How to Do Life: What I Wish My Parents Had Told Me

I'll be giving a talk Thursday based on my new book. The talk will be called, How to Do Life: What I Wish My Parents Had Told Me.

I thought you might like to see what I plan to say, so I converted my notes into this post:

Communication

Listen more than talk. You have two ears and one mouth--act accordingly. You can often make deep connections fast by also asking questions, especially those to identify and amplify on a person's hot button: career, family, hobby, health, money, looks, pop culture, etc. Don't just ask questions or you'll seem like an interrogator. Share some thoughts too, perhaps a disclosure about yourself.

In conversation, follow the traffic-light rule: During the first 20 seconds of an utterance, your light is green: You can keep talking with impunity. During the second 20 seconds, your light is yellow: your conversation partner may be starting to think you're long-winded. At the 40-second mark, your light is red. Yes, very occasionally, you want to run a red light and keep talking--for example, if you're telling an anecdote that's clearly interesting not just to you but to your conversation partner. But usually, at the 40-second mark, you should shut up or ask a question. If the person wants to know more, s/he can ask.

Usually, you'll effect more change if, instead of giving advice, you ask questions to help your conversation partner develop his or her own solution. You'll also be better liked because the person feels efficacious rather than shown-up.

Don't try to show how smart, rich, or well-connected you are. Usually, it's wise to prioritize making others feel good about themselves.

Choosing a Career

Do what you love and you may starve. And even if you don't, you're more likely to be unhappy than you might think. Because most people's passions lie in just a few common areas---entertainment, fashion, the environment, helping the have-nots, video games, etc--a zillion people want jobs in such fields. That means that employers can pay poorly and treat employees poorly because a wealth of wannabes is waiting in the wings. And even if you're treated well, you may not be happy--because, for the most part, work is work and because people are as happy as they are, by nature. It may be wiser to choose a career in a less crowded bailiwick because it's usually easier to land a job that has the characteristics that most affect career contentment: an ethical product or service, a good boss and coworkers, reasonable compensation, good learning and promotion opportunities, etc.

Preparing for a Career

School is overrated. Research, for example, this study, ever more clearly demonstrates how frighteningly little students learn in college despite all the time and money. And while yes, most employers demand degrees of their professional-level employees, 5 to 10% get hired without the "required" sheepskin. Before deciding you need to spend that fortune in time and money to get a degree, see if you can get hired without one, perhaps doing your learning at You U: a combination of reading, individual courses, mentors, tutors, conference attending, etc.

Finding a Job

If you ask your network for a job, you'll get advice. If you ask for advice, you may get a job.

Career Success

Dabbling is fun but is often a career killer. Relentlessly focus on becoming the go-to guy/gal at something that can earn you at least a middle-class living. Relentless focus--I've found those two words to be a defining characteristic of most successful people.

Everything matters enough to try. Almost nothing matters enough to get angry.

It's rarely worth fighting your boss. When I first was hired at US News in 2006, my editor changed my articles in ways I thought were wrong. I often argued with him and while I occasionally got my way, I won the battle but lost the war: I was replaced in 2010. Fortunately, I was rehired in 2012 but now, if my editor changes something I wrote, unless it's really important, I let it go. In retrospect, the changes I wanted weren't that crucial. Indeed, once I wrote the cover story for Family Circle and, in error,, it was published without the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs, which made the 4th paragraph a non-sequitur. In the end, the world didn't change even with that significant error in an eight-million-circulation publication. It's important to have perspective: How important is that, really?

Management tip: Intelligence and drive are key and hard to change. Hire for high intelligence and drive and train for skills and information You can far more readily teach people a skill and information than make them smarter or harder-working.

Relationships

Don't judge people by what they say but by what they do. Recent example: Al Gore became famous for saying oil is evil yet he owns five SUVs, a mansion, and flies around in his gas-guzzling private jet. And last week, he took $100 million of that evil oil money so Current TV can be converted to Al Jazeera America.

Choose a low-maintenance romantic partner: someone who is kind to you, doesn't spend a lot, and isn't emotionally fragile. Don't let sexual chemistry trump those critical factors.

Choose friends who bring out the best in you, not those that drag you down.

Family is overrated. Sure, for some people, family is the best thing in their lives. But many people quietly find family more painful than it's worth. After all, you choose your friends while your family is selected for you. Corollary: Even though it's a societal norm, don't reflexively have kids. Few parents will admit it publicly but many feel the restriction of their freedom and the dollar-cost of having kids wasn't worth it. And that assumes you'll have a good relationship with your children: Countless kids and parents have relationships that stay strained for a lifetime.

