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Solve anything with Dr. Mark: Career advice for the working class; Set yourself apart

By Dr. Mark Goulston, Source: Tribune Media Services

Q: I have a college degree, but so do millions. I have had a variety of jobs, but so have millions. I have a pretty solid resume, but so do millions. I need a job, but so do millions. I have read books and your columns, but so have millions. If there was a single quality that all companies are looking for in the people they hire, what would it be?

A: I only wish millions read this column. But thanks for your question. It has given me pause to wonder what that "je ne sais quoi" is that companies are looking for. From working with, speaking to many companies and listening to what they seem to be looking for above the usual qualifications that you and many others have I can't reduce it to one quality but I can reduce it to two. Those are Initiative and Resourcefulness.

Initiative: Too often companies tell me how passive their people can be, waiting for instructions. (Now of course there is the other side of the story from many of their people that the instructions keeps changing from day to day, which can cause people who normally take initiative to stop in their tracks, but that is the subject of a different column).

Resourcefulness: Just as often as companies tell me they wish their people would take more initiative is that they wish they could think outside the box more to come up with challenging solutions. (Encouraging that quality in actions not just in words will make a nice companion to that different column).

Lastly but as important as those qualities are is that they benefit others. It's one thing to take the initiative and be resourceful to further your own ambitions, but people are more concerned about what you can get done for them.



Proactive advice

Q: I am looking for a job and I am a nervous wreck. I think I cover it reasonably well, but I'm sure that I still don't show confidence in my job interviews. I think nervousness is contagious and worry that my nervousness is coming across to the person interviewing me (who given this economy might be looking for a job themselves in the near future). Any tip on how to be both proactive and confident in this economy?

A: If I could offer one piece of advice for how job-seekers and workers can be proactive and more confident regarding their jobs and careers during this difficult economy, it would be to step back and answer the question, "What I have already done either done individually or as part of a team that has produced a positive, measurable, made a difference result for a company (doing something that helps you personally, but nobody else doesn't count) is ________."

People looking to hire someone or promote someone don't care how much you know or how much you can do until they know what you have already done for a company or team like theirs that produced a positive, measurable, made a difference result result. The more you have an answer to that, the less you have to fudge what you tell prospective employers or your boss when you are seeking to be promoted. The next step is to target companies or departments within yours that most urgently need that kind of result. Then if you have been accurate in your targeting all you have to do is find a way into that company or department, tell them what it is you've already done for people like them and then enroll them.

XXX

Mark Goulston, M.D., is a Santa Monica-based business psychiatrist, executive coach and author of "Get Out of Your Own Way at Work." Question him at mgoulston@markgoulston.com. Visit him at: www.markgoulston.com

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