Inducing the Swoon

Source: Pixabay, CC0 Public Domain

In a rational world, the average person wouldn’t get hired for an above-average job. After all, the internet enables the employer to expose an opening to millions of job seekers, get dozens if not hundreds of applicants, and applicant tracking software and job-simulation testing help employers select the best candidate. That’s rarely an average person.

Yet average people, indeed below-average people, get hired every day. How? Usually because the employer doesn’t care enough to do a thorough search or has irrationally become fond enough of a person to forgo a more rational hiring process.

This article shares tips for how to induce the swoon.

Before a job is available

Hang out at places where your target employers are likely to be in abundance: online forums in your specialty, local chapter meetings of your professional association, or a nonprofit you believe in. Or create your own events: throw a party, regularly meet a different person for a meal, a hike, whatever.

Whomever you’re talking with, ask questions to get to know them professionally and personally. As they reveal, you should too. If they’d like help with something, try to give it. Don’t be afraid to ask for a bit of help, for example, their advice. That creates commitment bias—They’re having given you something makes them more committed to you. For instance, before asking for a job lead, you might ask what they think of your job target or even of your resume. As in dating, baby steps can lead to love, to inducing the swoon.

Answering an ad

Most job applications are sterile: “I’m seeking an opportunity with a dynamic company. I’m a self-starter and delight in exceeding customer expectations. I saved my previous employer $9 zillion” blah-blah blah. Even if true, and it’s not always true for average candidates, such statements rarely make an employer swoon. They may not even believe you. To increase your chances of inducing the swoon, tell your true human story in both cover letter and resume. Tell of the twisted path that led you to wanting this job, why you’d be good at it, and include one worry about whether you in fact would be. That will get you rejected from the wrong employers and wrong jobs and accepted for a right one with a right boss. In this article, I offer an example of how such a letter could work even though the person had just gotten out of jail for his third armed robbery conviction.

The job interview

Again, bring your real self, your fecund self, not a sterilized version. No one swoons over an automaton with scripted answers larded with job-seeker argot: “I have a passion for marketing paper bags.” “My greatest strength is that I work too hard.” When they ask you, “Tell me about yourself,” in one minute, tell the story you told in your cover letter, including your life’s twists and turns, yes, mainly strengths and experiences that would be valuable on this job, but even a wart or two. No one’s perfect and if you’re an average candidate trying to paint yourself as perfect, you won’t appear credible, let alone induce swoon. Your humanity is more likely to.

After the interview

Your thank-you note should go well beyond “It was a pleasure interviewing with you.” Where you can honestly do so, be effusive about what you liked about the interview and the interviewer(s.) Honest flattery helps induce swoon. Also, say that you’re glad the employer seemed to like (include a strength of yours that s/he seemed to value.)

The takeaway

Today, when it’s so easy for employers to access and screen countless applicants, unless you’re a star, you have to make an employer emotionally bond with you. These ideas for inducing swoon should help.

In fairness and in the service of merit-based hiring, I should offer a word to employers. You probably want to resist inducers of swoon. Love is blind; infatuation can blind you to a candidate’s important faults. So use your trusted colleagues as a referral source for job candidates, your interviews should emphasize simulations of the job’s common difficult tasks, and keep a scorecard on each applicant: the resume, cover letter, testing, interview, and references. That way, the person you hire is more likely to yield a long-term relationship than a quickie.

The 2nd edition of The Best of Marty Nemko is available. You can reach career and personal coach Marty Nemko at mnemko@comcast.net.