Sex and Your Job Search 2013: A Guide to Scoring Your Dream Job (18 page)

Describe the last major procedure or protocol change you had to learn and if you took direction from someone. What was it? What steps did you take to learn it quickly? How did it turn out? Were you able to enhance the new procedure or protocol? Did this involve advice from management and, as a result, cause your opinion to change? Was the overall result more profitable or productive?

• 
Communication:
Think about a time when you have adjusted your communication style so someone else could better understand what you were trying to say. Or think about a time when you had to deal with a situation where there had been a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding, maybe with a diverse group of people. What was the situation? What did you do? How did it turn out? Include “listening” as a part of your solution.

Have you ever had to draft an important email or create a vital presentation? Describe the steps you took and how it turned out.

If you would like to talk about a challenge you had with a co-worker, please make sure you come out looking like a saint and that you found a way to work in harmony. You can express your concern with co-workers who weren’t motivated or didn’t follow directions and as a result didn’t produce quality work. Show that you remained positive when dealing with that person. Otherwise, try to stay away from these types of stories.

Also, I’d recommend never saying you got mad about something. Use words like “troubling,” “concerning,” or “a little annoying.” They make someone come across as level-headed and mature.

As a new college grad, you can talk about the networking you did to gain entrance into college or receive an internship while in school. If you needed letters of recommendation, how did you find these references and how did you use those to springboard to more success while in school? Did you show initiative and an increase in responsibility? Oftentimes only the best applicants get title and responsibility bumps while in school.

• 
Creativity:
This skill could also be called Strategic Thinking. Please keep that in mind. Try to come up with an example of when you solved a problem in a new way or through an unconventional approach. What was the creative solution to the challenge and what was the outcome? Have you ever bent the company rules to work through a challenge? What did you do? How did it turn out? What did you learn?

Describe an idea or concept you used to make a corporate event more appealing. What did you do and how did it turn out? Was there a measurable increase in attendance or customer satisfaction?

Have you incorporated technology, including webinars and online training, to reduce corporate expenditures?

• 
Customer Focus:
Describe a time when you went above and beyond for a customer. What was the situation, what did you do, how did it turn out?

Have you ever stayed late or come in on a weekend to finish a project to prove your commitment to the organization? What was the situation? What did you do?

Or talk about an example when an employee or customer asked you a question to which you did not know the answer. What did you do? How did they react? How did it turn out?

Have you ever been rejected on a sales call? How did you respond? What did you learn? What did you change the next time you approached a potential customer?

• 
Organization and Time Management:
Think about a time when you were faced with conflicting priorities. How did you figure out which task was most important? Did you incorporate leadership skills, delegate responsibility, or ask for help? What critical thinking, analytical, decision-making, and/or problem-solving skills or processes did you use? Explain how you solved the problem, were better prepared when it came up again, and what you learned.

Have you ever forgotten to do something important? What was it and what happened? Don’t be afraid to share a learning experience where you missed something or made an error. There is a strongly likelihood that you will be asked for one. Talk about what you’ve learned from that experience and what you would do differently if you were in that situation again. And if you
were
in that situation again, what did you do? This is a great opportunity to demonstrate your critical thinking and multitasking skills. But, try to limit the number of stories where things went wrong to one and maximum two.

• 
Technical Ability:
This is a job-specific question. When applying for your dream job, you were most likely presented with a list of the requirements. Print, save, or take a screen capture of those job duties
immediately
so that you can highlight your skills in those areas during the interview. The reason being is that most jobs will disappear from a website before the interviews begin. If you need some brushing up on a certain skill(s) look for a YouTube video or advice online. There are millions of sites to choose from, including khanacademy.org, which has a free online collection of more than three thousand micro-lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube.

Next, think of stories of where you’ve learned something quickly and where you’ve incorporated this skill at work. Take a moment to come up with an example of how you’ve become more efficient and involved in your profession. Do you belong to a professional organization? Have you taken a class or received a certification? Do you read a professional publication or have an interesting topic you are an expert on? How have you applied that knowledge at work? What was the result?

Think of a good example of how you have progressed at work. Have you received a promotion due to your efforts and your ability to solve challenges quickly? Have you received more responsibility? What were your rewards for doing so? Have you prevented follow-up problems? Has morale or a process improved due to your technical skills? What have you learned in the process that shows where your profession and industry is headed?

Once you are done creating a list of seven or more stories, ask yourself what the three most important skills are for the job you will be interviewing for. Focus on truly perfecting those three stories as they relate to the duties of your dream job.

THREE UNIVERSAL VALUES

Next up are the Three Universal Values that all employers seek in an applicant. An organization’s values are their guiding beliefs, principles, and attitudes.

• 
T
eamwork

• 
I
ntegrity

• 
E
xcellence

A good way to remember these Values is the acronym “TIE.” As in “TIE” these into your “go-to” stories. Personally, I think the order should be rearranged due to importance, but it would be harder to remember the acronym “IET.”

