-- and Land It!

You'd probably tab him as a candidate for the nearest asylum. Or maybe you'd think he was trying some new confidence game. Yet the simple truth is -- you can get the job you want.

Maybe you've been unemployed for some time and anxious to take just "anything that comes along." Maybe you're fresh out of school and a bit uncertain how to get going. Maybe you don't even know what job you want.

Maybe for months or years you've looked for that special job you knew would make you happy -- but now you've given up all hope of ever landing it. Or maybe you've got your eye on a better post in your own office but don't know how to get it.

It doesn't matter. You can get the job you want if you are qualified for it and if you follow the simple step-by-step plan of campaign we will detail for you in this book.

Let's stop right here for a bit of fact-facing. We are not going to take you by the hand and make you a bank president or even an errand boy. We are going to give you tried and proven techniques -- and demonstrate their use in actual case histories -- that <pg. 1> will help you land yourself in your chosen lifework. Beyond that we cannot go.

No reader can expect to find in this book examples that exactly match his own problem. What's more, we hope you will find no case too much like your own. For you will gain most by working out your own job campaign.

All you need is to understand fully the steps you should take and the methods you should use. You will find enough illustrations here to help you do this. Then, if you sweat enough over it you can adapt these methods to your own special situation.

When you come right down to it these techniques work only when harnessed to hard thought and hard effort. Still, the sky's the limit when it comes to finding the job you want. And actually -- as thousands of men and women have found through experience -- you can have a wonderful time at it too, for it's fun!

Probably the most striking thing about these principles --beyond the fact that given some hard work they will help you land your job -- is the positive change they make in your entire mental outlook once you grasp their full meaning. One or two stories will show this most clearly.

In 1932, an old friend, Arthur Beeman,* came to our Philadelphia office. "Sid," he said, "it looks as though I'll have to get out of the mortgage business. It makes me feel blue, just to think of it, but things have never been so flat before.  [Footnote: *All cases in this book come from our personal files or from the files of the various Man Marketing Clinics. However, names have been changed to protect the people involved.]

"My funds are running low," he went on, "and I've got to think of the family. If I don't find an opening soon, I'll have to take whatever I can get in another line."

"Hold on, Art," we said, "you don't mean to throw away all that experience you've built. You enjoy mortgage work too much to do that."

"But what can I do if there are no jobs?"

Even way back there in 1932 we were groping toward the sales technique for job hunting. So we asked Art in turn, "Have you tried selling your services? Or are you just looking for a job?"

"What do you mean.

"We're beginning to think a job hunt should be run like a sales <pg. 2> campaign. Just as though you were marketing soap, or real estate. Only you, the job hunter, are the product. Instead of asking for a job -- you offer your prospects a service. Then you expose yourself to as many prospects as you can.

"Sid, you've got something there! Could you lunch with me so we could work it out a little more?"

How could Art merchandise himself so he could stand out from competition? That was the problem we pondered at lunch.

Mulling it over in our minds we hit on a portfolio as the answer. In the space this allowed, Art could dramatize the results he had achieved in his three chief jobs. Designed so that it could be reproduced, copies could be placed in the hands of others. It would be the backbone of a complete campaign. (How to write such a portfolio will be discussed in Chapter 4.)

Since Beeman was in Philadelphia for the day, we suggested he make several calls there, including one on the manager of an employment agency. After hearing Beeman's story, the agency man didn't even want him to fill out an application blank.

"There are no calls for mortgage men," he said, "and if there were, I've plenty of good Philadelphians in my files."

Ten days later Art returned with his portfolio, on which he had done a fine job. "This looks swell!" we enthused. "Say Art, why don't you call on that agency manager again and show him this?"

"No, I'd look foolish after what he said last time."

"But it would be a fine test of the portfolio."

Beeman made this call reluctantly. He sent in his portfolio and waited in the outside office. Twenty minutes later the manager asked him to come into his office.

"Mr. Beeman," he said, "if all men seeking jobs would organize themselves as you have done, we would place many more people. Can I have a copy of your portfolio? I'd like to show it to every mortgage company in Philadelphia, to every bank with a mortgage department, and to every insurance company."

Checking with two banks a week later, we found the employment manager had lost no time in doing what he promised.

What a tribute to planned technique! Before Beeman organized himself, the agency man didn't even want his application. <pg. 3>

And Art himself was ready to give up.

