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Subheadings:   Thought-Cell Habits Determine Both the Fortune and the Specific Nature of All Events that Enter the Life    Forming New Habits    One New Habit at a Time    Visualizing the Interview    Stubborn Habits    Will Power    Correct Every Lapse    Persuasion is Superior to Force    Do not compel yourself to do something that you intensely dislike to do    Employment    Analyzing the Field    Marketing Service and Ability    Planning the Interview    Applying for the Job    Occult Considerations

Birth Charts:  Winston Churchill Chart    Eugene W. Biscailuz Chart

Chapter 7

How to Get Employment

SECURING employment is a matter of salesmanship. It is based upon the same fundamental principles that underlie all salesmanship. There must be a desire, want, or need upon the part of the employer that can be satisfied by hiring an employee. If the desire is not already present, it becomes necessary to arouse it. When the employer feels this need, or it is brought to his attention, or is built up by showing him the advantages thus to be gained, it then becomes necessary to convince him that the one making application for the position can do the work in a satisfactory manner. When he becomes convinced of this, employment is certain.

Getting employment is selling one’s abilities. These abilities, the impression made upon the prospective employer, and the success in every other department of life depend upon the habit systems that have been formed. If there has been notable failure to secure employment, the remedy is not in something mysterious, but in the formation of new habit systems that are conducive to getting employment, and to getting better employment. But to change the life markedly in this or in any other respect, not only must the objective behavior be altered, but new thought-cell habits must be formed.

Thought-Cell Habits Determine Both the Fortune and the Specific Nature of All Events that Enter the Life

The planets in the birth chart merely map the volume of energy of each of the ten types of thought cells and the trend of their desires derived from experiences in lower forms of life. The departments of life with which they were formed and relative to which they tend to express are indicated by the houses a planet rules. But in lower than human forms of life, while there were experiences of the Mercury type involving the use of intelligence, there were no experiences with bookkeeping or as a telephone operator. There undoubtedly were experiences with offspring, ruled by the fifth house, but none with stage and screen which also are ruled by the fifth house. In other words, the desires and therefore the activities of the thought cells at birth, even though harmonious or discordant, characteristic of the planet mapping them, and associated with definite departments of life were undifferentiated in so far as desiring events which are exclusively probable to human beings.

The activities of these thought cells are chiefly responsible for each event entering the life. They not only influence the thoughts and the behavior, but work from the inner plane to bring into the life such events as they desire. But other than always desiring and expressing the characteristics of the planet mapping them, and always desiring the events of, and expressing through, one of the various departments of life the houses of which the planet rules, what they desire is mostly determined by the manner in which they have been conditioned by the environment since human birth, that is, by the habit systems they have acquired after the infant was born.

And these habit systems, whatever they may be, are subject to alterations, just as the behavior and thought habit systems of the individual can be changed. The energy of a highly active group of thought cells cannot be repressed. The attempt at repression merely causes it to utilize its energy working from the inner plane to bring the event it desires into the life. Nor can the thought-cell activity mapped by one planet be made to express through thoughts, behavior or events-attracted characteristic of some other planet. The problem is, therefore, to form habit systems of thought and behavior that will permit each powerful group of thought cells to express its characteristic energy beneficially.

SUN: These thought cells desire that the individual should have significance. In the effort to attain significance they may cause him to disparage others, to be dictative, to boast, to be a show-off, to do antisocial acts to attract attention, to develop an inferiority complex or a superiority complex, to refuse to speak or work before the public because of fear he will not live up to an exalted opinion of himself, or they may cause him to have difficulty with authority. Instead of these expressions the individual should set about resolutely and intelligently to acquire and use some knowledge or ability that he can employ in the community where he lives, or expects to live, that will secure the esteem of others, or at least through benefiting the community, increase his own opinion of himself. He should acquire the habit system of doing something beneficial to society in which he can take pride, be firm in its accomplishment, and feel joy in the self-approval engendered.

MOON: These thought cells desire that the individual should have home and offspring. They may cause him to be so interested in the private lives of others as to be a gossip, or they may express through the effort to gain notoriety, through incessant change, or through changing moods and mental instability. Instead of these expressions the individual should cultivate domesticity and develop a habit system in which he is active, and experiences delight, in music and in contributing to the comfort of his family or to the welfare of the old or young who are helpless.

