Sales people present their product as the solution to customers’ “problems/pain”.
As a candidate you should do both.
The smartest candidates recognize this and position themselves as high-value solutions that will make the manager look good to the higher-ups.
Steve Blank’s video explains how to identify and evaluate the value proposition of your product or service, but with very little tweaking you can apply it to yourself.
Candidates who focus primarily on what the company will do for them a la compensation, stock, benefits, promotions, etc., will miss many of the best opportunities, because managers see that attitude as a form of narcissism.
In other words, managers have problems and hire the best solution, i.e., candidate, to solve them.
Or to paraphrase JFK, think not what the manager/company can do for you, but what you can do for the manager/company.
It matters not that Mitchell Gibbs, director of development at the Front Steps homeless shelter and involved in setting up the program, believes it has inspired an “entrepreneurial spirit” among its homeless participants, “It’s an employment opportunity, regardless of who is offering it.”
And homeless participant Clarence Jones must be wrong when he says, “Everyone thinks I’m getting the rough end of the stick, but I don’t feel that. I love talking to people and it’s a job. An honest day of work and pay.”
Obviously the pundits know more; they’ve probably spent more time working hands on with the homeless than Gibbs and studied homelessness more than Jones.
These days arrogance knows no bounds and this is a great example of that.
I don’t see this as any different than the human sign holders, many of whom are also homeless, that you see at major intersections promoting everything from mattress sales to cell phones to pizza.
Of course, the products they promote don’t infringe the promised land of tech, so nobody cares.
It’s likely that nobody would care if they hired the homeless as hotspots in other cities or even in Austin when SXSW wasn’t on.
I agree with Adam Hanft, who said that even if the effort was well intended, it seemed to turn a blind eye to that disconnect. “There is already a sense that the Internet community has become so absurdly self-involved that they don’t think there’s any world outside of theirs.”
Talking abut disconnect, perhaps the Internet community is catching up with the financial community.
Can you imagine the backlash if the homeless were hired as sign holders for banksanywhere?
I want to share a series of email with you today because they show up a very important point and apply to employees at all levels. The emails are from ‘Brian’, an aMillennial, who writes me on and off when he wants a sounding board or, at times, advice.
Before I had time to respond to the first one, the next two had arrived.
Hey Miki, I just want your opinion on this…
I had just finished a large project that had been assigned to me by my boss’s boss. I had completed it last week, doubled up on my work, went over it with my boss, and gotten it approved to bring in front of HIS boss. So we do, she liked it, end of that story. This report was to be presented to some important people within the company during a meeting that was on Monday. That same day I got this request from my boss to make printouts of some pages – actually, 6 custom printouts. Basically this was to be about 6 copies of a 10-12 page packet. He to add headers to my project spreadsheet (which was 8 worksheets) and get those printed out for the big meeting. I said “Alright, I can do that” and began my task. He was setting me up for failure.
10-15 minutes later he comes rushing up to my desk asking for the printouts. I wasn’t finished because I had to make a custom header for 8 worksheets, print out about 60 pages of about 4 different files (while other people were printing), and then customize the packets for each of the individuals in the meeting. This didn’t sit well with him and he made some snarky comment like “How long does it take to print out some sheets? Jeeze.” Fast-forward to today and he hasn’t spoken to me unless I speak to him first (which was once and it was a simple question).
The kicker is he has a printer on his desk, the files are online, and everyone has a laptop.
So I feel I was set up for disaster. I am the lowest paid in the department, the most tech-savvy, and a pretty well-rounded employee…except for the fact that I just got out of college and need more
Direction than your average employee, it feels like I am on the verge of getting fired… or sorry, I mean “rolled off” – I forgot contractors can’t get “fired.”
Miki
He recently (about 30 minutes ago) sent me an email stating: “Please take a look at this and make an action item log (excel) ….I want you to help me ensure that all of these items get completed. Bring this to the 3:30 meeting as well (if you can have it by then)”
This is a list of about 8 items… does this come across as condescending to you? I really don’t have any other tasks at the moment and I asked him for more stuff to do. I finished it in 10 minutes… if that.
Is this a reasonable assumption or am I being melodramatic?
Well I have a meeting with him at 3:30 today to talk about some documents I have edited – it is an hour meeting. I am hoping he will bring something up then. At this point I am in “freak out” mode.
After reading these three, my response was, Freaking out will only upset your digestion:) Treat this like any class you took with a tough teacher. Listen carefully and try not to interpret as you do. Doing that will make you miss stuff. And don’t freak if he doesn’t bring anything up. We can talk on your way home.
Hey Miki – I talked with my boss and he has just been INCREDIBLY busy – maybe I am over-analyzing. I may give you a call tomorrow – I think I should just sleep things off.
Brian’s realization that it was his boss’ schedule as opposed to his (Brian’s) work that was at the bottom of what happened is the first step to intelligent adulthood—a state at which many folks never arrive.
No matter your age or position, the unanswered email, the unreturned phone call, the forgotten whatever often have nothing to do with you, but everything to do with what is happening in the other person’s life.
So before you freak out or get down on a person take the time to find out what’s going on in their world; most of the time you’ll want to cut them some slack.
I’m unfamiliar with Strategic Strategist and have no idea what, if anything, this means, but still! So I told some friends and my b5 cohorts and received some very nice congratulatory emails telling me that I deserved it, etc. Fun!
But it got me to thinking once again that I just don’t have the ego for the networked, self-promoted, memememe world I live in.
It’s not that I don’t believe I have a lot to offer.
I think I’m a hell of a writer and that what I say has value, whether it’s of direct use or stimulates new thought paths.
To be honest, I’m often blown away when I read old posts here or at MAPping Company Success and realize I wrote them. The same goes for my book, The Swamp & the Alligators: a slightly irreverent guide to career planning and the search process. It’s 16 years old now and it’s still on Amazon.
I know my coaching is valuable and that it’s unique; it takes a different approach from much of the other coaching available.
But I’m always a bit amazed when others see its value.
Believe me, it’s not humility or any of those supposedly noble feelings. It’s just that it surprises me when the outside world agrees with me.
As my readers know, I’m very opinionated, but that doesn’t mean I assume or expect anyone else to agree—in spite of the law of averages saying that some will.
I’m lousy at “working the room,” whether in the real or cyber world.
Back when I attended parties I would hang out helping in the kitchen and over the course of the evening most of the interesting people would wander in and end up staying for the kind of conversation you can sink your teeth into (I’ve always been lousy at small talk).
I seem to do cyberspace the same way.
And, I’m grateful to say, the interesting people keep wandering in and staying to talk.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
The Twitterverse and blogsphere are raging pro and con over the 
I want to share a series of email with you today because they show up a very important point and apply to employees at all levels. The emails are from ‘Brian’, an 
But it got me to thinking once again that I just don’t have the ego for the networked, self-promoted, memememe world I live in.
