The Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Your Job Search

When I was in my final year of high school, I remember that in English class one day the teacher handed me back a paper I had written and it had a B+ on it.  While there were a lot of classes that I would have been incredibly happy if I received this grade in, English was not one of them.  In fact, with the exception of a horrible play I had written for one English class, I had not received a grade of less than an A- in any English class for years.  I decided that I needed to meet with the English teacher and go over this.  After all, I figured that something must be seriously wrong. The teacher asked me to meet him for lunch, and so a few days later, I was sitting there with the teacher having lunch.  We spoke for some time before the grade came up and when it did I said, “Listen, I have not received a grade this bad on any paper I have ever written in any English class.  There has to be some mistake.” I then proceeded to list [Read more]

Employers Want to Hire You

One of the most important things for you to realize when you are looking for a job and see a position advertised is this: The employer wants to hire you. If the position is advertised, the employer is actually desperate to hire you. When I say ”desperate,” I mean that the employer wants you yesterday and not today. The employer is losing money, or has a need that is really “calling out” when they start advertising jobs. A few years ago I was running a company that was growing like absolute madness. We could not hire or bring people on fast enough. I remember, at the time, that I hired a person and paid him $85,000 and his assistant another $50,000 just to bring people in to hire. I advertised our jobs on our own website and also made sure that those same jobs were advertised on numerous job boards. In one month I took out contracts for over $120,000 worth of job postings. Twice a week I would meet with this manager and the conversations would generally go something like this: ”I have over 40 job openings right now! Each of these jobs that is not being done is costing me a tremendous amount of money. You are probably costing this company like $500,000 a week by not getting these openings filled and filled fast!!” Each day I would watch this person go home with a stack of hundreds of resumes to review. He used to fall asleep every single night reviewing resumes. Our need for people was absolutely out of control. We needed bodies and did not know what to do. In other parts of the country I remember we needed people so badly that people would walk in, start interviewing, and if they looked like they were respectable they were hired on the spot. During this characteristically busy time, I heard a story from one of our managers about when a girl walked in for an interview to our office, which was bustling and out of control. He looked at her and said: ”You look fine. I do not have time to interview you. Sit down and start answering the phone!” This is what it is like when companies are growing and need people. They want to hire you. Sometimes if you get really lucky, they do not even ask many (if any questions). I remember walking out of my office one day and seeing a man with scores of tattoos down his arm sitting directly outside of my office. I had no idea how he had been hired. The man had a shaved head and was wearing jeans and a starchy clean tee shirt. He had a belt on that appeared to be a chain of some sort and was also wearing boots. The man had some of the most intimidating and scary looking muscles I have ever seen on a human being. He looked like a larger skinhead version of Mr. T, with a shaved head and a bad attitude towards humanity. Just to be clear, this is not the sort of office atmosphere I have traditionally fostered where I have worked. This was quite a scene for me and a lot to take in. I did not care, however. It is best to allow people to be themselves. ”Nice tattoos!” I told him as I exited my office. I noticed that his biceps were probably larger than my calves. I probably should not have said this. The tattoo on his arm appeared to be some sort of important scene. It looked like a woman with a snake wrapped around her body screaming. Whatever it represented, the tattoo was positively intimidating. I will never forget what happened next. The man looked up at me and growled, then went back to whatever he was working on. I was afraid he was going to kill me. I met with several people over the next few days and no one could figure out how he got hired. We had been so busy with everything he had been hired by mistake. He had showed up for work and people were so afraid of the guy they did not want to tell him that hiring him had been a mistake. Then, incredibly, he was allowed to start work. At the time we had around 120 people working in the particular office he was in. About 30 people who were sitting within 20 feet of this guy were stone cold silent during the day. It had formerly been a fun and playful work atmosphere, but they were all absolutely terrified. Men and women. ”We need to fire this guy and get him out of here,” I told a group of our managers behind a closed door meeting one day. ”I am afraid he is going to kill someone.” It certainly looked that way. The guy skulked through the office, bumping into people and staring them down in response when they did not react. Everyone (including myself) was absolutely terrified of this man. ”I’m not going to fire him. He will kill me if I do!”’ one manager said. One after another, the managers came back with the same thing. There was no way any one of them was going to fire this guy because they were terrified of them. Every single manager refused to fire the guy. They were afraid of physical violence directed towards them. We ended the meeting with none of us knowing what to do. A few days later a guy in the mail room declared that he was not afraid of the guy and would fire him. This completed the process and everything went pretty smoothly from there, as far as I know. When companies are in ”hiring mode,” they need people so badly that even assassins can make it through the door (as evidenced by this case). Back at this particular point in time our company was so desperate to hire people, it was amazing. These are the sorts of employers you need to find. A company that is growing and needs people. In a bad economy, places like debt settlement firms, collection agencies and others are growing and bursting at the seams. In a good economy it may be mortgage companies. The point is there are always tons of employers out there who are growing and want to hire you. I read a story the other day about a debt settlement company that is growing so fast, it is unbelievable. You need to find companies like this. When you go into interview with any company, they are desperate to hire you or someone else. Think about it. When an employer takes the time to line people up to interview you and bring you in to speak with them, they must be pretty eager to hire someone. Most employers that are interviewing people are very eager to hire. Exceptionally eager. Here is what happens, however. Most people go into interviews and throw off all of the wrong signals and end up not getting the job. It happens to everyone. You do not get the job because you throw off the wrong signals and the employer thinks you do not want the job, do not have the confidence or charisma [Read more]

