Professional Powerhouse™ | Executive Career Advice, Executive Brand Management » interviewing

10 Career Questions You Were Afraid to Ask

Kristi — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 04:18:45 +0000

Today’s post is a guest post from Nikki Ruth, a fellow employment expert who specializes in writing CVs. She shares some great insight on some tough career questions, and the answers you’ll need to succeed. Enjoy!

Career Question Category 1: Job Hunting

1. I have a degree but no work experience. What’s the best thing to do?

If you have the qualifications, but lack the experience, consider volunteering, charity work or internships with local businesses to build up your experience. Breadth of experience matters more than length of time. You may also have some valuable experience you haven’t even thought of for example being a member of clubs or captaining the sports team. This can show your commitment and leadership abilities.

2. My qualifications aren’t up to it, should I apply anyway?

Anything expressed as necessary in a job description means just that and recruiters are unlikely to consider candidates that don’t have exactly what’s specified. However, if you have a lower grade of qualification than the one advertised but some related experience it may still be worth applying. Highlight in your CV and cover letter what your relevant skills are and how they match the requirements.

3. I remember reading that only half of vacant positions are actually advertised. How are the rest of the positions filled?

It’s true about half of all job vacancies are not advertised anywhere. Companies usually advertise internally on notice boards or take on people who have already contacted them. Ask friends and family to let you know about vacancies that are advertised where they work. Many companies have an Employee Referral Programme where your friends or family can earn some money for referring you.

Career Question Category 2: Resume/CV Writing

4. How long should my Resume/CV be?

On average recruiters take 15 seconds to decide whether to screen a resume or CV in or out. Keep your CV punchy and highlight all the relevant skills needed for the job you are applying for. Ideally your CV should be no more than two standard pages long.

5. A lot of people say I should exaggerate the truth on my CV, what do you think?

Obviously, you have to describe yourself in the best possible light. But avoid the temptation to go too far. Recruiters are not stupid. They can spot information that doesn’t stack up. They’re always on the look out for inflated qualifications, salaries, job titles and achievements and it’s becoming more common for companies to do background and reference checks prior to hiring.

6. Why should I use a professional CV writing service?

A professional CV can dramatically reduce the length of time it takes you to find a new role and can have a direct impact on your salary potential. It also pays to have your CV written by someone who knows what recruiters look for. The cost of a CV should equate to less than 1% of your new salary. If you are planning to use a CV writing service, remember to check their background and whether they have experience in your industry.

Career Question Category 3: Interview Intel

7. What is an interview coach and why should I use one?

An interview coach empowers you to do your absolute best during an interview to get the job you want usually through role plays and feedback. Studies have proven that by using an interview coach you can get a job up to 45% quicker. I’ve personally coached 100′s of job seekers on how to improve their interviewing skills and my clients have been offered jobs with top companies. Ultimately, the value of the interview coaching depends on the coach’s experience so check whether the coach has had real life experience interviewing and hiring for companies.

8. What’s the proper way of handling the what are your greatest weaknesses question?

You should select a weakness that you have been actively working to overcome. For example, I have had trouble in the past with time management. However, I’m now taking steps to correct this. I have been on a time management course, have been making to do lists and learned effective delegation techniques. It’s best to avoid a generic answer like “I’m a perfectionist” and chose a weakness that’s not too serious and won’t affect your performance on the job.

Career Question Category 4: Career Advice

9. I just had a bad appraisal with my boss. What should I do?

Think about what concrete steps you can take to improve your performance and ensure that your improvements are noticeable. Remember that you don’t have to demonstrate things in the next week. After about 3 months, ask your boss for feedback on how you are doing on the specific issues that were addressed.

10. Why should I use a career coach?

Expert career guidance is essential if you want to maximise your career potential. The job market is full of rewarding career opportunities but it’s also increasingly competitive. Career coaches can help you plan a change of direction, get your career off the ground with job hunting tactics, identify your career options and provide recommendations for your career development.

