"Simple Is Best In Your Job Search"

Copyright (c) by Kevin Donlin

Last time I wrote about the Parreto Principle, discovered about 100 years ago, and how this "80/20 Rule" can transform your job hunt if you focus on the 20% of activities that bring you 80% of your job leads.

Today, I'm going farther back in history to help you find a job using ... Occam's Razor.

Whose what, you ask?

William of Occam (1284-1347) was an English philosopher who wrote, "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." Put another way, simpler is better. Example: birds could have eight wings or 27, but nature gave them two -- because that's all they need to fly.

This principle, which helps us "shave off" those variables or actions not really needed to solve a problem, became known as Occam's Razor.

If you're looking for a new job, here are three ways you can use it to get hired faster.

1) Ask to meet the hiring authority
First, let's state your problem in its simplest terms: to get hired, you must convince an employer that you have the "right stuff" to do the work. That's any job search in a nutshell.

Now, what's the simplest way to meet the person who can hire you? Simple! Call them and ask for a meeting.

This will be a cold dash of water in the face of most folks, who have been conditioned to believe the path to employment invariably involves writing a resume, submitting it to want ads or Web sites, and then waiting for the phone to ring.

Action Step: If you know the company you'd like to work for (and you should) do whatever it takes to meet a hiring authority there.

The best way is to use your network of personal and professional contacts to get the name of the right manager. Go from one person to another, dropping each name as you call, until you get a hiring authority on the phone. Then request a meeting.

2) Send your resume once, to many people
If you must convince an employer that you can do the job, it follows that, the more hiring managers you can "meet" and convince, the faster you'll get hired.

That's why, for many folks, a resume distribution service is the simple solution. Why? It lets you send your resume to thousands of employers and recruiters in one fell swoop. Simple.

Two resume distribution services to consider are:

Resume Rabbit (http://www.gresumes.com/rabbit). It lets you fill out one form that posts your resume on over 90 career sites, like Monster, Career Builder, Hot Jobs, Job.com and Dice.com.

Resume Zapper (http://www.gresumes.com/zapper) will email your resume to as many as 11,914 recruiters, including over 1,552 recruiters who make international placements.

Action Step: Research these and other resume distribution services to see if they're a match for you. A few minutes here could save you 40 hours or more of tedious effort later.

3) Use the interview to prove you can do the job
Remember, you must prove to a hiring manager that you are qualified for the job. And what better way than to actually do the job, in the interview?

This concept is simple. The ways you can pull it off are infinite. Examples:

* A sales rep could bring a list of 100 potential customers to the interview.
* A software developer could talk to employees at the target company to uncover programming problems, then propose solutions.
* An editor could review back issues of the company magazine to find proofreading errors, then mark those errors with Post-it Notes and bring them to the interview.


The examples above are all real. And each resulted in a job offer. How can you adapt them to your situation?

Action Step: Use your next interview to actually do the job. While other candidates are learning about the company or asking inane questions, you'll set yourself apart and blow them away. Simple, isn't it?

OK. Now that you understand Occam's Razor, answer this question: What's the simplest thing you could do today to get your qualifications in front of the right hiring manager and prove you can do the job?

Now, go do it. Simple, huh?

++++

Kevin Donlin is President of Guaranteed Resumes. Since 1996, he and his team have provided resumes, cover letters and online job-search assistance to clients in all 50 states and 23 countries. Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today, CBS MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal's National Business Employment Weekly, CBS Radio, and many others.

For more information, click HERE

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