Edge by Laura Huang

Author:Laura Huang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

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It’s especially difficult to resist catering to people when the stakes are high, like when you are trying to land a job. Year in and year out, I see the anxiety this elicits in hordes of students, many of whom end up receiving wonderful job offers right off the bat—but just as many start off discouraged by all the rejections they receive. I can tell you this, from years of observation: there is little correlation between those who receive the most coveted jobs and those who are actually the most deserving of those jobs.

Out of those who have bucked this trend, I have noticed one thing in common among them: in addition to being spectacularly bright and deserving, they seem to have a special capacity to delight—and the ability to do so authentically—so that they have the chance to show how bright and deserving they are. And in doing so, they gain an edge.

One such student, a woman named Antonia, stumbled upon a job that was exactly what she was looking for—head of business development for a health-care firm, a role that would provide her with the opportunity to learn, progress, and contribute to the organization. However, when she went to interview for the position, she found out that the job required her to be based in Belgium or France, and she could only take a role on the East Coast of the United States.

When the interviewers asked her if that would be okay, she initially thought she should try to show her flexibility. After all, she had always been advised to say yes first and negotiate later. But then Antonia thought the company might appreciate her honest take on the role and its location. She says, “I engaged them in a dialogue about why the job location needed to be in Belgium or France, whereas all their growth and business development was poised to come from the US. They were surprised at first, but then looked really pleased with me and told me that I was right.”

The company was so impressed with this unexpected argument that demonstrated why she would be valuable that they offered her the job on the spot—and promised that it would be based on the US East Coast.

The experience of another student of mine, Peter, also impeccably illustrates the power of delighting in situ, as well as his capacity to dynamically iterate in a way that allowed him to show his competence and dexterity. Peter was approached by a private equity company offering an internship—an extremely prestigious organization that everyone wanted to work for. After getting the offer, he found out that it was an unpaid internship.

So he reached out to one of the partners to inquire, and the partner quickly got to the point: “We have never paid our interns. At the end of the internship period, we make offers to those that are qualified, and our salaries and bonuses are within the highest quintile of all financial institutions. If

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