Job interviews, surveys, and criticism

baseball1988

1.) I have completed a lot of candidate surveys in the past for job interviews. Most of survey results don't reflect my personality or character. Recently, a company asked me complete a candidate survey and I answered a list of multiple choice questions in a honest way. This was the first time that it reflects my true personality and I would say it is 90% accurate. The company has my results. If they call me into an interview, they can ask questions against my weakness and I might fall apart easily.

ie) Criticism is my weakness. I produce a sensitive reaction and it does discourage me a lot of the time. I always try to think of this as an opportunity but I take negative feedback personally sometimes. In our work environment, we are being monitored ALL the time and it's nearly impossible to be 100% perfect. How can I change my personality??? and What can I say during the interview to counter this??? Over time, I do accept the criticism but i feel bad when it happens during that moment.

ie) Sensitive to tone. I honestly don't like it when colleagues or customers start giving me attitude. I work in tier 1 tech support and colleagues sometimes don't help me when they are busy and the customer is on the other line waiting. In our work environment, we use the method of "being responsible for your own calls" no matter how hard they are. I do sometimes get fustrated and I don't learn as much when I'm the middle person (supervisor tells me what to say, then i pass the info to the customer, then customer asks more question, and i ask the supervisor again repeatedly). I know that there are better workplaces where they encourage to pass the ball to the next level if I can't answer customers question after troubleshooting for more than 30 minutes. The truth is that I don't like working in help desk but it's a stepping stone job. My personality doesn't fit any roles under "help desk or technical support". But, without experience I can't get those analytical jobs.

My goal is to get into a more analytical job where I don't need to pick up calls. ie. QA Analyst, Business Systems Analyst, Information Systems Analyst.

Any advice?
Thanks

docrice

Perhaps your sensitivity to criticism and harsh(er) tones is due to your interpretation that it's a personal attack. You need to recognize that most of the times it's just the way many people behave when they're being efficient and "just trying to get things done." In that sense, you'll need to develop thicker skin if you want to survive in this industry.

In IT, there's always a degree of pressure and you'll have to find a way to cope with it and see it differently than you do now. Everyone has imperfections and shortcomings, even if they might effectively mask a lot of it. If someone provides criticism, they may or may not be right. If you can see your personality / skill / character as Play-Doh™ which can be molded to better yourself, you can learn to adapt over time. It just takes a great deal of never-ending sustained effort. It's how we all are.

It sounds to me like you need to do some introspection and determine the root cause as to why you have this level of sensitivity. It's understandable, but unless you can learn to build more confidence, you're going to eventually cave. Helpdesk certainly has a lot of pressure, but wait until you get into higher-level positions and you'll see it magnify even more.