Elections and Getting a New Job

It has been a busy week in Canada - we now have a
new Prime Minister, and a whole bunch of people are
looking for new career options in Ottawa!

Elections are, in fact, our country's most expensive
interview process, involving thousands of candidates.
Elections are a funny thing - we give the government
OUR tax dollars, then they tell us what they are going
to do with THEIR money, which is really OUR money.
There is something wrong with that picture.

Job interviews are like that - somewhat flawed -
however, it is the best process we have. In my
experience, there are three keys to getting the job you
want, whether you are a politician or looking to land a
job as Assistant Manager at Walmart:

1. Confidence: Candidates who were confident won
over those who were cocky or unsure about their
message, or themselves.

2. Chemistry: Candidates who connected the best
with the public were more likely to win. Either we liked them better, or, at any
rate, they were the least unliked!

3. Content: Candidates who understood the issues the
best, and were relatively well informed, were also likely to succeed.

It is in this order that most people decide who they will
choose to join their team, or, for that matter, lead the
country. Content is always last. We often spend a lot
of time gathering information about the role and the
company and what we think they will need. While this
strategy is terrific, we still must pay attention to the
first two keys. They have a far greater impact on
whether you will or will not get the role. Monitor your
level of confidence; keep track of what you can do to
protect it. And work on developing that chemistry -
well, either it is there or not, you can't manufacture
that easily.

Send me an email (alan@careerjoy.com) about how you have used these three keys in
your job search, and I will share some of your insights
in next week's WORKout. We will be giving away some
copies of the Canadian (or U.S.) Job Search Kit for your
trouble.

P.S. We have some exciting news we will be sharing in
the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!