The following is a link to a free, downloadable podcast featuring an interview with Howard Fox on the subject of social media, with a particular focus on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is a powerhouse app in the world of job search and it simply cannot be ignored. Networking is what finds people jobs, and LinkedIn expands your network to thousands of companies and recruiters.
If you want to learn about informational interviewing, then it helps to do so from someone who conducted over 100 of them and learned the nuances of this process. That person is Marty Gahbauer and my radio interview with him was a fun opportunity to go over many of the most important insights he shares during a much longer seminar.
The following link will take you to a site where you can download a free podcast and then listen to it when the time is right. That could be during your commute, at the gym, during a shopping trip, whenever. http://bit.ly/1gCrBlx
I hope you enjoy it and please share it with other jobseekers who could benefit from this approach. In a shameless plug, my book, No Medal for Second Place: How to Finish First in Job Interviews, has a chapter covering the subject.
My best,
Tom Payne
This is not the title of a soap opera, it is where the U.S. finds itself and it is a dangerous place.
Almost 6 million young people, aged 16-24, are neither at work nor in school. That’s about 15% of this demographic. What makes this such an unsettling fact is the longer-term implication of a generation waiting for work and failing to develop those skills required for advancement. This isn’t about individuals being unable to climb a corporate ladder; it is about U.S. businesses one day needing talented people to compete globally and finding this talent in short supply, because it never had the opportunity to develop.
Who is at fault? President Obama? The Republican-led House of Representatives? The Democratic-led Senate? With respect to your current state of unemployment, it doesn’t matter. Furthermore, if the unemployed focus on assigning blame, then the struggle to find work will almost certainly fail. Why? Because it requires an incredible amount of energy to secure meaningful work in this environment and wallowing in the comfort of excuses, and blaming others, is a luxury the unemployed cannot afford.
The first step that must be taken by the young and unemployed is to steer clear of blaming the economy, politicians, or anyone else. Young or old, the mindset must be, “I am responsible for my current situation. Therefore,” the responsible jobseeker asks, “What am I doing wrong, and what must I do right, to change this situation?” This may seem like strong medicine, but until we take full responsibility for our current situation we will be distracted by excuses from focusing on what is important.
If you are serious about finding work, then assess your current job search condition with this simple diagnostic:
Are you taking advantage of professional help? Coaching? It may be within your financial reach and it will accelerate the growth of your job search skills in ways you cannot imagine. For example, I serve as a volunteer coach at the Career Transitions Center of Chicago and their three month program costs $300. Check your location for similar programs. They may be offered by churches or synagogues, Chambers of Commerce, University alumni programs, but they will give you another perspective which is invaluable.There is much more to do than answering these few questions, but it is a start. It is moving in the right direction. It is acting responsibly and facing the challenge of this tough job market with a positive, focused, no-excuses attitude that will be far more productive than one that allows the crippling luxury of excuses.
If you do not have an effective problem solving approach, then you may be misled by the complexity of the challenges you face. There are always hundreds of possible things you might do, but until you focus on the one or two most important things, then you are wasting time on the irrelevant or the less relevant.
When Steve Jobs came back to Apple he had 350 mediocre products to deal with. It was a complex mess. He could have whittled this down to 200 average products, or 100 good products. He decided to choose neither one of these paths, because he understood that radically simplifying his product line would enable him to focus his energy on making a few “insanely great” products. Apple went from 350 products to 10.
The first step in a problem solving process is to simplify the complex. Listen to every possibility, test each one, rule it out or confirm that it is the essential area of focus, and then focus on it and nothing else to the degree that you are able.
In job search what are the one or two essential areas of focus? They are:
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That’s it. Now within these two areas there are many possible areas of focus, so you have to simplify these categories. The question becomes what is the most important thing I must do the find the best opportunity and to secure it? Networking is the most important activity to finding a job and interviewing skills will secure it, but to find the best opportunity, and secure it, one must create a value statement that expresses your strengths, your brand, in a compelling way. For until you know what your greatest gifts are, then how can you find the best opportunity, the one that allows you to express these strengths? Furthermore, how can you effectively network if you are unable to express your brand in a clear and compelling way?
