Eliminating Their Objections

y'all answering your career questions. Hey, it's Mandy Money. As always. You can submit your questions to the show to be answered by one or both of us. Career, money, life, relationships, whatever you want to chat about. Just remember, as Tiffany says, we're not your lawyer. We're not your financial advisor, We're not your accountant. We're just your bestie, brown sister, friends

in your ears. We have a lot of wisdom from building our own businesses, you know, killing it in corporate, having families, loss, love, all of the things, all of the things between the two of us. However, please don't sue us, because we're just giving you ideas. We're giving you You know our smart girl thoughts, but we don't. We don't want any lawsuits. Okay, so sue your grandmama, as Tiffany says, and leave us alone, all right, checking. Okay, so let me dive into the reader mail bag right now.

I saw a great question from a listener who emailed us. They want to be called at a crossroads. Okay, at a crossroads, says, I am a faithful listener brown ambition, and I love the advice you and Tiffany provide weekly. I'm reaching out because I recall you saying that we

could email career questions. Here's my situation. I have been on the job search since January of twenty twenty two, when I left my full time job due to experiencing some racial incidents from my supervisor and colleagues that left me feeling unsafe in my work environment. Oof. I have over a decade of full time work experience in my field. I've been a full time PhD student, which allowed me

to be a graduate assistant. To make ends meet, I've been applying and interviewing, sometimes for four and five rounds and still no offer, or if I do to get an offer, it's a low ball offer. Which I know if I took it would set me back in my career. I'm near the end of my program and I need to secure a position. At this point. I'm considering switching industries because it shouldn't be this difficult to secure a

role in my field when there are always openings. My PhD field is broad and would allow me flexibility to work in many industries. I've been trying my best to stay upbeat and optimistic, but the situation has taken a toll on me. My question is should I continue to apply for roles in my current field or make a career switch and rebuild for context. I'm in my mid thirties, no kids, no spouts. Thank you in advance for your help, and congratulations to you on your new bundle of joy.

Oh thank you. Okay, crossroads, listen. The reason I chose your question is because I and this is going. Don't mean to take advantage, but I'm just like, yes, I really want to speak to the long term job seeker out there, because I know that y'all are out here struggling. It's really difficult, even though the economy is actually doing well and there are jobs like the job's reports continue

to be strong. Historically, there are jobs. However, it is not twenty twenty one when it seemed like everybody was hiring and there was just jobs, you know, falling off the tree branch as you can just like you know, walk outside your door run into a six figure position. Right. Those times are fun and they're fruitful, but they are not the norm. And I think one, yeah, one thing I'll say is that we can't necessarily, we shouldn't be expecting the job market to act the way it was

acting a couple of years ago. Not that you are, but I just don't want you to think that this is unusual. Like you have been working, you've been a graduate assistant, you've been working on a PhD program. I'm going to go ahead on the limb here and say, even though you have been interviewing, you've been juggling a lot, okay, and especially if you're considering potentially switching feels, which you say you want some advice on, I wonder, and I wish I had you here to ask, but I wonder

if you are maybe your search is too broad. It doesn't sound to me. Ultimately, when an employer is like, we want to hire you, it is a no brainer for them that you're the right person for the role. So what is it about you that's making them say

she's not the right fit for this role? And if you are really casting a wide net, you're making it almost easier for them to find you find things that you lack, or you're just making it easier for other candidates who are the no brainer, they have the specific experience that they're looking for, skill, et cetera for them to surpass you. Because one thing about this job market is that there is still a lot of competition. So

there's a lot of jobs. Still. The job market is fine, but more and more people are looking and there's more competition for the roles that there are. Okay, because even though it's not like booming like it was in twenty twenty one with a job market, people are you know, there are jobs out there, but there's fewer, like I said, fewer of them. It's still it's still healthy, but there's not as many, right, and there's just more competition. Okay. So that's why it feels like it's taking a long time.

And you know what I wanted to do is I also want to share a stat with you because I want I want to share with you the average job search time, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is. I just found this, and I want to say, okay, I found it the and this is for anyone listening to if you think I've been laid off, I've been let go, I'm looking for a job. It's been a month.

