Interview Hacking: Answers to Three Interview Questions

Quick article by Liz Ryan gives "Smart Answers to Stupid Interview Questions."

Of course you shouldn't lift any of these answers verbatim. Instead absorb a lot of these kinds of posts, and when it's your turn to answer these in an interview setting, you'll be able to say something that is authentic to you!

Another Good LinkedIn Article

Characteristics of Leadership

You know I love LinkedIn!

I came across "9 Things Successful People Won't Do" by Travis Bradberry. The article is a spin off on a previous one in which he shared research about the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership. Here, he looks at those emotionally intelligent leaders and shares the 9 things they avoid doing.

Very interesting!

Analysis Paralysis: Setting Goals at Work is Key to Moving Forward

My interns are all wrapping up this week, and this summer's crop of students was incredibly creative, thinking up new ideas for how my organization could use social media and improve our web presence. By the last couple of weeks, I started to get the sense that they were getting discouraged.

They had many MANY ideas and suggestions, but I was always a barrier to their moving forward. While they wanted to implement, I was still caught up with trying to answer the philosophical questions about whether we should devote the time and resources to this new idea in lieu of another effort.

It seemed to them like I was suffering from analysis paralysis.

OK, to some extent I was.

Whenever I got caught turning ideas and questions over and over in my mind, I got trapped in analysis paralysis because I forgot the most important thing:

Start with your goals and make decisions based on whether new ideas help advance you towards them. 

Here's a quick little plan for how to avoid analysis paralysis by making the shift toward goals-based decision making:

1. Commit your goals to paper—What do you want to achieve? 

My organization already has a 4-year plan in place (which I wrote on behalf of the communications program) that sets up our goals for the short-ish-term future. 

2. Identify what success looks like—How will you know when you've achieved your goal?

Within our 4-year plan, we have specific outcomes. The idea is, if we achieve these outcomes, we've made progress toward our goal.

3. Evaluate new ideas — Does this new idea help you reach your goal and achieve outcomes?

This is where things get a little tricky. Just because a new idea moves you toward your goal doesn't mean that it's worth jumping on that new idea. The new idea might not really be better than something already in progress, or it might actually be too ambitious to take on. Here are some questions to ask yourself when you're evaluating whether you should move forward on a new idea.

• Does this new idea help you reach your goal and achieve your outcomes? 
• What kind of resources and time will this idea require?
• What trade-off must be made to make this new idea come to life? (In other words, what do you have to give up to move forward on this new idea?)
• Is now the right time to launch this new idea?

"Resume Lies" Article on LinkedIn

I just read this article about "The Lies People Tell on a Resume," and all I have to say is, Yikes!

Not only are people lying on their resumes, they're getting caught doing it. So don't be one of these people.

Staying Motivated When the Organization Around You Isn't Helping

Get Self-Motivated

Last week, I had the honor of being interviewed for a small book project a friend of mine was working on. He was interviewing Toastmasters about their experiences and how being a part of that organization has helped us.

I was glad to talk with him. I have been a Toastmaster since 2009. In addition to helping me get comfortable with public speaking, it's been a proving ground for me to develop the leadership skills that have helped me advance my career.

But when he asked me why I stayed in the organization, I stumbled.

Recently, I've taken on new responsibilities with my area. Sometimes it feels like new tasks and items get sprung on you without warning. And because the term of service is 12 months, there's no time to get acclimated or stand on firm ground before you're moving on to the next thing. It's stressful. It's time-consuming. At times, it's annoying.

And I still love it!

Despite my feeling like outside influences are overwhelming, I see my goals on the horizon, and I know that this process and this organization is helping me get there. 

When supervisors get trained in motivating employees, we're told:

• Know what your employee wants 
• Focus on individual benefit
• Set clear expectations
• Recognize achievement

I internalized these principles, and use them to self-motivate. I know I'm motivated by organizing others to help them achieve their goals. My job and resume benefit from the things I accomplish by doing this, and I personally feel satisfied when my group experiences positive results. I know what I need to do, and I try to set my standards at the right level that makes appropriate use of my time and talent. Then when I accomplish something, I feel proud and glad, and that's really all the recognition I need.

You don't need your supervisor or the broader organization to keep you motivated. But you can use the same principles that managers use to motivate their personnel to motivate yourself.

Know what you want. Focus on the benefits that make it worth your while. Set your own attainable standards and expectations. And be happy for yourself when you see progress.

But remember if you're going to pat yourself on the back, stretch first so you don't break an arm.

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NOTE: There are lots of good resources and many theories on motivation available online. The items in my list were adapted from Toastmasters 5 Principles of Motivation. And although I did not directly reference it for this article, I'm a reader of, and often influenced by, MindTools.com.

