at a major cell phone company in his new suit, after having been coached by the tycoon.

“Our company is one of the most established electricians in California.  We can service and do all the electrical maintenance on all of your cell phone towers in California, Arizona and Nevada …” was something along the lines of what the electrician told this company.

“You need to look the part to get the job!” I remember the tycoon telling me about why he bought his friend such a nice suit. “You need to go for the moon. Show up ready to do the most outrageous and highest paying thing imaginable, and deliver.  That’s all you need to do.”

Within a few weeks of his friend sitting him down, the electrician had landed a contract to maintain and do all the electrical maintenance for all of the cell phone towers in several states for a major cell phone company.  Within a year his company had gone from two people to several hundred, and the electrician was making more than a million dollars a month.  Aside from some coaching from a tycoon, he did this all on his own.  Now he travels around with his friend to vacations on private islands and so forth, and pays his own way.

Is this story incredible?  Yes.  But this is the sort of thing that happens all the time.  There are countless people out there who live lives in obscurity because they cannot see the opportunities that are right there in front of them.  How many electricians out there are taking advantage of the opportunities that are out there like this guy?

Are you taking advantage of the opportunities that are in front of you?  I refer to ideas like what we see with the electrician as “people discovering the truth.”  There is “truth” out there, and this truth is that you can be whatever you want to be and become.  But you need to see the truth first.  So many peoples’ lives are held back forever by their complete inability to see the truth.  The truth is that most of the obstacles out there are in our own mind and and this is something that holds us back.  Most of us are in the dark figuratively, and cannot see everything that we are capable of becoming.

In Plato’s, The Republic, he writes:

See human beings as though they were in an underground cave-like dwelling with its entrance, a long one, open to the light across the whole width of the cave.  They are in it from childhood with their legs and necks in bonds so that they are fixed, seeing only in front of them, unable because of the bond to turn their head all the way around …

This passage is well known both for its simplicity and the profoundness of the message that it contains.  This particular passage of The Republic is written as a dialogue between Socrates and his students.

Men trapped in a cave sit with their backs to a fire and are not allowed to turn around to see what is behind them.  They are chained in the cave their entire lives and all they can see is a blank wall. The only thing they can see is the shadows of objects that are held up behind them.  When objects are held up to the fire, they project shadows and the men identify these shadows.  But the men can only identify objects by the shadows, and they cannot see the objects themselves.  The shadows are as close as the people ever get to seeing reality.

Between the fire and the prisoners there is a walkway that is raised. Along this walkway various animals, plants, puppets and other things are moved.  The prisoners see these shadows.  There are also echoes that come off of the wall from the sounds on the walkway, so the prisoners are not even hearing reality.  Socrates implies that it would be reasonable that the prisoners would see the shadows as real things and the echoes as real things as well.  Hence, the prisoners would see the sounds and sights not just as “reflections” of reality, but as reality itself.  The entire group of men and their society would become dependent upon the shadows on the wall.  Thus, the men would praise the men who were able to guess the next shadow and these would be seen as among the most intelligent prisoners and as people who understood the true nature of the world.

Socrates then introduces another idea to the scene and the cave.  For example, what if a prisoner is allowed to stand up and someone showed him the things which cast the shadows.  The prisoner would not be able to recognize the objects because all he understands are shadows. He would believe the shadows on the wall to be more real that what he is actually seeing.

Socrates also asks about what would happen if a man were forced to look at the fire.  He would likely turn away and look back at the shadows, because this is what he perceives to be real.    If the man were dragged out of the cave, would the man would the man be angry for this being done to him?   He would be at first pained by the Sun and confused by the objects around him.  However, when he eventually came to understand what the world really is, he would be sorry for the men whose lives were spent in the shadows.  When the man tries to describe the truth to the men in the cave, they resist learning the truth and think their friend is crazy for doing so.

In the cave allegory, the men who are in the cave represent most of the world.  They do not see truth and only see representations of objects and things.  They are the majority.  The man who escapes the cave and sees the true nature of things is the minority.

What the cave represents to me is that there are few people out there who really see the true nature of things in the world. Instead, they are interpreting the world through reflections, shadows and echoes.  For example, why did the electrician in the story I told you take out a little advertisement in the Yellow Pages and travel around from house to house giving estimates and doing small jobs throughout his career until advised otherwise by the Tycoon?  Probably because this is how he believed the work should be done.  Everyone else did things this way and he saw this and followed the crowd.

What does all of this mean to you, your job search and your life?  I would submit to you that if you are like 99% of all people, you are operating by interpreting shadows and sounds.  You are not seeing reality and what opportunities lie before you.  You are not seeing what you are truly capable of, and what you can do.  You do not realize the incredible number of opportunities there are.

