Four Degrees to Your Dream Job

By Dennis Thompson

Four Degrees to Your Dream Job is based on the premise that you are only four degrees or less away from the decision maker who can hire you into the job you want, even if it's not yet advertised or created. And that you can create opportunities at will where you want, when you want to regardless of what’s happening with your current employer or the economy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dennis Thompson
• Release date: Jan 1, 2011

Dennis Thompson

I was born in Los Angeles California and raised in the city of Compton. Compton is the city notorious for starting the gang’s crips (blue) and bloods (red) in the 1970’s. The city made famous by drugs and gang wars. Many children and teens that grew up in certain neighborhoods were easily influenced by this destructive way of life. Kids wore the colors red and blue without having the knowledge that the colors they were wearing were associated with a gang. There are twenty one thousand gang's in America. Young children are targeted and recruited as early as eight years old. Most of the gang members that are recruiting them are no more than fifteen years of age themselves. There are gang members that are in prison who are poisoning the minds of the youth and convincing them that if they join a gang they will be loved and respected. Many of these young children are unaware that the only thing that joining a gang will bring them is death. In other parts of California, the United States and abroad, troubled youth have started copy cat Crip gangs of their own. This is one of the main reasons why I got involved in making publications and music with a positive outlook on life. I want to show all children, teens and young adults that you can be well respected without joining a gang or using drugs. My series of Nighty-Nite Tales is about having fun and living your dreams. Save children, teens and young adults. Show you care and help them realize their dreams. Pick up a Nighty-Nite Tale and lend your support so all children, teens and young adults can be gang and drug free. Please check our TRUCE & SANCTUARY items and help your love ones feel safe from gangs and drugs. We are planning a TRUCE & SANCTUARY DAY MILLION PARENT MARCH on Washington, DC Please check with us for details.

Book preview

FOUR DEGREES TO YOUR DREAM JOB

You’re Closer Than You Think to Doing What You Love

By

Dennis Thompson

Do you need a job...or a better one? Did you choose your last job from several great offers...or did you settle for the best you could get at the time? When it comes to your career, are you a pro-active or a re-active? Nighty-five percent of all unemployed or under-employed people in the U.S. pursue only advertised jobs, which represent only 20% of all the jobs available. They send resumes into the black hole, although fewer than 5% of online resumes generate interviews, much less jobs. They randomly network with anyone they can, and they wait for interviews. They are not in control of their careers. They are re-actives.

Through his Method, Dennis shows you how to have the job you want—when you want it—and never be unemployed again...unless you choose to be.

You are only four degrees away from your dream job!

Smashwords Edition

* * * * *

Published on Smashwords by:

Ryan Press

Pleasanton, California

Ryan Press is exclusively owned and operated by Elizabeth Thompson.

Four Degrees to Your Dream Job

Copyright 2009 by Dennis Thompson

www.thompsonmethod.com

Cover and interior book design by Don Wong

www.krop.com/donwongdesign/

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

* * * * *

In memory of Francis Thompson. A great man, husband and father. Thanks, Dad.

•

To Elizabeth… Life – and this book – are so much better because of you.

•

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

– Vincent Van Gogh

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART 1 THE PROBLEM

Chapter 1 Change Your Thinking

Chapter 2 Snowflakes in a Blizzard

Chapter 3 Hidden Jobs

PART 2 PROBLEMS YOU CAN SOLVE

Chapter 4 Know Your Niche?

Chapter 5 What’s Your Market Value?

PART 3 WHO NEEDS YOU

Chapter 6 Your Bridge

Chapter 7 Making Contact

Chapter 8 Four Degrees to Your Dream Job!

Chapter 9 Four Degrees in Real Life

PART 4 BECOME A KNOWN ENTITY

Chapter 10 Peer to Peer

Chapter 11 Subject Matters

Chapter 12 It’s in the Script

Chapter 13 To Email or Not to Email

Chapter 14 Do It Anyway

Chapter 15 Face to Face

Chapter 16 Putting It All Together

Chapter 17 The Buddy System

Chapter 18 The Last Thing You Need

Epilogue

Appendix

Endnotes

Index

About the Author

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Acknowledgements

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Nor was the body of work that went into this book.

