Hire Me — Here’s Why

Published 3:25 pm Friday, March 13, 2009

‘I was there every day. First thing in the morning. When they opened their doors, there I was,” said the successful job hunter with pride. “Maybe they hired me to get me out of their personnel office! I’ve been on the job for two months.”

This story made such an impression on me that I remember it clearly 50 years later. The storyteller was a friend of my parents and I was a boy.

I would never recommend that anyone show up at one place of business every day in hopes of getting hired. However, the persistent job-seeker of my youth did exhibit a valuable quality for someone looking for work in tough times: aggressiveness.

Some people seem to have a knack for taking control. One woman I advised in my position as job counselor detailed how she opened up an interview with a company she had targeted. “Here’s what I recommend,” she said, launching into her assessment of the company’s advertising and her list of recommendations.

Wanda went to the job interview acting as if she were already on staff and those interviewing her had requested advice regarding their advertising agenda. Wanda’s interview strategy could have backfired except for the fact that she’d spent the week preceding the interview in a library looking at the firm’s advertisements in the local newspaper. Wanda was careful – and aggressive.

“This is no time to sit back and wait for an employer to beat your door down,” advises Kay LaRocca, a Kansas City, Mo., writer on job issues. “You’ve got to be continually at their door.”

Job seekers who perform some job search function only several days per week will miss out. Looking for employment is an every day, 40-hours-per-week business.

A rejection letter is common in the life of a job seeker. Also common is hearing nothing back after sending a resume to a potential employer.

Some job seekers’ reaction to rejection is to throw out everything pertaining to that company and move on. But a rejection letter pertains to an applicant’s status at one particular time. Rejection may be temporary. You may be rejected for one job but qualified for one that will come up two weeks later. Things change. The aggressive job seeker never writes off a company because of one rejection letter.

Persistence is another quality of a good job-seeker. One employer told me, “I never interview an applicant unless they come back a second time.” I advised job seekers to develop a schedule of calling back desired employers. They will conclude that you are interested in employment with them.

“Begin with the end in mind,” is the mantra of self-help writer Steven Covey. The successful job-seeker is focused. The job seeker who came to me for guidance in finding a job, saying, “I would like factory, construction or sales,” is not a person with a goal in mind.

Jackie was a non-traditional nursing student who was juggling classes, study and running a household. She might have given up if she had not pictured herself in a uniform caring for a patient. She kept the end in mind.

I have contact with many college students. Some of them have no clue as to what kinds of jobs a person with their major can get. They do not have the end in mind.

Focus describes a way of working – and a way of approaching potential employers. A job seeker who prints up a large quantity of resumes and mails the same one to 100 employers is not focused. I recommend the rifle rather than the shotgun approach.

Tailor each cover letter and resume to an individual employer. One size does not fit all.

Attitude is a big determining factor in job search success. A jobseeker telegraphs his or her attitude — positive or negative — by tone of voice, the wording of a cover letter and body language.

Frank was the very last person to be interviewed for the position of executive director at a large service agency. He was insecure about his last-place slot and he let it show. “Should I go through with this?” he asked the search committee when he entered the interview room. “What the heck, I drove this far. Might as well do the interview.” Frank is an extreme example of how one’s attitude can doom one’s chances in an interview.

The successful job-seeker is prepared. The ever-confident Wanda, with the advertising critique, earned her confidence. She studied up on her target company’s recent advertising and she offered a careful critique. A job seeker who tried the same approach with no preparation would face disaster.

A good job-seeker realizes that the job market is competitive. The competitive job-seeker seeks to illustrate some advantage on their resume or in the interview.

They get the details right. There are no mistakes on their resume. They dress appropriately for the job interview. And they send a personal thank-you letter.