Not my favorite activity

[fbhjr]

The biggest problem I’ve got with this whole job search is the selling myself aspect of it. I don’t like having to talk up the things I’ve done and would rather have things stand on their own.
I know that there are always other folks who will promote themselves as right for a job, even if they aren’t. So, if I’m not willing to put myself out there, I will lose out.
But, I find it very draining.
It took me quite a while today to write the thank you letter for yesterday’s interview. Not because I have trouble writing letters. But, phrasing the “I know I don’t have what you really want, but still want you to hire me” in a way I found acceptable.
It took a lot for me to find something that I didn’t think was either bragging or whining.
Then, I turned to my project of a “hire Frank” video and had to deal with the same problem.
If I just show what I’ve done and say what it is, it’s totally boring.
But, I don’t want to sound like a used car dealer either.
I’ve never been much of a sales person. And, selling myself does not come easy to me.
(Huge amounts of pollen making me feel like people are hammering my head don’t help much either.)

My instinct says “show them what you’ve done, it will be enough.” But, I know for a fact it isn’t. I’ve been told by people I’ve worked for that I almost lost out due to not promoting myself more.
I’m just not good at it.

Comments

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

"My instinct says “show them what you’ve done, it will be enough.” But, I know for a fact it isn’t."

I totally feel for you, and I feel the same way. It has become a detriment more times than I'd care to have had happened.

Don't want to butt in and say hey everyone look how jawesome I iz, but at the same time we can't stand by the side and expect people to come up and say "wow, you seem pretty jawesome"

I don't get it either.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

The problem I have is that I'm not willing to lie about things.
And, I've found, a lot of people do lie on their resumes. The last job I had I got because the guy lied and when they hired him, he couldn't do the work. So, they fired him and hired me. And, the first few months there I got a lot of "prove you can do this" questions.
I don't want to be the guy fired for not being able to do something I claimed I could do.
But, I've been able to work on everything from ice cream makers to lasers so far. So, I feel I can be plugged into a lot of stuff and come out OK.
But, my confidence doesn't get past key word scanners and HR people who are only told to look for certain specific things.
So, I'm saying "I don't know what you've got, but I'm pretty sure I can take it."
They say "Unless you've done this specific thing before, we won't believe you."
I'm not sure how to get around that, and it frustrates me.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

"The problem I have is that I'm not willing to lie about things."

Me neither.

I'm astounded at how coworkers blatantly lie and circumvent to get around doing work, doing it right, or saving their own ass.

I've been willing to 'try new things' or take on projects I'm not 100% sure will work out, but I'll still be dead honest when they ask something like "can it be done?" and I'll say "I'm not sure but I'll give it a shot" and they look at me like I committed a crime or something.

I'm not the world's most perfect at everything at the company (as some people view themselves) yet I'm willing to help/assist do something they ask and do the best to my ability...I've never botched a job to spite anyone or cranked a hissy fit because I don't want to do something, but I have been dead honest in saying "no, this won't work for screen printing" and they look at me like I'm the jerk. Sorry, it just won't work, I'm not lying to them, I just know it won't look/work good.

I don't get it when I see job offerings that have a laundry list of expectations and required experience, it's impossible to have someone fill every single thing, yet that's all they're looking for. Even after I graduated there were dozens of graphics jobs listed as "entry level" but demanded 5+ years experience

[cissa.livejournal.com]

My sympathies.

The thing tht I really HATE about my jewelry biz is the necessity for self-promotion- and as a result, I don't do nearly what i ought to. "P

[andrewfeland.livejournal.com]

Getting past the HR keyword search is a classic problem in IT--you'll often find that once a job description has been passed around enough, it'll have requirements on it that can't possibly exist, like "ten years of experience managing Windows 2003 servers". I dealt with one company as a contractor that had gotten itself into a Catch-22 with a sysadmin position--any resume good enough to make it through HR was a complete fabrication, so they ended up rejecting every single interviewee. Finally someone re-reviewed the job description and they figured out what they had done wrong, but it took six months of endless circling.

It can be frustrating; but I've also found that anyplace that requires so much of a sales job that I feel like I'm lying probably isn't anyplace I want to be working.

Good luck!