Mind your manners
Why you MUST send a thank you note – no matter what
Assertion is a most noble practice.
It is “yes” about power in time or experience of powerlessness, but also about legacy making – a thing I speak on A LOT. Why? Because it is so essential.
There is a great deal in the job search trajectory that robs us of power – literally and impressionistically. This goes to client and customer generation, too.
(Think: standing on a mountaintop, in the rain, pants down, wet socks, wind, and your blow out fucking ruined, and you are there!)
Add to that being courteous is in NO WAY a straight line to getting hired. It, like so much resume sending, is a shot in the dark. A blind pitch, a driverless car set for nowhere in particular, and a possible waste of energy, right? I write this and hear myself returning to that great phrase: “Why bother?”
I have a rule – want to hear it?! As soon as I think, lest say that, or anything along the lines of “who cares”, “what does it matter”, or “there is no point”, that is a trigger to do it anyway. Such phrases are keystones, lightbulbs, little devils on my authenticity and integrity shoulder seeking to steer me away from the better angels of my ambition.
Let us take one of my arch enemies as an example: LinkedIn. No, I get it. LinkedIn is a resource, and many folks do well there. Hell, I encourage my clients, industry dependent, on more than a few tested tactics to leverage those LinkedIn connections and communities.
So, no, not without value. What I HATE about LinkedIn is that it severs as a community avatar. We all participate in a gamble, a shell game, to garner connections and links to make ourselves look more impressive to others grabbing for leads and too busy to see or notice ours. Or, one day we aim to assault a random connection to random connect us with some other person they don’t “know”, but only have as some third or seventeenth tier lead. Nothing could be more vague, grey, dehumanizing, and exploitive. I mean this, AND I do so as someone who exists and is talking to you now from the … what?! … internet. The presentation, vastness, metrics, etc. of LinkedIn make it an obtuse, career one-up-person-ship I get stomach sick even speaking on.
Add to that the other sin of the “quick apply” wow! Way to build a “great wall” between you and the job. More truthfully – it is hiding.
This is you: pointing, clicking, and forgetting, all from the dangerous convivence of your iPhone. All the while set in deplorable posture; throw pillow under your head, rescue dog on your chest. Relatable: yes. Accomplished: no.
So that happens and, the next day, your career coach (played by Tracy Michele Bullock) asks you: Did you follow up?
“No. It as a LinkedIn posting” and/or “It was a job portal” and/or a million other excuses that are aging me faster than all the red wine, weed, and cigarettes could ever hope to.
People hire people
That is the beginning of a mind retraining about how to approach the job search shuffle. Interviews are straightforward and very, very binary. You get the job, or you do not. Simple and also really exclusive, furthering a paradigm if ‘win’ and ‘lose’. Agreed?
Given that, what if… the conversation experienced expansion and we looked at the above process as the beginning of a dialogue between ourselves and an organization and the individuals that support and participate in it.
Roles and jobs are punishingly specific, but the humanistic connections endlessly malleable and transferable.
Did you know the very people interviewing you are career accelerators themselves? They don’t aim to park it either, just like you! They are committed to looking forward and moving on. Just like you, dammit.
Get on that email. Write a note, even after a solo resume submission, like your very life depends on it. Even if it is eaten by the ether. Doing so becomes a practice in serene connection-seeking and goodwill self-initiative taking that shall and does serve you best.
I am inclined to offer a “how to” break down of the above, but am rather going to get a bit crazy, and not. I am leaving you to your best and better instincts. Try it. Don’t wait to be told by me. I know best, but the discovery – as maddening as you may and shall find it – is more of my interest here.
Lastly, longwinded but in conclusion, I wish to welcome my business owner and freelancer friends. In short(ish) this applies to you, too! More so, in fact. It is all about the “long sell”; don’t aim to hop-into-bed with every inquiry. You will get roughed up and more disappointed than you know.
Accept that clients and customers seek you for one reason and will likely stick with you for a very different other. It is essential if longevity is your plan to allow them the same.
Are they not “hiring” or “buying” at present? So what? Allow them to have their trajectory. Your patience, I promise, will too serve you well. It shall be maddening, but fruitful, nonetheless.
Need evidence? Hi. Have we met? My name is Tracy Michele Bullock. I am a career and creativity coach. Generosity is my business plan, and patience my ethos. I am doing well, and only want the same for you.
