Get Hired

In this week’s other article on the job market, "You’re Fired," we talk about the potential that the job losses that have hit other industries could hit ours, despite the often rosy picture painted by many of the technology companies’ positive first quarter earnings and many of the bank stocks’ bad but not as bad as expected performance. Here we take the complementary approach, focusing less on the things you need to consider to prepare for an unexpected job change and more on the things you should do if you want to maximize your success in the industry. The previous focused on self-assessment and a few specific tactics. Here, we focus on some proactive practices. For better or worse, this list doesn’t number that many. Given the ADD nature of our space, that should come as primarily welcome news, though. So, want to get hired? Here’s what we recommend to increase the chances of going from later round to first round draft pick:

• Add Value (Internally) – In our other piece, this parallels Skill Portability. Knowing whether your skills can translate to another company makes a huge impact on your career. The proactive version of Skill Portability is much simpler and something you should focus on actively – adding value. Our world is performance driven. You can be smart and respected, but if the company can’t place a value on you, that makes you easier to ax. You could be a friend and adviser, but that only lasts so long. You want to control revenue, increase profit, and become not necessarily a gate keeper but indispensable in the sustained growth of the firm. Naturally, easier said than done, especially for those in primarily support positions like Finance or Legal, but they too can save costs, increases efficiency, and more. For those who might manage, especially those who manage client-facing talent, don’t assume that simply by managing them you add value. As with any position, figure out how you make your talent make more money; how do you focus them and others to increase the company’s book of business. Adding value can’t always guarantee that you keep your job but it will insure you maximize your time there, be it through a delayed stay of execution, a larger severance, or equally important an increase in the number of companies that want you.
• Add Value (Externally) – What this comes down to is do you know your stuff. Do you focus on just your needs or do you give good advice even when you might not make money? You could call it the difference between long term and short term thinking, of selfishness and balanced selflessness. We also call it consistency. Those that know you, can they count on you? Are you reliable? Do you deliver for them day in and day out with the same level of effort? McDonalds might not have the best food; they might have some horrible food, but no matter where you go, you know exactly what you will get. Strive for that level of variance and delivering a solid product each and every time.
• Networking – In real estate, they talk about location, location, location for increasing resale value. For our space, it comes down to networking, networking, networking. As a born-introvert, the idea of active networking traditionally ranked at the bottom of my list. Give me a book, some skill to learn, that I would do. Books, though, don’t hire people. Other people hire people, and perhaps no other skill will get you more offers than a strong network. As my college golf coach used to say, "It’s not who you know but who knows you back." So, focus on adding value not just at work but with your relationships. Do you only hit up people when you need something, or do try to get to know them and share information with them on some frequency outside of favors? If it seems like tough work, it is. Natural networkers might make it look easy, but that doesn’t mean they act idly. Their personality might lend itself to reaching out more naturally, but they still do the work. Great technologists won’t need to follow this as actively as others, and chances are you couldn’t pay them enough to, but the rest of us need to in order to create the same supply / demand imbalance that favors in-demand technologists. Being well networked can do that.

• Reputation – It is last but certainly not least, and it could be said that nothing matters more than your reputation. It’s complex and encompasses elements of everything else we discussed. There is no shortcut to reputation. It takes years to build but a lot less to diminish. Add value internally and externally, and your reputation will increase; don’t add value, or worse cause a loss of value, and depending on the size of your network you have a long, uphill battle ahead – good news travels to the person you help, but bad news you travels to more than one. At the end of the day, all you really have is your reputation, and it’s a funny thing. A person can be known as shady but still have a good reputation, and if you know someone like that, it’s probably because they’ve never done wrong by you or the people with which they do business. In that situation, you may not approve of some of the tactics and/or risks taken, but you feel like you can trust them. And, perhaps that more than anything is what reputation comes down to – trust. It might sound easy to do right by people, but in practice, there are few harder things to do time and again.