Why The Law of Desire Works 💝💐 EBH

I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig, ah...

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Read the first half of this law here.

Why this works

We all need jobs. It’s expensive to exist in the world, so those of us not blessed with trust funds must work to do things like eat and watch Netflix.

But just because we are forced to get jobs doesn’t mean we aren’t all seeking to maximize our options. Maybe we’d prefer to work in an office than in a mine. Or prefer to work from home than in an office. We all have preferences of what we want in the place where we spend 8-12 hours a day.

But the word “preference” doesn’t really do it justice. Think back to when you were a child. Did you want to be a recruiter? A brander? A marketer? Or did you want to be a fireman, a teacher or a baseball player? (My daughter is still planning on being a ballerina veterinarian who spends her weekends as a scientist on the space station. I’d make fun of her, but some part of me is still holding out hope that I hear back from that “emperor” role I applied for when I was 12.)

Any marketer will tell you it is a lot easy to sell your wares when people want them, when those wares align with customer values and allow them to do something they want to do. Jobs are no different. Between the choice of a job they will tolerate and a job the desire, there’s no choice at all.

Where this falls apart

Desire is specific, which means it is also non-universal. For every person who thinks a Hemsworth or a Rihanna (or whoever is on this year’s list of “most attractive celebrities”) is the most attractive person in the world, there are dozens who prefer Alan Rickman and John C. Reilly or Megan Mullaly and Kristen Schaal.

It takes all kinds, right?

But that’s the thing. You can’t be desirable to everyone, so you need to be specific about whom you are desirable and why. That decision means there will be people who don’t desire you and that’s okay. In fact, that’s likely proof that you’re on the right track.

This unwillingness to be specific is the root cause of employer blanding. Leadership thinks of what employer branding does as the company mascot, hands them pom poms, and expects them to spout nothing but raw positivity. 

Go team! Go team!
Who do we mean?
We'll say it loud,
Because we're proud!

This is about as specific as most companies get.

So if you want to create desire, you have to start by understanding what people will desire about you, which means getting specific (an idea we’re going to dive into in a few laws).

Examples

I have yet to see any proof that Google spends any real money on employer branding. And yet, they have topped Universum’s “Most Desired Employers” list for over a decade. 

Why?

Because in their early days, they found ways to be desirable among the “code all night” set in the Bay Area: Offer food, places to crash, snacks and coffee, all at a time when many coders still wore ties to work. They were seen as the best of both worlds: start-up credibility and freedom, but the stability and growth of a far more established company.

That feeling helped them attract so many applicants, that (according to rumor) Google often ignored the raw tonnage of applicants in theATS and only looked at candidates who were referred by someone internal.

That’s the power of desire. Get it right, make it real, and you’ll never want for quality applicants again.

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Hey, can I ask a weird favor? Can you go over to my LinkedIn profile and endorse me for Employer Brand, Employer Branding and EVP?

Think of this as a kind of experiment: LinkedIn now wants to share content from people with expertise, and I suspect one of the ways they know someone is an expert is through their endorsed skills.

Thanks! I appreciate it!

***This Newsletter Contains No ChatGPT***

-James Ellis [LinkedIn] [Website]

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