Let’s Unleash the Experts: Pay It Forward With Your Job Search

I’ve been trying to tell you how important it is to be “nice”. It works. I promise. Read the following story from a guy we’ll call “The Big Turkey”:

“Back in the dark ages, I actually was nice to an IBM Systems Engineer (SE); that SE a decade later hired me.

“Systems Engineers are techies added to the sales team to answer the hard questions. They’re  expected to have all the facts at fingertips (i.e., the database can hold 6 grazillion and 2 records). SEs were generally regarded as second class citizens. When at a big meeting, one of my subordinates asked a question; the SE was stumbling answering it. His sales leader was getting upset with him, and I jumped in and ‘walked’ him with some setup questions to get to the answer by ‘baby steps’. As an IBM systems programmer, I knew the answers, but wanted him to get credit with his sales team leader. After the meeting, he figured out what I did and made a special point to stop by a few weeks later and say thanks. He confessed he was nervous about screwing up. We laughed.

“I thought no more about it until I went to an interview for a job and he was to be my boss. Payback time. He never forgot that. I tell that story a lot. The tip is [to] help everyone; you will never know when it comes back around. In that case, I think I was singularly lucky. But, it did teach me the value of ‘first seek to help, then be helped’. That should be the first commandment of job search. Today, everyone wants help, but few help.” 

That’s simple enough, and it’s good advice you should always follow!

Check out the ”turkey farm” http://tinyurl.com/lxu93 where “The Big Turkey” pays it forward. You’ll also find out why he calls himself “The Big Turkey”. I know you were wondering!