After 30+ years in the corporate world, I have left to start my own consulting business.  Leaving was something that I had considered for many years.  And for the last ten years, I had worked 80% time in the corporate world so that I could devote 20% of my time to consulting.  But I hesitated.  Corporate life felt safe.  Then came 2008, quickly followed by 2009 and a corporate bankruptcy.  Suddenly, independence felt like the only option.

So what have I learned that I can pass on to you, my readers?  First and foremost, career management is as much about life management as anything else.  What are you doing besides your job that may someday become your main focus?  Do you use your free time to watch TV, play golf, lounge by the pool?  Or are you using your free time to prepare for the next stage of your life?

Second, take advantage of the crisis – as Tom Friedman and others have said – never let a good crisis go to waste.  If you have been aiming in a direction, use the crisis to propel you further along your path.  The clue here is aiming – if you have just been wandering, the crisis is likely to catapult you in the wrong direction.  Where are you aiming right now?

Lastly, safety is not always safe.  What appears to be stable is not always so.  Working independently does mean my earning potential is up to me, it also means that not all my eggs are in one basket.  So it is less likely that everything can disappear at once.  A little like diversifying in the stock market.  Do you have a diversification plan?

Tomorrow, I head out on vacation for two weeks – one week at the beach and a one week road trip.  A single mom in a fun, small car, with a 16 year old son and 23 year old daughter – this will be interesting.

****

Yes! You may use this article by HR Consultant & Executive Coach, Ronnie Grabon, in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Ronnie Grabon, SPHR, received her BA and MBA from Rutgers University. She is an Executive Coach and HR Consultant for companies and individuals undergoing transition.  After 30 years in corporate work, she recently completed her own transition by serving as VP of HR for a company undergoing bankruptcy and liquidation.  Over the last ten years. Ronnie has coached more than 500 people at the Center for Creative Leadership, as well as consulting with individuals, businesses and non-profits.  Ronnie can be reached at rgrabon@triad.rr.com or by phone at 336-706-1621.  Ronnie’s coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.

Having Fun

by Michele Woodward

Yes,that’s what I said: fun.

Guest Author: Michele Woodward

When Your Job is a Soul-sucking Hellhole

In last week’s post, Love Your Work? (What Are You, Crazy?) we looked at how you can single-handedly turn around a difficult work situation. Yes, I said, “single-handedly.” And I meant it – when you first look to yourself and change (for the good) what you can – then, you can absolutely, positively, single-handedly turn around a difficult situation. I’ve seen it too many times to doubt that it’s a successful strategy.

And if you are doing the right thing, you are firmly in your integrity, and your work stays a soul-sucking hellhole, then – it’s time to quit.

I wrote about When To Quit a couple of years ago. Come to think of it, I really liked that post. In it, I suggested:

“It’s time to quit when the person you are becoming is someone you don’t like. When you’re in a job, and as a condition of employment you are expected to fudge facts, shift numbers and lie to customers, you become a person who fudges, shifts and lies. Is that who you want to be?”

And,

“It’s time to quit when you find that you love having the problem more than the problem loves you. If you find yourself talking about the problem all the time, stewing and fretting, worrying about it, analyzing it, turning the problem over and over in your head – is that who you want to be? Is that how you want to use your energy?”

Now, let’s just be honest right here. Some of us slip into a familiar and comfy place where we absolutely love using our energy stewing and fretting, worrying, analyzing. Why? Darlings, it’s an artful dodge. What are we dodging? Why, fear, of course. We’re dodging and dancing around the thing so many of us fear the most – fear of change.

We change-fearers expend all our energy mulling things over – which leaves us absolutely zero energy to do the thing we need to do most: change something. So, to snap out of the contemplative coma and get going, ask yourself these questions:

1. In the past, when I’ve made a change like the one I’m contemplating now – what’s been the outcome? Look back, write it down. What’s your change experience been like? How does that inform your actions right now? If you’ve been less than adept at change, what did you lack at the time? Can you shore that up this time?
2. What scares me most about making a change right now? I’m not kidding: Make a list. Then look at each item that scares you and say, “If that happens, then what?” Follow the trail right down to the thing that scares you most. Such as, “I will become the bag lady who lives in a shopping cart at Westmoreland Circle.” Then decide: is that really possible? This approach puts many fears right where they belong – out of your way.
3. If I make this scary change, how will I grow? (remember Finally Un-Stuck, where we talked about the power of always choosing growth?)
4. By staying where I am – do I like myself? Do I even want to like myself?

