Rating: 
Summary: The Sales and Marketing approach to job hunting...
Review: I have read two of Mr. Fox's books and really like his writing style. That is why, when I recently decided to rejoin the workforce, I decided to pick up this book. I had a feeling I would get some unique insights into job hunting from this book and I wasn't disappointed. While the insights were valuable I didn't find anything "earth shattering" and the book definitely didn't cause me to experience a paradigm shift so I rank it 4 out of 5 stars.The basic theme of the book is to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack through specialized resumes, creating "resuletters" and gathering information about the target company. Mr. Fox basically looks at job hunting from a sales and marketing perspective, which is his primary career experience. As I was reading this book the comments / insights from it basically reminded me of the sales and marketing books I have read over the years. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Jack Trout was the best marketing book I have read in recent years, in case anyone was interested.
A key element to this book, which should not be overlooked, is that Mr. Fox clearly understands what business is about. At the end of the day do you provide value to an employer? Does your position save them money, generate sales, help develop new products? More importantly, can you put a dollar value on your importance to a corporation? Are you focusing on providing value to customers or worried about you, you, you. At the end of the day corporations have to make money. If they don't they go bankrupt. Employees that deliver tons of value tend to have promising and long lasting careers with companies they like. Most of my reviews are in business / economics and I encourage people to read them, whether here on Amazon or at my personal website. If you are interested in economic history book I would encourage everyone to read The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner since it is more international in scope and deals with the lives and times of the most famous economists in history. If you are interested in economic development I would encourage you to read Hernando DeSoto's Mystery of Capital but note his lack of focus on corruption in certain countries. A great general business book is by the management guru Peter Drucker entitled "The Essential Drucker." That is my #1 recommendation to anyone serious about learning about business and management.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book to help you think out of the box
Review: I think we all get so stuck in the job hunt rut of sending/emailing a cover letter and resume and hoping for the best. Fox asks you to treat marketing yourself like you would any product. Do something daring, exciting or bold and watch the results. I totally agree with him as far as how he's positioned this book. It's short, sweet and a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: If you want a Marketing / Sales mentality for getting a job, this is the book for you. This book is not just a quick resume fix book, or a book that contains resume templates that fit your job. If you're looking to just imitate someone or just get some job pointers, don't get this book.
What most potential employees don't realize is that when you apply for a job, you are essentially selling a product or a service. The product is you, the service is your services. Most people look alike, sound alike and don't seem much different than the next resume when you apply. This book shows you tips, and helps you step into the mentality to change that around.
Great book. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a job on the upside. Check out Purple Cow by Seth Godin too.
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Summary: A new look at job hunting.
Review: If you're thinking about looking for a new job, take a look at this book first. It has many novel ideas and suggestions that will have to help your search. I thought so much of it that I sent a copy to my son.
Rating:
Summary: Simple, concise, highly effective ideas for job search
Review: In sports and in life, winners start with the fundamentals. This book applies the fundamentals of marketing and sales to the fundamentals of job search. As an executive career coach, I strongly recommend this book, with the exception of chapters 11-15 (they deal with chasing published jobs and begging through the mail). Even seasoned marketing and sales types can benefit from getting back to fundamentals in their job search. This is the second book I recommend to clients. The first is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, which can be applied very successfully to many job search situations.
Some people pan this book because it seems too basic and obvious. Ask them to clearly describe their alternatives to the principles in this book and you will learn within one minute whether to trust their appraisal. Good luck on your journey!
