How To Win the Job-Hunting Game

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When I got over the initial shock of being urged to "seek alternative employment" I found myself, like so many others, out beating the bushes looking for a job. I found that I was just another one of the sheep following the same traditional job-hunting procedures as everyone else.

I wrote resumes, mailed them to the same prospects that everyone else was sending theirs to and found little comfort knowing that mine was included in a pile that was growing bigger every day.

To be successful amid all this competition would be tantamount to winning the lottery! It sure looked like the odds were stacked against me; especially after enduring the long non-event waiting periods that never ended. I got the same frustrating non-results and suffered the same heartaches, delays and disappointment as did all the other sheep.

This did't seem right !

I began to realize that I was being victimized by a "me-too" situation. I was awakened to the fact that I was offering essentially the same thing the same way at the same time to the same people. My situation became dependent upon someone else in a system over which I had no control. I had yielded the control of my future to a system that made me an impersonal pawn in a game that didn't really care whether I won or not!

This was totally unacceptable!

I did some deep soul searching. I got "me" out of the way and took a cold, hard, impersonal look at the facts. I was shocked at what I found It was this:

EVERYBODY IS TRYING TO GET A JOB !

That didn't sound shocking on the surface, but then it hit me: All these sheep (myself included!) are out there focusing on trying to get a job. GET 1) a highly competitive "something" that was in short supply that everybody else was competing to get and 2) a "something" that most prospects didn't even have to give.

I couldn't afford to play this game! I had to start working. I'm darn good at what I do. I deserve better than this. There MUST be a better way.

Reason and logic forced me to accept the conclusion that if I wanted to break away from this dead end system I had ro make some changes. I had to break the pattern of sameness that plagued everyone else. If I were to change a procedure that doesn't work, I would have to reverse it and implement a procedure that does work. But how?

First, I must realize that, contrary to what many seem to think, A prospect/business does not exist for the purpose of supplying jobs. They are in business to make a profit by providing a service to customers in their particular market.

Whether I was looking for employment, wanting to progress in my present job or set a goal to accept new challenges in a new relationship, I better stop trying to GET something and put myself in a position where I could reverse things and GIVE something.

I must GIVE something to the prospect/employer that he needs.

NEEDS! As I thought about it I realized that my needs would be met only as I met the needs of another.

So I decided to by-pass the system and re-focus my efforts from what I wanted and needed to finding out what my prospect needed. How could they increase profits? How could they operate more efficiently? How could they increase productivity and sales? How could they become a more dominant factor in their market?

Let's be honest, it's not always easy to break away from the rigid, static, limiting elements that restrict creative thinking and the spontaneous flow of ideas. Here is where we need to get quiet and invoke our imaginative skills and ponder abstract alternatives to how and what changes a business might consider to realize greater profits and growth.

I did some homework, put together a comprehensive game plan, presented it to the appropriate department heads and decision makers of businesses in my area and was able to show my prospects how they could accomplish their objectives and why they needed me and my talents and training and experience to make the plan work.

This simple procedure resulted in more than one opportunity. In my particular case, I took on more than one "job" and was able to contribute to lots of businesses. I've received hundreds of "jobs" in this way. In fact, without realizing it, I found that I had become a consultant and professional problem solver to the business community.

That was more than 40 years ago. Some things don=t change and these procedures work just as well today as they ever did. The basic axiom "find a need and fill it" is still relevant. "You fill your own needs by filling the needs of another" has been proven since earliest recorded history.

This cannot be done if you're satisfied to just run with the pack, passively wait in the employment line and make your success dependent upon the mathematical statistics inherent in traditional job-hunting routines. You must depart from the pack and offer the prospect something he really needs and that you are the one best qualified to give it to him.

Davis Goss has been a creatibve consultant foe more than 40 years. His particular expertise is in his unique scientific approach to problem solving which he has proven to the benefit of a widely diverse client base that has included many of the giants of Ameican business. Lecturer asd author, his latest bokk "The DYNAMICS of ACHIEVEMENT" details his unique approach in a logical continuity of proven scientific facts. Mr. Goss holds many US patents and is listed in Who's Who