Need Fit

I was thinking today about job fit – how to achieve success in a role, we have to have a good match with our inner psychological make-up. Most think of fitting personality traits with jobs, but that only tells half the story, and maybe not the underlying, deeper half.

For example, let’s take social media marketers. Why are some people good at social media engagement? We could make a laundry list of skills and attributes enabling their social media success: humor, positivity, attentiveness, excellent writing skills, wit, charm, appropriate sarcasm… the list goes on.

The list of positive skills explains why someone could be good at social media, but it certainly doesn’t make them good at it. The traits don’t tell the reason behind an exact job fit. Today, I was thinking about the real underlying reason why they are compelled to succeed in the job long term.

They succeed because they have to, something inside drives them to have to do it — they need to do a good job at it. To use our example, it might be that they need attention from people. That sounds negative in connotation, but it’s rather negative in the mathematical sense; needs are negatives by definition; they are something that you don’t have.

Your “need fit” is almost the same answer to the classic “what is your greatest weakness” question during interviews. Your greatest weakness is your greatest need. Your greatest need, in turn, compels you to be good at certain things, as your mind desperately searches for that which it does not have.

We are probably best suited to those jobs that fit our deep compulsions rather than our skills. It’s likely, I’m thinking, that if our brain sees that which it wants, it will rather quickly devote energy to picking up the skills. The base psychological need, though is more hard-wired.

My first job was in sales. I remember that my manager said later on that he hired me because of a “chip on my shoulder the size of a boulder.” I needed to prove something. He saw this need and knew that the external validation of “making quota” would fit this need.

We want a need fit with our jobs; it gives us satisfaction and helps us perform. I’m not sure that our itch is ever scratched. I needed to prove something, and twenty years later, I still do.

Anyways, something interesting to think about when hiring or looking for a job match for yourself.