Human Workplace CEO and Founder Liz Ryan shares advice on selling yourself as a job-seeker -- not by trumpeting your fabulousness or answering goofy scripted interview questions, but by steering the interview conversation to the only topic that matters: your hiring manager's Business Pain and your experience solving that same pain.

1. What Every Job-Seeker Needs to
Know About Selling

2. For years we’ve heard that you’ve got
to SELL YOURSELF as a job-seeker
But what does it mean?
Sometimes we think it
means we have to grovel
and beg for a job.

3. Forget that!
We call that kind of job-search approach the
Sheepie Job Seeker method.
That’s beneath you!
Also, it doesn’t work. If you were a hiring manager,
who would you rather hire: someone who
practically begs for the job, or someone who knows
who s/he is and knows his or her value?

4. As a job-seeker, you have to know
what problems you solve!
Every organization has
problems. Every hiring manager
(your future boss, that is) has
Business Pain™!
You have to figure out what kind
of Business Pain™ you solve,
and be ready to talk about that
when you meet your hiring
manager. No one cares about
Skills! No one cares about your
experience UNLESS it’s framed
as “Here are the kinds of
problems I can solve.”

5. Selling Yourself on a Job Search doesn’t mean
telling the hiring manager how awesome you
are.
You don’t have any credibility with your hiring
manager yet. You can build credibility by doing
these two things:
• Taking your hiring manager’s point of view
to see the world through his or her eyes, and
• Asking thoughtful questions to understand
your hiring manager’s Business Pain™

6. Forget about your skills, and focus on
the answer to this question:
What pain do I solve?

7. How do I take my hiring manager’s
point of view?
You’ll take your manager’s point of view by
learning as much as you can about the
organization and your specific target
department, and asking yourself “What kinds of
things would be keeping me up at night, if I were
this manager?”

8. Business Pain™ costs hiring managers
a good night’s sleep!
They worry
about
problems at
work, the
same way you
and I do!

9. Prepare a Pain Hypothesis™
You’ve put yourself in your hiring manager’s
shoes to try to imagine his or her life at work.
Now, prepare a Pain Hypothesis™ to offer your
manager at your job interview. What do you
think is bothering your manager the most?
That’s your Pain Hypothesis!

10. What is the purpose of my Pain
Hypothesis™?
When you guide your hiring manager to talk with
you about the Business Pain™ hiding behind the
“Help Wanted” ad, you’ll be able to have a more
substantive and useful conversation. Otherwise,
you might be stuck answering lame interviewing
questions like a Sheepie Job Seeker.
Is that a good use of your time (or a good way to
hire someone)?

11. Hell, no!
But you knew that already.

12. You’re going to interview your hiring
manager as much as s/he interviews
you.
• You’re going to ask your manager a series
of questions in order to understand the
Business Pain™ he or she is facing.
• Your Pain Hypothesis will kick off that
conversation, like this:

13. Pain Job Interviewing is the Best!

14. Begin your interview this way:
MANAGER: So, tell me about yourself!
YOU: For sure. I’ve been working in Purchasing
for about five years, and I’ve been at my current
job for two. Say, could I ask you a question
about the job, just to make sure I’m
understanding what you need?
MANAGER: Sure!
YOU: (here comes your Pain Hypothesis™):

15. YOU: I saw in your job ad that you’re looking for
someone with a lot of Supplier Quality
experience. I wanted to ask you about that. At
my last job, Supplier Quality was a constant
issue. Is that one of your bigger issues here?
MANAGER: Definitely. We have three goals in
the department for next year, and one of them
is to drastically improve Supplier Quality.
YOU: (in your mind) Bingo! There’s the pain.

16. How does it help you to know your
manager’s pain point?
Now you can share
stories about solving the
very same problems your
manager is facing. We call
them Dragon-Slaying
Stories™!
Now you can talk about
the real situations your
manager is facing,
instead of answering
stupid , scripted
interview questions that
have nothing to do with
the job!

17. Grow your job search muscles!
Human Workplace 12-week and four-
week virtual courses begin on January
3, 2015!
Learn how to Interview with MOJO,
How to write your Human-Voiced
Resume, how to Launch Your
Consulting Business or how to Job-
Hunt While You’re Working!
Our newest 12-week virtual course,
Land Your Six-Figure Job, guides you
through the high-altitude Six-Figure
Job Search process!

18. Grow Your Flame With Us!
Visit us here or write to Michael
Wilcox, Human Workplace Operations
Manager, at
michael@humanworkplace.com
Take a big step on your path in
2015!

19. Take a Big Step Up in 2015!