What are you selling?
That question is frequently in my mind when clients tell me how hard they find it to get a job…after they’ve ranted and raved about all their many flaws and insecurities; after the clients have, essentially, given me a million reasons not to hire them. I sort of want to say, “Are you deliberately giving employers a plethora of reasons to reject you? Because they’re already looking for reasons to not hire you, you really don’t need to help them.” I find myself wondering what these people are really selling. Are they selling their abilities or their fears? Fear’s a boring thing to push, just ask Congress.
If you’ve grit your teeth and mustered your courage enough to get the interview, that’s fantastic, but this is NOT the time to freak out and start thinking of all the reasons you suck, and why you’ll never get the job, and why you don’t deserve to be happy. That sob story ain’t helpful. However, this IS the time to give yourself as many pep talks as necessary, to spend time with friends, colleagues, mentors who are going to remind you of all the reasons why you’re awesomesauce, so you can go in to your interview and sell your strengths not your weaknesses.
Listen, from a hiring manager’s POV, they simply can’t, in good faith, hire someone who spends the majority of the interview outlining their own flaws, and whining, and talking smack about their own experience. That person is a train wreck waiting to happen, and any HR manager who hires that person is a danger both to their company, and their own career. True story: I remember, at a certain network, when one of the managers hired a assignment editor who gave new definition to the word, “incompetent,” the other managers made their displeasure with the manager and his lack of common sense abundantly clear. So clear, in fact, that within six months, he was transferred off the NY desk. The general feeling being that he simply couldn’t be trusted.
Now you, reading this, I know you can be trusted. You’re reading this, after all. You want something more. That is awesome. And guess what, Sunshine? I also think you deserve more. So, next time you get an interview, or the next time you’re ready to start creating the opportunities necessary to getting the interview(s) you want, take a deep breath and go in ready to sell all of your POSITIVE qualities and experience. Give employers a reason to see you as an asset to their team, not as dead weight. It’s like a date: you want the hiring manager to go home with a big ole stupid smile plastered on her face. You want her to spend the evening writing your name in her Trapper Keepers in pink glitter ink, sighing, and giggling.
Seriously, you got an interview? Cool! Shoot me an email, and we’ll schedule a time for you to rant to me about all the reasons you suck, and then once you’ve expelled that bile, you’ll go in and nail the interview. I do it with clients all the time. A good 40% of this job is, I swear, talking crying people down off the ledge. (And people said those years in network news were useless…ha!)
Just remember: the world will grind you down like coffee. The world is tough enough. You don’t need to help the world kick your ass. You need to help yourself create the (better) life you deserve. Become a fan of my Facebook page, “Carlotaworldwide Creativity Yenta,” and shoot me an email at carlotazee@gmail.com, and then hold on while I shake up a cocktail. Ready, set, rant!