Asking for Honest Feedback

You can repeat your mistakes or learn from them. That’s up to you. Life’s lessons are many and varied. Some are easier to understand than others.

When it comes to interviewing it’s hard to know what comment, question, response, smile, frown, or explanation got in the way of your winning first prize. There are too many X’s and Y’s, too many unknowns, and too little opportunity to find out what worked and what didn’t.

To be or not to be: Interviewers base their hiring decisions on a variety of technical and interpersonal statements and impressions that emanate from the applicants’ ability to present skills, strengths, and contributions in cogent, convincing, compelling sound bites. Those who are selected come across as open, goal focused and confident while not appearing assumptive, arrogant, or overly ambitious.

Hiring decisions can be imprecise and difficult to justify, which is why even the most objective interviewers would rather not get into extended discussions about the finer points of their process with applicants who didn’t make the grade.

So what can you do to improve on your ability to make favorable impressions?  Practice with individuals you trust that are willing and able to provide you objective and subjective, constructive, honest, direct feedback and insight regarding how you can improve the style and substance of your interview.

Before you involve appropriate acquaintances, friends or family in your pursuit, assess your level of openness to different perspectives and your willingness to do something with what you hear. If you’re not prepared, don’t start.

If you’re ready and so are they, establish the ground rules: when you’ll meet and how often, what’s fair game and what isn’t, and if compensation is involved, how much? Establish an exit strategy. A great idea can sour quickly if either or both participants aren’t as enamored with the process as they thought they’d be.

What’s your starting point? Your ability to describe the job you want and the experience, strengths and abilities you have that enable you to be successful doing it. If you haven’t figured that out you’re not ready for prime time.

What’s the responsibility of the feedback provider? To play the role of interviewer, asking direct and probing questions about your current expectations, perceived value and future aspirations, asking you to describe your setbacks as well as your successes.

What’s the process? Feedback providers ask the questions, listen to your responses and feed back to you the variety of impressions they derive from what you say. If their impressions are positive, you keep going; if their reactions are mixed or negative, brainstorm and experiment with better ways to respond to the question. Practice your changes, don’t memorize them, and when your interviewer-coach gives you the thumbs up, move to the next set of questions.

For feedback to be helpful it should be specific, behavior based, and descriptive. In other words, you want to see and hear yourself as you are seen and heard. Here’s an example:

When I asked you to describe your worst boss this is what you said:

“He made me angry”; “he made me feel badly”; “there was nothing I could do”.

As you spoke, you slumped in your chair, looked fatigued, and your face crumpled as though you might cry. I had the impression that in that circumstance you saw yourself as a victim; that you felt helpless and unable to choose differently.

If I were an employer I’d want to hire someone with the experience and capability of making mature choices in difficult situations. Try again: how would you describe your worst boss in a way that illustrates your ability to deal effectively under adverse conditions?

If you want to learn from your mistakes, ask for honest feedback.

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Yes! You may use this article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started he own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.

Feedback in the Interview

When it comes right down to it, you don’t know what you don’t know. When it comes to interviewing, you don’t know what you’re missing when you don’t get feedback about how you’re doing; your presentation, articulation, clarity of purpose, listening skills, and ability to respond to the ambiguity of open- ended questions in ways that make sense and advance your case.

If you’re offered the job, you’re not apt to care about what didn’t work. If you’re not made the offer it’s highly likely you’ll want to know why and what you need to do differently so that the job is yours, should you want to accept it.

The people most apt to know and least apt to tell, are the individuals conducting the interview and making the decisions. You can ask for feedback, but most interviewers steer away from those conversations, fearing that they will turn from requests for enlightenment to no holds barred disagreements.

If you can’t ask interviewers, whom can you ask? Just about anyone who’s been reasonably successful working in positions similar to the ones you’d like to have. Are you apt to get the information you want? That depends on how you define feedback and the confidence and willingness the would- be giver has in providing it.

What does it take to be good feedback providers? What do you request of them and what are they likely to require of you?

What does it take to be good at giving feedback? The person providing it should be objective and non-judgmental, have the time, competence, and experience necessary to provide it, have an opportunity to observe you or interact with you in an interview or simulation, be candid and considerate, perceive that you are open to constructive feedback and have the desire to act upon it.

