Trick or Treat-Halloween Carriers
“Trick or Treat” is a saying many people know since childhood. You walk house to house every October 31st holding out your bag almost singing the words wondering what type of candy you will get in your bag, will it be a trick or a treat? You keep collecting candy until your bag is full and then you take it home and review all the contents usually by dumping the whole bag on the floor. The sorting 
begins with what you consider a trick for bad candy to the treats which are your favourites. Then the review officer takes over, usually Mom and goes through the bag to make sure nothing dangerous has been included and gives you the candy you are allowed to eat. This is a process that every kid in North America goes through on Halloween each year.
If something like Halloween can be repeated so that almost every household has the same procedure with candy and is able to weed out the bad and good candy based on taste wouldn’t it be beneficial to take that same procedure and adapt it to your job search. After all it is basically the same thing, you are applying to jobs that you really don’t know if they will be a trick or a treat of a job until you start working there. Your job search would look like this.
Step 1-Your Neighbourhood
Basic criteria for the job search such as location, career goals, interests, equipment, and pay package. This is the same as mapping out the route for your neighbourhood.
Step 2-Trick or Treating
Gather 10 job opportunities that fit the criteria you set out above and put them into a bag or folder if working electronically. Don’t look at any job opportunity details until you have collected all 10 opportunities so that you don’t get caught up in the details of just one. This is the same as trick or treating.
Step 3-Sorting
With a notepad create a summary list and start going through the opportunities collected. Toss any that don’t meet your criteria and put the ones that do on your notepad. You may want to create columns as the goal of the sort is to get a bird’s eye view of the opportunities. Once you have your list sorted and complete you are ready for the next step. This is the same as dumping all of your candy on the floor.
Step 4-Review Officer
Contact and apply to the top 3 best job opportunities on the list. Once those three are exhausted if you still haven’t been hired go to the next three opportunities and so on until you get the best job on your list. This is the same as Mom reviewing the candy to make sure there are no suspicious elements.
If you think about it you have been doing the same system since you were a child. You are just applying it to different types of candy. In this electronic age of course you don’t have to physically go knocking on doors but the idea is the same as going out for Halloween. Get your best business costume on and get out there!
About the Author
Bruce Outridge has been in the transportation industry for over 30 years. He is an author of the books Driven to Drive and Running By The Mile, and host of The Lead Pedal Podcast. TTSAO also known as the Truck Training Schools Association of Ontario has certified member schools in the truck training vocation ensuring quality entry level drivers enter the transportation industry. To learn more about the TTSAO or to find a certified school in your area visit www.ttsao.com