The Job Search Solution

The Ultimate System for Finding a Great Job Now!

Author: Tony Beshara
Pub Date: 2007
Your Price: $24.95
ISBN: 0814473326
Format: Hardcover

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Chapter 6
Common Myths and the Realities About Hiring

There are many myths about hiring that can lead job candidates off in the wrong direction. If you are prepared, your search will be easier. This chapter will discuss the myths and realities of the hiring process.

Myth #1: Hiring authorities and companies really know what they're doing when it comes to hiring. A good part of this book addresses the fact that most hiring authorities, managers, and companies don't really know what they're doing when it comes to hiring. They have a vague idea of a process-some do it better than others, and some are even surprisingly successful. You should expect idiosyncrasies, inconsistencies, and relative chaos.

Myth #2: Companies approach hiring with common sense, logic, and good business acumen and consistency. Consistency in hiring, even from day to day, is a myth. Don't expect common sense, logic, or consistency. There is nothing you can do about this reality, so you need to accept it and deal with it because that is the way it is. Common sense isn't very common.

Myth #3: The human-resources department streamlines the hiring process. Most people running HR departments in U.S. businesses are not decision makers. They are record-keepers and their presence blossomed in the late 1960s when the push for Equal Employment Opportunity began. At that time, the function of the HR department was to keep track of interviewing and hiring and to be able to answer any governmental investigations about hiring practices. Over the years, human resources gained tremendous responsibility and, since the department was keeping records about hiring, the initial functions of recruiting and hiring fell into HR's purview when hiring authorities were just too busy or too inept to do it themselves. Because the initial stages of interviewing and hiring are an interruption in the flow of everyday business, it was easy to rationalize someone else doing the activities.

The problem with an HR department initiating the hiring process is that its personnel don't normally know or understand the give-and-take of experience and background that a particular department might need. Most HR departments are not capable of assessing the total package of a less-than-perfect candidate. The bottom line is: You do not want to seek a job through the efforts of a human resources person.

I am not saying that no one ever gets hired through the HR department. It happens occasionally. I have known many wonderful people who work in HR departments. However, they are not hiring authorities.

Myth #4: I can find a job on the Internet. In my humble opinion, posting your résumé on the Internet or chasing a job on the website of a company that posts on the Internet is mostly a boondoggle. Do the math. If the studies are correct, only 2 percent to 5 percent of the people pursuing a job on the Internet get interviews, so your odds are very poor. So don't be misguided into thinking that you can post your résumé on the hundreds of job boards that are out there and expect to get interviews or be hired. (I discussed posting your résumé in Chapter 3.)

Where the Internet can help you is by giving you a lot of information about companies that you might approach. The Internet can give you wonderful background information about companies, their competitors, their industry, their growth or lack of it, and so forth. It can help you find the names and telephone numbers of hiring authorities in those organizations. Then, armed with that information, you can pick up the phone and call them. Use the script I've given you earlier in this book.

Now, if you are in a profession that is in high demand, like the medical profession, healthcare, or certain types of narrow, niche professions, just posting your résumé on any one of a number of professional job boards will get you lots of activity. But unless you are in one of those very rare professions, the probability of you finding a job on the Internet isn't good.

Myth #5: There is a time formula for finding a job. For years there used to be all kinds of time formulas predicting how long it would take a candidate to find a job based on the amount of money he or she made. Whoever came up with this idea wasn't living in the real world. How long it takes to find a job depends on what you do and the market for it. Duh! If you did software maintenance and made $90,000 in 2000 and your job got shipped off to India, you're probably still looking for a job and delivering pizza at night. There is absolutely no way of anybody being able to predict how long it's going to take anyone to find a job.

Myth #6: You can find your dream job. There have been more than twenty-five books written, nine that I have read, that address how to find your dream job. I cannot tell you the countless number of candidates I have interviewed over the years who have read books about finding their dream jobs. These candidates honestly, seriously thought that just because they described their perfect job, it exists and-what's more-they were going to get it. For any job, your probability of getting it depends on your ability to perform. My dream job is to play basketball for the Dallas Mavericks. I know that I am fifty-seven years old, 5 feet 11 inches tall, and flat-footed, and can't dribble with my left hand; but, by God, that's my dream job, and I want it!

Just because someone dreams about being in a particular type of position doesn't mean it will automatically happen. Now, if people are in the economic position where they don't have to work to feed their family, pay a mortgage, or pay a car note, and they wish to pursue their dream of being an actor, stunt pilot, writer, musician, or whatever, that's okay, I guess.

