This Is How To Get Your Next Job

This book is a little bit gritty because it’s filled with such detailed examples of what not to do and what not to say, that you will feel the author has been there, seen it all.  It’s too easy during this tough job economy to slip up. What are the areas the author warns us about?  There are four critical chapters that make this book worth the cover price:

Chapter  3, 15 Things You Should Never Do;

Chapter  4, 15 Things You Should Never Talk About or Say;

Chapter  5, 10 Things You Should Never Wear;

Chapter  6, 15 Things You Should Never Do Once You Get A Job Or In Your Career – Ever

Let’s look at Chapter 5.  Included in Ms. Kay’s “Appalling Outfits” are –  ready?

·          A Leather vest with no shirt

·         A jogging suit

·         Leather pants with cowboy boots.

Have a penchant for hand-tooled leather?  Perhaps this handy list of things not to ever wear to a business interview will help:

·          Don’t wear plaid, Hawaiian, or animal print shirts or t-shirts with or without wording

·         Don’t wear nose and tongue rings

·         No high heels – I think there are a few women execs who disobey this rule extremely successfully – or patterned hose

But outrageous apparel aside, the door opening statements that allow candidates to really expand on their strengths are worth reviewing.  Kay advises how to never talk about TMPI (Too Much Personal Information), an area that gets tricky for some females.  She warns never to talk about why you need the job, even if you’ve got a hard luck story involving sick children, elderly parents or a spouse who has been laid off.  Tough advice.  Likewise, for politics, religion or sexual preferences.   To avoid mistakes under the stress of the interview, Kay advises practice -  and slow down.  Use this book to prep the background research, and the interview questions. 

“Even in prosperous, thriving times, people with the power to hire are deciding who you are by how you seem – based on how you act.”  In this iffy economy she warns that employers are much more watchful and much less likely to give someone who seems careless or unreliable or immature – because that’s how he or she acted at a defining point in the interview process – the benefit of the doubt when it comes to hiring.  Start with the self-test “Would you hire you?” and the preparation exercises.

A great book for employers as well as interviewees.

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