What’s most important in your job search

Volleyball reception (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When it comes to searching for a job, there’s something you need that’s more important than anything else. It’s not a degree. It’s not even work experience. It’s confidence.

You could be the most qualified candidate for a job, but if you had no faith in yourself, you wouldn’t even apply. And a less qualified candidate would get that job because they had self-confidence while you didn’t.

That’s what so funny about confidence. The brightest, most accomplished people could completely lack it, while their less educated, less experienced counterparts could be brimming with it. It’s all about self-perception, which can’t be quantified or measured.

Which brings me to this great article written by Penelope Trunk:

Best advice to twentysomethings: trust yourself  (blog.penelopetrunk.com)

After college, Penelope was focused on playing in the professional beach volleyball tour — so focused, in fact, that she declined an opportunity to attend graduate school at Yale University. Instead, she moved to Los Angeles and spent her days in a strict practice regimen.

I made it to the tour. I was an internationally ranked player. But I thought I was just getting my butt kicked. I told myself my efforts were useless because I’d never be in the top five. I didn’t ever say, “Holy cow, I’m in the top 25.”

I thought I was a complete loser and I would never pull things together and I was mostly hiding from people so they didn’t see how messed up I was. I didn’t earn very much money, I didn’t do things that I thought a normal woman in her 20s would do. I was completely focused on beach volleyball.

It was only in hindsight that Penelope realized how much her volleyball days strengthened her and set her on the path to a successful career:

What upsets me is that I was not fine with who I was. I was a woman who worked really hard at volleyball and went home to read. I was a woman who needed space and time alone and loved routine. I was a woman getting to know myself. I wish I had felt strong and proud while I was doing that.

So I would encourage people in their twenties to find confidence in themselves. I know that so many of you twenty-somethings are struggling. But it could be the simple, everyday activities you take for granted that could make a major difference in the way you perceive yourself.

And lest you think I’m the posterchild of confidence, I tell you I’m not. I’ve really struggled with my self-perception, especially during college and after I graduated. But I try to maintain my self-confidence because if I’m not confident in myself, then why should anybody else be?