As the Susan Boyle rise to fame tale comes to an end, it seems as if I am more than making up for the fact that I resisted writing about the lessons her rise to fame offer job seekers! (Being that I wrote about her yesterday and still have more to say!)
So, did you hear that the media darling, who rocketed to fame with 100 million hits on YouTube after surprising judges (and everyone else) by displaying a talent they did not expect from her appearance (a classic – you can’t judge a book by its cover story) – lost the Britain’s Got Talent competition to a group of ten young dancers, named Diversity in the final of the British show that made her a global star?
So, the seemingly anointed star, favored by the judges, can’t even land the top spot. What lesson does that offer job seekers? That, no matter how good you are, you still can’t expect to land the job? Umm…Maybe, but I’m a bit of an optimist, so let’s see how to frame this.
Stephanie Lloyd recently wrote about the “75 Reasons You Didn’t Get the Job.” The main gist – some things about your job search are out of your hands. There are some elements of luck, some of simply connecting with the interviewer and some of just being the right “fit.”
Let’s face it – Susan lost in a popular vote, and you know how popular votes go. It can be a bit of a toss up. Sometimes, in the end, whether or not you get the job is a bit of a toss up as well. But – and this is important – where the job seeker DOES impact his or her own chances is early in the process. That is, in creating a personal brand and an online presence, when submitting a resume, while preparing for an interview and by conducting high quality and appropriate follow-up.
Yes, in the end, even if you knocked the interview out of the park, if someone did not like one of your answers, or if another person had slightly better qualifications (or better answers), all of your work may still not result in landing the job. But you must take the wheel and drive your own career bus when you DO control the process. If you don’t make sure to do everything you can to position yourself to be asked for an interview and to appear well qualified for the job during the interview, THEN you are handing over the job to your competitors on a silver platter and buying yourself a ticket to continued job search mode.
Just as Susan, a 48-year old singer who had never had a big break, kept training and practicing and trying, job seekers need to ensure that they do everything possible to make themselves competitive for the jobs they target. The search is in your hands for most of the process, and you do influence and impact the results. Let’s face it, Susan did come in second, and she is likely to have many opportunities, even though she didn’t win. You need to be in it to win it, and as a job seeker, it is your job to to make sure you are in it with all the best you have to offer!
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