If you are looking for a job you need every advantage you can get. What Does Somebody Have to Do to Get a Job Around Here? puts a former Human Resources executive turned employee advocate in your corner. Cynthia Shapiro reveals the best-kept job secrets that employers don’t want you to know including:
*Secret #8: A computer is deciding your job prospects.
*Secret #12: Professional references are useless.
*Secret #18: There is a “type” that always gets the offer.
*Secret #21: The Thank-You note is too late.
*Secret #28: Always negotiate.
* …and thirty-nine more!
Once you know the secrets you can create a winning resume, ace the interview, and land the job of your dreams.
Cynthia Shapiro, M.B.A., E.L.C., P.H.R., author of Corporate Confidential, is a former human resources executive and consultant. Now a personal career coach and employee advocate, she provides consultations and advice for employees all over the world. Her unique brand of career advice has been seen on ABC, CNN, FOX News, PBS and MSNBC; in the pages of Fortune, Glamour, Self, Details, Essence, Marie Claire, and is widely read in major newspapers across the U.S. Cynthia Shapiro lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Introduction
We all find ourselves wondering what goes on behind the closed doors of the hiring managers. What is this mysterious group thinking? What are their secret criteria?
Don’t you wish you had a crystal ball to look into the minds of these powerful corporate gatekeepers and find out what they’re looking for? What their idea of a top candidate really is, really looks like?
Now you will. Your crystal ball is here.
This book is the first to take job seekers behind the closed doors of hiring managers, providing a true, uncensored, and sometimes even shocking look at their processes and systems. For the first time you will see their hidden agendas, secret discriminations, fears, and motivations. It’s all here. You will finally know exactly what these people are trained to look for, say, screen out, and recommend for hire. You will learn the common traps and pitfalls most job candidates accidentally fall into that knock them out of the running. And you’ll learn why no company and no interviewer will ever tell you what you did wrong that cost you the job you wanted.
You will learn how to get past online résumé screeners, psychological assessments, and underhanded tactics so you will stand out among the overwhelming competition for top jobs. You will finally understand the true nature of the system and how to work it to your advantage.
This is not the standard “corporate-approved” job search guide providing generic advice ensuring you’ll look and sound like everyone else applying for the job. It will take you deep on the inside, where no hiring manager wants you to go. It will give you an unveiled glimpse into the real world of corporate selection and the hidden realms of the key decision makers, so you’ll know exactly what to do at each step of the process to stand out from the crowd as the star candidate.
Recently, I had a client who had not been able to find a job after nine months of frustrated searching. He was about to lose his house and couldn’t figure out why he kept getting calls and interviews but no offers. He was highly skilled, very personable, and overall an extremely desirable candidate but had not been able to get past the initial interview process. As this happened to him repeatedly, he had become more and more despondent. Little did he know it was a matter of changing one simple thing. In less than an hour we suddenly had our hands on the problem and turned it around. It was one of those things that nobody talks about and you won’t find in any other job search book. He could immediately see it would make all the difference, and as the clouds mentally parted for him he asked me, “Why haven’t I heard this anywhere before?”
The sad truth is, most of what you truly need to know in your job search is currently known only to the hiring insiders and is protected as “top-secret” information within companies. It is hidden away in secrecy because companies don’t want you to have the power in the interview process. That scares them. If you knew you could manipulate the entire interview process, then companies would no longer have the upper hand. Then you would be screening them instead of the other way around.
With his very next interview my client had a top-tier job offer. Nine months of rejection and frustration for lack of one bit of insider information. What worked for him was Secret 32, just one of the secrets I share in this book. There are forty-four insider secrets collected here to help you remove those unfair barriers, supercharge your job search process, maximize your income potential, and get those multiple job offers rolling in.
To increase your chances of getting any job you desire, nothing is more powerful than insider information from someone who has been deep in the hiring trenches. As a former human-resources executive and hiring manager, I’ve hired people at all stages from entry level to Chief Operating Officer. I’ve trained human-resources departments and taught companies the very same underhanded and intimidating strategies I describe here. I’ve been involved in hiring searches from small start-ups to large corporations, and I’ll tell you that they are all looking for employees using the same basic criteria: things they will never tell you, things they feel are critical to their survival. There is no leeway. One move on the wrong side of the invisible line they’ve set will land your résumé in the trash (a.k.a. the “I’ll keep your résumé on file” drawer). But it no longer has to be that way. I’ve seen firsthand the underhanded, unfair, and grueling tactics used by hiring managers and I’m ready to share all their best-kept secrets.
Being able to recognize and get past the tactics of these powerful corporate gatekeepers can mean the difference between getting the job of your dreams and getting the disheartening form letter saying “thanks but no thanks.”
I know exactly what companies are looking for in those teetering stacks of résumés, and I can tell you how to get yours on top. I know why they ask you trick questions during interviews, and I know exactly what they’re screening for. I know what secret discriminations and hiring criteria are lurking within the hiring process and how to keep them from impacting your success. I know how to push the magic buttons to get the highest possible salary and greatest benefit package. In addition, I know the powerful secrets to looking like the newest company star within the first ninety days. Now you will, too.
Whether you find yourself suddenly out of work, a recent graduate looking for your first job, or simply unhappy with your current situation and looking for something new, these insider secrets will give you a huge lead over the competition.
Prepare yourself. You are about to understand the interview and hiring process from an entirely different viewpoint. You are about to become the one in charge of the process. In this book, nothing is considered taboo, nothing held back, no holds barred. This is the real deal on how top candidates are screened and hired all across America from the biggest corporate giants to the smallest mom- and-pop operations. The real system is not always politically correct, is often unfair, and sometimes is not even legal. But if you learn how this secret system works, you’ll know how to sail through the interview process and become the top candidate for any job. You will never have to stress over answering trick questions correctly, explaining that gap in your employment history, handling a termination on your record, or looking like the top candidate any company would be proud to hire on the spot.
You will never look at a job search the same way again, and the overly powerful corporate gatekeepers won’t be able to stand in the way of your dreams once you know all their best-kept secrets.
Copyright © 2008 by Cynthia Shapiro. All rights reserved.
Imprint: St. Martin's Griffin
Distributor: MPS
Publication Date: 04-01-2008
Pages: 304
Measurements: 8.25in X 5.50in