What's happening. The median unemployment time, like, the median time it takes to go from unemployed to employed is twenty weeks or about five months. Okay, So I'm just saying that it can be Yeah, it can take a while, and you sort of I would look at this and say, okay, if I'm working in this in the job market, honestly, you want to have six months saved, like at least, because the job search could take that long if you were if you were let go. Now crossroads, I know

you've been looking longer than that. It's going on two years. However, you have not been twiddling your thumbs. You have been in a whole PhD program. Can you give yourself some credit. I know that you have had you had a full time career before that, and you probably feel like, Okay, I shouldn't be doing anything entry level. But if you were a PhD field is quite different than what you were doing before, then it may you may have to

take a step back to take a step forward. I'm not assuming that you have to, saying you may have to. I don't have nearly enough information about your specialty, your PhD program, what kind of experience you had before to tell you definitively. However, in some cases it may be to take a step back to make a step forward type of situation. Okay, but my guess is that if you're applying, you're getting to like four fifth round interviews

and getting no offer. There's something I have this part of my negotiation masterclass where I talk about eliminating their objections and you have to anticipate what is it about me that's giving them pause, and if you haven't gotten feedback, follow up, even if you've already left the interview process, ask one of the hiring managers for a chat, a phone call, whatever, and just ask for like, hey, I'm just you know, I just love one on one for you to kind of let me know what was it

about me that didn't quite make the cut. And you may find out that it was something small you may find out that you were up against an internal candidate, and that is really frustrating, but happens all the time. A lot of time companies will already have an internal candidate, preferred candidate, but they'll still open the job up wide

just to see what else comes in. And then you're kind of it's tough because you're up against someone they already know, and if that person brings it and they prove that they deserve it, then it's even easier for them to, you know, turn down outside job applicants because they, like I said, they already know this person. Okay, but you can't control that at the end of the day, right, But I just want you to see if you can get any information from people you've spoken with about what

it is that's holding you back. Also, mindset and vibe. Yes, I'm going to use the completely subjective term vibe, but your mindset and the energy, the vibe you bring to the interview does matter. And the hardest thing for the long term job seeker is keeping an attitude. If I got this the confidence, the positivity, the optimism that hiring managers want to feel from candidates, I mean there is a bit of like a Jean Sasquax to inner viewing and finding the right candidate you want to like you

feel like, Okay, there's something about this person. They're excited about this role, they've got it, and it just sort of feels inevitable that this person, you know, should be here because of the energy they're bringing to the situation.

You have to match that energy with your skill set, obviously, but when you have the goods on paper, you have the skills of you know, the the kind of experience that they're looking for, and then you bring the energy on top of that that makes them feel like, ooh, yeah, I want to hire this person, I want to work alongside them. That's the bit that you have to work on. And when you're down on yourself, the way that you sound like you are after you know, having first of all,

you had a shitty experience last time. Now you've been looking for two years, of course you're going to start feeling down like this is this is tough. It's really hard. It can shake your confidence, it can make you all those doubts really loud in your head. But if you bring that energy to your interviews, that may be a little bit of like that you know that that little bit of negativity that like, I don't feel top of my game, that could be hurting you in the interview process.

How do you get out of that? You need a hype person. I hope that I'm hyping you up a little bit. You need to maybe take a break from the job search process. Maybe you do need to do something a little bit different, you know, so you can continue to make ends meet while you take a pause and regroup. I just need you to remind yourself it's not forever, and it's okay. It's been a couple of years, but you haven't been doing nothing. You have been studying. You have been finding a way to start a new

beginning for yourself. But it's going to take time, and you're gonna look back at this in ten, fifteen, twenty years and say, wow, that was really hard time. But I got through it. But I got through it. And one of the exercises that I do for myself all the time is like, it's not like creating a vision board, but it's I literally tell myself the version of me ten years from now already did this and she was like, oh, yeah,

that was tough, but I got through it. If you start to envision that person, it almost becomes like it's inevitable. It's like it's almost like fortune telling your way out of a challenge, Like I'm just going to decide that there's a version of me that already did this and killed it. And then it almost makes it like a talisman for you, like something hidden inside that's like, oh, I know, I got this, Like the future version of

myself did this. And then it's sort of it's weird, they mean, just do I am the only one who does this? But I think it really works. It helps you work at a problem without so much stress because it takes away the possibility that you're not going to accomplish it. There's no way cross roads that you're going to not have a new work opportunity. There's no way you're never going to work again. There's no way that with your education and your skill set, that there's not

