Beware the “employment expert” who doesn’t tell you how he
got his job.
A few years ago, a friend introduced me to an “employment
expert” whose religious denomination pays him to conduct job search workshops at their
churches. Out of curiosity, I attended his 2-day workshop in Lexington, KY.
He began by “triaging” the attendees.
“By show of hands, how many of you send out resumes but
never get an interview?” When people raised their hands, he said, “There’s
something wrong with your resumes. Gather together at the left side of the room
and I’ll be over there to help you in a few minutes.”
After the people with bad resumes congregated together the
employment expert asked “OK, how many of you get a first interview but you don’t
get a second interview?” He told the people who raised their hands there’s
something wrong with their interview skills and told them to gather in the
center of the room.
Lastly, the employment expert asked, “How many of you get
second and third interviews but you never get a job offer?” He told those people there is something wrong
with their references or their background checks and told them to gather at the
right side of the room and wait for him to come to them.
After triaging the attendees into three groups – people with
bad resumes, people with bad interview skills and people with bad backgrounds –
the employment expert spent the rest of the workshop critiquing resumes, taping people being “mock” interviewed and
telling people what to do if they have been convicted of crimes or if none of
their former bosses would hire them back as if bad resume, bad interview skills
and bad references are the only reasons people can’t get hired.
I kept waiting for the employment expert to mention the most
effective, fastest-working way people
get jobs but he never did so at the first bathroom break I asked the employment
expert how he got his job.
“Oh, a friend of mine gave my name to somebody and I got
hired before they even advertised the job”, he told me.
“So why didn’t you tell these desperate, discouraged job
seekers how to get a new job the way you did? I asked.
Journalists call this “burying the lead.” The world is full
of people who will sell you a $500 resume makeover or a $1500 “how to interview”
coach or a $5,000 background rehabilitator but most so-called “employment experts”
won’t tell you how to get introduced to your next boss by a trusted mutual
friend – even if this is how employment
experts do it.
This blog will say publicly what the employment expert told
me privately. Keep reading and I will tell you how I’ve gotten jobs without
sending a resume, without filling out applications and without sweating through
interviews.
Moreover, I won’t try to sell you anything.
---Joseph Higginbotham has been an expert panelist at college career fairs, and a guest on radio shows about job seeking and careers. Higginbotham is a former member of the Kanawha County Workforce Investment Board and has been a presenter and facilitator at employment and career workshops. As a corporate "headhunter", Higginbotham has filled a variety of management, sales, technical and executive positions for companies of all sizes.
