Are people more agile networkers today?
BRAD: Absolutely. You certainly have to be a networker to get a job in this economy.
BILL: That gold retirement watch your dad or grandpa got? Nobody’s dangling it out there anymore. Because changing employers is now routine, each person is expected to take responsibility for staying in touch with the market and identifying where the next opportunities are to be found.
Comment on the huge surge in social networking on the Web with sites like Facebook and Twitter. Has this changed the image of the computer nerd as a socially acceptable type?
BRAD: Bill Gates de-nerded the nerd.
BILL: There are undoubtedly a lot of digital network tools available. Interpersonal contact—pressing the flesh—remains important. While some people may have a carefully groomed Web image or résumé, meet them live and they may lose their luster.
BRAD: Technology has helped people broaden their network.
BILL: It’s now the case that networks have become a principal—perhaps
the
principal—way to find jobs. Networks, more than ever, are also the way that recruiters find candidates.
Piggybacking on what you say about people having larger networks because of the digital tools: Heaven help those folks who have
not
made networking a priority and used every available device to enlarge it intelligently.
BRAD: Having a scrawny, undernourished network shows up very fast when you talk with someone. And having a vibrant, growing network is an attraction that recruiters and employers look for. It’s a sign of personal strength and vitality.
Lastly, let’s talk about people who are nearing the end of their working careers. Job changes happen a lot more often, and they are taking place for people in their late fifties and early sixties more than ever before. Are older workers more self-aware and realistic today?
BRAD: That’s definitely true. And if they are being realistic, they have to recognize the need to adapt and stay current. If someone in his fifties doesn’t demonstrate flexibility these days, that person stands a good chance of being let go. Companies can no longer afford people who can’t adapt. There are very few jobs left where you can just say “I’ll do it my way” or “that’s the way I’ve always done it.”
BILL: The dinosaurs are giving way, just like their ancient analogues. When there was plenty of food out there, they thrived. When the environment evolved, they refused to—or couldn’t—change their ways fast enough.
BRAD: Companies won’t put up with dinosaurs anymore.
What’s your broad-brush opinion: Are people in general more positive and optimistic than they were ten or twenty years ago?
BRAD: To an extent, the tendency to be optimistic or fatalistic is a genetic trait; but no matter how you’re inclined, you have to be realistic, too.
BILL: Another key variable is how much you feel you are in control of the circumstances governing your life, which psychologists refer to as locus of control. A blue-collar worker may feel much less able to influence his or her prospects than someone with a broader skill base and more influential contacts. At every level, however, there has been an undeniable surge in anxiety.
Mackay’s Moral:
Shrinks don’t test for failure. They test
for fit.
Quickie—Take Pride in Stride
In 2009, Lawrence Summers became President Obama’s chief economic adviser. His previous roles include a stint as treasury secretary in the Clinton administration and president of Harvard for five years.
After Harvard, Mr. Summers was out on the job market in 2006. You’d think his résumé might have earned him a bye if he were applying for a job at a finance firm, albeit a top-tier one.
Not so.
In 2006, he expressed an interest in joining D. E. Shaw & Company, one of the highest rolling hedge funds around, as an adviser to investment strategists. According to the
New York Times
, “As part of Shaw’s rigorous screening process—the firm accepts perhaps one out of every 500 applicants—Mr. Summers was asked to solve math puzzles. He passed, and the job was his.”
There’s a lesson here.
Good enough on paper is not nearly enough these days. The best employers want to know if you are as good as your history might suggest. And your prospective boss wants guarantees you will be good enough to do
exactly
what needs to be done.
Did Lawrence Summers smart over being made to fill out an entrance exam?
I imagine the almost $5.2 million the
Times
says he earned in just his second year at Shaw was the kiss that made it all better.
Chapter 39
Mackay 44
Interview Prep Checklist
Timing and Advance Planning
1. Scheduling—try for the time of day you shine best.
2. Get a good night’s rest the day before.
3. Try to work out in the morning. It will help improve your alertness and relax you.
4. Create a contact sheet for each company with names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses.
5. If a recruiter is involved, have a premeeting huddle about positioning for the interview.
6. Review your own videos of your simulated interviews.
7. If any forms are needed, complete them neatly in advance.
Apparel and Appearance
8.
Shine shoes, check fingernails.
9.
Get a haircut or a style . . . bring a comb.
10.
Choose a suit with shirt and tie or blouse.
11.
Coordinate accessories (including watch, umbrella if necessary, etc.).
12.
Read recent articles on the prospective company.
13.
Research company Web site for their latest news and press releases.
14.
Know the company’s most recent annual and quarterly sales and profits.
15.
Google people you’ll be meeting for background on them.
16.
Know how to pronounce names of people you will meet.
17.
If possible, learn the names of the receptionist and administrative assistants.
18.
If this is a second interview, review notes of past meetings.
19.
Scroll through the day’s business news so you have something to talk about.
20.
Create a list of good questions you will ask the interviewer.
21.
Check e-mails just before leaving for any last-minute rescheduling.
22.
Portable phone (turn off before interview)
23.
Portfolio or business case
24.
Résumé copies (at least two)
25.
Business cards
26.