going to be a new path for you. It's just a matter of when and what. Right. The next thing I want you to work on is putting yourself in positions where opportunities can happen to you. So by that, I mean how can you be in spaces in connection with people or opportunities so they can find you. You can't be hidden, so how can you do that. You

can join organizations that are specific to your niche. And I'm going to come back to the niche thing, cause I know I kind of skipped over the whole broad job search thing, but it's important finding other people who are doing the thing that you want to do and connecting with them and making sure that they know that you're looking and that you're open. Looking for workshops, looking for like I said, professional organizations, looking for conferences that

you can attend. Put yourself in the space where opportunities can find you. Make sure your email address is front and center on LinkedIn or on your professional website if you have one. Make sure people know how to reach out to you, because opportunities can find you, but they need to have a path to finding you, right And unless you're out there sharing, being a part of your community, professional community, they're not going to be able to find you.

And having a bit of or not a bit of, but having a lot of space for that future version of yourself, Like imagine, oh, that future version of me that's already been through this, some opportunity must have found her. So let me just be open to that. Opportunities are going to find me. I am going to have success. This mindset matters, Okay, crossroads. Now back to the specificity, the niching down of of your career. If you are applying to a ton of things not really getting any

real bites. I mean you have gotten to you know, through some interview rounds and all of that, which is great, But are you really leaning into a more specific niche Are you going after jobs where it's like, oh, this

is a no brainer. And if it's not a no brainer on paper, then if you can tell that story, whether it's in a cover letter or in the phone screen or to the recruiter, really own the story of why, even though on paper this may not be the most linear path, here's why I'm the best candidate for this job, and here's why I understand your problems and I can be your solution. You really want to own that and understand it and be able to sell that in an

interview process. Okay. And it's easier to do that when it really matches some of your experience. It gets harder when you have, you know, some experience, but not all the experience that that they may be looking for when you're pivoting into maybe a slightly different field. I don't want that to let you. I don't want that to tell you that it's not possible. You're just going to

have to help them find the story. You're going to have to help them want you to get this opportunity, and by telling your story and bringing them along on your journey of why this makes sense as your next step and how you, with your various skills from your career, can be the perfect person for their role, make them want to root for you, make them want to go

to bat for you. That's ultimately what they're going to have to do when they take on a candidate who may not have, you know, eighty percent of the skills or experience that they're looking for. It's not impossible, but they got to have to root for you, Okay, And

I'm going to leave it with this. You went through a probably traumatic experience that sounds awful, and I'm so sorry that happened to you at your last job, whatever it was, you know, where people use your race as a weapon against you and make it unsafe for you to work there. That is not right and it shouldn't

have happened. I'm really sorry that happened to you. Are you speaking to someone therapist, you know, someone a mentor so you can work through that, because I know it's going to be really hard to go into a new job or even a job interview when you're still carrying the weight of what happened to you and you haven't

fully you haven't fully healed from it. And I do think that that can have an impact on the energy that you bring and even just your own level of trust in you know, a future employer to not end up in the same place you were before in that really toxic situation. And I think therapy is a great way to work through that. And it's a show because you shouldn't have to do this extra burden of work just so you can be ready for your next great opportunity.

But I think you're going to be grateful that you worked through it in whatever way that you can, so that you don't carry with you, you know, the impact of that trauma into your next role, because that can trip you up, especially if it leads you to, you know, maybe not want to engage with your colleagues the way that you that you would openly if you hadn't had this bad experience. I don't think we should ever fully trust a job an employer to act in our best interests.

At the end of the day, they're going to be there to act in the company's best interest. So there's that level of cynicism that I think is healthy for anyone working in corporate America. But at the same time, there may be a great opportunity. There are great people to work with, There are great teams out there that

would be happy to have you. You just have to believe that as well, so you can kind of go in with that more positive outlook and not let what happened to you dictate, you know, or hinder your next opportun tunity, which is really up to you, you know, and it's up to you to sort of like work through that and get through it. And I'm not saying you have to do it alone. I'm so glad that you felt safe enough to reach out to us with your question, and I'm that I was here to answer it,

and I hope this helps Crossroads. Please get back in touch, let us know how it's going, and I wish you all the best and much success. Okay, good luck, and thank you again. For your question,