On Strategy

Job Hunting Pointers from a Cat

I bought a house recently and from time to time the neighborhood cat was loitering in the yard.  I talked to the neighbor whose yard I often saw her in as well.  The previous tenants had abandoned her and he and his wife had taken her in.

That said, this cat very nearly got herself “hired” to be my cat.  And here’s how she did it:

1. Don’t use the conventional channels. I wasn’t actually looking for a cat.  But this cat just started showing up in the yard to get her ears scratched and be petted.  If I had the windows open she sometimes would jump in the window.
2. Be persistent. One night I was watching television and the sound effects guys on the show kept adding the sound of a cat meowing.  Then there was a scene with a car chase—and a cat meowing.  At that point I realized it wasn’t a sound effect and when I opened the front door, in came the cat to lay on the couch for the rest of the evening.  Soon she’d come over and stand on my front porch two inches from the door and stare at the door for hours—until I would let her in.
3. Be charming. Even after this cat had me trained to let her in on command, she never ceased to be charming.  She’d immediately stop to be petted, purr, and generally do whatever she could to convince me I’d made the right decision in letting her in the house.
4. Be lucky. Sometimes you’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It doesn’t matter how smart, hard-working, charming, or valuable you are, there just isn’t a job for you.  When I decided to “hire” the cat, I walked over to the neighbors to see what their thoughts were.  I was politely told that if the cat was over “bothering” me, I should shoo her back into their yard.  It didn’t matter if I wanted to “hire” her, she was already in an “exclusive contract” with another “employer.”

While I realize the job hunt is a lot more complex than this lighthearted story suggests, I think we can still learn a lot from watching a cat. A mentor of mine, talking about the job hunt, once said “You’re not shopping, you’re selling.”  I thought this was valuable enough to tape it to my computer monitor.  Another mentor said “a resume is a marketing tool, not a sales tool.”  I thought this was fairly clever too, but it took the actions of a fairly persistent cat for the full value of either quote to hit me.  It’s all well and good to send off resume after resume, but the bottom line is sometimes you’ve got to stand at the door and meow until someone lets you in.

Tags: job hunt, persistence, tips