Career Archives - Page 23 of 28 - The Voice of Job Seekers

Choosing a Career Coach

Editor’s note: Jason Sanders is the Vice President of Executive Search at Ivy Exec, whose guest post is a reprinted article with the permission of Ivy Exec.

Most of the resumes that I receive nowadays come from job seekers using career coach services during their executive job search. They may receive advice from an outplacement company hired by their employer, or they may have hired someone themselves.

We have always received unsolicited resumes, but it now seems like using an outside agency is becoming standard practice. That can be great for recruiters because it allows us to decide whether to hit the delete key with much more accuracy.

If you want to set yourself apart from the pack and enhance your ability to network, you have to choose the right company. Here are some things to look for in a career coach:

1. How will their presentation of your credentials set you apart from the pack?
2. Do they offer access to networks that they have nurtured themselves?
3. Would you feel comfortable considering a complete change in the direction of you career, if advised by your career coach?

Notice, that I do not refer to resume templates, databases, mail merges and other such basic tools. Talking about those items as differentiators is like saying a telephone and a laptop make you an outstanding consultant.

If you want to reach a new audience in a new way, you will need a creative, well-connected counselor, who you can trust like you would your doctor.

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

Best Interview Question Ever

Editor’s note: Jason Sanders is Vice President of Executive Search at Ivy Exec, a web-based recruiting company that combines next generation technology with human power to deliver customized hiring solutions targeting high caliber professionals to help place them in executive jobs. This article is reprinted with Ivy Exec’s permission.

As Ivy Exec’s Vice President of Executive Search I spend a lot of time interviewing high quality candidates, as you might imagine. Candidates talk with me about their executive job search, career progression, skills, experiences and personal lives. Usually, I am most interested in understanding what motivates a person. That discussion generally provides the most relevant information to screening and attracting excellent candidates for executive jobs. When you interview a candidate, you will need to balance both objectives in order to make a good hiring decision.

Normally, I spend about two hours total interviewing a candidate. Ideally, these conversations are broken down into an initial phone screen and a face-to-face interview. We cover many topics, including personal ones and a general career history. But what if you don’t have two hours to spend evaluating a candidate? Maybe you only have twenty minutes, or perhaps only five. How do you get the most information in the least amount of time? In short, what is the best interview question you can possibly ask?

You must to accomplish a number of things to make smart hiring decisions. You need to find out about the candidates’ primary skills, their general experience, their ability to synthesize information, their ability to present well and think on their feet, their people skills, their basic intelligence, and their fit into your organization. In truth, you will never fully evaluate a person until you work together. You can cover a lot of ground in a short period of time, though, using this question:

What is your most significant professional accomplishment?

This question has the advantage of leading to a very short answer, or a very long one. It may put your candidates at ease, or make them sweat. You may learn about your candidates’ values, their self-esteem and their cultural fit. You will certainly learn about their ability to communicate. If you listen well, you may be able to sort out sincerity from pretense. You may be able to tell how they view themselves in relation to a team. You may also be able to learn about the person’s drive to succeed.

You can use this interview question for any level candidate, and use it according to your own style. If you prefer, you may remain silent after asking the question, or you may use it as a basis for many follow up questions.

If you choose this question as a starting point, you create a theme for an entire interview. If there is time, you should dig more deeply by asking questions that qualify your candidates’ response. In the case of a consulting project, some of these questions might be:

What were the dimensions of the project? How was it sold? How long did it last? What was the makeup of the delivery team?

What was your role in the assignment?

What was the overall business impact of the assignment? This is a critical question to assess your candidates’ understanding of the connection between their work and the goals of their clients.

Why were you chosen for this assignment?

What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

Which elements of the project did you enjoy, and which didn’t you enjoy?

How did you grow as a person during the course of the assignment?

What did you learn from your client, and what did you teach your client?

When you begin with a strong open-ended question, you lead with a very powerful analytical tool. You can gather a lot of information in a short period of time. You also create an anchor, around which to base a longer interview.

This question makes it easy to structure your interview by introducing a theme for the meeting. Preparing interview questions is always a good idea, but even without an organized approach, you now have something to refer back to. If your candidate begins to wander away from the topic, you will be able to steer the conversation, and learn about the candidate’s ability to stay focused at the same time.

The questions you ask are less important than how you listen to the answers. You may find, for example, that a person needs a lot of prompting. This may mean that they have not accomplished much, or it may mean that they are introverted, or maybe they have not interviewed in years and are a bit rusty. Your evaluation must be flexible according to the circumstances, and other bits of information you gather.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, you may find that your interviewee cannot stop talking about their work. Most hiring managers respond poorly to people who talk excessively, and with good reason. While over talking may make a person sound prideful, the opposite is usually the case. It also shows an inability to rapidly synthesize information, and in the worst cases, may be rude to the interviewer.

