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5 Transferable Skills: From Raising Kids to The Job Interview

5 Transferable Skills: From Raising Kids to The Job Interview by Mark Anthony Dyson

If You’ve Raised Kids, You Can Manage Anything by Ann Crittenden was written some years ago to show that parenting skills translate to job skills.

In her book, Crittenden expounds in detail on transferable skills such as:

–call for multitasking and the ability to function amidst constant distractions

–enhance interpersonal skills, from effective negotiation to dealing with difficult people

–develop skills in motivating and encouraging others to excel

–teach a keen sense of fair play and integrity, and much more

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Each person should self-evaluate his or her own parenting to glean the job lessons from teaching, discipline, and feeding their child. I wholeheartedly subscribe to this not only in theory, but also as a participant and a witness.

Each job seeker who is raising his or her children, should apply this thinking as part of an interviewing strategy and to show transferable skills:

Managing and handling difficult situations

Parents that take the high road here benefit the most because employers do not need to glean that you speak to subordinates or anyone like a child. A demonstration of a diplomatic approach always works without screaming, or yelling comes across better.

Multi-tasking and coordinating

Cooking, cleaning, and helping with arithmetic is no joke. Display your tenacity by sharing how you toggle between home applications (as they were software applications). Show employers how planning is a skill in coordinating your children’s events, activities, and academics.

Networking

Concentrate on how these relationships produced invaluable projects and processes in the Parent-Teacher world. To show you can establish partnerships with others translates in building business partnerships.

Adept to various kinds of learning

Since technology is constantly changing personal communication, and the way you conduct business, and demonstrate the way you monitor your child’s use of online tools on the Internet.

Microsoft Office and Budget

Have you used Excel and Access for budgeting? How about writing school letters and business correspondence. Have you balanced your bank and household accounts using Excel? These are hard skills that have project management elements.

Don’t expect any of these to land you an office of your own, but you can position these as relevant skills in most cases.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Good Grief! Listen Employers and Learn What They Value!

Editor’s note: I wrote this article JobMob published two weeks ago and thought I’d share it here. As a lifelong Charlie Brown fan (at one-time owned 10 volumes of Peanuts books), there was a lesson here that was more of a revelation.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Listen to the Employer and Learn What They Value! by Mark Anthony Dyson

If you don’t pay attention to employers’ needs, they won’t pay attention to yours.

When Charlie Brown said that Joe Shilabotnik was his all-time baseball hero in the Major Leagues, with a horrible batting average way below .200, we can understand why. As grown-ups, we do.

There is a valuable lesson here anyone could be your hero, and it doesn’t matter why it excites us. We know throughout the decades, Charlie Brown would have given up every single baseball card he owned for Joe Shilabotnik’s card.

Value works for us when we’ve hacked into the interests of the other person, or in this case, the employer.

If Charlie Brown is the job seeker and Lucy is the employer, then the benefit of creating value must be communicated. Job seekers go wrong in never demonstrating value when the moment comes. Employers want to win in value more often than in volume. Employers tell you what they need some time by what they don’t need.

Listen closely, and you can discern accurately.

I will dissect Charlie Brown’s approach from end to beginning to show how job seekers miss opportunities to connect with employers in demonstrating their value.

Good grief Charlie Brown, she threw what YOU valued away!

Lucy: “He’s not as cute as I thought!”

Lucy ends this segment by throwing the beloved Joe Shilabotnik baseball card in the garbage. Similar to an employer tossing a resume or at least filing it away with no other intentions to look at it again. Charlie Brown didn’t get that she liked Joe because at the moment, he was cute.

Lesson Learned: If you can’t persuade an employer what you have is valuable, then they will keep looking, sometimes forever (so it seems).

Good grief Charlie Brown, it’s not about volume.

Charlie Brown: (tosses his whole baseball card collection in the air) “For five years, I’ve been trying to get a Joe Shilabotnik! My favorite baseball player, and I can’t get him on a bubble gum card… five years! My favorite player…”

We identify with losers at times. Charlie Brown loved this guy despite his .157 minor-league batting average. My sons like badly-acted late ’80s and early ’90s sitcoms, but we like whom we like. Value is an individual decision we cherish for one reason or another from childhood.

Lucy, at least now, does not care about collecting baseball cards. She cares about one cute baseball player, although it is temporary.

Lesson learned: Charlie Brown didn’t earn attention because he never listened to what Lucy said. Had he mentioned “cute” once or twice throughout his face time with her and the card he desired, chances are he would have obtained her interest.

Job seekers who succeed find ways to understand the employer’s needs. What does the employer’s team or company care about? The job seeker who serves it up on a delectable platter to the employer has their attention, causing salivation and perhaps, career salvation.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Don’t you listen?

Employers test you from the beginning. They want to know you’re listening. Charlie Brown, who is representing the anxious job seeker, wants one thing. He thinks the way to get it is to trade.

Charlie Brown: “How about Nellie Fox, Dick Donovan, Willie Kirkland, Frank Lary, Al Kaline Orlando Pena, Jerry Lulupe, Camilo Pascual, Harmon Killebrew, Bob Turley, and Albie Pearson?”