What are you likely to request of them? All the above and the honesty to tell you if they’d rather not participate.

What ought they to require of you? Your definition of feedback, why you want it, how you’d like to receive it, and what you intend to do with it; your respectful appreciation of their perspective, your willingness to listen and your guarantee that you will not argue with them or resent them for having provided what you said you wanted.

Assuming that you’re practicing your interviews with individuals who are willing and able to provide you non-judgmental, accurate feedback that enables you to see yourself as they see you, you’ll benefit most if they can provide it to you in visual, descriptive terms, the kind you’d get if you were watching yourself on television. Here’s an example.

“When I asked you to describe your five- year plan your body slumped

and your face lost color. You took several seconds to respond and when you did your voice sounded weak and lacked energy or enthusiasm. I therefore assumed that you weren’t prepared for the question and that prompted me to ask other questions that had to do with vision and mission.”

As important as it is to see yourself as others see you, it helps to hear

yourself as others hear you. For example…

“When I asked you to give me examples of when you had dealt effectively with a difficult boss, you answered by telling me about a boss who made you angry, how your anger caused you to retaliate, and how your retaliation caused you to get fired. In other words, you talked yourself into a problem I didn’t know you had. That resulted in my asking you questions that took you in a direction you said you didn’t want to go. All that happened because you didn’t answer the original question.”

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Yes! You may use this article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started he own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.

Basic Interviewing Mistakes

In life, little things can become big things. In job search, little things are the big things. Last week I described some big mistakes that job seekers make and asked you to compare them to the do’s and don’ts you’ve been practicing.

Here are a few more, just to keep you thinking:

What to wear: How to dress is a matter of concern to many interviewees who ask what they should wear if it’s casual Friday (or Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday) or if their chosen workplace doesn’t seem to care what people wear. Play it safe: Whether you’re on a formal interview or informally networking, respect the person who’s taken time to talk with you about your career and dress professionally. That suggests that you are well groomed, clean, fresh, pressed, jacket and dress slacks for men, suited skirt or pants-suit for women. If you wear jewelry, keep it simple. If you smoke or wear a fragrance, air-out. No sense triggering an asthma attack.

Thank you letters: If you send one (a good thing to do) make it work for you. Thank the individuals involved for taking their time to discuss with you the key challenges facing their organization and the role you can play in addressing them. Reiterate your ability to make an immediate difference and your strong interest in the position.

“This is a job I can do and want to do for you and for your company and I look forward to hearing from you.”

Develop a solid close: Most applicants spend so much time worrying about the front end of the interview (what will I wear? what will I say? what will they say?) and what happens next (did they like me? will they call me? should I call them?). that they don’t think enough about the importance of patience, pacing, listening, asking open-ended questions, overcoming objections, responding strategically, and asking for the job.

Negotiation: You haven’t completed your interview prep until you know the fair market value for what you bring to the table. In other words, what’s the going salary for people with your education, experience and track record, in your geographic area, for the position you want and the accountability that accompanies it? Once you know that range, you’re ready to discuss their offer. If it’s lower than what you can reasonable expect, you have room to negotiate. Don’t know how? Try something like this:

“Mr. Jones, I appreciate your inviting me to be part of your team and I’m excited about going to work for you. It’s a job I can do and one I want to do. The only thing that keeps me from immediately signing is the salary. Given my experience, track record of accomplishment, and the accountability that goes with this position, the offer is less than I had anticipated. Can we continue our conversation? If not today, then tomorrow?”

Then sit quietly and patiently and let Mr. Jones respond. Both of you need time to percolate so don’t rush to judgment. Chances are, you’ll get an offer that’s better than the one that’s currently on the table.

Show up: Whether you know it or not and whether they tell you or not, you’re on probation for the first thirty to ninety days that you’re on the job. If you interview over your head, saying you can accomplish great things based on your history, and your history’s bogus, you’re going to be history.

Bottom line, tell the truth. Do an honest self-assessment and find a job that requires what you do best, not what you do least well. Focus on what you know; what you enjoy doing, and what you want to continue to develop through experience, training, and education.

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Yes! You may use this article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started he own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.

