Practice Makes Perfect
Getting Comfortable in Your New Professional Skin
As a young professional looking for a path forward in your career, if understanding how to get job a was easy, everyone would just grab their diploma, fill in a few job applications, and accept the best offer. Sadly, that’s not today’s environment as discussed in previous blogs. You must use every tool at your disposal to fight your way to the front of the line and get decision makers’ attention, while not seeming too eager (desperate) and demonstrating that you are the solution to the problem they are trying to solve (hiring the the right person for their job opening).
Your challenge as a less experienced professional to master all aspects of your brand that you control. I can imagine what you are thinking, “…master all aspects of your brand…”, what is this guy talking about? I understand if you’re thinking that right now. This blog will help unwind this concept and give some ideas of why I think it’s important. Here’s a couple of scenarios:
Scenario 1 - The Overwhelmed Introvert: Let’s say you’re going into an interview, you’re an introvert and an intuitive, who just does not get energized by meeting new people. Your mind internally is spinning, worried you may not be perceived as excited about the opportunity, although from your Structure Networking efforts you know you’d love to work at this company and believe you’re a great fit. During the interview you lose energy, feeling like you crawled to the finish line exhausted, leaving the interview with a feeling of failure and loss.
Scenario 2 - The Overexcited Extrovert: Imagine you’re an extrovert and you’re hard wired to see and feel everything. Like the person in scenario 1, you’re super excited about the company because of your Structured Networking, knowing that this company is working in areas of great interest to you, and you believe your personal vision is aligned with their vision. But when you get nervous, you get in a non-stop talking loop, reacting to everything, leaving no room with questions and follow-ups, sometimes making you appear to lack focus and interest in others. During and after the interview, even as you’re shown out, you are still talking to anyone nearby, leaving the interview with a feeling of failure and loss.
Can there be one solution to both dilemmas? Yes. The solution is to know yourself in terms of your preferences, strengths, and satisfiers, and know exactly how you are going to promote and protect them. You will be able to engage an interviewer in areas of mutual interest, leaving space in your brain for answering new and expansive questions.
Achieving this state is not complex, but it does require discipline and self-reflection to identify situations that don’t feel natural, might be stressful. You have to have a commitment to developing compensating strategies and methods.
Basically, you’re driving to control what you can control.
The Foundations of Professional Branding
Know Your Strengths and Preferences: Know your Strengths and Preferences inside and out, how they can add value, and express them in all forms of communication, from your resume and cover letters to your elevator speech and interview preparation.
Promote and Protect Your Strengths: Decide which strengths will be promoted and which will be protected, particularly if a protected strength is associated with a role you’re moving on from. Or you can craft and find a way to reframe that strength into something desirable. For example, if you’re an entry level engineer who worked during college as a customer service representative at a services company, you’ve developed likely developed skills in active listening, problem solving and resolution, and resilience. While you might think these skills aren’t valuable, they are attributes valuable in any profession.
Develop and Hold Your Vision: Your professional vision acts as a compass. Develop and hold your vision and use it as a measure of your job seeking campaign’s success. Adjust your approach based on what you learn and what seems to be in demand. Contrast these learnings to your vision and decide if your plan and goals need to be changed.
Treat Your Résumé as a Living Document: Treat your resume as a highly refined work in progress, ready to be tweaked and tuned for your target company’s job description. Read and re-read it, making sure it represents you and your brand. Make sure every bit of content is accurate and defendable.
Prepare Examples of Your Achievements: Anticipate common interview questions and have examples of your accomplishments ready. Think of typical interview questions, and from your resume’s content, have ready examples of your achievements and contributions to share. Practice speaking into a mirror to make sure your examples are available and delivered with confidence when asked. Resources like Indeed’s Behavioral Interview Guide (https://www.indeed.com/hire/c/info/behavioral-interview-questions-to-ask-candidates) can help you prepare.
Simulate Interview Scenarios: Practice makes perfect—literally. If interviewing makes you uncomfortable, ask a trusted family member, a coach, or a friend to practice interviewing. Analyze the job description you’re interested in and give it to them. Before the interview, develop themes and answers, aligning your experiences and strengths with the content you are willing to share. While “interviewing”, get comfortable with your pace of delivering information and with the effort it takes to actively listen and construct answers to a given question.
Achieve the 80/20 Brain Balance: If you prepare in this way, 20% of your brain will be dedicated to recalling your polished branding content, while 80% will remain free to focus on engaging with the interviewer and responding to questions confidently to promote why you’re a great fit for the role. This balance enables you to adapt and feel at ease in the moment. The goal is to achieve a sense of “I’ve been in a situation like this before and I’m comfortable wherever the conversation goes…”.
Give Yourself Permission: When you’re in an interview, remember—you’ve already risen above the other applicants to get there. Let that fact sink in. Use this achievement as fuel to remind yourself that you are worthy of this opportunity. This isn’t just a validation of your skills but a chance to showcase your professional identity. Remember, it’s just one interview, and the result does not define your life. But interviews are opportunities to demonstrate who and how you want to be perceived professionally by your level of engagement and preparation, the energy you bring to the interview, and the resilience you show during the interview process.
As an inexperienced professional, you control much more than you think. By mastering your professional brand, you’ll position yourself as a confident, capable candidate ready to tackle any opportunity. The concepts and methods outlined above not only prepare you for interviews but also develop skills transferable to your first professional role.
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.
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