Don't Worry about "Holiday Networking"--Make Connections and Have Fun!

http://www.younglawyersblog.com/post/Done28099t-Worry-about-e2809cHoliday-Networkinge2809d-e28093-Make-Connections-and-Have-Fun!.aspx

By Kathleen Pearson

So you made it through law school finals and headed home for the holidays.  Congratulations!  The only problem now is that your CSO (and everyone else for that matter) keeps telling you that you need to “network.”  Whether you have a job lined up or not, that word keeps buzzing around like an annoying gnat.  Don’t they know you are wiped out and the mere thought of having to do something else is going to send you right over to the edge?? 

“Networking” has become one of those insidious corporate buzz words that seems to be the panacea of all problems anyone might ever face. Because it has an official name, it seems unattainable by anyone that is not a perfect conversationalist or social butterfly. The word itself now seems filled with an undercurrent of wanting to get something from the other person – i.e. a job.  That’s a lot of pressure for both you and the other person!

Relax.  The holidays should not be filled with even more pressure and tasks.  It should be about having fun, reconnecting with old friends and family, and making new connections with interesting people.  Instead of focusing on networking, focus on connecting.

Just in case you have forgotten, here is a quick reminder of how to connect with others and have fun over the holidays:

Go to a holiday party with friends and family. 

1. Talk about your experiences in law school with friends and family
2. Ask your friends and family what they have been up to
3. Meet new people at the party and ask them about their interests
4. Tell the new people about yourself and your interests
5. Promise to keep in touch with the people you just talked to!

Add some music, food and perhaps a little egg nog, and you are well on your way to having fun and making connections with new people.  By recharging your batteries at home and talking about all those new experiences you just had in law school, you will come back to school refreshed and ready for a new semester. 

Interviewing Strategy Tips: STAR Method

http://www.upgradereality.com/star-model/

By Ramon
Your actions and results define who you are in other people’s eyes, and being able to tell people about yourself through stories which put you in a good light is an extremely powerful way to show your value. Becoming an expert in short structured story telling is the best way to answer competency based and behavioral interview questions. The STAR Method is the easiest way to get it right under pressure.

Level 1 – The Basics of the STAR Model
Then STAR Story model contains these parts in order.

1. Situation: Open with a brief description of the Situation and context of the story (who, what, where, when, how).
2. Task: Explain the Task you had to complete highlighting any specific challenges or constraint (eg deadlines, costs, other issues).
3. Action: Describe the specific Actions that you took to complete the task. These should highlight desirable traits without needing to state them (initiative, intelligence, dedication, leadership, understanding, etc.)
4. Result: Close with the result of your efforts. Include figures to quantify the result if possible.

Level 2 – When to use the STAR Method.
The STAR method is perfect for answering certain behavioral and competency based interview questions. Some companies even tell you that they use the STAR interview process so you can prepare. Typically the STAR interview questions will be open questions (Ie. requiring more than just a ‘Yes’, ‘No’, numerical or single word response) where the interviewer indicates that a description of an event would be a good way to answer. Common interview questions asking for a STAR answer will start …

STAR Interview question: Possible STAR answer:

Give me an example where you … Yes, one time I …
Describe a time/project where … On project XYZ, I …
Tell me about a time/situation/project when … Recently I …
Describe the most interesting/difficult/rewarding … I was … when

Sometimes, closed interview questions which could be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ are good to answer using the STAR technique. For example questions starting “Did you ever …” are also often good to answer using the STAR process especially if you feel the interviewer is not just looking for a yes or no answer or if there is a level of skill that you can demonstrate better by describing a situation or problem you solved.

Level 3 – Constructing the Story
Think of a situation which have highlighted your skills and good qualities. Usually these will be situations where you achieved something special and ideally where the result was significant and measurable. The following questions may help:

• Have you ever helped meet a tight deadline?
• Have you ever received an award for your efforts?
• Have you ever over-achieved a special target of some kind (sales/production/etc.)?
• Have you ever helped someone get through a problem?
• Have you ever helped increase/decrease a desirable business metric (eg increase sales/profit/production/customer retention or decrease costs/errors/etc)?

