A Job Description Written for You

What's your ideal job?  And if you were to apply to that job today, would you be able to check every box for the figurative job posting checklist?

Job postings are written to describe the ideal candidate, the one the organization and especially the hiring manager dreams of.  But rarely does the hiring manager actually expect to find that ideal, except for when the posting is written with a specific person in mind.

I remember a few times where I saw a job posting that was so detailed and specific I didn't think they'd ever find anything even close to that ideal candidate.  In one case, I was actually really intrigued by the role and decided to throw my hat in the ring, for lack of a better term.  For me, the detail that the list of requirements gave led me to guess I wouldn't get the role since my experience and credentials were just a bit off.  

I was then surprised to learn of the full level of the futility of my application.

One of my colleagues heard that I had applied to this position, and she knew the hiring manager, so took me aside one day after work.  She tried to be diplomatic in her explanation and ended up dancing around the subject for about 10 minutes before I interrupted her and asked her to just spit it out.  She then explained that in that organization, when a job posting was as detailed as this one was, it means that it was written with a specific person in mind but they were still required to proceed with the posting to be able to say the individual hired was truly the best fit for the role, and that they had followed fair process in hiring that person.  I guess it's a practice that happens quite often in that organization, and indeed throughout the job market from time to time.  I've even heard of a few situations where the desired hire is the one that writes the job positing themselves, basically describing what they themselves bring to the table.  At the time, the very idea of this "fair process" hiring was a huge surprise, and it really shocked me.

But, as I said, I already thought my experience and credentials were slightly out of sync with what the job positing described, so I just shrugged it off and moved on to the next role.  And that's actually what happened.  The next role I decided to explore, I was invited to an interview, and shortly thereafter I was informed that I was considered the top candidate and that they'd like to move forward with my candidacy.  That's actually what happened time and time again.  I was on a streak!  

It actually got to the point where, based on precedence, I started to believe that if I was invited for an interview I could assume that I would be hired for the role.

That was my expectation.  And since this blog is about reversed expectation, you can probably guess that wasn't the case for that much longer.

Rather recently I became aware of a role that appeared to have been written for me.  Though it wasn't the case, I really thought that the "fair process" hiring I had seen earlier in my career was happening again, and this time it was in my favour.  I checked all the boxes, and there was only a single item on the "nice to have" list that wasn't also on my resume.  I felt like I had this role in the bag, and was really looking forward to this next step in my career.  Well, last week I was notified that they decided to move forward with another candidate.

It can be a hard pill to swallow when you don't get offered the job that was, for all intents and purposes, written with you in mind.

But it's also an invitation...  

It's an invitation to learn a lesson in humility.  And if you're wondering exactly what humility is, the definition I always turn to was a quote from a leader of my church, that "true humility means glorying in another's accomplishments to the same extent you glory in your own".  I didn't get the role, but someone else did.  And they were probably just as invested in the hope of receiving that job offer as I was, if not more so.

It's an invitation to re-examine.  I now have the opportunity to re-examine what I want from my career.  Is the dream job I thought I wanted what would in reality be best for me?  Or is something else in store that would be better, though maybe not what I expected (again with the reversed expectations)?  I also have the opportunity to re-examine my experience and credentials.  Is there another area that I should focus on to more fully display my skill sets and abilities?

It's an invitation to change, to improve, to revise, to move on, to expand.

Ultimately, it's an invitation for growth.

Now, I don't know what's going to happen down the road, and I know that I haven't fully accepted the invitations inherent in not getting offered the job I've referred to, but I am considering those invitations and exploring how to grasp hold of them.  And I do know that my life and my career doesn't stop here, there's more that I have to offer.