I got off the phone with a good friend this morning. He was asking about D.C. Hopefuls and told me an all too common story. A few months back he met a young man through a friend. We’ll call the young man Tom. My friend spoke to Tom once and because Tom doesn’t understand networking months went by without my friend hearing from Tom. Mistake #1.
My friend reached out to Tom and told him about a paid internship in his office. Tom said he was interested but did nothing to follow up about it for two weeks. Didn’t send a resume or ask what he should do. Mistake #2
After two weeks my friend reached out to Tom and said “hey send me your resume if you are interested in the job.” Tom sent it promptly (which is good) but the resume was a mess. Mistake #3
My assumption is Tom was waiting for my friend to give him instructions on what to do. Tom should have responded “yes I’m interested what should I do? Do you need a resume?” Mistake #4
My friend offered edits and comments and sent it back to Tom. Tom then sent back the revised version ignoring 80% of my friend’s suggestions. Mistake #5
So now put yourself in my friend’s shoes…what would you do?
Tom never made him feel valued. He didn’t follow up with him the first time, didn’t jump on an opportunity, and ignored his resume advice.
Now what Tom never knew was the circumstances around my friend knowing about the paid internship. My friend really only knew about this opening because his friend/co-worker was put in charge of the internship program. After Tom’s initial interest my friend told her that he was sending Tom’s resume as a way to give her a good candidate. Two weeks later (as Tom dragged his feet) she asked my friend “hey where is this Tom guy’s resume.” When he finally did submit Tom’s resume he had to explain to his friend/co-worker “sorry this took two weeks not sure why he took so long. Also I know this resume isn’t great I tried giving him edits.”
Are you shocked that she threw Tom’s resume in the trash? I’ve seen various versions of this story a few dozen times. Tom had no idea what was on the line for my friend. That his lack of professionalism and common decency was making my friend look bad at work and feel totally unvalued.
The worst part is Tom is sitting back thinking he has this great inside lead. My friend isn’t going to sit him down and explain how he messed up. He isn’t going to help him learn from this mistake…why would he? My friend isn’t his dad, his professor, or career counselor. This was a partnership (although Tom likely didn’t it see it that way). Tom would have got the internship and my friend would have helped a co-worker in order to build political capital in his organization. Tom was a bad partner so my friend doesn’t owe him advice, lessons, or guidance.
Don’t be Tom!!!! You may be making all sorts of mistakes, although I hope not this bad! One of the great things about D.C. Hopefuls Fellowship is you have the ability to interact with me via the group or private one-on-one phone calls. I and others in the group can be that person to tell you the mistakes you are making and through D.C. Boot Camp help you to know better than to make them in the first place!!!
Throughout life we are encouraged to be ourselves and I teach that principal in several ways, notably when assessing a potential position. There are times though it makes sense to not be yourself.
I recently was working with a D.C. Hopefuls Fellowship member and she was struggling with confidence. She actually had a new contact comment on her lack of confidence when they met. So I told her to fake it until she makes it.
Back in the dark days before I had the steadfast spirit I was lost applying online and aimlessly wandering my way to nowhere fast. I began developing bad social anxiety. I was fearful people would sense my failure and that I somehow wouldn’t measure up. I vividly remember going to a Halloween party with my girlfriend (now wife) and getting physically ill at the idea of going to a social event where I wouldn’t know anyone. Luckily I have a great support system that had encouraged me to talk to a professional. He said right now you are anxious and your confidence is in the toilet so just fake it.
We all fake it everyday. We laugh at our bosses joke that isn’t funny or pretend to be interested in a relative’s boring story. So I went to that party and just faked it. I pretended I was happy and confident. When asked about what I did for a living I told them the best parts of my job (not the worst) and even let them know I was actively looking for a new opportunity. I said I was optimistic about my future and asked them several questions about themselves. It wasn’t how I felt on the inside and it actually felt like lying….but something amazing happened….my anxiety started to leave my body. I continued this practice at various times and eventually I started to believe my own acting.
I believe some people can tell a lie so many times they start to believe it and I was experiencing the same thing except I actually wasn’t lying! Everything I was saying was true it just didn’t match how I felt on the inside but by projecting that image enough I started to feel that way on the inside.
