Path to Change

5 Top Job Interview Mistakes

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As a career coach, I often help professionals prepare to secure what are many times the biggest career opportunities of their lives, from entry-level positions to senior executive positions requiring board of directors’ review and approval. For many workers, there is a lot at stake in a job interview – opportunity, financial security, happiness and making dreams come true.

I’ve come to recognize (repeatedly affirmed by my clients) just how important it is to be prepared for an interview. In fact, preparation is key to landing the job.  Don’t just wing it,  you have WAY to much riding on this opportunity.

Yet I continue to be amazed by the stories hiring managers tell me of what goes wrong. So you won’t be the one left wondering why you didn’t get the job, here are 5 top interview mistakes:

  1. Simply show up for your interview – in other words, unprepared. Failing to do sufficient (or any) research on the business or company prior to the interview is a mistake. Check out the company’s Web site, their annual report and current news articles (check online or at the library). Understand how and what the company is doing today – and what is changing. During the interview, find an opportunity to convey some of what you have learned and inquire about what it may mean for your position. Don’t ask the interviewer obvious questions about things that could (or should) have been gleaned from the company Web site. More often than not you are wasting your interviewer’s time and hurting your chances.
  2. Arrive late and breathless for your interview, explaining you “got lost trying to find the office.” Consider driving to the interview site the day before so you will know a) how long it takes and b) how to get there. Introduce yourself to the receptionist. Ask if they have any suggestions or information that might help you be more prepared for your upcoming interview. This extra effort will help you to be better prepared and decrease your stress level for your actual interview.
  3. Fail to ask questions. A good rule of thumb: you should be asking about the same number of questions as the interviewer asks you. The questions you ask convey a great deal about you, so ask intelligent ones. (“From your experience, what’s the No. 1 challenge I would face in this position?” or “What are the key skills to be successful in this position?”) Having no questions conveys you really aren’t that interested or prepared. Coach’s tip: Pay close attention to their answers. They are frequently the “keys” to what the interviewer is looking for in the position. If the interviewer identifies “working well on a team” as important and you respond with, “I know how to use Word,” you probably weren’t listening closely enough.
  4. Rant about your previous boss (as in, “My previous boss was a jerk”). This is a big red flag that indicates that you may have difficulties getting along with management and others. In trashing your previous boss, the potential new boss is now imagining you doing the same thing to him or her. If there was trouble in your previous position, speak to it briefly (less is more), with something along the lines of, “It wasn’t the right fit,” then describe your desire to be a contributor to a high-performing team and workplace.
  5. Be unrealistic. Starting the interview by asking when or how you will be promoted is inappropriate. Demonstrating you are goal-oriented is good, such as inquiring about the typical career path for the position; signaling to the interviewer that your interest in the current position is only as a stepping stone to another isn’t. Don’t leave interviewers wondering if you will bail at the first wind of something you perceive as a better opportunity.

Invest in yourself by hiring me as your coach! I help job seekers all over the world via Skype.  Call me:  360 682 5807 or email: mmoriarty@pathtochange.com

Baby Boomers Career Advice

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Many potential retirees are postponing retirement and some are job hunting.

Employers find the “boomer” resume a mixed message: many years of experience, but someone who may be on the verge of retirement. For many older job seekers, finding themselves back pounding the pavement is difficult, scary and frustrating.

The good news: Your decades of experience are highly valuable and many companies need it badly (particularly small companies).

If you are a boomer needing (or wanting) to work, consider these optimistic statistics. Almost a third of companies surveyed are concerned about their loss of “intellectual capital” with retiring boomers. One out of five indicate they are likely to rehire retirees from other companies.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a serious shortage of highly skilled workers and experienced managers and executives.  Career experts claim knowledge workers are in high demand. Companies, though slow to get on board, are increasingly identifying the shift in workers’ relative age (I’m told 50 is the new 40) and are adjusting HR policies and hiring strategies.

