It’s Not About You – Choosing Empathy or Unemployment

Summer is almost here and graduations are all around us.  While I haven’t had to attend any graduations this year I have spent some time with some recent college grads.  There is fear and concern among them.  Let’s face it.  This is the most challenging job market most of us have witnessed in decades.  With tons of layoffs and a larger pool of graduates then before the competition is fierce.  As an employer I found difficulty in similar times discerning between candidates.  Most resumes look alike and many are embellished. Everyone says they have management experience, when most likely the only thing many of them managed was their own desk.

I was struck by the contrast of two people I knew heading into the job market this year and their approach to getting their dream jobs.   The first, we will call him “Tom”, is a recent MBA graduate from a respected Mid-western university.  Tom, 29, has been focused on academics.  He has held some decent positions in marketing as a coordinator and participated in internships.  His dream is to work for a major products corporation like Proctor and Gamble.  In the past I have offered to make connections for Tom but he never really showed any interest in meeting people.

Tom recently came out to stay with us for an interview with a major corporation as a product manager.  He seemed frustrated by the lack of response on the part of the interviewer.  I wasn’t surprised.  Tom’s description of the interview was typical.  He went to the meeting, gave them a presentation on himself and answered their questions.  He didn’t deviate from their prescribed interview.

When we got together Tom sighed about it being a long process and how tough it was out there.  This was typical I noticed of Tom over the years.  He was content to let the marketing world accept him as he was.  He felt the MBA would be enough to make him qualified as a marketer and hoped that would yield him $90,000+ annually. He was willing to scrape by and wait until they saw the value he believed he would bring.

While Tom visited, we talked a little about marketing and I tried to engage him in conversation about how to overcome the challenges today but there was no curiosity on Tom’s end to learn about marketing in a practical manner or leverage my connections for employment.  He lacked curiosity and talked about little of substance other than the work he had accomplished in grad school.  In Tom’s mind, his background and experience should be enough to qualify him as a high paid marketer and he will wait out the job community until someone recognizes his talent.

The yang to Tom’s ying is Van Van.  Van is an aggressive young graduate with a degree from UC Davis.  She strung together a few good internships but at 22 doesn’t have much corporate experience.  This doesn’t stop Van from her dream of working as a consultant for a Big 4 firm like Deloitte or Accenture.

Van found me through her relationship with the National Society for Leadership and Success. I sponsored a scholarship contest for students who could represent themselves in a compelling manner.  Van reached out to learn how she could use ROAR! methods to attain her dream job.

Shortly after Van and I spoke by phone I received an email from her.  She had aggressively contacted recruiters using Linked In and scored a connection and interview with a Big 4 recruiter.  Van was aware that her resume alone was not enough to warrant the chance to work at the firm.  A big fan of ROAR!, Van decided to use the Value Proposition concept from Chapter 2 to set herself apart in the interview.  She did her research on the firm and made the decision to be empathetic towards their needs.  The result is best demonstrated in this email she received from the recruiter the next day:

Hi Van,

I wanted to thank you. I don’t usually get surprised any more but sincerely I was pleasantly surprised today. I am glad that we had an opportunity to connect.  It was refreshing to have experienced a conversation, just sharing without pretenses and to just say what you think. And I could tell by the attention that you gave me that the little that I shared was real and useful to you.  Truthful genuine interest in other people is refreshing.

Thank you for your time and for sharing of yourself today.

Since this meeting this recruiter has helped Van rewrite her resume, introduced her to management of the firm and as of this posting she is close to getting her dream job.  Van contacts me regularly to find out how she can get an edge to succeed in today’s business environment.  Her genuine interest in others and how to make the most of her opportunities will bring Van success faster and easier than Tom can ever hope for.

Needless to say Van has been a big supporter of ROAR!  She came and helped at the Borders signing which was a big success.  More and more, people are connecting with the book as evidenced by calls I have received from potential clients and the number of Webinar sign-ups from the coupon in the back.  As of this posting there are only a few thousand books still out there with the coupon and bonus chapter on using ROAR! for personal accomplishment.  I hope you’ll take Van’s approach and benefit as she has from this material.  You might share it with a recent graduate or with someone looking for work.  It would be a shame for them to suffer Tom’s frustration.