Page 23 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

there, wondering why this gleaming piece of kit didn’t work.
I rang one of my P As and moaned, ‘It’s not working.’ She said
patiently, ‘That’s because you have to switch it on, James.’
I switched it on. Nothing. ‘Now you need a password.’ It was
that basic.

So, I forced myself to learn how to use a computer. I rang
an agency and asked them to send me a temp P A. When she
arrived I said, ‘Actually, rather than you taking letters, could

you just come round here and tell me what this icon means?’
For a month she took me through everything. We did nothing
else. She showed me how Photoshop worked, how download-
ing worked. It was one of the most productive months I have
ever spent, because even if all my P As left, I could probably still

do the job on my BlackBerry. If you are not computer-savvy,
in my belief, you will not be able to function. The world has
moved on. You can’t live in the past.

We know that the employer is looking to justify the value
of the employee. If you were sitting there in an interview
and you asked me, ‘James, does your company use this kind
of technology, or have you ever considered using it, because
I have found that it directly increased my team’s e≤ciency?’

you are demonstrating to me that not only do you have those
specific technical skills, but – even better – you have spent time
before the interview thinking about things that can make my
company more e≠ective, more e≤cient. Now, how impressed
do you think that is going to make me?

One impact of technology on the job market is that there
are more people working from home than ever before. Twenty

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