Low self confidence is it why you are not getting the job?

[Former Member]

It is so typical for me to lose confidence day after day! I don't know why is it happening or how to stop, all I know is that you feel as if you are losing who you were day after day. My major concern is, is it why I couldn't get a summer job because I always thought I might not be good enough? Or it is another reason. How would someone know it's low self confidence or he is no good for real? Should job seekers fix this issue before considering a job.. Tell us what do you think and share your exciting story.

[former_member182378]

Hasnaa,

Are you seeking a job related to SAP?

TW

[Former Member]

No I didn't apply for SAP position, obviously I am a big fan and I will apply when I have a good experience because I am interested in ERP and data mining

[Former Member]

You probably wondering how did I get to SCN, well our University is a part of UA I participated in Hana code jam and that's how I got more engaged in the community

[Colleen]

Hi Hasnaa

Job hunting is stressful and hard work. Most of us get nervous when applying for jobs. No matter how qualified I am for a job, I still get nervous. It feels like an exam where you pass (get the job) or fail. Pretty terrible pressure to put yourself under when there can be hundreds of candidates and only one job.

My only advice to you is that you have to back yourself. No-one else will. People may encourage you and provide guidance on which jobs to apply for but at the end of the day you have to be your number one fan (in a non arrogant way). You need to find a way to have faith in your abilities whether you are successful or not.

In terms of how you get to that stage you can work on the practical sides. Put effort into your applications and preparing for interviews. This can include:

1. Research the company – find out about them and why you would want to work for them. If you can find out about the area you would work in and stuff you would do, even better. But don’t stalk – never stalk
2. Take time to write your application – make sure you address what is being asked of you; extra effort on your communications (spelling and grammar)
3. Be in a position to sell yourself – this can involve getting skilled and practising your skill. In some situations it may mean you need to do certifications and formal qualifications (study hard to get a good grade to be proud of). Furthermore, you could consider volunteer work (not necessarily job related) to show that you are trustworthy and a hard worker. Go out and meeting people in your industry to get comfortable with other professionals (possibly learn of job interviews)
4. Practise your interview skills – this is really important if you don’t have confidence. Ask your friends or family to ask you practise questions and make effort to think through how you would answer them. Google for general interview questions (HR type ones). If SAP related, don’t ask them on SCN or you’ll ruffle some feathers (you can search those as well)

Accept you may not be successful on your first attempt. But each go is progression to eventually getting your first job. The first win might be getting shortlisted and making an interview. The next could be getting to a second round and so on.

On each attempt take the lessons. Where possible, try to get feedback as to why you weren’t chosen. When you interview, take time afterwards to reflect on what you did and rate yourself. Try not to be hard but asks yourself what you did well and what would could have done better. Were there times when you felt out of your depth and had no idea what was being asked of you? If so, can you learn that for next time or can you think of an answer to explain why you don’t have that knowledge.

Confidence is hard to build. It takes constant successful moments to build. Sometimes you have to fake it (the confidence, not the skills) until you make it.  To do this, you have to choose to be positive.

The biggest challenge you have at the moment is entering a negative spiral. As soon as you question if you are good enough you risk projecting a negative view of yourself which other people pick up on.

Good luck with your job hunting. Be prepared for the success. Celebrate it when it comes.

Regards

Colleen

[Former Member]

Such important tips you mentioned here! Although I do search the company and interview questions I still don't do well. I was applying for typical job last summer as my professor suggested this will help me develop personal skills and get future position suitable to my Academy studies. I never celebrate any progress all I can see is the negative side and I never thought I'm good enough. Is it really possible I didn't had those jobs due to lack of confidence?

[Matt_Fraser]

Hasnaa,

Colleen has really laid it out here. One of the keys for interviews that worked for me is to prepare as well as you can, as Colleen suggests, but then on the day itself, treat it like it doesn't matter. Assume you're just going in for a nice chat and to have a fun time, and even turn the tables and assume that you are interviewing them to find out if they're good enough for you to waste your precious time working there. Also, when you're just starting out, it can be a useful mental trick to just assume that you aren't going to get the job anyway, so this is a practice run to get better at interviews for later. That takes the pressure off and then you may find you do much better because you stop worrying about it.

