Work, success and meaning at every stage of your career
Tattoos are becoming more mainstream in the workplace, as I wrote in a post in 2012. I’ve written about tattoos for the Times Union – you can read the story here. Here’s a great infographic about tattoos courtesy of Digital Third Coast.
They say that sales is a game of numbers; the more calls you make, the more likely you are to close a sale. In some industries, that may be true. But professional sales people agree that treating everyone as a prospect is a waste of time. The same is true for your job search.
The prospect of job hunting is like a root canal. You know you need to do it and that you’ll be happy when it’s over, but the process itself is a lot of work. With a little organization and dedication, you can gain some job search momentum, schedule interviews and accept a new job offer before you know it.
There’s a big difference between a single, quick interview and a long, intensive interview process. At the end of the long process, you may have met with several managers. You have information about the company from the interview team, and you may even have an idea about how many people you’re competing with and their backgrounds. You’ve invested a lot after several interviews: time, energy and perhaps even a sample of your work or a plan for what your first sixty days will look like. If you don’t get selected, it’s bound to be a letdown. It’s easy to start second guessing yourself.
If your personality is a great fit for the way the team or company thinks, it’s likely that you be able to succeed and enjoy your work. Personality assessments like the Culture Index can help you and your manager understand why things are working (or not) and may be able to help you communicate better and become more effective. Even without a formal tool, you can learn about company culture during the interview, and up your chances of getting a job you’ll look forward to every day.
When you go through the interview process for a job, you go to great lengths to demonstrate that your skills are a great match for the position. Common sense, right? What if everything you thought about the hiring process was reversed? Rather than spend time talking to them about your experience, maybe you should spend time on how you think and feel.
Too many jobseekers ask their resume to do the work of their network. When it comes to getting results, it’s not even close.
“I used to give out this advice: Go ahead and leave because you’re going to have more than 10 jobs in your life, and you might as well move up as fast as you can. I don’t give that advice any more. In fact, I now try to talk people out of taking new jobs.”
It’s a sad fact but some hiring managers have a stigma against unemployed candidates. Here’s how to overcome this bias and land the job.
While phone interviews are the most common alternative for out-of-state candidates, it’s not unusual for a distant employer to request an interview session with a candidate via Skype or Gmail. Welcome to the post-recession economy, where candidate searches have gone global, and where technology has improved so much that travel isn’t necessary to meet face-to-face. … Continue reading Guest Post: Mastering the Art of the Video Interview
Your Work, Your Way 