How to Embrace Authenticity: Shae Noble’s Job Search Success Story

Do you find yourself hesitant to be authentic in job interviews? Why does it matter? On this bonus episode of Find Your Dream Job, Shae Noble shares her journey to authenticity and how it led her to take on a specific role. Shae says that knowing what you truly want from a job matters more than where you end up. She suggests making a list of what matters most to you and piecing those things together to create your dream job, then pursuing the companies and positions that can offer those things. Learn more about Shae’s career history below in this installment of our Success Stories series. 

Transcript

Find Your Dream Job, Bonus Episode 74:

How to Embrace Authenticity: Shae Noble’s Job Search Success Story

Airdate: March 4, 2024

Mac Prichard:

This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.

I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.

One of the best ways to get good at job hunting is to talk to people who do it well.

That’s why once a month, I interview a Mac’s List reader who found a job they love.

Our guest today is Shae Noble. She’s the HR manager of Kyocera International. It’s a diversified manufacturing company in Vancouver, Washington.

Shae Noble believes in the power of authenticity.

In a story you can find on the Mac’s List website, Shae says the first step she takes in a job search is to review her resume, delete anything she wants to avoid repeating, and make sure her resume aligns with what she wants to do next.

Shae, why do you love your job?

Shae Noble:

I really love creating workplaces where people love to come to work every day, and a lot of that’s in helping people with personal interactions, helping managers be stronger, enhancing our benefits, and our employee engagement, and our candidate experience. And so, that’s what I love, just seeing, kind of, planting seeds and watching them grow in the workplace.

We spend so much time at work. We need to enjoy it, and the more we enjoy it, the more productive we can be and the more we can collaborate and work together. And it really shows in the way the company performs, as well. So that’s what I love about my job.

Mac Prichard:

In your career, the recent positions you’ve had – all terrific jobs – have been intern roles, and you’ve carved out a career for yourself where you might work at an organization for three, six, or twelve months and move on. What’s attracted you to short-term positions like those?

Shae Noble:

Growing up, I lived overseas in Japan, and my dad was a contractor for the military. So, I think it just kind of was part of that idea that you do a job, and you do it well, and that it’s process-driven and not person-dependent.

So, I think that’s a big part of my success and maybe how I see myself as a consultant to a business. Some people start a job, and they want to be there for thirty years. For me, I think it’s just kind of taking that idea of what I learned from the military and saying, how do I set this business up for success?

There was a business, a nonprofit that I worked at, and I was kind of brought on. I’ve just kind of always had that change agent idea. But I want to leave it in a better place than I started, and there was a nonprofit that I worked for that had a fifty percent turnover rate, and when I came aboard, I said, instead of filling all of these roles that are open. Let’s stop for a minute.

Let’s talk about them, what’s working and what’s not working, and in that, when I left, I can’t remember how many years ago. I know it’s at least more than six years ago. But much of that organization is still operating in the way that with the same key people that we brought on in that transition.

And they’re doing well, they’re growing, and it’s so exciting to see that type of stability brought to an organization that had been full of a lot of people coming in and out and not really staying. So, to see that impact is amazing.

Mac Prichard:

You had many interim jobs in your career and, again, terrific positions. But as you’ve made these changes, have you had concerns from employers about the fact that you have moved around so much? And how have you dealt with that, Shae?

Shae Noble:

Yeah, so this is one of those moments where it is really important to be authentic. For me, it was strategic in that my current role, it kind of evolved from the needs of the business and kind of opportunity for myself. When I entered into kind of an interim, fractional role for the first time, it was during the pandemic, and I think just leaning into that, being authentic and open in my reasons, and I think that anybody who has left a job or has had a break in employment or who’s changing careers, there’s always a story behind that. And so, I think embracing that story and being upfront about it is really helpful.

At one point, I was able to take seven months off, and it started out I was just gonna take a month or a couple of weeks. But I was like, this is the first time I’ve really had an opportunity to rest and redefine and connect with my family, things like that. So, I just was able to do that through taking some more short-term, interim roles. And so, yeah, I think it’s just being open, telling stories, and just kind of embracing it. Not letting myself be the critic about that. But just being open.

And I think more workers, I think there’s a change, there’s a shift in how people view work, and how they view their purpose. Certainly, for myself, kind of seeing how to put myself into an organization and set up that impact, that really fuels me.

Mac Prichard:

When you think about the stories that you’ve shared with employers who might have concerns about your interim roles or taking a break, what have you found to be most effective when you’re both constructing and telling that story?

And you’re in an unusual position, Shae because you’ve been both a candidate who’s taken a break and had many interim positions. But you also work on the HR side.

So, what have you seen effective when you’re sharing that story both as a candidate and when you’re on the other side of the interview table as a hiring manager?

Shae Noble:

In speaking to any type of change or addressing anything on your resume that may be being questioned, there’s always a flip side. I think number one is embrace authenticity. Share your story authentically.

But also share it with strategic vulnerability. There are times when you don’t need to overshare. You just need to be truthful.

And so, I think, at one point, I took time off work, and it was truly just to spend time with my family, and I thankfully was able to support myself through that time. But not everybody can do that. Life happens, change happens.

When you’re dealing with human resources or recruiters, we know that life intersects. Really, I see us, and a lot of us see ourselves as advocates. And so, if we know what the story is, we can help shape that. As long as we know what the situation is, then we’re really gonna be advocating in terms of the skills that we see on paper or the data that we’re gathering from your interview.

