Most Important Job Seeking Tool? Your Brain, not Your Resume
Your BRAIN is the most significant tool that you possess for job hunting. More important than your resume, your cover letter, nor your smooth style of wooing an interviewer. Mmmm, ok, for most our professions wooing it's not fundamental. Thinking through the process requires diligence, time, and mostly your brain.Allow me to pontificate
Your BRAIN plays tricks on you as long as you let your heart run wild. A heart easily deceived, yet so easily tormented. Are you really understanding the qualifications for a job that's posted? Let's look at some examples:
The job posting says: Ten years of management experience
Our heart says: Apply because I have two years of management experience
Your BRAIN says: Don't apply because there are a hundred people with ten years experience.
The truth is: The competition is so fierce that unless you are a match for this request, then your resume won't even see the light of day
The job posting says: Must have a Microsoft Office A+ certification
Your heart says: I've worked with Microsoft Office for 10 years now, I can do the job
Your BRAIN says: I haven't used Office in 6 months since my position was tossed and I never had formal training.
The truth is: No certification, no interview
The job posting says: Must have experience supervising 30+ customer service representatives
You heart says: I'm a team leader with 30 people on my team
Your BRAIN says: No one reports to me, and I've never hired anyone
The truth is: Supervised generally means that you hire, fire, discipline, create and enforce policies and then some. If you never had supervisory responsibilities, it's unlikely you'll be considered.
Wait there's more...
A sign that your BRAIN is on hiatus is when you lie about your experiences. It's kind of like when you over eat. You know what all of it, but the realization comes when it's on your plate. Yet still you try to eat it all.
Are you desperate enough to lie on your resume? Hope not. Are you even stretching the truth even a little bit? Our heart, unfortunately, is the last know, and the body is the last to go when we're desperate. Your mind play tricks on you only if your heart continues to make emotional and irrational decisions.
Maybe if I wear a dress, they'll think I'm a girl
Your BRAIN was meant to bring honestly and clarity to the party. Selling doesn't mean using auspicious verbs (no such thing by the way) on your resume will get you an interview. For example, on your resume under Objective (Lawd, he uses an objective?), you say, "This position is tailor made for me..." yet, you don't have anything the employer requested is displays that your delusional. Phrases like, "Mastered all phases of the job" may be perceived as lying, although, there might be truth. Got proof?
Who told you that you mastered your job? Do you have a recommendation letter that says that? Are there quantifiable measures that speak to that? If not, EPIC FAIL! Your brain will understand that this madness can't go on. Your resume cries from the trash for you to change your mind, and to change your resume, and all reason has bypassed your brain and pleaded with your feeble heart.
Heart is not all bad
There comes a time you will have to summon your BRAIN and your heart in making job hunting decisions. You have to follow your gut, after you are in a position to choose. If your job is really your passion, scrutinizing your abilities to see if you fit the position is not a problem.
Signs that your heart deceived you while reading the postings (you shouldn't have pressed "apply"):
- Very few responses from resumes you've forwarded through jobs postings and referrals
- Phone interviews are short because the wrong impression was given on your resume
- Actually obtaining the interview, and finding out at the interview that you are under qualified
- Forcing yourself to believe that there are skills you have but really, you don't
- You're making pleas, and not presenting facts on your resume. It was kind of acceptable in the '80's, but doesn't scan well because you lack keywords these days.
- You can't convince your friends to forward your resume for any position because YOU want to apply for everything
I agree. It is very important that you set your mind in the job you are applying and everything will just follow.
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Thank you for your comments. Mindset is such a large component these days.
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Great observations! I learned from you. Before even trying to use Job Search Engine for a job you desire, it may also be important to consider the things written in this article.
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