I first came across this saying when I returned home from school one day saying to my mum “there’s a lad at school who stinks of poo”, “never judge a book by its cover” she replied. Nevertheless he did smell of poo and continued to do so until I left school and was a bit of bully too. But the saying stayed in my head and I like to think I’m not judgemental.
Anyway, I wanted to present this saying with a different idea to judging people. Instead I wanted to suggest never judging a job by your first perceptions. You might read a job advertisement and think ‘that’s no good for me’ and immediately dismiss the idea of applying. If you think about it, how do you know you won’t like any job until you learn more about it…i.e. give it a go or at least turn up for an interview. By just turning up to an interview you can gain a lot about the workplace and the job in question. The last interview I attended was useful just to fulfil my nosy and curious attitude. I got the chance to have a look around an unfamiliar workplace, spread my name and show my face to a few industry people and gain the ins and outs of the job –that’s far more than the advert told me on mediauk.com!!!
A job application only costs time, lets say an hour to write up a targeted CV and covering letter, and attending an interview only costs time (say two hours for travel and the interview) and your travel expenses (usually not more than £20). So for three hours of your life and £20 you’ve met more industry people, gained interview experience, hopefully got feedback on your CV etc and learnt more about the company and the available job if not got the job itself!
The same goes if you read a job advertisement and say ‘WOW!! I want THAT job’. You might put all your effort, time, money etc into an application to arrive at the station and find out that Assistant Producer really means making the tea and washing the presenters’ car having missed deadlines for all the other jobs advertised.
A University lecturer once gave me some great advice that I think applies here and that was to get your CV’s and applications out to as many people and vacancies as possible, attend as many interviews as possible. If you then get five people ringing you back saying you got the job you then have pick of the crop!
Be interesting to hear other people’s tactics on applications and their thoughts on this theory!! Email them to me: jay.dormer@hotmail.co.uk and I’ll list them on the blog!!
Happy applying, and shout out if you get any luck...Would be nice to hear some success stories for a change.
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