Lindsey Schantz
After earning a BA in psychology and a MS in Industrial Organizational Psychology / The Psychology of Exercise and Sport, and contemplating a career in academia, I decided to take my research interest in human motivation to the business world. Despite the domain change, questions about my own career have remained. They are questions I believe I share with many of you and I am looking for answers. View my LinkedIn profile here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseyschantz
Posts by Lindsey Schantz
The Vice-President and the F-Bomb
Mar 25th
People can say what they would like about Joe Biden’s vice-presidential slip, but I, for one, appreciate his candor.
Too often messages today are sugar coated, and no where is this more true than in business. Employers toss around certain lines as often as Vice-President Biden apparently throws around the F-bomb.
You are not the right fit. Your skill set is not what we had in mind. We are looking for someone with more industry experience.
For once it would be refreshing for a hiring manager to simplify these words, to cut through the static, and to tell it like it is. Because, if we are honest with ourselves, we know that 95% of the time any iteration of one of the statements above basically means, “In our opinion, you are not smart (or talented, or able) enough to do this job.”
Sure, hearing the truth may sting momentarily. Like the quick removal of a band-aid, though, it seems as if the truth is easier to take than the confusion as to what went wrong.
We have all experienced the “it is not you, it is me” conversation during one break-up or another. Whenever a soon-to-be-ex-significant other uses these words, you can be pretty sure of one thing – the problem definitely has something to do with you. The same is true in business.
Tell me like it is. Tell me that I am not smart enough, or tall enough, or creative enough, or outgoing enough, or fill-in-the-blank enough to be successful in your organization or at your company. But, tell me the truth. I want to know what to work on and, perhaps, what to look for in a future job and I can only do this effectively if I understand what went wrong this time around.
Sure, Biden’s f-bomb may not go down in history alongside Lincoln’s ‘Four score and seven years ago’ or Kennedy’s ‘Ask not what your country can do for you’, but I give the Vice-President credit for saying what was on his mind.
And, I am going to follow his lead. From now on, I am going to be clear from the start. You know, I will tell my next interviewer, “I am a big f—ing deal and you would be lucky to have me.”
I will let you know how it goes.
This original post, and other twenty-something ideas, can be found on my blog: http://twentysomething-tryingtofigureitout.blogspot.com/
Learn more about Lindsey by accessing her bio at: http://humanelementblog.com/about/about-lindsey-schantz/
We were wondering, what do you actually do?
Jan 22nd
I rocked my red pumps (the female equivalent of a power tie), my pencil skirt, and my perfectly pressed white shirt. I greeted everyone who came within a first down marker of me. I said the right things during my meetings and introduced myself to the right people during my down time.
Perhaps this getting back to work thing would be not as difficult as I imagined.
This perspective changed quickly, though, towards the end of my second day when I was hit with the question. Yep, the question.
“We were wondering,” the most vocal member of a group of women who were getting ready to call it a day said to me, “What do you actually do?”
There were many things that I was hoping to hear from this group of women. “We are glad to have you on board.” “We are excited to have your skills on our team.” “We cannot wait to work with you further.” These all would have fit the bill.
“What do you actually do?” does not have quite the same ring to it. The irony, of course, is that I thought re-joining the workforce would answer this question, not perpetuate it.
Joining an organization or holding a title, I quickly learned, does not mean that your purpose or your goals instantly become clear. A job does not define a person. A person defines a job.
The question the women posed to me is a fair one – what do you actually do?
And, I answered as truthfully as possible. “To be honest,” I said, “I am still trying to figure that out.”
This original post, and other twenty-something ideas, can be found on my blog: http://twentysomething-tryingtofigureitout.blogspot.com/
Learn more about Lindsey by accessing her bio at: http://humanelementblog.com/about/about-lindsey-schantz/
