I often compare job-hunting in this New Economy (which used to sound so nice and now sounds as if it’s going to be dragging on for an awfully long time) to an athlete training for an Olympic-style event.

Like an athlete, you have to be at the top of your game in order to be able to compete in the harshly-intensive environment that exists in corporate America today, and it takes (a) having a “Killer” resume that gets you chosen for the interview, and (b) knowing the Interviewing Game and playing it so well that you end up the winner, chosen for the job.

This means training and conditioning oneself in much the same way any good athlete prepares for the inevitable competition they know they will encounter; it means “discipline”; it means an investment in preparation. And, unless, you’re willing and able to do it, you’re probably not going to be in the running.

But there’s one other thing that most people seem to overlook. You have to have a real very specific focus for your job search. Athletes have this. They’re not training for a long distance run when they enter a sprint. When they enter a pole vaulting event, they never train for the broad jump, do they? By this I mean, you have to know what kind of job you want, and what kind of job you can fill and you have to have the qualifications and the “story” in your resume to go with it -- to be able to be “seen” as someone who will be considered by the prospective employer.

If you don’t know what kind of job you can fill, if you’re not realistic about it, you can easily get left on the sidelines because your experience does not correspond to the type of background that the prospective employer expects. If you’re trying to switch jobs, from one designation to another – which is a very difficult task -- it’s easy to end up on the “No” pile if your experience and the narrative thread in your resume indicate a background that doesn’t correspond to the one the prospective employer wants or expects for their particular job.

• One example of this: A person who has consistently worked as a business analyst, who applies for a job in product marketing.
• Another example: An individual who has sold software systems, who applies for a job as a sales manager.
• Still a third example: Someone who has worked in a securities firm and applies for a job in a loan brokerage.
• A final example: Someone who has been in internal communications, who wants to work in a PR firm.

What I’m saying here is that for you to be considered for that all-important first interview, it must be immediately apparent, on the face of it, that your experience suits you for the job you’re applying for. It must be instantly apprehensible. It must make sense. It must “fit.” And, if it doesn’t, you just won’t hear from them.

The problem I’m identifying in this instance is one that many people suffer from: they have a blind spot about what they’re suited for, and the way they present themselves and their work history in their resume, consequently, doesn’t convey the impression necessary to get them into “the first cut.” An employer has to believe, more than anything else, that you can do the job before he or she ever meets you. And, unless it’s immediately apparent in the ten seconds that your resume will get to be read in, you won’t get past the gatekeeper. You can’t expect, as these people with their blind spot do, that the prospective employer will make the “jump” and fill in the necessary experience for you in your resume.

I’ve helped a number of clients to do this, but it’s hard work, and no amount of wishing will make it so. You have to have a very clear strategy, you have to be very realistic, and you need to be very good at bending and shaping your experience to the job being offered. And that will only get you into the interview.

Attitude: The effect it has

Job search: Denial

Job skills: Denial

Job search: Dispair

Job search: Competition

Eliminating job friction

Being flexible

Limiting job options

Sales and job hunting

Unhook your ego from your job

Magic of three