Let Me Show You The High Percentage Way To Get Hired

A friend told me the other day that he had taken my job seeking advice and "it worked". He went on to tell me that after a lengthy unemployment period he was offered a job he's excited about and he got it because he was referred to the employer by a mutual friend.

Folks, this is how most white collar jobs (and many non-white collar jobs) are really filled. They candidate with the best resume is no match for the guy whose best friend plays golf with the hiring manager or the candidate whose resume is hand-delivered by a mutual friend along with a "you should hire this guy."

It's how the employment world really works. It's how it's always worked. HR departments don't want you to know that - and lawyers won't let them tell you the truth - but if you're looking for a job and you're a "B" candidate with an "in" you're more likely to get the job than an "A+" who is a stranger to the organization and to the hiring manager. 

So why are you sending countless dollars and hours sending your resume to strangers who aren't going to hire you if an acceptable non-stranger is available?

I've never seen the work place less "meritocratic" than it is today - and that's saying something since (a) it's never been very meritocratic and (b) employers have never declared what meritocracies they are as much as they do today.

Back in the early 90s I got a call from the HR department at my largest client, a publicly-traded Nashville firm. The HR department told me I had to start working with them instead of working directly with the Area VPs I usually worked with. That call was followed by an Area VP who told me to ignore the HR department.

"Nothing's changed," he said ", you and I work together exactly the same way we always did. I'll be damned if HR is going to tell me who to hire."

And that was that. If Area VPs (and even lesser hiring managers) wanted to hire somebody they liked instead of the candidate HR determined to be the "most qualified", that's what they did. 

In light of this reality, who would you rather be, (a) the most highly qualified candidate with the best resume who is championed by HR or (b) the candidate favored by the hiring manager? Right, the answer is (b). 

Qualifications get job candidates into a game that relationships win. Stop and read that statement again. Notice that I didn't say "unqualified people get hired all the time." But I am saying that a "B" candidate with the right connections will get hired ahead of an "A+" candidate every time if the "B" candidate has a "sponsor" or co-signer for the job and the "A+" candidate doesn't. 

Meritocracy be damned, here's what hiring managers are really doing: they're stocking their companies with people they "like" or feel comfortable with. By this measure they can use any criteria they wish and they don't really have to justify their decision to anyone so your job as an employment seeker is to make sure somebody likes you and feels comfortable with you. The easiest way to do this is to get recommended by what I call en employment co-signer or sponsor. 

And notice that I didn't say you have to be the hiring manager's best pal. You just have to be a non-stranger. Strangers don't get hired except in "cattle calls" where Ibex Global is hiring 250 call center workers or where Amazon.com is hiring anybody with a pulse to work the Christmas season. 

A non-stranger is the guy being introduced to the hiring manager over coffee at Starbucks by their mutual friend while you're sitting in the lobby sweating bullets over whether the $500 resume you're carrying is good enough. You're a stranger. The hiring manager will not hire you. The hiring manager will hire the non-stranger, the guy who's being introduced to him by their mutual friend.

Don't be insane. Don't continue to do the same thing over and over each time expecting a different result. Don't double down on sending resumes to strangers when deep in your heart you know this is a low percentage strategy that seldom works. 

Let me show you the high percentage way to get hired. I offer a job seeker workshop free of charge to groups in the Kanawha-Putnam areas. 

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Higginbotham At Large reads all submitted comments but only publishes comments from clearly identified submitters. No pseudonymous or anonymous comments will be published. By "clearly identified" I mean something like this: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com. No Ring of Gyges for you.

Keywords: Nitro, WV, West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, 

Think Of It As A St. Albans Town Meeting

Don't think of it as a Neighborhood Watch meeting.  Mayor Callaway will speak and answer your questions about felony crime arrests rising 144% in St. Albans. Members of the St. Albans Police Department will be there. Will you be there?

Ask the mayor about what St. Albans is doing to identify upstream threats to our water. Councilwoman Cheryl Thomas will be there. Will you be there?

