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While it may seem unimportant, itâs still a good idea to be prepared for common exit interview questions before beginning the conversations. Remember, what you say in these interviews can still have an impact on your career! This guide will teach you how to answer exit interview questions in a way thatâs helpful and still […]
The post How To Answer Exit Interview Questions: Examples & Tips appeared first on Career Sherpa.
Finding a job will be ten-times harder these times, and it’s not only since competition for jobs is usually at an all-time higher. If you’re wondering exactly how to get the interest regarding hiring managers and employers AND beat the competitors, subscribe to our next Work Search Accelerator workshop!
Join our CEO, M. T. O’Donnell, and Overseer to train Development as well as Coaching, Christina Burgio, with regard to this live event about Tuesday, November 15th coming from 2-4 pm ET.
Knowing and embracing the most recent professional job search styles is exactly what you need to be able to do to land the job.
Ask yourself often the following:
This particular high-impact workshop will assist you with all the aboveâand offer you so much more.
Above 100 professionals have used this class within the last 4 months, and the accounts above is from one of those attendees. They experienced job search success right after attending one of our own workshops. We guarantee everyone will too!
Following live event date: Tuesday, November fifteenth | 2-4 pm OU
Where: Zoom (We’ll provide the link)
Why: Due to the fact you do not have to job look for alone! (BONUS: Get $250+ of programs & coaching – incorporated with purchase)
Just how much: $199 per ticketed
Each *live* work shop includes:
– Career Search Plan
: Resume Plan
instructions LinkedIn Plan
rapid Cover Letter Plan
– Interview Prep Strategy
– Mastering Social networking
Can’t attend live? That’s okay! Register and we’ll email All the above to you following the session is more than.
You’re ready to make a change in your career and have secured a new job (hopefully!). Now, it’s time to quit your current job.
First things first: Unless we’re talking about an extreme circumstance, you should never walk into your boss’ office and say “I quit!” That’s unprofessional and could have severe professional consequences in the future.
It’s important to maintain your personal brand as a hardworking professional. The way you end this career chapter is part of that brand.
Here’s how to be professional when you quit your job:
Since we’re talking about being professional, we should probably say “resign” instead of “quit.” If you do things right, you won’t leave the company high and dry. Instead, you’ll give your team proper notice so they can plan accordingly.
A proper notice of resignation is typically two weeks. Sometimes people are in a position to give a longer notice and sometimes people give a shorter notice, depending on the company policy and what you’ve negotiated for as part of your new job.
If you’re in a position where you have to give a shorter notice, such as one week, make sure to clearly explain the situation to your boss, apologize for the inconvenience, and ask if there’s anything extra you can do in your last week to help ease their transition.
Resignations should always be done in person. That said, you’ll want to have a paper trail to cover your bases if anything happens, so be sure to email your boss your resignation letter immediately following your conversation.
Once you’re face-to-face with your boss, explain that you felt the time was right to make a change and you came across a new opportunity that you ultimately thought would be a better fit. Be humble and thank your boss for the opportunity to work with the company and wish your boss and company well.
In many ways, your conversation with your boss will mirror your resignation letter: short and to the point.
If you have concerns or complaints about the company, avoid airing them out during your resignation. Unless there’s a terrible reason for your leaving that could put others in harm’s way, don’t bring up your drama.
If your boss asks for feedback, keep it constructive, short, and to the point. If you can offer some minor feedback that may improve the company, then give it a try, but there’s no need to dissect every issue the company may have.
As legendary New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick would say, “Do your job!”
Just because you’re leaving the company doesn’t mean you should slack off. Continue to work hard and be fully engaged with the job until the very end.
It’s important to leave the job on a positive note because you want to have some professional references for future job searches.
In addition, former bosses and colleagues are great people to have in your professional network. You never know when a past professional connection could help you score a new job in the future.
The last day on the job is a good time to sew up future professional references and discuss ways to keep in touch with former co-workers. Some jobs require exit interviews. But if that’s not the case with your job, make an effort to visit your boss one last time.
It’s a good idea to again express gratitude for the opportunity to work at the company.
Leave on good terms with as many people as possible.
