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âWhy did you choose this job?â is an incredibly common interview question that you must be prepared to answer. This guide will teach you everything you need to know, so you can make a great impression and land the job you want. Table of contents Why This Question Gets Asked How to Answer “Why Did […]
The post How To Answer “Why Did You Choose This Job?” Effectively appeared first on Career Sherpa.
You found a job opening you were a great fit for. You crafted your resume, wrote a polished cover letter, and submitted your job application with high hopes. After a few days or weeks, you get the rejection email, or you get ghosted by the employer, never hearing back about the status of your application. You were 100% qualified for the job. So, why did you get rejected?
You’re not getting interviews for jobs that you’re 100% qualified for because of the bushel-of-apples effect that happens when you apply online.
Think about it this way: You go into a store and decide to buy one apple. That’s all you’ve got the appetite for and that’s all you can afford. You walk over to the produce section and see a big bushel of apples. They all look good; they’re all roughly the same size and same color. But you’re only going to pick one. So, what do you do? If you’re really hungry, you might decide to pick a slightly bigger apple. Or if you like a certain color, you pick that one and discriminate against all the other apples that are completely okay and worthy of being picked, but you can only pick one.
That’s what employers have to do right now. And because of applicant tracking systems (ATS), they get thousands of applicantsânot 10, not 15, thousands. This is why you are getting rejected over and over again. It’s not that you’re not qualified for the job; it’s the bushel-of-apples effect. You need to understand that the way to get selected is to not be in a pile; you need to go around the system. You need to be able to connect directly so that your message can get to a hiring manager and they can pull you from the pile.
This is what most job seekers do not understand today. That easy apply button and those online applications actually made job search harder because they make it possible for anyone to apply. You’re going to have to put in the extra effort to find a good job, which means you’re going to need to be pickier about who you apply to. Once you learn how to conduct a proactive job search (job shopping instead of job hunting), you can be way more intentional. You can pick who you want to work for and you can go after it differently so that you can get picked from the pile.
You’re not alone, my friend. That bushel-of-apples effect is just killing your chances on those applicant tracking systems and it’s going to require something different in order to get better results.
If you want to learn how to conduct a proactive job search, sign up for a Work It DAILY membership today. Getting the job search help you need has never been easier.
Over hundreds of years, lawyers and judges seem to have developed a language of their own, rife with Latin terms you can’t decipher without those ninth-grade notes you lost after the final. This secret language gives legal professionals a certain dramatic mystique that can be intimidating, sexy, and, as every law student knows, annoying to learn.
“Legal talk” is called lawyer lingo or jargon. It’s also commonly referred to as legalese.
Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Law and Order knows that the words âobjection” and âsustained” have to be yelled out before anything really dramatic happens in a courtroom. But what do those words actually mean? Here are a few lawyerly terms translated…
1. Objection
âObjection” is used to protest when an opposing lawyer asks an inappropriate question of a witness. A lawyer can also object when a witness makes a statement that has nothing to do with the question at hand.
2. Sustained
If a judge âsustains” an objection, he or she is agreeing with it, telling the lawyer who asked the question to drop it and move on.
3. Overruled
When a judge overrules an objection, he is telling the witness to go ahead and answer the question.
4. Withdrawn
A less-embarrassing word for âI take it back!”
5. Rebuttal
A comeback supported by evidence. For instance, if the prosecutor states that a bloody candlestick was found in Professor Plum’s study, the defense might offer the rebuttal that the professor had sold the candlestick in question to an antique dealer the previous week.
6. Prima Facie
Prima facie is Latin for âat first look” or âon its face,” and in legalese it refers to a situation where someone looks guilty. One of the nice things about our legal system is that even when you look guilty, the system is supposed to look more closely and give you a chance to defend yourself.
For example, in a âprima facie” case, a jury might be presented with the evidence of your handgun found at the scene of your husband’s murder, and everyone would expect you to be indicted based on that evidenceâat least until the fatal bullet was shown to have been fired from the gun of the policeman who âdiscovered” the crime!
7. Plea Bargain
This is when the prosecution and the defense work out a deal, with the judge’s approval, in which the defendant pleads guilty in exchange for something. For example, if you rob a liquor store and get caught, you might plead guilty in exchange for a short sentence, saving everyone the trouble of going through a trial. The defendant may also give up information about other crimes or criminals in exchange for a lenient sentence.
8. Adjournment
An adjournment is a suspension or delay of the entire trial until a later date. This sometimes happens when new and surprising evidence is introduced that changes the course of the trial.
9. Habeas Corpus
Habeas corpus is Latin for âyou have the body,” which sounds ominous, but it is actually one of the most fundamental rights of a citizen. When a writ of habeas corpus is presented to a judge, it means that someone who has imprisoned another person has to show the legal basis for that imprisonment.
