More ways baseball is like a job search

More thoughts on the job search = baseball analogy:

1. What gets measured gets done. Measuring performance improves performance. There are a zillion statistics kept on every aspect of the game of baseball and each ballplayer's individual performance.

Why? Because they inform decisions that improve performance: if a player bats much higher against righties than lefties, the decision will be made for him to sit out against opposing left-handed pitchers. Improve results in your job search by measuring the specifics of your job search.

2. You can have an absolute stinker of a few days, like all the Seattle sports teams did this weekend - and still need to go back out the next week and start a new campaign.

3. It can help you get out of a slump by radically shaking things up. Break your game down to the very basics, then build it back up from there.

4. Streaks are made to be broken. Ichiro's long-standing streak of never going longer than two games without a hit was broken this weekend, starting with him doing #9 (from Friday's list) and getting tossed from Saturday's game.

5. A broken streak won't keep any player out of a game; they'll shrug it off and start another streak of one in the next game.

6. Part of coaching is taking the heat for your players. When Ichiro argued the strike call with the ump, Wak immediately ran out and got between them. Coaches know their job is to deliver the tough message that will get them thrown out instead of their players. Still, if the team isn't performing, the coach will be scapegoated.

7. Anyone can go from "Hero to Goat" or from "Goat to Hero" with one play.

8. Showing what you can do trumps saying what you can do every time.