Money

You probably can't shop your way to contentment. The shopper's high of having acquired that stupid Coach purse quickly dissipates and, like a drug addict, the materialist needs to quickly search for the next dose, often a more expensive one. Buying lots of "stuff" is a fast path to short-term pleasure and long-term misery and perhaps homelessness. It also requires you (or your sugar daddy/mommy) to make lots of money. And most employers who pay employees lots of money do so because the work is difficult, distasteful, spiritually empty, and/or requires absurdly long work hours. That's a high price to pay for designer-label crap, a fancy address or car nameplate. If you find your contentment not in buying "stuff" but in productivity, creative outlets, and relationships, you won't need to pursue such a financially remunerative job but one you'd find more fun--for example, one in the creative arts or for a cause you believe in.

Put your savings in one place where you can diversify at low-cost. That will keep you from getting drowned in paperwork, losing track of where you money is and how it's doing. Most of my savings is in a Vanguard All-in-One Fund. Do maximize your contribution to tax-deferred savings vehicles like an IRA and 401k, which of course, also can be in most mutual funds including Vanguard.

Never try to time the market. Even the vast majority of professional money managers can't. As soon as you get $1,000 or more in money you don't need to keep in your checking or rainy-day account, invest it that day. That way, you'll buy more shares when prices are low and fewer shares when prices are high.

Your Well-Being

Lafayette Reservoir

Rituals are useful respites from our ever-changing lives. Six days a week, I take a 45-minute hike with my doggie Einstein. I go to the same place (the Lafayette Reservoir) every day, never even changing the direction I take around the lake. It's comforting.

Avoid doctors. So many medical errors are made, with more unnecessary deaths and morbidity likely with ObamaCare about to cover 51 million more people: 40 million legals plus 11 million illegals who will become eligible after Obama gets  "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" passed. The medical system is already overtaxed. It will be far more so when ObamaCare kicks in, less than one year from now. You may be wiser to minimize your interaction with the medical system and instead focus on the obvious: control your weight and stress, don't smoke or abuse alcohol or drugs, eat reasonably, and control such conditions as hypertension and diabetes. If you're under 60, it may even be wise to forgo the annual wellness exam. Discuss that with your doctor--or under ObamaCare, ever more likely, your physician assistant or nurse practitioner.

Pick your battles. Especially don't fight a megatrend, for example, America's current move leftward toward more redistribution to society's have-nots. Corollary: You have little chance to change people's foundational views: political, religious, work ethic.

Never look back. My father, a Holocaust survivor, rarely talked about it. When I asked him why, he said, "Martin, the Nazis took five years from my life. I won't give them one minute more. Martin, never look back, always take the next step forward." I can leave you with no better advice.

A Plan for the Long-Term Unemployed to Find Work

You're long-term unemployed and perhaps scared you'll never work again, at least not at the level you used to.

Here's a potent plan for moving forward and finding good work:

1. Do a personal audit. Sure, some people are long-term unemployed just because of bad luck, but the pool of people who are long-term unemployed, is, on average, not as bright, knowledgeable, hard-working, reliable, and enjoyable to work with as is the pool of employed people.

So imagine that all the people who know your work well were in a room. For each of the above attributes, what would be the average report card grade they'd give you. If you're not sure, ask people, perhaps anonymously, perhaps using www.checkster.com. In light of that feedback, do you need to make changes in yourself to avoid being quickly fired or laid off again? To become prouder of yourself?

2. Contact your existing network. They're the most likely to be willing to hire or give a good lead to a long-term unemployed person.

3. Cold-contact realistic employers. A brand-name company or a company in a popular field, for example, fashion, entertainment, or the environment, is too unlikely to have to hire a long-term unemployed person--they usually receive plenty applications from the currently well-employed. You may eventually get to work for a highly selective employer but, as a long-term unemployed person, you probably should, for now, focus on landing a job at a company with less stringent hiring requirements. Here's how:

• Make a list of 20-50 less-competitive employers: non-sexy industries, smaller companies, temp agencies, etc. Don't worry whether an employer lists an appropriate job opening. You're mainly trying to get a job/project created for you so you don't have to compete with hordes for an advertised job. HERE are some sources of employers.
  