It is important to incorporate one or more of these three values into
all
of your stories. They are at the center of what makes a job candidate desirable, aside from the Seven Skills. In addition, they show that you will fit within most corporate cultures. Knowing and recognizing these values, along with an organization’s mission and history, is the career equivalent of telling someone that you like them for who they are on the
inside
and who they are as a person.

You may be thinking, “Oh, that makes sense. But are values really
that
important?” They are. Numerous studies suggest that a high number (30–40%) of executives and employees leave a firm (voluntarily or thru termination) within eighteen months because they are not a cultural fit. Because it is very expensive for an employer to replace an employee, HR looks very closely at values and cultural fit. Depending on the level of position, it can cost half of someone’s annual salary or as much as one and a half times an annual salary to replace someone.

Remember, your number one goal is to score a job. To connect with someone, you have to understand who they are, what they want, and communicate similarities. Doing so will increase the chances of sparks developing, which hopefully will lead to fireworks. This applies to both dates and interviews.

To incorporate values into your stories, read through the descriptions of each value and ask yourself the following questions. Then add those elements into your already crafted stories.

• 
Teamwork:
In your stories, talk about working with a group to achieve a common goal or purpose. Make your stories more powerful by conveying your belief that shared knowledge is power. Mention that 1 + 1 = 3 with a team, i.e. together you can accomplish more. Can you think of a time when you gave a co-worker credit for an idea? Remarkable employees acknowledge the contributions of their peers.

If it comes up, talk about the positive things your references would say about you, and if you brought copies of letters of recommendation, quote from one of them. This works as a great segue if you haven’t had the opportunity to pass out the reference letters yet.

• 
Integrity:
The “I” in “TIE” stands for integrity. This is the element where you talk about yourself and your character, honesty being the focus here. The synchronization of what you think, say, and do. Make sure your stories have an element of following through with your promises and being consistent. Show how you have been loyal to past employers. Discuss the positive results of incorporating this value in your work life and how you are motivated to demonstrate integrity for your next employer. Were you fair and consistent, even in uncomfortable situations? Did you find cash or valuables and reunite them with the rightful owner? Did you catch someone stealing and report them? Have you ever spot-checked a statement, policy, or spreadsheet for errors and found them? Talking about these things in interviews quickly builds trust.

• 
Excellence:
What have you done that’s extra special for past employers, co-workers, and managers? How have you gone above and beyond? Talk about accountability, professionalism, and enthusiasm. Discuss extra reading you have done on subjects to increase knowledge of a topic, even if it is just one or two articles. What do you know about the company you are interviewing or applying to? Have you taken a class in Word or Excel? Were you certified in your field? Talk about your work ethic and your desire for perfection. Don’t hesitate to say that a part of excellence is having balance in your life, like spending time with family. Coming across as a complete workaholic is not a good thing, since workaholics tend to have stress-related health issues, which cost an employer money.

Don’t Forget:
Once you have finalized your Seven Interview Go-to Stories, write down one or two keywords from each on the pad of paper in your padfolio or on a resume. I’ll talk more about this trick in the Interview Wingman section below. First I’ll show you how to put the B ME method into practice.

THE B ME OUTLINE AND THE MUSTACHE STORY

A few years back, a friend of mine named Jim, who looks like a Greek god (6’5”, former Abercrombie and Hilfiger model, current surgeon), called me up around 5:00pm one day, and in a deep voice said, “Hey Dom, wanna go ride dirt bikes at the track? Me: “Yeah man. That sounds good.”

It actually sounded like a great idea, after long day of interviewing.

So, Jim shows up in a lifted 1972 Chevy Blazer. We pick up the bikes and throw them in the back of the truck, strap them down, and head to the track. We are feeling manly. We ride motorcycles. We hit a few eighty-foot tabletop jumps and felt even more manly. Then we head home.

I get home around ten and decide to run to the grocery store to pick up some Little Debbies and Gatorade for the guys putting in a new floor in my house. I worked a little bit of construction in college, so I am very sympathetic to being hungry and doing manual labor.

In the supermarket, I notice an early twenty-something girl smile shyly at me and then look away. I think, “No big deal. She probably senses my aura of manliness after being at the racetrack.” Then a middle-aged woman smiles at me. I’m like, “Awww yeah. I have to ride motorcycles more often. This is great.” Lastly, in the checkout line, the female checker and the bagger throw smiles my way and make a little small talk. “Still got it in my early 30s,” I said to myself like Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) would on Modern Family.

As soon as I get home, I head to the shower. While standing in front of the mirror, I notice that there is a thick brown dirt mustache above my upper lip. The dirt and dust from the track had settled in the area between where my goggles met the mouth-protecting part of the helmet.

The girls weren’t smiling at me. They were laughing at me! I still crack up when I think about it to this day.