You should be able to learn a ton about yourself from this exercise. This is, in fact, a roadmap for your career and life. You should also notice various patterns emerging. For example, skills involving writing may be all “A’s” in terms of what other people say about your work and what you enjoy. Notice the patterns in what you see. Notice the areas that garner you the most positive feedback and what you seem to enjoy the most. Notice the areas where you receive the most negative feedback and what you do not seem to enjoy at all. *** Now, back to the attorney I knew. He had very good interpersonal skills. When people met this man they instantly liked him. They would get a warm feeling when around him, feel welcome, and liked. He gave himself “A’s” in the criteria above involving interpersonal skills. He also noticed that he was given “As” by others. Although this skill might not be integral to his job as a tax attorney, where he spent much of his time sitting in front of a computer and filling out papers all day, it was a very good skill to have. Additionally, when you get “A’s” in an area in terms of both your interest level and what others say about you, it is a good sign that this is very likely something you should be doing as part of your career. One day, this attorney and I were going through this exercise of listing our skills, and it came out that he has very good interpersonal skills. In addition to interpersonal skills, he also had a very strong interest in entrepreneurial-related activities. What do I mean by that? He liked to read all about entrepreneurial-related topics, such as how to start a business, how to run a business, and how to market a business. His bookshelves were filled with these sorts of books—and he studied these topic every chance he could get. His interest in this was exceptionally strong. He spent all of his spare time reading books about starting and running a business. That was his motivation. He was passionate about entrepreneurial endeavors. In addition, he had a strong interest in the stock market. He loved to look at stocks. He read just about anything he could get his hands on that was related to stocks. In particular, he became very interested in oil stocks. You could say that interest was another one of his strengths. Finally, he had an exceptional work ethic. He would get up and go to work at the same time every day. He would work Saturdays and Sundays. He worked very hard and enjoyed it. EXERCISE B: INTEREST INVENTORY EXERCISE (Download this exercise as a PDF here: Exercise B) Take a few moments now to grade your performance in your current profession and job. The best way to see if you are in a job that makes the most of your skills is to choose the Top 10 skills your current job requires from the list in Exercise A then transfer these skills and your grades to the list below. This exercise can give you an idea if your current job is a good match for your skills and interests. INTEREST INVENTORY EXERCISE

If you work in a career where the highest grade you can give yourself overall is a B+ then that is going to eventually hold you back. If you are going to achieve your full potential, which includes your earning potential and happiness potential, you need to be in a job where you can give yourself an A. Every task you perform for your job should earn you an A. *** In working with the attorney, we went through and identified and graded the most important skills he needed for his job, just like they were subjects he was studying in school. He needed to find out what his strongest skills were. In terms of the top 10 skills he needed for being an attorney, despite the fact that he was very well paid and doing well at the job, he gave himself only a B+ in terms of his overall abilities, skills, feedback, and interest level. Clearly, this attorney an example of someone who is very accomplished and I have chosen him to be an example for that very reason. This is a person who was making a million dollars a year, at least. He was well paid and respected, but his interests were in a different field. His interests were in these other things like the stock market, entrepreneurial activities, and talking to people. So, what did this person do? He went through a transformation. Incredibly, despite being in this position, he realized that his interests were really in other areas and that his skills could be put to better use. He did this by doing the exercise above and discussing it. With 25 years of experience as an attorney, this man put all of his efforts into his true interests. I told him that he needed to place emphasis on the things that interested him and look for opportunities in those areas. Incredibly, this person ended up becoming involved in oil well prospecting. He talked to some people in Texas and Oklahoma and began investigating oil well–related stocks. Since he had such good interpersonal skills, people opened up to him right away so he learned about opportunities for investment. Since he had so many entrepreneurial interests and skills, he started putting together all sorts of deals. And since he had so much interest in the stock market, he was able to fully understand everything. At the time that I met him, he was going through a divorce and was unhappy. If you are in a career that you don’t like or if you’re unhappy because things aren’t going the way you want at work, other areas of your life can be affected. Your relationships start to suffer. That is never a good thing. I have seen so many divorces and unhappy relationships, and a lot of it is caused by poor career choices. What’s so exciting about this man is the fact that he changed careers completely and it transformed his life. He became involved in the oil well business and as a consequence, ended up becoming much more successful than he ever would have had he stayed in his ultra-prestigious job at the law firm. Not only that, but he was happier, more likeable, more outgoing, more interested in talking about the work he was doing, more motivated, and his relationships improved. All of that work ethic and all those things he was so good at made a major difference and were more effectively utilized when he started to take advantage of his most compelling gifts for his career. You need to ask yourself: What is the most effective way to use my gifts? If you ask yourself this question, and you take the time to seriously consider it, you might discover you should be doing something completely different than what you are doing now. So many people are in the wrong career and doing the wrong work. Many of these people aren’t effectively using their skills. In reality, it isn’t even about making the most effective use of your skills. The much more important thing is to do what makes you happy. In the example of the attorney, he looked at what his interests were, really understood those and his skills, and everything kind of came together for him. He gradually took his foot off the drive pedal for his legal practice and shifted his efforts toward other things. Think of it this way: if you put effort into something that you aren’t good at, your world is going to stay the same size and nothing is going to change. You will continue to make the same money. You will get the same amount of results, positive and negative. But if you start putting effort into something you are good at, pretty soon whatever that is will grow and grow and grow. You’ll see this growth in more opportunities, more money, more success, and more happiness. If you understand that concept, it is going to make all the difference. It will change your life. Job Types The type of work you do is important to understand as far as determining what you enjoy and what you don’t enjoy. Each job or career is a path. By a path, I mean that it is something you may have chosen to do, yet you may be in a position where you are doing work you don’t like. Now, I want you to be specific about what you do and don’t like. Take me for example. I used to be an attorney. While I was an attorney, I did not enjoy being an attorney. I also don’t enjoy bookkeeping, lots of social obligations, having to go to all sorts of events, working with super-competitive people, being sedentary, or being in a job with no potential for growth. Those are the kinds of things I need to avoid in a job. On the other hand, I do enjoy writing. I love to write. I think it’s fun. To some extent, an attorney can do that. I enjoy doing short projects. I like to be active. I enjoy helping people. I like to be appreciated for the work I am doing. This may seem like a very elementary exercise, but in reality it is pretty complex. It is something that you need to do because it gives you a complete roadmap for your career and everything else you end up doing. The goal is to stay on this side of the fence all the time. I am going to tell you that no matter where you live, no matter who you are, there is never a reason for you to be doing something you do not enjoy. There are plenty of jobs out there. When you are really good at something and enjoy it, this realization alone has a magical way of making that sort of job come to you. *** EXERCISE C: LIKES AND DISLIKES EXERCISE (Download this exercise as a PDF here: Exercise C) Get a piece of paper and pen right now and set a timer for five minutes. Now make two lists, one for the things you enjoy and one for the things you don’t enjoy. Start the timer and write down as many as you can think of. Make sure you keep writing for the full five minutes. Real quickly, brainstorm. Write as much as you possibly can. We are working with your subconscious mind here. Your subconscious mind is picking up all this information. It is exceptionally important that you write down everything you don’t enjoy, too. Don’t just write what you think you should write. You need to write everything you can. If you don’t enjoy something, write it down. Don’t censor yourself. Just write, write, write. Write anything that comes to your mind. You should write at least 50 different things to get a sense of this. Do not look at the lists you did in the exercise above. Just write everything that comes to mind for you. LIKES AND DISLIKES EXERCISE

Now take a look at your lists. What do you enjoy? Whatever it is, there is a job that fits it. Maybe you enjoy yelling at people. That’s okay. There is a job for that. Maybe you enjoy dancing in a bathing suit. There is probably a job for that too. What you don’t enjoy is equally important. You want to avoid jobs that require you to do those things that make you unhappy. This is your roadmap. Type up this list and tape it to the wall. Refer to it often as you look for a job. This may be a very simplistic, elementary exercise, but it is so important. You must understand what you enjoy and what you do not enjoy if you are going to find a career that truly makes you happy. *** People have to work to make money, yet you should never have a job you don’t enjoy. I want to empower you. I want you to understand that living in a career you don’t enjoy is a road to disaster. The reason is that, again, when you put effort into things you don’t enjoy, things stay small. When you put effort into things you enjoy, things get bigger and bigger. When you enjoy something, you put more effort into it because it is fun and you get more return for your effort. Take sports, for example. I used to love soccer. Because I loved it, I practiced. I went to training camps for it. I could kick the ball harder and dribble with more control. Because I loved it, I excelled at it. I started with the example about the attorney because I want you to understand that when you are putting your effort into what you enjoy, so much more can happen to you. This man went on to become incredibly successful in the oil industry after 25 years of massive success as an attorney. But he was unhappy as an attorney. The point is you cannot do things you don’t enjoy if you want to be happy. If you don’t like being a stockbroker, don’t do it. If you don’t like being a doctor, you shouldn’t be doing it. If you don’t like being an attorney, you shouldn’t be doing it. If you don’t like being an architect, you shouldn’t do it. If you don’t like working in the factory, you shouldn’t do it. If you don’t like being a waitress, you shouldn’t do it. You should never, ever have to do what you don’t enjoy. I am here to tell you today that you don’t have to. This process we’re going through is so exciting because it will empower you to change your life. Most people who start a process like this one do not finish it. It’s hard to get something out of any exercise when you don’t finish it. By completing a process like this one, you are investing in yourself. Moving Beyond Resistance If you find you are resisting doing these exercises, if you find yourself resisting reading this material, it is not because the material is not helping you. I know this material will help you. The reason you are resisting likely has something to do with the fact that you are afraid to change. People often get stuck in this box and find themselves in jobs they don’t enjoy because they feel like they can’t get out. They are in prison. No one wants this for his or her life or career. I feel so strongly about this, I can’t even tell you how significant this point really is. Why not enjoy your time on this earth and the time in your career? I want so much for you to find and do what you enjoy. There is nothing more important than that. I have taught so many people this process and I have seen such incredible transformations. I have seen people become so successful once they understand it. I want the same for you. I used to do some flying. When an airplane takes off, it’s constantly in communication with different points on the ground. The plane may go off in one direction or off in another direction. At every stage, there are all these people and instruments telling the pilot when he gets off course. Exercise C, which gauges what you do and do not enjoy, is like a course corrector. It indicates that if you are doing something you do not enjoy, you are on the wrong path. In your career, it is incredibly important to get on the right path. So many people are out there who think there are certain jobs they should be doing. I don’t know what the reasons are, but they believe they should be doing something because of what other people have told them. Frankly, it’s just not true. There is no should when it comes to your career and your life. Whatever you believe or whatever other people have led you to believe, it’s just not true. You need to be doing what you are good at and that means doing what you enjoy. When I talk about the things you enjoy, I am talking about the things that make you happy. You need to be doing what makes you happy in your career. There is absolutely no alternative. I would say 65 percent to 70 percent of people out there are doing things that they don’t enjoy. What is so upsetting about this is that the people who are doing the things they don’t enjoy are often the most talented people out there. Sometimes the people who have the most motivation are the ones who end up doing things they don’t enjoy. Another type of resistance comes from the feedback that you may have received from the world. One of the real benefits of education, I think, whether you went to high school and didn’t complete it or went to graduate school, is you are always getting feedback. The feedback is pointing you into the direction of what you are good at. Everybody is good at something. I have yet to meet somebody who isn’t exceptional at something. I remember when I was growing up, I knew someone pretty well. He was not good at school at all. As a matter of fact, he was pretty much a C student. He never really got any praise or anything from teachers or from the school. Because of that, he ended up getting in with the wrong crowd and using drugs and all sorts of things. To some extent, he did a lot of damage to his brain. That’s okay; lots of people do that. But I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that he was surrounded by very accomplished family members and people that he knew who were doing exceptionally well and he wasn’t. He did get feedback about one thing, however. That one thing was chemistry. He was very good at it. I don’t know why he was so good at chemistry. He just had a natural ability in the subject. I remember that I was home during college he had dropped out of school and was living with his parents. He was pretty unhappy for the most part, using drugs and not going anywhere. I remembered how good he was at chemistry and said, “You need to do everything you can to study chemistry. You just need to put all your effort into it.” He actually liked chemistry, too. He liked it a lot. He was interested in it, but he was horrible at English, horrible at math, and horrible at whatever else. He was just a horrible student. And he did. He listened to me. And I think, based on the path that he was on, it saved his life. Now he makes a good living. He is respected. He has all sorts of skills all because he pursued the area in which he was getting positive feedback. Prior to that, he thought he should be interested in business so he started ordering The Wall Street Journal and reading about business. He thought maybe he should be a writer so he started writing these horrible stories. He did all these things except what he was good at. I think he had the idea that people who were interested in chemistry were nerds or whatever. He actually was a nerd, but he didn’t know it. The point is that you need to go where the positive feedback is. That is what he did. When you do things for which you receive positive feedback, it is going to make a lot of difference. There is positive and negative feedback. When you get positive feedback, it empowers you. It pushes you forward. In terms of feedback, when you do something where you are getting a positive reaction, it makes all the difference in the world. The reason it makes a positive difference is the power of being empowered can change the entire calculus in your career. When birds fly in formation, one bird often flies in front and then a couple of different birds fly off to the sides. They fly like this because the bird out front faces a lot of wind resistance. This resistance makes it much more difficult for the front bird to fly, so they have to flap their wings much harder. I am sure you have heard this sound, the ‘whah whah’ when they do that. It isn’t the one that is in front that is making that sound. Rather, it’s the ones on the sides. These birds are benefiting from that lead bird breaking the wind in front of all the other birds while they are flying. They are cheering him on. Being cheered on is among one of the most important things you can have in your career. You need to be cheered on no matter what you do and no matter who you are. When you are cheered on, you push further. Life is not easy. No career is easy, to be honest. But when you have others around you who are cheering you on, it makes all the difference in the world. You need to be in a position where you are getting positive feedback. The people around you might say, “You are doing a good job,” or “What you did is making a huge difference,” or “Go, do it because you are really doing a great job of that.” When you are empowered and getting positive feedback, it changes the calculus for you. Positive feedback gives you the energy to go forward. That is important. It makes your life meaningful. It gives you the energy to be number one. In my office in Los Angeles, we make these videos for some of our job sites. When you put up an ad on a casting site, you will literally see hundreds of very beautiful girls applying for these jobs within a few hours. These are for videos where they talk about how to find different types of jobs. When you think about it, these girls are moving here from all over the United States because people are saying, “You are really pretty,” or “You could be a good actress.” So all these girls move to L.A. and they are doing that based on feedback they get. That is a good thing. The funny thing is when you look at these girls who are applying to these jobs, there are obviously girls who have no business doing so. I don’t mean that in a bad way. I just mean that they don’t have the presence on camera. They don’t have the potential skills. These people really shouldn’t be doing it because they aren’t getting positive feedback. That is a really important thing to understand. When you do something where you don’t get positive feedback, it’s disempowering. It kind of takes the wind out of your sails. It doesn’t make you feel good and it is not fun. It makes you more sluggish in terms of your work. You are less likely to act because you are not excited about what you are doing. It puts you in a position where you are unlikely to be number one. This is a very crucial point and something you really need to grasp. I am not telling you that you don’t need to work hard or you don’t need to work on obstacles or whatever, but you should be applying this effort in an area where you have gotten a lot of positive feedback. You shouldn’t be doing this in something where you are getting negative feedback. If you are good at chemistry, fine. Go get a PhD in chemistry and surprise the world, but do that because you are good at chemistry and that is where your skill set is. Don’t do that in something you are bad at like English or Social Studies; do it in something you are good at. We are going to do another exercise. I want you to do this exercise, but I want to go through what my experience has been with the feedback I’ve received. I have gone through this exercise myself and it has really made a difference for me in terms of my life. When I completed the feedback exercise, it really showed me what I should be doing. And everybody I have ever gone through this exercise with has realized what he or she should be doing. I’ve received positive feedback in things like public speaking, public writing, coming up with new ideas, and that sort of thing. Negative feedback I’ve received has been for things like: details, doing lots of socialization, going to lots of events and that kind of thing, and anything to do with math. I just don’t like it. I hope you can start seeing a pattern here. When I told you the things I like and the things I didn’t like, the things that I like are along the positive feedback lines, and the things I don’t like are along the negative feedback lines. That is very important to understand. It is really going to make a difference. I would like to tell you the way I view this. It is called a course corrector. In the example of the airplane flying and getting its course corrected, and the example of a bird, when you get positive feedback, it puts you on a certain course. It makes you go a certain direction. The negative feedback drives you away from that course and back on to the right course. I want you to do this exercise. I want you to spend some time on it. I want you to make two columns, one listing the times you’ve received positive feedback, and one listing the times you’ve received negative feedback. Please don’t think that you are too important or that you don’t have time to go through this exercise. I have done this exercise with investment bankers who have made millions and millions of dollars a year. I have helped them with this to improve their careers. This is really what you need to focus on. What encouragement or discouragement have you received over your lifetime—when you were a kid, when you were a teenager, when you were in college? What do people say to you today? I want you to really think through this and write down whatever comes to mind. Think back; think long term. Go as far back as you possibly can. Go into as much detail as you can and keep writing. Consider these questions:

• What do people ask you to do more of?
• What have people said you are the greatest at?
• What have people applauded you for?
• What have people asked you to do again?
• What are you best at?
• Where have you not gotten any encouragement?

That is how it works. People won’t necessarily tell you that you are good at something or you are bad at something. If you are putting a lot of effort into something and not receiving any encouragement, that is a good sign that maybe something is wrong. Just think about that. Go deep. I want you to think back to when you were five or six years old and what people said to you. Think back to when you were 10 years old, 12 years old, 15 years old, and 20 years old. Just keep thinking and going back and forth in your mind about everything people have said you are good at. You have special abilities and I know there is something out there you are exceptionally good at. That is really what I want to find for you today. I want you to grab onto whatever it is that you are exceptionally good at. I want you to understand it. I also want you to understand the negative feedback. In terms of understanding the negative feedback, when you think about the feedback you have received, you need to think in terms of the big picture. What have people said to you over and over again? You have to understand, too, that there are people out there who are competitive with you. They may give you negative feedback that isn’t even true. You must sort through this type of discouragement and throw out the comments from people who do not have your best interests at heart. Work through this list to better understand the positive and negative feedback you have received. You need to understand where you are getting your feedback from, and more specifically, where your negative feedback is coming from. This exercise will you help you figure this out. Here, you should jot down the first things that come to mind: Only you know what should be listed. Your positive feedback could be from being a good long-distance runner, for example. Your negative feedback could be that you are a bad cook. I really do not care what it is—you just need to go through the exercise as exhaustively as possible. EXERCISE D: YOUR POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE FEEDBACK EXERCISE (Download this exercise as a PDF here: Exercise D)

A lot of  time people don’t take the time to think about these sorts of things and they are exceptionally important for your life and career. You need to understand your biggest gifts. Now we are going to bring this list of positive and negative feedback home to you. Exercise E, “Career Mapping,” is going to be really cool. EXERCISE E: CAREER MAPPING (Download this exercise as a PDF here: Exercise E) I want you to think about your life. Think about your career and write down every job that you have ever done that you were paid for and even the things you weren’t paid for. This includes schooling, volunteer work, and summer jobs. Every job you’ve ever done. Make a big circle in the middle of your paper and label it “My Career”. In the middle of the circle, write all these different jobs you’ve done. Once you have this collection of all the jobs you’ve done, it’s time to investigate how they fit in your career path. For each position you’ve held, ask yourself: 1. Was I good at this job? 2. Did I get positive feedback? 3. Could I do this job forever? 4. Do I like it? When you look at every job you’ve done, you start getting a road map and understanding where everything is pointing. As you discovered in earlier exercises, there are certain things for which you are getting positive or negative feedback. With this exercise, you can find out what jobs you liked. Taking those two pieces of information will tell you a lot about what the right career is for you. That really gives you the answer. When I went through this exercise for myself, I listed all the jobs I’ve had. I was an asphalt contractor, for example. I asked myself: Was I good at it? I was okay. Did I get positive feedback? Yes, people told me I was good at it. Did I like it? Yes, I liked it. But could I do it forever? No. Why? It is just too taxing. It is taxing physically. It is stressful. It is a little bit dangerous. One of the things you’ll start to understand is the job that is right for you may not be on this list. I will tell you why. When you start putting everything together like, what you enjoy, what you do not enjoy, the things for which you’ve received positive feedback, the jobs you’ve done, all the careers you’ve had, the jobs you like, the jobs for which you’ve received positive feedback, the jobs you were good at, and the jobs you think you could do forever, you’ll start to see a pattern. You will see a pattern between what you enjoy and what’s earning you positive feedback. And you will see a pattern between jobs you like and jobs you do not like. There are a lot of very sophisticated career testing programs out there. You are welcome to take them. But I don’t think you need to invest the money in them. The information you’ve uncovered with these few exercises is all you need to know to find the job that is the best fit for you. When I was an attorney, I was definitely in a place that I did not like. I didn’t enjoy the work. I didn’t like getting up in the morning. It wasn’t something I liked. I was even a law professor, too, but I’m not going to get into that. That wasn’t any fun either. The feedback I was getting was mixed. I was getting good feedback, but at the same time I wasn’t always getting positive feedback. Did I think I could do it forever? No way could I do it forever. Was I good at it? Yes, I was good at it, but there were a lot of other people who were good at it, too. Despite being good at it, it wasn’t really something that lit a fire under me and made a big difference. It wasn’t something that I really found myself enjoying very much. One day, like you, maybe, I went out and started looking into all these jobs on various job sites and investigating the market. I was really trying to understand what I wanted to do with my life and with my career. In the course of doing that, I started talking to legal recruiters. I started meeting them. They were wearing fancy watches. They seemed tanned and happy. They seemed to enjoy what they were doing. But at the same time, I noticed that a lot of them didn’t have very good skills. These recruiters didn’t necessarily have the kinds of skills that I developed practicing law like being very detailed-oriented, doing research, and some other things. That was a very interesting thing to me. I thought to myself, if they had these skills, they would be much better at their jobs. For example, you can find lots of locations for the jobs these recruiters were recruiting for if you did enough research. You have to do intensive research that could take weeks, but you could find them. And they weren’t doing it. I knew that I could do it. They didn’t have good writing abilities, either. Writing is a very important component of recruiting because you have to put together a case for why a law firm or other organization should hire someone. I started noticing all these things. I started thinking about what I enjoy and all the aspects of recruiting were things that I enjoyed and where I got the most positive feedback. I enjoyed the idea of selling things and sales. I enjoyed the writing component. I enjoyed the research. I enjoyed all these things despite the fact that these items on the list of things I enjoyed, I realized right then and there that recruiting was a job that I would not only be good at, but I would enjoy and it would make a huge difference in my career and life. I knew what I enjoyed and I knew what I got the most positive feedback from. I knew if I went into it, good things would happen. So, what happened? As I was looking at different job opportunities with these recruiters and going out and interviewing with big prestigious law firms, I got job offers. Even though I wasn’t happy at my current firm, I realized that I really wouldn’t be happy doing any other type of job. The problem wasn’t the practice of law. The problem was me and my interests. Despite getting all these jobs, I kept coming back to the idea that I thought recruiting was cool and that it was something I would enjoy. I just instinctively understood that my likes, my skills, and where I had gotten positive feedback, all kind of led to recruiting. I didn’t make this decision consciously for several weeks. Then I decided that I had to do this. That is what I have to do. I had to take a recruiting job. At the time, I was twenty-nine years old. This was back in 1999, a long time ago, and I was making $170,000 a year. I said to myself, “I’m not doing this anymore. I don’t like it.” So I quit. For four months, nothing happened. I think my wife at the time was astonished. How could somebody that young walk away from such a good job and start doing something with no experience that anybody can do? I set up an office in our house and we had no money, nothing. We just jumped off the face of the earth really to do this. I did the work for several months. I had been doing it for four months and I hadn’t brought in any money. The way recruiters get paid is a recruiter makes 25% of the annual salary of someone they place in a job, but I hadn’t done that yet. I knew deep down, instinctively, that this was what I was good at and I would succeed. It has been like that, too, for a lot of the recruiters who have joined our company. At the same time, it was very taxing. My wife used to get phone calls from her family wondering if I was sane for doing what I was doing. It was just a very difficult time. I remember she would get the phone calls and actually walk out onto the front lawn of the house to talk because she didn’t want me to hear her talking. Then I remember another quick incident. She had some friends who were over at our house and they had come into my office. I could tell they were kind of concerned for her and for me because I had just taken this huge leap in my career. They said, “What are you doing?” I told them and I remember expressing enthusiasm with them about one of the candidates I had that I thought was excellent. I went back to what I was doing at my desk. A few moments later I turned around and I saw them expressing that I was absolutely nuts and this was insane. After that incident, a couple of weeks went by. I think it was the next week and I remember one Sunday evening my wife and I were watching 60 Minutes. By this point it was early 2000 and they were talking about dotcoms and how successful some of them were. This giant cricket, almost as big as this marker, came and jumped on the mantle of the fireplace and started singing. I went to bed that night and the next Monday I woke up very early in the morning. A major law firm named Latham & Watkins called. They told me they wanted to hire one of my attorneys that had already gone on an interview. That placement fee ended up being over $50,000. To make a long story short, by the end of the week I had made four placements. One of them was actually much larger than $50,000, and I made close to double what I had made the previous year as an attorney. My life had changed. Within a few years, I had offices for this recruiting company all around the United States. A few years after that, our company had expanded so much that there were over 600 employees with offices all around the world. It has just been a complete transformation. None of that would have happened had I not decided to follow the things I both enjoy and receive the most positive feedback for. I really hope you understand the significance of what I just told you. If you understand it, nothing is ever going to be the same for you, in your career and in your life, ever again. Nothing will ever be the same. It is all going to change. I get a little bit emotional when I think about this because I am thinking about the impact this is going to have on you. You need to follow your heart and go after where that positive feedback is. You need to go after it and make it happen. I want you to go through this process. I know you have written down the things you like and where you have gotten the positive feedback. I want you to understand that once you go through this process, you are going to be so empowered. This alone is going to change your life. Your perfect career path can be anything you do. It doesn’t need to be what you think it is or what other people think it is. It doesn’t need to be anything in particular. Consider this story about a window washer. When I was an asphalt contractor in Detroit, there was a man in Grosse Pointe who had a collection of Ferraris. He used to sit out in his driveway and rev his Ferrari just because he loved the sound of them. He lived in a very nice house or giant mansion. It was one of the nicest houses in Grosse Pointe. Every year I would come by and service his driveway, and one day I had the opportunity to talk to him. I asked him, “What do you do?” He said, “I have a window washing company.” “Really, where do you do it?” “Just in Grosse Pointe. I walk around and wash the windows in Grosse Pointe.” I thought about that. Here is the guy with one of the nicest houses in the city and he is a window washer for the local people. Turns out this guy used to work at a large bank in Detroit where he had been a manager. He was successful, but it wasn’t a job he enjoyed. He used to get his windows washed at his house three or four times a year. He noticed two things: one, these window washers were clearly very happy, and two, they made a lot of money doing it. They worked outside in fresh air all day, and they were paid about $200 for fifteen or twenty minutes of work. So this man went out and started washing windows by knocking on doors around his neighborhood on weekends. Sure enough, after washing these windows alone for several weekends, he realized that he was making more money just working on Saturday and Sunday than he was making working the entire week in the bank, and he was having fun doing it, so he quit the bank. The point is that it doesn’t matter what you do. You have to do what you like. You have to do what appeal to you. You have to follow your heart. You have to go where the positive feedback is, and you have to go with what you like. That is the most important thing. That is what is going to make a difference in your career. I am glad that you took the time to go through these career tests. Do these exercises and think about it, even sleep with it. Look at it before you go to bed. The path is going to open up for you. The path you want comes through thinking and it comes through going through these exercises and doing this work. The path you want is there. It may be doing what you are doing right now. But you can be even stronger at that, too, if that is what you want to do. The most important thing for you to know is whether or not you are on the right path. If you aren’t on the right path, you need to get on the right path. You need to start understanding what it is and get on it right now to make a difference in your life.

