I’m doing a take-home assignment for a job interview, and it just might turn into the hardest slide presentation I’ve ever done. Why? Because in hopes of delivering a great submission, I’m ignoring the instructions.
How you react to directions will shape the quality of the work you submit. It often shakes out in one of three ways:
- You ignore the instructions and do whatever you feel like. This leads to bad work.
- You follow the instructions. This leads to mediocre work.
- You ignore the instructions and do whatever you believe is right. This may lead to great work.
Disregarding your boss’s orders without a plan is a bad idea. Playing by the rules means playing it safe. It won’t get you an award, but it’ll let you survive the day—usually. When the only way forward is to stand out, however, risking failure is the lone choice that might work.
“Might” does not mean “will,” so when I completely overhaul a presentation I’m only meant to summarize, there’s a good chance I’ll get disqualified. But what if I don’t? And since job interviews are the kind of competition where doing the minimum will most likely get you eliminated, doing what’s right is—as always—the right thing to do.
Ignoring the instructions is an art because art generally comes without instructions. It’s not just about knowing which rules to break and when but also about how specifically you’ll interpret what’s left. All of this comes with much potential but without guarantee except one: at the end of the day, you’ll know you have done your best—and if that ain’t worth taking a few detours, you probably never wanted to arrive at the mapped out destination to begin with.