How to Advocate for Yourself in Your Job Search and Career

Advocating for yourself in the workplace can be scary. Many people struggle with talking about and defending themselves. They might fear appearing boastful, worry about potential backlash, or feel uncertain about how to approach it. However, advocating for yourself at work is not an option – it's a vital skill that can transform your career.

LinkedIn Top Voice Rob S. Kim is a career educator and helps people overcome barriers and build a strong foundation for their working life. He joined LinkedIn News Editor Andrew Seaman on the latest episode of the #GetHired podcast to explain how to advocate for yourself in your job search and career. The two also discuss why it’s important to recognize your accomplishments and speak about them openly so others can advocate for you too.

You can read a transcript of the conversation below. You can also listen to the discussion above or on Apple Podcast by clicking here.

Andrew Seaman: If you're anything like me, you'd hope that your work speaks for itself. The only problem with that is that sometimes it doesn't work or people aren't paying attention, so you need to speak up. We're talking all about it on today's episode.

From LinkedIn News, this is Get Hired, a podcast for the ups and downs in the ever-changing landscape of our professional lives. I'm Andrew Seaman, LinkedIn senior managing editor for Jobs and Career Development, bringing you conversations with experts who, like me, want to see you succeed at work, at home, and everywhere in between.

We all feel powerless from time to time. That's especially true during job searches and at low points in our careers. In those moments, we need to be our own advocates, but that can be difficult. How can you speak up for yourself or push your own work without coming off as showy or like a nuisance? Well, joining us today is Rob Kim, who is a LinkedIn Top Voice and a career educator at the University of British Columbia. Rob posts about so many job search and career topics, but he also talks about pushing the envelope for yourself. He also practices what he preaches. For example, he recently worked to take on a secondment to gain experience in a different part of his organization. Here's Rob.

Rob Kim: I don't know if a lot of people actually know if secondments exist in their organizations. It's a nice way for you to kind of get some experience in a different sector. There's a little bit of a nice job security feature where you're able to return back to your original role.

It's kind of funny, Andrew kind of looked at the posting and was on the fence. I'm like, "I don't know if I should." Just having a couple people reach out to me to say, "Hey, you should think about or look at this role." I actually had, I think, three people bring up the role to me that helped me apply.

Andrew: Well, I have no doubt that you're going to do amazingly well. You are one of, I think, the best career job search strategy people on LinkedIn.

Rob: I don't know about that, but thank you so much for saying that.

Andrew: I have no doubt you're going to succeed in that role. We are here to talk about self-advocacy because a lot of people probably don't actually know what that means. They might think of it as bragging. So can you tell us what it actually is?

Rob: Yeah, a real kind of academic definition, it'd be almost like the individual's ability to effectively communicate, convey, negotiate, or assert their interests, desires, needs and rights. That sounds very heavy, right? So to me, really, I think self-advocacy is just being able to speak up for yourself, but also being able to just communicate with others. I've struggled with self-advocacy because I often think it sounds a little bit like more bragging or just like, "Hey, look at me," and that's not what it really is. And that's something I really like talking about all the time with people because I'm still learning.

Andrew: In one position that I held before I came to LinkedIn, I never really advocated for myself. Even though I'm a talker and I'm outgoing, I never really saw a pathway for me to say, "My work is good." And there's some imposter syndrome thrown in there, I think. But actually, one of my first raises came because my manager came to me at the time and said, "You've never asked for a raise, and I think you should have one." That was sort of a wake-up call for me that I had gone years without asking for anything, and then I was like, "I'm supposed to ask for it?" No one along the line had taught me those fundamentals. So it is good to sort of remind yourself, "I do need to speak up from time to time."

Rob: I always think about this phrase, "If good work happens in a forest and no one's around to see it, is it good work?" That's something I think about a lot because a lot of these working systems, especially we're talking in North America, I'm speaking as a minority, wasn't really made for me, right? So I have to realize that being raised with a lot of our values and ethics of like, "Hey, you show up, you do good work," I wish we would just get recognized and rewarded for that. I think I've been very lucky in my career where I've had people go to bat and advocate for myself.

But I still realize that at some point, if I'm not the one that owns my career or can speak to my career, no one's going to take care of it as well as me. When it comes to advocacy, we really have to take some explicit steps at times to make sure our work is seen and heard and valued.

