Career Management Alliance Blog

I received back–to–back subscription emails last week that both talked about branding. The buzz about branding is definitely getting louder.

And it should be. In today’s competitive market place, winning market distinction is about understanding your unique and authentic brand … and leveraging that difference to win market differentiation. What is “different,” gets noticed. Commodity is the status quo.

ERE Daily suggested using a one word strategy. Think about the people with whom you interact and/or do business. What is the one word that comes immediately to mind when you think about him or her? That first impression is their brand … despite a tag line or brand statement to the contrary.

The same is true for you. While a 360–assessment is the best way to begin identifying your brand, you can try the one word test on others. Ask them to tell you the one word that first comes to mind when they hear your name. If 10 different people give you 10 different answers, you have a brand problem.

The Women for Hire newsletter talked about cybersabotage. That is when posts, comments, and responses made online in the heat of passion; or even unknowingly, carelessly, thoughtlessly, or recklessly; or perhaps in jest or in fun collide with Google.

Last year’s stats reflected that 63% of recruiters Googled a candidate’s name prior to talking with them. A Harris Poll showed that 23% of individuals Googled a colleague prior to meeting with them for the first time. With Google now a verb in our every day vocabulary, these numbers are climbing rapidly.

The challenge becomes creating a clear and compelling brand rather than an eclectic collection of things about you that sends a confusing, or even undesirable, message.

Be part of the buzz. Tell us what you know about your brand.

Posted by Cindy Kraft

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Michelle’s recent post on behavioral interviewing was “spot on.” Let’s look at some specific strategies you can use to nail the interview using the work that you’ve already done with your résumé writer:

*You’ve clearly and concisely described one - two “success stories” for each of your previous employers, using the Problem (Challenge) - Action - Result model.

*You’ve analyzed your accomplishment stories to identify the personal qualities, skills, and areas of knowledge that made it possible for you to achieve your successes.

*Now you need to re-frame this data in terms of what’s needed for the specific position you are applying for.

Step #1 - Study the job description and organization to identify the criteria for the job (not “requirements”). The criteria are likely to be “soft skills,” e.g., flexibility, team orientation, interpersonal skills, etc. Create a grid, with the criteria on the left and your previous employers across the top.

Step #2 - Fill-in the cells with a note about each employer/accomplishment that addresses the new job criteria. (Without the ability to post a table online, I can’t provide a good-looking sample - contact this author for a complimentary copy of this worksheet

Step #3 - Once you’ve completed this “homework,” use your notes to prepare for questions and conversation with the interviewers. Be careful to limit your responses to three - four crisp sentences, using the Problem (Challenge) - Action - Result model.

Ironically, you’ll need to rehearse these responses so you can deliver them in a style that appears to be totally spontaneous!

Rehearse wherever you are alone and won’t feel silly talking out loud to yourself, e.g., while driving, drying your hair, etc. Preparation is the key to nailing the behavioral interview.

Look for Part 2 of this post in a few days. In the meantime, here are a few links to facilitate your success with behavioral interviewing and the P-A-R model:

Career Services - University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Katharine Hansen, writing for Quintessential Careers

Posted by Karen Katz

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Ranking up there with getting a root canal is the behavioral interview. Ask ten people what they think about interviewing, and nine of them will say they have experienced at least mild anxiety. Some have talked about having nightmares or of breaking into a profuse sweat when seated in the interviewing chair. As I have written before, the client who scares me is the one who is not at all concerned about his performance in the interview.

The behavioral interview is based on the premise that past performance is the best predictor of a candidate’s future success. More and more corporate interviewers are trained to rely on this type of interview structure. Jason Warner – the Google Guy – has conducted about 4,000 interviews in his career as a recruiter, and estimates that less than 3% of candidates structure their answers correctly.

Whenever the question begins, “Tell me about a time when…,” you are getting a behavioral interview question. Here’s a simple formula for how to answer this question courtesy of Mr. Warner: Situation, Action, Result, and Interesting Features, SARI for short.

