Jane Austen Can Get You A JobDefining Your

Value To

Employers In

Unexpected Ways

Before we get to Jane, a quick

exercise…

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How would you describe a friend if you were

referring him or her to a potential employer?

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Think about:

• What he or she does best…

• The value he or she might bring an organization…

While you think, some self-serving

background…

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Some of the places I’ve worked

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Some of the places I’ve worked

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Some of the places I’ve worked

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Some of the places I’ve worked

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Some of the places I’ve worked

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Some of the places I’ve worked

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Some of the places I’ve worked

While some of these experiences are

more directly applicable to my

“professional career,” each have

proven to be equally valuable

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While some jobs involved direct application of skills that I used in

previous experiences

All jobs benefited from the lessons learned and the act of learning

in previous experiences – inputs to who I am as a person

Application vs. Education

Now back to that reference…

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Why references? Because they are the most

powerful tool in a job search…

11/7/201315 Source: New York Federal Reserve Bank

Compared to non-referred candidates, those who are referred are:

• Twice as likely to be interviewed

• 40% more likely to be hired

But what is a reference at its core? What

does it tell you about a person?

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Application of skills?

• Things he or she knows how

to do

• Tools he or she can use

Description of the person?

• How he or she works

• How he or she thinks

• How he or she approaches

problems

Much of the value of references is that

they help a potential employer see you

as person, not just a set of skills

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And who you are as a person is really, really

important…

When new hires are let go within the first 18 months:

• 89% of the time it is for attitudinal reasons

• Only 11% of the time is it for lack of skill

11/7/201318 Source: Leadership IQ

So who are you?

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• Fallible, and so is their hiring manager

• An individual, not an example

• Evolving, not inert

Everyone is:

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Everyone fails (or should if they are really trying). So don’t be

fooled by stories of consistent success - they are incomplete.

Hindsight bias can lead people to a false narrative as to why something

positive happened – mistakes are overlooked or reframed, intelligence is

given too much credit, and the role of luck is mostly ignored

You are fallible, and so is your hiring manager

Source: Daniel Kahneman

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Have confidence in your unique capabilities – resist shorthand

characterizations that can short-change you.

The “stereotype threat” is real – just hinting to negative stereotypes (even

requiring gender or race be selected on a test) can raise inhibiting doubts

and anxiety that have been proven to hurt a person’s performance

You are an individual, not an example

Source: Steele, Aronson, Spencer

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In almost all cases, dedication and hard work can overcome innate

intelligence.

“With practice, training and above all, method, we manage to increase our

attention, our memory, our judgment and literally to become more intelligent

than we were before”

You are evolving, not inert

Source: Alfred Binet, Creator of the IQ test

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To find the your personal truth:

Take something from each experience in

your life to create the narrative of your

career

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What can you take? Here’s a place to start

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What’s the business value of an English major?

More specifically, what’s the value of reading Jane Austen?

And I mean all experiences

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Meet Natalie Phillips, Assistant Professor of

English at Michigan State University

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Professor Phillips instructed grad students to read a chapter of

Mansfield Park while their brain function was observed by an fMRI.

Significant differences were observed between:

• Close reading

• Reading for pleasure

A critical read of Mansfield Park is about

more than just the story

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Close reading engaged a much broader spectrum of the brain,

from the regions focused on attention to those involved in

movement and touch.

The findings suggest that an academic approach to literature can

train readers to better organize information, impacting (among

other things) their:

• Attention to detail

• Research and analysis skills

• Flexibility (the ability to pay attention to many things at once)

Close reading was shown to be an exercise

in cognitive training

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So ask yourself:

What’s the business value of the experiences

(all of the experiences) in your life?

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So ask yourself:

In an ever-changing economy where industries

are being disrupted all of the time, what are the

core attributes you can bring to any job?

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• Don’t be afraid of failure and don’t be limited by what others

might expect from you or what you are capable of now

• Think about your experiences as more than opportunities to

apply your skills

• Look to every experience as an opportunity to prove and

enhance the core attributes that define you as a person

And prepare for a long, rewarding career…

To define your unique value, check out

www.theThings.biz

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