Fear of applying to attractive roles

Every job has lessons that can be taken away. For example, the knowledge of what we are good at, what we are not good at, what we enjoy and what we don’t enjoy. These reflections can help steer decisions and more widely, a lifestyle. There are various reasons for not applying for an ‘attractive’ role. Attractive in italics as what is desirable is often subjective or down to the individual’s priorities, values and aspirations. Fear of applying, or anxiety, is a powerful motivator, and in this article takes a deep dive into why applications aren’t completed. Self-belief and imposter syndrome are important, and these topics can be explored separately here.

One reason is fear of failure. The worry that not securing the role, a worry that is greater than the idea of applying. At a deeper level certain factors can impact this fear. For example, previous negative experience of applying for attractive, perhaps ‘senior’ level roles. Fear of failure is similar to the fear of competition and fear or rejection. Therefore, the worry around not being successful or ‘likely’ to secure a position, may be reason enough not to apply. However other factors like value of time could be worth considering.

Another factor that may influence applying for an attractive role is one’s value of time. This implies time that needs to be sacrificed to research the company and go through the recruitment process. This sacrifice may be too much for individuals, making them unmotivated to apply, especially if a long (2 months or more) recruitment time frame is specified. Therefore, the value placed on time may impact if an attractive role is applied to. Time invested without reimbursement links to over investment.

Hesitation around hidden commitments and over investment in a company, role or manager may impact an application submission to an attractive role. For example, mental health related what-if thinking can lead an individual to take a step back and forgo effort to apply. This is because the belief a role will be overbearing leads a person to opt out of aligning their career with what seems to be an attractive role. Therefore, the view that a role will be the be all or end all of someone’s future may lead to no action with an application to an attractive role.

Another reason to not apply could be related to professional identity. For example, At university I asked a graduate who worked at IBM, an ‘IBMer’, how they intended to disassociate the professional link between them and IBM. The graduate was rather confused with the question, taking a staunch, unwavering position that he wanted the professional label of an IBMer. This surprised me as I thought everyone is an individual, and with loyalty to the individual depleting with growing redundancies, how can a professional afford to tie self-worth to an organisation that sees employees, especially ‘self-employed zero hour contract workers’, as replaceable, disposable, or a commodity? Therefore, wanting to maintain independence to conglomerate, multinational organisations may mean an individual chooses not to apply for an attractive role.

Therefore, the philosophy of work, values, principles and ‘snapshot’ motivations may impact if someone applies to an attractive role.

Stay brave, keep following your instincts and be sure to… Stay Fruity.

Yours,

Real Rubens.

Should I work late?

The work life effort (balance is too relative) is important for wellbeing. I’ve recently found myself starting later and finishing later which works well for me. However, I used to work till 6pm in the office and that was too much. I was left with too little time to unwind or do personal tasks. Charity Job’s Adrian Johansen wrote a piece ‘Does Working Late Do More Harm Than Good?‘ which I will reflect on.

Working late can help with:

• Account management/customer service.

• Career development opportunities.

• Showing enthusiasm.

Working late may not help with:

• Establishing a workload that may be easier to manage, instead feeding the cycle of high workload.

• Wellbeing since you will be tired during your free time. For example, during my placement year I found myself using my free time to recover from work. Now I have a better schedule where I do as much as I can which I enjoy so tasks energise me. This allows me to buzz into my evenings and capitalise on my free time.

• Cuts back on family/socialising time.

• Chops time you may otherwise spend preparing food for the next day/few days.

• Johansen adds lack of sleep and movement.

Working late is a choice. Just like starting early. Whether you are paid for your time is another question you may wish to ask. Recovering after a day of work is important.

Stay You Stay Fruity.

Real Rubens.

HR Placement Review: Part 2 of 2 – Finding out what I enjoy, personal development and recommendations to placement students and companies employing placement students.

I worked in the HR department in a dynamic IT company. Here are some professional reflections. This piece reads well after reading Part 1.

What I enjoy:

I enjoy learning. There is a big difference between learning at university and learning in the workplace; such as how the content is delivered compared to the re-education and learning on the job during placement. In lectures, it is easy to blend in and get by, but in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), you can stand out by going the extra mile and doing your best. Overall I enjoy the opportunity to stand out and produce work I am proud of. Notably, university tested my memory, a weakness of mine, but work tests other attributes like interpersonal communication which I greatly developed thanks to a placement.

I’ve cemented my passion for HR and I am thrilled to have gained the first-hand experience. I’ve finally found the meaning of ‘living the dream’. It’s being trusted to do your work at a good standard in an effective way. What’s the highlight of your role?

There’s always something to develop.

Personal Development:

In the first 5 months, I was keen to find my feet and fit in with the team. After this, I was able to crack on and felt confident to broaden and further build my resilience and my ability to diffuse difficult situations, as well as improving my empathy levels and emotional intelligence. This is easier said than done, Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Empathy is important. This is achieved by being aware of your colleague’s situation and their motivations. By putting personal development on my to-do list, I have built my awareness of how to get the best out of other people. How often do you reflect on where you are and where you want to be?

Recommendations to incoming placement students:

Applying for a role with the shortest recruitment phase may be most time and effort efficient.

Work on your soft skills, be agile and go outside your comfort zone as often as you can.

Ask probing questions in interviews. If you can’t ask an interviewing manager a question, is it the right place for you?

