Month: October 2019

Interview Safety: 4 Steps to Avoiding Risks

Jay Wren The Moveable Career ~ Interview Safety: when you feel safe and comfortable, you will have a better interview. Avoid the risks. Plan for your safety. Here are 4 steps that many job seekers find effective.

Location

The safety of the interview location is important.

Most interviewers will meet with applicants in public locations such as a hotel room, hotel lobby, coffee shop, restaurant, or airport arrival area.

Before going to the interview, look at the safety of the area where you are interviewing. If you are concerned, you might consider asking the interviewer at another location. If you remain concerned, you need to ask whether you want to take the risks of interviewing with the company.

Safety Contact

Let someone, friend or family, know you are going to the interview.  Arrange for the person to be available to take your call after your interview. You can use your cell-phone speaker or hands-free system to drive safely.

You can use your call to discuss your interview with this person waiting for your call.  Giving the person feedback on your interview will reinforce your memory and increase understanding of the interview.

Travel

If you are flying for an interview, learn how to connect with ground transportation before you leave on your trip. This information can make your transportation safer and save you time and energy during your travel.

Fly early in the day.  Just the eerie nature of a late-night empty airport is reason enough to travel early.

Interviewer Behavior

If the interviewer is lewd, profane, threatening, or violent, do the obvious. Leave the interview. Get in touch with friends or family as soon as possible. Let them know about your experience.

I am not a lawyer.  I can’t tell you how to handle legal matters.  If you believe that the interviewer has broken the law or harmed, seek direction from your friends and family. Additionally, you may consider contacting the proper authorities.

Interview Safety: The Safe Side

You may find that interviewing is interesting, maybe even fun.  Plan: think about your safety before making interview commitments.  You will have terrific interviews, and you may even land a great job.

Read more…

Elevator Pitch: Bad Presentations Don’t Solve Problems

Elevator Pitch: before you go to an interview, rehearse a short pitch to show how you can create success for the hiring company. Some people call this short pitch, “The Elevator Pitch.”

The purpose of an elevator pitch is to persuade a person to accept your proposal in a brief presentation. The best elevator pitches make even complex proposals easier to understand and accept.
~ www.jaywren.com

Here is a format that I have found effective for elevator pitches.

  1. If you do not know the person, introduce yourself.
  2.  State the subject of your pitch.
  3. Summarize the objectives of the job.
  4. State a list of successful things you have done to achieve and exceed the objectives of the job. Show how the hiring company will benefit from your experience.
  5. State that the reason that you are interviewing for the job is that you enjoy performing the type of tasks the job requires and that you admire the company and what it is doing.
  6. Ask the person to meet with on one or two specific dates. In persuasive selling this is called closing on a choice.

The most effective people know how to ask great questions and to learn from listening. ~ www.jaywren.com 

Introduce Yourself

If you do not know the person, introduce yourself.  Let the person know that excited to meet them to discuss their career opportunity.

State the Subject

Don’t keep guessing what you are discussing.  Your elevator pitch will be confusing and lack focus unless people know where you are going with your discussion.

State the Objective of the Job

Before you go to an interview, study the job description.  Learn as much as you can about the company. Script how you understand the job based on the business of the hiring company.  Practice presenting a short statement of the hiring need of the company.

Explain how Your Experience Shows that You can Achieve the Objective of the Job

Compare your experience with the job objective. Have a summary of the ways your experience benefits the company.  Tailor your pitch directly to the company and to the specific job.  Anticipate questions and objections.  Have answers that direct the question back to your goal of getting a job interview.

State that You Want the Job

Let the person know that you want the job and that you will make yourself available to fit the needs of the hiring company.  Do not mention income.  Your goal is to get a job interview.  Once you get the interview that leads to an offer, you can fine-tune the details of salary, bonus, and benefits.

Close on a Choice

Ask the person to meet with on one or two specific dates. In persuasive selling this is called closing on a choice.

Practice Giving Your Pitch so You can give it Flawlessly

When you can give your elevator pitch, take a breath before you start.  Don’t let the adrenaline drive your pitch.  Remember to smile.  Look at the person’s face.  Remember that you are dealing with a human being.  Allow a comfortable three feet of space between yourself and your contact. Remember you speaking with the person to offer solutions and opportunities to the person and the person’s company.  You want to join their team.

The Seven Steps of a Persuasive Presentation

Warning Signs: Are You Interviewing with the Wrong Company?

