2 Job Search Tactics that Worked during The Depression

Think the job market is tough now?

It’s been tougher. A lot tougher.

Recall the 1930s, when unemployment ran as high as 25%. That’s tough.

Now, do you think the best job-search methods from the Great Depression might help you find work now, in the Great Recession, when fewer than 10% of people are jobless?

I do.

To get you started, here are two Depression-era job search tips, taken from a book published in 1938.

The book is “We Are Forty And We Did Get Jobs,” by C.B. Thompson and M.L. Wise, two forty-year-old women who spent 10 weeks perfecting a job-search system by looking for — and getting — jobs in cities across America.

Of their system, they write: “It proved, in short, the touchstone that had magic even during the depths of the 1938 recession.”

Here are two of their tips, with modern applications for you …

1) “Look your best. Nothing runs you down like that run-down look” (page 28).

Before you think, “Everybody knows that,” think, “How often do I leave the house looking like a hobo?” In my case, the answer is, “Too often!”

Only last week, I was in a coffee shop near an industrial park, typing on my laptop, unshaved and unkempt, feeling anonymous. Not so.

In walked a business acquaintance, whom we’ll call Jack. Embarrassed by my appearance, I pretended not to notice him. A day later, Jack sent me an email, “Didn’t I see you at Caribou Coffee yesterday?” Awkward.

Now, what if I were unemployed and Jack had been a manager I had recently interviewed with? My lack of professionalism would have torpedoed my chances.

Know this: The person you see in Starbuck’s today may be your boss tomorrow. Because business can be transacted anywhere these days, from coffee shops to parks, never leave home looking less than your best.

2) “Put the employer’s needs before your own. Visualize the needs of the person for whom you want to work. Then fill them” (page 42).

The authors call this, “the most important step of all in the job-getting formula.” It was true then and still is today.

When you keep the employer’s needs uppermost in your mind, it improves every word you write in your resumes and cover letters, and every word you say in job and networking interviews. You will see the world differently — and for the better.

Because, when you focus on employer’s needs, you see problems that need solving in almost any business, in any city.

Know this: In today’s economy, problems are jobs in disguise. Prove you can solve them, and jobs will be given to or created for you.

Meanwhile, ordinary job seekers, who think first of themselves and their needs, are wasting hours, days, and weeks looking for advertised jobs openings that appeal to them — and not finding many.

Like these ideas? You’ll love our Free Guerrilla Job Search audio - here.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 8:55 am and is filed under job search tips. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.