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&lt;p&gt;Ever see &lt;em&gt;Kitchen Nightmares&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The notoriously difficult chef Gordon Ramsay waltzes into failing restaurants, samples the food and atmosphere, then succinctly and arrogantly tells the owner everything they&#39;re doing wrong.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s awesome.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Naturally, this tends not to go over too well with the owners. But with a lot of money at stake (many are already losing thousands of dollars a month on rent), they usually take Ramsay&#39;s advice and save their businesses.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Trouble is, without actual, visible losses, jobseekers often don&#39;t invite that kind of tough love into their hunt. But they should. Entry level employees especially, since they have so little experience, like to think they&#39;re deserving of a job because of who they are. They&#39;re hardworking; they&#39;re honest; they made the Dean&#39;s list in college. So where&#39;s the job?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The older and wiser generation knows better: it&#39;s not just who you are and what you know—it&#39;s what you can actually &lt;em&gt;do&lt;/em&gt;, and how you communicate that you can do it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A mentor may not know you as well as you know yourself, and a mean mentor especially probably won&#39;t care too much about knowing you. But that&#39;s a good thing, because neither does an employer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Seeking out tough love from an honest, experienced, and slightly curmudgeonly mentor is usually the only way you&#39;ll know if you&#39;re making bad image mistakes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here&#39;s where an honest opinion can help:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. You&#39;re focusing on the wrong things&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sure, you know what you&#39;re talented at. But what are you actually qualified to do?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It can be hard to see ourselves objectively, and it feels strange to read a job description and then completely retool our message about what who we are. But it&#39;s necessary to proving you&#39;re the man for a job. So ask your mentor to do the objectifying for you.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even a small thing, like the scale at which you mention skills and experience (focusing on one responsibility at your last job over another) can make a huge difference. A tough, objective mentor will get your ego out of the equation and start bringing your selling points to the forefront.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. You&#39;re not attractively packaging yourself&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Think you&#39;re a just an Excel monkey? Wrong! You&#39;re an up and coming banker with fool-proof technical skills! Or so says your mentor. Sometimes, we get so caught up in the &quot;whats&quot; of our former jobs that we forget to package ourselves as a &quot;how&quot;--what we&#39;re capable of in a larger sense that leads to an advanced position.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You may not see your full potential or know how to angle yourself for the job that taps into it, but your mentor just might. With a flexible sense of self and a tough guy advisor, you can makeover your professional menu from &quot;side salad&quot; to &quot;artisanal vegetable medley with heirloom tomatoes and locally sourced cheese.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Your cover is false advertising for the book&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is a problem straight out of Ramsay&#39;s show: a so-called traditional, home-grown pub has complicated table settings and pretentious art work fit for a Queen. Or a chic vegetarian restaurant serves up sloppy, humble basics to indulgence-and-presentation oriented Parisians.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chances are, you&#39;re accustomed to the way you look. You&#39;re also likely surrounded by people too polite to mention any appearance snafus. That&#39;s where a meanie comes in: if you&#39;re still dressing like a 20 year old IT guy when you&#39;re angling for a manager position, or wearing ill fitting hand me downs to meetings with ad executives, you need someone to call you out on it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Your attitude is off&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are you coming off as a know-it-all when you try to project confidence? As shifty or uncertain when you pause to gather your thoughts too long? A good mentor will notice and give you the benefit of the doubt anyway; a mean mentor will have the guts to tell you you&#39;re acting like a brat.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now all you need is the moxie to handle criticism.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;--Cathy Vandewater, Vault.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read more: &lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/job-search/looking-for-work-dont-do-these-4-things-at-a-holiday-party/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Job Hunting? Don&#39;t Make These 4 Party Mistakes&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/job-search/are-us-manufacturing-jobs-coming-back/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Are U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Coming Back?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/job-search/strengths-vs-passions-what-makes-a-dream-job/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Strengths Vs. Passions: What Makes a Dream Job?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Cathy Vandewater

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