I wrote the original draft, then named Take Charge of Your Career, over seven years ago. Had I published that book at that time, I would have had numerous people to acknowledge for their encouragement and contributions. Now, more than seven years later, the experiences, efforts and results of countless more people have shaped the book you now hold.

For me, acknowledging everyone – thinking of what to say to each of you – has been perhaps the most difficult element of the project. Thanking everyone who contributed to this book would be a book in itself.

To each of you who participated in any of my workshops, attended seminars, webinars and/or listened to any of my CDs: thank you. Your questions, ideas, and – most of all – faith and courage in putting my ideas to the test have molded and shaped the Method into what it is today.

Your experiences and stories have been entertaining, insightful and more: you have inspired me and all those who witnessed your journey and often extraordinary results. That you applied the Method in your own lives is, for me, where the rubber meets the road.

To Peter, Nancy, Kathleen, Sara, Rhonda, Ken, Dawn, Bernie and Gunter: thank you for the privilege of using your experiences as illustrations throughout the book. You bring this work to life.

To Tom McMahon and John McCallum: you are so much more than friends and colleagues. Your constant encouragement on the drives back from Kirkwood gave me the confidence that this work was not only possible, but necessary. I’m ready for another boys’ ski weekend whenever you are.

To Brian Klosterman: Your faith in me has buoyed me. Your conviction and clarity continues to encourage my own faith. And, your request that I do the very first seminar for the East Bay Fellowship Job Group launched the entire concept for this work.

To Ean Roby: You took on the monumental job of organizing and structuring the thoughts in my head to get them on paper. Yours was no small task, I know. Thank you for the English to English translation of my spoken word to the written page. You are a patient man.

To Don Wong: Your commitment to take a workshop produced not only the logo and physical design of this book, but an ongoing collaboration. Your eye-popping creativity continues to surprise and delight me.

To Hockett: Jim, if I wavered, our endless miles of walk & talks kept me on the right path. I am excited for our shared future of many more miles together, my friend.

To Teri Hockett: Your commitment to embrace my Method as the foundation for WhatsForWork.com will help thousands of women find the work they love. Your commitment to Jim, your family, friends and anywhere you put your energy is an inspiration to me and those around you. I am so glad that we are partners as well as friends.

To Chuck Cook: My colleague and partner in our Executive Search practice, you know what a difference you have made in my finally getting this done. The fact that our wives are so close is a bonus. Here’s to many years of prosperity and fulfillment together.

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Introduction

My mission is simple: to give you the knowledge, the skills and the confidence to control your professional destiny.

– Dennis Thompson

Who’s in charge of your career?

Most of us want to answer: "I am," of course. And, of course, some people are. But, are you?

Have you planned in advance what you want to do in your career? Do you know what your next job will be? Are you making it happen?

Or, do you allow other people—or circumstances—to determine your future? More to the point, did you choose your last job … or did you take the best you could get?

If this is you, you are not alone. You see, in my nearly twenty years as an executive recruiter and career consultant, I’ve observed that many, if not most, people are re-active versus pro-active when it comes to jobs and careers.

If things are going pretty well at work, people often just go along in the job they have. Maybe they think about a promotion, hope for one, or even apply for one. Maybe. But people often stay with the status quo until something happens to change their circumstances. They get right-sized, down-sized or out-sized. Then, they react.

When they need to find another job, these people—I’ll call them "re-actives"—typically do two things: they update their resumes; and, they respond to advertised jobs. Re-actives generally take whatever happens to come their way. They don’t take the time to think carefully about their next career steps, create a plan and take control of what they do next.

If you are in the "re-active" category I have just described, please, don’t feel bad. I’ve been there myself. When I was growing up on a 160 acre homestead in northern Minnesota, the last thing I thought about was planning my career. Planning the next touch football game with the neighbors’ twelve kids? Absolutely. Career? Not so much.

