Do you absolutely loathe job interviews? Does the word “interview’ send a decidedly ugly chill down your spine? Do you experience a complete mind freeze when prospective employers start asking questions?
Most people put job interviewing on the top of their ‘not-so-favorite’ list of things that we all have to do. It’s a necessary evil in a career, and for most, it becomes a much-feared process.
The secret to nailing successful interviews has everything to do with attitude. If you let fear rule you, it will. Candidates who have the best results in this arena are those that have the right mindset when they approach the interviewing process. Can you imagine a successful CEO going into an interview with sagging confidence levels, worried about their credentials, and being stressed about how they might answer a question? Certainly not! Being confident and having a positive attitude should make you actually anticipate interviews…this is the point in the job search process where a person should be the most excited about a prospective position and show why they are the best fit. In short, this is when you get to ‘rock and roll’!
Instead, most job searchers get caught in the possibility of “What if I do a bad job interviewing?” or “What if I don’t have the skills they need?” which initiates feelings of fear and self-doubt, and can effectively lead to a less-than-stellar interview performance. This, in turn, impacts your answers. Many job seekers end up feeling like they are defending themselves in an interview, rather than showing how their career assets can benefit a prospective employer. This is the wrong approach – it’s all about the attitude adjustment.
Here are a few secrets taken from the CEO interview rule book on how to portray yourself as the top candidate in this part of the job search process:
1) Engineer a completely different mindset on how you approach interviews.
Believe it or not, I am one of those crazy people who absolutely LOVES the interviewing process. My attitude is: “Hit me with your best shot.” I see this as a learning experience on how I can think on my feet while under fire. There is no such thing as a BAD interview experience; it is what you do with it that determines how the next one goes.
How many times have you realized afterwards that there were some questions that you could have answered better? The key is to write that question down and add it to your interviewing arsenal so you nail it the next time. This has proven to be an invaluable way of gaining insight into the answers I provided, and assessing how strong and relevant they were to the interviewer’s questions. Learning from your previous mistakes are very powerful lessons indeed.
2) Know your value.
To get started in reshaping your interview attitude, you need to understand and be centered on your value. What is it that you offer that beats out the competition? Why should the employer hire you over the next person standing in line behind you? The résumé development process is a good way to work this out. Building value statements and showing action then results really provides a hiring manager a good roadmap of what you are able to accomplish. The critical part is to get those value statements on paper and then ingrain them into your psyche, allowing yourself the opportunity to really feel and understand what you have to offer to prospective employers. Once completed, you are now ready to go sit in the interview hot seat. After all, this is about selling yourself. The best sales people are ones who believe in what they are selling. If you don’t believe in yourself or know your value, you sure as heck aren’t going to sell employer on yourself as a candidate!
3) Do the research.
Doing your research about a company is another way to gain confidence in the interview process. The more knowledge you have about a company, the more literate you are in their corporate culture and background.
Understanding employer viewpoints, concerns, challenges, and opportunities will help shape your answers. Some employers have outright asked me, “What do you know about us?” or “Why do you want this job?” The more detail you can provide about the employer in answering these types of questions, the more resourceful you come across as being by having done your homework. This plays to your competence and gives you the boost of self-assurance that can propel you to being the top candidate. Plus, it feels pretty awesome to knock an employer’s socks off with some obscure fact about their company they would’ve never guessed that you knew!
4) Tell a story to make a point.
Being a master storyteller is also part of the magic formula for knocking the interview out of the proverbial ball park. If you are providing static, robotic, and formulaic answers to questions, that doesn’t give employers any insight to your approach, experience, resourcefulness, or expertise. Responding to interview questions and providing concrete, highly relevant answers that demonstrate your ability to execute job duties in the form of a story are probably the most convincing way to win over employers.
Gather up potential interview questions and then quiz yourself on how you would answer each. Then think about a specific story that you can cite that demonstrates how you solved problems or made a difference in the company. These are your story points, and are critical to painting the picture of how your skill sets and experience can benefit the potential employer.
5) Practice public speaking.
Does the mere thought of getting in front of an interview panel make you break out into a sweat? Toastmasters International is a phenomenal proving ground where you can grow your public speaking skills in a welcoming, supportive environment. If you are not comfortable presenting to others, this is an imperative skill to master before heading off to an interview. Toastmasters International is a great place to take some of the sting out of public speaking and grow your comfort zone within an interview setting. By getting more experience speaking on the fly and talking in front of groups, this will improve your abilities to come across as extremely succinct and polished in interviews.
