Let me be clear--this is not a political article but an opportunity to take lessons from Presidential elections and apply them to job hunting.
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In 2008, two candidates faced very different outcomes when their backgrounds were checked by the news.
Governor
Sarah Palin did not have a thorough background check when she was
interviewed by
representatives of Senator John McCain before selecting
her to run with the Senator as his Vice Presidential nominee.
Thus,
after she left the adoration of the convention and started to interview
with the press, we all discovered that she had a fatal flaw (lack of
knowledge) that made her unworthy in many of our minds to be Vice
President.
Senator Obama faced a very different
background check. Generally, the mass media liked the Senator and, dare I
say, favored him for President. Thus, they chose to ignore how Obama
lied about Senator Clinton's positions on health care reform and Nafta,
his view of opponents as people who clung to their Bibles and guns, his
relationship with Bill Ayres and Tony Rezko. They let him slide on other
points that seemed inconsistent with things he said.
Why? he was generally well liked.
Today,
Governor Romney is being assaulted with attacks that have nothing to do
with his positions on issues but based upon his employment at Bain
Capital.
Was he involved with outsourcing jobs by
Bain portfolio companies? When did he leave Bain? Why did the paperwork
filed with the SEC still refer to him as CEO when he was running the
Olympics? Was he really running the Olympics?
To me,
these are nonsensical distractions that have been answered (He was not
involved with outsourcing, he left in 1999, he was on leave from Bain,
someone else ran the firm and he never returned to Bain after the
Olympics [corroborated by a major Obama fundraiser who works for Bain];
and yes he ran the Olympics).
No matter, the mass
media is off and running on these non-issues because the Governor is
just not as likable as the President (By the way, on a separate
subject, tell me 5 things the President will try to do if re-elected.
I'll spot you one thing--raise taxes on certain people; tell me four
more).
Thus the sharp lesson to learn is to work on
your likability. You won't simply be hired based upon objective criteria
like skills but whether someone likes you, too. The likability factor
allows people to overlook "sins" or flaws in your experience
