b. Your confidence in your prospective employer's decision to employ you after trial.
c. Your DETERMINATION to have the position you seek.
- Knowledge of your prospective employer's business. Before applying for a position, do
sufficient research in connection with the business to familiarize yourself thoroughly
with that business, and indicate in your brief the knowledge you have acquired in this
field. This will be impressive, as it will indicate that you have imagination, and a real
interest in the position you seek.
Remember that it is not the lawyer who knows the most law, but the one who best
prepares his case, who wins. If your "case" is properly prepared and presented, your
victory will have been more than half won at the outset.
Do not be afraid of making your brief too long. Employers are just as much interested in
purchasing the services of well-qualified applicants as you are in securing employment.
In fact, the success of most successful employers is due, in the main, to their ability to
select well-qualified lieutenants. They want all the information available.
Remember another thing; neatness in the preparation of your brief will indicate that
you are a painstaking person. I have helped to prepare briefs for clients which were so
striking and out of the ordinary that they resulted in the employment of the applicant
without a personal interview.
When your brief has been completed, have it neatly bound by an experienced binder,
and lettered by an artist, or printer similar to the following:
BRIEF OF THE QUALIFICATIONS OF
Robert K. Smith
APPLYING FOR THE POSITION OF
Private Secretary to
The President of
THE BLANK COMPANY, Inc.
Change names each time brief is shown.
This personal touch is sure to command attention. Have your brief neatly typed or
mimeographed on the finest paper you can obtain, and bound with a heavy paper of the
book-cover variety, the binder to be changed, and the proper firm name to be inserted if
it is to be shown to more than one company. Your photograph should be pasted on one
of the pages of your brief. Follow these instructions to the letter, improving upon them
wherever your imagination suggests.
Successful salesmen groom themselves with care. They understand that first
impressions are lasting. Your brief is your salesman. Give it a good suit of clothes, so it
will stand out in bold contrast to anything your prospective employer ever saw, in the
way of an application for a position. If the position you seek is worth having, it is worth
going after with care. Moreover, if you sell yourself to an employer in a manner that
impresses him with your individuality, you probably will receive more money for your
services from the very start, than you would if you applied for employment in the usual
conventional way.