The Real Secret to Finding a Job is the only/best job search book you will ever need.
The key to finding your next job is in your ability to express your value to an organization; to seek out their need and then offer evidence that you are the solution to that company’s problem. Sound easy? It’s not.

The Real Secret to Finding a Job will help you determine your value to the companies you are targeting by a self-examination of previous accomplishments.

From this exercise you will build the razor-sharp, attention-getting, one-page Pre-Resume™; create your richly detailed Long-Form resume, as well as develop personalized networking and interviewing skills.

The Real Secret to Finding a Job will have you mastering the software, technology, email and interview protocols that are contemporary job search.

How many times have you applied for that PERFECT job...you KNEW the posting had been written for you..to never hear back a whisper from the company?!!! You have to master the use of keywords! You are competing against thousands for that same job. The person that knows how to "game the system" will land the position.

The Real Secret to Finding a Job is written in easy to follow language and from a point of view that will motivate and inspire confidence.

From skilled trades to new college graduates to C-Suite professionals, The Real Secret to Finding a Job will speak to each of you on a personal level.

                                                 * Book Excerpt*

                               THE REAL SECRET TO FINDING A JOB?
                        MAKE ME MONEY OR SAVE ME MONEY!

                   And Other REALLY Useful Job Search Tactics

                                  Introducing the Pre-Resume™

                The Real Secret to Finding a Job

      …and Other Really Useful Job Search Tactics

               Introduction: About Rick Gillis

Why should you listen to what I have to say? I have been involved in the business of employment since 1997 when I was instrumental in introducing the first local employment website to the greater Houston area.  I wasn’t seeking ‘employment’ as a career—it found me.

As a result, over the past several years, I have taken it upon myself to aggressively study the “practice” of job seeking from the perspective of both employer and employee. It is based on these observations that I wrote the original version of this book REALLY Useful Job Search Tactics - A Handbook of Contemporary Job Hunting Techniques.

I have been involved in or have a working knowledge of many aspects of the employment business to include resume creation—specifically my Pre-Resume™ concept of which I am very proud; employment advertising; recruiting;  pre-employment assessments; networking and by extension, social networking sites; age-discrimination issues; the human resources function; best-practices as they apply to management, diversity, legal and regulatory issues; staffing companies; web based applicant-tracking systems and, of course, Internet employment protocols. I also study economic and business trends as they relate to employment.

Toss into this mix the fact that I have counseled more job seekers than I can begin to count over this same time period and you can see how I have come to be a job search expert. I don’t career coach. I don’t work with people for the long term. Job search and job search preparation is my sweet spot.

As host of Houston’s “Rick Gillis Employment Radio” I have had the further advantage of regularly speaking with the leading minds in employment today.

This might help you understand why I say that I teach “guerilla” job search tactics—which, by the way, was the original working title of this book. I may have changed the title but what I present here are, just the same, guerilla job search tactics. I maintain, as long as you don’t lie or misrepresent yourself, anything goes in your job search. Get creative. I have had some people tell me they have a problem with that. I don’t care. This is war! This is competition at the highest and most personal level and you can’t afford to lose. This is your life. I want you to win!

I assure you that when you finish this book you will approach job seeking from a totally different point of view. The software “gaming techniques” I teach will invariably change over time as technology changes—can’t help that. But the mindset you bring to your job search, job transitioning or succession planning should never vary from my core job search principle: “show me how you are going to make me money or save me money”—the message that is the title of this book. You will see this phrase over and over as you continue reading.

I am comfortable saying that this is the only and best job search book you will ever need! Why? Because, short of telling you what to say at your interviews, you have all the information necessary to conduct the successful job search in your hands right now.

You will learn how to get to the top of the resume “pile” and be seen; you will learn how to get the hiring manager on the phone—and even what to say to them when you reach them; you will learn how to deal with age-discrimination issues if you face them; you will learn how to personally assess your accomplishments; how to present them on paper and in person—and so much more.

There is not one piece of advice here that you cannot begin to put into action today!

