Practice Imperfection in Your Job Search, with Tanya Romaniuk
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Perfectionism can quietly hold your job search back. According to Find Your Dream Job guest Tanya Romaniuk, one of the biggest challenges is waiting until everything feels “just right” before taking action. Tanya highlights common pitfalls perfectionists face, including overthinking applications, delaying outreach, and letting fear prevent progress. Her advice is to start small, take imperfect actions, and focus on progress over polish.
Tanya suggests flipping the script on your inner critic, practicing interview prep with friends or mentors, and building confidence through experience rather than waiting to feel 100% ready. She also stresses the importance of recognizing when your standards are realistic versus unhelpful. With the right approach, Tanya says that practicing imperfection will build your confidence and skills, and also get you closer to the work that truly fits you.
About Our Guest:
Tanya Romaniuk is a career counselor at Portland State University.
Resources in This Episode:
- Connect with Tanya on LinkedIn
Transcript
Find Your Dream Job, Episode 520:
Practice Imperfection in Your Job Search, with Tanya Romaniuk
Airdate: September 24, 2025
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.
Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.
Looking for a job can feel overwhelming – especially if you think everything has to be perfect before you begin.
Today’s guest says that giving up perfectionism not only helps you get started, it also will help you find the work that fits you best.
Tanya Romaniuk is here to talk about how to practice imperfection in your job search.
She’s a career counselor at Portland State University.
Tanya helps students discover their passions and build confidence, without sacrificing their personal health and well-being.
She joins us from Portland, Oregon.
Well, let’s jump right into it, Tanya. Let’s talk about perfectionism. How can it hurt your job search?
Tanya Romaniuk:
Yeah, so I think it’s important first to clarify that not all perfectionism is bad. If we are striving for, let’s say, reasonable and realistic standards that lead to a sense of self-satisfaction and we feel good about what we’ve accomplished, that’s really what I would call healthy perfectionism.
When perfectionism starts to become problematic for us is when we have these excessively high standards. We don’t feel satisfied, and actually, we don’t feel confident in what we’re producing.
And that really can slow us down. It can stall our progress, and it really can convince us that unless our work is flawless, it’s just not good enough. And frankly, that might mean we think we’re not good enough. And those are just really unfair and unrealistic expectations.
Mac Prichard:
Say more about the signs that you might be stuck in perfectionism, because a perfectionist might think, well, I’m doing it right. But what would someone who’s watching a perfectionist struggle with these unrealistic standards see?
Tanya Romaniuk:
They would probably see folks potentially not even starting. They might be, you know, describing things like they have a sense of that they have to have it 100% right, or that they have to know exactly what the right next step is before they can begin.
I think they might also think like, you know, that their effort, like the amount of effort that they’re putting into it, doesn’t count unless the result is perfect. And so that’s what it can kind of look like from someone on the outside.
Mac Prichard:
Do you think perfectionists especially struggle with job search? Are the stakes higher when you’re looking for your next position?
Tanya Romaniuk:
I do think so. Yeah, I absolutely think so. What happens with perfectionism or a perfectionist, and I consider myself a recovering perfectionist myself, a phrase that I borrow from Brené Brown.
I think what happens is we can have really strong inner critics, and those strong inner critics can kind of help or hinder our progress. We let our fear get in the way, preventing us from starting.
And the reality is, there is no such thing as a perfect job search, and there’s no such thing as a perfect job. So when folks strive for that, I think they’re actually, you know, they really are hindering their own progress.
Mac Prichard:
At the start of our conversation, we talked about, you know, there are some standards that we all have to adhere to when we’re looking for our next position. From an employer’s perspective, because you talk to employers all the time in your position, what are the non-negotiable mistakes that all of us should avoid, not only perfectionists, but imperfectionists as well?
Tanya Romaniuk:
Absolutely. There are some things we really want to strive to get right. For example, let’s say you’re writing a cover letter and you are singing your praises about how, “I am so detail-oriented and I bring that attention to detail to my work.”
But then your cover letter is actually addressed to the wrong employer. That’s something we really want to try and avoid. So, really making sure you’re getting a second set of eyes, if not a third set of eyes, on your materials before you submit.
