If you’re looking for a new job, quit sending out resumes. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve heard me say that before.
Scott Gerber, author of Never Get a Real Job,
As he tells Generation Y in his Amazon author page video: “Hey Gen Y, guess what? You’re getting screwed. Over 100 million of us are unemployed or underemployed. And that whole work-hard-go-to-school-get-good-grades-and-get-a-real-job mantra that we’ve been told since kindergarten is dead. And anyone who tells you differently is lying.”
Doug Karr has been saying this for quite some time too. We’ve been told if we go to college and work hard, we’ll have secure futures. No longer. Do you know who has a secure future? Auto mechanics, heating/cooling contractors, and plumbers. Their jobs can’t be outsourced. People will always need their cars, their furnaces, and their toilets fixed.
That means the rest of us have to network. We need to meet people, get to know them, and help them get to know us.
Gerber’s new book is about Generation Y, and how they can leave their job, start a new company, and pay the bills with it. While I’m one of the older Gen Xers, I have a feeling there are plenty of lessons I can learn from this book. It’s one I’ll be buying for my Kindle tonight, and reading later on.
According to Matthew May’s review on American Express’ Open Forum:
Scott Gerber is on a “death to the resume” crusade. He’s a serial entrepreneur, internationally syndicated small business columnist, angel investor and public speaker. He is the founder and CEO of Gerber Enterprises, an entrepreneurial incubator and venture management company that invests capital, management expertise, and marketing services into innovative early and mid-stage companies. He founded The Young Entrepreneur Council, an advocacy group made up of many of the world’s top young entrepreneurs, business owners and thought leaders with a noble mission: to teach young people how to build successful businesses and fight the devastating epidemics of youth underemployment and unemployment.
Gerber sounds like my kind of guy, and I’m looking forward to his book with interest. I’ll have a review here in a week or so.
I would argue that the relationship between the importance of networking and the importance of your résumé is an inverse one based on the quality of the job you want.
Think about it: Fortune 500 companies don’t hire their next CEO based on a piece of paper. Can you imagine a multi-million dollar year executive arched over Microsoft Word fighting with tab stops?
Terrible jobs require a résumé. In fact, really bad jobs have the most arcane requirements for application.
The better the job you want, the less your résumé matters. It’s really about who you know and how impressed they are with you.
Meet more people, and impress them. That’s the formula for finding a great job.
Robby, you are everywhere! I wrote a blog about this “How to Get a Great Job with a Bad Résumé. http://crossroadsindy.com/job-search-and-career-search-articles/how-to-get-a-great-job-with-a-bad-resume
Résumés can’t be terrible, or it will cast doubt on an otherwise good impression. When you’ve made a good impression–you just need to maintain what you have built by using a pretty good résumé.
So very true that the worst jobs have the craziest demands.
Now I have 2 more books to buy-yours and Scott Gerber’s!