Positivity and professionalism are the keys to leaving any job. Jobs are temporary but the legacy you leave behind as an employee remains.
Whenever possible, you want to enter and leave each opportunity on a positive note because each experience tells a story about yourself as a professional.
With career changes happening more frequently now, it’s more important than ever to have a strong background of positive experiences with former employers. Follow the tips above to properly quit your job and leave on a good note.
Need more help with your career & job search?
We’d love it if you signed up for Work It Daily’s Event Subscription! Get your career questions answered in our next live event!
This article was originally published at an earlier date.
As you likely know, I am a big fan and practitioner of combining project and change disciplines with business acumen in daily life as a project and change advisor, teacher, and coach.
To be truly effective, especially if you are to succeed in uncertain business and professional times, you need to take as complete and wholistic a view of what you need to do in your day job to then be able to deliver it well and succeed.
If you are tasked with delivering something large, as I was, for instance, when leading a $225 million asset transfer due to Brexit in the UK, you need more than what I call a âpuristâ project management skill set to get a big or complex or high profile job done effectively and successfully, (as perceived by all key stakeholders) especially when uncertainty abounds (and it always does), especially now.
You may also be interested to read about the one thing that can set a project up for success or failure and how to do your bit, so your company leans into setting projects up for success. You may like to read about the number one thing that breaks projects (and is likely in your control) here.
So, I am a big advocate for you to learn beyond the purist technical project management training realm. That is beyond gaining a project certificate. Donât get me wrongâsome form of basic project management training is important but this is really only the entry level to becoming truly capable, confident, and ultimately successful at delivering complexity within the frame of ongoing business uncertainty.
I call what we should aim for to be at the top of our game as professionals project savviness. Project savviness is important regardless of having the name project in your role title or not. Project savviness is something most if not all of your organisation should possess.
Adding project experience (hands on) is an important feather in the cap toward developing project savviness, but this again, on its own, is still not enough. Not if you want to be considered capable and be able to deliver, for instance, monster project leadership and thrive successfully in uncertain times.
To demonstrate and truly be project savvy, you need to add two more pieces. These are basic behavioural science principles and business acumen.
To confirm, the three disciplines you need to be confident and project savvy are:
Project Management Structures and Approaches â briefly discussed above. These form what I call the technical backbone of your expertise and savviness. An important skill set but only an entry ticket to play not necessarily a seat at the top table yet.
Basic Behavioural Science Principles â that is knowing how to effectively engage, motivate, influence, and negotiate with all stakeholders (many and varied). This is a true skill and requires savviness in approach and delivery.
Business Acumen â being effective at problem solving, decision making, leadership, strategic thinking, and being commercially aware of whatâs going on around you (i.e., understanding how your company business and industry operate and how they make money) and then being able to apply and use these skills is an artformâbut one that can be taught effectively and quickly if the teacher is informed by experience as well.
So, in total you need three disciplines rolled into one if you want to be ahead of the curve and be considered savvy enough to be able to run anything complex, large, high profile, and important particularly given the ever-increasing presence of uncertainty in our work and business environments today.
Each of these disciplines provides the level of sophistication and solid foundation to be able to truly run and lead a big, complex piece of work or project. I call these skills the savviness glue skills. Without them, you will only be 2/3 of the way to being considered (and actually being) a capable professional.
Remember learning is not enough; you need experience in each of these project savviness disciplinesâproject management structures and approaches, basic behavioural science principles, and business acumenâso you can recognise when each is necessary on the ground in your day job as well as knowing how to implement each effectively.
This takes some practice but guided by an experienced capable practitioner you can slash the time needed to get up to speed. This is as much about being shown what to do and how to do something as it is about capability, structures, and knowledge.
Over my 25 years as a business management consultant and senior project leader, I have been privileged to train, coach, work in, and consult with many organisations, teams, and professionals including on the topic of project savviness and how to acquire it.
The best way to learn is from someone who has real hands-on experience. Otherwise, you will continue to be stuck in theory and forced to learn the hard way which wastes so much time. Theory has its place but on its own will not serve you if you seek to be at the top of your game in uncertain times.
