I have an opportunity to interview for a job that would be a new direction for me.
But I have a dilemma. In interviews I have a knack for selling myself, which is wonderful, but I honestly don’t know if I am smart enough or can learn quickly enough for this job, and I don’t want to set myself up for failure.
I lost a job a few weeks ago, and it has badly shaken my self-confidence.
I’m now faced with taking the safe route, and sticking with a job I know (a new job has been offered to me but it’s the same type of office clerical work that I’ve always done, plus although I have a letter of offer, I still have not been given a start date), OR pursuing this new opportunity which would be customer service and training for a company that provides web solutions for government and other organizations.
Although it intrigues me, it also intimidates me … should I interview for the web company even though I have accepted this office job? Or should I stick with what I know and decrease my chances of failing?
I’d say interview for the job, and make it your goal in the interview not to convince the prospective employer to hire you, but to find out whether you’d be a good fit. Basically, figure out detailed questions to ask of the interviewer so that you can find out what your chances of success are. Specifically ask about training and mentoring opportunities for your first few months and beyond. Be upfront about your lack of experience in the area, but emphasize your willingness to learn- see how they respond. Also, try as hard as you can to answer all of the questions you are asked in a truthful way, not with the “positive spin” that you use when attempting to sell yourself. I find in answering questions out loud, I often am able to sort out my thoughts in new and unexpected ways- you are answering your own questions, too.
I just accepted a job offer on Friday after going into the interviews with the attitude I just described, and I am reasonably confident that I’ll do well. My situation is kind of the opposite of yours, in that I’ll be “trading down” from a supervisory role to a more clerical one. This is a good for me right now for reasons that constitute a hijack, but suffice it to say, the employer and I had similar concerns about my ability to function well in the job, but through the interview process (2 interviews, 4 people total) we came to some pretty concrete understandings and I’m very optimistic.
As far as the “safe” job is concerned, I’d double check the wording of the letter, so that you don’t find yourself out in the cold, so to speak, but I think it’s perfectly reasonable to say, if called on the fact that you went to another interview (which hopefully they’ll never know about anyway); “I do want to work for Fallback Corp., but I felt it was prudent to continue my job search until I had a firm start date, just in case the needs of your organization changed yadda yadda today’s economic climate yadda…”
Decrease your chances of failing? It’s not a failure if you go to the interview and realise the job is not for you. That’s what interviews are for - getting a more in-depth understanding of the role and the company so you (and the employer) can assess how good a fit you would be. Go for the interview.
Do you have any particular reason to think you might fail at this job? For instance, if you hate talking to people, it might not be right for you - nothing to do with intelligence. But besides that, how will you know if you don’t try? Lots of people who succeed feel like they don’t know what is going on half the time, and I bet lots of people with similar jobs aren’t as smart as you are.
Thank you for your replies to my post - I actually didn’t expect anyone to be able to decipher my babbling, so I appreciate that you guys took the time!
sandra_nz - by decreasing my chances of failing, I meant that if I take the “safe job”, I will probably succeed or at least be adquate, whereas if I interview for and get the “scary job”, I will have a much higher chance of failing at it.
I guess I am afraid that I’ll interview for the scary job, and have it offered to me, and then have a dilemma of which job to proceed with. I know it probably seems silly to worry about something that hasn’t even happened yet - I guess I am wondering if I should even put myself in that position.
There is a part of me that, at the age of 38, wants to challenge myself and stretch my brain. I kind of feel like it’s now or never because honestly as I get older, and now that I’m a mom, I feel like my brain is shrinking by the minute!
Voyager - I don’t know if I’ll be able to grasp the technical aspects of the job quickly enough to be suitable. Thanks for the pep talk - and yes, you’re right, I would hardly be the first person to feel like somewhat of an imposter, especially at the beginning.
The Lovely Margo Lane - wow, it sounds like you have sat in on my other job interviews. Thank you for your advice re: my approach to the interview.
It’s rarely about how “smart” you are. It’s almost always about how hard you work, and how hard you work is determined by how badly you want to succeed / fear to fail. Intelligence can affect how much work it will take you to succeed, but in my books, determination & hard work trumps “intelligence” any day of the week.
I have seen so many incredibly smart people self-destruct from motivational or existential crises, both in engineering and business schools, as well as in high-tech business, but I have never seen determined, hard-working people fail.
So, how not to fail:
read books on the technical fields you will be working in.
ask lots of questions from the old-timers when you start. Lots of questions have always been, imho, the hallmark of resourceful people with initiative. Fear of asking questions to avoid looking dumb, again imho in 11 years in the tech sector, is the hallmark of people who are more concerned about appearances than results.
show you appreciation to the old-timers with favours, doughnuts on Friday mornings, doing their scut-work if you can, and buying them beers when you all go out.
4)keep studying up until you feel you can handle 85% of what you work throws at you. Nobody is expected to know everything, and looking up stuff once in a while is perfectly fine.
Do not ask yourself if you are smart enough. Ask yourself if you are prepared to do the work required to succeed.
Trupa, who started as a 3rd level tech support guy for digital business phone systems with nothing but a 3 week installer course, and a totally unrelated engineering degree.
I’ve been where you’re at. My last job was undersold to me and really required some additional training which I eventually was able to take but it was tough with the workload. It was a very rewarding experience.
But you have to weigh that against the job market. I joined a company that was loosing money and was told the parent company was willing to pour money into the problem. Long story short I had just shoveled myself out of a stressful situation after a year and was enjoying the job… and then the parent company decided to bail.
So while I loved the job I am now back to square one. Given the economy my advise is to consider how much stability is required in your life at this moment.
I still think you should go for the interview. You can always consult with the masses should you get offered the job and still be undecided.
But I think that, as long as you went into the interview with the intention to really understand the job, the company, and what their expectations of you would be and what support they would offer, then I think you’d be in a pretty strong position to know whether it was for you or not.
And anyways, what’s life without a bit of risk?
I would definitely go for it, you’ll always wonder about it if you don’t. It could be a life-changing opportunity, and the worst thing that can happen is you will not enjoy it and look for something else.
Well, I compromised although I guess it could be looked at as chickening out.
The “safe job” contacted me today about my start date, so I know that is all settled now. It’s a government job so the money and the security and the benefits are very attractive.
I contacted the “scary job” and cancelled my interview, explaining that I had just accepted another position. BUT I did ask if I could get in touch with her if I decided on a change of career. I explained that although I would love to meet with her and find out more about the company and its opportunities, I didn’t feel it was fair to do so right now, because I didn’t want to take up her time. She said of course to keep in touch down the road if I wanted to explore the opportunities there further because they are growing and expect to do more hiring again in the future.
I thought this was a safe way to play it, because if I’d gone to the interview and then declined the position, or not given 100% to the interview because I knew I wasn’t prepared to accept it at this time, that would rule them out as a future employer. This way I have been honest and true to myself, and I’ve kept the door open in case I would like to work for them at a later time.
I wanted to add one more thing - for the future. Even if you had taken the scary job, and it hadn’t worked out, you might have been ready for a less safe but not so scary job after it. One thing I did after a job that didn’t work out very well is to get a very solid idea of responsibilities. In fact, it is perfectly ok to say that you need a start-up time. After I interviewed for my current job I met with my future director (2 levels up) about this, and he said he expected me to take six months to ramp up - far longer than I had expected to be given. I didn’t need nearly that long, but it set expectations properly, and I knew it was the job for me. Most employers hire people, not a set of skills, so in a case like yours you would need to see if they were willing to let you learn it as opposed to starting at full speed. I think it is a good test of how the job will work out.
