What Does Somebody Have to Do to Get A Job Around Here?: 44 Insider Secrets That Will Get You Hired

I am really glad that I bought this book. Over the last year, I have prepared thoroughly for interviews, read a number of excellent job hunting and interviewing books -- and yet I felt, on interviews, as though something has changed dramatically in the way organizations make hiring decisions.Two examples: job descriptions often go way beyond reasonable expectations("must have 95 years of experience, a perfect credit rating, and be prepared to travel 150% of the time.") and many of the questions asked as part of the hiring process in some organizations are extremely personal and intrusive, with no apparent connection to the jobs themselves.Ms. Shapiro puts it very well in the first chapter: "Most people have felt a shift in our hiring practices but can't quite pinpoint why things feel so much more stressful than they used to. It's not your imagination. If it seems tougher out there than it used to be, that's because it is. Interviewing and hiring has gone from being merely a stressful process to a full-scale gauntlet that most candidates are finding themselves unprepared for."Ms. Shapiro, a former corporate insider, has been invaluable in showing me what new trends are now dominating corporate hiring processes, including many "secret criteria," such as some organizations refusing to hire people who have been unemployed X amount of time or who voluntarily left their previous jobs, and also under-the-radar discrimination against people by age, gender, and other factors, etc.An especially useful insight of hers:"Because a hiring manager's job is on the line with every recommendation for hire, the safest bet is the one who will receive the offer, not necessarily the one with the best qualifications."While it is likely that the ailing U.S. economy is at least partially responsible for this shift, these changes in the hiring process may remain well into an economic recovery.These changes are not discussed in most popular job hunting and career counseling books, which assume that organizations are still operating in the relatively sunny, ethical "search for the best candidate" mode of more prosperous eras.Everyone who is job hunting or has a friend, family member or co-worker who is job hunting should give them a copy of this book. It will be of immense help to them.For those who posted describing the book as "cynical" and likely to drain a job hunter's hope -- I actually felt much better as I read the book. I actually felt more hope, and felt relief that my uneasiness at some of the interviews that I've had was a justifiable response to some very odd organizational behavior.Ms. Shapiro provides practical strategies to survive and find jobs in the new, more stressful job search environment.

This book is a fifth-level response to a) employers having certain standards and many biases, b) applicants finding out how to overcome them and display their best picture, followed by c) employers seeking to overcome said overcoming themselves, and topped off by d) strict laws forbidding discrimination of various kinds, which employers, out of nothing more than perceived self-interest, see it in their interest to do.The work is made up of many, many outstanding insights that ring true about how getting hired ACTUALLY works. Maybe 2/3 of the book I knew already (I'm a bit of an old graybeard at this stuff), but, even (especially) for me, the remaining 1/3 is worth many times the purchase price. Some tips were hard to swallow, but of course that is to be expected with this super-stressful non-merit-based endeavor, in which the other side has almost all the cards and knows it.Two minor quarrels. First, people would not try stunts such as wearing gorilla suits, wrapping resumes in champagne, and so on if they didn't sometimes work. While someone as experienced and sophisticated as the author would refuse to pay off to them, maybe if it's a job you badly want AND there are vast numbers of applicants AND you don't think your qualifications put you in the top category AND the gatekeeper is a woman in her 20s (sorry, but such ploys are similar to those corny bar pickup lines which all women blast but so often work), you might still go for one of those. Second, in one section she gave a recipe for success for something using four concepts that began with the letter C - as the rest of the book was so far above that level, that part seemed to me incongruous and even destructive. So knock it down from 5+ stars to just 5.All in all, the perfect job-seeking book for the Great Recession. It absolutely buries the likes of What Color Is Your Parachute, with its long-obsolete ideas that you can impress employers so much as a general resource they will do anything to get you, even create a position for you. The author shows she knows, as do many of the rest of us, that human resources departments should go back to calling themselves "personnel," as what they want are cogs. And no other writer, in any of the 50+ pertinent books I've read or read about, does as well at showing how to get there. This book is not only an unqualified tour de force, but a major milestone in the field.

I always buy the books from this author. Very well outlined notes and ideas. I will still have to read. I bought this book based on the content that is very useful to know and based on my previous experience of this author's writings.

This book was sold as used - very good condition. It is anything but. Well thumbed, labelled ex library book which it looks like someone spilt their coffee over. Will be sticking with book depository and other reputable sellers next time.

アメリカの転職市場がここまで過激になっているのかとショックを受けた。今転職中の身だが、大手の企業も似たようなプロセスを使っていると思う場面も今思えば多々あった。もちろん外資系はそのままだった。３秒でレジメをレビューしてしまうとか、面接開始３０秒で面接官は採用・不採用を決めてしまうとかとにかくショックの一言である。そして、自分の面接の準備としては心強い本である。ただ悔やまれるのはこの本にあと４ヶ月早く出会わなかった点である。

Book excellent condition. Very informative and detailed for possible occupations in the psychology field.

SO GOOD. Buy it if you want help getting the job.