Many of my clients only see success as such if it is overall. In doing so, they overlook partial successes that they have achieved and at the same time blame themselves for circumstances beyond their control. As a result, people who I see from the outside as very successful con-sider themselves unsuccessful.
One outplacement client had an interesting career in finance and had worked for renowned industrial groups. We did a personal and professional assessment and prepared her application documents.
Finally, we practiced a job interview for a position she had applied for. During my preparation, I wondered why she thought she was suitable for the job. The tasks and responsibilities went far beyond what I had learned from her previous experience.
Evaluate your experience properly!
When asked about this during the job interview training, she told me that she had held exactly this position in a previous job. This was not evident in her CV and we adjusted it accordingly. She had only been with the company for 18 months and had treated this position rather neglected in her previous descriptions. She felt uncomfortable talking about it. What had happened?
She moved to this company together with the CFO and supervisor at her previous employer. It turned out that the finance department was underdeveloped and did not meet current requirements. My client therefore completely reorganized her area of responsibility: She set up a modern financial planning and analysis department and recruited new teams for four international locations. One challenge was to establish new reporting standards at the head office and at the subsidiaries abroad. And finally, she evaluated and implemented a new financial software. She managed all of this in just 18 months alongside a demanding day-to-day business – an incredible achievement!
Success is what you acknowledge as success
The company was in financial difficulties in the medium term, which my client was the first to recognize due to the improved figures and she warned those responsible several times. The people in charge did not want to see the problem. For this reason and because of the excessive workload over a long period of time, she finally resigned.
She regarded this phase of her career as a failure and was ashamed of it, as she had not been able to avoid the problems. Nor was she comforted by the fact that in retrospect she was right: The company was restructured months later, and key people lost their jobs. As she would only have seen her performance as a success if the company had been doing well, she did not recognize her own outstanding contribution as such. Instead, she blamed herself for developments that she could not influence.
With this mindset, she does not feel successful and communicates accordingly. Her listeners perceive the world through her glasses and thus adopt her point of view.
Always remember: What recruiters think about you depends crucially on what you think about yourself.