When it takes you six hours to write a cover letter, what the hell happened? I can find a handful of explanations and let you decide i) I have a hard case to sell; ii) I am too full of myself and spending too much time praising my beloved skills and experience; iii) I don’t know the company well and need to spend hours educating myself first; iv) I am watching NCIS and House in parallel, v) I am a perfectionist.
For the ones that know me best, I can bet you started with number v). Bernardo is clearly betting on number iv) though wondering why not my favourite Law & Order SVU.
It is nice of you to think that but, even though it is true that those are pieces of me to blame, number i), ii) and iii) also apply. First, I do have a hard case to sell. As impressive at it may seem to have worked in Morgan Stanley, how do I guarantee that it is not because the market is down that I am not going back there. As impressive as it may seem to have worked on the ground in Mozambique, what does it add to them if they want someone that would like to help more countries other than my all time favourite Mozambique? Second, HBS has taught me that the only way of dealing with number i) is clearly being full of myself and try to make a point as much as possible that it would be clearly be in the world’s worse interest not to hire me. And finally, truth is I am still learning about the sector. And that combined with all the others means I spend 3 hours reading activity reports, mission statements and news articles.
Now you know why I have not called, skyped or emailed lately…
The last classes in Leadership try hard to make you think and figure out what to do about yourself. So we talked about our best self, not just about what it is but more of when it happens. We had to ask a couple of former colleagues, friends and family to give us three examples of when we were at our best. The point is not to skyrocket your ego, don’t worry. It is about understanding what are the environments that make your strengths come out. Because if you know what they are, then you will look to pursue a future that exhibits these characteristics. A “what brings the good in you” kind of thing. It was interesting to get that feedback. More than interesting, it was insightful. It was amazingly consistent throughout and it was curious to see the examples that people remember about you. I do recommend to anyone in need to find a bit more of where they should go. The thing about the examples is that they do have something in common, whether they came from people I worked with recently o...
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You can do it!