This is the final part of a three part series. The Art of War for Job Search (Part 1) and The Art of War for Job Search (Part 2) precede this and have discussed the first nine of the thirteen chapters written by Sun Tzu on winning battles. Here is the remainder of his points:
- Configurations of Terrain – Always be aware of the battlefield. Common ground between the job seeker and an employer should look like picking the low fruit, but it could be a matter of being the most prepared or the first to arrive to gain their attention. There are also entanglements that happen when entry is easy but exit impossible. Unlike battle, this won’t result in death in a physical sense, but can end up as career death. Bad news travels. Sometimes the walls around an employer appear impenetrable, but winning that skirmish only requires figuring out an alternative approach. There are multiple other possibilities, but overcoming the barriers means altering the approach for success. Job seekers who back off at a challenge rather than shift their ideas to overcome them may be missing an opportunity. Online applications can be daunting, but giving up because the company bought the vanilla package ATS does not reveal much about their culture. In fact, most will welcome feedback on the process because believe it or not most of them are backed by people who really do care.
- Nine Terrains – Sun Tzu uses a whole chapter to describe the nine common situations or stages in a campaign with emphasis on the specific focus needed to navigate them. The common theme here is to be proactive and not fight the other army’s battle. Likewise, job seekers should seek to take charge and where possible shape the strategy of the companies they are after. Sometimes we fear that the preparedness of others is too difficult to overcome when often the opposite is usually true. Most interviewers are horrible at interviewing. The answer to an uninformed or off topic question is to take charge and bring the conversation back to relevancy. Drawing from prepared and planned strengths and accomplishments, answers can be inserted into the interview and turn around a situation that is going nowhere. Smile when leaving the interviewer feeling good about how well they did even when the interviewee did all the work.
-  Incendiary Attacks – Fiery analogies always seem to work for any situation! Passion for work is the first thing that comes to mind. Just as fire can be used as a weapon in battle, the environment of a job search offers multiple opportunities to be disruptive… respectfully, of course. Inserting innovative thinking into the dialog shows that past accomplishments are not a fluke but are indicative of someone who is a person of action. Disruption does not have to always be adversarial in nature. Simple intrusion into uninvited places can lead to surprise acceptance and unexpected gains. Following such invasion of private space two things must happen. First, gains that have occurred have to be consolidated and exploited immediately. Next, if there has been any second thoughts about the methods utilized then these lessons need to be added to the plan in order to exercise proper restraint in subsequent encounters. Offsetting any negativity is important for continuing on to the goal.
- Employing Spies – Establishing and maintaining an active intelligence network provides necessary insight on activities in and around the company. There are many online intelligence sources to be cultivated, but networking through personal contacts is the best way of staying current. Native spies are those who work in and around the targeted company. These sources can be vendors, recruiters, investors, partners or other stakeholders in the business. Internal spies are current employees that we befriend and question for information. It is important to be genuinely interested in them and their thoughts or it will appear false and this important source will dry up quickly. Double agents are converted spies from the other side… by giving information freely in social media outlets, conferences and meetings it can be expected that they will reciprocate with useful information. Survivor spies are those who have tried and failed to gain entry into the company and failed. Here again, sharing information of mutual interest can benefit everyone. Job seeker communities that are a tight knit network can be stronger than any one alone.
Hopefully there will be additional comments on the relationship between this ancient document of war and how we conduct a job search in today’s world. Sun Tzu’s The Art of War contains references that are immediately recognized as parallel to management style, organizational effectiveness, marketing, and business in general. There have been other popular adaptations of this philosophy in book titles such as Strategies on Selling, The Art of War for Business, The Art of War for Traders and Investors, and at least five different books on The Art of War for Women. The original book is of course in the public domain and the 1910 translation by Lionel Giles has been provided free through a Project Gutenberg Etext. I would suggest that it is on the bookshelf, Kindle or iPad of any manager as a reference.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.†~ Sun Tzu
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