• Find the name and contact info of people with the power to hire you: by Googling, databases like Jigsaw, the company operator, etc.
• Phone those employers, or even walk in. Leaving voice-mail is okay. Don't send your resume unless asked--The resume of a long-term-unemployed person highlights that ugly gap in your employment.

4. Consider starting your own very simple business. If I were long-term unemployed and broke, I might, for example, start a shoeshine stand on a busy downtown street. I'd have prominent signage with a catchy name like Shine On, Rise and Shine, Dianne FeinShine, or So Fine Shoe Shine. Once I learned the art and business of shoeshining, I'd set up a trusted friend with another shoeshine stand, asking for a small percentage of sales. I'd keep cloning that business until I was making enough money. Then I'd sell the business and use the proceeds to start another simple business, for example, a soup cart chain called Souper. As a long-term unemployed person, in the above situation, I'm likely to more quickly and probably enjoyably make a middle-class living or even get wealthy doing that than if I tried to convince an employer to pay me a middle-class salary.

5. Go back to school to prepare for a new career. A community college training program can give you a fresh start. Already have a degree? Remember that many people with bachelor's and even graduate degrees return to a community college for practical career training.

But most important, could your being long-term unemployed be a needed wake-up call? What should you do differently on your next job to avoid being dumped again?

How to Land a Good Job in a Bad Market

Here's my next column for the Mensa periodical, The Intelligencer. I thought you might like a look:

Landing a Good Job in a Bad Market

Of course, most want ads get hordes of applicants but most of those don't stand a chance: They're jargon-filled, generic, utterly undistinguished. I'm certainly not advocating silly ploys like including a jar of jalapeno preserves saying, "I can get you out of the hottest jam."

I'm asking you to create an above-average application. Start by playing detective on the employer's site: That's a way to learn its priorities and how it likes to portray itself. Dirt on the employer is more likely found by Googling it--Don't forget Google's blog and news searches. Use LinkedIn, your alumni directory, etc., to find people at the organization with whom you're connected. Try to set up an in-person or phone chat on what the employer is like and what to emphasize in an application.

In applying, if your resume is unlikely to be top-of-the-heap, for example, you're a career changer or have a gap in employment, consider substituting a bio. That allows you to highlight only what you want. A resume is a tool to help employers--it lays all of you bare. As with clothing, most of us look better with some parts hidden.

Your cover letter and resume should be devoid of clichéd job-seeker language such as "I'm a self-starter seeking an opportunity with a dynamic company." That leaches all chemistry and credibility from your application: The employer will feel s/he's reading from a job-hunting book not from the candidate. Do tell PAR stories: a problem you faced, how you approached it, and its positive resolution. Choose stories that would impress your target employer. That's a key rule: Everything you do in the job search should be subjected to this test: "Would this make this employer more likely to hire me?"

Do put your Mensa membership on your resume. The right employers will like it; the wrong ones won't.

If possible, with your application, include one or more pieces of collateral material . One of my clients applied for a sales job with a government contractor. He included a list of 50 federal decisionmakers he'd call if he got the job. Another client, a career changer, to show the employer that he knew a lot about hospital management, wrote a three-page White Paper called, Keys to Effective Hospital Management in 2012 and Beyond. He did the research for that paper just as he might have a term paper in school: by synthesizing articles he found on Google.

Of course, at least half of jobs are obtained through a connection. List the people in your network. Twenty-five is good, 50 is better. Next to each name, decide if it's best to just email them, invite them for coffee, dinner, to a party, visit them at their office, etc. When you contact them, ask if your resume makes them want to hire you. Then ask if they know of anyone you should talk with. If not, ask if they'd keep their ears open and if you're still looking in a month, would they mind if you followed up. That recruits them as a scout--they're more likely to hear of something during the month than just when you contacted them.

If your network is paltry or used up, you'll need to expand it. Could you volunteer somewhere you'd have face-time with potential employers, for example, on a non-profit board? Get active in a church? Join a service club such as Rotary? A hobby group such as an investment club or dog-owner's meetup? A political organization? Of course, go to more Mensa events--Hey, even the Intelligencer Peel-and-Stick party might help!

Importantly, even in a lousy job market, it's important to vet potential employers. During the interview, ask questions such as, "Why is this position vacant?," "What kind of problems would you most hope I'd solve?," "What would you hope I'd accomplish in the first 90 days that would help my boss get a gold star?" After being offered the job, ask to visit the workplace. There, assess the vibe: Do most employees seem content? Hang out in the break room. Ask questions like, "What should I know about working here that might not appear in the employee handbook?

