The Most Important Question to Ask During an Interview

I first read the LinkedIn article that Lou Adler authored and then quickly signed up for his webinar earlier this week and man was my mind blown.  Then again, these were all things that are obvious but we all happen to overlook.  So let me get to the meat of the story, the most important question that needs to be asked is:

“What single project or task would you consider the most significant accomplishment in your career so far?”

Lou explains in his article, and in the webinar he hosted, that this question doesn’t need to be asked off the bat.  Learn about the candidate and their background and then ask them the question by saying something along the lines of “I see that you’ve done xyz in your career, is there something that you would classify as your biggest project or accomplishment?”  And can I tell you?  I did this and it lead to a fantastic discussion.  This question allows the candidate to really think and elaborate on a specific project that they participated in.  I was pretty blown away.

So go on, ask the question, but don’t blind side the candidate, feel free to even let them know about it ahead of time.

What did you do today?

2012 in review – WordPress’ newest and coolest summary stats

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 17,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 4 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Make Finding a Job YOUR Job

I wanted to piggy back off last week’s posting on resumes and this time write about finding a job, which I have written about many times. 

If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of being laid off or you are a recent grad just coming into the work force, or perhaps a mom who has been out of work caring for her kids, you need to make finding a job your #1 priority.

Set some goals.  What will you accomplish each day or each week?  Will you try to take an online course to keep up with the market you are looking at working in?  WIll you send out ten resumes and cover letters, and most times that means you will need to tailor each resume and each cover letter to each individual job.  Will you, make some phone calls or better yet network at after hours events for people in your industry? 

All of these functions fall under the job search category.  Don’t expect anyone to hand anything to you.  As someone who is looking to hire, I can promise you that I look at relevant skills to the role I am trying to fill.  If you’re using a canned resume, then more than likely I’ll know.  And or I’ll just assume you don’t have the specific skills that I am looking for if they aren’t brought to the light for me. 

At the end of the day, hiring managers have to look at dozens of resumes and if you don’t make yourself stand out in some way then your luck is just as good as everyone elses.  So quit betting and make the job search YOUR job and I guarantee if you put some real effort into it and get creative with how to stand out from the crowd, then eventually, you’ll strike gold!

What did you do today?

P.S. Don’t believe me?  Read what Dr. Phil has to say on the topic of looking for work.

P.P.S. Are you in nursing?  Here are some interesting job search statistics from 2011.

Found in the article titled, Using Social Media for Job Searches.

Resume Tips

Having had the pleasure of recently reading through a large number of resumes a few things really stuck out to me.  I thought I would share those things with you. 

Boy did I see a lot of resumes with the education listed first.  This may be a personal thing and students may have been told to list their recently completed degree in first place, but in my opinion, if you have ANY kind of work experience, you want to list that first and foremost.  Why?  Because that is what is most relevant to the work you might potentially be doing.  Here are some other things I was surprised to see highlighted:

• GPA.  Why?  This really doesn’t tell me anything.  The fact that you may have received a 3.4 two or three years ago would have meant nothing to me then and certainly doesn’t mean anything to me now.  Don’t list it unless it is asked for in a job description.
• Listing the name of the sorority or fraternity you may have been a part of.  Even less relevant than a GPA.  If it comes out in an interview that you and the interviewer went to the same school you can mention that you were part of something specific at that school but at the end of the day, unless you are going after your first internship, or didn’t have any internships and are after your first job, then list your accolades in school, not the frat you were in.

Lastly,

• Pull out the skills that pertain to the job you are applying for and highlight them.
• Proof read.

I hope my comments might help you tailor your resume and get you in for that interview.

What did you do today?

P.S. Here is an article about writing a killer reumse that lands you an interview.

Resolutions 2013

Happy New Year readers!  I hope you ended 2012 on a positive note and are ready to take 2013 by the horns and run with it!

I started my year off with a nice walk outdoors and hope to continue that throughout the year.  Resolutions, as I mentioned last year, shouldn’t be unattainable goals that you hope you will one day accomplish.  Would I like to be an Olympic skier?  Sure, but I sure as hell won’t be able to make that happen now.  So instead I’m resolving to:

1. Stay healthy and walk at lunch.  The walk changes the pace of work a bit and allows you to get back to your desk with a clearer head.

2. Keep reading.  I had joined Real Simple magazine’s book club and was doing pretty well, up until the fall.  Now I own two books that I haven’t even gotten through page 10 on.

So those are my two simple resolutions, that are quite attainable.  What are yours?

What did you do today?

P.S. Here are my resolutions from 2012.  Keeping 1 &  1/5 of them isn’t bad right? 🙂