Killing the Interview

What are the mistakes that job seekers make and how do they compare to the do’s and don’t you’ve been practicing? Check these out and you decide:

Smile. For some, that big bright toothy smile comes naturally. These job applicants use their pearly whites to send the message that they’re genuinely happy to be in your presence and you in theirs. As an interviewer you are easily drawn to their warm and expressive nature because they appear interested in what you’re saying, even if they don’t understand it. It’s not at all surprising that they get through to the next round. After all, what’s not to like?

For other applicants, smiling is an effort, an afterthought. If they smile it’s as forced as it is fleeting. They may be happy to see you but they’re not sending any signals that they’re feeling that way. In fact, they may not be willing to commit to how they feel about you until you prove yourself worthy.  If you’re like most interviewers, you’ll cut them out of the pack before they have a chance to decide.

If you’re among the smile-challenged, you can learn. You can practice. And when you do, put your teeth into it, even if they’re not as many in there as used to be. Smile. Show that you’re the kind of person who is comfortable in the company of few or many and that you want others to feel comfortable around you.

Resumes: If you’re not getting the response you believe your job history meritsand as a result you aren’t getting interviews, there are a few culprits that may be getting in your way. You may be…

Throwing in the kitchen sink, trying to present yourself as someone who’s all things to all people. Instead, focus your resume on what you do best and want to keep doing.

Too ambiguous, confusing the reader, making it hard to know what job you want because your objective is non- specific and your experiences varied. Specify and clarify.

Too technical and too narrow a focus, writing in jargon that only someone familiar with your area of specialization can understand and interpret.  Instead, use language that suggests the applicability of your knowledge and talent to other fields of endeavor.

Too understated by describing yourself in nondescript, uninteresting ways.

Instead, state your objective in goal specific terms, name the job you’re after and the strengths that make you the pick of the litter. Organize your work history so that it supports your objective. Highlight at least three significant accomplishments per job entry.

Cover letters provide you an opportunity to succinctly and enthusiastically sell yourself and demonstrate the personality that a formal resume won’t allow. Cover letters give the reader a greater understanding of your intentions; your strengths, the outcome you seek and the part the reader can play in making that happen.

Attitude. Want to kill an interview? Carry a chip on your shoulder and a scowl that says I’ve been burned before and I’m not going to let that happen again.  It may sound outrageous, that no self-respecting job seeker would do that, but many do, not because it’s what they intend but because something unresolved is stuck in their craw and shows itself at the most inopportune times. Got a bad attitude? Work it out, work it off, and let it go. It’s getting in the way of your enjoying a productive life.

Energy: If you look as though you can’t get up from the chair you’re slumped in, you don’t have it and I don’t know any hiring manager willing to take a chance that you’re going to find it.  Project upbeat, motivated, can do energy, and you’ll improve your chances of getting the job.

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Yes! You may use this article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started he own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.

Interviewing Problems Tackled

Are you having trouble interviewing? If so, join these folks who have emailed examples of their situations and frustrations:

“I’ve gotten feedback that when I interview I come across as remote, even arrogant. I don’t think of myself that way, although I must admit I am smarter than most people I know and I don’t have a real desire to make friends with everyone I meet. That being said, I’ve snagged my share of interviews but have received no offers, so I must be missing out on something important.  What can I say or do that will cause me to appear more engaging?”

Focus on connecting instead of impressing. Make conversation, not combat. Ask questions to learn, not challenge. Understand context before responding.  Lean forward, just a little, and speak personally rather than abstractly. Listen as the interviewer describes the company, the opportunity, and the challenge. Smile, relax, and let the interviewer get to know you.

“I have trouble keeping my mouth shut. I’ve been told that I can talk myself in and out of jobs in the same sitting. I don’t know when to quit! I guess I get too excited or nervous, particularly if the interviewer doesn’t say much and is hard to read. What advice do you have for a well meaning (and sometimes loud) blabbermouth?”

It sounds like you are overwhelming interviewers who 1) desire a reasonable and balanced exchange of information; 2) have an inkling you over-talk and under-think and want to test their theory; 3) see you as unaware of your surroundings and 4) perceive you as insensitive or disrespectful. If any or all of the above ring true, you should 1) ask open ended questions and allow interviewers adequate time to answer them; 2) be sure you understand the “why” of the interviewer’s questions before answering the “what”; 3) adjust the volume of your voice to the space in which you’re sitting and 4) be mindful and respectful of the interviewer’s schedule. When time is currency, use it wisely.

