Friday, September 30, 2016

Why Us?

I’ve interviewed a lot of people over the years. One of the issues I frequently see is how people answer the question of “Why do you want to work for us?”  Unfortunately, way too often, the answer isn’t about the benefits of working for the given organization or what the organization does specifically to help others, but about the interviewee.  Here are some of the following answers I have had given to me:

“I am moving here to get away from the city.”

“My parents are elderly and I need to move nearby to help take care of them.”

“The company I work for doesn’t treat me well so I am looking for a change.”


Not one of these answers tells me a reason to hire the individual, instead it shows me a problem that the interviewee is having and also tells me that problem may interfere with their work.  Research the company well before interviewing, and craft an answer ahead of the interview that demonstrates a variety of reasons you want to work for that organization.  Try including tasks you will be doing in the job and why you like them, great things you have read about the company, and how excited you are to work for them based on all of your research.  Give real reasons that display genuine enthusiasm, and express pertinent knowledge you possess about the company.  To your job search success!

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Job Search Quotes of the Week

"Rarely have I seen a situation where doing less than the other guy is a good strategy." Jimmy Spithill

"Never hope for it more than you work for it." - Sonja Teclai

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Career Management Quotes of the Week

"Persons of high self-esteem are not driven to make themselves superior to others; they do not seek to prove their value by measuring themselves against a comparative standard. Their joy is being who they are, not in being better than someone else." ~ Nathaniel Branden


"To be successful you must accept all challenges that come your way. You can't just accept the ones you like." ~ Mike Gafka

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Job Search Quotes of the Week

"Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one’s levels of aspirations and expectation." — Jack Nicklaus

"Successful people have fear, successful people have doubts, and successful people have worries. They just don't let these feelings stop them." T. Harv Eker

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Career Management Quotes of the Week

If you are too cautious, opportunities will vanish before you can seize. - Unknown

Many fall short in their callings, because they fail in their plannings. - Unknown


Thursday, September 15, 2016

Job Search Quotes of the Week

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”
– Norman Vincent Peale

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”
– Winston Churchill

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Career Management Quotes of the Week

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis

“It is never too late to be what you might have been”
– George Eliot

Friday, September 9, 2016

Answering The Dreaded "Tell Me About Yourself" Question

The “tell me about yourself” question creates great stress in a job interview, but it doesn’t have to anymore.  Clients say, but what do they want to know?  How long should the answer be?  Let’s think about it from their (the interviewers) perspective.  The interviewer isn’t looking for just a short presentation of your resume highlights that lasts for all of 15 seconds, nor do they want a 20 minute oration on your entire life’s story.

While that “resume highlights” portion must be in the answer, you also want to offer up a few personal tidbits about you (hobbies that show an active person or volunteer work you perform), and pre-answer a couple of questions the interviewer will ask anyway.  For instance:  Why are you looking for a new position?  Why did you choose to apply for this job, with our company?


Create an answer with multiple facets that tell about you and your career, giving the interviewer a peek at your personal life, and then answering questions you know will be asked.  To your job search success!

Friday, September 2, 2016

Career Management Quotes of the Week

“If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.”  - Joseph Campbell


“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.”  - Joseph Campbell