Mark Hirschfeld

My dad was a fan of one car company when I was growing up, so he was a bit disturbed when I brought home another brand.

He walked all the way around the car. I asked him if he wanted to go for a drive. He opened the door of the car, and then shut it.

It shut easily and firmly, something that his brand of car was not known for.

“Hmm,” he said.

He eventually realized I made a good purchase.

Lenny closed and door and changed his mind.

When you’re in the job search, you too may need to close a door or two. Those doors, metaphorically, speaking, are mindsets that will get in the way of you moving on.

There are some self-limiting doors that need to be shut, such as “there are absolutely no jobs in the current economy.”

There are some self-defeating doors, such as “I am so angry at my former boss that I will never trust another leader again.”

There are some self-destructive doors, such as “there isn’t anyone out there who can understand me or would be willing to help.”

Take a page from Lenny. Take a good look. Close the door if you need to. Chart a different path.

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In your job search you will meet many people. Some of those contacts will be helpful, some won’t be particularly helpful, and some may be downright annoying.

Thank them all.

Say thank you to each contact you make in your job search.

No exceptions.

If I have a mailing address I prefer go old school and write a note. It’s a nice touch and will differentiate you because most people won’t make the effort.

In absence of that you can also send something electronically.

There is so much in your job search you can’t control, but this is something that is within your control.

Aside from being a smart thing to do it also happens to be, in my view, a kind and considerate thing to do.

And I think the world can always use a bit more of those qualities, don’t you?

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Yes, I’m a Trekkie. (Original Series, but Captain Picard).

You may recall that the three main characters each had different strengths, and along with his deep knowledge Mr. Spock was wired to tell the truth.

In one movie it appeared that he lied, and when called out by one of this fellow Vulcan’s he said: “I didn’t lie. I implied.”

This sort of thing makes for good theater, but in the job search you don’t even want the hint you’ve implied something.

You want to tell the truth, all the time.

Full stop.

In some cases, being honest may put you in a bad light. For example, you may have a gap in your work experience. Aside from the fact that lots of folks do and it doesn’t in any way predict your ability to do a job, don’t contrive a story about the work gap.

Tell the truth.

To be sure, you can explain yourself and highlight your skills and experiences in a way that helps them see your positives, but don’t fib about the experience.

Given how transparent things are these days the truth will probably come out anyway, so be up front with a hiring manager.

Tell your story, tell is with great conviction, and tell it honestly.

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A former colleague, Dr. Kenneth Liggett, had a wonderful metaphor about healthy relationships:

“Mark, let’s say you want to eat healthier. You know apples are healthy, so you create a diet where you only eat apples. But that wouldn’t be healthy, would it? To have a healthy diet you need a variety of healthy fruits and vegetables and proteins.”

He continued: “The same thing is true with your network of relationships. If you only have “apples” you don’t have a healthy network. You need different, healthy relationships in order to have a truly healthy network.”

Think about your current network—do you have diversity, or do you only have “apples”?

As a job seeker, having a more diverse network can help you in so many ways. A more diverse network can “see” things about you that a more homogenous network can’t. They may have insights about job opportunities that you wouldn’t be aware of otherwise.

Over the last several months I’ve been intentional about expanding my network. I’ve met some wonderful folks and learned a lot.

To expand your opportunities, diversify your network.

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The great comedian Groucho Marx said: “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.”

To help you get off to a great start spend some time talking with your new colleagues and learning about the mistakes that others have made.

With one company I’ve worked with new employees would get into trouble if they were frequently late to meetings. In another company there were strict rules about safety that, if broken, would put you in hot water. And in another being less-than-attentive to a customer on the showroom floor would get you a pink slip.

If you’re like the rest of us, you’ll make your own mistakes when you start a new gig, but there’s no reason to make mistakes that others before you have made.

Groucho Marx was right—you don’t have enough time to make all those other mistakes. Listen and learn.

It’s a new day. Let’s make it a great one.

A friend of mine was looking at a job posting that had a “preferred skill” of using a certain software application. She didn’t have experience with that application but had used two others that she thought were similar.

She contacted a friend who had worked with both applications. He told my friend that if she knew the one application that she was 90% of the way to knowing the other. She also went online and found screen shots of the application, which gave her confidence that she was well prepared to learn the new solution.

She listed her experience with the other application, and when asked in the interview told the hiring manager she had reached to someone about how easy it would be for her to learn the new technology.

The hiring manager was impressed she had taken the time to learn about their preferred technology, and told her that “in your case I think you’ve shown you are a great candidate”.

None of us will meet every requirement for a job, but we can make the effort to show prospective employers that some of our gaps can be managed and, in doing so, showcase our candidacy.

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Several years ago, I worked with a company to conduct their annual employee engagement survey. After I presented their results, I was asked to come back a few weeks later for another meeting. As I was waiting in the lobby, I noticed a book on the coffee table.

I opened it up and found copies of all the reports of the survey I had just presented.

I was stunned.

When my contact came to fetch me, I asked her why this was in the lobby: “We talked about it as a leadership team, and we decided that we wanted everyone who visits us, including prospective employees, to know how employees feel about working here.”

“As you know, not everything is positive in that report, but we wanted to be as transparent as possible.”

Then I was impressed.

Most companies don’t do this, but you can still learn about potential employers. Check out online company ratings. You can also talk with former and current employees.

Do your homework.

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