Its My Self-Confidence Thats The Problem

Its My Self-Confidence Thats The Problem Its My Self-Confidence Thats The Problem “My skills match the job, but it's my self-confidence that I don't feel comfortable with.” It’s common to feel that way, especially when you look at an ad, you know your history, you meet all the qualifications, but still there’s a fear. Of rejection. Of radio silence. Of what “they” are going to say. Of an interview going wrong. Of 3 interviews going right, but then they go with an internal candidate. Of an offer made, then rescinded. In working with a candidate this past week, he expressed to me that he was feeling some fear. I had recently finished his new LinkedIn profile, he was getting calls from recruiters because of the way that I had set that up, and he had 2 interviews. He expressed some trepidation about 1 of those upcoming meetings. He said, “What if when I say X, they say Y, and then I don’t know what to say?” Here’s something critically important that you must understand: you cannot jump into the other person's mind. You cannot be so busy thinking about what you're going to say, how they're going to react, and then what you're going to say after that. That's a lot of conversation you end up having with yourself in your own head. It’s a never-ending cycle. You’re never going to know what the other person thinks. You're never going to know what the other person may say. In that conversation that you're really having with yourself, you could come up with half a dozen possibilities of what they can say. Furthermore, the thing that you're so worried about, and those half a dozen answers that you came up with in your mind…there's a 90% chance that that moment will never actually occur in real life. So, the only thing you’re doing when you have both sides of that conversation with yourself is expending a lot of mental energy. Redirect that in a way that will actually help you. Here’s what you’re going to concentrate on in order to build and maintain your confidence. Who You Are. What You Do. The Value You Bring. Before diving in to who you are, it’s important to for me to talk about who you’re absolutely not. You are not results-oriented, detail-driven, motivated, or compassionate. None of these is a normal word that would come out of your mouth. You don't say that in a regular conversation when you're talking to your friends, Hey, I'm motivated. Hey, I'm passionate. Hey, I'm results oriented. So, don’t all of a sudden apply those words just because you're in job search mode. These words are not really who you are â€" not even close! For example, if you’re in marketing, take the opportunity to say more than you’re a “Marketing Manager.” Why is it that you love what you do? Do you thrive when connecting highly-engaged audiences with a product or service that builds the corporate brand? If so, perhaps what you really believe in is connection, or what you really believe in is engagement. Think about what you love about what you do, and wrap that up into who you are. When it comes to what you do, be specific. “Marketing” means a lot of things. Do you like marketing research? Do you like marketing campaigns? Do you like corporate branding and imaging? If you specialize in experiential marketing, then you’re an expert in creating branded experiences that are memorable, that people will walk away talking about. Regarding the value you bring, own it and articulate it. What is the value of that experiential marketing initiative that you did? It led to X number of new leads, new likes, higher social media engagement, and that translated into a specific number of sales that generated a specific dollar amount by the end of the quarter. Know who you are, what you do, and the value that you bring. When you know that, then you can be confident that you're not going into the interview saying something boring, cliché, or non- value-added. That goes a long way to shoring up your confidence!