In other words, the law of habeas corpus is what prevents police and prison officials from locking people up without trying to show they’ve done anything wrong.
10. Recess
A recess is a short break from a trial (not to be confused with an adjournment, which is a long break from a trial). Unfortunately, most courthouses do not have adjoining playgrounds, so lawyers tend to spend recesses doing whatever they have to do to continue the trial.
This article was written by Melissa Woodson, the community manager for @WashULaw on behalf of CAREEREALISM-Approved Partner, 2tor â an education-technology company that partners with Washington University in St. Louis to offer a premier LLM degree. In her spare time, she enjoys running, cooking, and making half-baked attempts at training her dog.
One of the great opportunities of leadership is the delegation of tasks to others, which not only frees up your time to be more strategic but also develops those employees to whom you’ve delegated. Although it is a great opportunity for leaders, it is also a great challenge.
Delegating means letting go of a fair amount of, if not all of, the control associated with the way tasks are completed. I find this to be a struggle for many leaders, myself included. As the owner of my business, I find that letting go of tasks and delegating to others can be quite a challenge at times. What if they don’t do it right? What if they don’t get it done on time? What if they upset the clients?
These âwhat-ifs” can go on forever! I’ve tortured myself through many of them and I’ve seen many of my clients do the same.
What I’ve learned, both personally and through working with others in this area, are some key steps to take to ease concerns about delegating to others.
First, you want to have a high degree of confidence in the people you delegate to; therefore, be diligent in your selection of those you hire to work for you.
Oftentimes, leaders are in a hurry to get a position filled so do not take enough time to be sure they are making the best selection. Without confidence that you have the best people on your team, delegating can be difficult. Yet when you know you’ve got the right people in place, it is much easier to delegate with assurance.
Second, you will probably need a fair amount of updates and status checks on how your team is doing with the tasks. You may need more updates and status checks early in the relationship.
Once you get to know the individuals and their work ethic, and your relationship develops, the amount of check-ins decreases because the expectations are well-understood, and your confidence in their ability to meet your expectations increases.
Lastly, you want to change any “what-ifs” from negative to positive. So instead of thinking, “What if they don’t do it right?” try, “What if they do it better than I ever could?” or “What if this works out better than I thought?”
That mindset shift will help you expect the best instead of expecting things to go wrong. Does this mean things never go wrong? Of course not. But it certainly sets up an environment that is more expectant of success than if you continue to think of all the possible ways things could go wrong.
Although this is not always easy for leaders, letting go of control and delegating is necessary and highly beneficial for all. It not only enables you, the leader, to focus on more strategic items, but it also motivates your workforce to take on more responsibility and fosters more employee development.
This month’s development tip: Have you mastered the art of delegation? If so, congratulations! We’d love to hear some of your success tactics. If not, follow the suggested steps in this article; with each step, you should begin to get more comfortable with letting go.
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The recruitment landscape is poised for continued transformation in 2024, shaped by technological advancements, evolving workforce expectations, and global dynamics. To stay ahead of the curve, organizations must adapt their recruiting strategies.
In this article, members of Duffy Group will explore pivotal topics that are reshaping today’s workforce landscape. Discover effective succession planning strategies to help you navigate the challenges of an aging workforce, uncover insights into managing the influx of younger talent, learn techniques to keep your team connected to the company culture in an era of remote collaboration, and find out how to use AI to complement your recruiting strategy.
Read on to unlock the best tips for elevating your recruitment strategy in 2024.
January is a time of year when we all get a chance to start the new year with new perspectives, renewed energy, and the lessons learned from the previous year. It’s a time to reflect on what has worked and what hasn’t, and an opportunity to focus on what’s proven to work in the past to create a better future. It is vital to look towards the future as well. Succession planning is something that has been proven to help organizations be more successful.
What is “succession planning”? It’s the process of identifying the critical positions within your organization and developing action plans for individuals to assume those positions. The critical steps of succession planning include:
Proactive and effective succession planning can bring many advantages, including reduced risk of leadership gaps, better culture of engaged employees, and an overall improvement in organizational performance.
Colleen Neese is a practice leader at Duffy Group. She specializes in recruiting executives in non-profit and healthcare.
Bridging the Workforce Gap: Navigating Development for Incoming Youth Amidst the Departure of Experienced Workers
A common theme I experienced from 2020 to 2023 was the influx of experienced workers, primarily baby boomers, Generation X, and some Generation Y, leaving the workforce and the growth of the younger population or Generation Z entering the workforce.