When you are operating in the shadows you are not seeing the true nature of things.  There are powerful and penetrating insights into the world and the nature of things that are available when you start to think very carefully and closely about things.  These insights are what are separating the people who are going to really get the results they want, from those who will not.

I have heard numerous stories about people over the years who achieve incredible success in their careers and lives.  In every case, these were people who stepped out of the shadows to see some new way of doing things.  They opened their mind by challenging an assumption or something along those lines about the way they have done something in the past.  The rewards for stepping out of the shadows are huge.  When you see the truth out there, you can accomplish far more than when you are simply in the shadows.

The idea that Plato is attempting to make clear is that people who are trapped in a cave can only see the shadows of objects projected on the wall.

Athens, Sparta, America and Your Job Search

What You Will Learn Be disciplined, practice self-denial, and possess simplicity like a ‘Spartan’ while on your job search. Do not surround yourself with luxuries and spend your time complaining like ‘Athens’. Appreciate the value of work. You need not quit your job if you are unhappy with the work conditions or you do not like your boss – Just make it work and accept only glory.

One of the greatest conflicts in the ancient world was between Athens and Sparta.  In fact, the history of ancient Greece was dominated by the conflict between these two different cultures.  Both cultures ended up leaving an important legacy to the world.

• On the one hand, the culture of Athens left a legacy of art, drama, architecture, philosophy, the enjoyment of wealth and opulence, the idea of a governmental democracy and a strong navy.
• On the other hand, the government of Sparta left a legacy of asceticism, military supremacy on land and oligarchy (rule by a few).

These two societies fought repeatedly between the years of 500 BC and 350 BC. Their clash was a fight between two civilizations in the fullest sense.  Each believed that their society and their way of doing things was the correct way.  They fought in different ways and they ran their societies in different ways.  Most of what we know about the Spartans comes from the writings of the Athenians, because the Athenians were the ones who spent their time writing and thinking.  And since the Athenians did not like the Spartans, the writing is somewhat biased.  I believe, and have always believed, that being a successful job seeker requires you to be more of a Spartan than an Athenian.  In fact, I would propose to you today that a great deal of what is wrong with our current economy is due to many of us approaching our careers and our jobs more like an Athenian would than a Spartan would.

I have been witnessing what appears to be a decline in a solid work ethic, job finding skills and the ability to do good work in the United States since I have been a young child.  It seems to me that this decline is just getting worse and worse.   Most people use all their sick days each year, even if they are not sick.  Many people who are not working spend years unemployed and refuse to take a job unless it pays as much as their last one. In the automobile industry, unions have contributed to a slow death among American automobile companies by demanding more and more benefits and less and less work.  Our government is bailing out companies and banks when they cannot make a profit.  Our leaders are intellectuals with no experience running armies or groups.

Worst of all, there is something developing in this country where we reward people for making mistakes. For example, between 2000 and 2005 hundreds of thousands of Americans made an incredible amount of money buying and selling houses. Now that the economy has started to slow down and they are no longer making money, we are stepping in to fix all of this.  It is like a child running back to their parent for help. Our health care costs are incredibly high compared to other cultures.  The people of our country are very unhealthy and do not watch their diets.  Our highest paid workers in the law and other disciplines form communities online where they spend more time complaining about what they are making than appreciating what they have.

Our jobs in this country have begun migrating to places where people can do them more cheaply and are hungrier for work.  With manufacturing, it happened already with jobs migrating to China.  In the information technology sector our jobs are going to places like India.  Our country is getting fat, lazy and developing a massive sense of entitlement. We are turning into intellectuals, as opposed to soldiers.  Our children spend time playing video games and not learning.  Our national test scores are going down on an almost annual basis.  We are innovators in many sectors, but something is changing.  We have a sense of entitlement about what we deserve and yet we are not delivering.  Much of the success we have experienced in the recent past has been the result of financial chicanery and financial manipulation.  The cultural icons of our youth are other kids who have never worked.  Some of our most popular shows at this point in time are of people who are not even required to memorize lines. Instead, a camera follows around young adults on shows such as The Hills, as they go on dates and socialize. Our country spends more than it saves.  Our government has a deficit and most households do as well.

There is something going on in this country that is more “Athens” than it is “Sparta,” and it is dragging us down.  I know there is not a lot you can do about what is going on–and I know you may not agree with me as well. However, what you can do personally is be more “Sparta” than “Athens,” and being more “Sparta” than “Athens” is something that can help you reap incredible rewards in your career.  As I will discuss below, being more “Sparta” than “Athens” will enable you to: (1) get a job more quickly, (2) be more effective in your existing job and (3) survive in all economic conditions.