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Guest post by Nikki Ruth, CV Writer and founder of My CV and Me. Nikki provides cv writing and career skills workshops services. Follow her on Twitter @mycvandme

photo credit: db*photography

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Post tags: career coach, career skills workshops services, coach, CV, CVS Caremark Corporation, Employment, founder, Human Interest, interview coach, My CV, Nikki Ruth, Recruitment, resume

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Is This the Perfect Job Interview Close?

Kristi — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:03:26 +0000

One of the greatest frustrations with job search is the black box.

You send a resume, make the contacts, follow up, but for the most part, you don’t see what’s going on within the hiring process. If you’re eliminated, you don’t know why. If you move forward, you may get more feedback, but perhaps still not enough to replicate your results with future applications.

The mistake that many job seekers make is assuming that the process is always organized and rational. Sometimes, hiring is just plain messy.

The hiring process ain’t perfect

Lots of organizations invest time, money and resources in creating repeatable hiring processes. But lots of others don’t, and even in those that do there can be issues.

An article earlier this week on the Trusted Advisor blog called “Buyers are Liars. Wait, What?” by Charles Green highlights one of the issues that job seekers come up against in their search. The article’s context is sales, but the fact is that hiring managers exhibit the same behaviors.

Take this quote:

Clients have not been to buyers’ school. They don’t know what to ask, but are afraid of being flim-flammed. So they resort to what feels low-risk—asking the seller to recite their qualifications and testimonials.

Most managers aren’t trained on effective hiring. This discomfort with the process of uncovering talents as well as foibles in potential employees leads to an over-reliance on qualifications, especially in the screening process. Things like “5 years experience” or “PowerPoint proficient.” In an interview, untrained hiring managers are less likely to ask the tough questions about an individual’s career trajectory, or dig into their stated accomplishments, or think outside the box about how a candidate can benefit the organization.

Hiring managers also often have another motive for tentativeness–self protection. Rarely will a company tell you the real reason that the position is open, at least not in gory detail. If previous incumbents have had challenges in certain arenas, the manager will be looking for red flags with you that could indicate similar tendencies, but they probably won’t tell you that’s what they’re looking for.

It’s easy to feel like you’re at the will of the interviewer, but you can shift the dynamic in the discussion to a more two-way street.

Creating a two-way job interview dialogue is essential

This quote from Green’s article is also apt:

The trick is to get to that place of mutual admission that there’s something each can bring to the party.

Are you a passive job seeker? Or a proactive one? You may cede your power in the process, believing your role is only to answer the questions. What you should do is take advantage of opportunities to learn more about the company, the interviewer, and their thoughts on your candidacy.

You can break the hiring process out of the black box.

Seal the deal and get market info: Great interview questions to ask

If you can establish two-way dialogue during the interview itself, all the better. But if you find yourself approaching the end of the interview and you don’t know how you’ve done, here’s one method to learn what you’ve done well, where you’ve missed the mark, and how you can fix any problems and advance to the next round.

When it’s your turn, here are some great questions to ask in your interview:

What was it about my resume and qualifications that you found attractive for this role? The answer to this question will tell you something about the hiring process, your resume, and what’s important to the interviewer. Plus, it helps carry your best qualities to top of mind as the interview closes. As they share your strengths, you can add brief additional commentary, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of listening. “I’m particularly proud of that project, and the way that we were able to turn around a challenging situation,” or “That’s an area I’ve worked hard to develop, because I know how important it is to delivering results.”
Based on our discussion today, where do you think I could make the strongest contribution? Some of this question may be answered as a follow up to the first question–as a hiring manager starts to discuss your qualifications they may naturally follow this train of thought. But if the interviewer doesn’t speak to how you might fit into the organization, this is a great follow-up question to get a clearer idea of their vision for you. Again, you have a chance to editorialize here. “I agree, my background in this area will definitely give me head start in taking charge of this department,” or “That sounds like a fantastic challenge. I’m so excited for the opportunity to come on board.”
Are there any concerns you have about my candidacy at this point? If you’ve been building good rapport, you may get very valuable information from this response. Whatever they say gives you the opportunity to correct any misunderstandings, provide additional information, or if it’s something that may not be able to be overcome, you can look at ways to address that concern in the future–things like professional development or other ways to shore up your experience.
How will the hiring process proceed from here? This is a question you always want to ask. It’s important to know the timeline and players involved so that you can determine how to follow up and if there are other avenues to reach decision makers inside the company. If you’ve been able to adequately answer objections, you may find yourself with a verbal commitment to proceed to the next stage, which is a big win.