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: It is very refreshing to read such unconventional advice on job hunting. The author's ideas are very good and I totally agree with him. Overall a great book of the kind that we need more today. 4 stars instead of 5 because: 1. Its reader is typically looking for a job in a business-related field, and the hirer's goal is invariably to make more money, so is the job seeker's emphasis in selling himself. While the 'spirit' of the book is great and theoretically applies to all fields or professions, people who are seeking jobs in, say, university teaching, will find many things not applicable to them. (In one place it's said that cv's seeking for university teaching job often devote page after page about papers published but only 2 lines on teaching. Unfortunately this is indeed what the academics stress when hiring: publication is valued more than teaching.) 2. About how to make yourself stand out: again this should be a mental guideline--I wish it can all work that way, but in the real world, first of all, how busy will the CEO'S be if every reader of this book bypass the conventional resume sending process and instead starts job application by sending an impact letter DIRECTLY to the CEO or president?? How many secretaries will actually pass the letters to the CEO? It takes a smart secretary! Second, even if the CEO gets the letter, the result will largely depend on the shrewdness of the CEO. Regrettably, too many CEO's out there are themselves too conventional to recognize a creative job candidate. To end the review, it's a great book!
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Summary: RIGHT ON THE MARK!
Review: Jeffrey J. Fox is accurate, full of wisdom and absolutely correct when he advises not to send resumes and other unauthorized material in searching for employment. Some people send them unsolicited and "willy-nilly" everywhere and anywhere, and then wonder why they do not receive a response. Save money on the fancy paper, printing and binding costs and spend your time reading this book. Some companies literally receive hundreds of resumes each week, and a good majority eventually work their way into file #13, better known as the trash can. From years of management experience and having written extensive training material on the topic, I can tell you that no employer is going to be impressed by a resume that tells the reader why YOU need a job, and to be very blunt and honest, most employers do not care why. An employer wants to know what you can do for the company, not what the company can do for you. What exceptional knowledge, experience, training, marketing skills, sales ability, customer service skills, client base, ideas, productivity, etc. can you bring to the company that is more impressive than the other thousand and one applications sitting on the desk? The employer wants to know how the company is going to benefit if they hire you over everyone else, and what specific strategic plan you have in mind that will help the company grow to its full potential and increase productivity, motivation and profits. Are you a team player and can you also work well independently? Can you take direction and constructive criticism? As for a job interview, it is an opportunity to listen, learn and sell - to convince the employer why you are the best person for the job. You also want to pay close attention to your manners and social skills. It is a known fact that when it comes to hiring management personnel, many decisions are made in a social setting, i.e., over dinner, on a golf course, etc. If etiquette is not one of your foremost subjects, it is time to hone up on social graces and conversational skills. Employers already know you need the job or you would not be applying; they know you need to put food on the table, a place to live and that you have debts to pay - we all do! An employer well trained in business management will hire those they feel can best do the job, and that does not necessarily mean those most in need. Employers are not in business to be social assistance providers, they are in business to make a profit or their company will not survive. For those who constantly find themselves sending resumes with little or not response, I strongly suggest you read this book. It is true, factual, accurate and right on the mark! Believe me, this author is a top-notch pro! After reading, "Don't Send a Resume", you may change your entire approach on how you search and apply for employment and conduct yourself during interviews. This book is a great opportunity to learn from past mistakes, and it could open new doors to your future.
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Summary: Classic Marketing Principles Applied to Job Searches
Review: Mr. Fox challenges the conventional wisdom in useful ways in this provocative set of 44 mini essays on getting a terrific job. He argues that you should think of getting a job as "marketing and selling of yourself." He provides the primary metaphor to marketing, and gives you an outline of what to do. He encourages you to get even more ideas by reading books about marketing, having made the translation to this environment and issue. The material is clear and easy-to-execute, and following this advice will probably increase your chances of getting the best job you are qualified to do. Mr. Fox isn't against resumes, he just wants to change the way they are used. Rather than lead with a general purpose resume, he wants you to customize a resume for each opportunity after having met someone in the company. "You are a product." "You are not a robot, but you will be purchsed as if you were a robotic assembly machine." As such, he wants you to fit the specifications precisely, in a way that you cannot do until you have more information. His basic blueprint for getting a job entails these steps: (1) target organizations for their fit with your talents and interests, and their geographical proximity to where you want to live (2) research those organizations (3) send a custom impact letter to the highest level person who can hire you to get an interview (you can use ads to give you an idea of what they are looking for) (4) plan the interview (5) estimate the economic value of what you can do for the organization (6) bring helpful ideas to the interview (7) conduct an analysis of what the organization needs during the interview (8) write and send that individualized resume (9) Follow-up with a thank you letter within a day with some new idea in it (10) Plan any subsequent interviews to reflect what you've learned. He encourages you to stand out, even if that means being a litle outrageous. He tells stories about getting a creative job in an advertising agency by sending a fish as a message and a wind-up toy to get into business school. He also suggests looking for jobs where others don't look -- with venture capitalists, small companies, in China and Cuba, accountants and lawyers who handle family companies, bankruptcy trustees and lawyers, and commercial loan officers. I thought the advice was generally pretty good. The boldness advice should be tempered to match the type of organization and work you want to do. You don't want to seem out of character for what that person likes. Also, the economic benefits of your working with the company should be conservatively stated in the context of how that companies values such benefits. That point wasn't made clear. After you finish reading this book, I also suggest that you think about whether you should start-up a new organization with a team of people who have complementary skills. That's another place where most people don't look. Add the most value you can to the lives of others . . . and to yourself!