Overall, when it comes down to reality, CEOs walk into interviews brimming with confidence, ideas and optimism, and you can too! The truth is, you are the CEO of Yourself, Inc. You are a unique sum of your experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, and shifting your whole mindset about job interviews can radically change this from a scary, distasteful process to an uplifting, fun experience.
Now go knock your next interview out of the ball park!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Résumé Format- Sink or Swim
I just booked a client who had been tinkering with their résumé, even after another writer had worked on it.
The result? A rather busy mess that actually sounded pretty good once I got past the entire jumble. The key was that I had to really focus hard on trying to get past the confusing design elements to get to the 'meat' of what he was presenting.
No employer is going to want to take a lot of time to navigate messily-laid out résumés. Either you ‘hook’ an employer in the first six seconds, or you don’t, and a lot of that has to do not only with what you say, but how you lay it out in this document.
Apparently, this person has been sending the document out for the past six months with no results… and I have a very good idea as to why that job seeker hasn’t gotten any responses!
Sleek, clean résumés that have the right amount of aesthetic white space are innately more attractive to readers. Getting the proper look and feel takes a bit of spatial panache... and not everyone who is a good writer has a good grasp of graphics, and vice versa.
Some tips to remember when designing a résumé is to remember this: What are the major categories of information that you are presenting? Each category below should be considered a different ‘block’ of information, so these are natural breakpoints in terms of design elements (so you can break them out separately):
1) Contact info
2) Positioning statement
3) Career expertise (skill set)
4) Professional Experience or Relevant History
5) Education
6) Affiliations / Involvement
Creating space between each one of these blocks helps alert the reader that the previous section is now complete and that you are moving on.
Other things to consider when designing a résumé include the type of font you are using, the size of font, and consistent formatting throughout the document. That includes things like if you begin listing your work experience like this:
Supersmart University – Washington, D.C.
Research Assistant, 1994-1999
Every design element remains the same that you would use for listing subsequent jobs – including the different types of dashes, italicizing the job title, and including the state (or district) abbreviation.
Little things do matter, and if you end up not thoroughly going through this document and standardizing how you present information, or even have multiple types of fonts that don’t mesh well, your entire résumé can come across as distracted, unprofessional, and quite unappetizing to prospective employers.
By working to build an efficient use of space within your résumé, and combining clear, concise and accomplishments-oriented statements, you have just boosted your chances of making it to the interview pile!
The result? A rather busy mess that actually sounded pretty good once I got past the entire jumble. The key was that I had to really focus hard on trying to get past the confusing design elements to get to the 'meat' of what he was presenting.
No employer is going to want to take a lot of time to navigate messily-laid out résumés. Either you ‘hook’ an employer in the first six seconds, or you don’t, and a lot of that has to do not only with what you say, but how you lay it out in this document.
Apparently, this person has been sending the document out for the past six months with no results… and I have a very good idea as to why that job seeker hasn’t gotten any responses!
Sleek, clean résumés that have the right amount of aesthetic white space are innately more attractive to readers. Getting the proper look and feel takes a bit of spatial panache... and not everyone who is a good writer has a good grasp of graphics, and vice versa.
Some tips to remember when designing a résumé is to remember this: What are the major categories of information that you are presenting? Each category below should be considered a different ‘block’ of information, so these are natural breakpoints in terms of design elements (so you can break them out separately):
1) Contact info
2) Positioning statement
3) Career expertise (skill set)
4) Professional Experience or Relevant History
5) Education
6) Affiliations / Involvement
Creating space between each one of these blocks helps alert the reader that the previous section is now complete and that you are moving on.
Other things to consider when designing a résumé include the type of font you are using, the size of font, and consistent formatting throughout the document. That includes things like if you begin listing your work experience like this:
Supersmart University – Washington, D.C.
Research Assistant, 1994-1999
Every design element remains the same that you would use for listing subsequent jobs – including the different types of dashes, italicizing the job title, and including the state (or district) abbreviation.
Little things do matter, and if you end up not thoroughly going through this document and standardizing how you present information, or even have multiple types of fonts that don’t mesh well, your entire résumé can come across as distracted, unprofessional, and quite unappetizing to prospective employers.
By working to build an efficient use of space within your résumé, and combining clear, concise and accomplishments-oriented statements, you have just boosted your chances of making it to the interview pile!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Developing Your Elevator Pitch: Adding Purpose and Value to Your Career
One of the questions I ask in consultation with my clients is why they feel that they make a better (insert target job field/position here) than the other candidates.
The funny thing is, from CEOs to entry level workers, 90% usually are stopped cold with this question. They simply can't answer this in succinct, value-driven terms. And that's a real problem.
