We’ve all had that feeling the night before an interview – the anxiety of not knowing how it will go and the nervousness about screwing up your big chance. The good news is the success formula for interviews isn’t rocket science. I’ve studied it and taught it for years and want to share it with you. Through my work and through numerous interviews with HR people and hiring managers, I’ve compiled 6 interview pitfalls you can easily avoid.
Read MoreIf you’ve read my book or taken my online course, you know I see interviewing as a game. Interviewing is a game of strategically placing the best stories you have as the answers to the interviewer’s questions. You need to know ahead of time the 5-7 reasons why you’ll get hired and make sure those reasons are crafted as stories or examples in how you answer the interview questions. I tell people I personally prep for interviews to have their resume in front of them and have 5-7 key words written on the corner of their resume to cue them to their best stories so they remember to use them during the interview.
With that approach in mind, there are several questions you need to know how to ace during your next interview. I give you 5 of them below as well as some tips to think about with your answer for each.
Read MorePublic speaking is one of the most common fears people have. It was something I was terrified of for years until I decided to tackle the fear. To help you start to conquer your own fear of public speaking, I’m excited to share wisdom from a veteran public speaking expert, Gary Lo. Gary’s background is incredible, boasting experience as TedX speaker and High Impact Presentation Winner. He has given over 500 presentations in 30 different cities and has worked for numerous impressive global brands and universities.
I asked Gary a few questions about how he has mastered public speaking and what people can do to follow in his footsteps.
MTH: Years ago, what were the most important things you did to help you conquer public speaking fear?
Read MoreLearn five key interview questions and how to answer them. This week Merryn joins Chris Villanueva from Let’s Eat Grandma in the Career Warrior podcast. Merryn puts Chris to the test in a mock-interview. Take notes - there are tons of great interview tips in this episode!
Read MoreRecruiters have a significant amount of power in the job search game. They sit in a unique position between applicants and hiring managers deciding who goes in the MAYBE pile and who goes straight to the NO pile. If you’re currently looking for a job or plan to be in the near future, this 3-minute read could be a game-changer for you.
I went straight to the source and asked two of Portland’s top recruiters what catches their attention. Take note of these 5 easy ways you can get noticed by a recruiter and get closer to your dream job:
Read MoreOne of the things I’m asked about most often is LinkedIn. People realize how important it is for professional networking but there’s still lots of uncertainty about how to make a great first impression with your LinkedIn profile. If you get someone to actually go to your profile, you want to keep them there!
When I look at someone’s LinkedIn, I quickly scan for the following things:
Read MoreSometimes you come in second for the job you really want or the job you want isn’t open right now. If you’ve networked or interviewed your way to a good relationship with someone at a company where you’d like to work, that’s the perfect way to turn a connection into a resume builder. And if you play your cards right, it could lead you to your next job.
One way you can leverage your connection into your next job is through project work. What’s project work? It’s work you do for someone that is clearly defined and helps them with their job and helps you with your resume. Doing project-based work for someone is a great way to prove your skillset. The easiest type of project work to get is work you can do remotely and independently. Any sort of market research, be it in-person research or online research, is doable and can deliver great value to your connection. Possible ideas include industry trends, competitor activity, or best practices.
For example, let’s say you want to work in consumer electronics, your target is Sony, and you know someone who works there. My philosophy is you need to make it difficult for people to say no. There’s a way to handle this situation that makes it much more likely for you to get a YES. There are the three keys to getting a YES:
Read MoreIf you’re looking for a job or will be soon, your LinkedIn profile needs to be stellar because it’s often the first thing recruiters see about you. Most LinkedIn profiles could be significantly improved with just a few minutes of work. My recent blog post 5 Things You Must Do Online offered advice on how to maximize your LinkedIn profile. If you haven’t read it and done those things yet, they are no-brainers and will significantly impact how you’re coming across online. Taking that blog post a step further, today, I’ll share how you can use keywords in your LinkedIn profile to get noticed by recruiters and ultimately get what you want quicker.
Here are 5 things that’ll take you less than 10 minutes to do to your LinkedIn profile that could drastically effect how you’re showing up in recruiter search results.
Read MoreThere’s an art to interviewing. It’s the perfect balance of being authentic to who you are while saying and doing the right things to come across as the undisputed top candidate for the job.
My two recent blog posts on interviewing (10 Tough Questions You Need to Know How to Answer and The Biggest Secret You Need to Know About Interviewing) focused on how to win by doing things right. While that’s great and important, there’s another angle to consider, which is not doing anything drastically wrong during an interview. That’s what I’m going to focus on today by sharing with you the 5 things people most commonly screw up in interviews that lead them to not get hired.
