Page 137 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

investing in your own success

What better material to pitch in a natural way than something
you have already prepared? I always expect that there will be

candidates who turn up with nothing – those people who have
not even bothered checking out the website. But there have been
a number of people who have arrived with a full-blown presen-

tation, a document of six to ten pages, and said, ‘James, I’ve been
thinking about this opportunity, and about Hamilton Bradshaw.’
They have gone into a presentation about the company, its
history, who the competition is, who we’re comparable with,
a selection of interesting data on any of the investments we’ve

made, and ended with how their experience could fit. I sit there
and think, ‘Wow!’ I am not saying that if you do that, it will
guarantee you get the job, but it certainly adds that wow factor,

because it shows exactly how serious you are about the job
on o≠er.
In my mind, you have a limited window of opportunity to
win points on my mental scorecard. With a strong presentation
you certainly cannot lose points, you can only gain them. A pitch

document also expresses your style, your thought processes,
the quality of your content. It tells me a lot about somebody,
especially in a work sense. Doing that research is important, and

the beauty is that frankly it is so easy to do. Google will provide
you with everything you want on the organization, the people,
the market, the product, the competition. Everything is available
to you, and how long will it take you to collate that information?

125 performance