I encourage you to seek out colleagues and opportunities to learn the three disciplines that make up project savviness. Find someone inside or outside your organisation to learn from fast as this will accelerate not only your confidence but also your career opportunities and ultimate success.
Good luck! Let me know about your successes in pursuit of project savviness.
Are a person anxious about approaching the particular holiday season without the job? Is it difficult for you to create time to find a new new job when typically the holidays come around? In case so, we can assist!
All of us have it. Between present giving, family gatherings, touring, along with other activities during this holidays, it’s rather a stressful period for most people. In addition to that, you might have often the added stress of performing a job search.
Inevitably, you might get questions from family and friends regarding your job (or absence thereof), and it may be difficult to enter these types of conversations. You simply donât understand what to say.
The good information is that we are usually here to help an individual work through these hurdles!
In this particular training, youâll learn exactly how to:
Join our own CEO, J. T. O’Donnell, and Director of Coaching Development & Coaching, Christina Burgio, for this reside event on Wednesday, Nov 2nd at 12 evening ET.
CAN’T ATTEND RESIDE? That’s alright. You’ll have access to be able to the recording as well as the workbook after the session!
Many years ago, I was working at a recruiting fair with a colleague. We spoke to a student every 30 minutes for nine hours. To say the least, it was exhausting.
During the event, my colleague and I prepared questions to ask each candidate as a litmus test for determining who would receive a second interview. Like many suggestions on LinkedIn, we focused on behavioral questions versus technical ones.
My colleague kept asking the same question at the end of each interviewâ¦
âWhat are the three things I need to remember about you after you leave this interview?â
I was reasonably young when I learned this technique. We would sit in a conference room a week or so after the event, and we would narrow our suggestion to two or three candidates. Because time had passed, my recollection of the conversations grew âfuzzy.â My colleague was quite clear, and I needed to know why.
âHow do you remember so many details from this many different conversations?â
His response? The three things.
The more unique these three responses are, the more my colleague remembered the conversation. He could recall nuances, which I forgot. He remembered details like their mannerisms, clothing, and responses to our questions. He had nearly perfect recall.
As he explained, he used the three questions as a pneumonic device to recall informationâor a trigger. He would re-read the three things and instantly return to the conversation. He said with practice, I could do the same.
When I ask the question, I add one caveat. âTell me three things I want to remember about you after this interview, and make the third one truly unique to you.â Then I sit quietly and wait.
Some interviewees are quick on their feet and riffle through the answers. Others tend to overthink about what I want to hear, and I encourage them to simply give me an answer from the gut. Interviewees who give me canned answers or anticipate what I want to hear may not get the job. The candidates who give me something special always get my attention.
Most candidates want to tell me they are: hardworking, customer oriented, organized, willing to learn, able to lead, like trying new things, get along well with others, and many of the âtypicalâ coached responses to a question. Some people only give me these answers without the unique one. That is OK; however, I cannot guarantee their interview is memorable.
The ones who really dig deep and share something personal⦠These people I remember and still have friendships with to this very day.
Here are a few candidates who have given me memorable responses (if my network knows who these people are, donât spoil it for others):
As I write these responses, I can recall elements of our conversations; I can remember names, and I see the faces. Several of these people are still in my life and will be for many years to come. Others I will simply remember the time spent together in the conversation. Regardless, I will remember the truly unique people in my life.
I am not going to tell you this question will work for everyone. Similar to the Dale Carnegie approach to learning someoneâs name, I am simply recommending a device, a tool, a trick to remembering candidates. I also recommend you make the question your own and tweak it as I did.
Do I think this question helps me? Yes.
Do I ask this question to every single candidate? No.
The interviewees who I want to work with or hire always get the question. I am curious to watch how they approach the question, and more importantly, I want to learn something fascinating about the person across the table from me.
The most rewarding part, I have known some very cool and intriguing people in my life, and years later, I can clearly remember the most remarkable ones who share a little piece of themselves with someone they really do not know. That is the reward!
