The job market is getting better, but it's still a long process to get a good job in lots of industries. One of the most common questions we hear from job-seekers is "How do you think I stack up compared to my competitors -- the other people who are competing with me for the same jobs?"
It's easy to see why job-seekers would ask this question. We've been taught since we were kids that job-seekers are in fierce competition with one another. When we apply for a job and we get a 'no thank you' note, the message almost always talks about our competitors for the same job.
"There were so many talented candidates, and it's so hard to choose among them!" says the typical brush-off message.
The good news is that the brush-off note is lying. It isn't hard to choose among the people who apply for jobs, because people are so different. If we are honest, most hiring managers know within ten minutes when they meet the person they are going to hire.
They don't get through a round of five or six interviews with job-seekers and then say "Let's go back to the resumes and see which of these candidates has more certifications or more years of experience with our favorite software packages."
Hiring is a human activity. People hire people they trust and feel comfortable with. That's not a bad thing.
Would you want to take a job working for someone who hired you because he or she was forced to, based on the fact that your resume matched the hiring specifications more closely than anyone else's did?
You already know how it works. If your manager doesn't like you or vice versa, you're going to hate the job.
Once we remember that hiring is a human activity no different from making ham sandwiches or playing beach volleyball, we can relax and stop worrying about our 'competitors' for jobs.
When I was a baby soprano taking buses and trains all over Chicago to audition for regional opera productions, I used to obsess about the other girls. I knew most of them.
We were friends, but we were competing for roles nonetheless. My voice teacher Winifred set me straight.
"The last thing you should ever worry about is the competition," she said. "The conductor has a picture in his mind, or her mind.
"They know the kind of sound they want, and the physical type of the person they see in the role. That's not good or bad.
"Sometimes they want corn flakes, and sometimes they want raisin bran. You won't have any way to know what they're looking for, and you wouldn't have any way to change your voice to conform to that ideal even if you knew what it was. So, forget about it! Just go out there and sing your song."
Winifred is a patron saint in the Human Workplace!
The other people who apply for the same jobs you do are not competitors with you. That is a nasty lie perpetrated by people who have a vested interest in disempowering job seekers.
If the job seekers can be focused on besting one another, they might not notice that the jobs they're fighting over (in their minds -- not in reality) are not necessarily worthy of their talents in the first place!
If you approach your job search from the standpoint "I hope I am as good as the other candidates" you are already sunk. If you think that way, you'll be focused on the degree to which your background matches the job spec. That would be the worst way for you to approach your job search, because the written job spec has very little in common with the actual job.
A hiring manager has a problem. If there were no problem, the organization wouldn't be hiring. They'd save their money. They only hire people when the cost of the problem they're facing is greater than the cost of your salary and a desk.
They never tell you what the problem is, in their job ads. Heavens, no! That would air their dirty laundry. They would rather tell you that it's a great privilege to work for them. Don't believe that for one second. When you get a job offer, it's because your manager believes that you can solve his or her problem. Isn't that reassuring?
Rather than spend your energy down in the mud focused on beating out the other people vying for the same job, think higher -- think about talking to your hiring manager about something different from the written job spec and the endless list of bulleted requirements.
Talk to your hiring manager about his or her Business Pain, instead.
If you are a new college grad on your first career-type job hunt, I'll be happy for you if the company recruiter tells you "You are one of the three finalists who will meet the VP next week."
That will be great news! You will be happy to be included in that small group of contenders for the job, and not just because it means you have a one-in-three chance of getting the offer.
Once you've been chosen for a short list of finalists, your confidence will grow. If these people are looking for corn flakes and you're more of a raisin bran type, somebody else will hire you and be thrilled to have you on the team.
If you've been in the workplace for awhile, I encourage you to shoot higher than just to make a list of finalist candidates. I want your hiring manager to drive home from work after your interview, humming a happy tune and making up lyrics that include your name, like this:
Megan Smith, Megan Smith will solve my biggest problem, thank you Megan
For showing up today when I was about to jump out the window! Megan, how did you know
My inventory reports are useless and I'm losing my mind?
Who cares -- you knew, and you showed up to say
"I can get your inventory reports where they need to be!"
Megan, Megan, Megan, I hope I can afford you!
This is what happens when the frame-shaking candidate comes in and changes an interview from a boring list of questions and answers to a pithy, authentic conversation about pain and solutions. Megan came for her interview with Bart the hiring manager today, and she completely shifted Bart's thinking.
Megan didn't sit passively and answer Bart's scripted questions. She asked Bart questions, instead. She showed Bart the light. She reminded him that the problem with the inventory reports is not just Bart's problem, but a problem for a lot of other people, including SEC regulators and Bart's boss's boss.
Inaccurate inventory reporting isn't a small thing. Megan spent a lot of time before her interview thinking about Bart's most likely Business Pain.
When she got to the interview, she took every opportunity to spin the table and learn more about that pain. By the halfway point in Megan's interview, Bart knew he wanted to hire her. Forget about the short list of top three candidates -- no one else even came close!
No one else treated the interview like a consulting conversation. Bart was actually afraid to ask Megan about her salary requirements, so he foisted that task off on Genevieve, his internal recruiter.
Bart is driving home singing a song about Megan and praying that she'll take the job at $75K, the amount Bart has in his budget.
Bart doesn't know that Megan had already set her salary target at $75K. He is going to be extremely happy when he hears from Genevieve that Megan may very well accept his offer -- as long as Megan can keep the four weeks vacation she earned at her last job. Bart knows that inventory accuracy is a lot more important to him than a week or two of extra vacation time!
It's a new day. The Human Workplace is already here. Forget about job-search competition and zero in on hiring managers and the pain that keeps them up at night. No one can compete with you when you take the interview conversation out of the realm of comparison and up to an altitude where you can soar!
