3: Explaining a Career Mistake (AKA a Blip)

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[This transcript has not been edited and is being provided as a service.

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] So you've had a misstep at some point in your career and you're getting ready to interview for a new job.

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How do you explain it?

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Whether your career mistake was a poor job choice, or you chose the wrong boss, or a project or professional relationship didn't go as well as you might have wanted, what do you say?

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Most of the people I've worked with, both as a coach and former executive recruiter, have experienced some kind of setback in their careers, and the euphemisms for those setbacks are many A bump in the road, a rocky period, a rough patch.

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A while back, I was checking in with my friend, advisor and social media crisis communications authority, Molly McPherson, and we were talking about how you recover from a career misstep.

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She called it a blip.

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What do you do when you have a blip in your career and you feel you have some explaining to do, whether that would be to an executive recruiter or a hiring manager?

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Stay tuned and I'll share a straightforward, honest, three-step approach that will increase your credibility, highlight your strengths as a candidate and help you show up more confident and relaxed, no matter who's asking.

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I'm Doug Lester, an executive coach and career strategist to MBAs and ambitious professionals.

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I've worked one-on-one with well over a thousand people, helping them craft compelling work-life narratives and advance satisfying, meaningful careers.

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When it comes to your career and your life, if you don't craft your own narrative, then someone else might do it for you and you might not like what they come up with.

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So let's work together on your narrative now.

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No one takes on a job, an assignment or a project intending for things to go badly.

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In other words, if something's gone wrong in your career, it wasn't the potential for a bad outcome that motivated you to take on the challenge.

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Just the opposite you hoped for and expected to have a positive outcome.

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So the first and most important step in explaining a career blip is to recall the motivation that led to the blip in the first place.

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Let's say you had worked on the launch of a new technology that went south.

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You weren't motivated by the possibility of launching a product that would fail.

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You were motivated by the potential of making an unproven but promising technology accessible to millions of people in order to improve their lives.

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That's nothing to be ashamed of and it's most likely true.

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So if you found yourself in a tough spot at some point in your career and you're going to have to explain how you ended up in that position, try to recall the original, well-intended motivation you had.

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As far as I know, that motivation that led you to your career blip will be core to your personal narrative and will reinforce positive aspects of you as a leader and potential candidate for a role.

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And who doesn't want a route for the person willing to take a risk now and then to achieve something new and meaningful.

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The example I just gave might not be your story, but I think you get the idea.

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Step two in this process is to own your career blip.

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Please don't try to avoid talking about it.

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So many people do and it doesn't work.

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I can't tell you the number of times I've heard someone in a coaching session say but why would I ever want to point out a weakness in a job interview?

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And I can almost hear them following up with you idiot.

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Well, here are two reasons, as I've already pointed out.

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First, it's an opportunity to highlight a strength or positive quality that's characteristic of you in your personal narrative and second, there's little chance your interviewers won't ask you or your references about it at some point in the recruiting process.

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So why not show a little courage and bring it up yourself?

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That's surely the sign of a self-aware and self-confident leader.

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Own your successes and own your blips.

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In fact, I'd advise you to go one step further.

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Bring your career blip or mistake up yourself.

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That's right.

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You're going to bring it up yourself.

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If you have even a hint of a blip in your career, especially if you're interviewing for a consequential senior leadership position, someone on the recruiting team is going to do a little investigating.

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When I was in executive search, we were always on the lookout for career blips in our candidates.

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Recruiters are a risk averse bunch and don't like surprises, so if a recruiter or anyone else for that matter finds, or even suspects, a career blip in your history, it's going to be on their minds and ultimately on the minds of everyone involved in the recruiting process, and it's going to distract them.

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And that's a problem.

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It's a problem because it will be hard for you to get the team evaluating you fully focused on your strengths and potential positive impact until you've dispelled any underlying concerns they might have about you as a candidate.

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Let's call it the.

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But what about the blip syndrome?

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Meaning that until you've addressed your career blip, and put it in the context of your strengths, the people evaluating you for most career opportunities are going to get hung up on their curiosity and doubts and until they're convinced that the blip, whatever it may be, isn't a disqualifying event in your career but actually a sign that you're the right fit, they're going to have a hard time committing to you as a candidate.

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So you need to own your career blip proactively, address it and highlight the positive motivation that led to it in the first place.

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A little blip isn't going to get you down.

