A fellow career counselor suggests that after you apply for a job, you should call to follow up and say, "I feel I'm a good candidate for the job because of X. What can I do to get an interview?"
From the job seeker's selfish standpoint, such strategies will help often enough to be worth trying, yet I find myself increasingly hesitant to recommend them to my clients and in my writings because, while they may help my clients, they cause pain for the employer.
The last time I advertised a job opening, I had 100 applicants. I'd hate to have had to deal with lots of squeaky wheels pleading "Pick me! Pick me!" If in reviewing their application, I wanted to interview them, I would. Also, such strategies reward pushy people, thereby punishing people who played by the rules: submit an application and I'll let you know if I want to interview you.
I'm increasingly finding that using "spiritual atheism"--asking myself what's the cosmically right thing to do--is leading me to be a better person.
8 comments:
Is spiritual athiest different from humanism?
I think that this is excellent career search advice, as is most of Mr. Nemko's career advice. Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. There are ways to search outside of the box without being pushy. Just paying close attention to detail, refering to the person by name in correspondence, delivering resumes in person, following up with real questions and delivering a thank you letter - these will make you stand out from the crowd from the start. Common sense and common courtesy are not as common as they should be.
An excellent question, Grace. It's a subtle difference. Humanists make their decisions based on what's best for people. A spiritual atheist makes decisions based on what's right in terms of universal principles. I know that's vague. Said another way, what's right from the highest moral standards one can conceive of, in which decisions take into account everything, not just humans, not just animals. It's like if there WERE a God who was infinitely wise, what would he do?
I know that's an insufficient answer but I find it very hard to articulate.
The answer is not insufficient.
Seeing yourself as part of a bigger picutre, understanding the connection between the small action you do now and the value or significance of a life. Understanding your place in the universe; in all that has gone before and all that will continue beyond. Recognizing the sorrow of this hard life and passionately resisting it with every breath.
It sounds like faith to me.
It's different from faith. Faith means you believe that some supernatural agent is worth praying to. Sure, good and bad things happen that have nothing to do with our efforts, but that's luck, not evidence of the existence of a God's actions.
One of the definitions of faith:
A belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.
I think that believing in something beyond yourself, something you can't see, even if it is the greater cosmic good, is faith. Hence the spiritual side or your athiesm.
If that's your definition of faith, Grace, then I'm delighted to say I agree with you. Your earlier comments suggested that your faith included praying to a God.
My personal faith does include praying to a god. However, there are many types of faith. A believe in God is a subset of the greater concept of a belief in something. A Judeo-Christian belief is an even smaller subset of which I am an adherent. But, as discussed in a different post, please don't write me off because of my labels.
Dear friend,
Wonderful person.
Accept my sincere thanks and appreciation
john
--------------
http://www.dirking.net
Jobs – companies – real estate – engineers – petroleum company
Post a Comment