Warning signs: What should you look for when you are interviewing for a job? Should you be interviewing with a better company?

As the owner of a recruiting firm, I worked with applicants who dealt with troubling issues during the interview process.  Here are some of the things I learned from my experience in helping these applicants

Interviewers Fail to Keep their Commitments

In some cases, interviewers have valid reasons for cancelling an appointment, and they explain those reasons to you.  An easy way to handle the situation is to show understanding and simply reschedule.

However, some interviewers raise warning signs when they fail to keep commitments.

  • The interviewers cancel appointments without attempting to reschedule.
  • They cancel appointments more than once.
  • Worth of all, the interviewers completely fail to call you or to meet with you without calling to cancel or reschedule.

If interviewers can’t keep their commitments, you should see that as a warning sign that you are interviewing with the wrong company.

Interview Interruptions

For interviews allowing interruptions is unfair to you. The interruptions are a distraction to you. The interview loses continuity and you may lose your ability to focus. Furthermore, these people can fail to focused on you and to give a fair evaluation.  This type of behavior is a warning sign that the interviewer is not interested in you or, perhaps, simply does not respect your time.

Remember that the way an interviewer handles an interview is a sign of how a company deals with its employees.  This behavior is uncommon, but when it has happened, applicants have often complained to me about it and rightfully so.

The interviewer is the face of the company.  If the interviewer doesn’t respect your time, how well will you be able to at a company where people do not respect your time.  This type of company is the wrong company.

Withholding Information Benefits and Salary Range

The company withholds information on benefits and salary range during the interview process.

The company benefits and compensation are confidential information.  For competitive security issues, companies must protect the details of their operations.  However, to avoid wasting their own time and the applicant’s time, the best interviewers provide general information on benefits and compensation.  Often, companies include a general statement on benefits and compensation on the job description.

You need to work for companies that put the information out front.  Companies that are not forthcoming during the interview are companies that show warning signs that you are interviewing with a company that runs its business that way.  This type of company is the wrong company.

Warning Signs

Take heed of warning signs. To summarize here common warning signs that I have seen during my experience as a recruiter.

  • Interviewers fail to keep their commitments
  • Interviewers allow interruptions
  • It is difficult for you to get a general idea on benefits and salary range

 

Toxic Personalities: A Poison in the Workplace

Toxic personalities create stress that spreads throughout an organization.  What are the skills that you can develop to survive and even change toxic people?

Know What You Can Control

If you have the authority to act on the people with toxic personalities, it is your responsibility to change the behavior of these people or remove them from the workplace.

If you do not have authority over these people, there are steps you can take to steel yourself and even change their behavior.

Additionally, if you can in no way change the conditions of working with toxic personalities, you might consider changing jobs. Dealing with the daily stress of working with difficult people is painful in ways that can affect your mental and physical health.

Anger

Acting out of anger can just make the problem worse. The person with the toxic personality can become offended and defensive. They see you (your actions or personality) as the problem in the relationship.

On the other hand, you must prepare to be firm. I have dealt successfully with toxic behavior by confronting a person with the facts and consequences of their actions. However, changing a person’s personality is difficult. The process takes more than showing the facts of their behavior. Personality change, especially with toxic personalities, takes a commitment from the person with the problem

Skills for Surviving or Even Growing around Toxic Personalities.

Toxic people: When you can’t fight them, don’t join them.  However, make yourself healthier.

When I can’t change the behavior of toxic people or avoid these people altogether, I focus on the changes I can make in myself to become a healthier person.

Here are some things that work for me.

1. I write about my feelings.

When I write about my feelings, I cut the sting of painful emotions.

In writing about my emotions, I name my feelings.  Fear, anger anxiety, insecurity, and resentment are common feelings that people have around toxic people. You may have other bad feelings. When I experience these feelings, I write about them.

2. I write about my actions.

In this step, I can see what things I can change in my own behavior to reduce the damage in a toxic relationship.  For example, if I act out of anger, I can change my actions.

3. I discuss what I am feeling with a mentor.

One of the problems with writing about my feelings is that I have trouble seeing solutions.  Instead I focus on how people have harmed me.

However, I have close friends I can trust.  These people keep what I tell them a secret.  These friends are mentors who show me how I can grow and improve my behavior.

4. Avoid the Poison: When I can’t change the behavior of toxic people, I avoid them. If there is no reason to have to deal with them, I don’t.

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