Perception Is Reality

From the desk of…

Erin Pittman | Optomi Consultant-Care Manager

What do highly skilled IT consultants and high-schoolers have in common? You’d be surprised!

About a year ago, I gave a speech to a group of high school students about the importance of public perception.  They’d heard plenty of times how to write an effective ‘objective’ on their resume and which type of fancy paper to print it on. But not many of them had spent time seriously considering how they are perceived; how closely their public persona mirrors the person they believe themselves to be?  The same is true these days in the adult world.  Public perception is reality and it’s a critical thing to manage appropriately if a person intends to land their dream job.

I’m going to date myself a bit here, but back in 2006, during the internet diaspora that was Facebook, I was in charge of my sorority’s web content. I was invited to our national meeting to attend workshops and seminars focused on maintaining a positive image for any potential new members…or their parents. You can imagine the inherent difficulty of the task at hand. I remember distinctly the weekend’s theme: “Perception is Reality.” As a fairly well-behaved young woman with a whole lot of future ahead of me, the concept that one ill-timed photograph allowed online could damage my career (that hadn’t even started yet) blew my mind. The point they were trying to make, which definitely made an impact on me, was that it doesn’t matter if you spend hours studying to maintain a 4.0 GPA, working 2 internships to ensure you’re a step ahead, and volunteering at a number of charitable organizations around campus, all it takes is one picture, or one ranty status update to ruin all that good cred.

The same goes for the workplace as well; no matter the efforts you’ve made to put your best foot forward, if your perception is off, that’s what counts. In the recruiting business, we find success based on how quickly we can determine if a candidate is what our clients are looking for…or not- which as you can imagine doesn’t always lead to a lot of nuance. There are some major themes that come up time and time again, that can sully your hard-fought reputation in one fell swoop.

Perception Killer: The Houdini- We’ve all had it happen before, life gets hectic at the worst possible times, right? A recruiter calls with an incredible opportunity on the same day you’re up for review and a possible promotion. So you take the recruiter’s call, agree to follow up with your resume for submittal that afternoon and **poof** like a cloud of smoke, you’re gone. Of course, what the recruiter doesn’t know, is that your bosses boss is in town, offering you the raise you’ve been wanting forever and even though that NEW job would be exciting, you’ve got to stick it out. In all the hubbub, you forget to return the recruiter’s emails and calls.

Solution: Communication, man! No one wants to become seen as the dreaded “flake.” One thing most recruiters are excellent at, is taking notes. When the shine comes off the apple of that raise, you want to be sure that you haven’t damaged your perception so badly that it can’t be fixed. Call your recruiter back, explain the situation and ask that they keep you in mind for similar positions down the road.

Perception Killer: The Busy Bee-I know the early bird gets the worm and all those cliché’s, but if you’re too busy to fully read a job posting, or recruiter email, you’re probably too busy to answer it. Any time I’m posting a job, whether it be for a VP of Sales or entry-level intern, I always include some sort of action item outside of the usual resume request, like “in a few sentences, let me know why you think you’d excel in this role.” Somewhat surprisingly, 90% of applicants don’t follow instructions. While it may not always knock someone out of the running, ignoring directions most definitely colors my perception of a candidate’s interest.

The Solution: Slow down. We absolutely understand your work schedule is busy, and its our job to be respectful of that fact. Carve out an hour or so to ensure your resume is updated and read the job posting prior to your application.

Perception Killer: The General(izer)- As recruiters, we want nothing more than to hear how your skills and experience can help our client’s meet their goals. But in order for us to effectively communicate that information, we’re going to need to hear some specifics. I can’t tell you how many candidates I’ve spoken with over the years that could talk for hours about how effective they are at their job, but can’t seem to quantify any of it. That’s not to say you’re exaggerating or embellishing, although we have our fair share of those conversations too, but its all about the details here.

The Solution: Take time before sending out your resume to assess specific accomplishments that you can discuss when talking with a recruiter or hiring authority. Instead of saying you were the best developer on the team, explain that you completed 90% of your projects early, enabling you to assist the other developers with their work.

By no means is that an exhaustive list, but you get the idea. Its easy to forget that the process of candidate evaluation begins long before you step into the interview room- but having a little self-awareness and putting thought into your perception can put you in the right mindset to land yourself a killer job. So…how are you being perceived?