MERCURY: These thought cells desire intellectual activity. They may find expression in nervousness and restlessness, or through an incessant flow of thoughts or words which accomplish nothing. Instead, the habit system should be cultivated of finding pleasure in concentrating on whatever situation is present, or analyzing carefully all its factors, and of thinking it through with the object of ascertaining how best it may be handled.

VENUS: These thought cells desire affection, companionship, and the beautiful. They may find expression through licentiousness, through pliancy, through love of ease, or through unwise or unrestrained emotion. Instead of these expressions, the habit system should be cultivated of getting pleasure from healthful social contacts, musical entertainments, appreciation of the artistic, mirth, and wisely directed affection.

MARS: These thought cells desire aggressive action. They may express through anger, harshness, irritation, quarrelsomeness, haste, undue expenditure of energy, lust, or destructiveness. Instead of these expressions, the habit system should be cultivated of taking pleasure in building something. Initiative and courage may be used to repair a human body, to build a business, or to construct a machine.

JUPITER: These thought cells desire joviality and abundance. They may express through extravagance, sportiveness, conceit, or undue optimism. Instead of these expressions, the habit system should be cultivated of taking pleasure in benevolence, devotion, faith in a higher than human power, and in maintaining the attitude of goodwill toward all.

SATURN: These thought cells desire safety. They may express through greed, self-centeredness, worry, fear, sorrow, despondency, or envy. Instead, the habit system should be cultivated of taking pleasure in order, system, organization, efficiency, persistence and the carrying of responsibility.

URANUS: These thought cells desire originality. They may express through eccentricity of dress, of action, or of opinion, through abruptness, or through extreme views and the effort radically to change whatever may be the existing condition. Instead, the habit system should be cultivated of taking pleasure in research and invention and in encouraging reformation that advances one step at a time.

NEPTUNE: These thought cells desire the ideal. They may express through daydreaming, through unsound schemes, through over sensitivity, through wishful thinking, or through vague longings. Instead, the habit system should be cultivated of taking pleasure in using the imagination for some practical and constructive purpose. Almost anything can be dramatized in a manner that will increase its value.

PLUTO: These thought cells desire cooperation or coercion. They may express through uniting with others in antisocial activities, through coercing others, through selfish use of psychic energies, or through inversive methods. Instead, the habit system should be cultivated of taking pleasure in cooperating in activities that benefit society, and in developing true spirituality.

Forming New Habits

As the habits of thought, the habits of feeling, and the habits of action determine what happens in our lives, let us now further consider how they may be changed in the direction desired. After which we will be in a better position effectively to adopt the plans indicated for securing a lucrative position.

The first thing, of course, is to decide, after due deliberation, the exact nature of the new habits to be formed. No attention is to be given bad habits. They are to be eradicated by the formation of new ones that automatically turn their energies into more constructive channels. Next, some method should be adopted to insure that the new habit will be remembered at the time it should function. It takes unusual effort to remember to do something that we are unaccustomed to do. At the time it is important we are very apt to forget that a new habit has been decided upon and proceed in the channel of the old habit already well established.

By the use of effort and repetition, the thought of the new habit may be linked up with any one of the numberless acts which we perform that require no especial effort to remember. When we leave the office or shop at the end of day, it requires no effort to remember to take our hat from the rack before going home. It may require considerable effort, however, to remember to go into an adjoining room and close the windows, or each evening to leave certain papers on the boss’ desk, or to ring up and ask what shall be brought home for dinner. In fact, the more disagreeable the task and the farther removed from notice, the easier it is to forget it.

But if, when placing one’s hat on the rack one resolutely determines to remember the disagreeable detail when the hat is removed, the moment the hat is picked up this other less familiar matter will be remembered. For the first few times considerable resolution and intensity of feeling should be experienced in determining, as the hat is placed on the rack, that the detail will be remembered when the hat is removed. But after a few evenings on which the new habit to be formed is remembered when the hat is picked up, the two actions become so strongly welded, through the law of mental association, that thereafter every time the hat is removed from the rack the thought of the new habit pops into the mind.

