You should hire me as your next plant manager because I'm responsible for all phases of manufacturing in the company where I am now, including production, purchasing, scheduling, plant engineering, and industrial engineering. I've been involved with computerized inventory control, production-control systems, warehouse-locator and inventory systems, and budgetary control systems. And I've had a total of fifteen years' experience with four of the leading companies in my field.
On the basis of his presentation, I asked the class whether they would hire this distinguished candidate. The first few classmates to speak said, "Yes," perhaps because of the gentleman's appearance. And then one member of the class said, "No. I know the kind of experience he's had. But I'm not sure he's any good at what he's been doing." This classmate was right! Looks aside, for all we knew, this distinguished gentleman may have bungled every assignment he ever had in the many areas of manufacturing in which he'd worked. We knew he had fifteen years of experience with four companies. It's possible he left each of these just as he was about to be fired. What was missing from this distinguished gentleman's presentation that could have convinced us to hire him? Some evidence that while he was on the job he did specific things that helped his company in some way or another. We know from what he told us that he was involved in a lot of different activities. But we have no idea from what he told us of how valuable he was in each of the jobs he held.
There are two basic principles in selling yourself. The first and most important principle is this:
1. Your prospective boss doesn't care what you did between nine and five-he only cares what happened as a result of your being there
In a word, it isn't a laundry list of job functions that turns on the people who might hire you. It's what specific things you were able to get done that in some way improved your company's situation that counts, because they are practical demonstrations of your worth.
At the very same class, another, somewhat younger manufacturing executive told us why we should hire him. His reasoning was altogether different. Here's what he told us with a great deal of enthusiasm.
You should hire me because I've got tremendous machine and fabrication know-how. I'm thoroughly familiar with a wide range of metal, plastic, and fiberglass tooling techniques. And I've got genuine administrative perception. I have a full grasp and working knowledge of a broad cross-section of manufacturing and planning controls. And I'm a real morale and productivity builder. I'm adept in planning and organizing, scheduling and follow-through to make sure we get the job done. Not only that, I'm a profit producer. I can help any manufacturer beat the cost squeeze.
At the end of his speech, a few people in the class volunteered that they'd hire this bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young man. But most of the class felt differently. Most, like me, wouldn't have hired the second executive either. The reason: because, while he told us he was good (damned good, I might add), we had only his word for it. As someone said to me after the class: "Not only did his speech sound extremely boastful, but I really didn't know whether what he was saying was fact or fiction."
In point of fact, none of us in the class that night knew whether the young, animated man's evaluation of himself was accurate. It's possible-perhaps probable-that his opinion of himself was a biased one.
The second important principle of self-selling, then, is this:
2. Your prospective boss isn't interested in your opinion of yourself
He doesn't know you. He doesn't know how well you evaluate yourself. What your prospective boss wants is evidence that you are the best person he can hire. How can you provide this evidence? With results. With illustrations of what you did on the job that, in and of themselves, are indisputable evidence of your worth to the companies you worked for. Things that you did that the other eighteen candidates with whom you compete didn't do, or couldn't do. Your prospective boss needs to be convinced. The one thing that will convince him most is specific examples of your ability to contribute something worthwhile in situations that might have a bearing on his particular problems.
"That's all well and good," you say, "but how do I know that the results I achieved on my old job, or my last several jobs, are the kind of results my prospective boss is seeking? Is my experience relevant?" Obviously you don't know this, but it probably isn't the deciding factor. On the priority scale, your prospective employer must rate specific experience secondary to your ability to do whatever job you have in such a way as to help improve the situation. And you can prove your ability to get results by describing the things you achieved at the job you now hold, or previously held. Don't get me wrong. It's nice to have the exact experience your prospective boss is looking for. But it's not essential. If you've done well at whatever you have done, you're far better off than the persons who may have the "exact experience" but who have done nothing on their current jobs to prove they have the ability to take on the one they're going after. To put it in its simplest terms, if you have demonstrated your worth on a smaller job, you can handle a bigger job. Believe it because it's true, and go after the bigger job.
Even more impressive to your prospective employer than one example of what you accomplished on the job are a number of examples, particularly if they show you helped improve the situation in a series of positions, each with more overall responsibility than the last; and particularly if each successive example demonstrates your growing value to the company over time. I know a man who is today the executive vice-president of a major health-aids company. He is responsible for the worldwide marketing of fifteen famous products with multimillion-dollar sales. How this gentleman moved into the marketing field is proof of the importance of demonstrating your increasing ability to secure positive results in whatever positions you've held. He began his career in the accounting department of an appliance company. His first job was in accounts payable, first as a junior accountant, then as an accountant, then as senior accountant. All in the space of three years. At this point in his career he decided he was more interested in marketing than in accounting. Thwarted in his attempts to get into marketing at the appliance company, he decided to seek employment elsewhere. He managed to secure a fairly senior job in the advertising department of the health-aids company he now presides over. How? By selling both his rapid rise in responsibility and progressively greater contributions in each of his positions within the accounting department of his former company.
If you doubt that experience is secondary to what results you achieved in whatever you undertook, consider this example. A number of years ago a friend of mine, then a sophomore in college, wanted to apply to Harvard Business School. He wrote to the dean and asked what subjects he should take in order to get accepted at this, the most famous business school in the country. The dean wrote back, "It doesn't matter which courses you take, just do well in what you elect to study." My friend majored in, of all things, philosophy-because he liked it. He ended up with honors in his field and a Phi Beta Kappa key. To no one's surprise, he was accepted at Harvard Business School even though he had never taken a course in marketing, finance, or economics! But he had proved along the way that he was a cut above the others he competed with.
When you stop to think about it, it's quite natural that tangible proof of your worth on the last job is more important than precisely the right experience. Why? Because in a year's time what you have learned on the new job will be infinitely more important than what you learned in five years on the last one. In point of fact, you may need to overcome some of the experiences you picked up at your former company simply because they don't tie in with the procedures and systems that are in effect at the company you hope to join.
