You are reading the FRACAT Blog Archive (also known as "FRACAT 1.0") for all posts prior to October 29th, 2007.
Acknowledging the Ugly Baby
Did you ever know someone that had one of those undeniably ugly babies? You know the people, they say, “Oh, you have to see our little bundle of joy” and thrust said bundle in front of you.
The problem is that you never expect a baby to be ugly. Most of them are pretty cute in their own way. So, you get that nervous smile while you try to recover from the shock without screaming or making the “I think I just ate a bug” face. Frankly, you’re concerned that there’s going to be a “spit up incident”, but it ain’t the baby that’s going to be doing the spitting.
Yeah, it can be pretty uncomfortable, can’t it?
Well, there is a parallel situation when you are job seeking that can make HR people, recruiters, and Hiring Managers uncomfortable with you. Unless, that is, you know the secret to making them comfortable again.
YES, IT’S AN UGLY BABY
Going back to those people who have the ugly baby, wouldn’t it have been nice if, before surprising you with their child, they had said something like, “She still looks a little odd form the delivery, but she keeps getting better every day!”?
It would at least give you a second to prepare. The message that you’re not going to see a cute, adorable little baby is now in your head and you can prepare yourself a little before seeing the little Quasimodo.
And, once you do see Quasi, it’s usually not as bad as you thought it was going to be. You, in fact, don’t feel like screaming. Or running.
With a little preparation, all of the uneasiness goes away and you are comfortable again. Even though that little bugger is pretty ugly…
A LITTLE PREPARATION
Every single recruiter, HR person, and hiring manager has spoken with someone who has some “ugly baby” about them. In fact, most of us are inwardly cringing in unpleasant anticipation of when it’ll show itself.
The reason for that is that a really startling percentage of the population has done something stupid. And I don’t mean just young people. Or low-level people. You’d be amazed at what your local HR person knows about what the 55-year-old senior executive did a couple years ago.
Sometimes it’s a deal-killer and sometimes it’s not - but it always get’s found. The key is just to acknowledge your “ugly baby” and get it over with.
ACKNOWLEDGING YOUR UGLY BABY
What is the ugliest thing in your past? It varies from person to person, but your mission is to find the ugliest thing.
For one guy I talked to, it was just getting out of Federal Prison for Child Pornography charges. For another, it was Bankruptcy (a problem if you’re looking for a senior position). Perhaps it’s that “public lewdness” charge from the beach. It could be as simple as moving jobs a lot.
Whatever it is with you, find it. And then prepare your short story about it.
I guarantee whatever it is probably isn’t new to your interviewer and isn’t as bad as some others he’s seen. Just keep in mind that a colleague of mine did a background check on a nice guy that she had just interviewed and it turned out that there was a murder in his background. That he was still wanted for. For apparently killing his gay lover.
Whatever you have ugly about you isn’t as much a job-killer as that guy…
TELLING SOMEONE ABOUT YOUR UGLY BABY
You see, from now on, whenever you talk to the first person about a job, whether that be an HR person calling on the phone or the CEO in a face-to-face meeting, you’re going to tell them all about you’re ugly baby.
But, you’re going to tell the whole story. So, when that first call comes in about the job you’ve been wanting, you’re going to say at some point, “I don’t know if this will affect my candidacy for this position or not, but, due to problems with 9/11, I had to eventually declare Bankruptcy. I’ve got everyone paid off now and the bankruptcy has been discharged, but I didn’t want you to be surprised. Do you think that’ll be a problem?”
You have now presented, in context, your ugly baby. If it is a problem, you’ve saved everyone a lot of time. If it’s not a problem, you’re good to go. And if it could go either way, you’ve now presented yourself as a honest guy and will get credit for that.
Oh, and don’t be fooled into thinking they’ll like you so much they’ll overlook it. If it is a problem, it’s because there’s a company policy prohibiting the hire of people who have done what you did with a gerbil. Or whatever. It can’t be gotten around, so tell ‘em all about it up front!
Once you start preparing everyone for your ugly baby, you’ll be surprised at how much better your job search will go.
Enjoy the search!
-Dan
Photo by: AntToeKnee
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