After completing my Enneagram, I was most aligned with type 2 (the helper) with a 2w3 wing. I believe this means I am more inclined to be supportive of others, and making myself available to lend a hand when needed. I also focus on relationships, and take them very seriously and they matter a lot to me. I am also motivated by others around me, and feed off that energy, which is where that 2w3 wing adds that part. I want to be someone who is capable and successful, while also there to help whenever needed. I will invest time and effort into things that show others I care about them, so I try and maintain a strong brand.
I also am close aligned with type 3 (the achiever), which I believe backs up my points of being someone who not just likes to get things done, but also help people.
If a potential employer were looking at these results, I would think they would find me as someone who deeply values others. I am also going to always do by best to help others, while doing a good job on my own. Someone who can easily work with others, and collaborate on tasks seamlessly. This comes from that intrinsic motivation to want to help others, while also showing people I am of competence to complete things. In my past role as sales intern, I leaned on the team and helped them when needed, which shows my ambition and initiative taking when I didn’t know something, with my ability to collaborate well with others too.
An employer could see a weakness of me needing validation to feel successful, because I am always helping others, there is the concept of reciprocity where I want at least a thank you in return. I also care how others see me, so I am ok showing a weaker side when something goes wrong, which could change people’s perceptions of me for the worse at times. I think a good employer for me would be one that helps and supports these strengths and weaknesses of mine, playing into them so that I can be and feel my best self in the workplace. I have the aptitude to succeed, so this was very interesting for me to see where I am at.
If I were the business owner in the shoes of having to hire either Avery or Jamie, I would pick Jamie. I think of the differentiation between the factors of ‘skill’ and ‘will’. The skill can be taught, while the will to work cannot, if someone comes in with consistent efforts every day, they can be taught to harness these efforts to more efficient avenues that can create better or more frequent positive results. Avery on the other hand, would be much more challenging to do this with, where I could get him excited and performing high at one point, a week later when he is bored there could be missed deadlines or key metrics.
I think it would be better to hire Jamie for most jobs, but if I could not change their behavior, I would hire Avery for jobs that require excellence at certain points, and less than average consistency. I think of enterprise sales for Avery, where when the big whale is coming he needs to be on his A game, ready to win the deal. When business is slower and sales cycles are lengthened, he can put in less effort with automated workflows. Avery would be more successful than Jamie in this scenario, because of the levels Avery could get to are stronger to ensure deals are won.
Jamie would be a better fit for roles with more consistency, and less need for high performance. Things that come to mind for me would be a administrative assistant, something with day to day consistency of tasks, that require deadlines to be hit so that things are reported and handles in timely manners. This role won’t ask you to go above and beyond to crush a sales number, but it will require you to reconcile deals and problems efficiently and consistently to maintain excellent customer service. This is a place where Jamie would fit best.
When I think of my brand that I want future employers to know about, I think about my previous experience tied to results. I believe my personal strengths are leading others, and building pipeline in a sales context. I tend to be naturally curious on new strategies to help drive results, like multithreading prospects in the same account. My curiosity and drive are traits I want to make sure I exude on a first touchpoint with people. One of my weaknesses is my knowledge of full length sales processes, I have the ability to get people in the door and qualify them on their potential fit for our solution, but interactions and demos after the fact are what of an unknown world to me. My brand is being a initiative taking, highly motivated salesperson with a results-driven mindset.
If I were to create a creative situation ad for myself, I would want to focus on that brand statement for myself. Being an initiative taking, highly motivated pipeline builder, with a results driven mindset. I would also describe a few points of relative experience, with some bulleted metrics to give evidence to this point. I believe in these kinds of ads, something concise and clear is most beneficial, and I think of it along the same lines as a resume. Employers barely peek at your resume, spending mere seconds on it with a quick scan. This creative situation ad should be formatted and created in a way that is easy to ready, and allows a flow that guides the reader to my desired conclusion. For example, a quick name, location, and desired field at the top. Followed by my quick statement on brand and quality, with 2 bullets of metrics that support that brand statement. Then I would follow with communication methods. I believe in this format, I will have more eyes on the ad with a stronger message that is grounded in evidence with a clear distinction to the reader that I am legit. These ads need to be short, being concise and authentic makes for a value added read, giving myself enough credibility in the seconds taken to scan, to hopefully earn a phone call or touch point.