Once his mind caught at the idea, Art's spirits revived.

Ten days later, with an organized sales campaign, the agency man volunteered to serve as Art's personal sales manager.

While the employment manager was still working the Philadelphia market, Art located a satisfactory position in the mortgage department of a big New York bank. Among those competing for the job were two friends and one relative of officers of the bank.

Yet Beeman got the job. We asked him why.

He did not hesitate when he replied, "Because I was organized to get it. The work I put into that portfolio gave me terrific confidence. For I knew I had something to offer.

"I showed them I could make money for them in two ways: by getting profitable new business and by organizing my part of the business efficiently. Organization and confidence did it."

That's the point. When you know what you're doing you get a tremendous lift.

Granted, Art's confidence had been only slightly dented to begin with. For he knew it was the times that were off -- not himself. But even in those few cases we've had where men were way down in the dumps the mental change that came with planned technique was startling. Because the point is so important, we'd like to cite two such stories.

His confidence shattered by this unexpected shock, Mr. Mosshammer remained jobless for several years. Turned down even for S50 a week jobs he felt himself unwanted and useless. He could never make a comeback in business, he decided. And while he still had his home, his funds were exhausted.

And so, after a troubled conference with his wife who still re tained her faith in him, he decided to trade his home for a small farm. But knowing nothing of farming and with little relish for the plan, he determined to make one last try for a job. He looked <pg. 4> up a friend, Burt Wilcox, who is with one of the large corporations. Burt in turn sent him down to us.

The hardship of these past years had told on Mr. Mosshammer. He shuffled in to see us a little stooped and prematurely gray. He spoke in a halting, uncertain manner. Occasionally when he lost himself in his story, we could catch a glimpse of the man he once had been. But in his present state of mind he was unemployable.

Over a period of weeks we held many conferences with Mr. Mosshammer. We told him some of the things we've written in this book. We told him about other men who had found places in business after gaps as long as his. We encouraged him to talk about his former executive days until he again got the "feel" of success. Gradually, he began to see the power of an organized job-hunting plan based on well-ordered and tested selling procedures.

Thinking in terms of selling forced him to think of service. And with this came the conviction he still had something to offer. Hope was rekindled. Fired by this regained spirit he began to work out a job campaign.

At this point we called Burt Wilcox and said we would like to send Mr. Mosshammer back to him.

"But we can't use him," he protested. "He's all washed up. He's through."

"When you saw him, yes. Now we think you'll find him different. His whole attitude is changed. But we're not asking you to take him on. Just let him come up to talk with you. You may be interested in what has happened to him."

"I'll be glad to give him some time," said Burt, "but I'm promising nothing."

That was all Mr. Mosshammer needed. He made such good use of that time that he came out with a job. Not such a grand job. But we weren't concerned about that -- nor was he. We knew he needed time to build up his confidence further before he was ready for a job as big as his experience warranted. He might never climb that high again. But we felt sure that with this start he would find his proper level whatever that might now be.

We met him again a year later. He was a completely changed <pg. 5> man -- brisk, alert and confident. He was nowhere near where he once had been but he had earned several promotions and was proud of them. After this meeting he sent us a letter. This is what he wrote:

How few of those who desire to help their fellow men realize the importance of healing the mind first.

A sick mind is a difficult thing to cure and yet there are literally millions of them in the country today, waiting and yearning to be understood.

True, a job means much, but preparation of the mind to start all over again, it seems to me, means more. We can't stage a comeback without the right frame of mind.

What's all this -- a sermon?

No.

Just a letter of appreciation for the part you played in curing the sick mind of John R. Mosshammer

[Jeanne Perkins, Receptionist]

Then there was Jeanne Perkins who came to the Man Marketing Clinic a discouraged young lady indeed, convinced she would never find a job. Jeanne was a dumpy little thing, rather plain-featured, who slumped in her seat, the very picture of abandoned hope. Once launched on her story, however, she displayed a ready wit and a clear intelligence.

When she forgot her self-pity her face grew more animated and she flashed a warm and engaging smile.

A high school graduate with two years of college, Jeanne left school when her father's death plunged the family into financial difficulties. With no experience to offer she decided a receptionist's job was the easiest one to find. She felt her tact, intelligence and ease of conversation qualified her.