Every individual has numerous habits that are already well formed, and on which he can count for some degree of regularity, to which he can tie new habits in such a way that they will be remembered. We all eat at certain intervals, we go to bed, we arise in the morning, we go to work, and perform various other routine acts, to any one of which by a little effort we can link up the memory of some other act to be done. In Chapter 2 (Serial Lesson 152) there is given an illustration of binding the remembrance to do something, by means of an affirmation, with the act of eating.

Certain attitudes of mind, and certain types of behavior, may be desirable only in the presence of certain persons. In such cases, then, after determining the habitual attitudes and behavior to be cultivated, the effort should be made to affiliate strongly the thought of the habit with these persons, so that the habit is always brought to mind when in their presence. In some such manner every habit to be formed should always, even at the expense of great pains, be so firmly related to older habits that it is always remembered at the time when it should function.

One New Habit at a Time

Usually, when there is the desire to replace bad habits by better ones, the impulse is to make a thorough job of it, and carry the reform into all departments of life. Such an attitude is excellent. Thus you may, after reading this chapter, decide to adopt and build into your life as habits, the actions, thoughts and feelings here advocated as lending themselves to better employment. If such a resolution is made, or if a resolution covering any other series of habits is made, it is well to write out on paper, for your own reference, just what these new habits to be adopted are.

But it is decidedly unwise to try to cultivate them all at once. To do so violates one of the fundamental principles of psychology; the principle that the range of attention at any one time is very limited. The energies cannot be directed efficiently into numerous channels at the same time.

Even in learning to use a machine, the best way is to practice each separate operation by itself, taking up a new one only after the first is learned so thoroughly as to become established as a habit. When two or more operations learned separately become habitual, they may then be joined as a series; or when the first operation has become habitual, the second may be learned as an additional part of the first, and later the third added to this, until the whole complex process becomes practically automatic.

To establish any new thought, new feeling, or new action requires that the objective attention be directed to it persistently. This takes an unusual amount of energy and effort. Most of us do not have the energy at our command thus to establish more than one new habit at a time. Each repetition makes the use of voluntary attention and conscious effort less necessary, until after a time all we have to do is to think of the thing and it is accomplished, almost no effort or energy being necessary to initiate the process. It has become habitual.

It is all very well, therefore, to outline a series of new habits to be formed; but it is psychologically unsound to learn them all at once. They should be taken up one at a time and mastered in single combat. Not until one has been made obedient should the next be engaged. When two have been vanquished the third should be challenged, and so on, until the whole company of desirable habits is under full control. Do not battle with the whole regiment at once. Even taken one at a time they are full worthy of your metal.

Another well recognized psychological law that we may take advantage of in establishing new habits is that the ease with which an action is repeated depends upon the vividness of the previous performances and the amount of repetition. Much, therefore, depends upon making a strong start. Not only should the matter be thought about thoroughly when initiating the habit, but as many precautions as possible should be taken to insure that the action is not neglected. Tell your friends what you intend to do, so that your pride will reinforce your resolution when tempted to neglect the matter. Devise means to make the performance of the habit easy, and to make its nonperformance both difficult and disagreeable.

Having given the habit a good strong start, while there is still enthusiasm about it take the opportunity to put it into practice. If the opportunity is not at hand, seek out the opportunity. Resolutions have a way of evaporating in a short while. To guard against this, find some method by which the habit may be given exercise without delay, and see to it before the enthusiasm subsides that it is given much repetition.

Visualizing the Interview

In Chapter 6 (Serial Lesson 156) the formation of habits has been compared with the making of trails through the deep snow of winter. Every time we pass over a new trail, and every time we repeat a new habit, the easier it becomes. But if the trail is new, and not well broken, there is always the temptation to take the old and easier way. In habit formation, in so far as possible, this should be guarded against.

Suppose you desire to cultivate the habit of selling your ability. In the past it has been the habit merely to ask for employment, and if you were not hired on asking to walk away. You have resolved, therefore, to proceed in a very different manner. You realize, however, that the old trail will be much easier to follow, and that unless well prepared, you will merely ask for employment, and if refused will walk away. Therefore, in preparation for breaking the new trail you rehearse over and over again the anticipated interview. You visualize, as accurately as possible, the man to whom you will address yourself and the environment where you will talk to him. Imagine yourself ushered into his presence and starting the conversation, perhaps something after this manner: “Mr. Jones, I do not wish to intrude on your time unnecessarily, but I feel it will be to your advantage as well as to my own for me to explain why I should be working for you.” Then, in imagination, proceed with the interview, explaining in detail to Mr. Jones just why you are particularly qualified to fill some position with his firm.