                                                           ***

For your benefit, a little background on me. I have been there. “There” being job termination. It happened to me more than 10 years ago. It’s demoralizing; it’s depressing, and it takes strength and guidance to get back in the game.

The larger reality is that a lot of people in this economy are being laid off as a result of nothing more than doing what they are supposed to be doing—a good job.

Additionally I have had some tough times in my life. But it has been my good sense to take some dumb mistakes I made in the past and put them to good use by using that experience to counsel people in this business of job search. Job search is tough. I’m passionate about this stuff. You have to be as well.

You know that I understand the shock and awe that comes with job loss. I applaud your initiative for finding this book.  THE REAL SECRET TO FINDING A JOB will do for you what no counselor, friend or seminar (other than my own) will do: we (you and I) will get to the core of what it is going to take for you to land your next job.

Internalize my mantra (you will see it again and again): Make Me Money or Save Me Money. That statement is the basis of my live presentation and this book. When you take ownership of this idea you will be better than 70% prepared to seek out your next employment opportunity.

Make Me Money or Save Me Money. This statement is simple—so deceptively simple—that very few people ever get it. Read this book and you will.

For those seeking ENTRY-LEVEL JOB SEARCH

Should you happen to be an entry-level job seeker; THE REAL SECRET TO FINDING A JOB will benefit you in ways you will not appreciate at this time. I would ask you to study the concepts, apply them, and in a couple of years come back and reread this book.

See if the ideas contained here don’t remain true, viable, and helpful to your career—and, by extension, your future.

If you are CURRENTLY EMPLOYED

If you are employed but intend to keep your eyes on the prize, I strongly advise you read THE REAL SECRET TO FINDING A JOB. You NEED this information. You are the job seeker everyone is looking for: the passive job seeker (vs. the active job seeker who is not currently employed). You require, at the very least, the information in Chapter 4 about keywords, resume screening systems and applicant tracking systems. The future is now. By reading this book you will enhance your climb up the career ladder. My basic tenet, Make Me Money or Save Me Money, applies equally to you.

 WHERE “Make Me Money/Save Me Money” CAME FROM

I applied for my first “real” job when I was 19 years old. Prior to that I had worked in the family hardware store from the time I was a small kid.

After my family sold the store I found my way down to the nearby lumberyard and filled out an application. I waited my turn for an interview (such as it is for a job of that type) with a whole bunch of older guys. During my interview, I vividly recall telling the lumberyard VP “for every dollar he paid me I would give him back 10”. What you should know is that I was a 19-year-old, long-haired, 125-pound, skinny kid telling this ‘master of the universe’ type that I understood it was going to cost him money to put me to work. After he peeled his eyebrow off the ceiling (that’s what most made the impression that remains with me today), he gave me the once over, tossed me a pair of work gloves and a hardhat and told me to report in the next morning. I have used that same technique ever since (although the $’s have increased along the way!).

                                                                *******

I genuinely and sincerely wish you the very best in your job-hunting adventure - and it just might become an adventure before it’s over –it’s in the retelling, after all. Once again, internalize my mantra, apply the techniques you are about to learn and you will find yourself creating a compelling and memorable persona—you!

To Your Success!

Rick Gillis

2009

PS If after reading this book you have any Really Useful Job Search Tactics you would like to share, visit  www.rickgillis.com and send them along.

                     The Real Secret to Finding a Job

           …and Other Really Useful Job Search Tactics

   Welcome to the Concept of the PRE-RESUME™and the

  Accomplishments Worksheet!

What you hold in your hands is a significantly revised version of Really Useful Job Search Tactics—my first book—in which I called my format for a real-world, get-results resume “The Superior Resume”.

The truth is I just don’t accept cookie-cutter resumes anymore. And I recognize the common, traditional resume served a purpose for all these years—but then so did typewriters. The traditional resume is, like the typewriter, no longer efficient.

The big problem today—and the most significant change in the world of hiring—is that recruiters are on information overload. Translation: they have hundreds, even thousands, of resumes to review. And for the most part they really do look at virtually all of them. A recruiter never knows when or where that perfect candidate will pop up so they have to at least provide each resume a cursory review even if that “review” is electronic.