I was beyond excited to work for Foodmaker, the corporate arm of Jack in the Box, early on in my marketing career. We had just launched a new product called the Monster Burger and I got the opportunity to work on a nationwide brand refresh initiative that was a dream project for me. And then E. coli hit. The outbreak involved 73 Jack in the Box restaurants across the west and was the most infamous food poisoning outbreak in historyâkilling four children, the majority under 10 years old, infecting 732 people across four states, permanently injuring 178, including kidney and brain damage, and almost bankrupting Jack in the Box.
A number of memorable things happened after the E. coli outbreak. First, local Jack in the Box franchise owners were on the news talking to the media about how awful things were at their local restaurant. This was notable to me because I hadnât seen any communications about how to respond to media inquiries from corporate and this misstep was being displayed all over the news.
Second, three days after Jack in the Box was told E. coli had been linked to its meat, it tried to distance itself from responsibility saying others were at fault. It was later learned that Jack in the Box had been warned by local health departments and its own employees that its hamburgers (specifically the Monster Burger due to the size of the burger) were being undercooked, but had decided that cooking them to the required 155 degrees made them too tough. The chain soon after pledged to âdo everything that is morally right for those individuals who had experienced illness after at Jack in the Box restaurants as well as their families.â
Third, Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak had received wide media coverage to the point that President Bill Clinton was fielding questions at a local media event about it.
Fourth, at the corporate office, we were being served constantly with lawsuits; it was non-stop. This was officially a PR nightmare.
Years later I was the Director of Marketing & Communications at Pepperdine Universityâs business school. I had used my learnings from Jack in the Box to ensure that we had a crisis communication plan in place. This learning paid off tenfold as I encountered late-night and weekend crisis situations at Pepperdine (i.e., campuses closing due to CA wildfires) utilizing this well-prepared crisis communication plan.
During a crisis situation, people need a simple plan of action that is easily understood and can be put in place quickly. Iâve found that successful crisis communication plans have a number of key elements. Here is my checklist that I include in crisis communication plans:
After the dust settled with the Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak, settlements for individual and class-action claimants reached over $50 million, the largest payment related to foodborne illness at the time. Jack in the Box also lost approximately $160 million in court and from lost sales. Having a well-prepared crisis communication plan comes with many benefits:
Having a well-prepared crisis communication plan can make or break your business should a crisis situation strike.
If you’re conducting an active job search, you’ve probably realized the traditional methods used to obtain employment are no longer effective. If you only apply for job opportunities using job boards and wait for calls to roll in, it won’t get you very far these days. So, we’ve developed eight tips for conducting an effective job search that will make a noticeable difference.
Here are the basics:
Before starting a job search, getting to know more about who you are and what you’re looking for is critical. Write down what your hobbies and interest are, take a self-assessment, and be sure to utilize aides like these affordable career resources.
Your job application includes your resume, cover letter, portfolio (if applicable), and LinkedIn profile. All of these materials are very important to your job search.
Your Resume
This must be well written and organized in a way that a potential reader can quickly see what sets you apart from other candidates. Identify what skills you have, quantify those skills and accomplishments on your resume, and customize your resume for each position you are applying for. By doing these few things, you’ll show employers a glimpse of the value you could bring to their organization, and your resume will be more likely to get past the ATS (applicant tracking systems).
Your Cover Letter
It’s not enough to write a cookie-cutter cover letter anymore. For an effective job search, write a disruptive cover letter for every job application you send out. It should tell a story and demonstrate why you would be a good fit for the organization.
Your Portfolio
Not everyone will need a portfolio, but if you are in a field that requires examples of your work, a portfolio is crucial to your job search. Include a digital portfolio of your best work. Employers want to pre-screen your work before they decide to call you in for an interview.
Your LinkedIn Profile
If you are not on LinkedIn you don’t exist in the employment world. The vast majority of employers use LinkedIn to recruit new employees. Make sure that your LinkedIn profile is optimized and the information listed matches what you have on your resume.
Your brand is formed in various ways including in person, on social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), and on personal websites and correspondence. You always want to leave a good impression on others, no matter if it happens in person or online.
That’s why tip number one is so important to personal branding. You must know what you are good at. You also need to know what skills and expertise you possess that you want to leave with people. This will become your brand.
If you perfect the art of personal branding, employers will initiate contact with you.