And so, I take that into consideration myself. It’s like I had an opportunity. The job market’s hot. I don’t think anybody’s gonna turn down a job that they’ve gotten an increase or something that they’ve really been looking for in their career that maybe their current company doesn’t offer.

I think we just have to be open and embrace that the gig job market is hot and a lot of people really like that right now. Certainly, for myself, it’s been really enjoyable to be able to see best practices throughout businesses. And I think that’s really my answer to your first question is for me, it’s all about best practices.

There’s a benefit to being embedded in an organization for ten or fifteen years or more. But there’s also a benefit to seeing best practices in a variety of businesses and being able to kind of choose and craft what the right answer is for the current organization based on experience. You’re not hearing it second-hand; you’re seeing it. And that’s really what I think I’ve been able to bring through my interim roles.

Mac Prichard:

When you’ve looked for an interim role, is that a different kind of job search, Shae, versus when you’ve looked for a full-time permanent position that might last three, five, ten years? Are you doing something different when you’re looking for a short-term position or a fractional role?

Shae Noble:

Since early on in my career, I think I really started my career as a consultant. I was consulting with international students and workers who wanted to work in English-speaking countries. So I would work with them. So, I’ve always kind of had this consultative approach.

There was a time when I was actually offered a job, and I had to turn it down, and they said, well, hey, can we hire you as a recruiter? And so, that kind of started a little bit of that idea of an interim, partial, or fractional type of role.

So, you know, more recently, I think it’s more about casting a wide net. When you’re a job seeker, you might not know really what that dream job is, or you may have an idea. You may have several dream jobs. You’re like, hey, I want to work in gaming. I also want to work at an international company. I also want to work close to home.

And so, that’s really kind of the approach I took this time is, okay, I have these ideas of what that dream company and dream role might look like. So, piecing things together, gathering information, and then kind of targeting those companies that I know are close to home and check these other boxes.

And then also, casting a wide net, seeing what opportunities come up. I say, never turn down an opportunity for a conversation or an interview. You never know how that role can change or evolve as you’re interviewing. I’ve seen it done where you post a role.

I mean, it’s kind of a guess. We do our best guess, we post a job, and then we pull data from the candidates we’ve received, or we might get through a phase of interviews and say, wow, we’ve really priced this job too low. We’re not finding anybody in that price range. Or maybe somebody quits in the process, and now we’re kind of reevaluating a role. I mean, there’s so much information we’re gathering on a daily basis when we have an open role that things can shift and evolve rapidly.

So, yeah, I think it’s just being flexible and being open to the opportunities. So, yeah, I also think it’s great to just connect with people. Opportunities don’t always come from just applying to a job. A lot of times, it comes from people who follow you on LinkedIn. It’s not usually the people that you know directly. It’s the people that know the people you know.

They’ll say, hey, do you know anybody in IT that does this? And I’ll say, yeah, this person’s on the job hunt. I saw it on their LinkedIn. Here’s a referral. There are times when that kicks in.

So, yeah, I think it’s just kind of broadcasting and communicating with others and connecting. That’s kind of how I approach the interim roles. It’s just keeping an eye open and conversations.

Mac Prichard:

Well, it’s been a great conversation, Shae. Now, finally, what’s your number one job-hunting tip when you reflect back on the searches you’ve done and the search that brought you to Kyocera?

Shae Noble:

So, my number one job tip would be to utilize LinkedIn as your professional brand. There have been times in the economy where recruiters and hiring managers will utilize LinkedIn to cold call passive candidates. You know, it’s desperate times; we’ve gotten one application. We’ve done everything we can, and we’re just not finding what we need. We’ll go right to LinkedIn. It’s like having a public resume. There are times in the economy where that happens, and I’ve seen people get incredible increases, incredible promotions through doing that.

In the current economy, it’s less of a passive market where recruiters have to actively reach out to candidates. Right now, I think it’s more about having that validation. When you’ve applied to a job, and we’re doing the first few rounds of screening, a lot of us hiring managers will go to LinkedIn, first of all, to just validate that what you say on your resume matches up with who you are publicly.

There’s just something about that that reasserts what you’ve told us in an interview or what you’ve put on your resume. So, I think it’s really important to do that.

And I also think that it’s just such a great tool for networking, for staying in touch with coworkers, and just really talking about things that you care about, and it’s just interesting to me. I kind of put it out into the universe that I want to work for a Japanese company, and I want to work for a global company, a design company that has innovative engineering. Just things that I talk about on my LinkedIn, or somehow I ended up with two different interviews at Japanese companies, and it was so exciting to me.

And did it come directly from LinkedIn? No. But, somehow, putting it out there, I ended up having those opportunities. And so, I just think there’s a lot of power in utilizing LinkedIn in any type of job search.

I talk to people all of the time that are so tired of their job; they want something new, and then I look them up on LinkedIn, and they have nothing publicly. You can’t even find them, and really, if you’re not utilizing LinkedIn, there’s a saying that you don’t exist in the job market. So, that’s probably my number one job search for anybody that’s wanting a change.

Mac Prichard:

Well, terrific. Well, thank you for sharing your story, Shae. To learn more about Shae Noble’s job search, visit macslist.org/stories.

And check out the Mac’s List website for dozens of other success stories.

On the second Friday of every month, we add a new interview with a Mac’s List reader who has found a dream job.  Go to macslist.org/stories.

In the meantime, thank you for listening to today’s bonus episode of Find Your Dream Job.

This show is produced by Mac’s List.

Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media.

Our sound engineer and editor is Matt Fiorillo. Dawn Mole creates our transcripts. And our music is by Freddy Trujillo.

This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.