Speaker 1: It's time for the v a qa A. The v
Speaker 1: a qa what just say, the v a qa with
Speaker 1: Nan d. That doesn't work unless I make it work.
Speaker 1: The v a qa with Manda, the v a q
Speaker 1: A with Tiffany, the v a qa A. You know what,
Speaker 1: I'm actually getting a lot less self conscious about singing
Speaker 1: that song. I might have to steal some of the
Speaker 1: spotlight from Tiffany because she's always, you know, producing the
Speaker 1: music for the original compositions for BA. But I am here,
Speaker 1: y'all answering your career questions. Hey, it's Mandy Money. As always.
Speaker 1: You can submit your questions to the show to be
Speaker 1: answered by one or both of us. Career, money, life, relationships,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to chat about. Just remember, as Tiffany says,
Speaker 1: we're not your lawyer. We're not your financial advisor, We're
Speaker 1: not your accountant. We're just your bestie, brown sister, friends
Speaker 1: in your ears. We have a lot of wisdom from
Speaker 1: building our own businesses, you know, killing it in corporate,
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Speaker 1: sue us, because we're just giving you ideas. We're giving
Speaker 1: you You know our smart girl thoughts, but we don't.
Speaker 1: We don't want any lawsuits. Okay, so sue your grandmama,
Speaker 1: as Tiffany says, and leave us alone, all right, checking. Okay,
Speaker 1: so let me dive into the reader mail bag right now.
Speaker 1: I saw a great question from a listener who emailed us.
Speaker 1: They want to be called at a crossroads. Okay, at
Speaker 1: a crossroads, says, I am a faithful listener brown ambition,
Speaker 1: and I love the advice you and Tiffany provide weekly.
Speaker 1: I'm reaching out because I recall you saying that we
Speaker 1: could email career questions. Here's my situation. I have been
Speaker 1: on the job search since January of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: when I left my full time job due to experiencing
Speaker 1: some racial incidents from my supervisor and colleagues that left
Speaker 1: me feeling unsafe in my work environment. Oof. I have
Speaker 1: over a decade of full time work experience in my field.
Speaker 1: I've been a full time PhD student, which allowed me
Speaker 1: to be a graduate assistant. To make ends meet, I've
Speaker 1: been applying and interviewing, sometimes for four and five rounds
Speaker 1: and still no offer, or if I do to get
Speaker 1: an offer, it's a low ball offer. Which I know
Speaker 1: if I took it would set me back in my career.
Speaker 1: I'm near the end of my program and I need
Speaker 1: to secure a position. At this point. I'm considering switching
Speaker 1: industries because it shouldn't be this difficult to secure a
Speaker 1: role in my field when there are always openings. My
Speaker 1: PhD field is broad and would allow me flexibility to
Speaker 1: work in many industries. I've been trying my best to
Speaker 1: stay upbeat and optimistic, but the situation has taken a
Speaker 1: toll on me. My question is should I continue to
Speaker 1: apply for roles in my current field or make a
Speaker 1: career switch and rebuild for context. I'm in my mid thirties,
Speaker 1: no kids, no spouts. Thank you in advance for your help,
Speaker 1: and congratulations to you on your new bundle of joy.
Speaker 1: Oh thank you. Okay, crossroads, listen. The reason I chose
Speaker 1: your question is because I and this is going. Don't
Speaker 1: mean to take advantage, but I'm just like, yes, I
Speaker 1: really want to speak to the long term job seeker
Speaker 1: out there, because I know that y'all are out here struggling.
Speaker 1: It's really difficult, even though the economy is actually doing
Speaker 1: well and there are jobs like the job's reports continue
Speaker 1: to be strong. Historically, there are jobs. However, it is
Speaker 1: not twenty twenty one when it seemed like everybody was
Speaker 1: hiring and there was just jobs, you know, falling off
Speaker 1: the tree branch as you can just like you know,
Speaker 1: walk outside your door run into a six figure position. Right.
Speaker 1: Those times are fun and they're fruitful, but they are
Speaker 1: not the norm. And I think one, yeah, one thing
Speaker 1: I'll say is that we can't necessarily, we shouldn't be
Speaker 1: expecting the job market to act the way it was
Speaker 1: acting a couple of years ago. Not that you are,
Speaker 1: but I just don't want you to think that this
Speaker 1: is unusual. Like you have been working, you've been a
Speaker 1: graduate assistant, you've been working on a PhD program. I'm
Speaker 1: going to go ahead on the limb here and say,
Speaker 1: even though you have been interviewing, you've been juggling a lot, okay,
Speaker 1: and especially if you're considering potentially switching feels, which you
Speaker 1: say you want some advice on, I wonder, and I
Speaker 1: wish I had you here to ask, but I wonder
Speaker 1: if you are maybe your search is too broad. It
Speaker 1: doesn't sound to me. Ultimately, when an employer is like,
Speaker 1: we want to hire you, it is a no brainer
Speaker 1: for them that you're the right person for the role.