List of job search sites

In addition, I’ve also added what I feel are some good job search resources (including employers) from different industries to this list as well. However, because new job sites are launched just about every day it is important you know how to find these sites on your own without using this list of job sites I have put together for you. I want you to think back to thirty years ago, before the Internet changed the face of the job search, when newspapers in every small and large town in America had job postings. For job searchers, this was the primary source of job listings and the job listings were the primary source of a newspaper’s advertising revenue. Back in the late 1990s when a lot of people started using the Internet, job boards started popping up. The idea was that there was no cost for employers to post because it was just electronic. It was online, after all. By putting the job online, it reduced the cost of advertising and printing because there was no printing and distribution of the newspaper involved. In addition, it opened the jobs to a much larger market. As the job postings migrated to these online sites, it affected the newspaper industry negatively. Due to a lack of readership and ad revenue, print newspapers across the country are going out of business. In the realm of career postings, job sites have taken over the market. You simply cannot afford to do any job search without having a thorough understanding of job sites. Interestingly enough, unless you are looking for a job with a print newspaper, this is good news for you. The number of job sites out there is astronomical, and the more websites you look at in your job search, the more opportunities you will find. The total number is probably about forty thousand job sites, but I’d estimate there are ten thousand decent ones. Obviously, that many job sites also presents a problem. How can you possibly review that many sites? Plus, with the sites being so ubiquitous, you might find you have lots and lots of competition for just one position. The first movers in this space came along and they set up job boards. The larger ones—CareerBuilder, Monster, and Hot Jobs—historically had the most jobs. These job sites followed the model of newspapers: Charge employers to post jobs. In the newspaper world, the more circulation a newspaper has the more it can charge for its classified advertising. Therefore, early entrants into the job board space sought to get as many job seekers as possible to their sites so they could charge higher rates to advertisers posting jobs. Accordingly, these sites did (and continue to do) massive amounts of advertising to attract as many applicants as possible to their jobs. While having lots of traffic benefits the job sites and employers, it should be pretty obvious that this also makes it much more difficult for you to get a job when you are on these sites. For example, it is not uncommon for an employer to receive upwards of 1,000 applications when they post a job on a site like CareerBuilder. The drawback of the larger job sites is that the employers typically receive incredible numbers of applications. The job of the larger site is to promote the employer’s openings, so you will see ads during the Super Bowl, on buses, on television, and so on. There are many places where these sites advertise with the goal of driving lots of applications. In addition, because there is very little filtering of these applications, the employer may not even get the sorts of applications they need. Many people will indiscriminately apply for jobs for which they are not qualified. For example, it is common for people such as dishwashers to apply for attorney jobs on these sorts of sites. In addition to these “mega sites,” there are tens of thousands of smaller sites. These smaller sites typically do not receive a lot of applications. Because these smaller sites have less competition for the jobs, it is often much easier for you to get the position you want. There are numerous smaller sites for niche sorts of jobs. For example, there are sites for different types of engineers, job sites for attorneys, job sites for accountants, and so forth. Because they do not receive a lot of applications, they are generally a good way to track down jobs where the competition isn’t quite as fierce. Because there are so many job sites, you have to think of who is constantly looking for employees. Historically, recruiters have been the ones looking for the most people. They are always searching for different types of employees and the larger the recruiting firm, the more likely it is that they will consistently have openings for certain types of people. Recruiters always advertise and they tend to have the most jobs on job boards. This is an important thing for you to understand. Recruiting firms generally also get special “preferential rates” with job sites. While it may cost an employer $500 to put a single advertisement on a site like Monster, a recruiting firm may be able to purchase “packages” of jobs, which lower its cost to post each job to around $75. Recruiters may also have “slots” with a job site, which they need to use at all times. This means the recruiter may be forced to advertise its jobs whether or not it has openings that it is actively looking to fill. Therefore, it is important to be somewhat suspect of the jobs you see advertised online for recruiting firms. It is also important to remember that a recruiter is a middleman. When you apply to a recruiter job, you are not applying to the employer. You are applying to someone who will screen your résumé and who may or may not submit it for a particular job. There is a final factor, which is important to understand. Recruiters charge employers fees that are a percentage of your annual salary and can be as high as 40 percent to maybe 15 percent for low-level administrative positions. If the employer hires you, they are charged this fee. Obviously, this can potentially prevent you from being hired unless you are extremely well qualified for the position. It is important to understand that using a recruiter can help you tremendously for many positions regardless of the fee. For example, many recruiters have very close relationships with various employers. In addition, a large extremely successful business will almost never care whether there is a recruiting fee involved when it hires you. Successful businesses simply want the best people and are unconcerned whether or not there is a recruiting fee. Nevertheless, a recruiting fee can put off many smaller businesses and unsuccessful businesses. There are also issues of credibility with certain recruiters. Some recruiters are simply not trusted by employers and may have bad reputations with employers. This means that using a recruiter could hurt and not help you when you are involved in a job search. The main thing I want you to be aware of is that applying to a job through a recruiter — and most job sites are littered with recruiter jobs — is putting you in a position of not knowing exactly what will happen. It’s important to be aware of this as you send out applications. Finding Job Sites With 40,000+ job sites, the main issue is finding the sites you should be using—and there are tons and tons of methods for finding them. There are many small sites that typically have relationships with certain employers, which is good. For example, a small job site for people in the medical device industry may have very close relationships with various manufacturers of medical devices. These manufacturers will be very comfortable posting jobs on this site due to the fact that the job site has developed a close relationship with them and is able to provide them a steady stream of candidates. Therefore, when you go to this job site for medical device professionals, you will see some excellent jobs that match your interests. In addition, the jobs you see on this site for medical device professionals likely won’t be advertised on other job sites. If you are in the medical device industry and looking for a job, you would be well served looking at this specific site. With these sites, it is important that you understand there are lots and lots of very specific job sites for different careers. Then there are larger sites. There are many sites out there and you really need to look at a lot of different ones in order to find jobs. Confining your search to a few large legal sites is not a good idea. It is very important that you are also searching niche sites for your profession for jobs. A good way to track down job sites for your profession is by using online directories. Let’s look at some specifics. DMOZ. One of the most popular directories is DMOZ.org. This is a great way to find various job sites. One of the easiest ways to search this directory is to simply follow the steps below. 1. Go to http://www.dmoz.org, then click the “jobs” link above. This takes you to the screen for the URL www.dmoz.org/business/employment/. 2. Once you are there, I would recommend clicking on the URL for Industry: 3. This takes you to this URL http://www.dmoz.org/Business/Employment/By_Industry/ that shows you a ton of various links categorized by industry for different types of jobs. Once you have done this, you should choose an industry. In the example below, I clicked the law industry. 4. The screen that opens up when you click on an industry-specific search http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Law/Employment/ (like I did for law) then gives you the option of looking at job listings, seeing legal recruiters, and so forth. To find job sites, just click on job listings: 5. This then takes you to the page www.dmoz.org/Society/Law/Employment/Job_Listings/ that shows you all of the job sites in a given industry: DMOZ is a good directory and a trustworthy source of information. Nevertheless, because sites need to be manually submitted and reviewed by editors, not every site will be included in the directory. Due to this, the job sites that end up getting included tend to be high quality. Yahoo. The Yahoo! Directory is also very good. We can go to “Yahoo directory job sites.” You can see that they have different things to tell you about job listings here, too. I would check that out. Here are some of the steps and screens you would follow to find job sites that specialize in sales, for example:

1. Go to Dir.Yahoo.com

Click on “Jobs” under the “Business/Economy” link on the home page: 2. Click on “Careers and Jobs,” on this page: http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Employment_and_Work/. 3. Click on “Jobs,” on this page: http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Employment_and_Work/Careers_and_Jobs/. 4. Click on “Career Specific,” on this page: http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Employment_and_Work/Careers_and_Jobs/Jobs/ 5. Click on the industry that most closely matches what you are seeking. Here, I clicked on “Marketing and Advertising,” since it seemed closest to “sales” on this page: http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Employment_and_Work/Careers_and_Jobs/Jobs/Career_Specific/ 6. You will be then take to this page which shows the sites for you to search through: These are just two directories. There are literally hundreds of directories out there. Here is a list of some of the more popular ones: List of Job Boards It is useful to use these directories to search for job sites because the information is all organized in one place. Because not all directories have all of the job sites, it is often a very good idea to search more than one directory for job sites in your profession. Whatever your profession is, the chances are quite good there are numerous different job sites. One thing you may be asking is why not just make a normal search for jobs in your profession on a search engine like Google, for example, instead of using a directory. This is certainly an option. Nevertheless, you need to understand that the way a search engine ranks different searches is extremely complicated. Therefore, if you rely on search engines and not directories you may never find the job site you are looking for. For example, in terms of optimizing their site for search engines, many job sites have no idea what they are doing. Despite this fact, the site may have very good jobs. It is important, therefore, to supplement your search for job sites with directories. Understanding Fees As mentioned earlier, job sites have carried over the same method of charging employers for a classified ad that was practiced with newspapers. There are a couple of things that are also important for you to understand about job sites. Typically, they charge fees. You may find a rare job site that does not, but it is rare (we do not charge fees to post jobs on our site www.EmploymentCrossing.com, but this is not normal). The cost to post a job on a job site can be anywhere from $25 to $500 or more. This means that the jobs you are seeing are only the ones that the employers are paying to post. It also means that the jobs on a site are dependent upon the marketing and sales ability of the job site to sell employers on posting jobs with them for a fee. I personally think that in terms of your resources, it is good to apply to the jobs on big sites, but you need to understand that by going to large sites you are going to spend a lot of time looking at jobs. Those jobs are getting a lot of applications. In general, smaller sites are going to receive fewer applications. Privacy Privacy really is a major concern with a lot of job sites. I will just go here to Google and type “Monster data breach.” You can see here that Monster had a theft of confidential information from 1.3 million job-seekers that hackers broke into. So, there are some confidentiality issues you need to be aware of with job sites. I really feel though that people hacking sites like Monster is the least of your concerns. A major concern is identity theft from posting your résumé online. People may steal your identity, which is common and a hassle. In addition, most job sites market to you and/or make your information available to others. How does that work? Let’s go online here. Here it says “one week $699” to search resumes. Anybody with an Internet connection can go on and look at your résumé. A résumé will be for sale if you post it there. That is an important thing for you to understand, that your résumé is for sale. Again, another privacy concern is with recruiters. You do not know what is happening with your résumé. Understand that when you apply for a job through a recruiting firm on a site, you do not know, necessarily, what is going to happen to your résumé. If your privacy is important to you, and it should be, this is something to keep in mind. Using Job Sites In terms of the strategy I recommend: (1)   Apply to all the jobs on the big sites that match what you are seeking to do. Set up job alerts on these sites. (2)   Create a list of small job sites using directories in addition to search engines and apply to all the jobs. Set up job alerts on these sites as well. It is very important for you to get those job alerts. When you get one, apply as soon as you review the job details. After a few hours, most employers will have received a lot of applications and your application is less likely to get reviewed. *** I want to tell you a couple of quick stories. I used to use sites like Monster and things like that when our company had jobs. This was before we were in the job search business. It was absolutely incredible. We still use it to some extent for some jobs, the ones we do not post on our own sites, in order to get huge exposure for a job that is really hard-to-fill. At the same time, I remember in 2001, after the dot-com crash and after September 11^th, we had a job for a programmer. At that point in time, the job market was at an absolute standstill for programmers. We posted a job there and I was literally getting an application every two or three seconds for several days. I had to change my e-mail address because it was so intense. Now, I think you may be able to prevent the applications from coming to your e-mail address and divert them to some platform within the site. The level of interest received by some jobs is just insane because there are so many people out there. Many people do not even look to see if they are qualified for the job. You may have a janitor applying for a job as a sophisticated computer programmer and this person has never even turned on a computer. It is important to understand that you need to really be careful, show a lot of respect for the jobs, and know that you are not necessarily going to get the best response from job sites. Once again, I recommend applying via e-mail and also letter or fax. I have gone into the explanation for this several times, but I want to make sure that you do that. If you have not heard within a few weeks, you should follow up with the employer. I even recommend that you call. A lot of people say you should not call; it can be offensive to some employers. However, if you have not heard back within a couple of weeks, the odds are pretty good that the employer is not interested in you, so there is nothing really wrong with calling. Generally, an email is fine, too. In brief, job sites are really an excellent way to track down jobs. The most important thing you can do in terms of my recommendations are to make sure you are aware of all of the sites in your niche in terms of what you do. You should set up job alerts and apply to jobs on large websites. In addition to applying to jobs on large websites, it is also very important to apply for jobs on smaller websites. Smaller websites are a very good source of jobs because the jobs will not be promoted as much and they will match your niche. Use directories and so forth to set those up. It is a good idea to make your résumé available on different sites, but be very careful with your identifying information. In this case, you want to make your résumé appear general. Do not give too much personal information. You might even set up a separate e-mail account that you check periodically or even daily. Leave off your home address. You do not want people to see that you are employed who can then go to your house while you are at work. These are some of the general things. I would do a Google search for guidelines and read the resources. Things change on an ongoing basis, so be careful with that. It does take a lot of time to distribute your résumé to lots and lots of different sites. We have a product called Résumé Boomer that will post your résumé to tons of different websites, so that is an option for you. You really need to use job sites in your search. Make the most of them. I always think it is a good idea.

Optimization means that in every single point, you are improving what you are doing by 10% or more compared to everyone else around you.  In the case of the paper, I have received well over 1,000,000 resumes in my recruiting firms over the past 10 years and I have never seen anyone use paper like this. I would have remembered it if I saw it.  The paper I had found was so heavy that it was made mostly of cotton.  You could crumple this stuff up and then iron it to get the creases out if you wanted to.  The paper cost a fortune but it was something that really made my applications stick out.  It could be sitting in a pile of 500 resumes and anyone who saw a letter on this paper would reach for it and pull the resume on it right out of the stack. What does paper like this say about the applicant?

• The person takes the job seriously
• Quality is important to the person
• The person wants to make a good impression
• The employer is important to the person
• The person does things as best as they possibly can be done
• The person wants the job
• The person wants to be noticed
• The person cares about details
• The person wants to look good

You can make your own list.  My point is that something as simple as the paper you apply to a job on will make a huge difference.  Every single detail of your job search is something that can make a huge difference.  The results you get in your job search and in your life will come down to details.  The better you pay attention to and optimize various details, the better off you are likely to be in your job search.  This paper paid huge dividends for me in my job search.  In fact, I am surprised that more people do not do this.  People spend thousands of dollars on suits, plastic surgery and all sorts of stuff to look good when they are sitting there in person, but a resume sits in conference rooms and on the desk of hiring authorities before you show up for an interview and after. The resume better look good. I run recruiting firms as well, and make sure I use the best paper I can.  I use good paper and stationery because I want the candidates at BCG Attorney Search I represent to stand out.  I have always done this.  For several years, the paper we used could only be found in Europe and was manufactured by a small company in Belgium.  Notwithstanding, we used it despite the fact that it costs much more than other paper.  At the same time, all of our competitors were simply emailing and faxing out resumes.  We continued to ensure that every resume went out on the best quality paper and, year after year, the company continued to grow while many of our competitors came and went.  This happened not just because of the paper.  It happened for many reasons, and most of this was about observing hundreds of little details like this and improving on each one constantly.  You need to watch the details and improving on just one little detail can make all the difference in your job search and in your life, as well. Why am I telling you about paper?  Certainly, your job search does not come down to just what sort of paper you use.  I am not here to tell you this.  What I am here to tell you, though, is that your job search comes down to numerous things, like the quality of paper you use, and this and other things taken in tandem make up the entire impression you give the employer and have an impact on whether or not you are going to get the job.  You need to hit every little data point you possibly can in the process of looking for a job and the better you do this, the more likely you are to get the sort of job you are entitled to and deserve. I would like to ask you some questions about your job search.  Each of these are points where you can optimize and improve just as I did with something as simple as paper.  The more of these you adopt and follow, the better you will do in your job search.