Especially in this job market, there sure are no guarantees, but those are my best bets for landing a good job in a bad market.

The secret to landing a job when not the most qualified: Love, yes love

Unless your resume is likely to be top-of-the stack, the secret to getting hired is to get the employer to love you.

Love you?! What?! It's not as crazy or as difficult as it may first seem.

Most employers' first thought is to do a broad search to find the very best candidate. To abandon that rationality requires a strong positive feeling for a job candidate. In other words, the employer loves that person.

How do you get an employer to love you? Basically, it's a matter of being more human, more honest than most candidates. When it works, doing that opens the door to an honest, intimate relationship in which the employer too reveals weaknesses and insecurities and, on the positive side, is open to laughing and being their true self with the person. Such interactions, sometimes sooner than later, lead to affection and, in turn, openness to the possibility of hiring the person for a current or future job opening, or even creating a job or at least project position for the person.

Of course, most of the time, that will not help the person land a job. An employer may well always opt to go for the strongest candidate he can find. Or she may decide that the weaknesses you describe would make you too weak an employee. Or he may view your very candor as weakness and/or that you'll be high maintenance. Or it may take so long that before anyone offers you a decent job, you're homeless.

But on average, if job seekers, indeed all of us, take the time to create true deep connections and friendships with potential employers and others, it will not only enrich your and their lives, it may be the most potent way to improve your career.

What's new and potent on job seeking, procrastination, self-employment, and thriving despite long-term unemployment

Here's the handout I'll distribute at my presentation at Grace Cathedral this Monday, Mar. 7, 2011 at 9 am. If you'd like to request a reservation to this free event, they want you to email marnemko-gw@yahoo.com.

What's New and Potent
re job seeking, procrastination, self-employment, and thriving despite long-term unemployment

Marty Nemko
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, Mar. 7, 2011

IN JOB-SEEKING

I . For most people, there is no one right career. And the risk/reward ratio of waiting too long to pick is poor. As long as a career meets your career non-negotiables (e.g., uses an ability you love using,) pick something, even if it doesn't make you ecstatic. Career happiness, if it is to come, usually does so only after you've become the go-to guy/go-to girl, have good coworkers, etc.

II. Today, unless you're a star, landing a good job usually requires an A+ job search:

A. Strong internet/social media presence: a high-quality targeted Twitter stream and perhaps a blog or website, linked to Facebook and certainly LinkedIn. There, your goal: 10+ excellent recommendations

B. You or your champion submits a work product that makes your target employer want to hire you. Examples:

* White Paper. e.g., an aspiring CFO describes the top 10 trends in C-level financial work in a particular industry.
* Mini business plan--for example, the one I described regarding succession planning.
* Teaching portfolio including video.
* Under-the-radar sales-prospect list.
* An applicant sensing a fluid job description, writes a post-interview thank-you note that tactfully proposes a reinvented job description that would be better for the employer and for which the candidate is an ideal fit.

C. Ahead-of-the-pack cover letters and resumes. Sometimes that means prove, not just assert, your ability to be a superior employee in the applied-for position. Especially when you aren't superior, undersell, subtly appealing to emotion. Example:

Hello Sandy,

It was so nice of you to speak with me today. One of your first questions was for me to say a little something about myself. I'd like to say a little more, if I may.

If you look at my resume, you'll see that I worked at that little store for eight years. I worked there until it shut its doors. I was there so long because I liked it, and although I'm embarrassed to admit it, it was just easier to stay. Because of that, I didn't think about what I wanted to do next.

After the store closed, I discovered a career I had never heard of: prospect research. It sounded like something I'd love to do. So if you hire me (it was for a clerk position--$45K) it would be a first step toward that goal. Plus it would help a worthy organization like X hospital.

So that's my story. Forgive me for not being able to articulate that more clearly in our phone call.

I'm excited about the possibility of working for you but if it turns out I'm not the right person, I hope you find the perfect candidate.

Sincerely,

D. Certainly, no cheesiness, for example, clichés (I delight in exceeding customer expectations) or hyperbole (e.g., "Have an awesome day!") in cover letters, resumes, interviewing, networking

E. Call-email-call-call.

F. Talk less; listen more and better. (These are crucial!)

G. New forms of support
* A "board of directors"
* Co-peer-mentoring: Every week or more often if desired, support and gently counsel a friend for 10-15 minutes on an issue of his or her choice. Then switch roles. Tip: Just venting usually makes things worse. Have a solution-focused discussion.