For the most part, Generation Z was welcomed with open arms. Depending on the industry, the range of open arms varied based on the shortage stemming from retirements, re-careering, and people stepping back from working full time to take a break and care for their families.
I have not experienced this trend in my two decades of recruiting. There also hasn’t been a focus on work-life balance until now, and I am thankful for how accepted it has become. We all worked and worked more to learn and grow with a steady path to advance into management roles.
As an executive recruiter, I have partnered with several clients to help them hire leaders to replace incumbents in the past few years during this recent shift. What I have experienced over and over is how anemic the leadership tool pool is overall, regardless of demographics or geographics.
Why is this? Have we missed the mark on the continuous development of young leaders? Has work-life balance taken a priority due to caregiving needs at home? Did baby boomers and Generation X paint a gloomy picture, deterring interest? Is the current young generation focused more on a job today than a career path journey as prior generations did? I think yes, yes, yes, and yes.
What do you do? I believe excellent career path opportunities are available now, and many more to come in the next several years. When I was young in my career, we didn’t have leadership coaches and training classes and seminars to the level we have today. For this, I think it’s an excellent opportunity for young professionals to raise their hands and ask for continuous development. If you are a leader, this is a great time to pay it forward and mentor and develop.
I changed professions in 2000 and took off my manager hat for a while to learn a new career from a mature young woman in her late twenties, Jill, who was ahead of her time. I was lucky, and to this day, I can say that she was the best manager I have ever had. She made learning hard things fun and easy. She was inspirational, and everyone wanted to follow her. We didn’t feel like we were working, while our work was challenging. She was identified as a top performer on a fast track to leadership. She was given additional tools to continue growing as a leader, and her team grew alongside her.
I know other young Jills are starting their careers today, and we missed some over the past decade. Let’s all look for a Jill beginning with the interview process. Let’s explore, be curious, and be more of a career coach instead of someone who only asks standard interview questions. Changing our mindsets to find skills and traits for a future leader to groom, instead of for today’s open job, we should have many new Jills in the talent pool to fill the continuous open leadership roles in the upcoming years.
Sharon Grace is a veteran search executive at Duffy Group who helps hiring leaders hire great people because of her proven track record as a strategic partner and advisor to recruit, identify, and assess talent.
Welcome to the forefront of modern recruitment practices in 2024. We are marked by unprecedented technological advancements, the evolution of hybrid work environments, and a need to emphasize creating meaningful connections within the workforce.
AI won’t completely replace you as a recruiter, but recruiters who use AI could. 2024 will witness more recruiting and staffing firms turning to automation to simplify repetitive tasks and reduce administrative work.
Recruitment automation solutions can parse resumes, manage candidate and client pipelines, post jobs on multiple job boards simultaneously, and much more. Many software solutions also help efficiently engage candidates at various hiring stages while improving important recruitment metrics like time to hire and submittal.
In 2024, the stabilization of hybrid work takes center stage, prompting a reevaluation of workplace structures and the adoption of innovative ways to support remote collaboration. Remote-work numbers have dwindled over the past few years as employers issue return-to-office mandates. But will that continue in 2024?
In Spring 2020, more than 60% of the workforce worked from home. By 2023, that number had dropped to about 25% â much lower than its peak but still a significant increase from 5% in 2019. Work-from-home numbers have held steady throughout most of 2023.
Though several companies issued return-to-work mandates in 2023, most allow employees to work from home for at least part of the week. That makes 2024 the year for employers to figure out the hybrid model.
Hybrid work, the Great Resignation, and the pandemic can all take the blame for an increase in unconnected employees in today’s workplace. Workers with lower levels of connection have a stronger intention to quit and a higher chance of job-seekingâwhich is expensive for a business’s bottom line. If embraced by the executive team and developed by the general workforce, reconnection is possible.
Taking a step to build connections within the workplace can be done by any employee. Reaching out to a co-worker through a call, email, or text message to check in makes an impact. Letâs make 2024 the year to build stronger connections within your organization.
Kristin Pozen is a research recruitment recruiter at Duffy Group and a former HR recruiter.
Need help recruiting talent for your organization? Check out Duffy Group today.
As we navigate the evolving landscape of remote work, shifting from traditional office settings to decentralized home-based work has brought advantages and challenges. In the wake of the global pandemic, employees across industries adapted to a new normal, juggling professional responsibilities amid the chaos of family life and virtual schooling.
Four years into this transformative journey, the flexibility of remote work has become a lasting aspect of our professional lives. While the benefits include increased productivity, reduced commutes, and enhanced work-life balance, there’s a lingering challenge that demands attentionâremote work loneliness.
