Don’t let lack of education hold you back
In my current contract, I work beside Brenda, a woman whose work ethic is on a par with my own. She is kind and considerate of clients on the phone, a diligent problem-solver, spends hours coaching junior employees and works nearly as long hours as I do!
Sadly, Brenda also suffers from the same debilitating flaw that hampers many workers in their struggle to get ahead – fear and insecurity.
Despite her years of experience in her field of facilitating the administration of dental services for low income seniors, she doesn’t apply for more senior positions because of what she calls her ‘lack of education’.
Sure, a lot of positions have educational requirements, but the absence of those requirements should never inhibit someone from applying for a job – and that goes double if you’re applying to an internal posting, which is the case for Brenda. Rather than risk rejection, she hangs back and lets other people get the jobs, people with far less skills and experience.
My mother-in-law has an expression which I’ve always thought was wonderfully apt when it comes to making big and sometimes scary decisions, “People a lot dumber than us have done it.” We’re never as dumb as we think we are, and I’ve learned that being your own worst critic can severely stall your career development. When we don’t apply for those jobs, we not only end up working for people whose experience is inferior to our own, we are invariably the ones the selected candidate relies on for information.
With her extensive knowledge, Brenda is always the ‘go to’ girl for advice from the new supervisors, but is never recognized for her contribution. In a remarkably short period of time, as several supervisors have come and gone, she has become increasingly unhappy and disengaged.
It’s a familiar scenario to me. I’ve worked with so many companies on all kinds of employee engagement initiatives – high-energy employee meetings, motivational speakers, coffee chats with managers and profiles of employees on the company website – but these ‘get on the bandwagon and feel good about the company’ exercises are like huge, noisy gusts of wind that blow in, give you a temporary rush and quickly blow over, leaving nothing in their wake but dashed hopes and messy hair.
When an organization is serious about engaging its employees, it actually takes the trouble to find out who the high performers are and what drives them. One smart executive I read about always asks his employees to figure out what they’re CEO of, and it needs to be meaningful. Not one of Brenda’s supervisors has ever asked her what her career aspirations are.
Now, finding responsive, caring bosses can be a challenging job by itself and even if you find one, there is no guarantee he or she will give you what you think you deserve.
The real truth is, it’s up to you. No one is going to take Brenda’s hand and guide her to the top – she has to swallow the fear and decide if she has the desire, the perseverance and the confidence to keep pushing herself to the front of the line. You may not make it, but trying is a lot better than watching someone else (yes, quite possibly someone dumber than you) get there first.
Here are some tips for overcoming the fear:
1+ Don’t ignore the requirements listed in the job ad, but don’t let them defeat you either. Whatever it calls for, if you feel qualified, put your application in and state why you should be considered.
2+ If education is your weak link, do something about it. Even if you’re 50 or older and can’t imagine going back to school full-time, take one or two courses in your field and then you can say, you’re registered in a program.
3+ Applying for the position is no guarantee of getting the job or even an interview, but keep trying. If it’s an internal posting, they’ll start to notice that your name keeps popping up.
4+ Don’t wait for management to come to you! Go to them – take your supervisor to lunch, tell him/her that you deserve to be considered for a promotion. Be prepared with concrete examples of why you are experienced/intelligent/curious and resourceful enough to do the job.