"Project X": From job hunting to workplace coping, everything starts with two steps forward

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This article The author Yu Haoyun has 16 years of experience in language teaching. He is currently the person in charge of [Yunfei Language and Culture Center] (http://www.yunfei.world/) in Hsinchu. He is good at using innovative and highly interactive methods to make language learning both fun and efficient. Thank you for authorizing the “Content Hacker” website to reprint it. Thank you hereby.

[Why we reprint this article] This is not only a warm reading experience, but also a valuable experience shared by teacher You Haoyun from the perspective of a business operator. What’s more worth referring to is her advice on the mentality of job seekers, which is also a part of what content hackers need to learn!

After starting my own business, my role changed from job seeker to interviewer. In the process of observing many interviewers, I also made self-observation on my own selection mode and accumulated some experience.

Since there is bound to be a wave of career changes after the Chinese New Year, job seekers must be very concerned about how to gain an advantage among many competitors. It just so happened that during this period I read the new book “[X Plan: The Turning Point and Key to Creating the Golden Cross Line of Life] (https://goo.gl/YYByrC)” by Mr. Liu Gongfu (https://www.facebook.com/jackyliuworld). I read this article “Start by thinking two steps from the future” and compared it with my past experience in interviewing new people. It was very touching.

Therefore, here I will share with you my personal perspective and experience. What exactly do directors of new small companies consider when selecting people?

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Last year, Yunfei recruited full-time assistants for the first time. Since they are the first full-time employees of a new startup, the role is important and cannot be taken lightly. Whether this person can meet Yunfei’s needs will have a significant impact on the company’s development. Therefore, I spent a lot of time and personally wrote a sincere and warm recruitment article, hoping to attract the right people.

At that time, I thought that since I had written the recruitment essay with so much care, I always hoped that the applicants would at least treat this matter with the same care. Therefore, starting from the first resume sent by the job seeker, my talent selection observation has been quietly started.

I received a lot of resumes. My husband and I printed them all out and went through them carefully. Finally, we selected four and invited them to come for interviews. (I don’t think big companies will do this kind of thing. Don’t expect that every word on your resume will be seen by your supervisor or boss! Therefore, it is still very important whether the resume packaging is eye-catching!)

How were these four candidates selected? After reading the book, I found that I roughly selected based on the framework of whether job seekers had the ability to “think two steps forward.” I organized them into three parts: “Think two steps forward for the company”, “Think two steps ahead for the supervisor”, and “Think two steps ahead for my future self”.

Think about the next two steps for the company

To put it simply, I will first observe whether this resume is specially customized for Yunfei? Or the same canned resume that seems to work just fine if sent to 20 other companies?

Some of the four selected candidates had already seen Yunfei’s website and put forward the advantages, disadvantages and modification suggestions he had observed; some followed Yunfei’s Facebook fan page and said that he had such and such expertise and could make the fan page better run; some also suggested that they had such and such experience and could do a new project for Yunfei. Regardless of the quality of these proposals, are they feasible? Through the homework prepared in advance, I know that they are people who will take the initiative to think about the company.

Most of the resumes that were brushed off at this level simply described their past work experience or great achievements, and most of them had nothing to do with the position of administrative assistant. To be honest, many people’s autobiographies are written just to be a teacher.

Their expectation is to work as an administrative assistant first and then learn how to be a teacher at the same time. Of course, this is not impossible, but I would be worried that if the job content does not meet his expectations, he will not feel a sense of accomplishment when doing it, and he will not be able to perform at the level that an administrative manager should do, and naturally he will not be able to do it for a long time. Having said that, if you want to be a teacher, you might also be able to apply for a teaching assistant job, or directly apply for a teacher job.

As long as you help the company think two steps ahead, you will know what kind of people the company wants? And what efforts can I make to meet such requirements?

Think two steps ahead for your supervisor

To put it simply, does his behavior make it easier for me to do things? Or will it cause me more trouble?

After we interviewed four candidates, we screened out two of them. The last two were equally matched. My husband and I discussed how to decide which one to use in the end?

