Interviewing

If you were just finishing college or re-entering the job market after college, what one question would you ask the most successful person you know?

Well, I asked the most successful person I know here in the Twin Cities, Harvey Mackay.

Harvey is author of 6 NYT best-selling books, including Swim with The Sharks. He’s Chairman of MackayMitchell Envelope Company ($100 million and growing) and recipient of too many other accolades to list here.

He’s also author of the new, excellent book, Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door, which I highly recommend you get.

(Why does a contributing co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0 recommend you buy somebody else’s book? Simple. We don’t care who’s right. We care what’s right. And Harvey’s book is right for anyone in the job market.)

The question I asked Harvey was this: What advice would you give someone who wanted to find a job?

His answer takes the long view of success. He advises that you enhance your skills today, to become more employable tomorrow.

In other words, never stop improving.

And the #1 way to do that, according to Harvey, is public speaking.

It just makes sense. If you can sell your ideas in speaking to others, you can convince others to hire you. And co-workers to cooperate with you after you’re hired. And managers to promote you after that. And so on.

Speaking persuasively is a virtuous cycle that can put you at the top of all candidates for a job, and lead you to the top of your industry after you get the job.

Even if you never aspire to be an internationally acclaimed speaker and author, like Harvey, public speaking can still create real, long-term job security for you.

Helpful resources: Toastmasters and Dale Carnegie (speaking training and the book on public speaking).

Share on Facebook

“Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things.”

That’s according to an American economist and Harvard professor, Theodore Levitt.

And that’s absolutely correct.

Too many job seekers are doing too much thinking and not enough doing. Don’t believe me? It now takes 33 weeks to find a job, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers.

Thirty-three weeks is the longest it has taken Americans to find a job in the history of this survey, which dates to 1948.

Thirty-three weeks is more than EIGHT MONTHS, if you’re scoring at home.

Obviously, if it’s taking that long for the average person to find a job in America (and other countries — nobody is immune to this economy), something is wrong with what average people are doing to find jobs.

Can you afford to be average? Put differently, do you have 8 months of savings to tide you over during an average job search?

It not, you need to start doing new things in your job search.

You need to start innovating.

While there’s no recipe for innovation that works for every job seeker, there is a process you can follow to produce new ideas — and act on them.

It has 3 parts, each of which involves thinking and doing. Here they are:

1) Think: Write down everything you have done in your job search that has produced at least 1 interview. (If your answer is Nothing, call friends until you find one tactic that has worked in the last 90 days.)

Do: Use that tactic on at least 3 employers today.

2) Think: Write down everything you have done in your job search that has produced 0 interviews.

Do: Stop doing those things, one of which I’m sure involves emailing your resume in response to advertised job openings. Because they aren’t working.

3) Think: Write down every possible way to have a meeting with someone at your target employers. Why? Because “meeting people” is the opposite of “emailing resumes,” which isn’t working, remember? See 2) above.

Example ways to meet people:

a) Ask your network for a connection to an employee, vendor, or customer of your target employer

b) Dress up and go drop your resume off with the receptionist. Say, “I’ve had trouble with email all weekend and wanted to make sure you guys got this.” Ask for the receptionist’s name. Then call the hiring manager and say, “I spoke with Cindy in your office yesterday — did she hand you my resume?” Congratulations. This is a job interview by phone.

Do: Pick one way and go meet someone at your target employer.

Note: You must write your answers to the three questions above. If you’re not writing, you’re not thinking at full power, because writing on paper — with a pen — instantly clarifies and improves your thoughts. Try it now.

How likely are you to do any of this? Not very, if you’re average. That’s why average is easy — you don’t have to try anything new.

But. If you want to stop being average and start getting more job interviews, you will stop trying to be “creative” — which is usually no more than glorified daydreaming — and start innovating — which is doing new things.

Thinking only sets the stage. Doing gets things done.

Share on Facebook