So, if your dream job has nothing to do with your ability, experience, or aptitude, you aren't going to get it. If your ability is commensurate with your dream, like, say a basketball wunderkind like LeBron James, then dream on and don't stop. I assure you that if LeBron James changed his dream to be the CFO of J.P. Morgan Chase next year, he'd have the same luck I would playing for the Mavericks.

Myth #7: I've paid my dues, so now someone will pay me what I'm really worth. This idea ranks close to the top of egocentric self-centeredness. It usually comes from people who are told they are underpaid and underappreciated by everyone except the people who really matter-their present employer. Employers are going to hire you based on what they need, not what you need. Other people care only about what you want to the extent that they get what they want. What you deserve and the dues you've paid couldn't be farther from their mind.

Myth #8: Since I'm looking for a job anyway, this is probably a good time to change careers. In this scenario, a candidate has usually been in a particular type of business or a profession for a number of years. For one reason or another, this person thinks it is possible to change careers and somebody is going to pay him or her on the same level of his or her previous or current employment.

Well, some people might be able to change careers, but they have to start all over learning a new career in the same way they learned the current one. And that is assuming that their ability to perform in a new career will be equal to their ability to perform in the old career. It doesn't always follow. Just be aware that if you change careers, you are likely to start taking a very significant-if not huge-setback in earnings and start your business life all over.

Myth #9: If I change jobs, I need to make more money. Well, depending on the economy and the market for your particular skills, this may or may not be realistic. If you are out of work in a tough economy, finding any job at all, regardless of the pay, may be a necessity. But it is a bit misguided to insist that in changing jobs you will always get more money.

Myth #10: An MBA or graduate degree makes me a better candidate. It is a myth that an MBA or any other kind of a graduate degree, in the business setting, will automatically get you a better position or more money. This may be true in academic circles or pure scientific organizations where a Ph.D. can get you a promotion. In the majority of businesses in the United States, however, having an MBA or graduate degree doesn't get you a better job or more money.

In thirty-one years of doing this line of work, I have never seen a candidate hired just because he or she had an MBA or any other graduate degree. Now, I have seen situations where an MBA was preferred and since the employer suggested the advanced degree as a criterion, the company limited itself to interviewing candidates with an MBA. However, the MBA was not the reason that the successful candidate was hired.

Universities sell the idea that an MBA is going to make you a better businessperson. Universities love MBA programs because these programs are cheaper to run than any other kind of graduate program. The ratio of student to professor is extremely high so these kinds of graduate programs pay for the scientific and technical graduate programs where the student/professor ratio is very low. MBA programs help universities pay for all of the graduate programs that do not make money.

The truth is that people who get graduate degrees are also people who are diligent about many other things, including their jobs and their careers. These kinds of people would get ahead anyhow, with or without the graduate degree. People with MBAs make more money than employees who don't have one. But it's not because of the MBA. They are the kind of people who want to do better, and, since America seems to promote the idea that more education is better, these people get MBAs. They would wind up being successful anyhow, with or without the MBA.

Myth #11: The most qualified candidate gets the job. The candidates who get the jobs are the candidates who sell themselves the best in the interviewing process. More often than not, the most qualified candidates are not hired unless they sell themselves better to the hiring organization.

I cannot overemphasize that qualifications are the 10 percent to 20 percent threshold that needs to be crossed over to get the interviewing opportunity. But 80 percent to 90 percent of getting a job comes down to the people who are not only reasonably qualified but who sells themselves the best in the interviewing process.

Myth #12: I know I'm good; just get me in front of them. This is the egotistical approach to interviewing. These candidates usually assess their success and ability based on the job they are in currently or the one they had been in most recently. Unfortunately, this kind of attitude does not take into account the competition candidates are going to encounter in the interviewing process. Candidates with this arrogant attitude have no idea how difficult the interviewing process is going to be. They may well be in for a rude surprise.

Myth #13: Interviewing and hiring is a two-way street. The idea that interviewing is an equal give-and-take on the part of the candidate and the employer is simply not true. The interviewing process is a one-way street, at least for most of the process, and that one-way street belongs to the hiring authority. The reason is simple: In most interviewing situations, the employer has several qualified candidates who are available to do the job. The objective is for the candidate to sell himself or herself as hard as possible to the offer. The candidate can then qualify the opportunity. Then, and only then, does the interviewing process become a two-way street.

