Hired: Sell your accomplishments and be productive

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How is this for positive news -- all this week, newspapers were reporting things like:

Recession over?

Recovery in progress, some say.

I couldn't believe my eyes! Good news for a change, but then in the next breath, the stories continued with lines like:

Unemployment rate higher than the Great Depression.

Number of job seekers far exceeds the number of job openings.

It always gets back to "bad news sells," and statistics can be read more than one way, but we also know that positive news can help stimulate a recovering economy. If you are a. job seeker, let me tell you what you need to know.

Your next job will more than likely come from networking, not from an advertised or posted job opening.

In fact, the chances are very good that your next employer won't even think about hiring anyone until you come along. Network with everyone you know, family, friends, teachers and professors, clergy and next door neighbors.

Some employers are beefing up payroll for the holidays, and at the same time thinking of reducing the number of non-productive workers. It's all about productivity. If an employer is downsizing, you can get hired if you can show that you can improve that employer's productivity.

Don't just look for a job -- sell your accomplishments and your ability to be productive.

Don't just respond to advertised openings. Match your abilities to employers needs. Do your research, then make contact and sell, sell, sell!

Job searching is selling, and it's not easy. You have to do the research and make the effort. Luck doesn't just happen because you're a good person -- it happens because you made it happen.

And, now the lighter side of job seeking, compliments of careerbuilder.com's Interview Mistakes Survey 2009:

When an applicant was offered food, he declined, saying he didn't want to line his stomach with grease before going out drinking.

The candidate flushed the toilet while talking to the interviewer during a phone interview.

The candidate answered his cell phone and asked the interviewer to leave her own office because it was a "private" conversation.

The candidate told the interviewer he wouldn't stay with the job long because he might get an inheritance if his uncle died -- and the old man wasn't "looking too good."

(Marvin Walberg is a job search coach. Contact him at mwalberg(at)bellsouth.net, marvinwalberg.blogspot.com, or PO Box 43056, Birmingham, AL 35243.)

GETTING HIRED