There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis.
― Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell, a New York Times best-selling author, maintains that most top professionals make most of their decisions in the blink of an eye. His conclusion seems to be a fact of life today, especially in this age of information overload.

To understand how this process applies to your job search, let’s consider the life cycle your resume may take from initial posting to offer letter. Imagine you throw it up on a site such as Monster, and it sits there, on the cloud, not causing any response, until a recruiter or some HR rep has it, along with a host of others, usually based on an extremely focused set of search criteria.

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One of the great benefits of using recruiters during your job search is that they are some of the world’s best salespeople. As soon as I start talking to one of them about a position I’m actually interested in, I’ll ask, “So what did you like about my background?”

This question is actually “magical” across the board in all interview situations, as we will demonstrate later. It will cause most interviewers to give you valuable information they might have never mentioned otherwise. Recruiters, as a group, almost never hesitate to answer this question.

Since they have little resistance, they are a great group to start practicing on. I’d strongly suggest getting in the habit of asking this question each time you speak to a recruiter for the first time. This will start them down the path of telling you a narrative about yourself.

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