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If you want to succeed in your job interview (and who doesn’t?), it’s good to understand the perspective of the interviewer. What is he or she expecting from the candidate? What kinds of actions can kill the interview?
The folks at Boost Your Career With LinkedIn offer some excellent advice on preparing for an interview, based on common complaints from recruiters. Knowinging — and avoiding — these pitfalls will help you make a positive impression.
Thanks to YourHRGuy for drawing my attention to this article in Forbes Magazine. It offers three rules for older (40 plus) job seekers:
- Rule #1: Job seekers over 40 need a resume that looks forward, not backward.
- Rule #2: Don’t be defensive, and don’t omit dates.
- Rule #3: Don’t be afraid to sell yourself.
The writer suggests that younger job seekers need to emphasize work experience, but older job seekers need to change the perpective from “Look at everything I’ve done” to “Look at what I can do for you.” In other words, the resume becomes less about the candidate and more about the employer.
The author writes,
“Beware of writing a résumé that generates awe but not interviews. Your résumé should persuade a potential employer to grant you an interview, not your old employer to give you a gold watch.”
Older job seekers often have a hard time selling themselves for two keys reasons:
First, older workers tend to think that selling themselves is tantamount to bragging about their past accomplishments, and they consider bragging to be in bad form (rightfully so). Self-marketing, however, is not as much about past accomplishments as it is about future potential. True, there is a correlation between past accomplishments and future potential, but self-marketing should emphasize what you can do for someone else. Past accomplishments are merely the supporting evidence.
Second, many workers do not know what their real strengths, gifts, and passions are. For many years, they have defined themselved by their job description rather than their strengths and interests. Employers are less interested in your previous titles and job descriptions. They want to know that you have the skills and passion to do the job.
If your job serach has you looking to the past, you need to shift your thinking to the future. I believe that everyone has a unique purpose in life.
What were you created to do?
Thanks to the Be Excellent blog for pointing me to this article in Entrepreneur Magazine. In the article, Robert Kiyosaki stresses that businesses need to hire people with a passion for their mission.
Hiring the right people — the people with the right passion — is one of the toughest jobs for any business. But maybe not the toughest. The toughest job may be getting rid of the wrong people. Hiring for skills will get an organization only so far. Hiring for passion will help the organization excel.
Kiyosaki says his rich dad told him
“Hire people who are mission-driven — people who share your vision. If you don’t, your business will struggle, or may never even get off the ground.”
In other words… if you own a butcher shop, don’t hire vegetarians.
Implication for Job Seekers
Why is it so challenging for businesses to hire for passion? One reason, I suspect, is that many job applicants don’t know or cannot convey their passion.
If you don’t know what your passion is, how will your employer — or potential employer — ever know? You need to know what you are passionate about, and be able to effectively express your passion. If you don’t know what your passion is, there are many tools to help you. One such tool I just came across recently is a new book by Dan Miller entitled 48 Days to the Work You Love.
You should also consider finding a coach who can help you discover your strengths and passions.
What were you created to do?
Developing an online presence is an effective way to establish your professional brand, expand your network, and create opportunities. In fact, many writers now consider an online presence to be an essential – not optional — component of a candidate’s portfolio.
One of the questions that often comes up is about “youthful indiscretions.” What about those posts, comments, and photos that may have been posted years ago?
I came across this article in the Washington Post recently about a newly minted lawyer named Kiwi Camera. And not just any lawyer — a magna cum laude Harvard graduate. He cannot land a job as a law school professor because, at age 16, he wrote racist remarks in a summary of a Supreme Court decision that was subsequently posted to the Web. Despite his otherwise stellar resume, his racist comments are now part of his online profile.
Lest you think this is an unfair indictment for a youthful indiscretion, consider one student’s perspective:
“We shouldn’t have to be put in a position where we have to defend [racist comments] by our professor.”
Given the choice bewteen two equally qualified candidates, why would a potential employer risk the potential embarrassment and liability of hiring such a candidate?
They wouldn’t.
So that raises the next question: Why would a student or job seeker sabotage his or her online profile by posting objectionable material on a blog, a personal web site, or a social networking site like LinkedIn, Facebook, or MySpace?
They shouldn’t.
This reminds of a story about an old man teaching a boy about the impact of his words. He told the boy to pluck the feathers from a chicken and spread them along a path. When the boy finished and returned, the old man told him to now g and retrieve every feather and put them back in the chicken. The boy complained, saying that many of the feathers had blown away or been picked up and could never be retrieved. And even if he could, it would be impossible to put them back on the chicken.
So it is with our words — once departed, they can never be retrieved or taken back.
Thanks to Alexandra at Water Cooler Wisdom for introducing me to InterviewTrue.