Speaker 1: So what is it about you that's making them say
Speaker 1: she's not the right fit for this role? And if
Speaker 1: you are really casting a wide net, you're making it
Speaker 1: almost easier for them to find you find things that
Speaker 1: you lack, or you're just making it easier for other
Speaker 1: candidates who are the no brainer, they have the specific
Speaker 1: experience that they're looking for, skill, et cetera for them
Speaker 1: to surpass you. Because one thing about this job market
Speaker 1: is that there is still a lot of competition. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of jobs. Still. The job market is fine,
Speaker 1: but more and more people are looking and there's more
Speaker 1: competition for the roles that there are. Okay, because even
Speaker 1: though it's not like booming like it was in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one with a job market, people are you know,
Speaker 1: there are jobs out there, but there's fewer, like I said,
Speaker 1: fewer of them. It's still it's still healthy, but there's
Speaker 1: not as many, right, and there's just more competition. Okay.
Speaker 1: So that's why it feels like it's taking a long time.
Speaker 1: And you know what I wanted to do is I
Speaker 1: also want to share a stat with you because I
Speaker 1: want I want to share with you the average job
Speaker 1: search time, based on data from the Bureau of Labor
Speaker 1: Statistics is. I just found this, and I want to say, okay,
Speaker 1: I found it the and this is for anyone listening
Speaker 1: to if you think I've been laid off, I've been
Speaker 1: let go, I'm looking for a job. It's been a month.
Speaker 1: What's happening. The median unemployment time, like, the median time
Speaker 1: it takes to go from unemployed to employed is twenty
Speaker 1: weeks or about five months. Okay, So I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that it can be Yeah, it can take a while,
Speaker 1: and you sort of I would look at this and say, okay,
Speaker 1: if I'm working in this in the job market, honestly,
Speaker 1: you want to have six months saved, like at least,
Speaker 1: because the job search could take that long if you
Speaker 1: were if you were let go. Now crossroads, I know
Speaker 1: you've been looking longer than that. It's going on two years. However,
Speaker 1: you have not been twiddling your thumbs. You have been
Speaker 1: in a whole PhD program. Can you give yourself some credit.
Speaker 1: I know that you have had you had a full
Speaker 1: time career before that, and you probably feel like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be doing anything entry level. But if you
Speaker 1: were a PhD field is quite different than what you
Speaker 1: were doing before, then it may you may have to
Speaker 1: take a step back to take a step forward. I'm
Speaker 1: not assuming that you have to, saying you may have to.
Speaker 1: I don't have nearly enough information about your specialty, your
Speaker 1: PhD program, what kind of experience you had before to
Speaker 1: tell you definitively. However, in some cases it may be
Speaker 1: to take a step back to make a step forward
Speaker 1: type of situation. Okay, but my guess is that if
Speaker 1: you're applying, you're getting to like four fifth round interviews
Speaker 1: and getting no offer. There's something I have this part
Speaker 1: of my negotiation masterclass where I talk about eliminating their
Speaker 1: objections and you have to anticipate what is it about
Speaker 1: me that's giving them pause, and if you haven't gotten feedback,
Speaker 1: follow up, even if you've already left the interview process,
Speaker 1: ask one of the hiring managers for a chat, a
Speaker 1: phone call, whatever, and just ask for like, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: just you know, I just love one on one for
Speaker 1: you to kind of let me know what was it
Speaker 1: about me that didn't quite make the cut. And you
Speaker 1: may find out that it was something small you may
Speaker 1: find out that you were up against an internal candidate,
Speaker 1: and that is really frustrating, but happens all the time.
Speaker 1: A lot of time companies will already have an internal candidate,
Speaker 1: preferred candidate, but they'll still open the job up wide
Speaker 1: just to see what else comes in. And then you're
Speaker 1: kind of it's tough because you're up against someone they
Speaker 1: already know, and if that person brings it and they
Speaker 1: prove that they deserve it, then it's even easier for
Speaker 1: them to, you know, turn down outside job applicants because they,
Speaker 1: like I said, they already know this person. Okay, but
Speaker 1: you can't control that at the end of the day, right,
Speaker 1: But I just want you to see if you can
Speaker 1: get any information from people you've spoken with about what
Speaker 1: it is that's holding you back. Also, mindset and vibe. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm going to use the completely subjective term vibe, but
Speaker 1: your mindset and the energy, the vibe you bring to
Speaker 1: the interview does matter. And the hardest thing for the
Speaker 1: long term job seeker is keeping an attitude. If I
Speaker 1: got this the confidence, the positivity, the optimism that hiring
Speaker 1: managers want to feel from candidates, I mean there is
Speaker 1: a bit of like a Jean Sasquax to inner viewing
Speaker 1: and finding the right candidate you want to like you
Speaker 1: feel like, Okay, there's something about this person. They're excited
Speaker 1: about this role, they've got it, and it just sort
Speaker 1: of feels inevitable that this person, you know, should be
Speaker 1: here because of the energy they're bringing to the situation.
