Celebrate World Storytelling Day

Author, blogger, and career expert Katharine Hansen notes that today is World Storytelling Day. On her A Storied Career blog, she catalogs the various way this event is being celebrated.

This is relevant to this blog how? Because storytelling is the very essence of a successful job search. If you can tell stories about your achievements, both on your resume and in interviews, you will go a long way toward convincing the employer to hire you. And the most common interview question is "Tell me about yourself." Katharine's newly released book, Tell Me About Yourself, will help you build your story to answer that question--and all others--with style and substance. (Full disclosure: I edited this awesome book!)

Job Hunting Genius: Bring the Paparazzi to Your Interview!

Former JIST VP of marketing Randy Haubner got an unanticipated boost to his job search this weekend by appearing on the front page of the Indianapolis Star talking about the fact that he is looking for a job (read the whole story here), complete with photos of him at an interview. Not many job seekers get this kind of visibility!

You might be wondering how he pulled this off. We've all internalized the "networking is king" mantra that all of our books put forth. So he contacted workplace reporter Dana Hunsinger, with whom we have a good relationship, and asked her to keep an eye out for opportunities for him. It just so happened she was planning a Labor Day article on job hunting and asked whether he'd participate. He agreed, and there he was on the front page, right under Hurricane Gustav.

It's a potentially risky move, though. I haven't heard how the employer reacted to him bringing along a photographer, but surely it made him memorable. But the article itself was kind of a downer--how bad the job market is, la la la. It will be interesting to see what comes of it.

Meanwhile, if you read the whole story you'll see that Randy is looking for work outside the publishing industry as well as inside. He had to hedge his bets--there just aren't a lot of options for people who want to stay in publishing and stay in Indianapolis. I think he's smart to keep all options open.

Update: Randy reports that he's already gotten two legitimate job interviews and has connected with three other people as a direct result of the article. Way to go!

Tell Me a Story

Who doesn't love to hear a good story? Appreciation for storytelling in its various forms is basic human nature and the reason we buy books, watch movies and TV, and read the newspaper. Someone who does it well can hold your rapt attention through every twist and turn to the ultimate payoff: laughter, tears, learning, motivation, and more.

It should come as no surprise that the people who can tell interesting and impressive career stories on their resumes and in interviews are the ones most likely to get the job. For example, the trend in interviewing these days is to ask candidates questions like, "Tell me about a time when you saved your company money." If you can tell a story that really captures their imagination and demonstrates your skills, you've aced it. (Needless to say, you've got to be armed with your stories ahead of time!)

Career expert and author Katharine Hansen writes about various forms of applied storytelling in her blog, A Storied Career. And here's where I get to brag: After years of admiring her work, I am happy to announce that I've just signed Kathy to write a book on career storytelling for JIST. Tell Me About Yourself, which is slated to be released in April 2009, enables readers to harness the power of storytelling to land jobs and advance their careers. Welcome aboard, Kathy!

Giving an Informational Interview Today

I don't know how it happened, but somehow I became the official informational-interview go-to girl at JIST. An informational interview is when a job seeker or career explorer requests a meeting with someone in their target field, just to get information and advice, despite the fact that there is no job opening. Because so many of our books tell people to go out and set up these interviews, and because they are really helpful to people, I never felt like I could turn anyone down when they asked for one.

For a while after I started this blog, though, I was telling people to just go read it and then contact me again if they had further questions. Being an introvert, it was nice to be able to avoid meeting strangers and taking time out of my day.

But I've agreed to meet someone today at 11. I don't even know the person who referred her to me. She found me in a roundabout way through LinkedIn. But she seems very nice and I am happy to try to help her.

I'm in a weird position, though, because I read so many books about how to conduct these interviews (from the job seeker's perspective). I feel like I have an unfair advantage. Do I go ahead and hit her up with sports agent Molly Fletcher's key interview question: "Who are you and what do you want?"

I don't have to prep too much for this beyond reading her resume ahead of time (most books tell you not to send a resume, but I always request one because it helps me know the person and figure out how to advise him or her). I am trying to do some neglected filing and recycling so that she doesn't think I work in a dumpster with a window. And I managed to put on makeup today. But no pantyhose--not on a 90-degree July day.

Tons of Career Advice at Quintessential Careers

A virtual powerhouse of career information, advice, samples, articles, tools, links, and more, Quintessential Careers is a must-see Web resource. It was founded 12 years ago by authors Dr. Randall Hansen and Dr. Katharine Hansen and has everything you need to kick off your job search or career exploration.

Important features on Quintessential Careers include

• Career Toolkit for all aspects of your search
• Education advice
• An active and insightful blog
• Daily advice from The Career Doctor
• A job search portal and resume posting site

Quintessential Careers tops many lists as the best career site on the Web. It boasts 3,400 pages of information, so it's definitely worth a look.

P.S.: These authors don't write for JIST, so this is my totally unbiased opinion!