We all struggle with insecurities and a lack of self confidence the difference is some people let it sideline them while others just fake it till they make it!
Click Here to check out the video that changed my life and inspired this blog.
Why is that a third of lottery winners end up broke, meaning they are actually worse off than before they won all that money? It has been reported lottery winners have a much higher rate of suicide and depression than normal Americans. How could this be? The answer to me is simple…they didn’t earn it.
Success is a curse if not properly earned. People who earn massive amounts of wealth by starting a business or moving up the company latter get there through hard work and being smart. They know how they became rich and rarely go back to being middle class. The same principal is true for applying to jobs…I know that sounds crazy but hear me out.
Recently a few D.C. Hopefuls dropped this line on me “well my friend/coworker landed a job by applying online.” My response each time was “so what?” Just for a moment let’s table the fact that applying to jobs is a total crap shoot and numbers game. The majority of the time people don’t have the right resume to ever stand a chance and often are applying to jobs that are not truthfully posted. Heck with the lottery at least you have the same odds of winning as everyone else!
Let’s just focus on hitting the lottery…landing a real job through applying online. That is a nice short term victory but you cannot build a successful long term career that way. Think of your ideal position at 45 years old. Chief of staff for a U.S. Senator, Under Secretary for an Intelligence division, or policy maker on K Street, seriously I want you to envision yourself. Do you honestly think you got there by going onto to indeed.com and applying? You must know by now that is not how D.C. works.
This method can also hurt you in the short term and is high risk. It can hurt you in the short term because you are starting day one totally fresh. Yes, they interviewed you and liked you but you are starting from zero day one. I’ve had 5 jobs in D.C. (area) and only one I got through straight up applying online. This was back in 2013, long before I had the steadfast spirit, but in the moment I was very excited. As you know it was a disaster. My other four jobs I walked in day one having been recommended by someone who works there (twice that person was still working there and helped be learn the ropes) or use to work there. I was able to start day one with a level of credibility that would take a fresh outsider a few months to likely earn. When you enter the right way people usually assume you must be good, trustworthy, and hardworking until proven otherwise because why else would someone vouch for you in such a way?
You also remove a lot of risk. That second job I had no idea what I was really walking into. Sure I asked good questions in the interview but the people interviewing me really didn’t know what my actual job and client would be like. If I had really known what that job was I never would have taken it and wasted 18 months of my young career! All four of the other jobs I had a very solid understanding of what I was getting myself into. I got honest insights about the good and bad parts of the position and how best to excel. I felt like I was set up to succeed and shockingly I was successful!
Is there ever a time to apply online? The short answer is yes there are around 3-4 times I encourage online applications. Up until now I’ve only given this advice to accepted members of the D.C. Hopefuls Fellowship but today I’ll share one with you as well. Applying to jobs makes sense when you are following the advice of a contact. For example if your contact at agency ABC gives you the not so great advice to start applying on their site then you do it as proof you are willing to follow their advice. You can later use the fact you didn’t get the job as a talking point with them (See my blog Jumping Through Hoops).
In conclusion I want you to remember the goal is not to get a job it is to have a successful career. Getting a job only to fail (like I did with my second job) will set you back mentally and professionally. The goal is to get the RIGHT job and grow your professional network. If this is good enough for 45 year old insanely successful you then it should be good enough for twenty something you!!!
Many of you probably think of a pitcher coming to seal a win in the 9th inning. Maybe you think of a greasy salesman who comes in and closes the deal. I think of an awesome networker and established Washington, D.C. professional.
Every person is vulnerable and deals with insecurity. Bad people look for insecurities in others and try to exploit it while good people know that is the perfect time to close. What do I mean by close? I mean bringing finality to an interaction.
I’m no Yankees fan but Rivera was the ultimate closer…
For example I have jumped on the phone to give advice to probably over 300 young professionals by this point. Often I have this tiny voice in my head saying things like “this advice is generic, they could get this anywhere, or who are you to be telling anyone how to do things?” I try my best to shut that voice up but nothing does it like an email two hours later saying “Tommy thanks for the amazing advice. I feel like I have a plan and am so motivated to put into practice what you told me.” That is great closure to an interaction. It makes me feel valued, appreciated, and good about myself. Moving forward I will subconsciously associate that person with feeling happy and will want to have continued interactions with them in the future.