In describing the situation, give enough background to understand the context, but less detail is usually better. In describing the action, explain exactly what you did. Don’t use the word “we.” Referring to the action in terms of the intangible “we” is one of the most common interview mistakes according to Warner. Next, share the results of your efforts using some form of measurement or metrics. Finally, tell the interviewer something memorable and tie it back to the original competency asked about in the first place.

With a little practice, you can quickly master this technique. Here are a few questions to get you started.

Tell me about a time when you…
1. Coached an individual, or a group of individuals. What was the situation? How did you approach the coaching intervention? What was the outcome of your involvement? (Competency: Team Development)

2. Dealt with different or conflicting points of view concerning the best course of action to take for your organization. What was the issue? How did you handle it? (Competency: Organizational Awareness)

3. Set and achieved a challenging goal at work, one that was important to do, but may have been unpopular. What was your intent in doing so? How did you sell this to others? What was it about? What was the outcome? (Competency: Commitment, Integrity)

4. Had to truly listen and understand another person’s point of view in order to solve a problem or to deal with an issue. What was the nature of the problem/issue? What was your approach in resolving it? (Competency: Relationship Development)

5. Faced a challenge such as tight resources during a project you led or an assignment for which you were responsible. How did you handle the challenge? What was the outcome? (Competency: Results Orientation)

6. Anticipated potential obstacles to implementing a high visibility strategic initiative. What were the obstacles? How did you approach the situation? What was the outcome? (Competency: Strategic Thinking)

Posted by Michele Haffner

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The other day I was working with a client who had over 30 years of experience in his field. When I looked at his current resume, I noticed that he had taken off his graduation date as well as dates associated with his earlier employment. I asked him why he decided to do this and he told me that he had sent his resume to several firms where he expected there to be interest and he received no response. He concluded that the hiring managers were turned off once they calculated his age, so he chose to remove certain dates from the document.

While I can empathize with this candidate’s concerns and won’t deny that there is age bias out there, leaving off the employment dates on any section of your work history or omitting graduation dates is a big mistake.

When the resume lacks these dates, the result is that the candidate ends up accentuating the very thing that they were trying to obscure. This can jeopardize the candidate’s credibility in the eyes of the hiring manager and hurt their chances of securing an interview.

If you are concerned that your age might create a negative perception among some hiring managers, look for ways to infuse energy into your resume to buck potential stereotypes. Showcase examples of how you have embraced new technology, managed and mentored a young team, or become a subject matter expert in a current industry best practice or recent compliance initiative.

Here are a few specific recommendations for moving your search forward and minimizing age bias.

1. Enter the blogosphere. By participating in the conversations that are relevant to your industry, you can build your network, gain credibility, and position yourself as a forward-thinker and “doer” who will add value to an organization.
2. Research companies that embrace older employees. AARP is a great resource for sourcing information on companies that have a proven track record for hiring older workers.
3. Become familiar with the ramifications of the coming labor shortage so you can better communicate your value add as an older worker.
4. Perform a technology audit. If some of your skills need to be updated, take advantage of online or community based resources.
5. Network across generations. Join affinity groups that are not defined by age such as school or corporate alumni groups or groups based on common interests.

Posted by Barbara Safani

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Everyone has heard stories about job seekers who stretch the truth or lie during interviews. From my observations, job seekers often fudge their salary information in an effort to secure a better compensation package. This strategy often backfires and can even lead to an offer being rescinded if the candidate’s deception is uncovered. More and more employers are requesting W2 and 1099 information as part of their background checking process once an offer is extended, so the likelihood of being “found out” has increased substantially in recent years.

Good interviewing is all about developing rapport with the recruiter or hiring manager in an effort to build the relationship and develop trust. Lying not only jeopardizes your credibility but the strength of the relationship as well.

With this being said, I recommend sharing compensation information selectively. For example, if a hiring manager asks you what type of salary you are currently earning, rather than identifying your base, identify your total compensation including bonus and benefits or identify the range of salaries you have earned over the past five years to highlight your highest salary or compensate for market fluctuations and volatility. The recruiter or hiring manager may still ask you to break out the base and bonus, but by discussing total compensation, you help the hiring official better understand your salary expectations and you create more flexibility for yourself during the final stages of the negotiation.