In ancient Greece, Sparta had the most feared military force there was.  The Spartan soldier was, and still is, legendary.  A Spartan soldier’s training began at birth and the Spartan soldiers never lost a battle in the conflicts that waged between the small city-states of ancient Greece.  When a baby was very young, it was tested for weakness and deformity.  Babies were bathed in wine shortly after being born by their mother.  The babies that survived the bathing were brought by their fathers before a governing body of Sparta (a council of elders known as the Geousia). Babies that seemed as if they would be unlikely to become strong soldiers, or who were considered “puny”, were thrown in a gorge to die.  (If a baby made it past this stage and died in another manner later on, they were not even allowed a headstone.  The only Spartans who were allowed headstones were those of Soldiers who died in battle where Sparta was victorious, and women who died in childbirth or a divine office.)

For those who were allowed to live, the training of the Spartan solider was nonstop and savage.   Spartan boys began formal military training at the age of seven in what was called the Agoge system.  The boys lived communally, and were given grueling physical training and learned to work with weapons at a young age.  Men could not not live with their families until they left active military service at the age of the thirty (Spartan men remained in the reserves until the age of sixty).  Plutarch, a Greek historian and essayist, wrote that for many Spartan soldiers going to battle was a welcome relief from the grueling training: “For the Spartans, actual war was a holiday compared to their tough training.”

What is so significant to me about this early aspect of Spartan training, is the incredible focus that the young were forced to develop at a young age.  Their lives were all about their jobs and they were toughened and taught to be “warriors”.  Instead of being coddled by schools, they were toughened by schools.  They were pushed both physically and mentally in these schools.  The emphasis in the schools was not on being academic.  For example, while Spartan boys studied reading, music and and writing, the boys were punished if they failed to answer questions laconically (i.e., briefly).  The idea for Spartans was that they were to be warriors who were educated but did not sit around debating the nature of good and evil, for example.  The idea of intellectualism and debate was not something that was part of Spartan society.  A Spartan was trained as a soldier whose job it was to get something done.

While I am not sure I personally would be at all comfortable with the Spartan educational system, what makes it so interesting to me is that it emphasized utility and action over the converse. The idea that was being taught was that focus is what is important. By being focused, you are much more likely to reach your point then by talking around the truth.  The Spartans’ educational system was geared towards this focus.  In modern society, our academics will traditionally sit around debating this or that.  Our best students are often those skilled in the art of giving long-winded answers.  Lawyers spend a great deal of time debating this or that, and this makes up a giant portion of what goes on in our culture.  Students in school are coddled and given the sorts of learning environments that “nurture” them.  While I am not going to debate this in great detail, I would go so far as to argue that the nurturing of our modern educational systems gives people in the United States a certain sense of entitlement about what society owes them, instead of what they owe society.  This coddling ends up instilling a sense of entitlement that may go on in peoples’ lives forever, and continually put them in the role of being takers rather that doers.  This is not something that would have happened in Sparta.

In Sparta, failure was also something that was not allowed.  According to Thucydides, when Spartan men were going off to war their mothers, wives, or a woman of significance in their lives would present them with their shield and the statement “With this, or upon this.”  This meant that the solider could only return to Sparta having won the battle, with their shield in hand (“with this”) or dead (“upon this”).  Spartans who returned to Sparta without their shield were presumed to have thrown it at their enemies and then fled–something that was punishable by death or banishment from Sparta.  The entire Spartan culture was one that enforced incredible discipline upon its soldiers. For example, one Spartan legend discussed a man who ran away from battle and back to his mother.  Instead of comforting him, the mother chased him around the streets hitting him with sticks.

In our current society, failure is allowed.  While there is nothing wrong with failure, it should never be an attractive option.  Celebrities and well know figures repeatedly go into rehab for drugs and alcohol.  We quit jobs if we do not feel were are being treated as well as we could be.  We coddle people for failing and give them “easier” tasks to do if one task seems too difficult for them.  Our government steps in if people make horrible economic choices and does not allow them to fail.  We pay people unemployment who get fired from their jobs.  We bail out companies with government money that are making bad products that no one wants to buy.  When a Spartan went off to battle they had no choice but to succeed. There would be no warm homecoming for them if they failed.  Consequently, the Spartans did not fail and always won their battles among the city states of ancient Greece.