What do you think? How do you think that this interview close would work for you? If you’ve hired, would you be open to this approach? Let me know what you think in the comments!

photo credit: Aidan Jones

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Your Kick Butt Job Interview Guide: Best of the Blog 2009

Kristi — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:52:55 +0000

Got an interview? Pat yourself on the back.

The hardest part of the job search is convincing people that your background, experience and sparkling personality are worth investigating further.

But it’s no time to rest on your laurels. An interview is a clean slate — and you have to assume you start at zero when you walk through the door.

There’s no time like the present to brush up on interviewing best practices. Here are some perspectives on interviewing shared over the past year to get you on the right track for 2010. Enjoy!

Top 10 Interview Questions You’ve Gotta Be Ready For

Video: How to Ace a Job Interview

Evaluating Work/Life Balance in a Job Interview

The True Key to Success in a Job Interview Isn’t Your Accomplishments

Just before you walk into the room… How to Boost Your Confidence in 10 Seconds, 10 Minutes and 10 Days.

And after you’re done… 5 Ways to Know How Your Job Interview Really Went.

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Use transferable job skills for your job search

Kristi — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:02:59 +0000

Today’s post is a guest post by Scot Herrick, one of my favorite fellow career bloggers. Give it a look – it’s great stuff!

When people know I write about jobs and careers on the web, it is natural to get asked at social events about all things job related. So when a friend sat down and started talking about his job search, I knew I needed to listen carefully because he was — just like you — looking for answers to a vexing job search question.

“I’ve got all of this experience,” he noted. “But it doesn’t seem like I’m qualified for anything except what I did before getting laid off. I supported a proprietary mortgage system that isn’t used anywhere else and the job openings are for systems I’ve never used. I just look at the qualifications and throw my hands in the air.”

Understandable, isn’t it? Companies today want 5,000 qualifications — exact qualifications — for their job openings and people don’t have all of them. And, I’d contend, nor should they.

Now, my friend is so competent at what he does that any company should jump up and down to get him in the door. But they won’t do it because he is having a hard time showing transferable job skills. When I mentioned transferable job skills, he noted that the counselor at the initial unemployment compensation meeting said that most people have over 300 transferable job skills.

Yup, and you do too.

Transferable job skills defined

Transferable job skills are those that can “transfer” from one job to another without much adjustment. If you write code, the language you use to write the code is a transferable skill from one company to the next as long as both companies use the same coding language.

But many jobs are not that cut and dried. So job seekers need to discover what their true job skills are that can transfer from one job to the next, regardless of the qualifications needed for a particular position.

Get perspective before getting detailed

What my friend was doing was looking at his specific, in the weeds, qualifications and comparing them to the specific, in the weeds, qualifications of the job posting. It’s a losing position.

When I coached him, I noted first that his job skill wasn’t that he supported a proprietary mortgage system. Instead, he supported a “highly complex system that needed superior analytical skills to service customers.” In other words, my friend is not your average analyst working on simple systems. No, it was proprietary. It was hard to learn. He did. Your system? Piece of cake to learn.

Another area to look at is customers. My friend’s customers were highly paid (read: impatient, unwilling to learn, and hard to please) mortgage lenders who, back in the day, were making tons of money — impeded only by this proprietary mortgage system. The skill here isn’t just supporting customers; anyone can say that. His expertise is the “ability to work with highly stressed customers to resolve system issues enabling both them and the bank to make money.” Keeping customers happy and making the company money is a great transferable job skill.

When you look at your resume, think of it this way: Can the job skills you state on your resume be understood by someone not working at your company? If it doesn’t, recruiters and gatekeepers to the hiring manager won’t understand your job skills and you’ll never get that first interview for the position.

Move your view up 10,000 feet. Look at the forest of your job skills, not the inner most branch of a single tree.

Once you see the forest, get specific

While my friend had his job skills perspective one inch from the ground, saying that you “work well on a team” — a transferable job skill — doesn’t cut it either.