Posted by Barbara Safani

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LinkedIn (LI) is an online networking tool that consists of more than nine million professionals worldwide in 130 industries. To join the network, you first create a profile that describes your industry, your expertise, and your major accomplishments. Next, you invite others to connect with you. There are several ways to accomplish this. You can manually search for colleagues, clients, and trusted contacts already in the LI network; or, you can ask LI to search your Outlook database and make suggestions. Submit your invitations to these individuals, and if they are accepted, you now have a connection. In theory, your LI network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know.

According to Konstantin Guericke one of the website’s co-founders, you only need about 30 high quality connections. High quality means you know the connections well enough for them to make introductions to others on your behalf. Guericke states that on average, half of your invitations will be accepted. I guess those are accurate figures – I sent out 17 invitations and had nine accepted.

There are several ways to use LI in your search. Let’s say, for example, that you determine Mr. John Smith is the hiring manager for a position with GE Healthcare. You might look at my connections and see that one of them works at GE Healthcare. You ask me to make an introduction to the person in my network that works at GE Healthcare. Once you’re connected to that individual, you ask for connections to the hiring manager. Given the size of GE, you might still have one or two degrees of separation, but you get the point.

You could also use the same method to prepare for an interview. Guericke suggests linking with individuals that previously worked at your target company. They are free to talk and may provide helpful information about a future boss and colleagues, as well as the (true) corporate culture and political climate.

Posted by Michele Haffner

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Are you an idealist who has publicly resolved to change careers, return to work, or join the full-time workforce for the first time? Idealists come in many flavors, e.g.:

*“Boomers” leaving corporate life in favor of community-based work;
* Women who have deferred their careers and need to maintain work/life balance;
* Recent college grads: independent, reluctant to leave college life, and unsure of how to find a job that matches their values

Is it impossible to earn a good living while seeking truth, justice, and the pursuit of happiness – to do well by doing good?

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently published an essay discussing this idea, “How to Direct Your Future.” While it’s not a secret guide to success, the article may just help readers answer the dreaded question, “what are your plans?”

Author Carl Schramm, Executive Director of the Kauffman Foundation , writes the piece as a letter in answer to his children’s question, “…how do I prepare myself for success out in the real world?” The author is a successful entrepreneur, an economic policy wonk, and a foundation president; in this piece, his voice is that of an insightful father. In the hope that we’ll create some buzz about issues affecting career changers, women returning to the workforce, and college graduates, here are some excerpts:

“We are living in the most entrepreneurial time in history,” Schramm writes. He refers to the lack of certainty and stability in the ever more global economy. His advice is to “be ready to be entrepreneurial either on your own or inside an organization that has an entrepreneurial culture. You will be successful only to the extent that you can handle innovation and change.”

Schramm preaches to the choir of career professionals, who guide clients through the change process every day. He empowers candidates to pursue happiness through self-reflection, research, networking, and the effective use of communication skills. It’s refreshing to read of his wish that we all “look back on a happy life of entrepreneurial success in helping others…, a special kind of wealth.” Doing well by doing good.

No, this post is not a plug for the new Will Smith movie! Here are some leads to information, including upcoming events and job openings that may be more useful:

* Idealist.org/Action Without Borders, events scheduled nationwide
* Job board connecting nonprofit organizations to mid-level and executive professionals -
* Environmental/Eco-friendly ideas/blog

Complimentary copy of “How to Navigate Career/Job Fairs” upon request from this author.

By Karen Katz

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We’ve all seen hundreds of people listening to music on their iPods while they pass the time on a train, bus, or long grocery store check-out line…but did you realize that now iPods are being used to target job seekers? According to a recent article in HR Magazine, podcasts will be an effective job search tool in the near future, especially for tech-centric first-time job seekers. Podcasts are online audio presentations that can be downloaded from the Internet and played from an iPod or other MP3 player. They offer job seekers enormous flexibility over when and how they source career-relevant information.

