May 30 2007
The Law of Large Numbers
The famous law of large numbers can work for you, and it can work against you. In sales it works for you when you visit or call upon hundreds of clients knowing in the end you will make the sale to a few of them. It can also work for you in your job search by applying to dozens of jobs looking for one open door.
The law can also work against you if you are not careful. One example comes from my field of recruiting. I regularly receive hundreds of emails every single day. This gives me some perspective when viewing emails from candidates. It is funny the tricks people use to hopefully make contact with someone that will give them a job. (At this point I could list several of the tricks. .but I don’t want to receive anymore of these type of emails.) The sad thing here is that it becomes so easy to see right through the ploy when I receive 10 or more everyday that read almost the same thing. It seems like someone out there has a blog where they post ideas for how to get through to a hiring manager and get that job. You better be first using the idea. .because give it 10 minutes to spread and you are just one of a dozen using the idea.
If you aren’t quick enough to be in the first few. .you may be a victim of the law of large numbers.
Jeff Bettinger is the Senior Vice-President of Human Capital and Investment at masterthebusiness.com and a Senior Recruiter for an International Engineering and Construction Firm.