Knowing and feeling comfortable with your worth in terms of value to your current employer and prospective employers is a powerful tool in a job search. The proverbial "30-second commercial" or "elevator pitch" holds true today and need to be integrated into every aspect of your job search arsenal.
I always coach people to operate from a place of authenticity, honesty and integrity in developing their resume and cover letter, and getting a firm handle on one's bench strengths is a good place to start when searching for one's personal value proposition.
Each of us, in our heart of hearts, know by what standards we are measured in the work that we do. We know when we are doing a good job, and we also know when things definitely need improvement. For those who are self-employed, this becomes completely self-directed, and your measurement tool is from the feedback that your clients are willing to share with you.
But when it comes to the point of distilling this into a personal brand /personal statement about what we can offer others with our vast array of career assets, this becomes a painful task. The problem, to a certain degree, is that we live in a society where it's considered impolite to 'boast'. Women especially have difficulty in this arena; whereas a man would have no problem reaching for the brass ring, women hang back, worried about 'rocking the boat' or that they aren't ready yet for that next step, consequently 'overthinking' how they might state their value.
Here are some ways to build your own personal 'elevator pitch' and value statement:
1) Draw up a list of your personal attributes that you consider strengths, and brainstorm words that adequately describe what your work habits are in active terms
2) Research keywords commonly found in the types of jobs you are targeting or mirror your employment background
3) Spend time using both of these lists to develop a personal branding statement that marries your personal characteristics with the key skills needed to fulfill your target position. Tackle this as establishing your personal career mission statement. What do you offer someone who is interested in integrating your expertise into their company?
Be aware that refining and tweaking your statement is a continuous process, and can also change over time. As an example, over the course of my career, the specific functionality of my personal brand has changed, but what has remained constant is my commitment to high quality work and exceeding expectations. So in my case, this would be an important point to weave into a statement that is reflective of what I would offer an employer.
Once developed, you can find many different applications for your elevator pitch. Use it in job interviews. Post it on your LinkedIn profile. Tweet it. Include it on your Web site and use this as a basis to write a cover letter. The key is to COMPEL people to want to get to know you or hire you, and as every advertiser would affirm: You need to show the audience what's in it for them. And the best way to get to that point is to understand what you have to offer and how it stands out above the other competing options.
Taking this tact will give you power and purpose in your job search, and also provide a clear path on how you define yourself within a work environment. How you positively project and perceive yourself makes a big impact on everyone around you.
The funny thing is, from CEOs to entry level workers, 90% usually are stopped cold with this question. They simply can't answer this in succinct, value-driven terms. And that's a real problem.
Knowing and feeling comfortable with your worth in terms of value to your current employer and prospective employers is a powerful tool in a job search. The proverbial "30-second commercial" or "elevator pitch" holds true today and need to be integrated into every aspect of your job search arsenal.
I always coach people to operate from a place of authenticity, honesty and integrity in developing their resume and cover letter, and getting a firm handle on one's bench strengths is a good place to start when searching for one's personal value proposition.
Each of us, in our heart of hearts, know by what standards we are measured in the work that we do. We know when we are doing a good job, and we also know when things definitely need improvement. For those who are self-employed, this becomes completely self-directed, and your measurement tool is from the feedback that your clients are willing to share with you.
But when it comes to the point of distilling this into a personal brand /personal statement about what we can offer others with our vast array of career assets, this becomes a painful task. The problem, to a certain degree, is that we live in a society where it's considered impolite to 'boast'. Women especially have difficulty in this arena; whereas a man would have no problem reaching for the brass ring, women hang back, worried about 'rocking the boat' or that they aren't ready yet for that next step, consequently 'overthinking' how they might state their value.
Here are some ways to build your own personal 'elevator pitch' and value statement:
1) Draw up a list of your personal attributes that you consider strengths, and brainstorm words that adequately describe what your work habits are in active terms
2) Research keywords commonly found in the types of jobs you are targeting or mirror your employment background
3) Spend time using both of these lists to develop a personal branding statement that marries your personal characteristics with the key skills needed to fulfill your target position. Tackle this as establishing your personal career mission statement. What do you offer someone who is interested in integrating your expertise into their company?
Be aware that refining and tweaking your statement is a continuous process, and can also change over time. As an example, over the course of my career, the specific functionality of my personal brand has changed, but what has remained constant is my commitment to high quality work and exceeding expectations. So in my case, this would be an important point to weave into a statement that is reflective of what I would offer an employer.
