How to Be Good in a Room

One of the things I cover in my free eBook, “Don’t Lie Down When You Get Laid Off: Your Guide to Getting Over It & Getting Back to Work,” is job interviews.

As I say there, a job interview is merely a conversation with a point. The thing that tricks people up is that the point for the person on the other side of the desk is to determine whether to give you the job.

To help calm your nerves and make sure you do your best, you should be well-prepared before you walk into the room. You should know why they should give this job to YOU and not the guy who came in before you or the gal they’ll see the next day.

To get ready for the interview, first make a list of all the reasons you are the ideal candidate for the job. Write down everything you can think of, from your marketing degree to your management of a $4 million ad budget at your last job.

Don’t edit yourself now. You want your brain to be free to come up with every single option, every potential selling point. Maybe you already know and have a good relationship with someone at their key client’s office. Maybe you play Rock Band with all your friends and would have an inside track on how to sell it to others. Whatever comes to mind, write it down.

Now you are going to go through your list and pick the top three or four strongest selling points for yourself for the job. Trying to remember too many items will cause you to forget some of them, especially if you are feeling tense in the interview. You really want to focus your mind on the top items. If you aren’t sure which to use, ask a trusted friend to go through the list.

Once you pick the top points, memorize them and then spend some time thinking about ways to communicate them in a conversational way (but don’t stress too much about this- it’s mainly a way to plant them in your mind).

Before you go to the interview, review your top points one more time and then let them go. Now you won’t have any trouble selling yourself for the job in a natural way and you can focus on getting to know the hiring executive, asking good questions and getting all the information needed for you to know whether the job is for you.

Add comment February 10th, 2009

Layoff Survivor Story

Some people might say Angela was lucky but in my opinion, more than luck, what got her employed within a month of her layoff was taking quick action to get the word out about her layoff and take advantage of any promising opportunity that came her way.

Angela was a client of mine a couple of years ago. She was feeling stuck in a junior executive-level administrative job for an online advertising services company so she took my Career Rutbuster program to figure out her next move. She had me write her resume for her and was all ready, at the end of our work together, to go out and get a more creative job at a new company. She had her list of resources and her tracking system and her list of five actions to take first.

But then she didn’t have to find a new job. With her newfound confidence and direction, she approached her boss at her current job and landed herself a copywriter job and a higher salary.

So when the company she worked for laid her off along with 80 other people, one of the first calls she made was to me. She had me advise her on her exit from her current job, what moves to make immediately after leaving her job, and what her next moves would be. She had me update her resume to include her most recent position.

She was prepared for a long layoff, as anyone should be, especially in this economy (there is a certain amount of luck involved with getting the right opportunity), but she was ready to land another job. Kudos, Angela!

Did I mention the job she got was a promotion and pays better than the one she left?

NOTE: For those who have been laid off or are otherwise unemployed or who are worried about a possible upcoming layoff, I have written a free e-book with some of my best advice. It will be released within the next couple of weeks so sign up to receive it (enter your email address under the green box that says free e-book on the righthand side of this page). And, of course, get in touch if you want one-on-one consultation and/or a professional resume rewrite like Angela had.

Add comment January 29th, 2009