Such a carefully visualized rehearsal begins to break the trail for a new line of conduct, reinforces the determination to break this new trail instead of following the old one, and in addition, through picturing the result, adds a psychic power that lends its weight to a favorable issue.

Stubborn Habits

Where the habit to be discontinued, through the substitution of a new one, is a particularly stubborn one, a change of environment often is beneficial. For instance, it is exceptionally hard to break the liquor habit while continuing to associate with drinking companions.

No doubt most people could get the equivalent of a college education by means of home study. But the environment of home study does not contain the factors that reinforce the student’s determination to study, as does the college. Acquaintances have been informed that one is going to college, and to fail to make progress would seem a disgrace. At college one is a member of a large group, all bent on getting an education. By the members of this group, to study is considered the proper thing. One loses caste if he fails. In fact, pressure is brought from so many quarters to induce one to study, that it is commonly much easier to get one’s lessons than to face the numerous disagreeable consequences of not getting them. But with home study usually there is no such pressure in the direction of learning, but a multitude of distractions, so that it is only the unusual person who has determination enough to get a good education without attending school.

Will Power

Will is directed desire, but the will only accomplishes results when expressed in action. If, therefore, a person has formed the habit of carrying out his resolutions, he is considered a person of strong will power. But when a person decides to ‘do something, and then fails even to make a vigorous attempt, he is conceded to be a person of weak will. Will power, it will thus be seen, is always associated with certain habits of action. To be a person of strong will is to be one in whom the habit has been formed of carrying out one’s decisions without fail.

When a resolution is made, and it is not carried out, it weakens the will. Due care, therefore, should be exercised, as previously mentioned, not to undertake too much. Furthermore, when a resolution is made, every exception allowed weakens both the will and the new habit. The person who quits smoking, but who thinks just one more cigarette doesn’t count, quickly slips back into the old habit. The old trails through the snow are so easy to get into again. Therefore, in forming a new habit take particular pains that there are no “exceptions” in which the old habit to be displaced is allowed to function.

Correct Every Lapse

Sometimes, in a careless moment, or under unusual pressure, or preoccupation, the old habit may slip by the guard. In such cases do not let the transgression go with little notice. In each and every such case, take time and effort to do the thing in the right way. If the old habit is an exaggeration, whenever one is conscious that something has been a bit exaggerated in the telling, see to it that the impression given is fully corrected, and that those to whom it is told are given an uncolored version. If the old habit is that of speaking sharply, see to it when you speak sharply to a person that you offer apologies, or express kindness, as soon as you realize what you have done. Let no exception to the new habit arise, in so far as possible; but if unwittingly the old habit does function, make as complete and as prompt a correction of it as circumstances will permit.

Persuasion is Superior to Force

Right here is the place to mention another psychological law: When one forces one’s self into a course of action it sets up conflicts between different sections of the mind. When, because we are stronger than another, we compel him to do something that he resists doing, we have alienated him. Instead of cooperating with us, he is rebellious, and whenever opportunity arises, will cause a disturbance. Likewise, whenever one section of our mind is bent on not doing something, but is overpowered by another section of the mind, and compelled to action, an antagonism is set up between these two sections of the mind that may be lasting and that may lead to serious consequences. There will be more said about these inner conflicts in subsequent chapters. Here it is enough merely to indicate how they arise, and that, like warfare in general, they lead to loss of efficiency, and to discords that attract destructive events.

Do not compel yourself to do something that you intensely dislike to do. Instead, learn to like to do it. And in dealing with other people the same principle holds.

The effect of the stringent prohibition laws that came into being during World War I well illustrates this psychological law. A majority of the people, by means of legislation, forced prohibition on a large and unwilling minority. Being bludgeoned into prohibition, this minority staged a surreptitious revolt against this law. As a consequence there was not only more drunkenness and liquor traffic but a crime wave of greater proportion, than the country had ever known.

So also, if you bludgeon your own mind, or a section of it, into the acceptance of some course of action, it not only revolts and tends to interfere whenever possible with carrying out this action, but the discord engendered spreads, and unpremeditated actions regarding other things, and annoying emotions, are the result.

