On Losing Interest
in a Dream Job;
Coming Back From Extinction 

"Kate & Dale Talk Jobs" is a nationally syndicated newspaper column appearing in The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The New York Post, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Houston Chronicle and approximately 100 other newspapers.

Dear Kate & Dale: I read your column regularly and find it fascinating. However, I am a dinosaur! My former employer went out of business last May. Since then, 1 have put myself on four different Web sites and registered with 50 search firms. I've gotten interviews, but when I ask questions, the manager can't answer them due to lack of experience. If I ask no questions, I look like a bump on a log. - Dick

 KATE: Since you've been reading our column regularly, you know that we suggest a targeted approach to a job search, one where Web site and search firms are maybe one-tenth of the over- all search process. The key to a targeted search is finding 200 positions (not job openings) within companies on your list of eligible companies.

 DALE: Details of the targeting process are in a free course at Kate's Web site (www.fiveoclockclub.com). And while starting over might seem daunting, it's actually good news. You haven't been hunting, Dick, just fishing.

 KATE: I worked with someone who'd been unemployed a full year when I met him, but he started fresh and within seven weeks landed a terrific job, although the income was a bit less than he'd been making. But, a year later, he repeated the process and almost doubled his salary. The hardest part for him was letting go of what didn't work.

 DALE: There's the key to remaining a dinosaur staying buried under what hasn't worked. In fact, getting more interviews won't help, Dick, until you master the art of asking questions. Come with subjects and with a goal of getting the interviewers to do half the talking. Don't try to impress them with how much you know, but with your interest. Move the conversation off your past and onto their future. The minute you convey your interest in THEIR plans, and how you might fit in, you're on your way back from extinction.

 Dear Kate & Dale: A company I just interviewed with made me an offer and wants an answer within two weeks. Although the position is to my liking, I don't want to exclude myself from other potential offers. Any advice? - Juan

 DALE: Our goal is to help people find great jobs. To do so, it's critical to know one when you see one. This sounds facetious, but the fact is that most people never consider what an ideal job would be, except the obvious considerations of money and title. The question to ask yourself about salary is, Is the money fair? If it's less than fair, negotiate. If it's more than fair, be suspicious. Either way, ask, Will I be surrounded by people I admire? Will I be learning? Will I become the person I want to become?

 KATE: All of which is, no doubt, wise; but the answers are going to be relative. Ideally, Juan would have other offers to judge the first one against. So I'd try to slow down the first company, without turning them off. We had one job-hunter who put a company on hold for two weeks so he could dig up other offers. After two weeks he went back and asked for two additional weeks. Each time he'd get an offer, he'd say that the company was his first choice, but he'd continue to stall: "I need more time, but I know I'll end up working for you." He ended up with 16 offers.

 DALE: To my Midwestern-school-boy sense of ethics, that just doesn't feel right. It feels like putting your hand in a tub of Crisco.

 KATE: Not if you consider that many employers are experts at stringing along prospective hires. It's all part of the hiring dance. And, if it helps, my client actually went to work for the first firm, but only after telling them of some of his other offers and going in at a significantly higher level than the first offer. That's pure butter.

 * * *

Kate Wendleton is the founder of The Five O'Clock Club (www.fiveoclockclub.com and author of several books including Targeting the Job You Want. Dale Dauten is an entrepreneur, speaker and author in Phoenix, Arizona. His latest book, on how great bosses and great employees find each other, is The Gifted Boss (William Morrow). Please write to them in care of King Features Syndicate, 235 East 45th St., New York, NY 10017, or email Kate@FiveOClockClub.com. Copyright, 2000 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.