Read MoreDo you wonder why public speaking feels so difficult? And why you haven’t been able to master it yet? It’s simple really. You’re too focused on memorizing specific statements, sometimes even exact words and then reciting them. That’s a sure-fire way to deliver a weak presentation, and you are capable of much better than that.
Here are two things I’d like to encourage you to do differently moving forward to up your presentation game:
Read MoreMost people suck at being interviewed because they don’t approach it strategically. When you read a job description and think about your background, what you NEED to do is boil it down to the 5-10 reasons why you should get the job. Think of these as key selling points. Your challenge is to make sure those reasons come across in the interview. Most people don’t do this and that’s why most people don’t get hired.
Read MoreThis month we sat down with Jim Wood, Partner and Executive Creative Director with AnalogFolk. Jim works in NYC, which is one of the ad agency's six global locations. He's a veteran in the advertising world with almost 20 years of experience and a roster of current and past clients including Nike, CLIF Bar, jetBlue and BMW. We talked to him about working in the advertising world. Check out what he had to say ...
Made To Hire: Advertising sits under the broader umbrella of marketing. Why does advertising specifically interest you over any other type of marketing?
JW: If Marketing is the house, Advertising is the game room. It offers all the toys and tools anyone would need to create unique, emotional and persuasive reasons to engage with a brand.
Made To Hire: How did you get your break into the advertising world?
Are you prepping for an interview? Or thinking about going after a new positon soon? Here are 10 tough interview questions you should be ready to answer. Questions like these challenge you to be quick on your feet and put your best self forward. After each question, I’ve included some advice on things to consider with your answer.
1. What motivates you?
a. Think big and be inspirational if you can be. For example, ‘Helping people’ or ‘The opportunity to impact change,’ are great motivators to share.
b. Ideally share an example related to professional success
Read MoreThis month we sat down with Jenna Fallon-Schindler, Senior Account Manager at Adobe. We talked to her about working in the tech world and what it's like changing industries. Check out what she had to say ...
Made To Hire: I know your background is on the digital side of sport. What has it been like moving to a purely tech-focused company like Adobe?
Read MoreDon’t assume your resume ever makes it to human eyes. Many companies, especially the big ones, use resume screening software to pull out the most qualified applicants. Recruiters and hiring managers don’t have the time to go through all the resumes submitted for a position so you need to be smart to beat the software and make it to human eyes. I have 5 must-do tips to help your resume make it through:
Read MoreRight now you might be like most people - going through the job search and application process with just a standard resume and feeling very rejected and maybe a little hopeless. Your job application gets much stronger when your resume is accompanied by a letter of recommendation. I’m sure you know this but you might not have made the effort to get a letter of recommendation. So how do you get the perfect one? You write it. What?! Yes, you write it. Let me explain.
Here are the 5 simple steps to follow to make this happen:
Read MoreThis month we chatted with adidas' Women's Brand Marketing Director, Ashley Czarnowski, to understand what a hiring manager at adidas is thinking when looking for someone to join their team. Check out what she had to say …
Made To Hire: How and when did you get into adidas?
AC: I’ve been at adidas for 5 years. I was lucky enough to be recruited by an adidas HR recruiter on LinkedIn for a Brand Marketing position in Running.
Made To Hire: What’s your advice on how people can get their resume noticed when competing against hundreds of applicants for a job at adidas?
Read MoreYou don’t realize it but every time you enter a room you’re making a statement about where you’re going in your career. People quickly reveal themselves as heading down one of two paths. Path 1 = motivated and success-bound. Path 2 = disconnected and disappointed. Which path are you on? Is that where you want to be? Let’s explore.
Read MoreYou write more emails each day than you can count. Let’s make sure your email communication style isn’t putting people off. Here are 10 simple, yet very important rules to follow when sending emails:
1. What’s the subject? Use an informative subject line. Avoid using vague subject lines like ‘hi’ or ‘application’. Be specific so it’s obvious what the email is about.
2. Get off on the right foot. Be professional with how you start and end emails. Avoid casual opening and closing remarks like ‘hey’, ‘later’, ‘ciao’, etc. Using ‘hello’ or ‘hi’ to start the email is fine when combined with the person’s name. And ending with ‘thanks’, ‘thank you,’ or ‘best’ are all good choices.
We’ve all watched presentations that were painfully bad. Remember thinking, ‘I’m so glad that isn’t me standing up there?!’. Most of us dread public speaking. For that reason, it’s one of my favorite things to work on with people because with just a few small adjustments you can make a huge difference in your presentation skills.
So what are the biggest mistakes people make when giving presentations? And how do YOU avoid them?
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