“No one makes you feel inferior without your consent.” –Eleanor Roosevelt
This article is about how we get in our own way to go and conquer what could otherwise rightfully be ours! These two stories are the most recent encounters I have had with two clients: One in his early 50s and another in his mid-20s.
So, without further ado let me just tell you their stories and how they overcame their own limiting beliefs (names are disguised):
Karim Hasan came from India 25-plus years back and progressed well to become a software QA Manager until he was laid off in 2003. Before the layoff, he was aspiring to be promoted to the director position, but his hopes were dashed when the ax fell. It took him nearly a year of intense search before he found a job as a QA Manager at another software company. He worked there for two years and was, once again, laid off as the company was reorganized and later fell on hard times.
Karim kept looking for comparable jobs for over six months but was unable for find any openings as a QA Manager in the software or high-tech industry. Frustrated, he approached me and said with great resignation that he had given up his hopes of ever becoming a director and that he was even willing to settle for a job as a QA Lead. When pressed why he would surrender his dream so readily, Karim replied with a sigh that he needed to land just any job to get re-employed and to start earning money again.
When I asked him if he had looked for any director-level openings in companies where he could work, he gave me that resigned look, and laughingly said that he did not even considered that a possibility. “Who is going to give a director-level job to a person who is jobless and who has been laid off twice as a manager?” was his refrain. Then he gave me that unmistakably wistful look!
After what seemed like an interminable pause, I asked Karim if he would be interested in re-visiting his dream and pursuing it with a renewed purpose. After some hemming and hawing, he said that if I could show him how to go after such jobs that he would put some effort into it. He wanted assurances from me that he would get such a job if he tried. Of course, I could not, but assured him that the effort was worth a try if he was willing put his energy into it.
The next step was for Karim to go and search for QA Director jobs. He found one posted by a major high-tech company in the Silicon Valley. The catch was that the job was in India for the first two years and then it was going to move back to the US. He also found two other director-level jobs that were based in the local area but they did not excite him. After some research, we found that a stint in India, especially as a QA Director would be a great boon to Karim’s career. A two-year stint in a hot place such as Hydrabad, India, Karim could master the off shoring experience and come back as an even more marketable candidate if the company chose not to retain him here.
Now, Karim got excited and started being energized about the prospects of going after the job and getting that valuable experience under his belt. He still was diffident about the whole selection process, though.
His alacrity inspired me to jump in and start laying out a plan.
The first step was burnishing his resume message, which needed to project an executive image. The second step was a well-researched cover letter. The cover letter briefly laid out the challenges the company’s off shoring efforts could be facing (this was researched from recent media coverage and some discussions with insiders we both knew at that company) and how Karim’s expertise would fit well to meet these challenges head-on.
Within days, Karim got a phone call interview from the recruiter and then the local hiring manager. Karim was very coachable, so he did well in both those rounds. The next step was face-to-face with three others at the local headquarters of the company. Using the insights from the first two rounds, Karim was able to prepare himself for the third round and he aced that as well. This was followed by specific thank you notes to each interviewer addressing issues that surfaced in the interview.
Needless to say within a week Karim got the offer and after some negotiations, decided to take the job.
Karim starts his job in India on March 1, 2007!
The second story belongs to 25-year old John Hubert, who graduated from Brown University, a prestigious Ivy League school in Providence, RI. Although he had graduated with a B-Minus average nearly 18 months back, the courses he chose for his bachelor’s degree had made him a less attractive candidate in the job market. Philosophy and other “soft” course that crowded his transcripts made him a less desirable candidate for jobs as a financial analyst or other business-oriented jobs.
All his classmates had long since been employed in the industry and businesses as financial analysts, business analysts, or had gone on to join the State Department as Interns. Since his classmates had given him leads at companies where they worked, he had been invited to many interviews during these moths but was never able to get past the first round.
As John was about to give up his efforts to land a job as a degreed professional he came to me to ask what he could do, short of applying for a job at a local Radio Shack outlet. After reviewing his background and how he had fared in the interviews during the past 18 months, I explored to see if he could pursue some other line of work than being a financial or business analyst. John could not see any clear possibility, either. It was clear that this was going to be difficult with his credentials.
As I was exploring John’s skills ( his “genius” or Unique Skills) I discovered that John had an exceptional talent for presenting really complex data in a lucid and friendly way; something, that even he was unaware of.
This was a eureka moment for both of us in our attempts at packaging his message. So, now, armed with this insight we re-packed John’s message, not as a financial analyst, but as someone how can take the work of financial analysts and present it to those who are going to be making decisions based on that analysis. So, although John responded to the open jobs for financial analysts, in the cover letter and in the resume, the focus was not so much on his skills as a financial analyst, but more as someone who brings that analysis to life for those who are going to act on it!
Well, that was the breakthrough that we needed. The next job that opened up for a financial analyst was John’s salvation and within three rounds of interviews John landed not as a financial analyst but as a lead presenter who would work with five other analysts to package and present the data, with some added job perks that the analysts did not have!
So, what is the point of these two stories? Well, I think that we need to look at ourselves little more openly and be ready to consider higher possibilities if the ones that you are targeting are rebelling against you! Preposterous as it sounds, it works.
All it takes is a shift of mind and some moxy!
Good luck!