If you missed the introduction to the 8 rules you can find it here.

Rule 1: Choose a job that matches your skills. Do not assume one accomplishment can be turned into something more than it is.

Growing award-winning tomatoes in your backyard proves you have the knowledge, skills and patience to grow award-winning tomatoes (and perhaps other plants). It does not prove that you understand the issues involved with growing them on a mass scale or managing a farm. If you want to use this experience to get a job managing a tomato farm, you need additional Prove Its for every other skill required to run a large farm. Also, being good at a skill doesn’t prove you can teach it to others, so if you are going to train others you will need a Prove It for teaching as well. If the primary skill you want to use is growing award-winning plants, pursue Gardener jobs at specialty nurseries, or perhaps a quality control job at s tomato farm.

Rule 2: You must have done it, and done it well. Just because you have done something as a hobby or hold a title in your personal life (Mom, Sunday School Teacher, football coach), doesn’t prove you are skilled at it. Your Prove Its must demonstrate that you can do it well.

Being a Mom doesn’t mean that you are good with kids. If you want to use your experience as a Mom to prove you are good with children, you must give specific examples of your talent in doing things the employer needs. To prove you are creative and familiar with the age-specific needs of the children, you might share about the crafts and indoor activities you designed to entertain your kids when it rains. To prove that parents find you trustworthy, you might share how your home is the one house on the block where all the parents allow their kids to spend the night because you are so responsible (and the kids have a great time!).

Rule 3: Don’t make big leaps. Employers won’t take the leap from our personal life to your work life if it doesn’t make sense, so be sure the skill you are trying to prove is actually proven by the activity you describe.

Would you hire a teenage girl to watch your children simply because she has been responsibly taking care of the family pets (cats and dogs) for the last 3 years? I’m guessing “no”. But, could she use the fact that she has gotten up at 6am, seven days a week for the last 3 years to walk her dogs, and only missed 4 days when the doctor said she had to stay in bed, to prove that she is dependable and can show up on time in the morning?… Definitely!

Part 3 can be found here

This is an excerpt from a new book by MacDougall/Harney copyright 2008. It is printed by permission of the authors and can not be duplicated.

Photo by Tim Parkinson

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