I have a hard time understanding why professionals spend so much time and energy on something that hardly ever works.
Especially when there is an alternative that works much better, and it’s right in front of their eyes!
For example, it is a well studied fact that only about 5% of job applications pass through the first HR filter. It is also well known that a decent job application, including filling all the forms and customising the cover letter, can take upwards of 90 minutes. That is a total of 7.5 hour of non stop application for a single phone pre-interview interview! (That’s right, it’s not even a phone interview, but a mere hint at an interview)
What is even more baffling is that all this effort hardly ever helps the applicants get a job they actually want – most jobs that are advertised to the public are bottom of the barrel scraps that pay very little and have practically zero upward mobility.
What a shame!
This is because if done right… If instead of the “scattershot apply and pray” approach, the right job attraction system is utilized, so many more talented, well intentioned professionals can find positions that are both fulfilling, growth oriented and highly lucrative.
What stops people is not actually laziness or complacency – according to many surveys people want better opportunities and they want to move up in the world. Many also deserve better opportunities, better pay, and would be great if they moved up in the world!
What stops people from doing all this is that they are ignorant. Sorry, not sorry. That’s the truth.
Most professionals don’t know how apply to jobs the right way.
What’s worse is that: Those that know don’t speak. And those that speak don’t know. Adding to the confusion and misdirection.
Remember this: Practically nobody who knows how to do it… Nobody who has succeeded in the career world, bothers to spill the beans and tell professionals how it’s actually done. Nobody tells the real, raw story of how they became the CEO, or how they negotiated for such a large salary, or how they got their first break among thousands of competitors.
Everyone who preaches about how to apply for jobs, or how to get promoted, or how to network… Well… They mostly come from HR (or headhunters), and they lecture tactics that make HRs job easier (like writing resumes that are easy to filter out, or taking as little time as possible from hiring managers).
They teach you their game and their rules in a way that serves them. But they don’t teach you how to gain disproportionate advantage. They don’t teach you how to win.
Moreover, most of these “gurus”… They’ve never actually held a high value position in the first place!
They don’t know how to turn the tables with the corporate world and get your way. They don’t know how to apply to one job and get a better one, or how to bend the rules to get promoted every three months until you run the place.
Mark my words: The career game is a ruthless zero sum game where only 0.5% win and 99.5% brutally, perpetually, consistently fail. Not only that – to rub salt in the wound – the failure of the masses MAKES the success of the 0.5% possible.
After years of thinking about it, I can finally see through the confusion and why it is all this way.
Here’s the truth that corporate interests don’t want you to know:
Many professionals actually belive the HR memos, mainstream “job hunting” strategies, and all the feel good hustle-centric clever advice they read about in places such as blogs or hear about in YouTube videos.
Don’t get me wrong. Learning about bettering yourself and improving your life – if you happen to pay attention to the right content – is invaluable.
But relying on people who watch the game from the sidelines, rather than playing and winning the corporate game is a grave strategic mistake!
You see… There is much more to the “game of careers” than meets the eye. Which is why it is important to pay close attention, and look behind the scenes, so that you can learn what the real rules of the game are.
- How do you get that job before you have the experience?
- Do you really need a college degree to do that?
- How did this guy become the CEO?
- Why do I have to apply to a job, fill these forms and jump through all these HR hoops, instead of just talking to the manager who decides?
- What do you mean you can get that job without a resume, and that the resume is an afterthought.. A formality?
- If I don’t get my way, do I just have to hustle harder? HOW will that ever work?
- Do you really need to put your time in before you move up?
- Why does this job actually require 3 years of experience, when I already know how to do it?
- Do I have to wait for my boss to promote me, or is there another, faster way?
- And most importantly: How do you know what you’re telling me to do?
These and many similar questions are important because asking the correct questions and thinking outside of the box is where the game STARTS.
The real answers to such questions that challenge the status-quo helps the ambitious professional earn more, move up faster, and pick not only the jobs they prefer, but create their ideal careers.
The reason this type of inquiry works so well is that, through this process of questioning, you are being initiated, so to say, into the way the business world really works. And you are learning to become a professional rather than a human resource.
Remember: professionals trade with the market in win-win agreements. Human resources get used, get pushed around by market forces and serve legacy establishment hierarchies.
Once you truly understand and embody this distinction – a whole new world of possibilities open up!
In fact, one of the most common things I hear from our students who first hear about our method is:
“If I had only known how easy it would be to get what I want, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time… I would have been so much further ahead.”
To which, I always say: What matters is not where you are or how you got here. What matters is, what are you going to do about it?
Your past need not dictate your future.
The harsh truth is that there is a “secret” game being played out in the open, and unless you know exactly what I’m talking about – you’re not in on it.
Why not learn the game? Why not beat the game?
Construct your Career Narrative. Learn to use The Language of Value. Get their brains on your side. Give HR not what they say they want, but what they respond to.
And most importantly: Don’t settle for just what job you can get. Craft your ideal future!