Happy Monday, misfits! I know I’ve been a little MIA, but there have been some amazing #blackgirlmagic projects pending, and when the time comes, I can’t wait to share!
Anywho, you guys love when I post career tips and advice on here, so of course I must oblige! One reader wrote me an article the other day, stating:
” Dear Theblondemisfit,
There’s a new position that I want to apply for but I’m totally scared! It’s in a new division that I’ve never worked in before, but I know I can do well. What do you think I should do? I can’t afford to go to grad school.“
I absolutely love this question because I’m sure so many people out there (myself included) get into situations like this everyday where we focus on job qualifications. With a still pretty shaky economy on top of stiff competition within selective industries, it can be a challenge finding something specifically in your field. Many of us take to other areas to pay them bills honey, so seeing a question like this is not foreign. Here are my own personal thoughts and bits of advice (and once again, I am not a career expert, just a chick with a brain):
You don’t need to be afraid of the unknown.
It is so easy for us to sink into this crippling notion of fear whenever presented with something we don’t know. What if instead of tackling something in fear, we attacked it with confidence? Getting into a new job at a new division poses so many fun and exciting opportunities, how dare we sit around scared about the unknown!
[Tweet “It’s the fighter who already believes he has lost that will lose.”]You get to try something you’ve never done before, work in a whole new division with new people, and girl, for all you know, the snacks in this division could be better! (I’m only MODERATELY kidding here– but snacks are important). Stop thinking you’re not qualified for something until the decision gets mad. If you think that you’re already going to fail or something bad is going to occur, it’s going to happen. Walk into a situation fearlessly, optimistic of the outcome.
Secondly, push through those transferable qualifications.
I just recently learned there was a name for the qualities you can bring from one job to another, and they are called, “transferable qualifications”. When I was a hostess at a restaurant back in college, I did hostess stuff: cleaned the bathrooms, sat people, made reservations, answered the phones, and dealt with borderline maniacs during midday weekend brunches. Fast forward to my current work now in publishing, you wouldn’t even BEGIN to imagine how many of those skills I depend on to do what I do. Though I’m not seating people, there are many things that “transfer” into other professions, such as: handling crazy situations with clients and PR reps, administrative tasks for editors and videographers, organization of the fashion closet or over a project, leadership and team building (hello, new franchises). If you’re not well-versed in some parts of the details of the job, play up your transferable skills from another position that can become applicable to this one. Show your hiring manager how you can use job skills from previous work and make it applicable to the job at hand. Quantify your accomplishments as best you can so that your recruiter sees that you are someone that is trustworthy, dependable, and results driven. Who knows, you may have something that they find to be the most fascinating skill on the planet!
Lastly, don’t nobody need no school, girl.
Okay, that was a little *extra* of me, but I’m saying that formal training in many things is no longer needed to actually learn how to do the skill. While I certainly am a person who believes one should never stop learning and should seek as much education as they can, many times people don’t have the funds, resources, time or opportunities to go back to school.
Though I don’t know what your life looks like right now, things such as internships and fellowships are great starting blocks to getting within a company and learning skills applicable to a job at hand. Next, register for online classes. There are literally DAYS that I can just sit and watch training videos, a la carte and free.99 on the web. All you need to do is Google things, and there it is. You have not, because you search not.
There was a time I wanted to learn about video editing. Not only did I want to learn for my own personal curiosity, but because I see and understand the importance of video content in the media space. This was an asset not only to my employer, but to the future indispensability of myself. Though I couldn’t get into a formal training class and had no community to drop at even a community college, I found different online training programs that teach you, step by step, how to video edit. I work on these skills everyday, I don’t beat myself up when I mess up, and I enjoy learning something new that then transfers on my resume as a few things:
- I know how to do video editing.
- I am a natural leader and take opportunities to constantly learn new things to keep myself up to date with my industry.
- I am tenacious and a hard worker who gets the job done, whatever it takes.
Uh hello, there goes your 30 second pitch. In my case, it’s video editing, but it can be anything for you. Whatever you want to learn, whether in the job description or not, you have the potential to learn.
So there are my tips on the notion of “qualification” for the job. Don’t count yourself out before you even get to the fight. Go in there with your head held high and apply for the roles and positions that suit you and bring YOU joy. Conjure up in your mind that you have all that you need in this world to be successful, and that this is an opportunity to see if this adds to that success. Ya’ll got this, so go on and get your flourish on!
