Big Versus Little Jobs

By Alen Majer

One morning Elizabeth Potter wakes up to find she is out of work. Her firm has been purchased and will be moving to another region of the country. Elizabeth is not in a position to move, so she begins to look for another job.

Along with hundreds of other letters, Elizabeth's application slowly hits a company that is interested and grants her an interview. This position was carved to fit the person who is satisfied with what life chooses to give out to him or her - food, clothes, place to lay his or her head, and the right to exist.

But as she progresses, she is not satisfied with just a liveable wage, and presents a well prepared portfolio of what she can do. She is hired for a gain in income. Who did she beat out for this job? Hundreds of applicants both inside the company and out, who did not fight for what they were worth. Elizabeth showed what she could do. It was not just words. The amazing thing in this case is how the internal employees failed to demonstrate that they had the performance ability for the position.

By hiring someone who could demonstrate their abilities it may mean the company can save hundreds of thousands of dollars. No inside employee could match her ability to sell her competencies. It doesn’t mean they might not have those competencies; it does mean they didn’t sell them.

In another case a company is searching for a new auditor. Outsourcing costs are running too high and the international business work seems too much for the current auditor. In the New Z-Laser Company in Pittsburgh, a thirty-five-year-old dynamo, Bill Marin, is making a name for himself in the auditor’s position, and as a leading member of the professional auditing association. On top of it he has sought international finance and marketing expertise.

His ability has been noted by outsiders as well as by those above him. So, winding slowly through the grapevine, word reached the searching company that a right person for their open position exists. They send an invitation to Bill Martin for lunch. One month later, entrenched behind a mahogany desk in a private office, Bill Martin is on that success road to a six figure salary.

In this case the job found the person. The directors are congratulating themselves on having secured Bill’s services and are doing everything in their power to help him get a fair, square start. Think it over.

Both Bill Martin and Elizabeth successfully sold themselves, purveyed their strong personalities, while hundreds of others, many that should have had an advantage by being current employees failed to make the effort. It did not happen overnight: both Bill and Elizabeth trained, expanded their talents, developed, and as their personal worth grew their incomes as well expanded. One of their trademarks was their dedication to a constant repetition of intended and steady tasks.

But an in-house employee should have been in line for that job. A person out of their own organization who had delivered every step of the way would have been far preferable at the time in the eyes of the employer. This person had overlooked the necessity of selling themselves and their possibilities to his employers.

There are three classes of workers:

1. The person who doesn't try;

2. The person who builds their ability but fails to demonstrate it.

3. The person of success: a combination of ever-increasing ability and constant personality selling, who wins in spite of person barriers.

And, after all, you can be what you make yourself. Often just a little longer pull and a little stronger one and the sky is your earnings limit. On the other hand, the person, who lies down and rests; who is satisfied at any point is lost. They become one of the vast wayside army which acts as background and scenery for the ones who really follow through. Bear this in mind: the person above you today, yesterday found less in their paycheck than you do now.

For Bill and Elizabeth the future wore a cloak of question marks, too. But they pulled back that curtain and traveled the identical road that you are following. Therefore, there is no reason under a blue sky above why you can't do as much.

Now I'm going to repeat: Step by step-constantly adding to your store of knowledge-constantly fitting yourself for the step ahead, that is a step above you: study and work; use every capability within you; develop your talents and create new ones; then build yourself, your ability, and your possibilities day by day; and sell yourself all the way.

When you stop to analyze it, a salesperson selling goods has just exactly three things to do: first find a customer, then make the sales to happen, and last, but not least, that sales person has to cultivate customers to buy more.

It all comes down to selling yourself - selling personality.

You are your own wares. The person who employs you is your customer. You've got to find your customer by locating a business that offers opportunity for you and needs what you have to offer. You have to make your first sale: actually land the position. And then, where the salesperson’s work is to make his customers buy more of his goods, your task is to build the value of your services and get a cash return - promotion - if you follow these steps.

What a person of success needs is a good margin of pay above a living wage. In that case, the job goes hunting for the person. That high-salaried person, who is worth that high price, is harder to find than proverbial needles in a haystack. Big positions find few applicants; little jobs have a waiting list.

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