As employees continue to strike a balance between solitude for focused productivity and the need for social connection, this article explores proven strategies to address remote work loneliness and foster meaningful connections in a decentralized work environment. Whether you’re a seasoned remote worker or navigating the new normal, the insights shared here aim to enhance the quality of both professional and personal well-being.
It’s 2024, four years past the “two-week shutdown and quarantine” at the onset of the pandemic. Many employees were quickly forced to transition to working from home with the rest of their family members, including kids trying to do virtual school. It was a crazy time!
I think companies have accepted the employees’ desire to have flexibility and not have to work in the office every day if they do not want to. Like most things, there are pluses and minuses, and working remotely has both. We have learned more during these past few years about the effects of working remotely. For some, quiet thinking time is beneficial to productivity. Most remote workers feel they are less distracted at home and are accomplishing more. Not having a long commute or being stuck in traffic is a plus and adds time to their day to work out or cook dinner more often.
I mentioned that quiet time is thinking time and helps some of us focus. However, for others, it can bring a sense of isolation and loneliness. Some struggled coming out of the pandemic being accustomed to staying at home with little or no reason to leave. Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy warned of an ‘epidemic of loneliness and isolation’ (2023 advisory).
Today, most employees work in the office an average of three days a week. Most people I speak with want to get out of the house and connect with their colleagues in person again if they live close to the office. Many people have moved away from their employer’s offices and can only work remotely.
How do we identify the need for quiet, thinking time for productivity versus feeling removed from social interactions? People who are extroverts and introverts can experience both.
Try to tailor your workday around interacting with colleagues. Send instant messages or schedule a phone chat or a short video call to connect. Consider a morning meeting to discuss the day’s projects, a lunchtime chat for a quick break to disconnect from work, or even an end-of-day happy hour to discuss the plan for the next day. If possible, planning offsites to meet in person is a great idea to bond and get together to collaborate or to socialize without discussing work.
If you are interviewing for remote positions, consider asking questions about how the teams communicate, bond, and frequency. Try to meet as many people as you can. Remote and hybrid work is here to stay and remember the value of human connection. We need it for professional and personal well-being.
Sharon Grace is a veteran search executive at Duffy Group who helps hiring leaders hire great people because of her proven track record as a strategic partner and advisor to recruit, identify, and assess talent.
As organizations adapt to flexible work arrangements, employers must now prioritize addressing their remote workforce’s social and mental well-being. By understanding the unique challenges associated with remote work, employers can play a pivotal role in creating a supportive and connected virtual work environment.
Understanding and prioritizing combatting remote work loneliness is essential for maintaining mental well-being and productivity in the workplace. Employers must ensure that everyone has the opportunity to connect, regardless of where they are located. Be intentional about connecting employees outside of their teams. Make it a once-a-week event for casual connection and a once-a-quarter or annual event for more formal L&D or strategy planning.
Here are some employer strategies to tackle remote work loneliness:
Establish Regular Virtual Meetings: Encourage teams to schedule regular video calls with each other. This helps maintain social connections and provides a sense of belonging.
Provide Automated Collaboration: Tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or others allow for employees to stay connected throughout the day. Instant messaging can simulate the casual conversations that happen in an office setting.
Schedule Virtual Coffee Breaks: Informal meetings where you can discuss non-work topics that mimic the casual interactions that occur in an office environment.
Set Up Virtual Social Events: Organize virtual social events, such as virtual happy hours, game nights, or team-building activities. This helps maintain a sense of camaraderie.
Work From Co-Working Spaces: If possible, consider offering to work from co-working spaces occasionally. This allows for face-to-face interactions with others and a change of environment.
Offer Online Communities: Provide access to online forums or communities related to your company’s industry. This can provide a sense of community and facilitate networking.
Evaluate Your Employee Mental Health Benefits: Are they being utilized? If not, ensure your employees know they are available and confidential. Do they need to be enhanced to provide more coverage or more access?
Make Onboarding More Experiential: Onboarding is a critical first opportunity to facilitate friendships at work. Since the pandemic, millions of employees have started new jobs and have never met one of their colleagues in person. Especially for early career employees, this can be incredibly challenging.
Make Recharging a Reality: We must take employee health seriously for human connection and friendship to thrive. We can start by supporting more generous family leave policies, child care, and elder care. Also, ensure that when taking time off, employees recharge by not answering emails and phone calls. They can truly check out for a week at a time.
Kristin Pozen is a research recruitment recruiter at Duffy Group and a former HR recruiter.