“How do you know when the interview’s over? Is dead silence a dead give-away? I’ve been in interviews when the employer seems bored or stops talking after just fifteen or twenty minutes. Should I take that as a sign that I should leave?”

You should take it as a sign that you’re not contributing as much to the discussion as the interviewer expects. Interviewers want applicants to be fully involved; to listen, act interested, project their personalities, and ask good questions. Interviewers expect applicants to demonstrate how they can benefit the company by utilizing their established strengths and proven track records. If your interviews sputter and grind to a halt, it’s up to you to revitalize them.

“I’m not very good at small talk. Don’t like to waste time. I want to get into an interview, make my pitch, hear theirs, and get out. What’s your opinion?”

Take your lead from the interviewer. If he introduces herself in an informal way and asks some “how’s the weather” questions that have little to do with the purpose of the meeting, just relax and respond. He wants you to settle down, lighten up, and establish common ground. You’re on his clock, not yours, so take a deep breath and enjoy the challenge as well as the experience.

“I had a great interview. The employer said I’d hear back from them in a week. Ten days have passed and I haven’t heard a thing. I’ve called once and still no response. What should I do now?”

Write and walk: Write a brief note expressing your appreciation for the interview, your continued interest in the position, and three ways you can add value to their organization. Then keep looking.

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Yes! You may use this article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started he own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.

Interviewing Mistakes

Sam was a candidate for the job but was flabbergasted at being removed from consideration before even getting his interview.  This is Sam’s version of what happened: Sam had a busy morning and as a result, was late getting to his interview. When he arrived, the receptionist asked him to wait for an escort to Human Resources. Several minutes passed before he was accompanied to the interviewer’s office where again he was asked to wait. The interviewer had an emergency that he needed to address.

Sam had scheduled another interview with a company across town and he had one hour remaining to get there on time. As the minutes ticked by Sam grew increasingly concerned that he’d miss it. As his anxiety mounted, so did the edgy attitude he displayed to the HR admin, who was making an effort to placate him. Out of frustration, he tried and failed to gain entrance to the interviewer’s office.  Finally, the interviewer agreed to see him, but didn’t give Sam an opportunity to present anything but his resume, indicating that “he had seen enough,” and over Sam’s heated objections and adamant refusal to leave, had him escorted to the parking lot.

What can you learn from Sam’s debacle? Plenty.

Manage your time wisely. Late arrivals and anxious attitudes are noted by everyone including the interviewer and take the interaction in the wrong direction.

Don’t schedule other appointments within three to four hours of your interview. You need to be available in case your meeting is delayed or the interviewer would like you to meet others on the screening team.

Don’t like to be kept waiting?  Occupy yourself by reading company related materials that are typically provided, or read a business magazine or newspaper.

Don’t cop an attitude and think you can later defend or explain your bad behavior.

It’s understandable that you’re frustrated when you arrive at your scheduled interview, on time, only to find that the interviewer isn’t ready for you. If you want the interview, if you believe you’re a good match to the opportunity, if you believe the company is one where you want to work, let go of your frustration. Let it go or it will reveal itself to those who observe you, even casually, and it can hurt your chances for success.

How you react to a negative situation begins with what you think about it. If you want to respond as someone calm and steady, you’ll need to think yourself that way. Change your perspective by envisioning how you want to (respectfully) treat others, how you want to (candidly) answer tough questions, and how you want to (politely/courageously) ask questions of others. Envision how you want to begin the meeting and how you want it to end.

Throughout this mental exercise, you’re neither irritated by, nor fixated on, how others are treating you badly. If you were to be, you’d lose personal power, energy, and control by turning it over to “them” and they win.

You’re right. Life isn’t fair. Good health, wealth, luck, and happiness aren’t equally distributed. It is what it is. We don’t know what demons those who would appear to have it all, struggle with, and we don’t need to know. It’s enough that we struggle with our own.

Given that, we can only make the best choices we can, realizing that there are consequences for the ones that we make. The next time you’re interviewing and you’re ticked off by a company representative’s actions or lack of them, and you’re itching to say something that will show them how wrong they are, take a deep breath and do something far more constructive: show them how a class act behaves.

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Yes! You may use this article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started he own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.

