Awkwardness in applying for jobs....
February 9, 2020 3:09 PM Subscribe
I was promoted more than a year ago to an executive position to replace someone who left. My boss left soon after and has not been replaced, so I report to their former boss (FBoss). I’ve never really been fully vested with all the responsibilities (and opportunities) of my new position. This is causing me some discomfort in applying for outside jobs. Strategies?
Things that happened when I got promoted - raise, new title, nicer office. Things that didn’t happen- backfilling a replacement into my old position, new responsibilities befitting my position, benefits like outside training and introduction to peers in other parts of the corporation. Other things that happened- some responsibilities/authority that would have come to me just because of the vacuum from my predecessor and boss’s departure (basically any $$ decisions) were taken on by Fboss.
So I really feel I am just continuing to do my old job with a few new things, at a higher salary. It’s not the worst thing in the world but I don’t think it’s sustainable. I think we’re ina holding pattern and Fboss is retaining tight control to keep costs down until we can be dissolved (for regulatory reasons, keeping our location open in a barebones fashion for a while is actually cheaper than dissolving us). So I know I should be looking. But I’m really struggling with job apps...
When I go looking at positions with my current title (a lateral move), I feel under qualified- I haven’t really been doing the things other people in my position do. ( I do feel perfectly capable of them and would be eager to take them on at my current company!!!!! - so I’m also looking just because it’s feeling pretty demoralizing and unfulfilling to be stuck like this.). What I’m really doing is applying for jobs that would step me up - but I can’t really state that. I can spin a cover letter for these roles according to what my current title is, but that’s what I feel like I’m doing, spinning something to look better than it is. I guess I feel a little ashamed to know that I’ve been held back, even though I 100% know it wasn’t anything to do with my performance...
It also looks odd for me to apply to jobs of my former position ( and I have done so anyway....). I also kind of don’t want to do my old job. I earned my promotion- that’s the job I want.
So what’s my strategy here? Should I just grit teeth and continue spinning? Is this just a case of impostor syndrome with an extra dash of realism making it seem worse?
Things that happened when I got promoted - raise, new title, nicer office. Things that didn’t happen- backfilling a replacement into my old position, new responsibilities befitting my position, benefits like outside training and introduction to peers in other parts of the corporation. Other things that happened- some responsibilities/authority that would have come to me just because of the vacuum from my predecessor and boss’s departure (basically any $$ decisions) were taken on by Fboss.
So I really feel I am just continuing to do my old job with a few new things, at a higher salary. It’s not the worst thing in the world but I don’t think it’s sustainable. I think we’re ina holding pattern and Fboss is retaining tight control to keep costs down until we can be dissolved (for regulatory reasons, keeping our location open in a barebones fashion for a while is actually cheaper than dissolving us). So I know I should be looking. But I’m really struggling with job apps...
When I go looking at positions with my current title (a lateral move), I feel under qualified- I haven’t really been doing the things other people in my position do. ( I do feel perfectly capable of them and would be eager to take them on at my current company!!!!! - so I’m also looking just because it’s feeling pretty demoralizing and unfulfilling to be stuck like this.). What I’m really doing is applying for jobs that would step me up - but I can’t really state that. I can spin a cover letter for these roles according to what my current title is, but that’s what I feel like I’m doing, spinning something to look better than it is. I guess I feel a little ashamed to know that I’ve been held back, even though I 100% know it wasn’t anything to do with my performance...
It also looks odd for me to apply to jobs of my former position ( and I have done so anyway....). I also kind of don’t want to do my old job. I earned my promotion- that’s the job I want.
So what’s my strategy here? Should I just grit teeth and continue spinning? Is this just a case of impostor syndrome with an extra dash of realism making it seem worse?
"Executive" positions are very different from company to company. I'm assuming you're not at something like a Fortune 500 company because being an executive there is a massive deal, but at other companies there is a ton of variance in what job responsibilities are held by which job titles. Because of this, it probably doesn't make sense to hold yourself to meeting the standard of "what an executive should be" because there is no standard.