We all have the ability to silence other people’s little voices of self-doubt and the more you do it for other people the more they will like you and the more they like you the more likely they are to help you out or work hard for you. Those who are in the D.C. Boot Camp learn how to write great follow up emails to reiterate promises and action items while also bringing closure to the interaction…it can be powerful! I challenge you to go out and do this wherever you can. Next time a classmate or co-worker does a presentation just go up to them after and tell them good job. Sounds small but I promise otherwise they will walk out wondering if was good enough. Your small gesture will mean a lot and bring some closure to a likely anxious event.
D.C. Hopefuls Fellowship member Elliot Cole is the master at this practice. Of course he sends great follow up thank you emails when networking but he is quick to let you know how much he appreciated the quick chat or advice. He is great at closing out each interaction on a positive and self-assuring note.
It is not a coincidence that the three highest-ranking people I have ever worked for are the best three I’ve ever seen at this simple skill. I guarantee they did not start to wait doing this until they rose to the top leadership post in their organization, so I encourage you to go out and close everyday!
Are you in the 1% of the 1%? No not the 1% that Bernie is always yelling at I’m talking about the steadfast spirit 1%. Last fall was really amazing for D.C. Hopefuls. I had the opportunity to speak seven times at five different college campuses. I spoke to various groups of both undergraduate and graduate level young people.
I’ve run some rough numbers and based off the email listservs and facebook groups my presentations were advertised to I would say no less than 5,000 people (entire student bodies and departments were emailed so this number may be much larger). Based on the notes I kept around fifty people attended….total! So off the bat anyone in attendance was in the 1%. Of those fifty people who attended less than ten have followed up on my promise to speak with them about their career and join this the D.C. Hopefuls newsletter. Less than 10 of the over 5,000 have taken the time to get free career advice!
In the past I would have been devastated by these numbers and begin telling myself I was simply wasting my time. There have been countless occasions were I thought about closing all of this down because such a small number of people seem interested. This is why I’m so thankful for the members of the D.C. Hopefuls Fellowship. I have been able to watch them take this information, put it into practice, change their lives and the lives of their fellow members.
There are plenty of young people who are determined to succeed and willing to put in all the work necessary and I’m optimistic they will eventually be successful but I have serious doubts. This isn’t about how hard someone is willing to work it is about how smart they are willing to work. I can go fishing for 10 days straight but if I’m using the wrong type of bait and scaring the fish away with my music it doesn’t matter how determined I might be.
It really is the 1% of the 1% of young people who are willing to admit what they don’t know, humble themselves, and learn the necessary skills to reach their dreams the right way. The right way doesn’t usually have immediate payoffs but always ends up being far easier and much less painful than sheer will of ignorant force (aka me for the first 5 years of my career).
So take some pride if you are in that small group who cared enough about your career to sign up for a newsletter like this and if you haven’t I encourage you to sign up right now. I also challenge you become part of the 1% of the 1% by seeking the guidance and skills necessary. Obviously I am biased and think D.C. Hopefuls Fellowship and D.C. Boot Camp is the best place to do that but if this not for you then please go surround and immerse yourself with people who can help you, guide you, and growth with you.
My wife is really into food network which means I now watch a lot of food network. I have to admit I’ve become a much better cook but I miss sportscenter.
Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay, and all the famous chefs are great to watch because they teach me how to take normal ingredients and turn them into something amazing. I want to be your Bobby Flay! For years I’d look at my bachelors degree hanging on the wall, check out my beautiful Masters degree shining in its frame, smirk as I walked into the Pentagon for work, and just imagine all the great opportunities that would head my way….until they never did! A college degree is NOT a beautiful meal, it is an ingredient. Heck it can be the beautiful rib eye you bought but it’s still just a piece of raw meat.
Your degree can be the meat, your leadership experiences can be the great spices, your high GPA can be some herbs, your internships can be the potatoes, and Washington, D.C. can be your kitchen. Obviously you have to know the recipe to put them all together into an amazing meal. Do you get my analogy? Many people think their ingredients will speak for themselves but you have to become a chef that can blend them together into something amazing.
