Try walking in for your next job application. No heads up, no call ahead, just open their door and walk right in. Now, as a precursor, I didn’t get this job, but with the amount of jobs I have applied for, interviewed for, and wasn’t given a chance, I was the most proud of this one. Almost a, “I am better than you” feeling as I will never see this man again and he will never see another person freely walk into his doors again.
My dad has been on my a** about getting a job and has told me numerous times to just walk right in for a job. Now I wouldn’t classify myself as very confident or anything, I mean my hands tremour when I get pulled over to the point I look like I just got caught red-handed. LOL more on that another time. But, I give myself a 3 second pep-talk, which is more on the lines of: “Don’t be a p*****, you got this!” and then I just do it. For this occasion, It was a UI Developer Job at a software company in my city. I briefly researched their company, dressed up a bit, and drove over.
I drove past their building and my stomach dropped, I sat at the end of the street, gave myself that pep talk I mentioned earlier then quickly turned my car around and pulled in their fairly small parking lot. I got out of my car and headed to the door. I rang the doorbell and was greeted by the front desk assistant.
“Hello, what are you here for?” She said.
“I’m Jack and I am here for the UI Developer position.” I said trying to be as confident as I could be.
She brought me inside and conversed with another employee about not knowing if the hiring manager was there. I made some small talk with them as the hiring manager came down totally caught off guard.
He interviewed me right in front of them, then moving to another room, we talked for around 30 minutes before I left the office. Towards the end, he commented saying: “I have never had anyone just walk right in for a job opportunity….that takes some real confidence.” He emailed me his contact information, then said he would give me a design challenge the following week… That challenge never came, but I feel like I won.
For once, rejection isn’t so bad, I proved to myself I could walk in somewhere completely random with random people and not totally crumble during an interview. It was an immense confident boost for my job search and I would encourage anyone else to do it. Maybe you’ll be luckier than myself, and if you keep looking up ways to stand out to hiring managers this may just be your key to success.
Take care!
