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| DAMON CARR
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It has been two months and not much has changed. All of a sudden they want to hire me for the position. I feel slighted. I was not good enough two months ago. Why now? I feel that the only reason they want me now is because they’re in a bind. The person they hired instead of me has decided to take another job. I have the knowledge of the area and I know I can do the job. I served as the interim manager until they found a permanent replacement. I’m not sure if I can play by all of their rules. This position will move me up a couple of salary grades. What do you think I should do?
Signed—Female wrestling with pride and principle
Damon says:
Swallow your pride and take the job! Here’s my reasoning:
Two months ago you were very interested in this position. Unfortunately, at that time they did not value your knowledge and experience enough to grant you the position. The opportunity has presented itself once again. This time around, “You’re” the prime candidate! This tells me that you were among the top three candidates the first go round.
Perhaps their critique of you was true. We all tend to have a higher opinion of ourselves than what others think of us. The best advice I get comes from people criticizing me. It’s never pleasant to hear. I’ve learned to embrace criticism. I try to objectively view what is being said about me. If I feel that there’s merit to what is being said, I try to correct it. If I feel that the criticism is false or unjust, I dismiss it.
Do you have a funky attitude? Do you lack managerial experience? If so, view what the interviewing manager said as constructive criticism. If for no reason other than peace of mind, work toward having a more positive attitude and a more optimistic mindset. What you express with your attitude is a reflection of what’s going on internally. An inconsistent attitude is a sign of someone who is unhappy, grumpy, sad and mean. Not the kind of personality, you’d like to have as a boss—is it? If you lack managerial experience, seek to become more knowledgeable about your area. Highlight some of the things you’ve accomplished when you were an interim manager. Demonstrate excellence and pride in the work that you do. Hard work, persistence and determination are character traits that will make a hiring manager overlook lack of experience.
Perhaps their critique of you was false and unjust? Office politics! If so, know that you’re working in Corporate America. This will not be the last time you’ll experience a situation like this. Dismiss it and move on. Use it as fuel to motivate yourself to succeed in your career regardless of whatever obstacles are placed in your path.
You originally posed this question a couple of months ago. When I decided to use this story in my article, I thought I’d ask a mutual friend of ours to give me an update on your new job. Our mutual friend shared with me that you were passed up on this job opportunity once again. According to our mutual friend, you asked why they passed you up for this job when they pursued you. You were told that you did not sell yourself on the interview. I can imagine how disappointed you felt.
Considering the circumstances, I thought I’d let you in on a secret. A secret I recently stumbled upon after researching and observing a commonality among people who’ve gone from zero to millions and in some cases billions within a relatively short period of time. A secret that has propelled Donald Trump, Michael Jordan, Rachel Ray, Dave Ramsey, TD Jakes, Joel Osteen, Suze Orman, Oprah Winfrey, and the likes into mega-money. A secret that will allow you or me to legally print all the money we’ll ever want or need if we can master this skill.
The secret is our income is a direct correlation of our ability to convince others that we possess a unique talent, skill, or knowledge whose value is worthy enough to make others fork over their hard earned money to benefit from it, witness it, experience it or learn from it. In other words, it lies in our ability to sell ourselves. TD Jakes has more members and more money than most pastors because of his ability to sell more people to share his philosophy. The other candidate got the promotion and the raise over you because he or she did a better job of selling themselves than you did.
As the old saying goes—What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Learn and grow from this experience.
(Mortgage and Money Coach Damon Carr is the owner of ACE Financial. Sign up for Damon’s FREE online “Ask Damon” e-Newsletter @ www.allcreditexperts.com. Damon can be reached @ 412-856-1183)
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