If a Presidential campaign is, in fact, the longest job interview in the world, I was wondering if we couldn't learn a thing or two from the Democratic candidates. So, what follows are the concepts and ideas I thought about while trying to liken candidates' strategies to strategies for getting that raise or promotion you think you deserve, or impressing your peers in the workplace (because, hey, everyone says they hate "politics" while not drawing a connection to their own little "office politics" of the water cooler).
Disclaimer: as this is my first diary, I should establish I'm an ardent Obama supporter, and had to think really long and hard as to what one can learn from the Clinton campaign, so please be fair and objective but also be gentle. I did try my best. And I'm not some sort of HR expert or anything, it's all the things I've gleaned from personal experience and reading advice columns on Saturday mornings. (also, I've never flunked a job interview) Again, be gentle if you can.
If you're the Barack Obama-type:
You want that raise. You need that raise. The student loans you just started repaying nine months ago are cramping your lifestyle, and you just can't impress women with four-hour conversations at an overcrowded coffee shop. You have to be able to afford a real dinner or a movie, or before you know it, she's hooking up with the bodybuilder she sees at the gym across the street from her apartment.
(OK, enough projecting)
Still, you're pretty new to the company. You've impressed, but you're still pretty green. You're the guy they send for coffee runs, because the average age of your peers will soon invite AARP mailings. In short, you have spent so little time in your field it may seem hard for your boss to believe that you deserve a raise.
But that's absolutely the wrong mindset to adopt, isn't it? When you go to your employer to ask for a raise, what does it look like? It's like an abbreviated job interview. You straighten your hair with your spit, wipe off the donut crumbs, go into the boss' office and make your best pitch. But the pitch is not about your resume; at least, not all about your resume. The rest is about your potential.
"I'm ready to take on more responsibilities, and I will do my best to convince you that I'm worth the company's time and resources."
Employers want to know that, if they're handing you a fatter paycheck, they will enjoy a greater return for their investment. The best way to convince them lies in your ability to project a sunnier future for your company.
What is not appreciated, on the other hand, is something like this:
"Well, I've been here for 35 years, so I think I'm due for a corner office."
First, your boss either has more experience than you, or is one of those cocky dot-com investors who bribed his way to the CEO's chair (I saw the trailers from that Dennis Quaid movie). Either way, your years there doesn't really matter. It says that you're been treading water for that long and never really stuck out amongst a crowd of other paper pushers. As the song goes, "the things that you earn are given, not won." In essence, no one deserves an added perk. That goes equally for the newbies and three-page resume veterans. With all things being equal, you are only left to go to the higher-ups and make a pitch based on promise and potentail.
This is exactly why Richardson and Biden petered out so quickly. No one is really impressed by a long resume (it doesn't help to be dull, either) because others feel either envy (for not having that long a resume), indifference (for having an equally long resume) or condescension (for having a longer resume).
College admissions, job interviews and promotion pitches all look at your experience. In the end, however, it is about what you will do in the future.
Talk down your past. Talk up your future, and the change you will enact when you are given the opportunity.
If you're the Hillary Clinton-type:
OK, you're emo. By extension, you're on the outside looking in when it comes to hanging with the cool crowd at work. You really are doing all the right things at work, getting your TPS reports in on time and making sure that the right #10 envelopes are getting sent out. In the end, though, you're not connecting with others. You're not networking. You see what others are doing and don't really understand why it takes so much less effort than that of your own endeavors. So what do you do?
Steal.
But I don't mean coffee filters and paper clips (though you're pathetic if that's what you're after). I'm talking about ideas. Buzzwords. Strategies.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with stealing that which is infinitely abundant, especially when the best part of that abundance is painfully in short supply, and adopting it into your repertoire. It is the Democratic way, after all. We are the Party that believes that times change, and a country must change with it. The Constitution is a living document, and the way we govern through it must evolve as circumstances do. So we steal the ideas that work and make it our own.
Remember that co-worker of yours who was talking about "change" at the corporate meeting in Iowa, and got all the good business cards and the pinky-and-thumb-to-ear-and-mouth "call me" gestures afterwards? Well, why can't you talk about "change" too? After all, when you joined the company 35 years ago, the place was a mess. You were the one who "changed" the filing system and got more stuff done than ten Blackberrys, and you did it all with much less. You were the one who "changed" the way presentations were done in-company (OK, it was PowerPoint and everyone was just getting into it, but you were the first in the office to think it was a good idea; you stole the idea from the investment banker at your gym and adopted it because it works).
And stealing "it," while inside the company, is even more beneficial. There's nothing more bothersome to your co-worker than the fact that someone else is copying off them to score points. Now it's not a new idea when he's addressing it; it's completely a novel idea when you're the one pushing it. Now he has to spend time and energy looking up the thesaurus for new buzzwords.
Even better. Now he's working for you. He tried to introduce a new word: "future." Go down to that business meeting in Florida, make the same presentation you've always done, but insert your brand new buzzword.
Then when you hear him cry foul, just say that we're all part of the team. Our collective efforts are good for the company, and that no one person drives the "change" for the "future"; in the end, we will all come together and make it work. Talk about the inevitability of our unity, and wear the face that shows you've been planning this all along.
(caveat: somewhere along the way, you have to actually believe the words you're using, but that's after they give you the promotion)
Final thoughts:
As in politics, there are very few things in office politics that are both conventional and wildly successful. You have to jump through the hoops and do (most of, if not all of) what you're required to do, but you have to adopt something extra to get noticed and move on up.
The straightforward, no-frills campaigns of Biden, Dodd and Richardson are the negative object examples. Sooner or later, one has to stop playing up the rational side of one's case for that raise or promotion, and do something or say something more to stick out.