Long Shots

I love me a long shot. You know a guy builds a computer with a friend in their mom's garage... and well, you know the rest. I like it, too, when people dream big. Love the idea of some guy imagining himself on?Shark Tank, getting there, becoming a multi-millionaire selling sponges or drain protectors. And there's definitely a place for "long shots" and "dreaming big" when job seeking.

But if you want to get an interview, you can't only apply for positions that are long shots or big dreams. They can be peppered into your process; maybe 50 jobs I'm really qualified to do with 1 long shot or big dream.

Something like that works.

Long shots or dreaming big, over and over, doesn't.

I'm telling you this as a recruiter, as a hiring manager, as someone who has supported over 32k job seekers over the last 30 years. And someone who has helped people land long shots they took to achieve big dreams they wanted.

I'm telling you this not to discourage submitting that application for a CEO when you just graduated college. Or that application for a role requiring 15+ years of experience doing something when you have 4, maybe 5 tops. Or even none. It's really okay to take that shot. But you have to understand that in this arena, only the 5 most qualified applicants for that position are going to get contacted. And some, will be scrubbed out, because they wrote a great resume that fooled the ATS?and?the recruiter into thinking they were more qualified than they are, but when asked pointed questions during an interview designed to detect truth from fiction, they fail.

"It says on your resume you were the co-founder of Apex Systems. How much did you and your founder invest in the business? What were his or her day to day duties? What were yours? Were you on the bank accounts? What were the Q1 revenues and profits when you first started? When you left? What percentage did you own? And him/her? Any others? What were there percentages"

Someone who actually co-founded Apex Systems should easily be able to answer those questions. I founded?JobMorph?and I can easily rattle those off. My friend, a hugely successful entrepreneur about to hit his 50th year in business, remembers his first Q1 earnings and profits VERY clearly and the split then, later, and today between him and his co-founders. But if you really didn't co-found anything, you are going to struggle. And struggle people do.

Every day, recruiters interview people who aren't really qualified. Every day recruiters cipher through resumes to avoid that person. So it's possible that your long shot will make it through to the recruiter, that you get an interview, and that despite the fact that you really are not what the hiring manager has specified, that you do get an interview, and offer. But it's not likely.

Focusing on finding those jobs where you are truly a fit, applying to those, will lead to interviews. And then offers.

This means passing on jobs you are not qualified to do. And, for virtually everyone, this can be incredibly hard. Especially in situations where they are not finding jobs they are qualified to do.

This is why coaching is important. Sometimes you need someone to point out to you, "you are not qualified for this job." Sometimes you need someone to point you to jobs you are qualified to do.

And that's why many people turn to?JobMorph?for help. They want all the extra help they can get to get that long shot or big dream. Help with their resume and cover letter for that; help with following up; help with prepping for the interviews; help with negotiating and landing that jumbo jet opportunity. But they also want to make sure that they are finding and applying to jobs where they have a good chance of being 1 of the 5 people selected for the interview and then the 1 person offered the job.

Sure you can keep doing this job search thing all alone, but why would you?

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