Here you'll find job interview tips, career advancement advice, work-related suggestions, home business trends, and much more.
My goal is to make this blog entertaining, informative, and above all, helpful!
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Bonnie
10 Ways Your Presentation Skills Generate Career Promotions
Want to excel at work, get promoted, ace your next interview? Then work on your presentation skills!
That's the advice of a great article posted at "Six Minutes," a public speaking and presentations skills blog.
It makes a lot of sense and the tips are truly valuable, so go check it out if you want to get ahead. Just click on the following link and enjoy...
Every once in a while you might be asked this during a job interview: "If you were to describe yourself with one word, what would that word be?"
Sheesh! How could you possibly narrow down everything that is YOU into one word?
(A boss once called me "unflappable." It's flattering, but I'm not sure I'd use it in an interview.)
What word would you use? Not sure? Don't worry, help is at hand thanks to a recent post at the Dilbert Blog. There are over a hundred words... maybe one of them will be perfect for you!
Trick Questions, Enthusiasm, Thank-You Notes and Mistakes
There's a terrific article at Penelope Trunk's "Brazen Careerist" blog titled "Three Tips for Job Hunting, and One Good Book."
The tips explain why employers ask "trick questions" during a job interview, the importance of showing enthusiasm during the interview (expressing it in your thank-you note is too late), and why you're not likely to get meaningful feedback after your interview is over.
The article itself is great... but there's gold in the comments, as well, so be sure to read them.
Check out Penelope's post by clicking on the link below...
Penelope Trunk of the Brazen Careerist blog has written an excellent article on how to dramatically improve your resume. She gives details on three major points:
1. Don’t focus on your responsibilities, focus on what you achieved.
2. Don’t make your resume a moral statement; it’s a marketing document.
A lot of people are losing jobs these days. If you're one of them, you're probably going through quite an emotional turmoil.
There's a nice article about how to cope with job loss and the negative feelings that result, at YourCareerService.com. Just click on the link below to read the article...
I wrote an article a while back titled "Six Steps to Acing a Telephone Interview." You can find that here:
Telephone Tips.
But if you'd like to hear about telephone interviews from a hiring manager's perspective, I highly recommend you read a great article by Joel Spolsky titled "The Phone Screen."
Joel's article talks about hiring a programmer, but the insights he offers can be useful for virtually any job seeker. And it's a fun read, as well.
Check out Joel's article by clicking on the following link...
Where the Talent Is: 100 Sites to Find the Elite in Any-Given-Field
Would you like a list of 100 sites that can help you narrow down your job search, no matter what kind of job you're looking for? This article has them, organized into these broad categories: Design, Health Care, Advertising & Marketing, Technology, Management, Finance, Sales, Education, Office, Retail & Customer Service, Legal, and Miscellaneous.
I recently came across an excellent article by Heather Hamilton called "Evaluating Career Opportunities: It's Not Just About the Numbers."
Here are a couple of excerpts:
"It’s hard to think of a succession of positions as baby steps toward a bigger career goal. But that is the smart way to do it.
"So what does this mean for you? You need to identify that next big career milestone, assess the skill gaps between where you are now and where you want to be down the road, identify a subset of those skills that you want to gain in your next position and then find companies and industries that both value your current skills and will help you develop the new ones."
... and ...
"Let me be clear about one thing: on the interview day, companies are making their best impression. That’s not to say that some don’t leave a bad impression, despite good intentions. But what you get on the interview day, while it may provide glimpses of reality, is not reality. You get what the company chooses to show you. Your best bet is to research this online."
Lots of great advice in the article, which you can read in its entirety by clicking on the following link...
The oil industry's labor crisis may help you become part of a team that solves the energy crisis.
With 80% of the industry's workforce retiring soon, new doors of opportunity are opening up.
(This "retirement crisis" is happening in many other industries, as well.)
If you're looking for a new career with exciting challenges, consider something in oil. You may be pleasantly surprised to find out what the industry is like today. And they need help with energy solutions!
Click on the link below for an interesting CNN/Money.com article about this...
Looking for hot career opportunities with a bright future?
Interested in doing work that benefits the environment?
Consider working for one of California's solar energy companies.
This industry is exploding right now, and workers are needed in all areas--research, manufacturing, marketing, installing, etc.
Check out the article at the link below. If this field sounds intriguing to you, get busy. Research the companies, find out the qualifications for the various openings, apply and get hired into this exciting new career.
Aaron at TheMadHat.com has put together a nice list of job interview questions for SEO professionals. If you are looking for an SEO job, you should check it out and quiz yourself to see what you know (and what you don't)!
The following link leads to one of the best blog posts I've read in a long time. The title is "The Shameless Guide to Kissing Ass and Getting Paid." The author is Jon Morrow, and I highly recommend you check out the other posts at his blog. Just follow the link...
I ran into an aquaintance recently who'd interviewed for a new job. I asked her how it went, and she said:
"Everything was going great! They even took me out to lunch. Unfortunately, I knocked over a glass of ice tea and it spilled all over the hiring manager. I tried to recover by joking about how graceful I am, but I didn't get the job. Despite the generic reason given in the reject letter, I'll always wonder if the real reason was because I was a klutz at lunch."
