If everyone is holding the door open then nobody is walking through.
I’ve been in a few situations where an opportunity has come up that I could be interested in (job, volunteering, speaking, mentoring...). I often think that I shouldn’t put my hand up for this because someone else is likely to be more suited for this and I don’t want to waist others time or take the opportunity ahead of someone. This is a bit of a common EA thing as we are less motivated to compete to advance individually.
Of course if everyone is thinking like this then no one is putting their hand up for the opportunity. It’s as if everyone is politely holding a door open to let others through first and we are all left out in the cold.
I’ve seen this as an organiser myself having too few people apply and talking with people who likely should have. I now consider this when ever an opportunity does come up and I find myself thinking this way. I have at times found that when I do put my hand up in these situations I get some response like “thank goodness you responded”, “Do you know anyone else that could help”
The door will hold itself open on it’s own, just walk through.
I haven’t read “Who” but it is on my list. Manager Tools is another great resource for me. Here is their podcast series How To Scan A Resume.
They make if very clear how small things in your resume that might need a little bit of effort from the reviewer can mean you get rejected. Make the reviewers life as easy as possible.
I’m never to sure how to phrase the “application drafting” idea. “Drafting” is probably too strong for what I mean but I do mean more than just reading over an application form. Maybe “sketch” is a better term.
Writing it down in some way is important as it makes it much more salient. Doing this a year or two out lets you sketch what your CV will look like given your current path. Considering opportunities that may be available to you over the next couple of years and sketching variations of your CV as if you had already done them to get an idea which options you are most excited about or are most useful.
We certainly do have restrictive stories about getting jobs. Apparently about 25% of early career and about 50% of later career jobs are found through networking not applying to open jobs. I personally have worked for 5 different business through networking not applying.