Embrace Failure, But Don't Market It

By Daniel J. LeBlanc, Person

Social media is an amazing tool. You can do so much with it, from staying in touch with your friends to searching for a job. Having access to your very own Facebook page is a lot like having your own newspaper; you can publish whatever you want for the world to read. And people do.

But I have noticed a disturbing trend recently where people who have mistakes or large challenges in their past are bragging or otherwise telling the world about them on social media. Those details you publish about your life become public record. There are limitations about what others can publish about you but there is nothing to stop you from telling the world anything about yourself.

The most extreme case of this I’ve seen is people asking on public job boards, whether there are any companies that hire people with criminal records. Regardless if a person is asking for themselves or someone else, it creates a public record that can be accessed later; potentially at a time when this person is being considered for a job. Yes, there are companies that will hire people who have made mistakes, provided they can show that they have learned from them, and made the appropriate reparations, of course. Casually publishing the mistakes or challenges of your life will not help you to find a job, just the opposite.

“It’s better to create a track record about the positive achievements in your life than your failures.”

It’s better to create a track record about the positive achievements in your life than your failures. You may not believe in yourself enough now to believe that one day you will have a career. But life has a way of making you grow-up suddenly. Most of us with careers never thought we would ever really have one when we were young. Most of us started with jobs in retail and fast food too. 

And what does it say about you to potential employers if the main thing you talk about on social media is the failure in your life? At least if you are going to broadcast your failures, make sure they are set to ‘Friends Only’ although that’s hardly a guarantee either. Better to just call your friends up and tell them the dirt on the phone if you feel the need to talk it out with someone. Don’t create a record on social media for the world to read.

Embrace your mistakes and learn from them. You will be asked in job interviews to talk about the mistakes you have made on the job. Typically that comes somewhere in the middle. When you are alone with a recruiter or hiring manager, if you have a major concern about something from your past; that is the time to bring it up, privately. Even if a recruiter or hiring manager is not willing to hire you, they will not share the things you tell them privately. That’s the best time; after you have impressed them with your professional and positive attitude, when they are seriously considering you as a candidate, to ask them whether a mistake from your past is going to prevent you from getting the job. 

“And what’s the worst that can happen? They won’t hire you.”

And what’s the worst that can happen? They won’t hire you. But you didn’t have a job to begin with so you are no worse off for having discussed your issues with the recruiter privately. I’ve noticed when I myself am searching for a new position that I try to seriously imagine myself in the role being offered. When I think I might be interested then my heart gets set to get the job. Unfortunately, we can’t get every job we apply for whether there is anything dark in our pasts or not. The interview process is nerve-wrenching, I know. Our hearts and ego are fragile but we must learn to be strong to find the right job.

I guess I’ve talked enough about how to bring up your life’s mistakes in a job interview but I want to give my readers more than that.

What do I do about a long space of unemployment on my resume?

Recruiters are people too. In any job search honesty is critical. If anybody involved in your job search starts to suspect you are dishonest then it’s all over. Nobody will work with someone who is dishonest. Recruiters will work hard to find you work if they believe in you. Not every recruiter will, but there’s someone out there for everyone. The trick is to speak with many recruiters until you feel a connection with one or more.

A good recruiter will start by giving you an honest assessment of your resume and your skills along with details about the job market in your area. You want the recruiter to be your friend. Be professional always but this is the time to demonstrate your people skills. This is also the time to be honest about anything in your past that could be problematic, such as an empty time period on your work resume. A recruiter will work with you as long as they feel you are honestly interested in finding a job and they will help you overcome those challenges from the past, provided you are honest with them up front.

“Recruiters are people too.”

Firstly, you are not going to try to hide it rather search for other things you may have done in the same time period, or at least have a good answer when someone asks you about the hole on your resume. Examples of understandable reasons could be; important family matters, a break to attend school, a time of unemployment when you performed volunteer work, an illness or medical condition that prevented you from working, or maybe you just took a long sabbatical to regroup before relaunching your career. A good recruiter can help you to improve your interview skills and your resume to help overcome gaps in employment. Gaps are challenging but people return to the workforce every day.

How do I overcome a lack of work experience to find a job?

