Obvious Hire — Diagnostic - Emily Julia Coaching

Why Them, Not Me?

A 5-minute diagnostic of what may be getting in the way

THE OBVIOUS HIRE™ DIAGNOSTIC

You know you have strong experience. You know you can do the job.

So why does someone else get chosen?

Often, it is not because they are more capable.

They may simply have made themselves easier to understand, find, believe in and choose.

I created these 12 questions from the patterns I have seen repeatedly across years of hiring people, being hired myself and now working with experienced professionals who know they can do the job, but are still being overlooked.

The diagnostic looks at where you may be thinking too narrowly about your experience, making your strongest evidence difficult to see, missing what the business really needs, being harder for the right people to find, or leaving unnecessary doubt in the hiring decision.

In less than five minutes, you will have a much clearer idea of where the gaps may be.

There are no right or wrong answers. Choose the response that most closely reflects what you do today, rather than what you think you should be doing.

12 questions • Less than 5 minutes • Detailed results by email

Please enter your email address to get started.

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QUESTION 1

When deciding what kinds of roles you could realistically apply for, how do you work out where your experience fits?

A. I mainly look for roles with the same or a very similar title to the ones I have held before.

B. I look a little wider, but usually for roles that have familiar titles, responsibilities or requirements.

C. I look beyond the title and consider whether the work, problems and responsibilities are similar to things I have done before.

D. I have deliberately researched a range of job titles, job descriptions and companies across the wider market to understand the different ways experience like mine is described and where it could fit.

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QUESTION 2

When you tailor your CV for a specific role, what are you starting from?

A. My current CV. I adapt that version by adding, removing or changing things for each application.

B. My current CV, although I sometimes go back to older CVs if I remember something useful that is no longer included.

C. My current CV, plus notes or other documents where I have saved additional achievements, projects or examples from my career.

D. One comprehensive record I have deliberately built from across my career, including experience and achievements that may not appear on my current CV, so I can select what is most relevant for each role.

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QUESTION 3

When you think about what you are particularly good at professionally, how much do you rely on what other people have told you?

A. I often find positive feedback difficult to believe or tend to downplay it, especially when it describes something that feels ordinary or natural to me.

B. I remember some positive feedback I have received, but I don’t really use it when thinking about or describing my professional strengths.

C. I take feedback from managers, colleagues, clients or others seriously and use it to help me understand strengths that I might not recognise in myself.

D. I have deliberately gathered feedback from across different jobs and stages of my career and compared it to identify the strengths, qualities and behaviours that different people have repeatedly recognised in me.

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QUESTION 4

How do you decide what professional title to use on your CV?

A. I don’t currently use a separate professional title.

B. I use one professional title and generally think of that as the best description of what I do.

C. I use one broader professional title that describes my experience more clearly than my company job title.

D. I have deliberately looked at the wider market and identified more than one professional title that could credibly describe my experience, depending on the type of role I am targeting.

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QUESTION 5

When you created the Professional Summary at the top of your CV, what did you mainly use to decide what went into it?

A. I wrote a general overview of my career, background and experience.

B. I focused mainly on my current or most recent role, responsibilities and areas of expertise.

C. I brought together the skills, experience and achievements that I felt were most important for someone to know about me.

D. I deliberately selected the strongest evidence that was most relevant to the role I was targeting — and left out strong experience that did not help make the case for that particular role

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QUESTION 6

Think about the last role you applied for. How much did you try to understand why the business needed this person at that particular time?

A. . I didn’t really consider it. I focused on the job description and whether my experience fitted what they were asking for.

B. I wondered whether someone had left or whether it was a newly created role, but I didn’t look into it any further.

C. I looked for clues in the job description and company information that might explain what had created the need for the role.

D. I researched what had recently changed in the business — such as growth, restructuring, new leadership, investment or changing priorities — and connected those changes to what they were likely hiring this person to help achieve, change or solve.

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QUESTION 7

When you prepared your application, how much did your understanding of why the business needed this person affect what you chose to emphasise?

A. It didn’t, because I hadn’t really identified why the business needed the role.

B. I had some idea what might be behind the vacancy, but I still focused mainly on showing that I matched the job description.

C. I highlighted some experience that seemed particularly relevant to what was happening in the business.

D. I used that business need to decide which evidence from my career should come first, which examples deserved the most emphasis, and which otherwise strong experience was less important for this particular application.

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QUESTION 8

How do you know whether the right people are actually finding you on LinkedIn?

A. I don’t really know. I haven’t checked.

B. I have checked that my LinkedIn settings allow my profile to be found by other people.

C. I have checked my visibility settings. Plus I look at things like profile views and search appearances, so I can see who is finding me, but I don’t really use that information to change what I am doing on LinkedIn.

D. I regularly review who is finding and viewing me, and use what I learn to adjust my profile and LinkedIn settings so I am more likely to be discovered by the recruiters, companies and professionals relevant to my job search.

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QUESTION 9

When you decide who to contact or meet as part of your job search, how do you choose them?

A. I mainly speak to people I already know and ask whether they have heard of any opportunities.

B. I try to connect with more people in my industry or professional area, without being very specific about who they are.

C. I deliberately look for people working in the companies or areas I am targeting.

D. For the kinds of roles I am targeting, I map out the different people who could help me get closer to the people involved in hiring — including likely hiring managers, people in their teams, relevant recruiters and people who could introduce me to them.

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QUESTION 10

When preparing for an interview, how do you decide what you need to be ready to talk about?

A. I prepare answers to the interview questions I think I am likely to be asked.

B. I use the job description to prepare examples that show I have the experience and skills they are looking for.

C. I research beyond the company website and standard information to understand what is happening in the business, what the role is likely to involve in practice, and how well my experience and way of working might fit.

D. Before the interview, I deliberately identify the specific reasons the hiring manager might hesitate to choose me — for example gaps, concerns about fit, level, industry or experience — and prepare evidence to address each one, alongside the problems they need this person to solve.

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QUESTION 11

An interviewer asks what you would prioritise in your first six months, but you still know very little about what is actually happening inside the business. What would you most naturally do?

A. Explain the priorities I would normally focus on in a role like this, based on my previous experience.

B. Give an initial answer based on what I know from the job description and my research about the company.

C. Explain what I think the likely priorities are, while making clear that I would need to learn more once I joined.

D. Explain what I think the likely priorities are, while making clear that I would need to learn more once I joined.

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QUESTION 12

Do you actively look for companies that may need your skills before a suitable role is advertised?

A. No. I mainly focus on roles that are already advertised.

B. Occasionally. If I happen to hear that a company is growing, restructuring or going through change, I may take a closer look.

C. Yes. I have a list of companies I would like to work for and regularly keep an eye on what is happening in those organisations.

D. Yes. I identify the kinds of business problems or changes my experience could help with, then deliberately look for companies where there is evidence those things are happening — even when there is no suitable role advertised.