Let me be your Bobby Flay and teach you how to do it! D.C. Boot Camp is like my own food network show for your career as I walk you step-by-step to becoming the seasoned professional you want to be!
A successful career in Washington, D.C. will depend on two factors:
1. Can you manage yourself?
2. Can you create, manage, and maintain relationships?
Many of my blogs will provide tactical solutions to mastering these two factors, but at the core it all comes down to thesteadfast spirit. The dictionary definessteadfastasfirm in belief, determination, or adherence.Spirit is theforce within a person that is believed to give the body life, energy, and power.
To me the steadfast spirit is the overall attitude and demeanor of a person that has embraced the practice of devoting themselves to a lifestyle, while taking faith in the outcome.Steadfast spiritis holistic, daily, and vital.
Can you manage yourself?
Someone withsteadfast spiritfinds balance within themselves. Humility is central to the steadfast spirit, but this is never confused for a lack of confidence. A person withsteadfast spiritis aware of what they can and cannot control, but finds ways to influence situations others would leave to chance. They are organized and self-motivating.
Can you create, manage, and maintain relationships?
Thesteadfast spiritappears confident but not arrogant. It means to always be appreciative of others’ time and always make people feel important. A person with steadfast spirit is upfront about what they do not know but never waivers in asserting their ability to quickly learn new things and grow.
The person withsteadfast spiritspeaks to every person with respect. They speak with the janitor who takes out the trash and always treats the receptionist with courtesy and appreciation. They are easy to talk to and not judgmental. They understand rejection is a part of life and use it as motivation.
In practice thesteadfast spiritis many things. In undergrad it is the person who finds balance between school and extra-curricular activities. They do not join seven clubs, they have leadership roles in two. They pick their friends wisely and keep negativity at a distance. They are aware of their limitations and seek the counsel of others often.
Thesteadfast spiritis strategic at all times. It means understanding the role and importance of a resume, it means knowing when to ask for a favor, and it also means knowing when a favor must be returned. It means looking at a contact as a lifetime connection not someone who can help right away.
It is the understanding that anything worth doing is worth doing right, even when it takes a long time. Thesteadfast spirit is getting coffee with 20 people before you meet someone in the right office and it can mean taking a few entry-level positions before landing the right job.
There is a payoff! I can confidently say the people in my life who have been living examples of thesteadfast spirit are experiencing the payoff. It took 4-7 years in D.C. for many of us, before we finally broke into our fields, but we did it the right way!
If you find yourself identifying with this blog in anyway I’d encourage you to join our free facebook group by clicking HERE! Content just like this is posted every day of the week to a community of people going through the same struggles and challenges as you!
Ok……you’ve made it to Washington, D.C.!
You were going to launch the career of your dreams, find a life of impact, and change the world. You were going to move policy on Capitol Hill, keep the country you love safe by working in national security, save the environment, or simply help drive change that will make America a better place for the next generation….or at least that WAS the plan.
Maybe you can’t land a job at all! Maybe you have a job but it really sucks! Maybe you like your job but is not in your field and you can’t help but wonder if you’ll ever get to do what you really want.
Many feel lonely, many feel lost without a plan, and many feel like they simply can’t catch a break. I know exactly how you feel and it is the reason I started D.C. Hopefuls.
My name is Tom Pevehouse. I have lived in this wonderful city for over ten years. The first five being a total disaster professionally and the second five have exceeded my wildest expectations. D.C. Hopefuls is my attempt to help the hundreds of young aspirational professionals pouring into our nation’s capitol who simply need some help! I never had a mentor and I desperately needed guidance as I aimlessly wandered through the first five years in Washington, D.C. so this is my attempt to be to you what nobody was to me.