Andrew: Yeah. A lot of people say your work should speak for itself, but a lot of times it doesn't. Or your manager or your manager's manager, they're busy with other things and they end up not being able to check in on what you're doing and some of that incredible work. Periodically you do have to sort of emerge from that forest and saying, "Hey, guess what I'm doing?" What's your advice for job seekers to become an advocate?

Rob: The way I sometimes approach self-advocacy with people looking for work, first of all, kind of accepting where you are and then know where you've been. Accepting where you are, I like to just get people to think about it's not your fault the way that you might be thinking. So I often go to reframing using a growth mindset.

So those are little things that I think people can do every day as a job seeker, right? I know you don't have the job, but sometimes you have to just focus on those small little shifts, right? Like, "Hey, where's my opportunity? I have actually some free time today to actually work on these documents," et cetera, right?

But another thing I was referring to, kind of know where you are. And I think to me personally, this is where I've benefited the most in the last four or five years is writing about yourself. It's taking that time to reflect on what you've done, your experiences. My current favorite one is the CAR method, challenge, action, result. I like that one because it's fast, right? Three sentences to six sentences, you can do it for a couple minutes, and I like being able to utilize that CAR method for a lot of different things, whether it's your resume, your cover letter, your LinkedIn profile when you're networking.

Self-advocacy starts with how do you know your story. And if you don't start writing out a bit of your story right now in small chunks, you can't really own the broader piece of it at times. That's what I feel. And I think from that, I've noticed that my confidence has gone up. When I work with other people, their confidence has gone up and those sort of things.

Andrew: Yeah, and there's also a technique that some people use called a work diary, which is just basically at the end of the day or when you're feeling frustrated, you take five minutes and you jot down what happened today at work. And a lot of times what I think that gives people is the ability to understand why you were upset or look inward. That way, when it comes time to maybe have a conversation on the exterior, you can say, "I thought this through and this is why I felt this way. And I would appreciate maybe next time we have this interaction, if you can deliver your feedback in this way or if you could be more conscientious of my insecurity about this." I think just those little things are really easy ways to advocate for yourself and also clear your thoughts.

Rob: And like you said, through that writing process, sometimes then you can explicitly understand what you need or how you want that feedback. I remember working with a manager of mine where in my head it was just clear what I was doing, but of course it's clear to me, but I wasn't actually communicating it properly or clearly to them. So of course there is miscommunication, and to me, self-advocacy actually is all about communicating where you are, where you're standing. And if you don't know where you are, how can you communicate that to others?

Andrew: Yeah, and also what I've learned over time is that different techniques, like you said, work for different people. You might have to try a few different ones, but you'll find one so it works for you.

Rob: Yeah, I think it's knowing yourself. I remember when I once wanted to start working out, I just knew that I can't work out after work, so I had to really make some big changes in my habit to wake up earlier before work, right? So I think that's the same thing with writing. Just understanding how you think and how you work and try to build that into the flow of your days to ingrain those habits.

Andrew: Yeah. So for job seekers, one of the things that I'm curious about too is you can't do much when you send a application in and you don't hear back. What would your suggestions be for a job seeker to advocate for themselves in that process? Because I think a lot of times people worry that they may push too hard and that it'll backfire, but you also want to be able to say, "Can you please get back to me at this certain time?" or, "When will I hear back?" How would you suggest they advocate for themselves in those ways?

Rob: I currently would land on the side of being specific and recognizing they're busy. So it's like, "How can I make it easier for them to respond and make sure I'm clear about some things?" And I have to also think about, "Okay, what are the one or two issues that I really want to be able to address?" because obviously as a job seeker, you're going to have all these things in your head. I would just again encourage people, try to let go of like, "Hey, I need to do this right, I need to do this perfectly," or assume that there's this magical way to do it and just more focus on what you can control and say, "Hey, this time I'm trying these three things out and see what happens."

Andrew: Yeah. I think that is a good point because there is sort of that fine line and you can never really understand what the other person is saying or what their interpretation of what you're going to do is. But I think at the end of the day, as long as you know it's a worthy issue or a worthy sort of piece of information that you need to share, at least you could be confident in the fact that, "Okay, I think I did the right thing by speaking up or at least asking for advice."

Rob: Yeah. And when we have a lot of issues on our plate, sometimes again when we're trying to share that with other people or influence other people, we want to list everything, right? The details. And sometimes it's like, "Hey, what are the main issues, the key points?" And like you said, might encourage them to actually then help advocate for you or help you out with whatever issue you're bringing up.

