Three Stupid Mistakes That Sustainability Job Seekers Make

THREE STUPID MISTAKES THE
SUSTAINABILITY JOB SEEKERS MAKE

SSC Blog

Three Stupid Mistakes That
Sustainability Job Seekers Make

In the course of running a
boutique sustainability consulting
firm, I get a lot of inquiries about
jobs in sustainability. Some
people want to know if I’m
hiring, others want an
informational interview to
understand the sustainability job
market in general, and yet others
want to hear all about how I
started my company in hopes
that they will walk away with an
idea of how to blaze an
entrepreneurial trail through the
industry.
www.sustainabilityconsulting.com
Copyright © 2012, Strategic Sustainability Consulting. All rights reserved.

Three Stupid Mistakes That

After seeing the same blunders
again and again and again, I
thought it might be helpful to put
together a short list of common
mistakes that will blow your
chances of getting a job in the
sustainability profession.


Mistake One: Leading With Your
Passion

In the piles of emails and letters that I get every week from sustainability job
seekers, more than half of them use some form of the word ―passion‖. Here are
a couple of excerpts from cover letters/bios I’ve received in the last week:

―In my last
―My passions for
corporate role I
renewable energy
initiated corporate
and sustainable
sustainability
development have
initiatives, mostly
driven my
fueled by my own
success…‖ ―I am passionate
passion…‖
about helping
companies create
cultures that
support and inspire
their employees
and community.‖


Passion

Here is a hint:
Passion isn’t a selling point, it’s
the minimum requirement to ride
this sustainability roller coaster.
We are ALL passionate about
sustainability, and we’ll assume
you are too. (Because honestly,
who applying for a job in
sustainability isn’t passionate
about it?)


Passion

Yes, it’s great to be enthusiastic Here is what leading with
– but when EVERYONE is your ―passion‖ says to me:
passionate about a topic, it no
You have mostly
longer becomes something that enthusiasm, rather than
makes you stand out. experience.

When I see a cover letter with You don’t have any hard
the word ―passion‖ in the first skills to bring to the table.
paragraph, it automatically gets
put into the ―no thanks‖ pile. You are emotional, not
practical.
Why?


Passion

If you are one of those people with
―passion‖ in your cover letter, you
might be arguing with me right now—
insisting that you do have practical
skills, that you are results-oriented,
and that you have the right kind of
experience to excel in a sustainability
job.

And you might be right—but I’ll never
know because you are hiding those
elements (the ones that will REALLY
get you the job) under a obfuscating
Solution: be enthusiastic—but let that excitement show
cloud of enthusiasm. through your discussion of your skills, your
experience, and your approach to working on
sustainability projects.


Mistake Two: Trying a Buckshot
Approach

Don’t just shoot off a resume and cover letter to every sustainability
job that comes across your computer screen. Please, please, please
show a little restraint. For one thing, you will forever be on my hiring
blacklist if you send me a cover letter addressed to the WRONG
COMPANY because in your hurry the copy-and-paste job got a little
sloppy. (I wish I could say that this happens only rarely.)


Approach

Even if you don’t make an
obvious mistake like that one,
let me assure you that it is
easy to spot a ―buckshot‖
approach to sustainability job
seeking. The same generic
resume, the same boring cover
letter. It’s a waste of your
time. You need to switch from
shotgun to sniper mode.


Approach

The individuals that have gotten
my attention are able to instantly
demonstrate that they know my
company, understand how they fit
into the larger sustainability
industry, and are familiar enough
with me to avoid my hot button
issues. (For example, on the
―about Jennifer‖ page of my
website, I clearly state that I hate
when people use the term
―passion‖ when talking about
sustainability.)