Go Beneath the Surface to Find a Job

One of the most interesting theories about life on earth is the fact that it exists and can be found in conditions that conventional wisdom would believe it cannot exist in. Carl Wirson of the Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institution wrote in a 1991 paper:

In 1991, scientists aboard the submersible Alvin were in the right spot at the right time to witness something extraordinary. They had sailed into the aftermath of a very recent volcanic eruption on the seafloor and found themselves in a virtual blizzard. They were densely surrounded by flocs of white debris, composed of sulfur and microbes, which [Read more]

You Need to Be Able to Close

The ability to ‘‘close’‘ and get the sale is the most important skill in selling. It is something that few people know how to do. Many people can get a consumer, an employer, or others to the cusp of making a purchasing or a hiring decision; however, it is the final ‘‘push’‘ that makes all of the difference. It takes a tremendous amount of skill to sell yourself and get a job. It takes a tremendous amount of skill to go from someone who a potential employer will consider for the job to someone who is hired. Your job in getting hired, in getting a better job and when looking for a job, is to push the employer over the fence and make them hire you. This is all there is to it. You need to get hired. There is nothing wrong with developing the skills of a master salesperson and ‘‘closer’‘ in order to get the best job you can. The desire to get a good job and ‘‘close’‘ the deal is a desire for employment, which leads to a richer and more abundant life and the desire to better yourself is praiseworthy. If you do not desire to have a better job or to find a job when you are unemployed, you are not living up to your full potential. It is absolutely essential that you give your best efforts to ‘‘closing’‘ and [Read more]

Athens, Sparta, America and Your Job Search

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

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

These two societies fought repeatedly between the years of 500 BC and 350 BC. Their clash was a fight between two civilizations in the fullest sense. Each believed that their society and their way of [Read more]

Communicate With Relevance and Connect With Your Audience

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

Being Able to Start from Scratch Is a Gift

One of the hardest things for any of us to do is to relearn something and become infinitely better at it the next time around. Few of us ever allow ourselves to do this because we are in a comfort zone, which often does not allow us to move, improve, and change. People are motivated primarily by two things, pain and pleasure. The desire to avoid pain is very strong and keeps most of us from going outside this comfort zone. When I was around 14 years old, I was exceptionally good at tennis. I was on [Read more]

Happy Meals and Bonuses

In 1979, when McDonald’s introduced the Happy Meal, I, along with every other kid, was excited to go to McDonald’s all of a sudden. I was 9 years old back then and the McDonald’s on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, which had formerly been an “okay” place to go for French fries suddenly became the place–somewhere I wanted to go. It had very little to do with the food. I was most interested in the prize that would be in the Happy Meal. I even remember that McDonald’s used to advertise on television the different Happy Meal prizes that they had. For example, there would be Barbie, The Little Mermaid, Hot Wheels, and so forth. These prizes would also generally be coordinated with various kid’s movies that were coming out from time to time. Incredibly, my two-year-old daughter now even prefers going to McDonald’s over other restaurants because she knows that when we order her a Happy Meal there will be a prize awaiting her. In addition, McDonald’s even offers mini outdoor playgrounds in many areas, which makes it even more appealing, especially after taking any kind of family road trip. The concept of the Happy Meal was and continues to be flat-out brilliant. When you think about it, all McDonald’s is really doing is putting some little knickknack they have mass produced inside of a cheap colorful cardboard box, and throwing a little hamburger and small fries into it. Nevertheless, this drives children to the restaurants, makes parents take their kids there, and also creates long-term brand loyalty in children, from which McDonald’s will be able to profit for years to come. All of this is possible simply because McDonald’s is offering a bonus or incentive, which is nothing other than a little toy or doll they have manufactured for a few cents out of China. One account I have read states that by 2003, the Happy Meal accounted for 20% of all meals that McDonald’s sold each year.* It should be [Read more]

Instead of Seeking Praise, Seek Criticism

Several years ago, I had a girlfriend who would fly off the handle at the slightest criticism.  It didn’t matter who was criticizing her. She would call people ugly, smelly, short–whatever attack she could muster in response to what she perceived as criticism. She would also do everything within her power to avoid being criticized. In school, for example, many mornings she would work until 4 a.m. to ensure she got a perfect grade in her class. In her personal life, she made sure to only associate with people she knew would never criticize her. [Read more]

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