I regularly coach senior managers on their challenges associated with finding and retaining “experienced resources.” Many have a worried eye on upcoming and current leadership gaps in their companies. I also coach seasoned professionals trying to find best fit positions and figure out their next move in this economy. From the two sides of the coin vantage, I offer these suggestions:

  • Assess first. What are your core talents, skills and value to a business? Discern what you want in a job, both your must-have and would-be-nice- to-have lists. Be realistic about your energy, salary/benefit requirements and your commitment level to the prospective job. Employers need to be realistic, too. Starting salary levels aren’t applicable to those with decades of professional experience.
  • Identify and target industries that need your experience. Consider health care, temporary staffing agencies, retail and nonprofits; a Bridgespan Group study claims nonprofits will need some 640,000 new senior leaders over the next 10 years. Check out companies that have specifically declared their desire to hire older workers (RetirementJobs.com and the AARP are good resources). While many larger companies choose to target younger, less expensive labor (and have identified their costs associated with turnover as acceptable), many smaller companies can’t afford significant hiring mistakes. They are in need of experienced workers, particularly those with proven management and leadership skills. Of note: Small businesses in the U.S. have generated 60 percent to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the last decade, according to SCORE.
  • Customize your resume for each position. Despite your decades of work experience, include only 10 to 15 years of your relevant experience for the position you are targeting. Use your resume to provide proof of quantifiable results. This will get their attention and get you an interview.
  • Be prepared to demonstrate that old dogs can learn new tricks. These days, job security and continual learning go hand in hand. Potential employers are looking for individuals who demonstrate a willingness to embrace continual change and keep up with changing skill requirements. Upgrade your skills. Finish that degree, master new technical skills (techno literacy is critical in today’s job market) or complete a certificate program.
  • Network, network, network. Mid- to senior-level positions are rarely filled via job ads. Most employers prefer to hire referrals from internal employees, professional colleagues or through their recruitment channels. Let your long list of contacts over all these years know what kind of work you are seeking. Use Linkedin.com or risk looking “old school.”
  • Consider freelancing or contract work. More good news — more companies than ever use outside contract work.

Invest in yourself by hiring me as your coach! I ready people for interviews and career coach people from all over the world via Skype.  Call me:  360 682 5807 or email: mmoriarty@pathtochange.com

Happiness=Right Job Fit

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If you are frequently bored, anxious or apathetic in your job, there is a high probability that your current job simply isn’t a good fit with your talents and skills. Success in your career is up to you. Finding a job that matches your interests, skills and talents is key to success and job satisfaction.

We all have unique experience and talents and it can often be challenging finding a job that fits our capabilities, potential and strengths.

A “right fit” job can look like different things to different people but here are the areas most people find important:

  • Being engaged
  • Feeling a sense of purpose
  • Having some degree of challenge.
  • Being recognized and appreciated by peers and supervisors for contributions.
  • An opportunity for advancement or development.
  • Being able to work with others we respect, like and/or can learn from.
  • Fair compensation for contributions (yes, money matters).
  • Enjoyment doing daily work tasks.
  • The opportunity to use core talents and strengths.

There are others, of course, but the list goes a long way toward increasing the potential for workplace happiness.

Marcus Buckingham, author of “First, Break All the Rules”, “Now Discover Your Strengths” and “Go Put Your Strengths to Work,” has spent his career researching and linking high performance to an individual’s core talents or strengths. His Gallup survey of nearly 2 million employees launched his “strength-based” revolution. Buckingham defines a strength as not merely something you are good at but also something you find so satisfying that you look forward to doing it again and again. Those in jobs that allow ample opportunity to do what they do best are more satisfied and more productive.

Sadly, Buckingham’s research suggests that only 17 percent of the work force believe they use all of their strengths on the job. Part of the problem is they settle for jobs that aren’t the right fit.

Management is the other part of the problem. Too often managers don’t focus enough on identifying their workers’ strengths and providing opportunities for them to leverage these strengths in their jobs.

What can managers do? Buckingham recommends managers focus on the following areas:

  • Establish a process to identify individual strengths. Ask the employee to identify their best day at work in the past three months (what were they doing and why did they enjoy it so much).
  • Determine what triggers and best supports these strengths (e.g., time of the day, audience, reward, recognition, goals, specific tasks etc).
  • Determine the employee’s preferred learning style. Buckingham identifies three primary styles: analyzing (these people need time and information); doing (trial and error) and watching (they like to study the complete picture).

The best leaders do not use a “one size fits all” approach with their people.

