Hunters & Gatherers

    The world is broken into two groups, hunters and gatherers. It is the hunters that go out and seek prey and kill it and bring it home. The gatherers go out, look for what is ripe and collect their bounty and bring it home. Both kinds of people can be successful in a job search. It is not an absolute that men are hunters and women are gatherers. Men can be gatherers and some of the best hunters I know have been women. It’s just a what works best for you.


    Both hunters and gatherers have a plan before they start. Some plans are very detailed and others are more open to spontaneity and going with the flow. The detailed planners plan start with a defined goal and strategies then build in contingencies. The spontaneous folks start with a picture or an ideal of what they are after and then go to work. Again both approaches are equally valid, although regardless of how you plan you’ll probably never understand how it works for the other type of planner.
     So the world we live in is often viewed in binary terms; polar opposites. Left - Right; Up - Down; Woman - Man; Cubs - Sox (or Mets - Yankees if you live around New York). The job search has two parts or phases that are not polar opposites however. These phases are sequential. First get the job offer. When you have an offer you can then evaluate the offer.

    Many job seekers do not see these two phases as separate and distinct... and then they wonder what happened. Folks that recognize the two different steps know that until you have an offer in hand, you really don’t have anything to evaluate. Also any energy you spend evaluating or judging a potential job is not only premature, but could negatively impact your interview, the follow up or other opportunities beyond.

    Before you have an offer, you waste time fretting about salary, working conditions, personalities. All of these things are important and you’ll be collecting data regarding these and more; however, until you have the offer you’re in sales mode and still need to make the sale not expend energy and effort on questions that may never matter.

    When you get the offer, it’s time to take all your impressions and concerns and evaluate the pros and the cons and the salary and the benefits and the boss and the commute and make an informed, calculated decision about the next step in your career. Here is where the research, that we mentioned last week, comes to fruition. Once you have the offer you’re no longer is sales mode, the hiring company is now in sales mode... it’s time to ask all those questions you wanted to ask during the first interview. So go ahead and ask.

    Whether you’re a detailed planning gatherer or a go with the flow hunter, you want to remember the two phases: Getting the job offer first and evaluating the offer second. And have fun along the way.