Examples: Positioning Secrets

1. Add in Hot Baits

e.g. Sometimes just one or two buzzword can make you hot. You just mumble them and they ask you to stand before a mirror and breathe.
They then look at the mirror and if turns cloudy (because of you breath), they decide you are still alive and hire you.
The skills described in those letters are so hot, so much in demand that they wouldn't test you any more.

A real story(Show/Hide) ✓ In the late 1990s (i.e. dot com golden age), any mention of Java would get you a job.

2. Spy on Real Needs

e.g. You are an architecture grad in Toronto. Architecture firms in Canada almost automatically rejected all such fresh grads.
You had to take a low-pay job at a long-form print/photocopy shop.
A few months later you got so many offers from those same architecture firms. What new stuffs did you add in your resumes?

A real story(Show/Hide) ✓ Architecture blueprints are too big for normal printing. So architecture firms use only long-form prints.
There, our hero saw that what he and his friends had learned in the university was too impractical,
that he needed to learn common modern software packages, that the firms hated to train new grads without practical skills.

Once he showed these in his resumes, job offers came in flood.

3. Select and Combine Skills

e.g. You've got a Physical Education degree. You're ambitious, aiming for some big roles in pharma companies.
What value would you highlight in your chats?

A real story(Show/Hide) ✓ Peter Guenter is now a member of the Executive Board and CEO of Healthcare at Merck.
As a young grad, he told the hiring manager:

I've been a sport person, so I am competitive.
As a Phys-Ed, I had studied a few similar subjects as physicians, especially Biochemistry.
So, as a salesman, I'm qualified to discuss pharma molecules with the doctors.

He got the job!

4. Reframe, Re-interpret Skills

e.g. You had a BA(English). UK was giving only 200 visas a year for super-super tech talent. You needed a big job to qualify for such visa. How will you introduce yourself to potential employers?

A real story(Show/Hide) ✓ The hero in this thriller is Alexa Shoen, author of "#ENTRYLEVELBOSS : How to Get Any Job You Want."

She got a highly-paid job in a UK tech firm. She wrote to them: I've been a copywriter, a creative director and digital marketing specialist.
Different mediums but I've been doing the same things: clarity, creativity, the user journey, and communication as a retention tool.

They saw that she had grown into a growth-hacker. She got the job!

5. Reframe, Re-interpret Skills

e.g. You are a journalism major. Will you become a successful content designer and content strategist at major tech companies of the world?

A real story(Show/Hide) ✓ The hero in this story is Erica Jorgensen, an author of a great book.

She was a content designer and content strategist at Expedia, Amazon and Microsoft. She is now at Chewy.com.

Examples: Networking Secrets

1. Give Sample/Proof of Ability

e.g. You are good, but not too good in AI research. How can you get jobs in top AI companies e.g. DeepMind?

A real story(Show/Hide) ✓ Andrew Trask is now working in DeepMind.

In his wonderful book, "Grokking Deep Learning," he wrote on page 298:

Your blog is essential to getting a job like this. Whatever job you want to get, write at least two blog posts showing that
you can do whatever it is they’re looking to hire someone for. That’s the perfect resume (better than a degree in math).
The perfect candidate is someone who has already shown they can do the job.

2. Backdoor: Acqui-Hire

You cannot get your foot in any of BIG Corps (e.g. Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft etc.).

A real story(Show/Hide) ✓ Do a startup. Apple and SoundJam, Facebook and WhatsApp, Facebook and Oculus, Google and DeepMind and the list is too long to cover here.

If your stuff is hot, they will buy your startup out so that they can hire your team.

3. Find Work, Not Job

If the economy is really really bad, can you still get a job?

A real story(Show/Hide) ✓ "Finding Work When There Are No Jobs," 2013, is a nice book.
The unique idea we want to share here : The best way to find a community's needs is as an insider.
So Join any community you fancy. Find a need you can satisfy. That need is springboard to your job.

Great minds think alike.

In this book, a jobless accountant helped a math-illiterate shopkeeper in a nearby bazar, and got similar assignments from other shopkeepers. In "Think and Grow Rich," another jobless accountant started an accounting services on wheels. Well, well, Software as a service (SaaS) in 1937!!