Archives

How to count your job search victories

Job hunting triumphs come often.  Getting a job is always the cumulative result of a hundred victories.  Those victories should be celebrated over and over in your mind. Yes, you need to notice that you failed to finish the next step, but you shouldn’t focus on a defeat and exclude the victories leading up to [...]

Share

Wrestlers in feather boas and getting the right job

It is wonderful how quickly you get used to things, even the most astonishing. (Edith Nesbitt)

What does being unusual have to do with getting a job?  A lot. Because everyone is unusual in some way.

Everyone knows you can’t run for Governor and expect to win if you are a professional wrestler who wears feather boas. [...]

Share

Psychobabble and useful psychology

You know how it is when you go to be the subject of a psychology experiment, and nobody else shows up, and you think maybe that’s part of the experiment?  I’m like that all the time.  (Steven Wright)

The difference between psychobabble and useful psychology is never obvious to everyone.  Some self help books are dangerous.  [...]

Share

The 2 best places to find the hottest industries

The hottest industries, the startups, the best employers, and the places where people are way ahead of the rest of the world are easy to find.

In the last few years a handful of people I know have become multimillionaires. They set out to do it.  People I have placed at their companies have gotten bonuses as high as [...]

Share

Useful career plans (unlike yours)

Most career plans don’t include the most important element in job advancement.  Let me show it to you.

An usher at the movie theater I worked at wanted to become the lead usher.  After the movie started he would always be the first to grab a broom and start sweeping the lobby.  Once he even told me [...]

Share

How to decide what NOT to do

Are you trying to be successful doing the work that successful people throw out? This true story is about more than salespeople. It is about accountants, programmers and managers too.

Paul, beginning his job in sales, told me, “My manager seems to be able to make a sale every time we go on a call together.  [...]

Share

13 Insane resumes that landed interviews and jobs

Experimenting can be your key to success.  Here are 13 resumes that were way over the edge…and worked.

Here is the link.

Share

Why don’t companies say “Yes” or “No”? What can I do about it?

Most of your frustration in a job search comes down to 2 situations at the company you are applying for.

First, the recruiter is told:

“We have a candidate we like better, but we want you to keep Jim warm, okay?  We might end up hiring Jim if this other guy doesn’t work out.  Don’t tell [...]

Share

How To Be Imperfect and Highly Paid

My daughter Merrilee has Down Syndrome and is low functioning within that group. My son James got a perfect score on the SAT Advanced Calculus II college entrance exam. Each can do things the other can’t. We look at James and say, “He can do anything!” No, he can’t. He doesn’t …

Share

How to use a fish to get a job

This is a great article on how to get a job.  It summarizes a lot of the ideas I try to get across.

Here’s how a gentleman in the advertising business made it from the mailroom to the head of the company. I call it “Be a fish out of water.” And you’ll shortly see why.  [...]

Share