The first place to start when searching for employment is your personal network (former co-workers, family, friends, church members, and even friends on social media). These are the people who know you the best and will be more willing to refer you for an open position.
You must make networking a regular part of your activities, though, not just something you do during a job search. Join organizations related to your field of choice, attend networking events, and become active on LinkedIn and other social media platforms. Do what works best for you and be sure to have balance.
Target positions that you would like to have and companies that offer those types of positions, then see if you have any connections to company insiders (referrals are the leading source for obtaining interviews).
How do you figure out which companies to target? Create an interview bucket listâa list of 10 to 20 companies that you would love to work for that also hire for your skill sets.
Be proactive and contact hiring managers, even when there aren’t open positions posted on their company websites. Introduce yourself and see if you can obtain an informational interview to find out more about the company and what they look for in candidates.
After you’ve targeted the companies that you feel passionate about working for, put together a plan that will help you get hired at one of them.
Regularly evaluate your plans and strategies and stick with things that have had positive results. If what you are doing is not bringing results, it’s time to try a new approach.
Once you have taken the steps to apply or inquire about a position, follow up with employers. Send a quick note that reiterates your passion for the company and desire to work there, and share an interesting article or video that you think they would find interesting. It’s about providing value in the little ways that you can to strengthen the connection.
The goal is to stay at the forefront of the hiring manager’s mind so when they need to fill an open position, you’ll be at the top of their list to contact first.
Don’t get comfortable with your accomplishments. Continue to develop your skills and gain more experience while you are conducting your job searchâand even when you are employed.
In your career, if you’re not growing, you’re dying. Seek professional development opportunities to make yourself more marketable to employers. Work on your career every day. To truly stand out in a competitive job market, you can’t afford to think you have what it takes to get hired. You need to prove it.
Always be looking for opportunities to grow your career!
In order to conduct an effective job search, it’s important to follow the tips above.
School doesn’t teach us how to get the job. So, don’t be so hard on yourself! You can (and will!) find a job. Give these steps a try and see how much of a difference it makes in your job search.
Need more help with your job search?
We’d love it if you signed up for Work It Daily’s Event Subscription! Get your career questions answered in our next live event!
This article was originally published at an earlier date.
Figuring out why youâre not getting job interviews can be frustrating because it requires you to rethink your job search approach. This guide will go over the most common reasons why you canât get an interview, and what you can do about it. 1. You Need More Experience Here is one of the most common […]
The post Why Am I Not Getting Interviews? 15 Common Reasons appeared first on Career Sherpa.
Concepts such as the marketing funnel are discussed less often these days as we focus more on digital. But as the lines continue to blur between sales and marketing, with packaged solutions for customer journey analytics and customer data platforms introduced almost every day, the funnel is undergoing a bit of an upgrade, and new dialogue and buzz are emerging.
The marketing funnel is now referred to as the full funnel, cutting across every interaction the consumer has with the firmâfrom awareness through consideration and purchase.
The full funnel considers the journey of the suspect, the prospect, and the customer. More than ever before, we are closer to being able to capture all of these moments of truth by using these tools:
(Quick history tangent: The marketing funnel leveraged prospect and customer databases. When CDPs were developed, these databases were integrated. I refer to enhancements to current CDPs, including the integration of real-time data and prospect/customer states, as CDP 2.0.)
These tools, especially CDP 2.0, have improved our ability to connect the dots across the full funnel allowing us to capture these events and experiences, to track more of the journey.
The full funnel includes sales, customer management, and other moments of truth. A snapshot of the prospect or customer can be captured and stored in the CDP 2.0 for future analyses and action. This connected ecosystem allows marketing, sales, and customer professionals to optimize the full funnel at all points along the journey, from early awareness and exploration of options in various channels to product or service purchases. Additionally, the full funnel allows us to understand how customers advance in their journey or relationship, engaging with the brand’s products and services or buying additional products thereby deepening their relationship. This idea of knowing or understanding both the marketing and sales funnels advances the relationship and gives the firm a leg up in designing the right offering and overall experience.