About everything imaginable there are many points of interest. A little analysis will discover these interesting qualities, and interest is akin to attractiveness. Many things that are otherwise disagreeable may be made pleasant by imbuing them with an element of competition. Timing one’s performance against that of another’s, or against one’s previous record. Comparing the perfection of the product with that of another, or with one’s past performance. Undertaking to find a new and better way to do one’s work. Reading up on everything connected with the matter. These are but a few of the ways by which interest may be made to breed attractiveness.

No matter how dry-as-dust a subject may be, if one becomes an expert in it there is a glow of satisfaction, a pleasant knowledge that one is its master. Thus one may utilize the Drive for Significance in learning to like some particular work. Let one think of the pleasure of being master of some performance, of conquering it, even though at first it appears most distasteful, and before long, if this attitude is held, the joy of mastery becomes greater than the original aversion.

Often it is possible to build up a bond of association between the disagreeable thing and some cherished ambition. Look at it not as a disagreeable duty, but as a step gladly taken, even though it is accompanied by suffering, because it leads to the desired goal. At other times the matter at hand may be linked, through the use of the imagination, with some joyful past experience. If, when undertaking the disagreeable task, one thinks of the pleasant experience, and feels the thrill of it, in time this pleasant emotion will become so associated with the task that there will be more joy felt whenever the task is thought of, or is accomplished, than aversion.

In Chapter 6 (Serial Lesson 156) it was mentioned as one of the three fundamentals of habit formation that one should always associate the desirable habit as strongly as possible with feelings of pleasure. Only a few of numerous ways by which this may be accomplished have been mentioned. By following this plan no part of the mind is forced to accept the new habit. Instead, an appeal is made to pleasure, and as this appeal becomes successful all parts of the mentality not merely acquiesce in permitting the new habit, but unite in a desire for its continuance. Such a process, instead of breaking up the mental elements into warring factions, unites them in a common desire, and in cooperative effort. Instead of conflicts, harmonious integration is present, and these harmonies, in addition to reinforcing the new habit, have a power of attracting good fortune into the life.

This matter of avoiding conflicts is also very important in breaking a strongly entrenched undesirable habit. Such a habit is an acquired tendency to act in a certain way under certain circumstances.

Let us suppose, for instance, that a person is addicted to coffee drinking, but has found it detrimental, and desires to stop. Now, because of habit, whenever he has meals the desire for coffee is very strong. He may, of course, just stubbornly refuse to yield to the desire. But if he handles the matter in this way, and the desire is insistent, he may develop a feeling of irritation that lasts all day. Of course, if all the important elements of his mind have accepted the desirability of avoiding coffee to such an extent that he no longer feels an urgent desire for it, the idea has become integrated with the other mental factors, and no conflict results. But if the desire continues, it may prove very annoying.

To avoid this conflict a new outlet must be provided for the old habit: That is, not only should a new habit be formed that will take the place of the old habit, but it should be of such a nature as to pacify rather than conflict with the old habit. The coffee drinker will escape such conflict if he for a time, until the desire has grown weak, uses some coffee substitute. The cigarette smoker will find it easier to break the habit if, when he desires a smoke, he takes a chew of chewing gum. The outlet of the habit is thus not completely and abruptly blocked, and its energy finds a way of expending itself without breaking through in disintegrating channels.

In this chapter, and the preceding ones (Serial Lessons 151-157), much has been said about habits. But when we stop to think that what a man is depends upon his habit systems, and that he is a success or failure in any particular department of life, or in all of them, because of his habits, it seems difficult to over emphasize their importance. Furthermore, if we are to bring changes of consequence into our lives, it will be through changing some of our habits. The general trend of our fortunes will alter very little while our habits are the same. The chapters (Serial Lessons 151-162) of this course tell how to attain various worthwhile ends, but these ends can only be attained through the cultivation of appropriate habits.

Employment

When one works for another there are three distinct factors that need to be considered: 1. The workman and his desires. 2. The employer and his desires. 3. The work itself.

It should be the desire of the workman to secure such employment as will enable him to do most for himself and most for society, of which he forms a part. In Chapter 1 (Serial Lesson 151) we have already considered in some detail the factors that should govern the selection of a vocation. Briefly, these factors combine the natural abilities with the most harmonious influence in the life, as revealed by the birth chart.

