Happy Belated Valentine's Day! Job Hunting=Romancing Employers

For years I've pondered the similarities between romance and job hunting. For many the trials and travails seem disturbingly similar. Is there a correlation between being successful at courting and attracting employers? Personally, I see many commonalities, but do not think that every romantic dude is a talented candidate or that every enticing femme fatale evolves into a drop dead employee prospect. However, removing tongue in cheek long enough to get serious, one can transfer knowledge gained from specific tasks related to these endeavors that do translate into improved results in the other.  There's no mistaking that an engaging personality is helpful to both romantic and career pursuits. Good manners are de rigeur for playing in either field. Knowledge and experience are a competitive edge - read any business book and you'll get that drift. Young Alec Greven's book , How to Talk to Girls, provides some gems. Maybe we need a similarly simple set of humorous and effective guidelines for executing a successful job search. I'm working on it! 

Posted by Debra Feldman, the JobWhiz

Comments

[Dan Erwin]

Debra: It strikes me that periodically there ought to be some way to upgrade manners, street smarts and common sense. But all of those issues tend to be very difficult to get at and work with. All of these are necessary skills for the job search--and all de rigeur. Your readers might find my blog on street smarts intriguing. http://danerwin.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/02/geny-street-smarts-and-common-sense-1.html

[Paul]

Debra, great article and you are certainly not only when it comes to equating dating with job hunting. I've been thinking about that for some time and it's refreshing to read someone elses thoughts who are so compatible with mine. When it comes down to those last 2 candidates I would say 98% of the time the victor has got the job contigent on his social skills, and not his experience or technical prowess.