Practice strategic empathy.

The first question to ask is, why should anyone hire you? To answer this question, you will have to use the technique of dissociation (not to be confused with the psychiatric term dissociative disorder). Dissociation in this context refers to the process of strategic empathy. Get outside your own head, and consider the world from an employer’s standpoint.

Employers necessarily think in terms of costs and benefits. According to an article from Workforce.com, organizations typically spend more than $8,000 dollars just to hire an outside salaried employee. This amount doesn’t include salaries and benefits; this is what it costs just to get someone on the payroll, when referral fees, relocation expenses, and internal administrative costs are taken into account.

After an employee is hired, the company must spend tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) more on salary and benefits. And your salary is only portion of your cost as an employee. The rising cost of health care is a daily topic on the evening news. In 2004, employer health care costs rose by 11.3%, and double-digit increases are also projected for 2005. Employers must also pay Medicare and Social Security taxes, as well as workers’ compensation coverage expenses for each employee.

On the other hand, employees are also a source of income for a business. Aside from the home-based proprietorship, no business could function without employees (and even home-based proprietorships need to hire “provisional employees;” they utilize the services of accountants, attorneys, and a host of others.) Therefore, the employer-employee relationship is a symbiotic one. You need them, and they need you.

In the beginning of the relationship, however, the employer is almost always the one who has the greater amount of leverage on his side. It is therefore your task, as a job seeker, to do the wooing, the empathizing, and the marketing.

Copyright 2006 Beechmont Crest Publishing