Now, put yourself on the other side of the table for a moment. What kind of impression would that make on you as a potential employer? It's hard to find a job that doesn't involve people unless you are applying for a professional hermit's position, and there just aren't too many of those around. And second, just shopping around with no direction doesn't give others much confidence in you as to your direction or commitment. Right? An equally ill-advised approach is the look-around- and-see-what's-"in" technique. There are really two parts to this:
- What will impress the swinging singles set?
- Where is there a big demand for jobs now?
The second is very much related to the first. Where the competition is keen, starting salaries are low. Why? If lots of people want to go into a field, the employers don't have to pay much and don't.
If you use this first approach, there is a very good chance you will take a job not because you like the work but because you like telling people what you do. Although you may get some satisfaction from being able to drop the right names and use the" in" lingo of that trade, it is pretty small compensation for doing daily what you really dislike.
In addition, you must realize that you are being judged not by who you really are, but merely by what you do, which puts you in a commodity category, and when you look at your sought-after audience, it may be that their standards are not very high. So, be careful before you pick one of the current glamour industries, like TV or design. In contrast to glamour industries, it's amazing how many businesses are never called upon by prospective employees. These are businesses which are not located in popular cities or popular parts of cities, industries which have dull titles but many interesting jobs. Ecology is "in" now, but how many people consider a job in garbage-"Sounds dirty." But all facilities of waste disposal, from sewage to garbage to trash, are truly basic areas of ecological improvement, and in these industries are all types of jobs, from accounting, to personnel, to traffic, to purchasing, all the way down the line-but telling people "I'm in garbage in Yonkers" will turn off some ecological phonies.
Also, you will notice that you get a completely different reception from an industry or business which is seldom called upon compared to one which has a waiting list for every conceivable job ten times over. Try it. Drive into the industrial part of your town or city and stop and talk with some of the people. You will find they are friendly and often somewhat amazed that anyone bothered to find out about them. Very often in the non-glamour jobs the starting pay is higher and the rate of promotion faster.
The second approach can be equally disastrous-that of going where the best salaries are being offered or the demand is greatest today. Quite a few years ago it was invitation, then space, now accounting. In each instance, too many saw the shortage and high salaries and then far too many started to prepare for a career in it, and as you probably know what was a shortage quickly turned into a surplus.
There is an old stock market cliché which has good application here: "Do what the shoe clerks don't." In other words, when the general public starts buying stock, it's best to sell. When the general public starts selling stocks, then it's best to buy. It is truly amazing how very often it works. The same principle works with regard to jobs-go where the crowds aren't.
A few years ago, university professors were paid very poorly and as a consequence there was a real shortage of teachers. Starting salaries rose and teaching again became popular. Now with the static enrollment situation you find you can shake any tree and a Ph.D. will come tumbling out screaming that he can't find a job or take the situation in journalism a few years back in the early 60s when our schools of journalism were supplying more graduates each year than there were total jobs to be had in the whole industry. Or take the people who have a yen for someone else to pay for their travel, so they decide on a career in foreign trade. Now many others have exactly the same idea, and yet what languages do they study? Those in the greatest over-supply already, such as French, German, Spanish, etc. It is amazing how few studies Arabic, Swahili, Hindi, or Tamil, or go learn the culture first-hand and then try for a job after they have something to offer. Most merely bumble in, mumbling something about wanting a job with foreign travel. Now really, would you hire them?
No, going for a specific job isn't easy. That is one of the reasons there are far more excuses around than successes.
But it can be done and you can do it, but it will take work and the kind of work that only you can do. But before we get into some of the specific dos and don'ts, let me give you an example which I learned very late from one of the best salesmen I have ever known. He annually nets between $ 100,000 and $250,000 per year. As you probably already know, much of successful selling comes from referral business-that is, a satisfied customer giving the salesman the name of a new prospective customer for the salesman to call on. Well, this man explained to me that most salesmen lose most of their potential referral business by not asking a specific question of the satisfied customer. That is, the salesman will tend to say something like, "You seem satisfied with my work, do you know anybody else I could call on?" He went on to point out that the question is so broad that there is no specific category in the customer's mind to sift through to get at specific names, and since it looks like it would be too much mental work, the customer usually answers, "No," or "Let me think about it," or simply blurts out any old name just to get rid of both the question and the salesman.
