ShareThisHow is your work ethic? Are you honest, reliable, dependable, demonstrating the "extra mile" effort -- not just on time, but early -- ready to run when the "bell" rings? Did you regularly demonstrate a positive work ethic in your last job, and are you continuing that ethic in your job search? Everything you do in your job search forecasts the level of work you will do in your next job.If you cut corners, do not follow up and follow through, make promises you don't keep and show up barely on time for interviews or meetings, how do you expect referrals from network contacts or job offers from employers? Show what you are capable of before you get a chance to do it for a pay check. Just like a real job, you have to earn your pay before you get it.A real story of how a weak work ethic turns away business:I arrived to get a haircut at 8:55 a.m., knowing the business opened at 9. Another man had arrived before me. At 8:58, the employee arrived and literally ran to open the front door before 9. The other man and I got out of our cars to wait for the door to open, but the young lady who cuts our hair was trying to rush to open her register and apparently kept counting the money wrong. At 9:05 the other man left, complaining that he didn't have all day to get a haircut! At 9:10, the employee finally opened the door to let me in. I casually asked, "Running a little late this morning?" "Oh, no!" she answered. "I was here at 9."Since I wanted a decent haircut, I kept my mouth shut as she called her boss to tell her the register was $1 short, and then ordered coffee from the coffee bar next door.She may have had an emergency at home -- a sick child or something -- but she didn't tell me that. Instead, she told me she was at work on time, defiantly! What kind of work ethic was that? Would you hire her to work for you? I didn't think so.Again I ask, "How is your work ethic?"(Marvin Walberg is a job-search consultant based in Birmingham, Ala. He can be contacted at P.O. Box 43056, Birmingham, AL, 35243. E-mail him at mwalberg(at)bellsouth.net.)
Weak work ethic can doom job search
Submitted by SHNS on Thu, 02/28/2008 - 13:52
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