Saying yes and asking for more work is good if you want to be given greater levels of responsibility; just make sure the quality of your work doesn’t suffer as a result.

If you are ever in doubt or you need reassurance, ask for help.

Recommendations to companies hosting placement students:

Keep your recruitment processes short.

Using gamification to make an impact.

Give more genuine feedback to applicants.

Thanks for your readership, I value your time and support!

Stay Tuned, Stay You, Stay Fruity.

Real Rubens

HR Placement Review: Part 1 of 2 – Expectations of applying for a placement and key lessons.

Having spent time in a real working environment, I have gathered some comments about expectations, what I’ve learned, what I enjoyed as well as recommendations for new placement students and recommendations for companies giving opportunities to placement students. How do you engage your placement students?

I expected finding a year’s placement in a forward-thinking technology company would be difficult. I jumped at the opportunity for a placement mentor at the University of Portsmouth (UoP), working with Alex Shorthouse. Alex helped me build my resilience, dealing with rejections and providing encouragement. This support helped me understand how much time would be required to apply for and achieve a placement. What support do you receive that helps you unlock your potential?

After completing 7 final stage assessment centres, 20+ applications and psychometric tests, I managed to secure a placement when I accepted an offer with Centerprise. This opened up the opportunity of starting my career in HR to find out what I like/don’t like and what I am good at/need to improve. What do you like and not like about your job?

I didn’t expect to struggle so much to meet university deadlines alongside applying for placements, so I learned this lesson the hard way. However, there was a positive, as I learned this lesson earlier than my peers who didn’t apply for placement. This meant my peers would be going through a similar process when they were finishing their degrees! What advice would you give a placement student in your department?

Something that surpassed my expectations was the insight into the widely varying length of different company’s recruitment processes. This included learning how other placement students and interviewers interacted with prospective placement students. Could you make your process more efficient or engaging?

We are all students of life.

Key Lessons:

Building a good rapport and trust is vital to succeeding (making the most of my placement).

Taking ownership installs trust. Getting involved with ad hoc projects helps build confidence. Therefore, being a team player helps massively. There is no I in team!

Strategic HR and Business Partnering are very interesting. This area provides a holistic view of the company’s capacity; therefore, this allows me to use real examples which could be applied when I study at university. Valuably, exploring HR as a year in industry encouraged me to pursue my other professional interests when I graduated. How can you increase capacity at work?

Expectations and the reality can be competing concepts. An open mind may be helpful. It’s ok to ask for help, change careers, and look at the bigger picture (we work to live, we don’t live to work).

From an Undergraduate to a typical employee: Here’s what they don’t tell you…

Great you secured a job offer, and you are starting your placement, huge congratulations! Next challenge is the transition. The ‘transition’ from university to work is essentially your probationary period to see if you can work in the team doing the job they need you to do (note this works both way, you don’t have to stay!).

Companies don’t tell you is how to readjust to the change of environment. A willingness to learn can be beneficial.

In this article, I will explore some aspects that change when you start working. These include the transition from studying to working and free time, housing arrangements, communication and language, prioritising the workload and teamwork and stepping up.

Studying to working and free time –

It’s easy to become accustomed to a long summer holiday after studying from the September to May. I struggled to balance the additional workload in second year, I used to think even if I did 20 minutes of studying instead of swim training, for example, I could learn something I wouldn’t have learned that day.

A placement have me an understanding of working life that demonstrates how, for most people (who aren’t teachers in schools), summer holidays don’t exist in the working world.

Studying every day at any hour changes to a schedule of working 9-5.30 (which isn’t enforced so out of self-respect consider swiftly switching off outside these hours). At work you get your evenings and weekends back (in theory). This is where you can get your work life balance and explore other interests (if you still have the energy after your working day).

Housing arrangements –

Wanting to save money I looked at house sharing and having the experience I did I recommend you check out the existing tenants to prevent any surprises. Try making a list of pros and cons of house sharing/commuting to see what would work for you.

Communication and language –

At university I picked up slang. But slang was not useful for a placement. Therefore, by being ‘professional’ I was able to portray a version of myself that others could work with. This human perception is important for gaining trust, respect and expanding your remit.

Prioritising the workload –

As a student I went from balancing writing up lectures, preparing revision materials, reading and writing coursework to as an employee, making sure I was ready for meetings, had my actions as up to date as possible, and that I was on top of my emails as much as possible.

In both cases, time is the biggest factor for how much gets done which isn’t a big surprise, but a placement helps you work more effectively as you have more deadlines. For example, working at 80% to make sure you do what you need to do and working the other 20% thinking about what’s coming up. Whereas at University there is arguably fewer consequences for not spending ‘enough’ time studying.

Teamwork and stepping up –

At university a lot of the work is independent and group work may difficult as people may not contribute equally.

However, at work teamwork is essential to work continuity, productivity and service delivery. During placement you will be working in part of a team under supervision, taking responsibility for tasks regardless of your level of interest, therefore you will need to communicate more frequently than you may have been doing at university, at times which may not suit you.

Conclusion –

Whereas in university you will be responsible for turning up to lectures and paying your rent on time, at work you will be responsible for being punctual and being on top of your workload.

Unlike university where you don’t have to build trust and respect among your peers and lecturers, you will have to do so for your teammates. Therefore, work needs you to have a range of interpersonal skills that university doesn’t necessarily prepare you for.