..Great by Choice
This past week, I just finished listening to Great by Choice by Jim Collins… probably one of the best business books I’ve read in a long time… and I read just about everything anyone suggests.
It reminds me that if you are any kind of professional you know you need to be reading books that relate to your profession all the time… leaders are readers… I’m often blown away by people who are supposed to be professionals who spend their time reading fiction or not reading at all… we all have to be “students” of our game
It also reminded me to emphasize the fact that if you are a candidate looking for a job, you’d best be reading one or two business books that relate to what you do… somewhere along the line, one of the interviewing authorities you speak with is going to ask you what business book you’ve recently read and, “how has it had an impact on you and your profession?” If you don’t have a really good answer… I mean a really good answer to this question, you’re going to be caught flat-footed… and worse, if you act like you have recently read a book just to look good and then get asked to describe it in detail…if you can’t, you will certainly be eliminated as a candidate…
What are you reading?…how has it had an impact on your professional life?
…target 10 firms…oh, brother!
Just read advice by a well known author and career adviser…he advises people who are looking for work to “target the top 10 firms you’d like to work for” and agressively pursue them for a job. He communicates the idea that just because you want to work at any organization…they also want you.
Unfortunately, this kind of advice gives people all kinds of false hopes about the reality of this job market. Unfortunately, reality… especially in this market… is not like in the movie Field of Dreams, “if you build it… they will come.” Just because it might be nice to work at a particular place has got nothing to do with the reality of finding a job there. Just because you might think it would be peachy to work at a particular place has nothing to do with the reality of them hiring… let alone hiring you.
If people are naïve enough to believe something like this, they quickly find out the real world doesn’t work this way. Unfortunately, they spend a lot of time and effort before they are deflated and disappointed by reality.
My suggestion would be to target 200 companies… 300… anybody who might listen. Please don’t put your faith in the “Top 10.” If you are an absolute rockstar in your profession, you… or your agent… might have luck doing this kind of thing. If you are like most of us mortals, you’re going to need to go after more organizations than that.
…know your ratios
I’m often amazed when I ask candidates who have been looking for a job, especially for some time, “what are your ratios?” They look at me with a stare and then mumble something like, “What do you mean?”
I say, “I mean, how many calls do you have to make to reach a hiring authority? How many hiring authorities do you have to speak with in order to find ones that are interested in interviewing you? How many of those interviews do you have to go to and get invited back for second and subsequent interviews? And how many second and subsequent interviews do you have to get to get a job offer?”
Continuing with their deer in the headlight stare, they ask something like, “why would I want to know that stuff?” “Because,” I answer “if you want to work a ‘system’ of finding a job, you need to keep track of all your numbers. You need to know exactly how many cold/warm calls to hiring authorities you need to make in order to get an interview. You need to know how many interviews you need to get in order to get second and subsequent interviews…And you need to know how many of those second and subsequent interviews you need to get in order to get a job offer. Ultimately, you need to know how many phone calls you need to make in order to get a job offer.
If you approach finding a job in this way, it truly becomes a “numbers” game. All you have to do is focus on the numbers. It’s certainly easier to control making a number of phone calls than it is to ‘get a job.’ The thought of ‘getting a job’ is overwhelming. The thought of making 150 phone calls is a lot easier to deal with and a lot easier to control.
This is what I mean when I state, “if you manage the process, the result would take care of itself.” If you make the right number of calls and say the right thing, you reach a certain number of employers…if you speak with that certain number of employers in the right way, they will grant you an interview…if you interview well and establish your value to enough employers, you will get job offers.
The quality of your interviewing is irrelevant unless you get enough of them.
Do you know your ratios?
….the interview is like a first date???
…some gal on the Internet tells people a job interview is like going on a first date… this is ridiculous… the gal might be a good writer, or a good researcher, or whatever… but don’t buy this garbage!
An interview is not a DATE… an interview is not SOCIAL… an interview is a SALES situation… they’re 43 other people competing for this job… you have to be forceful and aggressive… an interview is NOT a “two-way street” of give-and-take… Until you get to the final interviewing stages it is a “one-way street” and you are doing all of the selling… you gotta be downright pushy… but nice…
P-L-E-A-S-E don’t buy this silly stuff… interviewing is a business deal…PERIOD… certainly you want to get people to like you but you have to show them how you are going to benefit their organization… make ’em money or save ’em money…Don’t try to complicated anymore than that.
…WORST places to interview…beginning with the WORST
Airports, train stations and bus depots
Taxicabs
limousines
Sporting events
Hospitals… unless you are applying for a job there
social events… Christmas parties… New Year’s Eve parties… picnics …etc.
Automobiles… either yours or the hiring authority’s… especially while driving
Personal residences… either yours or the hiring authority’s
Anything outdoors.. Parks, etc.
Over the phone
Starbucks
hotel lobbies
The manufacturing plant floor
Restaurants
Anyplace other than a business office is not optimal!