Making sure you’re not doing that, you know, if you are late or I mean, it’s late at night or you’re tired. Sometimes we’re more prone to make that kind of mistake. So maybe waiting until the morning and you’re fresh with fresh eyes to look at it again. So we want to avoid those kinds of typos. I would also say we want to think about being on time.
When folks are giving you their time, whether that’s for an informational chat or for a job interview or for a podcast interview, you know, I really try to encourage folks to think about the person on the other side. They’re giving you their time.
So you want to really respect that and do your best to, you know, show up a little bit early. And I guess the third thing I would share is ghosting. You really want to think about… this happens, unfortunately, on the other side, employers do have, you know, a lot of applications given the technology we have today.
And so they may not get back to us, but we want to make sure that we are always responding to and getting back to folks. For example, that could look like making sure you’re sending a thank-you note after you’ve interviewed for a job. You wouldn’t believe it, but you know, 20 to 25% of applicants send thank-you notes.
And you really want to make sure you are in that percentage, right? You want to make sure that you are like a good date, you want to aim for making a really great first impression, but also a really positive lasting impression.
Mac Prichard:
We’re going to talk about how to practice imperfection, but for the perfectionists who are listening and watching, what are a few small steps you can take to begin to let go of perfectionism?
Tanya Romaniuk:
Yeah, I think one thing that could involve is just giving yourself permission to start. For some folks, like myself, it could also just be starting really small. So let’s say you’re thinking that you don’t start your first, for example, invitation for an informational chat with a Fortune 500 executive, right?
You might start with your dental hygienist, or you might start with that cousin or that uncle who has that cool job that you’ve always considered really neat, actually never asked them about. So really being able to lower the stakes and start small can really help us kind of build confidence, build momentum, right, that we can do this.
And then when we see that we are able to do it, then we can move toward those more, you know, those things that feel like higher stakes.
Mac Prichard:
Well, let’s talk about the benefits of practicing imperfection when you look for work. You’ve touched on some of them, Tanya, but for somebody who’s thinking, no, it’s got to be perfect, why is a done better than perfect?
Tanya Romaniuk:
Yeah, have you ever heard that expression, a done dissertation is a good dissertation?
Mac Prichard:
I haven’t, but you’re at a university, so.
Tanya Romaniuk:
Yes. For anybody who’s gone to graduate school, I would say it’s a very common thing to hear. And it was the best advice that I never took. The reality is that done builds belief, right? It lets us understand and see. It’s evidence that when we complete a task, we can see, “I’m capable, I can do this.”
And that done builds belief. So that kind of belief will build our momentum, it will give us clarity, and it will also develop our confidence along the way.
I once worked with a student who, you know, was a psych graduate; she’d been on the job market for a whole year. When she came to me, she was just feeling completely discouraged. She’d been looking for 100% remote work, but only full-time.
So, we found a couple of jobs together that were part-time roles, and I encouraged her to start thinking about, you know, this next job doesn’t have to be the forever job. So we worked on some materials, tailoring her resume and cover letter, and she was able to take an imperfect job, meaning that it was only going to give her 20 hours a week instead of the 40 she was looking for.
But that gave her some experience, and that experience helped her build the confidence she needed to start her own business and do what she wanted to do full-time instead of part-time.
Mac Prichard:
So those are the benefits of practicing imperfection. You mentioned results and confidence. What about new skills? How can practicing imperfection in your job search help you learn new skills?
Tanya Romaniuk:
That’s a great question. When we focus on progress as opposed to polish, we also gain an understanding of just how much is actually needed to perform or to be able to do well. I love the 80-20 rule, you know, this idea that 20% of our efforts can yield 80% of the results.
So thinking about, you know, what are those tasks that I need to prioritize? We, you know, folks who listen to your podcast or review the materials that you have on your website, they’ll see what those high-impact practices are.
And if you can prioritize and focus on prioritizing, I think that I can actually really build your prioritization skills because you’re thinking about, okay, I’m going to focus on that 20% that’s going to yield the most result instead of getting lost in the weeds, right, of these specific details that are again preventing me potentially from moving forward.
Mac Prichard:
We’re going to take a break. Stay with us. When we come back, Tanya Romaniuk will continue to share her advice on practicing imperfection in your job search.