The job skill needs enough specificity to be credible to the person reading the resume. “Works well on a team” is not good compared to “works well on teams that are high performing, highly competent people.”

The key ingredient in getting specific enough is to ask “why?” Why do you work well on a team? Why does the team need to be high performing? Why does the team need highly competent people? Answering the “why” question then prepares you for the interviews to come. Your transferable job skill is specifically stated — and that stands out.

Show results for your job skills

Showing just your transferable job skills is not enough, however. Every hiring manager wants to know the results you achieved in your position.

Results mean numbers out of a reporting system tied to how important the work was to the department or company. It is not enough to say that revenue from your work increased. You have to say it increased 3% and how that happened from your work.

The starting place for this information is — if you have written a good performance review — to look at the goal attainment. Numbers should be there. So should the importance of the work to your department or company, otherwise you wouldn’t have had the goal, would you?

Transferable job skills, specificity and results make you competitive

Results, and the impact to the department from your work, show your success on the job. Hiring managers want successful people to help them reach their goals. Showing transferable job skills with good results on the job places you in a better competitive position to not only get the interview, but get the job.

How easily can you show your transferable job skills?

Scot Herrick is the owner of Cube Rules, LLC. CubeRules.com provides online career management training for workers who typically work in a corporate cubicle. Scot has a long history of management and individual contribution in multiple Fortune 100 corporations.

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Personal brand: Rethinking the dress code

Kristi — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:43:38 +0000

Express your personal style without sacrificing your personal brand

Imagine you’re a hiring manager. You have two candidates: one is decked out in a stylish, freshly pressed business suit, with a snappy tie and shiny, professional shoes. The other is wearing fashionable blue jeans, a light sweater and a sport jacket.

Which would you rather work with?

It doesn’t matter. Because regardless of which of those styles appeals to you more, the fact is that you probably have a preference. One of those styles will feel more familiar, more professional, more appropriate for your workplace — whatever. No matter what or why, image has an impact.

So lets think about some common things that we might wear every day on a critical level for a moment.

What do you think about a business suit? Some might think it’s polished and professional, and that it indicates success. Others might think it’s stuffy, “corporate,” and old-fashioned.

How about a string of pearls? Depending on your age and fashion sense, they can be either classic or prim.

Open-toe stiletto heels? May be seen as a confident step towards fashion-forward. Also may be seen as impractical or attracting the wrong kind of attention.

Last, how about a t-shirt with a slogan printed on it? Some people will find that clearly work inappropriate. Others will see it as a sign of the times, or reflective of a certain culture. It may be assumed that you’re working for a tech startup.

So for any of these items, there’s an upside and a downside. Plus, you’ll dress a little differently for an evening networking event over cocktails than you would for coffee on a Saturday morning. What’s a fashionable professional to do?

The traditional advice on how to dress for business isn’t always true anymore. It’s still better to be overdressed than underdressed, but the growing trend of casual workplaces makes suits in certain situations seem quaint. You can make a positive impression without giving up your personality. After you get dressed for wherever you’re going — be it interview, networking, etc. — check out the mirror then check your gut.

How do you feel about how you look? Your gut feeling is trying to tell you something. If your first thought is too short, too tight, too casual, too sloppy or whatever… listen.
If you were to meet the CEO of your dream company, how would you feel? You’d hate to be wishing you’d played it differently.
If you asked your mom/best friend, what would they say about it?
What’s the worst thing someone could think about you based only on the way you dress?
What’s the best thing someone could think on the same basis?

If you’re comfortable with the answers to all of these, and confident that your look will move you forward rather than get in your way, then go ahead. Make your best judgment call based on what you know of the company culture, and the guidelines above. Then, when you get there, make how you dress (almost) irrelevant by dazzling people with what you say, not what you wear.

photo credit: Martin Kingsley

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5 ways to know how your job interview really went

Kristi — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:48:15 +0000

How did your last job interview go?

Sometimes you have a gut feeling. It went well, it didn’t go so well. You had the answers, you felt unsure.

Since so much of your success has to do with how well you connect with the interviewer, some of the best information you can gather about your interview success comes from observing the interviewer and the way that you interact.