On the other hand, the highly successful referral salesman will ask specific questions, ones which allow the customer to mentally sort through his memory and, like a computer, let the appropriate cards or names come spewing out. Questions such as "Do you now know anyone with a commercial real estate tax problem regarding depreciation?" or "Which one of your associates has over four children, all of whom are under college age?"
By now you well may be saying, "O.K., fine, but so what?"
Glad you did ask, for the same thing applies to getting a job. Ask specific questions about a specific job and you will much more likely get specific answers and more leads to other jobs if nothing is available where you have applied. Yes, this is a hard thing to do, particularly when you are not sure what it is you want to do and, further, there is the risk that the firm you are talking or writing to may have something else equally good for you that they may not mention to you if you are asking for a specific job. This is a gamble you will just have to take, but let me say that in advising people 1 have found that using a rifle approach for a specific job gets more game than using a shotgun approach and watching all the jobs somehow get away.
In asking for a specific job, don't forget in both the oral and written job search to be sure to always ask for the job. You would be amazed at how many sales are lost because the customer was never put in the position of having to make a decision. Decisions are hard and most people like to avoid them. So if you don't specifically ask, very often nothing will happen merely because it's much easier to do nothing than it is to make a decision. So he sure to always ask for the job and ask specifically!
Now down to the nitty-gritty of just how to narrow down all the hundreds of thousands of possible jobs to a few that hopefully will really interest you. (Certainly not all of these will be applicable to any one individual.)
1. Make a list of jobs or major categories of jobs that really turn you off, but be sure to put honestly by each why they do. 2. If there is a school available near you or you are in one, take their aptitude tests, see what the test results show (knowing that the tests cannot and will not pinpoint your job for you but can give some negative or positive direction). 3. List geographic areas which both attract and equally those that repel you. 4. Along with this, put down the size and type of community, such as small, medium, big town or city. 5. Try to project yourself twenty years from now. What kinds of life do you want-$100,000 per year, swimming pools, farm, big fish, little pond, or the other way around? Be sure to write all this down, so you can refer back. 6. Every public library as well as school libraries have a large number of books which list all kinds and descriptions of jobs, from Federal government lists of categories of jobs to such books as Mac Rae's Directory and Thomas' Register. In these books you will find companies listed by brand name, by type of products they produce and by corporate name. You can then go to Standard and Poors or Moody's and find the company address and the names of the key executives of the company. (Whenever possible write to the individual by name of the section of the company to which you are interested in applying for a job, so be sure you get the most current copy of the reference volume you are checking in for names.) 7. You also may want to check on standard organization charts for companies to determine where the job you are looking for will fit in the organization. 8. Yellow pages of phone books can give you an idea of the huge variety of types of jobs in any one city. 9. Local chambers of commerce have lists of the major industries in any city or state. 10. In all of this, your first job is to start the elimination process. What is available and then what interests you among the various possibilities. 11. And as to how to narrow the list, you start to talk with people in those lines of work which seem to have some appeal to you. 12. Yes, all of this takes time. But no one else can make the decision for you or for that matter really cares much about it except you.
A fear that I believe we all have is the feeling of, "Oh boy, suppose I hate it after 1 go to all the work of trying to decide and it all goes poof!" I don't think anything I say will make this fear totally disappear, but I think it may help just a little bit to remember that even if the hoped-for job really bombs out, you have at least determined positively that this is not for you, and a good solid "No" is far better than all that constant worry about uncertainty and wasted time. You did it. It didn't work. Okay, now on to better things. At least you did something other than sit around wringing your hands.
While we are on this point, if this is your first job and you can possibly stick it out for at least two years, it will be much better in the long run. You don't want to get tagged early as a job hopper. That reputation can be awfully hard to live down. Also, when you leave a job, leave properly, giving notice and being pleasant to your employers, no matter what kind of SOBs you think they are. A good or at least a neutral recommendation from them can come in very handy later. It may be very hard on the ego, but it is a lot smarter than blowing your top and then having to live with a sour comment from them for years to come. And lastly, keep remembering that if you don't know what you want to do, why should anyone else