Lunch (or dinner or even coffee) can be hazardous to your career goals!
I wrote an article about this a couple of years ago with some tips on how to survive the potentially risky combination of interviewing and food. Just click on the link below...
Jimmy P. Sweeney is at it again. I think of Jimmy as "King of Cover Letters" and have often recommended his "Amazing Cover Letter Creator" product as a valuable resource.
Interestingly enough, someone who bought that product requested a refund--and the reason motivated Jimmy to come up with an entirely new strategy to help job seekers get hired.
Now, I have not seen Jimmy's new product and have no idea what his "Secret Career Document" is. But I do know Jimmy's reputation, so I have little hesitation in recommending something he's created before I get a chance to check it out myself.
"How can I ace my next interview and win the job?"
The answer can be boiled down to the five P's:
Preparation and Practice Precede Peak Performance
"Preparation and practice precede peak performance" should be your personal motto.
Job Interview Critique
I participated in a panel interview yesterday (as a panelist, not a candidate). This was for the three top candidates (narrowed from about 20 applicants) in a second round of interviews. I was one of five people on the panel asking questions.
All three candidates had the desired skills and abilities. On paper, they were virtually equal.
The first candidate was friendly, energetic and enthusiastic. She showed good eye contact and was always smiling, though tended to ramble on a bit when answering questions. After she left, one panelist remarked, "I wonder how talkative she'll be. It may be distracting to coworkers since they work so close together. But maybe she was only talkative because she's nervous."
The second candidate was just the opposite... quiet and reserved. She smiled frequently, but it looked somewhat rehearsed and unnatural. We didn't get any sense of her personality. When she was asked if she had any questions, she flipped open a notepad and read "What are the five most important characteristics for the person in this position?" Good question (though I'd advise leaving out "the five" part). But because she read it, it made a negative impression. I recall thinking, "It's just one question and she couldn't ask it without reading her notes?"
The last candidate was a cross between the first two. She was upbeat and enthusiastic yet also calm and professional. But she had a tendency to look down at the table when answering each question instead of making eye contact with the person asking it (or any of the other panelists). Several of her comments indicated that she felt she was overqualified for the position but was "willing to do just about anything for now." A strange combination of overconfidence and desperation.
Now that you have a very brief picture of the three, who would YOU have chosen?
The panel unanimously recommended the first candidate. The hiring manager agreed.
Lessons:
1. Be positive, upbeat and energetic.
2. Smile. But make it genuine.
3. Let your personality show.
4. Make eye contact.
5. Try not to be too talkative; don't ramble (even if you're nervous). (Rehearsing your answers with a friend will help.)
6. Don't read from a notepad, especially if it's just one question you should be able to remember.
7. Don't make comments that show you're overly ambitious, overly confident, or desperate.
By the way, this had no bearing on our decision because we made our recommendation before heading back to our offices... but waiting in our email was a thank-you note from the first candidate. I later learned she'd used a PDA to write and send them before she'd even left the building... a great idea!
Blog Review: Career Ramblings
There's a cool blog you should check out (yes, even cooler than this one) about career development--it's called Career Ramblings. (Subscribers to my Career-Life Times newsletter will know I'm fond of the word "ramblings," so naturally I love the title of this blog!)
The authors of Career Ramblings are John Anthony and Jane May. John typically writes about successes and failures throughout his career, his quest to leave the rat race, and how he has avoided the mundane. Jane focuses on tips and strategies that graduating college students, new professionals and even companies looking to hire should keep in mind.
Together, this talented team provides valuable advice to readers interested in career advancement and professional development.
Here are just a few sample headlines from Career Ramblings articles:
"Tips For A Successful First Year On The Job"
"The Easiest Interview Question Can Be The Most Challenging"
"How Don Imus’ Firing Can Help Your Career"
"4 Cover Letter Secrets To Land Interviews This Week"
As you can see, this blog covers a nice variety of helpful topics!
Informative as well as entertaining, Career Ramblings is one of my favorite blogs.
(And I'm not just saying that because they've invited bloggers to review their blog! :-)
According to a recent survey by Robert Half Finance & Accounting, hiring employers form an opinion of job interviewees within the first 10 minutes.
The survey involved 150 senior executives with the one thousand largest companies in the U.S.
OK, here's reality: surveys, studies and research tell you generalities. There are always exceptions to every rule or survey "finding."
If you make a mistake during the first 10 minutes of your job interview, do NOT assume all is lost. The average interview lasts 30-50 minutes (longer for executive-level positions).
A poor first impression may start you off on the wrong foot, but it CAN be overcome. If you stumbled on a question or made a mistake, here's what you do: admit it, apologize, explain that you're a bit nervous or overly excited about the opportunity to work for ABC Company, clarify or correct yourself, then move on. Be enthusiastic and confident during the remainder of the interview.
If you slip up and don't make a great first impression, recover and make a great LASTING impression!
