Not getting interviews? Pay your employer to hire you

You've probably tasted the samples of the new cracker in the grocery store, smelled the new perfume in the department store, or tried out the new detergent  you received in the mail.

 Those companies know that samples work.

One of the most savvy businesspeople in history knew that, too. When Napoleon Hill graduated from his one-year course in business, he was qualified for a position as a secretary, the most common entry-level position in the early 20th century.

He knew that without experience he would have difficulty finding a job - a state that continues to plague recent graduates today.

Napoleon chose the one place he wanted to work, the bank of a very wealthy businessman. He wrote a proposal that acknowledged his lack of experience. To make up for that deficiency, he told the banker he would pay him any sum he asked for three months, so long as at the end of that period, Napoleon would be paid the same monthly amount as his salary. The banker was immediately impressed by Hill's ingenuity and self-confidence. He was hired.

Before you dismiss this strategy as a century-old story, think about how you can apply it to your job search. Have you:

• Chosen a job you want to do in industry that fits you?
• Researched businesses within that industry at which you would like to work?
• Obtained the name(s) and contact information for the person or persons making the hiring decision for that position?

Yes? You're ready to write your proposal. Let me know how it turns out.

If not, let me know you'd like some help.

Here's an "app" for the integrity gap

Career strategist and workplace consultant J.T. O'Donnell of CareerRealism blogged recently about the integrity gap each of us faces. Her aha moment came when she read Collin Nanka's blog about his own gap.

Both use leadership developer Robin Sharma's definition of the gap:

There can be no lasting happiness if you daily schedule is misaligned with your deepest values. If there is a gap between what you do and who you are, you are out of integrity. An integrity gap. The bigger the gap, the less your life will work and the less happiness you will feel. Some people would describe this concept as being congruent (the state achieved by coming together, the state of agreement) or having your video aligned with your audio. Internally, the values that lives deep inside you, your conscious will see it if you are misaligned. Too many people talk a good game, but talk is cheap and it really shows in your schedule and what you do.

This ties in so closely to what I do with my clients and with myself. The more focused I become on the priorities in my life, the more closely aligned I feel with my own integrity, and the better my life becomes. I coach my job-seeking clients in the same direction. Find your direction, your purpose, your dream, or at least get a sense of what it might be. Then, and only then, move forward with a job search and resume.

I am always studying this and have been for as long as I can remember. So, it's not unusual that I found a course along those lines. What is unusual is that four months later, I am working that system even harder than I did the day after the seminar.

It's called LifeWoRx by Design, by founder, author, and presenter Don Cote of The Center for the Creation and Preservation of Wealth. In a nutshell that does not do it justice, LifeWoRx helps the student put into practice the rules and processes found in Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, the best-selling business book of all time.

Hill's book is invaluable for anyone who wants to get their life and career on a better track. What Don has done is codified the work. That's the app. If Hill suggests a process, Cote has a worksheet. For now, it's on paper, but they're working on an electronic version, as well, for those folks like me who live and die by their smartphone and Outlook.

If you're interested in a seminar that really does work, one that you'll take home and DO, contact Don.

The next LifeWoRx seminar is the weekend of March 19-21, 2010. Online registration is available. 

If you want to find out more about the seminar from a student's standpoint, email me at jeri@workwrite.net.

When you work for a non-writer

So, here you are, working on your reference sheet, and you'd like your supervisor to give you a letter of recommendation. The problem is, great supervisor that he is, the guy can't write his way out of a paper bag. Any recommendation he gives you is going to be full of half sentences and misspellings that render it useless.

Here's the plan:

1. Ask him for the letter of recommendation.
2. Acknowledge that he's busier than any two people you know.
3. Offer to edit his notes or talk with him for 10 minutes about what he'd like to say and then write the recommendation yourself. 
4. Mention any promotions and what they were for, if they were tied to specific projects or actions.
5. Remember to include your major accomplishments in that position, and quantify them.
6. Use excerpts and rankings from performance reviews.
7. Write the recommendation on company letterhead.
8. Present it to him to read and edit or sign.

 This will give you the information you need in a form that a hiring manager will welcome.

Rich people keep more jobs

 The comments that followed Barbara Kiviat's recent Curious Capitalist blog, Rich people still have jobs; poor people don't offered only top-of-the-head reactions to the numbers and possible reasons for them.

I thought it more curious that it seemed to bear out what Napoleon Hill claimed in Think and Grow Rich, that if the same number of rich people and poor people receive the same amount of money, the rich people will end up with all of it fairly soon.

Rather than insulting the rich people for being unrelenting capitalist pigs and thieves or the poor people for being lazy, no-good welfare-dependent thieves, we need to observe the difference in their thought processes.

What are those making $138,700+ thinking? Who are they being? What are they doing? What is their attitude toward money? How do they use their riches?

What about those making $12,160? Who are they being? What are they thinking? What are they doing? How do they think of money? How do they use the little money they have?

Where do you fit? Where do you want to be? What if you started being that person today? I don't mean go out and buy a yacht. That sort of doing is for later, and only if that is what you decide to do with your riches. But for today, who would you be if you were rich? What would your life look like?

If you have not yet found your next job, are you being a jobseeker, or are you being the person who already has a job and knows it just hasn't yet arrived?

Microsoft offers training vouchers for developers

When you're looking for a job, differentiation is key. You need to make a positive impression that lasts. You need to bring to the table something that sets you apart from your competition.

Often, that element is continuing attention to training and education. For technology positions, this is especially true because of the pace at which the field changes. Now, when companies are cutting out everything that's not bolted down, continuing education is particularly valuable and hard to come by.

Microsoft for some time has made certain developer training more affordable through vouchers, but they haven't gotten a lot of buzz for awhile, so here's your reminder.

They've also made a guide for training vouchers available to help you figure out if you are eligible and if so, how to take advantage of the voucher.

When your job search feels overwhelming

If your job search is getting harder instead of easier, consider that your why may be overwhelmed by your how.

Each of us has a reason for doing what we do. In this case, we have a reason, or maybe a few reasons, for engaging in a job search.

It's not because you got a pink slip. That's in the past, and while it certainly colors your perception of the events surrounding your job search, it is not why you are searching. For example, you could have gone home and pulled the covers over your head. You have the choice not to search. (I know, there's the mortgage, but you still have the choice.)

If you are feeling like there is just too much to do, you may be concentrating on how everything must get done instead of on why you are doing it.

To find out, take an hour today when you can sit and write without being interrupted.

Write "Why am I job hunting?" at the top of your page. List your whys. But there's one rule. They have to be in the present or future. Like I said, it can't have anything to do with getting laid off or hating your boss.

So, why are you searching?