I got laid-off. While applying for jobs, I was astounded by how difficult (impossible) it is to get feedback about my rejected job applications. Even sending emails politely requesting a single sentence of feedback was often met with silence, my email lost or ignored. As a life long learner striving for growth (and a good job), this killed me inside. How can I learn from failure with no feedback. Despite being educated, skilled and experienced, I was left with self-doubt and worse, no indication whatsoever about how to improve. Was I off by an inch or a mile? Was it my presentation or a lack experience? It was extra frustrating because I would spend hours tailoring cover letters and tweaking my resume specifically for each job application. It was clear there was a problem to solve.
I understood that corporate felt that it owed my nothing. I'm just a number to them, a faceless human resource. But, someone had already reviewed and passed judgment on my job applications, yet they were too busy and had no incentive to take a few minutes to explain their insights. As experts in their field and working in the industry in which I wanted to work, their feedback is priceless. If only there was a way to create a little incentive, to give them a little nudge.
Alas, the idea for The Growth Initiative was born so my resume could become a trojan horse creating a feedback-incentive portal for the humans within corporate. Try it!