Therefore, the first task is to develop this value statement. And do not be fooled by how simple this task might appear at first. It takes time, soul searching, analysis, and writing and rewriting until the powerful phrases come together.
The problem solving approach must be relentless in its quest for simplicity and disciplined in its focus. It asks, “What networking avenue do I focus on first?” In networking I would begin with LinkedIn, because it is the fastest way to access a network of thousands. I would follow that with informational interviewing.
Then, to improve my odds of securing the best opportunity, I would start to develop stories that memorably relate the value I would bring to an organization. I would write them down, edit them many times, and memorize them until I could say them naturally and without the thousand unnecessary words that a nervous jobseeker uses whenever he composes a story off the top of his head during an interview.
Even the story is subjected to the problem solving process. It is simplified to the point where its meaning is clear, memorable and, yes, entertaining. For one of our goals is to be liked during the interviewing process, since emotions like likability will help us secure the best opportunity.
Simplify. Focus. Achieve. These three words sum up my approach to problem solving. I highlight them on my blog and website, because there are few things more important than one’s problem solving approach.
The pet store owner told the parent, “Just take this puppy home and see if you want to keep it or not. And you are right. She is awfully cute.”
We know how this story ends. The cute puppy enters the house, the children adopt her, and there is no way she is ever going to leave. Sold!
One of the most powerful ways to promote yourself in an informational interview, or a job interview, is to create in the hiring authority’s mind the image of you already working for the company. There are several ways of achieving this.
For example, during an informational interview you begin with a statement that asserts the value you can bring to an organization:
“Hi Joe, I thought we’d begin this informational interview by me telling you a little about myself, because many of the questions I’m going to ask are tied directly to this.”
Joe, says, “Sure. Go ahead.”
“Okay. In previous positions I’ve demonstrated the ability to look at hundreds of obstacles, threats, opportunities, and the like, and filter out all but the most important task that deserves my complete attention. And then I focus on it until the task is completed. And this has produced outsized gains. For example, I saw the urgent need to develop a distributor sales training program and it took two months of focused effort, but it resulted in the doubling of revenue and growing our market share from a base of 25% to over 50%. How do you see these analytical, problem-solving skills, combined with creativity, transferring to the challenges in your industry?”
I’ve articulated my strengths, or presented my personal brand, and have now asked the interviewer to imagine these strengths working for him in his industry. I am starting to migrate from my side of the table to his. I continue this process with other questions.
“Some people who are between jobs view themselves as being a problem, a burden, and they are seeking a solution, or a job. But I think I am solution seeking some hiring company’s problems. So what are the most difficult problems you face?”
Then, once they share these problems with you, you begin to ask what their approach has been to solving it, and if they’ve tried doing this and that. By doing this, you’ve assumed the role of an employee doing what employees are hired to do: Solve their companies problems, remove obstacles to growth and profitability, and the more you do this and demonstrate how you are a positive force, the more you become like that cute puppy who has just found a new home.
However, you are not seeking a job during this informational interview. It is an attempt to both get information, and more importantly, to network within a new industry. That said, when you have made yourself so desirable that the interviewer would hire you, if he or she could, then how much more willing will this person be to share with you the names and numbers of potential job sources?
This is the first of several posts on informational interviewing. The final post will have a link to a radio interview I did with a master of this networking technique: Marty Gahbauer.
How do you gain access to a club that is operating behind closed doors? You knock. Requesting an informational interview is like knocking on a door and seeking a day pass to an exclusive club, and depending on how well your interview goes, you might end up getting an offer to join this club.
Companies frequently have opportunities that the rest of the world never sees. They are never posted and are filled by networking. Therefore, you’re only hope of being considered for these opportunities is through networking.
There are many ways to network beyond speaking with your personal contacts. LinkedIn is a networking tool. Recruiters can be used to network. But informational interviewing is unique in that it intentionally expands your networking into industries different from the ones you’ve worked in. And this is what makes it such a valuable tool.