In a world increasingly adapting to remote work, Duffy Group, a global recruitment firm based in Phoenix, Arizona, stands out with its 33-year history of successfully operating as a remote workforce. As pioneers in the field, company leaders have valuable insights on fostering employee success in the virtual realm, beyond the conventional steps of establishing a dedicated workspace and managing distractions. Duffy Group emphasizes the importance of meaningful connections and combating loneliness in the evolving landscape of remote work. The company showcases a holistic approach to maintaining a strong sense of community among its widely dispersed team, providing inspiration for other organizations seeking innovative ways to keep their remote employees connected.
Duffy Group is a national recruitment firm headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona; however, our recruiters live all over the country and work from home. We have been a remote workforce for 33 years, way before the pandemic and the recent trend that has led to many workers working from home either full time or part of the time.
Since we’ve been doing this so long, we feel like we’ve learned a thing or two that may assist other companies set their employees up for success when it comes to working remotely.
We all know the obvious first steps to creating a positive experience working from home such as:
But how do you ensure that your employees are connecting on a meaningful level and combating loneliness? We are in the people business, after all! Here are some of the things Duffy Group does to ensure our employees are staying connected:
There are many ways to stay connected as a remote workforce. Hopefully, some of the things Duffy Group has been doing for years will inspire you to implement new and creative ways for your employees to stay connected!
Colleen Neese is a practice leader at Duffy Group. She specializes in recruiting executives in non-profit and healthcare.
Need help recruiting talent for your organization? Check out Duffy Group today.
In almost 30 years of being part of a variety of transformations globally, whether it be business model, digital, technology, and/or organizational, there is a consistent set of human factors that makes the journey successful or one where millions of dollars go down the drain because a project is placed on hold, changing hands, and hence becomes a long and arduous journey. What are these human factors?
In the proposal stage of projects, greater than 80% of the questions asked of the potential partner are about business, technology, and commercial. There is a small portion about the people side which is quite tactical in nature (i.e., training strategy and approach; communications and readiness).
From the business front, the description of the project barely touches the human dimension. A depth of understanding is missing on, âWhat is the desired state that is addressed by the change or the transformation?â Desire, want, and fear are deep human emotions that when concretized and qualified from the beginning allow for real and organic movement toward the transformationâs âNorth Star.â
It reminds me of an opportunity with a client taking on its journey from ECC to S/4 HANA. The usual consultant in me did our background research to understand the client and get an outside-looking-in view. In the pre-sales process, my team had made the effort to grasp the client âchange profileâ and what their desired culture state ⦠not merely business goals. What a powerful story. We were able to connect with this client and allow its COO, CIO, and CFO to know we listened, we understand, and we will co-create.
The initial phase of the journey is a defining point. It is where governance is established, the project team is onboarded, and timelines are vetted and established.
One aspect where the least time is spent is the project team cultureâthe ways of working and the common set of values that align everyone to the âNorth Star.â It is either established in a silo or entirely forgotten, especially as teams grow and activities get closer to going live. Culture sets the tone and the guiding principles behind decisions, conversations, and human/group interactions. We need to “go slow to go fast,” moving us toward a deep level of Intentionality throughout the transformation.
Establishing the âways of workingâ for the project is worth the intentional time spent. In this large-scale global transformation, the client leaders demonstrated true belief in its values and how it translated back to the project team. The regional directors’ and SVPs’ engagement in carving out how values like curiosity and collaboration were made real from meeting and its outcomes, problem resolution, and leveraging the strengths of its middle managers and subject matter experts made an impact on how the project smoothly confronted challenges and barriers experienced during the course of the project. This was further reinforced during the stabilization phase, where resiliency and co-creation were visible. There was no I/we; it was truly an âusâ and we are making this happen together mentality!
There is a level of intentionality that needs to be in place within the projectâs ecosystem. It is not as simple as getting people together who are âavailable,â mixed with a few strong middle managers, some consultants, and a dash of hope, mix them in a project kickoff, and voila: we have a high-performing team. Unfortunately, it doesnât work that way.
Treat it like a draft pick, where there are specific roles to be played within the team and crucial outcomes each role needs to achieve for the bigger mission. One may say we donât have time for this; we need to simply fill the need and move on. This is what differentiates the championship team from everyone else.
Find the X factor in each individual to create a high-performing team, especially around the intangibles (e.g., values, drivers, motivators, fears). Intentional resourcing at all levels from the steering committee, program lead, and functional resources through stabilization, as we all know “hope isnât a strategy.â
This is one of the toughest components to enable, especially as most teams are already lean as it is and are restricted to add on resources especially when the aim of the transformation is âreduce cost, increase efficiency,â which also translates to a lean and mean organization. This is one that isnât a surprise anymore, as we all have probably been in engagements where the project had to be put on pause, or worse, on hold. Either because the project team wasnât able to move forward, too many changes happening post blueprinting, too many open decisions that needed global buy-in, or there was no clarity on who would be able to move it forward. This is when a 12-month program becomes a 5-year program, where talented people are lost in the process.