Blank paper or notebook and pens
27.
Breath mints or spray
28.
Your personal calendar if a follow-up meeting is discussed
29.
Plan on being punctual and intend to arrive several minutes early.
30.
Check weather report in case you need to plan on extra time.
31.
Google map and either pre-drive or investigate road congestion.
32.
Investigate parking practices.
33.
Identify the correct building entrance.
34.
Anticipate going through security and having to wear a visitor badge.
35.
Eat something like a power bar or piece of fruit beforehand.
36.
If possible, know the menu in advance.
37.
Do a once-over in the mirror for hair and clothing.
38.
Pay attention to your posture.
39.
Have a reasonable idea of appropriate, positive opening comments.
40.
Put on a warm, relaxed smile.
41.
Prepare for a dry, firm handshake.
42.
Anticipate beforehand how and where you will debrief yourself.
43.
Have stationery and postage ready for handwritten thank-you notes.
44.
If a recruiter is involved, know how to reach this person after the interview for a debriefing.
Chapter 40
Footlights and Footwork
A job interview is not very different from a public speech. There is precious little room for blowing a line in either scenario.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has noted public speaking is the #1 fear. Death ranks second. “In other words,” Seinfeld reasoned, “at a funeral, the average person would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy.”
David Leisner is a gifted guitarist and composer based in Manhattan. He is also an expert on a very important topic: stage fright. David shared some thoughts with me on the subject after returning from a successful concert tour to Sweden in 2009.
If you’re facing a round of critical job interviews in the coming days and interviews scare the dickens out of you, do yourself a big favor and visit David’s Web site that offers “Six Golden Rules for Conquering Performance Anxiety” at
http://davidleisner.com/guitarcomposer/noname.html
.
In certain respects, a job interview and a public concert have similar objectives for the candidate or performer. Both like to visualize resounding approval from the audience. The musician wants the approval in applause and ovations. The job hunter is happy enough with an offer letter.
However, the job candidate needs to be very conscious of signals from his audience—the interviewer—and must be open to adjusting his presentation during the exchange. I asked David if there is a meaningful way that a musical performer must also “listen” to his or her audience. One often hears of a dialogue between performer and audience in a live concert. Does this in truth happen?
“Most performers,” David said, “are like me and get some signals from their audience. In a good way, that can help feed a performance. Others don’t do well operating in that way. I don’t have a clue as to why that’s so. Some people are better off putting themselves in a cocoon and staying in a protected zone. If you get too many signals, you become too self-conscious. Too few, and you aren’t really communicating in the most meaningful way.” The same holds true for interviewees as well. A successful interviewee straddles the line between awareness and confident assertion. One of David’s Golden Rules: “Do not second-guess any audience member’s reaction to your playing.”
David is fond of a view from the contemporary painter Thomas Nozkowski: “It’s important to have the brush flow.” Once it stops and a painter has to think about what he or she is doing, that generally spells trouble. The same is also true for outstanding athletes who achieve their best results in the batter’s box or on the diving board when they are “in the zone.”
“Basically, to find the flow, you have to get out of the way,” David believes, and he thinks that is true for a job interviewee as much as a painter or a musician. “We put up so many barriers through self-judgments or worrying about what the other person thinks,” David adds. “In an interview, you need to have some sense of what the other person is thinking, but not so much that it makes you self-conscious.”
Another Golden Rule: “Be onstage, not in the audience. Be in the giving mode, not the receiving one.” As a job interviewee, your foremost responsibility is to help the interviewer appreciate your strengths and to be enthusiastic about them, not to guard your answers so the interviewer won’t discover what makes you tick.
Again and again, David circles back to the issue of self-confidence: “If I were to single out one element as having paramount importance, it’s trusting in oneself. You’ve practiced as well as you could, and you have to go forward.” You have to believe you’re good on your feet. If you don’t embrace that belief, I guarantee you that you won’t be. In David’s words:
Part of the conviction you need is that the spontaneous moment will work for you. In a concert or an interview, a common fear is that a certain problem or challenge will arise and we won’t be able to deal with it. In advance of it occurring, we worry about how we will deal with this problem or that one. One of the secrets is trusting that you’ll be OK at that moment if you’re spontaneous, saying what you need to say as the moment requires it.
Many interviewees spend a lot of time worrying about how they will answer an especially tough question about their past or why they may have failed at a particular job. The side effect is that they may easily reduce the overall quality of the entire interview by 20 or 30 percent because they aren’t focused on the issue of the moment.
Before concerts, David—who is fifty-five—still meditates on his Golden Rules to handle performance anxiety. I asked him what exactly that meant. Does this entail wrapping himself in a yoga position and chanting? David emphasizes that he means the “freest possible interpretation.” Think about what you need to achieve and try to bring these skills and principles to a sharper level of awareness. “There are lots of demons just beneath the surface,” he says, “just bring them to light and then squash them.”
Lastly, I asked David if he ever has a hint of stage fright coming on during a concert and how he combats its emergence if it does. “To get back on track,” he said, “I try to surrender myself to the ‘forward flow’ of what I want to achieve. In the moment you freak out, just keep going forward. This relies on trusting yourself and your natural talent.”