Workplace satisfaction is important to our personal well being — given that we spend about one-third of our lives at work. As a career coach, I encourage those seeking a new job to first identify their strengths and what workplace situations or experiences result in their being in “flow.” Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi identifies “flow” as a human “peak” experience of supercharged productivity, engagement and happiness. It happens when we bring our strengths and talents to bear on a challenging goal or task. Athletes often refer to this condition as being “in the zone.” If you have ever been doing something at work that you were so engaged that you lost track of time, you were probably in your “workplace zone.”

Frequently cited components resulting in achieving flow:

  • Immediate feedback, response or reward.
  • Highly challenging tasks met with high skills/talent/ strength.
  • Fully focused concentration.
  • Clear goals.
  • Feeling of “being in control.”
  • Loss of self-consciousness.
  • Altered sense of time.

The greatest leaders bring out the best in others. They know their people’s strengths and support an environment that eliminates distractions and impediments to performance and job satisfaction.

Leaders who help their people find work “flow” and engagement can expect exceptional creativity, productivity and job satisfaction.

Invest in yourself by hiring me as your coach! I can help you learn, develop and grow your leadership and coaching abilities.  I coach leaders all over the world via Skype.  Call me:  360 682 5807 or email: mmoriarty@pathtochange.com

Reduce Your Job Stress

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WHILE JOB STRESS isn’t new, there is no doubt it’s on the rise. This workplace coach sees an alarming trend in frazzled, burned out and exhausted workers. The constant theme I hear: Everyone is increasingly challenged to do more with less.

According to a Northwestern National Life survey, one out of four workers view their jobs as the No. 1 stress in their lives (40 percent of workers surveyed said their job was “very or extremely stressful”). I help my clients find ways to decrease work stress factors that contribute to a long list of health concerns (migraines, anxiety attacks, sleep deprivation, etc.). Many report working 80-hour weeks and routinely facing morning inboxes with more than 200 new messages — with no end in sight.

The price is high: skyrocketing illness, friction between co-workers (“desk rage”) and lower productivity. Workers return home to their families short-tempered and depleted, often anxious about unfinished work, resulting in an inability to recharge.

There are many contributors to workplace stress: unrealistic deadlines, lack of supervisor support or understanding, feuding co-workers, misallocated or simply too few resources … the list goes on. Another big contributor is supervisors who fail to involve workers in decision-making that affects their daily work.

What causes workplaces to be in this state of constant overdrive? Increasing global competition, a tightening economy and excessive performance expectations all drive the ever-spinning hamster wheel. The information age is our blessing and our curse. Technology has made it easy to communicate and difficult to ever get away from the job. BlackBerrys, PDAs and laptops keep many workers tethered to their work, including on the well-deserved family vacation to Hawaii. If you find yourself sneaking out of the hotel room late at night, or slipping off the beach to compulsively check just “a few e-mails,” you might just have a problem. (If in doubt, ask your family.)

Many of my clients are at a critical juncture: continue down the same burnout path and suffer the inevitable consequences, or change.

If everyone in your company is stressed looking for efficiency or looking for cover, there may be a need to address the issue systemically. One thing experts and surveys agree on: Happy workers equate to productivity.

What companies can do:

  • Don’t expect your people to do it all. Unreasonable goals are counterproductive. They demotivate your work force and cause unnecessary frustration.
  • Watch for signs of depletion in your workers. Monitor workload and schedules to make sure they are in line with resources. Find ways to decrease the burdens by decreasing daily or excessive paperwork and approval processes. Consider outsourcing.
  • While many jobs have normal cycles of “crunch time” or heavier workloads, don’t allow this to become a yearlong constant. Appropriately acknowledge and compensate people for extra work (additional time off, bonuses, etc). Work exceptionally hard during these times to let your employees know they are valued and appreciated.
  • Survey employees and their perceptions of job conditions, stress and workplace satisfaction. Supervisors should consult with employees around decisions that affect their day-to-day work lives and responsibilities; giving them more control and flexibility over their work can yield great returns (like keeping talent!).
  • Provide opportunities for workers to socialize, have fun and blow off steam.