Nailing the First 20 Seconds

Many interviewers will tell you they can spot a winner within twenty seconds of meeting the candidate. Whether that’s a race worth winning is the subject of another column. Today’s column is about the belief that it’s possible.  With that in mind, how can you make your case in less than half a minute?

Smile. Smile from the inside out. Smile nice and easy. “I’m pleased to be here”, your smile says, “and I’m pleased to meet you.”

Make eye contact, shake hands. Firm and steady. Nice and easy.

Dress to impress in clothes that are clean, pressed, fit well, suit you, and suit the occasion.

Appear as though fresh from the shower, hair clean, well groomed, smoke, perfume, and cologne-free. Wear shoes that you’ve shined and are in good repair.

Maintain good bearing or posture, when standing, sitting, or walking.

Arrive prepared, knowing your strengths, skills, and abilities and how to describe them; how to answer tough questions; and how to ask questions you’d like to have answered.

Relax. You’re going to have a positive experience with this interviewer and if the match is there, you’re going to get this job.

This isn’t the format for a new reality show, Fantasy Interview. It is reality. It’s being open to possibilities, and combining that openness with self-confidence derived from experience, resilience, and self awareness. Now, let’s go back to the top and look more closely at the implications of these preparations.

Smile from the inside out. Employers want employees who want to work for them and want to do the work they are assigned. They want employees who get along with their co-workers, who project a genuine sense of well being, and who treat everyone they meet in a respectful way.

Shake hands while maintaining eye contact, and without hesitation. Shake hands when you meet and when you depart. Shake hands briefly, yet firmly, with a grip that communicates collegiality, not hand to hand combat. Connect at the palm and match the pressure of your grip with that of the person whose hand you are shaking. Your handshake telegraphs your sense of self worth. Firm signals confidence. Weak signals everything else. Sweaty palms signal interview, eager, nervous, wants the job. All understandable. Damp hands or dry, shake hands anyhow.

Prepare. Employers say you can’t over do it. Preparation makes all the difference between those who make the best and long lasting impressions and those who are imminently forgettable. I know you get the concept, so let’s look at the application. Here’s what you need to do in order to be prepared:

Organize your thoughts and practice your responses to the open-ended, non technical questions you are most likely to be asked: Tell me about yourself; describe your strengths and weakness; describe your biggest mistakes; your greatest successes; your worst and best bosses; why you left your last job; why your last job left you; why you want to work for us, and why we should select you over your competition.

Respond to these questions based upon what you’ve learned about yourself. Focus on work and speak (very briefly) about what you do best, how your contribution drives the top line or protects the bottom line. Describe your strengths as what you do naturally and enjoy doing as often as possible. If asked, describe your weaknesses as your strengths, overdone. Alternate: strength, weakness, strength, weakness.  For example: “I’m a problem solver. I look for what’s broken and needs fixing and fix it (your strength). I’m not apt to have a great deal of patience (your weakness) listening to people give excuses for why it’s broken.”

Then proceed to give another strength and corollary weakness.

Relax. Enjoy the experience. Find the match.  Go for the win.

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Yes! You may use this article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started he own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.

Questions You Ask for a Successful Interview

Conventional wisdom has it wrong if the job you go after is a bad match for your skills, your innate strengths, and your style or personality preferences. As many of you can attest, you can do a good job matching your skill sets to the required need, only to find later that you have a serious personality mismatch to that of your boss and/or the culture in which you will be working.

If you want to save yourself time and aggravation you’ll find out what you’re getting into, before you get into it. To do that, you’ll need to start with an honest self-assessment. Once you know your strengths, skills, and style, you can determine which situations fit and which don’t.

Before you start making lists, let’s sort out the differences between these three essential elements of job satisfaction:

          A skill is a learned physical task. You can be taught a skill. If you take time, energy, and focus to consistently practice, you can become “skilled” or competent at performing the task. Yet skills alone, even highly developed skills, aren’t enough to succeed in a job.

You also need talent. Talent can’t be taught. Talent is inherent; it comes naturally. And talent alone isn’t enough to get you where you need to be. It takes study, drive, determination, and yes, practice, to turn talent into strength. Strengths, skills, what else does it take?

Style. You can think of style as an expression of your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.  As behavior, style distinguishes one individual from another.

