The Resume Is Dead
Author: Nelson Wang
Date: 2012-01-09T05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Business & Money; Job Hunting & Careers; Job Hunting; Resumes; Interviewing
Description: What Does Matt Epstein Know That We Don’t? One summer day, Matt Epstein applied to 20 different companies on LinkedIn to find work. He waited. And waited. He never heard back a single response. Fear began to creep in. He couldn’t find a job because of one simple reason: He was blending in with the masses. Panic began to race through his mind. "Seriously, what the hell am I doing here?" He took a deep breath, stepped back and assessed the situation. And then a stroke of genius hit him. He was going to be bold. Inspiring. Outrageous. Awkward. Funny. Unbelievable. It was in this moment Matt Epste

OuttaTheBox Apps

Copyright © 2012 by Nelson Wang

ISBN: 978-0-615-58967-1

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

This book is dedicated to my parents and sister for their incredible support.

For updates and daily blog posts please visit us at: www.nelsonsthoughts.com

Table of Contents:

What Does Matt Know That We Don’t?
The Resume is Dead
The Rules Have Changed
Two Types of People in The World
FAQ Section – For All the Non-Believers
The New Rule: There Are No Rules
Why I’m Writing This
My Story
From Labor Foreman to Partner Manager
Structure of the Book

First Principle: A is for Artist

Hanna’s Story

Don’t be Afraid to Try Something New
Dip Your Toes in the Water

A Lesson of Risk Through Karaoke
The Risk of Not Taking a Risk
If You Don’t Adapt, You Won’t Survive
You Don’t Know Unless You Ask
White Walls
The Tweet Heard ‘Round the World

Second Principle: B is for Business

Invest in Yourself
Blending in With the Masses
Launch a Business
Content is King

Third Principle: C is for Commitment

The Power of Self Belief
Working at McDonald’s
Desire Defeats Fear

Fourth Principle: D is for Determination

Hardships Abound Everywhere
What are You Scanning?
A Little Bit of Gumption

Fifth Principle: E is for Enjoy

Blind
Swollen Ankles
A Phone Call That Changed My Life
Living Torture
Unexpected News

What Will You Create?

What Does Matt Know That We Don’t?

One summer day, Matt Epstein applied to 20 different companies on LinkedIn to find work. He waited.

And waited.

He never heard back a single response. Fear began to creep in.

He couldn’t find a job because of one simple reason: He was blending in with the masses.

Panic began to race through his mind. Maybe I don’t know what I’m doing. Seriously, what the hell am I doing here?

He took a deep breath, stepped back and assessed the situation.

And then a stroke of genius hit him.

He was going to be bold.  Inspiring.  Outrageous.  Awkward. Funny.  Unbelievable.

It was in this moment Matt Epstein created the most viral and successful job campaign of our lives.

Googlepleasehire.me was born.

By the time his campaign was finished, he had amassed these results:

• Received 80 interview offers from companies like Google, Salesforce.com, Microsoft, Amazon, Etsy and SigFig (among many more)

• Received over 400,000 unique visits and 720,000 page views for www.googlepleasehire.me

• Received 36,000% increase in visitor traffic for his personal blog www.matthew-epstein.com

• Received over 450,000 YouTube views

• Received 20,000 Facebook Likes, 4,800 Tweets and 4,100 Google +’s

• Received over 3,300 new Twitter followers

• Received over 20 offers to monetize his brand/viral success

• Received over 550 LinkedIn requests and e-mails

• Received and personally responded to over 2,000 e-mails from people all across the world thanking him, wishing him luck and giving him words of encouragement

• Received print, online and TV coverage across the world. From TV news appearances in Atlanta and San Francisco to online news articles in TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Hacker News, UOL (the biggest newspaper in Brazil), Sueddeutsche (a big newspaper in Germany) all the way to Social Media Berlin where he’ll be used as a social media case study. There’s literally dozens upon dozens of other articles and interviews as well (Washington Post, Wall Street Journal)

How is it that Matt was able to get publicity from just about every big name media outlet, generate a massive fan base and garner 80 interview offers from top tier, innovative companies while so many of us have to beg for a single interview?

What does Matt Epstein know that we don’t?

It’s simple really.

Matt acknowledged one fundamental fact…

The Resume is Dead

We’ve become zombies.

Must…know…someone…to…get…a…job…

Must…submit…a…paper…resume…

Must…use…cover…letter…templates…

Since the day we were born, our schools and colleges have brainwashed us to live in a standardized world. Nearly everything you can imagine was standardized. From textbooks, lessons, and tests to our personalities and even our creativity.

We mindlessly march to the orders of being on time, getting our homework done and scoring high on tests, only to find that in the real world this is far from enough to prepare us for a successful career.

They’ve taught us that if we follow the “rules,” we’ll get the dream job we’ve always asked for. And year after year, so many of us continue to follow these rules like a sea of mindless zombies.

The rules were:

• Get good grades (as close to 4.0 GPA please!)

• Write a resume (that looks like everyone else’s)

• Submit it to a company (online or in person)

• Interview

• Rinse and repeat with multiple companies

• Cross your fingers and hope someone hires you

Admit it, you’ve gone through this process before, haven’t you? It’s not hard to understand why. After all, it’s easy (and we all love the big red easy button don’t we?). But that’s exactly why it’s ineffective. It’s so easy that everyone does it. And by following these rules, you’ve put yourself squarely among the masses.

Mass is boring. Mass is typical. Mass is average.

Guess what.

It pays to be different.

If you want to land your dream job, you’ve got to think outside the box.

How about writing a blog that’s so compelling that readers pass it onto their friends?

How about filming a funny YouTube video on why you’re the best fit for the job?

How about telling your story through a website?

Recruiters are yearning to hear a unique story they can tell their friends about. In the era of Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook, these stories are told faster than ever before.

People want to be wowed. People want to be entertained. People want to be inspired.

Out with the mundane and in with the extraordinary. Let go of all the traditional information you’ve been told about job hunting. Disregard the robotic cover letter templates. Toss out the incredibly boring resumes that fail to tell your story. It’s time to come to terms with understanding how the world works for those that are extraordinary.

The era of the resume is officially over.

The resume is dead.

The Rules Have Changed

The job hunting process described above was a decent method for landing your dream job – 20 years ago!

The problem today is that EVERYONE is doing it this way.

Why?

Well, it’s because this is the way it’s always been taught at most major college institutions. When I first went to the career center, I received a pamphlet outlining how to write a resume. And that was extent of the job-hunting advice I received. Fantastic. (Note the dripping sarcasm)

Have you tried the traditional job hunting approach recently? Because if you did, it probably went something like this:

You’ve spent hours poring over your resume scanning each and every word. Times New Roman font. Check. Size 12. Check. 1 inch spacing on each side. Check. Name at the top with contact information. Check. A list of your work experience in chronological order. Check. Your education, grade point average, and extra curricular activities like volunteering at the local hospital. Check, check and check.

You think to yourself, “This resume is golden– there’s no way I won’t get hired!“

Or so you think.

And then the applying begins.

You eagerly scour websites of companies you want to work for and begin firing off copies of your resume online like a carnival game. This job looks remotely interesting. BAM! A generic resume gets sent out! This job looks like it’d pay decently. BAM! Another one. Gosh, I’m running out options, I’ll take anything at this point. BAM! And it just keeps on going.

You feel like you’re in a great rhythm, heck – you’ve sent out 15 resumes in ONE day!

And then you wait. And wait. And wait. And nothing happens.

Want to know why?

Your online resume is among potentially THOUSANDS of other electronic documents floating in a company’s online database…

How the heck can you differentiate yourself when that happens?

Guess what? Everyone is pulling from the exact same set of 10 resume templates you find in a Google search (admit it, you’ve done this or copied a friend’s resume format before)!

And that’s the problem – in this electronic database – more often than not - you’re just a number, a set of bits and bytes to the company. John Smith becomes resume #450,342 in the database. Oh boy.

What happens when you stick thousands of resumes together in a single pile

They all begin to look the same.

And you end up sitting there in front of your computer, praying and hoping the HR person searches for the specific keywords that would cause your resume to show up (along with many others).

On top of that, the sheer number of competitive applicants you’d have to beat out is absolutely staggering.

Take a look at these company examples below for 2010:

1. Mattel – Over 97,000 applicants

2. Chesapeake Energy – Over 132,000 applicants

3. General Mills – Over 162,000 applicants
4. Carmax – Over 182,000 applicants
5. Cisco – Over 183,000 applicants
6. Whole Foods – Over 299,000 applicants
7. Starbucks – Over 311,000 applicants
8. Deloitte – Over 331,000 applicants
9. American Express – Over 980,000 applicants
10. Google – Over 1,000,000 applicants!

Need I say more?

And by the way, more often than not, job openings that are posted online happen after the employees have asked for internal referrals first. Talk about being late to the party.

Before you know it, after weeks of not hearing back from the companies you’ve applied to, you’ve got old pizza boxes sprawled out across your living room table, you’re constantly in your duck pajamas moping around during the day, you’re watching reruns of your favorite TV show, and you begin to wonder, “Will I ever get the job I want?” Two months pass – and nothing has changed. Some nights, you cry yourself to sleep. Some nights, you ask, “What do I want out of life?” And then you really hit a rut. You begin to give up and you start sending out 2 resumes a week versus the 15 a day you’ve been sending out. You consider moving back home with your parents. And then one day, as you hit rock bottom, you ask yourself, “Will I be able to get ANY Job?”

And the answer is a resounding YES!

But the first point you have to recognize is this:

The rules have changed.

We’ve gone through one of the worst economic recessions in the history of our nation with the recent financial crisis. Jobless rates are sky high. The job market has become ultra-competitive. Today, only the strong survive.

Have you noticed the career fairs are packed with people like sardines in a tin can?

Have you noticed large corporations talk about how they now receive hundreds of thousands of resumes each year and only accept a small percentage?

Have you noticed you’ve been sending out countless online resumes, only to hear no response?

Have you noticed your friend prepping for interview questions with the same answers that almost everyone else is using? (For example: What’s your biggest weakness? My biggest weakness is that I work too hard.) Hello! We’ve all heard that one before.

Here’s the bottom line: Job hunters can no longer play by the old rules and expect to land their dream job.

The resume is dead, but your job opportunities are alive and well – if you know the secrets.

You’ve got to change your approach.

You’ve got to stand out from the crowd.

This book is going to teach you how.

Times are changing – fast.

10 years ago, social media barely registered on our radars. Today, it’s an integral part of our lives.

A recent JobVite survey showed:

•  1 in 6 workers use social media to get hired

•  Almost 90% of job seekers have a profile on a social media site

•  54% of all job hunters use Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin to find jobs

•  50% of job seekers used Facebook, 25% used Twitter, and 36% used Linkedin to look for a job in the last 12 months

•  18.4 million Americans say Facebook got them their current jobs. (10.2 million for Twitter and 8 million for LinkedIn)

•  The numbers for Twitter and LinkedIn are 10.2 million and 8 million respectively.

•  There are over 135 million members on LinkedIn and full-year 2010 hiring solutions revenue at LinkedIn totaled $101.9 million, up 181.9 percent from 2009. Translation: Companies are relying much more heavily on LinkedIn to browse for job candidates because the resumes on LinkedIn profiles are “living and breathing.” Think about that for a second. When you submit a paper resume online or in person, it’s outdated the instant it’s submitted. Your work experience, your job titles and your results change dynamically all the time. The difference with LinkedIn is that since it’s an online cloud solution, the company will always see your most updated resume when they search through LinkedIn hiring tools (as long as you’re updating it).

In addition Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, there’s a plethora of other social media tools you need to consider embracing in your quest to becoming extraordinary. Here are additional examples:

Youtube

Youtube has over 790 million unique visitors a month and 100 billion page views. Combine that with the fact that up to 75% of communication is visual (think body language, eye contact) and you can see how a video resume could be much more impactful than a paper resume.

SlideRocket (www.sliderocket.com)

SlideRocket is an online presentation solution that can play video, slides and audio all within one platform. It’s a great way to build a “presentation resume.” More than 100,000 companies use SlideRocket today, with good reason:

Can you hear me now?  The SlideRocket Presentation Index shows that a near perfect 98 percent of presentations with audio are viewed to the end.

Video makes a difference – The Index also shows that presentations with video are viewed nearly 20 percent longer than those without.

www.sliderocket.com

Prezi (www.prezi.com)

Prezi is a cloud based presentation solution that allows you to build amazing whiteboards and slides on a zoomable canvas. It’s a really phenomenal tool I’ve seen professionals use to showcase their brand.

Will this book teach you how to leverage these tools to stand out? Absolutely. But remember, tools will always change (especially those based on technology). It’s what you do with these tools that matters.

Tools are important. Differentiation is what matters.

Two Types of People in The World

There are two types of people in the world – Old School (OS) and New School (NS). So what makes them different from each other? It begins with their philosophies around work and their goals. The Old School thinkers end up working a dead end job they complain about their entire lives. They fail to take control for their lives and blame others when things don’t go their way. They can’t stand change. In fact, they fear it. They insist on doing things the way they are, because, well, that’s how it’s always been done. They follow the herd because they can’t make their own decision – they’re like sheep. The New School folks challenge the status quo. They aim for lofty goals and hold themselves to high standards. When things go wrong, they look internally first and challenge themselves to improve. New School people aren’t afraid to step outside of the box to land their dream jobs.

When we examine their goals we find that they have dramatically different value systems and guiding principles. Take a look at the differences:

OS: Do as I’m told.

NS: Do what gets you the best results.

OS: Follow the rules on job seeking.

NS: Follow my creative intuition. Think outside the traditional rules of job seeking to stand out.

OS: Create a really good resume.

NS: Create an incredible brand by utilizing numerous tools (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, PodCasts) and embracing the new technology tools that are bound to arrive.

OS: Job hunting is a numbers game.

NS: Job hunting is a “quality” numbers game. Let’s invest our time and energy into a job worth building a career around. Sustainability, career growth, mentorship, pay and culture become important factors to consider in the process.

OS: Land any job possible.

NS: Land my dream job.

OS: This job will do for now.

NS: This job will do because it’s my passion. Time is valuable. I want to spend it working on a career I love.

Every successful company wants a new school person. They create innovative new products, new go to market strategies and inspire their coworkers to be great.

Companies want someone who is going to be extraordinary.

So which are you? New School or Old School?

FAQ Section – For all the Non-Believers:

Before you continue to read on, if you’re still a non-believer, please read the FAQ below.

Q: Are you saying I don’t need a resume anymore?

A: Not at all. The resume is still required by almost every company out there and is a baseline requirement during the hiring process. What I am saying is that if you want to be extraordinary and want to be noticed, you need to think above and beyond the traditional resume.

Q: Do I need a lot of money and knowledge to become an extraordinary job candidate?

A: You won’t need a lot of money – we’ll discuss how many have done it on a non-existent or shoe string budget and have been very successful. As for knowledge, you’ll be given that in this book. Combine knowledge and inspiration with a dose of hard work and persistence and you’ll have a recipe for success.

Q: What if I don’t have the work experience or Ivy League education? Won’t that automatically make me seem “mediocre” to recruiters?

A: Absolutely not. I’ve met numerous successful people (both entrepreneurs and senior leaders at Fortune 1000 companies) that didn’t have either when they were in the early stages of their career. All the stories we’ll discuss in this book also reflect that.

The New Rule: There Are No Rules

There are no rules. Rules seek to keep you confined in a tiny rigid box. Philosophies, on the other hand, are guiding principles that create a platform for your job seeking process. Principles stand the test of time. Principles can be applied to everyone.

Here are the 5 core principles you must embody.

These are the ABCs of how to become a visionary job seeker.

A is for Artist. We’ve learned the foundational basics of education in our school system like Math, English, Science and History. Yet we face a huge gap in one specific area: creativity. Because of the incredibly linear way we’ve been educated, we churn out these dry, stiff resumes that all seem to be based around similar templates. To further exacerbate the problem, if you really take a moment to think about what a traditional resume is, it’s simply a piece of paper representing a bunch of check boxes next to your name. A resume can’t showcase your personality, integrity, social skills, teamwork abilities, leadership skills and creativity. And that’s exactly why it’s so flawed.

If you can become an artist during the job hunting process, you can differentiate yourself dramatically through creativity. I don’t mean “artist” in the literal sense of painting or sculpting. An “artist” is defined as putting your soul into your work. Do this and you’ll stand out. We’ll explore an amazing case study in this book when we talk about Hanna Phan’s story. She was famous for “the tweet heard ‘round the world.” Hanna’s story went viral when she sent a tweet to the CEO of SlideRocket to express her interest in a position. Known as the “new age” job hunting guru, Hanna overcame months of fruitless job searching by combining the use of SlideRocket, Twitter, Social Media, hard work, moxie and creativity to land her dream job at arguably one of the hottest technology companies in the world. She’s the pioneer behind the concept of a “Presume” (Presentation + Resume).

B is for Business. You are a business. Stop thinking of yourself as just another “worker” or “employee.” You have a brand, you have valuable skills that others are willing to pay for and your skills are transferrable. The product you’re selling? That’s you. So if you know that’s true, why aren’t you operating your job hunting process like a business as well? I’ll show you how this fundamentally different approach can help you create thousands of raving fans that can potentially find job opportunities for you. This is all based on the premise of Smart Investing (with your energy, time and money). Operate your job search like a business and you will get results. Matt embraced this philosophy and drastically turned around his job search. After numerous attempts to land a job the old fashioned way for weeks, Matthew Epstein became an online celebrity after creating a social media campaign centered around his website: Googlepleasehire.me – To this day his website has received over 20,000 likes on Facebook, over 5,000 retweets and over 4,300 “+1” on Google +. He has been featured on TechCrunch, CNET, ABC News, Technorati and BusinessInsider for his innovative approach to job hunting. He’s also interviewed with Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Etsy and numerous startups

C is for Commitment. Commitment isn’t just about sending out 20 resumes a day. Commitment is about understanding purpose so that you can truly commit. Commitment is about accountability. Commitment is about holding yourself to the highest standard and taking action to get to that standard. Nagesh Palepu held himself to this incredibly high standard and went from working as a cashier at McDonald’s to the CEO of a highly successful company today. We’re going to teach you how to set your own high standards within this book and then give you the “Self Coaching” accountability methodology to make sure you work your way towards your dream job.

D is for Determination. Along your road to career success you’re going to inevitably run into a few bumps in the road. Some will be blips while others will be downright catastrophic.

Sarah went through this first hand and learned the importance of keeping an eye on the big picture. By combining that vision with an unfaltering level of determination she was label to land her dream job at Disney.

Is determination a part of your DNA?

E is for Enjoy. We all want to be amazing. To be recognized for our contribution to the world. To be the epitome of success.

In short, we want to move mountains.

In our unrelenting pursuit of our dream jobs, we’re often left breathless, tired and unbalanced.

Stop. Take a deep breathe. I get it - you want to change the world with your work. Guess what, it’s not going to happen overnight. So before you pass out from exhaustion, take a moment to appreciate the moment. Grab a cup of coffee and people watch. Lie on a hammock and read a book. Go outside for a stroll. Listen to your favorite band. Have an amazing conversation with a friend. If you need to be reminded of the importance of enjoyment, look no further than the story of Jerry, a man who battled a near death experience for months. At the tender age of 20, Jerry overcame a life and death experience. His comeback story reminds us of the importance of enjoying the moment and having balance in our lives.

Remember, a lot of what I’m about to tell you is going to seem counterintuitive. After all, it goes against almost everything you’ve been taught since you’ve been born. What I ask is that you have an open mind. Read the real life stories closely, takes notes around the guiding principles, test out the different approaches and before you know it you’ll be moving mountains.

Relax, sit back and get ready for a transformational ride!

Why I’m writing this

“Congratulations. You got the job.”

I grinned from ear to ear. After 8 years of hard work, I had finally arrived.

Within the last 8 years, I had gone from being a labor foreman making close to minimum wage to a channels management position at the hottest tech company in Silicon Valley responsible for a multi-million dollar territory of business. In the last four years alone I had quadrupled my pay and received a promotion every single year.

Life was good.

But something was missing. All those years, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Not until I was invited to be a speaker at a UCLA career workshop. Our corporate recruiter had reached out to me through an email.

“We need a volunteer to be a speaker for the UCLA career workshop. Ideally we’d like to cover resume and interview tips. Would you be able to help?”

At first I hesitated because I was already working a lot of hours every week. But then I realized I hadn’t really given back that often since my career began (I had a few stints with the North Carolina and San Francisco Food Bank and the Habitat for Humanity organization, but that was it.). So I thought, “Why not?”

I quickly put together a powerpoint presentation highlighting the best practices I had seen in getting jobs during my life in the corporate world.

At my very first seminar, there were about 60 students in the room. My palms began to sweat. Granted, I had NEVER done this presentation before!

Soon, my name was called.

It was time to present.

So I stood up, introduced myself and something completely unexpected hit me. I became filled with passion. I saw a room full of students looking for help and realized I had the chance to inspire them to be great. So I enthusiastically went through my presentation detailing the “secrets” that we were never taught in college that could truly help the students land their dream job. When I finished, I received another surprise. The students were applauding. Not polite applause. Genuine, you’ve-truly-helped-me, applause. It made me realize that my material was really helping people in their job searches. It was validated months later when I had numerous people write messages to me talking about how they finally landed the job that they wanted.

“Your advice served to remind me of who I am, what I have to offer, and what I really want to achieve. With some modern strategies to get noticed, it pushed me to stand my ground amidst moments of self-doubt when all I could think was: “Find employment. Now.” I found a job weeks ago!”

All the best,

Helga

Since then, I promised that each and every day I would ask myself one question every morning: “Before I leave this world, have I done every thing I possibly can each and every day to make an impact on people’s lives?”

That’s why I decided to write this book today. I’m here to share my stories and secrets with you because I want you to experience success, to achieve greatness and to inspire others. I hope to make a lasting impact on your life through this book. One day, my hope is that you would email me saying this helped you land your dream job!

Good luck in your journey and I truly hope this book helps get you one step closer to achieving your dreams.

My Story

My forest green polo shirt was dripping in sweat and beginning to stick to my skin. My forearms were throbbing. I looked at my watch. It was 6 pm and I had just lifted and helped to set up over 300 metal chairs in an auditorium. The Ackerman Union was showing a movie in the Ballroom for the UCLA students and my job as a labor foreman was to set up the seating, usher in the students, take out the trash after they left and to tear down the seating.

Ever setup 300 metal chairs before? It’s like maximum interval circuit training. Except you don’t end up with the 6 pack. Just sore arms and a genuine hate for metal chairs.

Soon, a herd of students stampeded their way into the auditorium to watch the movie that night. If people asked me what the movie was that night, I wouldn’t be able to tell them. I was too tired.

Finally, 2 hours after the movie ended, the students began to filter out in droves. After a few minutes the place was empty. I looked around the auditorium.

There were 300 chairs looking right back at me. Each and every one of them had to be stacked up in a row of 15 and stored away into the adjacent room.

I took a peak at my watch – it was almost 10:30 PM and I had a lot of work to get done before I could get home. So I began stacking the chairs in a nice vertical row of 15. One by one. I minimized my break times by only stopping to wipe the sweat off my brow when it built up. This kept me on pace to finish quickly. And before you knew it, my job was done. Well, almost. I had saved the most glamorous part of my job for last. “Shine time.” “Shine Time” involved sweeping up the floors and taking out the trash. So I began to go from bin to bin collecting each and every trash bag and throwing it into a big plastic cart with wheels. The trick is to find the top part of the bag that isn’t soaked in liquid (usually from some kind of sugary drink or soda the students had been drinking) and to quickly tie a knot. From there I typically swooped it out with one hand and tossed it into the bin. One of the bags, though, looked heavier than usual. I tied the knot and gave it a tug. No go. The trick with these bags is that I had to lift it pretty high up to get it out of the bin. Sometimes the heavy loads would take two hands to get it out. So I wiped my hands on my pants, got a good grip on the two sides of the plastic trash bag and HEAVED. Luckily for me, the bag tore at the bottom and began to leak. All over me. It was probably a mixture of ketchup, fruit juice, and God knows what else splattered all over my pants and shoes.

Welcome to my job.

I rolled the huge cart of garbage from the auditorium to the dumpster. As I tossed the last garbage bag into the dumpster, there was one thought that stuck with me that night and was forever burned in my mind. I’m better than this. I have untapped potential that I’m going to show the world.

And isn’t this the fundamental question we want to answer in our lives?

How do we unlock our full potential to achieve our dreams?

Because when we have the intelligence, skill set, work ethic and drive to reach our maximum potential, what’s stopping us from achieving our dreams?

I spent the next 8 years seeking out the answer.

From Labor Foreman to Partner Manager

So how did I go from taking out trash to working in the high tech field?

Well, we’d have to zoom back to 2003. I was a college student and had the typical college job that I just described in the last chapter. I worked as a labor foreman for Ackerman Union.

I didn’t know where my career was headed at the time but what I did know was that I didn’t want to take out trash for the rest of my life.

Don’t get me wrong - being a labor foreman taught me a lot, including discipline, work ethic and humility. But it wasn’t my dream job. Not by a long shot. It was a way to help me pay off tuition and to enjoy a Panda Express combo meal every now and then.

What I did know is that I had the potential to be great. I believe you recognize that potential within yourself too. The potential to leave a lasting impact on society for the better. The potential to change the status quo. The potential to do what you love.

The challenge I had was that I hadn’t been able to figure out how to ignite that potential to achieve my goals.

More importantly – I didn’t even know what my goals were.

Yikes.

Case and point - I would be hanging out with a group of friends in class and someone new (a friend of a friend) would be introduced to the group. We’d end up talking about what our majors and the inevitable question we all love would always come up:

So what do you want to do with your career?

And my most common response would be “I don’t know.”

And I was in my fourth year at college! No doubt about it, I was confused and lacked direction. I had NO idea what I wanted to do, let alone what my dream job was. I was clueless! I loved the idea of performing theater but struggled with the idea of potentially low pay and unstable work. I loved the idea of working in the finance world based on the pay but wasn’t sure if I was ready to work 80 hours a week. I loved the stability of working for a big company, but man, entrepreneurship sure sounds exciting! And to top it all off, I had tons of interviews lined up with all sorts of different companies in the field of manufacturing, technology, healthcare, finance and entertainment. Holy smokes. See how this can get confusing?

And time was running out. I had only months to figure it out.

To top it all off, I remember feeling the pressure of being on my own for the first time and having to be financially independent after graduating.

The weight of the world was on my shoulders. And by weight, I mean a massive set of college loans.

Here’s the thing – I wasn’t alone in feeling this way at that time– and neither are you! It’s completely understandable especially if you haven’t had guidance.

In this day and age, we’re inundated from all angles with new information about what our value system should be, what we should eat, what we should wear, what certain brands mean to us through outlets like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TV, texts, emails and we’re getting the information faster than ever before.

Today, we live in a world of “Information Overload.”

Don’t believe me? Just look at the facts:

People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

It took just three years, two months, and one day for Twitter to get to its one billionth tweet.

There are an estimated 290+ billion emails sent per day.

Because of the proliferation of technology and the speed in which it moves information, people are constantly being bombarded with different values. The result: Information overload.

People are inevitably pulled in all different directions – and that’s most often why we’re confused half the time about what we want and why many of us lack a clear goal. Don’t believe me? Ask twenty of your friends. My bet is that half of them don’t know what their dream jobs are.

This book is designed to change that.

Instead of getting pulled in twenty different directions, it’s time for you to focus on one goal: Landing your dream job.

The Proof is in the Pudding

In this book I’m going to tell you the secrets on how I was able to:

•  Have recruiters from Google, Apple, HP, Paypal, Ebay, Verizon, VMware, Meraki and top tier private companies reach out to me about job opportunities

•  Garner interviews with Google, Cisco, GE Healthcare, MTV Networks, Universal Music Group, Harrah’s, Citigroup, Navigant Consulting, VMware and numerous privately held companies

•  Quadruple my pay, land my dream job, receive 4 promotions and receive over 46 recommendations from executives, peers and business partners. These recommendations include a Senior VP at a Fortune 100 company, a CEO and the VP of a very successful private company

So why would you want to take my advice?

1. I’ve hosted numerous career development, interview and resume workshops at UCLA

2. I have corporate experience in interviewing people, have collaborated with HR experts at Fortune 100 companies and have been actively involved in the hiring process for a Fortune 100 company

3. I’ve personally coached many students and working professionals on their career goals

4. I’ve even developed two iPhone apps: One is called “Interview Questions Pro” designed to help you ace the interview with a flashcard based learning system and the other is called “Career Coach,” a comprehensive guide on how to land your dream job step by step

5. I’ve personally spent months interviewing 5 other highly successful job hunters (that have been vastly covered by the media on their unique approaches to job hunting) with experience ranging from start ups to Fortune 1000s

I’m here to tell you the secrets on how to figure out what your dream job is and how to land your dream job (and yes, these are proven methods!) I’ve personally used these methods as well and have seen it work first hand. On top of my own personal story, I’ll be sharing with you the success stories of Hanna Phan, Matthew Epstein, Nagesh Palepu, and Sarah.

And that’s the beauty of it - you’ll be getting tips from someone who’s been in your shoes before. Now, it may take you a ton of small steps along the way to get there, or it may be so impactful you get there in just a few months. The key is to always push forward to continually improve and to stay the course. Is this a guarantee you’ll land your dream job after reading this book? Absolutely not. Your success depends on your willingness to work hard, to persist when the odds seems to be stacked against you and your attitude. Most of all, it depends on how much you’re willing to step outside of your boundaries.

Most people don’t work hard to make changes. Instead, they work hard to make excuses. Here are the most common excuses heard out there:

1. “It’s a tough job market out there now, and I can’t control that. The unemployment rate is around 9%!”

2. “I don’t have enough time or the know how to properly prepare for interviews.”

3. “I don’t have a network I can tap into to gain job opportunities.”

4. “I don’t have any mentors to help me along the way.”

5. “I’m just not that good at interviewing in person.”

6. “I don’t have the right experience for the job that I want.”

7. “I don’t have the right educational background that would qualify me for this job.”

8. “I don’t have any specific knowledge or special skills in this industry that I’m applying for.”

9. “I work 60 hours a week in my current job and just don’t have time right now for the job hunting process.”

10. “I don’t know what my dream job is.”

If any of these excuses sound familiar to you - don’t worry, you’re not alone and we’ll discuss how you can overcome these obstacles.

But before I go any further, I want to ask you one simple question:

Are you ready to change?

Because if you’re not, then don’t feel compelled to read this book any further. I can’t help you unless you want to help yourself. Make sense?

If you are, read on.

It’s time for you to embrace change. Change is often hard but it can also be exciting and empowering. It’s time for you to look at yourself in the mirror, own up to the fact that you’ve been dragging your feet and toss aside the excuses! Remember, the one things that is constant in life is change.

You need to become an agent of change.

Know that the methods that I’m about to share with you have worked for other people and can work for you too.

All I’m asking you to do is that once you learn all of the information, tips and material, you must truly push yourself to put them into action. You will have to create greatness.

It’s a simple concept, yet the majority of people don’t do it. It’s because it takes a frame of mind, an attitude, and a conscious choice to say that you want more out of your job and more importantly your life.

It’s also the biggest differentiator between success and failure.

This is a book for all the people out there graduating from college, wondering what they’re going to do with their life. It’s for those students that are stressed out about landing a job in the “new normal” economy and yet have the passion and willingness to crush it in their jobs if they’re given the opportunity.

It’s for those students who feel like they’re just a few tips away from breaking through in their job hunt.

It’s for those who feel they have so much to offer to a potential employer, yet they just don’t know how to effectively communicate that message to them.

It’s for you folks out there that are unemployed today. Don’t give up hope – there’s always a time to make a positive change in your life. With these new tips and tricks, my hope is that you come away feeling energized and amped up to truly push towards your dream job. Hopefully at the end of this book, you’ll wake up earlier in the morning, approach job hunting with a new sense of vigor and ultimately have more fun than ever before.

Now with that said, here are a few KEY tips you should keep in mind as you read the book:

1. Really read and grasp the material. Don’t gloss, don’t peruse, don’t watch TV while you’re reading (You’re watching TV now, aren’t you?) Take notes and highlight parts that strike you as being useful to your specific situation. Really understand and process the advice I’m giving you. You’ll find it’s well worth it at the end. True learning requires true focus.

2. Answer the questions I propose. It’s easy to just skip over those, but that’s the LAST thing you want to do. Asking yourself the tough questions is one of the most important parts of this book because it will help you define your goals.

3. Practice. These tips are – exactly that – just tips. They’re useless unless YOU put them into practice. So if the chapter is about learning how to articulate your ideas better, then practice the pitch to a friend or a family member. I’ve met business leaders who have been incredibly successful despite having what many others in society would deem “limitations,” and yet they’ve been able to overcome it with practice. Most people never think about the sweat equity that it takes to be great. They just hear about the success stories and think, “Gosh, I could have done that!” Success can often takes months, years or even decades to achieve. So practice and become good at what you need to do. No one said this was going to be easy!

4. Don’t complain and give up. This is probably the easiest thing for you to do. It’s easy to just shut off this book and to say, “Woe is me!” It’s also easy to finish reading the book, to try the tips once or twice, not have it work and then to suddenly give up. You’ve got to be persistent. Stick with it. If certain approaches aren’t working, figure out why and adapt.

5. You’ve got to truly push. Push your heart, your mindset, your attitude, your skill sets, your work ethic, and your knowledge to get to the goals you’re aiming for.

The goal of this book is to help you achieve one thing:

To do what you love - for work.

That’s what people call their dream job.

And the beauty of it is that you don’t have to wait a week, a year, or 5 years for this to begin.

You can start NOW and begin the push towards your dream job!

Now let’s go make it happen.

Structure of the Book

I’ll make sure you get in bite sized pieces so that it’s easy for you to digest and carry out in the real world so that you get the results you want.

Here’s how I’ll structure each chapter for you:

• An inspirational quote related to the content of the chapter – This is designed to get you pumped up!

• A personal success story

• An objective – We’ll talk about exactly what we’re going to accomplish in each chapter

• A set of exercise – I’ll teach you the secrets of reaching that objective in detail (in the form of questionnaires and call to actions you can perform immediately!)

• A Recap – A quick summary of what we covered

It’s time for you to push to new heights, otherwise you’ll be dragged down into the crowd of endless paper resumes.

Are you ready to push?

A is for Artist

"Creativity determines the difference between a leader and a follower.”

Our education system has done a great job of teaching us how to arrive on time, on how to answer test questions and how to be disciplined in our approach for work. In a sense, we’ve been taught “out of” creativity. Can you recall how many truly creative projects you’ve taken on in the studies of history, math, economics and English? Most people can count them on one hand. The point is, being trained to become a disciplined, industrial type of worker has shaped us to approach job hunting in the same manner. The creative process has been sucked out of us.

Many people think incorporating creativity in the job hunting process as “risky” and “against the grain.” In reality, by staying within the norm, you’re simply putting yourself into the mediocre middle. The majority of people do exactly that: They play it safe. They follow the rules. They stay in the norm. And so, they inevitably blend into the crowd.

So how do you stand out from the crowd? You do so by being an artist. Why? Well, it’s quite simple. Art has the power to convey emotions. To create a connection. To showcase creativity. No story demonstrates that better than the story of Hanna Phan.

I was reading through numerous blog postings when I had stumbled across her story of how she landed a job at SlideRocket. When I had finished watching her “presume” and reading her story, I was absolutely inspired. So were the thousands that had read and shared her story through social networks as well. To this day, she has had 1,290 people share her story on Facebook, 1,854 retweets, 204 LinkedIn shares and multiple job offers from different companies.

I was lucky enough to interview Hanna numerous times. On our first Skype session I found her to be incredibly genuine and forthcoming. The result is an incredibly detailed life story that features a number of recurring themes that led to her innovative approach to job hunting. What you’ll find is that Hanna’s story isn’t about how to be an overnight success. If anything, it’s been an incredible journey for her – one we can all learn from.

This is her story.

Hanna’s Story

I don’t have a birth certificate. You’ll understand why as I tell you my story…

My parents are from Vietnam. They were refugees during the Vietnam War and had escaped on a boat trying to find a better life in Canada.

The Vietnam war was (1955-1975) fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and South Vietnam, supported by the United States. The U.S. viewed the war as a way to prevent communists from taking over South Vietnam. In the 1975, after the end of the Vietnam War, mass Vietnamese immigration to the United States began. Many immigrants were fleeing persecution or poverty. Forced to flee from their homeland, many refugees, including Hanna’s parents, boarded dangerously crude and overcrowded boats and took to the sea to escape.

During the immigration escape, my mother, who was pregnant with me at the time, gave birth to me on a private Malaysian island where the boat had happened to land. My mom almost gave me away to a Malaysian woman on the island because there was a fifty-fifty chance we wouldn’t survive. Keep in mind, there were ruthless pirates out there on ocean waters and conditions on the boat were brutal.

Luckily that never happened.

My parents immigrated safely to Canada four years later and landed in Toronto. We were lucky enough to be sponsored by the Red Cross. And my life in Canada began.

Don’t be Afraid of Trying Something New

My father was an entrepreneur and had a small electronics store. Being that I was the only geeky one out of my brothers and sisters, I helped out at the store after school. This was officially the first job I ever had.

When I was younger, I lived and breathed the business. Our life as a family was tied to it. My dad always had work during vacation and there was time we’d have to end our vacation to come back to take care of business at the store. He’d try to make time, but the business always came first.

I made sure people didn’t steal things, so basically I was security guard. I was also the cashier. I was also the tester of products. I was also customer service since I helped people with the VCRs and Walkmans. They would always try to negotiate with me when I was the salesperson. I would say “no tax” if they gave me cash. You could say I was a quick learner because I wasn’t afraid of trying something new.

What the store also taught me was how to be a good risk taker. It was inherent in me. I learned by watching my dad – I’d listen in on conversations and eventually negotiated the pricing for electronics and toys in the store.

I get excited about getting a good deal.

There’s always a deal to be had.

Dip Your Toes Into the Water

Hanna’s story highlights the importance of dipping your toes into the water.

You can only really truly know what you love once you experience it.

You can do all the pre-work in the world to qualify possible “passions” like interviewing other people, researching the job responsibilities online and looking at the different attributes of the job, but at the end of the day, nothing replaces living and breathing the work itself. So kick off those sandals, soak up the sun and dip your toes in the water. Hanna did that by working in multiple job roles at her dad’s store and found out at an early age that she loved the entrepreneurial spirit of owning a business.

A Lesson of Risk Through Karaoke

Eventually, we got into the Karaoke business by selling laser disc rentals (we were actually one of the first to bring it into North America). Karaoke was a new thing we started. It’s amazing how you don’t even realize how cutting edge technology can be, even when it’s at the tip of your fingertips.

People were so intrigued with the sing along concept but a lot of people would get nervous going on stage. So I’d help my dad set up the wires and I’d also be there to warm up the crowd.

He’d say, “Hanna, you’re the kid, you need to go up there and show them that even a kid can do this.”

So I walked up to the front and started belting out a song.

I did it to show them that you don’t need to be so great to have fun.

The Risk of Not Taking a Risk

There is a risk in not taking a risk: It’s complacency. It’s stagnancy. It’s a dead end job (or no job at all).

How do we overcome our fears to take an intelligent risk?

We have to tell ourselves what happens if we don’t take action.

If I don’t invest the time and energy into an amazing job pitch, I may never get my dream job.

If I don’t challenge myself to think out of the box on how I’m going to impact a company (and how I’ll get their attention on what I can deliver), I may never get noticed.

If I don’t utilize social media to build my brand, I may never develop a brand beyond a piece of paper (my resume).

Challenge yourself – get yourself to overcome one of your biggest fears EVERY day by reminding yourself of the agony of “not doing.” It tends to work best when you remind yourself right when the fear hits you. Do this day in and day out and you’ll see the change gradually. If you feel that “becoming an artist” in the job hunting process is too big of a leap for you right away, take incremental steps. Here are a few key tips to help you break out of our shell and into a creative mindset:

Start by talking to someone everyday you wouldn’t normally chat with.

When you’re amongst a crowd, sing one of your favorite songs out loud.

Ask someone out on a date.

The point is, these exercises are here to show you that taking a risk isn’t as hard as you think.

Remember, there’s a risk to not taking a risk.

If You Don’t Adapt, You Won’t Survive

Fast forward to college. This is where I first discovered what I was passionate about.

I attended University of Western Ontario with a focus on computer science and economics. When I graduated in 2002 though, there was the infamous tech bust and I had a technical degree, so I decided to stay in school. So I enrolled into a masters program focused around biomedical engineering.

During my job search, I had actually started off looking for companies that made medical devices. It was related to what I was studying (biomedical engineering) and I could use my engineering and skills to improve medical devices. It seemed like a natural fit.

The problem was, these types of companies just weren’t hiring. It was such a narrow field! So I struggled to find out how to apply my skills to the job opportunities out there in the market.

After graduating from college, my friend who I studied with in computer science, was working at Electronic Arts in Vancouver and actually told me to give him my resume for an engineering job. I thought, “Why not?” After all, computer graphics seemed pretty simple.

Embrace Change (when it makes sense)

Instead of sticking to her guns and insisting on working at a medical device company, Hanna made the decision to adapt her skills to where the opportunity presented itself.

Change is hard. It requires you to broaden your horizons. But when it makes sense, you’ve got to make the change.

After he submitted my resume, he sent me the job description for a network engineering position. The thing is, I didn’t know a thing about networking!

I got a phone call from a recruiter asking about my background and she told me that the interviews were going to be held in Toronto.

Basically, my resume had gone into an engineering pool of opportunities and they were going to determine where I was the best fit.

Yikes.

You Don’t Know Unless You Ask (Ask Intelligently)

I’m sweating my pants because I’ve never had a technical interview like this before.

Fresh out of school, they wanted me to look at code during this interview. They wanted me to figure out what was wrong with this code.

The interviewer would ask, “how would you make this more efficient?”

I was just shitting my pants. There were 3 interviews that day and you just jump room to room. For the very last interview of the day, I met up with the recruiter.

He asked, “How’d it go?”

“I have no idea. Can you tell me?”

“I’ll let you know.”

So I started to ask the questions I had about the company.

“What’s the career development like at EA? How long does it take for an engineer to move into management?”

“Well, they would do engineering for 2-3 years. They would work with their manager to move them over into management.”

“How can you fast track that?”

“Well, you have to work with your manager, but that doesn’t happen.”

“What if I wanted to make it into management today?”

I feel like I would be better managing a technical team. I didn’t want to be a code monkey. (No offense to the coders out there, we all know how hard it is to code) I pushed on.

“I’m really interested into getting into the management field.”

There was a silent pause.

“Actually, there might be something that might fit this, but you’d have to do another set of interviews. Well, at EA they’re just starting this new program called DDOP, director development onboarding program, a pilot program for new hires / graduates. They basically train them in the management role and grow them into it. This pilot was designed for junior people to become management stars at EA. Let me see if this is available for you.”

The key lesson I learned was that it’s important to get past the fear right away. Get to the point you’re trying to make and then let yourself feel the fear afterwards. Doing this builds courage and confidence.

The following week, I get a phone call for an interview for the management position! They liked me and I found out later I made it. I was the last hire.

Hearing the words “You’re hired” was a beautiful thing. That’s how I go into management and it took off from there.

The lesson I learned was: If you don’t ask, you don’t know.

White Walls

I had worked at EA for a few years when one day, out of the blue, I suddenly became very ill. It came out of nowhere. I didn’t know what it was, but I had really big stomach pains. They thought it was my appendix and I said, “Are you sure? Do some more imaging!”

I wanted to make sure after all. Luckily it wasn’t my appendix.

I ended up being hospitalized for 5 days. Being in the hospital and having to stare at the white walls made me think about life again. I started to think, “If I die, am I happy with my life right now?” And a huge part of this question was around my career because it was a big part of my life.

Have you ever hit rock bottom before?

Rock bottom is a place:

Where you realize you have no passion for the work.

Where you realize you were meant to accomplish so much more.

Where you realized things HAD to change because the pain of staying the same was too much to bear.

Most of us have but we don’t realize one key piece of the puzzle: you don’t have to settle for “rock bottom,” “mediocre” or “good enough.”

You can reach for being great and it starts with setting a goal.

You need to define what you want in order to achieve it.

Let’s examine case studies of businesses that had clearly defined goals:

•  BMW wants to provide you the ultimate driving experience by blending luxury and sport.

•  Beach Body’s P90X videos strive to help you get into the best shape of your life, all within your home.

•  Apple’s iPhone strives to provide you best possible customer experience of computing, digital photography, video, applications, and telephony all within one device.

Each of these companies has performed incredibly well by having a strong focus on their goals. Great companies have clearly defined goals. You should too.

If you don’t have any goals defined – how can you build a plan to achieve those goals?

It’s like throwing a dart blindfolded. (Don’t try that at home…you’ll end up with holes in your wall. I speak from experience.)

Define where the destination is and you can begin to map out how to get there.

I’m very ambitious and I realized I wanted to try a lot of different things – I wanted to explore. I wanted to branch out.

I thought that would help me grow as a person and so I made up my mind. I knew this when I asked myself, “Where do I see myself in 4 years? Do I want to become the Director of QA?” And the answer was no. I paid attention to what the QA Director had to do and the decisions they had to make and at the end of the day, it didn’t really excite me. Ironically, I felt like what most of us seemed to care about in college was the idea of having a high-ranking “title” at work.

During this time, my friend had her own security business and for the past year had always tried to recruit me to her company. She basically said, “Well, if you want to come over, I need you to start right away.”

A month later I gave my notice and I went to my friend’s company. I became a security consultant. Eventually the company was acquired, but the acquisition didn’t turn out so smoothly. They eventually let go of the entire professional services team after a year.

I was a part of that team.

All summer, I was trying to figure out, what am I going to do? I really had no idea where I was going, what I was going to be and I was on an emotional roller coaster. Then the recession hit really hard in October 2008. Oddly enough, because of the fact that I had a mortgage, a severance that would last me a few months, a credit loan for emergency money and my boyfriend still had a job, I didn’t feel too downbeat about my prospects. Not yet at least.

I intended to take a break but at the time, I did get some interviews through referrals from a friend at Lucas Arts in San Francisco and another friend at a different security company. I didn’t think the interviews went bad, but all of a sudden, I never heard back. There were no more emails and no more calls from them. And then I thought…

Wow, this recession is real.

It was like everyone just stopped. All I could think was, wow, this is really bad timing.

But I felt like this was a great opportunity to give back to the community, so I worked at a non-profit for a while. I also ran a marathon and raised $6,000 for charity. So during this time I felt like I finally didn’t have any excuses for doing the things I always wanted to do. I also felt like I needed to brush up on my public speaking, so I joined Toastmasters. (Toastmasters is basically a public speaking club)

“You’re an expert if you believe you’re an expert”

Being fearless in trying new things, I dove right in on my first Toastmasters presentation. Being entrepreneurial is in my blood. So I fired up a Powerpoint where I talked about what I was passionate about. I basically delivered a seven-minute speech on “How to deliver a great presentation.”

My opening line was, “People are dying everyday of boredom, 99% of all presentations just suck.” And I got a chuckle from the audience right away.

Good start.

I kept going. “Here are the three steps to approach better looking slides.” I just kept going on with that, and people really enjoyed it because they learned from it. I started buying books on presentations and I just dove right into learning it. I would process the information and then deliver it in my own words and style.

I became known as the Powerpoint guru and someone told me I should start giving workshops on these. I ended up doing it often and even hosted an hour workshop for the Toastmasters conference. Ironically, I never expected myself to be an expert in anything. But I quickly learned on my own:

“You’re an expert if you believe you’re an expert.”

Spend time with your believers

What really kept me alive during this recession is having the right people surrounding me that truly believed in me. It’s like having your own cheer leading team, because you’re often your biggest critic. Our mind is so powerful that it has the power to affect how we act and feel. When people believe in you, they don’t highlight your shortcomings. They highlight your potential and your strengths. They have louder voices than your own to drown out your criticism. They see the diamond in the rough.

During times of struggle, you become very aware of yourself and you tend to think a lot about where you’re at and where you should be headed. And sometimes you can be very critical of yourself and your self-belief begins to fade.

This also gets exacerbated with doubters. People who weren’t my cheerleaders would say that I was doing something wrong since I didn’t take on a job that reflects what I studied in college. “Why didn’t you do that since you studied it in school?”

I doubted myself at least once a day and I wouldn’t be able to sleep some days until 5 or 6 in the morning. I would try to keep a confident persona, but it was the opposite.

At that time, having my supporters around me helped a lot through this time. I realized I was happy in what I was doing at the time. I ran a marathon, worked with a non-profit, a mentorship program and raised money for the Earth Fund (environmental awareness). These were all things I believed in. I realized that passion came in pieces for me.

Finally, I asked the big question: What was I missing?

I realized I wanted to solve big problems.

So I decided to jump right back into the job search.

I started by submitting resumes to 10 different companies as a warm up. You know, just to get comfortable with the rhythm and the process. I reached out to Zynga, a really successful online gaming company that leverages Facebook as a platform. I submitted online and also had a friend of mine (an old EA contact) who was high up in the chain there refer me. I did get a call back from a recruiter but she was quick to point out that I didn’t have recent gaming experience in the last 3 years. She said we’ll “put you into a different pile” based on the lack of recent experience. When we talked on the phone, she basically said that they were looking for someone who was in gaming recently.

This got me fired up. I realized I needed to approach this differently.

Interview the Company First

This is where the big shift happened. I asked myself, “Where do I really want to work at?” Instead of having other people qualify me for the job, I’m going to actively choose where I want to go. Sure I have contacts here, but do I want to work at these companies? Zynga took a lot of effort to be persistent. It was a closed minded thing, but she sees all these different experiences outside of the traditional gaming experience. What she’s looking for specifically is someone who had recent gaming experience. And I didn’t fit her criteria. It was like trying to fit square peg into a hole. After all, I had spent years working at a non profit, community work, charitable causes and presentation seminars.

I had all these great experiences, but they didn’t fit into the roles I was applying for.

I had to really think about what I really, really wanted.

So I began to think, “Who would understand the presentation stuff I had done recently?”

I love presentations but I didn’t want to just be doing presentations. I wanted to change the way people present as a culture. It shifts the way people work if you can change that within a company and I wanted to do this with the tech industry.

Hanna answered the core question of job hunting: What’s my purpose?

Understand your purpose and it will fuel your drive.

If I told you that it was your job to sort through a box of potatoes and to throw away the rotten ones, would you feel a strong sense of purpose? Or would you feel like a cog in a machine? Now – what if I told you that by sorting out the bad potatoes you were helping out the local food bank in supplying fresh food supplies to needy families in the area – would that change your perspective and your sense of purpose in the work? Now that you understood the purpose of the work you want to do – does it potentially change your attitude or perhaps even your choice of work?

I’m not here to dictate what purpose is. Everyone’s got a different definition based on their experiences in life and their own set of values.

But what I do want to ask you is:

What does purpose mean to you?

For Hanna, it meant changing the way people work by teaching them a new way of presenting. Once she had that figured out, she began to work on…

The List

I began to write a list of characteristics of the ideal company:

1. I would be appreciated for my presentation skills

2. I would be appreciated for my entrepreneurial aspirations

3. High energy, high tech company

4. A big city location and lifestyle similar to San Francisco, Vancouver, and Toronto

I was immediately able to narrow down my list to these companies:

Prezi, a company focused on cloud based presentation software, was looking for product managers. But their job opportunities were based in Budapest, so that was out as an option.

SlideRocket, a company focused on presentations that could be created and viewed online, also caught my attention.

I looked into their job openings and found one open for a product manager position and I as I read through the description, I began to think, “Oh my gosh, this is so cool. VMware had recently acquired Slide Rocket and they wanted to integrate it into the company culture – that fit exactly what I was looking for! Holy crap – did I just hit the jackpot?” I re-read it over and over again.

Here’s what the job description said:

Job Description This product manager role will be responsible for achieving successful VMware-wide rollout of SlideRocket as our presentation platform, and driving both internal group adoption, process change and product roadmap evolution to achieve this goal. This role will lead the rollout of SlideRocket over the next six months, supported by IT program management office, SlideRocket product teams, VMware corporate marketing and various product marketing teams.

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

- Create and drive a SlideRocket use case roadmap and adoption campaign throughout VMware
- Scalable Evangelism, Education, Support: Develop and provide training to groups and individuals at a regular cadence, including best practices guidance on presentation design and content organization. Showcase unique capabilities of the application, with special focus on graphical treatments, media streaming, and content management.
- Product/Solution Management. Manage priorities, feature sets of both Sliderocket core roadmap and VMware implementation of content, recommended features to achieve various organization and use case requirements. Be an extension of the SlideRocket team, and liase between VMware and SlideRocket development teams on user experience and product enhancements; track feedback and milestones.

Time was of the essence. This job had already been posted for a week and I knew they were going to be flooded with applicants.

I knew this was the job I wanted. But I couldn't take the typical resume route. I didn’t want to be another rat in the wheel. And if that was the case, well then, I realized I needed to go about my job search with a completely different approach.

Inspired by a podcast and blog post by Seth Godin, the first thing I did was trash my resume.

The problem with a resume is that it doesn’t scream, “This is ME! I’m creative, energetic, full of life,” and there’s no visual way to express what you want to say to someone through a piece of paper.

Gone was the resume.

So, off I went to explore other ways to tell my story – the story of why I wanted to work for a certain company - with a truly creative approach.

Then, the light bulb went off – I needed to approach this job search in the same way I would court someone. With a love letter. A visual one. I needed to convince them that I was worth the wait. That I could stand out in a pile of applicants.

And then it hit me.

I had my “aha!” moment.

I was going to create a presentation resume to court them, with their very own product!

One of the criteria was to “quickly learn how to use SlideRocket.” It was a no brainer!

I was really excited to start creating my presentation. The only thing was…I was looking at a blank canvas in front of me. What do I say in it? I started to brainstorm...

Why Hanna?

It was a big question. I began to think that I should start how I could be the solution to their challenge. In other words, if I was in that role, what would I do to help with the Enterprise roll out of SlideRocket at VMware? And what are my 3 key attributes that I want to get across? And given that people have short attention spans, I knew I only had 30 seconds to deliver that message.

So I began to write. Before I knew it, I had written three different versions.

I didn’t consider any of them to be the “final” draft, but it was something I could work with. I put it into Powerpoint and imported it into SlideRocket.

I added text into their slides and I started stringing the story together by tying images to the presentation slides. I began surfing istockphoto.com and shutterstock.com for that. If you’re ever surfed these sites before, you know how tedious of a process it can be. It can take hours if not days to find the right images you’re looking for.

Finally, after much searching, I had found what I was looking for. It was so simple. Yet so well drawn. (You can see it in my presume link)

I began to tie my major themes in the presentation to the images. For example:

1. “Nothing is impossible” – This theme reminded me of magic, so I used a magic trick photo

2. “I’ve got the passion and guts to be successful” – I thought back to the days I did karaoke in front of large crowds and that’s why I chose the karaoke image.

By the way, even though I’ve giving you the steps on how I made my presume, I want you to know, there isn’t a secret step by step formula. You have to understand, when you’re going through the creative process and it’s a journey that doesn’t happen over night.

I began to work furiously day and night. This would go on for weeks. I even spent a day and a half just to find the right song. I used this website to find the music for the presume: http://www.friendlymusic.com/

I started browsing, then used the advanced search tab and narrowed it down to a few songs, played them over and over again and asked myself, “Am I going to get sick of this?”

I would play it to my husband and ask him, “Which one resonates with you?”

Since he knew me so well he would tell me which ones fit and which ones should be tossed.

As I worked on the presume, I would routinely be up until Midnight or 1 AM. Keep in mind too, that these were full days where I would start early in the morning and would work long hours deep into the night.

Even on the last day, I got cold feet. Doubts began to creep in. Should I still do this? Because once I do, it’s out there in the world for everyone to see. When you do something completely different, when you put yourself completely out there, you always have second thoughts because it’s so different.

What’s the worst that can happen?

I decided it was a risk worth taking. It was a smart risk in the grand scheme of themes.

So with that said, I dove right in.

The Tweet Heard ‘Round the World

I tweeted Chuck Dietrich, the CEO of Slide Rocket. I gave him a link to my presume, which you can watch here:

http://www.sliderocket.com/blog/2011/09/how-i-landed-my-dream-job-with-a-presume/

Here’s our Twitter conversation (read it from the bottom up):

Chuck read the tweet on his iPhone as he was boarding his plane.

An hour later, after Chuck literally walked off his plane, he replied.

“Oh my gosh, he responded right away!” I was super excited.

Then another thought crept into my head.

“Oh my gosh, what should I say?”

Let’s be calm and professional. I sent him another message:

“Thanks, are you still hiring?”

“Yes - many positions.”

We ended up touching base on the phone and talked for about 15 minutes. He interviewed me briefly and asked, “When can we see you?”

“On the next flight down!”

He linked me in with Heidi, the Chief Marketing Officer, who interviewed me for about an hour and she was absolutely great. During the interview I asked her about the structure of the company since I noticed it on the whiteboard. It was the typical org chart drawn out. There were various names and the steering committee and oddly a box with the initials “TBH” in it. I asked her what “TBH” stood for.

“To be Hanna.”

I tried to act calm and confident. I was smiling a mile wide.

I was super excited as I interviewed with the rest of the team members and it just felt like I fit in.

A few days later, as I was relaxing on Labor Day Weekend with my family, I got a call. It was from SlideRocket. I received a verbal offer!

All the pieces finally came together. And it all just fit. I could finally see it coming together.

All these years, after working at the presentation seminars at Toastmasters, having gone through the tough period of having multiple people doubt my choices, I had finally arrived. I remembered back to a speech by Steve Jobs at Stanford where he talked about how it’s only possible for us to connect the dots looking backward. And on this day, sitting back in my chair, being in Okanagan (the Napa Valley of British Columbia), I could finally connect the dots. I needed to go through all of the experiences I had been through before to arrive at where I was today.

A new chapter of my life was beginning.

Today, I’m a Product Manager and Ambassador for SlideRocket. I’m helping the people at VMware to present in a new, revolutionary way.

That’s my mission.

If I could leave you with one lasting impression it’s this:

Standing out by being an artist requires three main components: Time, energy and love. You have to really want it. If you don’t want it bad enough, your best work won’t come out. You have to immerse yourself into the process.

Take a risk. Take a stand. Take action.

Be an artist.

Key Themes and Exercises

Let’s recap the key themes in Hanna’s story by including exercises for you. This will help reinforce the guiding philosophies into your job search. After all, knowledge is truly powerful only when coupled with action.

Key Theme #1 - Do what you love.

It’s a motto that we need to live by. Starting today. You don’t want to wait until you’re at the “staring at the white wall in the hospital” stage of your life. Because by then it might be too late. You’ve got to seize the day.

When you work with passion, your best work will begin to feel effortless.

When you work with passion, your energy will become contagious.

When you work with passion, your attitude will go through a fundamental and dramatic change.

Check out this chart below.  The left side shows how you feel doing uninspired work.  The right side shows how you feel when you do inspired work.

Uninspired vs. Inspired

Procrastinating = Eager

Not enough time = I’ll spend as much time as possible on this!

Tired = Relaxed

I need coffee = My adrenaline is taking over!

I’m bored = I don’t have enough time to be bored.  Let’s get busy with it!

It’s just another workday = Everyday is a chance for me to land my dream job!

Exercises

Let’s go through the following exercises together:

1. Identify 10 things that dramatically motivate and energize you – Now write those down in order starting from the most impactful to the least impactful.

2. Now, of the top 5 that you’ve written down, circle the ones that could translate into a career.

3. Ask yourself – are you working towards those goals today? If not, what are 3 simple things you could do today to get you closer to that goal?

4. Lastly, identify 5 things that you do weekly that do not line up with your career passions. This could include things like watching TV, going out to bars, or playing video games. Then challenge yourself to reduce the time spent on those by 1/2. Once you’ve gradually done that, challenge yourself to cut it out completely until you land your dream job. Imagine the focus and energy you could generate with a 100% focus on your job search! You’ve got prioritize what’s important! This quick story illustrates why: Recently I was chatting with a friend and I asked him what he valued most. Thinking his answer would be money, friends, family, recognition, or work, I was really surprised by his answer: Time.

His reason? You can never get the time back that you lost – so that’s why you’ve got to make the most of every single day.

The more important question is – What do you do with your time?

If you’re upset about your career path, are you dedicating that time to becoming better at your job or working on your resume?

Each and every day, everyone gets 86,400 seconds. 1440 minutes. 24 hours.

What do you do with yours?

Key Theme #2: Goal Setting

We talked about the importance of setting goals in Hanna’s story. If you don’t know where you’re headed, it’s exponentially harder to get there. Here’s a quick story to demonstrate why it’s important:

When I first began mentoring other people around career development, I had the chance to work with Mary.

I met with Mary in person at a restaurant and we began to talk about how she didn’t enjoy her job and wanted to get into a career she truly loved and felt she deserved.

Ever feel like you’re working a dead end job and you can’t get out?

I call that the “fish tank.” You’re watching all these great things happen around you in the world and yet you swim in the same exact bowl of water every day, trapped from doing what you really want to do.

I really wanted to help her to jump out of the fish tank. She was nice, smart and friendly and I could see her having a multitude of potential job opportunities to choose from.

But here’s the kicker – I couldn’t help her at that moment – not in the way we were both hoping. Here’s why:

I asked her one simple question, “What are you passionate about and what are your career goals?”

And she said, “I don’t know.”

And there’s nothing wrong with that! It’s okay to not know at this exact moment what your goals are. They will constantly evolve as you grow older.

But what is important to recognize is that if you don’t have any goals defined – how can you build a plan to achieve those goals?

It’s like throwing a dart blindfolded. (Don’t try that at home…you’ll end up with holes in your wall. I speak from experience.)

So I asked Mary to start to think about what she wanted out of life in terms of her life blueprint. (I’ll get to that in a bit). Ultimately it would be easier to help her if I knew what she wanted.

Why? Well, it’s because of the power of connected currency.

Connected Currency comes in many different forms.

1. Networking Currency

Here’s an example: If I knew she was interested in entertainment and I happened to know a few directors and producers in the area, then I could introduce them to her to discuss possible career opportunities. At the very least I would be able to encourage them to talk on the phone or in person so that the person could share his work experiences with her. The key is making the connection. It can only be done when we know which industry you want to get into so that we know who to connect you with.

How many of your contacts in your network know about your goals and industry interests?

What can you do to increase that number?

2. Information Currency

Let’s say I was a marketing expert. If I knew she was interested specifically in marketing in entertainment, I could potentially share with her a few of the best practices and experiences I’ve had in the field of marketing. Without this knowledge of her goals however, I won’t know if my knowledge base of information is pertinent to her. After all, why would I discuss my experiences at work if she was completely interested in another field?

How many “information currency” conversations have you had with people that work in your industry of interest?

Don’t fret if you don’t have a goal defined today. I’ve encountered job seekers that didn’t have a goal defined all the time.

In fact, I was one of them.

I remember sitting down with my parents one day over tea talking about my future. At the time I loved acting but my heart wasn’t set on an acting career. I was afraid of the risk (especially in terms of pay). Most parents would normally tell their kids what to do at this point. “You should be a doctor. Jeff studied biology and went on to become a neurosurgeon and now he makes great money!” However, my parents smartly sat me down and asked me questions instead. They asked me if I would be willing to pursue the acting gig for 10 years without necessarily finding success. Would I be at peace with that? Also, what type of income would I want for the lifestyle I wanted to live – would it provide that?

So we continued down the path of career and life purpose questions until I came to this conclusion:

It wasn’t the art of acting that I loved so much. It was the art of inspiring people. And there were many jobs that would give me the opportunity to do that without have the same level of financial risk involved.

Ironically, just one simple conversation over tea began to help me to define purpose.

Having taught numerous workshops and having conducted multiple interview sessions, one of the first questions I ask a job hunter is, “What are your career goals?”

More often than not, I get answers like “I don’t know,” “I just need a job,” or a vague statement of how they want work in that specific industry.

So hold on a second here – you want a company to potentially invest thousands or tens of thousands of dollars into hiring, training and ramping you into this career role and you don’t have the slightest clue as to what your career goals are?

Here’s what the interviewer will mostly likely think:

How do I know if you’re going to stay with the company longer than a year? 6 months? 6 weeks?

How do I know you won’t suddenly switch to a different industry because this whole time you were really passionate about the entertainment industry but just needed a job now to pay the bills?

Did this person even look into the job role and do they even have an idea of what they’re getting into?

This lack of clarity ultimately makes the interviewer uncomfortable. Situations without clarity aren’t a good thing when a lot of money is on the line. It becomes a risky investment. See why this is important? The company is essentially gambling on you to be a good hire and you need to convince them that you’re as close to a sure bet as there is out there.

While you may just view it as just a “job,” it’s a huge investment in the eyes of the company.

So we’ve tackled this in way that keeps in mind the company’s perspective, but let’s also talk about why it personally should be important to you as well.

Exercises:

1. Start with small goals – Little victories can go an incredibly long way in building your confidence. When I first completed P90X (it’s an exercise DVD), I felt like a changed person, both in body and mind. And this attitude carried on far beyond just working out – my mood improved, my focus sharpened at work and my confidence was rock solid. Take a moment to write 3 small goals that you can accomplish quickly. It will build momentum for you

2. Post it – Write down your ultimate career goal on a post it note. Put it on your wall next to your mirror to remind yourself everyday of your destination. This is a practice known as “visualization” and is commonly used by successful athletes.

3. Post it (again) – On a separate post it note, describe what it would feel like if you failed. Put it on your wall next to your mirror to remind yourself everyday of the “agony” you would feel if you failed. This is known as a “trigger.” The next time you begin to doubt yourself and fear taking action, you’ll get a mental “trigger” reminding you of the “agony”

Key Theme #2: Understanding your purpose will be the fuel for your motivation.

Let’s go through a set of exercises that will help you design your purpose by asking you a very simple set of questions:

What is your purpose?

• Is it to make as much money as possible?

• Is it to help others in need?

• Is it to support your family?

• Is it to be a leader?

• Is it be successful and to be recognized for your work?

• Is it to make as many friends as possible?

• Is it to have fun in life?

• What makes you happy in life?

• Is it all of the above but with balance?

What would make you look in the mirror in a way where you truly felt satisfied with your life accomplishments?

There is an endless set of questions you need to ask yourself here around purpose. Take the time to define what purpose means to you.

You can do this by writing a list of the top 10 priorities in your life today and in the next 10 years. Doing this will help you to push yourself to take a stand on your priorities. It will also bring clarity. And the clearer your vision is, the easier it is to work towards it.

These are hard questions but the sooner you answer them, the sooner people can help you.

Again, I’m not here to tell you today your end goal should be – in fact – that’s the last thing I’m here to do. What’s important is for YOU to define what your goal is though.

Here is a list of questions to help you think through many of the main factors people take into consideration when developing their careers. It’s important to go through this exercise to understand what type of work would be satisfying to you. Answer them to the best of your ability.

Financial goals

Money’s important, no doubt about it. Let’s get specific about your financial goals. Ask yourself the following questions and you’ll start to see your financial goals take shape:

• What amount do you need to make in order to get by on rent, food, basic clothing and other necessities? This is your baseline for survival.

• How large of an amount do you need a year to pay for luxury / comfort items that would give you the standard of living you want? (Think of your car, the “extra” clothes, the nicer furniture, entertainment, eating out at restaurants, vacations)

• Do you care about saving for retirement?

• If yes, how much do you need save in your retirement account each year to get to your retirement goal? You can leverage tools on websites like www.money.cnn.com

www.mint.com

• How much money would it take for you to be ultimately happy? Is it a number? Or is it never ending in terms of the amount?

Work life balance goals

• How important is work life balance to you?

• How many hours a week would you like to work? None? 20? 40? 60? 80? Whatever it takes?

• On a scale, rank the importance of fun, friends, family, work, and health. Does your work schedule reflect your priorities?

• How much time off would you need each year for vacations, breaks, personal time and so forth from a company?

Work culture goals

• What kind of daily tasks do you envision yourself doing and being happy with?

• Do you enjoy easy, repetitious work that doesn’t require a lot of intellectual capacity, or do you prefer to be challenged with complex situations both on an emotional and intellectual level?

• How much responsibility do you want to take on your shoulders? For example, do you want to be responsible for a team (where you are ultimately responsible for their jobs and well being), or do you only want to be responsible for your own personal workload?

• Do you enjoy doing something you’re truly good at? Or does that not matter?

• Do you enjoy working with other people or working alone in your cubicle?

• What type of work is more interesting to you – analytical or interpersonal work?

• Is career and personal growth important to you? If yes, what kind of programs or paths does the business set in place for you to grow?

• What type of management and leadership would you like to work for? Do you like management that empowers you to make decisions and is hands off, or do you prefer someone that micromanages you? Or is a blend of both? Do you want a boss who will coach you to improve in your career?

• Do you want to work at a company that offers you the ability to work on your own creative projects to drive the business, or do you want to work at a company that is very structure and tells you what tasks to accomplish every day?

Work type goals

• What industry would you like to work for? What drives you to want to work in that industry?

• If you look back at your career one day – how would you like to describe the ideal work situation?

• Do you want a stable job at a sustainable company or would you prefer to take a higher risk job in a start up environment that has a higher chance of failure but also a potentially bigger payout?

• Do you want to work for a company that is world changing and innovative or one that’s “status quo?”

Do you see it? Your ideal job should be forming in your mind at this moment.

If it’s not clearly defined at this point, take the time to dip your toes into the water to find out which job is a fit for you.

You can do this in multiple ways:

• An internship – these are often short periods of time and are often low-paid or unpaid, but they give you a great glimpse into the tasks of the job role you are applying for. You can search for internships at www.craigslist.com, www.monster.com

• Interview someone who’s already in the job role – ask them to lunch or a cup of coffee so that it’s a more relaxed and open environment

• Research the job role online – You can use sites like glassdoor.com, www.vault.com, or a simple Google search on the job role can often yield great results.

We all make decisions in our lives based on many different factors. The environment we were raised in often influences us. Our friends and family influence us all the time. I can’t tell you enough the number of times I’ve heard from someone that they went into the field of medicine or finance or (insert industry here) because their family “wanted them to.” But if that person is at peace with that, that’s OK.

Ultimately, I continually hear stories of people quitting their jobs out of the blue because they just aren’t happy at the end of the day.

I’m not here to judge you on the reasons for why you pick a specific goal – what I am here to point out is – you’ve got to be able to look yourself in the mirror and be at peace with your decision at the end of the day. Otherwise you’ll be living a life of regret.

And that’s where the good news comes in. You CAN choose. You can choose to understand what purpose means to you. You can choose to find a career that would provide that purpose. You can choose to make a change in your life. And that’s ultimately what this comes down to – you making a choice and being at peace with it.

Old School: “I don’t believe in purpose.”

New School: “I will define what purpose is to me and I will fulfill it with the work that I do!”

Old School: “I don’t have time to ask myself all these questions to find out what my goals in life are.”

New School: “I understand I need to figure out what my goals are in order to work towards them, so I will MAKE time to answer these questions.”

Find what purpose means to you, how you want to fulfill it, and then you can truly take steps to achieve it.

#3: Be an Agent of Change

The one thing in life that is constant is change. Don’t be afraid to embrace change when it comes to your job search.

Exercises

Here are steps you can begin to take to help you take on change in incremental stages:

1. Quality matters (so find quality companies) - Qualify the companies you apply for. Instead of applying to 10,000 companies and then having them interview you, focus your time on 20 companies that you truly want to work for based on criteria you define.

2. Social media is in (so use it already) – If you’re not already leveraging LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to build your professional brand, start doing so immediately.

3. Create a Blog - Blogs are great because they’re free (check out blogger.com, wordpress.com, tumblr.com – these are all great platforms). Write consistently on topics related to your industry and sync it to your Twitter and LinkedIn account so that people have visibility to the posts. It’s how I’ve gotten numerous people to ask about my book. I’ve also had people reach out from as far as Michigan to ask for a personal consulting session. Don’t just write facts either – have an opinion about the topics. It’ll show off your personality.

4. Create a Website – This is a bit harder but there are template sites like weebly.com and yola.com that allow you to do it for free. If you’re not great at building websites, you can leverage an outsourced web designer at www.elance.com.

5. Create a “presume” with SlideRocket - Let’s face it, with all the technology out there today, the resume is becoming less important. Slide rocket allows you to integrate animations and music and dynamic text to create a truly impactful presentation that is interesting to watch. If you think about traditional Powerpoint presentations, they’re typically very dry and boring to watch. The Presume gives you a platform where you can truly express your emotions and personality. This allows you connect with your audience on a completely different level. It’ll help you rise above the crowd. Hanna did just that.

6. Experiment with video – Start building your brand through video by creating a short video on a topic that you’re passionate about that can help companies you’re interviewing for. Examples include:

•  If you were applying for a marketing job: “How to create sales with your fans through the use of a Facebook page”

•  If you were applying for a sales job: “The ten best tips on how to find leads”

•  If you were applying to an engineering job: “Learn the 5 best practices on engineering designs”

•  If you were applying for a finance job: “Learn how to best utilize Excel for Financial Modeling in 1 minute!”

Key Theme #4 – Set a Vision

“The very core of leadership is to have a vision.”

vi·sion - Intelligent foresight: a leader of vision.

Whether you’re a CEO, a HR manager, or an accountant, you need to have a vision if you’re going to persuade people. A vision is about taking a stand and asking people to stand with you. People want to be led. People want to be persuaded. So with that said…

Can you articulate your vision?

Hanna did.

If you watch her presume again, you’ll see her vision statement broken down into the following:

I. Context of challenges / goals of company – SlideRocket is growing as a company and needs extraordinary people to help them evangelize your vision

II. How you can impact those challenges / goals – You’ll need who’s a fearless leader who has the intelligence, guts, passion

III. The tangible potential result of your impact – We can change the world together one presentation at a time

IV. Call to action – Hire me!

One great way to know if you’ve got a clear vision is to go through this test: If you happened to be in the elevator one day with the CEO of the dream company you want to work for – would you be able to tell him or her in 30 seconds how you would add value to his company and why you would be a great fit for the company?

Most people can’t. Heck, most people can’t even articulate it to their friends, let alone the CEO of a company. They usually start off by saying “Ummm” followed by a stumbling and bumbling of words as they try to articulate their vision.

There are plenty of reasons for this including:

• Lack of preparation and practice

• “Vision, what vision?” (You don’t have a vision.)

• Fear of “public” speaking – especially with someone in a position of power

• If there is a vision, it’s not a very well defined one

This is where I can help – now that you’ve defined for yourself what you want we can begin to work on how you can articulate your value to a company. (Also known as having a vision.)

What you need is to craft a value statement.

A value statement can show the interviewer you truly understand their business and how you can help them achieve their goals. To them, this means you become a valuable team member or leader in their eyes because you understand the dynamics of their business.

Never underestimate the power of a strong, concise value statement.

When I first started interviewing during the Fall recruiting season, I was consistently asked one question: “Why do you want to work here?”

I would tell the interviewer that I enjoyed the brand of the company or that I was excited by the prospect of working in that specific industry. I gave those answers because I didn’t really know why I wanted to work at those companies. In fact, I just wanted a job at the time.

And it definitely came off that way to interviewers. Two companies had already turned me down during fall recruiting. Not a good start.

More importantly, it bothered me that I was giving that type of an answer. After all, shouldn’t I be telling them in great detail (and with strong reasons) why I wanted the job? And secondly, wasn’t it important for me to qualify the company as well? After all, given that we only have so much time in our lives, shouldn’t I be going for a job role at a company I truly wanted to work at?

I realized how important it was for me to define two components immediately – the characteristics of my ideal job role and my vision. Once I could define those two I could focus my goal setting and give a strong value statement around why I wanted to work for the company.

So one day, I sat down and ran through the list of questions from rule #1. Here is what I came back with:

1. Characteristics of my ideal job role: Merit based environment, pay scale based on performance, flexible hours not relegated to a cubicle, a strong learning environment, a collaborative team, great leadership, consistent interaction with people (be it peers or clients) and the opportunity to inspire others

2. Vision – To make a tangible business impact on the company by inspiring people to change.

Once I made these changes, I was able to take 2 important steps:

Focus my goals setting: I was able to shift my focus to these types of positions: Marketing, sales, and consulting.

Have a compelling vision and value statement for the interviewer.

It made all the difference. Immediately I received a callback to Harrah’s 2nd interview, a job offer from Cisco, an interview with GE Healthcare, and a verbal offer from Google.

So now that you’ve heard my story of how it worked, let’s break down what’s involved in a value statement.

I. Context of challenges / goals of company

• What challenges specifically are the company facing?

Examples (to make you think of potential challenges):

*Do they have multiple competitors today that are taking market share or potentially could in the near future?

*Are they comfortably achieving high profits or struggling to make profits?

*Is their product truly differentiated in the market place?

*Are their solutions / products / services out of date or cutting edge or in the middle?

*Is maintaining customer loyalty a challenge for them?

*Are they integrating their acquisitions of other companies well or not?

The list goes on and on.

• What are the company’s immediate and long-term goals, from a product perspective?

*Are they innovating to differentiate themselves from the competition?

*Do they have market share or are they growing it in the emerging products that they have?

*What’s their R&D strategy around their products?

• What market transitions are occurring in the industry?

(For example, in the technology industry we’re beginning to see the tablet cannibalize PC sales – a clear market transition and this has been a huge boon for Apple. In the car industry we’ve seen Toyota be one of the first to anticipate the move to more fuel efficient cars and they’ve found huge success with their Prius line.)

II. How you can impact those challenges / goals

• Will you be impacting sales? If yes, how so?

• Will you be helping to reduce costs? If yes, how so?

• Which department are you helping and how will you be impacting their line of business? (Think of marketing, operations, sales, engineering, finance, manufacturing, design, etc.)

Let’s go through the main potential departments together:

Marketing

Goals: Brand awareness, customer impressions, leads (that are then converted to sales), referral generation, maintaining / increasing customer intimacy / relationships / engagement

Business impact:

• Brand awareness – Is the brand you’ve helped them to develop truly differentiated in the marketplace to give them a competitive advantage? For example: Do customers prefer this company’s brand in surveys?

• Customer impressions – How many customer eyeballs are truly getting exposure to this company on a daily / weekly basis?

• Leads – How is the company capturing leads to generate sales pipeline? What types of demand generation programs are they running to generate leads and are they cost effective?

• Referral generation program – What are the incentives / programs in place to drive referrals?

• Customer engagement – How is the company building a platform for their user community to communicate with them and each other so that they get feedback on their products and also create better customer loyalty?

Sales

• Goals: To bring in revenue for the company, increase customer loyalty and satisfaction

• Business impact (this one is straight forward): Delivering revenue for the company

Now, what I want you to do is to think about each potential department that you’re interested in and to begin researching their goals and business impact you could deliver in a specific role. Here are additional questions to get you thinking:

Operations – How do you affect production with regards to time and cost? How would you affect the sourcing of materials in manufacturing in terms of cost and quality?

Finance – How could your recommendations potentially shape the return on an investment? How is the data you’ve researched used to determine the risk in a potential investment?

Engineering – How would you affect the design cycle of engineering in terms of time to market? What best practices would you bring to the table to increase implementation time?

The list of questions for each department can go on and on depending on the industry and specific role. The point is you’ve got to think about HOW you can impact the business through that specific role you’re potentially taking on. It ultimately shows the interviewer you understand their business and the important role you’re going to play in it.

You may be objecting here. “But if I’ve never been in that department before, how do I know how they impact the company through the work they do?”

Here are some tips on how to overcome that:

• Research the job roles online. For example, if you’re looking up the operations roles, Google “operations ________” (fill in the blank here with words like analyst, manager, director, etc.). You will often find a job listing with the description of the responsibilities of the job role.

• Interview someone who is already in a similar position. The best way to get someone to tell you about their careers is to ask them how they became so successful. People love to talk about themselves (typically) and will usually be flattered by this question. Generally speaking, people are typically helpful when you ask for it as well. And if you can, make the environment in which you meet casual so that they’ll feel comfortable sharing as many details as possible with you (think of a local café, bookstore, or restaurant. This is one of the best ways to hear firsthand the work they do and the impact they have on the company. You can’t beat real life stories.

III. The tangible potential result of your impact

• What are the specific metrics you will be affecting?

Here are examples of metric categories below based on different job roles:

• Sales: Revenue, pipeline, number of projects deployed / solutions sold, customer satisfaction, customer impressions / meetings, go-to-market strategy creation, references, case studies, % of revenue goal attainment, % of expense budget attainment, sales by product type, forecast accuracy, stack ranking among all sales reps, # of proposals, # of outbound calls, # of Youtube views (if you created a sales video), % of customers retained

• Marketing: Impressions, views, # of outbound calls/mail pieces, # of website hits, # of promotional link clicks, # of affiliate sales, # of referrals, Return on Investment (ROI) on marketing events, stack ranking among peers

• Finance: # of financial models created, # of deals closed, revenue size of deals closed, industry/segment focus, stack ranking among peers, # of successful buy/sell recommendations

• Operations: % of annual budget, cash flow, revenue margin comparisons year over year (YoY), productivity of workers (hours per worker)

I once had a conversation with one job seeker who mentioned to me that one of his job roles couldn’t be measured in terms of results. He was tutor.

So – I’ll take a brief pause here to ask you a simple question – what could you measure in a tutoring job?

Take some time to think about this one.

Did you come up with anything?

Here is an example of metrics he could have used:

• GPA / SAT / Prep test improvement in terms of % increase or points increase

• The number of students he tutored

• The length of time in total in which he tutored each student

• Any awards the students may have earned / won after he tutored them

The key piece to recognize here is that you must ALWAYS look at the results from the company’s perspective (in this case his employer was the student). Do that and you’ll find ways to measure what you do and keep yourself accountable in the process!

IV. Call to action

• What are you specifically going to do as next steps to make it happen?

(Hint: Ask for the interview)

I know you might be shy or you may not want to be “too forward,” but how will anyone know what you want unless you state your goal clearly? Plus – it’s a sign of confidence to ask such a straightforward question.

So let’s go through a real life scenario.

Let’s say the job hunter’s name is Sam and he’s trying to land a sales position within a medical device manufacturer.

Pretend for a second you’re the CEO.

You happen to bump into Sam in the elevator. He recognizes you and mentions he’d like to work for your company. So you ask him, “What do you bring to the table?”

Here’s an example of a weak value statement in response to your question (and very commonly what I hear):

A weak value statement:

“I’ve always wanted to work for your company because I like jobs where I can interface with people and have also had an interest in learning about medical devices.”

A strong value statement:

(Context) Based on industry articles I’ve read, the recent increase in medical device companies has drastically increased competition and this in turn is pressuring margins at the company.

(How you impact that challenge and the potential business results) More than ever, it’s important for manufacturers to have top notch sales people to truly develop a trusted relationship with existing customers to protect the customer base and to also proactively develop new prospects to grow the business against your competitors. I have extensive sales experience and numerous medical client relationships I can bring to the table to help drive these growth initiatives for the company. In fact, I have 5 previous Fortune 100 customers I’ve worked with in the past and I feel confident I could close a multi-million dollar deal with at least one of them this year with your solution.

(Call to action) Based on the research that I’ve done, I feel I’d be able to assist the company in winning new clients in this competitive atmosphere and would like to interview for the role. Would you be able to help me secure that interview?

If you’re the CEO, who would you hire and why? Bingo…the guy with the value statement. The one who’s got a clear VISION of how he / she is going to help your company.

So take the time to pick a company you want to work for, ask yourself those list of questions, write down what you’re looking for, and craft your vision. It’ll be that much easier to get there when you know where you’re headed.

Exercises

Let me give you some specific steps you can take to find the answers to those categorical questions:

Context

• Online Research – Visit their website and study the company inside and out. Go to Google News and look up the company’s name. If it’s a public company you’ll likely find articles discussing recent business acquisitions, product announcements, or changes in strategy. If you can’t find anything specific to that company (perhaps it’s smaller and private), search the industry term (Entertainment, Technology etc.) and find out what the recent market trends are. If you want to get more specific, look up the specific solutions/products/services the company is offering (for example, Advertising, Computers, Smartphones). Another way to do this more in depth without me giving you a rigid structure around it is to first look up the company in the Google News section and then to branch out from there. Here’s an example – let’s say you’re applying to a large cap technology company and it talks about how they’re investing into a SaaS (software as a service) offering. You could then start a search on “SaaS” to learn more about those trends and why it’s important to companies today. This is the branch out approach and allows you to deep dive into a company’s strategy by simply tapping into what’s available on the Internet. The Internet is the ultimate equalizer in educating yourself. Use it.

• Seriously, stop surfing for celebrity gossip and take the time to research the company and the specific industry. See point A for reference again. I had to remind you because it’s that important.

• Talk to people in the industry. Interview someone who already works at the company or at a similar company in the same industry to gain perspective on what they consider to be the top industry changes / trends / challenges. This is also very powerful because now you’ve got a personal story to reference and because it also shows you took the time to network to better understand the company you’re interviewing for. Talk about going above and beyond. One last thing – that person you’ve interviewed also has the power to recommend you internally for an open position, and if you impress them enough, they may end up doing just that.

• Read the job description for clues. Many people tend to gloss over the job description they’re applying for. “Oh, it’s a marketing job, so that seems straightforward.” WRONG. It’s quite often NOT that simple and the job description can give you key clues as to what’s going on in the industry and also what’s a focus point for the company. One specific example I saw was a job listing for a marketing job and it specifically mentioned the need for a creative thinker who could create a high impact social media advertising campaign with respect to the number of impressions it would create. In this instance, the company wanted a forward thinking marketing person who could go outside of the box and beyond the traditional marketing methods that have been used in years past.

Example of a job description:

XYZ company seeks an experienced Corporate Marketing Manager who is passionate about social media tools / websites and scalable marketing programs for Advertising Agencies. The candidate will have a deep understanding of digital, interactive advertising and will also have experience collaborating with teams both on the corporate sales side and also agencies. The key set of responsibilities is to understand the market and customer needs and to build programs that motivate, enable, and empower agencies they will be working with. Soft skills and communications skills are integral to the position and a passion to collaborate with other teams is also key. Effectively the candidate will need to be able to blend creativity with strategic thought leadership to create top quality marketing programs.

Take 5 minutes here to read through that job description again, and think about what the “context” is here.

Questions to ask yourself:

• What’s changed in the advertising world lately?

• How has technology changed the business and world of advertising?

Do you see context forming here from that example?

Let’s highlight a clue from that paragraph that would help to shape context:

• Clue: “passionate about social media tools / websites and scalable marketing programs for Advertising Agencies.”

Without question, advertising has been changed by the introduction of social media tools – and with that change comes a different way of engaging customers whether it’s regarding promotions, customer satisfaction issues or general feedback. So here is an example of context: “There has been an explosion of social media usage – Facebook alone has over 500 million active users and the success of Groupon and Twitter also highlight the important of real time communications within social media. This has in turn dramatically changed the way companies advertise.”

Did you catch the context in the example? If not, look up other job roles and try practicing this exercise.

Impact - Here are some tips on how to figure out how you can impact the company with the job you’re applying for:

• Talk to someone who already works in a similar role at that company or a similar one. Invite them out to coffee and ask them specific questions to uncover the answers on what they do - such as:

• Tell me about your day to day tasks and how it impacts the business

• What are the most impactful parts of your job specific to company?

• How does your role fit in with the strategy of the company?

• If you could paint me a picture of the perfect employee for this specific role, what would it look like and why?

• Leverage social networking to learn how your peers do it. That’s the beauty of social networking – you can go online today to these business social networking sites and see people’s resumes in plain view. If they’re within your network, you can easily see it and learn how they’ve impacted a business in that role. And if for some reason the details aren’t shared on their resume, simply ask them with a message. Chances are they’d be willing to help you out. If you happen to notice someone’s online resume on that social networking site without having the connection, have a mutual friend introduce you two.

• Study the job role. I’ll give you an example here – people often say they understand a job but few (especially first time job seekers) REALLY understand what the job entails (at least until they build a good amount of experience). Let’s use marketing as the example again. Someone who’s not as familiar with a marketing role may say that the job entails:

• Getting in front of customers with advertising

• Creating brand awareness

And literally, that might be all they know. Whereas someone who’s truly researched the job role online, through personal connections, and has leveraged social media research may say that a marketing role entails:

• Defining the end user market based on vertical, segment, customer size to truly understand who your best customer targets are

• Understanding the different roles of an integrated marketing campaign (mobile, online advertising, direct mail, email, in person, events) and how to best combine them to generate ROI

The list could go on and on, but the key here is you want to deep dive into truly understanding what the job role entails. And yes, this means you will have to roll up your sleeves and put in the blood and sweat of LEARNING whether it’s through online research or other peers. This is one huge component that will set you apart from the competition – knowledge – the more of it you possess the more valuable you become to the company and the chances of you being viewed as an expert (or at the minimum, an intelligent and informed job seeker) exponentially jump.

Oh, and one last thing, practice. A value statement you’ve spent hours creating is worthless if you can’t talk about it.

Having a crisp, concise value statement is valuable because:

• It shows you took the time to prepare

• …Which in turns shows you care about the job

• It shows you are confident

• It shows you have a clear goal in mind

• It shows you have thought through the company’s goals and how you can help them

So let’s recap the elements of a value statement here:

I. Context of challenges / goals of company

II. How you can impact those challenges / goals

III. The tangible potential result of your impact

IV. Call to action

Practice with your friends, practice with your family, practice alone with yourself using the mirror. Practicing and preparing is half the battle and the best part is you can do it ahead of time.

Remember, if you truly love the job role you’re going for, the practicing should be the fun part. Why? Because you’ll see yourself progress and when you finally get to that “Aha!” moment where you nail your value pitch, you’re going to feel like a champ! And when you do, take a moment and pat yourself on the back.

You deserve to celebrate the good moments in life.

Understand what your prospect’s goals are and explain how you are going to help them achieve those goals. That’s a value statement. That’s vision.

Old School: “Most other job applicants aren’t crafting value statements, so why should I?”

New School: “A value statement is a great way for me to differentiate myself!”

Old School: “I’m going to talk about my experience and attributes and that should be convincing enough.”

New School: “I understand the most important thing to an interviewer is THE company’s goals and HOW I’m going to help them reach those goals. It’s not just about me.”

Key Theme #5: Be Excellent.

Being good isn’t enough this day and age. Almost everyone can be “good enough,” “not bad” or “pretty good.”

If you want to be noticed as a potential job candidate, if you want people to talk about you, if you want employers to think of you first before everyone else, you’ve got to be extraordinary. Think about it – when was the last time you recommended a restaurant that was just “okay?” When did you last tell someone to get a product that was just “decent?” When did you last rave about a co-worker that did a “mediocre job?” People only take notice when it’s excellent. Pushing yourself to become excellent takes commitment. It takes will. It takes persistence. It takes courage.

Think back to Hanna’s story. She worked day and night for weeks just to create one presume to apply to one company. Talk about creating excellence. It takes courage because you will have to take risks to be excellent, just as Hanna did.

You only live once. Push yourself. Be excellent.

And jump outside of the box.

B is for Business

“Invest in yourself as you would a business.”

You own a business. You just don’t know it yet.

Whether or not you decide to run your business successfully is up to you.

When we apply to jobs today, we often do so with the mindset of an “employee” (E) vs a “business” (B) and we end up selling ourselves short. There are dramatic differences between these two mindsets.

E: I’m just here to get a job
B: I’m here to show you that your huge investment into my business is going to get you a great return

E: I am accountable for myself

B: I am accountable for myself and I am here to create accountability among others

E: I’m great at my job

B: I’m great at my job and great at making others great at their jobs

E: Brand, what brand?
B: I’m here to build a sustainable brand

Understand how to build your business, and you’ll succeed at getting employers to recruit you. Matt Epstein understood this philosophy and had multiple companies pursuing him (along with an amazing amount of press coverage).

I first saw Matt’s story all over blog postings. When I went to go visit his website, I found it incredibly inspiring and funny. He went against every rule we’ve been taught in the job hunting world and here he was being pursued by many of the top companies in the world!

This is his story.

I grew up in Florida and I went to UCF, where I majored in marketing and advertising and minored in business. College was a chance for me to get internships and to make connections. A big problem I see in college was the fact that a lot of people were all going to classes, but weren’t leveraging or capitalizing on internships despite that fact that you have an inordinate amount of free time.

You’re not starting your career yet so most people don’t take internships until their senior year. It’s a shame.

I think it’s important to figure out what you want. Internships allow you to do that. If you love it or hate, you can find out during college by working. Yet a lot of people leave college without any portfolio pieces. The only pieces you have are class pieces that aren’t very impressive. When you have 100,000s of kids going after entry level jobs and you don’t have real corporate experience under your belt, the person who has a portfolio is going to get the job. If you do get a job without a portfolio you’ll most likely get a low paying one.

That made sense to me. After all, none of my friends had a portfolio to showcase their projects when they did their first round of interviews. Imagine how differentiated they would be if they did!

Inspiration From a Box of Cereal

I actually remember going to the supermarket with my mom, and I would always remember why I would pick one cereal box over another. And I was like, there are reasons I’m picking the Captain Crunch over the Coco Pebbles and that really fascinated me - that there was the power to influence someone’s decisions through marketing. That’s how I became interested in it.

So I interned at a marketing agency during college and they hired me. Having a connection through an internship definitely helps you to get your foot in the door to get hired. The agency I worked at for some time was called Definition 6. I moved out to Atlanta and did interactive marketing for 3 years and eventually an account manager. My background was definitely steeped in web. The interesting thing is that I never really learned from a textbook and reading, I don’t find books very interesting. I can’t pay attention to them and I feel like learning a definition of a concept is not the same as experiencing it in real life.

Blending in with the Masses

Anyway, after a few years, I left Definition 6. Right off the bat, instinctively, I went on LinkedIn and started applying for different companies. I didn’t take the time to ask “What’s my dream job?” Instinctively, I was surfing LinkedIn and also dropping off one or two resumes in person to companies. My resume was cool but there really wasn’t anything special about it.

After about 4 weeks of applying to about 20 companies on LinkedIn, I didn’t get a single response back.

I was blending in with the masses.

Breathe

I did get a little scared. Ok, I was definitely scared. I started doubting myself. I always knew I wanted to do marketing, but I didn’t have a Masters degree nor did I attend a fancy business college. I started to think, maybe I just don’t know what the hell I’m doing here. Seriously, what the hell was I doing here in the job hunting process? I was applying to things I didn’t even want to do. So, I just took a step back, took a deep breath, and basically re-assessed everything.

I had a lot of savings at the time. I began to think, “why don’t I just do something fun for myself so that I know how to do marketing?” I knew that I loved marketing and technology. I also knew I wanted to work with the client side. I was working with ten clients at my previous job but I wanted to work with the brand of just one company. I took a few days to think about what I really wanted to do and I came to a conclusion: How am I going to prove to one technology company that I know what I’m doing in marketing? And that became the driving force.

Launch a Business (with a niche focus)

Really, really randomly one day, I just thought to myself, why not create a domain name? Googlepleasehire.me instantly came to mind (I was thinking of big tech companies I wanted to work for at the time). I had no idea what I was going to do with it at the time. Literally. From the time from when I thought of it, to when I bought the URL, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the domain name. But it was a start.

I figured it out pretty quickly. I was going to create a website similar to Google’s in style as they had just re-branded themselves. The website would fundamentally explain who I was in a funny and concise way and why they should hire me. I knew that people didn’t have long attention spans, so to capture people’s attention, I knew I had to be different.

I had to create a video.

The question was, what was it going to be about?

Marketing my product (me) by going against the grain

Bingo! Here was my idea: A fireside chat proposal to Google on why they should hire me. I decided I would try my hardest to make it look like a high end production. I had to create something that would capture their attention, so I tried to make it weird and awkward. I sat and wrote a script for 2 weeks.

Matt took the reins and created a full-fledged business focused on selling a single product – himself. Take a look at the creative genius by viewing his website here: www.googlepleasehire.me

In the event that you aren’t connected to the Internet, I’ve inserted some screen shots of his site below:

10.

I have a mustache.

9.

You can always trust a man with a mustache. Did I mention I have a mustache? I do.

8.

I invested over $3,000 of my own capital to create a marketing campaign that would get you to notice me. I haven’t been this desperate to get someone to notice my since my first high school crush.

7.

I more or less already work for Google. I spend hours every day working in Google Chrome, Google Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calendar, Google Search, Google Maps, Google Navigation, Google Places, Google YouTube and more.

6.

Just like Google I do no evil. Well, except on the weekends.

5.

I look good in a suit.

4.

I work well in teams, I can communicate across departments to meet objectives and I pay attention to detail.

3.

Technology is my best friend. In full disclosure, I have no friends…so technology kind of won by default.

2.

I really can’t stress enough that you should hire me solely on the fact that I have a mustache, regardless of whether or not it’s real.

1.

This isn’t for the LOLs. I’m actually in this to win it. I have offline and online marketing experience and an obsessive desire to create winning go-to-market strategies. I believe my proven career record, my passion for marketing and my obsession with technology can bring significant value to the Google team.

Here’s how he did it step by step:

1. Website - I built it myself – I know basic HTML and PHP but I downloaded a template and themed it myself. A good tip for people who aren’t really design centric is to utilize products out there like ThemeForce, which already has amazing presentation decks, portfolio folders, career documents, for like $5 a pop. You can also leverage platforms such as blogger.com, wordpress.com that don’t cost anything at all! You’ll also be surprised to learn they’re very user friendly and don’t require you to know code.

2. Video - I filmed it by hiring a few of my friends. I paid them a few hundred each and we used a mansion that took me forever to find. Production value is really important. I really wanted to use high end equipment and the setting was this historic place in Atlanta called Ivy Hall. How did I get that setting booked? Well, I talked them into letting me film there. I could have done this for free if I wanted to. Don’t be afraid to ask for help!

If you want to film a video on a budget, you can easily get a low cost HD camera on Amazon.com or utilize your webcam on your computer. The key is to make sure you have great content.

3. Promotion / Awareness – I had all these stunts planned – I had asked myself, What is “off the wall?” to get their attention? I printed out a giant cardboard print out and shipped it to their HR department. .I hired a propeller jet to fly around Google with my URL. It turns out it wasn’t even necessary. Before I knew it, my website went viral in 12 hours. I originally intended to just get Google’s teams to view the website. Today the site has 1,000,000 hits.

Content is King

Here’s how it got viral. A guy posted me on hacker news and I had the #1 story! From there it just spread organically from other people retelling the story. After that, I also did an interview with Gizmodo.

The bottom line: Content is king. Create an extraordinary story and people will retell it for you. This is known as creating “buzz.”

You can create buzz in the following ways:

1. Being unique – Do something that’s never been done before

2. Being humorous – People love to laugh. Better yet, people love to share a funny video or idea with other friends.

3. Being secretive – Share a set of “secrets” with the person watching the video – people love to share secrets!

4. Have a celebrity involved – we live in a world where people are in love with celebrity lifestyles, if you happen to have the connections, utilize them!

After the story got viral, I got about 80 interview offers, everything from the big tech companies, little mom and pop shops, start ups to just about everything. I actually went to New York to interview with a pretty big start up and Etsy and while I was in New York, I got calls from Amazon and Microsoft. So right after NY, I flew straight to Seattle. Then Google called me for an interview, so that original 2 day trip to NY turned into a three and a half week interview process.

I did get offers from a lot of large companies. The fact of the matter is, the challenge with working in big companies is that you’re a little fish in a big pond, and a lot of times you can’t execute your ideas. The reason I did all this was to land my dream job and it was really hard to decide between a start up or a household name. Because when you work 3 to 4 years at a big company, you can basically go wherever you want after that. You’ve got leverage. You’ve got the brand name on the resume. You’ve got the network.

The flip side was, if I worked at a start up, there was bigger risk (along with more upside) but if the company flops, I’m the marketing guy with no job and no big name experience and now I’m 5-7 years out. So I felt like the risks were pretty high.

At the end of the day, I liked building and creating stuff without having a lot of red tape. At a startup, you have the chance to create a new product that can truly make an impact on other people’s lives. You get a lot of control over my creative process and you get to push a product that you really believe in. And that’s why I chose to work at a startup called SigFig.

3 Critical Lessons

#1 – Go against the grain - I got a lot of emails from HR people, probably around 100 to 200 of them, and they were telling they wish people did more of what I did. The thing I realized is that, it’s not machines that are reading your resumes, they’re people. Just like you and me. If you send out your resume or whatever else you decide to send in, you want to ask yourself, “Will this catch my attention or will people want to read this?” If you’re not getting them a reason to read past line 2, guess what? They won’t.

#2 – Understand the Employer’s Perspective – Most people don’t realize how much of an investment it is for companies to hire people on their end (time and money). Making the right hire is a really big deal. If you think about it, the company is potentially going to make such a big investment in you and the only thing you have to convince them is a piece of paper (your resume)! By doing something like what I did, you’re showing that you made a commitment and an investment and that’s ultimately what sets you apart the most. You have 1,000 people that didn’t do much, or you have 5-10 doing this correctly, and these guys stand out.

#3 – You can only show so much on paper - The resume is just a supplementary tool, it’s a bird’s eye view of your experience, but it doesn’t show:

1. What you can really do / skills

2. It doesn’t show your desire and commitment to work at that company

3. Your personality

4. Your brand

Companies like Apple get thousands of applications a month and on top of that other people have connections within that company – what are you doing to get your piece of paper on top?

The paper resume isn’t really doing anything anymore. With so many people unemployed, you don’t really have a choice to just send a paper resume. You’re being forced into doing something different.

You need to create emotional work. People connect to that.

The responses I got were overwhelming – I received a few thousand emails from people excited about the website. A thousand of those people alone were out of work and had said they were ready to give up. But they didn’t, because this website inspired them to try a new approach.

I asked Matt if he had any specific advice for college students.

Kids out of college – if you don’t know what you want to do, go work in internships to find out what you want to do. Don’t feel entitled – it’s not about getting your dream job out of college at first. You may have to and most likely will have to put in some work first.

There are no rules

There are no rules. We all want to believe there is some process, there is some standard document for success. I just realized, if you email a CEO, they’ll actually probably look at what you sent them. At the same time, use common sense. No one would ever take off their pants in an interview, for example. The key piece you’ve got to understand is that you don’t need to adhere to the fact that there is only one way of doing this. There are always other routes to your goal. Just keep in mind that you’ve got to adapt if your approach isn’t working. Remember, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity.” If you keep doing something and it’s not working, you just need to do something different. Turn it into something you love, something you’re going to be proud of and that will drive you. Do what you love. Ask yourself, what would I love to work on that would applicable to my job? If you love engineering and want to work with Apple, think “what piece of code could I make into a project that I would love to do just for fun?”

The Google thing for me was just a fun project, and I loved what I did. And if you’re applying for a job and doing a resume and it feels like work, then you’re probably doing it wrong. The Google project didn’t feel like work to me.

Do what you love. The rest will come to you.

Key Themes and Exercises

Key Theme #1 – Be Different

When Picasso began to paint Cubism in 1907, he wasn’t just painting. He was raising a commotion in the art world by being unique. By doing something completely new. By inventing a style of art. For the next 15 years he continued to push the envelope in his art in terms of style and approach. Today several of his paintings rank among the most expensive in the world. This is a classic case study on being different.

A great example of NOT going against the grain can be seen in direct mail marketing campaigns. You know the drill – you come home, open your mailbox and see 15 different pieces of advertising cards ranging from oil changes to pizza coupons. Because these direct mail pieces are all so similar in style, they simply become noise because we’re inundated with it! So inevitably, we end up tuning out the noise (or in the case of direct mail ads, we end up throwing it out without even looking at it!)

Ever seen an advertisement like this one?

However, why is it when we get an incredibly funny YouTube video we instantly send it to 10 of our friends? One, it’s because of human nature. We all want to be the center of attention. And you do that providing value to other people in their lives. This “value” could be by providing them with a laugh or sharing knowledge with them to help them improve their lives. Two, it’s because it’s usually unique from everything else we’ve viewed before. And you become unique by going against the grain.

Exercises

Reinvent the old approach – Anytime you’re about to do
something mundane, reinvent it in a creative fashion. This will help train you to think outside of the box. For example, think of how you could reinvent the following and put it into action:

• How you ask someone out on a date

• How you shop for groceries

• How you communicate with your friends

• How you exercise

The purpose of this is to get you out of your shell. So try it! And go against the grain.

– Discover your inner comedian

There’s a reason Youtube is the second most visited site in the world. We all love to be entertained. If you’re able to harness the power of your humorous side into your job search, chances are that you can build a truly viral campaign that gets massive attention.

A few rare people are born with the gift of humor. The rest of us (me included) need to work at being funny. Here are a few exercises to get your funny bone doing:

Exercises

1. Learn from the best – There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Watch successful comedians on YouTube. Watch one of your favorite sitcoms on TV or hulu.com. Watch a live comedy or improve show. The sources of inspiration are nearly endless!

2. Try writing some comedic material – Start with a specific focus on what you’re passionate about (for example: politics, sports, celebrities, technology, relationships)

3. Try delivering the material to friends and family – The best way to tell if it’s funny is just to try it out. Some of your jokes will do great and others will be downright terrible.

Key Theme #3

Be an Agent of Change (deep dive)

You might be thinking, wait, didn’t we already go over this in Hanna’s story? The answer is absolutely, but we didn’t do a deep dive. For example, I told you to explore leveraging social media, to build a video resume, to build a presume and to create a resume, but I didn’t show in full detail exactly how to leverage each step by step. Could many of you figure it out? Sure, but why do that when I’ve already gone through the process and have experience what to do (and what NOT to do) to save you the trouble!

Let’s go into the deep dive.

1. LinkedIn

Personally, this is one of my favorite sites for finding job opportunities. First, they often have postings of job openings when you join the company’s LinkedIn groups. Second, more and more HR recruiters are using this service as a means of expanding their database of applicants. They do, after all, want the best of the best for their company. This is quickly becoming a much more effective way to find the right hires. The reason why: They get to quickly see your resume and also see how many references and recommendations you have and the LinkedIn database is likely larger and more up to date than their personal HR database of applicants.

Here are 3 secrets on how to leverage LinkedIn to find job opportunities. Ideally, you execute on these 3 secrets to incredibly well that it makes YOU irresistible to the recruiter – in which case – they may reach out to you! After I took these steps I immediately had recruiters from Google, HP, Verizon and 2 top tier private companies reach out to me about job opportunities.

• Secret #1: Write your life statement - The “summary” portion isn’t a summary. It’s a LIFE statement – Discuss in a concise paragraph what your life and career aspirations are. This will build your brand. Are you a leader looking to inspire a group of peers to change the world? Or are you the person who loves working in a cubicle and likes to left alone? How does your life statement emphatically state what you want to accomplish in the world? Ask yourself – what does your LIFE statement say about your brand?

Let me give you an example. Most people write a “summary” that goes like this:

I’ve been a Director of Sales where I managed a group of sales people across multiple states. I have experience in building customer relationships as well as managing people on a team and am considered a leader in the organization.

Not a bad summary, but not great either. It ends up feeling “mediocre.” You want to leave a stronger impression than that.

Here’s an example of someone who’s given a life statement and has thus built a brand:

Senior level thought leader with an unrelenting passion to better the world through technology by inspiring customers, partners and peers. I bring to the table over 20 years of high energy, high performance P&L results in the technology field (specifically in Telecommunications) I have a proven track record and have taken on the following roles in my previous experience: VP/GM, VP of Marketing and Sales in Fortune 100 companies as well as start ups.

I’m a results driven leader that has driven the following:

•  Revenue growth from $1M to $50M at a start up

•  Drove 90% of a sales team of 50 people to achieve 110% or above on their sales quota

•  Reduced operational expenses of our marketing team by 34% during 2009

My specialties include motivational presentations, mapping technologies to business challenges and change management. Contact me if you’d like to learn more about my experience and how I can impact your organization.

Which “summary” builds a brand in your mind?

• Secret #2: Highlight your “raving fans”

Ideally, you want your LinkedIn profile to have a ton of recommendations. Having other people praise your work is incredibly powerful and helps you build credibility among recruiters. I call these people your “raving fans.” If you want proof of this social proof phenomenon, look no further than Yelp. We constantly use it as a way to determine which restaurant we’re going to go on a Saturday night.

So how do you build a base of “raving fans?”

The first step is to do great work. When you produce high quality results that help others, people will recognize that. Once you’ve done great work, one of the best ways to garner recommendations is to first write recommendations for other people. Most people are very appreciative that you’ve taken the time to write a kind recommendation about their work and if they feel the same way they’ll return the favor! If they don’t within a few days, write them a short message asking if they could write you one. Most people will gladly oblige. It’s how I’ve managed to garner 46 recommendations on LinkedIn.

• Secret #3: Increase your network – Add as many LinkedIn contacts and connections as you can. The broader your network the more likely you’ll find people who are in the industry or have contacts within their network. How many contacts do you have today? If it’s less than 100, multiply that number by 10 and aim for that goal by end of the year. If it’s more than 100, multiply that number by 3 to arrive at your goal. Want an easier way to increase your network? Make sure you include a LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook badge on your email signature.

So take the time to update your LinkedIn profile. Add as many connections as you can. If you don’t know that many people – you need to start getting out there in the real world – stop living under a rock! Go to business networking events, career fairs, make new friends, whatever it takes. It increases your chances of being discovered. Also, take the time to reach out to recruiters and headhunters on the site as well, as most will be happy to make another talent connection as it only expands their database of prospects. Their job after all, is to align the company’s openings to YOU (Assuming you’re a fit). Ready for a deeper dive into LinkedIn secrets?

LinkedIn Deep Dive

Advanced Course

This chapter is focused on the advanced course for “How to Create a Standout LinkedIn Profile.” It involves a lot of best practices to help you shine online so that recruiters will want to reach out to you for job opportunities! Please note, since I’ve personally implemented these best practices, I’ve been able to get recruiters from Google, Apple, Verizon, Meraki, Ebay, and other top tier private companies to reach out to me for opportunities!

Secret# 1: Your Photo Matters - Use a photo that showcases professionalism and reflects the aspirations that you have. Here is an example of a “mediocre” LinkedIn photo – it lacks professional attire, is clearly a photo taken during leisure and doesn’t showcase the “image” of being a sales leader.

Here are the keys to a great LinkedIn Brand through a photo:

1. Wear professional attire (men: suit and tie, women: (suit and blouse / dress shirt)

2. Have it taken for this purpose and not during a “leisurely” event

3. Which photo looks more like a sales manager to you?

Secret #2: Captivate Them With Your Headline - Here is an example of a “standard” headline that features Steve’s full name and his job title.

Here is the problem with having a standard headline like this:

1. Everyone has their job title as the headline – so you end up blending into the crowd

2. It’s vanilla (and by vanilla I mean boring) – admit it

Here is an example of a much stronger headline that is captivating because it showcases characteristics of a strong sales leader (by mentioning consistent overachievement):

Secret #3: Write a Life Statement - The “summary” portion isn’t just a summary. It’s a platform for you to declare your life and career aspirations. Do this correctly and you can differentiate your brand drastically on LinkedIn. Here are steps you can take to write your life statement:

•  Clearly and concisely state what your life and career aspirations are. Are you a leader looking to inspire a group of peers to change the world? Or are you the person who loves working in a cubicle and likes to left alone?

•  Think of how your life statement emphatically states what you want to accomplish in the world? Ask yourself – what does your life statement say about your brand?

•  Highlight what your specialty focus is

•  Highlight your unique skills

•  Highlight who your customers are (internal or external) and how you can make a business impact with your employer

•  State exactly what you’re looking for as a call to action

Here’s an example of an “average” summary:

I’ve been a Director of Sales where I managed a group of sales people across multiple states. I have experience in building customer relationships as well as managing people on a team and am considered a leader in the organization.

Here’s an example of an “extraordinary” life statement:

Did you notice the differences between the two?

The following differentiated Steve in his “Life Statement”:

•  He branded himself as a “Senior Thought Leader” versus just listing his job title

•  He listed his career aspirations (Changing the world through technology by inspiring others) vs. simply listing out his responsibilities (managing a sales team)

•  He showcased his results portfolio

•  He had a call to action at the end

Secret #4: X-perience, not experience - When it comes to writing about your work experience, the last thing you want to do is to “play it safe.” Everyone does that, after all, and it’s a recipe for blending into the crowd. You don’t want that – you want to have the “X factor” to make you stand out to recruiters. An example of a “mediocre” set of work experience descriptions is below:

Here were the issues with the previously shown example:

1. Responsibilities were listed in a very “vanilla” approach

2. It didn’t demonstrate the “amazing” characteristics that a candidate may have (for example, work ethic, creativity, etc.

3. The results of his work experience isn’t present

Here is a stronger example of showcasing work experience by covering the 3 points we mentioned:

Here is another example that takes a different approach, as it focuses on leveraging awards to showcase your results and work ethic:

Did you notice the differences between the “plain” resume and the other two examples?

Here is your call to action to improve your work experience description:

1. Think of HOW you’ve overachieved in your job role and start to highlight it in your work experience

2. If you haven’t overachieved, START working harder, smarter and better than ever before.

3. Make sure you highlight tangible results (specific projects, revenue impact, cost reduction, etc)

Secret #5 – Build a raving fan base

Here are the rules to help you build a raving fan base:

1. Don’t be shy – Ask your co-workers, customers, mentors, managers / bosses for recommendations. If you’ve done great work that’s helped them before, they’ll be more than happy to.

2. Recommend first – Write recommendations for other people, you’ll be surprised at how many will reciprocate!

3. Be genuine – Explain exactly why you want the recommendations and only recommend someone if you really approve of their work

4. It’s a numbers game – it’s unlikely you’ll get a 100% conversion on your requests for recommendations, so aim for a high number

Secret #6 - You can’t be a jack of all trades

Well, I take that back. You can be, but you won’t be very good at all of them.

So focus on what your key area of specialty is and brand yourself as an expert in that area. Here are a few ways you can do that:

1. Build a wordpress site (it’s very low cost) and connect each post to your LinkedIn account status update and Twiter feed

2. Post articles / tweets related to your specialty in your status update (you can tie tweets to your LinkedIn status)

3. Post a success story in your status feed whenever possible showcasing how you could help others

Here’s an example of how I’ve linked a blog post from my WordPress site to my LinkedIn Profile below:

Secret #7- Kick yourself in the ass

It’s easy to learn the tips.

It’s easy to talk about how you want to improve.

It’s easy to talk about how things should be.

But there’s a big difference between knowing and doing.

The easy part is over. You’ve got the knowledge around how to build an amazing online brand on LinkedIn.

Now it’s up to you to take action.

So start today and let’s get you one step closer to your dream job!

2. Create a Website – This is a bit harder but there are template
sites like weebly.com, wordpress.com and yola.com that allow you to do it for free. If you’re not great at building websites, you can leverage an outsourced web designer at www.elance.com.

•  Step 1: Sign up for an account at www.wordpress.com

•  Step 2: Fill out all information required and enter in the domain name you want. If you want to build a brand around yourself, then you can put in your full name. Another option, if that’s taken, which it most likely will be unless you’ve got a very unique last name, is that you can combine your first name as a possessive of something else. For example, Nelsonstips.com, nelsonsthoughts.com, or nelsonsresume.com. A third option, is to get extreme with it. This makes it much more memorable if you take a risk with the domain name. This makes it viral. This stands out. Don’t be afraid of getting extreme, because if you’re not extreme, you’re most likely boring. Examples could include: RIPresume.com, Googlepleasehire.me, Willworkforguacamole.com, etc.

•  Once you’ve completed that, you can choose to pay a fee for the domain name without the Wordpress portion included in it. If you want to create a memorable domain name, it’s worth paying that fee.

•  In the upper right hand corner, you can access your dashboard. Click on that and click on posts. Write a post on a topic you’re passionate about (for example, you could write about technology if you want to be an engineer in that field). The key is to make sure the topic is valuable in its information and if you can, make it controversial, secretive or humorous so that people will want to pass on your blog posts to others. An example of controversial could be: “Why smart phones won’t be around in the next 3 years.” An example of secretive could be: “The top 10 ways engineers can differentiate themselves at a technology company.”

•  Once you’ve written a post, make sure you’ve enabled all the social media buttons on word press. These social media buttons are usually included into the template. The reason this is important is that when you post, you want it to automatically sync to the other platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook so that you won’t have to “re-share” it each time manually. This is a concept known as “automation” – ie, process that is occurring without you having to do the additional steps!

•  You’re done!

2. Create a “Presume” with SlideRocket

•  Step 1: Sign up on their website (it takes a minute)

•  Step 2: Begin creating a presume by clicking on “new”

•  Step 3: Pick a background template

•  Step 4: Begin by writing in your introductory message (such as “Hello” or a captivating headline to grab their attention like “Why 1,000,000 applicants can’t offer what I do”)

•  Step 5: Insert images to add life to the slide

•  Step 6: You can create “animations” to basically create movement into the slide, this makes it feel more like a “movie” versus a presentation and thus creates a much more dynamic flow than traditional presentations.

•  Step 7: You can also add images and videos. Need to find a place where you can buy royalty free images and videos? Check out www.shutterstock.com and you can sign up a per product basis or do a monthly subscription!

•  If you want to bypass a lot of the baseline work, you can use the templates SlideRocket has already made for you. Simply click on the “get inspiration” button on your homepage after you’ve logged in and started a presentation.

3. Create a video resume

• Step 1: Sign up for a Youtube account at www.youtube.com

• Step 2: Click on “upload” near the upper right hand corner

• Step 3: Upload a video you’ve already made on your computer or click on “record from webcam” and start recording!

• Step 4: Focus on having great content – make sure the content adds value by providing humor, knowledge, or secrets. Take this approach if you want it to become viral. If you want to focus on having just a standard video resume where you talk about how you add value to a company, you can do that, but keep in mind, it’s going to be more effective if you tailor it individually to each company and then send it as a private link for viewing. Typically the best way to share that video is to direct message it to a recruiter at the company over twitter or to email it as a follow up to an interview.

4. Build a Facebook Page

More often than not, recruiters and headhunters will search for you on Facebook to get an idea of your brand. You can use Facebook to build a page of yourself to help create a brand. On your personal page, make sure you scrub your Facebook photos of ones that you feel do not reflect the brand you’d like to portray. Also, if there are offensive posts on your Facebook wall, please keep in mind that those messages could potentially be read by your future employer. Use your common sense here. If you feel the need to separate your private life from your work life, then simply set your privacy settings to adjust to that and / or don’t add coworkers or potential ones as friends on Facebook. On the other side of the coin, Facebook creates a great platform for you in terms of being able to locate people who work in similar fields or industries. Almost everyone lists their employment on Facebook today and what better way to search a network of contacts! Also, the beauty of social networking is that the informal setup allows for messages to be easily exchanged without seeming too intrusive. Just make sure you are nice and honest and chances are people will respond.

Key Theme #4 – Build a Brand

“Your brand is how other people perceive you.”

You’re a living, breathing brand. So how do you build your brand?

Let’s first define what a “brand” means.

A brand is:

• How other people perceive you (whether you agree with their perception or not)

• A value or belief system that you represent

• The personal connection people have with you

• A lifestyle

The power of a brand is tremendous. Think of all the products we consume on a daily basis that are driven by the power of a brand. A great example is soda - Why is it that most people consistently buy Coke or Pepsi when we all know it can cost twice as much as the generic soda available? It’s because they associate emotions, thoughts, and ideals around that specific brand. Coca Cola uses the slogan “Open Happiness.” Think there’s any emotion associated to that? Or how about Pepsi’s slogan: “Summer Time is Pepsi Time?” A brand can influence decisions, create emotional bonds and create a lifestyle for people.

Let’s take that same thought and apply it to the workplace. Let’s say two people are interviewing for the same job and they have comparable resumes – they both graduated from great colleges, have similar GPAs, have strong internships and participated in extra curricular activities, yet ultimately one person is chosen over the other? Why?

It’s the power of their brand.

Now, what’s important for us to discuss here is what distinguishes your brand from others and how you can take steps to do that.

Let’s look at the main factors that help to build your brand in an interview.

Step 1: Dress to Impress – When you’re heading into an interview or going to a career fair, make sure you’re at least business casual at the minimum. Remember, one of the first impressions people have of you is your image and how you present yourself. Shine your shoes, make sure the tie is orderly, and press your shirt. Don’t think this is important? Here’s why it matters:

• Details reflect your traits – the interviewer will often notice if you haven’t shined your shoes or if your tie is in disarray or if your shirt isn’t ironed. It shows that you didn’t take the time to prepare and never comes across well to the interviewer. You know what they’ll think? “Heck, just imagine if I had to put you in front of the client!” or “This person didn’t even take the time to prepare!” Pay attention to the details. Need help? Consult your parents, your friends, and your peers. Not everyone may be a fashion designer, but somebody will have business fashion sense – trust me.

• First impression – this is the FIRST time they will be meeting you so what kind of image and brand do you want to leave with them? If your end goal in 15 years is to be an executive, dress the part. You’ve got to brand yourself from the very get-go. Imagine if a guy showed up in a T-shirt and jeans with holes in them to an interview. What kind of a brand would that leave in your mind?

Exercises

Get the wrinkles out – Get every single dress shirt / blouse / suit out of your closet and make sure they’ve all been pressed and don’t have any wrinkles. Seems simple right? Yet I still see wrinkled shirts (even with working professionals) all the time.

Shine your shoes – It takes 5 minutes but it’s worth every second. One CEO told me that the first thing he looks for is to see if someone has shined their shoes - it’s a good way to see how detail oriented someone is.

Brush your teeth – You’d be surprised at how many people forget. Imagine talking to someone with bad breath. Kind of hard to focus on their answers, right? Get into the habit of doing this every day (at least twice a day).

Put on your deodorant – Raise your arm. Smell your armpit. Does it smell like onions? If yes, you should be doing this daily too.

Have style – Make sure your clothes are well fitted (ie, you don’t want to be pulling up your saggy pants or wearing a shirt that looks like it’s 2x your size), make sure the colors match nicely together (or at least don’t clash), and avoid neon colors. If you need inspiration on what to wear pick up a local magazine like GQ (or just visit their website), go to the local mall to shop around or visit TLC.com for fashion tips (hit the style button on the webpage).

Step 2: Be an expert in your field – People will respect the fact that you’ve worked hard in the past and have spent the time and effort to become an expert in your industry - there’s value in the knowledge that you possess – make sure others take note of it. If you don’t have the work experience, then take the time to become an expert in the field through the methods we discussed earlier. Here’s why this part is important, if you create an impression on someone that you are the “real estate” expert because you’ve imparted insight or wisdom around that topic to them, guess who they will likely think of the next time one of their friends needs help with a real estate decision? With knowledge comes power and branding. Are you an expert in your field?

Exercise

Be a free speaker for events and groups on the subject you want to be an expert on. It builds credibility quickly. For example, if you want to land a job as a computer science engineer, join the local tech groups (you can find these by asking other people, searching via Google for local events or sites like meetup.com). Being a speaker allows you to practice your public speaking skills, to try out your new stories and to give back to the community. Plus, you usually get free food, which is always nice.

Step 3: Nail your 30 second vision – If you can articulate it to another person confidently, you’ve just imprinted your mission statement in their mind. Think of it as your extended slogan. Slogans, as we all know, are catchy and memorable. The other reason this is important, is because when someone asks about you with regards to the job, you’ve now prepared THAT PERSON to answer confidently on your behalf. Do you feel confident enough in your vision to go head to head with someone else? If not…keep practicing!

Exercise

Practice giving your pitch to yourself in the mirror. Once you’ve done that well enough to gain confidence, try it out on friends and family. Then, practice it with people you meet for the first time. This gradual process will help you gain momentum versus trying to deliver it perfectly for the first time in an interview.

Step 4: Have a solid resume with clear direction – I’ll spend a whole chapter going over resume tips. And although I believe the traditional resume is no longer useful if you want to stand out, it’s still a necessary requirement almost every employer has. So if you’re going to end up having one, I’ll explain how to make shine above the rest.

Step 5: Brand yourself on your LinkedIn profile – If you do it right, job hunters will come find you!

Step 6: Network with other people – Your brand won’t be very valuable if other people aren’t aware of it. Go to networking events specific to the industry and hear about other people’s success stories first hand to learn how they did it. And be sure to share your stories too. We’ll spend a chapter discussing networking in detail. How many new connections do you make each week?

Step 7: Take on leadership roles – People will notice that you’ve stepped up to the plate, and if they don’t, you can always share stories of your leadership. How many leadership stories do you have today?

Step 8: Think outside of the box – Two people can do an equally great job at something, but the person who does it in a creative manner is often the one remembered. Tom’s Shoes is a great example of this. For every pair of shoes you buy they donate a pair to those in need. I mean, seriously, would you buy the normal pair of shoes or the ones that have a charitable story like Tom’s? When’s the last time you were creative and what was the impact?

Step 9: Tell stories – People love to learn about your brand through stories. Think about it – if you told someone you were hardworking and smart, does that leave a huge lasting impression? Most likely not, because anyone can SAY that. It’s much harder and much more personal and relatable if you tell a story that demonstrates your work ethic and intelligence. What success stories do you have today that you can share with a potential employer?

Step 10: Highlight your strengths – Ask yourself – “What are three things that I do incredibly well in the workplace?” to get yourself started on that topic.

Here’s why your brand matters.

It’s how people perceive you and it’s a key part of the interviewing process.

Think of it this way – you’re the CEO of a company, and you’re about to invest tens of thousands of dollars – if not more – into a new employee. Do you choose the employee with a proven, established brand that shines, or the one with the “generic” brand?

Your brand needs to be bold, memorable and strong. Take the time to build it.

Old School: “I can’t change the way people perceive me.”

New School: “I can control my brand and affect the way people perceive me.”

Old School: “I’m not a product, so branding isn’t important in my search for a job.”

New School: “Branding can make or break my interview, so I’m going to take great strides to project the best brand possible.”

C is for Commitment

“Unlock your mind and you can unlock your potential.”

The most important attribute that I’ve seen successful people have is a strong and positive mindset. It’s the key to everything.

One of the lowest points in my professional career happened while working at a Tuxedo store. My job was to sell tuxedo rentals and it was a job that paid well considering it was one of my first jobs (commission was included). I really enjoyed talking about the different suit styles to clients, consulting them based on their ideas and then closing the deal. One day, one of my co-workers asked me to trade my shift with hers. Being a nice guy, I agreed. Somehow, in the midst of the scheduling changes, my manager thought I was supposed to show up for a day that I did not have on my calendar. So she fired me (this despite an amazing track record at the store and no prior issues).

I could have sulked, pouted and moped about being let go. The truth was, I did. But instead of continuing to wallow in that pool of self-pity, I decided to learn from it. And because of that, I’ve come out stronger, more resilient and hungrier for success.

Most people would see my period of unemployment as a major challenge. I saw it as an opportunity.

Another quick story - I once met a job seeker who constantly told me about how tough the job market was today (and no doubt it is). Let’s call him “Lenny.” He was struggling to land a job and it had been quite some time since he went to an interview. I then asked a series of questions and what I found was surprising.

I chatted about his work experience (rock solid), educational background (a degree from a top tier school) and it was all very good on paper.

You might have guessed that the main issue was work experience, education, or perhaps having the right connections.

It was far from any of those. The main root of the issue was his mindset and taking the action to make it happen.

Here’s why. Let’s say he began complaining about not having the right work experience for this specific job – and let’s say this job is in the field of marketing.

Well – rather than just complain about it – why not BUILD that experience through an internship or an entry-level position? If you’re truly passionate about the work, wouldn’t you be willing to make that small sacrifice of pay and stature in the beginning so that you could build that relevant work experience?

Let’s use another example – let’s say he feels his educational background isn’t strong enough. What’s stopping him from taking night classes at a local college to ensure that he gets the knowledge and degree he needs for this job? Do you see where I’m headed with this? Have you ever felt like you ran into an obstacle that you felt would disqualify from a job? Have you ever asked yourself how you would overcome it?

Most people don’t. They give up and move onto the next job opportunity and automatically disqualify themselves.

The reality here is – it typically boils down to mindset and the action you combine with it.

Here are a few equations you should always keep in mind:

Absence of mindset = Meandering through life

Action without mindset = Trivial work

Mindset + Action = Achievement

Are you willing to push your mindset to go the extra mile when it comes to building experience, educating yourself, and working harder and smarter than everyone else in the room? Are you truly going to push yourself to take action instead of just saying “I wish, I wish, I wish!”

That’s the question you’ve ultimately got to ask yourself.

I’ll even take it beyond career development for a second. I’ve met with countless account managers, CEOs, Small Business Owners, VPs and there were commonly two key differences between those that were hugely successful and those that weren’t: Mindset and the willingness to put it into action.

I’ve seen clients that turned around their business within months just because of a change in mindset.

They key to this is, I never changed anyone’s business because of a pep talk, THEY did. One of my clients for example, started to call 100 prospects a day instead of waiting for business referrals to come their way. They started to learn about the technology solutions they were selling and they began to push awareness through marketing events. The result? They had a record quarter in 2011.

They took action and didn’t wait for success to find them.

Nagesh Palepu is a living, breathing example of this. I had the chance to hear his story through a good friend of mine, Hitha Palepu and could not have asked for a better story that demonstrates the ability to truly commit to reaching a goal.

Hitha was an old friend of mine (we had trained at the Cisco facility in North Carolina for a year together) and we decided to catch up for brunch while I was visiting New York.

Before you knew it we were talking about mutual friends, her career and what I had been up to. I told her about how I had been struggling with finding a truly inspirational story of my book to demonstrate a story of finding success despite great adversity.

“You should talk to my dad!” she exclaimed.

“Sure, can you tell me about his story?”

I spent the next hour completely sitting there listening to her story. I was completely enthralled.

But I couldn’t write his story from just our conversation – it wouldn’t do it justice – so I asked her if I could chat with him on the phone. She agreed.

One afternoon day, I decided to give him a ring. This is his story.

Hello?

Hi, is this Nagesh?

Yes.

Hi, my name’s Nelson, I’m a friend of Hitha’s. I know this is a bit out of the blue, so hopefully she told you about why I’m calling. I’m the writer who was interested in sharing your story to (hopefully) millions of job seekers. Are you free to chat?

Oh, yes, yes. She told me about you. So, what would you like to know?

Well, could you start off by describing yourself?

Well, I’m 5’6”, I exercise, I walk a lot, eat reasonably well and for a 63 year old, I'm still looking good!

You had to give it to him. The guy was energetic.

My hair is also 100% grey.

And honest.

I also have a big smile all the time, like Hitha.

There was an overwhelming sense of charisma in his voice.

So what do you want to know?

Tell me about what life was like growing up.

I was born on the Southeast coast of India in a city called Kakinada. I came from a large family – there were 9 kids – 5 brothers and 4 sisters. We didn’t have a TV, would consistently lose electricity and had to walk to the water station with buckets just to bring water back to the household.

Every day we would walk 3 miles to school – each way. Once we arrived at the school, we would have to sit on a cement floor. The schools were so packed that our shoulders would touch in the room. They usually fit 40 of us into a tiny room.

Our family constantly moved. From 6th grade to 11th grade, I had to move every single year.

The living conditions were hard growing up. We had just enough money to eat and to live.

The Power of Self Belief

At the age of 14 I lost most of my hearing. You could say I was nearly deaf growing up at that point. It was very, very hard in the sense that I was constantly harassed and made fun of. Forget about any sympathy – I was harassed. I wasn’t treated like a fellow human being. When my peers would listen to the radio, they would lower the volume just low enough where they could still hear it but I couldn’t.

I could have said “Why me?” But I didn’t. I didn’t because I have a fighting spirit. The experience made me fight a lot of battles growing up and I learned this: When God takes something away from you, he will give you something in return to survive – it is YOU.

Nagesh grew up challenged not only by economic conditions but also by his own physical body and yet he still had faith in his potential.

Despite this, I had my sights set on attending the top school in India to complete my masters. I wanted to go to IIT Bombay. Out of 500 applicants, they typically would only accept 20.

Nagesh had his mind set on attending IIT Bombay. Despite being nearly deaf, he pushed himself to be the best he could be academically. He got in and majored in Physical Chemistry. On a side note, he also majored in math, physics and chemistry in his undergraduate degree. I asked him how he managed to do that. His answer: “I studied more.”

After my masters, I returned to my hometown and took a teaching job. In 1972, my sister, who had lived in the US, returned home to India and told me to move over to the States. Apparently, they had the hearing aid technology that could fix my deafness! So I hopped on a TWA, flew to Rome, then to New York and then arrived at Atlanta.

When I arrived, I sighed in relief. I felt like I was in paradise – I hadn’t seen anything like the States before. As soon as I arrived at my sister’s, I began looking in the Classifieds for a chemist position. I went on 15 interviews.

No one would hire me.

Working at McDonald’s

I needed money so I worked at McDonald’s. I flipped burgers and cleaned the bathrooms and tables. It was hard for me because here I was with a Masters degree working with mostly high school students holding part time jobs. I’m proud to say I worked there though because it taught me that no job is menial. And I was finally supporting myself.

Most people would have given up at this point in their pursuit of their dream job. Not Nagesh.

Desire Defeats Fear

One day, I walked into the Pfizer building.

No appointment. No names. He just walked right in.

I asked to talk to the HR person and they asked me to wait where I was standing. While I was waiting, an employee was walking by.

Nagesh couldn’t resist asking. His desire outweighed his shyness.

I’m looking for a job – can you help me? I have a degree from IIT Bombay…

The minute the person heard that, his eyes popped. (IIT Bombay has an incredibly strong brand in this field) He immediately went to his manager and told him he wanted to help this person land a job. The person returned to Nagesh.

“When can you start?”

“I can start now.”

For the next 5 years, Nagesh was a base chemist at Pfizer (one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world). The story doesn’t end there. Despite growing up nearly deaf, encountering economic hardship and numerous rejections in his job search, Nagesh ended up landing his dream job. It was his ability to push against all odds that led him to where he is today. His commitment to success was so strong it outweighed all the other obstacles that were in front of him, including: working in a foreign country, having little relevant work experience and being nearly deaf.

Speaking of which, that same level of commitment has driven Nagesh as an entrepreneur. Today, Nagesh is the CEO of SciDose, which boasts 70 employees and multiple locations residing in the US and India. And he did it all without taking a single penny from investors.

I hope you’re inspired because I know I was when I heard his story.

At this point, you might be asking yourself, “How do I push myself to unleash my full potential?”

What I’ve done for you is put the answer into categories so it’s easier for you to digest and implement. Let’s begin.

Key Theme #1 - Be Positive

We saw the power of a positive attitude with Nagesh. Despite being nearly deaf most of his life, working at a job where he was clearly overqualified and being in a foreign country, he stayed focused on his goal of working at a world class pharmaceutical company and eventually becoming a business owner. He absolutely believed in himself and that positive attitude became the driving force in him.

Are you the half glass full or half glass empty type?

Here’s why it’s important to ask this question. If you’re the type of person with a negative outlook on your job prospects, chances are that negative energy feeds into your physical and mental state. I’ll give you an example.

Let’s say you don’t feel too hot about your job prospects for this particular opportunity you’re interviewing for. So you walk in through the door and immediately the interviewer notices your shoulders are slightly slumped and you’re slouching a bit. Your handshake isn’t quite firm and you can’t look that person in the eye. And then WHAM – you get hit with a question from the interviewer that just floors you and you haven’t the slightest clue of what to say in response. You’ve got the deer in the headlights look and you feel like your window of opportunity just closed.

The positive person, on the other hand, walks in with a beaming smile, strong shoulders, a firm handshake, and a genuine eagerness to interview. They then ask you how your day is going and they’re genuine about it. Immediately you feel like you’ve built rapport with them and a connection has been made.

Whom would you rather interview?

Let’s take it a step further – and show you the power of being positive and energetic in your every day life.

When you smile and ask your friend how they’re doing AND you truly listen and care about their response – do you notice a different response compared to when you simply greet them nonchalantly? Still not a believer? Try both methods and come back and tell me which gets you a better response.

The reason for this is that people fundamentally want to connect with other people. That’s the beauty of being human. Don’t underestimate how contagious positive energy is in this world.

So here’s my question to you – if you’re not full of positive optimism that you are indeed the best fit for the job – the question you need to ask yourself is – what’s keeping you from getting to that point?

At the end of the day, a positive attitude inspires confidence within you and people will notice the difference.

But you might be asking – HOW do I create a positive attitude?

• Understand your purpose – We talked about this in chapter 1, but if you understand why you are doing what you do everyday and what you’re working towards, it will help to keep you motivated versus simply meandering through the days.

• Have a sense of humor and have fun – This may seem so simple, but don’t be so serious all the time! It’s important to have fun in life. I get it, you’ve got a set of big goals to accomplish and you have to get there within a certain timeframe, but hey – remember to enjoy the journey. So hang out with your friends that are funny, watch a sitcom or a comedy, or go to a live comedy show. Can’t get it going? Get a friend of yours to tickle you. Get yourself laughing!

• Verbalize it - Think of your end goal and say it out loud, that you are going to achieve. Say it like you mean it. Straighten your back, puff out your chest, and say it LOUD AND PROUD. There’s an incredible amount of power in doing it.

• Jam out – Listen to a song that gets you amped up! And then dance to it. The physical movements will get your endorphins going.

• Socialize – Hang out with other people that are positive – you’ll find out quickly it’s contagious. Plus – you’ll find that happiness is best when shared. (If you got a promotion tomorrow, and you had no friends or family to share it with, would the feeling be as exciting and happy?)

• Shut out the naysayers – On the flip side, stop hanging out with the negative folks – they’ll drag you down and reinforce your doubts. Out of sight, out of mind. This can be incredibly hard when it comes to friends or family members who are naysayers. When that’s the case, simply address their concerns and then move on to another subject versus “loitering” on the topic. Brewing on emotions typically doesn’t help you. Taking action can.

• Preparation is key – If you’re prepared, you’ll be more confident for the challenges that come your way. When you’re more confident, you’ll reduce the feeling of fear. (The fear of not knowing and being embarrassed because of your lack of knowledge) So do your homework. And if you’ve prepared and still don’t know the answer to a question, at least you can confidently say “I don’t know, but I’ll get back to you on that.”

• Have balance – Whether it’s family, friends, work, charity or money, just make sure you strike the right balance for yourself. The key here is that only you know what the right balance is that will make you happy. Often times, I’ve heard stories of people working 70+ hours a week only to come home to an upset spouse or family member.

• Visualize your goal – And envision yourself attaining it. How does that make you feel? Does it keep you motivated?

• Exercise – Being active increases serotonin levels, which should help improve your mood. Plus, you’ll be in better shape and should generally feel better after exercising (it will increase your confidence as well). Think about it, what you do in exercising could carry over in the way you search for work. For example, you could start off jogging 1 mile every day and feel exhausted after each work out. But then, a few weeks later, you’re doing 2 miles, and then 3 miles! Who would have known how hard you could have pushed yourself? That mentality can carry over into your job search. Conquer your physical state to activate your mental state. Great workout routines include P90X, Insanity and 10 Minute Trainer. Check it out at www.beachbody.com

• Listen to motivational speakers – I’ve gone to numerous seminars and will still watch a YouTube video every now and then from my favorite speakers. If you’re running low on self-inspiration, getting it from someone else is a great way to go. Some of my favorite speakers include Tony Robbins, Seth Godin, Tim Ferris and Gary Vaynerchuk. They’ve also got great websites or blogs with invaluable information!

• Eat Healthy – Have you ever heard the saying, “you are what you eat?” Do you ever feel sluggish after eating a large amount of fast food? Try to clean up your diet and you’ll most likely find a renewed sense of energy that could affect your attitude. If you can’t do a complete overhaul, start off with smaller simple steps, like replacing that bacon and sausage breakfast with a fruit and vegetable smoothie. (I actually do this today and feel more energized than ever!) Then, as you become more comfortable with the transition, try to take it up a notch as your progress. Consult a nutritionist for a healthy eating plan or leverage cook books that focus on this.

This list could go on and on – the reality is that positive people tend to win in the end. The naysayers usually are the ones moping around “wishing” things were different.

Exercises

Here’s my call to action for you:

• For a day, try being positive with everyone that you interact – yes, even with that one person you find really annoying. And I don’t mean you should start beaming rainbows – what I mean is be positive in a way that’s genuine and natural to you. Start off by smiling more and greeting people when you see them.

• Pick 3 of the tips from the list above and try them out. See if your attitude is impacted by it, and if not, try another set of 3 until you find the right mix to keep you positive energy flowing.

Be genuinely positive and watch the contagious effect it will have on the people around you. And more importantly, watch the impact it will have on your work ethic, your motivation, your attitude and your energy.

Key Theme #2 - Have Passion

What does passion truly mean?

It means spending days to build an outstanding eye catching presume versus 5 minutes to build a plain old resume.

It means working until 11:59 PM to finish that work project by the midnight deadline.

It means practicing your interviewing role play 20 times. Not just two or three times.

It means going through interview question flashcards on you iPhone app over and over again.

It means giving that extra effort when you’re ready to give up.

It’s what makes the difference.

Ideally you’ll have passion because you’re doing what you love, but the work may not be perfect – as in you don’t love all aspects of it – but at that point, you’ve got to find out which parts of the job/project you DO love. Hey, I get it – life isn’t perfect and neither is every job, but if it’s the one that you want, you need to bring passion to the table.

Why is this important? Well, there have been numerous times where I’ve interviewed someone and they exhibited no passion whatsoever – to them it was just another job.

Do you want someone on your team who thinks of the job as just another check on the list or do you want the person who loves the idea of your company and wants nothing more than to continue to improve it day in and day out?

If you’re not passionate, you probably haven’t asked yourself the hard questions in life. Go back to the key theme where we discussed vision – and make sure that the vision you set is one that gets you amped up.

The key here is that the passion should never be faked. It’s got to ring true with you first before you can express that passion to someone else, otherwise they’ll see right through you. This is especially true in interviews.

Here’s how the interviewer can spot if someone is passionate about what they’re discussing:

They’re expressive

• Your tone of voice can easily showcase excitement or interest.

• Your eyes (if they light up) are another indicator of passion. (Imagine if someone looked at you with a set of deadpanned eyes)

• Physical expressions of the body – typically someone who uses their hands and gestures, has better body posture (strong shoulders, sitting upright) will be seen as being more passionate

They can talk about the subject at length – If you are passionate about something, chances are you can go on for great lengths talking about it. Also, the passionate people tend to put in the time to learn about the subject and don’t view it as a “task” but more so as an “opportunity.”

Here’s the thing, you may be passionate about the job, but if you can’t express it, the interviewer won’t see that. So be expressive.

Need more help in finding out how to exhibit your passion? Find someone who is extremely passionate about what they do and observe them as they express. You’ll most likely learn something from them.

Key Theme #3 – There Are No Handouts

“Ability is of little account without opportunity.” - Napoleon

A great brand is only truly powerful when you get it in the hands of the right people.

Now that you’ve got a polished brand in hand, let’s talk about how you’re going to land an interview.

Depending on the “media” that you leverage, you’ll have different ways to get it to the people who can make the hiring decisions.

Let’s start with the most old fashioned route: resumes. If you insist on only leveraging only the resume, here are the different routes you can take:

• Submitting it through the career center on campus

• Submitting it at a career fair

• Submitting it through a friend / referral

• Being recruited by a head hunter

• Networking

• Online submission directly to the company or a third party career site

• Directly submitting the resume in person at the company HQ / remote branch office

Let’s tackle each of these one by one:

Submitting through your career center at your college – this is one of the best ways to land an interview, with the reasons being:

• The application talent pool is often much smaller – you’d be surprised at how many people don’t take advantage of this service

• You can differentiate yourself by presenting a business card (they’re very low cost at www.vistaprint.com)

• You get a chance to articulate your value statement to make a strong first impression

• Corporations often like to recruit a set number of graduates from each university and have talent quotas, especially if you’re in a good school

• Your warm introduction is effectively built by the university itself and you immediately have the brand of the school carried with you into the interview

Submitting it through a career fair – One of the most effective ways to land an interview. Let’s talk about why:

• Career fairs are free – You typically don’t have to spend a dime to attend. That’s a beautiful thing - especially when you’re unemployed.

• You get to meet potential referrals / recruiters in person – This is by far the most important part of a career fair. You get to truly network with someone who can help you to get the job, if not outright land it. First, you get to meet in person and you can never underestimate the power of shaking someone’s hand, saying hello confidently and smiling. It creates an immediate connection that a resume online will never do for you. Period. Second, you get to ask questions about work culture, their experience, what they’re looking for, and how you could potentially help the business. This is insight and knowledge you can always refer back to later on in the interview. Third, you can build rapport with the person. Remember, at the end of the day, people want to connect with other people. Fourth, you suddenly have a reference (if you make a good impression). Ask for a card or a way to contact them to keep in touch and ask if they can be a reference for you or if they can help you with landing the interview. If you’ve truly nailed your value statement and have been able to convince him/her that this company is the place you want to work out, typically they’ll remember you and will help out. Make sure that you send a follow up email the same day or the day after to thank them for their time and insight. You can then also check in periodically, say every two weeks or so, to see how the potential interview process is progressing.

Submitting through a friend / referral – This is by far the best way to land the interview. Here’s why:

• The majority of studies show that referrals are still the #1 way people land their jobs.

• The person referring you is very vested. One, if they’ve stuck their neck out on the line for you, they obviously think highly of you. If you don’t work out as a hire, it’s their neck on the line too. Two, people that are referred are less likely to leave a company quickly if they were referred by a friend as they don’t want to let them down. Think of it as “social pressure.” These reasons force the interviewer to take you that much more seriously right off the bat.

• It’s a lot easier for the interviewer to trust someone they know and have worked with versus words on paper (your online resume)

• People typically tend to hang out around similar crowds – if your friend has been successful within the company, chances are you’ll embody similar traits to that friend (or that’s typically how the thinking goes).

Being recruited by a headhunter

• Effective, but you’ve got to have the work experience for them to want to come after you.

• You work experience has to reflect that you’ve gone above and beyond everyone else, after all, they’re searching through a pile of resumes / online profiles at the end of the day.

• Make sure you personally take the time to network with headhunters that you meet with at business networking events. They often need you as badly as you need them. Take their cards when you first meet them, send them a follow up note discussing how you enjoyed meeting them and keep in touch every month about a topic that’s important to them (perhaps you chatted about golf or sailing.) Remember, the art of networking is about building meaningful relationships. Personal connections are as important as the business connection. They are intertwined.

So I’ve outlined 6 different ways you can land an interview, but let’s deep dive into the last one – networking.

Business networking is an art.

So let’s discuss how you can make it impactful for your job search.

Networking events - People go to professional networking events to make connections, so the good news is that they want the same thing that you do. Here are tips on how to make sure the time you spend at one bears fruit:

• Go with someone else – It makes it easier to meet people. Why? Well, most people feel more comfortable when multiple people approach them versus just one person. This is especially true if you’re trying to break in to the conversation of a group. Also, admit it, going by yourself and standing sheepishly in the corner isn’t the best way to network with people. Going with your friend will loosen you up and make it easier to engage with others. If you don’t have a friend or colleague that can go with you, make a friend with someone else who is also clearly alone (you can identify them as the ones standing in the corner or just looking around with no one to talk to) and then work with him or her to meet other people.

• Get over being shy – For some of us, we can dive right in and introduce ourselves to complete strangers while others will need to take baby steps. The key here is to get over the mental roadblock of being shy. Some tips on how to do that include having a meaningful conversation with people you interact with on a daily basis (think colleagues, the person you talk to when you pick up dry cleaning, someone you’re standing in line with at the café, and so forth). Once you build these little victories in daily conversations, carry it over to a networking event.

• Have a business card handy. If you’re not employed, make a simple one with your name and contact information. If you can’t afford the business cards at that time, have copies of your resume. There has to be a way for someone to contact you later on.

• Seek to understand first – Always try to learn as much as possible about the other person’s role, the company they work for and the company’s goals. This way you can first qualify it to see if it’s a good fit for you, and whether or not you can offer value to them. Once you understand more about their company and potential challenges they are having, you can make your value pitch (if it’s a fit) and basically explain to them why you think you’d be a good fit there. For example, if you met someone and immediately pitched yourself as being a marketing guru, it comes off as soliciting. In other words, they’ll feel like you’re probably giving that same pitch to everyone in the room to get a job. Make sure there’s a “give and take” so that they understand you’re qualifying them as well.

Here are some places you can go to for networking:

• An industry event – Do a quick Google search and you’ll see that these industry events are quite frequent. It could be a trade show, it could be a seminar or it could be a speaking presentation.

• Chamber of commerce – Every time I’ve been to one I’ve always been able to make new connections. It’s always been filled with people too.

• A speaker event where the topic is related to the field you’re interested in

• Cultural events related to professional networking – many cultural organizations put on professional networking events all the time!

• Reach out to your family members and see if they know of anyone working in the industry you’re trying to break into. Think about this as a way to scale your reach – if you have 10 family members you can reach out to (cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, siblings, parents) and they each have 10 close friends / business clients (and the most likely have many more) that means you’ve just expanded your potential network of influence by 100 people.

• Reach out to your friends – if you don’t have many or any, now’s the time to start making friends. Invite people out to dinner / lunch / coffee. Go to happy hour. Watch movies together. Always try to get other people involved in your social activities. You should definitely never have lunch / dinner alone if you’re already planning on eating out – that’s a missed opportunity to connect with a friend! Remember, even in your personal time, you’re creating a brand impression with a friend and ultimately “networking” with them. Don’t believe me? Ask your friends what they perceive your “brand” to be and you’ll most likely be surprised by their response.

• Reach out to teachers / counselors you’ve had in the past

• Get a mentor – they can be your biggest advocates and also help you to uncover opportunities you weren’t even aware of before. Here are some tips on how to find a good mentor.

• A leader at the current company you work for / a leader in the industry you’re applying to – A person that is a leader in the organization (Think CXO, VP, Director, Manager level) has typically put in a lot of work and differentiated him/herself from the rest of the pack. They have a ton of information from which you can pull from to learn the secrets on how to become successful. So ask them about their success stories. Everyone typically likes to share their stories of success and it also shows you’re eager to learn from them as well. What this also does is show them that you’re the “hungry” type of employee that wants to learn how to improve so one day you can be successful as well. Thus, from just one or two coffee sessions (although I recommend doing it regularly, perhaps once a month or a quarter), you’ve developed: a personal network with a leader, a potential reference, mindshare within that leader (so that if he/she finds out about an opportunity, you may come to mind), a repository of new information and best practices, and someone who may be able to guide you in the right direction.

• Join clubs / extra-curricular organizations / charities

• Service organizations - Rotary Club is a great example as it’s an international service organization. It’s a great way you to help out the community and to network with others

• Volunteer at a charity – You’ll get to meet like minded people who are trying to help others (Think Food Bank, Team in Training, AIDS foundations and so forth). You get to give back to the community and network at the same time. Can’t decided which one to help out? Check out your options at volunteering sites like volunteermatch.org.

• Intramural sports – There’s a ton of sports leagues out there for professionals (soccer, basketball, etc.). You’d be surprised at how many friends you can make being a part of sports team. After all, what better way to build trust and show your teamwork skills than on the field?

Online submission

• Directly submitting to the company online – Without a reference this is one of the toughest ways to land an interview, as you become one of potentially millions of other resumes. However, it’s still worth taking the time to do so, especially if it’s a smaller private company that may not receive as many resumes. You’ll still have to integrate this into your job hunting process.

• Submitting through a third party career site – Similarly, this can be just as hard, but you may be able to get better traction if you apply through an industry specific career site (these are typically less broadly used since they are niches of a larger market)

Directly submitting your resume in person to the company

• Swing by approach – Call the company and ask for the HR manager or the person in charge of the hiring for that specific job role. The key here is to get to their voicemail (so that you can listen for their name and make note of it) or to be routed to them live. Chances are the front desk will route you to their online submission, but at the same time they may not. If you’re able to attain the name, simply call back and ask to speak with that specific person and try to set up a time to meet in person to discuss the job opportunity. Remember, you MUST have your value pitch nailed down when you discuss the potential opportunity with him/her, especially if you’re leaving a voicemail.

• Another method that can work is if you let them know you plan on stopping by the office at a certain date/time to personally drop off your resume to them. This impending timeline can sometimes get them to call you back – and that’s what you’re looking for here – it gives you a chance at dialogue so that you can introduce yourself and to create a relationship.

Remember, submitting a resume online is fine, but nothing beats shaking hands and making a real personal connection.

Old School says:

“I’ve submitted my resume online, why haven’t I heard back yet?”

New School says:

“I’m going to push for this interview by applying online, reaching out to my professional and personal contacts, getting a referral, going to career fairs and industry events.”

D is for Determination

“Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find that you have crossed the mountain.”

In our search for the perfect job, we’ll inevitably run into numerous obstacles along the way. This could be a lack of experience, a lack of connections within the company, a lack of recommendations or education. What’s important is this: Focus on the solution. Don’t dwell on the shortcomings. Harping on the issues in your life isn’t going to get you any closer to your dream job. Do you think the recruiter is going to want to hire the biggest complainer in the room? Of course not.

So take the time to identify where you’re falling short and make up the gap. Stay determined, stay focused and stay the course. It’s the sum of the little actions that leads to the big results.

Case and point: I was mentoring a college student named Sarah at UCLA who encountered numerous obstacles during her job course. Most job seekers would have quit halfway through but Sarah kept trying over and over again.

It’s the classic story of determination.

This is her story.

Meet Sarah. She’s a sophomore at UCLA planning to major in Business Economics. If someone summed her up in three words it would be: Smart. Hardworking. Motivated. And they would say it with emphasis! I first met Sarah at one of my resume and interview workshops at UCLA – we had just gone through the tips and best practices on how to build an amazing resume - and she approached me asking for additional help. I remember thinking to myself, “Given what she brings to the table – there should be no reason she shouldn’t have her dream job.”

But Sarah’s journey wasn’t that easy.

In fact, one of her first jobs was working at a tiny ice cream stand at a fair.

Hardships Abound Everywhere

One extremely hot day, as the sun was beating down, a huge line of customers began to form for her booth. Suddenly, one of the customers tried to use a coupon for the ice cream. The only thing was – that coupon was for another store. Yet he insisted on using the coupon and began to argue with Sarah for not accepting it. Sarah was nice enough to let him know it was for a different ice cream stand at the Fair. That’s when the customer went nuts on her. “What do you mean it’s for another stand? I want it for this stand!”

“I don’t know what you want me to do!”

Feeling helpless, she ended up in tears that day.

She made up her mind that she never wanted to feel this way while working again.

Determination was thus born in an ice cream stand at a local fair.

Sarah didn’t always know what she wanted to do – at least not until she became Editor in Chief of her High School Magazine. When she stepped into that role, she inherited a magazine business that was in debt. Talk about feeling the pressure to succeed quickly. She rolled up her sleeves and began to aggressively pursue advertising with local businesses as a means of generating revenue for the magazine, and before you knew it, it became a profitable endeavor. She soon discovered she really enjoyed making a real, tangible product that made an impact on those who read the magazine. She also enjoyed the business side (marketing and sales) as well as the creative side (making the product itself). Thus, a passion for marketing was born and Sarah’s vision began to manifest itself. She wanted to become a leader within business marketing.

Sarah, newly armed with her vision of being a marketing leader, set her sights on a very specific goal: To work in the environmental department of Disney in a marketing position. Her passion for marketing was equally matched by her passion for the entertainment industry and her minor in environmental systems made it a natural fit. So she did what every other person would do in pursuit of this job. She sent her resume in.

She didn’t hear back for nearly a month and a half. Sound familiar? Most of us have been through this process.

Luckily for Sarah, Disney ended up hosting a booth at the UCLA Career Fair. Score! She had a chance to chat with the recruiter for a few minutes to discuss her goals and interests within Disney. However, despite having a good conversation with the recruiter, she still had not heard anything further about her job prospects.

Shortly thereafter, Sarah and I held a conference call to brainstorm about ways to gain more mindshare from Disney. We talked about reaching out more proactively, about keeping in touch with the recruiter, about finding personal mentors who had connections in the industry, about going to alumni events to find possible existing Disney employees to network with and to attend industry events. It was an incredibly productive session, but I noticed she carried a sense of frustration and hesitation around the action items we talked about. Ultimately, it would require a catalyst event to drive her to change her mindset to truly push herself.

What are You Scanning?

That catalyst happened much sooner than I expected.

One day, after a long full schedule of classes and club meetings, Sarah came home to her dorm room at around 10 PM and found her roommate trying to use her scanner.

Her roommate asked, “Can you help me scan something?”

“For what?” she asked.

“I’m applying for a job and need to scan my resume.”

“What are you applying for?” she inquired a bit further.

“A marketing internship at Walt Disney.”

Sarah’s heart sank.

At that very moment, she walked outside feeling completely upset. Her roommate, a pre-med major, was applying and competing for the same dream job she was aiming for! Plus, to take it a step further, her roommate had a connection with an alumni member who was a VP at Disney. Sarah wanted this internship so badly, yet it seemed to be even more out of reach now.

Three thoughts raced through her mind:

Plan A: Find a way to get that internship by going above and beyond what she was doing today to make it happen.

Plan B: Find another job in an industry or job role she’s wasn’t as passionate about.

Plan C: Give up the job search.

This is where a major mindset shift occurred. She had to make a decisive decision.

Sarah could only think of one choice. She had to choose none of those options and had to create her own instead.

She thought, “I have to do anything to get this.”

Excuses about being patient, about being courteous, about being piled in a deep stack of resumes went out the window. It was time to take action.

In waiting patiently for her resume to be reviewed and having not heard back in a very long period of time, Sarah had inevitably and unconsciously branded herself as being “just another applicant” in the pool of job hunters aiming for the same position.

A Little Bit of Gumption

Her brand received an instant boost when she changed her mindset and took action to be proactive. She started off by reaching out to Jenny the recruiter to find out if any progress was being made with regards to a live interview. By doing this she ended up with a live phone interview with Jenny. Then she asked her roommate, yes – the same girl who was her competition - to refer her to the VP of Disney. Being the great friend that she was, she referred her! Imagine that – your competition sees how passionate you are about your vision and wants to help you get there. Not only did she change her mindset, she succeeded in changing her roommate’s as well. It’s amazing what can happen when you combine courage with a little bit of gumption!

It paid off – Sarah ended up getting an interview.

Sarah spent 6 hours just to prepare for her Disney interview. Most people don’t spend more than 6 minutes preparing for a job interview. Talk about pushing yourself to shine.

Persistence is key. Sarah learned this along the way as she pursued the job at Disney. After her two phone interviews, the recruiter told her she would most likely get a call back in a week. Sarah didn’t hear back and her heart sank a little in the process. But rather than give up by staying complacent, Sarah followed back up later on with the recruiter. It paid off. Before she knew it, she was scheduling a live interview with the recruiter. She was excited and nervous at the same time – this was her big opportunity.

Sarah’s interview with Disney turned out to be much less nerve racking than she imagined. Held at the local Starbucks on site, the interview went well over the 30 minutes allotted (always a good sign). The long hours of preparation combined with her passion made it a very natural interview and soon she was touring the facility with the recruiter. At the end of the day, she felt good about the interview because she tried her best.

One warm Sunday afternoon, Sarah and I met over brunch at a café one day to relive the journey she had gone through. As she ate her strawberry pancakes and as I munched down my oatmeal, we talked through her job hunting experience. We talked about how far she had come, about the peaks and valleys she had been through and what an incredible experience it had been. We even had a chance to laugh about the moment she caught her roommate submitting her resume to Disney.

I couldn’t help but feel an immense sense of happiness for her. Here was the same person that had reached out to me months ago expressing frustration and doubt about landing her dream job, and today, she was brimming with confidence and an incredibly positive mindset.

She had moved mountains in the last few months and she deserved to be proud.

And if you’re curious as to whether or not she succeeded – the answer is yes – she did land her dream job with Disney.

I asked Sarah what she would want to say to all the job seekers if she could leave them with just one lasting impression.

She asked me to write:

“If you really have passion, someone will see that. If you really want something, go out and get it. If you think you’re trying hard, try harder because you can push yourself more than you think.”

Key Theme #1 - Be persistent

There will be times where you hit the proverbial wall and you’ll want to quit. Sarah hit it numerous times in her story.

Admit it, we’ve all felt that way at one point or another. It could be the lack of responses you’re getting from submitting your resume, it could be your parents yelling at you wondering why you can’t land a job, or it could be the interviewer telling you “We’ll call you if we’re interested.”

The key is to keep you eye on the prize and to stay the course. One of the biggest mistakes someone can make is to give a small amount of effort and then to give up once they hit a bump into the road. If you’re not willing to fight through the tough moments, then maybe that goal isn’t really something you want.

Think about that for a second.

How much do you really want to reach your goals?

Because if you really want it, you’ll persist and push until you get there. And if you fail, you’ll yearn to understand why you failed so that you can learn from it and improve.

Unlock your mind and you can unlock your potential.

Old School: “I’m a victim of a bad employment market – it’s not my fault.”

New School: “I’m going to control what I can – like the number of jobs I apply to, the amount of time and energy I put into preparing for an interview and my persistence. Because of this I will be successful at the end of the day.”

Old School: “I don’t believe in the power of positive thinking.”

New School: “If I push my mindset to be positive, it’ll impact my attitude, confidence, and work ethic for the better.”

Key Theme #2 - Build a standout resume

“A good resume outlines what’s been done. A great resume outlines what’s possible.”

Make your resume a living, breathing reflection of the great potential that you have. People will notice.

If you want to be extraordinary, you’ve got to go beyond the traditional resume. Since many companies require the resume during the job application process, I’m going to teach you how to build an amazing one.

I’ve seen a lot of resumes in my time. It typically goes something like this: name, contact information, objective, work experience by chronological order, education, achievements and interests.

Sound familiar?

Here’s the thing – there are key elements you need to learn to avoid so that you don’t end up with a resume that gets tossed aside. Lucky for you, there is a set of secret tips I will personally share with you to help you shine above and beyond the crowd.

Let’s start with the mistakes you want to avoid:

Misspelling – Double check your resume for spelling errors. You’d be amazed at some of the spelling errors interviewers have seen on resumes. It looks sloppy if you have spelling errors, so take the time to make it perfect! Are you double checking your spelling?

Grammar – Ditto on the grammar.

Have style done tastefully – If you choose to have a uniquely designed resume, make sure you’re either great at graphic design and editing or hire someone who is. There are a multitude of designers out there on elance.com and designcrowd.com!

Vague language – Be specific in your accomplishments and your work experience – otherwise it’ll look like you’re hiding something. Are you specific in your messaging?

Don’t lie - Always be honest, you may not have the work experience or educational background they’re looking for right off the bat, but that’s ok. It’s better to be honest at the end of the day. Let me give you an example of why. Let’s say you lie about your experience and your skill sets and they believe you and hire you for the job. Chances are, at some point your weaknesses and lack of experience will most likely be exposed, and now you’ve officially burned a bridge with that employer. By the way, each vertical is typically a much smaller network of contacts and companies than you might think, especially if they’re successful. So don’t lie – you could very well end up blacklisting yourself. Ask yourself - are you being honest at the end of the day?

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get into the good stuff. Here’s a set of secret tips that can help your resume grab the attention of the interviewer:

Sharpen your objective: All too often I see vague objectives like this: “Looking for a professional career in the field of sales”

So what’s the problem with that? Let’s break it down.

• It’s not specific to the company – Heck, not only did the person not mention the company, he didn’t even mention what industry he was aiming for! Talk about lack of customization (and in the interviewer’s eye, a lack of effort). If you’re blasting out a generic objective to 50 companies, that’s exactly how your resume will come across to them – generic. Are you customizing your objective to the company?

• It doesn’t explain how you’re going to help the company – It just talks about YOU, YOU, YOU. Stop talking about your needs and start to take the perspective of the interviewer / company hiring you. What are they looking for in a hire that will help THEIR business? I’ll give you an example of a better way to write an objective: To drive net new customer relationships and to cultivate existing ones resulting in a large impact on sales at Cloud Computing Inc. as a sales professional. Always ask yourself this question – “If I were in their shoes, what would I want to see?” So – are you writing about how you’re going to help them?

Highlight business and organizational impact, don’t just highlight a list of tasks - When it comes down to the real heart of the resume, the majority of interviewers spend a good amount of their time discussing your work experience. So let’s talk about how we make your work experience showcase your best characteristics!

Here’s an example of a vanilla flavored description of someone’s work experience:

Acme Inc. January 2010 - Present

Account Manager

• Provided Fortune 1000 clients with technology solutions

• Drove revenue by consultative selling to customers

• Won numerous awards throughout the year

• Collaborated with other teammates on numerous projects

• Trained and enabled channel partners to sell our solutions

Guess what? These work experiences are a DIME a dozen. These descriptions are so vague, you could literally pull these descriptions from a job listing, so how do you expect it to stand out to the interviewer?

Here’s the RIGHT way to showcase business and organizational impact through your work experience:

• Give details (think names of companies, names of people, specific solutions you offered, specific business metrics)

• Always think of and present the business impact you’ve made on the company

• Use metrics to show the impact

Here’s an example of a revamped resume:

• Consulted 5 Fortune 1000 clients including GE, Amgen, Wal-Mart, Genentech, Exxon on technology solutions such as Video Conferencing, Wireless, and Voice over IP.

• Drove revenue and achieved 150% of plan on a $40M quota

• Won numerous awards including “Leadership award for sharing best practices with teammates” and “Operational excellence award”

• Collaborated with the Video Conferencing business unit to give feedback on potential product improvements to ultimately help drive higher customer satisfaction

• Trained and enabled 100 of the top solution providers through live, in person trainings and online Webex trainings, helping to drive 40% YoY partner revenue growth

Read both examples again.

Who seems like the rockstar hire to you?

Which potential hire seems to be more accountable for their work?

Which potential hire seems to exhibit a true passion for their work?

But here’s the reality, at the end of the day, bragging about how great you are just isn’t that credible. You’ve got to take it a step further.

CREDIBILITY – Build credibility and the trust will build itself. Just make sure you do it through the words of others.

I’ll give you an example.

Let’s say you’re strolling down the street and you see a Cafe that says “Best Coffee in California” on its sign. This despite the fact that the coffee beans looks like they’ve been sitting on the shelf for years and the dust on the counter is nearly an inch thick. And it also happens to be empty without any customers in there.

Does the self-proclaiming sign that states it’s the best coffee out there in the state automatically make you believe it really is the best out there? Chances are you’re still skeptical because of the details you’ve noticed in the store.

This day and age, doesn’t it feel like everyone will say whatever it takes in order to get the sale?

BUT – what if – you logged into your smart phone, looked up reviews by OTHER peers on the restaurant and found they truly enjoyed the cafe and then gave it the highest rating possible. In fact, they were downright raving about how this coffee was unlike any other. “This place is amazing! You have to try it at least once. But trust me, you’ll want to come back!” We call this the “Yelping” phenomenon.

Would that potentially get you to go to that cafe now?

Thought so.

Let me give you another example, you’re at a wine and cheese party and everyone’s introducing their friends to each other. You walk up to someone and you begin to tell them how you’re the best customer service representative in the company and how you just won the top customer service award from the company.

Most people would call this – you guessed it – bragging.

BUT if your friend introduces you, and begins to talk about this great story of how you had a really rude customer chewing you out over the price of a product, and how you handled it with complete calm and care and even referred them to a competing business so that they could get what they wanted, well gosh, now you look like a customer service champion.

It’s the combination of a great story and a reference from someone else that makes for building great credibility. By the way, if you haven’t tried this, give it a shot. Introduce your friends to others by raving about their accomplishments and you’ll see the difference in the way they’re perceived.

So let’s bring it back to the world of interviewing.

Most people tend to talk about their top attributes and how great they are and their achievements and so forth…

Which is good, but wouldn’t it be that much more effective if someone else was in that room speaking praises on your behalf?

Of course it would! Why do you think customer testimonials are so effective?

Okay – with that said, I get it – you usually can’t bring in a reference into the interview with you. But what you can do is get their reference written down or filmed on video.

These references came come in many different forms:

• A reference letter – this is the most formal version where the person writes a letter recommending you. Effective, yes, but often tedious for the interviewer to read multiple letters.

• A one page collection of quotes and snippets – this is the less formal version that showcases many different references (usually one to a few sentences) from many different sources so that people get a broader scope of references.

• Recommendations on LinkedIn

• Film video testimonials and upload them onto Youtube.com or your website

Here are some examples:

“Jim was instrumental in coordinating the engineering team and the sales team to collaborate on the newest product design. This resulted in faster product development for us which allowed us to be the first producer in the marketplace.” – John Smith – CEO of ACME Inc.

“Jim is a true leader in the organization – his ideas, ability to manage large teams and willingness to take on the challenging business tasks has made a huge impact on this company” – Paul Wilson, VP of ACME Inc.

So who should you get references from? Here’s a list below:

• Upper management (Think CXOs, VPs, Directors, and Managers that you have interacted with in the past) – Upper management references carry a lot of weight. Period. It shows that your work was good enough to warrant their praise and attention!

• Peers – sometimes these can be the best references for you – remember they’ve been in the trenches with you side by side and can often give the most detailed references / quotes

• Employees you’ve managed – This is great way to see if you’re an effective leader

• Charities you’ve supported / volunteered for – This also shows you care about giving back to the community

• Mentors – If you have professional and personal mentors, leverage them as references

• Professors – If you don’t have work experience, reach out to the professors you’ve got a strong relationship with to get references from them. If you don’t have any, start to be more proactive in building out those relationships! Go to their office hours!

Exercises

1. Build your network of references today – Ask at least 10 people for a recommendation (video or written). And then sit back, relax and watch as your interviewers come away impressed with the number of people who will vouch for your work.

2. Revamp your work experience – Go through each line item description of your work experience and ask yourself, how does this showcase my ability and the results of my great work? Rewrite it so that it does.

Telling someone how good you are is good, but having someone else say it on your behalf is better.

Old School: “But my job role doesn’t allow me to impact the organization in any meaningful way.”

New School: “I will find a way in my current job role to truly impact the organization in a way that creates value.”

Old School: “I don’t have any great stories to tell.”

New School: “I may not have great stories yet, but I’ll start to create success stories and document them as they occur”

Old School: “I don’t have any references to pull quotes from to vouch for me.”

New School: “I will reach out to my network of contacts to ask them to be my references.”

Key Theme #3 – Interviewing is inspiring

“At the end of the day, every person is driven by the need to connect with another person. Master that connection through communication and you will find personal and professional success.”

The interview is the ultimate platform from which you can PERSUADE and INSPIRE an interviewer to hire you.

And you usually get one chance. No pressure right?

Let’s first talk about the basics of interviewing. Here are key tips on what to look out for:

•  Be on time – One of the best mentors I ever had this saying: “Being on time is being 15 minutes early.” The reason this works well is because if you arrived right on time – it may not be on time from the interviewer’s perspective (their clock could be faster or your clock’s time could be slower). Another reason is that you’ll be more composed having the 15 minutes to collect your thoughts and to catch your breath. If you arrived there right on time, you might have that feeling of “scrambling” to get there on time. Also, if you know you’re more likely to encounter heavy traffic or parking issues, then plan to be there 30 minutes to an hour ahead of time if it’s possible. If you get there too early and have time to burn, bring your laptop so that you can still be productive during the wait time (reviewing your resume, the company research you’ve put together, your list of questions and so forth)

•  Dress to Impress / Hygiene –Shine your shoes, wear a nice dress shirt that’s been pressed, make sure you don’t have lint on your suit, comb your hair (and make sure you washed it recently too!), brush your teeth, use mouthwash, make sure you shaved your beard / mustache or at least have it neatly trimmed. When you’re on top of your wardrobe, you’ll feel like you’re on top of the world. It’ll help to build your confidence.

•  Bring multiple copies of your resume – It’s always good to have extras in your folder. Especially since you’ll probably go on more than one interview, you don’t want to show up without a copy. That would be embarrassing!

•  Invest in a folder, pen and notepad – It will look much more professional than just walking in with a notepad by itself. You don’t necessarily have to get a leather notepad that costs a lot of money – there are plenty of cheaper options that don’t use leather material. You’ll always want to bring a pen so that you can take notes – it shows that you’re listening and will also help you recap the discussion you’ve had with the interviewer when you send a follow up thank you email.

So we’ve covered the basic tips of how to prepare for a successful interview. Let’s dive deeper into the more advanced skills required that really make your interview shine:

• Passion - I put this up as the #1 differentiator on this list for a reason. Passion creates excitement. Passion shows genuine interest. Passion grabs the attention of the interviewer. Passion rubs off on others. Most people don’t show it in an interview.

I’ll be the first to admit, I remember interviewing for a very prestigious company for a financial analyst role. Yet despite the great salary, the brand, and the prestige that came with the job, I was never passionate about the work itself. It showed in my interview – in my body language, in my tone of voice, and in my responses.

I never got the offer.

And it was for the better – imagine going into a job you know you’re not passionate about and yet you’re spending more then 50% of your time there. So remember, always find an opportunity you’re passionate about it. Employers will notice your genuine interest.

•  Build rapport – Learning to build rapport is an incredibly valuable skill set. Many people argue this is one of the most important business skills students learn in college, and ironically, it’s not typically learned in the classroom. Building rapport is important because it establishes a connection between you and the interviewer (putting them at ease typically). It shows that you’re friendly, confident, and comfortable with the interviewing environment, and it makes you likeable. The key to building rapport is to be genuine. Many people like to build rapport using “staged” comments. Staged comments occur when you talk about a subject but don’t genuinely mean it. For example, you could say “Gosh, isn’t the weather great today?” but if you say it in a way that lacks sincerity, chances are you won’t be able to build rapport off of that comment. A better way to build rapport is to ask questions where you’re genuinely interested in the answers. For example, you should only ask “How’s your day going?” if you have a genuine curiosity around how the person’s day is. And after you ask the question, make sure you LISTEN to their response. And then respond based off their response. People tend to build rapport faster when they feel like they connect with you, and if you aren’t listening to what they’re saying, chances are you aren’t connecting with them.

Rapport is driven by a genuine curiosity. Everyone has a story to tell – and it’s your job to find out what that story is.

Need help learning how to build rapport? Start to integrate more meaningful conversations in your every day life. Here are some examples of where you can try to build rapport with people you don’t know:

• The dry cleaners

• People in different departments you haven’t met yet

• Friends of friends

• Networking groups

• Café

• Sports club or a public sports area

• Farmer’s markets / supermarkets

The key to building rapport in these situations is to also do it within context. For example, if you’re at a café and a stranger is in line in front of you, asking them about how to cook chicken thighs probably isn’t a great topic of discussion (you would probably use that if you were in the meat section of the supermarket). See how context affects the conversation?

Qualify the company – You have immense value.

Recognize your skills. Recognize your intelligence. Recognize your passion. Recognize your potential. Every person in this world brings value in a different form to this world. Given what you bring to the table, companies should WANT to hire you. So it’s important to keep that in mind as you interview. At the end of the day, as much as the company is qualifying you, it’s important for you to qualify them as well. Why is this important? It shows that you understand that this is a mutual investment of time, energy and money on both sides (you and the company). This also shows the company that you’re valuable and that you have options. Additionally, it’s important for you to do this to understand what type of company you’re joining. For example, do you truly want to work at a company that sells typewriters in this day and age? Chances are they’re probably going out of business or aren’t profitable given the proliferation of computers and tablets. Thus, qualification questions allows you to discover:

• Career growth

• Pay

• Work environment

• Work life balance

Check out my bonus chapter for a huge list of questions you can ask the interviewer!

Tell a story - Here’s one of the hardest things to learn for an interview.

It’s the art of story telling.

That’s right. Ends up the stuff our parents have been doing for us since we were kids is actually one of the best soft skills you could ever learn for your career.

Here’s why:

People loved to be enthralled, thrilled and entertained. It’s a part of human nature (and has been throughout history!). The fact of the matter is, a story is SO much more interesting to listen to than a simple factual statement. Think about it – who are the ones who are usually surrounded by other people at a cocktail party? It’s the people with great stories!

Factual Statement Example: I worked really hard last year, met with a lot of clients through cold calling, and that’s how I hit 150% of my $40M quota.

Story Telling Example: At the beginning of the year, I was really struggling to generate pipeline amongst my five largest potential clients since I was new to the role. So instead of moping around, I thought up creative ideas on how to get in front of clients. For example, after one late night of brainstorming in the office, I decided to make short films introducing myself. During these clips I would also discuss the financial impact that my solutions would make on their business. I then sent each of the customized short films to the CEO, CIO and CFO of the company. Within days I had received calls from all 5 companies and began to meet with them in person to consult them on our solutions! It really showed me that hard work combined with creativity can truly pay dividends. That’s how I got to 150% of my number.

When you tell stories, keep in mind there’s many different formats you can leverage including:

• Rags to riches story – How you went from being in a complete slump to being the champ that you are today. Admit it, isn’t one of the most interesting stories to read usually about someone who came from nothing and became a self made billionaire?

• The underdog story – How you overcame all odds to win. People love the story of the underachiever rising to the occasion!

• The “overcoming your fear” story – This is a great way to highlight how you stepped up to the plate despite having reservations to begin with

• The “funny” story – humor is one of the best tools you can leverage – if you can pull it off. Just remember, don’t offend anyone and if you even slightly question the content of your potential “humorous” story, it’s probably not worth risking.

Tell stories. You’ll see a HUGE difference when you do.

Need help finding stories? Well every time you accomplish something with your peers or by yourself, make sure you document and get it on paper. Put it into a word document, an excel file, whatever it might be – and consistently update it each time you have a success story. Before you know it, you’ll have a huge repository to pull from!

Have an interactive conversation with the interviewer – You’re not a robot, so don’t act like one! It’s good to prepare you answers for potential questions, but make sure you don’t try to squeeze in one of your monologue answers in to a question that doesn’t quite fit it. I’ve heard stories of this happening before and it just makes the candidate look like he/she didn’t listen to the question. Make sure you truly listen to their questions and statements. At the end of the day, most interviews aren’t an incredibly structured checklist. While there are some usual main components covered such as work and educational experience, interviews tend to vary from company to company.

• Eye contact – Strong eye contact with the person you’re talking to demonstrates confidence to the interviewer. Practice looking people in the eye when you talk with them and you’ll notice a different level of engagement in this process.

• Firm Handshake – People can’t stand a flimsy handshake. It shows a lack of confidence.

• Be a storyteller – After seeing 5-8 interviews in a day, most interviewers tend to hear the same type of answers over and over again. “I’m a team player that loves to work with large groups,” “I’m really good if it’s related to analytical skills.” These answers are fine, but they’re often very generic and quite boring. If you want to get people excited, inspired and persuaded to think that you are truly unique and full of potential, share stories that demonstrate these attributes that you would normally discuss. Stories are memorable and much easier for them to relay to other people.

• Close the interview strong – If you truly believe the company is a good fit for you to develop your career in, express that to the company and ask them if they believe you’re a good fit as well. One, this provides you with more clarity about your chances, and two it shows them that this is a job that you want. If you had to choose between two equally qualified prospects, would you rather have the person who wants to be at the company or the one who didn’t say where they stood?

Old School: “I don’t need to practice my interviewing skills.”

New School: “Prepping for an interview is integral ingredient to my success.”

Key Theme #4 - Believe in Yourself

This is by far one of the most important pieces to consider. You’ve got to make sure your heart is in the right place and that you truly believe in yourself and the work you’ll be doing. When that’s in place, it’ll come across to the interviewer.

If you don’t believe in yourself, how do you expect to convince someone else to believe in you? If you lack conviction in yourself, you’ve got to ask yourself “why?”

If it’s a lack of work experience, find an internship and work for free if you can afford to. If it’s a lack of education, enroll in the classes that will help you prep for the job or study harder to get better grades.

Put in the work to create that self-belief.

It’ll make all the difference.

Don’t be afraid to fail

People fear failure. People fear pain. People fear rejection.

You don’t need to fear it. You need to embrace it.

Failure can be one of our most rewarding experiences in life because we can learn from it. Once you learn from it, you can improve.

Think successful people haven’t encountered failure before? Take a look at these stories below:

Henry Ford failed twice in business before he finally went on to build the Ford Motor Company; and became one of the richest men in the world. He has this to say about his business failures:

"Failure is just a resting place. It is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently." – Henry Ford

What if he gave up after his first business failure?

Colonel Sanders was 65 when he first began to fulfill his dream. After he received his first social security check for $105, he began going door to door at restaurants to sell his chicken recipe. He spent 2 years sleeping in the back seat of his car in that iconic white suit and was turned down 1,009 before he heard his first “yes.” Talk about overcoming failure! Instead of giving up he learned how to improve from his failures.

What if he gave up after 1,008 tries?

Thomas Edison was consistently told by his teachers that he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He didn’t fare any better in work, as he was fired from his first two jobs for not being productive. As an inventor, he failed 1,000 times in his quest of inventing the light bulb. However, after all those tries, he finally discovered a design that worked. Now he’s considered the one of the most prolific inventors of our time.

What if he accepted failure?

Van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime to a friend and it was for a tiny amount of money. While he never was a huge financial success during his lifetime, he continued to paint despite starving at times. He finished over 800 pieces of art and today they are worth hundred of millions of dollars.

What if he pursued a “normal” job?

Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was four and didn’t read until he was seven. His parents and teachers thought he was mentally handicapped. He only turned out to win a Nobel Prize and be the face of modern physics.

What if he gave up?

I just shared with you 5 stories of enormously successful people who went through MASSIVE failure to reach their goals. Anytime you feel like giving up, remember these stories.

To this day, I’ve yet to meet anyone in my life that has told me that they’ve never experienced failure in some shape or form, whether it’s small or large. It’s inevitable. It’s a part of the life. The key is to learn from it and to understand how you COULD be better off because of the lessons learned.

Don’t let fear hold you back from pursuing your dream job. Otherwise if you never take any action, how will you ever progress from where you are today? You don’t want to look back 30 years from now with regret. Appreciate each and every day as an opportunity to progress towards your goals.

Remind yourself of what failure feels like

“Fall down 7 times, get up 8.” – Japanese Proverb

Benny Hsu, the creator of the “Photo 365” iPhone App, wasn’t always an entrepreneur. In October 2010, he had a breaking point after a day of work at his job. He had always wanted to pursue his true passion versus working in the family restaurant business. He truly exemplifies a story of success in the midst of failure.

I know what some of you are thinking. Why am I telling his story when it doesn’t have anything to do with job hunting?

The answer is that it does.

Remember what I said the purpose of this book was? To help you do what you love – for work.

And for Benny, it’s entrepreneurship.

Here is his story.

Back in the Old Days

For years I have tried to make money online. I have tried PPC, making niche sites and starting blogs. I dreamt of making money online, however, after a few months each of those ventures ended with me quitting.

I got frustrated I wasn’t seeing the results I wanted to see. I had doubts if I could really do it. I lost interest.

I hated my job and constantly thought of what else I could do. I didn’t know what I wanted, but I kept coming back to the idea of doing something online.

Last October 2010, I had my breaking point after a horrible night at my miserable job. For the past five years, I’ve wanted to do something I loved instead of working in the family restaurant business. I hated it so much. I hated what I had done with my life. Instead of doing something about it, I just thought about it and watched lots of television to forget about it.

In the car ride home that night, I felt upset at myself. For too long I hoped for a better life but that’s where I made my mistake. I was hoping and not doing.

That night I came home and wrote a note to myself to stop living like this. I needed to start finding what I wanted to do with my life. I needed to do that every day until I did. No more complaining. No more excuses.

I taped that note to my bathroom mirror and above my desk where I could be reminded it of it every day.

Found My Inspiration

Then one day I came across Smartpassiveincome.com. I was immediately hooked by the content and the story of Pat Flynn.

Here was a guy who was laid off from his job and built a business selling an ebook. From there he began to teach others how to make money online. He mentioned making iPhone apps as one part of his business. He didn’t know how to code, so he outsourced the work. Now he was making thousands a month. Truly passive income! That gave me inspiration that I could at least get an app created.

It took a few months till I got an idea. By this time, I’m still motivated and taking action. In January 2011, I bought an ebook he recommended called “How to Create an iPhone App with No Experience”.  Without that book, I would have been lost and confused.

Grand Opening Day

Fast forward to seven months later. August 11, 2011. My app Photo 365 was ready to be sold. I priced it at 99 cents. I didn’t know what to expect.

I wrote a goal of being in the top 5 of all photography apps and in the top 25 of the whole app store. Crazy goals and I had no idea how I’d get there.

Also, I just wanted to make my money back. I spent $1892 on the app, plus $99 to sell my app through Apple, and then $10 on the theme. I wanted at least to break even.

This might have been an expensive experience, but I would have been okay to not make all my money back. It’s like gambling. Don’t bet more than you can afford to lose. I knew selling app is a gamble because there are 425,000 apps in the store.

I did no marketing for my app besides telling friends on Twitter and Facebook (thank you to those who did!)

The only marketing I was counting on was being seeing in the App store because that’s where it matters the most.

Thursday arrived and my app was ready to be sold. Being a new app, I was featured in the new releases in the photo category. I would have a high position only for that day till the next day when new apps were released.

Exciting to see it live in iTunes!

You can’t tell how many people find your app through keywords. So I just assume the majority of the people found my app through browsing.

The first four days my app was for sale I made:

•  Thursday – $80.88

•  Friday – $182.06

•  Saturday – $366.86

•  Sunday – $287.25

•  Total – $917.05

Great!! Exciting! More than I had imagined!! I was just hoping for $50 a day. Making my money back seemed reachable! Plus I could get more to cover the cost of future updates.

But then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday proved to be slower days. My app was falling because it was getting lost with all the other new releases in my category. Unless people found me through keywords, they wouldn’t find me as easily. My thoughts of making my money back slowly faded away.

•  Monday – $151.26

•  Tuesday – $78.12

•  Wednesday – $64.63

•  Total – $294.01

Still great numbers but after sales figures went so high last week, I was dejected by the decrease. I felt like I was losing my momentum just after less than a week.

Then Thursday Changed My Life

I had a busy day at work and hadn’t checked the rank of my app all day because I figured it was only going down. (Rankings of your apps are based on downloads. It updates every couple hours).

Then at 10:00 pm, I decided to check the App store just to see what the new featured apps were for the week. I was bored.

I’ve never won the lottery before but I imagine if I did, I would react the same way when I saw my app on that page.

I was amazed, in disbelief and shocked. I reloaded the page so many times.

Can this be real?

From what I had read from other developers, being featured in the “New and Noteworthy” category meant lots of eyes seeing your app and potential downloads. Not only was I in the group of 32 apps featured, I was “above the fold!” I quickly called my sister to make sure this wasn’t just on my iPhone. She checked and said she saw it too! When I checked my rankings that morning I was at a lowly #92 in the photography category. Now I was #12! Higher ranking means more downloads.

That night I couldn’t sleep. I could not wait to see sales figures for the next day. It felt like Christmas Eve.

When I checked I saw I made….$685.10!!!!

Unbelievable. Speechless. Awesome!

I knew that my app would be featured from Thursday till Wednesday. I also knew the weekends are the most profitable times. I braced myself to see what would happen over the weekend. Again I couldn’t sleep each night.

• Friday – $1226.44

• Saturday – $1186.89

• Total – $2413.33!

Wow!!!! I couldn’t believe it!! $1000+ in a day is still mind boggling to me!

Then on Sunday, Pat Flynn pointed out my App was featured on the App store Facebook fan page that has 2.5 million fans. As of this post, it has 881 “likes” for my app.

That pushed my app up to #44 overall and to #3 in the photo category behind two of my favorite photo apps, Camera+ and Hipstamatic. Those are app companies.

I’m just a Chinese American from Florida who outsourced work to the Ukraine.

I knew sales would be bigger than Friday and Saturday based on the rankings all day Sunday. I just didn’t know how big till I checked.

Nearly doubled from the day before!

3,343 downloads of my app! Nearly doubled from Saturday. It comes to $2328.91!

So my total for Friday, Saturday, Sunday was

•  $4,739.24

The total since I’ve been selling the app is $6636.52!

I still can’t believe it. My little app turned into something bigger than I imagined. I know I worked hard. I know I’m lucky. I’m very thankful. I appreciate every single download!

This all happened while I worked all weekend. I could have been on a beach somewhere! However, I put in the seven months of work to get to this point.

There’s no telling if these figures can sustain. I understand that. I just have to find ways to keep up the momentum. It’s going to take work to keep up the expectations of current users and attract new users. This is what I signed up for so I’m ready for the next part of this journey. Thinking back why this time was different that other times I’ve tried to make money online, there were some factors that you can learn from it.

Failure Was Not an Option

A huge difference this time compared to other times I have tried, was believing creating an app was possible. Pat had already done it. The two guys who wrote the guide had done it. Other regular people like you and I have done it with no experience.

They started from the beginning and learned every step of the way.

Failure was not an option. Not this time. I invested my time and importantly my money. I had to believe I could get this done.

In fact, I didn’t have to force myself to believe it. I knew I would get this done.

Exercises

Here are a few ideas of how you can remind yourself to stay on course to pursue your passion and dream job:

1. Stick a note near your computer (on the screen, on the wall or on your desk)

2. Do a social networking 365 project – Update your status on this goal each day on your Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Social pressure is often a great way to get you motivated!

3. Make a bet with a friend that you can complete your goal – they will act as a reminder to you

4. Take a picture every time you make progress – for example, you could take a picture of your resume as you improve it. Then at the end of the month you can review the photos to see what you’ve completed

5. Write a daily update on a blog

E is for Enjoy

“If it’s sunny outside, that’s enough for me.”

I first met Jerry* at a local seminar I was presenting at for customers. I was about to handout the presentation when he walked in. He was about my height (5’10”) with short brown hair and was sporting the “nicest guy on earth” smile.

“Are you Nelson?”

“Oh, hey! You must be Jerry. Great to meet you…Welcome to the team!”

We shook hands.

“So where are you coming from?”

“Chicago.”

“That’s a heck of a trek to come all the way out here to LA, how do you like it so far?”

We chatted for a while and I could tell he was excited to join the team in a field sales role. I knew he was going to be a great teammate to work with. After the seminar was over, we discussed meeting for dinner to discuss business strategy. So we decided to meet a few days later at a local burger placed called “Father’s Office.”

So, a few days later, we’re sitting down at Father’s Office, eating arguably the best burger of our lives, talking about how intense a sales role could be.

To my surprise, he actually brushed off the remark. And then he dropped a bombshell on me.

“You’d be surprised Nelson, I’ve been through a lot.”

I tilted my head a bit, trying to process what he meant.

“What do you mean?”

“I actually flat-lined once.”

I looked at him blankly.

“What?”

“I literally flat lined in the hospital. Both my kidneys had failed.”

I stopped chewing. My eyes literally popped out my head.

You see, Jerry is no average Joe. He is an extraordinary human being. He is a man who has defied odds. He is an inspiration to all. And most importantly, he is a reminder to us all that we need to live each and every day fully.

Look, a dream job is great. But it’s not if you’re working 90 hours a week, neglecting your family and friends and feeling like death.

So take a step back. Breathe. Take a moment for yourself. Heck, take two moments. Relax.

And remember to cherish each and every day.

We’re given a limited time on earth and it’s important to enjoy and to appreciate what we’ve been given. His story reminds us why.

Here is his story.

Blind

I wake up blind. I feel like my eyes are sewn shut. I can’t move my arms. You could not pay me a million dollars to move my arms. But I can feel that my arms are there.

That’s when I knew things had gone terribly wrong…

I screamed out for my mom.

The beginning

I was raised by a single mom, the youngest of three brothers. My father had left my mother when I was very young. My mom worked her ass off, and had three jobs to clothe and feed us. She would clean houses, work at a tanning salon and work as a nursing assistant. Eventually she found a full time job as a toll road worker.

Anyway, recently, I had been living in Chicago and I was sitting with my friend Samantha and Steve Jobs had just passed. She showed me his video of his Stanford Commencement Speech. He talks about about connecting the dots in life – he said, you can’t connect the dots looking forward and you can’t connect the dots looking backward. And I just saw LA as the next “dot.”

Something in my life wanted me to be fulfilled in Los Angeles. It could have been to meet someone, my career, at the end of the day, I can’t pinpoint it but I knew I was destined to be in LA. So I moved here.

Moving away from Chicago was hard. Not because of missing out on my friends. Not because of the change of scenery.

It was because it would be hard to leave my mother. That’s how close we are.

When I tell you my story…you’ll understand why.

Swollen Ankles

The day after high school prom, I woke up with my ankles completely swollen. To the point where I can’t even put on shoes. So, I began to think, I must have had an allergic reaction so I take some Benadryl, thinking I was bit by something, but it just keeps getting worse and worse, both ankles!

They were huge and shaped like baseballs.

My mom took one look and said, oh my god, you were dancing all night, maybe you sprained it or something. So, we go to the doctor and immediately he wants to do a urine test.

It’s almost like he knew right away.

He does the urine test, and he comes back and says, your kidneys are leaking. The protein is being leaked into your bloodstream. (When your kidneys start to deteriorate that’s the first sign.) At that point, I was diagnosed with Nephrotic syndrome (Nephrotic syndrome is caused by different disorders that damage the kidneys.)

The good news it was treatable with prescription drugs.

The problem was that there was no cure.

I’d have to be on prescription drugs the rest of my life, since there was no cure. The problem was it was only treatable with a steroid.

An oral steroid proceeded to change my life.

It changed everything about me. At this point, I’m about to turn 18 and it made me gain weight incredibly fast. Hair began growing in places that never grew hair before, like my shoulders and my hands. It also gave me moonface, where my face is always swollen and it would give me zits too. Lastly, it would make me sensitive to light and it made my body ache. And this is something I never share with anyone. At this point, I was young, naïve, stupid and could only think one thing.

I felt like a monster.

So I’m taking these pills every day for the rest of my life and living with these side effects and I felt dead inside as a person.

So I made up my mind that I had only one route left to take.

To let go.

A Phone Call That Changed My Life

So I go to Walgreens, and decide the way I’m going to end this is taking a bunch of sleeping pills. For some reason, I wanted to save $2 so I bought 60 of the generic branded sleeping pills. I thought I would take them, go to bed and it would be that easy. I remember listening to this Blink 182 song called “Adam’s Song,” and there was this line, “Please tell mom this is not her fault.” So on a piece of paper, I wrote, “Mom, this is not your fault, I love you.” I needed her to know it didn’t have anything to do with her. I’m about to take the pills.

I go to a get a glass of water and I’m just shaking.

And shaking.

And then all of a sudden…

The phone rings. My best friend Danny is on the line.

“Do you want to go see a movie or something?”

“You know I don’t want to go out in public.”

“Don’t you get it, nobody cares what you look like out in public. You’re still Jerry. We’re your friends. We love you. By the way man, you don’t sound good.”

“I just had a really bad day.”

“Do you want me to come over and we’ll just play that tennis game on your Nintendo 64?”

I paused.

“Yeah, I do.”

He comes over and that whole night we sit there and play video games, and we’re laughing and joking. And it sound so silly, but that idea of being young kicked the idea of suicide out of my head. I found comfort in that he didn’t care about how I looked and didn’t judge me.

So I never ended up taking the sleeping pills.

I’ve never told anyone this part of the story. But I want to now because I don’t want people to give up hope.

Anyway, later on, I decided I’m just going to go off the meds instead.

I did it because when I was on the meds, I wasn’t even myself anymore. I used to be this young, vibrant kid. And after the meds, I wouldn’t even go outside and I lost all my friends. Not because they were mean to me - nobody ever picked on me. But I just felt so ugly to the world. My friends tried to support me but I never let them in. I refused to let them in even though they reached out to me. My best friend Danny was the only person I spoke to about this that I would let see me. I felt comfortable with him.

I had been taking the meds for a year and I started to think that maybe I was cured. I take myself off the medicine. My mom was always very strict about it so I knew I had to be really smart about it. I knew I had to take 4 pills a day so I would make sure I got my refills on time. She started to notice however, that my hair, my puffy face and zits started going away. She was like, what’s going on? And I would say, oh, they lowered my dosage and my body is getting used to it. Everything appeared normal on the outside but I was killing my kidneys on the inside. I went on like this for 2 years in college.

During this time, I don’t always feel good and I get tired every now and then.

All of a sudden, my vision starts to get blurry and I start to get terrible headaches. This went on for weeks. And each day it’s just getting a little worse. I had just bought a new computer and I thought I was just staring at the computer for too long. I began taking Tylenol to combat the headaches. I did that until one day, I woke up and it’s pitch black.

I couldn’t open my eyes. They felt like they were sewn shut. And I couldn’t move my arms…I just yelled for my mom. “Mom! I can’t see…I can’t see!”

I was rushed to the emergency room.

The next thing you know, I wake up and my dad’s hand is on mine.

I’m in a cold hospital bed.

This was the first time I saw my dad in about 6 years. You see, I grew up resenting my dad. At one point I had written him off in my life. After all, I felt like he deserted us. But when I woke up in that hospital with his hand on mine, all that resentment went away. I felt so infantile, I felt so helpless and just to have my father there by my side, holding my hand was comforting. My instincts kicked in.

Anyway, they took my blood pressure, which was around 240 over 120 and they rush me into urgent care. My blood pressure, because my kidneys had failed, had gotten so high, that the blood vessels had popped and that’s why I couldn’t see. There was literally blood filling in my eye. My eyes were open but I couldn’t see because of the blood. I could have become irreversibly blind if I had waited longer. Luckily they were able to fix it.

Since my kidneys were now failing, this meant I needed to start kidney dialysis right away. What is dialysis? It’s living torture. I’m immediately rushed into surgery and a catheter is inserted into my chest. I still have scar of a hole on my chest. Think of it this way, two tubes are sticking out of my chest into this dialysis machine. Patients on long term dialysis have a fistula inserted into their arms. There was this huge circle thing literally inside my arm. Also, after surgery, I was told that the device in my shoulder was highly infectious, so I would have to be careful not to get water onto the area. As you can imagine, this made small tasks that we take for granted every day, like bathing, incredibly hard.

Living Torture

Dialysis is three days a week. I sit in a chair, I get hooked up to this machine and the tubes are hooked up to the sheet. My blood circulates through the machine and it cleans my blood. Which is basically what your kidney does – it removes toxins from your blood.

I couldn’t go to sleep during the procedure because right next to me the machines would be beeping.

I would lose 10 lbs in four hours in this process and I would feel just exhausted afterwards.

After the procedure finished, but because my body had lost so much weight, my blood pressure would drop dramatically and when that happened, I would faint. It’s crazy.

This would happen every single time.

One night, when I was laying in bed in the emergency room, all of a sudden, my head was spinning, almost like Alice in Wonderland.

I ended up completely falling out of the bed and crashing into the ground. It was an out of body experience, and I saw the light. It felt like I was floating away from my body. I could hear people shouting in the background.

I flat lined.

I woke up feeling terrible. But I woke up. And that was all that mattered. That was my near death experience.

I ended up doing dialysis for 11 months..

The diagnosis is that I need a kidney transplant. And until I get one, I would have to be on dialysis. When I heard that…

My heart just sank.

There’s no timeline for how long I could live. I could live for 1 year on dialysis and die, or be on it for 40 years and then die. Either way, it had become my life.

There are two ways to get a new kidney.

1. Go on a waiting list for a kidney.

2. Have someone who’s willing to donate his kidney to me.

I had to find a donor. They told me that one of my parents will have a matching blood type (it’s through genetics) and they can donate to me.

My mom matched me.

But there was a catch. My doctors told her she couldn’t do it. Before you can donate your kidney, you have to meet certain criteria, which she wasn’t able to meet. They told her they couldn’t do it because of the liability. She was devastated.

My family was super supportive during this time. About month 9, even my friends began to volunteer to see if they could donate a kidney. I never asked anyone, because I never wanted to give anyone that burden. It turns out one of my friends is a match.

But in order for him to donate his kidney, he had to pass three tests.

1. The volunteer has to match 3 out of 6 genetic markers so that my body won’t reject his kidney. He matches 3.

2. The second test is basically a physical to make sure he’s healthy. He passes.

3. The third test is a psychological test. He fails. They basically said he was not ready to donate his kidney.

And that was it. He calls me and I was excited to pick up his call because he was my savior.

Instead, I just heard him say, “I can’t do it. They won’t let me do it.”

I drop the phone. It crashes to the floor. Along with my hopes.

The hospital puts me on a transplant list. One day I come home and my mom is crying, holding a letter. The letter is from the hospital. It says I’m now on a transplant list.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Unexpected News

I tell her what happened with my friend. That same night, she goes to Bally’s to go run. This is her personal way of coping – running. She’s on the treadmill and she starts to cry. A complete stranger goes up to her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh nothing, just disregard it.”

The stranger walks away.

She comes back.

“I’m sorry, this is going to sound crazy, but something told me to come over here to figure out what’s wrong with you.”

“Well, if you must know, my son is very sick and things aren’t looking very good for him now.

“What is he sick with?”

“His kidneys are failing.”

“How does he get better?”

“He needs a kidney transplant. We need someone with O positive blood to donate.”

“I’m O positive. I’ll donate my kidney.”

You can imagine the reaction of my mom.

A complete stranger, named Anne*, is offering to donate her kidney to save my life.

She goes to get tested and here were the results:

1. Genetic markers – 6 out of 6 match!

2. Physical Test – Passed

3. Psychological Test – Passed

There was only one issue.

She was older in age and the cut off for the age to have surgery performed is 55.

She was two weeks from turning 55.

We do the surgery.

I wake up and I feel like a million bucks. My body is instantly working. It feels like I’ve been born again.

I owe my life to her. She’s my angel. We call each other kidney twins. She’s part of my family now. We have her over for Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners now.

It changed my life. It changed everything. It strengthened every relationship I had. It inspired me to cherish every day. To appreciate family. To appreciate friends. To appreciate the opportunity I’ve been given.

A lot of days now, if it’s sunny outside, that’s enough for me.

I was speechless. I’ve heard many inspiring stories in my life, but to hear such an incredible story of giving completely swept me away. Throughout the night, I heard myself repeatedly telling Jerry how amazing his life story was. He asked me to leave you all with this message:

Enjoy each and every day. We are all truly blessed to be living. Soak up the sun. Take a walk. Breathe in the fresh air.

And appreciate it.

All too often we get caught up in the journey. The chase. The work.

Just remember to take a moment to breathe. To reflect. To enjoy. You’ll be much happier and more productive if you take moments for yourself.

Here are a few exercises to help you in this process:

Exercises

1. Take breaks – During your job hunt, you’ll be working hard on the creative process which could include building a website, online brand, presume, traditional resume and attending numerous networking events. This will consume a large amount of your focus, energy and time. Just remember that it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

So for every hour that you work, take a 15 minute break. Walk outside to get some fresh air, grab a cup of coffee, get in a quick work out or simply rest your eyes. You’ll be feeling much more energized by pacing yourself and a lot more productive.

2. Express your gratitude – Every day, take 5 minutes to say out loud 10 things you’re grateful for. It could be getting sunshine for the day (you may be especially grateful if you live in Seattle!), having caring friends, an amazing breakfast or your health.

What Will You Create?

“Don’t be afraid of dying. Be afraid you’ve never really lived.”

Your journey starts today. Not tomorrow. Not a few days from now.

Today.

In order for you to land your dream job, you’ve got take action. There is no time to waste.

We need you to create something extraordinary.

Could it be a presume?

Could it be a Youtube video?

Could it be a viral website?

Could it be another Tweet heard ‘round the world?

Only you know.

You have the answers. You have the intuition. You have the inspiration.

Act on it.

So tell me, what will you create?

Bonus Chapter

Interview Questions Pro

I remember when I did my first job interview, I was excited about the opportunity to showcase my talent and work ethic. Instead, I was nervous, slow to answer questions and not charismatic at all.

In hindsight, I wish someone gave me a pamphlet of the most common interview questions and answers to help me prepare.

I’m here to give you exactly that. I’ve put together 500 of the top interview questions in the categories of candidate questions, behavior questions, work history questions, critical thinking questions and questions you can ask the interviewer.

And I even took it one step further. I’ve also put together 500 answers for those questions.

You won’t need to spend weeks scouring the internet for different interview questions because I’ve done all the work for you. In fact, I even collaborated with an HR expert from a Fortune 100 company to put this together.

I truly hope this helps you in your job search. It’s already helped thousands of others (as an iPhone application)! Just search “Interview Questions Pro” on your iPhone.

Cheers and good luck in your preparation!

TYPICAL BEHAVIORAL QUESTIONS

Question

Answer

If the company you worked for was doing something unethical or illegal, what would you do?

Report it to the leaders within the company. True leaders understand business ethics are important to the company's longevity

How much are you willing to sacrifice to be successful at work?

With anything comes sacrifice. The questions is how much of it are you willing to sacrifice with regards to work life balance, stress, etc?

What do you consider ethical spending on an expense account?

It depends on the role - but the better way to answer this is to ask the interviewer what their expectations are with regards to what the role can expense and then simply state that you'll stay within those parameters

If you were given more initiatives than you could handle, what would you do?

First prioritize the important activities that impact the business most. Then discuss the issue of having too many initiatives with the boss so that it can be offloaded. Work harder to get the initiatives done.

You have a project due in one hour but a more important emergency that affects business needs to be fixed immediately, what do you do?

Focus on the issue that impacts the business most first.

If you have multiple projects on your plate, how do you handle completing them on time?

Prioritize based on business importance. Set clear timelines for each so that you know which ones to knock out first. Get your teammates to help if necessary.

Your client is upset with you for a mistake you made, how do you react?

Acknowledge their pain - empathize with them. Then apologize and offer a solution to fix the mistake.

Your coworker highlights your mistakes in front of everyone, how do you handle the situation?

Admit to the mistake without being emotional, but then discuss how you are being proactive in getting it fixed. Lastly, pull the co-worker aside later on to tell them that you'd appreciate it if they gave you the feedback 1:1 first before throwing you under the bus.

You notice there are too many non productive internal meetings being held, what do you do?

Reach out to your boss and let him know that first you value his leadership and organization but that you are being overwhelmed with the amount of non productive internal meetings.

The change in the business industry now requires you to have a new set of skills you have to learn, how do you react to that?

First, find out which skills are the ones that you're currently lacking. Then identify what the steps would be to acquire/build those skills. Then take action to do so.

If you felt like you were hitting the proverbial "wall" and getting burned out, what would you do to re-energize yourself?

Take a break to rest. Work in smaller increments of time to increase focus with breaks in between. Delegate tasks to those that are willing to help.

You are not given the tools you need to be successful. How would you change that?

State a business case to your manager / leader as to why you need the tools and make the request for them

What is your typical way of dealing with conflict? Give me an example.

1. Find out what the root of the problem is. 2. Determine the best steps to remediation with the best possible outcome 3. Take action to put remediation plans in place.

Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with another person even when that individual may not have personally liked you (or vice versa). How did you handle the situation? What obstacles or difficulties did you face? How did you deal with them?

First, the key is to state the differences in personality to give the interviewer some background. Second, you want to discuss how that was affecting the situation. Third, show how you were able to adapt to the way the person wanted to be communicated with to achieve your goals

Tell me about a time when you had to use your presentation skills to influence someone's opinion.

Example stories could be a class project, an internal meeting presentation, or a customer facing presentation.

Tell me about a problem that you’ve solved in a unique or unusual way. What was the outcome? Were you happy or satisfied with it?

In this question the interviewer is basically looking for a real life example of how you used creativity to solve a problem.

Tell me about a difficult decision you've made in the last year.

We all have difficult decisions in our lives, show how you were able to arrive at it and then how you decisively acted.

Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision without all the information you needed. How did you handle it? Why? Were you happy with the outcome?

In many scenarios, you will not have all the information needed. The key is to make the best possible decision based on what you deem to be a sufficient amount of information.

Give me a specific example of a time when you had to conform to a policy with which you did not agree.

You want to first understand why the policy was put into effect. From there, if you truly disagree with it, explain your position to your management. If they don't change it, then you must accept their decision and continue to work or the alternative decision would be to find a new job.

Describe a time when you put your needs aside to help a co-worker understand a task. How did you assist them? What was the result?

The key is to show that the mentoring of a co-worker was first a higher priority than the task you had at hand (remember, you want to show that you focus on highest priority tasks first). Then, describe in detail how you helped them not only complete the task but learn to do it on their own. You want to teach them HOW to fish and not to simply fish for them.

Give me an example of a time when you set a goal and were able to meet or achieve it.

Show that you set great goals and the process and steps you took to achieve it. Details really matter here.

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement so far and why?

Be proud of your achievement, discuss the results, and explain why you feel most proud of this one. Was it the extra work? Was it the leadership you exhibited? Was it the impact it had?

Describe a time when you anticipated potential problems and developed preventive measures.

The key here is to show that you were proactive. How did you find out about the potential problems? How did you address it quickly?

Tell me about a time when you were forced to make an unpopular decision.

Not every decision is popular. In fact, almost every decision is bound to make someone unhappy at some point. The key is to demonstrate how it impacted others positively and why you chose it.

Tell me about a time you had to fire a friend.

Hopefully you've never had to do this, but if you did, talk about how hard it was personally to fire anyone but that you did it objectively.

TYPICAL CANDIDATE QUESTIONS

Question

Answer

Describe your work style.

Describe the positive aspects of your work style if possible, including: work ethic, attention to detail, interpersonal skills, skill sets (analytical or otherwise), leadership abilities, communication skills.

Who are your role models? Why?

If possible, cite role models you're truly passionate about - passion is contagious and will show you're being genuine. If the role model is in the same or similar industry as the company in an executive level position, even better.

What is your biggest fear?

Don't try to sugarcoat the answer by listing something ambitious as a fear, unless you truly mean it (for example: I fear being a great leader) - Share your real fears but discuss how you would overcome them.

What do you aspire to be?

Discuss your aspirations for the near, immediate and long term. You want to show them you are thinking of making an impact now as well as the future.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years with your career?

Be sure to paint a clear picture of your career vision that demonstrates your aspirations and goals that are realistic. This could emphasize increased responsibility, the ability to manage people and so forth

What motivates you to work?

Describe what makes you passionate about the work. It could be the company's vision, the product, your desire to succeed, the clients, your peers and so on. They key is to first understand what internally motivates you to do your job and then to emphasize that in a positive way

Why do you want to work in this industry?

Make sure you research the industry first. Then find at least 3 core things about that industry that you're passionate about (for example: how their solutions impact clients, their culture, the leadership, etc)

What do you know about this company?

Research the company on Google by searching recent news (to remain current on them) and their website. Make sure you understand their products / services, vision, competitive differentiators, and work culture.

Why do you want to work here?

Know at least 3 strong reasons about why you want to work at the company. You could discuss their vision, products, the people, the career opportunities, and the culture.

What are you passionate about?

Ask yourself - what are your core passions that you wake up excited to act on each and every day? Ask yourself what makes you happy or drives you - is it helping others? Is it making money? Is it creating something? Is it about changing the world? Etc.

What are your lifelong dreams?

If your dreams don't relate to the job closely, make sure you highlight aspects of the job that will help develop the skills that will help you with your dreams. Ideally, you want your dreams to relate strongly to the career path you're interviewing for though.

What is your biggest regret to date and why?

Describe honestly the regretful action / situation you were in but then discuss how you proactively fixed / improved it and how that helped you to improve as a person/worker.

What did you major in and why?

Tell them your major and the motivations behind why you chose it and how it's helped to prep your of this potential job.

What's been your biggest failure to date?

Describe your biggest failure and discuss what you've learned from it and ideally how you've been successful since because of that lesson.

What's been your biggest success to date?

Talk about a story / experience about how you achieved success and be sure to share details on the results and outcome. Have it highlight a strong characteristic such as leadership, work ethic and so forth.

How have you achieved your success?

Discuss stories of how you've progressed over the years to achieve success. People relate best to stories.

What type of personalities do you work best with and why?

Think of which personalities you work best with (do you like outgoing, collaborative, personable working relationships and so forth?)

What are ideas or initiatives you've led and what was the outcome?

Describe your most unique ideas and initiatives that had the best results for the company. Make sure you highlight your creativity, your results, your diligence and your ability to execute.

Describe yourself in three words

Pick three adjectives but then back up each with a real life story that demonstrates those characteristics.

What is your biggest weakness?

Be honest - tell them what you're weak at, but then explain to them how you've addressed that weakness or plan to in the near future

What skills do you bring to the table?

Think of your skill sets with regards to: analytical skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills, computer skills, presentation skills, management skills, sales skills and so forth.

What differentiates you from the competition?

Think about what you bring to the table that you truly believe is unique - the easiest way to do is to think of your own personal stories that demonstrate your work ethic, skills, and dedication. Most people have some or all of those skills, but the unique stories are what make people stand out in interviews.

What type of mentors do you seek out and why?

Think of your top 3 mentors and what attributes they exhibit that you want to emulate. Common attributes include passion, desire, will, leadership, ability to influence others, intelligence.

What are three positive characteristics you wish you had?

The key here is to be honest about your wish list but then to describe how you plan on developing or growing those characteristics so that it becomes a reality. For example, I wish I had a stronger work ethic and I am reading a book right now about how to instill a better discipline around getting work done efficiently.

What is the most important lesson / skill you've learned from school?

Think of lessons learned in extra curricular activities, in clubs, in classes that had a profound impact on your personal development. For example, I had to lead a team of 5 people on a school project and learned to get people with drastically different personalities to work together as a team to achieve our objective.

How do you stay up to date with industry?

Discuss how you stay up to date by reading industry specific sites, magazines, and Google / yahoo news. Also make sure you stay up to date by reading the current news on the company's website.

How do you feel about this company's vision?

First find out where the company envisions itself in 3-5 years. If you can't find the vision of the company, that's probably a big question mark on the company itself. Once you do, identify how those company's visions align to your personal values and goals and then articulate how tightly correlated that is to the interviewer. For example - this company wants to be the #1 provider of green technology in the world and I feel strongly about that vision because we've got a chance to collectively impact the world to become a greener society and save our clients at the same time!

How would you impact the company?

Consider first the role that you're applying for and then think of 3 ways where you could potentially impact the company's bottom line and top line. Then consider how you impact the company in a creative manner (how do you help productivity, the development of new products, marketing etc - of course this part is specific to the role you're applying for)

What do you feel you deserve to be paid?

Do your research before answering this question - first, consider what the market average is for this job. You can find that by searching on Google (title followed by salary) and glassdoor.com and other websites. Then, consider this - based on your work experience and previous results, are you above average, if yes, by what % increase from your pay today from your perspective? Also - make sure if you aim high you can back it up with facts and your previous results so that you can make a strong case.

What is your ideal working environment?

Describe your ideal working environment. Do you like flexibility with work hours? Do you like working in a cubicle or independently? Do you like to be micro managed or empowered? Do you like to work on your own or in a team? Do you like being driven by metrics in your role? How much responsibility do you want?

If someone had to say something negative to you, what would they say?

Again, be honest about sharing a story here about someone who may not have gotten along with you in the office here and explain how you were able to fix that relationship or change your attitude/action to be a better person / coworker.

How have you shown yourself to be a leader?

Think about a time where you've rallied a group of people around a cause / idea / initiative and successfully implemented it. It could be a small or large project but the key is you want to demonstrate how you were able to lead others to work for a common cause.

How long do you envision yourself staying with this company?

Understand that companies invest a lot of money into hiring the right staff. You want to emphasize that you are in it for the long run and you want to develop a career there and that it's not just a "5 month stepping stone" type of a job. You should be thinking how you're going to grow with that company for the next few years. After all, don't you want to invest your energy and time with a company that is going to continue to be successful and one that will help you grow?

What does "collaboration with teammates" mean to you?

Drinking at the water cooler together is not the best example. Think of how you can collaborate with teammates to generate new ideas, to create initiatives to impact the business' success for the better (specifically in the department that you're applying for). For example, if you're applying to marketing, collaboration could mean discussing new ways of social media advertising to reach an audience of over a million people to strengthen the brand awareness of the company.

What types of situations do you consider "unfixable"?

Most situations are "fixable" - the ones that are not are typically related to business ethics (someone is cheating the company, someone is stealing, etc)

What classes did you enjoy most in college and why?

Think back to the classes that either resonated with your passion or truly helped you to develop skills that you believe will help you in your career. Talk about those.

What type of extracurricular activities are you a part of?

Discuss the clubs / activities you were in, share a personal story about why you enjoyed it and then describe how it's helped shape you to be who you are today. For example, I enjoyed rock climbing because it taught me the value of practicing hard at a sport to become skilled in it. I bring this same diligence to my work approach today as well.

How do you feel about giving back to the community?

Describe your charitable activities to showcase that community work is important to you. If you haven't done one yet, go to www.volunteermatch.org - charitable work is a great way to learn about other people and it's an important part of society - GET INVOLVED!

How has school prepared you for this job role?

Think back to how you've interacted with your peers to develop social skills, how you've worked with classmates on projects to develop teamwork and collaborative skills, how you've developed discipline through studying, how the courses have helped your creativity, and how the classes you've taken have impacted your analytical / problem solving / reasoning skills.

Describe your academic achievements.

Think of a time where you really stood out and shined within college. It could be a leadership role in a project, it could be your great grades that demonstrate your intelligence and discipline, it could be the fact that you double majored. Where have you shined?

What types of books or magazines do you typically read?

Describe both your personal and professional favorites. If you happen to like professional books / magazines that relate to the industry of the company you're applying for - that's definitely worth highlighting.

Describe your vision of your perfect dream job.

Ideally, the role you're applying for either is that dream job or will help you get to it. If it's going to help you get there, describe the elements of that job role that you are passionate about so that it ties to the vision of what your dream job is. Be honest and talk about the type of work environment, management team / leadership, coworkers, culture, vision and products/services you'd like your dream job to entail.

What is your perception of taking on risk?

You answer depends on the type of company you're interviewing for. If it's a start up, you need to be much more open to taking on risk. If it's a more established company, calculated risks to increase / improve the business or minimal risks would typically be more in line.

Do you value recognition or pay more? Why?

Either preference is fine, but just remember you have to be able to explain why. If you say recognition, then back that up by describing how achievement really carries weight with you and how you like to feel valued in the work that you do because it validates that you're helping your teammates / customers and so forth. If you choose money, you can also explain that is important to you as validation and you can highlight how money is important to you because of your goals (financial security, providing for your family, and so forth). The key is to be authentic with your answer. However, if you say you value pay more because you're greedy - know that doesn't align usually to most company's values/vision.

Describe what a bad work environment would look like to you.

There could be a multitude of things to discuss here: Business ethics (wrongdoing), inconsiderate teammates, non-supportive management, a product that does not do what you're promising customers and so forth.

How meticulous are you with details?

Being detailed is important for many types of job roles. Typically you want to highlight how you've done that in previous roles. Example: "Being meticulous is important to me. In my last job, I had to count the money in the register as a cashier to make sure it matched to the receipts down to the last penny." This was to ensure there wasn't any "wrongdoing" at the company by any of the cashiers and I was always accurate in my reports.

How important is the vision of the company to you?

It should be very important if you want a long standing career. Remember, you're investing your time, energy and earnings potential into a company so you want to make sure it's a sustainably successful company that will grow with you over the long haul.

Do you have the ability to articulate a vision and to get others involved to carry it out?

If yes, then share an example of how you've done so at work or college. If not, then discuss how you would do so. Example: "I would first understand the goals of the staff members and then I would align those to the goals of the project / company. Then I would articulate the vision of that alignment and ask them to participate. From there, we would delegate tasks among the team and then follow up on a date and time to ensure follow through on the tasks. Lastly, we would review the results together."

If you could offer suggestions on how to improve our company, what would you say?

Examine the trends of the company and also where there may be some weaknesses (news articles often document this on public companies or look at their competitors to see how they're positioning it against them.) Then, once you have that knowledge, think creatively on how you could improve upon that weakness for them.

What other companies are you interviewing at?

Be open and share if you are indeed interviewing elsewhere, but do it in a humble way. This way you don't seem arrogant and the interviewer knows your skills are valued by other companies. This also tends to make them want you more as they know they are competing for your services.

What do you know about our competition?

Make sure you do your research on their competitors. You can find this by going to yahoo finance and click on their competitors (if they are public). From there research the news on them and go to their websites to understand their positioning on solutions and vision. You can also research local regional companies that are their competition (if it's a smaller private company on a regional scale) by simply typing in similar product offerings in the Google search followed by the city. Make sure you know their competitor's vision, products, culture, and how they are differentiated against their competition (and if they're not, how they could be)

What differentiates this company from other competitors?

Be positive and nice about their competitors but also discuss how they are better than them and why they are the best choice for the customer. For example: "Company XYZ has a good product, but I truly believe your company has a 3-5 year vision for your customer that aligns to their business needs."

What are your thoughts on failure?

Failure happens. It's a part of life. The key is understanding that you can't be perfect at everything and more importantly you're going to learn from failures to come out stronger.

Describe a time where you've failed and bounced back.

Share a story to describe this. For example: "I accidentally made the mistake of telling a customer I could deliver on a solution set on a certain date and then later found out our business partner couldn’t do it on that time. I learned that I shouldn't rush into important decisions and promises like this and that I should always check with my counterparts first before committing to a statement of work."

Have you ever mentored anyone before? If yes, describe the situation.

Describe a time where you've helped someone else. Mentorships can be informal so as you've helped someone over a period of time that can certainly count. The key is to highlight how you utilized certain skills/attributes like coaching, teaching, patience, communication skills, and so forth to mentor that person.

What are your thoughts on social media for this role?

Without a doubt, social media is becoming more and more pervasive in our jobs. You should stress that social media is not appropriate for personal use at work. However, if the company embraces social media in certain departments (for example marketing), then you may want to discuss how you could use it for work (as long as it applies to your role).

Tell me about yourself.

Talk about your school life, your work experience, and your passions. The key is to develop rapport with the interviewer by sharing your personal story of how you go to where you are today and where you want to go from here.

Why are you the best fit for this job?

Analyze the job responsibilities and match those to your skills sets. Then discuss how your experience and skills sets can truly create the best impact to the company in that specific job role. Impact could mean marketing impressions, sales, cutting costs, making products more efficiently, creating better customer service, engineering new designs that create customer excitement, etc.

What will your ramp time be before you become a meaningful contributor?

Companies want staff that can ramp quickly, but also want people who are realistic. So take into consideration how intense the job is and then give a good answer. For example, if you have simple responsibilities that don't require a huge development curve, then your ramp time will probably be shorter. If it's a complex set of skills that you need to develop, then your ramp time could be longer - the key is you have to explain why you believe that ramp time should be.

What role do you see technology playing in this role?

Technology is important to almost every job today but it's not meant to be abused. I believe it's important to increase productivity and not for personal use.

How do you feel about technology at the workplace in general?

It's a great enabler for us to collaborate better as a team, for us to reach customers more efficiently and frequently and I believe it can help any company become more efficient, leaner, and more productive.

How do you inspire others to be better?

First, the key to inspiring others it to first understand what their goals and objectives are. Once you understand what people want, you can inspire them with a vision that aligns to what they care about. People generally care about having purpose, being successful (and being recognized for it), contributing in a meaningful way, and financial rewards (to a degree) and much more. Then once you understand what people set as goals, you can inspire them through 1:1 pep talks, a presentation to multiple people and so forth.

What are your presentation skills like?

Make sure you share a story that demonstrates your presentation skills in front of many people. If you are really brave, offer to give a snippet of that presentation to the interviewer. This will definitely be different from what most people do.

How articulate are you in expressing your ideas?

One of the best ways to answer this question is clearly articulate three points that demonstrate how articulate you are (and in a sense show that in a live setting) - for example: "I would say I'm articulate because one, I typically gather my thoughts before speaking, two, I organize my thoughts well, and three I'm concise when making a point.

Would you describe yourself as more analytical or interpersonal?

If you answer either, just make sure you explain why. For example, "I would consider myself to be more analytical because I'm good at examining a data set and then understanding how to interpret it in a business environment." or "I'm more of interpersonal person because I enjoy working and collaborating with my teammates and clients"

What qualities do you believe are important to have as a manager?

Great managers tend to empower their employees to be successful through strong coaching. They understand how to manage relationships - this is commonly referred to emotional intelligence. They have to be able to handle both client and staff situations that require them to be calm under pressure to clearly think of solutions to complex problems. Most importantly they must be able to articulate the vision to the team and inspire them to work together to collectively achieve that goal

Have you ever been fired and if yes, why?

Answer this as positively as possible and try to avoid disparaging the company you had previously worked for. The key is to accept the fact that yes, you were fired, but you've learned from the mistakes that got you there and you're better now because of it. If you haven't been fired, well, then this question's a piece of cake isn't it?

How important is a positive attitude to you?

Incredibly important. I believe a positive attitude is the foundation of being successful - it's contagious in the workplace, with our customers, and ultimately it's the difference maker.

How would you define success?

Success is defined differently for everybody. Just make sure the parameters are defined by you with regards to work life balance, financial gain, career growth, achievements, creating meaningful work / products and so forth. If you can clearly articulate what it means to you that is a strong answer.

How do you act when you encounter competition?

This question is designed to see if you can rise the occasion. You want to discuss how you are the type to battle competition strongly and then you need to cite an example if possible of your past work experience where you were able to do so.

Give me an example of when you competed hard and won.

You can reference many different areas here when discussing a story of where you won in competition: Work experience (ideal), sports, clubs, classes, projects.

What would you like to have accomplished by the end of your career?

Think of 3 major achievements that you'd like to accomplish in your job when all is said and done - and think BIG. You want to show you expect to be a major contributor at the company. It could be creating a revolutionary new product, it could be implementing a new effective way of marketing, etc.

What's the most rewarding work you've ever done and why?

Companies love it when you discuss how you've made an impact on your teammates, clients, or partners in the business or in school. It should be rewarding because of the hard work and creative process that you've put into it.

What's the least rewarding work you've ever done and why?

Describe work you've done that you feel doesn't take advantage of your full potential. For example, "I once had to make paper copies for my job and I feel it didn't take full advantage of my skills. However, it did teach me to be humble in my work and to appreciate a good opportunity when it arose to use my skills"

How good are you at problem solving?

Describe the problem first and then discuss how you were able to fix it.

Describe to me a time where you had to make a hard decision.

Hard decisions are hard for a reason. It could dramatically effect the company. It could affect other workers. So if you have a story about how you made a hard decision and had a good outcome, share that. If you have one where the outcome wasn't great, explain how you would have changed the way you approached the decision to show you learned how to improve.

How well do you multi-task?

Multi-tasking is an important part of most jobs. You want to show that you're good at it but not overwhelmed with it. So discuss just a few things you can multi-task well on - for example: "I'm good at multi tasking between work email and working on projects and the reason it because I'm good at prioritizing my work emails.

How do you adapt to new working environments?

It's important that you demonstrate that you can adapt to changing environments quickly. You want to stress that you can manage change. The one thing in life that is constant after all, is change.

How open are you to relocation?

If you're not, then say you're not. Don't lie about it just to get the job. There's no point if you won't move for the job anyway and lying is unethical. If you are open to relocation, let them know which areas you'd be willing to relocate to.

What's the difference between good and exceptionally great?

Being good is getting the job done as promised. Being great is delivering the work in an exceptional way that completely exceeds expectations.

What general trends do you see in our industry?

Examine what's happened in the industry in the last 5 - 10 years and how it's evolved and then look at what both the company and analysts are saying about the future of that industry in which that company competes in. Read trade magazines / online sources in that industry as well to make sure you stay up to date on trends.

What other jobs are you applying for?

If you're applying with other similar companies in a similar or the same industry, it's actually okay to state that as it shows you're valued and wanted.

Give me a few examples of how you're results oriented.

Make you give an example where you discuss details and metrics. For example, I was a tutor in my last job and mentored 5 students on their SAT test taking skills and raised their scores by 15% on average after a 3 month teaching stint.

How do you prioritize your work initiatives?

Discuss how you prioritize your work initiatives based on the company initiatives. For example, if you're in customer service discuss how you're focused on providing the best customer experience.

Why should we give you this job when someone else is equally qualified?

Describe how you're unique, but make sure you tie it to the job responsibilities and how you would impact the company. For example, "I believe my unique programming skills and experience in developing over 18 best selling iphone apps will help the company develop high quality applications faster than my competitors"

What does your professional network look like?

If you have a professional network, discuss it detail (# of contacts, people you know, their positions and what you've learned from them or how you've worked with them). If you don't have one, discuss how you would develop one (career fairs, networking events for that industry, through your existing friends, etc)

If I talked to your three biggest fans, who would they be and why?

If you can reference three professionals with executive titles (CXO, VP, Director, Manager), that carries a lot of weight. Make sure you highlight how you've helped them achieve their biggest objectives and how that's made them your fan.

What are your thoughts about working from home?

This is a new policy some companies are adopting. If the company you are interviewing for allows for it, then you should be thankful for the flexibility and convenience yet state that working from home is a privilege that you would honor. The key point you want to make is that you would still be able to focus and be just as productive working at home.

What are the goals you've set for yourself?

You could discuss your goals with regards to these categories: Career goals, impact you want to leave on society, financial goals, academic goals, charitable goals.

What have you done to improve yourself in the last year?

Discuss how you've improved yourself through work experiences, books you've read, classes, club(s) / extracurricular activities and describe the process on how it's happened. For example: I've improved my presentation skills tremendously because I've had to do 2 presentations this year for my communications class.

What do you expect to be earning in 5 years?

Discuss how you expect yourself to be excellent at your job. Thus, it would be reasonable to expect pay that is based on the merit of your work.

What would you do if our competitor offered you a position?

I would weigh the offer and consider it, however, this company and this role is my first choice.

How do you feel about taking on repetitive tasks?

This answer depends on whether or not the job has a lot of repetitive tasks with no variation. If it does, then you would need to be okay with the idea of doing the same task over and over again. If you feel you can offer more than repetitive work, then describe how you would be able to do so.

Describe a time when you've been overwhelmed with work.

Show how you were able to over the "overwhelmed" feeling - by delegating tasks, getting people on your team to help you out, or by prioritizing your work and focusing on the most important issues first.

Describe what a "lot of work" looks like to you.

Ideally you'd like to state that you can take on a lot of work - this shows your work ethic, but at the same time it's okay to tell them that you value work and life balance.

Give me an example of how you handled pressure at work.

The company is looking to see if you can handle pressure well. Share with them an example where you were able to stay calm during a pressure filled situation (perhaps it was a deadline, or there was an emergency with a customer occurring). Discuss the situation, your reaction and steps you took to resolve it and the outcome.

What are your strengths?

Common strengths you can bring up include: Strong work ethic, attention to detail, strong interpersonal skills, sharp analytical skills, quick thinker, ability to lead, organized, creative, results oriented, team oriented.

What are your weaknesses?

Everyone has a weakness, the key is to be forthright in saying what it is and then discussing how you've fixed the weakness since then. For example: "I'm not traditionally great at teamwork, but recently I've taken on more projects that require peer interaction and I've drastically improved my ability to work with others."

What attracted you to this company?

You could discuss the company's vision, culture and solutions/services as reasons for wanting to join it.

When were you most satisfied in your job?

If you want to show your ambition, you can discuss how you haven't reached all of your goals yet and in that sense aren't satisfied. However, if you want to discuss satisfaction from your job discuss an experience in which you achieved something.

What were the responsibilities of your last position?

Describe your responsibilities but discuss the results/metrics that show how you made an impact on the company in that role. This way it shows you hold yourself accountable.

Do you have any questions for me?

Yes, I do. (Proceed to ask questions regarding career growth, mentorship, a day in the life of the role, pros and cons of working at the company, how the company will stay innovative and ahead of competition in the next 3-5 years).

What do you look for in terms of culture -- structured or entrepreneurial?

A good answer is to discuss the importance of having both elements in a company. Structure is good to maintain a focus on priorities and making sure people are productive but having an entrepreneurial spirit can help cultivate new ideas that can truly help the company.

What techniques and tools do you use to keep yourself organized?

Good answers: Utilizing a calendar, having a notebook with your "to do" list, focusing on your top 3 priorities each and every day, utilizing a systematic way of storing documents on your computer (like box.net)

If you had to choose one, would you consider yourself a big-picture person or a detail-oriented person?

Both are important. You need to stress that. However, if you could only choose one, ask yourself - do you like to be "in the weeds" with your work, or do you want to be the one painting the vision?

Who was your favorite manager and why?

Describe the attributes you liked about your favorite manager, typically attributes discussed are: Great at coaching, inspiring, motivating, empowering, trusting, delegating, leading, etc.

What do you think of your previous boss?

Do not belittle or talk badly of your last boss - it will come off as being petty. Instead, talk about the positive lessons you were able to learn from your last boss.

Was there a person in your career who really made a difference?

If you can't think of one, you need to get a mentor QUICKLY! Mentors can come in the form of peers, family members, co-workers, management / leaders at a company and so on.

What are you most proud of?

You should be proud of all your achievements! We just don't have time to hear them all as interviewers most likely. Focus on 1 really good achievement that showcases characteristics like the following: Integrity, competitiveness, resourcefulness, intelligence, persistence, and so forth.

What do you like to do?

Discuss your passions. Ideally if it's work related that's fantastic! If not, talk about your academic / extracurricular passions and WHY you enjoy them. For example: I love playing sports because of the team work aspect - it's fun winning together! (This example shows you're a team player)

What do you ultimately want to become?

Do you want to be an entry level worker? Do you want to be a leader? Do you want to be an entrepreneur? Do you want to be a philanthropist? Do you want to be in middle management? Ask yourself these questions to figure it out.

What is your personal mission statement?

Is it to conquer the world? Is it to become a CEO? Is it to give back to the community? Is it to inspire others? Define your statement by stating a clear vision of how you want to make an impact on the world with your work.

What are three positive things your last boss would say about you?

Hopefully they would have hundreds of positive things to say about you! Just pick the top three. Then explain why!

What negative thing would your last boss say about you?

"He/She wouldn't say anything bad, but he/she may point out I could improve in a certain area, and I've taken steps to become better at those skills"

What three character traits would your friends use to describe you?

Friends would typically use attributes like (assuming you have these): Trustworthy, honest, hardworking, friendly, courageous, nice, diligent, organized and so forth. Not saying you have all of these, but the best way for you to find out is to survey your friends by asking them what they consider your brand to be.

What are three positive character traits you don't have?

List three attributes that you aspire to attain / build in the next few years - and then explain how you would develop those.

If you were interviewing someone for this position, what traits would you look for?

This is where the interviewer tries to turn the tables on you. Answer confidently by stating 3 specific traits that are applicable to that job role. For example, a consulting job would likely look for someone who can think outside of the box.

After answering, ask them, "Am I spot on here and if not, what traits would you look for?"

What is your greatest fear?

We all have fears. It's okay to discuss them. Just don't dive too deeply into them. Discuss how you would work to overcome your fears. You don't want to seem weak. You want to acknowledge it's out there but that you'll be able to work through it.

What is your greatest achievement outside of work?

This is a great opportunity for you to discuss how you've given back to the community, how you've achieved in a competitive extracurricular activity (think sports or clubs), how you've mentored others, and so forth.

What are the qualities of a good leader? A bad leader?

A good leader provides constructive criticism, motivates and inspires, coaches the mentee to be successful with their set of skills, and encourages them to push themselves. A bad leader only cares about his/her own interests and does not look out for the success of his/her staff.

Do you think a leader should be feared or liked?

Liked. You want to work harder for people that inspire and motivate you. Fear only lasts for so long.

How do you feel about taking no for an answer?

It's good to be persistent, but not overbearing. Everyone will face rejection at some point in their life, so at some point you'll have to take no for an answer but then learn why you were turned down.

How would you feel about working for someone who knows less than you?

The reality is, the majority of the time someone is in a management/leadership position is because of their experience and past success. So they probably possess at least a unique set of knowledge from you. So you'll want to learn from them as much as possible. If it's not the case, then discuss how you would look for mentors in different departments to help your personal career development.

How do you think I rate as an interviewer?

Don't insult them. If they're asking you good questions, they're a good interviewer - let them know that. If they're asking you bad / ridiculous questions that don't relate to the job role or you then suggest a few areas of improvement in a courteous way.

Tell me one thing about yourself you wouldn't want me to know.

Talk about a trait that you would consider a weakness. No need to talk about your deepest darkest secrets here.

Tell me the difference between good and exceptional.

Good gets the job done on time and is high quality. Exceptional is a game changer - it stands out, it's creative, it's above and beyond expectations. Tell the interviewer a story about how you were exceptional.

What kind of car do you drive?

The only time this might matter is if the job requires a certain type of car because of the responsibilities. For example, if you need to load a lot of construction materials into your car, you'll probably need a truck.

There's no right or wrong answer, but if you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?

Just be honest about where you'd like to be - you never know - you may end up bonding with the interviewer with the location. However, you want to stress that you want to work out of the location that you're interviewing for.

What's the last book you read?

Try to talk about a book related to the industry, for example, if you're applying for a role related to business, cite a business book.

What would you do if you won the lottery?

The interviewer is asking this question to find out what your true passion is. Ideally it aligns to the type of work you're interviewing for. If not, tie it back in terms of how it relates to the job, for example, "I believe I'll learn the necessary skills in this job to pursue my passion later on in life."

Who are your heroes?

Have at least one person you consider a hero or role model. Be ready to explain why they are a hero to you and how they've inspired you to be a better person.

What do you like to do for fun?

Be open to sharing hobbies and activities that you enjoy. Make sure you're genuine about it and don't list off things you don't really like because if they ask you a follow up question it'll be harder for you to answer.

What do you do in your spare time?

If you want to show your fun side, discuss your extracurricular activities. If you want to show your ambition, discuss the work / school projects you do in your spare time.

What's your salary history?

Be prepared to share your salary history and also the documentation to back it up. This is a common request from companies, especially if you're trying to negotiate a higher salary than what they're offering.

If I were to give you this salary you requested but let you write your job description for the next year, what would it say?

It should say the same thing - after all - if you think this salary is fair then it should suit the responsibilities!

How would you go about establishing your credibility quickly with the team?

Fully understand my responsibilities, work hard and exceed expectations, learn as much as possible, help others as much as possible, understand what my teammates' goals and needs are, be on time, and gain a mentor.

How long will it take for you to make a significant contribution?

First define significant contribution - once you do that - lay out a timeline plan in which you think you can achieve that.

What do you see yourself doing within the first 30 days of this job?

Typically the first 30 days are designed for you to learn as much as possible. Work hard to get to know your teammates, how they work together, and how you can make the biggest impact.

If selected for this position, can you describe your strategy for the first 90 days?

This depends on the job role. Make sure you break it down into

How did you find out about this job? b) What do you know about the job?

Possible ways to find out about the job: Online website listing, friend, professional referral, mentor, career fairs, networking events. You should know about the roles and responsibilities of the job and what they're looking for. Make sure you read up on that online beforehand or ask the person that referred you.

What do you know about this department?

One good way to find out about the department is to try to "informally" interview the existing employees over coffee (outside of the office) if possible. It's hard if you don't have any connections there, but if you do a great way to learn about it. Other than that, it's often hard to learn about the department so you can turn the table back on them by asking questions to learn about it.

Why did you choose your major in college or tech school?

People usually choose their major based on their passions or the career path they want to head towards.

Does your boss know you're here today?

Usually, you probably haven't told your boss for obvious reasons. So it's ok to say that they do not. You don’t want to upset the balance at your current job after all and nothing is guaranteed in an interview. The interviewer should understand this stance.

Are you a Type A, B or C personality?

Ask them to define the different categories.

How do you take "No" for an answer?

You want to be persistent enough to understand why someone is saying no so that you could potentially convince them otherwise with a sound reason. However, if they are still saying "no" to you, then you need to humbly accept their position and move on.

What is the difference between a big ego and a healthy ego?

"Ego" should be replaced by confidence. It's good to be confident as it shows that you know what you're doing. However, a big ego is when confidence spirals out of control and you become arrogant.

Describe a time when you had to help a coworker out that did not directly benefit you?

There should be many times where you've assisted others. If you haven't, think of how you would in the future. You can discuss charitable causes, how you mentored someone, and so on.

Do you have good manners? What types of people need to be treated with good manners?

You should have good manners. Everyone should be treated with courtesy and respect.

How do you continue learning on a daily basis? Why is continuous improvement necessary?

You can learn on the job, through books and magazines, through social networks, blogs, seminars, mentors and so on. Continuous improvement is important because the one thing in life that is constant is change. And you have to continue to push yourself day in and day out to be the best.

What is thinking outside the box to you?

It means not doing things exactly the same way as everyone else. You've got to challenge the status quo and bring something new to the business.

How do you rate yourself in computer skills? Please describe the programs and software that you can use well.

Ideally you want to able to type quickly, have the ability to effectively use Microsoft Office, and more importantly be able to quickly adapt to computer / technology skills. More and more it's become an integral part of work. If the job doesn't require technology skills - then this question shouldn't be asked!

Can you perform Internet research? Please describe to me your steps in doing so.

Internet research can entail Google searches, industry sites, news articles, social networks and company websites.

Do you work better on a team, with just one partner, or alone?

Ideally you can handle all three well, but you may have a personal preference for one or a few. The key is to make sure you understand what the job is looking for and to pair your answer with that (assuming it's true)

How does your present position differ from past ones?

Describe the difference with regards to responsibilities, culture, team, career opportunity, and the work itself.

What would you like to avoid completely in your next job?

Bad business ethics, teammates / managers that are disrespectful / inconsiderate. But of course, this job wouldn't have things like this right?

What have you done to prepare yourself to be a supervisor?

1. Learn from current supervisors (best practices)
2. Mentor others
3. Be exceptionally good at your current job so that it builds your credibility
4. Have a high emotional IQ

How do you motivate employees?

1. Understand their goals
2. Understand what they're good / not good at
3. Align their personal goals to the company goals and then utilize their strengths to achieve it
4. Inspire them through coaching and pep talks

What aspect of supervision do you find the most difficult?

Managing different personalities and keeping them focused on the goal at hand.

What is the most important quality a supervisor should have?

The ability to inspire / lead a team towards one common vision.

How do you decide what to delegate and to whom?

Identify the strengths of your team members and their availability based on the priorities they have on their plate. From there, invest the tasks upon each member based on where you think you'll get the best return.

Tell me about a time when you were held accountable for a problem that you hadn't caused.

If someone puts the blame on you (incorrectly), the best thing you can do is NOT to retaliate. You want to make it known that you were not to blame (explain all the facts) and then focus on fixing the problem in the best way possible.

Think about the changes you have seen and tell me how you handle change.

You can cite personal life changes, work place changes, career changes, technology change, industry change. The key is to discuss how seeing or experiencing that change has helped your development. For example, the recent changes in social media has broadened my horizons and helped me learn new forms of efficient marketing.

Tell me about a decision you made recently and how you reached it.

The key is to show that you put a lot of thought (weighing out the pros and cons) but were able to be decisive. Be sure to explain your logic in arriving at the decision.

Why did you leave your past jobs?

Don’t talk badly about your last job or the people you worked for - that will look petty. Focus on the potential and quality of the job you're now applying for.

How did you become interested in this field/industry?

Describe how you've come to develop a passion or interest in this industry and use variables like "culture, people, vision, career development, and the work itself" to define your choice

Why did you select the University _______?

Discuss the academic program, the extracurricular program(s), the school spirit, the quality of your peers, and the professors.

If you could do it all over again, how would you plan your academic studies differently?

Whatever you do, just don't act bitter. A lot of times we wish we could change the past, but focus on the positive reasons and results of the decisions you already made.

How much time do you need to join the organization?

You should be able to join it right away, barring plans you've already made (family travel, vacation, other obligations). The key is to simply be open in communication of what's already committed on your schedule. Most companies are accommodating. If they are not, weight the importance of joining that company vs. your plans.

Are you aggressive?

If you are, describe it through a story / experience that you had. If you aren't, then explain why you're not. If the job role asks for you to be aggressive/not aggressive and you're the opposite of it, explain how you would develop that characteristic.

What makes you a good manager?

Describe how you manage people, time, money and energy in the most effective manner to achieve the best return of that investment.

What motivates you the most?

Is it money? Is it career development? Is it recognition? Is it a sense of achievement? Is it to impress your peers? Is it for fame?

In what areas do you think you will need guidance?

Think about what you need to learn going into the job. Skill sets, industry knowledge, relationship building, team dynamics. Which areas are ones you're lacking?

How will you approach learning this "new" job?

Interview peers and leaders/managers, read industry news, practice the skill sets needed, absorb information on the job as much as possible.

Describe some problems you encountered in your most recent position and how you resolved them.

Discuss your work experiences. The key is to show you're calm under pressure and can handle sensitive situations with a clear train of thought.

What specific steps do you utilize in solving workplace problems?

Analyze the problem. Discuss possible remedies and resulting outcomes. Decide on the remedy and track results. Re-visit problem if it's not resolved.

What are some of the things that you and your supervisor disagree upon and how do you resolve them? What do you do when you are pressed for a decision?

The key is that you openly communicate your thoughts to your supervisor to explain your position and try to come to a mutual decision together. Also be sure to listen to his/her thoughts so that you can potentially compromise. When you're pressed for a decision, make sure you've put thought into the reasons as to how you arrived at it and then decisively make it.

In your last job what kinds of pressure did you encounter and how did you react?

Do not show your fear or uneasiness in handling pressure. Everyone likes to have a worker who can handle pressure calmly and with a clear train of thought. Show how you would logically come to a conclusion in a pressure filled situation.

What kind of work interests you the most?

What you're passionate about. What motivates you. What excites you.

What kind of work interests you the least?

What bores you. What fails to challenge you. What fails to excite you.

How would your references describe you?

Think of three major characteristics that demonstrate your best qualities related to work and then have quick stories to describe why.

Name five characteristics that describe you.

Here are a few you could choose from: Hard working, strong willed, persistent, intelligent, adept, amicable, friendly, collaborative, eager, humble.

Are you willing to work in shifts?

If the job calls for shifts that vary, be ready to do that for your work. If you aren't open to that, then explain why and see if they can adjust it for you.

How do you define arrogance? Are you arrogant?

Arrogance is having an attitude of superiority beyond reason. Confidence is believing in yourself without being cocky. You should not be arrogant.

What role are you ready to take in a group?

Ideally, you want to take on the role you're interviewing for, but you want to be flexible with your responsibilities if there are any changes.

Who has been an inspiration for you?

Cite your role models (possible examples could be your parents, people successful in the industry, world leaders, etc)

What is more important to you money or success?

First ask yourself that question before the interview - what are your priorities? Are money and success actual one in the same goal for you? If not, what's more important based on how do you define success?

Rate yourself on a scale of 10.

If you truly believe you're a 10, you better be able to explain why with examples / stories. If you believe you're a great contributor and have room to grow, say 8 or 9. If you're below that, explain what you would do to improve yourself to get the ranking you believe you can be.

How do you handle repetitive tasks?

Some people enjoy it, others don't. Which are you? If you don't like it, can you at least do it well? And if you don't like it, be ready to explain why in a positive way (i.e. your potential is to do much more than simply be repetitive)

Tell me about the last time you missed a goal or deadline.

Unless you're a completely perfect person, chances are you've messed up before on a goal/deadline. If so, discuss how you fell short and what you would have done in retrospect to achieve it.

How do you keep others informed on work issues?

Possible methods: Talking to them, emailing them, sharing best practices in meetings

When was the last time something upset you at work? What did you do?

Almost everyone has an emotional moment related to work at some point - you're not alone. The key is to learn why you reacted that way and to focus not on the problem but HOW to resolve it. Another key component is to be aware of your emotional response so that you can learn to control it in the future in a calm way.

How do you ensure all of your work gets accomplished in a productive manner?

The key is to prioritize what's important in your work and to stay organized to accomplish the tasks. A strong work ethic also helps.

What was the biggest professional risk you have taken and what was the outcome?

First discuss how you weighed the pros and cons of the risk and the results you'd believe you could achieve. Then discuss the action plan you put into place for it and outline that step by step. Then discuss the outcome and if it wasn't optimal talk about what you would do differently in hindsight.

Tell me about the last time you had to work with someone inside or outside of your department to accomplish a goal.

Show that you were communicative with that person and that you were able to collaborate effectively in sharing ideas and work tasks. They want to see that you can be a team player.

What do you expect from this job?

Talk about the potential career development, your career aspirations, your work relationships and the learning you'll receive.

Do you know anyone working with this organization?

It would be great if you did - then you could potentially use them as a referral if they thought highly of you.

What do you like best about what you have learned about this job?

Just be forth right here. Talk about what gets you excited and motivated.

What concerns do you have about this job?

List out all your concerns - because you want the interviewer to address them. This also shows you've thought through the potential challenges in the job and shows you're qualifying them. It puts the ball in your court.

What do you see as your primary qualifications for this job?

Possible qualifications: previous experience in the industry, skill set, work ethic, your business network.

Are you willing to travel?

If the job asks for you to travel, be prepared to do so. Unless you don't want to - in which case, why are you interviewing for this job?

Why are you leaving the organization you work for?

Don't speak badly of the company - instead speak of the positive aspects of the previous work experience you had and focus on the great potential of this new job role.

What happens when two priorities compete for your time?

Determine the deadline for each priority. How long will it take to do each one? Which one is a bigger priority if only one can be done? Then you choose which one to work on first. You would have open communication if there is a chance one priority cannot get completed on time.

Describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to successfully convince someone to see things your way?

You want to explain what you did to persuade someone and not just highlight the fact that you persuaded someone. Explain what the situation was and why you needed to persuade the person, and how you did so. What were the results? Why did you use the technique you did?

Describe an instance when you had to think on your feet to extricate yourself from a difficult situation.

Only give examples of where the end result was good, not an example of where it didn't work out or you had to lie yourself out of situation. This question will see how you act under pressure. Paint yourself in a good light when it comes to handling pressure.

Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem.

Explain the situation, what your line of thinking was, how you arrived at your solution, and what the end result was. How did others react to your solution (manager, co-workers)?

By providing examples, convince me that you can adapt to a wide variety of people, situations and environments.

Talk about situations where you've interacted with people of different cultures and ages, as well as situations where you were out of your normal environment. Only talk about situations you handled well, and give learning experiences if you learned from the situation.

Describe a time when you were faced with problems or stresses that tested your coping skills.

Give an example of a situation where you correctly used your coping skills. Explain the situation, what you did to cope, what the result was, and how others reacted to the result.

Give an example of a time in which you had to be relatively quick in coming to a decision.

This question is designed to see how you act under pressure. Give an example of a time when you had only a short time to come to a decision, what happened, what did you do, and what was the result?

Describe a time when you had to use your written communication skills to get an important point across.

This is a good time to explain how well you use email, or how you create charts or diagrams. If you've ever created a training manual or procedures manual, talk about that. The interviewer wants to know that you are a good writer.

Give me a specific occasion in which you conformed to a policy with which you did not agree.

When giving an example of a policy, be careful not to mention a policy that the new company would also have. Explain why you didn't agree with the policy (actual reasoning), and why you conformed. Did you tell anyone that you didn't agree, or did you simply conform from the beginning?

Give me an example of an important goal which you had set in the past and tell me about your success in reaching it.

Many people want to mention their college education as the goal, but unless you achieved it through a different path than most people you should try to come up with a different example.

Describe the most significant or creative presentation that you have had to complete.

What was the presentation about, how did you prepare, who did you give the presentation to, and how do you believe the presentation went?

Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done.

Explain the situation, and what you did to go above and beyond? How did others react?

Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with another person even when that individual may not have personally liked you (or vice versa).

This question is designed to see how you handle conflict and to see whether you can move beyond it. It is better to give an example of a situation where someone else didn't like you, rather than where you didn't like someone else.

Sometimes it's easy to get in "over your head." Describe a situation where you had to request help or assistance on a project or assignment.

Requesting help isn't a bad thing, it shows that you put the company first instead of yourself. Give an example of a time when so many projects landed on your plate and you had to ask for help, who you asked, and how you decided what you would do and what the other person would do.

Give an example of how you applied knowledge from previous coursework to a project in another class.

Many classes require knowledge from previous classes, even basic skills like writing and math came from previous classes at some point. If you've ever had a research class, the skills learned in that class will transfer over to most future classes.

Describe a situation where others you were working with on a project disagreed with your ideas. What did you do?

This question is designed to see if you can stand by your ideas when they are good and also to see whether you can recognize when someone else's ideas are better. Give an example of each if possible.

Describe a situation in which you found that your results were not up to your professor's or supervisor's expectations. What happened? What action did you take?

Give a situation in which you misunderstood the expectations, not where you didn't do your best. Misunderstandings happen, and you can explain that now you always make certain you understand exactly what your boss or professor wants.

Tell of a time when you worked with a colleague who was not completing his or her share of the work. Who, if anyone, did you tell or talk to about it? Did the manager take any steps to correct your colleague? Did you agree or disagree with the manager's actions?

This is a trick question. The interviewer wants to see that you spoke with the colleague first about not completing his/her share, not that you went straight to the manager about it.

Describe a situation in which you had to arrive at a compromise or guide others to a compromise.

This question is designed to see how well you can mediate a situation and handle conflict. You want to come across as someone who can compromise when necessary.

What steps do you follow to study a problem before making a decision.

The interviewer wants to know that you don't just jump into a solution without knowing the problem in detail. You want to study the problem by determining the cause of the problem, what the problem is, and what the possible solutions are. You then decide on a solution.

We can sometimes identify a small problem and fix it before it becomes a major problem. Give an example(s) of how you have done this.

Give an example of the problem, what you believed could have potentially happened if you had not corrected the problem, and what you did to correct the problem.

In a supervisory or group leader role, have you ever had to discipline or counsel an employee or group member? What was the nature of the discipline? What steps did you take? How did that make you feel? How did you prepare yourself?

If you haven't been a supervisor, think of a situation in which you were a group leader for a school project. Don't give names.

Recall a time from your work experience when your manager or supervisor was unavailable and a problem arose. What was the nature of the problem? How did you handle that situation? How did that make you feel?

This question is designed to see if you require supervision or if you can work independently and make decisions. Give an example that shines a good light on you.

Recall a time when you were assigned what you considered to be a complex project. Specifically, what steps did you take to prepare for and finish the project? Were you happy with the outcome? What one step would you have done differently if given the chance?

This question is designed to see that you are good at project management, that you can set goals, and see the big picture while focuses on the smaller tasks. Give an example and go through your thinking process and how you set goals for each task, resulting in the end project.

What was the most complex assignment you have had? What was your role?

In this example, you want to give an example where you were either the leader or the facilitator (project manager).

How was your transition from high school to college? Did you face any particular problems?

This question is a question to get a feel for who you are and to see how you dealt with a major change in life.

Tell of some situations in which you have had to adjust quickly to changes over which you had no control. What was the impact of the change on you?

This question is designed to see how you handle change and whether you can adapt to changing situations. Give an example of where you handled change well and explain what you did.

Compare and contrast the times when you did work which was above the standard with times your work was below the standard.

Focus more on your work that was above the standard. For the work below standard, explain how you learned from the experience and will no longer make the same mistakes.

Describe some times when you were not very satisfied or pleased with your performance. What did you do about it?

This question is designed to see whether you can accurately evaluate your own performance and learn from your mistakes. Focus on your learning experiences from bad performance.

What are your standards of success in school? What have you done to meet these standards?

The interviewer wants to see that you are self-driven and that you set your own high standards, not that you only achieve because you are forced to. Explain what your standards are and how you successfully meet them.

How have you differed from your professors in evaluating your performance? How did you handle the situation?

Don't speak badly about your professors, but rather just explain the difference in evaluation standards. Explain how you handled the situation, and how you learned from the experience.

Give examples of your experiences at school or in a job that were satisfying. Give examples of your experiences that were dissatisfying.

This question is designed to see what you enjoy and don't enjoy. If you really enjoyed a particular course or a particular organization you were involved in, be certain to highlight it.

What kind of supervisor do you work best for? Provide examples.

Don't speak badly about any of your former supervisors, instead speak to the attributes you liked best. Can you adapt if a supervisor has traits you do not like?

Describe some projects or ideas (not necessarily your own) that were implemented, or carried out successfully primarily because of your efforts.

It is best to give an example of an idea you either came up with or had a major role in implementing.

Describe a situation that required a number of things to be done at the same time. How did you handle it? What was the result?

This question is designed to see if you have the ability to multitask. Give an example of how you've successfully juggled many things at once.

Have you found any ways to make school or a job easier or more rewarding or to make yourself more effective?

Efficiency is important to companies, so think of an example of how you've streamlined a process and explain what you did and what the result was.

How do you determine priorities in scheduling your time? Give examples.

Give an example of a situation where you had to multitask and juggle several priorities. Explain your thought process as you determined which tasks were the top priorities.

Tell of a time when your active listening skills really paid off for you -- maybe a time when other people missed the key idea being expressed.

This could be an example from work or from school. Explain how you actively listen and what you do to remember (e.g. taking notes).

What has been your experience in giving presentations? What has been your most successful experience in speech making?

The company wants to hire someone who is comfortable with public speaking and can prepare a presentation. Give an example where you had to present in front of several people, and what you did to prepare.

Tell of the most difficult customer service experience that you have ever had to handle -- perhaps an angry or irate customer. Be specific and tell what you did and what the outcome was.

This question is designed to see how you handle conflict and to see whether you can move beyond it. Explain what you do in such a situation and how you stayed level-headed.

Give an example of when you had to work with someone who was difficult to get along with. Why was this person difficult? How did you handle that person?

This question is designed to see how you handle difficult people, and what you have successfully done to work with them. Explain how you do not let difficult people get your attitude down.

Describe a situation where you found yourself dealing with someone who didn't like you. How did you handle it?

This question is designed to see how you handle conflict and to see whether you can move beyond it. Also, be sure that the reason for your person not liking you isn't something that will look bad the interviewer.

Give me a specific example of something you did that helped build enthusiasm in others.

If you're ever going to be a supervisor, the company wants to know that you can motivate employees. Give an example of what you've done to motivate others and build enthusiasm.

Tell me about a difficult situation when it was desirable for you to keep a positive attitude. What did you do?

This is similar to the last question except that it focuses on you instead of others. The company wants to know that you can keep a positive attitude even when times are difficult. Give an example and explain what you do to keep your spirits up.

Give me an example of a time you had to make an important decision. How did you make the decision? How does it affect you today?

Describing your decision-making process is more important than the decision itself. How do you decide on a solution?

Give me an example of a time you had to persuade other people to take action. Were you successful?

Talk about a time when you've persuaded others to do something that was for the good of a project or the company. What did you do to persuade, and how receptive were the others to the idea?

Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult person. How did you handle the situation?

This question is designed to see how you handle conflict and to see whether you can move beyond it. Explain what you do in such a situation and how you stayed level-headed.

Tell me about a time you had to handle multiple responsibilities. How did you organize the work you needed to do?

This question is designed to see if you have the ability to multitask. Give an example of how you organized your work.

Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision, but didn't have all the information you needed.

This question is designed to see whether you know how to ask the right questions to get the information you need. The company doesn't want someone who makes a decision without all of the information.

What suggestions do you have for our organization?

You don't know enough about the organization yet to give a suggestion. You can talk about how you are excellent with efficiency (or something else that's important), and that once you start you will focus on finding ways to make changes that benefit the company.

What is the most significant contribution you made to the company during a past job or internship?

What was the contribution, what were the results? What did others think of your contribution?

What is the biggest mistake you've made?

Focus on your learning experiences from your mistake.

Describe a situation in which you had to use reference materials to write a research paper. What was the topic? What journals did you read?

This question is designed to see what your research methods are. Explain how you organize your research and what types of materials you use.

Give me a specific example of a time when a co-worker or classmate criticized your work in front of others. How did you respond? How has that event shaped the way you communicate with others?

You want to explain how you believe constructive criticism can be helpful, but that it should be done one-on-one and not in front of others. Explain how you do things differently than the person in your example did.

Give me a specific example of a time when you sold your supervisor or professor on an idea or concept. How did you proceed? What was the result?

What was the idea, how did you present it to your supervisor, what were the results once the idea was implemented?

Describe the system you use for keeping track of multiple projects. How do you track your progress so that you can meet deadlines? How do you stay focused?

This question is designed to see if you have the ability to multitask. Give an example of how you organized your work.

Tell me about a time when you came up with an innovative solution to a challenge your company/class/organization was facing. What was the challenge? What role did others play?

The company wants to hire someone who can come up with solutions to problems the company is facing, and can effectively implement those solutions. Give an example from the past that shows this.

Describe a specific problem you solved for your employer or professor. How did you approach the problem? What role did others play? What was the outcome?

Describe the problem, what the process was for coming up with solutions, and how you came to the best solution. What were the results?

Describe a time when you got co-workers or classmates who dislike each other to work together. How did you accomplish this? What was the outcome?

This question is designed to see how well you can mediate a situation and handle conflict. You want to come across as someone who can compromise when necessary.

Tell me about a time when you failed to meet a deadline. What things did you fail to do? What were the repercussions? What did you learn?

This example should be a time in which a more important priority came up and you had to focus on that, instead of the other deadline you had. Don't give an example of a time when you were bad at managing your time and missed the deadline.

Describe a time when you put your needs aside to help a co-worker or classmate understand a task. How did you assist him or her? What was the result?

This is a question that deals with communicating ideas and how effectively you can train someone else. Describe what you do to train someone and how you break things down into a level they can understand.

Give two examples of things you've done in previous jobs or school that demonstrate your willingness to work hard.

It would be good to have an example from school and from work. Explain what you did and why you wanted to work hard, and how you managed your time.

Describe the last time that you undertook a project that demanded a lot of initiative.

Describe that you take initiative and are self-driven. You want to give an example that is recent, because it shows that you still have initiative, not that you had it 12 years ago.

What is the most competitive work or school situation you have experienced? How did you handle it? What was the result?

You want to come across as competitive, but not cut-throat.

Describe a project or situation that best demonstrates your analytical abilities.

Describe your thinking and reasoning process from the example you give. Your process is more important than the situation itself.

Give an example of when you took a risk to achieve a goal. What was the outcome?

Taking a risk is good, as long as it doesn't put the company at risk of lawsuits or losing a lot of money. Give an example where risk paid off.

Tell about a time when you built rapport quickly with someone under difficult conditions.

Describe how you are able to get along with just about anyone, even in tough situations.

Some people consider themselves to be "big picture people" and others are detail oriented. Which are you? Give an example that illustrates your preference.

It is important to show that you are both. You want to show that you are detail oriented and can get the individual tasks done while focusing on the big picture.

Describe a situation where you felt you had not communicated well. How did you correct the situation?

Communication is important, so focus on what you learned from the situation and how you no longer make the same mistake.

Describe a time when you took personal accountability for a conflict and initiated contact with the individual(s) involved to explain your actions.

This question is designed to see how you handle conflict and to see whether you can move beyond it. The company also wants to know that you can take accountability and responsibility and not put it on someone else.

Give me an example of when you were able to meet the personal and professional (or academic) demands in your life yet still maintained a healthy balance.

This question is designed to see how well you can manage your time and multiple priorities. Give examples of how you've successfully managed juggling your work and home life.

Everyone has made some poor decisions or has done something that just did not turn out right. Give an example of when this has happened to you.

Focus on what you learned from your poor decision, and how you will no longer make the same mistakes.

What do you do when you are faced with an obstacle to an important project? Give an example.

Give an example of an obstacle you've faced and how you've overcome it. Explain your process for overcoming it. You want to focus on learning experiences, and how you deal with difficult situations.

Tell about the most difficult or frustrating individual that you've ever had to work with, and how you managed to work with that person.

This question is designed to see how you handle conflict and to see whether you can move beyond it. Explain how you were able to work with the difficult individual, and were able to mediate the situation.

Tell about a time when your trustworthiness was challenged. How did you react/respond?

You want to come across as honest, but also cool under pressure. Explain what you did when your trustworthiness was challenged, and how you were able to prove yourself as honest, while keeping a calm demeanor.

Describe a situation when you were able to have a positive influence on the actions of others.

This question is designed to see whether you can motivate others and help achieve a positive attitude. Explain how you motivate others and what you do to determine what motivates them.

Tell about a recent job or campus experience that you would describe as a real learning experience? What did you learn from the job or experience?

Focus on what you learned and how you will take those lessons and use them in the future.

Describe a team experience you found disappointing. What could you have done to prevent it?

The example you give should be one in which your team did not work well together, and you will show that you've learned from it and now use open communication to make certain everyone knows his/her role on the team.

Recall a situation in which communications were poor. How did you handle it?

This doesn't have be an example where you were poor at communicating, but rather one where you helped resolve a poor communication situation.

Describe a time when you had to make a difficult choice between your personal and professional (or academic) life.

This question is designed to see whether you're willing to go the extra mile for the company. Give an example that shows your dedication, without giving too many details about your family life. Also, you don't want to come across as though you hate your family either.

On occasion we are confronted by dishonesty in the workplace or in school. Tell about such an occurrence and how you handled it.

Definitely don't give an example of a time when you were dishonest, because the company doesn't want to hire a liar. Give an example of a time when someone else lied and it resulted in a difficult situation at work or school. Explain how you handled the situation.

What motivates you to go the extra mile on a project or job?

People are motivated by different things, and this question is designed to see what motivates you. Is it recognition, is it a feeling of achievement, or something else?

How have you grown or changed over the past few years?

Learning from past experience is very important to companies, so focus on what you've learned and how that has made you grow as a person. How has this made you a better employee?

What five words would you say describe you best?

Choose these words carefully, and only choose five (if you don't follow instructions the company will frown on your answer). Choose words that describe attributes that you want the interviewer to know about you.

If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?

Answering this question with a simple yes will come across as though you are only working for money. If you would retire, what would you do with your time? Travel, volunteer? If you wouldn't retire, explain why.

When have you been most satisfied in your career?

This question is designed to see what makes you happy and what motivates you. Explain why the particular example made you feel satisfied.

Can you work under pressure or within a tight deadline?

You always want to answer with "yes" and give an example of a time in which you worked within a tight deadline and what you did to meet your goals on time.

Do you prefer to work alone or in a group?

Answer the question truthfully, as either answer is okay. However, you want the interviewer to know that you are fine with working in the other situation, and that you have done so successfully many times in the past. Preference is one thing, while ability is something else.

How do you measure your own performance?

You want to come across as someone who cares about his/her performance and has a way to measure it. Explain how you measure your performance and what you do to correct your performance if it needs to be corrected or adjusted.

How much were you absent from your last job?

Be honest because this could come out in a reference check. If you were absence more than most people, explain why. You'll want to explain that you are committed to the job and will be dependable.

Have you ever been asked to leave a position?

Be honest because this could come out in a reference check. Explain why you were asked to leave the job, and what you have learned from the experience.

Why did you leave your last job?

Don't talk bad about the company, even if you left because you hated your manager. Explain the reasons you left and why the new job would be a great fit for you.

How long have you been looking for a job?

Be truthful. If you've been looking for a year, it's okay to say so because it shows that you haven't given up (and the economy is tough). If you've only been looking for a short time, you can explain that as well.

How did you prepare for this interview?

Be certain to say that you researched the company, went to the company website, and tried to learn as much about the position as possible.

What do you like about your present job?

Talk about what you like in your job, and why you like it.

What do you dislike about your present job?

Talk about what you dislike in your job, and why you dislike it. Explain what you do when you have to do things you dislike. How do you move past your dislike and motivate yourself to work hard?

What would your co-workers say about you?

Be honest because your co-workers may be called as a reference. Highlight good attributes that your co-workers would say about you.

What would your supervisor say about you?

Be honest because your supervisor may be called as a reference. Highlight good attributes that your supervisor would say about you. Would he/she hire you again if he/she could?

What are the most important rewards you expect in and from your career?

Explain what you want to achieve and what you are expecting to get out of your career.

What are you looking for in a company?

You want to be honest, but focus more on things you know the company you are interviewing with has. Some examples: good company culture, open communication, and diversity.

What are you looking for in a job?

Be honest, as you don't want a job that you'd hate.

What are your career goals?

Mention your short term and long term career goals, as they are often different. What have you done so far to work toward these goals? Most important, explain how this job will fit into your plan toward your ultimate career goals.

What are your long-range goals?

Explain your long-range career goals, and explain how the job will help you achieve those goals.

What are your short-range goals?

Explain your short-range career goals, and explain how the job will help you achieve those goals.

What is more important to you: the money or the work?

For most people, the answer is both (or sometimes neither). Be honest about what motivates you, and give examples from the past if possible.

What do you enjoy about this industry?

If you've worked in the industry before, give examples of what you've liked the most. If you haven't worked in the industry, explain what you believe you would enjoy the most based on your research of the industry.

What do you know about this organization?

You should have done research before the interview, so explain what you know about the organization's mission, what their product or service is, what the corporate culture is like, etc. Explain why these things make you want to work for the company.

Are you applying for other jobs?

It is okay to say that you are applying to other opportunities, as this could give them more of a reason to move quickly if they are interested in you. It isn't a good idea to tell them which other specific companies you are applying.

Do you know anyone who works for us?

This is a tricky question. If you have a close relative who works there, you should be upfront because they will likely find out later. If you happen to know someone else but don't really know what type of worker they are, you may not want to mention the person as it could reflect badly on you if they aren't a great worker.

Have you ever done this kind of work before?

If you have done this type of work, give examples of what you've done before. If you haven't done this type of work, give reasons why you feel you are qualified. This may be education you've obtained or other experiences that make you qualified.

What experience do you have in this field?

Just as in the previous question, give examples of your past experience in the field. If you haven't had experience, explain why your other experiences and education make you qualified to do the job.

Do you think you are qualified for this position?

You should always answer yes to this question, followed with an explanation of why you are qualified. Give examples of experience, and skills that make you qualified.

Explain how you would be an asset to this organization.

Explain any skills that you have that would make you unique. If you don't think you have any, then explain what you can do for the organization, what your goals are for the position, and your experience and skills that make you a great fit for the organization.

Why have you applied for this particular job?

Explain two things: 1. Why this company appeals to you. 2. Why this job appeals to you. Why do you want to work there in that job?

This organization is very different to your current employer, how do you think you are going to fit in?

Explain what makes you a great fit. If the company culture is more to your liking, or if the industry is more appealing, then explain those things. Give some examples of how you adapt to different situations.

Are you willing to put the interests of the organization ahead of your own?

This question is really to see if you have a different agenda. You should talk about how your interests and the organization align. What is your mission in life, how does this organization also carry out this mission, and how will you fit in and work toward the same goal?

Would you be willing to relocate if required?

If you are not willing to relocate, be honest. If the job requires relocation and you are not open to it, then it isn't the job for you. If you are willing to relocate, but you have restrictions (such as you will only relocate domestically), then explain that.

Are you willing to work overtime/nights/weekends?

If you are willing to work these times, then say that. If you are not, explain why. This can get tricky, as you don't necessarily want to explain why if it gets too personal (talking about your family or that you go to church on certain days).

Would you be willing to work as a temporary or contract employee?

You may want to ask what this means for their company. If this is an independent contractor, you would often be required to carry your own insurance, which can get expensive. Ask what time frame the temporary appointment would be for, and then answer the question honestly.

How long would you expect to work for us if hired?

In today's world, companies realize that people will often only work for them from 3-7 years. Explain that you see this company in your five year plan, and that staying for 10+ years would really depend on your advancement opportunities in the future, but you would have no intentions of leaving anytime soon.

What is your salary expectation for this job?

Do your market research prior to the interview to determine what a fair salary is for your experience and education for this position in this geographic area. Salary.com is just once place to find this information. Never say, "I don't know" or "it's negotiable" because it makes you look like you don't know your worth.

If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?

Explain the skills you think are necessary for the position (think about what was listed in the job posting). Then explain why you fit that criteria.

Why should we hire you?

Explain what you will bring the position. You don't know what the other candidates are like, so don't make assumptions about them. Sell yourself and your qualities.

Would you like to have your boss's job?

Don't say anything negative about your boss. Explain the challenges you'd face in the job, but why you could do it. If you absolutely wouldn’t want your boss' job, then explain why.

Sell me this computer you see on my desk.

This is a question to see how to deal with pressure, how persuasive you are, and what your sales abilities are. Describe the features of the computer, what it can be used for, and why it is a good buy.

Why should I hire you when I could fill this job within the company?

Outside ideas and perspectives are often undervalued. Sometimes you need someone from the outside to bring new ideas to the company.

Why weren't you working for so long?

Explain why you took a break or were unemployed. Explain that you either quit your previous jobs for a good reason or were laid off due to budget cuts. What were you doing with your time? How did you continue to seek new skills and learn while you were not working?

Describe a situation where your work was criticized.

Explain the situation and what the criticism was. How did you correct the problem? How did you handle the criticism?

Your resume shows that you were with your last company for a number of years with limited increase in rank or salary. What can you tell me about this?

Don't say anything bad about the company. Did you like your job and you didn't want to move up? Did your company have a tight budget and rarely gave increases to anyone? Was your rank level a broad range so that you really did move within it, but on paper it isn't as noticeable?

Why did you choose (name of school)?

Explain why you chose the school, and why it was a good fit for you. Give thoughtful, but true answers. Did you go to a public university because it was a better fit financially? Was the program you wanted to study really great at your particular school of choice?

Why did you want to major in (name of major)?

Explain why you chose your major and what made you come to that conclusion? Did you major change like many people's do? What were your goals when you chose the major?

What course did you like to most? The least?

Give a course that you liked and why you liked it. Explain a course you didn't like, but how you were able to get through it and make it interesting enough to complete.

What things did you learn in school that you could use on the job?

If you went to school specifically for this career, you will have learned a lot that will help you in the job. If you went to school for a different career, explain important classes that will be helpful. For example, Interpersonal Communication is a course that you can use in most jobs.

Do you think your grades adequately represent your abilities?

If your grades are good, you will likely say yes. If you had some lower grades in a few classes, you may want to explain why you struggled, but how you worked your hardest to do well. You still learned even if your grades didn’t reflect it.

We have hired people from your school before, but they have not worked out. What makes you different?

Everyone is different. We all have different experience in life and at school. We've taken different classes, and we have different abilities. I am confident in my ability to do this job.

What problems did you see in your school? How would you go about changing it?

Describe only problems that could actually be corrected, and explain why it is a problem and what your solution would be.

Tell me about your accomplishments that show you have initiative and a willingness to work.

Give an example of a time when you took initiative and did not wait for someone to ask you to do something. How did your manager/co-workers react to it?

How competitive are you?

You want to show some competitive spirit because it shows drive, but you don't want to come across as arrogant. If you are going into sales, you will want to highlight your competitive spirit a bit more and explain how goals help your competitiveness.

Tell me the contribution you can make to the organization.

Explain your goals for the position, and why your experience and education make you a good fit for the organization.

Tell me about a professional assignment you've handled.

Give an example of an assignment you've done, what the assignment was, how you did it, and what the results were.

Tell me about your school experiences.

This isn't a time to talk about attending frat parties, but rather a time to speak about how you volunteered with the Red Cross chapter at your school, or how you often attended the theatre productions. Speak to your academic experience as well, but don't only focus on that.

What was your most rewarding college experience?

Think about what you're proud of about college, besides the fact that you graduated. Were you able to work and go to school at the same time? Did you get involved in a campus organization that you found rewarding? Explain what you did and why you found it rewarding, and what you've learned from the experience.

Describe your most meaningful work experience.

Describe a work experience that was meaningful; explain what you were doing and why it was meaningful to you. What did you learn?

How do you propose to compensate for your lack of experience?

Education is often a good way to compensate for lack of experience. Also, explain how the experience that you do have is actually valuable to the position that you're interviewing for.

Do you have any blinders?

You should not have any blinders, as that does not make for a good employee. If you've had blinders, explain the situation and how you learned from it and no longer have these

TYPICAL WORK HISTORY QUESTIONS

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What types of office equipment have you used?

Possible answers: Computer, Software on the computer, copier, fax machine, VOIP phones, collaborative tools like Sharepoint / Box.net, Salesforce.com, heavy machinery, filing systems

Tell me about the types of word processing you did on your last job.

Discuss your familiarity with Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes, Zimbra, Apple software products and so forth. A typewriter doesn't count. It's obsolete.

What would you say are the major technical skills needed for this position?

This depends on how much technology knowledge and skills you'll need for the job role. Make sure the level correlates to the job. For example, if you're an IT administrator, you'll probably need really strong technical skills. If you're filing papers in the back, chances are you won't need such strong technical skills.

What certifications/classes have you completed this last year? Were any of them required by your supervisor?

Describe your certifications and state which ones you pursued on your own to show you initiative

Describe the types of documents you deal with on a daily basis.

Possible documents: Microsoft word, paper documents, PDFs, .bmps, .jpgs, Excel documents, powerpoint documents, financial documents.

What software programs do you use most often in your current position?

Discuss the specific software that you use that pertains to your vertical. For example, you would use CAD in design.

Give me an example of a technical problem you had to solve. How did you implement the solution?

First identify the problem, discuss it in detail, and then discuss your technical solution.

Tell me about the PowerPoint presentations you have developed.

Have you developed a detailed presentation before? Was it logically ordered? How was it received by the person viewing it? Was there an ending to it that drove home the point? Was there animation involved? How was it creative? All good questions to think of as you answer this question.

You have supervised people in the past. What were their titles and what type of supervision did you give them?

This question is designed to see how well you manage people - make sure you highlight how you were able to get people to work together and to complete their goals effectively in this example.

How do you motivate people?

Understand their goals and needs. Align the vision of the work to their goals. Inspire them through a speech or by example.

Have you ever fired anyone? What were the circumstances?

If you have - explain why you made the decision and you handled it with dignity.

Have you ever hired anyone? Why did you choose them?

When you are hiring someone, typically you look for strong characteristics like integrity, work ethic, diligence, potential and so forth. Most importantly highlight how you felt the hiring would impact the company for the better.

What do you do when you're having trouble with an employee?

You need to discuss the issue openly with the employee to come to a resolution.

What type of supervisory training have you completed in the last two years?

You could discuss training from a mentor/current supervisor. You could discuss management classes you've taken. You could discuss management books you've read.

How did you communicate bad news to your staff?

The key is to be forthright and honest about the bad news and then to focus on how your team will move forward to succeed. People appreciate honesty and optimism.

What is the employee turnover rate in your area?

This is a test to see how quickly you change jobs. Stress that you're investing your energy, time and efforts into this company for the long run (if you truly are)

What programs have you put in place to build morale?

Do you send out weekly inspirational emails? Do you talk with your teammates weekly to rally them around a cause? Do you have team events? Do you take your coworkers out to a dinner?

How do you plan your day?

Do you prioritize your activities in the office or are you reactive to emails coming in? Discuss how you would spend the morning and afternoon on your top 3 priorities and how you would execute on them.

Describe your management style.

Are you a micro manager? Are you a manager that empowers other people? If you're the latter, how do you do so? Do you set a clear goal for the team?

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

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Answer

I'm the owner of a tutoring center. I want you to try to sell me your brand of pencils.

The interviewer is asking you to think through the sales process: 1. Ask them about their pain points / challenges / goals. 2. Listen carefully 3. Align the solution (pencils) to their goals/challenges and discuss the benefit of buying it 4. Ask them to purchase the pencils

You're an entreprenuer and opening a new bakery store. Walk me through the process from the beginning.

Walk through this logically. First you need a business plan. Then you need to obtain licenses for the business and to incorporate it. Then you need to get funding for the purchase of the equipment and for the staff's pay. Then you need to put together an operations plan so that the staff can execute the tasks needed to run the business. Then you need to figure out a marketing plan to attract customers. And so forth.

I have a customer list of 10,000 businesses. Describe to me how you would create 1,000 marketing impressions from that list.

Think of the different marketing campaigns you could run through direct marketing (TV, radio, newspapers/magazines), digital formats, social marketing, viral marketing and so forth.

We would like you to reduce our costs by $1,000,000 in our operations department. Describe to me how you would implement that project.

Ask for more information on the current operations department and what their key challenges and inefficiencies are. From there, discuss how your ideas would cut down on costs.

You're the CEO of our company and you can focus on three priorities for the year. What would they be and why?

It depends on the goals of the company, but here are some good answers: Increasing profitability, sustainable revenue growth, lower costs, increasing innovation to differentiate the company from competition.

Your company just had a security breach and 50,000 customer credit cards were stolen, how do you handle the situation?

Find out what the best solution is that will protect your customers. Immediately find out who the 50,000 customers were. From there, issue a notice detailing what happened and explain what you are doing to remedy the solution (which should be implemented immediately). Offer free credit protection services to the customers.

Estimate the total number of chairs in the United States.

Take your time, and ask questions to narrow down the choices. Is this just households (for example)? If yes, logically think through the steps: the US population is an estimated 307 million. Assuming there are about 112 million households out there, that works out to about 3 people per household (just under). The average house probably has a dining area and an office room. Assuming there are an average of 4 chairs total amongst both rooms, you can begin to estimate the "household" demand for chairs by working backwards from there. 3 people x 4 chairs = 12 x 112M householders = 1,334M chairs

Estimate the market opportunity for new chair sales in the United States.

Questions to ask - How often do chairs break? What is their typical life cycle? What is the average price of a new chair?

How many times do a clock's hands overlap in a day?

Map out the drawing of the block on a piece of paper. You'll find the answer is 22 unless you count Midnight as a part of the day.

How would you weigh a plane without scales?

Before the plane is assembled, weight all of the individual parts first.

Tell me 10 ways to use a pencil other than writing.

This is a test on your creativity. A pencil could be used as a eating device, as a measurement tool, as a liquid stirring device, etc.

Sell me this pencil.

First ask them to describe what they're looking for a pencil and why they want to buy it. Then utilize reasons that match those requirements to persuade them to buy the pencil. Close the statement by asking them if they'd be willing to buy it.

If you were an animal, which one would you want to be?

Which animal has characteristics you'd like to replicate in the workplace?

Why is there fuzz on a tennis ball?

The fuzz slows down the ball in flight, keeps it from bouncing too high, and lets the racket get a better "grip" on it. A perfectly smooth ball would travel so fast and bounce so high that the game would be unplayable. Also, with a smooth ball, it would be much more difficult for the player to control the direction of the shots.

If you could choose one superhero power, what would it be and why?

Have fun with the answer, just make sure you back up your answer with a genuine reason.

If you could get rid of any one of the US states, which one would you get rid of and why?

Logically decide which state you would get rid of (perhaps the lowest revenue generating state, etc) The key is to see how you arrive at your answer.

With your eyes closed, tell me step-by-step how to tie my shoes.

Take the time to visualize the shoe first. Then as you go through the process make sure you describe it step by step in great detail.

How many gas stations are there in the US?

Work backwards on this to find the answer: There are 50 states with the mean population being X million. For every X million of people there are Y number of gas stations. Thus X times Y gives you the number of gas stations in the US.

How many garden hoses were sold in the US last year?

Work backwards on this to find the answer: There are an estimated 150 million households in the US (making this up), from there we see an average of 2 hoses per household, and thus we arrive at 300 million hoses.

How many pairs of boxes are sold in the US each year?

Let's first discuss when boxes are typically used. From there, calculate the average number of boxes used for each scenario, and then multiply that by the number of people that would use it.

How many NetFlix DVDs get lost in the mail each year?

Make assumptions or ask questions to begin. For example, let's assume that there are 15 million customers that leverage mail in DVDs. Of those 15 million, assuming there is a 1% loss rate, than you'll have 150,000 DVDs that are lost in the mail each year.

Estimate the number of gallons of gasoline the typical gas station pumps in a given weekday.

Start off with assumptions - how many cars are in the world and how often do they fill up at the stations on any given day (or what's the average) From there estimate the average number of gallons each car would need and then you can arrive at your answer

QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK

Questions

What's a typical day like for this role?

What are the pros and cons of this role?

Tell me about the good and challenging aspects of the company

What are your co-workers like?

What is work-life balance like?

How often do you have to work late nights?

How does the company reward its top employees?

What is your view of management?

What type of career growth is possible at this company?

What are the leaders of the company like?

How do the leaders take feedback from the employees?

Describe how collaborative the work environment is.

Are people silo-ed into positions or is there opportunity to switch departments to broaden my skill set?

How does the company measure success?

What role does community giving play within the company?

How does the company reward success?

Is this position newly created? If not, what spurred the last employee to leave?

How would you describe the success of the department I am joining and their future prospects?

How much traveling will I have to do?

Will I have to relocate?

If I were to receive an offer, how soon would I have to start?

How will the company continue to innovate?

What are the next steps after this interview?

Based on our discussion, do you feel I am a good fit for the company?

How can I quickly become a strong contributor within this role?

What are the biggest challenges I will encounter in this role?

Is the working environment one where I will be micro managed or empowered with my own decisions?

What drives the organization?

What do senior executives value? What is important to them?

What are the core values that make up the organization's culture? Has this been consistently supported by senior executives?

Is the organization financially strong and stable? Please provide your annual financial reports for the last three years. (This is available on-line for publicly-traded companies.)

What are the significant strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the organization over the next few years?

What are the organization's strategic goals?

How does the department / team I will be joining relate to the overall organization? How does it support the organization's strategic goals?

Is the department a cost or profit center?

How is the department perceived politically?

How often will my immediate supervisor meet with me one on one?

What is the management style of my immediate supervisor and their superior?

How do you deal with poorly performing employees?

What is your strategy for empowering employees?

How do you ensure you are delegating effectively rather than micro-managing?

How do you help ensure that employees are highly motivated?

How do you ensure that each employee is doing quality work?

How does management ensure that employees feel listened to?

How do you enhance the creativity of developers?

How approachable and receptive is management to suggestions and feedback?

How do you minimize interruptions for developers?

Do you treat people with respect and integrity? Provide an example.

How important is productivity to the organization?

What do you do to maximize productivity?

Do you put as much if not more effort into retaining employees as you do recruiting?

What is your retention strategy?

How do you promote a healthy work-life balance?

What metrics do you track and report on? Provide a report showing data from the last few months.

How are teams assembled? How are team members selected? What are the selection criteria?

How often will the team I am in meet as a group?

What do you expect will be my role on the team?

What are the experience levels (i.e. junior, intermediate, senior) and job roles of the other team members?

What is involved in moving to another team or changing work assignments?

Do teams have a sufficient diversity of skill?

What types of team-building activities are done? How frequently?

Are teams empowered and self-organizing?

Are teams able to choose and tailor a methodology to suit them and their work?

How much freedom and support is provided to mentor and consult with colleagues, superiors, and customers?

Describe the clients, customers and end users I will be working with or for. How reasonable and pleasant are they?

What kind of work assignments will I be given?

What will be my day-to-day responsibilities?

What are the peaks and valleys in this job (throughout the year or day)?

What is a typical day like in this position?

What opportunities will there be to work with new, interesting technologies?

How do you plan to provide me with challenging work that makes optimal use of my abilities while providing a supportive environment?

Are developers required to do administrative or non-value-add tasks that could be done more cost effectively by others?

Will I be situated in an office with a door?

Is the work environment quiet with no distracting noises like intercoms, call center staff, ventilation systems, or traffic?

Are living, green plants in abundance in the office?

Are high quality chairs provided?

Is the office setting (chair, desk, keyboard, and monitor) ergonomically friendly?

Do you supply adequate workspace, varying based on the job?

Does the office setting support collaboration with coworkers? This includes at least one extra chair, the ability for two people to sit in front of the computer (i.e. pair programming), and a white board fixed onto a stable surface with room for at least three people to stand in front of it.

Will I be provided with an ergonomic keyboard and mouse to my specifications? Or can I purchase my own and expense it with no questions asked?

Will I have the freedom to install the tools I want on my workstation?

What is the process and lead time to get a new tool, workstation, or server purchased and installed? How much bureaucracy and delay is involved?

Do projects have realistic schedules, resources, and scope that are actively managed and adjusted? How much freedom and control does the project manager / team have to change these three factors?

How do you deal with a project that is behind schedule?

How do you manage requests to change the scope or requirements of a project?

What tools and practices are used to manage project schedules?

Who estimates the time or effort required to do a project?

How is the expenditure of effort tracked? What tools are used for time entry and tracking progress?

What is the duration of iterations and releases?

What development methodologies do you use? Describe how they are put into practice.

How closely does development activities align with the philosophy & principles of Agile and Lean?

What continuous improvement activities are performed on a regular basis?

How often are retrospectives / lessons learned meetings held?

How aggressively do you minimize bureaucracy and non-value-add activities? Can you provide an example of improving in this regard in the last six months?

What is your process for handling suggestions and ideas from employees? How many suggestions per employee on average were received in the last year? How many were acted on?

Do you provide opportunities for employees to receive feedback?

What opportunities will I get to work with a mentor?

How much paid training do you provide to each employee per year? What kind of training is it?

Can employees choose or recommend the training they take?

What kinds of opportunities for growth and advancement are possible?

How do you make decisions regarding promotions?

What approach is used for providing timely, effective feedback on performance?

How are performance evaluations carried out?

What do you look for in an ideal employee?

What is the official number of hours worked per week?

How many hours per week on average have people in this (or a similar) position worked over the last three months?

Do you allow or expect mandatory overtime?

What do you consider an unacceptable amount of overtime (both mandatory and voluntary)?

Do you provide flexible working hours? What limits are there?

Do you provide a competitive salary? What is your definition of competitive?

How do you ensure that the salary of long-term employees stays competitive, especially in a hot job market?

Do you respect your long-term employees enough to raise their salaries in such situations without waiting for them to ask for raises?

How do you compensate for overtime?

Do you pay according to the level of productivity? Why or why not?

How many weeks per year of vacation do you offer?

How flexible are you concerning how banked vacation can be used? Can it be saved from year to year?

Are there any restrictions on taking vacation?

What is your policy concerning raises? How regularly do you give raises? Do you consider a yearly increase in salary equal to the local inflation rate to be a raise?

How do you reward exceptional performance? What do you consider exceptional performance and how do you identify it?

Do you provide share options, profit sharing, retirement savings contributions, or pension? If so, what are the details of the plan(s)?

What medical benefits do you provide?

Do you cover dental work or eyeglasses?

Do you cover health preventative measures such as exercise programs, vitamins, or preventative medical exams?

What is your policy regarding sick days?

Do you allow and support people in working from home? Up to what percentage of the time?

Will travel be expected? If so, how frequently, for how long, to where?

What is the policy on travel expenses?

What other benefits or perks do you provide?

How do you participate in and contribute to the local and global community?

Who are you competing with locally?

What do you see ahead for your company in the next five years?

How do you see the future for this industry?

What do you consider to be your firm's most important assets?

What can you tell me about your new product or plans for growth?

What happened to the last person who held this job?

What were the major strengths and weaknesses of the last person who held this job?

What types of skills do you NOT already have onboard that you're looking to fill with a new hire?

What is the overall structure of the company and how does your department fit the structure?

What are the career paths in this department?

What have been the department's successes in the last couple of years?

How do you view your group/division/department?

What would you consider to be the most important aspects of this job?

What are the skills and attributes you value most for someone being hired for this position?

Where have successful employees previously in this position progressed to within the company?

What are the most immediate challenges of the position that need to be addressed in the first three months?

What are the performance expectations of this position over the first 12 months?

What are the next steps in the interview process?

What major challenges are you currently facing as a manager?

What makes your company better than your competitors?

What are the areas where your competitors are better than your company?

Who do you consider your customers to be?

What can you tell me about the other people in the organization I would be working with? Can I meet with any of them before accepting an offer of employment?

What is your management style?

What is your preferred method of communicating with your team?

What is your company’s policy on attending seminars, workshops, and other training opportunities?

What attracted you to working for this organization?

What have you liked most about working here?

How would you describe your own management style?

What are the most important traits you look for in a subordinate?

How do you like your subordinates to communicate with you?

What personal qualities or characteristics do you most value?

How would you describe the experience of working here?

What are a couple of misconceptions people have about the company?

Before I leave, is there anything else you need to know concerning my ability to do this job?

Are there any recent or anticipated changes in the structure of the organization (mergers, cutbacks)?

If I want to further my education, does the organization offer tuition benefits?

Can I provide you with any other information to help you in the decision making process?

Will I have a written employment agreement?

Does your company require that I sign a non-compete agreement?

How many women and minorities hold management positions in your company?

Where do the other employees live? How far away are these communities? Can you describe them? What is the commute like?

What is the most challenging aspect to this job for someone who is new to the company?

What will the new (job title) have to accomplish in the next six months?

What are your expectations for newly hired employees?

What qualities do newly hired employees possess?

How would you describe a typical first assignment?

Why is the position open?

What are your major projects for the coming year?

What is the structure of the department where the position is located?

What is the work environment like?

What are the company's strengths and weaknesses?

What is the most challenging aspect of this job?

Who would I work with most closely?

How often can I expect to relocate?

How do you encourage your employees to keep current with professional developments in the field?

Can you describe your training program for me?

What is a typical career path for someone who has been in this position?