H. Go to a professional conference; pitch yourself to exhibitors--that gives you easy access to many higher-ups.

I. When you start on your new job, ask sufficient questions. Early on, get a visible win(s.)

IN REDUCING YOUR PROCRASTINATION

1. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

2. Make it fun.

3. Become beholden to a loved one, support group, etc.

4. Picture the benefits of getting the task done--for example, getting your spouse off your back.

5. Jump-start yourself by doing the first one-second task--maybe it's open a computer file. That's not intimidating. Then do the next one-second task and the next one-second task, and soon, you're likely to be rolling.

6. The one-minute struggle. When you reach a roadblock, struggle for just 60 seconds. If you haven't yet made progress, you're unlikely to. Get help or go on.

7. Where would you place yourself on the continuum from parasite to host? Want to change?

IN BECOMING SUCCESSFULLY SELF-EMPLOYED

Even smart generalists worry about their viability in an era of specialization. Be the glue that brings and holds together experts re a project or business.

Don't innovate; replicate.

Ask business owners and other higher-ups: "What's annoying?" A person thus started a biz planting Realtor signs. Another person shuttles a corporation's workers between headquarters and a remote site.

Other simple self-employment ideas: clean out people's garages and basements. wellness coach, gourmet trucks, wellness coaching, niche college counseling: athletes, artists, financial aid.

Key to successful small biz: Be cheap. Usually start by thinking, "How can I get this for free?" For example, "Instead of renting, could I get a friend's apartment that's empty during the day?"

Want to start a biz creating a web or mobile app? Check out ycombinator.com.

IN COPING WITH LONG -TERM UNEMPLOYMENT

How I could live well on $20,000 a year.

A simple, often effective approach to reducing your fear:

1. Realize that all of us deserve to not be shackled by worry, even if you've made mistakes. We all have.

2.As soon as a worrisome thought enters your consciousness, quickly replace it with a productive activity.

3. If you can't thus distract yourself, ask yourself, What's the most likely positive outcome?" That will likely ease your anxiety. Then ask yourself, "What's the worst that's likely to happen? How could I cope with that?" You could, couldn't you?

For example, what if you never get any paying job again, even not a Wal-Mart greeter job? Per The New Republic, welfare benefits in Mississippi = 60K in earnings. (In the Bay Area, it would likely be even more.)

Occasionally, all it takes to stop drinking/doing drugs is to remind yourself why you're stopping and to rehearse what you'll do at danger times.

Q&A

The lesson in my Dad's story: Never look back; always take the next baby step forward.

Extraordinary Job Search Tactics for Extraordinary Times

Today, if you're looking for a decent job, it's rarely enough to just write a good resume and cover letter, and interview well.

Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. Here are some:

Buy Google AdWords for the names of bosses you want to work for. Like most of us, your target bosses probably like to google themselves frequently. Imagine if they saw a sponsored ad from you saying, "Isn't googling yourself fun? So's hiring me. (insert a link to your LinkedIn profile or website.)

Rewrite the job description in your image. Often, in reading a job description, you can tell that the employer isn't quite sure what s/he's looking for, or that it was a job description written by committee and so it includes so many requirements that Superman would be screened out.

Rewrite the job description so it seems optimal for the employer and well-suited to you. Acknowledge that your version of the job description is borne of limited knowledge of the employer but that it, at minimum, provides a sample of the way you think.

Take charge of part of the interview. This is risky; assess the vibe in the room before trying it. But especially if it seems like the employer is looking for a take-charge person, ask, for example, if you might go to the whiteboard to describe how you'd proceed if hired.

Send more than a thank-you note. For example, you might include an outline of what you'd do if hired. I recall a candidate for a sales job who sent a list of 50 prospects at government agencies he'd pitch if hired. He was hired immediately.

Have someone call on your behalf. Ask your most eloquent advocate to call (leaving voicemail is okay) the hiring manager and say something like, "I hear Joe Jones is applying for the job as VP operations. I want to let you know that I know him well and I think he'd be a magnificent hire." (insert basis for that assertion.)