Like many boys growing up, I dreamed of being a Major League baseball player, a fighter pilot, or a fireman. Executive recruiter or career consultant was not even in my vocabulary.

I gave up my boyhood dreams one by one as I realized that my athletic talent did not qualify me for the Majors; my less-than-perfect eyesight kept me from flying; and firefighting—at least where I lived—was a volunteer job.

With the perfect clarity of hindsight, I see what I should have done: taken some time, given careful thought to what I really did want to do, then identify the commitment required to make it a reality.

Instead, I did what many people do: I took jobs that came my way. I didn’t identify my ideal job or direction; I took whatever had the highest earning potential. One job led to a better one, until I found I was making pretty good money in sales, then sales management. Since I enjoyed the work and was pretty good at it, I thought to myself well, this is alright.

Along with the money came recognition and bigger jobs. By then, I was married, with one child and a second on the way. My wife quit her job. We bought new cars, a house, then a bigger house. Fast forward a dozen years. I looked around and thought to myself, How did I get here? This isn’t what I thought I’d do with my life.

By not taking the time to proactively make a clear, conscious choice about my future, I had, like many of us, unconsciously made choices that determined my future for me. Not that anything was wrong with what I had done. I just wasn’t in charge of my career. I never had been.

As a recruiter and career consultant, I have a bird’s eye view of the same scenario playing out in so many other people’s lives. In my search practice, I generally deal with fairly high-achieving individuals, people making what most would consider good money, with the titles and perks that go along with those positions. You might think that the people I place are pro-active about their careers. And, you might be surprised to know how few are. By the time they get to me, that is, to a level where I might be placing them in a job, many still find themselves taking what they can get.

We all know people who, since childhood or very early adulthood, have known exactly what they wanted to do with their lives. These fortunate few identified a path early, committed to it, got the requisite education and training and executed their plans. They are teachers, lawyers, orthopedic surgeons, venture capitalists. Many are no doubt content with their choice and how it’s playing out for them.

Others face what the rest of us who did not plan so well often face: a vague or sometimes quite specific dissatisfaction and urge to gain control of the future. No wonder then that even some of the seemingly most successful individuals—apply your own definition of success here—reach a point where they want to stop and start again in something entirely different and new to them.

Maybe you don’t want to change fields entirely. Maybe you’d just like to find a better job in your current line of work. Or, maybe, you are out of work and desperate for anything to pay the bills. Whether you are out of work now, want (or need) to get a better job in your current field, or want to change fields altogether, the question is same: what to do and how to do it?

I had to answer that question for myself years ago. As a recruiter, I basically have to find a new job every ninety to one hundred twenty days. When a company hires me to conduct a search, the entire process usually takes about that long. If I don’t have another search lined up by the time the current search ends, I am out of work.

I learned pretty quickly that I had to constantly create new opportunities for myself. First, I determined what I had to offer as a recruiter. Next, I identified who might have a need for my particular expertise and services. While conducting the searches I had going, I still had to network, not just randomly, but deliberately, with decision makers who could potentially hire me for a new search.

I found that people were much more likely to talk to me if they perceived me as a possible solution to a problem I knew they might have. If I approached them about their problem instead of my own, they perceived me as a professional, a colleague, not just another headhunter looking for a search (read: job hunter looking for a job).

Over time, I saw that I had developed a method to generate new work for myself. If I did certain specific things consistently and repeatedly, I regularly created not one, but several opportunities for myself.

Knowing that I could reliably create multiple new opportunities for myself gave me peace of mind and a sense of freedom. I was happy when others in my firm used my Method successfully as well. But I got really excited when I realized that my method works equally well for others looking to create new opportunities for themselves in their own professions.

Many of my clients have used my Method with great success. It is easy to learn, duplicatable and repeatable. I’ve seen demoralized job seekers regain their confidence as they stop chasing advertised jobs and start proactively taking control of their job search and career.