Instead what you have is a nice title, a specific set of valuable skills, and a desire to do more. It's not clear from the question, but until it's shut down it may be possible to get Fboss to give you more responsibilities that aren't part of the core cost saving goal. When you're applying to new jobs, you should apply with a title, and a specific list of job skills/accomplishments that match what you actually have done, not whatever you think matches your title. It's never a good idea to embellish on skills because you won't be able to back them up in interviews, and unless you do that you're not being dishonest at all. You are in a better position than the much more common opposite, where someone has to take on the responsibilities of a higher job title without actually getting the title bump, and that will help your application process.
posted by JZig at 4:50 PM on February 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Instead what you have is a nice title, a specific set of valuable skills, and a desire to do more. It's not clear from the question, but until it's shut down it may be possible to get Fboss to give you more responsibilities that aren't part of the core cost saving goal. When you're applying to new jobs, you should apply with a title, and a specific list of job skills/accomplishments that match what you actually have done, not whatever you think matches your title. It's never a good idea to embellish on skills because you won't be able to back them up in interviews, and unless you do that you're not being dishonest at all. You are in a better position than the much more common opposite, where someone has to take on the responsibilities of a higher job title without actually getting the title bump, and that will help your application process.
posted by JZig at 4:50 PM on February 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
You'll never know everything you need to know to do a new-to-you job. It's not like there's a single mold for your position and you're the sole person who wasn't cast from it.
Represent yourself honestly in any interviews and then, after you're hired, commit to hustling hard to come up to speed on what you don't know.
(biases: I am a senior technical person in the tech industry and this has worked for me)
posted by Sauce Trough at 5:06 PM on February 9, 2020
Represent yourself honestly in any interviews and then, after you're hired, commit to hustling hard to come up to speed on what you don't know.
(biases: I am a senior technical person in the tech industry and this has worked for me)
posted by Sauce Trough at 5:06 PM on February 9, 2020
First of all, let go of the shame. There are about 10 different reasons you're being held back in your situation and none of them have anything to do with you!
You have the title, you were promoted to that role because your company believed in you. Presumably you demonstrated an ability to perform the duties you feel you haven't had the chance to do to distinction in your current role. Circumstances have been preventing you from really doing those things and you are eager to get at them. That makes you an ideal candidate in my opinion. You have the desire, you are trusted if not yet proven, and you really, really want the gig.
The environment you're in sounds incredibly uninspiring. It's one of those corporate situations where it really doesn't matter how good you are at what you do, or what you can do, let alone what you want to do. It only matters what they tell you to do. It's so uninspiring that it's very easy and in some ways actually more psychologically safe to tell yourself that there's something wrong with you, rather than with them - at least in that scenario you have some control over the situation and some ability to fix it.
And you do -- and it lies with finding another gig that recognizes your value. So if I were you, I would take all of the time and energy you've got to psyche yourself up. List out everything you have done and are capable of doing. Look at yourself with the most generous and supportive view you can take. Be the supportive manager for yourself you wish you had until you land in a better spot.
posted by pazazygeek at 12:36 AM on February 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
You have the title, you were promoted to that role because your company believed in you. Presumably you demonstrated an ability to perform the duties you feel you haven't had the chance to do to distinction in your current role. Circumstances have been preventing you from really doing those things and you are eager to get at them. That makes you an ideal candidate in my opinion. You have the desire, you are trusted if not yet proven, and you really, really want the gig.
The environment you're in sounds incredibly uninspiring. It's one of those corporate situations where it really doesn't matter how good you are at what you do, or what you can do, let alone what you want to do. It only matters what they tell you to do. It's so uninspiring that it's very easy and in some ways actually more psychologically safe to tell yourself that there's something wrong with you, rather than with them - at least in that scenario you have some control over the situation and some ability to fix it.
And you do -- and it lies with finding another gig that recognizes your value. So if I were you, I would take all of the time and energy you've got to psyche yourself up. List out everything you have done and are capable of doing. Look at yourself with the most generous and supportive view you can take. Be the supportive manager for yourself you wish you had until you land in a better spot.
posted by pazazygeek at 12:36 AM on February 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
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How can you be underqualified to do the work generally associated with your title if you were, in fact, originally hired to do that work? Your company thought you could do it, even if for reasons completely beyond your control you didn't get to do all of it.
posted by praemunire at 3:51 PM on February 9, 2020 [4 favorites]