What has skill, strength, and style to do with finding the right “fit” with a company? Everything. You want to work where your innate strengths make a difference and you’re valued for having made an ongoing contribution. You want to work where you can learn, grow, and develop your skills. And you want to work where you’re comfortable, where your values, perspectives, and attitudes mesh with those who lead and manage the company.

How can you know where “there” is? Companies don’t advertise their idiosyncrasies, they advertise their products and services. When companies publicize jobs and interview applicants, they describe needs and opportunities, they don’t describe the boss’s quirks and preferences. Interviewers assume applicants know if they can meet and exceed the company’s expectations and if the company is the right one for them.

Therefore, it’s up to you to find out what makes the company tick. Are they watch- dogs? Watch- makers? or clock- watchers? You’ll know what’s important to them if you know where they invest their time and money.  R&D?  Quality? Customer Service? Distribution? Sales? Marketing? Are they a company known for their streamlined efficiency? Creativity and product diversity? Order, and organization? Rules and regulation?

Is their management style top down, bottom up, participative, non- existent/inconsistent? What do they reward, instill, ignore, replace?

Ask questions if you want to get answers. Ask the interviewer to describe where the company is going and what they need to do to get there; ask who they want to have designing the course, mapping the direction, driving the train, and maintaining the engines.

Ask interviewers to describe the characteristics of employees who succeed, and those who fail. Ask questions about the greatest obstacles the company is facing, in the long and short term, and their commitment, in time, finances, and personnel, to accomplish their objectives in overcoming those challenges.

Ask about the work they want you to do, the achievements they expect from you, the resources they’ll provide you, and how they’ll measure success from you. If you have the courage to ask questions, you’ll know where you stand. You might have the right skill sets, and the wrong style; the right style and the wrong strengths; the right strengths, and the wrong skills.

If it’s a fit, go for it with all you’ve got. If it’s not, keep looking.

Common Mistakes with Resumes and Interviews

I’m often asked to describe the “one greatest error job seekers make when looking for work”. Well, you’re already ahead of me if you figured that there’s more than one, so, I’ll go through a short list of some of the more common mistakes and missteps, and you determine if you’re in the midst of making any of them.

Let’s start with resumes.

Many job seekers, in an effort to be all things to all people, are writing resumes that make them look a mile wide and an inch deep. Their job objective looks like an advertisement for “Jack of all Trades, Master of None”. Instead of focusing on accomplishments, which center and inform the reader, they write job descriptions, which don’t. They include laundry lists of things they’ve been told to do and leave to the imagination whether they’ve completed any of them on time or under budget.  It’s the resume that talks; unaware that no one’s listening.

The reader hasn’t time or patience to plow through boiler plate information, or to figure out what the applicant does best or wants to do next.

Savvy resume writers summarize career goals and job objectives and highlight applicable and quantifiable accomplishments that underline and support the direction they indicate they are taking.

The interview: Too many job seekers stumble and fall when asked to explain work history gaps that result from home stay, lay off, and termination. Interviewers are aware that there have been record high layoffs in the area, but that shouldn’t and doesn’t keep them from asking why it happened and how the applicants have filled their time (particularly if it’s been several months) since it occurred.  The best response is the one that’s short, simple, and honest. Speaking of responses…

Too many job seekers are inadequately prepared for phone and committee interviews.

Phone interviews are tough. Applicants don’t have the benefit of traditional cues that let them know how they’re doing. As a result they can be easily distracted from the objective at hand: coming across as positive and energetic while delivering articulate, focused, well-edited responses to the questions they’re being asked.

The best way to prepare for phone interviews is to practice by phone with a career coach or a career-wise friend asking questions and providing feedback. Along with feedback on the content of the response, ask, “Is my voice appropriately animated, well modulated, and easy on the ear?” “Am I projecting energy and optimism?” “Am I confirming my understanding of the questions I’m asked, and if necessary, am I probing for clarification, before responding with my answers?” “Am I answering questions succinctly yet completely?” “Am I asking questions that are reasonable and appropriate?”

If you want to track your development, tape record the practice sessions. Just be sure to get prior permission from the person at the other end of the line.

Committee interviews can be challenging, not because the questions are harder, but because the distractions are so much greater. The key to success is “comfort”. If you’re comfortable in your skin, your clothes, in the room, in the chair, the committee is likely to get comfortable with you.  Speak and respond as you would in a one-on-one interview: Answer the questioner with good eye contact and appropriate body language, and take care to include the group in your responses.

