All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Copyright © 2015 by Paul Powers

Edited by Roger Sheety

Cover design by Rob Johnson/Toprotype

978-1-5040-2087-9

The Career Press, Inc.

220 West Parkway, Unit 12

Pompton Plains, NJ 07444

www.careerpress.com

Distributed by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

345 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com

For Linda.

For your unreserved support, sustaining confidence,
and abundant love.

If you just picked up this book it’s because you want or are thinking about or need a new job. Good for you! Let me ask you why. Do you sense there is something better for you out there? Good. Do you want a job that engages more of your brainpower and personality, more of your talents, more of your life energy? Good. Do you want a job that pays you more money? Good. Do you want a job that moves you ever closer to your life goals? Good. This book is the shortest distance between you and that job.

I have written this book so you can get through it in just a couple of sessions in order for you to crank up your job search more quickly. As you can already tell from this introduction I use a very conversational tone, as if it were just you and I talking together. That is to keep you engaged and moving forward—ever forward. No putting it down and thinking, Maybe I’ll get back to it later. To heck with that. What I uncovered for you in the first paragraph on this page is a bit of your discontent—and that’s a good thing. Tap into it. Use it. If you want something better, go for it. It’s all up to you, because the job fairy isn’t coming for you today, tomorrow, or ever.

Between these two covers are 30-plus years of my professional experience as a career expert, organizational psychologist, and author. You’ll find market-proven techniques, new approaches, and shortcuts around the roadblocks that will stymie most job hunters. I’ve included several diagrams to quickly reinforce major points I make in the text. When you see one of these diagrams, do not skim over it because it’s there to emphasize something your competitors often miss. Another bonus is The Good to Great Interview Toolkit contained in Chapter 10 that will support you and keep you on track at every step of the process.

The job-hunting process in general, and job interviewing in particular, requires focus, energy, optimism, and a sense of humor. In the pages of this book you will find liberal doses of each. You won’t find a lot of extraneous material to distract you from what you really need to know about job-hunting and interviewing success.

In workshops and seminars, at conferences and conventions all over the country, in one-on-one counseling or coaching sessions, or just hanging out in the break room or cafeteria, scores of people have honored me with the stories of their work lives—their hopes, their dreams, their fears, their failures. Once upon a time, the best employers were willing and mostly able to look out for and support their employees’ jobs and careers in a paternalistic and caring way. In rare environments a few vestigial pockets of that attitude remain today, but, by and large, that world is gone—and gone forever. At the 30-year mark in my profession, I believe, now more fervently than ever before, that every individual must learn the skills to manage and advance his or her own career, and that you, truly, must be the captain of your own fate, because nobody else is out there looking out for you.

If you put to work what is in this short but powerful book, you will be ready to either maximize your opportunities in a booming economy or survive any recession and come out on top. That’s what I call packing your own parachute, and in either circumstance, you should start today.

Career management, job hunting, making a living, and job interviewing are all serious issues. Serious? Yes. Solemn? No. None of us gets out of this life alive, my friend, and I’ve learned that a good laugh can help us endure and succeed in even the most difficult circumstances. Thus, throughout this book, my little quips, humorous asides, and optimistic observations are meant to help you keep this whole process in its proper perspective.

If you want a career book that will put you to sleep and collude with you to postpone your actual job-hunting for another day with theories, case studies, research studies, meditations, and other extraneous material (and there are plenty of them out there), you’ll have to look elsewhere. If you want to hit the ground running with all the knowledge, insider tips, and tools you need right at your fingertips, you’re holding the right book.

So, enough of the pep talk. Let’s get down to work.