What is the FIT Mindset? Part-2

The previous blog explored what holds you back and that you have more control than you think.   Achieving a mindset that you are the master of your brand and that you control many aspects of how you engage in career management and job searches is a critical shift.

Sometimes I describe your brand as how you present your strengths, expertise, and value, and how decision makers perceive your strengths, expertise, and value.  You might notice that you control only half of the equation.   How do you believe you can control more of the perception side of the equation?

There’s not one approach to control another person’s perception, but I’ll return to a concept I use in my work with companies.  I teach my clients to reduce the noise so the signal can be heard.   In this case the noise is behaviors that allow negative perceptions to develop. The signal is your message, brand, experience, and value.  If the noise level is too high, you will lose the decision makers attention and engagement.

Realistically, sometimes an interview goes sideways.  Sometimes it’s because of things you control and often it’s because the interviewer is busy, not focused, and distracted because of what they are experiencing.  Sometimes you’ll discover and realize during the interview that the hiring company is likely going through the motions because they already have a candidate.  All we can do is complete the interview, thank the decision makers, assess our performance, and incorporate what we learned into our preparation for the next interviews.  Most importantly, we return to our plan and keep our vision in mind.

Vision and Planning

Simply stated, your vision of what can be and how you can get there.  In the previous blog I talked a lot about the importance of your vision as an anchor for your career management.

If you envision change and think about it in terms of your vision, you’ll be better prepared to understand the constraints, risks, and time involved in making a change.   If change is a promotion or a new role in a company, take time out of your day to learn about the role and how you can best FIT and achieve success.   If the change is finding your first job in your desired career, research the job marketplace for such positions, salaries, and how many jobs are available.

I’ll share an interesting story about a friend’s son.  This fellow was very bright, finishing his PhD on a very complex area of study used in high level AI language processing.  He was at a very prestigious university, at the top of his class, and his prospects seemed great.  That is until I found out that in the US and Canada, only 7-8 of applicable positions in industry and academia opened up every year.  That’s it.  In academia, someone had to basically retire or die.   

Why do I share this story, I believe it is important that our clients understand the odds (probabilities) of getting an entry level job in your desire area.  This is the foundation of all related activities.  The more unique career vision is proportional to the amount of work required to find your desired position.   It’s not only the required work, but also the planning, focus, research, and outreach.   I’m not saying more common roles are necessarily easier, because you’ll be competing against more candidates, which require a different emphasis and focus.  In both cases it’s your responsibility to understand the ecosystem and strategies to get to decision makers.

One of the major strategies we teach our clients is based on lead generation methods developed to find sale leads.  We call it Structured Networking©.   We use Structured Networking to learn about the desired positions of companies of interest.   We study their cultures, values, and leadership to help you to envision your FIT.   We also have methods to find decisions makers and help you get introduced and make connections, even if there aren’t posted positions. 

Often the more specific the job, opportunities lie in the Hidden Jobs Market, requiring direct connection.  For less specific job, the same methods can be used to connect with decisions makers in the hiring department and human resources.  In both case these methods continue inform your decisions around FIT, and allowing you to move into more realistic decision making considering your visions and goals.

Brand It and Sell It!  Notice your methods are derived from best practice sales methods.  This is not a coincidence.  Ultimately, along with mastering your brand and prospective FIT, when given the opportunity, you have to sell yourself in the best light.  Yes, that means you’ll be uncomfortable and will have to promote yourself.

Self-Promotion, a Sin or Virtue?

Is self-promotion a sin or a virtue.  It’s Neither – self-promotion is a necessity and a critical part of the FIT methods.   I’ve learned that people are afraid to promote themselves, even when they need a job.  Even experienced accomplished professionals are hesitant.   More recently, I’ve found with younger, less experienced clients that they are worried about drawing unwanted attention or being perceived poorly.

People are raised to believe it is impolite and boastful to promote yourself.  There seems to be a negative bias.  But there is a huge gap between effectively promoting your brand and being perceived negatively.  Sometimes, reluctancy to promote yourself can be perceived as that you’re hiding something and therefore not trustworthy.

