WHY DO I WANT TO TEACH YOU TO BE GOOD AT FINDING A JOB BEFORE I WILL HIRE YOU?

David said, “Every day, I want working here to be your best option.” David is the founder of the company I work for, and we were discussing what would go into my employment contract. It is standard, in this industry, for people in my position to have two year non-compete clauses, which mean that if I quit the job, I could not work at what I do for two years.

I did not want to have such a clause, but the amazing thing was that David did not want me to either. He and I both knew how important it is to know that you choose to do what you do, not that you are doing it because you have no choice. That conversation took place 15 years ago. I’m still here, and happy, even though I have never worked at a place where it is easier to go somewhere else.

Most people aren’t bound by a clause in a contract. Their constraints come from an inability to create choices for themselves. Or, they can’t see the options staring them in the face. During hard times, they will take the first job that comes along because they feel they have no choice. When times get better, they will jump at the first opportunity to jump ship, without doing the due diligence it takes to determine if they will be better off. Finally, they have a choice, so they feel compelled to move, discounting the value of the choice to stay put, or mustering the courage to ask for something better of from the boss.

The ironic thing is that almost all employers require that you be good at finding a job before they will hire you.

The difference is that, I don’t require you to be good at it before we first meet.

I went to a jobs fair, not to find work, but to interview HR people and recruiters to learn how to better help NSoW readers.

I asked the head of HR for a large firm, “What do you look for in a job candidate?”

“I want a well formatted resume, and their cover letter must be well written. They must be good at presenting themselves in a positive light. They must know all about our business and our needs. They need to look sharp; dress for the part. They need to be personable; at ease in the interview.”

“They need to be good at finding a job.”

“Correct.”

“And they have to know how to sell themselves?”

“That’s right.”

“Is it a sales job?”

“No. We’re hiring engineers.”

“But I don’t get it.” I was astonished. “Most good engineers I know are nothing like that; they are introverts, they don’t look you in the eye, they don’t have a business sense, they can’t sell for beans, and they dress like slobs. They have spent their time honing their engineering skills, not their people skills. And the last thing I think you’d need your engineers to be good at is finding someone else to work for.”

Suddenly he remembered he had to do something else, and the conversation came to a screeching halt.

I bet if I hired engineers the way he does, I wouldn’t get the best engineers, I’d get the best people at convincing me they are. And, they will leave because it is easier for them to convince someone else somewhere else, than to actually be a good engineer for me.

So, before I hire you, I want you to be good at most of what I need you to do. And be a good enough student to learn the rest. If you are good at finding a job, I won’t hold it against you, but if you aren’t, let’s work on that.

First you need to be good at creating choices before you and I can determine if working for me is your best choice.

But there is another reason to be good at it.

The skills you need to be good at finding a job are skills you need to be maximally effective at doing the work I want you to do.

Let’s take networking, for example. Most “networkers” give networking a bad name. When they lose their jobs, your acquaintenances suddenly want to become your best friends. They will have discovered a fascination with how well your children are doing. Yet, if they land a job by December, they won’t return your Christmas card.

That’s not what networking is all about. It is about making deposits in the Karma Bank. It’s about being useful to others, and not keeping score. And, it’s about asking for help, but only from people who can give it, in a way that doesn’t piss them off, and that allows them to bow out gracefully. It’s about being someone people want to spend time with, not about spending people’s time.

Almost all the people I know are interesting, and charming , and will help you if they can. But when they become unemployed, they withdraw and become depressed and are of little use to anyone. Or they become self-centered, shallow, and pushy – in short, they become their own worst image of a bad salesman. Both these reactions are natural, common, and forgivable. But would you want to hire someone like that? I don’t.

Most employers want to hire you only if you are currently working somewhere else and already doing what they want done. They do this because they they think that if your boss wants you, they probably do too. They also do it because the employed come with less expressed baggage than the unemployed.

But there are downsides for me in hiring someone currently doing what I want.

I like to feel that working for me will be a step up for you. If you are coming from the unemployment line, that’s easy. And if you don’t work out, I want to be able to send you back, without you being worse off. Few employers will t take you back, but the unemployment line will.

Also, if you want to work for me doing the same thing you are unhappy doing for someone else, perhaps the problem is that the work and you aren’t a good fit. Or it once was, but now it is time to move on to something new.

In conclusion, you don’t need to be good at creating choices for yourself right now, but I would like you to be by the time we both have to make a decision. You don’t need to be already doing what I need you to do, but if you learn much of what the job entails between now and when I make a decision, I won’t hold that against you. In fact, if you can learn things quickly, it is evidence you’ll easily learn the rest after I hire you. If you learn things with a spirit of adventure, and because you have a love of learning, and not just because I said so, then you are much more likely to be the kind of person I, and others, want to hire.

My approach might seem upside down and backwards, but there is a certain logic to it, and it works for me. It might work for you too, and reap benefits even if I don’t hire you. If I don’t choose you, you will still have given me something very valuable; a choice. I hope I can show you how to create choices too.

- Brooke Allen

PS: Someone just wrote to ask if this some kind of come-on, and if I’m going to try to sell training to you. The answer is: absolutely not. I do not charge the people who work for me to learn things – I pay for their education. And if someone wants to learn something from me before I hire them, I do not charge for that either. I always wanted to be a teacher, but it doesn’t pay nearly as well as running the business I run with the well-educated people I’ve hired.