Job Search Lessons from the Presidential Election of 2016

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I believe there are lessons that can be learned from the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Sec. Clinton that you can apply to your job search. Both made mistakes that you can learn from.

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Today, I want to point out another one of those lessons that’s coming from this year’s presidential election. The lesson I want to point out comes from the debate that took place this week with Donald Trump and Sec. Clinton and entering “the deathmatch.” One on one. “Manno a Femmo.” I want to offer a less biased opinion of what I saw and what the media seems to be providing.

Universally they seem to say Trump was awful. When I saw was that in the first 30 or 40 minutes of the debate he matched up well. They obviously disagreed on items and you would expect that. I thought he was accurate and some of his statements on the impact of trade policy and matched up well with her there.

There was a point after the 30 or 40 minute mark where the tide clearly turned. At this juncture, Sec. Clinton’s preparation served her very well. For you as a job hunter, I believe there are lessons that you can learn from both candidates. Critiquing both of them I think there are things that you can take away.

He was not as well prepared as he could have been. Yes, we all read these stories about how he wasn’t going to be doing debate prep and a variety of other things. It’s kind of like going to an interview without preparation and deciding to “wing it.” Presidential debates on job interviews and were seeing the two people in making decisions about them.

Trump didn’t do well he did well in the first part of the interview but in the next hour of time, I thought he did poorly and revealed his lack of preparation. The words didn’t come out well. Even his snarky comments where he whispers into the microphone to disagree with her, he hadn’t done them with an audience before and appeared to be snarky.

I think Clinton made mistakes, too, and the biggest one was that she was smug. She appeared to bask in her own magnificence and missed opportunities to connect with the audience. Yes, she had punches to the ribs and kidneys throughout. Here is one example. Talking about how Trump and his businesses didn’t pay bills to small businesses like her father’s. Her father’s business never did business with Trump. she used it to illustrate that a lot of small business owners who were stiffed by Trump.

She would have a smile on her face that was arrogant, smug and not likable.

To me, that was a missed opportunity. Yes, the intelligence is there but part of what you try to do as a job hunter is connect with the audience, the interviewer, the panel. You can’t sit back and be so cocky that you turn people of.

So, I want to point out that there are lessons we can take from their mistakes that you can apply to job hunting. I’ve done shws about dumb interviewing mistakes that candidates make involving lack of preparation and being so full of yourself that  \\you are sitting there with a big smile on your face, enjoying yourself, instead of focusing on the audience.

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Do you really think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn http://bit.ly/thebiggamehunter

Job Search Lessons from The Presidential Election 2016

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There are things to take away from the current Presidential election that can be applied to job hunting. Use one that is obvious to me, but may be less so to you.

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it’s 2016 and I want to use the example of this year’s presidential election to make a point for job hunters. This is not going to be a political exercise and do not invite your opinions about either candidate. Keep them to yourself. I’m going to start with Sec. Clinton and in my next video in this series will start with Donald Trump.

Both of these are candidates that have intentionally re-branded themselves over the course of time. Secretary of State Clinton has changed many of her positions over the course of time, whether he is on trade where she supported her husband’s positions on NAFTA to her time as Secretary of State to 2008 where she’s spoke about taking a pause on signing trade agreements to, as Secretary of State, helping to create the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement to now opposing it. I’m sure there are many valid reasons but part of it is the elections and the fact that the electorate is not all that fond of these agreements for a variety of reasons that are not important to go into.

Even since this election began where she was considered more hawkish than Sen. Sanders, she has evolved her positions on many many issues. The notion of rebooting or re-branding her position on different issues has been a part of her candidacy.

On the other side is Donald Trump. Few of us know his positions on many issues. The way he has been evaluated is on the basis of his personality and his personal attacks. As recently as August 2016, coming out of the respective conventions, he was little more than a buffoon and… I do want to get into name-calling. I will just say he was not very popular among large segments of the voting population.

However, as I record this at the end of September, 2016, he has rebooted himself, brought in different aides, changed how he presents himself, is not antagonizing anywhere near the degree he did before, and, if he is, it is being swatted away quietly by his representatives.

What can we take away from these behaviors from Clinton, who is changed her positions and from Trump who has changed the display of his personality? What can we learn?

The answer was very simple – – when things aren’t working, change. For job hunters, often, you are doing the same things over and over again that aren’t getting you results you want. You keep doing it because you think that’s the way to get what you want. You keep repeating these things and doing them over and over and over again and wondering why you are not getting the outcomes that you want. If you are not getting interviews. If you are getting interviews, you are not being invited back. If you are being invited back, maybe you’re getting job offers or maybe you aren’t. It just isn’t working and you’re putting in a lot of effort.

Here’s what I want to point out. Like the candidates, you can change as well. You can rewrite your resume to make it stronger. You can practice answering questions that are asked on interviews. You can get coaching to help you with your search so that you are not making dumb mistakes through your lack of experience. The experience says you are not making the right choices.

Let me go back to something for those of you who think you are good at interview.

Even you hiring managers who read resumes and interview people for your job, you think that makes you good at job hunting. The truth is, you aren’t. Do you think that Michael Jackson did it by himself? No, he had a coach.

To be an expert according to Malcolm Gladwell and other takes 10,000 hours of focused concentrated effort, ideally under the supervision of someone who knows their craft and can redirect you.

You have how much experience? Even if you are interviewing for your employer, how much experience do you have interviewing? You know your own reactions but don’t know other employers’.

Get some help. Hire a coach. That’s what Trump has done he has gotten coaching. That’s how Clinton has operated throughout. The Trump people, the Republicans, the conservatives may say she is a candidate who sways in the breeze and follows the polls. No matter. It works, right? What Trump was doing wasn’t working in the general election. He has changed. Why can’t you?

Each of these individuals hire someone to help them get to the outcome that they want. Pro athletes do it. Entertainers do it, too. Do you think Michael Jackson, Madonna or Stevie wonder did it by themselves? People who are successful have coaches. Get some help. Learn the lessons from the Presidential candidates and hire a coach.

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Do you really think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.h

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn 

HR Lessons from Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders

 

A few lessons smart HR people need to take from the rise of Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders.

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a recruiter for more than 40 years.

Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.

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