Because she thought she'd like to get into that field, she made the rounds of all the big advertising agencies in New York. She was turned down in each case. Then she tried the radio stations -- with no better luck.

Unnerved by her initial failures she hunted jobs haphazardly with no plan, no goal, no idea of what she wanted -- and no better success. Brooding over her bad luck Jeanne suffered fits of depression. Finally, a friend steered her to the Man Marketing Clinic. <pg. 6>

Although she was only twenty, with her career ahead of her, Jeanne was just as unemployable now as Mr. Mosshammer had been. Mental attitude had her licked. Any prospective employer could see at once that something was wrong. And Jeanne herself floundered about completely disorganized.

Some of the men at the Clinic got up and spoke of the hard luck streaks they had suffered. No pattern of straight line success existed, they pointed out. Of course, Jeanne knew all this but in her panic she could neither see nor think straight.

However, little time was wasted on such talk. Discussion quickly centered on job-landing procedure. Some spoke of the need to know what you wanted to do now and in the future. Others mentioned the value of a planned job campaign, of preparing for interviews beforehand. Above all we spoke of the self-confidence instilled when one followed tested techniques.

Soon Jeanne perked up and took notice. She made notes, asked questions. She shed her defeatist attitude, mapped out a job campaign, found a job she liked.

But that is not what we want to talk about. Our concern here is the impact this process made on Jeanne's mind and personality. We didn't tell her what to do. We did give her a working knowledge of the general procedures that had helped so many thousands before her.

"Anyone can find a case or two to prove a point," you might well object. And at this stage it may all sound somewhat vague and unbelievable. But the job-finding process we will unfold in these pages does not rest on a few isolated stories. On the contrary, the method evolved slowly from the real life experience of thousands of men and women who for almost twenty years have successfully applied these techniques.

It all began in those dark depression days of 1935 when the authors organized the first Man Marketing Clinic designed to help people sell their services to prospective employers. At this writing more than sixty thousand men and women have come to the original Clinic for help. As they absorbed the principles and methods now contained in this book and slowly came to believe they could pick and land their jobs, minor miracles took place.

Over and over again we have seen hope rebuilt, shattered <pg. 7> morale restored, confusion replaced by organized planning, and lethargy transformed into dynamic action. Over and over again, in good times and bad, we have watched people move from the Clinic into jobs that paid more than they had ever earned before -- jobs of their own choice and making! Yes, jobs of their own making, for we have seen them create jobs that never before existed.

And these experiences have been reinforced by those of other such Clinics sponsored by schools, Chambers of Commerce, Advertising Clubs, State Employment Agencies, Y.M.C.A.'s, and, after World War II, by the Army Air Corps. Always the story has been the same.

It is from this living, breathing laboratory of the Clinic that our job-finding process derives. And it is the "sweat and blood and toil" of those who have applied it that gives it its sound and practical values.

Those who come to the Clinic want practical help -- specific help in making the time they spend contribute more richly to their goals.

We planned this little book to meet as fully and as clearly as possible this most pressing need. If you want to get ahead on the job you now have; if you wish to convert to a new career with your present firm or elsewhere; if you are just out of school and on the hunt for your first job; if you have lost your job and seek another, we are convinced the techniques described here will help guide you to your goal.

Shaping our material to fit the pattern of growth most characteristic of Clinic experience we begin with the need and method of choosing personal goals. This we discuss in Chapters 2 and 3.

Once you have settled on your present and future goals, we take you through all the steps of a well-ordered campaign to realize them. Then, in successive chapters, we show you how to reach enough prospects; how to turn your liabilities into assets; how to follow up your prospects intensively until you land your job; and how to plan for further progress.

For those who are interested, we have added an appendix where we show how you can organize and conduct a Man Marketing Clinic in your own community, and how to apply Clinic techniques in the classroom. <pg. 8>

This book was not designed as entertainment. To make the most of it you must read it actively. We strongly urge you to keep some pencils handy, plenty of paper, and a notebook.

Read the book through quickly at first to get the feel of it and to glimpse its underlying principles. Underline passages that seem important to you. Jot down in the margins or on your scratch paper ideas you want to mull over later.

Then go back and read each chapter slowly. Concentrate on those things closest to your own problem. Use your work sheets and notebook as suggested.