Four Degrees to Your Dream Job is based on the premise that you are only four degrees or less away from the decision maker who can hire you into the job you want even if it’s not advertised. And that you can create opportunities at will where you want, when you want to regardless of what’s happening with your current employer or the economy. Did you know that 80%-90% of all jobs are not advertised? They are created and filled without the general public ever knowing about them. (That’s why it’s called the "hidden" job market.)

The key to taking control of your career is to learn how to proactively create multiple opportunities in the hidden job market. Then you can choose—what you want to do and where you want to do it—rather than letting your employer or the economy determine your future for you.

With my Method you will learn how to:

• Network only with people who can hire you for your dream job;

• Create three to five interviews per week in your chosen field of interest;

• Continuously have two to three new, ideal opportunities to choose from; and

• Never be unemployed again, unless you choose to be.

I want you to have the security of knowing that you don’t have to depend on your boss, your employer or the economy for your job and career. I want you to join the less than 5% of the workforce who proactively manage their career and secure their own professional destiny.

Because you are only four degrees from your dream job.

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PART ONE

The Problem

Never underestimate your problem or your ability to deal with it.

– Robert H. Schuller

One thing I’ve learned as an executive recruiter and career consultant is that how people think about finding a new job is just as important as what they actually do. The person who thinks unrealistically about what to do next is heading in the wrong direction from the start.

And, unfortunately, unrealistic thinking about finding a job is extremely common. In fairness, people looking for a job are often worried, dissatisfied or even desperate. They are not in the best state of mind to think clearly or carefully about what they want to do next or how to go about finding it.

My first step as a consultant is to diffuse the emotion that usually surrounds finding a job. Free of fear and uncertainty, people can begin to think clearly about their next position. In the first chapter you will see several examples of common, though misguided, thoughts people often have about what they want to do next.

Another aspect of unclear thinking involves how to go about finding a job. Misguided thinking about how to conduct a job search is understandable: people just don’t know any better. And how would they? The world inundates us with how to find a job —and most of it is all the wrong stuff.

Take, for example, certain ads during the last Super Bowl. Lots of viewers no doubt believe those ads. The popular notion about finding work is: send your resume into the online job boards then sit back and wait for your dream job to show up. Never mind that 95% of those resumes won’t even generate an interview, much less a job offer.

Nonetheless, the world tells you it’s all about your resume. It’s not. It’s all about relationship. More on that in Chapter 2.

In Chapter Three I will introduce you to a world beyond the one you can access by responding to advertised jobs. Together, we will tap into the hidden job market.

But first, let’s lay some foundational groundwork with some basic operating principles and relevant statistics.

Looking for jobs in all the wrong places...

STATS and BOPS

In the beginning of my workshops, we first look at some statistics and establish basic operating principles.

The statistics provide a reality check. They are the facts of the job-seeking/career management world. Like them or not, they are what they are. All job seekers have a choice about which statistic they become.

The operating principles allow us to think and operate effectively.

STATISTICS

Think of the job market in terms of advertised jobs and unadvertised jobs. Going forward, I will refer to the AJM—the Advertised Job Market—and the HJM—the Hidden Job Market.

Next, think of job seekers—people who are looking for a job —in two categories: the unemployed, and the employed who are looking, for whatever reason.

Now consider the following statistics:

• The AJM comprises 20% or fewer of all available jobs in the US

• The HJM comprises 80% or more of all available jobs in the US

• 95% of all job seekers—employed or not—compete for jobs only in the AJM

• Only 5% or less of all job seekers look for jobs in the HJM

So what meaningful conclusions can we draw from these statistics? If you are like 95% of those people looking for a job, you are competing for jobs only in the AJM, where 20% or fewer of all available jobs exist.

Conversely, 5% or fewer of all those looking for a job are looking in the HJM, where 80% or more of all available jobs exist.

Which job market do you think offers you a better chance of finding your next job?

Now let’s look at the actual numbers these percentages represent.

• The AJM represents 3-5 million advertised jobs in the United States at any given time, depending on the economy

• The HJM represents 25-30 million unadvertised jobs in the United States at any given time, also depending on the economy

• The world of job seekers represents 47-72 million