Many employers suggest that the primary reason interviews go badly is that applicants are inadequately prepared: “He didn’t seem to know what job he was applying for”; “The applicant said he didn’t know why he was terminated, and he was still angry about it.”  “When I asked her to describe her strengths she said she’d been out of the workforce so long she didn’t know.”

What does that tell you? Among other things, you have to do your homework, whether you’re changing jobs or changing careers, returning from a lay off, a firing, an extended stay at home, or never having worked in a paying job.

Your homework assignment consists of doing company research (at minimum, read the company’s website), having multiple practice sessions with savvy coaches (male and female), and listening to, and learning from, candid, constructive feedback.

Meeting in the Middle: Selling Yourself vs. Self-Indulgence

Three people. Three openings. Three applicants. I’ve changed the names but not the shoes. If they fit, wear them.

Clara. You are perfectly put together. Your hair is perfect. Your nails are perfect. Your makeup, outfit, even your shoes, perfect, perfect, perfect. There’s just one thing you’ve missed. You’ve forgotten to connect your personality to your smile; warmth to your eyes. Clara, I’m looking right at you and seeing right through you and I’m not registering any information about you.

Hank! That smile of yours is dazzling. And teeth! Hank, I don’t know when I’ve seen such perfect alignment. And yes, you are trim, yes, I can tell that you work out… and you have washboard abs? Wow, Hank.  And your clothes are right out of… they are! Well Hank, I figured you spent a lot on them. Yes, I agree with you Hank, you do look good. Hank. Stop smiling for just a second.  You’re missing something. No, there’s nothing stuck between your teeth. It’s an opinion, Hank. That’s what you’re missing.  Do you have an opinion about anything other than what to wear, eat, or where to work out? Hank, stop looking in the mirror…. Hank! I’m talking to you.

Carol, Carol, Carol. Your grades are fantastic. All A’s. Yes, you are smart.  And so many trophies! You’ve received 1^st place in Everything. That’s amazing. You certainly are an achiever, a competitor par excellence. In fact, you are so competitive you’ll do whatever it takes to win. Whatever it takes. Wow, Carol. That’s scary. You did that? To her? And to him? Just to win?

Three people have taken their strengths and maximized them to the point of personal undoing.  Ring a bell?

Clara has put her money in her makeup, both literally and figuratively. She seems unaware that she is more than how she appears.

When meeting, greeting, and relating to others, she needs to project the  light of cognition or, quoting Gertrude Stein’s memorable line, “there’s no there there”, and the first and lasting impression that’s registered is that nobody’s home.

Hank has circumscribed his life by, and limited his curiosity to, the number of teeth he’s capped, proteins he’s digested, and crunches he’s completed. Ask him a question about newsworthy events on the international, national, or local scene and his eyes glaze over. Attempt to discuss the impact these events have had on his domestic business, and his eyeballs spin in their sockets.

Carol is a competitor who thrives more on the win than the cause, the get than the goal. She is driven to succeed and disregards boundaries that define the proprieties of what’s allowed and what’s not. She might be a catch for companies who put earnings before ethics but the others will take a pass.

What all three share is a “me only” mindset. That’s not totally bad. It’s important to have a clear idea of what one values.  That insight informs us of the people, places, and organizations we prefer to move toward and those from whom we should keep our distance. If, as a result, we become self- limiting and self indulgent, we stifle our social and professional development, our resourcefulness and empathy. We close ourselves to constructive feedback and developmental challenges.

What has all this to do with your job search and your career advancement? Just this: Employers, without regard to the size, scope, or complexity of their business, want employees who can make an immediate contribution, employees who will fit in, step up, deliver, and follow through, for the good of the company and the end-users they serve.  They look for employees who are self-starting, goal focused team players and team leaders, who can learn quickly and apply what they learn efficiently and effectively. They want employees who can combine big picture thinking with can do behaviors, who do more rather than less, in less time than more. They want employees who are willing to take calculated risks for a payoff that is as developmental as it is mutually beneficial. Yes, they want a lot. Your job is to meet them half way. If your motivation is matched by their commitment, you’ll complete the journey together.

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