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Your blip is real life proof of what drives you as a leader and manager, and your willingness to acknowledge and talk about it is a sign of your accountability, maturity and transparency as a leader.

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If doing this sounds a little awkward, it can be at first, but you can handle it.

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I have faith.

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Early on in the recruiting process or an interview, say something like you might be wondering about or if I were you, I'd probably want to know what happened at.

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The person that you're speaking with will be relieved, not only because they don't have to ask the awkward question you've thankfully saved them that discomfort but because you'll be providing the explanation they need to dispel a doubt the recruiting team may have about you as a candidate and you'll score a few personal integrity points in the process and, honestly, if your career mistake or blip was a deal breaker, they probably wouldn't be talking with you in the first place.

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And if they're the kind of people who are going to hold it against you, do you really want to be working with them?

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So step three is all about backup.

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You may have noticed that up to now, you're the only one who's been speaking on your behalf.

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That's a good start, but you can't go it alone.

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Earlier in my career, I worked in consumer products for about 10 years and if there was one thing I learned in marketing, it's that you can't make a claim about a product without providing a reason to believe.

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When you speak up for yourself, own your blip and place it in the larger context of your career, you're essentially making a claim about yourself.

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You're claiming that the blip is an indication of a positive quality or characteristic about yourself, and that's good, but it will only get you so far.

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You need backup.

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You need to provide the people who are evaluating you a reason to believe, and that reason to believe will ideally be the testimony of people who know you well and have some credibility in the eyes of the recruiting team that you're trying to win over.

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In other words, your backup will be your references.

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Lighting up properly prepared references is an essential step in any senior-level recruiting process, and it's especially important when you need to address a career blip, and most people do.

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Proper preparation involves reaching out to your references early, explaining the basics about the recruiting process you're taking part in and highlighting the positive themes about you and your work that you think will support you as a candidate.

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Among those themes should be the sincere motivation that is leading you to pursue the opportunity.

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This can and likely should be the motivation we identified earlier on, the one that helps explain your career blip or mistake.

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If your reference doesn't already know about your career blip, then you should probably get them up to speed and also explain the connection you'd like to make between your career blip and your motivation to take on this new challenge.

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In the example I offered, your career blip was the launch of a risky new technology that didn't work out.

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Maybe this next opportunity also involves a new technology that isn't 100% guaranteed to work out, but could benefit a lot of people if it does.

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Maybe it even has a reasonably high probability of failure.

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A lot of candidates would be put off by that.

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But your career blip is proof positive that you're willing to take on some personal risk for a worthy cause.

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While your reference will be free to say whatever they like about you and your blip the failed launch in this case They'll also be able to make the positive connection between that misstep, your career blip, and the strength it reveals in your character and your suitability for the challenge.

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And, more likely than not, they'll want to share that information because, to put it simply, it's easier than trying to think something up themselves and, given their history with you, they'll know it's the truth and they'll feel comfortable talking about it.

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You'll be doing yourself and your reference a favor.

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While lining up properly prepared references is no guarantee that you'll ultimately get the job, it certainly will help remove a potentially major obstacle standing in your way that career blip.

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You'll get the people evaluating you focused on the more positive aspects of your candidacy and you'll be showing up with integrity.

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So if you're interviewing for an important job and you're worried that a career mistake, also known as a blip, might derail your effort, consider taking the following three steps 1.

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Reflect on the positive motivation that led to your career blip.

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Chances are it was a motivation to do something positive.

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Then draw the parallel between that motivation and your motivation to take on the challenges presented by the role you're being considered for.

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2.

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Own your career blip.

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Take the bull by the horns.

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Exhibit the self-confidence of a leader and address your career blip early on in an interview or a recruiting process so that it doesn't cause lingering doubts and distracting thoughts in the minds of the people who are evaluating you.

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And 3.

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Line up your references as backup.

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Just like in any recruiting process, think carefully about who your references will be.

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Choose a couple or more who have insight into your career blip and would likely position it in the same way you would.

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Just to be sure, let them know how you're thinking of presenting the story and the connections you'll be making to your positive motivation.

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If they see it the same way, they'll be there to back your story up.

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While this approach may not be the solution to explaining every career misstep or mistake, it can help you get past at least a few nagging doubts that the people standing in between you and your next big role may have, and if you'd like to talk about your career blip and how you position it in your next big interview or recruiting process.

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Sign up for a career strategy session at careernarrativescom.

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Slash strategy and we'll figure it out together.