Rory Cullen, Kaizen Software Developer

I started this blog because I don’t want to become a professional job seeker. I found that I was striving to become perfect at the job seeking game, and then remembered that was not my goal! You can read books about interviewing (I did!), and prepare to no end, but the goal is the job, not the journey. In the end, I decided I would prefer to work for free in my chosen profession, than become an expert in something that was not.

That said, I had a very interesting day on Tuesday, and further conversations last night made me rethink the intrinsic value the job search. On Tuesday, I attended a three-hour session about “how to network”. It was ok, but a little basic for me. In fact, the main thing I hoped to learn more about, I did not. More on that in a later post. (And yes, that may be where you come in!)

Back on topic: Our main focus was on the 30 second commercial, known in career circles as the “elevator speech”. Origin of the name being; if you only had the length of an elevator ride to relay your message, what would you say to show your value? I wrote my first speech about two months ago, and again more recently, and again the night before. I have had a lot of experience with this topic, but I don’t think it’s one of my strongest tools as of yet, hence the constant rewriting. Also, coincidentally, I was booked to record my 30 second commercial for the New England Job show on cable access in Chelmsford that afternoon. This had driven me to rewrite the speech the previous night, and to spend the evening, and morning car ride, saying it over and over again. Most people in the room were rewriting their speeches on the spot.

I volunteered to do my speech first, because I knew that I would not be able to concentrate on anyone’s speech until mine was behind me. I delivered my speech, and have to admit that I nailed it. Or everyone else was too worried about his or her own speech to analyze mine. Either way, not much criticism. Then, I was released to be fully engaged in the next speech, and so on. I was taking notes, and giving constructive feedback, based on all of the research I had done for my own speech. It was fantastic, and felt great to be actively helping my fellow job seekers. Not only that, but people perceived the genuineness of my help, and some have since become connections for me in LinkedIn. In general, this was one of the best days I have had in the last few weeks, and that was because helping others made me feel better about myself.

Ok, so what did I learn from that session? First, that I really just love helping people whenever I can. In this case, I was able to use my own experiences to help others through a new, and intimidating, experience. Second, if you are genuine, people respond in kind. This is not news to anyone, but it is a key to networking! It is much easier to make a connection in casual conversation, then in a forced environment. Third, there is no harm in becoming better and better at the job search. Some of the skills I build now will be transferable to my next job. Being able to talk to people, and connect, has never hurt one’s career. Being able to relay your value-add qualities effectively is always going to help you along. Forcing yourself outside your comfort zone is certainly going to make you stronger! In the end, getting better at the job hunt is allowing me to make genuine connections with other job seekers, which is important in its own right.

So, should I add, “I like to help” to my elevator speech?  Nah, I think I’ll just ask what floor, and push the button.