Andrew: We'll be right back with Rob after this break.

Andrew: We're back with LinkedIn Top Voice and career educator from the University of British Columbia, Rob Kim.

Moving to sort of in your career overall, if you're in a job, if you are part of an organization where maybe things are bothering you or you want an opportunity and you're worried that you might get overlooked, what is your advice for speaking up for yourself and knowing how to do it effectively?

Rob: I think everyone's going to have different strategies. My personal strategy is I'm a big relationship sort of person. I like building trust. That's a slow process at times, right? A lot of it is that building of trust with others, but I understand sometimes that can't happen or I think it's, again, we're talking about minorities. I mean, it's still an issue, right? Again, when we're talking about self-advocacy, honestly it starts also recognizing that as we get better to be better advocates for ourself, it's trying to advocate for others and trying to change a system slowly. That's why I love talking about self-advocacy is really trying to help others, right? So where I would start with is, "Hey, how do people think about you? If I asked your manager, what would they say about you? How are you known in your company?" Right? Those are some things maybe to ask.

Andrew: Yeah. And I think relationships really is the heart of it too, because you can advocate for yourself, but depending on who you're going to or who you're speaking up to, it matters, because there are people I think we know in all organizations and all workplaces that they're not the people that you go to if you need support and they're not the people that you go to if you need help with something. We all know that there are those dynamics in workplaces, so you need to be able to find sort of your safe places.

And especially I think if you are a member of an underrepresented group, it really pays to make connections and look for ERGs or business resource groups or even just informal little discussion groups where you can sort of counsel with each other and say, "Okay, I need to do X, Y, and Z. I'm running into roadblocks. Does anyone have any suggestions?" And a lot of times it is about that support and those relationships that you build, and they can help you navigate the destination that you need to go to. So I think relationships really are the cornerstone of it too.

Rob: Yeah, you know what's really interesting you said there with relationships, because you're talking about reaching out to other people, that again gets at the difficulty for a lot of us is self-advocacy is like, "Who am I to bother someone? Who am I to reach out?" That's where I reframe it again. To me, networking is a form of self-advocacy, and that's exactly what you're talking about, right? If I'm not trying to connect with other people, take copy chats or use LinkedIn to get information or interviews, all these sort of things, that is not advocating for yourself.

If you've heard the concept of weak ties versus strong ties by Mark Granovetter, and it actually talks about how strong ties are people within your family, your close circle. We would be a weak tie, right? Andrew actually until now have never actually met in person. But those weak ties have been shown to be very impactful for people's careers. That's how you get new information, new opportunities, and that's what you're talking about. Whether it's ERG, mentorship program, these sort of things, it's really important, I think, for people to realize to advocate for yourself and build these weak ties, they turn to strong ties.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when it comes to actually figuring out, the idea of self-advocacy, I think the downside to a lot of things actually in life is that it's not one and done. It's something that you basically need to keep doing throughout your career. You're basically going to have to build this muscle over time. And some people, they're born with maybe a stronger muscle when it comes to something like this, but it's not something that you're going to use once and then it's going to go away, right? You're going to have to keep using it.

Rob: Totally. I think it's part of, again, trying to thread in the self-advocacy and the steps that you're trying to take and make it pertinent and relevant to where you are. So for instance, remember I talked about the CAR method, Andrew? One thing I realized as a benefit of that that I didn't expect was when I was writing the CAR method, I don't know about you, but we have performance reviews every year, and I'm going to be honest, Andrew, I just don't like them. They require writing about myself. Usually at a busy time of the year anyway, and it's like the last thing I want to do, and you have to kind of self-evaluate. You check off exceeds expectations, meets expectations. And every year I do these, I'm like, "Who am I to write, 'Exceeds expectations.'?" Right? So I do mostly a lot of meets and then a couple exceeds, right?

But last year was very interesting. When I sat down, two things happened, and this is where I want people to, again, understand that by building this practice of self-advocacy, it's okay. So what happened was when I sat down to do it, I started groaning and then I said, "Wait a second, I've been collecting all these CAR stories from my year." I opened up the document, started copying and pasting them into the file. And the first time ever, I actually started looking at what I had. I had proof of the work I've done, and I started checking "Exceeds expectations." I actually owned it. That was self-advocacy.

When I met with my manager, I wasn't hesitant. I wasn't bragging. I said, "Here's what I've done," and they clearly agreed. And it was the easiest process ever. As opposed to other years, you're just like... And because you've got to get their feedback, and that's happened. I just finished my performance review again. It was, again, a great conversation and something that was enjoyable. That can happen with self-advocacy.