How long you talk. Interviews are often scheduled for a half hour or hour in length. If your conversation goes beyond the scheduled time slot, they’re really enjoying the conversation.
How much eye contact you get. This actually speaks to the larger question of body language. Do they look you in the eye? Smile? Lean towards you? Do they seem present in the conversation, or are they more concerned with their Blackberry? If they’re excited about working with you, they’ll be excited to talk to you about how that will work.
How far off script you go. Some interviewers are given specific interview questions to ask. Others make their own. But as they ask you questions, you can gauge whether the questions are standard interview fare, or if they’re really delving into your background and experience, or asking about your passions, interests and motivation. The more interested that they are, the more in depth the conversation will get.
How clear your next steps are. At the end of the interview, you should always ask for next steps. The answer may be very clear — they may say they want to bring you back. The level of detail provided with the answer may reflect your potential for advancing to the next round. A “we have several other people to interview, we’ll be in touch,” can be a bit noncommital, while “we have four more interviews scheduled this week, and we anticipate getting back to people to schedule the next round of interviews Monday or Tuesday” gives you a little more to go on. If they go to the effort of walking you through what the process will look like, that can indicate that you’ll be moving through it.
What they say when you ask. It doesn’t hurt to ask if there are any concerns that you can help address at the end of an interview. The interviewer’s response can be very telling — anything from a specific objection and information about why it’s a problem to a glowing review of your performance.

That’s not to say that interviewers aren’t sometimes busy, distracted, or just poorly trained. But if you have a few of these factors working for you, you can feel pretty good about your chances.

The last time you had a really great interview, how did you know it was a winner?

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

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Not everything is a job search nail: Effective use of your resume

Kristi — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:34:13 +0000

Have you joined the Career Mastermind Network? Jump in for “30 Days to a Powerful LinkedIn Presence.”

If you’re trying to fix a hole in the wall, are you going to go after it with a hammer?

Every home improvement project has a general work flow and calls for a specific set of tools. To fix a hole in the wall, you’d probably use spackle, a putty knife, sandpaper and paint. You’d use the putty knife to apply the spackle, wait for it to dry, then gently sand the area and paint it to blend it with the rest of the wall.

What would happen if you sanded before the spackle dried? Or used a toothbrush to apply the spackle in the first place? You might have a poor patch, or no patch at all.

Job search works much the same way. You develop your job search toolkit first. Then, the real mastery is in learning which of your tools to use when and how in building your case for employment.

Your resume

Your resume should be created with one purpose in mind: to get a job interview.

In this way your resume is a specialized tool. A good resume is designed to create enough interest to motivate an employer to contact you for an interview. A great resume should be very effective at making this conversion, but will likely stop there.

So, before you pass along your resume to someone, think about whether you’re using your resume as it’s intended to be used. In general, you will only supply a resume when it’s requested, either to express interest in a role or to help facilitate a career discussion.

Two things you should avoid:

Handing it out to every contact. A resume contains a lot of information, only a portion of which will be of interest to your networking contacts. By handing over a resume, you’re making the person responsible for the information and the document. In mix-and-mingle situations, people don’t want to have to carry the paper. But a bigger issue is the fact that your target may never have the time to sit and read your resume. A polished elevator speech that tells your contact what you can offer and what you seek is more personal and more likely to get through to the listener in a memorable way.
In lieu of a conversation. People hire people, not resumes. If you let your resume be your stand-in, you’re losing an opportunity to make a personal connection with someone who can help your career. Don’t send a resume instead of discussing your goals and qualifications. Don’t divert a one-on-one conversation by placing attention on a piece of paper rather than on your target audience. That personal connection will pay higher dividends than an ivory page of Georgia type ever could.

Remember that the more you distribute your resume, the less control you have over your message. Imagine you send a version of your resume to a networking contact that highlights your experience in management, and they pass along the resume for a job position without contacting you. What if you would have emphasized your sales experience for that particular role? You’ve lost that option.

Many people in your network will ask for your resume, so in that way your resume can support your networking activities. But if you want to build your network, your resume is not the best tool. Over the rest of the week, we’ll talk about other tools to support your job search.

