Autumn Marathon

Four Job-Hunting Lessons from the Campaign for Change

Nearly two weeks after election day, the Obama campaign is already starting to fade from memory as the new administration is taking shape and exerting its influence on the many urgent political, economic and military issues. Before the campaign totally slips into the past, I think it is worth dwelling on the lessons that the job hunter can take away from the experience. A presidential election is a very specialized form of recruitment, screening and selection for a job vacancy: as I said to to someone when explaining my interest and involvement in the campaign, “Senator Obama is seeking a new job and so am I.”

1) Selling a candidate for a position or a political office is a matter of getting in front of the decision makers and having the right conversations.

It helps to get in front of as many decision makers as possible and to have a simple, rehearsed script. The object of many, but not all, of the conversations is to persuade the interlocutor that you are the right person for the job. In some cases, though, the objective of a particular conversation might be to enlist a supporter to do something on your behalf. When you are doing this, understand that some people are not going to support you, others are going to be indifferent or too busy to talk, and a few may be hostile. Talk to ask many people as possible, but don’t sweat the ones who are not helpful: move on!

The Obama campaign handled this extremely well: giving authority to field organizers working in communities, enlisting a veritable army of volunteers, and breaking the many different tasks into small, manageable parts. As one of the volunteers, armed with nothing more than a phone, a list of numbers and an outline of talking points, I found it easy to advocate for Obama; easier than I find “selling myself” in the job hunt. That’s something I will try to use to my advantage moving forward.

2) Technology is a means to an end: use it intelligently, but not in a way that excludes those who don’t.

Much has been written about how the campaign leveraged its huge database of supporters, how it created a social networking platform for those supporters to communicate with each other, and how it skillfully used platforms such as email, text messaging and photo-sharing sites. Less has been said about how it was all done in a way that welcomed supporters of all ages and levels of technological proficiency. The huge efforts to persuade undecided voters and to get out the vote were powered by massive databases, but volunteers needed only to know how to read a list and dial a phone. Supporters who gave their assent received almost daily emails, but only some of the messages asked directly for financial donations; the rest were informational, often containing embedded videos of speeches by the candidate, his wife or high-level campaign officials.

3) Express your vision in the simplest terms possible

Barack Obama is a very smart man: he was editor of the Law Review at Harvard Law His policy advisors include some of the biggest brains in the land. And yet, on his website and in campaign literature, his ideas were expressed in ways that anyone could understand. And ultimately, even simpler campaign slogans stood in for those policy ideas: “The Change We Need.” And “Hope. Change.” Everyone who is job hunting or selling an idea or a service needs to express the service in easy-to-understand terms and also to come up with some memorable taglines that help you to stand out.

4) Work harder than the others

During the Democratic primaries there were two candidates who REALLY wanted the nomination and both of them campaigned day and night. But Hillary Clinton’s campaign organization suffered from consultant bloat and from day one was outworked by the lean and frugal Obama crew. After losing Iowa, Hillary fought back with a surprise win in New Hampshire. Super Tuesday was a draw - you could even argue that Hillary did better by winning all the large states except Illinois. But these were pyrric victories - the Clinton campaign had thrown all of its resources into trying to clinch the victory on Super Tuesday. In the subsequent 12 primaries, in states where he had built organizations, Obama ran practically unopposed and built up what proved to be the decisive margin in nominating delegates.

In the general election campaign, it never seemed as though McCain wanted it as much as Obama. Story after story in the political blogs detailed the Obama “ground game” - the largely volunteer-driven effort to persuade undecideds and get out the vote. Similar attempts to cover the McCain campaign turned up half-empty offices and locked doors after 5pm.

Even right before election day, with the opinion polls pointing toward victory, Team Obama did not let up even in states that were polling very positively. It tapped its network of supporters and volunteers one more time to ensure that voters actually turned out at the polls.

The same idea applies to the job hunt. There is always something you can do to make yourself a stronger candidate: work on personal relationships – enhancing old ones or building new ones, do some form of work or study to grow your capabilities and enhance your qualifications, learn more about the market.