I was raised thinking anything was possible.
My dad often said, “When they tell you No, you tell them Yes”. I was raised to think anything was possible, but more than that, I was raised to challenge everything.
This characteristic came in handy recently.
A client, Karen, was making a transition from one line of work to another. This is hard. She had to be persistent to overcome nay-sayers who wanted to pigeonhole her in her former line of work. Karen called me after an initial discussion with a recruiter about a vacancy in the line of work Karen wanted to join. The recruiter heard her story and said, “No, you would not be a good fit for that client. You don’t have enough ______.”
Karen walked away because that sounded like the final word. After all, in job search recruiters are often the first and last word in accessing decision makers. When the recruiter says no we often just walk away.
I heard my dad’s voice in my head and suggested Karen challenge that final word. Maybe there was a way around.
Karen called the recruiter and laid out the many ways in which her experience fit perfectly into the vacancy. Her background offered far more than the recruiter noticed in a cursory glance. Karen got the interview and she got the job!
Persistence is the key. When they tell you no, step back and evaluate. Get a second opinion. Sometimes a no can be turned into a yes with the right point of view.