Attention Job Seekers You Don't Need A Sandwich Board

As mentioned in a top news story this week, a recent British graduate job seeker was having trouble finding work in London’s tough economy decided to do something to make him stand out in his job search, so he put on his dress for success wear and added a large sandwich board that advertised that he needed work, and would work for free for 30 days, after which he could be hired or fired.  Then he walked around in front of a high concentration of employer’s headquarters hoping someone would appreciate his effort.

He claimed success, and it did work in that within 5 hours he claimed to have a job offer and he got many business cards for making additional contacts.

 

So what’s wrong with this picture?

This student is obviously bright, creative, resourceful and a risk-taker.  All entrepreneurial qualities, yet he was using them somewhat misguidedly in my opinion.  Why humiliate yourself, when you can empower yourself?

 

And it‘s no disrespect to him because what he did absolutely took guts.  But just how empowered is he going to be in the workplace when he starts off being known as the guy who was willing to work for free? 

 

Plus, isn’t he also lowering expectations for other student job seekers?  Now other employers who always want to squeeze all that they can out of a worker, are likely to capitalize on this and seek out candidates who are willing to work for free before they commit to hiring them—they may even make it policy.  And if they hire him, what kind of negotiating power does he possibly have?  They already know he’s desperate to get paid work—what are the chances he gets the kind of job offer with the level of pay and benefits he really deserves?

 

Sure this guy is burdened with student loans and dim employment prospects, but this is because he didn’t have a Plan B.  It’s not news that the economies in most places in the world are absolutely awful.  People with years and years of knowledge and expertise are having the corporate ladder pulled out from under them.  And I know it’s getting worse because I’ve never gotten more invitations to connect on LinkedIn from C-level and other Managers and Execs than I have recently.

 

 

When you know jobs are pretty much non-existent, why would you not have a plan in place while you were still in school; a Plan B for back-up assuming you weren’t going to get a job? 

 

If someone takes away the corporate ladder, you simply work to make your own ladder.

 

Today’s college students have already experienced so much in their lives, and are generally so advanced in computers and the online world, besides their studies, that I just know that every college student knows something that’s worth something to others.  And you don’t need a certain grade point average, a certain major, or a certain number of years of experience to capitalize on it. 

 

Right now every student entering college, in college, about to leave college and who has just left college should be prepared to make their own job, or at least supplement the job they get which will likely not be the kind they went to college for unfortunately, through infopreneuring.

 

In fact, college students, should be no different than those already employed, who I always advise to have a little something on the side—a sideline infopreneuring business.  Could you just imagine how different this sandwich board wearer’s situation would be right now if he had been less focused on getting a non-existent job upon graduation, and instead was part student and part infopreneur?

 

1.  He would not be in such dire financial straits and he would actually have gotten great experience running his own business that no internship program could offer.

 

2.  He would not be in a position where he had to give away what he knows—and again, I have no doubt that he knows plenty despite being green to the traditional workforce.

 

3.  He would not have to wear a sandwich board—or at least if he was, it could be for his own benefit rather than that of an employer that w as looking to take advantage of him.  He could be advertising his complete information product and service line—his book, training program, coaching program, audio, video or whatever he was marketing to share his knowledge with others and profit from it. That’s an empowered sandwich board wearer, not a desperate one.

 

And the good news is that it’s not too late for him to give infopreneuring a try.  If he does work for someone for those 30 days as a freebie, I hope he doesn’t work late, kiss people’s butts, get the boss’ coffee and beg that he stays on to become a paid employee.  I hope he simultaneously uses the time outside of this trial offer to develop his first information product or service (he already has the media’s attention), since it will take little or no cost to do so.

 

Maybe he’ll even surprise himself with the results and find he can even tell them to take their job and shove it.  If not, at least he’ll at least go into the workplace empowered with a real Plan B from day one, so when the corporate ladder is yanked out from under him in the future as it inevitably will be, as that’s just the world we live in today, he won’t have to wear a sandwich board again.

 

For more on this empowered way of thinking about your knowledge, what’s going on in today’s workplace worldwide and what to do about it, please check out my free 70-minute teleseminar replay Why You Just Lost Your Job (Or Will) And What To Do About It: What Corporate America Doesn’t Want You To Know!  

Want to hear this content as a podcast?  Check out episode #51 of my infopreneur podcast at What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know(TM), The Podcast.

Happy Infopreneuring!

--Melanie R. Jordan, Everybody's Infopreneur Coach, Author of What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know™ - Achieving The Life You Were Meant To Have By Making Money From What YOU Know! and Host of infopreneur podcast What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know(TM), The Podcast Available 24/7 at: http://www.WhatYouKnowIsWorthMorePodcast.com

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