It is innate in human beings to need boundaries, consequences, and motivations to allow for creativity to flourish, come up with better solutions, and speed in decision making. When this is proactively designed and reinforced throughout the course of the transformation, that is when magic happens.
It is quite a challenge if the organizationâs culture revolves around the philosophy, âYou are already paid to do your job,â hence, any additional motivators are not necessary. Definitely an uphill battle. In one client, what made this viable was experienced leaders who had gone through similar transformations in their past lives and have seen what a difference a clear reward and performance management system can make in a teamâs long-term retention and motivation.
In order to make this happen from beginning to end, there is a need to invest in a grand conductorâa robust transformation office. It is a small cohesive unit that is ably steering the ship towards its North Star, in tune with the culture and values of the broader organization and the project team, has insight into when and where coaching, structure, and disciplines need to be inserted, has a pulse on its stakeholders, and knows how to leverage the strengths of the broader group toward creating the best possible solution(s).
Applying to every company that’s hiring isn’t a very effective way to conduct a job search. To improve your chances of landing a job, it’s important to be very strategic about the companies that you’re applying to.
The fact that a company is hiring is only a small piece of the puzzle. You want to apply to a company that fits your skills and personality and has similar values. Most importantly, you want the company’s mission to inspire you, and you want to have a part in that mission.
That’s why it’s important to create an interview bucket list of 10-20 companies you would love to work before you start hunting for a job.
Here’s how to put together an interview bucket list.
What industry do you want to work for? What are your key skill sets? What weaknesses do you need to improve?
These are just some of the self-assessment questions that you need to ask yourself before you begin your job search. From there, you also need to consider location. Do you want to stay where you currently live, or are you looking to move?
Once these important factors are considered, it becomes a lot easier to create the criteria for the interview bucket list and narrow down the search.
There are plenty of ways to find and research companies for your interview bucket list. Chances are you may already have some companies in mind, or great recommendations from your professional network.
A large part of your search will likely be done over the internet. You can find a lot of great companies by searching industry websites, news and business websites, and trade publications.
Once you get a list of companies going, you’ll need to take a deeper dive into each one of them by visiting their individual websites and social media accounts and reviewing any news stories about them.
It’s also beneficial to view sites like Glassdoor and Indeed to read employee reviews about working at the company.
Company culture, perks and benefits, salary, and job opportunities are major factors to consider before adding companies to your interview bucket list. But it’s also important to ask yourself if you respect and admire the company. And if so, how do you personally connect with the company?
When you respect and admire a company, you can make a connection to its purpose. Companies are in the business of solving a problem for their customers; how can you fit into the company’s plans for solving this problem? Is there a personal reason why you’re passionate about solving this problem or why you identify with the company’s values?
The more passionate you are about a company’s mission, the more fulfilling your career with that company will be.
Building an interview bucket list is one thing, but if you really want to improve your chances of landing an interview with one of these companies, you need to network your way into their orbit.
Identify five people at each company and find ways to connect with them. You can start by seeing if you have any shared connections in your professional network. It’s always easier to be introduced by a mutual connection.
If you don’t have a mutual connection, you’ll have to take some initiative and reach out to some of these professionals on LinkedIn on your own.
The goal is to ask these professionals to connect in hopes you can learn more about the company and what it might take to land a position there. Make sure you let them know that you aren’t looking for them to help you get a job, just some insight as to what the process is like.
These connections may start small with a few casual conversations, but the more commonalities you find with these connections, the more opportunity you’ll have to build meaningful conversations, and trust and mutual respect will follow.
The more of these connections you build, the more opportunity you have to earn a referral to one of your bucket list companies or gain insight about other great companies that may be worth your time.
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If you want to make a great, positive, lasting impression in a job interview, there is one question you should ask the hiring manager. It’s also a bit of a sneaky question because it will reveal something about this person and what it would be like to work at the company.
When you get to the end of the interview and the hiring manager asks you if you have any questions, look them in the eye, smile, and say, “Tell me about the most significant or positive thing that’s happened to you here at the company in the last year.”
The reason why you’re asking them about the most significant or positive or exciting thing that’s happened to them in the last year is that any time we get to talk to somebody and share a positive experience, we tend to associate them with being positive as well. We end up liking them more and feeling more connected to them. So, this is a way for you to achieve this with the person who’s interviewing you.
But if you ask them this question and they can’t quickly answer, or if they hesitate, or if they struggle to think of something, what does that tell you about the company? Why is this person not thinking of something positive? It makes you wonder.