Myth #14: Offshoring and outsourcing are killing jobs in America. This is not a myth but a very misguided statement. Every fifteen years or so, we hear that America is going to be devastated by outsourcing jobs to companies that use cheap foreign labor or by offshoring, which is when domestic companies establish divisions in another country to take advantage of the same cheap labor. While it is true some people lose their jobs to cheaper foreign labor, the predicted impact has never been as devastating as feared.

Today, especially in the technology sectors of business, the fear of U.S. jobs being lost to India, Russia, or Brazil runs rampant. However, outsourcing has always been with us. It is part of American free enterprise. The manufacturing and call center jobs that were moved in the late 1960s and early 1970s from major metropolitan cities to many rural cities in the United States, where labor was cheaper, are now being sent to foreign countries.

A cheap labor market will attract a lot of demand. When the demand for that cheap labor market increases, wages go up here in America or anywhere in the world. Eventually the cost advantage of so-called cheap labor is no longer cheap, so the jobs either come back to the United States or move to another part of the world. Then the cycle repeats itself.

One of the reasons that offshoring and outsourcing are currently such a large issue is that because of technology the practice can take place in more countries faster than we ever dreamed. Therefore, it affects more people than ever before. 

America taught the world free enterprise, ingenuity, hard work, and innovation-and now these principles are being used to compete with the United States. We have a choice. We can curse the darkness that we perceive the world to be doing to us by using the principles we taught them or we can take those same principles of free enterprise, ingenuity, hard work, and innovation and use them to compete with the rest of the world. In order to compete though, we have to be better and work harder.

Myth #15: If you're really good, people will want to hire you and you will always have a job. Try selling this myth to most of the IT, telecommunications, electronics, and manufacturing people who have been either laid off or downsized in recent years. Some of these people have been looking for jobs for two or three years. They're really, really good people. There is just no market for their skills.

Myth #16: I want to find the last job or company for the rest of my career so I'll never have to change jobs again. Unless you are sixty-two years old and plan to retire at sixty-five, this concept is really misguided and borders on mythical. The average job is going to last from two to three years-either within the same company or at a new one. Now, you may beat the averages; and the opportunity that you find may last for the rest of your working career. Probabilities of this scenario are not very great. So, you need to be prepared to change jobs every two to three years. You may not like it, but that is reality.

Myth #17: I know the market for my skills. This statement is usually followed by one that states that since the candidate keeps up on his or her industry or profession by reading and keeping in contact with people in the same profession, he or she knows exactly what the market will bear in looking for a new opportunity. This is a misguided concept.

There is a large difference between knowing a general, broad, overall market and actually finding a specific job opportunity that might be of value to both parties. Since people don't look for jobs that often, they really don't know what the market for their skills is.

Myth #18: Networking is the only way to go. Concentrating on any single method of finding a job is misguided. Most people begin looking for a job in several different ways. They will start out doing networking, contacting recruiters, talking to previous employers and subordinates, and so forth. By the fourth week, however, most of these people will focus only on one or two means to get interviews. This is a big mistake. The key is to work as many different angles as possible to get interviews.

Myth #19: Being employed while looking for a job gives a person leverage. This is definitely another misguided concept. Trying to find a job while you have one does not give you any kind of advantage at all. Most hiring authorities have pain, and, therefore, they really don't care whether the person who can alleviate their pain is currently employed or not.

If you are currently employed and don't have to change jobs that badly, it may be less risky to negotiate and run the risk of being refused because of demands that you might make. It is comforting when you have a job-even one that you may not like-to know that you aren't desperate and have to take a job just because it's offered.

A hiring authority with pain needs that pain alleviated by the best-qualified candidate he or she can find. Unemployed candidates feel that they are at a distinct disadvantage in the hiring process because they do not currently have a job; but it is more of a psychological and emotional inferiority complex than reality.

Myth #20: I'll `stick my toe in the water' and casually look for a job, just to see what's out there. I have known candidates who approach finding a job this way for years and they've never found one. They are still at the same job they've had since they started looking for a job. There can be nothing casual about looking for a job. You're competing with people who are not casual about looking for a job. You are going to lose out to someone who really wants to go work-and acts like it.

Myth #21: If I'm recruited, they have to sell me. After all, I'm not looking for a job. It is true that if you are happily employed and an organization-either through a recruiter or on its own-approaches you about changing jobs and joining the company, you have somewhat of an advantage. Just be aware that once you get into the interviewing process, you have to sell yourself just as though you were going after the job on your own.