What workers can do:

  • If you are the poster child for workplace exhaustion and stress, stand up for your rights! Be professionally assertive and express your feelings to supervisors who make unreasonable demands. Communicate when you don’t have the time or resources necessary to accomplish the request. Ask for prioritization. If the boss demands it “has to be done,” counter with, “What piece of my other workload can I give up to get this done?”
  • Don’t inundate co-workers with e-mail overload. Clarify critical e-mails from noncritical ones. Note when it’s an FYI only or action required.
  • Avoid being your own worst “stress enemy” by setting unrealistic expectations on yourself. No, you really can’t do it all, and trying to do so more often than not means you (and your loved ones) pay a very high price. Consider establishing a great job or good enough bar vs. a standard of perfection.
  • Make yourself a priority. You are the foundation on which all else hinges. Humans need to unplug to recharge. Plan unplugged time and activities to refuel — a walk, meditation, massage or yoga class and real vacations.

I am not suggesting it isn’t important to work hard. What I am suggesting is that it’s important to have balance and to work smarter vs. solely working harder.

Invest in yourself by hiring me as your coach! I can help you find ways to reduce your job stress and find more life balance.  I coach people all over the world via Skype.  Call me:  360 682 5807 or email: mmoriarty@pathtochange.com

Are You A Negative Boss?

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Leadership or a boss’s impact — it can be positive (the energetic, charismatic leader who inspires and engages) or negative (someone who walks into a room, lights a fuse with words or behaviors and is often oblivious to the chaos he/she has created). An important part of self-awareness (and emotional intelligence) is understanding how your words and behaviors affect those around you.

Some areas to think about:

  • Sole attention to business task at the expense of workplace relationships. Research indicates high-performing teams spend as much time on relationship building (how to work together collaboratively/creatively) as they do on task functions. Accomplishing tasks at the expense of people’s feelings (barking orders or being condescending) is a costly and ineffective way to lead.
  • A high need to control. Although we are hardwired as human beings with a need to control, there needs to be a balance. Individuals with significant control issues often react “big” when someone challenges their authority or position.
  • Ongoing interpersonal ignorance. Being repeatedly blindsided by intense reactions of co-workers to your actions or words should be a warning sign. If not addressed, others may interpret it as insensitivity, arrogance or indifference on your part (all of which can come back to haunt you). Being perceived as “aloof” or uncaring is another danger zone.
  • Telling yourself the ends justify the means (Type A’s, beware). Are you a boss who drives the bottom line without concern about morale? It’s a slippery slope when your command-and-control drive for results leaves bodies in your wake. Passionate drivers of workplace change can be positive influences if they present their messages in a way that inspires and persuades versus flattens and demotivates. It’s all about the delivery and your sensitivity toward others.
  • Being overly critical or negative. Constantly looking for what’s wrong brings every one else down (and the bottom line). Leaders get more out of their people with a focus on strengths, positive solutions and an inspiring vision.
  • A “shoot the messenger” mentality. The impact of leaders who react in anger or retribution will likely result in employees who fear the wrath, withdraw and may withhold important information.
  • Overreacting. It’s easy to overreact when coming from a place of fear or anger. If you have an anger-management issue or experience continual anxiety, get help.

We all have hooks and triggers that can result in an impulsive or emotional reaction. The most common:

  • A challenge to your authority (hot button for people with control issues).
  • Threats to you, your job, your compensation or going “above your head” to senior management are sure bets for generating “big” reactions.
  • Integrity issues. People understandably get reactive when their core values are violated or challenged.
  • Criticism. Condemnation, judgments or blaming are a surefire way to generate defensiveness.

The good news is there is help. The first step is to get clear about what pushes your emotional buttons so you can make a different behavioral choice.

A common tool in today’s workplace is a 360-degree feedback survey (typically completed by workplace peers) to find out how others perceive you.  I offer this to my clients.  Invest in yourself by hiring me as your coach! I can help you learn, develop and grow your leadership and coaching abilities.  I coach leaders all over the world via Skype.  Call me:  360 682 5807 or email: mmoriarty@pathtochange.com

New self-awareness allows us to make different choices. Understanding our impact allows us to make informed and intentional behavior choices.Not understanding the impact of our words and actions can be detrimental to career success and, ultimately, organizational performance.