This question provides you with a firm grounding to begin, and to guide an interview. You should challenge a person, but also make them comfortable enough to reveal themselves. Your questions, and your style give candidates an impression of what it will be like to work for you. Take advantage of every opportunity to leave a good impression.

Using this question puts you in position to gather information and to ask smart follow up questions. It serves as a kind of interviewing cheat sheet, which helps you get around some of the preparatory work, like reading a resume. Don’t misunderstand me; reading a candidate’s resume is extremely important. If you are caught off guard, however, you can refer back to this question without tipping your hand.

In order to make a good hire, you need to check many different aspects of a candidate’s background, skills, personality, cultural fit and drive. You will need to use different approaches to get all the information that you want. Somewhere in the process, though, you ought to ask this question. You may get more than you expected.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Achieve Career Success by Defining Failure

Failure quotes – Quotes – Pictures

Which is worse, to lose or to fail in chasing career success? Losing sounds temporary, but failing implies permanent. Most job seekers will say losing occurs more often than failure, and sometimes losing FEELS like failure. Knowing the difference between losing and failing in your career search is essential to WINNING, and getting job offers.

We can argue that failing is OK as long as it is not a lifestyle. But if you don’t want to job search to failure, how will you know what to avoid?

Failing in the career hunt is tricky. It could appear as success at some stages. If you want an example, think of the devil. That dastardly angel with horns offer attractive and alluring temptations (so I’m told).Failing can affect you similarly that it looks good at first, but too good…well, you know the cliché.

What are you willing to lose to succeed? How do you define career search failure? This is important for you to know that for yourself. Here are some suggestions in clearly marking where career failure begins. These are signs and not a norm.

1. No steps to career success

This works 100% of the time. No plan accompanied by dreams of hot tubs and caviar means that you are shopping at the local church food pantry.

2. Lacking respect for other people’s time

It’s bad that YOU possess a reputation for being late to everything. In fact, it’s an ongoing friend and family joke until no one important respects you. Potential employers disqualify you when you are late. You don’t call to say you’re late. You call to offer excuses.

3. Un-sharing mistakes and errors

Sharing your mistakes and faults, funny, or unfunny makes you likeable. If you are not perceived as being helpful, why would a company hire you? Ever notice the people who love you know your faults?

4. Do not love challenges

What do you do when someone calls you higher? Become quiet and reserved, or appreciate that they care? Mentors who you respect and are ahead of you in the game possess more value than you can measure. Find a mentor who will challenge your decisions, judgments, and vision for yourself.

5. If it’s a numbers only game

Insecure job seekers want people to know they are trying. He or she wants people to know their desperation applying to 100 jobs a month. What that says is that you want any old job. An unfocused job search is no longer an investment into finding a meaningful and fulfilling career. So your only job leads are cattle calls to 100% commission sales positions.

6. Ignoring reasons to celebrate with others

A heart check is being happy and encouraging the success with others. It is hard sometimes to spur someone else on, but the returns are valuable.

7. Mute the noise from your conscience.

It feels wrong, it looks wrong, but lacks a manual to tell you it’s right. It’s wrong. People will tell you shortcuts to use that are lies. Those are people who you shouldn’t listen to for career advice.

8. No continual training or learning experiences

Are you seeking out training in your career, even if its free? It’s hard to pay for seminars when it exceeds what you are making a week, but are you looking for alternatives? Employers consider those things, especially if unemployed. Two places where people don’t consider looking are the community college weekend courses that run in range of $25-75 dollars, and CAN (Cable Access Network) TV. There is quality training available that can keep you moving toward your goal.

9. You rarely ask (the right) questions. Or answer (the right) questions.

Questions that cause you to think about a bad scenario deserve more air time in your brain. You don’t have to fail, especially if your plans to succeed include errors, mistakes, and wonder. You stop and Y, and why, when you need to continue. The shame.

Before you claim failure, you should define clearly what failure is to you. To get you started I suggest a few in the following areas:

Did I fail to pick the money off the table? Entry-level positions rarely offer opportunities for negotiating, but professional and mid-management, it is expected. Negotiating starts upon contact with demonstration of value, and never ends even at the signing table
Did I fail to answer important questions during interviews? Style points are irrelevant, and zero points for partially answered questions. Go back to questions left unanswered even after the interview
Do I fail to under promise and over deliver value? Are you looking for opportunities to bring practicality to the ideas offered?
Do I fail by running out of time? The one thing that college football pundits used to say about Bobby Bowden, “Bobby never loses, he just runs out of time.” Timing is everything.

There are more suggestion I’m sure you can think of and add in the comment section below. How will you know when you have failed enough to start over?