The recently launched Jobs in Pods, founded by Secrets of the Job Hunt blogger C.M. Russell, offers insider information on what it’s like to work for companies such as Zoom Info, Electronic Arts, and T-Mobile. Listeners can also hear about what types of positions these companies are currently recruiting for. CollegeRecruiter.com. has a career-relevant podcast library full of tips on interviewing and networking as well as overviews of different professional career paths.

In order to conduct a successful job search, job seekers should take advantage of all available career resources. While I don’t recommend that job seekers spend more than a few hours each week sourcing job leads online, podcasting offers an excellent option for streamlining Internet-based information and learning more about company cultures and available job opportunities.

Posted by Barbara Safani

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March is National Women’s History Month- a good time to reexamine the issues affecting women in American society. Four issues remain on the agenda of The Business and Professional Women/USA (BPA), a legislative lobbying organization headquartered in Washington, DC.

• elimination of sex discrimination in employment
• equal pay for women
• pursuit of a comprehensive equal rights amendment pursuit of work/life balance

Many like to believe that these issues are passé - cold mashed potatoes. Not only are these issues relevant to women, they are indicative of social questions that affect our society at-large. Andrew Cassel, who writes on the economy forThe Philadelphia Inquier, published a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) review of workforce participation that raises some complelling questions.

It is worth your time to click on the link to this article, so I’ll limit my comments to a few issues that affect women.

* In the 1950’s, women were listening to Doris Day sing “Que Sera Sera- they were not participating in the labor force in significant numbers. Fifty years later, the data show the number of women in the workforce nearly equal to men, and there are significant numbers of nonworking elderly people (nearly equal to the number of children < 16 years of age).

What conclusions do you draw based on this data? Has the women’s movement allowed us to achieve economic self-sufficiency? Two issues of great concern:

* For professional women, there are fewer barriers to education, career progression, and credit, but on average, women still earn only $77 for every $100 earned by men. It is notable that this wage gap is almost non-existent for today’s younger women. The statistical average is lowered by the large number of women who are limited to lower paying jobs, or those who choose such jobs in a trade-off for work/life balance.

*A U.S. Department of Labor report found that midlife and older women are at an economic disadvantage relative to their male counterparts and younger women. These US DOL policy wonks suggest that older women should be served by career development policies and professionals, but this author is not aware of any such initiatives or programs.

Women have made great strides, and a collateral benefit is that men have been liberated as well. As part of National Women’s History Month, let’s discuss some ways in which “boomers,” our mothers, and our grandmothers will realize the benefits of social change.

Some useful links:

Job Bank - CareerWomen.com - Helping Women Achieve Success in their Careers and Lives

CNNMoney.com - Where women’s pay trumps men’s - 39 occupations listed with additional links

Posted by Karen Katz

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Career planning begins with self-assessment and in many cases, the conclusion involves a trip back to the classroom. Oh, how those classrooms have changed in just a few short years…

In the 1990’s, we saw matchbox correspondence courses evolve into online classes - essentially discussion boards moderated by an instructor. Now the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), arguably one of the premier institutions in the world, is placing learning in the public domain - for FREE.

The Boston Globe predicts that by the end of 2007, the Institute’s entire curriculum will be available to scholars and wanna-be scholars through its FREE online curriculum program, OpenCourseWare.

MIT began putting courses online in 2001; more than 1,500 are already
available. Other universities have posted some of their “greatest hits,” but none have made such a concerted and all-inclusive effort as “the Insititute.”

Need to brush-up on a topic to be more competitive for that next promotion or a better job? Check the OpenCourseWare curriculum for offerings in finance, engineering, organizational development, project management…even literature!

The best antidote to the perception that candidates are “out of touch” is continuing education and training. Career changers, women returning to the workforce, and “older workers” can click and qualify.

Posted by Karen Katz (former MIT employee & alumni spouse)

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