The purpose of an informational interview is to learn about another field of work and see how well your skills, strengths and interests align with this field. It is also a way of exposing your brand to others in these industries to see if it is valued.
Something I strongly recommend is to choose more than one industry, but no more than three. By putting your eggs in more than one basket you will increase your odds of finding an opportunity. And by focusing on three industries instead of ten you will develop some buzz around your name within those industries. In other words, as you get to know more people in a particular industry, and they get to know you, you will increase the likelihood that your name will pop up in conversations and that you will be considered for open positions.
Next, we will speak about the importance of developing your brand and the powerful impact this can have during an informational interview.
You’re Hired! is a radio show offering jobseekers powerful job search tools. The attached link will take you to an interview I conducted with Orla Castanien, a sought after speaker on the subject of strengths and how discovering them and articulating them is at the core of successful job search.
I first heard Orla speak at the Career Transitions Center of Chicago and was not just impressed with the logic and strength of her positions, but also with the utility of the exercises she used to help a person learn their strengths. One of these techniques, the peak moment exercise, is contained in this free, downloadable podcast. The link to this show follows:
I hope you find it enjoyable and I look forward to sharing some future interviews with the CTC’s volunteer coaches and staff, and others, on their areas of expertise.
I was giving a seminar to a group of about 20 people at the Career Transitions Center (CTC) of Chicago on interviewing. They were a delightful group, attentive and asking good questions. But when it came to attacking a powerful false assumption–you must ask for the job–I met some spirited resistance.
They said, “This is what I was told to do and by some of the coaches at the CTC!” More on that in a moment, because I’ve yet to meet a coach at the CTC who doesn’t operate at a high level. But first let’s return to this hot-air balloon for which I always have a perfect pin. I asked them, “Please tell me the exact words you use to ask for the job. Do you say, ‘Can I have the job?’ Because that is actually asking for the job. Or do you use an assumptive close, ‘When do I start?’ because that is implicitly asking for the job.”
The woman who was coached to ask for the job said, “No. I tell them, ‘I think I am a perfect fit for this opportunity and I want you to know how interested I am in pursuing this further.’ ”
To which I replied, “You just expressed interest in the opportunity. I support expressing this 100% of the time at the end of an interview. But you did not ask for the job. You may think I’m splitting hairs here, but I’ve met too many people who hear these words, ‘Ask for the job,’ and actually believe that these words mean what they say. Then, after thinking about it for hours or days, they wonder, ‘How do I ask for the job in a way that makes sense?’ ”
Someone else chimed in, “There are lots of different ways to ask for the job.”
To which I responded, “Please, tell me the exact words you would use.”
She said something like, “I’m ready to get started now.” (Her words were actually more aggressive and, alas, more forgettable.)
To which I said, “That’s way too aggressive and pushy and I wouldn’t recommend using it during an interview.”
“I’m just saying, there are many different ways to ask for the job and that is one of them,” she responded.
I replied, “There are many ways to ask for the job and none of them are good, because asking for the job makes no sense. It forces the hiring authority to tell you what you should already know. Namely, after the interviews are conducted the group of interviewers will get together and discuss who the best candidate was. When they make their decision there will not be a jobseeker in sight. So, asking for the job is a monumental, pushy waste of breath.”
How did this strange concept ever arrive on interviewing’s oft-troubled shores? I believe traditional sales ideas have infected the interviewing process. In traditional sales the first three rules are said to be, “Close, close, close.” You ask for the order. This approach works well when there is one decision maker who is considering a small purchase, or during what is called a simple sales situation. But when you make a complex sale, when there are multiple people involved in the decision (as there are in most interviews), to ask for the order is to reveal your ignorance of the sales process. When I was leading a sales team in the sale of a $4 million communication system we did not ask the purchasing team of ten people for the order after the first, second or third presentation. Nor did we ask for it after the plant tour, or the visit to a reference site, or ever. And we got the order.