That last one’s a zinger, huh? But coming to terms with whether you’ll ever allow yourself to trulylike yourself – now there’s a thought worth pursuing.

So let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you have quieted your fears, you want to feel better and you want to be better. What do you do next?

You know me – I’ll tell you to focus on your strengths, your passions, your priorities and your values. I’ll tell you to network, network, network. I’ll tell you to read Finding A Job 2.0 about the new rules of finding a job.

I’ll tell you to take a deep breath and get yourself un-stuck. Because there’s so much more to life than that soul-sucking hellhole where you work.

So much more.

****

Michele Woodward (www.lifeframeworks.com) is a Master Certified Coach, author, speaker and teacher, who helps people get clear about who they are and what they want to do – and develop a workable action plan to get where they want to go. She is the author of Lose Weight, Find Love, De-Clutter & Save Money: Essays on Happier Living, available at Amazon.com and is the founder of Career Invention Coach Training (www.careerinvention.com) – focused on training coaches to understand the new rules of work –  and Kick Ass Mentoring (www.kickassmentoring.com) – a marketing training program for coaches. She’s thrived in a number of high-level, high-pressure positions – at The White House, in corporate America – and has served as an advisor to entrepreneurs.  Michele is a sought-after speaker, leads a number of workshops and classes, teaches in Martha Beck’s well regarded coach training program, and writes a popular blog.

Know your audience:

Whether you are promoting yourself in a job search, as a freelancer or as an expert, learn as much as you can about your target audience and make sure you are communicating in their comfort zone. In this case, Thomas is a talented artist with a growing portfolio he wants employers to know about. Choosing to use Google Maps to showcase his talents and experience is a good judgment call – his audience, the people who might hire him – are most likely looking for creative people who not only have artistic talent, but who can learn new media tools quickly and who can see innovative ways to share information visually.

Cover Your Bases:

When you try to stand out from the crowd, you don’t want to stand so far out that an employer doesn’t know where you fit in. A good part of the hiring decision is not just whether a candidate has the skills and experience to do the job, but will the person fit in the organization and with their team. No employer looks to hire a high maintenance employee who is going to require a lot of hand holding to get the job done. When an applicant chooses to do something different to get attention, they may get the initial look they had hoped for, but with that look will come further questions about why the applicant chose the creative route. I think the best thing to do is cover your bases. Make sure you are providing what is traditionally needed in a resume and have your creative flair be the extra added value. As I said in the clip, you don’t want to make an employer have to work too hard to get the information they need to consider you as an applicant. Your goal isn’t to have an employer talking about your creative resume, your goal is to get hired. So, make sure the tool you are using serves your core purpose, but then have fun with the rest of it.

Leverage Multiple Messages:

I think what is clever about what Thomas Roan did is that he leveraged multiple messages which means he is speaking to a variety of people at the same time. There are so many different ways that adults take in information. If you can provide multiple ways to have your message be received, you are reaching more people and acknowledging that there are different communication and learning styles. In this case:

1. Thomas found a way to present his portfolio, education, artistic influences, life choices visually.
2. He used an online tool that is familiar to people, so it isn’t off-putting or overwhelming, but in a new and different way. This showcases his critical thinking skills and creativity in addition to the content that is highlighted in the actual piece.
3. He shows that he can adapt technology to multiple purposes. This is not a skill that every artist has. So he has shown a value-add or an unexpected bonus that an employer gets when working with him.
4. He presented his work in such a way that WFMY-TV was interested in covering it. Again this means that he was within the comfort zone of his audience, presenting something different, but not so much on the periphery that a lot of people couldn’t appreciate it and be interested in learning more about it.
5. He was effective in explaining himself and his work verbally and on-camera in addition to his skills as a visual artist. Again, these are not things that everyone is adept at doing.

All in all, I should thank Thomas Roan. I’ve never met him, but since our paths crossed on this interview, I had a chance to further expand my thoughts beyond what was picked to include in the video clip and to use his work as a mini-case study! So thanks Thomas, this was a fun concept to think more about.

The video clip is below and if you would like to visit the WFMY-TV online article, it is titled Local Man Google Maps His Resume and is on the DigTriad.com site. By the way, if you go to the link, the video clip is often to the right below some advertising and can sometimes be hard to find.