Here are the 5 things I wish someone had told me before I tried to launch my career in Washington, D.C…
1) Appearances Are NOT What They Seem I am the senior intelligence analyst and a team manager on the lead 9/11 at the Military Commissions Defense Organization (MCDO). I am doing exactly the type of work I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve recently been promoted and reached my salary goal that I had set for myself over eight years ago. Everything is going my way but appearances are not what they seem. My first five years in Washington, D.C. were a professional nightmare. I could not break into real national security no matter how hard I tried. Hundreds of job applications, hundreds of dollars spent on professional resume writers, job fairs, subscriptions to every job site, and even $65,000 in debt for a graduate degree, yet nothing worked.
I was brutal to myself. I had convinced myself that everyone else had it all figured out and there must be something wrong with me but remember appearances are not what they seem. People in Washington, D.C. love to post their career accomplishments on LinkedIn or facebook. They’ll eagerly tell you about their amazing job and what they do. What they don’t openly tell the world is HOW….because the HOW is not sexy, it is not cool, and it is not something you post online.
At some point in 2012 I decided I was going to do something so simple that it felt revolutionary. I was going to talk to as many people as I could that I deemed successful in their career field (even if it wasn’t the field I wanted) and simply ask them HOW. I wanted to know how they got to where they were professionally. I spoke to dozens of people and was totally shocked by the similarities in all of their stories. These people weren’t randomly applying online, aimlessly writing cover letters, going to job fairs, or attending more school (except with precision focus on an exact outcome).
These people all had built strong (surprisingly personal) professional networks. Through these networks they were offered amazing opportunities that the other 99% of us never knew existed. As mentioned earlier these stories were not glamorous, it was a lot of phone calls, coffees, and persistent emails.
Think about it this way, nobody who gets a job through a connection is going to post that type of thing online or share it with you at a happy hour. Some would rather you think they simply got it solely based on their credentials well most are great people who simply don’t see the value in offering up that information.
It was from these amazing people and my thousands of life failures I developed the Steadfast Spirit and started down my path to success. Do NOT torment yourself; appearances are not what they seem.
2) Stop Applying Online I wish someone would have smacked me across the head and screamed STOP APPLYING TO JOBS ONLINE! It doesn’t work and is a bad use of your time!
I’ve read several places that 80% of jobs are not posted online. That might be high but I am confident over 80% are not truthfully posted. That means the jobs you want are not getting on job boards at all OR they are being posted to meet some internal requirement but they already have their exact candidate picked out. So when a job you would like does make it to the job board there is a good chance it is not real! When the job is real you are competing against hundreds of applicants. Check out this actual email I received in March 2013.
Over 700 applicants! I stared at this email for what felt like hours and realized that day I was done applying online.
This is an actual email I received in 2013
The problem is that applying to jobs feels good. You feel like you are doing something. I use to track all my applications and feel great about how I had applied to 10, 15, 25 jobs that month and it was simply a matter of time until I got some good news. This can be emotionally devastating as you begin to imagine and day dream about these new roles only to constantly be rejected by automated email, if you get any response at all! Stop applying online constantly and begin focusing on what works.
3) Fix Your Resume Every time I’ve spoken on campus I ask the group to raise their hand if they’ve ever studied for a test or wrote a paper and spent over 8 hours doing it. Every hand in the room goes up. I then do some pretty basic math and point out that even if that paper or test was 25% of their final grade it still was less than ½ of 1% of their final GPA. I then ask have any of them spent 8 hours or more on their resume? Often a single hand does not go up. I was just like the hundreds of D.C. Hopefuls, I went to my career office, we worked on my resume a bit, and I thought I was done.
I wish someone would have explained the importance of a great resume. Not great because of amazing experiences but great because it is written in such a way that opens up networking opportunities. When I had finally developed the steadfast spirit I networked my way into an incredible meeting with a very well connected mover and shaker in Washington, D.C. We got along great (I had become a solid networker by this point) and he told me to go home and send my resume because he wanted to make a bunch of introductions for me. I was excited because I just paid a professional resume writer $550 to write me a great resume. I sent it to my new contact and he asked “what is this? Send me your actual resume.” I didn’t know what he meant so I sent my old one. A few days later he wrote back basically saying he wished me the best but he couldn’t pass along this resume. Resumes are how new contacts pass you around and the wrong resume will KILL opportunities.
