Facilitating a job interview when you are a candidate
Offset remarks when pointed out about....
“You are too creative for this position.”
I did not know that in the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) times we live creativity could be a liability.
Creativity in not about inventing new things or creating art, is all about being resourceful and finding ways and solutions to complex problems and challenges, in a non-linear (design) thinking way.
“You change jobs too often and haven’t been working long enough in those companies.”
The times when people would start working and retired in the samme company and long time gone.
Even people that has been working in the same company for years, change departments and positions in the same company in a faster rate every 1-2 years. Nowadays, 1 or 2 years experience in a company, it is like dogs years, they account to 6 or 12.
Nobody starts a new job in new company with all the hard work, time and emotional investment it requires and thinks “Oh well, in a one or couple of years I will voluntarily start off again, and I will put both myself and my family through this financial instability and stress just for the thrill of it!”
Why so? What happened? Life happened.
You start in a new company and after a while….
You have delivered results, mastered your responsibilities and want to have new challenges and further develop.
You have reached a “glass ceiling” and can not grow your career any longer.
There is a new management team with a new strategy and what you was working with, is no longer strategically important and relevant any more to the company.
There is a downsizing and lay-offs wave a you get unfortunately impacted by it.
There is a re-org and you get, unwillingly and having no choice in the matter, located to another department where they do not actually need nor understand you competence and expertise, so you end up doing things you originally did not sign-in for when you accepted the position.
You realise you work in a toxic workplace culture that affects and impact both your mental health and your family relationships: no psychological safety.
You get a new boss that is not the right fit for you.
Ego, politics and power games takes court and dominate the work environment.
You work in a dysfunctional team / department with narcissistic and manipulative people whom unchecked and unaddressed behaviour has become the norm and destroys the group dynamics.
The most talented, respected and kind people start leaving the company in waves due to some of the above mentioned points, and you end up alone in a bad place.
After a job, you want to be sure you do not rush and want to find the right company, right boss, right team, right culture and make the right choice, so you take your time and in the meantime you work as a freelance for some time.
Actually, freelance and consultants change “companies” all the time when they work with assignments as guns for hire all from 3 up to 12 months, and it is OK, so there is not an issue with that.
What other offset remarks have you experienced in job interviews and how did you handle them?