It’s only natural
An actor was asked what he thought about acting. “Acting,” he replied, “is a great thing, but don’t be caught at it.” He wasn’t commenting on the profession as a whole, rather the reality that the best acting doesn’t appear like acting at all – it appears natural. When preparing clients for job or college […]
Stay out of the crossfire
Q: I am going for an interview next week – the job is with a retail outlet. A friend of mine already works there and she says the boss can be very cranky. “He was hostile in my interview,” she says, “and I bet he will be hostile in yours. He’s hostile to everybody at […]
Hide your talents atop a skyscraper
Winning language, er, wins. Many people use self-deprecating language. It can be a quite endearing trait in casual company, but when chasing a job, it could well be injurious to your chances. Ask someone how they are today, and they may tell you ‘not too bad.’ When analysed literally, this means that they are ‘bad’, […]
Seeing your skills afresh
Q: I I have been successful all my life, but the company for which I worked at middle management level has just closed down. I feel as if the rug has been pulled from under me. I can’t even begin to contemplate searching for a new job. I feel like I have all sense of […]
Letting them know you’re not a flight risk
Q: I am applying for jobs for which I am over-qualified, because work in my main sector (accounting) is gone very quiet. I generally get called to interview, and feel I do well, but I have not got a job yet. I know I could have easily have been a success in many of the […]
Your insightful questioning can produce better answers
Interviews are not just about candidates answering questions – they are about candidates asking questions too. Every juncture in an interview is an opportunity to show how your skills, attributes and characteristics meet the employer’s needs. It is a point we have mentioned here before and we cannot stress it often enough. Ergo, you should […]
Feeding back the question in your answer
One of the approaches we recommend in interview training involves encouraging the candidate to feed back the very language they hear in the question. So if the interviewer says: “We are looking for someone with excellent IT skills for this role, someone who can work their way around IT problems as they arise. How would […]
Two roads diverged in a wood…
Robert Frost might not have been speaking figuratively about career direction, but for this exercise we can use his celebrated poem as a backdrop for considering career action plans. Many people these days are facing numerous career roads, either by choice or by obligation. A career action plan does not have to be an intricate […]
Forward view will reduce past pain
Q: My last job finished prematurely. I left before I was pushed. My face no longer fit. Once upon a time, I was invited to take part in decision making, included in all management chit-chat trips to the canteen to discuss things, and sounded out about possible business developments, innovations and initiatives. Slowly but surely, […]
Claiming the right to sell yourself to people you know
Q: Next week I’m going for a job where I’m being interviewed by three people I know very well. I work with all three, and in fact one of them is a previous boss of mine. All four of us work in the same company and sometimes socialise together. My fear is I will not […]