One who is already of mature age, without a knowledge of astrology, can analyze his past performance in various lines and get a fair estimate of his abilities. And this is very important. But as indicated in the chapter mentioned, aside from ability, one may attract fortune or misfortune in a particular line, and this may be of even greater importance than ability. As this is written, for instance, the newspapers are full of the first great commercial air disaster of a transcontinental airplane. The T.A.T. airliner, on its regular run, encountered a storm and ran into the top of a mountain near Grant, New Mexico, killing the pilot and his seven passengers.

Because this same pilot had made successful trips over this same route, and because he was chosen to fill one of the most important positions open at this time to an air pilot, there is no doubt that he was an aviator of unusual ability. Yet in spite of this, it would have been better for him and for the seven passengers if he had never taken up flying. Some other pilot with much less ability, but with luck enough not to chance in the vicinity of this mountain when blinded by the storm would have come through safely.

Analyzing the Field

It may be, and often so happens, that one is unable to get at once into the kind of work one would prefer. It is a good plan, therefore, carefully to analyze to what extent the abilities may make one fit for various other forms of work. Also, from the birth chart, one should decide what kind of fortune may be expected in each. In these lines, which because of necessity may be temporarily entered, not merely the amount of remuneration should be considered, but also the opportunity presented in each leading to the most preferred work.

One should not expect to get employment merely because one wants it, or because one wants this particular kind of work. Those who hire help do not do so merely as a favor to those who want work; they do it because they are convinced it is to their advantage.

If you are going to get work, the person who hires you must believe that you will prove of value to him. If he does not already believe this, before you get the position you will have to convince him of its truth.

The workman looks at a prospective job from the standpoint of what he will get out of it. The employer looks at the job from the standpoint of what the employer will derive from it. The common meeting ground is the work itself. This work when accomplished should not be merely satisfying to the employer, nor merely satisfying to the workman, but should result in the satisfaction of both. In so far as it falls short of this mark the position is a failure.

After you have thoroughly, and in detail, made an analysis of your qualifications for various sorts of work, the next step is to give just as thorough an analysis of the possible opportunities to utilize these abilities. The entire field of possibilities should be gone over and given a rating, and to make the matter clear it is well to write out on a sheet of paper the various possible positions in the order of their preference, placing the most desirable one opposite number 1, the next most desirable opposite number 2, and so on.

Marketing Service and Ability

Employment, like salesmanship in other fields, is at different levels. And it should never be lost sight of that getting employment is an act of salesmanship, and governed by all the rules of salesmanship in other lines. It is the act of selling one’s abilities and labor.

At its lowest level of salesmanship, the one desiring employment depends entirely upon the initiative of the prospective employer to hunt him up and secure his services. If the desire, want, or need of the employer is insistent enough, and the difficulty in procuring help great enough, he will put forth much effort, and may find and employ such a workman.

So also, if we have a great desire for an article of merchandise, we will probably go to the different stores and ask if they carry it. In such event, the merchant possessing it will make a sale even though the article is tucked away out of sight. But if another merchant has displayed the article, when we need it we will go to him rather than to the one who has kept it hidden, because we know the former can satisfy our desire, but are uncertain if the latter can. Likewise in marketing service and ability, unless by some means we inform prospective employers about our ability and willingness to work, if there are places where they know help can be hired they will not go to the trouble and search us out but, as is natural, will satisfy their need through the easiest channel.

Unfortunately for the person desiring work, it is usually so easy for the employer to find those who meet his requirements that few positions are filled without at least some effort on the part of the prospective employee.

A great deal of work is to be had, however, with very little salesmanship. That is, the employer has a well defined and well-recognized idea that he should hire help, and a rather definite idea of the kind of persons that will satisfy this need. Under such circumstances, all the prospective employee has to do is to learn about the employer’s need for help, and ask for the position.

For the better types of jobs, however, employers are apt to be more particular. The employer here considered has a definite program of work to be accomplished, but is in doubt as to the person best able to perform it. To obtain such a position, one should not only have the ability to fill it, but must in some manner be able to convince the employer not only that one can fill it, but can do so in a manner more satisfying than can any other probable or actual applicants for the place.

