Medford mail tribune., January 25, 1959, Image 35

REAPPRAISE YOURSELF
Reappraise yourself. Now is the time to be
coldly objective about what you can do and
what you can't. Also, now is the time to face up
to your liabilities, the sources of your fears, and
see if they are not perhaps your best assets.
First, there is the question of age. Somehow the
notion has caught hold that an older man out of
a job is licked. If he feels licked, he'll look it, and
then he is licked.
A pitifully frightened man once came to me. At
51, he had spent virtually his whole working life
with a parts manufacturer, finally becoming
secretary-treasurer before he was forced out. For
some years he had differed with another officer,
and when the rival was promoted to executive
vice-president, he obviously was washed up.
When he came to me, he proposed tinting his
sideburns so he'd look younger. Hopefully, he
kept emphasizing his possession of a string of
college degrees, never mentioning how those
degrees could go to work for a new company. But
mostly the man emphasized his fear of getting a
bad reference from the executive v-p.
When I finally got him to reappraise himself
coolly, he was able to see how his many years
with the company, his degrees, and the soundness
of his policies despite the rivalry of the man who
fired him had helped the company grow four
times over during the 10 years it was under his
financial leadership. He soon became the financial
officer of a major furniture company.
On the matter of reappraising yourself, there is
another vital point Perhaps you didn't like the job
you lost in the first place, and the reason you lost
it was that it was so dull your initiative shriveled
or so tension-ridden that your best energies were
wasted Perhaps getting fired is the cue to take
your experience and invade a whole new field.
I am thinking of a purchasing agent who once
came to me, shaken because his department had
been cut down and he had been pink-slipped. At
the same time, he was obviously greatly relieved.
"The job was a dead end, anyhow," he told me.
"My immediate superior was the works manager.
I could never hope to become works manager,
simply because I don't know how to run the works.
But what I do know is how to work with engineers
who specify what products they want to buy."
This man was a sales manager's dream, a com
biner of ambition, enthusiasm and, most important
of all, knowledge. As a purchasing agent he had
been earning $9,000 a year. In his first years as
a salesman, he moved up modestly to $9,600, then
accomplished that difficult leap into five figures.
He had reappraised himself and started a whole
new career.
In fact, this man was a perfect illustration of
my third point
. if
RE-ESTABLISH YOUR GOALS
Re-establish your goals. Ask yourself, "Where
do I want to be in five years?"
When you plan a tour with a road map, you
can't pick a route until first you have picked a
destination. I am constantly amazed at the number
of men who reach forks in their life-roads, and
make choices without really deciding where they
are trying to go.
Every man in a job, as well as out of one, ought
to know what kind of job he would like to hold in
five years. Some men go further and develop 10-,
15-, even 20-year goals. These are the men who
make things happen they don't wait for lucky
breaks they know exactly where they are headed
every step of the way.
Your five-year goal should be a practical but
ambitious one. Just having chosen it will give you
new impetus in getting there.
Once having set your goal, ask yourself: "What
does the job require?" Make a list of the qualifica
tions you would require if you were hiring a man
for the job. If you don't know them, find a man
holding such a job and ask him.
You may be surprised to learn you are reason
ably well-qualified for the job, or perhaps an even
better one, right now.
But most likely your list will show that you
need some lateral experience before you can reach
your five-year goal. By lateral experience, I mean
you must move not ahead but sideways to acquire
knowledge of a related field.
In a garage, for example, a first-rate ignition
man to become service manager must learn a good
deal about servicing motors. The same principle
applies in any organization right up to the office
of president
An advertising salesman for a top national
magazine once came to my office, frustrated. He
knew he was not located properly. He kept want
ing to advise his customers how to improve their
ads, but his job was merely to sell space. Even
more frustrating, he sometimes felt that the
makers of certain products ought to get out of
his magazine, that they would get better results
from another.
Once he clarified these frustrations in his mind,
he changed fields. He went to work in the ad
vertising department of a housewares company,
where he could help plan the use of advertising
space. The change meant a cut in earnings from
$9,000 to $7,800. Now he is advertising director,
planning where to advertise as well as how to
advertise. He is the right man in the right job,
properly trained, and he has more than regained
his temporary reduction in pay.
Once you have selected your five-year goal and
picked your next step along the way, you are
ready for the final phase.
SELL YOURSELF
Sell yourself as you would a product. This
means, first of all, planning a campaign.
As though selling a product, you must now draw
up a list of prospective customers, a complete list.
You needn't know if each of these prospects has
an opening. If you sell yourself effectively, he
might create one.
In your letter to these prospects, you must keep
four things in mind.
(1) you are offering a service instead of
asking for a job;
(2) you are appealing to your prospect's
self-interest, not your own;
(3) you must be specific about the job you
want and your qualifications for it; and
(4) you should back up every statement
of your ability with evidence.
Most job applicants prepare resumes, simple lists
of all their past jobs. I urge you not to follow this
practice. As a magazine once quipped, "A resume
is a list of your old jobs that pretty well cancels
out your chances of getting a new one."
An effective job sales letter tells a prospect about
the problems you faced, how you solved them,
and what the results were. Thus, you are appealing
to the employer's self-interest by demonstrating
how you would proceed to solve his problems. You
are showing him how your mind works, and what
you are selling, after all, is your mind.
A good letter to a good list of prospects often
will bring several invitations to interviews, opening
several choices of jobs. The more possibilities you
open, the better you can road-map the course of
your own life.
It may seem strange, but a capable man has a
better chance in today's competitive climate than
he does when the economic pot is bubbling over.
When business is fine, most employers are inclined
to leave well enough alone. But when competition
gets rough, the employer cannot afford less than
the best man he can get If he suspects that you've
got it, he'll be inclined to let you prove it.
It's an old saw, but my experience has taught
, me it's a sound one: "There's always plenty of
room at the top."
But you've got to plan if you want to get there!
Few jobs are closed at the first interview, so
it is important to follow up with a letter thanking
the employer for the interview and reviewing the
points that seemed to interest him.
During the interview, one of the most difficult
subjects to discuss is how much money you want
If at all possible, this subject should be saved for
the last Naturally, the job seeker fears that if he
asks too much he'll talk himself out of a job. But
it's just as bad to ask for too little.
The best guide is to look up someone holding a
similar job and get his advice.
Family Weekly, January 2i, 1951