Which Assets Will Add Value To Your Performance?

Titles are just part of the allure. This time, however, before putting it to work to get you the restart you want, you’ll at least enter the process with your eyes wide open. Open them, for example, to the reality that the standard hiring process seduces us with inflated titles and lavish job descriptions meant to impress and, in a sense, to distract and very nearly anesthetize us. Strategy officer responsible for developing, communicating, and executing corporate strategic initiatives! Vice president for marketing in charge of facilitating growth and driving sales! They are big titles projecting the need for an exorbitant amount of required experiences and acquired skills, and almost no single individual could possibly have all the listed job requirements. Well, at least the requirements they post online. I’ll say something else about these corporate titles. Well, when I got there, I again realized I was part of a crowd. These titles don’t really mean a thing. They just feed your ego, and for that reason, they’re another tool the company can use to engage your enthusiasm and loyalty at almost no cost. Their goal is to cast as wide a net as possible to ensure that they can choose from the biggest possible pool of candidates. For those of us applying for the job with the alluring title, however, that means that we start out the job search deflated, knowing that our qualifications are a bit short of the mark. To understand the strategy, put yourself in the place of the companies doing the hiring.

A Brand New Day

Seen through their eyes, the whole process is a somewhat scary liability threat. Personnel is one of the most important variables in any organization. People spend more time than that before they accept a first date! The process is set up for you to fail. It is aimed at efficiency. Plus people as unhappy in their current job as you are in yours. Now these folks are looking to restart their careers. Count on lots of competition. And accept the reality that overstated job descriptions are a mirage of perfection. Best position and place to be, and wow! You should be flattered that you’ve even been considered to interview for a job you’re not even remotely qualified for. To do that, you need to assume the company’s point of view and devise a strategy that shows the company that hiring you will reduce the liability threat built into its hiring process. I personally executed this strategy eight times in my almost ten years of working in the system. How do you do it? Tim, the decision maker, has also read a lot of résumés and cover letters in his career, has conducted more interviews than he can count, and knows how to interpret what he reads and hears.

Staying True To Your Heart

To do that, you will, in each of those formats in which you connect with him, present yourself as the individual who for the lowest cost and with the least trouble will provide the company the strengths it seeks. The process you must complete for Tim is the same process the artificial intelligence technology now uses to search and scan all résumés that mirror the posted job description. The vast majority of applications, including yours and mine, are tossed. You have got to go the direct route, outthinking the system and beating it before it beats you. In fact, the direct route will also reduce your own turnover risk. Throwing as many applications as possible against the corporate wall just multiplies your chances of getting no response whatsoever. One sharply reasoned attempt aimed precisely at Tim’s liability risk has a better chance of a response. What will show that to Tim? Of course, every job is different, and every company has its own ways of doing things. Even the monstrosity of Amazon has a system in which a referral from a highly regarded employee sends your application right to the top. Good luck trying to submit an application blind without that kind of referral. For example, the chances are good that Tim and the hiring manager would like to hire somebody who has the skill set, the experience, the energy, and the temperament to be able to step into the job this morning, quickly master procedures unique to the company, and by the end of the day be in charge. And of course he wants to retain top talent.

It's Okay To Look Back

In addition, Tim knows all too well that technological change and the spread of artificial intelligence may well affect all aspects of the company and its industry, and he wants someone who is both equipped to understand such changes and flexible enough to implement them successfully. Finally, he wants someone who can train their own successor as they move up from or out of the position. Find ways to show Tim and the hiring manager you would end up reporting to that you fit the profile of an individual who can answer all those concerns, and you’ll lower the temperature of their liability worries. Where should this strategy of reducing liability threat start? Right at the beginning of the process, with the creation of your brand. When I was starting out in my career, I thought of my brand as the characteristics that would tell people how to think about me. I saw it really as showing how I wanted to be perceived. It is a strategy with absolutely no longevity. Because nothing about such a brand will correlate with who you really are or the job you can and want to do. Of course everybody applying for a particular position is going to claim expertise in the basic qualifications set forth in the job posting. Instead of that, think hard about the singular, specific, detailed assets of personal strength and professional capability over and above what it says in the posting. Which assets will add value to your performance? That’s the brand you want printed on the minds of those who are doing the hiring.