This chain of events view is a step change in our thinking. Previously, using the marketing (or sales) funnel, businesses focused on optimizing dropouts. With technology giving us a more robust, more comprehensive view of prospects, customers, and their behaviors, we can analyze what activities and engagements led to a sale. What led to someone dropping out of an application or a pipeline for a particular product or service? There are micro-pipelines that we can now analyze and optimize. We can understand the profile of specific customers and the media that they came in on. Does that SEM channel or keyword the consumer searched create a customer? More importantly, will it create a profitable customer? We can decide on where to spend the next marketing dollar based on impact and plan for better customer journeys and outcomes.
Gone are the days of only looking at marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) and sales-qualified leads (SQLs). Now we can examine the full view of everything and view MQLs/SQLs as micro-optimizations with the broader, fuller customer picture in mind.
1. Manage contacts across more channels, including the metaverse and AR/VR
2. Quickly recognize customers and prospects in any channel
3. Understand what conversations, offers, and interactions work at the micro level and in real-time (not just at the segment level)
4. Understand how people score on various algorithms at different points in time and across channels to increase relevancy and reduce friction
5. Understand customer and prospect value as well as potential value over time
6. Understand channel usage and behavior in real time and across channel types
7. Understand the consumer journey from suspect to prospect to customer
8. Partner with and understand third-party data where it adds value for the consumer
9. Leverage auto ML/AI to learn in real time and consider the full multidimensionality of the data in the CDP 2.0
10. Understand service events and outcomes, especially their impact on the customer journey
So, if you are thinking about canceling your investments in your CDP, reconsider.
In summary, the connected ecosystem powered by cloud solutions (including CDPs of the 2.0 variety) and Analytics as a Service (AAAS) has provided many opportunities for the entire organization to work together to understand more about prospects and customers than ever before. The focus on pipelines and deal dropouts has been supplanted by looking at the comprehensive full funnel from top down, from digital advertising to predicting churn from multiple relationship customers.
I look forward to your thoughts on how your firm has changed its view of funnels, CDPs, and the idea of the 360 view of the customer.
Reilly Architectural makes custom windows and doors for the countryâs most prestigious properties. The company is an architect and builder’s best choice for any project that requires custom hardwood or metal windows and doors.
In 1981, Michael Reilly created his first custom millwork and cabinetry shop in his garage, which quickly grew to fill a large, commercial chicken coop. This was how Reilly Architectural got its start. Today, the company operates out of a repurposed airplane hangar with both a metal and glass shop in addition to the woodworking shop. In 2016, the companyâs success caught the attention of Pella Corporation. Currently, Reilly Architectural, supported by Pella Corporation, works independently to exceed our customersâ expectations.
If you’re curious about working for Reilly Architectural, here are three things you should know…
Reilly Architectural has a culture that’s focused on team initiatives, workplace safety, accelerating growth, driving operational excellence, and building a talent advantage. The company cares for the whole team member, and provides benefits to provide healthy living, financial security, and work-life balance.
Here are some benefits Reilly Architectural offers to its employees:
As a company, Reilly Architectural is very focused on leadership qualities that are consistent with the servant leader. What does that mean? Simply put, Reilly Architectural believes its leaders are here to serve their team members, to make sure they have everything they need so that they are the ones who are running the company.
Ultimately, Reilly Architectural is a very team-oriented organization, and it has a unique culture that its employees are proud to be a part of.
One of the most impressive things about Reilly Architectural is that it is a good corporate citizen. The company supports volunteer programs, scholarship programs, and energy efficiency initiatives, and is doing its part where it can.
Reilly Architectural is also utilizing state-of-the-art systems to maximize quality and efficiencies through technology and automation.
Reilly Architectural provides a unique product to its end customers that is designed to inspire and delight, while also maintaining a strong company culture that makes employees feel valued and in control of their careers. It’s a great place to work for talented craftsmen and craftswomen alike.
Interested in a job at Reilly Architectural? Check out the company’s careers page!
âHow did you hear about this position?â is an interview question that seems innocent enough. However, itâs still important to know how to answer it effectively! This guide will explain why interviewers ask this question and help you come up with an impressive answer. Table of contents Why This Question Gets Asked in Interviews How […]
The post “How Did You Hear About This Position?” Example Answers appeared first on Career Sherpa.