According to one commentator:

The life of a Spartan male was a life of discipline, self-denial, and simplicity. The Spartans viewed themselves as the true inheritors of the Greek tradition. They did not surround themselves with luxuries, expensive foods, or opportunities for leisure. And this, I think, is the key to understanding the Spartans. While the Athenians and many others thought the Spartans were insane, the life of the Spartans seemed to hark back to a more basic way of life. Discipline, simplicity, and self-denial always remained ideals in the Greek and Roman worlds; civilization was often seen as bringing disorder, enervation, weakness, and a decline in moral values. The Spartan, however, could point to Spartan society and argue that moral values and human courage and strength was as great as it was before civilization. Spartan society, then, exercised a profound pull on the surrounding city-states who admired the simplicity, discipline, and order of Spartan life.

Sparta’s emphasis on military supremacy and a simple lifestyle was the major emphasis behind Plato’s book, The Republic, which was one of the first attempts to formulate an ideal community.  Was Sparta ideal?  In many ways I believe it was.  In our current society everything is just far too complicated.  Our emphasis on leisure and eating has made us a nation that is predominantly overweight.  Our ability to manufacture goods the world wants to buy continues to decrease.  As a group, we do not have discipline.  Our military is not valued and held in esteem by many of our highest leaders.  We surround ourselves with luxuries and more emphasis seems to be put on this for many of us than on the value of our work.

In contrast to Sparta, Athens was a very different society and far less rigid and militaristic.  In Sparta, the emphasis of the society was on the military and in Athens the largest emphasis was upon culture.  Some very important accomplishments were made by Athenians in science, art, philosophy and other disciplines.  For example, the philosophers Plato, Socrates, Artistotle and the playwrights of Euripides, Aristophanes, Aeschculus all lived during Athen’s golden age in the fifth century BC.  Athenians believed that they were culturally superior to the Spartans.  The enjoyed luxuries and foods from all over their empire.  The homes of wealthy Athenians were very nice and had inner courtyards.  A good description of Athens also comes from Pericles famous funeral oration:

Further, we provide many ways to refresh the mind from the burdens of business. We hold contests and offer sacrifices all the year round, and the elegance of our private establishments forms a daily source of pleasure and helps to drive away sorrow. The magnitude of our city draws the produce of the world into our harbor, so that to the Athenian the fruits of other countries are as familiar a luxury as those of his own.

In contrast, Spartan men were taught to get along with almost nothing.  Spartan citizens were not permitted to own gold or other luxuries.  These differences between the Spartans and Athenians remind me of a conflict I see today all around me. There are people who talk a lot about what they are going to do and read a lot about what others are doing and have done, and there are people out there doing things and actually getting work done.  Which are you?  I would encourage you to be on the side of action, self denial and create effective contribution, rather than on the side of those who simply talk and do very little.

One of the greatest conflicts I have personally witnessed in working with thousands of job seekers over the years has been a similar conflict–there are job seekers who are Spartans and there are job seekers who are Athenians. The Spartans are always the more successful in the long run.

When I was around 18 years old my parents stopped giving me money completely.  I did not have a traditional home to come home to where parents cooked and looked after me, either.  Without any money coming in and expenses that included car maintenance, gas for my car, clothes, books for school and other essentials I was put in a position where I had to work.  While I resented my parents for their personal situation which put me in this role at the time, it was something that I ultimately came to appreciate as I got into my 30s because I realized how much more scrappy it made me compared to others.  In ancient Sparta, the boys were intentionally underfed so they would always be hungry and so they would develop the skill of being able to steal food.  Here, without any money coming in, I needed to toughen myself and learn skills that other kids my age were not learning at the time.  I sold knives on the street.  I worked as a pizza delivery boy.  I worked in the school bookstore. I started a business doing asphalt work.  I worked on cars in my spare time.  I did not have the same luxuries and other accouterments as other kids had.  I also knew that I did not have any “backstop” if I failed.  If I did not have any money then I would simply not be able to function.  I needed to look out for myself.  This was something that personally toughened me up.  It made me quite self reliant and it put me in a position where I learned over time how to make use of existing resources, find the best deals for things and make the most of what I was given.  This is an incredibly valuable skill to have, and as a “Spartan” I toughened myself up quite a bit.

What this means for you and your job search is that you need to put yourself in the position of a Spartan.  If a Spartan were looking for a job today they would show up to an interview ready for work.  They would not debate the idea of retreat or running home if they did not get the job.  They would not debate the idea of quitting the job if they were unhappy with the work conditions or they did not like their boss–they would make it work.  They would only accept victory.  Moreover, a Spartan would go to work ready to work and would work very hard.