Consider this, as an adult, when else should you be able to promote yourself, if not when you need a job?   The FIT methodology builds a foundation allowing our client to be able to “read the room”.    I think we can agree that nothing is worse than a continuous, non-stop promoter.   But appropriate, well-timed opportunities to promote yourself can move you forward.  From using your elevator speech at a networking event, to answering a practiced question with a senior decision maker, promoting yourself is key.

Remember, finding the right job is a combination of salesmanship, promotion, honesty,
and organization to beat the other candidates!

Social Media – a new era of instant feedback

I have to give credit to a colleague at UMASS Lowell for first framing this concept.  She was describing behaviors in students that made them risk adverse and very concerned about how they were being perceived.  I chimed in immediately that I’d observed the same behaviors.  She then stated that she thought it had to do with social media.  I started to explore these observed behaviors and discuss them with colleagues.  Our conclusion is that Social Media’s impact is crippling and making people risk adverse.

In thinking about Social Media from an organizational and social perspective, Social Media provides instant gratification and immediate critique.  Never in human history have you been so exposed.  Every achievement or failure is posted and magnified through the arbitrary lens of an infinite jury.  Fame is confused with success, and how people became famous is shown as the end point, without a realistic path or method to get there. 

“We try things… Remember, we celebrate our failures. This is a company where it’s absolutely okay to try something that’s very hard, have it not be successful, and take the learning from that”  Google CEO Eric Schmidt

The most progressive and accomplished leaders understand that it’s through our failures that innovation and success happen.  It’s what we learn from our failures and how we apply those learnings that counts in your career development and growth.  But you must be willing to take a risk with the understanding the failure is a possible outcome.

But we’ve created a world where failure is not an option, to the point where people won’t risk considering initiating change.  In contrast, delayed gratification, tough mindedness, resilience, and risk taking are the foundations for many successful job seeking behaviors. 

People are paralyzed, simultaneously fearing initiating the activities to achieve what they want, and fearing being criticized when they achieve it because it’s not good enough.

The hard part, particularly in this environment of continuous scrutiny, is that you have to give yourself permission to own your desire outcomes, and vision.  With Launch Success methods, you learn how to be your best promoter and influencer and set aside critique from people who don’t care about you and your best interests.  We will reinforce that it is more important to listen and learn from your coaches, mentors, and people who care about you, understanding that they will support you in your personal and professional development.

Much of the last two blogs are based on a video presentation I created called “Give Yourself Permission & Don’t Fear Self Promotion”.  That presentation and others are provided to our clients to reinforce that they are in control of their career management and their vision.  I find that I often give them permission to stretch and become more assertive, assuring them that it’s appropriate behavior.  We help them to rethink and contrast the costs of inaction or actions without a plan, compared to a structured approach with meaningful outcomes.  Often in the end they realize they are holding themselves back, and that it is not the hiring companies.

The Launch Success team can’t guarantee that you will get a job immediately.  What we will claim is that you’ll develop a resilient and sustainable approach and a plan tailored towards meeting your needs and career requirements.  The approach is fact based and adaptable based on what you learn and experience.

Because finding the right job is a full-time job, you must be committed to the process and open to new ideas and experiences.

About the FIT Blog

The FIT Blog adds depth and understanding to the Launch Success FIT Method.  Think of it as a resource to learn more about the methods before signing up with Launch Success.  It’s also intended as a resource during and after you’re engaged in the process.   We provide definitions and examples on some of the foundational ideas, like the FIT Mindset and explaining Your Vision and Balance.  What the FIT Blog reinforces most is that you control more than you think and can have a path forward towards independence and financial security.

About Gary Ainsworth

With over 30 years in working in technology and worldwide operations, and nearly 10 years as a certified executive and career management coach, I’ve gained insights in how companies hire and how career seekers increase their probability of getting hired.  I’m committed to helping younger, less experienced professionals understand and unwind what’s holding them back in their careers.

Arc Completa, Inc. – Copyright 2024

All Rights Reserved – Content not to be used with permission