Rating:
Summary: very good
Review: Next to using the Vault.com website, buying this book was the best thing I did for my recent job search
Rating:
Summary: A real world test. Good book here are the pros and cons...
Review: Okay I'll start out with the pros first:
I bought this book after I lost my job from a downsizing of the organization I was working for. Needless to say, I was in need of a quick way for me to get noticed in the job marketplace. I used many of the ideas outlined in this book and they did work. I researched organizations, sent impact letters, spoke to the hiring manager and got interviews. I beat out hundreds of people responding with resumes via email and postal mail. I got my current job pretty much the same way as my previous successes. However, I wasn't able to find out the hiring managers name, so I sent an impact letter and my resume to the Vice President of the department I would be working in. I assume my resume was forwarded to the top of the pile of the hiring manager's resume stack because within a few days I got a call from the personnel department. I had interviews with many people. I sent follow-up letters to everyone I said hello to and eventually I got the job. All of this took allot of time an effort. I spent every day for 8 months from 9-am to 5-pm researching, writing, calling, following-up, networking, and more. It's exhausting. It's a tough market and the rate of return is still very low. But these ideas give you an edge. I averaged about 1 interview out of every 30 impact letters I wrote. It's a full-time job looking for a job and the competition is tough. That's why it's important to have at least 6-8 months of living expenses saved in case you loose your job. In this day and age, If you can afford to have a year of living expenses saved, that would be ideal. Being unemployed usually catches you off-guard. If you do loose your job, you're probably going to have to work part-time while you are looking. This will take away from your job hunting time and extend the average when you might secure permanent employment again. Okay here are the Cons: If you hate your current job, It's very difficult if not impossible to do use the methods and approaches outlined in this book while you are already working. There is no way you can be on the phone and do research while you are working. So it's almost a book for someone who is already unemployed. I would like to see Mr. Fox come up with marketing tactics utilizing these techniques for someone who is employed full-time and seeking to change employment. How do you do research and talk to decision-makers with your boss breathing down your neck? How do you conduct interviews while still employed full-time? Also, I would like to see Mr. Fox devote a chapter to the importance of saving money for when you are unemployed. I like to call it my "just-in-case-I'm unemployed" account. Not enough emphasis is given in this area in any job hunting book and I think it very important. As I said before, It's a full-time job looking for a job. The other issue I had is Mr. Fox tells us not to use "big" words and industry jargon in our letters and resume. I agree. However, speckled throughout this book, Mr. Fox uses words that could have been simplified. For example on page 10 he uses the word "pedantically". Instead, he could have used a more common word or just left the word out and the sentence would have been fine. There are a few other inflated words used perhaps out of habit or to purposely validate and exhibit his education. If you're writing only to Harvard colleagues it's probably acceptable. However books written with uncommon vocabulary for a general audience often sounds aloof. In conclusion, this is a good book with plenty of good advise and I recommend it.
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