Speaker 1: You have to match that energy with your skill set, obviously,
Speaker 1: but when you have the goods on paper, you have
Speaker 1: the skills of you know, the the kind of experience
Speaker 1: that they're looking for, and then you bring the energy
Speaker 1: on top of that that makes them feel like, ooh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to hire this person, I want to work
Speaker 1: alongside them. That's the bit that you have to work on.
Speaker 1: And when you're down on yourself, the way that you
Speaker 1: sound like you are after you know, having first of all,
Speaker 1: you had a shitty experience last time. Now you've been
Speaker 1: looking for two years, of course you're going to start
Speaker 1: feeling down like this is this is tough. It's really hard.
Speaker 1: It can shake your confidence, it can make you all
Speaker 1: those doubts really loud in your head. But if you
Speaker 1: bring that energy to your interviews, that may be a
Speaker 1: little bit of like that you know that that little
Speaker 1: bit of negativity that like, I don't feel top of
Speaker 1: my game, that could be hurting you in the interview process.
Speaker 1: How do you get out of that? You need a
Speaker 1: hype person. I hope that I'm hyping you up a
Speaker 1: little bit. You need to maybe take a break from
Speaker 1: the job search process. Maybe you do need to do
Speaker 1: something a little bit different, you know, so you can
Speaker 1: continue to make ends meet while you take a pause
Speaker 1: and regroup. I just need you to remind yourself it's
Speaker 1: not forever, and it's okay. It's been a couple of years,
Speaker 1: but you haven't been doing nothing. You have been studying.
Speaker 1: You have been finding a way to start a new
Speaker 1: beginning for yourself. But it's going to take time, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna look back at this in ten, fifteen, twenty
Speaker 1: years and say, wow, that was really hard time. But
Speaker 1: I got through it. But I got through it. And
Speaker 1: one of the exercises that I do for myself all
Speaker 1: the time is like, it's not like creating a vision board,
Speaker 1: but it's I literally tell myself the version of me
Speaker 1: ten years from now already did this and she was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was tough, but I got through it. If you
Speaker 1: start to envision that person, it almost becomes like it's inevitable.
Speaker 1: It's like it's almost like fortune telling your way out
Speaker 1: of a challenge, Like I'm just going to decide that
Speaker 1: there's a version of me that already did this and
Speaker 1: killed it. And then it almost makes it like a
Speaker 1: talisman for you, like something hidden inside that's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I know, I got this, Like the future version of
Speaker 1: myself did this. And then it's sort of it's weird,
Speaker 1: they mean, just do I am the only one who
Speaker 1: does this? But I think it really works. It helps
Speaker 1: you work at a problem without so much stress because
Speaker 1: it takes away the possibility that you're not going to
Speaker 1: accomplish it. There's no way cross roads that you're going
Speaker 1: to not have a new work opportunity. There's no way
Speaker 1: you're never going to work again. There's no way that
Speaker 1: with your education and your skill set, that there's not
Speaker 1: going to be a new path for you. It's just
Speaker 1: a matter of when and what. Right. The next thing
Speaker 1: I want you to work on is putting yourself in
Speaker 1: positions where opportunities can happen to you. So by that,
Speaker 1: I mean how can you be in spaces in connection
Speaker 1: with people or opportunities so they can find you. You
Speaker 1: can't be hidden, so how can you do that. You
Speaker 1: can join organizations that are specific to your niche. And
Speaker 1: I'm going to come back to the niche thing, cause
Speaker 1: I know I kind of skipped over the whole broad
Speaker 1: job search thing, but it's important finding other people who
Speaker 1: are doing the thing that you want to do and
Speaker 1: connecting with them and making sure that they know that
Speaker 1: you're looking and that you're open. Looking for workshops, looking
Speaker 1: for like I said, professional organizations, looking for conferences that
Speaker 1: you can attend. Put yourself in the space where opportunities
Speaker 1: can find you. Make sure your email address is front
Speaker 1: and center on LinkedIn or on your professional website if
Speaker 1: you have one. Make sure people know how to reach
Speaker 1: out to you, because opportunities can find you, but they
Speaker 1: need to have a path to finding you, right And
Speaker 1: unless you're out there sharing, being a part of your community,
Speaker 1: professional community, they're not going to be able to find you.
Speaker 1: And having a bit of or not a bit of,
Speaker 1: but having a lot of space for that future version
Speaker 1: of yourself, Like imagine, oh, that future version of me
Speaker 1: that's already been through this, some opportunity must have found her.
