I’ve just met Wendy Gelberg, owner of Gentle Job Search/Advantage Resumes. She just released “The Successful Introvert: How to Enhance Your Job Search and Advance Your Career.” I’m so looking forward to know her better. Her book reminded me how I LOVED interviews when I was an employee. It may be the arrogance that an INTJ can often unconsciously portray that would get me every job I really wanted. If you are an introvert seeking a job, Wendy’s book seems excellent for a thorough analysis. Here are just three top ways for introverts to leverage innate strengths and boost that confidence for your job search.
Plan methodically. Lay out for the week what you will do to find that job. Use Mondays to plan out the rest of the week. Possibly Tuesdays are interview days and some live networking, Wednesdays are company and job research and another consideration for live networking, Thursdays are the “second interviews,” Fridays are your Thank You notes and catchup. Then the weekends you can continue to research if you need or want to. Do use some of the weekend for recharging yourself. The job search is a full time job.
Study the company. Use any resource you can to find out about the company, their products, their competitors. Talk with people who know the company. Go to the library or use the internet. This part of preparation is just what an introvert likes so while you want to schedule the time and do it, don’t get caught with paralysis through analysis. You want to be prepared not memorized.
Improve your elevator speech for that inevitable question: “Tell me a little bit about yourself.” Focus the benefit of your experience to the job you are interviewing for. Make it MORE about the company and less about you. If you did your research about the job and the company, you know what they want. If you listened to the questions in the interview, you know what they want. So when the inevitable question comes up, you 1) lead with, a “do you know how you…” (and now it’s something about what they said, or something they need or something they want) and follow it with 2) “In the past, I’ve been able to (how you’ve solved that problem or match those needed skills) and 3) “I know this job will require that kind of skill as well.”
My partner Kati Pratt, former executive recruiter, and myself created online ecourses – like workshops online – for all facets of the job search process. Even though Kati is an extrovert and I’m an introvert, it has specific but unique tips like this last one.
The jobs are out there, really. Plan, study and prepare. That’s the crux of it. What do you think?
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