There is one thing that's certain in this uncertain world and that's this:

If this book were a job, by the time you read this far you would have gotten it already. Or blown it already.

And if you don't think that's so, you've come to the right place. This book.

It will let you in on the biggest and best-kept secret about job hunting. A secret so big that most employers don't even know what it is, even though they are run by it. A secret so well-kept that even if you've stumbled onto it, you haven't been willing to accept it or believe it.

If, by the way, you do think the opening statement is true and completely agree with it, you've still come to the right place.

Agreeing means you have an insight or a feeling about the real process of screening and selecting job applicants. If so, this book will sharpen that insight into a finely-honed tool that works by cutting through all the problems, the doubt, the frustration, and the anxiety about getting a job. Totally and completely. Whenever you're looking for work.

Either way, you can't lose. Which is how it's supposed to be. In getting jobs. In life. In everything. You see, if you've been losing, it only means that you didn't understand the game. From now on, you will. Especially when it comes to getting a job.

It's worth noting that the same understanding of how the game works applies across the board. You'll get the principle when you see it in other areas.

Here's how the principle works when you’re selecting an apartment, for example. You're looking. As you scan the classified ads, your eye automatically stops on that one. Or that one. That one. And maybe that one. Those are the hot listings for you, the ones you follow up on first. The others don't really count. Without thinking about it, you drop them. And when you call each hot listing, this one or that one no longer looks quite so good to you somehow and you shuffle the others into new positions. Later on, when you go to see the apartments, one instantly is perfect. All the variables match. And if no details or small stuff turn into insurmountable obstacles, that's the one you pick.

Here's how it works when you’re looking for a relationship. You want one. So each time you go to a party, a bar, a seminar, the web, or wherever it is that you go to look, your eye automatically stops on that one. Or that one. That one. And maybe that one. Automatically, you drop all the others. Closer contact and conversation instantly reveal that one or two of your initial choices don't look quite so good anymore and you shuffle the others into new positions. By the time you call them up and go to dinner or a movie or a weekend in the Yucatan, one person is instantly perfect. Why? Because all the variables match. And if no details turn into insurmountable obstacles, that's the one you pick.

Speaking of dinner, you're looking at the menu. As you run down the possibilities, your eye automatically stops at the shrimp scampi. Or the prime rib. Or the chef's salad. Or maybe the soup 'n sandwich special. One item is always perfect. And if no insurmountable obstacles like price or "out of it" come up, that's the one you pick. It's the job game principle again. Applied to dinners.

Same goes for the movie later on. And the Yucatan after that instead of Miami, Kansas City, or Hoboken.

And the same also goes for buying a new fall jacket. Selecting a puppy. Checking out the celery or eggplant at the supermarket. You always make your choice on a first impression level. No. No. Yes. No. No. Maybe. That's that. And right after that your mind cuts in and justifies, evaluates, rationalizes, and tells you why you made the choice you did. It also tells you whether it thinks you were right or not. And whether you should, perhaps, reconsider. That's how it works. That's how it always works. In every area of life.

By now, you can see how the same goes for getting a job. With one obvious and very large exception.

When you want to get a job, it's always someone else's game. Or a least that's the way it seems to you at the time. Because someone else performs the automatic process of making an initial selection from whoever is available. And you are only one of the choices.

By now you know how choices work. The selection is made on an instantaneous first impression level. Whether your point of entry is a resume, a telephone call, or an interview, it's all over after the first five seconds. And it all happened way below any conscious level of thought.

So there's nothing you can do about it. Right?

Wrong.

Like anything else, if you don't know how it works all you can do is take your chances. And hope.

But if you do know how it works, you can get it to work for you. And in this case, what that means is: Getting to work where you want to work. Or getting the job you're after.

In 60 seconds.

The secret of doing that is the essence of simplicity.

Here is all you have to do: Just keep your prospective employer's unconscious attention focused directly on you (and off everyone else) in a positive way for a total of one minute during the course of your entire interaction together. That means all of your interaction. Resume. Phone calls. Scouting. Interview. Follow-ups. All that.

This book will tell you how. How you can make first impressions that have a lasting impact. How to pick up extra points and extra seconds of time in traditional games like resumes and interviews and how to expand into creative nontraditional areas that give you a critical edge. How to discover and use the power of your own will and your intention to get that job; not any job but that one job you've got to get in order to do what you want to do. How to plan your strategy. How to scout the territory for style and dress codes. How to recognize good or bad feelings or intuitions about the place. How to handle your follow up. How to get all the way up to the final cut. And beyond it.

How to win, in short, at every stage of the job-hunting game.

Most important of all, this book has been created and organized in a way that will show you how to make the most of the first five seconds of contact. And how to build that important one-up connection through a chain reaction of five-second increments all the way up to 60 seconds. At which point you've got the job.

The whole simple secret unfolds for you: Right here. In breathtaking black and white. And it's liberally sprinkled with stories and case histories about how it works or why it didn't work, in all kinds of industries. From sales, retailing, and fast-food counters to finance, law, and high tech positions. From rural farms to industrial production lines to Madison Avenue ad agencies. From publishers and film studios to top-level Fortune 500 executive suites.

And by the time you finish this book, whatever has been stopping you from getting the kind of job you want will stop stopping you.

You'll know the book worked, by the way, with no questions and no doubts about it. And the way you'll know it is: You'll get a job in 60 seconds.