After going through Praxis, I learned so much about how to land a job, with experience or without. So much of it came from crafting a narrative and investing in a company before you even get hired. I’m amazed as I listen to people now as they talk about their search for a job and how hap-hazard it is.
“Yeah, I applied to several places so now I’ll see what happens.” I shouldn’t be too shocked because if I didn’t go through Praxis I would be doing the exact same thing. There is so much advantage lost when you don’t really put effort into pursuing job opportunities.
Something people often forget and need constant reminding of: Hiring managers are looking for people to hire, not people to disqualify from hiring. People get in this mindset that the hiring manager (or whoever is doing the hiring) is trying to do everything they can to make sure you don’t get the job. That’s no true at all. They are looking for someone who fits the role perfectly. Someone who they know will accomplish the role as efficiently as possible.
The easier you can make their job, the better. Because of this, many people will coach on the different aspects of the hiring process. Whether putting together a quality resume, putting the right info on the application, prep for interviews, etc.
All of that is to help the hiring manager know that you are the best fit for the job. They’re looking at things that qualify you, not things that disqualify you. Yes, the disqualification may come up depending on your history, but even that is part of wanting to qualify you. They are looking for someone who can do the job, not someone they can interview to not do it.
I digress.
After my senior year in high school, I auditioned for a musical with a local theater group in the Wichita area. The musical was Beauty and the Beast. To set the stage correctly (hah…stage…get it?), it’s important to know that I had done some acting before. Never very well and only one or two leads ever. I had NEVER done any singing or dancing. I was a complete noob when it came to those things.
Before going into the audition, I listened to the musical soundtrack probably 20 times, specifically, I listened to all of the guy parts upwards of 50 times. The actual audition portion of getting into the show only involved singing a pre-determined song and a short dance, but I knew if there were callbacks we would be asked to sing/read/dance parts.
I’m an auditory learner, so I know it would be crucial for me to know the songs by heart even by the time the auditions rolled around. I had to know every note because by golly if I couldn’t sing well, I was at least going to sing on pitch.
Long story short, I was clearly the most well-prepared person going into callbacks. I was also clearly not the best actor/singer/dancer. In fact, there were multiple guys there that to this day I believe were and are much better in probably all three categories. But I was so well prepared that I was able to land the part of Beast without having almost any musical theater skill.
I say all of this in light of job interviews.
The secret is that you don’t have to be the most well-qualified to get a job. Yes, you want to have the skills to be able to not flop and no, you obviously don’t want to lie saying you can do something that you can’t (or can’t figure out quickly).
If you can simply do such a good job and prove to someone that you’re willing to work hard, very little after that matters to them. They see your work ethic. You stand out so much because no one else put in the prep time to be able to kill it like you did. So many people are busy submitting 50 applications and resumes that they forget which opportunity they’re interviewing for.
If instead you just focus on a few opportunities, put a ton of work into each one, proving the value you’ve created before and showing the value you’ll create if hired, you’ll surpass 90% of the competition who didn’t do their work to get the “callback.”
Make hiring managers jobs easy by making it clear to them how much they need you on their team.
Don’t be cocky, be indispensable