Do job interviews make you feel “dragged over hot coals?”
When preparing for an interview, it’s important to approach every question critically, and read between the lines. In “The Grill,” Higher Ed Career Coach Sean Cook and co-host John Mayo, Jr., Area Coordinator for Traditional Housing at Western New England College, will discuss the “questions behind the questions,” and help job-seekers plan their approach to common questions.
In today’s premiere episode of “the Grill” on the Higher Ed Career Coach show, Sean and John discuss the ever-popular first question: “Tell Me About Yourself.”
As we deconstruct this week’s question, we’ll talk about:
The Question (What they ask.)
What the interviewer really means or wants to know.
Ways that you can answer (that are probably wrong.)
Ways you might answer (that are better)
We’ll also take call-ins from listeners who want to take a stab at this week’s question. If you are still out there looking for your next step, call (347) 989-0055 around 11:30 a.m. Friday and we’ll listen to your answer, give you a critique, and help you refine your approach. Maybe you’ll even get heard by your next employer!
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Social Media has changed the way we look for jobs, network, and do research on our fields of interest. Today, there are many opportunities on the internet to expand your reach, and to leverage the power of your personal and professional networks, but it’s especially important that you have a “socially intelligent” approach to what you are putting out to the world. Now, more than ever, individuals need to be careful about how they present themselves, know what is being said about them, and nurture relationships that enhance personal and professional credibility.
Much is made these days of the topic of “emotional intelligence” and what your EQ implies about your aptitude for certain types or positions and your ability to adapt to new situations and challenges. An increasingly important part of the equation is your “Social Network Intelligence.” This is where emotional intelligence collides with technology and communication, and results in perceptions of your motivations for work, readiness for a new role, adaptability toward new challenges and your general degree self-awareness.
To help you understand the various aspects of “Social Network Intelligence,” and to integrate this concept into your job-seeker arsenal, HigherEdCareerCoach will be offering an online mini-course on “Social Network Intelligence for Job-Seekers” this summer. Enrollment for the first session will be limited to 20 persons.
To find out more about this program, fill out the free “pre-enrollment” form below. When the schedule and cost are finalized, members of this list will receive the first opportunity to enroll. If the course fills from the list, those who cannot be placed will be offered the opportunity to sign up for a waiting list for later sessions.
I hope you will be able to participate in the mini-course. The content I’m developing so far should be really useful and I will be adding some bonuses that will be announced only to members of the list (they’re going to be good!)
Yesterday, we talked about ways that candidates can prepare for interviews by anticipating questions and preparing their answers. As mentioned in that article, questions and answers can be seen as the “currency” of interview. This may have left some of you asking “Where’s the Bank?”
Good news! We’re opening a “question bank” at HigherEdCareerCoach.Com and the Cook Coaching Facebook page. We’ll post links to past episodes of “the Grill” and their associated blog posts, and open up discussions on Facebook on questions and how to approach them.
To get started with the question bank, I’m soliciting submissions from other student affairs professionals, career coaches and human resource professionals. On today’s BlogTalkRadio show, I’ll be talking to our first contributor, Meghan Harr, who shared her list of questions to ask the interviewers. So many candidates overlook the value of asking good questions, but doing so can differentiate you from others in the process. This segment was pre-recorded, due to some professional travel I have scheduled for today. It will air at 11 am Eastern Time and be available for download to iTunes and for streaming afterward.
In my discussion with Meghan, we had a great, free-ranging talk about how she assembled the questions, how she used certain questions to understand not only the position, but the institutional culture, work environment, and her possible “fit” in different positions. You’ll gain some valuable insight that should help you in upcoming interviews.
Meghan also shared a little with me about her involvement in the #saGrow mentor program and how being a mentor has helped her grow as a professional. Please listen to the show by clicking the BlogTalkRadio icon below, and download a .pdf of her questions here. If you’d like to receive other resources like this, directly to your inbox, sign up for my e-mail list by using the Hello Bar link at top, or the pop-up form. You’ll get this information, regular blog updates, newsletters, special list-member-only offers, and my promise that your information will never be sold or shared without your permission.
Questions and answers are the currency we trade in job interviews. They help us evaluate the parameters of a potential working relationship, and to feel out whether the various pieces of the picture will “fit” together into a coherent whole.
In preparing for interviews, candidates often spend the bulk of their time anticipating questions and practicing how to answer them. Toward this end, I’m introducing some new features here on the site and as part of the BlogTalkRadio podcast, and tying them in to my practice’s Facebook page.
