Every year, football teams coming to training camp in August to prepare for their season, They will play 4 or 5 exhibition and 16 regular season games to determine which teams will meet in the playoffs in one and done elimination for the opportunity of playing in The Super Bowl. What lessons can we take from these athletes and their experiences that we can apply to job hunting?

First of all, being a great athlete is no guaranty of being successful. Professional sports are littered with great athletes who have never one a championship. As a result, its important to remember to surround yourself with a great team. A team you can excel with and a coach (boss) who can be a good leader for you and others.

You will play the way you practice. Teams dont just show up on Sunday. They practice and practice hard in order to develop their skills within a system. They work hard to be victorious. How do you prepare for your job search? Do you just show up at the interview, feel out the interviewer, wing it and expect to win? Do you actually prepare yourself for interviewing with that particular opponent (interviewer) by learning about the firm? Have you ever Googled the name of the interviewer to find out about their background?

Each game has a certain number of plays you will be in for. Play hard on every down and execute your responsibilities at 100%.. Each interview will consist of a fixed number of questions. Some of them may seem stupid to you or repeat questions youve been asked on several other interviews. Your job is to execute the plays by answering questions with accuracy and with passion for what you do.

You wont be perfect on every play. You will even loose some important games. Great teams learn from their defeats. They practice in order to get better. They work hard to become excellent. They may lick their wounds for a while but they know there is a next play and next game in order to go to the playoffs. This kind of resilience is important for you as a job hunter.

After all, not every resume youll send out will result in an interview, let alone a job. When you dont get a job you really want, do you collapse into a cocoon for a week or do you find out what went wrong and what was right in order to learn from the experience? Champions watch film of their games to analyze their performance. What do you do after an interview to review?

Take coaching. Some people interpret coaching as criticism. In some respects, thats tue. Being told how to improve is a criticism, but it is also a suggestion for how to be excellent (and for you managers, perpetual criticism without praise results in your staff tuning you out).

The poet, Rumi, writes:

Pray for a tough instructor to hear,and act and stay with you.

Dont get your opponent riled up. Being controversial draws attention to yourself and awakens the dragon. Dragons are always safer when they are asleep than when they are awakened. Dont gove the interviewers any reason to be critical of you.

Ah, yes, theres one more.

Your time as a champion is fleeting. Someone will always be there trying to take your crown. Enjoy every moment of life. Life is fleeting and one day, youll die. When you look back, do you want to have regrets about how youve used your precious time on this planet or at the end, do you want to acknowledge that youve used all of your energy well

Jeff Altman

Concepts in Staffing

jeffaltman@cisny.com

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