A long long time ago in my previous corporate life, we arranged a large public financing that was underwritten by an investment bank. After the closing and the funding we went to a celebratory dinner and the tradition was to “roast” the treasurer at the end. As a junior level employee, I watched them hilariously skewer my then-boss for his negotiation style (which worked well for the company) of agreeing to something one day and then coming back the next day to negotiate for something even better along the same lines.
They gave him a framed movie poster like the one you would see in a glass case at the cinema for the movie “Just Tell Me What You Want.” As my boss unwrapped the present the room erupted in laughter and he good-humoredly thanked them. Yes, he was proud to be tough and yet was always fair (to me); not always to the investment bank, but doing his job.
Yesterday a colleague who is looking for a job called me because I offered her a complimentary quick review of her LinkedIn profile. After I read it and with her on the phone I asked her “Just tell me what you want to do next because I am not getting that from your LinkedIn profile.”
She sputtered, and I advised her that she needs to completely renovate her profile to articulate her past contributing to her present, and how her present skill set can benefit a future employer. Past, present, future is a theme I use a lot in coaching and training, especially for a job search using LinkedIn.
I know I definitely made an impact on her as I see she is working on each section to tell the casual recruiter, hiring manager, and me exactly what she wants next. It’s up to her to tell us because in today’s attention-short world, no one wants to have to work as hard as Ali McGraw in the movie poster!
Alan King probably didn’t enjoy the exercise either!
photo from https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjP0aCqw4zXAhUk5IMKHSGJCo8QjhwIBQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FJust_Tell_Me_What_You_Want&psig=AOvVaw0L8vh8Bq-DlWw0RQGKYkwl&ust=1509046662652016