Once developed, you can find many different applications for your elevator pitch. Use it in job interviews. Post it on your LinkedIn profile. Tweet it. Include it on your Web site and use this as a basis to write a cover letter. The key is to COMPEL people to want to get to know you or hire you, and as every advertiser would affirm: You need to show the audience what's in it for them. And the best way to get to that point is to understand what you have to offer and how it stands out above the other competing options.
Taking this tact will give you power and purpose in your job search, and also provide a clear path on how you define yourself within a work environment. How you positively project and perceive yourself makes a big impact on everyone around you.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Show ACTION in your resume!
When I teach classes on writing resumes, sometimes, to get a laugh out of the audience, I adopt a 'Ben Stein' tone (ala "Ferris Bueller's Day Off) to provide a dramatic example of how boring people's resumes can be: "I did this, and I did that, and that's that."
Yuck!
No one wants to read a dry boring resume and try to figure out the person behind the piece of paper. Which is all the more reason why you need to integrate a proactive, dynamic voice to this document!
The real key behind adding energy behind the words is to look for active voice words to start your accomplishment statements (under your employment experience). Starting off sentences with words like, "Engineered", "Conducted", "Transformed", "Spearheaded" or "Boosted" add that extra 'oomph' in your accomplishments. You can successfully frame your accomplishments around job duties, but tell the prospective employer what you did, how you did it and what the end result was to your previous employer.
Being grounded in how the work you did and results you obtained fit into the overall organizational impact. This shows your leadership and vision, and speaks directly to how you are able to grasp the big picture and deliver valuable outcomes to employers in terms that they understand.
Most for-profit companies want to know how you can make money, save money or save time. Non-profit organizations want to know how you can expand services, reach more people, expand fundraising streams and impact the constituency they serve. Conversely, government agencies focus on regulation, compliance and driving projects.
Your goal is to get at the root of what your target company is looking for, frame what you did in active voice terms, and build the VALUE of what you've accomplished.
This alone is of great value to employers, and demonstrates how much of an active asset you are to the prospective employer!
Yuck!
No one wants to read a dry boring resume and try to figure out the person behind the piece of paper. Which is all the more reason why you need to integrate a proactive, dynamic voice to this document!
The real key behind adding energy behind the words is to look for active voice words to start your accomplishment statements (under your employment experience). Starting off sentences with words like, "Engineered", "Conducted", "Transformed", "Spearheaded" or "Boosted" add that extra 'oomph' in your accomplishments. You can successfully frame your accomplishments around job duties, but tell the prospective employer what you did, how you did it and what the end result was to your previous employer.
Being grounded in how the work you did and results you obtained fit into the overall organizational impact. This shows your leadership and vision, and speaks directly to how you are able to grasp the big picture and deliver valuable outcomes to employers in terms that they understand.
Most for-profit companies want to know how you can make money, save money or save time. Non-profit organizations want to know how you can expand services, reach more people, expand fundraising streams and impact the constituency they serve. Conversely, government agencies focus on regulation, compliance and driving projects.
Your goal is to get at the root of what your target company is looking for, frame what you did in active voice terms, and build the VALUE of what you've accomplished.
This alone is of great value to employers, and demonstrates how much of an active asset you are to the prospective employer!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Cover Letters – The Icing on the Cake
I get a lot of questions from clients about whether or not they should include a cover letter when sending in their résumé. My response is “Would you consider making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the jelly?” The point being that the two go hand-in-hand, and unless a job position announcement specifically states that you should not send in a cover letter along with your résumé, you should ALWAYS include one.
Why?
There are multiple reasons. As more companies are using applicant tracking software to scan for job keywords, the cover letter also can get fed into this system as well. Building up your hit ratio in this system is paramount to catapulting you into the next level of the screening process.
Additionally, the cover letter serves as the compelling reason as to why the employer should hire you- it’s your opportunity to make the case as to why you are a superior candidate over other applicants. The résumé presents your value proposition in terms of facts. The cover letter can provide the softer skill side where you can talk about your drive, initiative, attention to detail and how you are willing to go the extra mile.
But actually writing a cover letter can be deceptively easy, and many people get trapped writing the wrong thing. Many people fail in this activity because they simply end up focusing entirely on themselves. The truth is that in a cover letter, while it is about you, it’s actually really about THEM (the employer).
Here are a couple of straightforward tricks to use when developing an effective cover letter that addresses an employer’s needs:
1) Personalize your letter. Don’t know the human resource manager? Use your network or look them up on LinkedIn.com. A personalized cover letter always gets more attention than a ‘Dear Human Resource Manager’ or ‘To Whom it May Concern’ type of letter.
