A Changed World

What do you think of this? I get it quite a bit. And it makes me feel lousy.

A letter that says something like:

“Hi, I’m looking for a job in a large stable company offering opportunities to learn and for advancement. I’m a quick learner and am open to taking courses or being trained to fill a position.”

There was a time when that would have been a good opening “Objective” in a CV or covering letter.

But the world has changed. We all want that safe, warm feeling – y’know, the large stable company, job-for-life situation. But we have to face the fact that it just doesn’t exist anymore. And we have to stop chasing it.

We have to learn how to cope with change. With a more dynamic, entrepreneurial world. One which rewards a bolder, more adventurous, more courageous, ‘guerrilla’ style approach. We have to learn to live with risk. Getting comfortable, stopping learning are out.

Bit scary, huh? Sure.

But when we consider this: the fundamental mistake in that “objective” mentioned earlier was …???… whad’you think it is?

The writer focuses entirely on HIS OWN wants and needs.

And here’s the point: that’s not what business is made of. As a job hunter you are a product, a service. And to stand the chance of being bought (landing a job! for money!) you have to focus on …

Giving the buyer what they want, need, or desire.

Now that’s business – not rocket science either you’ll have noticed. If you can just figure out what they need – then you can fashion yourself into a solution, an answer to a prayer, a problem solver – you can make them an offer they can’t refuse.

So it makes me feel lousy when people make such basic mistakes in their job hunt. They’ll land the odd job here and there and they may do ok – but how they could have boosted their job options, salary level, and the speed of the process if they’d been smarter about it.