Welcome to the Move Up Podcast, formerly known as the job interview experience. It's time for some listener q and a, although today, it's more of a listener question and encouragement. Today we're going to be hearing from listeners. Like you. Here's a quick note from Jim Matthew, you have an excellent podcast. I've searched through so many others looking for solid, grounded advice in a clear format. Nobody comes close. Your practical, tactical advice is dead on. I'm just beginning this process and I'm so grateful I've found you. Keep up the great work, Jim. Thank you. That means a lot to me, especially when you said that no one else comes close. I am competitive. I work hard to make every episode clear and to cut the fluff. I want every episode to give you real actionable insight that if you do this today or tomorrow, you will be a step further, a step ahead, a step closer to your goal, not recycled junk from the internet. I appreciate your support. I appreciate the kind words. Now, let's get to Michelle's email. Michelle wrote, good morning. Your podcast came up in my feed. I've been listening for weeks and re-listening. I have a huge interview tomorrow. I've been preparing for two weeks taking notes, following your advice. Thank you. Send me good vibes. So Michelle probably went to move up careers.com, found the contact button and reached out. I like that she asked for good vibes and I sent them. We emailed back and forth and. Here's what she shared after the interview. I think I used the wrong examples and told stories that were too long. The first interview went okay, but I kept saying, um, I'd catch myself and get frustrated. My nerves came through in my voice, which I try to control, but I really want this job. I turned off my phone and silenced the whole house phone. I can't believe that Michelle still has a whole house phone, but the fax machine rang during a question. Epic fail. I knocked it off the hook, but it beeped another epic fail. I did use your bold closing statement about being the right person for the job, but I'm still not sure. The second interview, wrong examples. Again, my answers were long and I lost their attention. I could feel it. I'm waiting for feedback, but there are two more positions I can apply to internally before the months end. I just hope I get an interview. So Michelle has a fax machine and a home, like a wired home phone, and it sounds like the fax machine screwed up the interview a little bit. Michelle, we might have to get you a a iPhone. A lot of you probably feel like Michelle, things don't go as planned and you're most likely blaming yourself. I. Feeling stuck, worried about money, health insurance. Really focus in on this one job knowing you can make a huge impact knowing that it's the right job for you, but not being able to get there. I get it. Michelle just needed some good vibes and I want to share them with you too. Here's what I wrote to Michelle, and this is to you too. If you're tuning in, you are doing great just by being here. By looking at yourself and thinking about how to improve. Most people don't even realize they need to or can improve. They're just stuck in the day to day. You're already way ahead, Michelle said. I kept saying, um. We all do that. I do that. Even the people interviewing you do it when they're nervous or they do it when they're interviewing you, and you don't even notice how many times they said, um, it is a bad habit. Sure. But it's human. The I knows the ums, the you knows the sures. A good company will look past that. Don't overthink it. When I've hired people, There's never been a moment where I say, you know, this person is perfect. It's who I wanna hire. They can do this, they can make us more money, get us to where we want to go. But they said, um, six times, and we only allow that five times during interview. So we're not gonna hire them. That's never happened. If a company is like that. Which maybe there is a couple out there run away fast. So don't overthink it now about the fax machine. Yeah, that's rough. I'm sure that felt awful. I've had things like that happen, right? Where like the smoke alarm goes off at the most important moment of your call. I'm sure that felt awful, but you know what? It's life. You're a human. A smart company will understand that it doesn't change your ability to do the job. Michelle said she told long stories and lost her attention, and hindsight is 2020. We've all had those moments where we wish. We'd said something different. The fact that you're thinking about it now, that is how you grow. Some people refuse to reflect whether it's too painful or the ego is too big. They won't reflect back on the mistakes they made and think through them, even meditate on them a little bit that how you grow. Here's what else I told Michelle and what I'll tell you. Take time to think about what you're doing right. you've gotten interviews, your resume stood out. I work with a lot of people who struggle just to get interviews whose resume doesn't get attention. You are here improving, pushing forward, that matters. If you're getting those interviews, I obviously, I want you to succeed on them. That's why I'm here. But take pride in the accomplishments you've made. It's a very competitive job market. Michelle, email me again. I was offered one of the positions I interviewed for, thank you a million times. She added a bunch of exclamation marks, which I love and made