Whether you are currently unemployed, not yet in your first job, or secure in your job, a positive mental attitude is crucial. Your mental attitude will make a difference in how soon you find a job, what kind of job you are offered and accept, and how much compensation you receive. Even if you follow all the advanced techniques explained in breaking the rules, you will be wasting your time in job interviews unless you have the right mental attitude. But if you enter every interview with a positive attitude, you will receive job offers that you never dreamed possible.
Now some of you reading this will say, "I'm not interested in any mental attitude hocus pocus." Before you make up your mind, let me tell you about George Y., a petroleum engineer whose positive mental attitude got him a job offer when there wasn't even an opening. George was able to speak on the phone to the divisional vice president of a large, independent petroleum producer.
The vice president, impressed by George's positive personality and attitude, invited him in for a talk, even though "the only opening we have now is for a geologist."
George maintained his positive mental attitude throughout a long interview. Two weeks later he was invited back to "meet some of our people." Not once was a job mentioned, and not once did George ask. But he maintained his positive attitude and demonstrated his natural enthusiasm for petroleum work and his interest in the company he was "visiting." Several days later George received a job offer. The company had decided that it needed a petroleum engineer more than it needed a geologist. What really happened, of course, was that management decided that a positive fellow like George was too good to pass up.
Be prepared for the inevitable setbacks
No matter how good you are or what you have done in the past, you are going to suffer some hard knocks during your campaign. Not all prospective employers-(PEs) are going to like you, appreciate your talents, or understand your accomplishments, just as you are not going to like or appreciate every PE you meet. Sometime during your campaign you will meet a PE whom you like very much. You will think yourself a perfect match for the company and feel that you will be able to do wonders for it. You will be disappointed if you do not receive a job offer. Unfortunately, that is exactly what is going to happen. You will not receive one. Why? Who knows? There are ten thousand reasons that may have nothing to do with you. In fact, they may actually want to offer you the job, but cannot. Maybe the president's son or daughter decided he or she wanted the job. Maybe there was a full moon out. Who knows? The reasons are unimportant. What is important is that you be ready for such temporary setbacks. Like a good marriage, the perfect job match comes when both parties are totally convinced and all the other unimportant, weird, and random factors fall into line as well. In the interim you must maintain your positive mental attitude. Eventually they will. Meanwhile, here's how to keep positive.
After a terrific interview that you are certain will lead to an offer, get ready for the next interview with the next company anyway. Tell yourself that you are going to have such a great "next" interview that you will receive another offer to compare against the one you expect. See if you can raise your response-to-interview ratio by writing the "perfect" response. Make more telephone calls, following the telephone training program. Try to beat your old record of number of calls to interviews. If it fits in with your campaign plan, send out additional sales letters or follow-up sales letters. Go over your old letter to polish it further. Finally, be confident that in the end you will achieve your objective and capture a truly great job, whether it is with the terrific company you have just interviewed with and from which you expect a job offer, or an even better one.