1. How many different methods are you using to apply to jobs? I list this point first because this is one of the largest mistakes people make and it is also something that I feel quite invested in, as well.  Incredibly, most people out there rely upon just a few methods of looking for a job.  For example, they may join a website, like Monster, and search for jobs just on this site.  This strategy is incredibly dangerous and something that has likely destroyed many careers and lives.  When you are just looking for jobs on one site like this, you are only seeing a very small percentage of the job openings in the market.  A site like Monster has a lot of jobs that employers are paying $500 or more to advertise, but it certainly does not contain jobs from employer websites, jobs from association websites, and jobs from every other career site out there.  You need access to every job out there, and this is what we do at sites like Hound and EmploymentCrossing.  In addition to applying to open jobs, you should also be mailing companies in your industry and expressing interest in working for them regardless of whether or not they have openings.  This is an incredibly effective strategy and something we do at EmploymentAuthority for our clients.  You need to be using every single method possible to track down jobs and apply to jobs.  You should never rely on one.  The more methods you use, the better off you are going to be.
2. Do you know what types of companies/organizations are interviewing you the most? You need to notice what is working the best for you and do more of it.  For example, if you are an accountant and most of your interviews are coming from companies in the construction industry, then you should find more companies in the construction industry, and make sure you are applying to more construction companies.  This is simple mathematics and odds playing.  If you are doing very well with construction companies, then you are likely (for whatever reason) to do better if you apply to even more construction companies.  The more construction companies you apply to, the better off you are going to be.  Apply to every construction company you possibly can to increase your odds. Do this locally and wherever you might be interested in working.
3. Are you asking places that cannot hire you for referrals? Believe it or not, this is a great strategy that alone could dramatically increase your job search success.  If someone sends you a nice rejection letter in the mail after an interview (or even not), just give them a jingle on the phone and ask them if they have any ideas of where it might be good for you to work.  This is an incredible strategy that can pay massive results.  If someone rejects you for a job, tell them that is fine and you really enjoyed talking to them.  Tell them that you were so impressed with them and liked their company so much that a recommendation from them of where to apply would be very meaningful to you.  Oftentimes, this same employer that you are asking for the recommendation from will hire you. They will be so impressed at how much you seem to like them.  If they do not hire you, a phone call, or referral to someone they know in another company can carry a ton of weight.  This is something that can really assist you in a major way.
4. Do you ever use the phone to contact potential employers? So many people are so much more comfortable hiding behind the computer keyboard.  This is nonsense.  You need to pick up the phone and call every chance you get.  One of the most effective strategies out there is to call potential employers on the phone prior to sending a resume to express your interest, and then email the resume right after the conversation.  People love this.  Another great strategy is to leave a voicemail with an employer about how much you enjoyed meeting with them, or speak in person.  Your voice is something that can convey more passion, excitement and connect more with most employers than an email.  Whenever possible, follow up using your voice.
5. Do you notice what other job seekers are doing that appears to be working in the market? You should be looking and investigating what others are doing when looking for jobs.  They can tell you where they go to interviews, who called them seeking more information, what happened during certain interviews and more.  They can tell you about something they did that helped them secure an interview or an offer.  You need to get as much information as you possibly can from other job seekers and use this information to your advantage.  Other people and the information they know about is like GOLD and something that you need to learn from.  Find a peer group and others who can tell you about different information they learn about (and vice versa).  This is something that can make a giant difference in everything you do.
6. Do you have special skills that you can make your potential employer aware of? On at least one or two occasions that I can remember, I have been on the phone screening an attorney for a job, and they have started to tell me the most incredible things about themselves that were not on their resume–things like being a former basketball player at a major university, or even in one case being an Olympic athlete.  On a couple of other occasions, I have met “child prodigies” that graduated from college at the age of 17 and then went to top 10 law schools.  None of this was on their resumes.  Being an Olympic athlete shows someone has a lot of drive.  Being a child prodigy shows someone is smart.  Other people may be gifted in doing computer coding despite being an attorney, for example.  You never know what sorts of skills your potential employer may be interested in.  You need to show them everything you’ve got!
7. How much do you allow employers to talk about themselves in interviews? People love to talk about themselves, and employers are no different.  Allow employers to talk about themselves as much as possible during interviews.  Ask questions which allow them to show their bright side so they feel good about themselves.  Make yourself interesting by being as interested as possible in other people.  Do this with conviction.  I have seen several people in interviews ask about an employer but do so in a way that is insincere, for example.  This is not the right way.  You need to ask questions in a sincere way that makes the employer believe that you are interested in them.  Allow the employer to open up and talk about themselves personally, as well, if possible.  Find affinity between you and the interviewer.
8. Have you had your resume professionally reviewed? Several years ago, I was sitting in an interview and the person interviewing me discovered that I had a typographical error on my resume.  I almost did not get the job. I had been using the same resume for years, and the typo was an obscure grammatical rule that I was not even aware of, but an astute attorney interviewer was. I do not know all the rules of grammar and I used to be a law professor. I am embarrassed to say that there are a lot of people out there who are simply much better with grammar and so forth than I am.  Some people love this stuff!  Let them worry about this stuff if you are not fascinated and obsessed with this. You do not need to have your resume professionally done, however, this can help.  Sometimes professionals can see various things with our resumes that we personally cannot see, and they can come up with small improvements that can assist us a great deal.  I have been running companies such as http://www.PreferredResumes.com that help people get their resumes professionally done for years.  If you do not have someone else do your resume, then you should do everything within your power to ensure that you learn what you can about how to do a professional resume, and make sure yours is outstanding.  Have lots of people look over your resume and make sure that you are making the best impression possible.
9. Could you apply to even more jobs than you are right now? The biggest mistake people make is that they under market themselves.  You should be applying to literally every potential job you can.  Cast a wide net.  If you are not casting a wide net, you are missing out on opportunities.  There is nothing more tragic for your job search then missing out on opportunities and not applying to enough jobs.  Apply to everything.  You never know where an interview can lead, and you never know how you can contribute to one organization and not another.  Everything you do needs to be about optimizing your opportunities and taking advantage of every potential job out there.  In all of my years in the career industry, this is one of the largest mistakes I have seen people make.
10. Reapply to the same jobs. When an employer puts a job on many commercial websites like CareerBuilder and HotJobs that are publicly available for anyone to browse, they may receive 1,000 applications or more.  They receive so many applications that they literally do not look at them all.  They pick a few applications that look good and interview those candidates.  If these do not work out, they look at some more.  You can increase your odds of getting many jobs by simply reapplying.  ”I sent my resume on X date but noticed this job is still open.  I would like to bring a few changes I have made, to update my resume, to your attention and re-express my interest in this position.” Reapplying can double or triple your odds of getting many jobs.  Do not give up if you do not get the job the first time you apply.
11. Do you make your greatest achievements for your past employers visible on your resume? You need to list some of your greatest achievements on your resume.  If you receive an award from your past employer, list it.  If you were told you had the highest sales numbers in the history of the company, put this on your resume.  You need to shine on your resume and, in your interviews, make your solid and strong achievements known. There is nothing wrong with tooting your own horn.  You need to give people a compelling reason to hire you and “sound bites” they can use when they discuss you with others.  Make sure people know the things you have done to help past employers, and make a list of all these things so you are ready to talk about them.  An interview is not the time to be reserved and not bring these things up.
12. Do you really believe you are the best candidate for most employers?A relative of mine spent time in the Central Intelligence Agency as a spy and, one time, he was speaking with his boss, a man who was a very senior spy, and telling him about how he did not like someone he was charged with making friends with as part of a spying operation.  ”Don’t think it or you will show it!” his boss said to him. I have always remembered this piece of advice because it is quite powerful and something that is very relevant in everything we do.  Your mind is an incredibly powerful tool, and you need to believe that you are the best option in every single interview you are going into.  You need to believe you are the absolute best man or woman for the job.  When you think this, you will show it.  Thoughts are things.  You thoughts about your strengths and weaknesses are going to control what happens to you.  Make sure you are using your mind to the best of your ability and to set you apart in a positive way.
13. Do you know the top reasons employers are not interviewing and hiring you?Sometimes there are small reasons you are not getting the interviews and jobs you want; other times there are big reasons.  One thing is for certain, though: You better know your biggest weaknesses in the job market.  Your weakness may be you have had too many jobs, been unemployed for too long, got fired from your last job.  Everyone who applies for any job out there is likely to have lots of weaknesses, just like you do. The best thing you can do with your weaknesses is ensure that you learn from them and that you are aware of them.  When people spend years in therapy, one of the principle things they are doing is learning about their weaknesses.  You need to do the exact same thing, and learning about your weaknesses is something that can be a massive benefit to you because it is something that every employer is going to be focused on when they are interviewing you, as well.  The more you learn about your weaknesses, the better you can do your to steer conversations away from your weaknesses in interviews, avoid aspects of your resume that may compel an employer to dive into your weaknesses, and more.  The more you know about your weaknesses, the better you can counteract questions and so forth about these weaknesses in interviews.
14. Do you have compelling ways to address your weaknesses in your applications?There is nothing wrong with losing a job or having other problems when applying for jobs.  What is important, though, is what you do with the weaknesses you have in your applications and how you can address these weaknesses to the best of your ability when questioned about them.  The secret to doing incredibly well in most interviews is making sure that you take these weaknesses and make them into strengths.  You need to do your best to put a positive spin on all your weaknesses.  One of the greatest marketing strengths is to often lead with your weakness and get it out of the way up front.  For example, the rental car Avis says “We’re number 2, so we try harder …” and other brands do similar things to make the most of their weaknesses.  You to need to address your weaknesses and always think through them and the best way to put a positive spin on them.  This is a strategy that can pay massive dividends.  If you have a major weakness, you better believe that the employer is thinking about this when they are interviewing you.  You should make sure you can address it if it is something that cannot be avoided.
15. Are you using a specific strategy instead of just being tactical in your job search? Most people are tactical in everything that they do.  Being tactical means that you simply apply to jobs as they come across your computer monitor and interest you.  Being strategic would be having a complete system in place for tracking down jobs, following up, and making your applications stick out as much as possible.  You need to be strategic in how you track down jobs, how you apply to jobs, and how you do everything.  Very few people are strategic in how they go about doing their job searches and, due to this, they do not get the results they should.  When you are strategic, you can get a lot more “bang for your buck” in everything you are doing.  Suppose, for example, you were interested in working for Apple Computer.  A tactical person would apply for a job at Apple online.  A strategic person might get to know people at Apple before applying, go to events where they were likely to meet people in Human Resources, find out what sort of things were important to the hiring personnel at Apple and so forth. You need a strategy, and having a strategy makes a massive difference in your job search.
16. Are you sharing your performance reviews, if possible?If you received good performance reviews in your current or past position, and there is nothing that prohibits you from sharing these performance reviews with a potential new employer, do so.  A good performance review shows what you are likely to do once you show up for work and is one of the most effective possible things you can show a potential new employer.  No one does this.  If you do this, and it is not confidential, then you are going to really shine.  Any time I have seen someone do this, it has reaped incredible rewards for them.  A good performance review is like a testimonial–only stronger.  It shows a potential employer that you are likely to make a very solid contribution with them as you have with another employer.
17. Have you ensured your appearance is the best it can possibly be for interviews?This is a very, very easy thing to do but, for many people, a real deal killer.  You need to look your absolute best!  You need to be well-groomed, your shoes should shine and be as well shined as possible, your shirts should be well pressed.  There are a million little things you can be doing to look your best and whatever it is you can do–do it.  You need to look your absolute best for all of your interviews and make sure that you are making a good impression.  I do not want to get too far into appearances, but your employer looks at you, and they think to themselves whether or not they want you representing them.  If you are shabby, this reflects on them as well.  You want to ensure you look your best.
18. Do you have a prime prospect list of employers you can apply to even if they do not have openings?One of the best pieces of advice I have for people and that has made the most difference in so many job searches I have been involved in is telling people to apply to the employers that they believe are most likely to be good fits for them, even if they do not have jobs.  This is an incredibly powerful strategy because, regardless of what sort of work you do, there are likely to be numerous employers that are a “perfect fit” for your skill set. Apply to all of these employers and get your resume on file.  Who cares if they do not have an opening? You have an obligation to them, and to yourself, to let them know you are available.  You can make a list of these employers at a local library by doing research, or you can find them by doing research online or purchasing various industry directories online.  You need to find all the employers in your industry that are likely to be interested in you and hire you.
19. Do you shop from or use your interviewer’s services (if appropriate), and do you let your interviewer know that? Employers LOVE IT when you are very familiar with their product or service and have used it in the past. In fact, I have hired countless people who have used one of our products at our companies and had good things to say about it in the interview.  These sorts of people understand what you are doing, and they also can be incredible brand ambassadors.  Also, when someone comes into speak with me, and they know at lot about what we do, I am flattered and like them.  When I like them, I want to hire them.  If possible, you should always be a consumer of the services of an employer you are interviewing with and be enthusiastic about the employer you are speaking with and what they are doing.
20. Do you write articles, take classes outside of work, participate in industry events, and do other things in your industry that employers know about? The one ingredient that most job seekers are missing, and which they should address, is PASSION. You should have passion for your industry and whatever it is you do.  By being passionate, you can separate yourself in an incredible way from everyone else out there.  You need to show a lot of interest in your industry and showing interest can make you extraordinary instead of just average in your industry.  You need to be passionate about what you do and be involved in it.  The difference between employees out there is huge when an employer sees someone with PASSION for what they do. You need to show your employer you have passion.
21. Are you using multiple marketing methods to track down and find a job?Nothing is worse than using only one way to apply for a job.  You need to make sure you are using every possible marketing method out there.  This includes using email to apply to jobs, using letters to apply for jobs, calling employers on the phone, sending faxes, showing up at career fairs, networking and more.  The more marketing methods you use when you are applying for a job, the better off you are going to be.  You  need to do everything within your power to use as many marketing methods as you can think of.
22. Have you thought about the reasons you are the best possible hire for employers?In business, one of the things I love to do is create lists of various reasons that one of our companies is the best possible choice.  For example, I might create a list like “The Top 100 Reasons You Should Use Our Company to Get a Job.”  You should do the exact same thing with your job search.  You should create a list of the most important reasons that you would be the best possible hire an employer could make for any job. You need to make a comprehensive list of all of your strengths and why you are the best person for any employer.  Nothing is more important than being aware of all of your strengths, and the more strengths you are aware of, the more you can bring these up at the best possible time.  In addition, the more strengths you are aware of, the more confident you will be.  You need self confidence to get the best possible job.  Empower yourself by being aware of all of your strengths.
23. Are you taking advantage of every networking opportunity you can during your job search?Networking is incredible.  All you need to do to network is find events and other things and simply show up.  When you show up, you will meet an incredible variety of people, and these people can all assist you in your job search.  At night, instead of sitting around in front of the television, find events and go out and meet people.  Get involved in your church, synagogue, or mosque.  Start participating in whatever events you enjoy doing outside of the house. It is incredibly important that you get out and meet as many people as possible and do everything within your power to develop a network.  You need to know people.  Commit to meeting one person a day, exchange phone numbers, and get out there.  It is important that you are networked and out there.  Watch the paper for events, look up information about events online, and do everything within your power to network.  This can pay huge and incredible rewards for you.
24. Do you have a website that employers can look at for information about you?If an employer is interested in hiring you, they will go out and try and find information about you online.  Many families even have websites.  I have seen lots of people lately who actually have personal websites–whether they are blogs, family sites, or simple sites dedicated to their interests.  There are personal persona’s and there are professional persona’s.  If you have a personal persona on the web that is likely to upset an employer, then the best thing you can often do is get it down.  You need to be aware that an employer can find anything and everything about you online, and they will do so.  Make sure there is nothing about you online that is likely to be offensive to a potential employer.  Watch your image!  I have seen countless people not get positions due to negative personal information that the person posted about themselves online.  This is something you need to be very aware of in your job search.  If there is a lot of information out there about you online, make sure that the information is something that the employer would want to see.
25. Do you emphasize your benefits and not features?One of the most important things you can do is make your application materials about the employer and not just you.  Your application materials should talk about the benefits you can offer the employer and not just your personal features.  For example, if you are someone who can type incredibly fast, you should tell potential employers that you can accomplish more typing for them in less time and with less cost to them.  You need to focus on the benefits you can provide the employer and not just your personal features.  If you can sell more of this or that than other similarly situated people, you should tell the employer you can assist them in making more money, moving more of a product and so forth.  You need to focus on the benefits you offer the employer.  Most people think more about themselves than anyone or anything else.  You need to tell the employer what you can do for them and how quickly, effectively and efficiently you can do all of these things.  Your employer is interested in what you mean for their business and how you can help their business.  Focus on your benefits to your potential employer and not your features.  For example, when antilock brakes first came out in cars, they did not simply say “this will help you stop”.  Instead, they showed commercials of people avoiding catastrophic injuries and death by steering to avoid accidents on mountain rounds during rain storms and so forth.  They also showed people of the age and demographic of the sorts of people that were likely to purchase their cars.  They emphasized a benefit, and not a feature, and this sold cars.
