Succeeding in The Job Search — Doing it Your Way
This lesson shows you how to maximize your job search success by tailoring the process to match your style. It also shows you how to harness the power of the Internet to facilitate your search.
Making the Most of Your Assets and Liabilities
Refer to your textbook, Do What You Are, and go to your Type chapter. Find the part called “Customizing Your Job Search,” then review both sections: “Pathways to Success: Using Your Strengths” and “Possible Pitfalls.” Consider how you can incorporate the suggestions for your Type into your own job search. You may want to share these “incorporation ideas” with other classmates who match your Type.
Customizing Your Job Search
We just learned about career satisfiers and what they mean for each Type. We’ve also identified what your most important career satisfiers are, along with some possible careers that fulfill these needs. Now you’re ready to pursue some of these career choices; the next question is — how do you find that job and get hired?
Knowing your strengths and blind spots gives you a tremendous advantage in your job search campaign. Why? Because people act true to their Type in all aspects of the search process. Those aspects include:
- Conducting research into available positions
- Identifying and contacting prospective employers
- Developing personal marketing tools such as resumes
- Arranging and conducting job interviews
- Negotiating salaries
- Accepting (finally!) a position
Being able to capitalize on your assets and compensate for your liabilities can make all the difference between a successful and unsuccessful job search.
To illustrate what I’m talking about, let’s look at some specific examples of how Type affects the job search:
- Extraverts generally enjoy and do well at networking
- Introverts do better making fewer and more focused contacts
- Sensors are great at gathering important details and can accurately describe their accomplishments
- Intuitives are better at seeing possibilities that don’t yet exist
- Thinkers’ analytical skills help analyze job offers objectively
- Feelers’ relationship skills help them develop rapport with interviewers
- Judgers usually have an easier time deciding, but may make hasty decisions in order to have things settled
- Perceivers gather lots of information, but may put off decisions, closing off good opportunities.
Just as we’ve been able to identify the most important career satisfiers for each Type, we’ve also created a list of work-related strengths and weaknesses. You’ll find your list at the end of your Type chapter in Do What You Are. As you review your Type list, do you recognize some tendencies that are true for you? Keep in mind that not all strengths or weaknesses will be equally true for each individual person.
Although we all possess strengths and weaknesses, it’s usually much easier to admit our strengths! But the more honest you are with yourself about your possible blind spots, the more helpful this information will be. Think about it: we always learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes!
A Word About SpeedReading
Here are some of the benefits you can derive from using SpeedReading People techniques in a job interview:
Quickly size up interviewers
Know what interviewers are looking for
Adjust your style according to theirs
Be able to speak their language
Present yourself in the best light possible– from The Art of SpeedReading People by Paul D. Tieger, Barbara Barron-Tieger, and Marly A. Swick
Acing the Job Interview
One of the most powerful statements I’ve ever heard concerning the job search process is, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” And if I could offer an addendum, it would be, “And often, you only have a few moments in which to make that first impression!”
So what makes one interview succeed and another fail?
You might think it comes down to whether or not the candidate is qualified — can he or she do the job. But I suggest that while qualifications are a major consideration, there is often something equally important at play — how comfortable the interviewer is with the job seeker. And by “comfortable,” I don’t mean to imply the interviewer has to like or even have especially warm feelings for the candidate.
“Comfortable” has more to do with a feeling of familiarity — a sense of, “This person is similar to me and therefore would fit into my organization.”
We’re all exceptionally comfortable with people who are most like us, and less comfortable with those who are not. Think about it: you probably have a lot in common with your friends; most of them are of a similar age, social status, and background. Human beings are, by nature, most comfortable with what they know best — the more someone is like them, the less threatening they are.
How does all this affect the job interview?
Interviewers (mostly unconsciously) seek people who are like them . . . people who see the world as they do, make decisions like they do, and have the same or similar values. Since it falls on candidates to convince interviewers that they’d do a good job, candidates have to learn to adapt their style to more similarly match their interviewers.
We’re all familiar with the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would do unto you.” To communicate successfully, it should be modified to: “Do unto others as they would like done unto them.” In other words, you can’t communicate with an interviewer in your style (especially if you’re very different Types of people). Rather, you need to speak to them on their wavelength.
