Just Get Out There

I can imagine this is a heart-warming tale that every salesperson will applaud. And then pass it on to someone they know that are possibly going down a spiralling despair of a prospecting drought thinking that their luck’s run dry.

Hail the 23-yr old from the Potteries that landed a job within four hours from a new tactic, driven by two years of charitable caring inactivity.

He stood in the pouring rain at a busy roundabout with a self-scrawled placard asking for a job.

After three hours a businessman stopped to talk to him, resulting in a job a jiffy later. I can’t help but repeat the employer’s summary:

“I was on my way to work at about 8am and I saw Mark standing in the pouring rain, holding a placard which read: ‘Please give me a job’.

“I thought if someone could stand there in that deluge – and it was absolutely torrential rain – then they must be determined to find a job. My attitude was that he would be an asset to any company.

“There are not many unemployed people who would have done that and I thought that anyone who wanted a job that much deserved a chance.

“When I brought him back to the office was so soaked through that a little puddle formed under his chair while I interviewed him.

“I spoke to him for about 20 minutes and then offered him the job on the spot. I was really impressed by his determination and he has the right kind of attitude that we want here.

“Now he’s getting on brilliantly and fitting right in with all the other employees. I wish more people could show the same kind of determination to find work as he did.”

If you’re down in your dumps, what’s your equivalent in the self-advertising stakes? How does pride come before your fall? And what could you do differently that would make someone able to write you a cheque think you held ‘determination, be an asset to them, deserve a chance, and have the right kind of attitude’?