New Book Alert: The Job Seeker & The Coach: How to Rescue and Fast Track Your Job Search In No Time by Hamza Zaouali; Good Job Seeking Advice in Story Form

New Book Alert: The Job Seeker & The Coach: How to Rescue and Fast Track Your Job Search In No Time by Hamza Zaouali; Good Job Seeking Advice in Story Form

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Books for job seekers often get repetitive after awhile, especially if you spent a long time job searching. Many say the same things: have someone look over your resume. Make sure it has action verbs and is free of errors before you send it. Make sure you show up early for your interview and are dressed nicely. Don't forget to send a thank you note and then follow up on your interview.

Then there is the advice that is contradictory. Have an objective or a summary. No don't have one, the hiring manager looks over it. Make your resume one page, so it's easy to skim. No, make it two so you can emphasize your skills. Apply only to certain jobs because the job market is tough. No, the sky's the limit, apply anywhere! Have a cover letter to look professional. No, no one has time to read it.


It can be incredibly headache inducing and discouraging when you follow the advice and don't see results right away. You follow the books and steps almost religiously. So, where is your job? Are you following the wrong advice and reading the wrong books? It is a stressful time made worse by the constant barrage of well meaning, but at times difficult advice.


Sometimes, it helps if the job searching book is written in a fresh unique way. That's where Hamza Zaouali's The Job Seeker and The Coach comes in. Instead of just a typical how to book with bullet points, resume samples, and do's and don't's with faceless job seekers, Zaouali writes his book as a session between one job seeker and her coach. He gives his advice in story form. This approach gives the book more immediacy and makes the advice more personal than the sometimes objective condescending manner that other authors sometimes give to Readers.


The eponymous job seeker (the Everyseeker, if you will) is named Lisa, a woman who has been terminated from her sales position in Dubai. After a discouraging time with vague interviews and recruiters, she is recommended to try the Three Circles Coach (assumed to be Zaouali himself).

The first thing The Coach does is probably one of the hardest things that a job seeker hears, but is necessary. Lisa, like many job seekers, is concerned about exterior issues. The job market is slow. She is the wrong gender or the wrong skin color. She is in the wrong place. There aren't any open positions with her experience and skills and she can't move. All of the things that job seekers tell themselves, fearing the stacked deck against them and longing to just give up.

The Coach shoots each rationale down with "Other people have jobs, why not you?"

While The Coach acknowledges these outside problems, he refuses to let Lisa acquiesce to them and use them as excuses to give up. He encourages her to be more active and continue to search. While she can't necessarily do anything about those external forces, she can change herself and her internal forces. Lisa, and in turn Job Seekers reading about her, can improve their own confidence by strengthening their chances despite the negative outlook by turning into effective job seekers.


The Three Circles that the coach suggests are the three steps every job seeker goes through. Marketing (How the Job Seeker searches for work and writes their resume), Sales (How the Job Seeker presents themselves in interviews and advertises their skills and experience), and Service to Others (How the Job Seeker uses the job search to help Employers, and in turn themselves, achieve results).

Zaouali's writing treats the job search like a business in which the Seeker advertises themselves for the employer who is thought of as a client. Job Seekers can develop their brand and marketing skills to increase their opportunities and impact in a future business. When a Job Seeker shows an uncanny business savviness in advertising themselves, they already tell the employer that they have excellent marketing, sales, and customer service skills.


In her search, Lisa goes through the usual steps of resume sending, interviewing, following up, and waiting all with The Coach giving the various steps on what to do next. Zaouali updates most of the advice to a current 2020 audience that is aware of a changing job market and that they need to change with it to be more accessible. Some advice seems different from what many seekers are used to.

For example, instead of Job Seekers putting their full address, Zaouali advises Lisa and the Readers to put a target location where they would like to live and work, so they appear available to relocate if need be. (The point of the resume is to get the interview. Don't let unwillingness to travel be a barrier between the seeker and their dream job, Zaouali says.)

The Job Seeker is also encouraged to showcase skills with a table to emphasize their abilities and expertise. Important skills such as team management, administrative work, and computer languages can be placed into such a table to let the employer know exactly what they are looking for. It also illustrates the skills of which the Seeker writes.


Networking is also highlighted in this book, particularly for the hidden job market. Social Media and the Internet can be useful fountains of information to find available jobs before they are advertised to the general public. Groups, Facebook Friends, and LinkedIn Contacts are very helpful in locating openings.

While the book doesn't mention how the market in 2020 has changed for obvious pandemic-sized reasons, it does mention how networking can be used to assist for those issues. The book allows the Reader to embrace the possibility of remote employment as well as researching companies that are good fits for the potential employee. (Nowadays, it is particularly important to research how well the company values the health and safety of its employees and customers.)


The Coach also says that any type of work can be used as gainful experience. Writing blog articles or reviewing products for example show a strong writing ability as well as a desire to remain involved in one's chosen field despite unemployment or under employment.

Anything can be used for a good experience whether by staying active in the field or using soft skills (skills that are needed anywhere like customer service, technical proficiency etc.).


Through Lisa's experiences, the Reader vicariously witnesses her mistakes. Then they remember their own and seek to improve them. When Lisa bombs her first interview by giving vague examples and not asking follow up questions, the Reader cringes in embarrassment and sympathy. Then they remember how often they do that and vow like Lisa to do better next time.

When Lisa doesn't take an interview seriously because it's not a field in which she is interested, the Coach and the Reader remind her that every interview is a learning experience and that she, and we, should be our professional best every time.

Lisa makes the same errors and has the same victories that her Readers do. When she markets and sells herself and performs expertly at the interview, it is a victory for her and us when she receives the job.The Job Seeker sees themselves in her and uses her story as a template to their own. Her story reminds her and us that if she can do it, we can do it.

The job search is a long struggle. It's never fun and always stressful. Sometimes it feels like a thousand eyes are staring at you, watching how you dress, speak, and even what you put on the Internet. It feels like one long dog and pony show that can drag on for weeks, months, even years. But when we find that great job, market ourselves to the best of our ability, and exhibit a willingness to serve the employer's needs and contribute to their mission.

When we get that great career, then books like The Job Seeker and The Coach are guideposts that show us that the long search is worth it.

The first three chapters are available to be downloaded for free at http://bit.ly/39cPs9c