Actually, that's how my wife got her first job out of college. She went to a "job fair" at the university and decided to interview at a few places for practice -- she had no intention of actually seeking jobs with them. The first place she went to, when they asked her, "Why do you want to work for us?", she responded honestly: "Well, actually I don't, I'm just here to get better at interviews." No one else was as blunt with them, so she stood out among the dozens of others they saw that day. Her skills/education were a match, so they ended up offering her the job, and she worked there for a decade before moving on to better and bigger things.

I wouldn't necessarily advocate being that blunt with them, but the takeaway is treat the interviews as practice, and try to do a lot of them. But also go into each one having done your homework and research, and remember you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. And try to make it fun instead of high-stakes.

Cheers,

Matt

[Former Member]

I liked how you mentioned mind tricks! In fact my mind build lot of obstacles for me sometimes and what a brilliant idea to go many interviews as if I am practicing, this will help me bring stress down knowing that it's only a training. 

[Colleen]

Lack of confidence shines through in any person. I can't say that's the reason you didn't get the job. You may not have been successful for numerous reasons (many outside your direct control).

Some reasons for not getting a job can include: you aren't qualified (you can fix that or you might need to apply for a more junior role); someone else was better (you can't control them but you can work on making yourself better); there was not job or job already promised (it's annoying but sometimes false jobs are advertised so companies can follow a HR process for someone they want to hire)

Being confident does help with your interview and connecting with the interview panel. In entry level/graduate positions, your soft skills (communication) can be the key differentiator in being selected.

I hope the advise in this thread helps you a bit

Regards

Colleen

[TomCenens]

Hi Hasnaa

Good tips have been provided here already I see

What helped me beyond belief was reading a book. My journey really kicked off after reading "purple cow" by Seth Godin. Not sure if it will help you or inspire you but I've found that those kind of books inspire me and many others so it might work so that's my first tip for you, you might want to give it a spin and check it out.

I've written blog posts about putting yourself out there, reaching higher, not giving up (even if others want you to) ~a heap of them on SCN 1.0. For some reason I haven't really done that lately except for some smaller posts on my personal blog site but you might get something out of those "old" blogs on SCN as well, you can dig in around in my content, here are a couple posts:

https://scn.sap.com/community/about/blog/2013/08/30/scnis10-the-snowball-effect

We are who we are | SCN

Getting me to the next point really, being active in this kind of community and writing your own blog posts might also help to improve your confidence. It sounds a bit scary at first (writing blogs and getting people to comment on it) but it's a great experience.

Learning and reading has helped me a lot, I try to touch other subjects than what my area of expertise is in my daily job so this morning on the train to work I was reading a book on empathy. I believe it's important to learn about many different aspects. Ways to better understand others, better understand yourself, put things into perspective, ... you name it. It has helped me, in the beginning when I became SAP Mentor, I wasn't used to meeting and talking with so many people so I got nervous quickly (many probably didn't notice this but it's true), these kind of readings have helped me already in the past in that perspective.

It all helps to perform better if you ask me that is. It's also a common trait of successful people apparently. I never was into reading books when I was very young, I only started after reading "Purple Cow", now I've got a big collection already. One of my recent reads is a classic "The art of war". While it's about war tactics, it's inspirational in the sense that you can derive leadership thoughts out of it. Not saying you should start there though.

Purple Cow and alike are so called "self help" books that try to inspire it's reader to step up and make a change for the better. It questions why someone would stop to check out a "regular" cow and encourages you to be a "purple" cow, one they would stop for because it's rare, it's special. Seth Godin is one of my favorite authors in that space but he's very specific, you either love or hate it so if you don't like it you might want to try a different author in the same space.

Best regards

Tom

[Former Member]

Books reading is a good point you mentioned here. Many people claim how blogging is essential and how it has a great effect, but your experience with SCN tells much more. In fact I started to like being around the community!

Great post