Approach

You understand the organization’s approach to
DO YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE sustainability (treehugger vs. techie
YOU APPLY. geek, antagonistic advocate vs. industry
partner, ―right thing to do‖ vs. ―drives
I know this is a no-brainer, but innovation‖, environmental sustainability vs.
triple bottom line, etc.)
I’m pretty sure that every job-
hunting advice column continues You have skills that meet their needs (e.g. don’t
spout off about your experience in renewable
to include this recommendation energy when talking to a sustainable forestry
because people just don’t get it. outfit unless you have a stellar reason for doing
so, but don’t make the opposite mistake of
You need to be able to leaving your skill set vague.)
demonstrate, at a minimum, the
You fit in their organizational culture (you love
following things: that it’s a small company, or you thrive in
teams, or you love the challenge of working
with big, bad companies facing a swatch of
sustainability issues)


Approach

If you can’t answer those questions, then
you haven’t done enough homework. If
this information isn’t readily
available, you’re going to have to do
some digging. Check out their executives
LinkedIn profiles, stalk their Facebook
page, follow their Twitter stream (be a
dear and RT once in a while—it flatters
the ego and shows that you can
contribute to spreading the word).
Exhaust your network until you find
someone who can tell you about what it’s
really like to work there, what kind of
projects have been keeping people
busy, and what the internal atmosphere is
like.


Approach

I hope that it goes without saying that
you need to do this research BEFORE you
make an official inquiry about a job
there…you need to come to the table
totally prepared.
The executives on the receiving end of
your attention need to feel like you
already belong there, that you are ready
to come onboard immediately, and that
you’ll fit right in with the team. The best
way to do this is to be so knowledgeable
about the organization that you really
DO seem like one of the team before you
walk in the door.


Approach

Yeah, it’s going to take a LOT more time than you may want to
spend. But if you can narrow down the number of potential
organizations that you want to work for (by avoiding that
buckshot approach), you’ll have more time to spend on your
short-list of the most relevant and exciting prospects.


Mistake Three: Not Following
Directions

 This is an easy one, with an easy solution. FOLLOW THE
DIRECTIONS. If the website says no phone calls, then don’t
call. If they say only the applicants selected for an interview
will be contacted, then don’t harass the poor HR manager
about whether or not you have been chosen.
 I know, it’s so tempting to just break all the rules and go after
the job you want (and I’m ashamed to see other job advice and
career counselors recommending breaking the rules) but I
promise, it doesn’t work.


Directions

You probably know someone, or
have heard a story about someone
who broke the rules and by
showing persistence got the job.
This is the exception to the rule,
and it has the unfortunate effect of
making lots of people think that
they too can be the exception to
the rule.

By not following directions in the job seeking process, you are essentially telling
me that you won’t respect my organization’s rules, policies, and procedures. In
effect, you place your own desires above the success of my company. And
yikes, that is not a person I want to spend my time talking to—let alone a person
I want to hire.


Directions

If you can get
Use someone in my network as an ―in‖.
introduced to me
through one of my
However, that doesn’t
colleagues, there is a mean that you are
Through my
MUCH better chance
powerless. Here are

Run into me at an event.
that I’ll agree to have company’s blog, e-
coffee with you. Even if newsletter, my Twitter three examples of how
account, and our
I’m not at all
interested, I feel a Facebook group, you Can you introduce me people successfully got

Offer to do me a favor.
sense of obligation to can pretty much figure to someone that I
might want to meet?
around my company’s
out where I’m going to
my network—and once
you have me in your be. And since I hate Connect me to an rules for contacting us
grasp, you can unleash standing awkwardly
alone, a public event is
organization that
might want my
about informational
your sustainability
magnetism and make a great place to corner services? Get my interviews, internships,
me forget all about my me and chat me up
about your
company free
publicity? The sad
and full time positions.
reluctance.
sustainability goals. truth is that the job
seeking process is very
one-sided. You
take, and I give (or at
least, that’s the way it
feels on this side of
the equation). If you
can help even that
balance, I’ll be more
amenable to seeing
how I can help you.


Three Stupid Mistakes that

I’m sure there are other common mistakes, but these three are the ones
that push my buttons the most frequently. Talking to other
organizations, I fear I’m not alone. So do us all a favor (including yourself)
and take a harsh look at your job-search process and see if you are
committing any of these mistakes. They are easy to rectify, and will
drastically improve your chance of landing your next position in the
sustainability industry.


Read this blog and more by visiting the SSC website
today:
Strategic Sustainability Consulting Blog

What are your thoughts? Join the
conversation on twitter @jenniferwoofter!

Three Stupid Mistakes That Sustainability Job Seekers Make

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