30 DAYS TO A GOOD JOB by HAL GIESEKING PAUL PLAWIN & BARBARA MARKS

Author:HAL GIESEKING PAUL PLAWIN & BARBARA MARKS
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: FIRESIDE
Published: 1994-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

Sharpening Your Creative Edge

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Separate yourself from the crowd of other applicants by demonstrating new ideas in your job search.

* * *

“P romise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement,” Dr. Samuel Johnson said in the 18th century. He demonstrated this when he created a notice for an auction of the contents of a London brewery. “We are not here to sell boilers and vats but the potential of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.”

Dr. Johnson was among the early practitioners of the art of separating himself from the crowd by giving himself a creative edge.

In the first part of this book we’ve stressed the importance of applying the traditional job-getting techniques (networking, responding to help-wanted ads, and working with employment agencies) in a highly structured way. That’s because these tried-and-true techniques have helped millions of people find profitable employment over the past several decades.

But you are also aware that something new and troubling is happening in today’s job market. Whole floors and buildings have been emptied of mid-level executives and professionals who have often been forced onto the street with little or no notice. Because many have been unable to find similar positions with the same levels of perks, authority, and compensation, they have started to hunt for jobs lower down the ladder. This has sharply increased both the number and quality of people competing for the same jobs. The displacement wave has extended all the way down the corporate “food chain,” forcing recent college grads to compete with former executives of companies such as IBM and Sears for positions at the same salary level. More often than not, companies select veterans with proven track records and “bargain” price tags. College grads in turn displace high school grads in flipping burgers and doing clerical work.

This intensified competition is showing up constantly in the large number of resumes sent by highly qualified people, and by the growing lines of people at job fairs and in front of every company that places recruitment ads in the Sunday papers.

What does all this mean to you in terms of your personal job search? You still must write “killer” cover letters and resumes and develop presentation skills. During the go-go ‘80s, such talents would have probably landed you a good job in a matter of days or even hours. Today they are often just the price of admission to the final cut of a company’s job search.

For example, Merck receives 200,000 resumes annually for positions at all levels (or an average of 770 every working day). AT&T’s mailbag bulges with 100,000 annually (an average of 385 every day).

Here’s a hypothetical example of what those numbers might mean to you if you were applying for a position at Merck. You might assume that perhaps only a scant 3 percent of all applicants had the qualifications for or interest in that particular job. Furthermore, you might also assume that only about 10 percent of those would have really outstanding credentials or work experience.

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