Un-dress (your mind) for success: A few helpful hints when applying for a job.

It seems like more often than not, the interview process is always putting people on the spot in artificial settings in a way to set them up for failure. I could never understand that and it seems like a widespread thing in the corporate world. The only exception I have ever seen was the Australian Army, where you are actually coached and remediated and told that you are being built up to succeed. Granted that process is not without its fair share of challenges unlike any in the civilian setting.

But that just proves my first point. Life, work, the job and all the challenges that come with those are hard enough, the interview process should help prepare and calibrate a person to that mindset and the success that should follow.

I will share some insights both from recent hiring and from past experience.

1. Preparation

There is no substitute to preparation. Many articles say to research the firm and have questions in an interview. Well, I say it needs to be deeper and more well thought out than that. You need to try and figure out and predict how the other party, how the company and how the person you are dealing with - whether they are a gatekeeper or decision maker - thinks.

Let me give a few examples both in professional and related contexts.

As a teenager I was an average footballer by my measures but I wanted to be so much better. The thing I did not realise as a child was I needed to think a step or two ahead and I needed to understand the other side and predict their moves. This is so key in a team sport. It gives you the advantage if you know to position yourself across field before the play is made. Or you know what the other side will do or what they like or don't like. Knowing this means getting into the right place at the right time. Starting to make sense?

The same went for Law School. I was lucky I had a bit of passion for reading cases. I loved the stories. And the story was a big part of not only the development of the legal reasoning by judges in case law, but I loved the history, and you know what - so did the judges in 18th Century England, and so did my lecturers. But the other thing I got my head around quickly was that some lecturers preferred a focus on legal activism and legal progressivm, well... I adjusted my tone to that.

And my final example applying for a graduate role in my business degree, I did not do research directly only but I was prepared for the type of people in the orgnanisation. So when I had a youngish male interviewer for my group interview, I was sure to ask the right questions and spark discussion which lead to distracting the entire group interview because we were talking about the town which the interview came from and how their football team was one of the all time greats in the 1980s and how their existing lineup was just not that great, but had potential. We were able to relate on an individual level. Don't you want to like who you work with?

And I would say "Stay true to yourself" so in the context of a job, don't fake being interested in something. Even if it gets you in the door, they won't like it when they realise you aren't who you think you are, and you won't like having to fake it. That is kind of a given, but desperate times...

There are plenty more stories on preparation but the other one that can't be overlooked is:

"Don't miss the obvious!"

This leads into the next part about following instructions

Credit: Stepbrothers Movie

2. Follow Instructions

If a job advert says: "Reach out to us" then... reach out to us! If it says provide X, Y, and Z, then do it. If you feel like that is too much, then how are you going to be when you are doing the job?

Likewise, if the advertisement does not have the staff there, and/or the advert says "Do Not contact us" then don't contact them. Some places and some people like go-getters, but they want to see that once you are in the job. I personally want to see people take the initiative from before they even apply.

In fact that is how I got my jobs as a lawyer. I had 3 and I never applied for one of them. They were all through contacts I had made volunteering my time for industry bodies and associations, charity and pro-bono. One "role" I did not even had a job to apply to I brought a client that was quite large and created a job for myself. I am not showing off but that is kind of a cool way to get a job. There was no job for me so I brought the job.

3. Everyone has different workstyles

Some people will completely disagree with my first two points. Or at least partially. Well that is okay. You will find that some people and companies are not going to respond to you in the same way you would or that the next person or company would. That is okay. Some people will say they like to work in teams or want team players in their team but then when it comes to it their idea of teamwork may be so different to how you thought it should be. And that is okay too. How to figure that style difference out beforehand?

So obviously, read the obvious when it says to do something, but then gauge the situation as well. At the same time, don't be afraid to put yourself out there. The worst that someone can say is, "Sorry, No." and you take another path.

The other thing I would say is the generational differences seem to be so much greater than previously. It may seem like that since we have had so much change in technology and change in jobs in the last 30 years. That pace of change may continue as new technologies such as AI, VR, Robotics, Metaverses, Quantum Computing and Blockchain become more prevalent.

Keep in mind people from different life journies will respond differently to things. That is just how we are and how the world is. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up seeing things only from our own perspective, and it is hard to ever fully appreciate other people's perspectives. But showing you are trying to and communicating that helps, alot. This ties into my final point - You are not the centre of the universe.

Credit: Stepbrothers Movie

4. What are you doing here? There....Where?

I remember when I was a teenager, I was at a public restroom in a shopping mall, and I was at the urinal, and I hear this voice next to me, "Oh hey Frank." And I turn to look over and it was my school bus driver. Obviously this was a weird experience irrespective of the location, I never saw my bus driver any other time than 7-830am and 3.30-5pm on weekdays. Of course what made it weirder was we both walked into the same restroom on a weekend. The next part gets weirder and unforgetable.

So my bus driver says to me (while I am standing at a urinal):

"What are you doing here?"

I paused for the briefest of seconds and I remember saying:

"The same thing you are Colin."

The point of this unforgetable and seemingly useless experience was that we always see things through our own perspectives, and rarely try to think of what other people are going through at a particular time. I remember having a colleague from law school, who would message and then expect a message back immediately. Especially if an initial message had been replied to, they would keep messaging as though the conversation was on foot.

Did they not realise the receipient might be in the bathroom? On another call? Driving their car? Holding their baby? Going for a jog? Asked to carry something somewhere for work? In a meeting?

This person was the extreme case, but we all inadvertantly do that. So rarely on LinkedIn do I find someone messaging me asking me what I want or what can they do to assist me with what I am working on. The "offers" are usually targeted at what they want to give me, not what I actually want that would help me.

Not saying I am a model human being for a moment, but I do try to walk into a room, or meet a new person with the objective of trying to understand what they want and how I can assist them in their path. Ultimately for me, a job, a career, a calling, should involve that for me and the people around me.