"3 More Job Search Tips from 1938"

By Kevin Donlin, Jobs Columnist
Minneapolis Star Tribune

copyright (c) by Kevin Donlin

I've written before that, if you want to find a job in today's Great Recession, it makes sense to study what got people hired in the Great Depression, when times were even tougher.

So I dug out a job-search book published in 1938.

Titled, "We Are Forty And We Did Get Jobs," it's by C.B. Thompson and M.L. Wise, two forty-year-old women who spent 10 weeks perfecting a job-search system by looking for work -- and getting hired -- in cities across America.

If you'd like to know three actions you can take to get hired today, tested and proven in the worst job market of yesteryear, read on ...

• Root out the defeatist attitude.
  
  Here's how the authors describe their painful situation, prior to starting their job search:
  
  "One of us had suffered a loss so devastating that the rest of life stretched out as something less than twilight. The other had had, in the midst of an illness almost unto death, the shock of such serious financial reverses that for a time both physical and monetary recovery seemed impossible."
  
  In other words, they were beaten down, broke, and worried. Sound familiar?
  
  They go on to say "we knew this much: Jobs and a sense of despair do not go together. The defeatist attitude is death to opportunity, and had to be gotten rid of at all costs."
  
  They reasoned -- correctly -- that it's impossible for an employer to believe in your abilities if you are so dispirited you don't believe in them yourself.
  
  So, how do you regain your self-confidence?
  
  By facing your fears and doing something about them, according to the authors.
  
  Example: Let's say the worst that could happen if you don't find a job is you lose your home and have no money for food.
  
  But you can do something about that, because you'll have to.
  
  Maybe you'll have to move in with family, pawn your jewelry, or apply for food stamps. Whatever your worst-case scenario may be, if you make a plan to deal with it, that will calm your mind and steady your confidence.
  
  After that, you can ...
  
  
• Use all your thoughts to plan and execute your job search.
  
  The authors offer three questions and answers to guide your planning and execution:
  
  Q. Who wants you to work for them?
  A. Nobody.
  
  Q. Who wants more business or better service?
  A. Everybody.
  
  Q. If you could show that you can provide more business or better service, who will want you?
  A. Almost everybody.
  
  You'll find no qualifying language here. It's not almost every employer with advertised job openings or almost every employer looking for someone young. It's almost every employer. Period.
  
  Instead of waiting for your ideal job to appear online, think now about how you can show employers -- in clear, convincing detail -- that you can give them more business or better service. The job will follow.
  
  To get at those details, ask yourself these Wh- questions about the top three achievements for every job you've had in the last 15 years:
  
  
  • Whom did you do it for?
  • When?
  • Why?
  • What happened?
  • How much time/money was saved or earned?
  
  
  Here's my favorite "before" and "after" example from an IT resume that worked like a charm.
  
  BEFORE Cleaned up Microsoft Access database.
  
  AFTER Helped retain $20-million contract with top client after working 16-hour days for four months to clean up Access database and repair reporting problem using Excel and Crystal Reports.
  
  See the difference?
  
  The world pays for value received. Show your value and you can start getting paid again.
  
  
• Stay on track with two questions.
  
  According to Thompson and Wise, they wrote letters and made phone calls to employers that produced job interviews consistently, once they kept the following two questions continually in mind:
  
  
  1. What does he or she need? This question forces you to always put an employer's needs before your own. "This may sound like the golden rule, but it was certainly to prove the golden key that could open the door to employment," write the authors.
  2. How can I supply that need? Once you know an employer's needs, you can quickly examine every resume you send and every word you say, to ensure you communicate only what employers want to hear.
     
     Example: If the employer needs a manager to negotiate contracts with suppliers, you will either revise or delete irrelevant information in your resume, like that bartending job you had last year.

The title, "We Are Forty And We Did Get Jobs," reflects the fact that ageism was even more rampant in the 1930s than now. And I won't even touch on the sexism the authors must have faced, apart from noting that attitudes have certainly improved.

So, these two women overcame economic, "ageist," and sexist obstacles to get hired -- repeatedly -- for jobs in the Great Depression, and they did it without Google, Linkedin, email, cell phones, or FedEx (I omitted their advice on telegrams).

Why not adopt one of their tactics today, and see if you don't get noticed by more employers tomorrow?

Question: Are you stuck in a frustrating job search? Want to try something new?

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