26. How often do you look for an excuse to follow up with an employer in an interview?When I was single, I always noticed that if I had a party and 100 people showed up, that the one girl I spoke with and seemed to like at the party would always leave a coat or something at the party that she needed to pick up at a later time.  This happened enough times, and did not happen with other people at the party, so I think that this must have been an “excuse” on at least a few times to follow up.  You need to give yourself reasons to follow up with an employer.  Bring up an article and send it after the interview.  Touch base at a later time.  Every single time you are making contact with the employer, this can help you.  You need to follow up, and having excuses to follow up can put you in a good light with the employer and make a huge difference.
27. Do you have a comprehensive database of everyone who has ever interviewed you for a job?Keep a record of everyone you have ever spoken with when looking for a job.  You can then follow up with these people periodically to see if they have openings. Sometimes, especially when you are a finalist for this or that job, the employer who does not hire you may be interested in hiring you later. This is just how things work out, and this can make a massive difference.  Follow up with everyone you speak with and make sure that you stay in contact with them.  Staying in touch can make a huge and profound difference in your job search.
28. Are you applying to enough jobs?That’s right–apply to more jobs.  Apply to every single job you can apply to.  Nothing is a more stupid mistake when searching for a job than being overly selective in applying for jobs.  Apply for jobs first and then worry about whether or not you want to work there after you get an offer.  Have you heard bad things about the employer?  So what!  An employer may have 100+ different departments and divisions, and each one may be different.  You may be applying to work in the best division with the nicest group of people imaginable!  Never sell yourself short.  Every person you meet is a potential contact and a potential job.  Give yourself as many options as possible.  You need to cast as wide a net as possible.  This is about the most important advice I can give you.  Get yourself out there to as many employers as you can.  I cannot tell you how many times I have seen employers hire people who applied even by accident.  One time I was representing a guy in Texas who lived on a farm raising chickens and had never left the state. All of the applications for the firm he was applying to in Texas were reviewed at the firm’s home office in Philadelphia.  They ended up hiring him in Philadelphia, and he moved to the city and raised chickens in his backyard in Downtown Philadelphia.  You never know …  You need to apply to as many places as possible.
29. Are you using the fax, mail and email in applying for jobs? People hardly ever send faxes anymore.  They send emails. When people started sending faxes, they stopped sending printed letters. A fax is often delivered in a special envelope, and it always has a sense of urgency in almost every company out there.  If you fax someone something, they will almost always look at it.  You should be faxing all of your applications, emailing your applications, and mailing your applications.  Communicate in every possible way.  Use all three methods.  You want your stuff to get read, and it is better to overdo it than it is to underdo it.  Make sure your applications stand out by applying in different ways.  When a major advertiser goes on a campaign, it does not just advertise on the radio.  It may do the radio, magazines, direct mail, television and public relations. The idea is that they get the word out in multiple ways.  You too should get the word out in as many ways as possible.  If people are not using the mail, and you do, this helps your application stick out.  If people are not using the fax, and you do, this helps your application stick out.  When you are applying for a job, you are advertising yourself.  Effective advertisers try and reach you in multiple ways.  If you are driving down the highway, you may see a billboard for Coca-Cola.  If you turn on the radio in your car, you may hear an ad for Coca-Cola.  If you go home and open a magazine, you may see an advertisement for Coca-Cola.  If you turn on the television, you may see an advertisement for Coca-Cola.  Effective companies do a lot of advertising, and they do it in different ways and through different media.  Make your media email, fax and the mail.
30. Are you testing headlines in your email applications?You should have powerful and compelling headlines in your email subject lines.  Do not just say “Application for Position #14895″.  Instead, you can say “I Want This Job” or “I Can Excel in This Job!” or something along those lines. You need to be specific and draw the employer to open your application instead of just glancing it over. Some employers will receive thousands of applications for one position and will not even open the applications because it hurts their mouse finger too much after awhile.  You need to get the attention of employers with compelling headlines that get your applications opened! You can test different combinations of headlines, as well, if you are applying for enough jobs.
31. Are you following up after your interviews with thank you notes or additional information?You should follow up after interviews when appropriate. Make sure the employer remembers you, and that you are sticking out.  It is always a good idea to get at the top of mind awareness with the people you interview with.  Sending a short email or thank you note following an interview gets you in front of people and helps them remember you.  Some companies may interview as many as 20 or 30 people for the average position.  It is important that you are sticking out, and that the employer remembers you.  A thank you note (short and sweet) can always help you be remembered.  Do not be too mushy and do not appear too desperate.  Just a short note is all you need.
32. Do you appear incredibly interested in your industry to employers?Employers want to hire people who have passion.  You need to appear interested in your industry to your employer.  You should be able to talk about the events going on in your industry, and you should appear to have passion for your industry.  You need to know who the key players are in your industry, and you need to know everything you can about your industry.  People prefer to hire those who are very interested in their industry compared to those who are not.  You need to appear interested in your industry to potential employers.
33. Do you appear too desperate?It is important to be interested in your employer and working somewhere; however, the last thing you should be doing is appearing desperate to a potential employer.  People do not want to hire desperate people–their needs to be a little bit of an element of chase to hiring you.  The employer needs to feel like they are lucky to be getting you (but without you saying this).  The more desperate you appear, the less the employer is going to be interested in you very often.  A good analogy for getting a job is that it is very similar to dating.  You do not propose to someone on the first date and, if you were to do this, it would be a real turn off.  There needs to be an element of “chase” on both sides.  It is very important that you have at least some element of chase in your job search and do not appear too desperate.
34. Are you modifying your applications for each specific employer?This is something that can make a huge difference. The more you modify your applications for each specific employer, the better off you are going to be, and the more jobs you are going to get. Instead of saying “I am seeking to work for a well-diversified conglomerate …” your application should say “I have always thought that X company was my favorite producer of widgets.  I have liked the people I have met from the company, especially X individual, and I am crazy about your new marketing campaign with the singing walrus!” When you personalize an application and show the employer you are interested in their company specifically, and are not just flooding the market with the same letter over and over again, this makes a difference.  People are interested in people who are interested in them.  You want to be as interested in the employer as possible and show as much possible interest in the employer as you possibly can.  The best way to do this is to have specific application materials for each employer.
35. Are you improving yourself through self-improvement education?Getting the best job and getting ahead in your career requires that you constantly be improving and getting beter and better and better.  One of the secrets of star athletes and people who manage to do the best in every single profession is that they have coaches and are constantly questioning what they do and improving in everything that they do.  It is incredibly important that you are constantly looking for new ways to improve at the things you do. I remember several years ago sending one of our employees to a sales training course that met weekly for several months.  After taking this course, his sales close to doubled, and they stayed there permanently. When you improve yourself and look for ways to do this in every area, it makes a giant and huge difference.  You should continue improving at everything you are doing, and the best way to do this is to always be learning about self-improvement topics that interest you.
36. Are you looking for jobs in every geographic area where you would like to work?This is one of the easiest ways to multiply your offers and get more jobs.  If you possibly can, one of the smartest things you can often do is look at numerous geographic areas and not just where you are from when looking for a job.  Even in the worst of recessions, there are always areas that are going to be doing very well and ones which are not.  I remember several years ago when I was starting out my career looking for a job in Detroit.  It was not easy.  Then, when I started looking for jobs in places like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and other cities, the entire world opened up to me, and suddenly I was in incredible demand.  When things are bad in one geographic location, they are good in others.  You should be geographically open to numerous areas if this is possible.  With certain skills, you can work anywhere in the world if you want, and you should be open to other areas if at all possible.  Not being geographically flexible is one of the largest single mistakes that people make when they are searching for a job.  You need to look EVERYWHERE and come up with the best options.
37. Are you looking up old openings and applying to these, as well?At EmploymentCrossing one of the things that we do is have the EmploymentCrossing Archives that allows people to look up every opening there has ever been in every company.  Some companies are just plain always hiring.  Most law firms are always hiring attorneys of some kind.  Engineering companies are generally always hiring engineers of some kind.   There are positions which companies, just by their nature, generally have open at most points in time.  I always counsel people to go out and find these positions that are always likely to be open.  For example, a company may have advertised a position on a big job board a year ago.  During the year, the position has been filled, but the person who took the job may have left.  Or, the company may have grown and now needs more people in that line of work.  Apply to the job even though it looks like it is no longer open. As a recruiter, I have gotten so many people jobs using this strategy I cannot count.  You need to get applications out there to old openings.  Put yourself in the running for every single type of job it looks like you can do–even if the job looks filled.  You need to go after every job out there, and this includes jobs that may have been filled a long time ago.  Do you read the news?  Some companies replace their CEO’s every six months! If a job was posted on a job board six months ago, the person who was hired for it may have come and gone already.  Track down every job you can out there.
38. Are you using risk reversal where appropriate in your job search?One of the smartest things you can do when looking for a job is to use risk reversal.  This is often the most appropriate in jobs you may be applying for where you appear to be under qualified for the particular job, for example.  If you are going into an interview for a job, and with a company where there is a ton of competition, or if the employer seems to be expressing a lot of hesitation to hiring you, you can often use risk reversal to get yourself into the company by saying something along the lines of the following:  “Listen, I have wanted to work for this company for a long time.  I am an incredibly good worker, and you are going to like having me here.  I am fine financially, and I am just looking to work in a job I will really enjoy with people I like.  I would like to work here for a month for free and show you what I am like.  After one month if you do not think I am a good fit, just tell me, and I will leave no questions asked.”  This strategy can work huge wonders for your job search because people will see your enthusiasm and, based on this, will often just hire you.  Enthusiasm aside, people may take you up on the offer.  Risk reversal is something the best marketers use in every discipline.  When you watch television infomercials, they tell you to try this or that for free and, if you are not satisfied, to send it back.  The goal of marketers is to reduce friction so you will commit to purchasing whatever it is they are selling.
39. Are you committed and not a dabbler?There are a ton of people out there who are dabblers and never really seem to get “off the ground” in anything that they do.  They start this or that and do it for some time and then move on to something else.  You can find people like this in every profession.  I remember several years ago I was shopping at a men’s clothing store, and I met a salesman there who was in his mid-50s.  He had a special card made up and gave me a copy of his card.  He took down my contact information including my email address and phone number.  He then proceeded to call me every single time the store had a sale.  He sent me Christmas cards and birthday cards.  He emailed me from time to time about the store and events they were having. In a word, this guy stayed in touch and was always in touch with me.  Other sales people in the store never did this.  They were generally young, good-looking kids who had moved to Los Angeles to be actors and were “dabbling” in the job.  There are different guys like this every time I go into the store.  The guy I was dealing with, however, is still there and he has been there as long as I can remember.  I am sure he makes a ton more money than the other sales guys. His secret is that he is not a dabbler.  If you are going out to interview for a job, you should do so as someone who, in the eyes of the employer, and your eyes as well, could conceivably be doing the job for the rest of your career.  These are the people employers want to hire because someone who is committed to a job, and not a dabbler, is always going to do a better job in almost every case.  You need to be committed and not a dabbler, and you need to show the employer this is who you are.
40. Are you using testimonials in your application materials?Nothing sells more that showing the employer that your former employer and co-workers loved working with you.  People are trained to instinctively question the things we say about ourselves; however, they are much more likely to believe things that others say about us.  This is why, when you are watching television, you will see people paraded in front of the camera offering a testimonial about this or that .  The advertisers always show us these testimonials because they know that we are much more likely to be influenced by what someone else says about us rather than what we say about ourselves.  If you have people, such as former employers, friends and others that can say good things about you, then put quotes and other information from them in your application materials.  It is incredibly important to do this because it shows that others trust you, and others have good things to say about you.  Testimonials also will humanize your application materials and make you seem more human to the employer rather than less human.  Use testimonials.
41. Are you making it easy for employers to interview you?I have seen more people lose potential jobs by being difficult to interview than anything else.  If you want to work in Las Vegas and are not getting any interviews there, plan a trip to Las Vegas.  Call everyone you applied to work with there before you leave, tell them when you will be there, and that you can talk to them at that time.  If an employer wants to interview you at 10:00 a.mm next Tuesday, do not tell them you have a doctor’s appointment and play games with what time you will be there: Figure out a way to get there at 10:00 a.m. next Tuesday.  You need to be accessible when an employer is expressing interest in speaking with you about a job.  You need to be available and ready and willing to talk to the employer on their terms.  If the policy of the employer is not to pay to fly you out to another city for interviews, then find a way to get out there.  If the employer wants to meet you for coffee at 9:00 p.m. on a Saturday, then meet them on Saturday evening.  When you are looking for a job, you need to show that you are ready and willing to meet anytime and any place.  Your objective is to be available to interview people.  When I call people to interview them and ask when they are available, and they say “I am 15 minutes from your office, so I can be there within 30 minutes …” I am very excited.  Not only do I know the person wants the job, but they are also sending the message that they are likely to be very responsive to the needs of the company if they come to work for us.  Trying to get a job is not a time to play “hard to get” and beat around the bush.  You need to go after the job, be available, and make yourself available.
42. Do you have a comprehensive database of people in your industry you can call for advice about finding a job?There is nothing more powerful, many times, than calling people you know in your industry and asking them for advice about the job market.  If you have not started building a database to do this, you need to do so now.  You need to create a little database of everyone you meet in your industry and start staying in contact with them.  People are one of your greatest resources in finding employment.  When you have a large network of people, you can always call upon them when you are looking for a job. Even if you are unemployed, continue going to industry events and making sure that you get to know people in your industry.  Make friends with these people.  Have coffee.  Go out to lunch.  When you know people, they will also naturally ask you about your career.  When you tell them you are unemployed and looking for work, they will be able to help you with contacts and other advice.  This is something that can pay massive dividends for you and really assist you in your job search.
43. Are you trying to just get your foot in the door?Once you get your foot in the door, you can almost always move up when something better in the company opens up.  I am sure that you, like me, have heard countless stories about people who start out in the mail room, sweeping floors and so forth, and then rise to become the head of a major company.  This is true, and a lot of it has to do with people having the ability to just get their foot in the door.  Once you get your foot in the door, and if you are a hard worker, you can take advantage of other opportunities in the given company you are interested in working for once they open up.  At many employers, you may be expected to start out small and at the bottom before you are allowed to rise.  Going into an interview and telling the employer that you will take any job to have the opportunity for a better job when one opens up, because you like the company so much, is an incredible motivator.  People generally and instinctively like people who also like them. You should do everything within your power to get your foot in the door
44. Do you have one powerful thing about you and your candidacy that will stick out for potential employers?In sales and marketing there is something called a Unique Selling Proposition (“USP”) that everyone is supposed to have.  A USP is something that is memorable about a product and defines the product in the customer’s mind.  For example, when you think of Volvo, you think of safety.  When you can package yourself to also have mind share for one thing, then you are going to be better off.  Your USP may be “fanatical attention to detail” or “gets along incredibly with others.”  It does not matter so much what your USP is as long as it is something that the employer believes will benefit them.  After an employer interviews someone, they will always have one or two powerful things about most people they end up hiring that they will remember.  For example, they may remember that you are a former soccer player.  They may remember you went to the same university they did.  It is important that you have one or two things about you that stick out in a positive way that employers can remember.  Many people are under the impression that they need to be “generic” when they are conducting a job search, and that it is important for them not to stick out.  While this may certainly be true for a small subset of employers, generally, you want to be remembered and have some defining characteristic that enables you to be interesting to the employer.  Think about strengths you may have and what you could be remembered for.  Package yourself to have something memorable.
45. Are you bonding with your interviewers?One of the worst things that people can do in interviews is act too professional.  I want to be clear that everyone is human.  Everyone has human problems and everyone does human things.  Avoid the tendency with most interviewers to not be too human.  You will benefit in a major way when people see you like them.  People who are human have problems, they have frustrations, they have pain and they endure various struggles.  You can bond with your interviewers when you can share issues they have had and more.  One of the best ways to get jobs is to bond with your interviewers on multiple levels. You should feel like they feel and be understanding and open with them.  People want to help those who are like them.  You should do everything within your power to be like your interviewers and bond with them.  If you are invited out for drinks after the interview then go out for drinks.  While I hate to say this, when many people are making hiring decisions, they are hiring people that they feel they could be friends with.  They are working with the same person all day, every day and want to like the person and feel comfortable with them.  You need to bond with your interviewers, and the better you do at this, the more likely you are to get hired.  There are limits to this, of course.  You should never start a romantic relationship with an interviewer under any circumstance (at least until you have been hired and have been working with the employer for some time!).  But you need to bond.
46. Are you following the money in your job search?One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they are looking for a job is they go after jobs and industries where there is no opportunity, or where the opportunity is diminishing.  For example, if you were in the business of manufacturing vinyl records 30 years ago and were looking for a job, it might not be a good idea to seek a job doing this now.  You could seek a job in the “music business,”  however.  Similarly, if you are working in Detroit in the automotive business at the present moment, it might not be wise to seek a job there.   You could seek a job in the transportation business instead.  By “following the money” I mean that you need to see where the opportunity is and where people are making money.  You want to be working in the industries where people are doing well and succeeding, and not in industries and jobs that are dying and going away. You want to make sure that you are putting yourself and your career to the highest and best use you can, and that you are working in doing something where you are actually in demand.  This means thinking about your career and life and seeing what is going on in the market and where things are going. It is important that you put yourself in an area where there is a lot of demand and not where the demand is dying.  This is true for the types of jobs you are applying for, and it is also true for the geographic areas you are interested in working in.  I call this “following the money” and you need to follow the money in your job search.

