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"You can find a job even in the most difficult of times, and regardless of what handicap you think you have, if you can show the employer how you will benefit them”  This idea was first published in 1937.

Two women set out to prove this idea. They toured the country and were offered hundreds of jobs. The fact that they were female, and both over forty, was never an obstacle. They simply tried to show each employer how their assets and skills could help that employer get more customers, more profits. They reported, "With that approach, no one asked about age."

Clara Belle Thompson and Margaret Lukes Wise. They wrote up their experience in We Are Forty And We Did Get Jobs” (J.B. Lippincott Co., publisher, 1937).  The book was summarized in the May 1938 issue of, The Saturday Evening Post. 

It is worth emphasizing that both authors here were women writing during the great economic depression. Would you want to ease your burden by trading places with them?

Identify employers that need your work skills. Find out who exactly: the specific industry, then the exact companies, and finally the specific manager. If you're good at your work, talking to the relevant people will be easy. You have everything in common with them. Find out what exactly are the problems, challenges and opportunities these employers are facing. Follow these steps, and you'll be talking with the right people about the right job.

Your worth is what makes an employer want to hire you. Your worth is determined by the value you offer the employer. That means you have to take the initiative in your job hunt. An employer cannot extract value from you -- you must offer it. You can only offer value if you know what is valuable to the employer. That means a lot of research up front, before you approach any employer.

Think that takes more research? Absolutely right. Do what the headhunter does: talk with other employees at the company, talk with the company's vendors and even its customers. Figure out what the work is all about before you interview.

Spend your time finding managers who have work that needs to be done. Don't make assumptions about what jobs are not available.

Every job is different. Every manager is different. Every candidate is different.  When candidates all sound and act the same, it becomes impossible to separate the right candidate from all the droning wannabes.

Carefully think about the work you do and how you would do it for a prospective employer prior to approaching that employer.  ready and able to control the interview by making it a hands-on, at-work meeting that focuses on the work that needs to be done. If you spend an interview doing anything else, your effort is wasted.

Control The Interview.  Don't let an interview turn into a rote question and answer session.  That's not what will win you a job offer. Focus on what you can do for an employer. It's up to you to take control of an interview, and turn it into the solution to an employer's problems.

The Agenda Is The Work.  Prepare an interviewer before your meeting. Let him or her know that you want to clearly demonstrate, in the interview, how you will do the work they need to have done.

Introduce Yourself.  Introduce yourself to the interviewer before you meet, in a phone call, or through a referral made by someone who knows you both. Leverage.  Such an intermediary can be another employee, another manager (from this or another company), a vendor of the company, or a customer.  If you have to, spend some serious time finding someone who will do this for you.  Don't consider this a minor option.  Don't go on a blind date.  Companies retain headhunters because they hate blind dates.

Join The Team -- Enlist!  Be tentative and you'll die.  Don't wait to be asked to participate in the manager's work. You'll never be asked.  Be proactive -- enlist!  Be on the job when you walk into your meeting.  Arrive to face the manager's challenges with him.  Your goal is to perform like an employee who wants a promotion.  Act like you're on the team.  If you don't, you never will be.

Actually evaluate me.  Be ready to discuss or do something in your meeting that will help the manager with a problem being faced right now.  Ask the manager to put a live problem on the table, so you can show how you'd go about solving it.  This single technique -- which focuses totally on your work skills -- does more to impress an employer than anything I've ever seen a candidate do in an interview.  Roll up your sleeves!  When you're done, ask to be reviewed like an employee.

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