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The Job Market Is Tight: It's Time to Take Back Control of Your Career

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     xii

About the Authors     xiv

Break Away from the Herd     3

Chapter 1: The Job Market Is Tight: It’s Time to Take Back Control of Your Career     4

Chapter 2: Don’t Trust the Official “System”: It’s Not Working in Your Favor     12

Step 1: Make Five Mindset Fixes to Get Your Search on Track     21

Chapter 3: Stay Home or Stay in Control: Beliefs That Can Kill Your Job Search     22

Chapter 4: The HJM Search Is a Different Kind of Numbers Game     30

Chapter 5: You Don’t Have to Have a Job to Get a Job     36

Chapter 6: Make Your Passion Your Most Competitive Asset     42

Chapter 7: Think Like a Hiring Manager     50

Step 2: Connect Your Hottest Skills to What Hiring Managers Really Care About     57

Chapter 8: Ability, Motivation, Fit: The Top Three Factors for the Ideal Job     58

Chapter 9: Maybe You Were Fired for Fit, Not Failure: Recovery from a Job Disaster     66

Chapter 10: Don’t Have the Exact Experience? No Problem!     74

Step 3: Upgrade Your Networking to Get Better Results     85

Chapter 11: How to Make Networking Really Work, Really     86

Chapter 12: How to Network Without Sounding Phony, Lame, or Desperate     94

Chapter 13: Make Your Networking Strictly Business     102

Chapter 14: Seven Essential Signs That Your Networking Is Working     108

Step 4: Power Up Your Job Search     115

Chapter 15: Opening Day: How to Organize Your HJM Search Campaign     116

Chapter 16: Backdoor Research to Uncover HJM Targets     122

Chapter 17: Your Resumé Is Not Your Friend     130

Chapter 18: Your Power Tool: The Targeted Opportunity Profile     136

Chapter 19: Find the Hot Issues to Uncover the Hot Jobs     142

Step 5: Get the Interviews That Count and Run Them Like a Pro     149

Chapter 20:  It’s Not Rude to Intrude     150

Chapter 21: Get Past the Gatekeepers     154

Chapter 22: What to Say After “Hello”     160

Chapter 23: Disrupt HJM Targets’ Delay Tactics and Rejections     168

Chapter 24: Own the Agenda to Make Every Minute Count     174

Chapter 25: Get Their Attention: Tell Your Story in Two Minutes Flat     180

Chapter 26: Flipping the HJM Meeting into a Job Interview     188

Step 6: Negotiate Everything     199

Chapter 27: How to Nudge a Dud     200

Chapter 28: Collaborate on Creating Your Job Description     206

Chapter 29: Negotiating Your New Job     212

Conclusion: You Have What It Takes to Get the Right Job     218

Afterword: Why We Wrote This Book     222

Index     226