Remember that it is absolutely critical that you stick to the truth. There is nothing wrong with highlighting your good work, but interviewers will pick up if you are lying.
Now describe what happened in the situation going through each of the STAR sections in order of Situation, Task, Action and Resultt. If it helps, you might like to start by using the following prompts to keep the structure.

Situation:
One time I …
Just last month I had a situation where …
It was … and …
Tip: Just tell the relevant facts around when it was, who was there, where it happened, how it had come to this point.

Task:
So what we had to do was …
In order to fix … we had to …
We wanted to achieve … so we needed to ….
Tip: People like measurable things, so include anything which is measurable like size of an order, beating a deadline, etc. Any kind of special issue or constraint is good to include here.

Action:
What I did was …
So I …
Tip: Describe your actions. You don’t want to make the person you are talking to feel like they should be hiring another hero …

Result:
In the end we … [achieved great result as measured by]
We met the deadline and …
After that I received an award for …
… and reduced XYZ [eg costs/errors/rework/time required/etc.] by X [percent/dollars/hours/etc.]
… and increased XYZ [eg profit/sales/output/etc.] by X [percent/dollars/hours/etc.]
Tip: Avoid subjectivity. This is the point most people make a mistake on. The person listening wants to hear a specific, measurable result, not something which you think was good.

Level 4 – Demonstrating Value
Tying the need from the Task tightly to the Actions you took and the Results you achieved will demonstrate your value. It should also be tied together in a way which demonstrates desirable character traits in you which will fit well into the role. It comes back to clearly and quickly understanding what character traits the interviewer is looking for and highlighting them in your story.
It is also important to remain positive. Never put previous companies or other people down because your job is to position yourself in a good light. If you have weak characters in your stories, you will inadvertently be comparing yourself to weak people. It is much better to be positive about other people in your stories and when you describe your contribution, you will really shine.
STAR technique example: If the interviewer is looking for someone who is dedicated you might say -

One time, we had many requests for customer follow-ups after a conference where our company had a stand [Situation]. Because one of our team was sick, we had a large backlog and customers were complaining that we were taking too long to get back to them [Task with Issue]. What I realized was some of the customers we ok for a follow-up on the weekend, so I got one of the other team members to ring the whole list and setup appointments first requesting a weekend time if possible then worked on the weekend to clear the backlog [Action]. We cleared the list and we ended up acquiring 10 new customers and sales of $50,000 [Result-Measurable].
 

Final word – Be yourself, be positive, be honest.
Remember, practice make perfect, but while you are practicing, don’t try to learn your story like learning lines. Do you preparation and have the possible ideas ready, then listen to the question and answer honestly. Be yourself and deliver your story professionally and positively knowing that if they are looking for your skills then you will be putting yourself in the best light possible through using the STAR Method.

4 Benefits of Mock Interviews

  http://www.careerealism.com/mock-interview-benefits/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+careerealism+%28CAREEREALISM%29

By Amanda Haddaway

Mock interviews provide candidates with an opportunity to test out their interview skills with someone who isn’t evaluating them for an actual job. A mock interview may be offered through career services for students or recent alumni, by a career coach or through a local workforce services office for candidates in the process of transitioning to a new opportunity.

Mock Interview Benefits

1. Mock interviews help candidates reduce their stress and anxiety about interviewing. If you’re not sure how to answer typical interview questions, mock interviews provide a great opportunity for you to “test drive” your answers. The person conducting the mock interview is most likely a skilled interviewer and can give you feedback on whether or not your response is suitable.

2. Mock interviews help you boost your confidence. Job coaches who conduct mock interviews are usually ready to point out your strengths in the interview process. By having confidence in your skills, you will perform better in an actual interview.

3. Mock interviews provide you with constructive feedback in a low-stress environment. No one is the perfect candidate, so mock interviews help you clarify responses to certain questions and help you work on areas where you may have weaknesses. In a real interview, there’s often not feedback about your interviewing abilities, so a mock interview is a perfect opportunity to find out why you may be having some difficulty in landing your dream job.

4. Mock interviews can help you prepare for behavioral-based interview questions. Many companies use “BI” questions. If you’re not familiar with this type of interviewing, it may be advantageous to give it a practice run in a mock interview.

