Are You Sabotaging Your Self? [August 15 e-Column]

So a few weeks ago a truck rolled up and dumped 1000 pieces of firewood in one of our barns. Nice. Fires on cold nights here in Grabouw? Not quite: the wood was wet. Not damp. Wet, from the core, out. And even with firelighters, paraffin, etc it’s tough job to get a fire going. Olive comments rudely on how my rear sticks up in the air while I try to keep some flames going on.

So what’s the job hunting lesson? This: make sure you’re not sabotaging your job hunting flame with ‘wet wood’ – like a poor CV or covering letter or poor answers in an interview.

Now I’m going to give your a formula from Frank Kern and John Carlton – one of the worlds most respected advertising copywriters – to use when you write your CV and cover letter or even in interviews. This formula is really going to ‘spark’ the way you think about how you market/sell your skills in the job market.

Tell people:

1 Here’s what I got.

What are the 3 things you have (you do have more, I’m sure, but keep it simple) that should make an employer sit up and take notice? It could be a qualification, experience, some knowledge, a special ability, even an attitude … (It may not be “earth shattering” – don’t worry about that.)

2 Here’s what it’ll do for you.

You convert your skills, knowledge, qualifications into what for your employer? How are they better off with you around?

Ok, so at your next coffee break, take out a pad and brainstorm a little around those questions. See what you come up with. keep it short and punchy. Then enter them in a comment below or mail them to me – I’m going to follow up on this next week.

Personal note: Got a nice call at around 8:30 last night from a client – we rushed his CV through a few weeks ago – he was calling to say he didn’t get the job we were targeting. He got the next job up the ladder – higher than expected. He has no qualifications. Just great experience. Who says there isn’t hope for you!?
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