On a still more difficult level are those employers who do not know that they need help. Before they hire assistance they must in some manner be convinced that additional personnel will be to their advantage, and that the person making application can fill the position satisfactorily. Employers are not omniscient, nor do they always have time or ability to know all that should be done to make their enterprise a success. Very frequently a careful analysis by another will reveal where an additional person can be employed with considerable profit to the concern. And where such a situation is observed the person making the discovery need not feel diffident, although he may need to use tact, about placing the idea before the prospective employer. In other words, for those who can see possibilities, there are opportunities to make jobs.

If you seek a job, whether the position is to be had at a low level of effort or at a high one, you should know as much as possible about just what the requirements are to satisfy the desires of the employer. Or if the prospective employer has no desires about the matter, you must build up those desires by pointing out advantages and then showing him how to gain them.

Planning the Interview

Before selling the employer the idea that you will prove advantageous to him, in some manner you must gain an audience and attract his attention. Considerable ingenuity and tact may be necessary to get into the employer’s presence without causing ill will. Sometimes a mutual friend, or one already employed, can be induced to give an introduction. This is advantageous, as it tends to show that others have confidence in you. You should not, of course, take too much of the time of a busy executive. But when it is considered that you are really endeavoring to render him a service, there need be no hesitancy about approaching him and using so much of his time as is necessary to sell him the idea that he should hire you.

Remembering that you are hired to satisfy a certain need, everything should be done to convey the idea that you can successfully fill the need. To begin with, personality is a very important thing in all human contacts. Try, therefore, to create a pleasant impression. Find out as much as possible about the employer. If he has some particular interest, either in regard to his work or a hobby, some brief inquiry about it is an excellent move to pave the way to the main issue. If he likes you, he will be much more apt to hire you than if his first impression is one of distaste.

But mere attractiveness is not enough. You must create the impression that you can successfully fill the place. If, therefore, you wish a job as a mechanic, dress the part and act the part. Do not dress like a dandy and expect to be hired to do heavy or dirty work. On the other hand, if seeking an office job, pay particular attention to the neatness of your appearance, because this will create an impression that you will be neat and orderly in your work.

When you approach the prospective employer, do so with confidence. Faith is the basis of all business relations. If you have confidence in yourself, this feeling of confidence will be imparted to the other person. Also, it acts as a suggestion to the other person that he will hire you. And it is your task to offer him as many suggestions and reasons as possible that he will be greatly benefited if he takes you into his service.

If opportunity arises for you to do so, you should study the things he individually likes and dislikes in his help, and should suggest to him in some manner that you have the desirable traits. But if such an intimate knowledge of his peculiar bias is not to be obtained, at least there are some qualifications that appeal to nearly all employers, and each of these points should be brought up.

First of all, of course, is the ability to do the work. Then the matter of reliability and steadiness. Interest in the work, and team spirit should be stressed. And the ability to cooperate and get along well with others.

It is a good plan, either by consulting a directory or by other means, to get as large a list as possible of the places you would like to work, and for which you have qualifications. Write this list down in black and white, and make it a point to visit all of these places unless hired. Sometimes a well written letter, stating your qualifications and desire for the position, sent to a list of firms will bring a satisfactory reply from at least one. The same letter, of course, may be sent to the whole list. But a letter, as a rule, is less effective than a personal interview.

In all salesmanship it is recognized that if the regular sales talk fails, an added incentive introduced at the right time often makes the sale. Many a person badly needing work, when the employer hesitated, has volunteered to work a few days or a week without pay to demonstrate his work, or has volunteered to work, and for a time let the employer pay him what the latter thought he was worth, no salary being agreed upon. Also, as in any other sales work, do not take no for an answer as long as there is any chance of making the reply favorable. Persistence and determination have won many a conference that seemed hopeless.

Applying for the Job

Plan the interview ahead of time. Know as much as possible about the work. Know as much as possible about the personal leanings of the employer. Visualize the interview over and over before it takes place. Undertake both by statements and suggestions to build up the desires of the person interviewed to hire you. Appeal to the things you know he likes, to the things that are to his advantage, to the gain you will bring him. And when you have made an appeal regarding a certain advantage to him, back it up with proof. Do not merely tell him you can do the work well, but tell him you have had definite experience with such work, or with other lines, that fits you for the position, and when possible give references. Do not merely tell him you are steady help, tell him how long you worked with some other firm.

