The Career Clinic Blog

Write an effective resume. Sparkle in a job interview. Be a great employee. Career consultant Vicki Brackett thinks the fastest route to all three is from the perspective of the employer.

“Your resume should make it clear how you’ve made money, saved money, or minimized risk for other employers,” she says. “That’s what makes you attractive to the next one.”

To ace an interview, Vicki suggests you practice telling stories about (you guessed it) making money, saving money, or minimizing risk. Practice in front of a mirror or--even better--in front of a friend. You’ll feel ridiculous. I promise! But you won’t be sorry. You’ll sound more natural, and feel more relaxed, once you’re in front of the hiring manager. Remember how stressful the experience is for that person, too--which will make it easier to present yourself as the solution to a problem. That’s why you’re needed. You don’t get hired to decorate the place. You get hired to help.

After you are, make sure you know what your boss calls success on the job. Keep that in mind, check in often, and make the world a better place.

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You owe it to yourself to find out as much as you can about the job you're going after before you go after it. One of the best ways to do that is to talk to someone in the same career.

Please don't think of yourself as an imposition. Take it from someone who's constantly interviewing people about their work. The more they love it, the more they love talking about it. Their families and friends have heard these stories before. You're a new audience. They'll appreciate the reminder of how much they've pulled off.

Remember to ask them what they don't like, as well. Brian Kurth of VocationVacations says you may decide to pick a new dream: "Isn't being an innkeeper just the most romantic-sounding thing...until you're scrubbing toilets? Being a winemaker is dreamy, too, until you're schlepping case after case of wine into a shipment truck. And owning a bakery? I hope you like getting up at three in the morning."

It's an acid test. Can you handle the drudgery that's part of even the most glamorous jobs? Will you do that happily, and consider it a small price, for your dreams?

Hired!

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"Why is this position open?" That's one question career consultant Diana Churchill suggests you ask a potential employer. I wonder what would've happened had I asked it in an interview for a summer job at Dippy Donut in my hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. I might have learned that the young woman who’d just quit had been locked in the bathroom while the coffee shop was robbed.

I’d be working by myself on that same four-to-midnight shift. My soon-to-be employer didn't tell me what had happened, and instead offered this: "If you ever get scared, just call the convenience store next door and have the guy bring you over a pack of cigarettes. That's code for, 'I have a customer who's bothering me.'"

I got scared one evening, the plan backfired, and I'll explain in the next post.

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The morning after I got my first assignment critiqued in a feature writing class, Vince, the instructor, called me with a question straight out of my wildest career dream: "Would you like to help me with a book?" He and a colleague had just sold a proposal for what would become Real Barbecue. I'd be doing telephone interviews, getting stories, and writing up anecdotes. It would involve nine to twelve hours a week, but no pay. "I was never in it for the money," I reassured Vince. "Good thing," he probably said.

A book. A book!

That's how my career change began, with an internship. I took on other projects as Vince came up with them, like writing a regular cover story for his Big Band News. I remember floating through the days, writing stories in my head, having people tell me how "obnoxiously happy" I seemed. I'll never forget one weekend afternoon, helping Vince at his newspaper office. I used the same computers real writers used to file real stories: heaven. I could work my whole life at a sales job, I told him, and never get the satisfaction I was getting from my tiny piece of his barbecue book.

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Keeping a running list of your accomplishments will help you be more confident in job interviews. It will help you be ready when the employer suggests, “Tell me a little bit about yourself”--or asks the more pointed, “Why should we hire you?” You’ll be able to tell two or three quick stories about how you’ve made--or saved--someone money, and you’ll inspire the hope you’ll do the same for this employer.

Then what? What’s a good wrapup? Susan Geary from 1stRateResumes.com offered this tip on a recent edition of The Career Clinic. After you’ve made your case for the job, close with this question: “Now is there any reason why you wouldn’t want to hire me?” I’d love to hear from anyone who tries this. Please e-mail me what happened, and we’ll compare notes with other job hunters. Thanks!

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I started doing work I love seventeen years ago. Monday, October 5th, 1992 was my first day as an intern at the Minnesota News Network in St. Paul. Margaret Hart hired me. “Why do you want to get into radio?” she asked. “To host a talk show that will help people find work they love,” I told her. She didn’t laugh. “Well then,” she said. “We’ll just have to steer your internship more toward features than the news.”

You’re kidding.

This is what job interviews must be like in heaven, I decided. Margaret took my dreams seriously, and made good use of my passion during the six months I spent at MNN. I basked in the attention, worked hard to earn it, and was rewarded with more and better assignments.

Margaret didn’t tell me how to act. She showed me, with her classy demeanor, her work ethic, and her ability to have fun even with--or maybe because of--the constant deadline pressure. She never pulled me aside to tell me I was too intense. That’s one reason I loved MNN. You were supposed to be intense.

Margaret will be my guest on The Career Clinic Saturday, October 10th, and you can listen online at noon Central on AM 1100. We’ll give college graduates a primer on making a good impression in their first jobs, and we’ll cheer midlife career changers from the sidelines as they break into new fields.

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