Asking this question in a job interview is a way to look under the hood and find out if the company might be a fit for you. It will tell you a lot about the organization’s values, goals, and workplace culture.
Now, in order to have the opportunity to ask these great questions, you need to nail the job interview, and that means getting the behavioral questions right. If you want to know how to answer the 18 hardest behavioral questions, sign up for a Work It DAILY membership today. It’ll be the best money you’ve ever spent on your job search.
Good luck, and go get ’em!
There are only three types of work. You either have a job, a career, or a calling. I have been a career coach for over 20 years and I can tell you that after working with thousands of people what you do for work falls into one of these three categories.
@j.t.odonnell THE 3 TYPES OF WORK ##IKnowWhatYouDid ##jobsearch ##job ##career ##calling ##careerdecoder ##careeradvice ##careertiktok ##joblife ##careertok ##work ##1
As a professional, you either have:
Now, the problem with this is that over the years, society has convinced all of us that the only thing we should be striving for is the callingâthat we should be in love with our work. Everything we do should feel effortless and we should get a big paycheck for it. And that’s not how it works.
Your life is forever changing. There are times in your life when a job is the only thing you need. It’s the only thing you can handle. It pays the bills, and that’s good enough. And every job is temporary.
Then, there’s the career. There are times in your life when you feel like you’re doing satisfying work and you’re getting the paycheck.
Then, sometimes, people reach the calling; they find exactly what they want to do in life. But the thing about the calling is that you need to be willing to sacrificeâyou need to be willing to do it even if you can’t get a paycheck. Most people don’t have the strength or the resources to go after the calling.
As a career coach, I want to manage people’s expectations and I want them to be as happy as they possibly can be in the situation they’re in. But to do that, everyone needs to understand that it’s not one-size-fits-all.
Stop searching for the perfect calling in the big paycheck. Learn to assess where you are today. Understand what’s currently going on in your life. Let’s make a conscious decision about what type of workâa job, a career, and (maybe) a callingâyou need right now. And then let’s work to improve that step by step.
They didn’t teach us this in school. And, candidly, employers don’t want you to know this because they want you to be forever stuck in a job, don’t they? But there are good employers out there.
Good employers want you to feel fulfilled and satisfied. They can take you to the career level and maybe even the calling level. But they don’t just grow on trees and they don’t just fall in front of you. There’s no magic fairy godmother to give you that calling or career. You have to figure out who you are and what your strengths are, and then we start to work with that and, like a puzzle, we piece it togetherâa beautiful, unique puzzle that is all you.
So, stop looking for a calling and simply focus on growing your career. If you “work it daily,” you’ll get to where you want to be in your professional life. I promise.
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.
Ikigai is a Japanese concept and is comprised of two Japanese charactersâiki (meaning life) and gai (meaning value or worth) which together signify values that make life worth living or your âreason to get up in the morning.â It encompasses a sense of purpose and fulfillment in daily life including the pursuit of personal passions, hobbies, family/personal/social relationships, and community. So not only does ikigai represent finding joy, but it recognizes how individuals are interconnected, and their impact in a broader social sense.
You may have more than one ikigai with different things fulfilling different parts of your life. Also, depending on your experiences or stage of life, your ikigai can change or evolve over time. For example, if you have a baby, that child may become your ikigai (or a grandparentâs ikigai).
The concept of ikigai originated in Japan. A high concentration of centenarians (100+-year-olds) live in Okinawa, and they believe that finding ikigai improves your overall well-being and longevity and provides a sense of purpose (with a healthy diet, regular exercise, social connections, and a positive attitude). These individuals have figured out that finding their ikigai gives them a reason to get up in the morning, giving them fulfillment each day to live such long active lives. Ikigai doesnât have to be complicated and may be as simple as gardening, dancing/singing, or even sipping a favorite tea. My momâs friend, Tsuchino (who is over 90 years old), told me that her ikigai is playing sudoku.
My ikigai is cooking, which was inspired by my mom. Not only did she cook every day for our family, but she loved to cook for friends and neighbors. I remember them sitting around the kitchen table, talking/laughing, and savoring her homemade gyozas. My mom was sharing a part of herself, and I cherish her gyoza recipe. Despite how hectic my life can be sometimes, it energizes me to cook for others (curiously trying new recipes). I even bake and mail cookies to unsuspecting family/friends. Someone may not be having a âgreatâ day and that box of cookies shows them that I was thinking of them. Sharing my love for cooking gives me immense joy and is my ikigai!
