Employability skills: Lateral thinking

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did
something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw
something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to
connect experiences they’ve had and synthesise new things.
- Steve Jobs.
Lateral thinking, is the ability to think creatively, or "outside the box" as it is sometimes referred to in business, to use your inspiration and imagination to solve problems by looking at them from unexpected perspectives. Lateral thinking involves discarding the obvious, leaving behind traditional modes of thought, and throwing away preconceptions.
It's very important in careers such as advertising, marketing, the media and art and design where you may get questions in the selection process along the lines of "Write down one hundred ways to use a brick/paperclip", but it can also be of value in the job-hunting process itself.
LATERAL THINKING IN THE JOBHUNTING PROCESS
A number of graduates have tried the old and hackneyed methods of trying to gain the selector's attention, such as enclosing a tea bag with their application, so that the selector could take a break to have a cup of tea before reading it. Others have send their CV to newspapers in a magazine format, but below are a couple of truly original approaches:
A graduate had been trying to get into investment banking, but without success and had exhausted all the normal routes. As a last resort, he had 100 postcard-sized CVs printed. He then went round the "Square Mile" in the City, where all the main financial organisations in London are located and proceeded to place one of these CVs under the windscreen of every Rolls Royce and top of the range BMW and Mercedes he came across. Next day, he had several 'phone calls offering him interviews from the senior executives whom the cars belonged to. Note that I are not advocating this approach: one graduate jobseeker put up 200 poster sized CVs around Hull and ended up being fined for bill posting!
A student wanted to become a trainee journalist on her local newspaper. She decided to carefully analyse the content of the paper and compared it with similar local papers. She conducted a small survey of readers' opinions on the paper by interviewing passers-by in the city centre. Using this information, she drew up a list of possible changes to the paper, wrote a sample article to show what she had in mind and sent these to the editor. The editor invited her in to discuss her suggestions - they had a long discussion and the next vacancy that arose was offered to her without competition.
One New York graduate who wished to work in a top advertising agency Googled the names of the creative directors of these agencies and then spent just six dollars on a set of Google ads that were triggered when the directors searched for their own names. The adverts said "Hey, (creative directors name), Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too" Of the five directors he targeted, four gave him an interview and two offered him a job.
The chocolate bar CV. A job hunter made his CV as the wrapper for a chocolate bar. It turned out to be very popular with recruiters!
Jackie Stewart, three times World Champion Formula One racing driver had undiagnosed dyslexia and was unable to complete his school education. He said: “When you’ve got dyslexia and you find something you’re good at, you put more into it than anyone else; you can’t think the way of the clever folk, so you’re always thinking out of the box."
"The fear of making a mistake, of risking an error, or of being told you are wrong is constantly with us. And that’s a shame. Making mistakes is not the same thing as being creative, but if you are not willing to make mistakes, then it is impossible to be truly creative. I f your state of mind is coming from a place of fear and risk avoidance, then you will always settle for the safe solutions—the solutions already applied many times before.
Failing is fine, necessary in fact. But avoiding experimentation or risk—especially out of fear of what others may think—is something that will gnaw at your gut more than any ephemeral failure. A failure is in the past. It’s done and over. In fact, it doesn’t exist. But worrying about “what might be if…” or “what might have been if I had… ” are pieces of baggage you carry around daily. They’re heavy, and they’ll kill your creative spirit. Take chances and stretch yourself. You’re only here on this planet once, and for a very short time at that. Why not just see how gifted you are?"

By Ogadinma Reformer