The expression that practice makes perfect may very well be true with interviewing skills. Take advantage of mock interviewing opportunities even if you think you’re skills are at a very high level. There are things that we can all improve upon when it comes to making a great impression on a prospective employer.

**To schedule a mock interview through the CSO, contact Beth Hansen.

Five Strategies for a Fabulous First Impression

http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201210/how-win-friends-and-influence-people/fabulous-first-impressions

First impressions matter so make the most of them!

by Thomas G. Plante, Ph.D., ABPP

First impressions do matter. Whether they are for dating, job interviewing, or other purposes, decades of research on primary and recency effects suggest that we especially tend to remember first and last interactions and impressions. So, whether you are looking for a job, a date, or a favor from a stranger, it is important to make first impressions count and count big! In many ways, this is why speed dating (or speed interviewing) makes a whole ot of sense. We form judgments about people quickly and with very little information. So, why suffer through a long and dragged out interview process or date when you know within a few minutes if you have interest in the other party or not?
So here is my list of five top strategies for a fabulous first impression.
1. Be yourself... but be your best self.

Ethics are important and faking it to be someone who you are not is ethically problematic as well as just unsustainable. You can't keep up false impressions for very long unless you have an antisocial personality disorder. So, you should be yourself but try very hard to be your very best self.

2. Get yourself organized and centered before having the first interaction.

Whether it is a job interview or a date finding a few minutes to organize and center yourself will likely pay big dividends. Perhaps spending even a minute in meditation, prayer, or repeating a favorite mantra may be productive. What do you do to organize and center yourself? Recently I've used a one minute meditation in all of my classes teaching at Santa Clara University. Before class, we spend one minute in silent meditation. I've been impressed with the results and students seem to be too.

3. Pay close attention to your non-verbals.
Your words can be deceptive but your non-verbal communication tends to speak volumes of truth. Pay attention to your posture, manner, eye contact, and other non-verbal communications and ask yourself what they are communicating about you.

 

4. Clothes matter.

I'm no fashionista or fashion forward kind of guy by any means but it is true that clothes and grooming matter. It matters in terms of how others judge you as well as how you behave too. So, attend to your clothes, grooming, and so forth to send the message that you want to send.

5. It's never about you.
It is way too easy to be narcissistic and focus on yourself during initial interactions. Big mistake in my view. Focus on the other as much as you can. Attend to the other person by asking questions and try to see the world through their eyes. Not only will you likely connect better but you'll find yourself freer to be your best self that is likely to be more thoughtful and compassionate too.

So, first impressions do matter so make the most of them with these five strategies.

Sending a Post-Interview Thank You? Don't Make These 5 Mistakes

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2012/10/24/sending-a-post-interview-thank-you-dont-make-these-5-mistakes

By Alison Green

Sending a thank-you note after a job interview is a good way to signal your interest in the role and solidify the interviewer's positive impressions. But thank-yous need to be handled well, or they lose their effectiveness.

Make sure you're not making these five mistakes when you send a post-interview note of thanks.

1. Treating it as a perfunctory exercise. Too many job candidates view thank-you notes as just one more box to check off in their job-searching steps. They send generic, perfunctory notes that signal "I'm just sending this because I heard I was supposed to." These aren't especially useful or impressive to an employer; they really just convey that you read somewhere that you should send a note, and you're dutifully doing it. Instead, your note should be truly personalized and should build on the conversation that you had in the interview. If it just conveys thanks for an interviewer's time and reiterates that you're interested in the job, it won't add much to your candidacy.

2. Thinking of the note as merely a thank you. The job search advice industry has done job seekers a disservice by using the term "thank-you notes" to describe what they should send after an interview. The reality is, most interviewers don't really care if you thank them for the interview; they're not interviewing you to be charitable but rather because they might want to enter into a business arrangement with you—one that they'll benefit from. So, despite the term "thank-you note," your correspondence shouldn't be as much about giving thanks as about following up on the interview in a way that demonstrates your enthusiasm for the job. It should build on the conversation from the interview and explain why you'd be a good fit for the job.

