You lost your job. Your 401K was reduced by the market before you got the pink slip. Unemployment compensation sucks. Credit card companies are calling for their money and you spent half the day talking to the bank and pleading for a month’s forgiveness on the loan for that new BMW. You are competing on the job market with younger cheaper candidates. Recruiters are no longer bugging you with exciting sounding jobs and they don’t take your calls.
Do you own a gun? When you wake up tomorrow make a decision; put a bullet in your head or a smile on your face and stop mourning.
The skills, knowledge and abilities that earned you a good living a couple of months ago are all still there and now you get to gain new ones. The loving wife and kids you had before the pink slip are still there and you are spending more time with them. If not married, the luck you had with the opposite sex is still with you unless they only liked you for your job and in that case, think how lucky you are to have found that out now. You still have your friends and now the opportunity to make more. You are just as valuable, as talented and as bright as you were before. It is the market that is screwed up; not you.
If this sounds like a typical, old fashioned positive mental attitude pitch, that’s because it is. The importance of a positive attitude to your health, wealth and happiness is more important as it ever was. At this time your attitude may be the most important factor potential employers judge you by. You are competing against far more candidates than ever before and there more candidates available with qualifications and skills equal to yours. Employers know this so they are looking above and beyond the qualifications they search for just a year ago. What they are looking for cannot be learned on the job or in school. Employers are hiring attitude. A strong positive attitude is the single most important characteristic you need to demonstrate when meeting people or interviewing.
As long as he can do the job a person who shows this attitude will get hired before people who might be slightly more qualified every time. Think about that. If you are more qualified than me but my attitude is far superior, I show more passion, commitment and belief in myself, I will get the job and you get the rejection email.
So what do you do?
Greet everybody with a bright smile and a firm, solid handshake. When you talk about what you do and how you do it show your belief in the value you bring. Talk about your job with enthusiasm and passion. You love what you do and you would not do anything else. If you want the job or the next interview make it obvious. Don’t show need. Demonstrate desire. When somebody asks you “how are things?” say “GREAT”. From time to time you are going to get rejected. So what? Go find something else.
Sell yourself like you believe it. Nobody else will do it for you.
Now put the smile on and go out committed to kicking the but of the competition.
As someone who battles clinical depression daily, this is article has good advice, but is also dangerous. People who are seriously depressed may take the negative part of your advice seriously and commit suicide. Perhaps there is another way to say what you want to convey?
I have considered suicide recently - my responsibilities to my cats are what saved me. I found myself transfixed by one line in your article, and although I pushed past it, it kept popping up in my head for several days afterward.
I realize it is not your responsibility to shield people from their demons, but as a writer your words may have unintended consequences... I also realize you probably were going for the shock factor to make people sit up and think. While I thank you for your good advice, I also ask that you think carefully about references to suicide in your writing.
Posted by: Sue | June 16, 2009 at 07:37 AM
Love this article! Everything is right on! Fabulous advice!
Tish
Posted by: Tish Tisherman | May 26, 2009 at 07:28 PM