Andrew: Yeah, and I think that's a perfect example of how people can advocate for themselves, especially by beginning to write, because being in those conversations with your manager where you say, "Listen, I feel like I exceeded expectations, and I could provide these five examples," that is legitimately being an advocate for yourself. And then at the same time, maybe you look at some of those CAR results. And basically even if the action and the result was subpar, you at least have information to say, "You know what? I'm going to do this action next time."

Rob: I love that you brought that up. That's the thing. I'm not just writing out all the best things too, I'm writing out some struggles, and that's going to allow you to simply be more human. We're all human, we're not perfect. There's always a section on the performance review of like, "Hey, what can you work on? What are your targets for next year?" and that's another way to do that.

Again, with my secondment, another benefit was I was able to make a resume very quickly, because I was just able to look at the best stories and put it in there. And it's hard sometimes because we have recency bias. We just think about the things we recently did, and we sometimes forget about the great things we've done that are even more relevant to the roles we're applying for, or in this case, reporting in our performance reviews. So I really encourage everyone to try that out, because it's something that's so helpful for your process. I mean, and that's tied to bonuses, your raises, right? These sort of things. It's a HR document that's going to be on file. That's advocating for yourself.

Andrew: Yeah. And to be a good advocate, you need to believe in what you're advocating for and you need to believe in yourself. So having the data to back that up, and I had to do it for another reason, but a lot of people, they keep a praise file and where it's basically if you get a email from your boss's boss that says, "Hey, great job," or something like that. And I started doing it because I write a newsletter, I write a couple newsletters, and people would send me messages saying, "Hey, this really helped me," or something like that.

And even though we have data to show people they like the newsletters or whatever, those stories bring those to life. And then what I accidentally stumbled on was as I was reading them, the one day, I'm like, "This makes me feel great." I had always heard praise file, and I'm like, "This stuff works."

Rob: It totally does. What's so funny is I have one too. So I have an email folder that's just called "qualitative," because I'm a science guy. So qualitative... Because there's quantitative, the numbers, but the qualitative is like those quotes that you get. I screenshot them, save good emails in there. Then I actually, in my performance review, I will usually share a quote that's based on the project or work that I'm explicitly talking about as the end part, as just a little bit of a story. And I think sometimes part of it is understanding who you're trying to influence. Are they kind of data-driven people? Are they more kind of emotional? And then you're going to lean on qualitative versus quantitative. But if I don't capture it now, I'm never going to be able to make some conclusions and discoveries down the road.

Andrew: Yeah, I think that's a really good piece of advice. And before I let you go, is there anything else you want to say about self-advocacy when it comes to job searching or careers?

Rob: I just want to encourage people just to take that small step. I want to share real quick, you sent me an email last year, January 2022, Andrew, that we're going to give you LinkedIn Top Voice, right? Job search and career. And I thought it was a joke at first. It's that imposter syndrome you talked about, right?

Andrew: Mm-hmm.

Rob: And I just want to share that with people that a lot of us, we're always struggling with this. It's just a different set of problems as you go through your career. So to be here talking with you and to be sharing these things with your audience, that's just kind of proof positive of just sometimes how these self-advocacy things can go. But you can't know where it's going to go. You just have to do it right now.

Andrew: Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Rob.

Rob: Thank you.

Andrew: That was LinkedIn's Top Voice and career educator, Rob Kim. Remember, it's up to you to put our advice into practice. Still, you always have a community backing you up and cheering you on.

Connect with me and the Get Hired community on LinkedIn to continue the conversation. Also, if you liked this episode, please take a moment to leave us a rating on Apple Podcast. It helps people like you find the show. And don't forget to click that follow, subscribe, or whatever other button you find to get our podcast delivered to you every Wednesday, because we'll continue these conversations on the next episode right here, wherever you like to listen.

Get Hired is a production of LinkedIn News. This episode was produced by Alexis Ramdaou. Rafa Farihah is our associate producer. Assaf Gidron engineered our show. Joe DiGiorgi mixed our show. Dave Pond is head of news production. Enrique Montalvo is our executive producer. Courtney Coupe is the head of original programming for LinkedIn. Dan Roth is the editor-in-chief of LinkedIn. And I'm Andrew Seaman. Until next time, stay well and best of luck.