Until now, no one has effectively addressed this problem. THE REAL SECRET TO FINDING A JOB is the book that will teach you how to create a masterful, one page resume that will create attention—and get you the interview.

     Introducing the PRE-RESUME™

So we can get off on the right foot, I would like you to begin this exercise by groaning! YUP! Go ahead and groan. Loud! You see, I can read your mind and at this point what I see is your resistance to have to go and create another piece of paper. Another stinkin’ document! What the heck?!  Go on. Groan. Get it out of your system. Great!

Now—let me present the concept. This is not just another piece of paper. And it’s really easy to create. You already have all the information handy. It’s in your existing long-form resume.

Bring out your current resume—all 3 to 13 pages of it! (Yes, I have seen 13 page resumes—not CV’s/Curriculum Vitae as you will find in other parts of the world or in scholarly circles in the U.S.—but a ‘simple’ 13 page resume!)  Think anyone is going to read that?!

Next: Read this book. Follow the guidelines and samples I have created for you. Create your PRE-RESUME™. Submit it to all hiring managers and recruiters in-person and online.

Third: Get results!

Upon getting the call to interview, dust off your current resume (or better, create a rich and robust long-form resume based on your PRE-RESUME™) and take it with you to the interview. I assure you that your current resume has far more information on it than is necessary for you to get the appointment. Your PRE-RESUME™, when you complete it, is the ideal document—to get the appointment! And isn’t that what you want? To sell yourself by presenting yourself in person?!

The beauty of the PRE-PRESUME™ is this: a recruiter only wants the nuggets of information that will make them want to call you for more information! We live in a highly charged, amped-up society. Give me what I want; what I need. Only. Do it quickly; make your impact and let me decide what to do next. Sounds like a video game, huh? Sorry. The reality is that that is the way it is in job search too.

Keep in mind that the ONLY FUNCTION of your resume is to get you the phone call, to get you in the door, to get you the appointment, the interview. That is the single and only function of the PRE-RESUME™. You’re going to love this concept! It works!

And if you decide not to go to the trouble of creating your one-page PRE-RESUME™, you are going to get loads of ideas on how to improve your existing obituary, er, resume should you decide to do so rather than create a new document. But, be forewarned, you’ll be in line BEHIND those who go directly to PRE-RESUME™!

  Introducing the Accomplishments Worksheet

You will see much more on the Accomplishments Worksheet as the next few chapters evolve. Suffice to say that this single document is truly the core of the information you are going to present in virtually all of your future career related efforts: your personal interviews, networking, selling of yourself (yes, job search is selling!) and your formal written presentations (PRE-RESUME™, long-form resume, cover letters, thank you cards, etc.).

Do not take this document lightly! We are, all of us, a complex persona of a lifetime of experiences. And with all that experience and knowledge behind us we are expected to create in a matter of a page or 2 or 3 a document that will express all the value we may be able to contribute to a future employer. Isn’t that crazy?! And all this time you have been expected to do this without any training whatever. I contend that prior to your ability to express the value you can bring to an organization on a piece of paper you must first take a personal inventory of all that is great about you! This is not difficult but it will take a bit of time and effort.

I’m willing to say that until you have worked your way through the creation of your single-page PRE-RESUME™ and your more robust long-form resume you will not truly understand just how important and powerful your Accomplishments Worksheet will may be to your future. You might even want to return to your worksheet at that point to review and rethink your personal best accomplishments.

One thing more: bear in mind that your accomplishments worksheet is a “living document” that should re-worked and modified as time goes on and you achieve new career heights worth memorializing.

For your personal use and benefit I have created a Personal Accomplishments Guideline and Worksheet that resides just inside the back cover. You may want to review it now just to become familiar with the overall concept. I promise you—this is good stuff!

Rick Gillis Public Speaker/Job Expert

Creator of the Pre-Resume™    

Media Development: portentmedia.com