Speaker 1: So let me just be open to that. Opportunities are
Speaker 1: going to find me. I am going to have success.
Speaker 1: This mindset matters, Okay, crossroads. Now back to the specificity,
Speaker 1: the niching down of of your career. If you are
Speaker 1: applying to a ton of things not really getting any
Speaker 1: real bites. I mean you have gotten to you know,
Speaker 1: through some interview rounds and all of that, which is great,
Speaker 1: But are you really leaning into a more specific niche
Speaker 1: Are you going after jobs where it's like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is a no brainer. And if it's not a no
Speaker 1: brainer on paper, then if you can tell that story,
Speaker 1: whether it's in a cover letter or in the phone
Speaker 1: screen or to the recruiter, really own the story of why,
Speaker 1: even though on paper this may not be the most
Speaker 1: linear path, here's why I'm the best candidate for this job,
Speaker 1: and here's why I understand your problems and I can
Speaker 1: be your solution. You really want to own that and
Speaker 1: understand it and be able to sell that in an
Speaker 1: interview process. Okay. And it's easier to do that when
Speaker 1: it really matches some of your experience. It gets harder
Speaker 1: when you have, you know, some experience, but not all
Speaker 1: the experience that that they may be looking for when
Speaker 1: you're pivoting into maybe a slightly different field. I don't
Speaker 1: want that to let you. I don't want that to
Speaker 1: tell you that it's not possible. You're just going to
Speaker 1: have to help them find the story. You're going to
Speaker 1: have to help them want you to get this opportunity,
Speaker 1: and by telling your story and bringing them along on
Speaker 1: your journey of why this makes sense as your next
Speaker 1: step and how you, with your various skills from your career,
Speaker 1: can be the perfect person for their role, make them
Speaker 1: want to root for you, make them want to go
Speaker 1: to bat for you. That's ultimately what they're going to
Speaker 1: have to do when they take on a candidate who
Speaker 1: may not have, you know, eighty percent of the skills
Speaker 1: or experience that they're looking for. It's not impossible, but
Speaker 1: they got to have to root for you, Okay, And
Speaker 1: I'm going to leave it with this. You went through
Speaker 1: a probably traumatic experience that sounds awful, and I'm so
Speaker 1: sorry that happened to you at your last job, whatever
Speaker 1: it was, you know, where people use your race as
Speaker 1: a weapon against you and make it unsafe for you
Speaker 1: to work there. That is not right and it shouldn't
Speaker 1: have happened. I'm really sorry that happened to you. Are
Speaker 1: you speaking to someone therapist, you know, someone a mentor
Speaker 1: so you can work through that, because I know it's
Speaker 1: going to be really hard to go into a new
Speaker 1: job or even a job interview when you're still carrying
Speaker 1: the weight of what happened to you and you haven't
Speaker 1: fully you haven't fully healed from it. And I do
Speaker 1: think that that can have an impact on the energy
Speaker 1: that you bring and even just your own level of
Speaker 1: trust in you know, a future employer to not end
Speaker 1: up in the same place you were before in that
Speaker 1: really toxic situation. And I think therapy is a great
Speaker 1: way to work through that. And it's a show because
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have to do this extra burden of work
Speaker 1: just so you can be ready for your next great opportunity.
Speaker 1: But I think you're going to be grateful that you
Speaker 1: worked through it in whatever way that you can, so
Speaker 1: that you don't carry with you, you know, the impact
Speaker 1: of that trauma into your next role, because that can
Speaker 1: trip you up, especially if it leads you to, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe not want to engage with your colleagues the way
Speaker 1: that you that you would openly if you hadn't had
Speaker 1: this bad experience. I don't think we should ever fully
Speaker 1: trust a job an employer to act in our best interests.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, they're going to be
Speaker 1: there to act in the company's best interest. So there's
Speaker 1: that level of cynicism that I think is healthy for
Speaker 1: anyone working in corporate America. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: there may be a great opportunity. There are great people
Speaker 1: to work with, There are great teams out there that
Speaker 1: would be happy to have you. You just have to
Speaker 1: believe that as well, so you can kind of go
Speaker 1: in with that more positive outlook and not let what
Speaker 1: happened to you dictate, you know, or hinder your next
Speaker 1: opportun tunity, which is really up to you, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's up to you to sort of like work
Speaker 1: through that and get through it. And I'm not saying
Speaker 1: you have to do it alone. I'm so glad that
Speaker 1: you felt safe enough to reach out to us with
Speaker 1: your question, and I'm that I was here to answer it,
Speaker 1: and I hope this helps Crossroads. Please get back in touch,
Speaker 1: let us know how it's going, and I wish you
Speaker 1: all the best and much success. Okay, good luck, and
Speaker 1: thank you again. For your question,