Know beforehand just what you are going to say. Hold his attention while you say it. Do not over state your case, as exaggeration causes loss of confidence. Have confidence you are going to be hired. And after you have, to the best of your ability built up his desire to employ you, do not fail at that point to ask him for the position. Tell him without quibbling that you believe he will benefit by hiring you, and that you want the place. Do not take no for an answer. If he hesitates, have in reserve and give him some additional reason or incentive. Get a definite answer while the force of your talk is still in his mind.

And when you get the position, see to it that you fulfill his expectations.

Occult Considerations

The advisability of visualizing the interview in which employment is to be obtained has already been mentioned. It is also advantageous to visualize yourself working in the desired occupation, just as you would be working when hired. Hold the picture in the mind as steadily as possible and with the feeling of full confidence that you will thus be working at no distant date. Do not try to visualize at this time the steps necessary to obtain the employment. Picture the work and yourself employed at it as vividly as possible. Feel confident that this picture will come true. Feel as you would feel while doing the work. Make it as real in every way as possible. Affirm to yourself, “This Is My Work.”

The powers of the soul are very extensive, and such visualizing and suggesting directs its attention and energies toward bringing about the condition held thus before the mind. The soul has psychic senses which it employs to get information quite outside the range of any physical perception. And it uses, when properly directed to do so, and without the knowledge of the objective mind, numerous invisible energies for the attainment of its ends. Thus through visualization, it is possible to demonstrate employment.

Other invisible energies flowing from the planets also have a pronounced influence upon the times when it is easy and the times it is hard to get employment. The progressed aspect most favorable to employment is a harmonious aspect to the ruler of the birth chart tenth house. Next best is a harmonious aspect to the ruler of the sixth house. At the time any important position is secured there is always a progressed aspect to the ruler of the tenth and a progressed aspect to the ruler of the sixth.

Adding pleasant energy, through appropriate thoughts, to the thought cells mapped by the tenth house, and to the thought cells mapped by the sixth house, assists markedly in getting and holding a satisfactory job.

On a day when the Moon is shown in the ephemeris to be making good aspects to the Sun is in general a good day to ask for employment; but on a day when the Moon makes adverse aspects to the Sun, employers are less favorably inclined to hire help. That hour of the day ruled by the Sun, or the hour ruled by Jupiter, is a good time to ask for work; but when the best planet in the birth chart is known, the hour of day ruled by this planet is even better. These planetary hours are explained in Chapter 7 (Serial Lesson 92), Course VIII, Horary Astrology.

Birth Charts

Winston Churchill Chart November 30, 1874, 6:00 a.m. LMT. 6:18W. 53:21N. (Data from a close relative.) 1893, injured in play, invalid a year: Mars square Neptune r. 1897, served in India, Punjab infantry: Sun sextile Mars p. 1899, correspondent-hero of Boer war: Sun trine Moon r. 1910, Home Secretary of State: Mercury sextile Mars p. 1916, blamed for failure of Gallipoli campaign: Mercury square Mars r. 1917, Minister of Munitions: Sun trine Pluto r. 1919, Secretary of War and Air: Mercury trine Pluto r. 1922, lost seat in Parliament: Mars square Saturn p. 1924, Chancellor of Exchequer: Venus sextile Mars r. 1929, lost Cabinet post: Mercury conjunction Saturn r. 1938, protested Munich pact: Sun opposition Uranus p. 1940, became war Prime Minister; Sun opposition Uranus r.

Eugene W. Biscailuz Chart March 12, 1883, 2:00 p.m. LMT. 118:15W. 34N04. (Data from him personally.) 1907, Foreclosure Clerk in Sheriff’s office: Sun semisextile Neptune r. 1921, appointed Under Sheriff: Sun sextile Mars r. 1929, appointed Superintendent of California Highway Patrol: Mercury trine Uranus r. 1931, appointed Sheriff: Mercury conjunction Saturn p. 1934, elected Sheriff of Los Angeles County: Venus sextile Venus r. 1938, reelected Sheriff: Mercury trine Venus r: Sun conjunction Neptune r. 1941, after Pearl Harbor in charge of supervising 60,000 Japanese in Los Angeles Metropolitan area: Sun trine Uranus p.

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