You Might Need A Super-Power To Get Hired

I recently began mentoring a college student. Like many other college students today, she wants to continue to graduate school.

Why? Because of the job market.

When I graduated a little more than a year ago, it seemed every other person went on to graduate school and the “every other” of us went out nervously looking for jobs. While many of the students I graduated with haven’t been hired yet, a lot of them have.

But that’s because they have superpowers, of course.

Anyone who knows anything about superpowers (or Wikipedia) knows you can only get powers in three ways: you’re born that way like Superman, something makes you that way like the Green Lantern or something natural happens and you evolve like the X-Men.

You can tap into your superpowers to get hired in the same way.

Be more like Superman

I hardly think infants are born with killer self-esteem, awareness, ambition, or negotiating power. If they were, I’d be even more terrified of babies than I already am.

But you can’t deny that some people get a head start. They’re born happy and healthy to motivated and supportive parents with the wisdom to instill inhuman work ethic and a sense of right and wrong.

They can multi-task by pre-school and they see the forest and the trees. You know the type.

Be more like the Green Lantern

Equipped with experience, a college degree, a stellar resume, a blinding portfolio, thirty internships, a network that could fill an opera house or the ability to attach dollar amounts to results in your career, you can be as hirable in the job market as the Green Lantern is formidable to alien villains.

The important thing to remember if you’re the Green Lantern is the metaphorical ring alone doesn’t ward off intergalactic threats. It takes bravery, awareness, hard work and confidence to face both villains and hiring managers.

Be more like the X-Men

Job-seekers like the X-Men have the ability to realize when the iron’s warming up. They’ve already set up camp before most are scrambling to strike while it’s hot. They recognize talents in themselves that no one else has. And, better yet, if it’s something everyone else has, they convince you that their something is different in some way.

They’re the now-recognized “social media gurus” of the world, the “work from home experts” and the authors. And everyone lines up to listen to them talk.

They convinced someone in 2008 that Twitter was going to be worth something while the rest of us were mumbling, “Who cares if you’re taking a poo?”

You have an X-gene too. Now find it, get out there and make it worth something to someone.

Lizzie Smithson is a social media manager for The Starr Conspiracy. Learn more about why you suck at social media by following Lizzie @lizonomics.