Your vulnerability can be your superpower

​This story was told by Janie Hunter

​-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

​I once made an interviewee cry.  

​I was a hiring manager at a university career fair looking for product design interns. A colleague was there with me looking for UX research interns. We spent all day talking to students lined up at our booth. Each student would give us a copy of their resume and we would chat for a few minutes. After each one, we would take the resume and put it in a pile and quickly make a few notes at the top. The students that really stood out with a sharp first impression got a star on their resume. They would for sure be invited to the first round of interviews the next day.  

​At the end of the day, my colleague and I hunkered down in the hotel room and started sorting the large stack of resumes. We contacted the students with a “starred” resume to schedule them for an interview the following day. We had a few interview spots left so we split up the remaining resumes and started talking through each one. We looked up the portfolio for each candidate. 

​Seven years and hundreds of portfolios later, I still remember opening the portfolio for one student. It was different. She showcased some project work like every student did but that’s not what stood out to me. What stood out was how she had sketched illustrations that told me about her. How she liked plants. And how sometimes when she looked in the mirror she thought she was beautiful. In less than one minute of looking at her portfolio, I felt like I knew her. She used her design skills to tell me a story about herself as a human and I loved it. I called her to schedule an interview.

​She showed up the next day to the interview. I told her what I thought about her portfolio. She couldn’t believe it. She was sure she needed to change it because it wasn’t like everyone else's. I told her don’t ever change it. Don’t ever try to be like everyone else. Someone will appreciate you for exactly who you are and that’s the person you want to work for. She cried. 

​I hired her for an internship and she amazed everyone she worked with. When it ended and I didn’t have the headcount to hire her full time, I was happy to recommend her when she landed an interview with another great company. Today, she’s a designer at Google. 

​Sometimes the best person for the team isn’t the one who sticks out in a crowd of applicants. Sometimes it’s the vulnerable one who believes in herself enough to be herself.  

​-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

​Join us as we teach you how to turn vulnerability into opportunity.