Bringing humanity to your job search
Originally published on August 2, 2017 at www.linkedin.com.
I did some back-of-the-napkin math recently and figured (conservatively) that I have interviewed and/or coached at least 2,000 students during my 8+ years in admissions and career services at NYU Stern. As I discussed in my last article, I really enjoy this work. But each year I encounter some students who clearly distinguish themselves from their peers with the high degree of humanity that they bring to their career search. When I use the word humanity, I’m thinking of qualities like compassion and consideration, and the understanding that one’s job search is not nearly as important as conducting oneself with tact and respect for others. I have seen students demonstrate these qualities in many ways, but below are three key examples.
To bring humanity to your job search, I suggest that you:
> Pay attention to the details. You might be wondering what attention to detail has to do with this, but my argument is that few things will make others question your respect for their time more than when you are careless about the details. This can take many forms: being late for a job interview or coffee chat without explanation; making a basic error in an email or cover letter (read more of my thoughts on cover letters here); or failing to research a company or a job description thoroughly before walking into an interview or meeting with someone who could refer you. I have seen many people get hired (by some great companies, too) who neglected the details, but it was in spite of these mistakes, and not because they didn’t matter.
> Keep others’ needs in mind; not just your own. This is a mindset that I try to instill in my students when I’m conducting mock interviews, though it extends across every phase of the job search. When you are interviewing for a job, try to imagine: what are the interviewer’s needs? I would argue that one huge need for most interviewers is that they want the interview to be easy for them. They want to be able to walk out of the room after the interview and easily convince their colleagues (not to mention themselves) that you are the right (or wrong) person for the job. To be on the right side of this equation, you should be able to respond to your interviewer’s questions adeptly and fluidly, providing examples to back up every claim you make about your skills. You should also spend less time articulating what you will gain from the job (e.g., professional growth, a great community, etc.) and more time discussing how the company/organization will benefit from hiring you.
Also consider the needs of those you meet in a networking context. Chief among them is the need to feel like they are helping you (or can help you), and they also need to feel like you are not misusing their time (see #1 above). Thus, you should be prepared to articulate why you are seeking their advice, in particular, and what it is about their professional role or career journey that interests you. If you don’t have clear answers to these questions (i.e., what their background is, what their job consists of, or how they might be able to help you), then you should be transparent about this in your outreach so they can decide if they want to invest time in having a more general conversation with you.
> Express gratitude at every turn. By now you have noticed that all of these suggestions are related to one another. Paying attention to detail, for example, is a way of showing that you care about another person’s needs. But expressing gratitude is the final piece of the puzzle. It is an often overlooked detail that is also one of the best ways to show that you care about a need that almost all people have: to feel that their efforts are/were appreciated. There are some contexts in which an expression of gratitude is obviously warranted. You should send a thank-you note after an interview, for example, and ditto if someone meets you for coffee and gives you good advice (actually, send a thank-you note regardless of advice/coffee quality). But there are other key moments in which I recommend expressing gratitude, including: after you get rejected by a company (thank whomever shares the bad news for giving you the opportunity to interview); after completing an internship (thank your colleagues/managers for the opportunity to work with and learn from them); and at the end of the semester (thank your professors for sharing their wisdom and expertise with you). I could go on, but my point here is that if you can identify and follow through on non-obvious opportunities to express gratitude, you will distinguish yourself from the crowd by showing that you care about others’ needs. Those people, in turn, will be more likely to want to help you succeed in the future.
I hope these tips will help you bring more humanity to your career journey, regardless of where you are in the process. As always, I welcome your comments.
