Fake IT or Make IT

"If you “fake IT”, you really do not have IT, why not break the habIT and try to “make IT”"


Simply speaking there are two basic approaches to getting a job – you can either  “fake it or make it”. Most prospective job candidates advertently or inadvertently use one of the two approaches.

The ‘fake it’ approach is a “ready, fire and aim” approach to getting a job. It entails simply acting to be who your target employer wants you to be. To put the term “faking it” into perspective, I will give you an example of a hypothetical MBA student called Tyrone who uses the "fake it" approach. Tyrone often starts out not being clear about his target industry/company/role. He is simply concerned with getting a well-paying job (the closer to six digits the better). So once he sees an attractive employer on I-Link (the career website) or at a career fair he immediately reaches out to them. He selects a pitch from his bag of instant-ready-to-use 30-second pitches and lashes out at the prospective employer. Since he is equipped with a generic one-size-fits-all resume and cover letter, he wastes no time in filling out an application. Once he clicks on the “submit application” icon, he takes a deep breath and hopes for luck. Yes, his luck shines and one of the ten companies he applied to invites him for an interview. He gets excited and can hardly think of any thing else but his interview with company X. He gets on the company’s website and studies the company’s financials and other key indices. He checks for the attributes the company is looking in prospective employees and convinces himself that he has all those attributes. Next, he tweaks his life’s stories in readiness for the behavioral interview and BAM!! He is ready for the interview. You know the rest of the story.

More often than not, people like Tyronne do not get past the first interview. Moreover recruiters have gotten smarter over time and most of them have learned to see through the “faking” shield. Besides, there are more authentic candidates out there for the recruiters to invest their time and resources on (that really hurts). In short, to get your target job you need to be more than qualified, you need to be the best applicant.  You need to “make it” happen.

The “make it” approach is really not about trying to impress the interviewer. It is about being the best person for the role. To start with, you are very clear about your career objectives. You have an idea of what your target companies are and you are clear about your target role. For instance if you are using the "make it" approach, you are convinced that after your MBA, you will like to be a Business Development Manager in a fortune 100 consumer goods company. Next, you compile the list of companies that fall into these category and you begin to research them. Upon researching the companies, you realize that only four of those companies are a great fit for you (that is, your skills, personality and experience). Thereafter you compare your strengths and weaknesses with the requirements for the job role in those right-fit companies. You then start working on improving on your weaknesses and building more experience that will be relevant to your target job role (I refer to this as the “breaking it” process). For example, if you would like to become a Business Development Manager in the consumer goods industry and you have no prior experience in that functional area or industry, you may consider joining IBC (or some other experiential learning platform) and working on projects that are similar to the type of work you would be engaged with in your future job role. Thus you will become more focused with your learning and have great stories to tell during interviews.

Thereafter, you start networking with professionals who are currently working on your job role. This is a more focused approach to networking. You are more concerned with learning from your connections than you are with getting interview slots. More so, you will grow through this process and become a more attractive job candidate. Ultimately, you will be able to write better resumes and cover letters and also land interviews (by levering your insider networks). Once you land the interview, the rest is history - preparation breeds room for performance. The other steps to “making it” are outlined in the “Fake it or Make it” framework (Please see the “Fake It/Make” Model in Fig 1 below”).

The framework was put together based on the lessons learned from people who went above and beyond to achieve their career aspirations. It is definitely not tamper-proof but applying the underlying principles will go a long way in improving your positioning with target employers, consequently increasing your chances of getting your target role.

In sum, if you “fake IT”, you really do not have IT, why not break the habIT and try to “make IT”.