Here’s the clip if you want to watch it here:

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Yes! You may use this article by TheCoachingAssociation.com Executive Director Barbara Demarest in your company newsletter, blog or website as long as you add the following bio box:

Barbara Demarest (www.barbarademarest.com) received her MBA from the Babcock School of Management at Wake Forest University and her BA from Duke University. After 20 years at the Center for Creative Leadership, Barbara launched a strategy consulting practice focusing on people leading change in associations, foundations, universities, nonprofits and knowledge businesses.  You can find Barbara’s executive coaching profile on www.thecoachingassociation.com.

]]> http://www.thecoachingassociation.com/creative-resumes-personal-positioning/feed/ 0 http://www.thecoachingassociation.com/back-to-work-use-your-asset/ http://www.thecoachingassociation.com/back-to-work-use-your-asset/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:18:54 +0000 Barbara Demarest http://www.thecoachingassociation.com/?p=913 Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s contributions to the business of work discourse are usually good, but the March 1, 2010 post on the Harvard Business Review site (www.hbr.org) was exceptionally relevant and inspiring.  Her focus was on “Getting Americans Back to Work.”

Small and Do-able Ideas

Great, lots of people are writing about that topic with big ideas and plenty of criticism to go around.  Not Professor Kanter, her ideas are small and do-able, and instead of criticism, helpful observation and positive, applicable ideas.  Granted, she still doesn’t share how someone without an income can make it while they work to find work, but I at least appreciate the attitude!

Advice for the Jobless Middle Manager

Here’s Kanter’s advice for the well-educated manager whose job has disappeared and is no longer even counted in the unemployment statistics because they’ve given up.

“What do I tell these jobless professionals who are holding their lives together with duct tape? I can say: Hang in there. Don’t give up hope. Develop a big idea to use later. Start your venture. Volunteer at a community organization. Find partners. Think internationally. Befriend immigrants with ties to an emerging market. Restore your sense of purpose. Remember what truly matters”

In the meantime, I think that there is other good advice out there for those in the well-educated middle:

• Now is a time to try that thing you never thought you would try.  What do you have to lose?
• Focus on some other aspects of your life.  Are you using this down time to exercise, eat right, learn a new skill, language, or perspective?
• Remember when you dreamed of working a shorter week or part-time?  What were you going to do with those hours?  Can you do that now while you keep working your “job” of finding a job?
• Are you reading and writing every day?  Are you practicing something new?  Are you finding ways to push your limits — and not just your limits of frustration at the slow pace of job recovery?
• Take advantage of what your community has to offer – use the library, visit local sites, go to a park, find a new local diner, get to know the world that is right around you that you’ve never had time to experience before.
• Meet people – reach outside your first circle to your second or third.  Have a cup of coffee and broaden that network.  It may be more and more tangential to your job search, but sometimes the innovative idea is on the periphery, not in the core.

Asset Maps for Middlers

And another idea for “middlers” — I don’t mean those related to Bette, but those in the middle of their job transition and maybe even tired enough to be approaching things now in a bit of a middling way — draw your “asset map.”  You’ve probably already thought about the assets you are bringing to your job search, but what about the assets you have to offer to others?

Kanter mentions small ideas that collectively could build jobs.  She’s calling for a movement of small ideas based on all our assets – what do you have that you can offer to the solution of job growth in America?  “Imaginative small actions could aggregate to bigger impact. Underutilized office space can become an incubator for others starting a business. Shared work and living spaces are becoming more common for recent graduates working on new ventures; communities should encourage and facilitate this. Those with international business ties can encourage business partners to invest in the U.S.; good people and cost-reducing incentives are available now.”

I like Kanter’s small ideas and I hope more individuals and organizations will embrace them.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could see a movement across the United States?  I am hoping that organizations will get creative and think about different ways to do things.  It would be a wonderful thing to see a boom of creativity and diversity in how we do things – our work, our products, our services, our decision-making, our politics, our day-to-day lives and our perspectives.  Thanks Professor Kanter.

Yes! You may use this article by Barbara Demarest in your company newsletter, blog or website as long as you add the following bio box:

Barbara Demarest (www.barbarademarest.com) received her MBA from the Babcock School of Management at Wake Forest University and her BA from Duke University. After 20 years at the Center for Creative Leadership, Barbara launched a strategy consulting practice focusing on people leading change in associations, foundations, universities, nonprofits and knowledge businesses.  You can find Barbara’s executive coaching profile on www.thecoachingassociation.com.

–Barbara Demarest, TCA Executive Coach and Facilitator

The Best Job Interview Question Ever

Guest Author:  Michele Woodward

So, you’ve made it through the first round of interviews for that new position. Now it’s the second — or third — round. “Tell me a little about yourself” has been asked. Maybe you’ve even been asked, “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?” You know, all the important stuff.

