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Email ThisI just read a blog post by Mark entitled How Much of Yourself Should You Really Be? Mark seems like a great guy, but I must completely disagree with all the points and statements that he makes on his blog post.
I have so many friends right now that are stuck in a job that they hate. Do you know what the number one culprit of this is? The reason they are stuck in this position is because they were not true to themselves. Before you go off and immerse yourself in the interview hunt, take a long moment to reflect upon yourself and find out what it is that you truly love to do. It is very cliche to say (Yu-kai know I hate the word), but find out what you are passionate about.
The interview is not only a place to show off your best qualities, but it is also the place to find out if you really want to work for this company. Mark goes a little extreme and says to talk about yourself positively “even [at] the cost of slight dishonesty.” Now, I don’t have to be a complete saint to tell you that there is something fundamentally wrong about lying during an interview setting about your skills and qualities. I can understand if you advise someone to exaggerate your stories and interview answers, but to be dishonest is just plain wrong.
For those of you who will soon be interviewing next Fall for a full-time offer or if you’re interviewing for job positions right now, do what the cliche tells you to do and just be yourself. I have been interviewing students night and day for my marketing team position, and the people who stand out the most are the students who drop their guard, are honest with me when they don’t know something, and show eagerness and a passion for the job position.
A few questions will arise from this, and I will do my best to answer them:
- What if all I did at my previous job experience is grunt work? Shouldn’t I exaggerate a lot and say how I led the project, met with clients, and raised revenues for the company?
- If your previous work experience was all grunt work, then it shows that you are able to pay your dues and do whatever it takes to get the job done. If all you did was file papers, then demonstrate how you were the greatest paper filer in all of the world. If your organized filings helped secure a multi-million dollar client, then you can definitely explain how your efforts greatly contributed to the business development. However, never completely lie about your skill sets or make up things about your position.
- I just really want a job. Shouldn’t I do whatever it takes to secure myself some kind of revenue?
- It is difficult to help students get a job when they have no experience, no leadership positions, and a low GPA. I will provide you with as much advise and guidance as possible, but in the end, you just don’t deserve to get a prestige job if you haven’t worked hard for it. If you have no experience, then you need to find a company that will give you low pay but A LOT of hands on experience. Do not just add things to your resume and lie during your interview. If you haven’t worked hard for it and cannot be honest with yourself and the interviewer, then you do not deserve the job position. Also, you will not last in the company because if you’re not qualified for it, they will eventually figure it out sooner or later
I could go on and on about things people could bring up to argue against being yourself; however, I would love to hear back from you.
In the end, being honest with yourself and others is always the best policy. This applies to everything including jobs, relationships, school, friends, and life.
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I really liked this post Jun, it reeked of honesty and I really like that.
Not only do I work with people who don’t like what they do (but “for the money”), but I have a friend or two who are about to put themselves in a “do anything for revenue” job hunt. This guy’s going to be a good businessman, so he’ll fit right in, but I keep telling him to be honest with himself and not jump into some fantasy ‘business world’. I think at first he’s going to feel surprisingly demoralized as a first year business-kid.
I’ll forward him this link, just for outside reference…sometimes friends don’t take friends’ advice.
Hey Jun,
I also commented on this post on your website.
I just wanted to clarify one thing: when did my original post become about getting a job you hated? Because I said nothing about the job itself, just about the modus operandi for getting it…
The advice I was trying to give people was about the means to getting a job I assume they WANT by putting their best foot forward. It was not about lying to YOURSELF, but rather showing your best self FOR AN INTERVIEW.
Mark,
I understand what you’re saying: given that you’re interviewing for a job position that is your “dream job,” you must do everything in your power to get it. This includes “presenting your best self.”
I feel that one should always present his or her “best self”, inside or outside the interview setting.
But lets not argue that point. I want to talk about the point you make that people should demonstrate an image of themselves that they feel the interviewer wants. I know you just wrote in your comment to put your “best foot forward,” but in your blog you wrote that the interviewee should accommodate her self to something that she expects the interviewer would want.
There are pros and cons to this. The Con is that since you’re presenting an image of yourself that is not your true self, you will most likely not fit in the company culture. So this is why people end up hating their jobs. Either they dislike the people they work with because they don’t get along or they just dislike the work that they are doing. If you put your real self forward in the interviewer, you get the chance to see if you can really build a relationship with the interviewer. You can also be honest with yourself and realize if the work that they do is the type of work you can see yourself doing for the next 3-5 years.
Interesting philosophy Jun.
I don’t think that just being yourself will be a good way to guage whether you will fit into a prospective company’s corporate culture, especially for people who are recently out of college and have a lot to learn about the workplace. I am certainly not advocating that you misrepresent yourself, I don’t think Mark’s saying that either.
I think there’s a way to be geniune, but still sell youself and if you want a position that’s what you should be doing in an interview.