Graduates face this dilemma all the time. What’s worse is that recruiters and hiring managers seem to value direct experience more these days than education. That makes it tough for anyone trying to repay student loans, especially. Hiring managers want to see a long record of work history or examples of the work you have created.

Depending on your field, the challenge can be even greater. In the case of many professions, such as a student, or anyone trying to break into a job profession without experience; you can create an online portfolio to demonstrate job skills to hiring managers and recruiters. Even papers or blog articles about theory or the kind of work you are looking for can go far to help you land your first job. Writing is a valuable job skill in every profession.

“An online presence doesn’t have to cost a lot of money…”

An online presence doesn’t have to cost a lot of money and you can do it completely for free if you have no budget. Websites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter allow you to create online portfolios including your work skills and examples of your work. There are also smaller web hosting platforms that will allow you to post a few pages online for free.

If you are a student then be sure to check with your school to see whether they provide an online portfolio as a part of your enrollment. My own college provides a site known as academia.edu It is free for enrolled students and affordable for alumni. Here is my own academic profile:

Ultimately though, the key to finding a job is asking a lot of people. Especially in crowded job markets like any of the major cities in the U.S., it is important to speak with as many recruiters and hiring managers as possible. Job hunting is always about landing in front of the right person at just the right time and that doesn’t matter where you live. In areas where skilled employees are harder to find you might have an easier search however job openings are usually less common in less populated areas.

Job hunting is somewhat a numbers game. You start by honing your resume and your attitude with a helpful recruiter. As you begin to interview you will find that you get better and more confident with each one. Consider the first 10 interviews nothing but practice. Apply for as many jobs in your field as you can, even the ones that you don’t really want. Recruiters will hate me for saying this but going to interviews for jobs you don’t really care about is a great way to rehearse your interview skills.

Talk to your friends and family and tell as many people as you can you are looking for a job. Many times jobs are filled by word-of-mouth before they are ever advertised to the public. Do this professionally. Don’t bring up the dirt from your past to anyone when you are looking for a job. People will only recommend you for a position if they feel the referral would reflect on them positively. At least have a positive attitude when you are conducting a job search.

Here is a list of free or low-cost resources for creating an online portfolio of your work:

You get a lot of value for free on LinkedIn. If you can afford the premier membership then you also get free online classes through LinkedIn Learning. These classes (mostly for technical skills) are amazing. You also get to connect with as many as 30,000 recruiters to your LinkedIn profile. When you consider their own numerous connections you can reach hundreds of thousands of recruiters all over the world with a Premier membership.

You can also create a LinkedIn group and become a subject matter expert about the work you are looking for. 

A good friend also recommended this site. I haven’t tried it myself but I’m going to as soon as I finish writing and publishing this article. 

This only works if you keep your Facebook page posts professional and if you have professional friends connected. If your friends or family members are prone to unprofessional outbursts or to post inappropriate things on your timeline then don’t use Facebook for this purpose. But keep in mind that if you do have a Facebook page that recruiters and hiring managers will likely take a quick glance at it to see whether there is anything worrisome there.

If you have a professional Facebook page then you can create a Facebook Group to become a subject matter expert about the work you are seeking. This is completely free and easy to do. On your personal Facebook page and in your Facebook group you can publish articles and share news about your chosen field of work. You can share this work in other Facebook groups about the same subject matter and on professional friends Facebook pages as well.

You can publish an online portfolio on Wix for free, however, as you might have guessed it’s limited in what you can do. You won’t be able to assign a domain or design your URL for SEO but you do get to put the work up there and send people links to it. This is just as good as social media when you analyze what you get for free. And if you’re a web developer then this could be a way to showcase your site building skills for low cost. 

This tool promises shortlinks and online business cards. It also allows visitors to leave a review. That could be valuable if you are a freelancer. I’m not sure I would want hiring managers filling out a review for my interview skills or resume, lol. 

Even if you have previously published unprofessional content online it is never too late to clean up your act. Although recruiters and hiring managers could use more advanced tools to see whether you have ever published anything of concern, most don't go to that level unless you are applying for a job that requires a detailed background check. Even if they find something from your past, as long as there are clear signs that you have moved on then nobody will know or care about those things.

It's never too late to start over again.