Today’s post comes from Jim Holland. Jim’s passion is guiding teams that deliver market-focused products. He elevates, develops, and enables talent using natural skills and experiences acquired from individual contribution and management roles. Enjoy the post don’t hesitate to tweet your comments to Jim directly.
How many times have you read a job posting or heard of an opportunity and said, “I can do that job or I have the some of the skills or qualifications to do that?”
In talking to a number of friends recently, it’s apparent that what many of us are doing is hunting snipe. Snipe hunting for those of you that didn’t grow up in the south or other areas where random pranks took place in deserted locations, is basically practical jokes where inexperienced people are told about a bird called the snipe and are challenged to catch it while running around in the woods carrying a bag and making strange noises.
Is your job search a Snipe Hunt? If so, there’s the reality that there’s nothing to capture, you’ve been left alone in the woods and even the most experienced hunters know that running aimlessly around in the woods will get you lost or worse. So what should you do? What is your distinctive competence or unique ability to deliver value to a company?
The New Rules of Obtaining a Job require that you have a distinctive competence and can convey this in multiple ways. So how do I obtain one and where do I start?
Lights, Camera, Action – a mentor and friend challenged me on the first day of my new quest to digitally record myself as I asked the following questions:
▪ Who are you?
▪ What are you great at?
▪ What are you passionate about?
▪ What aspects of your last job were you most passionate about?
▪ What ideas or business related issues wake me up in the middle of the night?
▪ What types of problems do I enjoy solving?
▪ What intangible assets do I possess that people most comment or notice about me?
With your recording, review your comments. You may want to review these several times. As you review the content, write down the following:
▪ Three recurring themes I hear about myself.
▪ Key points of who I am.
▪ Three points of what I’m passionate and good at.
▪ Three single words that describe me and my capabilities.
With this information, you are ready to create your distinctive competence. In the next post, we’ll discuss how to construct your distinctive competence and how it will be used.
Now, put down that snipe hunting gear and pick up the digital recorder.
“…guiding teams that deliver market-focused products.”
Are there any teams whose goal is to deliver non-market focused products? Maybe they strive to sell ham to Orthodox Jews?
Jim, this post is really well written. I like that it’s short and succinct. It’s really an amazing experience to record yourself answering such questions and review them. When reviewing, we often see only the flaws in ourselves. But, what this can do is open our eyes to how we can improve upon ourselves.
I have watched recordings of my dance performances. While some parts make me laugh or cringe, especially if I feel I made a “mistake”, I actually feel better after knowing where my weak points are. I see what my audience sees, which is important for everyone to consider. If you have no concept of how you are perceived, then you have no understanding of how you can grow and improve to become the next, most amazing version of yourself!
I’m excited to try answering these questions cold turkey on recording. Thanks for a great post Jim! Thanks Jennifer for hosting such an interesting & thought-provoking blog!
Scott, there’s a surprising number of “sales and technology-focused” company’s that have forgotten about the market. Remember, it’s not about the product, but the market.
[...] are many pieces of information around that you can use? In my post, The New Rules of Obtaining a Job – No Snipe Hunting, I recommended digitally recording yourself and asking several questions to create a new [...]