Powers - Dont Wear Flip-Flops to Your Interview

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Copyright 2015 by Paul Powers

Edited by Roger Sheety

Cover design by Rob Johnson/Toprotype

978-1-5040-2087-9

The Career Press, Inc.

220 West Parkway, Unit 12

Pompton Plains, NJ 07444

www.careerpress.com

Distributed by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

345 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com

For Linda.

For your unreserved support, sustaining confidence,
and abundant love.

Introduction

If you just picked up this book its because you want or are thinking about or need a new job. Good for you! Let me ask you why. Do you sense there is something better for you out there? Good. Do you want a job that engages more of your brainpower and personality, more of your talents, more of your life energy? Good. Do you want a job that pays you more money? Good. Do you want a job that moves you ever closer to your life goals? Good. This book is the shortest distance between you and that job.

I have written this book so you can get through it in just a couple of sessions in order for you to crank up your job search more quickly. As you can already tell from this introduction I use a very conversational tone, as if it were just you and I talking together. That is to keep you engaged and moving forwardever forward. No putting it down and thinking, Maybe Ill get back to it later . To heck with that. What I uncovered for you in the first paragraph on this page is a bit of your discontentand thats a good thing. Tap into it. Use it. If you want something better, go for it. Its all up to you, because the job fairy isnt coming for you today, tomorrow, or ever.

Between these two covers are 30-plus years of my professional experience as a career expert, organizational psychologist, and author. Youll find market-proven techniques, new approaches, and shortcuts around the roadblocks that will stymie most job hunters. Ive included several diagrams to quickly reinforce major points I make in the text. When you see one of these diagrams, do not skim over it because its there to emphasize something your competitors often miss. Another bonus is The Good to Great Interview Toolkit contained in Chapter 10 that will support you and keep you on track at every step of the process.

The job-hunting process in general, and job interviewing in particular, requires focus, energy, optimism, and a sense of humor. In the pages of this book you will find liberal doses of each. You wont find a lot of extraneous material to distract you from what you really need to know about job-hunting and interviewing success.

In workshops and seminars, at conferences and conventions all over the country, in one-on-one counseling or coaching sessions, or just hanging out in the break room or cafeteria, scores of people have honored me with the stories of their work livestheir hopes, their dreams, their fears, their failures. Once upon a time, the best employers were willing and mostly able to look out for and support their employees jobs and careers in a paternalistic and caring way. In rare environments a few vestigial pockets of that attitude remain today, but, by and large, that world is goneand gone forever. At the 30-year mark in my profession, I believe, now more fervently than ever before, that every individual must learn the skills to manage and advance his or her own career, and that you, truly, must be the captain of your own fate, because nobody else is out there looking out for you.

If you put to work what is in this short but powerful book, you will be ready to either maximize your opportunities in a booming economy or survive any recession and come out on top. Thats what I call packing your own parachute, and in either circumstance, you should start today.

Career management, job hunting, making a living, and job interviewing are all serious issues. Serious? Yes. Solemn? No. None of us gets out of this life alive, my friend, and Ive learned that a good laugh can help us endure and succeed in even the most difficult circumstances. Thus, throughout this book, my little quips, humorous asides, and optimistic observations are meant to help you keep this whole process in its proper perspective.

If you want a career book that will put you to sleep and collude with you to postpone your actual job-hunting for another day with theories, case studies, research studies, meditations, and other extraneous material (and there are plenty of them out there), youll have to look elsewhere. If you want to hit the ground running with all the knowledge, insider tips, and tools you need right at your fingertips, youre holding the right book.

So, enough of the pep talk. Lets get down to work.

Chapter 1

Job Hunting Does Not Have to Suck

Every job hunter has a horror story to tell. So does every athlete, every musician, every hairdresser, every boater, every artist, every plumber, and every golfer. Name any human endeavor and there is someone somewhere who can tell you something ugly that happened while engaging in that activity. But the occasional adversity does not define that activity (except for, perhaps, my golf game). Mistakes, gaffes, and setbacks are all part and parcel of any process requiring skill. Job hunting is no exception. But obstacles and impediments can be minimized (and often completely avoided) by learning from the mistakes of those who have gone before you and from recognizing and correcting the mistakes you make on your own. It is for this reason that I have written this book for you.

Yes, job hunting can suck. But it doesnt have to. By taking the time and energy to dissect and understand the process, learn from the experiences of others, identify the skills you need, and have the guts to assess and learn from your own performance along the way, you can go from being a good job hunter to a great job hunter.

Yes, you will encounter obstacles on your path to a new job. If you use all that this book has to offer, I promise that your path will be smoother, shorter, and sometimes even a little fun. I wrote it so that you can read it in one weekend or a couple of nights. But reading it is not enough; you must put this stuff to work. Youve got to try out some new behaviors. Todays competition for jobs is tougher than ever before, and what worked for you in the past may not work now, so you need to work both harder and smarter. But first you need to know what you are up against.

If I were writing this book for other psychologists, career coaches, or outplacement experts, I would have called this chapter How to Identify and Resolve the Negative Psychosocial Consequences Experienced by Individuals in the Employment Transition Process. Not a bad title for a masters thesis or doctoral dissertation. But Im writing this book for you, the job hunter, who needs solid input that is market-proven, quickly usable, and with no punches pulled.