Earlier this week I shared the situation I see happen all too often.  High-achieving professionals will apply for 5, 10 even 20 jobs every week.  And even though they know they are a great fit they hear crickets.

What’s terrible about this situation is that they then start to doubt themselves and their abilities.

Sometimes they’ll resort to paying someone hundreds of dollars to write their resume for them and still…nothing.

They might even invest thousands of dollars in a certification or training that they believe will give them the edge.

I’ve even seen some give up and go back and get a graduate degree…spending years and thousands of dollars on something that has NO guarantee of helping them actually get the next job.

The problem is they don’t really know what they are doing wrong so they don’t know how to fix it. So, they just start throwing time and money at the problem…with no guarantee that their time and money is being spent well.

Basically, they go into desperation mode.  And that, is a very bad place to be.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

See, the problem isn’t that these professionals are lacking some magical skill or education or training that would help them get an interview and a job.  The problem has many layers but the one I’m going to highlight today has to do with you being TOO good at TOO many things.

So, you might be thinking…what?

What the hell is she talking about?

Isn’t being good at something a GOOD thing?

Well…Yes and no.

While it’s awesome that you are capable of doing a lot of things and that you can do those things well it might actually be holding you back.

The problem is you are so focused on YOU and your ego AND by showing the world how awesome you are at all these different things has you completely missing the point.

This isn’t about you at all.

Who is this actually about?

Drumroll…..

The ENTIRE job search process should be about the EMPLOYER…NOT you.

Here’s the hard truth.

Employers don’t give a hoot that you are multi-talented and that you have the ability to do lots of things.  They only care about how you can SPECIFICALLY help THEM.

They don’t care that you can write grant proposal, run an employee training AND develop strategic sales plans.  In fact, letting them know all of that muddies the waters and can make you LESS desirable to them.

What they care about is what you are a MASTER of and how that would benefit them.

Say they need someone who can write marketing copy why would they care about your amazing abilities to write grant proposals?

This is the problem with telling them EVERYTHING you are good at when they only care about one thing.

The key is to be clear and focused about what EXACTLY the employer wants.

This is one of the biggest mistake I see people making…they will present themselves as a Jane of all Trade because they are awesome at a bunch of different things but they will never focus in on what they are a master of.

So, they end up being a Jane of all Trades and a Master of None.

And employers don’t want Jane of All Trades…they want the MASTER.

And, more specifically, they want the MASTER who is capable of helping them achieve their goals.

Let me tell you the story of a woman I recently spoke with.

She had super interesting and diverse background that ranged from being the business director of a medical practice to having an MBA to having experience as a paralegal.  She really was a Jane of All Trades.

While she was a Master in a few key areas she had no idea how to show that to employers.  So, every time she submitted her resume she’d get feedback that she’d be a great medical director or paralegal…things she determined she didn’t want to do anymore.

She was totally missing the boat on how to show employers that through all her diverse experience she had developed a mastery in Strategic planning (the area she wanted to move into) and her applications kept getting thrown in the garbage.  She was frustrated…to say the least.

If this is feeling like something you’ve been frustrated with, make sure you come back to the blog and check out my next feature where I’ll be sharing the 3 things you need to do to starting getting employers interested in you so you can start getting more calls for interviews.

I’ll show you how you can stop looking like a Jane of All Trades and step up as the MASTER that you are!

If you’ve been putting in application after application, redoing your resume and still not get getting interviews then check out my next post where I share the 3 things you need to do so you can get employers attention, increase your visibility and get more interviews.