My mother-in-law Ruth should be writing this post.  She is way more apt to giving this advice than I am.  She can annoy her way into…well…almost anything!lol  Maybe annoy is not the right word…she can talk her way into almost anything…there that’s better.  While I just simply don’t have the extroverted ability to apply her advice to everything, I have to admit when it comes to finding a job, her approach is right on.

She (and now I) believe that if you want a job, you have to go get it.  Especially in the current state of our economy, a job will not just fall into anyone’s hands.  Don’t fill out the application and wait for them to call you, call them!  Over and over and over again.  O.k., I know for some people this is just down right annoying and makes you seem like a bug-a-boo but even if 50 scream at you to stop calling, threaten to turn you in for stalking, and rip up your application while your on the phone to show they will not be moved, one of them will say yes.  One of them will, no matter how annoying you are, admire your persistence.  They will realize your value and would be crazy not to have you join their company.  When that one says yes, it makes the 50 other humiliating no’s all worth it.  I’ve learned from experience time and time again: Persistence pays off.

I remember applying for a job at Costco years ago.  My mother in law told me to call and check on my application, so I did.  They gave me the usual “we’re looking at applications, we’ll give you a call if we have a position that matches your skills” speech.  My mother in law then told me to call back and ask for the hiring manager’s name and then call back and ask for her by name.  So I did, and still got the run around.  It seemed like she was NEVER in the office.  So my mother-in-law told me to hang up and call right back.  At this point I’m getting annoyed with her and believe I’m just wasting my time.  She hollers at me to keep calling so I do.  After calling 6 times back to back, being hung up on, “mistakenly” disconnected and told she was not available, guess who answers the phone on the seventh try.  That’s right…the hiring manager herself.  She set up my interview right then and there.  I wish I could say it was smooth sailing after that but it wasn’t.

When I arrived for my interview, she wasn’t there.  To say I was discouraged and irritated was an understatement.  Did she not remember the time of my interview??  In fact, none of the other managers there were aware of my interview either.  I waited for awhile hoping to see her come in but didn’t.  As I walked away completely discouraged hoping someone would run after me saying they would interview me anyway, they didn’t.  I got back in my car and dialed my mother in law ready to be angry at her for insisting that I keep calling only to meet disappointment.   Instead of her hearing my angry tone, I heard hers.  After telling her what happened her exact words were…”Turn around and go back now.”  I said, maybe you didn’t hear me…the hiring manager is not there and they don’t even know I had an interview.  She didn’t care what I was saying, she said if I wanted the job, I should go back immediately.  What was I suppose to say when I went back, who was I suppose to talk to??  Completely humiliated, irritated and disgusted I turned the car around and decided to go back so I could really have a reason to be irritated with my mother-in- law and her craziness.  When I went back, what do you know, the hiring manager had just walked in and I told her what happened.  She apologized saying she had to run out for an emergency and interviewed me immediately.  I ended up getting the job so instead of going back home to be mad at my mother-in-law I begrudgingly thanked her for making me go back.

Why did I share that experience?  To prove that sometimes it takes a little hard work and effort to get what your going after.  Since then that same persistent attitude has yielded results time and time again.  Everything is not going to be easy  peezy and sometimes it’s going to require faith and the ability to keep going even when it seems every effort leads to a dead end.

It reminds me of the woman in Matthew 15 who asked Jesus to heal her daughter.  She cried after Him repeatedly and Jesus told her “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Isreal” (Matthew 15:24).  She believed Jesus could heal her daughter and she wasn’t giving up until she got what she came for.   Because of her faith, persistence and not caring how she looked to the crowd, Jesus healed her daughter.

Looking for a job won’t always be as easy as filling out the application, sending in the resume and getting a call back.  Especially in this economy, it will take persistence, and well…sometimes it will take being a bug-a-boo and bothering folks until you get what you came for.

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Luke 11:9-10