Remember that job interviews are not only your opportunity to “sell” yourself, but are your chance to evaluate whether the job is actually something you’ll like and be good at. To figure that out, you have to do more than give the right answer to questions — you also have to ask the right questions.

To that end, I’ve come up with The Best Job Interview Question Ever. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with trees.

Ready? Here it is:

“What’s the first task you’d like me to accomplish in this job?”

Whether you’re interviewing for a CEO position or a job on the loading dock, the beauty of this question is multi-fold.

If everyone you interview with responds with “We need you to streamline our HR processes and make sure we’re in compliance with OSHA guidelines”, you can be certain that the organization is clear on what the job is about.

But, if the guy in accounting says, “You need to clear up the spreadsheets”, and the woman in marketing says, “You have to make new collateral materials”, and the CEO says, “We’re looking for someone to clean house”, and the gal in sales says, “I have no idea what you’re here for,” you’ve got a problem. The organization may be disorganized, lack leadership or not function well as a team. Here’s what you do in this situation: exit, quickly, stage left.

When you ask The Best Question, you might find that the expectations expressed are completely unrealistic. “I want you to drive up share prices by 50%, reduce the workforce by 30%, acquire companies more profitable than we are, and find the Holy Grail.” Again, this is your tip-off that the job may not be right for you. Or for anyone.

Having a clear sense of organizational priorities allows you to snag what writer Michael Watkins calls an “early win.” His book The First 90 Days has great advice on making the most of a new job — in short, when you meet or exceed expectations early, you are guaranteed success.

The interview process is fraught with anxiety and stress — but discovering how your colleagues and bosses will judge you as a winner before you take the job is a surefire way to insure you have less stress and more success.

*****

Michele Woodward (www.lifeframeworks.com) is a Master Certified Coach, author, speaker and teacher, who helps people get clear about who they are and what they want to do – and develop a workable action plan to get where they want to go. She is the author of Lose Weight, Find Love, De-Clutter & Save Money: Essays on Happier Living, available at Amazon.com and is the founder of Career Invention Coach Training (www.careerinvention.com) – focused on training coaches to understand the new rules of work -  and Kick Ass Mentoring (www.kickassmentoring.com) – a marketing training program for coaches. She’s thrived in a number of high-level, high-pressure positions – at The White House, in corporate America – and has served as an advisor to entrepreneurs.  Michele is a sought-after speaker, leads a number of workshops and classes, teaches in Martha Beck’s well regarded coach training program, and writes a popular blog.

Company of One – Create Your Own Job Security

Do you know how to create your own job security and why it is important? The secret to building your own job security starts with getting the job/s that are right for you and then managing yourself as if you were a business. To borrow a phrase from Transitions author William Bridges, think of yourself as a “company of one.”

The Old Contract

Before the 1980s, if you did a good job for a good company your job was pretty safe.  Corporate America traditionally fostered the loyalty of its employees by giving and increasing their benefits: insurance, tuition, child care, retirement plans, fitness centers, subsidized cafeterias, to name a few. Longevity was rewarded with promotions and raises. The tie was so strong, even if a great opportunity came along outside of your company, too many perks made it hard to change companies. The implied contract was simple: stay here, do good work and we’ll take care of you for your career.

Then came that big wave of 1980′s  downsizing with a second phase of “right-sizing” in early 2000 and now we are experiencing a more than 10% unemployment rate in 2009.  Companies laid off employees by the thousands: downsizing, right-sizing, re-organizing and restructuring. The need to be lean, productive and profitable was, and is still, inescapable. But if you were paying attention, what you saw were talented people and tenured employees alike being shown the door. It’s not different today. What gives? Work hard. Stay put. And you still lose your job?

Managing Your Career

The contract was broken. Companies no longer provided job security.  Job security hasn’t gone away, but it did change hands. It is now up to us. We are “companies of one” and we need to manage ourselves that way.

What does a business do to stay viable? It responds to needs in the marketplace (or creates new ones). Like that business, we need to:

(1) know what talents we have (or can develop) and we enjoy using, then

(2) market them where they’re needed.

Talents and Interests

Do you know what your talents are, especially those you enjoy employing? Are there skills you need to strengthen to remain successful? Are you getting regular feedback? Do you ask for it? Do you know other ways to get it?

Successful people are self-aware: they accurately assess their strengths and weaknesses, their impact on others and ways to change what they’re doing if their impact is counterproductive.

Are you ready to move into the driver’s seat?