3. Sending a thank-you gift. Believe it or not, some people send fruit baskets or other gifts after an interview. Do not do this. You will unsettle your interviewer and create awkwardness—and it won't help you. If you're not qualified, a gift isn't going to change that. And if you are qualified, you've now made your interviewer uncomfortable by implying that you think your qualifications aren't enough on their own, but that he or she might be swayed by a basket of apples. It's tacky and ineffective.

4. Writing your note ahead of time. Some job seekers write their notes in advance, figuring they can then just hit "send" on the email after the interview. But this means that the note will truly just be a thank you; it won't be able to reference anything from the interview conversation, and thus it squanders the most important method for making these notes effective—showing that you can build on that conversation.

5. Handing your thank-you note to the receptionist as you leave the interview. Not only does this suffer from the same weakness as the previous item—denying you the chance to reference specifics from your interview—but it also makes it clear to the interviewer that you did so. When it's obvious that you wrote the note ahead of time and planned to drop it off as you left, it drains much of the significance of the gesture and turns it into one that conveys only "I'm checking a thank you off my list."

Remember that from the interviewer's perspective, a thank-you note doesn't just signal manners; more importantly, it signals interest. Interviewers want to know that you went home, thought about the discussion, digested it all, and concluded that you're still enthusiastic about the position. If you hand a note to the receptionist as you leave, enough time hasn't passed for that to be realistic.

Alison Green writes the popular Ask a Manager blog, where she dispenses advice on career, job search, and management issues. She's also the co-author of Managing to Change the World: The Nonprofit Manager's Guide to Getting Results, and former chief of staff of a successful nonprofit organization, where she oversaw day-to-day staff management, hiring, firing, and employee development.

6 Reasons Employers Won't Share Why They Didn't Hire You

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2012/09/26/6-reasons-employers-wont-share-why-they-didnt-hire-you

By Alison Green

 

You applied for the job, maybe even got an interview, but now you're staring at the rejection notice that just showed up in your email. You'd love to know why you didn't get the job, but the employer's note doesn't tell you anything about their reasons. And if you're like many job seekers, you might wonder why employers aren't more forthcoming about the reasons you didn't make the cut.

While some hiring managers will occasionally help candidates out by giving them feedback about where their candidacy could have been stronger, the majority of employers don't tell candidates why they were rejected. Many employers even have policies prohibiting giving feedback.

Here are the six most common reasons why.

1. They don't have time. Hiring managers are busy, and they're not job coaches. Providing thoughtful feedback takes time, and it's not what they were hired to do. Some will give advice anyway—but it's a favor when they do it, not an obligation.

2. Too many candidates will argue or debate if they get feedback. Ask any hiring manager who has taken the time to give a candidate feedback, and you'll hear stories of defensive and even angry reactions. Since providing feedback is a favor, many interviewers conclude that they'd just rather not deal with this.

3. Their lawyers won't let them. Many interviewers are under orders from company lawyers not to get into the reasons for job rejections, in case a candidate doesn't like the explanation and decides the "real" reason must be discriminatory. Plus, if they tell you they're looking for more experience in X, but they ultimately hire someone without that experience (because she comes highly recommended by a trusted client, or because she just blew them away in the interview, or any of the many reasons that could happen), you might feel deceived. They don't want to deal with that.

4. The answer has nothing to do with you. It's often about another candidate—the person who got the job simply dazzled everyone in her interview, or had amazing experience with widget making, which wasn't mentioned in the job description but happens to be an area the company is expanding into next year. Or they just liked her better. These are very common reasons for hiring decisions, but they don't make for helpful feedback to you.

5. They're not comfortable sharing awkward or personal criticisms with you. For instance: You chronically interrupt, you seemed vaguely angry, you looked unkempt, you seemed high maintenance, you didn't seem smart enough, or you creeped out the receptionist. These aren't uncommon reasons for rejecting someone, but most employers aren't going to have these awkward conversations with people who aren't working for them.

6. They did tell you the reason, and you don't believe it. Much of the time, it's really true that you were impressive but someone else was simply the better fit. There's not always a reason beyond that.

Alison Green writes the popular Ask a Manager blog, where she dispenses advice on career, job search, and management issues. She's also the co-author of Managing to Change the World: The Nonprofit Manager's Guide to Getting Results, and former chief of staff of a successful nonprofit organization, where she oversaw day-to-day staff management, hiring, firing, and employee development.