What about you? How do you use your resume in your job search?

photo credit: Jchetan

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Post tags: Career, how to, interview, job, job search, networking, resume, resumes

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The Do-It-Yourself Behavioral Interview

Kristi — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:56:21 +0000

Employers used to ask softball questions.

Of course, they didn’t think they were softballs, but as they started to realize their interviews weren’t predicting success, they switched it up a little.

They moved from “What would you do if…” to “Tell me about a time when…”

And the behavioral interview was born. While a behavioral interview is not a perfect predictor, it’s a heck of a lot more effective than hypotheticals.

Job seekers often prepare for behavioral interviewing questions. You may wrack your brain for examples of success in your past. You may craft stories to support your qualifications. Here’s a way to bring your effectiveness to the forefront.

The Do-It-Yourself Behavioral Interview

Everything you need is right here! Here we go…

The questions

Tell me about a time where you used creative thinking to tackle a professional challenge.
Share with me an example of when you’ve used strategic planning principles to effectively react to the market.
Detail an example of how you have taken responsibility for addressing a situation of your own accord.
Tell me about a time where you managed a project to completion.
Have you ever used relationship-building skills to secure a contract? How did you accomplish this?
Share your experiences with creating organization and structure that supported results.
Tell me about a time where you were required to communicate the features and benefits of your product or company. What was the outcome?

The answers

Are you taking notes? Here we go…

Your job search.
Your job search.
Your job search.
Your… er, you get the idea.

You can be excellent anywhere. And if you’ve managed projects, built relationships, created plans, and communicated, you can do these very same things in the context of your job search.

I’m not suggesting that you answer behavioral questions with examples from your job search.

Just know: if you have been excellent, you can be excellent.

If you are excellent, you will be excellent in your job search.

And the excellence you exude in your job search will carry over. You will build your own confidence. You will increase your effectiveness. And you will get a new job faster, with an excellent smile on your face.

Evaluate your performance

Are you bringing excellence to your job search? Are you living your resume? If an employer asked you how you’re managing your job search, what would you say? How can you bring your on-the-job skills to getting you on the job?

How can you bring excellence to your job search today?

photo credit: HVargas

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Post tags: behavioral interviewing, effectiveness, job search, job seekers, new job, planning, relationships, success

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Back to School, Day 5: How to Ace a Job Interview

Kristi — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:27:15 +0000

Today is the last day of this week’s Career Mastermind Week video blitz. Today, we talk about 3 keys to success in job interviews. The bottom line — confidence is key #1.

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Your personal “best”: Authenticity and your job search

Kristi — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:44:25 +0000

The Career Adventure newsletter has a new look — it’s now the Career Kick Start! One minute’s worth of immediately useful career advice delivered weekly. And it’s free, as is the Results Focused Resume ebook (available through August 5). You can get both here.

Success in a job interview requires your very best suit, your very best smile, and putting forward your very best face.

What does “best” mean though when it comes to presenting yourself in a job interview?

Of course you need to prepare, speak professionally, and demonstrate your experience and background. But there’s a line between telling a potential employer what they need to know, and what they want to hear.

As you answer interview questions, note your gut feeling as you’re talking. Does what you’re saying feel natural, or does it feel like you’re trying too hard? Are you saying things that you don’t really believe? What will be the impact of this?

Don’t get me wrong. By all means, go in there and paint yourself in the best possible light. But understand that the questions asked in an interview reflect the organization’s priorities. If they ask you if you’re okay with long days, you can bet you’ll be expected to work them. If they ask you how you feel about being in a management role, chances are management will be part of your day-to-day activity. Say what feels right in the moment, but understand that when the job offer comes your way, you’ll want to consider those pieces of the discussion that gave you pause as important factors in a potential employment agreement.

The more you can be yourself in an interview, the better you’re likely to fit into the organization. And the more that you have to dance around the way you really feel on certain topics, the more likely that you’ll struggle with these issues when you get on the job.

What have you compromised for a job? How did it work out?

photo credit: *L*u*z*a*

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Post tags: Career, career advice, goals, inspiring work, interview, interview prep, job, job hunt, job search, job seekers, kristi daeda, offer, passion, pr, success, work/life balance

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