Back in the Mac’s List studio, I’m talking with Tanya Romaniuk.
She’s a career counselor at Portland State University.
Tanya helps students discover their passions and build confidence without sacrificing their personal health and well-being.
And she joins us from Portland, Oregon.
Now, Tanya, before the break, we were talking about practicing imperfection in your job search. And we’re talking about the steps you can take to do this. And you touched on some of the benefits of imperfection.
One of the tips you have that I know you share with people you work with for practicing imperfection is flipping the script. Say more about that. What does that mean, and how is it going to help you in your job search?
Tanya Romaniuk:
Right. So I mentioned that inner critic earlier that a lot of perfectionists have a very strong inner critic. One of the things I mean when I talk about flipping the script is a lot of reframing.
For example, I call my inner critic; I’ve actually named her to help externalize her. Her name is Judgy McJudge, and she wants to be in the driver’s seat. She loves to tell me, you know, all the things I should be doing or shouldn’t be doing.
But what I do is take Liz Gilbert’s advice and let her be in the car, although she’s in the backseat. She doesn’t get to drive. And so what that means about flipping the script is really trying to put forward a more compassionate cheerleader than the inner critic. So my compassionate cheerleader gets to be in the front seat.
And that helps me to practice the kind of unconditional kindness that one needs when they are engaging in the acts of a job search because job searching really requires us to be vulnerable, and that can amplify a lot of like shame and self-doubt, that inner critic wanting to be there in the driver’s seat.
So flipping that script is putting that compassionate cheerleader in the front seat. And that might look like, you know, how do you access that? That might look like thinking about how a cherished or loved one would talk to you. What are the kinds of things that you would say
to a loved one or that a loved one would say to you?
And just recently, I was listening to a podcast with Rick Hanson, a psychologist who was talking about how maybe you need to develop a caring committee. So if you can’t access those words yourself, that kindness and what that sounds like, can you put together a host of people who’ve got your back? Who have been the biggest cheerleaders in your life? Maybe it was your grade two teacher, maybe it’s your mom.
You might have someone in a chosen family, but who are those folks that always have your back? Can you think about what they would say, what they would tell you, and really call them in when you need to build that strength and confidence and stop fear from preventing you from moving forward?
Mac Prichard:
How would you apply that if you’ve got an interview coming up, for example, or you’re thinking about applying for a job but you’re not certain? What have you seen work?
Tanya Romaniuk:
Yeah. So, for example, focusing on what are things you’ve done as opposed to thinking about what you still need to do. So with interview prep, know, do you have a sense, do you have a good answer to the question, you know, tell me about yourself? Because some version of that question is going to get asked in any interview.
Do you have clarity around what your top strengths are? Have you thought about a couple of, you know, key stories, key stories that really showcase your strengths? And then you want to actually, if you’re not feeling confident about those answers, can you actually share them or practice them with one of those folks on your caring committee?
So that you know they’re gonna boost you up, you know they’re gonna be able to help build that confidence so that you’re able to take those answers into an interview with the same kind of confidence that you need to really ace it.
Mac Prichard:
Some people might feel reluctant to ask someone else to practice with them, but I’m curious, what kind of results have you seen when people do that, when they sit down with a colleague or a friend, and they run through likely questions that you’re going to get in any job interview?
Tanya Romaniuk:
It makes such an enormous difference. I would say everyone has someone in their life that they can turn to or that they do turn to. And maybe they haven’t turned to them before for interview prep, but they’ve turned to them when they’ve had other struggles. And you would be surprised how much those people want to help. And if you just reach out and ask for it, most folks are willing to share it.
I just worked with a student on Monday who had never done interview prep before with another person; they had just taken a lot of notes and not really talked anything out. And that talking out is building muscle memory. It’s gonna really help because you have to talk in the job interview.
And she hadn’t done the practice before. And she emailed me on Tuesday after the interview and said, “I don’t know if I’m gonna get the job, but it was the best that I’ve ever felt in an interview. I felt confident that I shared my story, and I also felt like I really connected with them.”
And to me, that’s a win regardless of whether she gets the job or not, because she’s building confidence in the fact that she can do this.