A lot of people enjoy sitting around and talking about things.  They are undisciplined when it comes to their job search and quite lazy.  Many may purchase a book or two here and there, and not do anything with it.  Others may lament the state of the market and cite accounts in newspapers and other sources that there are simply not enough opportunities.  They will sit around and try to see what benefits they are entitled to.  They will take all of their vacation and sick days.  Instead of working on their existing weaknesses and acknowledging them, they may move between jobs to find employers who will not bring to light their weaknesses.  None of this does them any good in the long run.

I think a lot of what is wrong with this country today is that we are too Athenian and not Spartan enough.  I would encourage you, in your job search and career, to be more Spartan than Athenian.

Your Job is About the Transference Energy

What You Will Learn People hire you to purchase your “energy” more than their wish to purchase your technical skills. They are interested in your ability to influence the world around you through your energy. You need to cultivate, project, and display positive energy. The better your energy, the more employable you will be.

A few years ago I was in India and was interested in going to see what is called “an energy healer”.  I was interested in this because I had been to several seminars where I had heard about people changing outcomes and healing others with energy by transferring energy from the universe.  I went to see a Reiki energy healer and they did something called “balance my Chakras”.  This was an experience in itself, but the real knowledge I got out of energy and its place in our lives between people happened when I was sitting in the lobby waiting for a ride to go see the energy healer.

The daughter of the man who had tracked down this energy healer was with him.  She had apparently studied energy healing as well and knew a lot about the discipline.  The entire study of energy is complex and many people spend years studying it.  She looked at me and said the following while touching my arm:

“If I touch your arm it either feels good or bad to you.  You do not need to see me or even hear my voice.  You will get a certain feeling from me touching your hand and this feeling will be different than if someone else touches your hand.  Everyone receives a different feeling from the touch of another and this is the essence of the energy one person has.”

I thought about this at some length due to the fact that I realized this is true.  We all have different energies and the touch of one person to another is always quite different.  We can feel attached to someone by their touch and also repelled by another due to their touch.  What we are reacting to is the energy of the person.  The energy of each of us is quite different.  This is something we understand, react to and live our lives and interactions by. However, it is also something that is unspoken.  There is an energy that comes from touch and there is also an energy we pick up when we are simply around certain people.

One of the strangest things to me about when we are seeking jobs is that very few employers have a real interest in our technical skills.  An employer will ask an incredible variety of questions about numerous, numerous things having to do with you.  However, the crux of most interviews will rarely delve all that deeply into your specific technical skills.  In fact, the higher one goes on the interview chain and the more important the job we are interviewing for, the less likely we are to be questioned about our specific technical skills.  There is something else that is being purchased when someone is interviewing for jobs that has nothing to do with your specific technical skill.  This is an “intangible” that the employer is seeking and it is something that I would argue is more important than how good you are at doing a particular thing you may be interviewing for.

When people are hiring you they are purchasing your “energy” more so than they are purchasing your technical skill.  Your ability to influence the world around you through your energy and take that energy and change future results is what people are really purchasing and interested in it.  This energy is not always quantifiable and it is not measurable. I am not speaking necessarily about your ability to do work–I am speaking about your ability to change outcomes, change the mood of people around you and the power that you possess inside that is completely unquantifiable.  It is the energy that you have to influence future results and change outcomes that really matters when people are interviewing you and hiring you for positions.  It is an intangible quality and I do not completely understand it, but it matters.

I have seen countless instances when I and others met someone in an interview and things just did not seem right.  We did not get a good feeling from the person and they may have made us uncomfortable.  The person did not have a spark.  They had a cold and clammy handshake.  Other people we meet may give us the opposite impression.  They appear to glow.  They have a firm handshake and their presence is uplifting.  All of these sorts of feelings, hunches and likewise are all about energy and the sort of impact it can have on us.  This energy is a product and more than any technical attributes, it drives the decision-making of potential employers and others.

Nowhere is the “energy” of potential employees, and its place in whether or not people get hired, more evident than in the practice of law and interviewing with high-end law firms.

If you are an attorney interviewing for a $250,000 a year position in a major law firm, when you go into interviews very few of the questions you receive will be about your technical skills.  Instead, a great deal of what occurs in the interview will have to do with other things.  The law firm may be interested in why you are leaving your current position or are unemployed.  In addition, the law firm might be interested in the type of work you have done. However, it is rare that a law firm requests a writing sample, for example, for an attorney whose job it is to write.  It is also relatively unheard of that a law firm will ask a corporate lawyer for copies of a given transaction they have been involved in and ask to see portions of the the transaction they have worked on.  The law firm will dwell on the attorney’s record, will look over the attorney’s resume and will evaluate very closely the attorney’s personality.  However, for the most part the attorney will not be closely evaluated for their technical skill.

