Jay's Foolproof Tips for Landing a Job: Non-Traditional Job Search Tactics That Payoff

I met my friend, Jay, in college. I didn't realize it at the time, but Jay taught me some very valuable life lessons. He often pushed the boundaries of ethics, but time has shown that Jay's approach to getting things done wasn't all wrong; it was just incomplete. He had style, but lacked substance. He had flair, but lacked polish. He drive and ambition, but lacked a moral compass and work ethic. To really capitalize on Jay's strategy, you have to cherry pick his good points and throw out the bad.

Jay's Tip #1: "Models Don't Do Math." Always focus your effort in areas of strength.
When it came to studying, Jay and I were polar opposites. I studied in a very traditional way. I took copious notes in class, completed all assigned reading, worked the exercises in the back of the book, and joined a study group. Jay, on the other hand, took a more relaxed approach to studying. He listened very carefully in class, but photo-copied a classmate's notes. He only read summaries of assigned readings; his textbook collection consisted of cliff notes and spark notes. He never studied (or wrote papers for that matter), because he always managed to have someone on hand who was willing to do it for him. A classmate's completed homework could be re-purposed with much less effort than it took to do it; Jay had a natural gift for getting other people to do it for him. Whenever I asked why he didn't do his homework himself, he always said, "Models don't do math." In some respects, he was a natural-born manager. The "work" that Jay did in college was very different than the work that I did. I trained to be a technical expert; Jay honed his people management skills and influence tactics. Both sets of skills are valuable in the job market, but Jay had an edge over me and the other "worker bee" technicians. He practiced managing others before ever holding a professional position.

Jay's Tip #2: "B's Get Degrees." Putting in extra effort for the same payoff is not heroic.
When it came time to select electives, Jay and I continued along separate paths. I studied "substantive" subjects like statistics, biology, and classic literature. Jay studied "stylistic" subjects like theater, creative writing, speech, and golf. To be fair, I also took the golf class because it was an easy A; Jay took the class as a way to network. Comparing report cards with Jay was always a boost to my ego, but he didn't seem to care. "B's get degrees," he'd sneer. He wasn't proud of his grades, but he added college credits to his transcript at the same pace as I did.

Jay's Tip #3: "Icing Sells the Cake." Style trumps substance when making a first impression.
At graduation, my grade point average was a full point higher than Jay's, but we received identical degrees. Because Jay and I had the same major, we were in direct competition for jobs. As luck would have it, we both landed an interview at the same company, for the same position, on the same day. As you might expect, my interview was very traditional. I arrived early, dressed very neatly, and I answered questions concisely and clearly. In my mind, I did everything right.

Although I obviously didn't attend Jay's interview, we discussed our shared experience in great detail. For his interview, Jay arrived 10 minutes late, looked slightly disheveled, and had a large prominent oil stain on his white shirt sleeve. Jay apologized profusely for being late, but didn't offer any explanation. As if on cue, the lead interviewer opened by pointing out the oil stain and asking, "What happened?"

As scripted (yes, scripted and rehearsed), Jay recounted a heroic tale of traffic, car trouble, collisions, chivalry, and ridiculous action. He had the interview committee on the edge of their seats as he re-enacted a fast-moving scene complete with voices, choreography, and sound effects. The oil stain, his disheveled look, and his lateness were all attributed to the events of his fantastic story. The drama must have moved them, because Jay was offered a job on-the-spot.

Jay's Tip #4: "An Easy Yes Means You Can Do Better."
Jay first shared this tip in reference to picking up girls. His philosophy was that if a girl didn't reject him at least three times, then she wasn't worth pursuing. The funny thing is: he always had gorgeous girls at his beck and call in spite of his average looks. Jay wasn't stupid; he verbally accepted the on-the-spot job offer. With this "safety job" in his pocket, Jay redoubled his job search efforts - applying to better, higher paying jobs. He was free to seek ever better positions with reckless abandon, because he had a job waiting for him to start in three weeks.

Jay's Tip #5: "It's A Numbers Game." Never fear rejection, persistence guarantees success.
Jay's last tip never quite sat well with me. He believed that applying to every job (and hitting on every girl), even the ones he had no interest in pursuing, magically made it more likely that he would get what he really wanted. Somehow, priming the pump with an abundance of attempts to secure undesirable things guaranteed success in securing desirable things. He even had a mathematical model that "proved" that securing enough rejections generated success.

Jay's last tip is un-numbered, because I disagree with it completely. I can't argue that he has demonstrated an ability to succeed at climbing the corporate ladder, but I have protested his methods from the beginning of our friendship. His response to my protests has always been, "Getting Things Done is Getting Things Done." I only share his tip here as a cautionary tale. Every bridge that Jay crossed through empty style, manipulative persistence, and strategically withheld effort burned behind him. Jay often gets what he wants, but he has a lot of trouble holding on to it. Jay, not his real name, is now working as the managing director level of a multi-national corporation. His resume is quite impressive and always up-to-date, because he knows that he needs it to be.