Advice For Soon-To-Be College Grads Entering The Workforce

If you want to immediately multiply your successes (in just about any aspect of your life) — learn, understand, and embrace the concept behind “You Are a Product.”

If you are out there competing (for a date or for work) – you are, in essence, saying, “Here I am – this is me – buy me — not that other guy over there.”

You are advertising, marketing, and selling – yourself.

We are constantly bombarded by products sold to us from billboards, magazines, radio and television. From the day we are born, we’re programmed to pick and choose which of these products are necessary or appealing and which are a waste of time. And if you want to make it in the dating world, or the business world, you can’t sell yourself as a waste.

If you stop and think about it, just about every single aspect of our lives is related to sales in one form or another. As a guy, you sell yourself when you approach a woman. Right? You also sell yourself when you interview for a job – don’t you? We are all continually selling ourselves.

They Say You Can’t Judge a Book By Its Cover — But Do You Anyway?

You’ve likely heard the expression, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” But if you believe it’s true — I would strongly suggest you not to go into publishing! Book and magazine publishers have long since proven that although a cover may not tell you what’s on the inside, it’s the key element that attracts us to one book or magazine over another.

My objective is to illustrate how important it is to package and present your product – you – in the best possible light. While how you appear may not fully or accurately represent the whole story that lies inside your proverbial pages, it will determine your ability to make a sale, in both the literal and figurative sense.

The Old Double Standard

Many men — though maybe not you– might be reading this and thinking that the lesson doesn’t apply to them because, well…they’re men, and men don’t have to be concerned with their appearances (their “covers”) in the way that women do.

If you’re one of these guys, you’d better wake up…and fast! This type of misconception—and let there be no mistake about it, it most definitely is a misconception– may not only be holding you back from dating the women you want to date —it might downright prevent your success! But don’t just take my word for it. Studies have shown that white-collar job interviews involving strangers succeed, or fail, much more due to appearance-derived judgments than underlying abilities. Is it unfair? Yes. But is it true? You absolutely, categorically, better believe it is!

Nuts and bolts:

Your resume is important! After you leave the interview — or even before you get the phone call that will invite you to an interview, your resume and cover letter are speaking for you. They’re your representatives. Make sure they say what you want them to say and are proofed for grammar and are clean and unwrinkled. Make sure you have the right date and the spelling of your future employer’s name spelled correctly on your cover letter.

Don’t be late! Allow time for snafus. Traffic, missed trains, the wrong address, etc. If it can happen, it will. Be prepared. Don’t plan to arrive ten minutes before the interview. Arrive much earlier, and hang out at the coffee shop until it’s time for you to go in. Better early than late.

Follow up! Always send a hand written note that is short and to the point, thanking the interviewee for the time and attention they took to see you, and how much you enjoyed meeting with them. No form letters here. Make it personal. If you don’t have good stationary with your name on it, get some. This is when you need it.