Insecure in an interview?
A common problem that I see people run into when they are recruiting for a new job is that they they feel like they have some sort of weaknesses on their resume.
They think something about their background or experience is a disadvantage and that they need to explain it away or compensate for it.
Let me give you another way of thinking about this.
I want you to look at whatever you think is a gap or a deficiency in your experience and ask yourself: How is this is an asset and not a liability?
Let me give you some examples.
Let’s say you’re recruiting for a company, and you don’t use their product.
And you’re like, “Yikes, that’s not good. Let me quickly go use their product or explain away why I don’t use their product, because I really should be using their product.”
And a way of turning that into an asset is to say—
“I’m actually in their target demographic. Reasonably speaking, I should be using their product.
So why am I not using it?
What kind of gap in their marketing, messaging, or product delivery is this revealing?”
This is an opportunity for you to do an n=1 analysis of yourself and then showcase your analysis of the situation.
Or let’s say you feel like you don’t have direct experience in the role you’re recruiting for.
Like, “I haven’t specifically been a product manager before, and I’m recruiting for product manager roles.”
Even if you haven’t done exactly the same thing, look at your past experience and say: How is this an asset?
What skills did you develop?
What processes did you run?
What problems did you solve?
None of that is a liability.
All of it is an asset.
There’s nothing to explain away.
There’s nothing to apologize for or feel weird about or try to hide.
So look at your whole resume and ask yourself:
How is everything on here an asset for this next role, not a liability?
PS—
What do you think determines your ability to land the role you want?
Tactics? Preparation? Experience? Connections?
Those things all help too…
But you know what I think is the most important? Emotional management.
Deciding on, recruiting for, and landing your next role requires going through LOTS of emotions.
Confusion. Self-doubt. Insecurity. Rejection.
Even elation (when you get the role) and trepidation (once you actually have to start :)
The core skill I teach my clients is how to manage, listen to, and process your emotions.
How to shift their thinking and shift their emotions, when they’re being unhelpful.
How to LISTEN to their emotions and follow their wisdom, when they contain a valuable insight.
And how to allow strong emotional reactions to pass through their body and process out of their system so they can make clear-eyed decisions in the calm after the storm.
If you can do those three things, not only can you land the job you want, but you can create the life you want.
So let’s start building those skills today.
What my clients have to say…
“Pooja strikes a really strong balance between troubleshooting immediate problems but at the same time, really tying in that there are tools I need to solve all my problems.
And that even though a problem I run into this week is different from a problem I run into next week, you can use the same frameworks to work your way out of it.
Now, I feel like I have a nice tool chest of frameworks and habits that I can rely on that not just change my work life, but also my personal life too.”
—Ashley | VP at Major Financial Institution
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