4) Build a network I wish someone had explained to me that your network is everything and without one you have nothing. I wish someone had told me to not be a hero. I was embarrassed that I landed my first job through a good friend. I felt guilty that he urged his bosses to hire me, prepped me for the interview, gave me tons of resume edits, and even let me stay with him when I came up for the interview. I convinced myself that I’d get the next job, my real job in my real field, all on my own. That somehow I’d be a hero by impressing total strangers with my application. I wish someone had told me how stupid I was behaving.
A network is the foundation of any successful career and your early years should be focused on building that foundation.
5) Pick Your Head UP and Stop Leaving Grease Stains Finally I wish someone had said to pick your head up off the glass you are leaving a stain! Every day for over two years I took the same shuttle from Rosslyn to the Pentagon. There was an actual stain on the third row window on the right side of the bus because every day I literally could not keep my head up and would rest my forehead on the glass to and from work. Feeling sorry for yourself is going to get you nowhere! So if your head is down right now I’m telling you what someone should have told me…pick it up!!!
You have to start believing in yourself and remember that you are incredible. You wouldn’t have made it this far if you weren’t. The fact you are this far in an article like this tells me you are opening up to the steadfast spirit. You are realizing you need help, that getting help is a sign of strength not weakness, and you are ready to do what it takes. When you stop hiding behind a computer applying online and replace that sense of accomplishment with tracking real accomplishments, like building a professional network, your whole world changes.
In 2013 I had given up on national security but was just starting to put the steadfast spirit into play. I wanted to jump on a campaign but since it was an odd year only the Virginia governor’s race was an option. I was told I had no experience in politics and no chance of landing a job, but I landed one. After we won I was unemployed and getting married soon. When I picked up my mom from the airport the week of the wedding she began giving me a pep talk. She told me it was ok that I’d been out of work for 12 weeks and it would work out. I just grinned and said “thanks mom!”
I grinned because in those 12 weeks I had already landed 14 interviews. I had not applied to one announcement or wrote a single cover letter. What I did not tell her is I had actually turned down a few job offers the week before. As we drove the phone rang, it was a call I was pretty sure was coming, offering me an intelligence analyst position at the Department of Homeland Security Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. This was what I had been wanting for five years. I received this offer despite not having the necessary clearances, experience, and having never applied online.
In a twist of irony today I ride the very same shuttle this time from the Pentagon to Rosslyn every single day, but now there is definitely no grease stain on the window!
The right resume and a strong professional network changed my life. It inspired me to start D.C. Hopefuls and it has changed the lives of dozens of people just like you! If you are tired of feeling stuck, feeling alone, feeling like you are in city of your dreams but a million miles away from achieving your dreams then I urge you to join us at D.C. Hopefuls.
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This post may have left you with a whole new set of questions.
Is this community for me? Yes! Our members range from sophomores in college in the middle of the country to advanced professionals trying to break into their field. We did not attend ivy league schools, come from well connected/insider families, and not all of us made the best grades or had the best internships. We are people from all backgrounds at different points in our lives who are brave enough to come together in an attempt to master the mindset and skills to have the career we want!!!
You are already in the 10%….90% of people will never reach the point to admit they need help making their dreams reality. They’d rather fail and blame everyone else rather than actually admit they don’t have all the answers. They would never read this entire article so I’m not talking to them. Why did you finish this article? It is because you are ready to start doing some work and are STRONG enough to get some help.
I want you to join our free facebook community today! When you join I ask some quick questions. Please write me a note saying you read this post. Because you took the time to read this material I will then do something I rarely do…I’ll jump on the phone with you can give you a free 15 minute strategy session to overcome your biggest current obstacle!
So join us right now by click HERE!!!!
Success is a curse if not properly earned. People who earn massive amounts of wealth by starting a business or moving up the company latter get there through hard work and being smart. They know how they became rich and rarely go back to being middle class. The same principal is true for applying to jobs…I know that sounds crazy but hear me out.
It really is the 1% of the 1% of young people who are willing to admit what they don’t know, humble themselves, and learn the necessary skills to reach their dreams the right way. The right way doesn’t usually have immediate payoffs but always ends up being far easier and much less painful than sheer will of ignorant force (aka me for the first 5 years of my career).
The person with
