Knowing People and The “Informal Credential” Fallacy

Garth Beyer

Though “time” is the only constant in life, it is also the largest change we must adapt to. It’s a bit of an oxymoron isn’t it?

The farthest back that I have experience with the job market is when people walked into a business, asked for an application, filled it there, called them to check up on the application in a week, got an interview, and then got the job if their first impression and behavior was acceptable.This is just one process that was “the right way” at the time.

Though there are hundreds of different processes to acquire a job, job seekers are being grenaded with two specific processes.

1. Know Someone – No one cares about the olden days of apprenticeship and working for your parents. Kids grow up usually wanting to do the exact opposite of their parents. That leaves the fact that to get a job in an area of your interest, you have to know someone in the department. I don’t know why companies bother asking for references on the resume, the only reference they care about is word of mouth. The only opinion they care about is that of someone who they work closely too or that is already in the department. Your focus needs to be on people who love you and could talk about you all day THAT IS IN YOUR AREA OF INTEREST.  How do you do this? Well, I can answer that with a couple of options.

  • Don’t have the bachelor’s degree that’s required for the job you want? Apply free. Send the application in requesting that you would like to be the assistant to the person who gets the job you are after. Make sure that it is clear that you will work for free and help with whatever tasks that are assigned to you to help the person fulfilling the position. You are only after experience — to begin.
  • Anyone who types or writes a word can call themselves a journalist. So go to the business that you want the job at and request an interview with the owner or highest ranked person. You simply want to write a report on the company for your blog, school, website, etc. Sweet, you got your interview. Don’t let others tell you that your first impression is everything. It’s not. What you want to do is take your 15 minutes you got and turn it into a 30 minute interview. (Have enough questions prepared, but you should be having more of a conversation than an interview). You can talk about your interest in the field, but do not state your education or interest in a job. After you write your article and send it to the business, you can wait a week and call them back for a follow up interview. All of your visible or invisible readers want to know more and were interested in your content and the business itself. You are already on a friendly level with the owner and now you can focus the interview to bring out your knowledge of the business in question. Before you leave, have a card or contact information ready to give to the employer and bring up the idea of working for them for a pay check or for free. If you do not feel you are acquainted enough to accomplish this you can ask that you would like to interview some of the employees. Instead of winning over “the big-man”, win over the employees so they can put a good word in about you. They will only reassure “the big-man” of your qualities and abilities

2.  Informal Credentials – Who cares about a piece of paper, a few letters before your name, or how hot it is to be called Doctor “Smith”. What you can do to get a job without a degree is to surprise the employer with a list of different experiences related to the field. In the “education” area of your application write “Check out my experience in my Resume”.

  • The only way to get a job this way is to step out of your box and travel the world and to go after every experience in the related field. If you are into working for an Environmental group, start traveling to Australia and Ireland to see how they use their green bags and the politics around the topic there. Get acquainted with all angles of your interest from all the different parts of the world. An employer wont turn you down. Better yet, you may end up creating your own business instead.
  • For more on how to gain informal credentials, I will push you towards Tim Ferris http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/09/29/8-steps-to-getting-what-you-want-without-formal-credentials/

My question to you is, why is it not pushed to do these two processes IN ADDITION to getting formal credentials? I’ll help you with the easy questions here..

The only way someone is going to be successful in helping others find jobs is if they focus on a niche area of getting people employed. I have just shared with you the two largest ones. People share these concepts with others because no  one will listen unless it is quick and specific. We have since passed the era of receiving all the information on one topic. We only receive all the information on one small piece of the grand topic.

I am not saying that this information is unworthy and not should be followed, I am proposing that you combine these topics to create the original knowledge base that they were taken and separated from. Only then can you truly achieve absolutely any job you want at the same time as being surrounded by incredible people with the same interest and traveling the world.

A person walks into a job interview with a master’s degree in the field required from an Ivy league.

The next person that will be interviewed has the same degree from Australia, has worked in a similar company in London, and created another similar company in Hawaii which made just enough money to make it self-sustaining.

Which one gets the job?

Stay Positive and Self-Credentialed

Garth E. Beyer

I say, ” If you can’t get out of your box, at least take it with you when you travel the world to get your informal and formal credentials.”

Garth Beyer
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