By Ignatius Kim
Everyone knows that when applying for a job you have to "sell yourself". Selling yourself is like selling any other product: the packaging must be appealing and the price attractive enough to make the purchaser feel that he/she is gaining from the purchase.
The Federal Labor government has more than adequately taken care of the price through the Accord. What I want to look at is one way I recently discovered to improve the packaging.
The Jobclub is a three-week federally funded Jobsearch course aimed primarily at the long-term unemployed. I see it more as the poor person's image consultant: it's about revamping your image to become that well-packaged, marketable unit of labour for the bosses.
This begins with an "attitudinal shift". The first day opened with a video hailing the rising casualisation of work as the latest step in workers taking control of the labour process, working whatever hours suited them, allowing more time for other pursuits.
In reality, casual work keeps workers from being millstones around the bosses' necks — always ready to be off-loaded as cheaply as possible when a downturn hits.
After the video, we were meant to be ecstatic at the prospect of being laid off at any moment without redundancy pay, having no guarantee of a basic living wage, sick pay, holiday pay or penalties.
A vocational guidance officer from the NSW Department of Industrial Relations, Employment, Training and Further Education visited later that week to tell us how she herself doesn't "personally like it", but we must adapt to the economic restructuring and constantly re-skill ourselves, learn about enterprise bargaining, expect uncertainties or else be outcompeted in the labour market.
When I voiced my outrage, she replied patronisingly, "Yes, it's good to have some social awareness about it too". Without even taking a breath, she then continued.
So by week two, we were ideologically prepared for cold canvassing employers: when selling ourselves, not only is the customer always right, but we should be grateful for being purchased.
Next came the packaging. Week three went through interview techniques and appearances. It was all about constructing and rote learning formula responses to formula questions ("Why do you want this job?" "Because you're such a fantastic company with heaps of opportunities blah, blah, blah.") The Jobclub turned the standard lying at job interviews into a science.
A video called From head to toe: the art of appearances showed ways to maximise your visual impact at an interview because "first impressions make lasting impressions". Red suggests a dynamic personality: men are advised to have some red in their tie, women a red jacket. Lean forward to show enthusiasm and subordination (leaning back shows you feel more authoritative than the boss).
My fellow Jobclubbers weren't so stupid. They knew that substance counts more than appearance, but they also knew that putting this understanding into practice wasn't going to get them very far. That's how we're socialised in this profit-oriented system: while we know what's really going on, we also know what we're rewarded for.
We all need work. However, the only way to get it is to deceive, because selling yourself, like any other commodity, is all about what the customer thinks he/she is buying. At job interviews we become totally alien to ourselves. We say things we don't believe. So for us uneasy chameleons, the Jobclub does provide a valuable service. It teaches us the most effective way to deceive employers with what they want to see and hear.
Hint: You can use the Jobclub facilities for as long as necessary after the course. This includes computers, typewriters, the phone and the photocopier. Use it to good advantage.