MARTIN'S MAGIC FORMULA FOR GETTING THE RIGHT JOB

Tried and true formula, maybe. But magic? Well. . . .Martin's equation for job-hunting success involves one part individual-of-particular-capabilities (""You are You-nique""); five much-abused words deleted from pitiful vocabularies (not incidentally, Martin also penned The Word Watcher's Handbook, 1977); ten salient questions (five that the interviewer is bound to ask you, and you'd better be prepared to answer; five that you should ask about the organization in question); and 15 ways in which you'd be an asset on the company payroll. That aside, this offers the standard suggestions for personal appearance, rÉsumÉs, cover letters, etc., with some rather idiosyncratic exceptions: apropos of distracting personal-appearance quirks, we are told to ""Get the glasses fixed and get rid of the toothpicks."" Clearly, this is written for the underside of the market. self-quizzes every other step; lists of phrases to discard (from ""can't hardly"" to heartrendering); pep talks about taking rejection as a challenge. But it is nice and zippy, and its basic thrust is sound enough, so at worst it's innocuous, at best intermittently helpful.