I want to bring something up before I go any further.  I have met so many attorneys who have said to me things like the following:

• “If I just get into the interview I will get the job.”
• “If the firm meets me and I have at least 30 minutes with the person in charge of hiring, I will get the job.”
• “All you need to do is get me in the door and everything will take care of itself.”

None of this has to do with the looks of the attorney or with their specific ability to sell themselves through words.  The attorneys who say this are usually “right” 99% of the time and do get the jobs.  I could have a job where I have sent 15 people in for interviews and the person who says this and also interviews with the employer is almost invariably the one who gets hired.  It does not matter what this person’s qualifications are most of the time.  It is an “intangible” energy the person has about them that enables them to walk into jobs and get them.

The reason this is odd, nonsensical and problematical is that the product that attorneys produce and the ability to produce this product is completely technical in nature. The ability to produce good quality work, to think through problems and to navigate this landscape is something that the best attorneys know how to do and it is incredibly important.  Moreover, the difference between average and extraordinary attorneys in terms of how they use their minds and solve problems is incredibly profound.  The differences that good attorneys are able to produce with their technical skills, compared to those of average attorneys, are incredible.  None of this is really asked about or measured when law firms are hiring attorneys, however.  The law firms are looking for something else.  They may call it “fit” or “culture” but is usually comes down to the “feeling” the person gives the law firm, or their “energy”.

I would like to contrast this for a moment in terms of how a law firm would purchase something as simple as a copier.  The law firm would evaluate the copier in terms of things such as:

• How many pages it prints per minute.
• How many pages it can print on each toner cartridge.
• How much paper it can hold.
• Whether or not it is a trusted brand name.
• How much it costs to print per page and what sorts of other features it has.

In fact, the law firm would ask tons of technical questions about the copier before making a decision about whether or not it is going to purchase or lease it.  It might endure scores of sales presentations from competing copier companies demonstrating different copiers, and then it might also travel to the office of the copier manufacturer to watch various live displays and demonstrations of what the copier is capable of.  If there are reviews of the copier out there, the law firm will likely read reviews of the copier as well.  In summary, the law firm will learn the technical pluses and ups and downs of the copier.  We do the same thing when we are purchasing any material sort of good:

• If we are purchasing a car we test drive the car.
• If we are purchasing a television we watch the television in the store to see how it performs before purchasing it.
• If we are purchasing a home we walk through the home and inspect every nook and cranny.
• If we are purchasing a mattress we lie down on the mattress and see how it supports us.
• We read reviews online about the various products we are purchasing.

We do all of these things and more to best understand the technical capabilities and limitations of the products we are purchasing.

When you are marketing yourself and seeking a job, or working in a job, there are essentially two things you are marketing. You are marketing your technical skill, but more importantly you are marketing an intangible sort of energy and promise of this you will bring to the job.  The entire economic system and our jobs is based upon the transference of energy:

• (1) the sale of a current transference of energy and the promise of an economic benefit to our employers from this, or
• (2) a future transference of energy and a (a) current or (b) future economic promised benefit from this.

Energy can be translated into either goods or services.  However, in all cases, every single time that we purchase something we are purchasing a transference of energy. We spend more depending upon the quality of this energy transference, the amount of energy transference, the presumed effectiveness of this energy transference and in many cases the potential promise of this transference of energy to change a future result.  Our entire economic system has always been and is about the transference of energy.

Simple Energy Transference:

• Purchase a bowl of soup.  The bowl of soup has energy. (Purchase of future energy and past energy needed to create it.)
• Purchase a knickknack at the store.  The knickknack has energy that was expended to create it. (Purchase of past energy.)
• Purchase a hair cut. (Purchase of energy required to cut hair.)
• Purchase of the services of a floor sweeper.  (Purchase of current energy to create instant results.)
• Purchase of gasoline to power car. (Purchase of past energy in the fuel and promise of future energy to burn fuel.)

Regular Energy Transference

• Purchase a machine, like a copier. (Purchase of past energy to make machine and promise of future energy potential.)
• Purchase a car. (Purchase of past energy to create car and promise of future energy potential.)
• Purchase of a ticket to a movie.  (Purchase of past energy.)
• Purchase a used car. (Purchase of past energy to create car and reduced potential of future energy potential due to the use of the car.)
• Purchase a fiction book in the store.  (Purchase of past energy required to write book.)

Complex Energy Transference

• Purchase of the services of a psychic to change future.  (Purchase of current energy for service and hope of unknown future energy transference.)
• Purchase of the services of an attorney. (Purchase of current energy, exerted over time, with hope of unknown future energy transference by changing results.)
• Purchase of the services of a CEO.(Purchase of current energy, exerted over time, with hope of unknown future energy transference by changing results.)
• Purchase of the services of a professional coach.  (Purchase of current energy, exerted over time, with hope of unknown future energy transference by changing results.)
• Purchase of the services of a salesperson. (Purchase of current energy to provide an unknown future energy transference by changing the result.)