If someone else got hired, call the hiring manager. Say something like, "Of course, I was disappointed that I didn't get the position. I'm confident I could have done a great job for you. But I'm not calling to ask you to reconsider, only that if for some reason the person you hired doesn't work out or another position comes open for which I might be well suited, I'd like to hear from you. I really enjoyed meeting you and would welcome working for you."

Where the Job is Won or Lost: AFTER the Interview

By tbe time the job interview(s) is done, the typical job seeker is glad to just dash off a perfunctory thank-you note and be done with it.

Alas, in our ever more competitive job market, one of the other interviewees is likely to have just started to compete for the job.That job seeker engages in what the Five O'Clock Club calls post-interview activism. For example:

• In your thank-you note, include a proposal for what you might do for that employer, for example, "In light of our interview, it would seem helpful if I (insert a bold set of activities.")

• If you flubbed a question in the interview, write, "I've thought more about (insert question.) On reflection (insert smarter answer.)
  

• Write an individualized letter to each interviewer, stating what you appreciated about that person and perhaps what work you might do for that person if hired.

• Write a few-page white paper addressing an employer need.

• Overnight a book that would address a need expressed by an interviewer.

• Have someone call the hiring decisionmaker on your behalf: "I hear Joe Jones is applying for a position as (insert your target job.) I just wanted to put my two cents in. You'd be very wise to hire him."

Usually, key to getting and staying well-employed is being smart, skilled, motivated, and low-maintenance. But ahead-of-the-pack job-search strategies such as being a post-interview activist can help.

The Seven-Day Job Search

I've found this approach to be one that works best for the most people. 

Cramming the guts of your job search into one week avoids the burnout that comes from a drips-and-drabs job search. 

Also, it maximizes the chances of your getting multiple job offers at the same time. That enables you to pick the best one rather than settle for the job you finally landed after months of job searching.

Day 1: Create your resume using Resumemaker.

Day 2: Create a 10-second pitch that describes the sort of job you're looking for: for example, "a tech-light job that requires a great people and project management skills." 

Create a 60-second pitch, that tells the story of how you've come to be looking for that job now. 

Ask a reference librarian in the business section of a major library to help you develop a list of 20 target employers. Major libraries subscribe to many databases. 

Day 3:  By email or phone, give your 10- and/or 60-second pitch to the 20 people in your professional and personal network most likely to know someone who could hire you for the kind of job you desire. Ask if they know anyone at the target employers you identified in Day 2. If so, ask if they'd make a call of introduction on your behalf or even set up an in-person meeting. If not, ask if they know someone else you should speak with.

Days 4 and 5: Write a form letter to the 20 target employers and any others that the 20 people in your network suggested. Have your letter include:

•   the name, if any, of the person who referred you to that organization. 
•  your 10-second pitch 
• a few highlights of your career that would impress your target employers.  
• Customize your letter with one paragraph explaining why you selected that employer.  No need to research the employer extensively: 5 to 15 minutes is enough. Just Google it, and then scan the employer's site and perhaps one or two others. Then craft your paragraph.
  
• "I'd welcome the opportunity to meet so we could assess if I might be helpful to the organization and/or to get any advice as to where I might otherwise turn. " 
  

Day 6: Answer any appropriate want ads on your 20 employers' websites or on simplyhired.com, indeed.com, usajobs.gov or your state or local government's website. 

Wait two or three days. Then:

Day 7: Phone the target employers you contacted on Day 5 to follow up. Leave voice mail if necessary. Typical message: "I'm the former Dynastar manager who's recently moved here to San Francisco and wrote to you about a possible interview. I'm assuming that, not having heard from you, you're not interested, but I know things can fall between the cracks, so I'm taking the liberty of calling to follow up."

The interviews should start coming in.

A more detailed presentation of the one-week job search is on my site.

Job Search Advice from a "Spiritual Atheist" perspective

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.

Amazing Resume Software

I just got a copy of the latest version (version 15) of ResumeMaker. ($29.95) In addition to being a superior tool for creating or revising your resume, it

• helps you create cover letters
• automatically posts your resume on 80 major job sites
• blasts your resume to a zillion employers (Actually, very occasionally, you can get a job that way--and because the risk is so low, why not try--unless you need to keep your employer or others from knowing you're job searching.)
• Prepares you for your interviews with a video tutorial in which you can record and listen to your practice answers.
  

Candidly, I have not yet had time to try this latest version out and am swamped, but I'd bet anything, it's well worth the $29.95.

If you've tried ResumeMaker, feel free to post your reviews as a comment here.