reinventjen

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have a job! In fact, I started yesterday with my new hire training.

This web log was originally established to document my journey as I searched for a job. I found a great number of resources, including blogs, career websites, and even web-based seminars that were worthy of sharing. I hope others found these interesting too.

Now, I think a change in focus is appropriate. While I still find the job search topic interesting (and will continue to reference in future posts), I will begin to focus more on how to ensure a successful transition to a new position.

To begin, I recommend this webinar entitled “You’ve Gotten your Dream Job, Now What?”. I found the discussion very interesting, and I plan to incorporate many of these tips into my career transition.

The game is called “Nail the Interview”. Click here to play.

The goal is to nail the interview and get offered the job. It has some great tips throughout and allows you to save your game at any point.

Have fun!

I guess the interview must have gone well after all. I got an offer, and I accepted. Yes, I am no longer unemployed.

The position is a good transition for me to “reinvent” my career. I previously worked in automotive finance and will stay in that industry, but in a marketing-related position. I will be working in what you might call a “start-up” environment (pursuing new growth opportunities) within a well-established company, so it will be very exciting to develop the position over time.

Of course, as we went through the process of extending and accepting an offer, the topic of salary and benefits was discussed. Money talks can be stressful - I know I’m not quite comfortable with the “negotiations” just yet.

I found an interesting article on how to handle the money issue and negotiating pay. I felt my offer was very reasonable, (and as I said, I’m not terribly comfortable negotiating pay - something I should probably work on) so I accepted the offer without countering.

I wish I had found this article before my phone interview with the HR recruiter. Her last question was about my salary expectations - she wanted to make sure we were in the same ballpark. I think I answered the question okay, but next time, I should be more confident. One friend says to be careful even filling out employment applications that ask for previous salaries. He feels you may not get HR’s strongest offer if you divulge this information too soon. Or you could be passed over if the company feels they will not be able to afford you.

I don’t know what the right answer is in handling the topic of pay. But I do think reading articles like this one and practicing what you plan to say helps.

Here is another great post from the Secrets of the Job Search blog.

He talks about telling a story in your interview. I especially like his answer for “Tell me a little about yourself.” I had always answered this question by simply going through my past job experiences. But that can be so boring and so predictable. Take this opportunity to tell them about who you are and what makes you uniquely you. The interviewer can always ask follow up questions about your experience.

I wrote a post earlier about Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford. It was so inspiring for me. And it appears many other people feel the same. If you just Google “Steve Jobs Stanford”", you get hundreds of hits. I recently found the audio/video of the speech. Whether you read the speech or not, it is really worth it to hear the words straight from Jobs himself.

Click here. If you have iTunes, then click “Get speech video here”. For those of you who don’t use iTunes, you really should, but if you don’t, click on the audio format for the audio (no video for you!).

I haven’t written in a while. I actually got an interview last week, and I was too nervous and afraid of jinxing myself if I wrote before I heard anything.

I interviewed for two and a half hours with three different people. It was grueling, and I was exhausted - mentally and emotionally - when I finally left the office. One of the interviews used the “behavioral based” method. If you have ever experienced a behavioral interview, you know how difficult they can be.

The purpose of a behavioral interview is to 1) wear you out; 2) see how you perform under pressure; 3) see if you can think on your feet; and 3) gain insight into how you handle difficult situations. For example, the interviewer may ask “Tell me about a time when a project you worked on didn’t go like it should have. What did you do about the situation?”.

So, you have to quickly go through your Rolodex of experiences and think of a time that fits this scenario. The best way to answer these types of questions is with the STAR approach: You have to describe the situation or task (ST), explain the action you took (A), and then give the final result (R). It’s not easy. I think with this kind of interview, practice makes perfect. While I certainly wasn’t perfect, I know by practicing and role-playing before the interview, I was much better prepared.

Here is a link to a listing of some good behavioral interview questions. Practice your answers and try to use the STAR method.

Good luck and knock their socks off!