The more complex our purchase of energy becomes, the more we are making a purchase based upon the presumption of a future benefit from this energy transference.  This is an extremely powerful concept to understand.  The idea of the transference of energy and the impact of energy on the world and our lives and careers is something that can impact everything that happens to us.  When we are spending money and purchasing things or services we are essentially purchasing one of two things: An instant transference of energy, or the hope of a future transference of energy.

Understanding your role in the energy transference chain is extremely important.  The more promise of future energy you hold, the more employable you are.  Scores of hiring decisions are made on “hunches” that a particular employee may provide a result in the future.  We get these hunches based on ideas and feelings we get about people.

In addition to the idea of “hunches”, there are also much more direct and concrete indicators of the promise of energy that people hold and how hiring decisions are made.  Like it or not, hiring decisions are also made based on more direct promises of energy transference. What I am about to say is offensive but it is stuff I have heard before so I am going to share it with you because, like it or not, this is how many employers think about you and your energy:

• The young are typically hired over the old in most companies (younger people have more promise of current energy and future energy).
• The thin are typically hired over the fat (if you are overweight this might hold you back in terms of your energy and ability to carry out certain tasks).
• Higher class people are typically hired over lower class people (there is a presumption that they have “better” energy to provide).
• The better educated are typically hired over the less educated (the investment in education provides a certain type of energy that is likely to benefit the employer).
• The social are typically hired over the unsocial (the energy to be social presumes the person will have the ability to interact with their environment).
• The healthy are typically hired over the unhealthy (the promise of future energy is embodied in the healthy).
• The attractive are typically hired over the unattractive (attractiveness is a form of energy).

It is important to understand that, like it or not, thousands of small judgments are made about the energy we are holding within us.  You need to be conscious of the energy you project and do everything within your power to cultivate positive energy and a positive aura that makes people want to work with you and hire you.  Having the right aura and energy can make a gigantic difference in whether you ultimately succeed or fail.

The most successful people have mastered the art of projecting positive energy.  When you spend money on services and material goods, you are also purchasing energy.  The purchase and exchange of energy is something that underlies all commerce.  You need to cultivate, project and display positive energy.  The better your energy, the more employable you will be and the farther you will go.

Employers Want to Hire You

One of the most important things for you to realize when you are looking for a job and see a position advertised is this: The employer wants to hire you.

If the position is advertised, the employer is actually desperate to hire you. When I say “desperate,” I mean that the employer wants you yesterday and not today. The employer is losing money, or has a need that is really “calling out” when they start advertising jobs.

A few years ago I was running a company that was growing like absolute madness. We could not hire or bring people on fast enough. I remember, at the time, that I hired a person and paid him $85,000 and his assistant another $50,000 just to bring people in to hire. I advertised our jobs on our own website and also made sure that those same jobs were advertised on numerous job boards. In one month I took out contracts for over $120,000 worth of job postings. Twice a week I would meet with this manager and the conversations would generally go something like this:

What You Will Learn Employers sincerely want to hire you. Do not go for an interview with a predefined notion that employers may not like you. Negative thoughts would give out the wrong signals that you may not really want the job and that you do not have the confidence to handle the position. Interview with a positive mind.

“I have over 40 job openings right now! Each of these jobs that is not being done is costing me a tremendous amount of money. You are probably costing this company like $500,000 a week by not getting these openings filled and filled fast!!”

Each day I would watch this person go home with a stack of hundreds of resumes to review. He used to fall asleep every single night reviewing resumes. Our need for people was absolutely out of control. We needed bodies and did not know what to do.

In other parts of the country I remember we needed people so badly that people would walk in, start interviewing, and if they looked like they were respectable they were hired on the spot. During this characteristically busy time, I heard a story from one of our managers about when a girl walked in for an interview to our office, which was bustling and out of control. He looked at her and said:

“You look fine. I do not have time to interview you. Sit down and start answering the phone!”

This is what it is like when companies are growing and need people. They want to hire you. Sometimes if you get really lucky, they do not even ask many (if any questions).

I remember walking out of my office one day and seeing a man with scores of tattoos down his arm sitting directly outside of my office. I had no idea how he had been hired. The man had a shaved head and was wearing jeans and a starchy clean tee shirt. He had a belt on that appeared to be a chain of some sort and was also wearing boots. The man had some of the most intimidating and scary looking muscles I have ever seen on a human being. He looked like a larger skinhead version of Mr. T, with a shaved head and a bad attitude towards humanity. Just to be clear, this is not the sort of office atmosphere I have traditionally fostered where I have worked. This was quite a scene for me and a lot to take in. I did not care, however. It is best to allow people to be themselves.

