Observation as a recruiter: the most potent career hack is living an interesting life.
Turns out, it's not talking to people that's so difficult... it's not having anything to talk about. Having an unexpected anecdote to nonchalantly inject into any conversation is an easy way to pique interest.
Interest triggers friendships, introductions, professional relationships… and random invitations to be a guest on your new friend’s business partner’s podcast about surfing.
Being interesting is especially useful to introverts, because you don’t have to start conversations. When your reputation starts preceding you, conversations start themselves.
Job qualifications are boring, not because they aren’t important, but because they’re a given. When you leave a job interview, it's not your mastery of the Adobe Suite that will make you memorable... it's your personal style. The short film you wrote via iPhone voice notes while driving from SF to LA. Your relationships with several people that they wish they knew, and your generous offer to introduce them.
When they ask about that gap in your resume, don’t over-explain the round of cost cutting layoffs that victimized you. Describe how it triggered a two-week trip to your friend’s property in Ohio that turned into three months of working on the ranch, starting a farming newsletter and adding a new revenue stream before you returned home to passively renew your job search.
Am I suggesting that you make things up just to be interesting to others?
Nope. Just a reminder that you, at your core, are fascinating. Stop hiding it. Being a respectable professional and having a sketchy tattoo of a 1970s Lamborghini Countach are not mutually exclusive.
Most professionals simply want to be known as talented, effective, and connected. The trick is to convey all those things without having to (God forbid) say them. That's where being interesting comes in.
No need to go crazy. It's a subtle art, and in stuffy professional environments, the bar for being interesting is surprisingly low.
Take that trip, commit to that hobby, befriend that person you admire, entertain that contrarian point of view, buy that vintage car, write that story. See what happens.