2) Always include a reference to the specific position you are applying for in the cover letter. Here’s an example of the format:
Date
Contact Name, Title
Company
Address
City, State, Zip
Re: Position Title and Reference Number (if applicable)
3) Create immediate interest. Use a compelling ‘hook’ to spur the employer to read on. You can relate to something that is of interest to the employer by making a direct appeal or providing an interesting fact relevant to that company. The key is to make a connection to what is of interest to THEM!
4) Write to your audience. Demonstrate familiarity and knowledge about their company… this can stroke their ego while at the same time subliminally demonstrating your resourcefulness by digging up information about their company. Find out what types of challenges that your target company might be facing, and then provide yourself as the solution to those problems. Advertisers use this ‘problem-solution’ tactic all the time!
5) Talk about what you can do for the employer. Focus on the target company, versus rattling off a litany of ‘I’ve done this, and I’ve done that…now hire me!” It doesn’t work that way. You should be into your third paragraph in the cover letter before you start touting yourself, and even at that point, you need to relate specifically what you offer to what they need. Avoid a lot of ‘I’ or ‘my’ statements!
6) Use keywords in your cover letter like you do in your résumé. These can generate hits and adds to the employer’s perception of your relevancy.
7) Don’t forget to close the sale. Most people, whether in their cover letter or at the end of an interview, forget to ask for the sale. You are selling your services to help their company, and your close in a cover letter is just as important as your opening. Don’t be afraid to ask them to hire you!
8) Avoid ‘regurgitating’ your résumé in your cover letter. Remember, the résumé are the facts, and the cover letter is how you make the case as to why they should hire you!
Hopefully, these tips will help you understand that the cover letter is practically equal with the résumé… they go together and act as compliments to provide a tight, focused and informative snapshot about what you offer the employer.
Why?
There are multiple reasons. As more companies are using applicant tracking software to scan for job keywords, the cover letter also can get fed into this system as well. Building up your hit ratio in this system is paramount to catapulting you into the next level of the screening process.
Additionally, the cover letter serves as the compelling reason as to why the employer should hire you- it’s your opportunity to make the case as to why you are a superior candidate over other applicants. The résumé presents your value proposition in terms of facts. The cover letter can provide the softer skill side where you can talk about your drive, initiative, attention to detail and how you are willing to go the extra mile.
But actually writing a cover letter can be deceptively easy, and many people get trapped writing the wrong thing. Many people fail in this activity because they simply end up focusing entirely on themselves. The truth is that in a cover letter, while it is about you, it’s actually really about THEM (the employer).
Here are a couple of straightforward tricks to use when developing an effective cover letter that addresses an employer’s needs:
1) Personalize your letter. Don’t know the human resource manager? Use your network or look them up on LinkedIn.com. A personalized cover letter always gets more attention than a ‘Dear Human Resource Manager’ or ‘To Whom it May Concern’ type of letter.
2) Always include a reference to the specific position you are applying for in the cover letter. Here’s an example of the format:
Date
Contact Name, Title
Company
Address
City, State, Zip
Re: Position Title and Reference Number (if applicable)
3) Create immediate interest. Use a compelling ‘hook’ to spur the employer to read on. You can relate to something that is of interest to the employer by making a direct appeal or providing an interesting fact relevant to that company. The key is to make a connection to what is of interest to THEM!
4) Write to your audience. Demonstrate familiarity and knowledge about their company… this can stroke their ego while at the same time subliminally demonstrating your resourcefulness by digging up information about their company. Find out what types of challenges that your target company might be facing, and then provide yourself as the solution to those problems. Advertisers use this ‘problem-solution’ tactic all the time!
5) Talk about what you can do for the employer. Focus on the target company, versus rattling off a litany of ‘I’ve done this, and I’ve done that…now hire me!” It doesn’t work that way. You should be into your third paragraph in the cover letter before you start touting yourself, and even at that point, you need to relate specifically what you offer to what they need. Avoid a lot of ‘I’ or ‘my’ statements!
6) Use keywords in your cover letter like you do in your résumé. These can generate hits and adds to the employer’s perception of your relevancy.
7) Don’t forget to close the sale. Most people, whether in their cover letter or at the end of an interview, forget to ask for the sale. You are selling your services to help their company, and your close in a cover letter is just as important as your opening. Don’t be afraid to ask them to hire you!
8) Avoid ‘regurgitating’ your résumé in your cover letter. Remember, the résumé are the facts, and the cover letter is how you make the case as to why they should hire you!
Hopefully, these tips will help you understand that the cover letter is practically equal with the résumé… they go together and act as compliments to provide a tight, focused and informative snapshot about what you offer the employer.
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