focus on the overlap

my 2 cents: focus on the overlap

i talk to candidates every week that are looking to pivot in their career and are struggling with how to do it.

new title, new industry, new buyer, new product, new function. all of it.

it’s easy to feel like you’re a good fit. it’s easy to know you’re a good fit. but it’s hard to actually showcase it, especially in interviews.

so i want to share the tool that i use when helping candidates make tough transitions.

it’s something i call, “focus on the overlap” and the purpose of this exercise is to help you

• know your strengths

• know the requirements of what you’re targeting

• know your relevance/overlap to it

• know your skills gap

while the concept is wildly simple, you’d be surprised at how effective something like this is once you put pen to paper and actually write out where you do/don’t align.

here’s what it looks like.

left side/your current role

the goal of left side is to thoroughly break down everything you do at work, all of your strengths, the things you are known for, your KPIs/wins etc. all of it. get thorough and don’t worry about adding too much.

right side/your future role

the goal of the right side is to thoroughly break down everything you want to do. don’t think about it through the lens of what you can/can’t do. don’t worry about putting things that feel out of reach or too simple. no wrong answers. just go for it. write it all out. you cannot be too thorough here.

center/your overlap

once you feel like you’ve exhausted both sides, i want you to start finding the overlap/correlation of what you’ve done and what you want to do. circle the two and draw lines to each other. don’t worry about exact verbiage, think about the core skills required. get creative with how you see your skills.

once you’ve done all 3 phases, what you’re now looking at in the overlap is your filter you’ll be using for all conversations around your pivot. to hiring managers, to future peers etc. you want them to see what you see, which is relevant skills and the ability to do the role.

you don’t want them to see you - you want them to see you in the role. big difference.

where a lot of folks go wrong is they know their strengths but don’t use a filter for which strengths to highlight or leave alone when they go into interviews. so while you may have a 50% overlap with the role, that doesn’t mean you actually hit those strengths in the call, it just means you know they’re there. but does the hiring manager? did they have to look for them or were they clearly laid out in front of them?

when you actually hone in with the filter of your overlap, it forces your dialogue into relevance. it forces your talking points into making sense to your audience. it’s not about showing all of your strengths, it’s about showing the right strengths, to the right person, at the right time.

TLDR:

this practice is so simple and so easy but i promise you it’ll blow your mind at how effective it is in dialing in your interviews, making you more relevant and getting your conversations to go further and produce better results.

life-hack: this can work for every single area of your life. build a life that overlaps with the life you desire. you can do it. you have those strengths. promise.

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