The Wall Street Journal has a small article today on how to go from temp to perm.

The bottom line is that the company either likes you or it doesn't.

If the right person at a company likes you, you will be hired. If no one with any power at the company likes you, you won't be hired. It is as simple as that.

Don't waste your time trying to impress some company with your skill. Skill does not matter, every company knows that it can always get a temp or a consultant to do what work HAS to get done.

this is why bullshitters go so much further than technical people. Technical people have the mistaken idea that what they know will take them where they want to go.

Ho Tips

1. If a company has just fired a minority, that company will be desperately looking to hire a minority of the same minority group as the person that was fired (in order to defend any possible lawsuit by the fired minority claiming discrimination}.

2. Industries with a reputation for having all White male management (like investment banks and top tier law firms) will be desperate to hire women and minorities with supervisory titles in support functions like word processing, mail rooms, copy centers etc.

3. You are more likely to be hired for a profit center job than for an ordinary bullshit job. A profit center job is a job which generates income for the company. For example, almost every job with an outsourcer, law firm or accounting firm generates income for the company; the work done for these type of companies is billed to a client with a mark-up added.

4. Getting hired PERM is exactly like dating. You wouldn't waste your time with someone who is clearly not interested in sleeping with you, so don't waste time with some company that is clearly not interested in you.