Thinking of my last job description, I believed the bullets summarized essential functions of the role, and required expertise that would be needed to perform said functions. They were more broad is concept, allowing for some ambiguity in tasks. I believe this is ok though, because a job description should be concise in nature, allowing for flexibility to occur on the job of assigned duties and tasks. I would say all of my jobs have given enough tasks and duties for me to get a general understanding of what my day to day could look like, which is most helpful when I am researching jobs I would be interested in doing. To be more clear, it never specifically aligns perfectly with the duties I have done. I find a bullet at the end to be common of “other duties assigned by supervisor”. This allows for that variability to occur, as business landscapes and roles change often, making this a necessary component. In reference to the influence piece, I think a more clear and detailed outline of job duties more inclines me to apply for a job. This is because I can visualize myself there, and start to mentally plan how I could drive success metrics in the role, adding value and fulfillment to myself and the company. I have attached my recent jobs bulleted essential functions below.
- Begin every day at the office preparing and planning your day as well as attending training/team meetings
- Conduct outbound calling to set face-to-face appointments with clients
- Learn and demonstrate the benefits of all of ‘company’ products, services, and solutions to your clients
- Develop and present proposals tailored to each individual client’s specific needs
- Ensure outstanding customer service through regular client follow up
- Seek out new customers and partner with existing ones every day
- Identify and establish relationships with key decision-makers to secure new business
- You will be given the task of field prospecting face to face and virtually every day
When considering the scenario of an ethical lawsuit being brought against a favorite company of mine, I would definitely have a change in opinion. Any form of discrimination is terrible on a company’s internal culture, and shows deep rooted issues that may not be easily viewable by the outside eye, like myself in this scenario. It is impossible to fully understand or relate to a company’s culture, without being immersed in it myself. I believe culture is one of the most important pieces to drive success in a business. I love the ideology of ‘culture eats strategy for lunch’, meaning that you can have a very effective and innovative strategy as a business, but without the coupling of a fair and equitable culture, it can be incredibly challenging to find success. In essence, I would not support a business that has issues like this, and it would very much lead me away from wanting to work in their environment too.
I myself have worked in strong, caring cultures, as well as the opposite. Having that has shown be just how important a culture is, and shifted what I prioritize when searching for a company to work for in the future. I would rather have less ideal tasks on a day to day, with a very encouraging and uplifting culture, than working somewhere that felt unfair or unethical. I feel more motivated to work hard for people that I feel care or value me, and the work that I do. If I found out people in groups I associated with were systemically treated unfairly, I would heavily reconsider the company and my future with them. Overall, I would absolutely change my viewpoint, and look to not work for my favorite company that had these ethical issues.
Organizations may choose to allocate more resources to internal functions, rather than staffing because of the immediate returns they may see with the implementation of new processes and procedures to current employees. For example, if a sales manager decides to bring in new enablement tools to assist in the outreach process to prospects, this could increase efficiencies for current sales reps and make their jobs easier, which would save the company time and labor. While on the other hand, they could hire people with previous skills and success with the tools previously provided. The trade off would be the financial impact in the long run of these two decisions, the enablement tool would be costly to implement, but provide a wider impact than hiring higher quality talent – which is also costly to bring on. Overall, a company should evaluate its competitive strategy, and align those goals with the best resource allocation strategy. Which for some, would be hiring more top talent, and focusing on staffing. For others, implementing and investing into current processes to streamline internal workflows.
Some potential strengths of not prioritizing recruitment would be allowing more focus on resources to core business processes. If you are a publicly traded company with earnings coming up, maximizing topline revenue is best achieved by building a strong client base that increases that revenue. A weakness of this, is falling behind the curve of industry innovations, while potentially missing out on trends or talent that could have an even stronger positive impact of future revenues. I strongly believe a good mix of the two processes is the key to sustaining long term growth in a business. All companies want to grow revenue, and the hardest part is finding a way to do that responsibly while scaling the workforce at a sustainable level.
For my latest job I have been in process with, I applied for the job of Sales Development Representative, for a Tech firm in Boise, Idaho. Applying for the job was easy, they had an application posted online, where I filled in my resume, and added all the required components. I added my refrences too, and made sure to reach out to them with messages saying they may be contacted by companies I have been applying to soon.
After submitting the application, I got a message from a recruiter at the company who saw my resume, and thought I may be a good fit. The call was very informative, as I had my hesitations for the role to begin with. I have been picky in a sense for the roles I apply and put effort into, because I want to work somewhere that appreciates my hard work, and compensates me fairly for it. It felt very nice to get information from the recruiter, that allowed me to come to my own conclusions to see if the job was going to be a good fit for me or not.
I then met with a sales manager at the specific Boise office that I was applying to. The vibe I got from them was terrific, and I got a great sense of culture that had been fostered. Something I realized I wanted to be apart of. The interest in me, and research they did to become familiar with me and my behaviors was what peaked my interest especially to this role. If the people around me seemed like they would be supportive, and allow me the path to make a strong career out of the current opportunity, then I was all in for it.
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