Career Coach Steve Nicholls shares the story of one of clients, Jenna – an HR professional who recently made a transition into a new HR role. There are some interesting points here for anyone looking to find a new role, whether it’s in HR or any other profession; the insights apply equally. Jenna’s story follows a path from spotting a vacancy, through to securing the job.
“Jenna found out about the role through either pure luck or divine intervention. She had subscribed to vacancy alert e-mail notifications for some time and would usually glance at the emails late at night before going to bed. More often than not she was too tired to read them properly. Luckily, one night, she did read the notification email and it sounded like an exciting opportunity and one too good to pass up so she decided to inquire about it.
Jenna felt that on reflection, she should have been more actively seeking an opportunity to change her previous job. She wasn’t unhappy but she was also comfortable and definitely not feeling challenged. It is very easy to be content with being comfortable which unfortunately also means that one could easily miss out on an opportunity that could be the next exciting career step. In hindsight, she feels that she should have been more active.
The initial inquiry about the role went to the recruiter who Jenna later discovered wasn’t actually a recruiter but a consultant who had a long standing relationship with the organisation. I think this was a smart way to recruit for an important role because the consultant was intimately familiar with the organization, its culture and what they are looking for in a recruit.
The first step of the application process was to submit an application to the consultant. She reviewed her CV and customized it so it specifically addressed the requirements of the ad. Her impression of the ad was that the organization had a more senior person in mind but she knew that she could be great at the role and had the necessary skills and experience and more importantly the enthusiasm and passion. Jenna wanted her CV to reflect that. She asked two people to review her CV – a mentor who works in learning and development and her husband who is in commercial property development and has a great eye for detail.
All the interviews she participated in were more like getting to know you chats, which suited her style perfectly. Interestingly thought, all four people Jenna interviewed with were very different people with very different personalities so she did have to adjust her style a little but ultimately the best policy was to be herself.
Jenna received interesting feedback from the consultant about the interviews. The CEO thought that she was qualified for the role and had the experience he was looking for but perhaps she sold herself a bit too much or was trying to over compensate for something. She took this feedback on board before she met with the major stakeholder, but she was careful not to let the feedback diminish her enthusiasm for the role or the need to demonstrate her knowledge, experience and suitability for the role. Sure enough, the feedback from the major stakeholder was that he was impressed by Jenna’s passion and enthusiasm for the role and her energy was what was needed.
In terms of social skills Jenna is fortunate…she can build rapport with people quickly and easily. The reason for that is because she is genuinely interested in people and their stories. She asks lots of questions and not surprisingly finds similarities or areas of common interests very quickly. This helped make the interviews more of a conversation and gave her as much of a chance to get to know the organisation as the interviewers getting a chance to know me and assess her suitability for the role.
Jenna’s story is one of commitment, passion, and choosing the right strategy for that particular role.”
Steve Nicholls has many years of varied career coaching and guidance experience and offers career evaluations as well telephone and skype Career Coaching across the UK.
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