climber, a gold-digging husband or wife hunter, or someone whos never
strolled along Easy Street.)
How to Find Out What They Do (Without Even Asking!) 97
How do you spend most of your time? is the gracious way to let a
cadaver cutter, a tax collector, or a capsized employee off the hook. Its the
way to reinforce an accomplished mothers choice. Its the way to assure a
spiritual soul you see his or her inner beauty. Its a way to suggest to a swell
that you reside on Easy Street, too.
Now, suppose youve just made the acquaintance of someone who does
like to talk about his or her work? Asking, How do you spend most of your
time? also opens the door for workaholics to spout off, Oh golly, they mock
moan, I just spend all my time working. That, of course, is your invitation
to grill them for details. (Then theyll talk your ear off.) Yet the new wording
of your question gives those who are somewhere between at leisure and
work addicted the choice of telling you about their job or not. Finally,
asking How do you spend most of your time? instead of And what do you
do? gives you your big cat stripes right off.
How to Know What to Say When They Ask, What Do You Do?
Now, 99 percent of the people you meet will, of course, ask And what
do you do? Big winners, realizing someone will always ask, are fully
prepared for the interrogation.
Many folks have one written rŽsumŽ for job seeking. They type it up
and then trudge off to the printer to get a nice neat stack to send to all
prospective employers. The rŽsumŽ lists their previous positions, dates of
employment, and education. Then, at the bottom, they might as well have
scribbled, Well, thats me. Take it or leave it. And usually they get left.
Why? Because prspective employers do not find enough specific points in
the rŽsumŽ that relate directly to what their firm is seeking.
Boys and girls in the big leagues, however, have bits and bytes of their
entire work experience tucked away in their computers. When applying for
a job, they punch up only the appropriate data and print it out so it looks
like it just came from the printer.
My friend Roberto was out of work last year. He applied for two
positions:a sales manager of an ice cream company and head of strategic
planning for a fast-food chain. He did extensive research and found the ice
cream company had deep sales diffculties and the food chain had long-
range international aspirations.
ooja
(Ooja)
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