Myth #22: When companies `stroke' you, they're signaling that you've got the job. You're by far the best candidate we've seen. . . . We'd love to hire you. . . . We'd love to have people like you in our organization. . . . You're exactly what we want. These are some of the most misleading statements that you will encounter in the job-finding process. They can also be the most emotionally debilitating, especially when an offer does not formally materialize. Even the statement, You've got the job, means nothing, unless it is accompanied by an actual job offer. I have known hiring authorities who told three or four candidates simultaneously that they would like to hire them for the same position, and then never hired anyone.

Myth #23: Big companies have more security; I can be more effective in a smaller firm. Both of these statements are myths. There is no more stability in large organizations then there is in small ones. The average job is going to last two to three years, whether you are with a big company or a small company. It really doesn't matter.

The only difference between a big company and a small company is that people have a tendency to have more understanding when they lose a job at a big company. I've never figured this out. When a big company lets a person go, it is called a layoff. When a small company lets someone go, there is a tendency to think, The SOBs fired me!

Myth #24: It's not what you know, but whom you know. It is true that the more people you know, the more opportunities for interviews you may get. It is true that the more people like you, the more opportunities you might have for going to work. However, who you know can often backfire on a qualified candidate. I cannot tell you the number of qualified candidates I have seen not get hired because of familiarity.

This is a difficult concept to communicate and even a little harder to accept. What it comes down to is that your friends, or people who you think are your friends, don't really want to hire people who know them. When people get to know people, they get to know their strengths and their weaknesses, the positives and negatives about their personality. Often people who you know fairly well really don't want you around in their organization because you know their positives and negatives, too. The old adage of familiarity breeds contempt comes to mind. Don't trust people you know to help you any more than people you don't know.

Myth #25: I asked around and got great advice from ____ about the kind of job I should take. You fill in the blank! I love it when candidates talk to (two or three or five or fifteen or twenty people) who have changed jobs in the recent past and gave them advice.

Unless these people have a skin in the game, take all of the so-called advice they give you with a big chunk of salt. Unless someone is willing to offer you a job, most of the opinions that you will get from people are just that-opinions.

Myth #26: I changed jobs a few years ago, so I know what I'm doing. Job markets change. Just ask Jeff Mills. Like many other people who changed jobs in the recent past, Jeff thought that finding a new job was going to be much easier than it turned out to be. It was two years before he found a job this time. Now, the skills necessary to find a job were no different than they were a few years ago. But the market itself had changed.

Myth #27: Finding a good job is more luck than anything else. Many people think that finding a good job is more luck than anything else. Luck is preparation meeting opportunity! The harder you work, the luckier you get.

If selling yourself into lots of interviews, knowing what to say when you get there, and getting a good job because of it is luck, then I guess some people are just lucky. This is a numbers game. Babe Ruth hit a lot of home runs, but he also struck out a lot. Was he any more lucky when he struck out as when he hit the ball? Hard work creates a lot of luck.

Myth #28: I'm too shy to thrust myself at a prospective employer. Well, I really understand. Many people are just not good at pushing themselves onto other people. I read one book that stated the alternative to thrusting yourself at a prospective employer was to use the Internet. You may be more emotionally comfortable hitting that send button; but it isn't going to get you a job.

If you practice all the scripts that I recommend, you will become confident in your ability to secure and perform well on an interview. You can overcome your shyness with practice. I didn't say it would be easy; but it is necessary.

Myth #29: I don't want a job like the last one; I really got burned. This misguided concept is a result of people running away from what last hurt them. There is a tendency to globally generalize those companies or people with whom you have worked in the past when it didn't work out. Just because one business or one organization burned you, it doesn't mean another one will. People always have a tendency to be most sensitive to their last bad experience. It doesn't always follow that just because you work at one organization that was poorly run, everyone else in that profession or industry is of the same ilk.

How Jeff and Amy Were Affected

Jeff and Amy were realistic about most of the things that they did after not finding a job for six or seven months. They just didn't know what to expect. Jeff became anxious and hopeful every time he had in interview, only to become disappointed by most of them. We expected common sense, logic, and consistency, lamented Amy, and we hardly got any of it. Jeff became tremendously burned out after sending hundreds of résumés over the Internet and never getting anything for his efforts. We did all the right things and it just didn't seem fair, said Amy.

In the final analysis, it was networking that got Jeff the job he has now. As I stated, there are many, many ways that everyone needs to explore to get a job. The point is that you have to be realistic about every activity you engage in to find a job, taking every action you can. Explore every possibility with tempered expectations.

© 2006 Tony Beshara.
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