Welcome to the Just Get Hired Newsletter!

Welcome to the second edition of the Just Get Hired newsletter by Ramped. 

In today’s issue we talk about limiting beliefs in your career. As much as a resume or interview prep, they can impact success in your job search. Read on to see if you have any of the most common ones.

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Let’s get into it.

Limiting Beliefs

A limiting belief is something you believe that restricts what you can achieve.

It’s a belief that says “I can’t”, “I shouldn’t”, “I’m not ready”, “I need something that I don’t have”, or “I’m not deserving” instead of “I can”, “I should”, “I’m ready”, “I have everything I need”, or “I am deserving.” 

Within the context of your career, these beliefs prevent you from getting more job opportunities, promotions, raises, and other things you want. 

They make navigating your career hard -- it’s psychological. It goes beyond learning skills, working hard, and hoping for the best. 

But removing limiting beliefs in your career is worth it. You’re making hundreds of decisions over 40+ years involving your dreams, fears, values, and capabilities. You deserve to get more.

Here’s how to combat the most common ones along the way:

“I’m not good at that [job, skill, thing]”

I used to say “I’m bad at math, I’m more of a soft skills guy”. 

And guess what. Because of that, I took fewer math classes, poured more time into other intellectual pursuits, and the result was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The reality: you can (usually) be whatever you spend the time and effort to be. 

This doesn’t mean you don’t have skills or abilities that come more naturally or enjoyably to you. Or forcing yourself to do things you don’t enjoy. Or even being delusional and telling yourself you’re better at something (e.g. math) than you actually are. 

But don’t allow natural deficiencies to prevent you from improving. Allow yourself to be exposed to things you aren’t typically. I promise you’ll be better for it. 

“I’m not qualified for that job”

Obviously this can be true; I can’t be a NASA astronaut tomorrow (regrettably).

But most job seekers handicap themselves in their search by staying away from jobs / applications that appear slightly out of their qualification (or underestimate how qualified they are). 

The next time you tell yourself you’re not qualified, I’d encourage you to do two things:

1) Evaluate whether you are “close enough” to still apply for / take on that job

2) If not, tell yourself “yet”

You’re not qualified. Yet. But you can be. 

“It’s too late to try something new”

This can apply to an entirely new career (career transition) or even acquiring skills / trying a new role within an existing career. 

This is often tied to the idea that you will be “behind” or “not as good” at the [job, career, etc.] than if you had started earlier.

To get started, separate the doing from the ability. You might suck to start. In fact, you probably will. And that’s ok. You can do it. And get better.

That being said, I do think my NBA dreams are dead :(

“I can’t get my dream job / role”

This is usually because the gap between where you want to be and where you are today seems enormous. You tell yourself you’ll never reach your dream. 

Start by breaking down the gap. What skills, experience, knowledge do you need to get there?

You may not be able to get there right now, but you can work towards it, starting with acquiring any skills, experience, and knowledge that is required.

Sometimes when you break down the gap, you’ll find that you aren’t interested in making the sacrifices required to get that dream. Maybe you don’t want to go to school for 8+ years to become a doctor. Maybe you don’t want to cold call 10,000 people to work in SaaS sales. 

And that’s ok. It just means you need to consider a different dream, or at least a different version of what that dream looks like. 

Find a dream whose gap you’re willing to close. Then do the work.

“I don’t want to put myself out there”

So much of career success involves vulnerability (explicitly or implicitly). 

Meeting new people. Asking for what you want (or help). Trying new things. Risking being exposed.

Anything worth having comes with some degree of risk. Maybe getting rejected. Having to confront the reality that you might not be good enough (yet). 

No silver bullet here; it’s uncomfortable. Try with small risks and work your way up to more daunting challenges.

Find a mentor or manager at work that you trust. Tell them you’re trying to “put yourself out there more”. This means different things to different people. It could mean doing more presentations, taking on more responsibility, asking for a raise, or trying a new team. 

Ask them to help you work on those things. 

“I’m scared of being rejected / failing”

For most people, rejection = failure. And failure itself is a terrible, painful thing. Our culture does an awful job of training you to combat that. 

The reality: anything worth getting in life comes after rejection and failure.  

Applying to 100s of jobs, running 100s of tests, asking that person out. 

Get good at being rejected and you can get almost anything you want in life. 

“I don’t deserve that much money”

Asking for more comes with inherent doubts. What if I’m not worth that?

Consider the alternative: what if you are. Or worse, what if you have been and still not receiving what you’re worth. 

The data doesn’t lie. Always ask for more before accepting offers, when receiving promotions, etc.

You will easily get more money in your career than if you don’t. 

A Closing Thought: what it means to deserve something

You’ll notice all of the above beliefs essentially boil down to two things:

1. I’m not good enough

2. If I go for what I want, that fact will be exposed and be incredibly painful

But here’s the bad AND good thing about life. It doesn’t matter what you think about yourself – if you do the thing that is required to get what you want, you can get it even if you don’t think you’re [good enough or deserving]. 

Alex Hormozi has a great quote about that here:

Think about physical fitness. If you go to the gym every day, follow a strict diet, and do certain exercises, you are GUARANTEED to get certain results (barring genetic or other external factors). Regardless of whether you think you should or not. 

In the same way, if you think about anything related to your career, know that you can have it if you simply break it down and do what it requires. 

So go out, ask for that raise, apply for that job you feel under qualified for, go for your dream, and try new things.

I’m here to hold you accountable if you need it.