The Western interpretation of ikigai captures some of the original Japanese concept, but it focuses on career-centric aspects and is typically depicted by the above Venn diagram. Even within the Japanese concept, your ikigai could be work. The philosophy is to align personal passions with professional pursuits to find meaningful work by determining:
The intersection and convergence of these four elements is your ikigai (although ikigai is not necessarily something you need to be paid for within the Japanese concept). Again, depending on the stage of your career, your ikigai can change or evolve over time. For example, maybe youâre considering pivoting and starting your own company or buying a franchise. Also, you can have more than one ikigai. Besides your regular job, maybe you get fulfilled from volunteering or helping the community.
There is a quote by Confucius, âChoose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.â So donât wait until youâve retired to find your ikigai. Finding your passion and mission can increase your work satisfaction and overall career fulfillment.
For me, I gravitate towards roles where I transform chaos into calm and figured out that this is my âworkâ ikigai. I understand why Iâm passionate about helping companies that have been enduring too much distress and solving those complex problems with practical solutions. I also love sharing my knowledge through mentoring, volunteering (such as STEM organizations), and even creating LinkedIn content.
Ikigai is understanding your whole self over your lifetime, and the key is to appreciate the present moment and do the things you value and give your life meaning. Even after you âretire from work,â what will bring you joy and give you a reason to get up in the morning?
What is your ikigai? If you donât know, you can start by self-reflecting. When are you the happiest (putting a smile on your face just thinking about it)? Or what activities do you look forward to doing in the future? Realizing whatâs important to you and what you enjoy actively doing will bring you closer to finding your ikigai. To me, life is too short not to enjoy it . . . and find the simple things that will bring you joy each day!
For more information about ikigai and finding values that make life worth living, follow me on LinkedIn!
It’s difficult enough to get hired nowadays without having a criminal record. So, is it even possible to land a good job after committing a crime?
The short answer is yes.
But it’s not going to be easy, unless you follow these three steps during your next job interview.
Employers will conduct background checks on you. The old rule of thumb was that a felony comes off your record after seven years, and it does. But the internet has a much longer memory than that. Your criminal record will probably always be up there for employers to find. If you have any record with the police, HR can (and will) find it. So, it’s important that you tell employers about your criminal record before they find it out for themselves and then hold it against you in the hiring process.
A key thing to remember as you look for a job with a criminal record is that it’s not about overcoming your criminal background; it’s about working through it.
Before you mention your criminal record to a hiring manager, come up with your explanation. Use the “Experience + Learn = Grow” model, which is the same strategy you should use when answering behavioral interview questions. Tell the employer the facts. Take all of the emotion out of it. Don’t make excuses. Simply tell them what the situation was and what happened.
Then, tell the employer what you learned. What did this powerful experience teach you? (Don’t focus on the negative.) How did you grow from this experience?
Let’s be honest. We don’t like to admit that we did something wrong, that we failed or made a mistake. When we own our mistakes and failures, we have to admit that we’re not perfect. And no matter how many years we’ve been on this earth, that’s still something a lot of us struggle with.
If you own something, you can change the outcome. And that’s what you need to do when looking for a job with a criminal record. Take responsibility for your past actions and mistakes. If you don’t own it, then you’re helpless.
Whatever you do, don’t have a victim mentality. Don’t think someone or something has control over you. By owning it, you can make things better.
The hard truth is that trying to defend yourself, trying to push some of the blame on something else, really hurts your credibility. If you don’t say, “I own it. There were other factors involved, but I own it,” during your job interview, no one is going to trust you.
We understand that it’s really hard to own the mistakes you’ve made if you haven’t yet come to grips with them. Just know that you will have to in order to get a job, and that it will be so incredibly freeing.
After you’ve explained the “grow” part of the “Experience + Learn = Grow” strategy, you’ll want to have examples of how you’ve grown as a person and as a professional.
It is very hard to gain people’s trust when you’re looking for a job with a criminal record. It’s very hard to get a job at all. Tell the employer this, and then show them what you’ve done to earn people’s trust again.
Try framing the conversation like this:
“This is what I’ve done to try to build my reputation, gain trust, and develop my skills since then. Here’s where I am, and here’s what I’m doing going forward. Here’s what I’m doing to put this behind me so it’s not an issue anymore.”
Employers need to hear this. They need to know you’ve gone through that thought process and have grown and changed as a person since committing the crime. If they can walk away from the job interview knowing that you own your mistakes, learned from them, and have bettered yourself since committing the crime, they won’t hold your criminal record against you as much as they would have if they had found it before you brought it up.
Over 100 organizations have joined the Fair Chance Business Pledge, including:
So, take responsibility for your criminal record. Make sure you’re the one to bring it up first during the hiring process. As long as you prove you’ve learned from your mistakes and have developed the skills necessary to succeed on the job, you’ll be viewed as a good job candidate.
Good luck!
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.