The first of these features is going to be a cooperative effort between me and John Mayo from Western New England College. We’re calling it “The Grill,” after a Twitter-hashtag fueled mock interview that John and his colleague Mike Hamilton from Landmark Leadership did for their friend and my former client Jenna Magnuski that they tagged as #grillJenna.
The Grill will have three parts:
The introduction of one interview question each week on the blog, with tips on ways to approach answering the question.
An invitation to share your responses and get feedback and tips in the comments for that week’s question.
A call-in segment of the next podcast, devoted to letting people call in and answer the question, and get live feedback on how to refine their approach and their answer.
Another important aspect of the interview is the opportunity to ask questions of the interviewers. Tomorrow’s article will be about this important part of the process, and will give tips on how candidates can use questions to imply their motivation and readiness for a job, and to assess the possible fit between their interests and the position. That article will be a lead-in for Friday’s BlogTalkRadio show with special guest Meghan Harr of Old Dominion University. Meghan shared a great list of questions that she likes to ask during her interviews, that will be available through the website and on my company FaceBook page.
Salary negotiation is the one part of the hiring process that people on both sides of the table look forward to it about as much as a root canal.
The key to successful negotiations, I think, is to take emotions out of the process as much as possible. Here are some do’s and don’ts to help you, as a job-seeker, make an effective, objective argument during the process.
Do:
Research salaries and benefits for similar positions, and use this to frame the discussion
Visit the institution’s HR site to understand what benefits are offered and the costs of these benefits. Even though many job seekers don’t consider the costs of their benefits, the employer has no choice but to pay for your benefits. They don’t come from thin air, and today, costs of healthcare have especially impacted the bottom line.
Consider the level of experience you have and be open to hearing what range they can reasonably offer. One way to do this is to ask how they came up with the offer, and how they factored in your previous experience.
Give examples of your experience, and how you will apply it in the job to earn the salary.
Don’t
Talk about your financial needs, debts, or your “ego” needs for a certain salary level (These are your problems, not theirs.)
Compare your potential salary to that of other people you know at other institutions (they are not hiring these people) in other regions (cost of living varies) or other industries (student affairs salaries do not compare with corporate salaries.)
Get angry, act as if you have been insulted, cry, or threaten to walk away (they won’t care if you act that way, anyway.)
Another piece of advice:always ask for time to think the offer through, and a get a solid deadline for getting back to the employer. Even if you want a job, you’ll probably feel better knowing you did your best to be fairly compensated, and you won’t second-guess your decision and feel you “sold yourself short.”
Contacts from a particularly persistent publicist about getting me to interview someone from Devry about their new Career Advisory Board and career services they are offering their students and alumni.
We’ve covered other issues related to For-Profit Higher Education before, and honestly, I’ve learned a lot. Here are some takeaways I’ve drawn from the above:
From the LinkedIn group discussion:
There are vested interests on both sides, and very strong feelings about the worth of degrees from for-profit schools. For those who have chosen the for-profit route, they come down to improving themselves without sacrificing their families, or fitting further education into their busy lives. For those on the Brick-and-Mortar: defending the perceived differences in the quality of scholarship between online and B & M programs.
There are legitimate concerns on both sides. For on-line pr iogram graduates, a desire to be taken seriously, and to have access to opportunities to contribute to discussions, associations and even teaching opportunities. For B & M graduates, a desire to protect the legitimacy of their scholarship and their degrees, by insisting that programs meet existing standards and accreditation models.
From the USC Report:
The demand for degrees and for an educated workforce is high, and public institutions are increasingly unable to meet this demand, in the face of funding cuts.
There is an emerging public interest in creating common standards about basic courses that would ensure their transferability between institutions, regardless of their public/private status.
Online education will increasingly be a part of the picture, especially for introductory courses.
From my interactions with the publicist and the interview that resulted:
There are for-profit institutions that are trying to serve their students and graduates and make sure their investment results in good jobs that will provide a good return on their investment.
There are some really nice people in the for-profit world, and despite the controversies surrounding for-profit education, their intentions are good, and should not be discounted out of hand, by people who are just more comfortable with the way things have always been.
I share a few more thoughts in today’s BlogTalkRadio podcast, which was pre-recorded, and think that Devry is making efforts worth noting. Please listen and share your comments.
Work with Sean. I help higher ed professionals take control of their careers with tailored services including resume and CV development, LinkedIn profile optimization and networking strategy, interview coaching, and one-on-one career guidance.
Do job interviews make you feel “dragged over hot coals?”
Yesterday, we talked about ways that candidates can prepare for interviews by anticipating questions and preparing their answers. As mentioned in that article, questions and answers can be seen as the “currency” of interview. This may have left some of you asking “Where’s the Bank?”
