The Catch to Chasing the Easiest Way to Get A Job

Nepotism is great if you can get it. The best role is to be the son or daughter of a King. Then performance really doesn’t count! But since most of us are not princes or princesses, at some point this nasty thing called performance, manners, appearance, red flags, and results will eventually enter into the game. That is the catch.

However, for most of us our sin is not a lack of performance or results. Many of us are incredible performers with strong technical and leadership skills. Our mistake is to assume that these alone should cause hiring managers to jump with joy when they see our resume. Yet, we don’t seem to see many managers jumping. Why?

Performance is usually assumed and undervalued. Other factors are entering into the picture. A hiring manager’s gut feel usually decides who gets the job – unless one person is incredible and the other person is really weak. With two competent candidates, cultural fit, likeability, sense of trust, and appearance are usually the determining factors.

Results will help you keep a job and get promoted but relationships with satisfactory performance often results in getting a job or promotion faster. I know that makes us entrepreneurs shake our heads but most managers are not entrepreneurs.

So, here is the deal. Unless there is nepotism, the lack of performance and results usually does catch up with you. But most of us are performers who work so hard that we are weakest on developing relationships. When competing for jobs, the winners are usually those who have strong relationships and know how to continue developing new ones.