To answer this question, you’ll need to read Chapter Extension 17, particularly QCE17-3 and QCE17-4. Write the requirements for the job-acquisition process using scrum-like requirements statements. Break the requirements into sufficient detail so that you can satisfy each one in 2 hours or less. Rather than start every requirement with “As a student,” start them with the role you will use: “As an interviewee, I will” or “As a prospect seeker, I will.”

Examine the picture of the dog team. Those dogs are starting a 1,049-mile race in which they will sometimes run 20 hours a day. They can’t qualify for this race unless they’ve succeeded at similar events, so they know what they’re in for. But, clearly, they like their jobs.

That should be you. No, not a musher on the Iditarod, but that’s the way you should feel at the start of your workweek. You will spend at least a third of your life at work; work will be one of the biggest sources of personal satisfaction; and your job will determine the quality of your life in money, in friends and associates, and in interesting experiences. So between now and graduation, finding and getting that job should be the number-one priority in your life. Don’t wait.

So, how will you do that? Haphazardly sign up for whatever recruiters happen to come to campus? That’s one approach, and you can hope that your competitors use it. But what about you? Can you find a way to apply what you’ve learned in this chapter to finding that job?