Will you speak up and tell your mayor, your councilperson and your police department what's on your mind?

6:30PM this Tuesday 11 February at The Crossing Church, 2031 Harrison Ave.

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Higginbotham At Large reads all submitted comments but only publishes comments from clearly identified submitters. No pseudonymous or anonymous comments will be published. By "clearly identified" I mean something like this: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com. No Ring of Gyges for you.

Keywords: Nitro, WV, West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, 

How To Spot Fraudulent Neighborhood Watch "Experts"

I was meeting with some other Neighborhood Watch leaders when there came in among us a man who claimed he was an expert in how to start and run a Neighborhood Watch. He claimed he had started a Neighborhood Watch in another state and he started telling  us what we were doing wrong.

So we gave him a Shibboleth, a test, to see if he really had the experience he said he did. We asked him what he would do first if he were starting a neighborhood watch in our town.

When he started yammering about how we needed to write by-laws, elect officers and hang fliers on doors. We looked at each other, smiled knowingly and declared this man a fraud. 

How did we know?

We knew because, those of us who have actually done it, have collectively made every mistake in the book or watched others make every mistake in the book and we persevered long enough to learn from our own mistakes and the mistakes of others. 

Everybody who reads this is familiar with Einstein's declaration that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting to get a different result. Similarly, most of you are familiar with the old bromide that if you want to change the outcome you've been getting you have to do something different than you've been doing. 

Both sayings are true. And since some of us had made those and other mistakes we already knew why these are not good uses of time and energy and that the neighborhood watch volunteers who misspent their time and energy that way never successfully started a neighborhood watch. What happens to people who spend their time delivering fliers, electing officers and writing by-laws tend to get discouraged and quit in failure after about 6 months or a year. Neighborhood watch leaders who spend their precious early days electing officers, writing by-laws and hanging fliers on doors will have meetings but they won't have enough people to have a functional neighborhood watch. Their leaders will likely quit in discouragement and disappointment. This is why so few cities actually have some residents who know how to start a neighborhood watch. Most who try simply don't last long enough to figure out why they failed. 

In my next post, I'm thinking of writing a contrast and comparison of two neighborhood watches - one successful, the other not - so readers can see for themselves what works and what doesn't, and, so that readers can see how a neighborhood watch effort can fail despite doing a lot of things right but failed because it didn't do the essential things. 
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Higginbotham At Large reads all submitted comments but only publishes comments from clearly identified submitters. No pseudonymous or anonymous comments will be published. By clearly identified I mean something like this: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com. No Ring of Gyges for you.

Keywords: Nitro, WV, West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, 

New St. Albans Councilman Vows To Start Neighborhood Watch In Ward 5

St. Albans City Council seats new ward 5 councilmember who vows to start a neighborhood watch.

From The Charleston Gazette, February 4 2014:

"City Council also voted 6-5 for Christopher Withrow as the new Ward 5 council member. The Ward 5 seat was open since December, when Councilman Dan Cain Sr. resigned abruptly.

Withrow, a St. Albans native and graduate of West Virginia State University, retired from a career in the U.S. Navy in 2009. He said that he wants to form a neighborhood watch in Ward 5.

'I will go door to door and meet every individual. I'll find out what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong. I can give a voice to those I would have the privilege and honor of serving,' Withrow declared, just prior to the vote.

Immediately thereafter, Withrow was sworn into office by Callaway and seated with City Council."

NOTE: Naydeen Wolf and I met with Chris Withrow a few weeks ago and told him that if he wants to do some work and is willing to let us help, the new citywide Neighborhood Watch Advisory Board will not allow him to fail. 

Because of the citywide neighborhood watch advisory board there is no excuse for any St. Albans ward not to have a neighborhood watch if (a) they ask for help and (b) they are willing to do some work.

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Higginbotham At Large reads all submitted comments but only publishes comments from clearly identified submitters. No Ring of Gyges for you.

Keywords: Nitro, WV, West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive,