Oversharing your jobhunt...

Recently I was contacted by a distant acquaintance through a voice communication program I use for work and to play games after I'm done writing, recording, and posting on Social Media.

This acquaintance mentioned he was looking for some help writing a cover letter.

So after directing him to the two episodes of the show that have focused around that (Episode 3 and Episode 6), he came back with a pretty great first draft of a cover letter.

It was as I was editing this letter that I saw that this job rang a bell. I had once applied for an analyst position at this place,... working for Uncle Sam.

Our government is a literal alphabet soup sometimes of all the office names, suffice to say there's a lot in common with private sector jobs when applying, but there was something that stood out to me from the particular government office I was applying to...

In their hiring process, this government entity actually had a small portion of their application dedicated to telling you, the applicant to not share that you were going to be potentially hired there.

Obviously, if we're working for a 3 letter government office, national security might be a priority!

I found it strange that this government office was so tight lipped about you applying there, but given the nature of their work it makes sense.

It's the only time I've ever seen that, but I thought it was notable enough to write this article on oversharing.

There are positions out there that are sensitive, and you as a job seeker need to have the mental maturity and the emotional intelligence to know when to share and when to keep your cards close to your chest.

There are so many things that can go wrong with a hiring process. Make sure your big mouth isn't one of them.

This extends outside the government as well. How many times have you seen a colleague expecting a promotion and getting stunned because it went to someone else since they were overconfident?

Don't be that person, don't sink your own ship.

Sometimes the best thing to do with a job application is sit quietly and wait for it to pan out.

Celebrate when the position is landed, not before.