The Voice of Job Seekers

Mark Anthony Dyson ★ Career Writer ★ Speaker ★ Thinker ★ Award-winning Blog & Podcast! ★ I hack and reimagine the modern job search!

Confidence: The Soft Skill That Rocks

Confidence: The Soft Skill That Rocks

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Confidence makes a presentation powerful. It’s a legitimate job skill. Well, soft skill, but one employers desire.  Any presentation for any meeting whether in a large group, or one-on-one, confidence is what employers expect.

If you brag to compensate for the lack of depth in your superficial-frosted-flake-eating-mediocre-career-pursuing-barely-quit-before-I-got-fired 30 second elevator speech, then you have my permission to NOT read the rest of this post. It’s not for you. You are probably too engorged with pride and arrogance to take anything value from this post.

Thanks to the rest of you. At least you’re interested in grasping additional confidence for the next business meeting, networking event, job interview, or meeting your fiancée’s mother for the first time. Congratulations.

Again,  if you are self-indulgent in self-serving and self-pumping statements, this post will help you score.

You are probably getting call backs for commission-only sales jobs.  Arrogance, ha!

The habits of confident candidates do not include bragging, boasting, or attempting to compensate for the lack of HOT credentials. The impact of his or her contributions says it all. No need to offer egregious adjectives, or shout lies from the mountain top.

On the contrary, less is more.

  1. Confidence is genuine. Never fake. You can’t do both at the same time.
  2. A confident candidate has completed his or her due diligence to understand what the position requires. Based on research, questions are prepared to ask tactfully, but directly to the interviewer.
  3. Confident job candidates challenge but gently correct a potential employer who starts to make wrong assumptions solely based on the candidate’s appearance, speech, or looks. “Gently” is different than “abrupt” or “abrasive.”
  4. An accomplished candidate speaks in $ and %, and not just in ! and ?
  5. A hirable candidate has spent time developing his or her presentation skills. Practice and preparation was a part of the strategy.
  6. He or she practices writing and interviewing, and become sharp and ready. Remember point #2?
    For job seekers who say that he or she is an expert facilitator or an excellent supervisor on your resume, and cannot prove it, you have a problem.
    The solution: Less is more. Focus more about measurements, contributions, and impact.
    Show some confidence by commenting below. What have you done to grow in confidence since your last job?

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

Hired By The Spouse, to Marry the Job Hunt

When one spouse is out of work, the other becomes the boss. That’s how the job hunt works during marriage. One becomes the slave, the other, Master.  This dynamic occurs without divine intervention, or gene pooling.

The unemployed or underemployed spouse is now at the other’s mercy.  The employed spouse lifted his or her hands to the heavens and claim deity. As Jake Elwood would say, “I’m on a mission from God!”

Spoil A Messy Job Search and Marriage

Now you are your spouse’s mission from God. Not all marrieds haze their spouse in this way. There are some amicable agreements that spouses work out initially. Some start out well, and others toggle between the  Spanish Inquisition and the 1969 version of Woodstock (minus the muck and mire).

The problem is how the unemployed spouse responds to this new form of hierarchy. Many were ambushed, and others saw this new role coming like a slow sunrise. The vulnerable job hunting spouse, who feels like a castrated eunuch, chooses life as a job seeker. Depending on the spouses temperance, he or she will marry the job hunt.

Maybe a castrated eunuch is too harsh, but more of a circumcised adult. But, I have digressed.

No one should feel desperate. Both spouses feel the burden of having to press the panic button in finding a new gig, but express it and go about it differently. Whatever the case may be, both should be transparent.  Even if, either spouse says, “I trust you.”

Transparent

Transparent, means letting your spouse view the righteous and evil of your efforts:

1. Using one method of researching job looks lazy. It’s understandable that either spouse, regardless of an 100% effort from the other who is looking, request copious accountability. The best way to diffuse the bomb before it detonates: offer a general play-by-play of how things are going. Daily. Some spouses need it, and some don’t, but all spouses appreciate the forthrightness.

2. Ask for help, advice, and direction even when they have nothing to offer. This will also help your spouse remain quiet, contained, and patient. Let them see your struggles, and help them to celebrate any progress you experience.

3. Your patience, temperament, and diligence delivers the message of how tough it is in the job hunt. You won’t have to remind him or her of the challenges. They will see it, and will help you make it.

It would be a shame a spouse choose to marry the job hunt. Somewhere in this land, someone married their job, but there are obvious reasons why or why not.

I wonder. Does it hurt to drive a spouse employed, just as a job would drive a spouse to marry? Does that make sense?

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.