Job & Edu

Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door: Job Search Secrets No One Else Will Tell You

From Portfolio Hardcover

Author : Harvey Mackay
Binding : Hardcover
DeweyDecimalNumber : 650.14
EAN : 9781591843214
Edition : First Edition first Printing
ISBN : 1591843219
Label : Portfolio Hardcover
Manufacturer : Portfolio Hardcover
NumberOfPages : 352
ProductTypeName : ABIS_BOOK
PublicationDate : 2010-02-18
Publisher : Portfolio Hardcover
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Customer Reviews

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!
Comment: Harvey and this book are two of the best friends you will ever have! I will use the interview question "Well, what did you do today?" I can only imagine how the answer to this question will separate A players from the crowd. Whether you are looking for employment or asking for a raise you will be taking Harvey's advice right to the bank.

My favorite Mackay's Moral: A smart cookie converts "No" into "Know".

Do yourself and your family a favor and be prepared to land the job of your dreams.

You did it again! Highly recommended!

Kevin Hall
Rating:
Summary: Great info, as always, Harv, but . . . may I simply this?
Comment: There's only one REAL question in all job interviews - "How Are You Going to Positively AFFECT MY bottom line?"

Yet, businesses tend to hire based on whether they like you.

Find out How to Answer these questions and get to the top of the "Your're Hired" stack by listening to a free podcast [...]
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly realistic, practical and savvy advice for the seasoned professional who is unemployed
Comment: Harvey Mackay's writing voice, his tales of firing, career disaster and career repair for those who are fifty and over, rings with authenticity. If you are tired of career guides and how-to-find-a-job guides written by people who have nothing but academic credentials and are completely clueless about the realities of work--this is an excellent guide. Mackay begins his book with solid advice on how to hang on to a job, good advice on what to ask for when you are fired (get the recommendations IN WRITING) and what to tell the recruiter about how you lost your job. Yes, there are a few too many show biz references (how Hillary Swank came back from a TV series firing) but they are balanced by things like an excellent, very realistic, interview with a retained executive recruiter.

MacKay is both realistic and reassuring about the problem of age discrimination. Rather than focusing on resume tricks (leaving the graduation date off the resume) he stresses the importance of working on excellent health, fitness and vitality. Don't act your age, says MacKay, act the age you want to be. While this might sound like pie in the sky to some, it makes sense. The best way to combat age discrimination is to make it abundantly clear that you are the best candidate. While it won't help you get around a determined discriminator--it will help a lot with a person who mistakenly thinks that people in their thirties are superior regardless of experience, education or talent.

MacKay has excellent ideas for a career makeover including videotaping yourself and getting feedback, keeping up with industry literature and talking about it, deciding on whether to get an MBA, using career change columns and industry discussion groups, remaining visible and becoming a resource. He warns people off waste-of-time money making sites and other internet time wasters that can suck the life out of an entire day.

I'm an executive recruiter with a lot of experience working with senior people. I am constantly looking for resources that I can recommend to people (usually people I contacted when they were employed) who write to me, asking for advice. These days there are a lot of those people and I will be very happy to recommend this book.


Rating:
Summary: Great book with practical ideas
Comment: Harvey is a master at networking and sales. That's key because getting a job is all about being a master at building and sustaining relationships and selling yourself to decision makers. "Get Your Foot in the Door" provides easy-to-follow and implement ideas that work. Getting a job in any environment can be very hard. If you get one or two tips that improve your search efforts, your preparation, and your presentation, this book is well worth your investment. However, my guess is you'll pick up many more than one or two new ideas.
Rating:
Summary: We Need To USe Our Heads...
Comment: I must admit, it is my first Mackay book, so I was amazed with the light and easy to understand style with serious thoughts in the background. Sarcasm in the right place and in the appropriate moment mixed with storytelling as well as professional teaching of the high-quality information results in a top learning adventure.
It originally meant to target people seeking a job. However, this book is an eye-opener for everybody who has something to do with the world of labor.
Not only do we learn every tiny piece of the big puzzle of job hunting very precisely in what to do, and what to avoid manner, but the important behind the scenes secrets become also clear. Mackay's advice is the same as that of many very successful people: do what you are good at and be the best. His recipe is simple: develop a mindset that allows you to analyze and interpret failure as a chance for doing it again but better. Perseverance, diligence, life-long learning as a part of the lifestyle, flexibility, readiness to change, good mental and physical health is obligatory features for getting in and stay there.
We live undoubtedly in a new era of work where jobs get rare and insecure thus modern individual life strategies are needed. Mackay does everything he can to prepare his readers, and he is good at his job.
One of the best side-effects of his work is the provocation he generates in us to think further. Questions he never asks are as important as the solutions he offers. Just to mention a few: How can you stay healthy, at least in the long term, in a world where 12 hours or more work is needed? What about the missing time with your family? How can you digest getting always the silver medal for the same performance if decisions about gold medals are made during dinner in elegant hotels?
We need to use our head to get our foot in the door...