• What quality would you like to be remembered for after your death? Is it your perseverance against all odds? Is it your ability to inspire others? Your brilliance? Your compassion? Your technical expertise? Your leadership?
• Is your gift . . . Your kindness? Your re?ned artistic taste? Your vision? Your generosity?
Take a while and think about your gift. Along with all these externally oriented skills you have identi?ed in this chapter, see if you can also bring some of this gift in to the interview. Your gift makes up some of what we call your chemistry with another person. If it’s worth having (which it is), it’s worth sharing.
Taken From: Fearless Interviewing
The last skill I would like to talk about is simply what I call a “gift.” It’s not something you learned or something you read about. It’s much more about who you are than what you do. It may have been with you since birth. Perhaps it’s genetically inscribed, divinely bestowed, or perhaps part of the fabric of very early childhood experiences.
What’s important about knowing your gift is that, consciously or not, it’s the most compelling thing about you. It’s like the sun around which all the other stars and planets of your skills revolve. Your interviewer may not be able to give it a name, but he or she will feel it when you are relaxed, easy, and natural,which is what this book is preparing you to be.
Do you have a hunch what your gift may be?
• What is the thing that people most often compliment you for? Is it your wit or intelligence? Is it the ability to ?nd humor in any situation?
• What is a quality that you would never, under any circumstances, give up? Is it your passion or intensity? Is it your rationality? Your devotion?
Taken From: Fearless Interviewing
• Ability and willingness to learn. A willingness to attend professional development workshops and seminars. The ability to self-correct and alter one’s own behavior. Having a propensity to pursue outside sources of formal and informal education, and taking personal responsibility
to remain abreast of advances in one’s ?eld or occupation.
I once had the CEO of a high-tech company tell me that, he personally
considered adaptability to be the most important quality any of his employees could possess and that he would not hire (and would even ?re) those who could not demonstrate it!
Employers are very unlikely to ask you directly whether or not you possess these skills, yet they will be looking for them in your demeanor, in the stories you tell, and in the way you tell them.
You’ll be taking an inventory of your competencies in the next chapter, where I’ll ask you to provide an example or “story” about how you’ve used each of them. In Chapter 4, you’ll learn how you can adjust your competencies to match those most valued by the company by aligning them with the company mission and company culture.
Taken From: Fearless Interviewing
• Adaptability. The ability to tolerate and maximize the potential of large organizational shifts such as mergers or layoffs. Also, the ability to adjust to new leadership and management—to change departments, divisions, locations, or job titles.
• Problem-solving skills. The ability to self-correct. Having the tendency to tackle problems independently and with a minimum of supervision. Having the ability to tolerate frustration and/or failure until the solution to the problem is found. Maintaining persistence despite ambiguous or incomplete information and perseverance despite initial failure or frustration.
• Interpersonal communication. The ability to communicate in a way that is appropriate to company culture as well as individual preferences, with empathy, clarity, and good listening behaviors. Having the ability to give feedback and having sensitivity to multicultural preferences incommunication style. Being technologically literate and able to utilize the latest forms of written and electronic communication.
Taken From: Fearless Interviewing
For example, the handbook notes that for the position of “?nancial and securities advisor,” such competencies and personal traits as “a desire to succeed,” “ability to handle rejection,” and “self-con?dence” may actually be of more value to the employer than traditional skills like numerical ability or formal education.
Even in positions involving a very high level of technical skill, competencies still come strongly into play. In a Web site job description of skills necessary for a computer hardware engineer, “willingness to constantly update knowledge” is a competency that ranks as high in importance as other skills that are more technology oriented.
What Are Some of the Most Valued Competencies? Some of the core competencies that are most important for many positions in today’s rapidly shifting marketplace are the following:
• Flexibility. The ability to change, sometimes quickly, from one set of job duties to another, or from one team to another or to working extra or different hours.
Taken From: Fearless Interviewing
You’ve already uncovered some foundational skills that will surely impress your interviewer and tip the scales in your direction— your general skills, your job-speci?c skills, and your personal traits. Now, let’s add two more types of skills that will add even more credibility to your presentation.
The ?rst is a group of skills called competencies. Competencies are actually clusters of skills, and they are rapidly becoming the criteria upon which all employees and potential employees are judged. They can make the difference between being promoted or passed over. They can and de?nitely do carve out the space between people who are hired and those who are not. More and more, interviewers are trained to look at competencies as well as skills.
The Occupational Outlook Handbook, a useful source for career information, is updated and published yearly by the U.S. Department of Labor. It lists the job descriptions, quali?cations, job market expectancies, and salaries for more than 6000 jobs, and it is published both nationally and regionally. Accessing it on the Internet at www.bls.gov/oco/ or in hard copy at your local library is a top-notch way to ?nd vast information on what kinds of skills, education, personal traits, and competencies employers are looking for to ful?ll certain positions. Increasingly, the hand-book is listing competencies as well as skills to draw a well-rounded picture of what employers actually demand.
Taken From: Fearless Interviewing
When the foot of thought comes down upon an idea it does so like that of an elephant, which spreads when it settles, and covers a certain amount of space. Therefore when you turn your attention to an idea you do not find a
solitary, clear-cut thing, but one thing associated with many others.
Continue reading “When the foot of thought”
List 6 to 10 of your job-specific skills here. What abilities must you possess to get a job in your chosen industry? It’s helpful if the skills you include are those in the job description for the new position you’re interviewing for. When the employer asks you the inevitable questions, “What are your strengths?” and “What are your skills?” you will have the best of your skills for that job right at your fingertips.
Personal Traits
Great! Now we’re ready to move on to another set of skills called personal traits. They are every bit as important as your general skills, and they usually make up a set of personal characteristics that you possess. These skills have more to do with who you are than what you do, and they bear heavily upon your attitude, your work habits, your ethics, and the way you relate to other people.
When the employer asks a question like “What would your former boss have to say about you?” or “What did your former coworkers think of you?” it’s very useful to be able to describe yourself using three or four of the adjectives in the next exercise.
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Occupation Selected Job-Specific Skills Accountant Accounts payable
Accounts receivable Payroll
Marketing specialist Press release writing Trade-show coordinating
Forecasting
Financial advisor Series 7 license Knowledge of stocks, bonds, mutual funds
Knowledge of retirement planning and living trusts
Football player Understanding football strategy Staying in shape off season Playing the position (quarterback, linebacker, tight end)
Environmental planner Knowledge of geology and biology Knowledge of causes and treatments for pollutants Knowledge of the ecology of a given geographic area
Semiconductor assembler Component parts of a wafer Clean-room and safety procedures Superior fine-motor control
Psychotherapist Diagnosis of a client’s health Knowledge of nonverbal behavior Cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques
Publisher Exceptional literacy The publishing process from “pitching” to marketing How to evaluate books for publication
Computer programmer Computer languages Computer platforms C, SQL, Perl, Java, JavaScript
Surgeon Knowledge of human anatomy and physiology How to make a diagnosis and prognosis Ability to perform surgery
Office manager Order office supplies within a budget Microsoft Office, Lotus, Peachtree software Operation of multi-line phone system
Now I’d like you to try your hand at identifying some of the
job-specific skills you possess.
Taken From: Fearless Interviewing
I wish to emphasize this point: at any moment I am aware of only a tiny fragment of the world. I have travelled about in this body for a number of years, seen, heard and felt many things in different parts of the world, but how little of that experience of mine can exist in my consciousness at any
moment, and how inexpressibly small even the whole of it has been in comparison with all that exists which I have not seen or known!
Continue reading “I wish to emphasize this point”
