Received the following email the other day.
The response I received from the XXXX recruiter was that she only has one intern position on her team. She obtained 2 other names for me and copied them on her response to me. But I haven’t heard from them.
A few years back, I was at a conference where the speaker took out a $100 bill, laid it on the podium, and asked the audience, “Who wants this $100 bill?” Everyone’s hand shot up. He walked across the stage and asked, “Who really wants the $100 bill?” – again, all hands were raised. We were all attentive as we were wondering what was coming next.
The presenter looked at us, scanning our faces as if to see a sign of who really wanted the money, whispered into the microphone once or twice, “Who wants the $100 bill?” Finally, someone from the second row got up, walked up to the stage, took the bill off the podium, put it in her pocket and sat down. The presenter smiled.
His point was if you want something, don’t just sit there, go after it. This approach is valuable when conducting a job search. In the email above, the individual is passively waiting for someone to reach out to her – instead, she should be reaching out to the two people copied on the email.
When the opportunity presents itself – act on it. I leave you with two quotes on action:
There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction
- John F. Kennedy
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
- Thomas Jefferson
