FOREWORD

No one wants to go through the brutally hard work of writing

a book. Certainly I didn't.

Then why this book?

All right, I'll tell you. I wanted to have written a book that

describes a process I've developed for creative job seeking. If

I could have found certain elements of my process (I call it

Martin's Magic Formula) in other job books now on the

market, I wouldn't have tied myself to this task. But so many

critical factors were not included in these other books.

Factors such as:

~ turning that old devil "no experience" into a positive

technique

~ turning rejection from a downer into an exhilarating

part of the campaign

~ recognizing that how you sound is every inch as

important as how you look and providing a means for

ridding the vocabulary of "wince" words

~ lifting the interest of other family members from a level

of, shall we say, interference to that of significant

contribution

~ focusing the attention on some of the tiny, tiny factors

that actually make the difference between a turndown

and a job offer. (Example: make a copy of the

application form. Practice filling out the copy before

you tackle the real one. You'll not only produce a

neater application, but you'll have a permanent record

of what you told the prospective employer.)

I wrote the book for another compelling reason: I have

orders for it--orders from organizations and the promise of