Posted by: maureen in sales, letter, hope on
Jan 26, 2010
"A resume is used to screen you out." Common knowledge, according to my sources. So why do we put all that effort into our resumes? We send so many copies out into the world in hopes that--with what? some fairy dust?--one of them will make it into the hands of our dream employer.
I once tested the advice given by What Color Is Your Parachute? author Dick Bolles, and saw how far I could get without a resume. I replied to an ad for a radio sales representative. The ad said, "Resume required." I sent a letter instead. I mentioned three or four things the position required, and the corresponding ways I’d proved--on other jobs--I had those skills. I got an interview and was hired.
I sucked at radio sales, but that's another story.
I didn't let a resume screen me out because I didn't send one. The interviewer seemed enchanted by my letter, and a little annoyed with himself for that! "Is this a resume," he asked, "or a resume substitute?"
But hey, it worked.
Posted by: maureen in sales, listening, decision on
Sep 27, 2009
A lot of sales advice goes something like this: "Listen to the client before you decide how to help. It's silly to propose a solution unless you've identified the problem." A salesperson's job--for the most part, at least to begin with--is to listen.
I think that's great advice for people, not just salespeople, because it applies to almost any job and maybe to every job. Let's say you're in charge of hiring someone, and you bring the candidate in for an interview. You're going to make a better decision if you spend more time listening than you do talking. If you're a manager, you don't have to guess how to motivate people. Ask them to tell you what inspires their best work. If you're a parent, well, you probably get the idea.
I wondered what my friend Chris Shea from Lifesighs Cards gets her sense of peace. "I listen," she says. If forced to describe herself with a job title she wouldn't say artist or even writer: "I'm a listener. I listen to what goes on around me, and then I know what to write."
Being a good listener is more difficult than it may appear. Sometimes I concentrate so hard I get a headache, and I'll elaborate in the next post.
