The "Briefs": Hand-curated Job Search Goodness

August 20, 2019

In this issue: Look like a leader, Network like a boss, 5 Expert Formulas for "Tell me about yourself", How to answer the dreaded interview question "What's your greatest weakness, How to handle salary discussions, and more....

We are back.

Woohoo! The monthly "Briefs" are back. I took a short sabbatical from individual client work over the summer while my family moved. We are excited to be in the Research Triangle and back in the South. If you are ever in the area, let's do coffee (or kombucha--my fav). While I was away, I did a lot of reading, project planning and building out new job search resources. Stay tuned-- I've got some exciting announcements to share in the near future.

Leadership Briefs

I had the opportunity to sit down for virtual coffee with Sylvie di Giusto, a global executive image consultant and author of the book, The Image of Leadership. "People packaging" is Sylvie's expertise. Before speaking to international audiences on the power of image, she worked in corporate human resources.

Luck is for amateurs. Create and share content, assign value to your time, and help others in your network even as you strive to improve yourself.

Climbing the ladder.

Highlight your value — and don’t ask to meet for coffee.

Struggling to find an email address of the person you desperately need to reach? This article is full of gold and will show you how to find anyone’s real email address. Great for networking e-mails/hidden job market.

Interview coming up?

I am probably losing cool points today, but I'll admit I used to love Challenge 24 in elementary school.

For those of you who've never played, it's a fast, tournament style card game where the objective is to find a way to manipulate four integers so that the end result is 24.

Elementary school teachers love this game because repetition is a PROVEN way to improve memory.

💼 What does this mean for your job search?

If you are not routinely practicing your elevator pitch and common interview questions, you could be setting yourself up for a not so stellar performance.

When practicing, you should consider "spaced repetition" vs. binging the night before your interview.

Pierce J. Howard, author of the Owner's Manual for the Brain explains it, "Work involving higher mental functions, such as analysis and synthesis, needs to be spaced out to allow new neural connections to solidify. New learning drives out old learning when insufficient time intervenes.”

💼 Your takeaway: If you have an interview coming up, spend 20 minutes to an hour every day leading up to the interview working on your responses.

Speaking of responses...

Almost every single interview starts the same way. You walk into the recruiter or hiring manager’s office. After greeting you with a handshake, offering you a place to sit and maybe a cup of coffee, they turn to you and say…..”So, tell me about yourself”. I asked 4 other top interview and job search experts to share their best formula for answering this intimidating open ended question.

Bob McIntosh of "Things Career Related" put together a great guide on how to answer the dreaded question, "What is your greatest weakness?". This article features my advice along with Ashley Watkins, Jamie Fischer (manufacturing recruiter) & Brett Lampe (accounting recruiter).

Let's talk salary

Even though it's illegal in many states to ask "What's your salary history", this question still remains popular. This practical article addresses how to answer this dreaded question.

Even if a salary amount or range isn’t listed in the job posting, there are ways to find out what you would make in the position.

Just for fun.

Google Assistant will soon be able to assign reminders for up to six people in a household, sending notifications to smartphones and Home speakers. This is great news if you have a college student who is job searching. "Hey Joe! Don't forget to get your suit pressed for your interview on Thursday. Good luck!"

What's new and next?

Excited to share that I am launching one of the first Alexa Flash Briefings on the topic of job searching in September! If you have an Alexa device, you can go ahead and subscribe.

Amazon.com: Job Search and Interview Tips: Alexa Skills

Thank you :)

Thank you for subscribing and reading my newsletter. I hope that you like the new (and improved?) format and found the content thought provoking & applicable to your job search. If you enjoy "The Briefs", please share it on social media or privately with your job seeking friends.

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