Interview Mastery: Sell The Story of You

     Interviews can be tough to deal with when your job hunting. Nobody wants to build up their excitement for an interview only to receive the dreadful “Thank you for the interest but we picked someone else” email.  I’m going to share one technique with you that’s going to improve your confidence, performance and ultimately get you more job offers.

     If you want to improve your next interview performances you need to present your skill set and prove them through story illustration.  During my interviews when the employer asks me “what separates you from everyone else” I always tell the hiring manager that my desire to succeed is incomparable. After making this statement I follow by telling him that at one time I drove a limo twenty hours a day to generate money to relocate, read books on Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and learned to write JavaScript within a year period to develop myself.

     My story sells the idea that I want to get across to the interviewer.  Telling the interviewer random facts only present part of the message. When you tell a story to back up the idea, you bring the idea to life.  Let’s picture ourselves in the interviewer place and imagine that we’re trying evaluating a total stranger.  Everything the candidate says we’re looking for proof to validate his statements.  We’re looking to see how the candidate would actually fit into the company structure. Next interview you schedule, make sure you take time to prepare your stories to prove your facts.

3 Keys to Transform Your Career

As the end of the year approaches everyone starts to kick back and plan for upcoming vacations. Many of us are looking forward to a fresh start for the new year and some hoping to start a new career. The big question for many of us becomes how do I take my career to the next level. I was faced with the same question when I saw things not working in my professional life. After years of personally transforming my own life here are three tips that if utilized will transform your career to the next level.

1.       Your 24hr

2.       Skill Assessment

3.       Network

One of the most important question you need to ask yourself is what are you doing in your 24 hrs.  Warren Buffet does not have any more hours in a day than you do but he is wealthy because of what he does during his 24 hrs. I challenge you to take a half sheet of paper and write down throughout the day exactly what you’re doing in your 24hrs.

The second area you should evaluate is your skill set. What skill can you add to your arsenal that is going to take your career to the next level? If you’re in marketing and you want to make 80k a year instead of 50k you need to ask yourself what skills a person that makes 80k has that I need to develop. What type of projects can I do to develop this certain skill. I had gentlemen that applied for a job that required salesforce and he decided to get a book on how to operate salesforce.  He not only learned how to operate salesforce he was offered the job. What he did that took his career was evaluate what skills he needed an he went the extra mile to gain those skills

One of the most important keys to transforming your career is upgrading your network. If you want transform anything in life you must understand “Environment is everything”. Your network is a direct reflection of who you are or who you become as a person. The opportunities you gain in your career will come from the people you know.  The people who never make more than 25k a year network with people that make on average 25k a year. I grew up in Detroit and when I graduated I started hanging around people who wanted a higher level of education and higher income. Five years later I graduated from college to make a higher level of income than my peers.

Tomorrow after work I want you to take out a notepad and evaluate these three things in your life. Take notes on how you spend your 24hrs, asses what skills will grow your career and look at your current network. Evaluate these three things objectively and start making changes where it’s needed. If you focus on these three, you will notice your career will begin to transform.

Optimize Your Job Hunt with These Two Activities

Nobody likes the long and dry process of hunting for a new job.  Instead of taking the job hunt seriously many people procrastinate and spend very little time within process. If you’re expecting to send in a resume or fill out an application and get job offers piling up at the your doorstep then you’re sadly mistaken

The people that have the most success with finding career jobs turn their job hunt into a job. You need to be investing time into your job hunt if you plan to be successful. There are many things that are involved with the job hunt but for the purpose of this article I will focus on two key activities that will help maximize your job hunt:  making time to contact employers and logging all your contacts and conversations.

Schedule time to contact potential employers and increase your exposure. The only way you’re going to find jobs is eventually connecting with the people that can hire you. You need to be constantly talking with new employers, mapping out companies and finding the decision makers.

You want to be as efficient as possible with your contacts to avoid wasting time. The best way to be efficient is organizing all your contacts and logging their conversations. One of the ways I was able to stay organized was simply entering contacts into a database system. If you don’t have Microsoft office suite Google Drive has an excel file that you can use to enter names and contact information about every new connection you develop. Building off previous conversations you have with connections is essential to discovering new opportunities.

In my experience of helping people with the job hunting process the most overlooked activity is actually reaching out to employers and gaining information about the actual hiring process. Focus on these activities and be persistent and you will eventually find your ideal job.

Two Traits of a Good Recruiter

Dealing with recruiters to find jobs has become one of the popular ways to land a job fast. In many ways we depend on recruiters to find the perfect fit. The reality is that all recruiters are not equal when it comes to job placement. Working with the wrong recruiter can be a waste of time and energy.

Great recruiters always have two traits: integrity and working knowledge about their partners and contractors. In the past I worked with a recruiter that paired me with a company that went out of business within a month of my starting date.  The recruiter assured me this was a company that was looking for a long term relationship. Obviously he didn't do a full evaluation of the company’s current position and he probably didn't actually care to find out the company’s background.

In another scenario I worked with a  recruiter that had an extensive knowledge base about the company I was planning to work with, what they were looking for and their current business situation.  We worked together through several companies until we identified a good fit for both sides.

The major difference between the two recruiters was their integrity and relevant knowledge. In the first scenario the recruiter lacked knowledge about the company and he lacked integrity with the contractor. The recruiter wasted my invested time to make quick money.  The second recruiter was honest and proactive on gathering key information to make the best connections.

So the next time you’re planning to partner with a recruiter test his ability to gather knowledge related to your specific needs.