There’s a bit of a job mirage taking place in the world right now and for those people who are looking to either move up in their professional white-collar career, transition into a different white-collar career, or leave the blue-collar world behind and enter the white-collar world, things aren’t as easy as everybody would have you believe.
For the next few weeks, we’re going to take a look at what it takes to land jobs in this very unique time in our world in the private white-collar sector. I don’t want anybody reading these blogs to think that there is anything wrong with a blue-collar job in this world. There isn’t. Heck, there are blue-collar jobs out there that have far more responsibility and pay far more than many white-collar jobs. It’s just that in my professional coaching practice, probably 99% of the clients I help are looking to improve their situation in the white-collar world.
This week, though, I’d like to talk directly to the hiring managers of the world. You know as well as I do that we’re in a place unlike we’ve ever seen in this economic world. There will be hundreds of books written over the years that examine how the pandemic, the political situation (both domestically and internationally) and worldwide inflation played into one another and I’m not going to give my theories here. Suffice to say, we’re currently in a situation where the rules are being re-written.
I was perusing LinkedIn the other day. In between cat videos and inspirational memes, somebody wrote something to the effect of “Hiring managers, when you’re looking at a resume, remember that there’s someone desperate for a job and their family’s livelihood may just depend on it.”
I think this is huge. It’s easy to just boil down somebody to a set of facts on a resume, but let’s be real, you can find someone who looks like the perfect hire based on their resume and they are a giant bust. What must a hiring manager look for beyond just a resume?
Forbes online had a great article about this very subject in 2021 and they boiled it down to five traits:
Passion
Workplace Fit
Preparation
Resourcefulness
Willingness to Learn
We’re going to talk about all of these in the next few weeks but I’d really like to call the hiring managers’ attentions to Workplace Fit and Willingness to Learn. In my experience leading dozens of people as a Naval Officer, these two traits are head-and-shoulders above the others when it comes to determining if a person is going to excel or fail in a new white-collar position.
Workplace Fit is so key and when you see those companies that routinely make the lists of the “Best Places to Work” you’ll always see employees talk about culture. A workplace is like a jigsaw puzzle and you need the pieces to fit together for the whole thing to work. If a piece is missing, or a piece doesn’t fit, it’s obvious. Workplace Fit is not always going to be determined by where someone got their degree or how many years they’ve got for experience. Sometimes workplace productivity simply comes down to if the person likes the person at the desk next to them.
Willingness to Learn, to me, is the most important trait any employee can have. This is exemplified by what an editor of a magazine once told me: “I’d rather have a homeless person tell me that they want to work for me and that they are ready to learn than have a Harvard graduate walk in and tell me they already know how things are done. You may know how you do things, but you don’t know how we do things.” I think that’s brilliant. Someone humble enough to learn your way deserves additional consideration in hiring.
I can’t make your hiring decisions for you, but when it comes to giving someone a chance, the resumé says just so much. Give people a real chance. You probably won’t regret it.