“Nice tattoos!” I told him as I exited my office. I noticed that his biceps were probably larger than my calves. I probably should not have said this. The tattoo on his arm appeared to be some sort of important scene. It looked like a woman with a snake wrapped around her body screaming. Whatever it represented, the tattoo was positively intimidating.

I will never forget what happened next. The man looked up at me and growled, then went back to whatever he was working on. I was afraid he was going to kill me.

I met with several people over the next few days and no one could figure out how he got hired. We had been so busy with everything he had been hired by mistake. He had showed up for work and people were so afraid of the guy they did not want to tell him that hiring him had been a mistake. Then, incredibly, he was allowed to start work. At the time we had around 120 people working in the particular office he was in. About 30 people who were sitting within 20 feet of this guy were stone cold silent during the day. It had formerly been a fun and playful work atmosphere, but they were all absolutely terrified. Men and women.

“We need to fire this guy and get him out of here,” I told a group of our managers behind a closed door meeting one day. “I am afraid he is going to kill someone.”

It certainly looked that way. The guy skulked through the office, bumping into people and staring them down in response when they did not react. Everyone (including myself) was absolutely terrified of this man.

“I’m not going to fire him. He will kill me if I do!” one manager said. One after another, the managers came back with the same thing. There was no way any one of them was going to fire this guy because they were terrified of them.

Every single manager refused to fire the guy. They were afraid of physical violence directed towards them. We ended the meeting with none of us knowing what to do. A few days later a guy in the mail room declared that he was not afraid of the guy and would fire him. This completed the process and everything went pretty smoothly from there, as far as I know.

When companies are in “hiring mode,” they need people so badly that even assassins can make it through the door (as evidenced by this case). Back at this particular point in time our company was so desperate to hire people, it was amazing. These are the sorts of employers you need to find. A company that is growing and needs people.

In a bad economy, places like debt settlement firms, collection agencies and others are growing and bursting at the seams. In a good economy it may be mortgage companies. The point is there are always tons of employers out there who are growing and want to hire you. I read a story the other day about a debt settlement company that is growing so fast, it is unbelievable. You need to find companies like this.

When you go into interview with any company, they are desperate to hire you or someone else.

Think about it. When an employer takes the time to line people up to interview you and bring you in to speak with them, they must be pretty eager to hire someone. Most employers that are interviewing people are very eager to hire. Exceptionally eager. Here is what happens, however. Most people go into interviews and throw off all of the wrong signals and end up not getting the job.

It happens to everyone.

You do not get the job because you throw off the wrong signals and the employer thinks you do not want the job, do not have the confidence or charisma for the position, or cannot handle the position.

Every interview you are going on the employer is wishing and hoping from the bottom of their heart that you are the perfect person for the position. The employer wants you to go in and say all of the right things and do all of the right things. When you go into an interview you should assume the employer is enthusiastic about hiring you. Many people, however, end up psyching themselves out and thinking something else is going on. They go into the interviews with a bad attitude and an attitude that prevents them from getting the job of their dreams. Do not let this person be you. Remember that at every interview you go into, the employer is really enthusiastic about hiring you.

If an employer takes the time to put an advertisement somewhere the chances are that they really need someone. It costs $500 or more to post a job on many websites. If an employer takes the time to pick up the phone, call you, and bring you in for an interview the chances are that they are really interested. They may have had hundreds of applications just for your spot.

Employers interviewing you are excited. They want you to be exactly the person they are hoping you will be and the sort of person they advertised for. Go into each interview ready to seize the day. Take the job you are entitled to and deserve.

People go into interviews many times, however, with very low expectations. Instead of believing they are the perfect fit for the job and that the employer really wants to hire them, they go in with the attitude that the employer will probably choose someone else, or they may not be a fit for the job.

Why do employers want to hire you so much?

They want to hire you because without you in the company, they are losing money. Regardless of the job you are interviewing for, whatever you are doing is likely something a good employer can make money off of. If you are answering the phone, you are giving someone more time to work on other aspects of the business (bringing in clients, for example). If you are sweeping the floor, you are allowing people in the company to not have to worry about this and, instead, spend their time worrying about something else. Companies that need people, need them because they can make money through their efforts.

What I want for you is to look at all of the job opening advertisements out there, all of the companies out there, and see opportunities. You need to understand that employers are eager and enthusiastic to hire you. Do not allow yourself to think otherwise.

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