Is Fear a Part of Your Professional Life?

During my work with job seekers or those contemplating a job/career change, I evaluate the amount of fear that drives—or paralyzes—my clients. To some extent, all of them exhibit fear originated by some threat—or so they perceive. For a person out of a job, that feeling is not only a perception but also, unfortunately, a reality. The normal human body has a built-in mechanism to protect itself from such an emotion by either confronting it or running away from it. It’s also known as the fight-or-flight response. In more-extreme situations, such fear leads to anxiety, but I’ll let a mental-health professional explain that one.

Conversely, a few clients indeed become energized by fear resulting from lack of employment. Their adrenaline levels rise sharply, and they’re ready to attack. They see opportunities coming out of this employment change, and nothing stops them from getting to their next assignment. They exhibit a go-getter mentality and thrive on even small incremental successes. However, the majority of those I see react to their unknown futures by clamming up and thus thinking they’re protecting themselves during this vulnerable stage of their life. I vividly remember my own situation during a transition. My entire attitude could have been described as, “The answer is no, so what’s your question?” It’s a shame that our emotions and our logic are not always congruent.

In working with people who at times seem paralyzed due to their new, jobless reality, I try to clearly understand what’s behind the obvious fact that they don’t have jobs. That understanding is typically complex and intertwined with other, tangled elements. For example, embarrassment vis-à-vis family and friends, or self-humiliation as a parent unable to financially support a child who wants and deserves a college education, or, perhaps, aggravation of an already bad spousal relationship due to the inability to contribute to basic family finances for an extended period. And the list can go on and on.

In such a situation, my solution is to attempt to provide clients with (1) job search tools, (2) exposure to and familiarity with the job search process, (3) ample amounts of mock interviewing that increase clients’ knowledge and experience, and above all, (4) listening as they talk about their pain, and (5) an understanding of all they’re going through. Another tactic that’s proved successful is helping clients learn to divert their attention to something positive. For example, clients can learn to network effectively in order to establish new relationships with people who may be able to help them and whom in turn they can help. Clients can also learn to discuss volunteering opportunities that not only could lead to a job but in the interim could help job seekers mingle with other people. And, more often than not, volunteers could hear again the words “Thanks for a job well done”—a sentiment that for a while has probably been absent from their lives.

Posted via email from The Landing Expert

So Tell Me, What Are Your Weaknesses?

This is one of the most dreaded interview questions, but if you understand the reason interviewers ask it and what they’re looking to uncover, you’ll see that you can certainly prepare for it.

The question about your weaknesses comes fairly soon after the interview begins and typically after such a question as, What are your accomplishments? or What are your strengths? Those two questions—if delivered correctly—let you sell yourself. They’re positive questions. Then—to contrast them—comes the awkward question about weaknesses. This question is not easy for the interviewer to ask, and it’s even more difficult for most people to answer.

So, what is the interviewer after? He wants to test several things: at face value, he hopes you won’t be so very honest as to provide a blatantly and hugely negative weakness that cancels your candidacy. An example would be an accountant who admits not liking working with numbers. The interviewer’s also going to weigh whether your answer could have a potential consequence in the future. You’ll also be watched carefully to determine whether the words you say and the communication your body language conveys are aligned or are contradictory.

Above all, the interviewer wants to see whether you present as an honest individual with a capability for healthy reasoning. This is probably the most important aspect of all. The reason is that a dishonest person or a person who does not exercise good judgment puts the hiring manager in danger. And that could have significant consequences not only for the candidate but also for the hiring manager, the hiring manager’s boss, and probably several others in the chain of command—all the way to the CEO, depending on the severity of the issue.

Two concrete examples come to mind. The first incident happened in 2008, when a French trader at major bank Société Général caused a loss of some $7 billion through an allegedly unauthorized trade. The trader was tried in court, but beyond that, several of his supervisors got dragged into the mess as well. The other example—which has just started unfolding through the media—is the alleged sexual misconduct of a coach at Penn State University. The issue caused the firing of a very well-respected and long-tenured university president; the school’s head coach, Joe Paterno, who had been revered for decades; and several other senior executives at the school.

So, the question remains: What is a good answer? Simply put, any answer that conveys honesty and healthy reasoning is a good answer. But to make your response even better, I suggest that between hearing the question and giving your answer, you pause for three to five seconds, take your eye away from the interviewer in order to pretend that you’re thinking of a reply, and then look the interviewer in the eyes because that kind of body language projects honesty. Then you should recount an incident that happened sometime in the past and that you’ve had a chance to correct since. Then add that moreover, you’re now so good at whatever the surmounted weakness was, that others in your organization seek out your advice on this subject. Turn lemon into lemonade.

Posted via email from The Landing Expert

How to Choose a Career Coach

I am a practicing career coach, and at every year-end, I summarize my annual accomplishments as measured by how many people I helped and what percentage of them landed. In practicing Six Sigma principles in my career coaching, one of the ones I especially take to heart is CIP, which stands for Continuous Improvement Process. That means, I keep asking myself what I could do better for my clients in the future.

Another of the principles is measurement of performance, and in this case, my own personal performance. While doing that I’m checking out my competition to see whether my fees are aligned with those of others in the same field. This is always an amazing exercise that constantly keeps me wondering. Basically, I, too, do what many people do when searching for help with their careers: seek assistance from a coach (1) to improve a résumé, (2) to acquire the skills needed for interview preparation, or (3) to get general career guidance. I simply Google some terms such as career coaching and add a state or city. Such searches typically result in several similar service providers.

And now the real fun—and frustration—start. If I were a job seeker who landed on a career coach’s Web site, naturally I would like to get some basic impressions and information. After all, how else could I make a judgment? The problem is that most Web sites are inferior and lacking. Many of them use stock photos of, say, a handshake or some attractive young people. I would rather see a picture of the person I may want to hire and work with.

Another major problem I see is that many if not most of the Web sites are overwhelming: the landing page is confusing and uninviting because it has way too much information and offers way too many options. Job seekers want simplicity, order, and guidance, yet typically, they encounter inordinate amounts of information. I think this is a classic case where simplicity is attractive and where less is more. Career coaches help job seekers communicate eloquently and concisely, But the evidence via most of such Web sites proves the contrary. I speak with many of my counterparts and business friends. Most of them admit that their Web sites are not producing as they expected.

So what should a job seeker look for when searching for a career coach? Above all, nothing beats personal recommendations. So, testimonials and LinkedIn recommendations are essential. But of course, career coaches would not post less-than-spectacular testimonials. Next, the Web site should be clear, not confusing, and easy to get answers from regarding the services provided, the ways the services would benefit a job seeker, how to contact the service provider directly by phone, where the service provider is operating from, and the fees for each type of service. Are there any contracts to be signed? any up-front fees to be paid? any short- or long-term commitments to be signed. These are some of the basic and elementary pieces of information a job seeker needs before making a decision.

For those of you who are job seekers or are contemplating making a job change, I suggest you gather as much competitive information as you can, definitely talk with your potential career coach before making your first appointment in order to make sure there’s good chemistry between the two of you. Make sure you’ll be getting what you need and that the fees are competitive. Don’t go by price alone, because then you may end up with the proverbial “You get what you pay for.” Don’t be too impressed with academic degrees, courses, and certificates. I myself once used a coach who had two master’s degrees, had taken many relevant courses, and displayed wallpaper-like posts of certificates. Regrettably, the individual’s services turned out to be worthless yet very costly! Do your homework. Make your decision. And make sure you feel good about it.

Posted via email from The Landing Expert