How to get a job offer from every interviewWritten by Dirk Wessels
About four years ago a friend told me one night that she had an interview next week and was looking for some comfort as she was extremely nervous, as most people are about interviews. I thought back on my my carreer and realized that in nine year of my career I had been to thirteen interviews and, more importantly, that I had received a job offer from every one of those interviews. I did not accept all offers, but point is that I had not once been to an interview without getting a job offer from it. In past four years, I have been to another 6 interviews, of which I did not get job offers for 2 of them. The one was an interview at Volkswagen which a friend had setup because he "wanted" me to work there and by time we started interview, I realized that position was not in my field at all. The second one was a telephonic interview, which I hate, and I simply did not see eye to eye with person who interviewed me. I did go for an interview with another manager at same company a couple of weeks later and started working there 2 days later.Job offers from 17 out of 19 interviews is not a bad track record and no, I am not some kind of a technical genius that every company would want to employ simply by looking at my resume. I am a computer programmer and there are many programmers out there with better technical skills than me. The secret, I believe is confidence. Not necessarily confidence in yourself, but creating confidence in your interviewer's mind. I once had a 4 1/2 hour interview in Sydney, Australia. Before that I could not imagine such a long interview was possible, it was for a very senior position. If, like most people, you don't like interviews in general, imagine sitting there for 4 1/2 hours. Anyway, about halfway through interview, interviewer told me that he had another 2 or 3 people that he's considering for position, but that he's got a "warm and fuzzy feeling" about me. Not something I really want to hear from another male, but when he said that, I realized that job was mine. Your objective, then, is to create that "warm and fuzzy" feeling in your interviewer's mind. Before an interview, I always think of what I would like to see in other person if I was on other side of table, in other words, if I was interviewing somebody else for this position. Computer programming is considered as a technical field, even on a managerial level, but technical aspect has very seldom been deciding factor, unless interviewer has poor people skills or a lack of experience. Generally anybody with a bit of experience will be more interested in your personality than your technical abilities. I am assuming, of course, that you are applying for positions which you are in some way qualified to fill. So how do you focus on your personality and what personality traits should you try to demonstrate? Let me give you some examples of what I consider as important in an interview. There are two dreaded questions that used to come up in every interview a couple of years ago, though I haven't heard them for a while now. What are 5 of your strengths and what are 5 of your weaknesses? Whenever I got first of these two questions, I would start my answer with "Yes, I knew this was coming so I thought about it last night and..." or something along those lines. It sounds wrong, because intention of those questions is to see whether you know yourself. If you have to think about it previous night, it doesn't say much about your self-knowledge. Nonetheless, I do this for two reasons. Firstly, I'm being honest with them. Everybody prepares for an interview, or at least you should! I'm just showing them that I'm a real person and that I don't claim to have all answers. Secondly, it's a tension breaker. Quite often, if it is an experienced interviewer, they will make some comment about you having to prepare your answers in advance and this gives you an opportunity to sidetrack from their "prepared" questions. The more you can get to speak freely with interviewer and not as a response to a question, more opportunity you have of showing them your real character. It also passes time so that they don't have to think up irrelevant technical questions to make interview "long enough".
| | The Path to Your Right LivelihoodWritten by Teresa Proudlove
Find Fulfilling Work from WithinSeeking meaningful and fulfilling work can become a discouraging, confusing and overwhelming journey. Beware spending too much time looking for your answers outside of yourself. Ultimately, coming to know our right livelihood is inner work of our whole being. In order to nurture our well-being and come to our right livelihood; it is best to frequently pause and halt busy "doing and thinking" process. Pause, relax and trust. This runs contrary to belief espoused within employment industry of "looking for a job is a full-time job." Woe upon those who follow this motto. Follow Voice of Your Heart If we push ourselves non-stop into our career/job search (or within our jobs/lives) how can we hear voice of our heart? The small still voice within is buried under a constantly busy mind and hectic life - so applauded by our society. I am not advocating that we wait for manna from heaven to supply our answers. We need to do our research and seek help at times to make wise choices. However, I have found great value in pausing and waiting rather than trying to force a decision or an action. Try it. Through pausing and exercising patience much is often revealed to us. Also, by pausing, relaxing and trusting we are aligning ourselves moment by moment with our heart and our God. How do we distinguish between voice of our God and that of busy-mind pushing us along - often driven by underlying insecurity of being human? As Robert Johnson, Jungian analyst and author of "Balancing Heaven and Earth," says; "How do we know if we are truly following will of God? One knows instinctively; there is a sense of peace, balance, and fullness, an unhurriedness." From my own experience I would add there is a clean, direct simplicity to my small, still voice. Also, if voice directing me from within is harsh, hurtful or driven by fear I know with certainty this is NOT voice of my God. Finding work that is meaningful and fulfilling is not something we 'figure-out,' abdicate to external forces, nor something we push ourselves to do. Rather, it is more a process in time wherein we come to know and trust our deepest desires, intuition and clarity of mind. Coming to know our right livelihood involves our whole being.
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