You’re Qualified. Are They?
The tiny gatekeepers holding the keys to giant doors.
I always see the words “apply” everywhere I go. Apply to a job. Apply to secure funding for a startup. Apply to this class that will help you towards your future. I must admit, I’m a late bloomer. I made all the select teams, the jazz programs, and anything I wanted to be a part of growing up. I applied myself and got in. I auditioned into a jazz program for college and it was no different. And then my 20’s hit and I’m not sure if I really applied to anything in particular. I applied myself in the arts, but arts are subjective and culture was shifting. Gone were the days of record labels and a cost to music. In were the cover bands, the instant clicks, and by that time I was a dying breed of musician. Now, in my mid 30’s I’ve bounced back on the application train and it’s been an interesting ride to say the least. After applying to a great deal of many things I’ve stopped to wonder… who are these people that I’m talking to? What makes them qualified to qualify me? If this was The Voice, the judges would be a distinguished panel of accomplished singers. They wouldn’t be judging a song, for example, because many of them do not write their own music. No, they’d specifically be judging most likely a cover song and honing in on the voice, (thus the aptly named title of the show). But what about jobs? What about start up funds? This now more so resembles The Masked Singer but the roles are reversed. They aren’t auditioning for the judges, they are the judge. But who are they?
One of the overarching lines I’ve heard from initial interviews have been, “I honestly don’t know anything about what you do or am not into tech,” and usually I respond with a polite, “Oh, no worries,” and then go on to explain exactly what I do. I’ve heard that over and over again. Cindy or Harold from the Human Resources department has no idea what they’re hiring for but let’s continue on this path where they will judge whether I move onto round 2. That’s like randomly selecting from the crowd of The Voice to be judges except it wouldn’t be on the subjective topic of whether a voice sounds pretty. I think we can all have an opinion of whether or not Gerald on stage slayed on his version of “All By Myself” or not. No, this would be like a panel of guest judges from the crowd judging whether or not a concert pianist has played their piece note by note.
“To be honest, I don’t read music,” says Samantha from New Orleans.
“That’s okay!” Says the show executive. “You don’t need to know how to read music for this show! Just get the general vibes down. Does this person have what it takes to fit the company culture? Their bio is in front of you so you don’t have to just go by the sheets of music you can’t read. Go by the bio that you can’t put any context to.”
Or here’s another example for start ups or other programs.
“I don’t know anything about basketball,” says the scout. The scout is the recruiter who wanders into a game of five on five.
“That’s alright!” Says the team executive. “These are the job requirements and this is our team culture. We want you to go find us the next LeBron.”
“Who’s LeBron?” asks Becky the team scout. The executive laughs, turns back to his team, “Becky, she cracks me up.”
Becky stares at the five on five scrimmage and a list of statistics. Number 4 seems good. He’s tall and runs fast. At the end of the game she brings him over and asks him what his experience is.
“I played two years in Junior College, transferred to a D-2 school where I was player of the year. I averaged 22.4 points a game, a team high 8.2 assists, and a couple boards a game. My turnover to assist ratio was top in the nation.” He wipes sweat from his brow.
“That sounds good. We have some other candidates that we are interviewing but we’ll keep in touch,” says Becky who stares at a stat sheet she cannot read. Junior college isn’t sticking out to her because the other candidates attended schools that she recognizes. She goes in that direction even though the other candidates spent most of their time on the bench.
Why am I writing an entire blog on the gatekeepers of jobs, funding, and academia? Am I an embittered former basketball player hopeful for my return onto the court? I have faced countless rejection. In fact, if there was something I was professional at, it would be that. “Thank you so much for applying to the position, to the event, to the funding round- unfortunately, it was extremely competitive and we regret to inform you… But be sure to apply again!” For years, these letters have stacked up and I have not given them a second thought. Surely, I was not good enough but when you go through something over and over and over again, patterns begin to appear. I have context now.
Whenever I am rejected I now go to the resume of the resume reader. I don’t feel bad. In fact, I often can smile because the person who judged me had no right to. Their resume was to a recognizable school and that’s it. They were attempting to evaluate an industry that they didn’t know or else, and this is most times, did not build anything themselves. They were professional gatekeepers with no other skills on their resume except for that. They got in and now they’re at the front door giving a thumbs up or down to those who want to get in. That’s fine and dandy but I’m writing this to you- a potential “applyer.” I’m writing this so that you don’t feel a sense of deep rejection because everything is not as it appears to be. Like The Great Oz, behind the curtain is a little man with a megaphone. The great green face on top of the screen may say you are unqualified, but I have seen behind the curtain and maybe you should too.
Everything has a mask. You may be online scrolling and have someone completely tear down your ideas. In your head, you may reason, “Wow, I must be wrong,” but by unmasking the giant- you may find that it was merely a bot or a 12 year old child with low self esteem. Nothing is as it appears to be. I’m also not saying to not take critical feedback. Feedback is vital to adapt, to grow, to apply the various forms of expertise when they are given in order to expand upon your product, your skill, and to edit your resume to current standards. My writing today is only to reveal that you may feel discouraged by all those who have judged your value in certain settings but it is also good to reveal the judges. By doing so, you may walk away with your head held high as the judges may have been lesser than their positions implied.
jLM