Lost That Loving Feeling?
Ever find yourself feeling cheated by your employer? That nagging feeling that something just isn’t quite right. The person who just got promoted just happen to be the son of a golf buddy of the manager. Rumors fly that the person was guaranteed that position long before the company even announced the opening. All of this information leads to a sicking feeling in your gut. A feeling that tells you, you’ll never get anywhere in this company unless you “know somebody”.
Man In The Mirror
It’s very easy to get caught up in this negative attitude. I find that it’s always easier to blame someone else for my own failures. In reality however, most of the time I can look at myself in the mirror and say “You could have done better”, “You could have been more prepared”, “You could have skipped TV this week to spend more time learning about the position”. When you truly realize that your success depends on you and your efforts, and not anything else (besides the will of God), then you will understand what it takes to move up in life. Sure, God is in control. Sometimes though… I feel we treat God as a daddy that should spoil us instead of the Heavenly Father who sacrificed everything for us. I understand trusting in God to answer my prayers, but if I truly don’t deserve the position/promotion, how can I blame God for not giving it to me? In my opinion, if I honestly work hard at something and ask God to help, I gave it my best shot. If I give something my all and it still doesn’t happen for me, it would seem God has a better plan for me.
3 Tips For Success
The 3 tips below are designed to help you with companies that hire from within, companies that require a formal interview to select the best employee for a new position/promotion. However, I do believe these tips could definitely help with new employer interviews as well and in general just really help to sell yourself. Here we go…..
1. Start preparing as soon as you hear about the opening. (Do Not Procrastinate!)
Use your time wisely. Prioritize your schedule everyday leading up to the interview. Spend every free moment doing something that makes you a better candidate for the position. Learn how to do the job as if you had to start as soon as you entered the interview.
2. Start putting answers in writing for the five pocket questions.
Ever heard of pocket questions? The answers to these five questions should cover most topics discussed in an interview. (See below)
Five Pocket Questions
- What are your strengths?
- What are your weaknesses? (and what are you doing to fix them?)*When answering this question, be careful not to fall on the “perfectionist” weakness. This is common and is seen as not honest by some. Really search yourself and find something you really had/have problems with and what you did/are doing to fix it.*
- Why are you the best person to do this job?/ Why should we choose you?
- Tell me about a time you were in a difficult situation and what did to resolve it.
- What have you done to prepare yourself?
The reason I ask you to put them in writing is so you can make a first draft. Use that draft in a mock/practice interview and then make any necessary changes according to the criticism received from the mock interviewer.
3. Practice! Practice! Practice!
Study your pocket questions and answers. Do as many “Mock Interviews” as you can.
Find someone’s opinion you trust, preferably someone who knows a great deal about the position. Practice the interview with them using the five pocket questions. Treat it as the real deal. Don’t goof around! Listen carefully to their feedback after the mock interview and make any necessary changes. Repeat this process over and over again until you’ve memorized your responses and they sound great to your mock interviewer. This is also a good time to work on correct posture. Sit up straight , fold your hands in front on your lap and place your feet flat on the ground. This works good for me, do what’s comfortable to you. Just be sure to look professional and attentive. Most companies don’t want a laid back worker.
Forget Things Under Pressure?!?
Have trouble remembering things? Grab a legal pad and write out a final draft with the answers to your pocket questions. Make it neat and condensed to one page. In fact, write out everything you want the interviewer to know about you. About your people skills, how you could do the job right now if you had to, why your experience makes you the best candidate…everything. These are the most important notes you’ll ever write, so make sure you take your time and do it right. Now, go get yourself a professional looking black or brown leather binder/organizer. (Walmart sells imitation leather ones that look just as nice and are pretty cheap.) Secure your legal pad inside. Most of these binders have pocket in the back to hold legal pads. If not, then just throw your notes in a sheet protector and into the binder rings.
A Couple More Tips…
Upon entering the interview, after greeting the interviewer, let them know you brought your notes so you would be sure cover everything. It’s important to not read straight from your notes, be sure to look your interviewer in the eye when talking to him/her. Just lay the notes out in front of you in case you need to glance down and keep your place. Be sure at the end of the interview you’ve reviewed your notes and covered everything you wanted to cover.
These tips have helped me out tremendously. I went through 4 interviews before I took these tips seriously. The 5th interview was the best I’d ever had and scored me a great promotion. I hope the results are the same for you.
Take Care And God Bless,
Dustin Thigpen
P.S. Keep in mind, even though these tips are targeted toward companies that use the interview process to hire within, it’s also a solid way to prepare for a new employment opportunity. It takes a little more work researching a new job and understanding what exactly they want, but it’s well worth it in the end.
P.P.S. Tired of working so hard for so little? This video reveals how this once homeless ‘van man’ and ex-construction worker discovered this lucrative solution to the complicated online marketing world.