Mac Prichard:
Some listeners, especially those struggling with perfectionism, might worry that they’re not going to get the same results if they don’t work with a career counselor like you. If they’re sitting down with a friend or a trusted colleague, what kind of feedback should they look for? And how will that help them practice imperfection in their job search?
Tanya Romaniuk:
Yeah, they want to just be asking them, “Am I coming across authentically? Am I actually painting a picture that is accurate of who I am and what I have to bring to a role?” I think a lot of perfectionists often think that they don’t see themselves as positively as other people see them.
So once they ask for that feedback, they’ll be quite surprised by what those folks have to share with them in terms of, maybe you’re selling yourself short a little bit. I know that you’ve done X, Y, and Z.
Often, coworkers and peers are great folks to enlist because they see you in those work environments. They know what your strengths are. And so if you’re someone who kind of struggles to articulate that for yourself, calling on those loved ones or just close friends, and/or, you know, coworkers, maybe even prior bosses, they’re gonna be able to remind you of all those great things that you have done and can do.
Mac Prichard:
Some people, particularly those who have struggled with perfectionism, even when they do the kind of preparation you just described, say for a job interview, might not feel that they’re fully ready. Why is it okay to go ahead and try something, even if you don’t feel like you’re 100% ready?
Tanya Romaniuk:
Yes, because we learn by doing, not by being 100% ready. If I had waited to feel 100% ready to do this podcast episode, frankly, it would never have happened. I had to give myself permission to let fear be there, right? It’s in the backseat with me, but I’m going to do it anyway. And hopefully, I’m going to grow from this experience. There’s always learning that’s going to happen when we push ourselves to our growth edge.
And if we’re able to do it, we surprise ourselves in terms of what we’re capable of doing. However, waiting for 100% readiness, I would advise against it because that’s probably not going to happen.
Mac Prichard:
Fear comes up again and again when you talk about perfectionism. What’s your number one tip, Tanya, for dealing with fear, particularly when you’re looking for work?
Tanya Romaniuk:
I think that a lot of people that our instinct is to push fear away, to try and resist it and, you know, we don’t want it to be there. And I encourage folks to actually get a little bit closer to it, to try and understand where it is coming from. Can you think about why that fear is coming up for you?
Often, we can then identify that it’s because we care or it’s trying to protect us. And if we can tap into understanding why it’s there.
I think that actually helps us to kind of diffuse its power. And the other thing is, instead of that resistance and pushing away, allowing it to be there and still moving forward, I think really helps empower us to show us that it’s not that strong people and courageous people don’t feel fear. It’s that they feel the fear and they do it anyway.
Mac Prichard:
Well, it’s been a terrific conversation. Now tell us Tanya, what’s next for you?
Tanya Romaniuk:
So I will continue working and practicing imperfection and encouraging my students to do the same at Portland State University, where I really help folks work with whatever it is that’s coming up for them because job searching is really challenging and really vulnerable, and just helping them navigate whatever those transitions are or their next steps, those next imperfect steps.
Mac Prichard:
That’s terrific. I know listeners and viewers can learn more about you by visiting your LinkedIn page, and you invite people to connect with you there. And when you do reach out to Tanya, please let her know that you heard her on Find Your Dream Job.
Now, Tanya, given all the great advice you’ve shared today, what’s the one thing you want our listeners and viewers to remember about how to practice imperfection in your job search?
Tanya Romaniuk:
I would tell them you don’t need to have it all figured out before you act. You learn by doing, not by waiting until you feel 100% ready. So I would encourage folks to give themselves permission to start taking those imperfect actions and answer the question, “What is one imperfect action that I can commit to in this next week?” Say it out loud, text it to a friend, write it down, and then just go do it.
Mac Prichard:
Next week our guest is Katrina McGhee.
She’s a sabbatical coach who helps professionals turn a career break into a strategic advantage.
Katrina has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, and NBC.
You may worry that taking a break from work during your career can hurt you professionally.
Join us next Wednesday when Katrina McGhee and I talk about why a career break is a smart move.
Until next time, thanks for letting us help you 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 and creates our transcripts.
Our sound engineer and editor is Matt Fiorillo. And our music is by Freddy Trujillo.
This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.
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