Why You're Un-hirable: Applying like your life depended on it and dying nonetheless
You have had your resume revised twice. The first two were recommendations from your Grad School advisor. She said it was wise to get two sets of expert eyes on it.
Each cost $600 a pop. No bother. It was 2018 and your Granddad had just died. Wait, that isn't good. What you “REALLY” mean is: Pa’s passing led to an unusually flush year. Three sons only had one daughter, and
Grandpa always loved you best. Boo hoo, thank you very much, UES studio condo, mourning, therapy, school loans sussed out, and resume revised. Again, twice.
This is NOT a “money wasted” post. No, the investment - if not the price tag - was totally a valid way to shoot off some scratch. 1) You have never been the most adept spell checker, 2) you overwrite EVERYTHING, and 3) font matters, yo!
The resulting CV is like the David of resumes. Really. The paper could blind an astronaut. Sonnets might be inspired. Recruiters have offered compliments - in the same sentence they serve rejections.
Yup - that is what this post is about: the professional face plants. Face down with my best intentions forward.
One would think you would get like a bizzillion interview offers, second rounds, higher salaries than ever imagined raining down - $100 bill ScarFace style. But nope. Nada. Nothing. No rounds. No calls. No likes after networking events.
You get a blow out and you STILL bomb. What is it that is in the air…?
Oh, I’ll tell you! You may be a deft professional, but you cannot land a sale to save your life. Getting hired is not an entirely authentic process. It is a lot about positioning and pitching. A campaign, if you will.
That may dim your love light a bit, but happiness is not my business - success is. I am not asking you to be excited about that - but you still have to get it. There is a fantasy that hustle is some utopia of entrepreneurship.
If anyone comes at you with that - run. Throwing oneself out there is never going to be exquisite. It is work, but this is work, after all. And there is a space between reason and the runaround.
Your “job” is to make peace with what it - you - look like from the outside, from a “consumer” perspective. Forget imposter syndrome or any other terminology in the lexicon that compartmentalizes and thus stagnates your trajectory. This is about your ability to gage the true ROI of your outreach.
The “why” you are not getting action is that you are not taking ownership of your messaging. Job searching is - as unromantic as this may be - a career convenience store. The glossiest, greenest, wisely priced, referenced, not too new, not too stale, but bright and right.
Try this trifecta of tools on for size:
Name your Career Campaign Platform. A post mortem activity, to enter the interview from the backside. Picture this: Your Interviewer ends the call. Their colleague asks them: Hey! How was that interview? What was she like? Choose what you are to be known for -that is your Profession Platform. Every answer or ask is to nail that Campaign.
How do you work best? What are your ride or die needs from 1) Any gig 2) THIS gig (i.e. what will make - 7 months from now - you not dread each day. Secret: it is NOT money.)? Name three RoD aims. Choose two questions to assess each- implicitly, for explicitly doing so shows your hand and/or will get you a dishonest answer. Don’t know your RoD -think back on the last two jobs you held. What sucked about the minutiae of each day - minute by minute? Presto!
With whom do you speak? The way to direct, I use that word choicefully, an interview depends on the impact the interviewer is to have on 1) the ultimate decision, and 2) your day to day should you come aboard. Ex: the person you are replacing vs their supervisor; an HR representative vs the CEO. Chaotic companies stage interviews as such - too many cooks in the corporate kitchen. The cast of the interview is telling as to who and how the company operates. Also, one is to “sell” differently to differentiated customers and types. The Campaign delivered to different constituencies.
Inspired BUT still all thumbs? Never fear - get an ace in your awesomeness hole - the door is always open at the office of THIS Career Coach. Group classes too!
Come on over, be that bright spot, sparkly and strategic. Budding and booked!