One of the best ways to get better at anything is to optimize what you are doing.  When you optimize what you are doing, you can increase the effectiveness of anything–not a small amount, but by a massive amount over time.  Very few people, for whatever reason, ever decide to do their best to optimize what they are doing. When you optimize every single touchstone and every single thing you are doing, everything changes. THE LESSON In any given situation, you must consistently do 10% more than those around you; this is the essence of optimization, a vital tool for career success. Self-optimization changes everything, and is one of the best ways to improve in anything you do. Even seemingly minor changes can yield major results, so pay attention to the details.

Famous Failures

Barbara Walters was told to “stay out of television” in 1957 by a well-known producer. Jack Benny was expelled from high school. Marlon Brando was expelled from military school. Jules Verne wrote a play at age 16 and gathered friends and family together to read his work to them.  The audience’s unexpected laughter prompted Verne to stop reading after the first act and later burn the script.  He later wrote: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in 80 Days, and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Clint Eastwood was fired by Universal studios after his first two movies for not speaking fast enough. Ulysses S. Grant failed as a real estate agent, farmer, US Customs official, and clerk in a store before becoming a general and later president. Burt Reynolds’s first TV series was canceled after one season. He then appeared as a bachelor on the dating game and was never picked. The Beatles were rejected in 1962 by five record labels. George Lucas’s first film flopped in 1971, prompting every major studio to turn down his next movie, American Graffiti. Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school basketball team. He was later named the greatest athlete of the 20^th century by ESPN. Marilyn Monroe was dropped in 1947 by 20^th Century Fox after one year under contract because production chief Darryl Zanuck thought she was unattractive. Dr. Seuss’s first book was rejected by twenty-seven publishers and Seuss considered burning the manuscript. The eventual publisher sold 6 million copies. Barbra Streisand’s Broadway debut opened and closed on the same night. Tom Cruise was rejected for a role on the TV show Fame because he was not “pretty enough.” Orville Wright was expelled from the sixth grade for mischievous behavior. Christopher Columbus miscalculated the size of the globe and the width of the Atlantic Ocean and wound up discovering the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas (which he believed to be an island of the Indies), Cuba (which he thought be a part of China), and the Dominican Republic (which he also mistook as part of the Far East). Sylvester Stallone was thrown out of fourteen schools in eleven years. His professors at the University of Miami discouraged him from a career in acting. Stallone was also rejected for roles in the movies Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, and The Godfather. His screenplay for Rocky was also rejected by all but one company, who insisted that if they bought it, he would not act in it. Billy Joel, embarrassed by his first album, Cold Spring Harbor, spent six months playing bar piano in the lounge of the Executive Room in Los Angeles under the pseudonym Bill Martin. Rock Hudson required thirty-eight takes to successfully execute one line in his first movie. After being dropped by 20^th Century Fox after six mediocre movies, Humphrey Bogart was fired from a job reading radio playlets for laxatives.  He then earned a living playing chess for fifty cents a round. Dr. Ruth Westheimer never completed high school, had two failed marriages, and worked as a housemaid. Sigmund Freud’s first book only sold six hundred copies and earned him $250 in royalties. Walt Disney’s first cartoon production company went bankrupt. In 1977, Cyndi Lauper was told she would never sing again. She won a Grammy in 1984. Myrna Loy failed her first screen test. She later became Hollywood’s number one female box-office attraction. Elvis Presley’s music teacher at L. C. Humes High School in Memphis gave him a C and told him he couldn’t sing. Jay Leno failed an employment test at Woolworth’s. Billy Crystal was cut from the cast of Saturday Night Live before the show ever premiered. Betty Grable was told by a ballet teacher to give up the idea of ever becoming a dancer. She later became one of the most beloved dancers in Hollywood. Lucille Ball was told that she had no talent and should go home from Murray Anderson’s drama school. Failing to get into any Broadway chorus lines, she worked as a waitress and soda jerk. William Goldman was fired after writing his first screenplay.  He went on to win two Academy Awards for Best Screenplay. John Keats’s first book of poetry in 1817 was a financial failure. Van Halen’s first demo tape was rejected by every major record label. John F. Kennedy lost the election to be president of his freshman class at Harvard. He failed to win a post on the student council as a sophomore and dropped out of Stanford Business School. Thomas Edison was fired from his job working in a telegraph office after one of his experiments exploded. Dustin Hoffman, after failing to work as an actor in New York, worked as a janitor and an attendant in a mental ward. Katie Couric was banned from reading news reports on the air by the president of CNN because of her irritating, high-pitched, squeaky voice. Steve McQueen was fired from his first role, where he had to say only one line, after just four days. He later became the highest-paid actor of the 1960s and 1970s. Ruth Bader Ginsburg received no job offers when she graduated from law school.  She now serves on the US Supreme Court. Mick Jagger was deemed “unsuitable” by the BBC to sing on the radio in 1962. Bachman Turner Overdrive was rejected by twenty-four record companies. F. W. Woolworth’s first store failed.  Later he created the Woolworth empire of stores around the world. Fred Smith received a C on a project at Yale where he outlined a plan for reliable overnight delivery service. He later founded Federal Express based on the same idea. Jerry Lewis had to repeat fifth grade and was expelled from high school. Steven Spielberg’s mediocre grades prevented him from getting accepted to UCLA film school. John Cheever was expelled from high school after failing French, Latin, and Math.  He later won a Pulitzer prize. The Sex Pistols’ first single was dropped by EMI and their second single was banned by the BBC. John Grisham’s first novel was rejected by sixteen agents and a dozen publishers. He later wrote The Pelican Brief, The Client, and The Firm, which were all best sellers and were made into movies. Richard Pryor was expelled from high school. During the first year, Coca-Cola sold only 400 Cokes. During his first three years in the automobile business, Henry Ford went bankrupt twice. R. H. Macy failed seven times before his store in New York caught on. Novelist John Creasey got 753 rejection slips before he published the first of his 564 books. Thomas Edison was thrown out of school in the early grades when the teachers decided he could not do the work. President Harry S Truman went broke in the men’s clothing store business he started. Bob Dylan was booed off the stage at his high school talent show. Thomas Edison tried more than 2,000 experiments before he was able to get his light bulb to work. Chester Carlson took his invention to twenty big corporations in the 1940s. After years of rejections, he was able to persuade Haloid, a small Rochester, NY, company, to purchase the rights to his electrostatic paper-copying process. Haloid became the Xerox corporation. General Douglas MacArthur was denied admission to West Point twice. Buddy Holly was fired from the Decca record label in 1956 by Paul Cohen, who referred to him as “the biggest no-talent I ever worked with.” Academy Award-winning writer, producer, and director Woody Allen failed motion picture production at New York University and City College of New York. He also flunked English at NYU. Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely. At age 4, her survival was in doubt because of scarlet fever and double pneumonia. She was left with a paralyzed leg and told she would never walk again. She later won three  gold medals in Olympic track-and-field competitions. Glenn Cunningham suffered such severe burns when he was 5 years old that doctors told him he would never walk again. In 1934, he set the world record for the mile. Washington Roebling suffered severe brain damage and only had use of his index finger. This didn’t prevent him from building the Brooklyn Bridge. Albert Einstein didn’t start speaking until he was 4 years old. Claude Monet had horrible cataracts.  Fortunately he still became one of the world’s greatest painters. Winston Churchill had a stuttering problem as a child. He later became one of the world’s most respected public speakers. Ludwig von Beethoven was deaf when he wrote some of his best music. Most people wouldn’t think a deaf person could succeed in music. J. S. Bach was the fourth choice for the job of Kapellmeister at Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Germany. Rudyard Kipling submitted a story to a California newspaper in 1888. The editor replied, “I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, you just don’t know how to use the English language.” He later won the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature. Randy Travis was rejected by every major record label twice. Robert M. Pirsig received 121 rejection slips before Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was published. It sold 3 million copies. John Huston’s screenplay for Treasure of Sierra Madre elicited the following review from Warner Brothers: “I don’t think you’d be missing anything to pass this up. It’s a draggy tale, unrelieved by either comedy or practical colorful incident. . . . I think we should leave this alone.” That screenplay won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay. Woody Allen’s screenplay Annie Hall was called a “chaotic collection of bits and pieces that seemed to defy continuity” by a prominent Hollywood film editor.  The screenplay later won four Academy Awards. Babe Ruth holds the major league record for most career strikeouts. Walter Payton never made it to a Division I school to play college football. He later became the NFL’s career rushing yardage leader. Jerry Rice never made it to a Division I school to play college football.  He later became the NFL’s career leader in several receiving categories. In his first twenty years of business, Tom Monaghan went broke twice, lost control of his pizza company, and was sued for trademark violations. His pizza company went on to become Domino’s pizza. Luciano Pavarotti could not read music. He has become one of the leading tenors in the world and still has trouble reading music! THE LESSON Most people are afraid of exposing themselves to failure, and therefore settle for less than what they want or are capable of achieving. Failure to take action due to your fear is itself the biggest failure of all; few people ever reach any degree of success without consistent failure. You must use failure as an inspiration to try harder in the future, and manage your emotions so as not to fear failure and let that fear preclude action.