Lucy: “No, I don’t want to trade…I think Joe Shilabotnik is kind of cute…”

Charlie Brown: “I’ll give you Tome Cheney, Chuck Cottier, Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Maury Willis, Sandy Koufax, Frank Robinson, Bob Purkey, Bill Mazeroski, Harvey Hadoix, Warren Spahn, Hank Aaron, Tony Gonzales, Art Mahaffey, Roger Craig, Duke Snider, Don Nottebart, Al Spangler, Curt Simmons, Stan Musial, Ernie Banks, and Larry Jackson!”

Lucy: “No, I don’t think so…”

Lesson Learned: What are the chances that Charlie Brown could have offered Lucy to pick out several other “cute” players from his collection? Is it possible Charlie Brown owned other cards she desired?

The reality that job seekers must increase their value by offering substantially more to get one package is imminent.

Remember, employers hold the one card you want. They won’t give it away (or throw it away) unless a perceived value equals or exceeds what they hold. They don’t want to hire, but they could be persuaded possibly by something cute (or perceived by others as cute) as what they hold.

Creating opportunities is what you’ll need to do, but won’t happen by offering what is valuable only to you or what the employer’s competition cherishes. Lucy, the employer, is the one you need to convince.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Are you desperate?

Charlie Brown: “Joe Shilabotnik? Really? You have a Joe Shilabotnik? You have a Joe Shilabotnik Bubble Gum Card? He’s my favorite player! I’ve been trying to get him on a bubble gum card for five years! You wanna trade? Here…I’ll give you Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Robin Roberts, Luis Aparicio, Bill Monbouquette, Dick Stuart, and Juan Pizarro!”

Lucy: “No, I don’t think so…”

Lesson learned: Um… strategy? Yes, Charlie Brown, the job seeker, lacks the correct strategy. He may not need to bargain if Lucy, the employer, was a real baseball fan that trades baseball cards. But she wasn’t. Just inundating her with what he has, without understanding what she wants, is a great way to be ignored.

Employers will respond if there is something they want. Lucy was only interested in “cute” Joe. If Lucy cared about his .157 batting average, she would have given the card to Charlie Brown without trading it.

Thank goodness! What did we learn, Charlie Brown?

Charlie Brown, the job seeker, was only a loser because he didn’t listen close enough to Lucy, the employer, ‘s message. Proactive listening is effective when you listen to what an employer says and doesn’t say. Employers will tell you “nice resume” even when it’s not all that nice. In most cases, the statement follows: “… but we will continue looking.”

If Charlie Brown figured out what Lucy valued, Charlie Brown would have kept all of his cards.

Job seekers will find the right employer only by listening closely to employer needs.
Read the original article at: http://jobmob.co.il/blog/learn-what-employers-value/

About Mark Anthony Dyson

by Mark Anthony Dyson

This Is Why Informative And Strategic Storytelling Gets The Job

This Is Why Informative And Strategic Storytelling Gets The Job by Mark Anthony Dyson

Zanie (not her real name) was 19 when I interviewed her for a customer service position. The most refreshing thing about Zanie was how measured and tactical she appeared during the interview. Her readiness, eye contact, and directness immediately impressed my boss and I.

We were wowed before the interview even began because of how well Zanie communicated over the phone. Her phone manners convinced HR to send her over to us immediately.

“She is everything described in the job post,” the HR rep told us.

Zanie’s performance became a benchmark for how candidates should perform during the interview process – especially when using narratives to answer our questions, provide proof of her abilities, and temper our doubts.

Stories are how we prove our value to those we don’t know. People personally connect with us through the stories we tell about ourselves. If you capture the imagination of the interviewers with a good yarn, you can capture their hearts, interest, and, hopefully, a job offer.

Mac Prichard, founder of Mac’s List and author of Land Your Dream Job Anywhere, knows how important it is for job seekers to connect with employers through stories.

“Having a great story that appeals to the people you want to motivate and take action can make an enormous difference,” he says.

For job seekers who want to create narratives like Zanie did, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. The Connection Is Critical

People remember what makes them laugh, cry, and empathize. Zanie effectively weaved emotion in her examples – e.g., “I was afraid at first to speak up. I decided it was better if I did.” Not only did this humanize Zanie, but it drew me into her stories.

2. Investigate Challenges

“Job seekers need to understand the employer’s challenges and problems, and through effective communication, they need to show how they can help solve those problems,” Prichard says.

Each of Zanie’s questions and answers during our interview proved well thought out and strategic. For example, she asked us how difficult callers were handled, and she shared an experience of hers where escalation procedures had broken down. We put Zanie’s concern to rest by explaining our processes and our success with complaints.

3. There Are Times To Replace the Data With a Tale

“Once you reach the interview, the facts matter,” Prichard says. “Your application, resume, and cover letter made the data case by showing your qualifications for the job.”

While data is essential, showing how it applies and impacts can be done through storytelling.

While Zanie came prepared with call reports and performance reviews, she focused on describing situations where her numbers made an impact rather than on the numbers themselves. These examples were more valuable than any data she could have shared.

4. The Power of the Plot Places You

You can only persuade an employer to imagine you in their open position if you share stories that help them envision you in the role.

“The interview is to find out what the employer’s needs are and to show them you’re the right person [to meet those needs,” Prichard says. “Nothing beats storytelling to accomplish those goals.”

–

When Zanie worked on my team, she was often more bashful than in the interview, but she always smiled and stepped up when the moment presented itself.

Seizing the moment – isn’t that what a successful interview requires? You have to take your chance to show your value to the organization. Your thoughtful and relevant stories can place you in the open seat.

This article was originally published on Recruiter.com and Fox Business!