Sizing Up Potential Employers in Interviews

Randi Bussin, a career coach at Aspire! in Boston, contributed an article to this morning's Career Management Alliance e-Bridge newsletter on how to assess your fit with the culture of a potential employer. A bad match can result in an unpleasant work situation, so it's important to know what you want and how well your potential employer meets those expectations and needs.

Here's an excerpt from Randi's article, with some questions you can ask at the interview to get a better feel for the company's culture:

• What three words or phrases would you use to describe the company/department culture? Pay attention to the adjectives that are used to see if they fit with your values.
• Does the company have a stated set of cultural values? Often, a mission statement is a good place to start to gather insights in this area.
• Can you describe the environment here? Pay attention to the words used and the aspects of the work environment the employer mentions, such as camaraderie, career-development opportunities, and work-life initiatives.
• What is the company's attitude toward educational and professional development? Does the company place a value on lifelong learning and advancement?
• What type of employee achievements are recognized by the employer? Pay attention to what the company values, and whether any special awards are given for outstanding customer service, sales, etc.
• What type of sponsorships or philanthropic activities does the company participate in? Does the company partner with United Way, or support programs such as Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day? Do company employees volunteer for local charities?

Another great way to assess corporate culture is to pay attention to details as you walk around the office during an interview. A few ideas to consider might be

• How were you treated during the interviews? Were people on time?
• What key phrases did the interviewers use frequently? What does that tell you about what the company values/does not value?
• How prepared were the interviewers? Had they seen your resume?
• Do people look happy and appear as though they are having fun?
• Do senior management members sit in cubes like everyone else or do they have fancy, lush offices?
• Does the office layout promote collaboration between departments?
• Are people eating lunch at their desk alone, or in groups in a cafeteria?

Wizard of Work Asks: Are You Ready for an Interview?

I've recently had the pleasure of meeting Dick Gaither, the famous Wizard of Work. He's been in the trenches training people to find jobs for several decades. So when the Wizard speaks, people listen. He offers the following quiz for assessing your readiness for job interviews:

Sometimes it’s not what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you think you know that isn’t really true that causes the most problems. This is especially true of the interview process. I’ve rarely met anyone who admits to being a rotten interviewee, even after they’ve been rejected. So, let’s see what you really know about yourself and the interview process.

There’s an old adage “If you’re going to run with the big dogs, you have to get off the porch.” Evaluate your interview success potential by completing this simple quiz and see if you’re ready to run with the big dogs at the interview or if you need to stay on the porch with the puppies for a while.

1. Can you talk the talk of the industry and use common buzz words, jargon, and acronyms?
2. Can you give the interviewer at least three reasons why you’re interested in the company at which you’re applying?
3. Can you list 15 common interview mistakes?
4. Can you readily give at least three examples of when you’ve done work not included in your job description?
5. Can you identify three of your prominent employment-related successes or achievements and talk about your role in them?
6. Can you comfortably give the interviewer at least five good reasons why a company should hire you?
7. Do you have a 60-second promotional presentation for the interview question, “Can you tell me a little about yourself?”
8. Do you have job descriptions and can you give three examples of when you’ve used each skill and strength listed in them?
9. Are you very confident you can answer technical questions from a panel of interviewers or pass an employment test?
10. Have you researched the pay scale and benefit packages for a person with your skills and experience in your locale?
11. Have you anticipated 10 questions you’ll be asked at the interview and made notes about how you’ll answer them?
12. Do you have a rational and acceptable set of reasons for leaving, or wanting to leave, your last job?
13. Have you spent any time to practice negotiating a higher salary and answering the pay expectations question?
14. Do you understand the interview methods, styles, and protocols for your particular industry?
15. Can you list 15 of your most marketable skills, abilities, and personality traits that make you a good hiring risk?
16. If the interviewer asks you to take a drug test “right now,” would you be willing to do so and would you pass it?
17. Have you researched the company and can comfortably talk about their products, services, goals, and competitors?
18. Do you follow up after an interview with a thank-you note, letter, or e-mail…immediately after the interview?
19. Do you have a list of at least five intelligent questions you want to have answered at the interview?
20. Do you have a business card that highlights your achievements to leave with interviewers at the end of the interview?

Add your number of "no" responses. If you have 15 to 20, Dick advises you to stay on the porch with the puppies. If you have 8 to 14, you're average--but average doesn't cut it in job interviews. If you have 1 to 7, you're in the top 30% and have a good shot at doing well.

Dating Skills That Work Well During Interviews

Love is in the air this week, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some advice from one of my favorite career books, Courting Your Career. Author Shawn Graham is Associate Director of the MBA Career Management Center at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School. He's written a fun but powerful little book on how getting a job is a lot like looking for a mate.

Here's an excerpt from the book that relates the most important interviewing skills to the most important dating skills. (And hey, get your mind out of the gutter. This is a G-rated blog.)



