Your Biggest Champion is YOU!

What’s my worth? As a candidate knowing your worth and defining it is truly one of the oldest and hardest goals to accomplish. When working with my highly recruited candidates I’ve seen the top candidate lose the job offer simply by not selling themselves. And I’ve seen the runner up shine bright after understanding their self-worth. Knowing your worth isn’t just about numbers and skillset anymore. It’s about understanding yourself, your accomplishments and being your own biggest champion. Here are some pointers from my expert recruiters when it comes to learning how to master this art of knowing your value, and becoming your own biggest champion. Leave comments below about how you pump yourself or others up for an interview.?

So you’ve been submitted for your dream job - and you get the call. They’d like to connect. You now find yourself researching the role, the team, the leadership, the investors and of course the company overall. Candidates often stay up for hours “studying” for this dream job and the role - only to find themselves bombing the interview when it comes time to it. Why does this happen and how do you avoid it??

Be Yourself?

Candidates are on high demand right now. Candidates often hear “be yourself” - and that’s not entirely true. If you aren’t normally the type of human who tends to brag about their accomplishments, this is a challenging one to overcome. Often candidates aren’t the first to want to “showboat” about their current or past accomplishments. So instead of thinking of it as bragging, I talk to my candidates about situations, challenges and goals they have accomplished. You will be asked about all of these. Alternately if you are a human who is prone to over highlighting every little thing that has been done under your watch, you are also in jeopardy. There needs to be a delicate balance.?

Questions that candidates often fail to conquer and end up feeling like a deer in headlights aren’t regarding the tech stack they’ve worked on, or what their last job had them do day-to-day, it’s actually about themselves as an employee, co-worker, manager and overall human. Whether it's a question about dealing with a difficult co-worker, or how to handle an internal/external crisis or what they would have changed about their last role. The key is to never throw anyone, or any company, in your career under the bus, but to discuss a solution for a real-life challenge that you encountered. By asking these type of questions they just basically want to ensure you aren’t an a**. I strongly believe everyone should also be able to discuss a time they “failed” at work and end it with a positive outcome, learning experience or direct impact on their next role. Being prepared with these types of scenarios and their positive outcomes will not come out as a weakness but rather a self-awareness.?

Your Future??

The “What would you like to see in your career in the next 3-5 years?” questions come up so often. It’s the same as asking what the 3-5 year goals for the company are, or if you are on a Bumble date what the 3-5 year life plan is of your potential suitor. The real answer is no one knows. The relative answer has to be somewhere between you aren’t going to say you want to be a parent and living in Aspen retired and off the grid, or alternatively that you want to be the next CEO/CTO of this given company. No hiring manager wants to hear that someone is trying to take over their job or the company - but they do want to hear you would like advancement opportunities.?

The best way to answer this question is to align the company’s forecast with your career goals. “In the next 3 years as we grow as an organization, I’d like to hope I made a direct impact in the next round of funding and would be considered for an even bigger role where I could continue to make a direct impact again.” Although vague - it’s not stepping on anyone’s toes or hurting anyone’s feelings, and it’s also showing you’d like to advance within the organization with hard work.?

The reality is no one stays at the same company for 10/20 years anymore (god bless) but instead the answer needs to be somewhere in the middle. Self promote where you actually would like to be, instead of telling the hiring manager you want their job - let them know that when they succeed you succeed, which means both of you advance.?

Your Salary??

Although the market may seem flooded by the tech giant's numerous lay-offs (that we referenced in our last article here), the reality is there are numerous industries and companies whose hiring demand can not keep up with the available candidates in their arena. Knowing your worth isn’t just about understanding the role, the growth and the stability of business - but understanding if it is inline with your salary expectations. Doing your research, having honest and open conversations with your mentors, colleagues and other industry peers is important, but not a deal stopper. The benefit of working with a recruiter is that they are looking out for your best interest. I personally ask my candidates three questions - What is your happy number? What is your sign on the dotted line number? And what is your walk-away number?

Knowing your worth here also means understanding the market too - just because your friend at one company is making X, and you are making half of that at Y does not lead to you being equally qualified for that base. (Although you may be deserving.)

Doing additional research on websites such as Glassdoor , Dice , Salary.com , and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) which are also useful tools to help you understand your worth. Also keep in mind a role such as a Front End Engineer in Iowa vs. one in SF/California are going to have a bit different salary range - however remote work has helped normalize some of that differentiation.?

At the end of the day, in an interview YOU are your biggest champion. Your mentor, your boss, your recruiter or your mom is not in the room with you. YOU have to look out for you. The reason for highlighting some of these points is to ensure each candidate can prep themselves to truly understand their self worth and to also to be prepared to talk about it. What did you accomplish, where did you fail, and most importantly what did you learn during both? A Hiring Manager wants to see both sides, and the outcomes.?And the only person who can truly answer this is - YOU!

Let me know what else you think about understanding how to become your own biggest champion and understanding your self worth….. Leave a note!?