This is an online service that allows people to practice their interviewing skills. You can pick from more than 1,000 common interview questions. An interviewer appears on screen and you answer the questions just as if you were in an interview session. You can then review and critique your interview style. And if you’re really brave, you can share it with friends, family, and associates to get valuable feedback and coaching.
The price is very reasonable: 6 months unlimited access for $19.95. You will need a computer equipped with a web cam, a microphone, and Internet Explorer (not Mac or Firefox friendly). I have not tried it yet, so I’d love to hear from someone who has. If you try it, let me know how you like it.
What defines a “successful” career?
- Money?
- Power?
- Prestige?
- Popularity?
Too often we define success by looking in the review mirror. We look at our accomplishments to see how our peers and employers value our contribution — measured by our salary, position, or influence. In other words, we let the market be our measure of success or greatness.
Seth Godin talks about this phenomenon as it relates to a work of art, or a song. If the picture sells for a lot of money, or if the musician becomes really famous, our society tends to assume that there must be some inherent quality that makes it great. He says
“After all, what makes a great work of art should have nothing at all to do with how much it sells for and everything to do with how it makes you feel. I think the game here is in the definition of ‘great.’ And what society has chosen…is that ‘great’ means successful. Not the other way around.”
We tend to do the same thing with our careers. We spend too much energy focusing on how to be “great” instead of how to be “successful.” We find success by using our gifts, talents, and passion to help or serve others. We find success by discovering and doing what we are created to do.
What are you created to do?
Good news for the job market: both workers and managers expect strong job growth in the coming months. The February Hudson Index indicates that 32 percent of workers (up 2 percent) and 33 percent of managers (up 3 percent) expect their organization to add jobs in the near future.
In addition, a record low of 14 percent expect layoffs in the coming months.
Of course, the numbers are based on employee perceptions, but it does suggest that employees are becoming increasingly optimistic about the job market. I’d be interested in hearing your perception of the job market where you live (hint: leave a comment).
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UPDATE: I just came across another interesting Hudson survey:
- 21 percent of employees beleive they will earn “significantly” more in 2007 than in 2006
- 42 percent of employees expect to earn “a little” more in 2007 than in 2006
Thus, about two-thirds of employees have a positive outlook on their financial situation.
Many people have a few blemishes on their credit history, but few job candidates are aware that a low credit score can prevent them from getting a job. It is becoming increasingly important for job candidates to polish and protect their credit scores in the same way they do their grade point averages and other resources.
This is especially true for recent college graduates, many of whom live on credit cards and student loans for several years. Upon graduation, they discover that the mountain of debt they incurred to get a great job may be a reason for them not getting a job. While bad credit alone is not disqualifying, when given the choice of two equally qualified candidates whose only differene is their credit scores, an employer will likely opt for the candiate with the better credit score.
A candidate’s credit history reveals his abilty to manage his finances and resources effectively, which is very important in positions that require working with money — such as banking, accounting, and finance. But more and more employers are viewing money management as a strong indication of character, and may be concerened that a high debt load could interefere with a person’s abilty to focus and perform job functions effectively.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), thirty-five percent of employers used credit checks as part of their pre-employment screening process in 2004, up from nineteen percent just 8 years earlier. And there is every reason to believe that this trend will continue. Consider:
- The Internet provides increasingly easy and inexpensive (as little as $10 in some cases) access to credit information,
- Since 9-11, employers have become much more sensitive to workplace security, and
- With employees changing jobs more frequently, there is an ample supply of candidates allowing emloyers to be more selective.
Job candidates should know their credit score before they start job searching. You can get a free credit report once a year at AnnualCreditReport.com. A score of 620 or higher is generally considered good, and 700 or higher is considered excellent. If your score is less than 620, you should be prepared to address those issues with prospective employers. If they ask persmission to check your credit history (they must ask permission), be upfront about any credit problems you’ve had and explain what you’ve done to correct them.
And finally, job candidates should understand how to protect their credit scores. Just because you’ve paid your bills on time, you may still get dinged if you’ve just applied for a car loan and several credit cards, for instance. Even closing inactive accounts may have an adverse affect on your score. For more information, you may want to look at the “Credit Score Tips and Advice” blog. It is written by a former credit counselor who has a heart for helping people manage their credit.
We’ve all heard the admonition: “It’s not what you know. It’s who you know.”
Indeed, a recent Hudson Survey found that more than half of all employees found their current job through someone they know, suggesting that it does in fact boil down to…
Who you know.
I’ve heard many job seekers complain that “It’s all about who you know” and “You can’t get a job if you don’t know somebody on the inside.”
While there is some truth to this, I do not believe it is the whole truth. In some cases, “who you know” may be enough to secure the job, but in most cases it only gets your foot in the door. The people you know can help you get you the interview that others can’t, but it is “what you know” in the interview that secures the job.
Truth #1: Who you know gets you an interview.
Truth #2: What you know gets you a job.