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, let’s 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 do that, 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 on this. You need to start small with anything, before you can build on 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 a résumé, and with a list of a few prepackaged questions to which the student already knows the answers. The student will then sit down with the employer and commence speaking with him or her. The entire time the employer is speaking, he or she is, on some level, evaluating whether or not the student would make a good hire. The student is not really there to get information 99% of the time, but to “get a 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. It happens all the time. 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 toward a job or sale is getting the employer, or prospect, to open that door. THE LESSON Getting your foot in the door is an important, necessary first step towards getting the job you want. Once you are “in”, your colleagues will protect you if you work hard and you will have the same opportunity to compete with others. The biggest step you can make in your progress towards your goals is to get your prospective employer to let your foot in the door, even if only a little.

The Socratic method is a negative method of hypotheses of elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those which lead to contradictions. The method of Socrates is a search for the underlying hypotheses, assumptions, or axioms, which may subconsciously shape one’s opinion, and to make them the subject of scrutiny, to determine their consistency with other beliefs. The basic form is a series of questions formulated as tests of logic and fact, intended to help a person or group discover their beliefs about some topic, exploring the definitions or logoi (singular logos), seeking to characterize the general characteristics shared by various particular instances. To the extent to which this method is designed to bring out definitions implicit in the interlocutors’ beliefs, or to help them further their understanding, it was called the method of maieutics. Aristotle attributed to Socrates the discovery of the method of definition and induction, which he regarded as the essence of the scientific method. Perhaps oddly, however, Aristotle also claimed that this method is not suitable for ethics. According to W.K.C. Guthrie’s The Greek Philosophers, while sometimes erroneously believed to be a method by which one seeks the answer to a problem, or knowledge, the Socratic method was actually intended to demonstrate one’s ignorance. Socrates, unlike the Sophists, did believe that knowledge was possible, but believed that the first step to knowledge was recognition of one’s ignorance. Guthrie writes, “[Socrates] was accustomed to say that he did not himself know anything, and that the only way in which he was wiser than other men was that he was conscious of his own ignorance, while they were not. The essence of the Socratic method is to convince the interlocutor that whereas he thought he knew something, in fact he does not.”

Socrates was eventually put on trial and sentenced to death in Athens for allegedly corrupting the youth of Athens with his teachings. It was during this trial that Socrates made the famous statement that the “unexamined life is not worth living.” The idea that there is one way of doing things is something that needs to be questioned. One of my greatest frustrations with job seekers is trying to get them to realize how many different methods there are for them to get jobs, and the incredible number of paths they can follow in their job searches. You need to be aware that whatever assumptions you have about the way you should be looking for a job may be doing you a tremendous amount of harm. These assumptions need to be questioned, and you need to insure that in questioning these assumptions, you realize that they may be limiting you. Here are some of the assumptions that are not necessarily true that I have seen people make about their job search:

• A recruiter will not help me get a job.
• A recruiter will help me get a job.
• I need to use a recruiter for my job search.
• I would never post my resume on a resume site.
• I need to post my resume on a resume site.
• I would never pay someone to help me get a job.
• I can only get a job if I pay someone to assist me.
• I will never get a job in this economy.
• I am too old to get a job.
• I am too young to get a job.
• I do not have enough experience.
• I have too much experience.
• I need connections to get this job.
• I will never get another job because I was fired.
• I did not go to a good enough school to work there.

The list of things about your candidacy and job search could go on and on. You need to be questioning everything about how you are looking for a job and what this means. Your job search is too important and your career is too important to allow yourself to be stuck in one way of thinking. You need to open your mind and ensure that you do everything within your power to think about your job search in a way that gives you more opportunities and not fewer. THE LESSON In your job search you must question assumptions, find new ways of doing things, and consistently find new ways to search. You will be better off the more you seek out and adopt new job search techniques; your career is too important for you to be stuck in traditional ways of thinking. You must open your mind, and ensure that you are doing everything within your power to view your job search in a way that grants you more opportunities, not fewer.

Steve Jobs went first, and again was brilliant and compelling. “Pragmatic, specific, and precise,” Gil later called it. Then he handed off to Avie Tevanian, his top technical guru. Tevanian had brought along a laptop to demonstrate that NeXTSTEP was not just an idea in progress but a functioning operating system. The two of them put on a gold-star presentation. They were followed by Jean-Louis, who either misunderstood that this was a shoot-out and his final opportunity, or was so certain of a decision in his favor that he didn’t think he had to do anything further than show up. He arrived alone, empty-handed, and not prepared to do anything much more than answer questions. Gil wrote that “everything pointed to Steve Jobs and NeXTSTEP , but Jean-Louis had made it a no-contest. The vote for NeXTSTEP was almost a foregone conclusion.” (Some insiders thought that Gassée’s software would have been the better solution…)

As in many crucial events in history, the decision to educate the audience of buyers made a profound difference—in this case, it was worth more than $350 million. Isn’t this the same mistake many people make when selling themselves? Far too many people fail to educate their potential employers and lose jobs due to this. Far too many people are far too arrogant and feel as if they do not need to “wow” potential employers. The owner of the rug store lectured me for hours. He brought out tea and talked about where he bought each individual rug. He had purchased numerous books about rugs from secondhand bookstores and had put paperclips on various pages to allow me to read about certain rugs. He had a photo album with pictures of his favorite rugs and notes beside each picture of a rug. The man even had a loom set up in his office where he could show people like me how the rugs were made. The ability to educate people about who you are is of paramount importance. Educating people shows them that you have a passion for yourself. Educating people also gives them the knowledge they need to care about you in the way that you want them to—in a way that makes them hire you. In the case of the Turkish rug trader, after attempting to sell me thousands of dollars worth of rugs and still seeing I was not entirely convinced, the man offered to take me on a 20-plus-hour car ride to the Turkey-Iraq border in order to purchase rugs with him. I almost took him up on his offer. A good salesperson will go to all lengths possible to educate a client. So too should you in your job search. 7) Bond with Potential Employers and Be Human. It is exceptionally important to bond with potential employers if you have the opportunity. The man who owned the rug store immediately served me tea and took me to a quiet part of the store (which turned out to be a sort of “rug cave”) while he talked about rugs and answered questions. He introduced me to everyone working for him and told me personal details about them, such as where they were from and so forth. The owner of the store even introduced me to his cousin and took me with him and a group of his friends to a Turkish casino. This level of bonding was fantastic and unlike anything I had ever seen before. I will never forget when he introduced me to his cousin. The cousin looked somewhat depressed. “His wife is like his mother,” the rug store owner told me, laughing. Establishing a certain level of familiarity and bonding with a client is necessary in order to create a human connection and ensure that the client feels comfortable with buying. A seemingly simple purchase can take on a whole new level of meaning. Over the next several days, I actually made friends with the rug traders. I watched as the tax authorities came and frightened them into paying taxes. I watched them have internal squabbles. They introduced me to their friends and the places they liked to go to eat lunch during the week. They showed me how they sold stuff to tourists and won their confidence. The men talked about the tourist women they had struck up short-term relationships with while the cruise ships were docked. In all respects, the experience was fascinating and meaningful. This showed me that people who are truly exceptional at sales bond with their prospects. You need to bond with your potential employers if you have the opportunity.  They need to realize and understand that you are human.  Far too few people are able to bond with employers like this.  The more human you look and the more you bond with a potential employer, the better off you will be. 8) Trust Your Potential Employers. The rugs that the traders wanted to sell me cost thousands of dollars. After days of haggling and bonding I finally told them that while their rugs were beautiful, I could hardly justify paying the amounts they were asking for them without getting them appraised. Incredibly, the men told me to write them a check and that I could cancel it and send them the difference if I found out the rugs were worth less than they said they were when I got home. I could scarcely believe it. This ended up really sealing the deal for me with these traders. I purchased several thousands of dollars worth of rugs from them. I would not have done this had I not trusted them. As an aside, when I returned home, I discovered (after visiting numerous rug shops) that two of the rugs I had purchased were not worth what the Turkish traders said they were worth. I canceled my check (which they had not cashed) and, after several telephone conversations with the men, sent them a check for the value of the rugs. While this left a bad taste in my mouth, the trust did go both ways and I realized that there is a different method of doing business. You need to telegraph to your potential employers that you can and will trust them.  Negotiating aggressively over finer details like health coverage, salaries and bonuses and so forth too aggressively can often result in you blowing a deal.  You need to protect yourself but you also need to telegraph trust. 9) Love What You Are Doing. Early one morning, I was sitting in the carpet cave with the Turkish rug traders, surrounded by rugs. I could not have anticipated at the time that I would soon learn one of the most powerful business lessons of my life. We’d been drinking tea and a Turkish liquor, Yaki, for hours and it was about 3:30 in the morning. One of the Turks was trying to explain to me the enthusiasm it takes to succeed in the rug business, but he was really talking more about life itself. He went down a corridor and came back with a rug that was worth about $40,000. It was the most beautiful rug I had ever seen in my life. The colors were so vibrant. It was a Kurdish rug, about 100 years old, and had been smuggled into Turkey from Iraq during the Gulf War. The trader lit a cigarette, took a long hit, and took a sip of the Yaki. The eyes in the room were all glued to the rug. The rug really was something else. But this particular trader had his thoughts on something even more significant. He was looking toward the ceiling. “You do not see it now,” he said slowly. “But you will.” “What don’t I see?” I asked. “You have to love the rug,” he said. “You have to love the rug.” The idea of loving the rug was so powerful. For the rug traders, the rug represented how they made a living. It was an art form and something that transformed lives everywhere—including their own lives. Carpet, to these traders, truly was “magical.” If you think about it, how many merchants and salespeople truly love the products and services they are representing? When you love your product or service, everything changes. It changes for you and for the people you are doing business with. You need to really love your profession and what you are doing.  You need to love the value you bring to the world.  Whatever you do for a living supports you and gives your life meaning.  The more you love what you do the more meaningful your career will be.  This was something the Turkish rug traders realized and the love of rugs and what they represented was something that I believe has been passed down probably for thousands of years.  The rug represents life itself. 10) A Well-Sold Product or Service Has Long-Term Value. Using considerable strength, I carted all of the rugs I had purchased from the rug traders back to the United States as luggage. There are two matching rugs in particular that I like quite a bit and have taken with me from place to place across the United States for more than a decade now. These rugs have always been on one side of my bed and have been with me through different relationships and numerous life changes. I look at these rugs every night before going to bed and step on them every morning when I get up. I will probably pass them on to one of my children when I die, and I will tell my children the same story about these rugs that I have told you today—they have that much meaning. And this is the point of something that has been well sold. The good or service may not be worth a ton of money, but when the person selling it imbues it with a ton of meaning, it becomes worth something to the buyer. This is significant. The rugs to me are worth far more than any estimator could ever appraise them for. The reason for this is simple. They are priceless because of what they have come to mean and what the owner of the rug store stated they meant. He told me the rugs were from a family, that he had purchased them, and that they had been a wedding present. He held them under bright lights and almost cried when he spoke about them. The rugs are meaningful to me, and I will always consider them priceless because of what the rug trader made them mean.  Your potential and current employer needs to see you like I see those rugs. THE LESSON This article discusses the many possible approaches to your job search, and the necessity of selling yourself to potential employers. You must use every means at your disposal in order to achieve your employment goals, and you must present yourself in as much of a positive light as possible in order to successfully sell yourself, and the ten tips presented in this article detail how to do so.