Know the Job
There are three key elements to getting the job you want – knowing the job, looking the job, and being the job. How well do you really know the job you hope to get? This is the first step to reaching your end goal.
When you are job seeking, you need to know the job you want, what it entails, how to do it, and how to be successful at it. You also need to be able to get all of that information across to your contacts, interviewers, and potential coworkers in a clear, concise, and consistent manner. Not all companies speak the same language. Know how to speak to both your target company and your target position. For example:
- Presentation slides are often called a “deck”.
- Google employees are “Googlers”.
- You “tweeted” something recently.
Know the applicable jargon as much as possible so that you can connect better while simultaneously proving your research into the area.
Don’t plant a seed of doubt about yourself. If you don’t have the answer to something, give a solid set up of the situation; explain what you do know and then move forward – this shows that even if you don’t have the exact information necessary, you’ve done much of the necessary research, given it thought and have a plan to find out for the future.
Regardless of how your job search is going, you should constantly be seeking high quality feedback. Doing this allows you to know more about the job, expectations for the job, and how you can adjust your image to better look the job based on what you know. High quality feedback is something you can change like:
- “Your experience is a bit thin [problem], you might do better with a resume style that emphasizes skills learned over time in the field [solution].”
- “You looked serious and nervous throughout the entire interview [problem], try smiling [solution] – it will make you seem more open and personable”.
Not everyone will be willing to give actionable feedback, but you should still ask. Continual improvement relies upon knowing what and how to change. If you are getting a lot of feedback from a close contact, but it is not high quality, consider reaching out to more professional contacts.
Keep watch for the next part in this series – “Look the Job.”