In the Business of You

A powerful resume is only the first step to getting your foot in the door. Okay, you got noticed and now you are scheduled for an interview. We all know the saying, “you only have one chance to make a great first impression”. So, what do you do to “nail” the interview? Let’s face it; most hiring managers are going to take the opportunity to fill a new or open position with the person whose skill set, image and presentation are the closest to the criteria established for their ideal candidate. How do you convince your interviewer that you are “the one”…that person? You do so by structuring your answers to their questions to focus on what you have accomplished and how you did so…NOT by providing a laundry list of job responsibilities while at previous employers. Because of its proven effectiveness, most companies today use behavioral interviewing, which focuses on the premise that the most accurate predictor of future performance is past performance in similar situations. One o...

For most of us who have been laid off at some point in our careers, the full-time job of finding a new job can seem pretty daunting. There we are “all of a sudden”, by ourselves, sitting at home challenged with the task of figuring out how to convince some hiring manager that they should make us an offer. One of the biggest mistakes made at this critical juncture in the job search process is that the person in transition feels that they need to accomplish this by themselves. Not true! There are a host of valuable resources available to job seekers that they often fail to use. Think of your job search as just another special project to complete (you know, “other duties as required”). Since no one person does everything for their employer, each winds up playing a role in the overall scheme of the company’s ability to successfully do business. The job search process should be considered no differently than a project worked on while employed. Such projects normally (officially o...