When you’re dating, you need to possess certain skills if you’re going to have any success. These skills include active listening, communicating, time management, persuasion, negotiation, judgment, and decision making. As luck would have it, these skills also work well during your job interview. Let’s look at each skill to see how and why they’ll play a role during your interviews (as well as your search as a whole).

• Active listening: Giving your full attention to what the other person is saying, nodding, asking questions as appropriate, maintaining eye contact and open body language, smiling, and not interrupting when he or she is speaking are the keys to active listening. Being an active listener makes your interactions with others, both when dating and when looking for jobs, more effective. It increases your chances of making a genuine connection with the person you’re speaking with. In a romantic relationship, being an active listener means not staring at the TV when your boyfriend or girlfriend is trying to talk to you. During a job interview, being an active listener means maintaining eye contact, taking limited notes when necessary, and verbally and nonverbally acknowledging what the other person is saying.


• Communicating: If you’re not able to communicate with others effectively, you’re not going to get very far on the dating scene or the job market. Being an effective communicator involves not only what you say, but also how you say it. During a job interview, hand gestures, body movements, facial expressions, and posture can be just as important as the words coming out of your mouth. For example, if a woman asks her boyfriend whether her jeans make her look fat and he says "no" but rolls his eyes, he’s in hot water.


• Time management: Being able to balance time with your loved ones, work, outside interests, family, and so on isn’t something that happens by accident. You have to prioritize tasks and sometimes make difficult sacrifices. The same holds true during your job search when you have to squeeze in time to get ready for an interview or write a bunch of cover letters when you already have a ton on your plate. Identify those things you can postpone and those things you can’t.


• Persuasion: Persuasion goes hand in hand with negotiation. Say you’re in the mood for a movie and your girlfriend or boyfriend wants to play miniature golf. Your ability to persuade your date to change his or her mind will determine whether you’ll be eating popcorn or heading for a water hazard. Your ability to persuade an interviewer that you are the right candidate for the job will go a long way in determining whether you get an offer letter or a rejection letter.


• Negotiation: Anytime you’re dealing with other people, you’re going to have differences. Negotiation is part of the give-and-take process of any relationship, whether you’re negotiating for more money when you receive a job offer, or you’re negotiating with your boyfriend or girlfriend about the possibility of relocating after graduation so that you can go to graduate school.


• Judgment and decision making: Two people who can never make up their minds probably won’t end up dating for long. After all, they’d probably never be able to figure out what they wanted to do or where they wanted to eat. During your job search and when you ultimately land a job, your judgment and decision making are critical. Which suit should you wear to your big job interview? When offered two jobs, which one is the better fit?

You use the preceding skills every day when you’re dating someone. The more you’re able to master these skills and exhibit them during your job search, the more success you'll have in finding your dream job.

Get Paid to Interview for Jobs?

You heard me right. There's a new online job search site called NotchUp that claims that through them, companies will actually pay you to interview for their jobs.

Sound ludicrous? Well, maybe it's not so far-fetched. There's a whole industry of people whose job it is to convince "passive" candidates (those people who already have a job and aren't really looking) to interview for jobs that they have been hired to fill. So maybe putting a price on the time it takes to interview for a job was inevitable.

Speaking of the price, what might that be? On this site, you get to name your price. They even give you a calculator to help you figure out what to charge based on your industry and years of experience. For example, they're telling me I should charge $200. Go ahead, I'm listening...

The catch, of course, is that you have to apply to join NotchUp, or be invited. So they're probably not going to accept you unless you are a highly desirable candidate that the company might want to hire. That increases their chances of getting paid their fees.

So, this could be just another gimmick that fades away fast, or it could be the next big thing.

Thanks to HR Wench (a human resources professional who clearly has not drunk the corporate Kool-Aid) for mentioning NotchUp on her blog.

Don't Ever Dis a Former Employer

I just found this article from the Bluffton (Indiana) News-Banner. Gary Books talks about a bad job he had in the past. And yes, it sounds like it was awful, and that he handled it pretty well. Nonetheless, the fact that he is griping about it now (and mentioning that "upper, upper management has hated me"--even if it's tongue-in-cheek) doesn't reflect well on him.

This is a cardinal rule of job interviews: Don't ever speak poorly of a former boss or company. I don't care how crazy the situation was and how innocent you were. It will always come back to bite you. The employer will think that you were a big part of the problem, and that you could do the same thing at the new company.

Sometimes an interviewer will even try to bait you into saying something negative about a previous job by asking you point-blank what was the worst job you ever had. Resist the temptation to share a juicy story about your lecherous, bipolar boss. Soften it by saying something like "Well, all jobs have their positives and negatives. I think the job I enjoyed the least was ______, because it wasn't a good fit with my skills and interests." Just don't say "personality conflict." That's a red flag that will make employers doubt whether the conflict really was the employer's fault--or whether you're just a PITA.