First, determine what skills are critical to success on your job. Consult performance reviews and job descriptions. Make your own list, then interview your boss and those who depend on the work you do for what they think is important to the success of your position. You can also ask Human Resources for their assistance.  If you are unemployed reach back to your former colleagues and supervisors.  You need this information to help guide your next steps.

Second, evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Consider asking your boss or HR for a multi-rater or 360 assessment. If your company doesn’t offer them they or you can contract with a coach or consultant who specializes in assessment and development. When done correctly, these assessments collect quantified and anonymous feedback from the people who work “around” (hence, 360) you- your boss, peers, direct reports, and others. The information is for development purposes and should be confidential to you. If that option is not available, start by rating yourself on the list of critical skills you developed. Then ask the others who provided lists of skills they thought were important to rate you on them. Look for similarities and differences. Any blind spots? What do your performance reviews say? Consult any psychological or vocational assessments you’ve taken in the last couple of years.

Continuous Learning

We used to depend on our employers or bosses to give us feedback, tell us what to work on and send us off to some training event. Well, that didn’t happen very reliably before and there’s less reason now to expect or wait for that to happen. Remember, you’re in the driver’s seat now.

Once we’ve targeted what we need to work on, we need a development plan. There are professionals (for example coaches, management consultants, psychologists) who specialize in customizing plans to clients’ needs and helping them achieve the goals of those plans.  If you’re creating your own development plan it should include target behaviors that define improvement for each skill being developed, sources of ideas for new behaviors and/or improved skills, assignments in which new behaviors can be practiced, sources of and methods for ongoing feedback and strategies for maximizing the learning experience.

Who can help you? Coaches with backgrounds in human development use their expertise to help bring about the desired change and growth effectively. Mentors and learning partners are other sources of help.

Do you know how to market yourself?

It’s no news that the marketplace is changing rapidly. In a very short period of time our economy base has shifted from manufacturing to service to knowledge. Outsourcing to off-shore locations and the economic downturn is quickly changing the employment landscape. At a minimum, we will change jobs at lest seven times in our working lives.

Marketing yourself is simply monitoring and adjusting to changes and emerging needs in your company and industry and maintaining your visibility in both places. We accomplish this through the relationships we establish and maintain in both places. It is through these relationships that we learn company and industry news as well as help others learn about us. It positions us should our current employment cease or a better opportunity opens up.

Talent alone does not guarantee a job, as we’ve already seen. There has to be a need for our talent and those who need it have to know we have it. In short, we need visibility.

We’ve learned that those who keep their skill sets current with job demands and stay connected with their networks have little difficulty landing new positions. We’ve talked about the first steps in that process, how to match your skills with those in demand. What happens if you lose your job or become unhappy in the one you have? Do you know how to launch a campaign to get the next “right” job for you?

An earlier version of this article appeared in Strategy published by Winston Salem Journal and the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce.

* * * *

Yes! You may use this article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Pamela Corbett is an executive coach, career and outplacement counselor, organizational consultant and psychotherapist with her own practice, Spectrum Psychological Services based in Winston-Salem, NC. Licensed in North Carolina and trained in clinical psychology (Penn State and Indiana University of Pennsylvania), Pam is a certified Master Practitioner of NLP and is certified in the entire suite of Career, Leadership, and Organizational Architect Tools. Pamela has been providing executive assessment, development planning, coaching, and training through her own business and as adjunct faculty with the Center for Creative Leadership since 1986. Pam’s earlier work experience includes a veterinary hospital start-up, television production, insurance claims negotiation, inpatient and outpatient psychotherapy, and teaching at Wake Forest University. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.

The first thing you should do is put your thinking cap on and make a series of lists to help you concentrate:

• Make a list of at least 25 valuable professional relationships along with ideas for what that relationship could do for you.
• Make a “bucket list” of things you want to do in your life.
• Create goals for the number of years you plan to work and what income you need over that time period.
• Catalog any other LIFE goals that will govern how you will address this period of opportunity.
• Build a list of your assets. This would include your level of education, professional designations that you have earned, and a list of proven job credentials.
• Make a list of your areas of interest in terms of businesses. Do you want to stay in the same business area where you have been working or is now the time to start that business you’ve always dreamed of in a completely different field?

Once you have your lists made, you can begin the process of determining the type of work that will:

• Be interesting and rewarding
• Successfully use your skills and assets
• Allow you to merge your personal goals and dreams with your work life
• Provide the income you need

Be sure to use your list of valuable professional relationships to help you narrow down what you want to do and how you can accomplish your goals. Chances are, in this economy, some of the people in your network have gone through the same process and will be wonderful resources. Now, go get started on the rest of your life!