You may be wondering: “Is this really possible to do without changing who I am?” The answer is “yes,” if you can use what you’ve learned about Type to identify other people’s key personality characteristics, such as their drives, values, motivations, and preferred communication styles. You can do this by observing several clues that have to do with their appearance, demeanor, language, energy level, body language, and occupation. I call this skill SpeedReading People.
Once you’ve learned to SpeedRead people, you can “SpeedReach” them — that is, communicate in a way they are likely to respond to best. Let’s work our way through a few case scenarios:
- You determine that your interviewer is a Sensor. This means you need to make sure your facts are accurate. You’ll also want to emphasize specific relevant accomplishments.
- Or, your interviewer is an Intuitive. You should demonstrate your creativity and focus on the implications of hiring a person with your talents.
- You’re facing a Thinking interviewer, so you demonstrate your competence and good analytical skills.
- This time, you’re interviewer is a Feeler. Consequently, you stress your commitment to the organization’s goals as you try to establish a personal connection.
These are just a few examples of how to use your SpeedReading People skills in a job interview. Once you’ve mastered this system, you’ll find these same skills invaluable with a variety of relationships including clients, employees, bosses, family, and friends. These techniques are covered in more detail in The Art of SpeedReading People.
You should now have a good idea of how to handle the job interview. But there’s one more resource for you to consider, the Internet — and that’s what we’ll talk about in our final lesson section.
More Books About Type
Fascinated by what you’ve learned about Personality Type? In addition to your textbook and The Art of SpeedReading People, check out these other two Type books.
Just Your Type shows you how to use Type to create loving relationships. Nurture by Nature looks at parenting and ways to apply Type to childrearing.
These two titles are not job-related — but that area of your life should already be under control!
Harnessing the Internet in Your Job Search
You’ve customized your job search, you’re aware of your strengths and weaknesses, you’ve honed your SpeedReading People skills — you’ve covered all your bases in terms of mapping out a successful job campaign, right? Or have you?
In recent years, there has been a dramatic improvement in resources available to job seekers. The most significant, by far, is the explosive growth of the Internet. The Internet is a great tool; in fact, it may be too great. With hundreds of “career” Web sites available, knowing where to turn can be quite overwhelming.
To help you find the information that you’re looking for in the shortest amount of time, a special Web site has been created for readers of Do What You Are: www.dwya.com. This site links you to the most useful career sites on the Web and helps you research qualifications, salaries, working conditions, and future outlooks for thousands of jobs. Through this site, you can find information about specific companies and organizations, access hundreds of thousands of current job openings, and post your resume. The site even allows you to network with recruiters around the world.
Goodbye and Good Luck
Hopefully, this course has helped you learn many things about yourself, including what you need in a career for it to be truly satisfying. It’s probably given you some specific career choices to pursue, and the tools to make your job search as successful as possible.
But I hope this course has also given you confidence, and a belief that work can be exciting, fulfilling, and fun. Work can be what you need and want it to be — it can even pay well!
There is at least one great career out there with your name on it — a career that rewards you for using your natural gifts qnd allows you do what you enjoy most and do best. It’s possible, you deserve it, and you don’t have to settle for anything less.
Paul Tieger
ASSIGNMENT: Capitalizing on Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Assignments are designed to give you the chance to do further reading in the course text and to practice applying the knowledge learned in activities and class discussions. We encourage you to discuss the assignments with your instructor and classmates.
- Find the section that describes your work-related strengths and weaknesses — it’s at the end of your Type chapter in Do What You Are.
- Review both lists and see how many of these tendencies you agree with. Jot down any personal impressions you may have.
- Ask yourself: “How have my strengths helped me in my career, and how have my weaknesses prevented me from getting what I wanted?” Note these observations.
Here’s a second exercise. Now that you understand Personality Type and have a good sense of your own Type, you’re ready to take it to the next step: understanding others, and knowing how to communicate with them on their level.
- Go to www.Personalitytype.com
- Enter your Type in the box that asks: “Know your Type?”
- Click on “How to communicate with (SpeedRead) . . . your Type.”
- This will lead you to “How to Spot . . . ” and “Tips for Communicating with . . . ” people of your Type.
- Review both lists and see if you agree with the descriptions matching your communication style.
- Repeat this exercise for someone whose Type you feel fairly confident about.
- Read The Art of SpeedReading People to develop your own SpeedReading and SpeedReaching skills.
