OG Tuesday Issue #192

🔎 Job Search: Listen to job hunting tips from Boomers navigating career transitions.

⚡ Productivity: Going to bed with a whole column of unfinished to-dos? Don’t beat yourself up.

💼 Career Longevity: The new rules for being a worker as dynamic as today’s work landscape.

📈 Interview Trends: Still waiting to hear any news after that big interview? Clues that the org you’re interviewing with might keep you waiting and waiting…and waiting.

🌊 Wellness: Discover how Blue Mind Theory links water to mental health benefits.

The 4-day workweek.

This bright, shiny idea has become something like a workplace unicorn since people first started buzzing about it all the way back in 1965.

Few people have seen it in action, but many people believe in it.

Thanks to corporate wellness firm Exos, we now have even more reasons to believe in the 4-day workweek.

They piloted a 4-day work week for 6 months.

They learned a lot, most importantly that this working model has the potential to boost morale and productivity while reducing burnout.

Good deal, right?

Here are some other juicy tidbits they learned from their study and subsequent analysis:

• Working fewer hours did not negatively impact their revenue as many feared it would. They actually saw an increase in revenue during the study period.
• Turnover? Down. Retention? Up.
• Employees reported feeling like they’d used their time more effectively on the 4-day schedule. (Their work echoed their feelings. Exos saw an increase in their KPIs around efficiency.)
• More employees reported feeling productive during the study. (91% reported this, as opposed to 67% before the study.)

So what happens next?

Widespread adoption of the 4-day workweek is still a distant dream.

However, it may not be an impossible fantasy.

All the drastic changes in work structures and cultures brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic taught us that change is possible and that it can even happen remarkably fast.

Change-makers—including Senator Bernie Sanders and U.S. Representative Mark Takano—have made moves to legislate this new way of working.

Nothing has gained much traction yet, but who knows?

The 4-day workweek could be closer than we think.

At my the last company I worked, we used Bonusly — it was a simple platform but it got everyone pumped.

People felt a sense of pride whenever they got points and recognition, so they went above and beyond.

Using Bonusly in a nutshell: You get a set amount of points each month (in my case it was 100 pts) that you can award to anyone in the company accompanied with a message.

What I personally loved about Bonusly:

• Your points don’t roll over so it encourages you to use them before they expire; you celebrate your team’s wins, big and small
• The feed is public so everyone (including C-suite) can see how awesome you are
• Points can be redeemed for rewards (I always redeemed mine for cash and bought flights to Cabo once!)
• Set up is a breeze & easily scalable; our company grew to 1,000+ employees, and the plans were easy to switch as we grew.

Plus — Bonusly just started offering free trial so you can try it out yourself with all the bells & whistles for 14 days.

Joanna (Co-Founder of TA)

One TA Subscriber is feeling overwhelmed by application prep:

My biggest challenge at the moment is that I’m transitioning careers and job-hunting, and I feel like I need to know absolutely everything before I’d be qualified for any of the positions I’m applying for.

We get why you might feel like you have to know absolutely everything to consider yourself qualified for the positions you’re interested in. There’s nothing wrong with being thoroughly prepared, after all.

But here’s some truth that could save your sanity: You can absolutely land a job without being 110% qualified for it.

Exactly what % of qualified do you need to be then?

Good question. A truly definitive answer depends on the specific job you want to apply for and how the hiring decision makers think.

Some hiring managers aim to find candidates who meet about 80% of a job description’s listed qualifications.

One learning theory suggests you’ll pick up 70% of what you need to know to be successful in a job by doing the job.

Another recruiter says you probably need to meet 70-80% of qualifications to be considered for an interview.

Trying to find clear answers in all the different percentages and opinions can be dizzying.

However, if you just look at the big picture, there is one crystal-clear takeaway:

Hiring managers can and do hire applicants who don’t meet all their on-paper requirements.

The only way to find out if you can be one of them is to apply.

“[. . . ] I have conversations with students who feel concerned because they don’t have enough of the skills, and one of the things that I really always encourage people to do is to shoot your shot,” career advisor Hayden Iverson Todd told the hosts of the Find Your Dream Job podcast.

“Apply anyways. We want you to apply. If you feel like you match about 70% of the skills and experience, go ahead and apply. At the end of the day, a job description or a job posting; that is a wishlist for an employer. That is their ideal, absolute perfect case candidate.”

When applying to jobs you’re less-than-perfectly qualified for, aim for quality over quantity:

• Outline your requirements for the job and career you want and narrow your applications to those parameters. If you’re only applying to jobs you really want, then you’ll be more motivated to find creative ways to frame the qualifications you do meet.
• If you don’t meet all the requirements, then clearly explain why the qualifications you do have are relevant to the position you want.
• Fill your qualification gaps with passion. Do your research so you can understand the organization more than the average applicant. Have a solid answer to, “Tell me why you want to work here.” You don’t need hard experience to have solid answers to these questions, and they make a difference. Not showing enough interest in the company and/or position is one of the most common applicant faux pas hiring managers report.

A great way to foster better relationships between you and your boss or direct report is through one-on-one meetings.

The perfect 1:1 meeting template keeps all of your agendas and action items—tailored for each individual—in one organized place.

⭐ This template does just that by laying out roles, expectations, and how to best implement a feedback cycle.

📄 Get the 1:1 meeting template free here.

*Presented by ClickUp.

• Manifest is hiring a Performance Marketing Manager (Washington, DC/Hybrid)
• The Ultimate Human is hiring a Social Media Manager (Miami, FL).
• Vaco is hiring for a Digital Marketing Manager, Paid Search (Nashville, TN/Hybrid)
• ZoomInfo is hiring for a Senior Product Manager, Marketing Analytics Products (Bethesda, Maryland/Hybrid)
• Z Gallerie is hiring for a Brand Marketing Manager (Fort Worth, TX).