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YES! You may use this article in your ezine, blog, or website as long as you include the following bio box.

Karen D. Corsaro is President of The Corsaro Group, an Indianapolis based strategy development firm focused on converting ideas into assets. Recent projects have included strategy development for Pedcor, MediaSauce, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, The Nature Conservancy, American Health Network, Indianapolis Downtown Incorporated, Indianapolis Cultural Districts, The Indiana State Museum, Eli Lilly, L’Oreal, General Mills, Crystal Food Services, The Café Group, Coffee Etc., and Dine Magazine. Prior to her own firm, Karen served as President of Simon Brand Ventures, the strategic marketing division of Simon Property Group, Inc., the largest publicly traded retail Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in North America, where she grew profits to over $50 million in a three-year period. Ms. Corsaro is also credited with developing “Simon” as the first national shopping center brand and introducing corporate sponsorship to the industry through a first of its kind program at Mall of America. Karen has been recognized by the Indianapolis Business Journal as a “Woman to Watch” and one of the ’40 Under Forty; she was named PROMO Magazine’s 1998 Retail Marketer of the Year. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.

Joyce Richman, Barbara Demarest, Martha Tilyard, and Donna Riechmann provided coaching support and career guidance at this “speed consulting” event for job seekers in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina.  Passport 2 Success is a coaching venue, not a job fair, for area residents who are in transition.

For many, this is their only access to the professional skills of a coach.  From hourly workers to executives with more than 25 years of management experience, participants in Passport 2 Success walk away having had several hours of individual attention to support them in their job search. Offering help in areas such as online networking, resume reviews, setting a career objective, body language and even dressing for an interview, the area coaches  worked with more than 150 individual participants.

• You’re getting there late and when you do, the game’s over. Here’s why: Interviewers expect you to be on your best behavior. If getting there late is the best you can do it’s not good enough. If you want to make the cut, make it across the company’s threshold with time to spare and with your act intact.
• You’re showing up so early you look as though you either can’t tell time or you’re unsure of yourself. If you’re concerned that getting there much later than you are accustomed is cutting it too close for comfort, stick with your early arrival, just don’t present yourself until it’s time for the interview.
• You’re showing up right on the button but you’re as calm as a nervous wreck. Your stomach’s churning, your voice is quaking and your hands are shaking. Rewind. Prepare. Nail what you do best, how you benefit companies you work for, and get used to talking about it. Work with the toughest handlers you can find who will ask you realistic questions and give you honest feedback.
• You describe yourself as confident but you’re coming across as arrogant. That’s a style that has to go. If you’re not sure if this pertains to you, check out the following: Instead of asking open ended questions that get at what the company’s issues and challenges might be, you act as though you already know. You’re making assumptions, drawing conclusions, and solving problems they don’t have and ignoring those they do. You’re eye rolling, sarcastic, and just a little smug. If that’s you, get a grip and get yourself a career coach.

• If you’re coming across as insecure and more than a little lost, the interviewer might offer you compassion and a compass but not a job offer. You might not need a check list for this one but here’s a short one anyway: You’re asking plenty of questions but you don’t appear to have any answers. When you do have answers they sound as though spoken by that proverbial deer in the headlights. You can minimize your problem and maximize opportunity if you immediately apply Practice, the time tested product that gets rid of the most virulent case of the gotcha’s. It’s guaranteed to work if you use it twice daily, every day, for at least two weeks prior to an interview or networking meeting. That way you have time to fill in the blanks, correct your mistakes, or rectify what even the right answers, said apologetically, can sadly say about you.

• You talk too much. It’s not good to chat the ears off interviewers. Pay  attention to their body language and you’ll know when it’s happening: Their eyes cross or look longingly at their computers, telephones, and finally, their clocks. Relax. Exhale. Give interviewers a chance to learn about you in their terms, not in yours. It’s their meeting, their company, and you’re an invited guest. Act accordingly.
• You’re not participating. You sit, listen, and nod approvingly which may be reassuring but it’s just not enough. The quieter you are the less likely it is you’ll be offered the job. Yes, if the interviewer wouldn’t ask so many questions and would give you more time to collect your thoughts, arrange, review and edit them, you’d provide more answers. That won’t happen. You need to practice jumping in and engaging, exchanging insight and information for no reason greater than you have something worthwhile to say and you deserve to be heard.