The Importance of Fitting In

One of the most persistent mistakes people make is not fitting in with their work environments. Fitting in enables you to both get and keep a job. In terms of what it takes to succeed in the long term, fitting in may actually be more important than your skill level. This little-known observation is lost on many people, and overlooking this can result in unhappy and unfulfilled careers. Conversely, being aware of this often results in very happy and fulfilling careers. The problem is that it is often the very best people and those with the best academics and technical skills who end up not fitting in.

Having been raised to believe that the true success is measured purely by how well people perform academically, many people enter the working world like shooting stars. They arrive at the very best organizations and soon leave one organization for the next, and then the next. If they are smart, though, they learn the importance of fitting in; otherwise their careers quickly end, and they are left blaming a self-imposed set of circumstances and people for their career problems.

I have been a legal recruiter for several years, and I am constantly speaking with firms that are hiring, laying off, and firing attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries. I am constantly seeing both good and bad things happening to people searching for jobs. The interesting thing about my work is that I often get firsthand accounts regarding why people are getting hired and why people are losing their jobs. If there is one thing that stands out to me it is that the people that get hired and keep their jobs are generally those who fit in with their surroundings at work. The people who are losing their jobs and are having the most problems landing employment are those who are not able to fit in.

A. The Importance of Academics and Technical Skills to Your Job Search

To get an interview with most organizations, you need (for the most part) to have certain qualifications. For example, if a company is seeking someone with three years of experience, you need to at least come close to this. If a company hires people out of the top third of their classes and from only top-notch universities, you also need to come close to meeting these qualifications. With very, very rare exceptions, though, once you get beyond these types of hiring criteria, you are going to be competing with a large group of people. Who do you think is going to get the job?

I’ll tell you exactly who is going to get the job: the person who meshes best with the hiring committee.

Most professionals presume that the most important thing that employers are looking for in an interview is whether or not they have the skill set to do the job. Whatever the qualifications of the job may be, the fact of the matter is that employers would not even be interviewing you if they did not think you could do the work. Whether you are applying for a blue-collar opening or a c-level position, virtually every employer out there is smart enough to know that you can be trained to do the work for which you are interviewing, even if your skills are not immediately on target. Employers may use your skill set as an excuse NOT to hire you after the interview. More often than not, though, the person who gets hired is the person employers feel would fit into their organization best.

This article originally appeared on Harrisonbarnes.com here: https://www.harrisonbarnes.com/the-importance-of-fitting-in/

About the Author

Harrison Barnes has one true passion: getting lawyers jobs. His tireless drive to succeed, his extensive contacts in the legal world, and his uncanny ability to draw out the best in his candidates have made him one of the most sought-out, respected legal recruiters in history. His company, BCG Attorney Search, places more attorneys in law firm jobs than any recruiting firm in the world.

He is also the owner and CEO of Top Law Schools, which is consistently one of the top 5 legal sites in the United States in terms of traffic.

Harrison Barnes is also the founder and CEO of The Employment Research Institute, an umbrella of 500 job search websites, employment publications, placement firms, and companies. The institute employs several hundred people and is headquartered in Pasadena, California.

A prolific writer in his own right, Mr. Barnes pens a daily career blog that circulates to 800,000 readers. He has published numerous books and is a frequent lecturer on recruiting issues. He cares about his candidates and genuinely wants to help them find fulfillment in every aspect of their lives.