Yesterday I posted a blog about my friend Harvey Mackay’s new book, Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door: Job Search Secrets No One Else Will Tell You, and I promised that today’s blog would give you a sample of the kind of great content that you’ll find in Harvey’s new book. So, without further ado, here it is:
Use Your Head Works for Folks Who Use Their Hands, Too
By Harvey Mackay
If you’re out of a job and looking for work, the frustration and disappointment can be overwhelming. Don’t lose confidence in yourself and who you are. You’ll never please everyone, but you only have to please a few people to get a good job offer.
While writing Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door, I’ve talked with scores of people who’ve lost their job, many of them managers . . . but many do technical, craft and manual work as well.
You might trim hair, check lab samples, do quality control on an assembly line or stock shelves. You still need to know how to interview, design a career plan, use the huge job resources of the internet, and master a bucket full of new skills mom and dad never even heard of . . .
- Trade up your personal network. Still hanging out with your high school crowd? Especially if many of them are out of a job too, you’re at risk. Get to know people who are not just in your line of work, but at the front of it. How do you get them to spend time with you? Ask them for their valuable career advice . . . and then take it to heart.
- Get wired . . . smart. People boast about how much time they spend on the internet and how cool their latest iPod apps are. It’s not how much time you spend with gadgets, it’s what you do after you log on. Game sites and celebrity gossip won’t land you a job interview. Chow down trade journals, company websites and business mags . . . nearly all of it is free!
- Don’t pay for others’ laughs out of your own pocketbook. Dying to upload an outrageous video about you and that party last night? Remember, firms now routinely check out Facebook and other social websites to see just how much judgment their job candidates have.
- Do volunteer work. If you can find time to watch Lost or The Vampire Diaries, don’t you have a couple of hours to help out a soup kitchen or the neighborhood community center? Time and again, people tell me that they meet professionals through volunteering, many of whom are also out of a job, who can help you with your resume . . . or even steer you to companies that might be hiring.
- Make a plan and work it every day. Set a target of how many business calls you’ll make today. Commit yourself to a half-hour of reading business websites on the internet. Learn about the next level of licensing or certification in your trade, and then dig in to add it to your credentials.
To learn more about Harvey and his new book, Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door, visit: www.HarveyMackay.com.
