Richard Maun

Tag: Job Hunting

  • When Is It Okay Not To Practise?

    Practise hard to make sure you hit all the right notes on the day!
    Practise hard to make sure you hit all the right notes on the day!

    I thought I’d pose this question because last week I was working with a client the day before she had a job interview.

    When I asked if she’d like some time to practise her interview answers together she laughed and said ‘no, that wouldn’t be necessary.’

    …Apparently she was a confident interview candidate and had taken part in many ‘good’ first and second interviews before.

    This was worrying.

    Worrying, because if someone thinks they’re okay when they’ve had lots of interviews, they’re missing the point: They’re supposed to get a job.

    Having lots of interviews can mean that they have a great CV, but tend to under-perform in some way when put under pressure. People shelter under the notion that lots of interviews must mean they’re doing something right. Wrong. It’s a warning signal that they’re stumbling somewhere and need help to find out why.

    I chatted all this through with the client and she laughed again, in a hollow kind of way, that suggested I was right. We did a little demo interview and sadly I was. However, after a sharp 30 minutes of practise-review-practise-review she was much improved and could now:

    1) Keep her answers to about 60 seconds. Any longer and it’s called ‘waffle’.

    2) Include numbers in her answers. Numbers tell the story for you and show the scope and scale of the good work you have completed.

    3) Answer the question. A common question for a manager to be asked is: ‘When have you overcome resistance?’ A snappy answer using the STAR technique is a great way to impress, so learn to anticipate common questions and rehearse your answers, because it will help to reduce the pressure you’re under and to increase your ability to clinch a job.

    With the STAR approach all you do is STate the issue, talk about the Actions you took (I, not We here)* and finally outline the positive Results for you and the organisation.

    So, going back to the question in the title, the answer is, of course: Never.

    It’s a trick question really, as there is never an interview, speech, presentation, debate or sales pitch that isn’t improved by a bit of practise.

    So, as you look ahead to your work over the next two weeks… What do you need to practise for?

    Go for it!

     

    *Talk about ‘what I did was…’ because they’re not interviewing the team. They’re just interviewing you. Hiding behind ‘what we did was…’ looks woolly and your contribution is hard to spot.

  • You Can Use Technology

    Technology and cans (and coffee)
    Technology and cans (and coffee)

    My glasses have been misbehaving. Not playing violent 18-rated games on XBox (which they’re too young for) or staying out late without telling me when they’d be home. No. Something much worse.

    They’ve been slipping down my nose.

    I know. Scandalous isn’t it.

    When they gently descend and force me to peer out over the top of the rims I look like a patronising professor. I then have to push them back up, knowing they will soon defeat me once more. And you thought you had a tough life!

    So to tell them who’s boss I popped into my local optician and had them sorted. They were given a stern talking to, made to sit in the naughty-glasses-case for five minutes and finally heated up and had their arms gently adjusted. They’re now a reformed character and back to doing their job properly.

    During the course of their rehabilitation I learned that the optician’s daughter was currently writing a dissertation about Twitter. Amazing! Something that hardly existed two years ago is now a serious topic for academic research. She was writing about it’s usefulness as a marketing tool for publishing and ebook sales. Twitter has certainly helped me to sell books and it reminded me that if we want to be successful at selling products and services we need to attack all the routes to market.

    It costs nothing to explore Twitter, other than some time and maybe a bit of nervous energy, as we wonder if people will want to follow us. Follow me at @RichardMaun and I’ll follow you back, all for free.

    In my world of books it’s important to use tools like Twitter and YouTube to find customers and make them aware of my products. Thanks to the work of the actor known as Brian we’ve managed to generate more interest and more sales with the two short films he’s already starred in.

    Continuing the theme from last week’s post, about what I did well in 2011, the discussion with the optician reminded me that new technology is here to stay and that I continued to do a good job of using it this year. Looking back over 2010 I gained over 1,000 newfollowers on Twitter, posted 2 videos on YouTube, set up a FaceBook fanpage for Job Hunting 3.0, developed the blogsite and posted each week and, perhaps the smartest thing; integrated it all with my much loved Blackberry. (Apologies to iPhones everywhere).

    So when you look back on your success in 2011, which bits of technology did you use really well? Instead of dismissing it as ‘not for my business’ how did you make it work for you?

    Remember; if we think we can’t…then we can’t. If we think we can…then we can.

    Using technology for the good of our business, or our life, is about simply changing the can’t in our head to a can and then having a go. Technology is there to be used, whatever products or services your business provides. And I’m calling it technology because that is what it is; social media is just a current buzz-word for some of the content, but you still need a computer, smart phone, broadband connection and html coded website to link it all up and make it work.

    And if my glasses misbehave again, technology will provide a solution. I’m going to have bionic eyes installed.