How to get a Job Without AI
When someone asks me “How did you get 12 Jobs in 12 Months? (the title of my forthcoming book) I go into a rant about the usual approach to getting a job: someone does a CV with the help of AI; it goes to the employer who, with the help of AI, assesses the CV and … ignores it. My friend Steve Harvey calls it “AI tennis!” The result: rejection, anxiety and despair.
But it doesn’t have to be like that.
When I was leaving university, in Liverpool, I decided to avoid the big companies that were hoovering up my friends. I saw a fixed career as a trap, with mortgages and marriage as the manacles. I wanted independence, variety, risk and excitement. My plan was to learn to be an English teacher and hitchhike to Shanghai. I never made it there but I did spend 9 Months in Tibet, 17 years in Romania and I always found work.
I know this life isn’t for everyone and I respect anyone who is happy in their work. But I think it’s important that everyone knows that going freelance, or working for yourself, is a respectable choice. The purpose of this article is to analyse my approach and assure you that a stable, even stellar, income is possible. You don’t have to hit the road, sleep rough and hope for the best. You also don’t need AI to follow this advice/lifestyle.
For this article I worked out the ingredients that enabled me to get job after job over the last 40 years.
Be Positive
This sounds a bit flaky, hippy and new age-ish but I think it’s the most important ingredient of all. There are so many negatives about getting a job that a lot of positive thinking, or self confidence, is needed. It’s comparable to Harry Potter who uses the Patronus Charm, based on a happy memory, to stand up to the Dementors — which represent “the overwhelming feeling caused by depression.”
I can’t offer any advice about how to go from a negative to a positive state of mind; it’s really hard and the usual suggestions seem glib and useless. What I can do is describe how I made that transition.
I still remember clearly the feelings of despair and hopelessness I felt during the first 10 years of my schooling (from the age of 5 to 15). I didn’t understand why I was there or what was going on, and concluded that I must be stupid. I became sullen and aggressive and it was only at the age of 15 did I see a point in school (getting qualifications). When I realised “I can do this,” the following thought was: “I can do anything I put my mind to!” That was the birth of my self-confidence — a realisation that the last 10 years had been hellish because of my negative frame of mind — and I’ve never looked back, or lost that rocket fuel of confidence. Since then I have made a living as a freelance journalist, aid worker, PR consultant and, since lockdown, painter and decorator.
Help People
Working for someone because you want to help them is so much more motivating than doing a job just to make money. Why is this? If you’re just doing a job for money you’ll soon see the defective way the organisation is run, the boss may get on your nerves, you’ll probably join in the bitching and moaning that goes on in most workplaces and you might end up feeling depressed about your own role in it all.
My motivation in life is to help people and if I look back over my career I did journalism, writing and PR consultancy (informing people), aid work (helping the most disadvantaged) and, recently, painting and decorating (helping people transform their homes).
One of the reasons I suggest people should learn a trade is because you can work for real people, individual home-owners, not managers of big building companies who often don’t really believe in what they’re doing. The owner of a house knows exactly what they want — for example painting a bedroom — and they’ll probably show a lot more gratitude than you’d get from a big company. I always feel a great sense of satisfaction after jobs for real people.
Build Reputation
People often ask me “How did you get that job?” and the answer is based on my reputation, in other words the last person I worked for said I was a hard worker.
If you work your guts out on whatever job you’ve got, not only will it help the time pass quicker but your efforts will be noticed — and the boss may recommend you to another employer. This is how I’ve gone from job to job over the last 40 years. Marketing experts say that “word of mouth” is the best marketing method ever..
But reputation is useless when it comes to applying for jobs online, as you’re up against hundreds of competitors and the HR (Human Resources) people learn to be sceptical as so many applicants lie in their CVs. Recommendations, by someone who has actually worked with you, are far more reliable. AI is also useless at helping you build a reputation for reliability, cheeriness and hard work.
Networking
For me, networking is simply telling people that I’m looking for a job. This works incredibly well for two reasons: people are kind and they want to help; and also because it’s unusual — very few people ask others to help them find work. How many people do you know who have asked for your help in finding a job? None? It seems that looking for work is a solitary, lonely process, not one that should be shared with friends. This turns a potentially exciting task into a stretch in solitary confinement.
I’ve been to a few “networking events” and they were a nightmare, as everyone in the room was looking for a job. To me, these formal events aren’t real networking — they’re just an opportunity for someone to make money from us gullible job seekers paying an entrance fee. Real networking is free and, in my experience, highly effective.
One of the main things I do when looking for work is to avoid competition and the bureaucracy of HR departments. I’ve never got a job — or even a simple answer — by applying formally. The closest I came was when I was invited to join consultancy teams for EU-funded projects in Eastern Europe, and I would then have to get my CV into a particular format and prove that everything written there was true.
There’s so much opportunity when you speak (network) with people individually. There’s so much work to be done and every boss seems to complain about how hard it is to find good staff. Clearly, the oh-so-clever-AI-enabled HR systems aren’t working. They just create more bureaucracy, confusion and depression.
Not sure what to do? Just tell someone you’re looking for a job, or ask me! You can write a comment below, telling me what sort of job you want and maybe I can offer some advice.
Some more key words: flexibility and follow-up. Although you should have an idea of what work you’re looking for, you need to be flexible when networking. If a slightly different opportunity comes up — grab it with both hands. Especially if it sounds good and will burnish your reputation — even if it’s a crappy job you should do it as you’ll learn something and most bosses want to hire people who are currently working somewhere. Every job is a precious step towards your ideal job. And follow people up. So many times I’ve heard people recommend a job, an opportunity, a contact and the person I’m with nods or shrugs but doesn’t take down the all important contact details. Get a small notebook and always have it on you. Without follow-up, networking is useless.
Be Humble
For me, this is the secret sauce. I went from advising the Romanian government, being paid big bucks by the EU, getting invited to embassy parties in Bucharest and Moscow, to clearing gardens, painting houses and dressing like a tramp. If it wasn’t for my humility I would have felt like a failure as conventional wisdom says that you shouldn’t get work that is “below your station”.
In fact the transition from consultancy to manual labour, which happened during lockdown, has been a joy. I’ve long been aware that the high-flying-well-paid consultancy work I used to do came with a risk of vanity and arrogance, and so I worked on my humility: be grateful for what I have, appreciate simple things like camping (or helping people), be aware that some people have nothing — we have so much compared to people in Gaza or Sudan. The result: I’m grateful when I get offered the simplest, dirtiest job and I do them all with a spring in my step and a smile on my face. It’s also a joy to work outside even if it’s cold and wet — if you’re working hard you won’t feel the cold, and if you’re gardening you’ll appreciate the rain.
Finally, a note about my latest book: 12 Jobs in 12 Months. If you read the book’s initial introduction you’ll see that it came about through networking, flexibility, blind faith and relentless follow up. It has nothing to do with AI.
Now it’s over to you. I’d love to hear your story. What was your first job? Have you found it hard to get hired? What has been the most challenging aspect of getting a job as a student? And if you have ever felt stuck in your job, what helped you get unstuck? Do you have any advice for people looking for a job? Please add a comment below.