The First Person to Review Your Resume Might be a Robot

Tips for Writing a Resume That Will Impress a Machine

If you think the person reading your resume is human, you might be way off.

More and more companies and government offices are relying on software and testing to screen applications. Odds are, if you don't pass the Robot, a real live human will never even see your resume. I did not realize how pervasive the practice was until I heard an episode of On Point with Tom Ashbrook last week titled The High-Tech Hiring Market of Today. (Listen to it! It's 47 minutes well spent!)

Listening to this episode, I was reminded of an experience I had sitting on a career panel. I was one of four people who were discussing internships, how to find them, and advice for getting the most out of them. Of course, resumes came up as a topic of interest. I shared what I know:

• Use keywords from the job posting throughout your resume and cover letter 
• Focus on what you accomplished, not just what you did
• Demonstrate initiative, leadership, and perseverance as much as you can

But most importantly: keywords, Keywords, KEYWORDS! When a company uses software to evaluate your resume, the best that software can do is a content search to compare how closely your resume's words match the job description. You need to get past the computer gatekeeper before a human will look at your resume. Only when a human has your resume will your accomplishments, initiative, leadership, and perseverance matter.

One gentleman on the panel with me was in the workforce for about 20 years, and his story was shocking. He found a job description that sounded perfect. He had the right experience. He had the correct knowledge. He felt like the position was written for him. Instead of sending a resume, he put his name and contact info on the top of a new document and copy/pasted the job description verbatim underneath! He got past the computer, and when a human actually saw what he did, he was called in to interview, and he got the position.

This only worked because he really was an ideal candidate for the job. He knew exactly what he was getting into, and he had the experience to back up his bold move in an interview. 

I'm not advocating doing what this gentleman did, but underscoring the importance of getting past the computer and tailoring your resume to pick up on keywords in the job description. 

Think about it: If a human was the one reviewing 100 resumes and came across one that was a copy of the job description, do you think it would have been taken seriously next to all of those other applicants? Impossible to know, but I doubt it.

P.S. My small organization does not have access to software to prune the gobs of resumes we receive. I read them all. Even so, when I'm reviewing dozens of resumes, the ones that bubble to the top are those that are the most closely tailored to the position description. Even when there's no robot involved, keywords matter!

5 Ways to Impress Your Supervisor

How do you stand out at work and impress your supervisor?

You don't impress anyone by being like everyone else. You impress when you demonstrate good working behaviors that others don't. Believe it or not, many Millenials don't do these things in the workplace. That means there's a great opportunity for you to do these things and stand out with your supervisor:

1) Read email completely.

I can't tell you how many interns or entry-level employees don't actually read their email. Odds are that whoever hires you out of college knows that you'll need some training to transition into the working world, but it's unacceptable to not read an email completely (and re-reading it if you don't get it the first time). Reading your emails is the easiest thing you can do to make yourself look competent in the workplace. Why not take the easy points?

2) Try to figure it out before you ask.

In school, they say there are no such things as stupid questions. In the office, that's not true. There are many questions you could ask that will make you sound less-than-competant. While you should ask questions, you need to demonstrate in your questions that you are actively trying to figure out the problem for yourself. Don't just say, "I got this email, and I don't understand it." Read the email, and use the resources available to you (company files, internet, intranet) to try and figure it out for yourself. 

3) Be respectful of your supervisor's time.

Many times a supervisor will explain a process only to have the new employee come ask, "So, I know you already told me, but can you explain it again?" It's your job as the new employee to get up to speed. That means learning new things quickly, but also know what you need to do to help yourself learn. If you know you need to write things down to remember them, and your supervisor launches unexpectedly into a process you need to know to do your job, it is OK to say, "Excuse me. Let me grab something to take notes with before we get too far along so I don't have to ask you about this again later." Demonstrating respect for your supervisor's time will go a long way toward making your supervisor feel like you are reliable and mature--and head and shoulders above the other new employees they manage.

4) Ask smart questions.

Even when you read instructions completely, try to figure it out for yourself, and take awesome notes, you will have to ask questions... just make sure they're smart questions. Smart questions are one that demonstrate that you're putting in real effort to figure it out for yourself and that you've already taken the time to think about the problem from multiple angles. This topic is covered in-depth in the Don't Sound Dumb: How to Ask Smart Questions at Work post.

5) Know your supervisor's priorities.

If you're new on the job, you probably don't know which of your tasks your supervisor things are the most important for you to do right now. Odds are you get assigned more and more tasks every day, and your supervisor will rarely ever say, "Drop everything and do this new project immediately." So when you get a new assignment, first try to figure it out for yourself using the questions in the How to Prioritize Your Work post. Once you know your priorities, you can always ask your supervisor to confirm.