Now how could the coaches at the CTC promote this notion. Based on the first woman’s response, they were telling her that to ask for the job means to express an interest in the opportunity. Okay, but here is where we part company. I believe the English language should be used to say what we mean, and if we mean “express an interest” then we should say, “Express an interest.” Otherwise, as the second contributor revealed, damaging, overly-aggressive, pushy “closing” statements may be used and they will not help your cause.
As stated in a previous post, the process of communicating is very complicated. It involves verbal and non-verbal communication. While we speak we are listening, processing how the other person is responding to what we are saying. This is constantly occurring because communication is more than just topical, it is relational.
There is too much occurring during face-to-face talk for the rational mind to process and keep up with. It is too slow, working at about 40 bits per second. But the cognitive unconscious is very fast, operating at about 11 million bits per second. It organizes information into patterns called schema. It senses what is going on before our conscious mind does, and it communicates to us through our bodies, through increased sweating, faster heart beat, a sense of uneasiness. The following study shows this process in action.
In this study the subjects were required to choose between a deck of blue cards and a deck of red cards. The red cards produced big gains, but more big losses. The blue cards produced smaller gains, but fewer small losses. By card 50 the subjects had a hunch about the red cards but couldn’t explain it. By card 80 they knew the problem with the red cards explicitly. But by card 10 the cognitive unconscious had solved the problem. This was indicated by an increase in sweating and behavior modification (a slight decrease in red card choices).
The cognitive unconscious is much faster than our rational minds. It recognizes patterns. It anticipates future outcomes and probabilities, because these patterns suggest what might happen next. It is at work in every communication experience including job interviews. This is why our non-verbal behaviors are so powerful. They trigger responses from the cognitive unconscious of the interviewer that can overpower or sway their rational thought process. For example, on paper you may be the ideal candidate for a position, but because you came in looking tense and nervous the interviewer felt you were a poor fit and not up to the task, even though everything in your work history indicated otherwise.
We are always communicating even when we do not say a word. The classic illustration of this is love at first sight. This strange phenomenon has been known for millennia, and the subject was even found in the writings of the Greek philosopher Plato. It was depicted as being shot in the heart by Cupid’s arrow. Love at first sight was not the result of rational processing of information. Instead, it was the result of the cognitive unconscious responding to what it saw.
What non-verbal messages are you sending during an interview? How can you possibly know? A mock interview that is videotaped is one way of discovering what sort of non-verbals characterize your interviewing style and taking part in mock interviews is highly recommended, because modifying our non-verbal communication is an essential part of the job search process.
Last night I attended a program launched by the National-Louis University to provide additional job search help to their alumni. This is something every university should be doing. After all, universities equip students with strengths, but few, if any, train them to understand these strengths and express them.
Why do these well-educated people need help crafting their value statement? Why can’t they do it on their own? Because to look at your entire life and distill it down to your one or two most important strengths is an extremely complex and difficult process. It can take weeks of concentrated thought before the patterns start emerging that point to what is most valuable about ourselves. And until we achieve this self-understanding we will be unable to express our value effectively, because we will not know what it is.
When I was recently working with Northwestern University alums I met an accomplished woman who was fortunate enough to be employed, and who wanted to take advantage of this. She asked me how she could do a better job at internal interviewing. She was going through a vetting/grooming process that, if managed successfully, would advance her to higher and higher levels of responsibility.
We went over a variety of topics, from theory Y leadership to communication, before I asked her to recount for me peak moments during which she was thoroughly engaged and in the flow, when the passage of time was meaningless and she produced great results. It’s an exercise that can help us understand our results-producing strengths. What was her response? After taking a minute to think about this she said, “I know I’ve had peak moments, but I can’t think of one and I should be able to.”
Knowing her, she will get an answer, but it may take time. Not because of her limitations, but because of the complexity of the riddle we call the self, the personality. Reducing one’s entire past to its most important expressions of strength and interest, of ability and emotional engagement, is no small task.