So, we decided to arrange another online interview. Since the previous physical interview was led by myself, this time the online interview was led by my husband; and because Yunfei’s administrative assistant often has to face foreign teachers and foreign students, the online interview was conducted in English, and we observed how the two candidates interacted with people in English.

You may be thinking, isn’t this just an English test? If you think so, you are wrong! By adding this process to the interview process, in fact, English proficiency is not the focus of the assessment at all, but creates another opportunity for the two of us to observe the job seekers.

We sent a letter to these two job seekers informing them of the English online interview. And their replies became an important key to our final selection.

Job seeker A replied to the letter to the effect of “Thank you, teacher, for your favor. I can accommodate you as time goes. So, would you like to add Yunfei’s LINE?”

Job seeker B’s reply was to the effect, “Thank you, teacher, for your affirmation. I can accommodate the schedule. Below is a screenshot of my mobile phone, LINE account, and QR Code.”

If you were a supervisor, which one would you have a better opinion of? I think you should choose Mr. B like me, right?

I had to write back to Mr. A and tell him: “Yes, please add our LINE. Our account number is: ＿＿＿. Please let us know after you add it.” Then it occurred to me that when he handles letters from students inquiring about courses in the future, he may not get it right all at once. Instead, he will ask, “How about we send you the class schedule first?” But it is conceivable that the class schedule is not sent with a file attached to the letter; of course, the student will probably not write to say “Yes, please give me the class schedule.”, but is too lazy to write to ask for the class schedule again.

Mr. B’s reply means that I don’t need to send him a letter anymore. I just need to add him directly to LINE and send him a message to tell him that he has joined. In addition, I have already expected that when he handles letters from students inquiring about courses in the future, the students will ask for X information, and he will also attach XYZ and other related information.

As long as you help the supervisor think two steps ahead, you can take actions that are more convenient for the supervisor and save time. On the contrary, if you think about taking one step at a time, it will cost the supervisor several times more effort. I thought there was no difference, but little did I know that there was a huge gap between the two.

Think two steps forward for your future self

To put it simply, it means whether you can leave some value for yourself.

There was a job applicant who was eliminated at the second level. The reason for elimination was not because of his lack of ability. I actually thought that admitting him would be overqualified, so I didn’t choose him in the end.

Most people stop replying to the letter after receiving the rejection notice; those who perform better will simply reply to express their gratitude.

Not only did the job seeker politely reply to the letter of thanks, but he also attached two pictures he extracted from his resume, both of which he used his design expertise to re-create a copywriting form for a page on the Yunfei website. I still remember what he said: “Now that they have been done, I hope they will have a chance to show value. If your company’s website uses these two forms, please use them directly!”

Well, regardless of whether those two profiles apply, I will at least keep this person in my heart. In the future, whether it is Yunfei or someone around me who needs graphic design, I will most likely think of him.

If you think about two more steps now, it may become many steps in the future.

We always think that the interview begins when the supervisor sees the resume, or when the job seeker arrives at the company and meets the supervisor. In fact, this is not the case. Often from the second the job seeker sends the email, every behavior of the job seeker has been seen. From the process of interacting with the interviewers mentioned above, I observed my decisions at every step and the reasons behind them, and found that there were indeed some similarities in them, but I couldn’t say clearly. Until I read [this book] by Kung Fu Master (https://goo.gl/YYByrC) and saw the “Think Two Steps Back” mentioned in the book, I suddenly thought “Oh! That’s it!”.

As a company manager, what I want to tell job seekers is to never underestimate every action you take, because we simply cannot predict how long-term effects these “seemingly just two steps more” actions will have. The concept of “thinking two steps back” deserves to be widely applied in many interactions in interpersonal relationships and in the workplace.

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★ Photo Credit: Annie Spratt

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Further reading

• I read “The Yield of Thinking”: Strengthen the four thinking skills and develop business thinking
• I read “First-class people read, where do they draw the line?” : Deep Thinking Techniques for Elite Reading: Don’t draw lines on existing beliefs, but absorb the unknown
• I read “Narrative Arc: Pulitzer Prize judges teach you to write good and popular interview reports”: My review of the interview writing career

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