Tunnel Vision or Funnel Vision?

This might be the strangest post I’ve ever written.

You see, a lot of people said they loved my Simple Job Search Manifesto … that they got a great education in job search methods that work … and that they appreciated my overview of the Home Study Course.

But the Manifesto revealed so many new and unusual job-search methods that it was hard to fully grasp.

I got a few comments from readers, in fact, that asked me to summarize the Manifesto in a few sentences, so they could better understand and apply the techniques.

That’s what this blog posting will do — give you an easy summary of one main principle behind the The Simple Job Search Manifesto, so you can jumpstart your search NOW and get hired faster for your dream job.

Here we go …

You may recall that the subtitle of The Simple Job Search Manifesto is:

How to Get Hired Fast Using the Simple Secrets of Junk Mail, Infomercials and Vacuum Cleaner Salesmen.

Ever wonder where I got such crazy ideas?

For example, including a P.S. at the end of your cover letter, like you find in “junk mail” letters. How did I think of that?

Or putting quotes in your resume, which are like the testimonials you see in every TV infomercial.

Or actually demonstrating your skills in the job interview, which is how they sell vacuum cleaners on the Home Shopping Network.

What do all these crazy ideas have in common?

And how can you adapt this thinking to your job search, so you will never again lack for creative ways of getting employers to call you?

Here’s the secret: You have to adopt a brand-new mindset, called, Funnel Vision.

This is entirely different from Tunnel Vision, which is the mindset of most unsuccessful job hunters.

First, let’s talk about Tunnel Vision, and how it can keep you unemployed for months on end …

In my experience, most job seekers look for work the same way. They do the following:

1. Post their resume (which looks like everyone else’s resumes) on sites like Monster.

2. Email their resumes to employers in response to advertised openings.

3. “Network” by telling 3 or 4 people that they’re looking for a job.

4. Wait for the phone to ring.

When the phone doesn’t ring with calls from employers , most job seekers think: “My resume is out there on Monster, I’ve tried networking, and I’ve applied for more than 20 positions online. Man, this is a tough job market!”

Does this sound even a little bit like you? Come on — be honest!

If so, you are suffering from Tunnel Vision.

You are narrowly focused on doing what everyone else is doing to find a job, even though everyone else is struggling, too!

You are sending out the same style of resume as everyone else … writing the same kinds of cover letters … waiting for jobs to be advertised before applying to employers … rarely following up with employers or your networking contacts because you don’t want to seem like a pest ….

All of this falls under the heading of Tunnel Vision.

And, if you haven’t yet figured it out …

Tunnel Vision can kill your career!

The irony is that all of this is quite natural – it’s easy to get trapped in your thinking. What you’ve done in the past to find jobs seems normal. What your friends and family do seems normal. When almost all the job search “experts” say the same things about resumes, cover letters and networking, that seems normal, too.

But if normal sucks, why settle for it?

To turn this around — almost instantly — all you need do is follow the proven strategies in my free guide, The Simple Job Search Manifesto.

But … to internalize these strategies, so that you’ll use them every day, you need to adopt the mindset first described by my mentor, the man whose ideas first set me up in business back in 1994, Jay Abraham.

Jay’s mindset, which will revolutionize your job search — and your life — the moment you understand it, is called …

Funnel Vision!

Simply put, Funnel Vision means looking far and wide for successful ideas that are beyond your current endeavor, then borrowing and adapting them to create breakthroughs.

Example: looking to direct mail for a successful idea — the P.S. — and adapting it to cover letters.

Example: looking to infomercials for a successful idea — testimonials — and adapting it to resumes.

Example: looking to vacuum cleaner salesmen for a successful idea — the product demonstration — and adapting it to job interviews.

Do you see how powerful Funnel Vision is? Especially when every other candidate competing with you for your next job is still locked into tunnel vision, while you’re adapting proven ideas from areas outside of job searching and using them to convince employers to hire you.

Funnel Vision is how Velcro was invented — the tiny hooks on cockleburr seeds were adapted to clothing.

Funnel Vision is how drive-thru windows came to fast-food restaurants — they were used at banks for nearly 30 years before McDonald’s adapted and installed its first drive-thru in 1975.

Funnel Vision is your key to creative thinking, innovation, and success, in your job search now and in your life later.

I challenge you to try it, right now.

Look around your home, office, neighborhood — everywhere you go today — for just one good idea you can adapt to your job search. One idea. You can do this, can’t you?

I promise that as soon as you can latch onto just one idea from, say, pro football, or the merchandising displays you see at Target, or a story on CNN, and adapt that idea to your job search, you will feel a surge of satisfaction that makes you want to keep on adapting and adopting new ideas for the rest of the day … and long after that.

And, of course, when you start seeing the world with Funnel Vision, you will be much, much closer to finding your next job.

Try it! And share your comments here on this blog, so that others can learn from your experience.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 11:31 am and is filed under job search tips, life hacks. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.