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I've been posting edited transcripts of calls to my radio program that might interest PsychologyToday.com readers. Here's today's offering.
CALLER: I’ve been having a hard time finding a job. My skill set is limited—The only thing I’m good at is sales.
MN: Actually, that's good news. If there’s one job that capitalism will always support it’s sales. Is there something you’re especially well-suited to selling? I had a paraplegic client who was the perfect person for selling orthopedic braces. If there were a God, what would he say you should sell?
CALLER: Be a manufacturer’s rep. But I can’t usually even get anyone to respond to my resume.
MN: It's perhaps at least partly because many employers view resumes as BS. Especially if you’ve been out of work for a long time, your first job in will likely come from someone who knows you. Make a list of 20 people who like you—and they don’t have to be in manufacturing or sales-- and tell them that you’re looking for a sales rep job and ask if they know someone in a position to hire you? Crisply, not desperate. Or do you need to upgrade your sales skills? Perhaps read the latest new sales methods, which you can then mention in your resume, cover letters, and interviews. And there’s nothing better than a video—You can show, don’t tell. Turn your smart phone on video and then sell whatever product in 30 seconds. Does that makes sense?
CALLER. It does.
MN: Your tone suggests you’re not that enthusiastic.
CALLER: I had interviewed at Solar City and got past three interviews and thought I did great but they didn’t hire me. And when I asked why, they wouldn’t really tell me. So I’m thinking if I couldn’t get hired for that job, no one will hire me.
MN: Everyone in the Bay Area is into the environment so employers like Solar City get dozens of applicants for each job. In being unemployed for a long time, your first job back in will be something less popular, something under the radar that few people are passionate about---like selling heating, ventilating and air conditioning parts to corporations. Then if you have success there, you’ll have a current win on your resume and will be more compelling to a--pardon the pun—cooler company. And you can’t let one rejection, even for an ostensibly perfect job, get you down. Two of the three people who interviewed you could have loved you but it only took one to nix you. As in sales, you only need to close a deal every so often to do just fine. If you use the techniques I’ve suggested here, I’m betting you land a job.
Marty Nemko's bio is in Wikipedia.
