Part One: Who are you?

Many of us navigate workspaces with the fear of losing that which secures our daily bread and butter. This fear had blinded me to the truth: that hiring managers, companies and organizations are just as concerned about losing talent as we are about losing our jobs. Hiring teams fear the prospect of colleagues departing a job—especially if it's not on the company's terms and without proper notice—and then possibly hiring someone worse! This would result in a loss of money. It would be their money lost! Have you ever heard of anyone going into business to lose money?

Once I realized this fact, I started to subvert the order of my thinking. What would happen if I were to view companies and organizations as expendable as they view me? What would happen if I were the one who found a better option on my terms? What if I adopted a strategic approach where I leverage multiple job interviews by pitting one against the other in order to secure the best overall offer? With these fantastical thoughts in mind, the balance of power shifted immediately in my favor.

I knew my work environment had been bleeding me dry in what felt like every inhumane manner possible—and I wasn't even well-compensated for it! I had to internalize the knowledge that companies and organizations have always acted out of self-interest by hiring seemingly vulnerable and desperate employees like me and then feeding us just enough to make it to the next day of work, whilst believing we will never learn that we hold oppositional power to change or stop the cycle. You, as a prospective job candidate, must learn, know and realize this fact or the rest of this guidebook may seem beyond your reach!

Strangely, no one ever wants you until someone else does. Often, no one ever supports you until someone else does. The pattern goes on and on regardless of the field of environment. Understanding this thoroughly was the key to me acing interviews. You see, the moment I became comfortable leaving a “good” offer because I believed someone else would see my value in zeros, a better offer presented itself. It would come from either the employer I wanted to leave or from the prospective employer interviewing me. Once I started viewing companies and hiring managers in the same way they saw me, the power dynamic shifted; They were just as expendable to me as I was to them, and they were as eager to hire me as I was to work for them. If you are reading this guidebook, you must understand this principle! You must!

If you know to your core that you have an incomparable skill set or a skill that you excel at and take pride in, understand there is someone out there who wants to pay you what you are worth, or even more, for your skill. You must understand this and know it to be true!

 

- Excerpt from Subvert the Order