me smile. There's a time for 20 exclamation marks or five or three, and you gotta know when to use 'em and when you use them, it just helps knock it outta the park and convey that excitement. In person. When we scream with joy or laugh with joy, the relief, the happiness, the affirmation we get from getting a job offer, getting the job you want, this will be you. It takes longer than you want, and it rarely happens. How you expect? Michelle felt discouraged. You can hear it in her email, but she kept going. And she got what she wanted. She thought that she biffed it. By the way, I don't take credit for this. She did the work just like you will, but I get messages like this all the time. People saying that they got their dream job or a job that they thought they couldn't get, or they pushed through something tough and came out on top. They credit listening to the show, which helps. I know it helps, but they also kept going. Here's one from Naomi. Hi. I just wanted to say thank you. I listened to all of your podcasts before a job interview. It was so helpful. I negotiated when I got the offer and landed a job. I'm so happy with, I've told all my friends about your podcasts. Congratulations, Naomi. I get these notes and I want you to know for you, the listeners, this will be you. Naomi listened to all the episodes, which is a lot of episodes, and I will say you should listen to as many episodes as you can. Some might not apply to you, some may. What's even faster and more exact. Hop on a call with me, a one-on-one coaching call. I will get straight to what you need. Help you fix it, practice it, we'll leave with a strategy of how you can stand out in ways. I guarantee you never would've thought possible. I will connect the dots between you and the exact position and help make you make so much sense to the hiring manager, whether it be your boss, hiring manager, recruiter, no matter where you are in the process. You can listen to every episode, and I can do that for you in less than an hour. I'd highly encourage you if you've been thinking about it, book a call. I get a lot of success stories. Like I said, so many, I've never had an Unsuccess story, but people have reached out in the middle of the process when they're struggling. I'll tell you what makes a difference is to keep going, keep pushing. Just by listening, you're already going the extra mile. It's lonely at the extra mile that your competition, the other people applying for the job, there are probably dozens, if not hundreds, sometimes thousands go the extra mile. It will be lonely. There will be fewer people take techniques from this podcast and implement them into the whole process. These little things add up and completely differentiate you, you might not get the next job you apply for, or maybe the one after that. Or you might get multiple offers. That happens a lot more than you'd think. And it's really strange how when I talk to people who get multiple offers, they almost always happen in like a week, week and a half, right? No offers for months, six months, maybe in a year, and then you get two or three in like one week. It's amazing how it happens. Absolutely amazing. The ones who want you, who value you, they're the ones worth working for. The ones who ignore you, it wouldn't have worked out well anyway, I promise I've seen it. Yes, it's hard. Yes, it takes time. This is how you grow. The average listener of this show is a director level role or hire. You know that you've had to do uncomfortable things and work hard to grow. Take a step back and realize that's happening right now at the same time. This is how you become the person that you are meant to be. So, like I said to Michelle, maybe it's time for you to stop and think about what you've done right, what you've overcome, what you've achieved to get here. The companies that have valued you in the past, that have paid you well, that have appreciated your work there. That's not one company on the whole Earth that's like that. There are so many out there. If you've had bad interviews or that dreaded. We've gone in another direction. Email, zoom out. Look at the big picture. You are capable of extraordinary things. You've already done some of them, but your best work is ahead of you. The hardest work is also ahead, which is getting through this. People like Michelle and Naomi got there, you will too. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it. Thank you for listening to the Move Up podcast. I'm here for you. I'm always thinking about how to create better episodes and content to help you get to where you want to go. I hope you have a great week and don't forget to thank yourself for pushing through the hard stuff for showing up. For being more capable than you realize. You've got this. There's a company out there who has a profile, a writeup, an idea of the exact person they want, their dream the person they're willing to pay. Way more than average. The person who they're willing to promote to negotiate with, to give them that office or that work from home mix, or the salary or the vacation. Or just do great work alongside, kill it, make the company huge. They're looking for someone, they have an exact profile of who they want, the experience, the background, the resume, the temperament, the personality, the drive, and it's you. There are companies out there looking for you. They just haven't found you yet. So keep going. You've got this.