“So…what are you going to do for me“?

What if your current or potential employer asked you this? How would you answer the question?

If you have a strong personal brand that adds value to your organization, employers don’t ask that question. They can SEE the value and worth you bring to the company. 

Here are four tips to help your personal brand stand out to impact your organization and your career.

1. Execute! Lots of people talk about doing things.  But not everyone can act…get the job done…execute. Especially in a down economy, getting the job done is critical to maintaining a strong personal brand. At end of day, make sure you have made all your calls, handed in all your reports, met with all your customers. Make a daily check list and make sure you complete all the tasks: no carry-overs into the next day. And be sure your manager knows that you are executing on all your very important assigned tasks.

2. Be a Problem Solver. Start to think in terms of problems and solutions.  Learn to look for and identify potentially negative situations or actual problems both large and small. Analyze the situation. Put a plan in place, and outline steps that the company can take to fix the problem.  Most importantly, show how the problem is hurting your organization and what would the benefits be if this problem were solved. Get proactive!  Offer your insights to your employer, don’t wait to be asked to solve a challenging situation.

3. Find New Opportunities. Get creative.  Can you find new customers?  Perhaps a whole new group of consumers your company has not yet targeted. If you sell to adults, is there some creative way you can also target teenagers or children or senior citizens? Is there an untapped market opportunity you can bring to management’s attention? Bringing in new revenues and opening up new categories or types of customers will make your brand a hero especially in a tight economy.

4. Keep Customers Loyal. Customer loyalty is the bedrock of a successful company. We all know it is important to go out and find new customers, but keeping a loyal customer base is an even smarter business tactic.  What are you doing to maintain customer satisfaction and customer loyalty for current customers? Helping your company retain its existing customer base in a downturn is critically important.  Keep in touch with your existing clients, reach out and solve their problems, let them know you are there for them. Pick up the phone and call once a month: not to sell, but just to let them know you are there for any questions or concerns. Write a quick email to share a new solution to a problem they might have.  And most importantly, let your managers know that you’ve reached out to your customers.

The key to a strong personal brand at your place of work is making sure the brand traits you’re developing will impact the company’s bottom line. If you do that, you will most certainly impact your career’s bottom line!

In today’s tough economy everyone is evaluating their choice of careers. Many people are using the economy as the catalyst to develop new career skills and move to a new job. Having a job these days is not a guaranteed thing and having the financial stability that you need to have a piece of mind is important.

How Do I Develop New Career Skills?

There are many ways to develop new career skills. Many job placement offices can help you to decide what career is right for you as well as what careers are hot these days. Moving from one job to another just for the sake of moving jobs is not a sound idea but if you are moving form a job where you feel you are at risk of losing your job to one that you believe offers more stability the move makes perfect sense. Community Colleges offer plenty of training courses in just about every trade and profession imaginable.

Is College In Your Future?

In some cases you will need to go to college or university to complete your training. If that is the case you need to make sure you have your financial situation covered before you start school. If you need financial aid make sure you have it in lined up before you finish your job or that you will be able to continue working while going to school. I n some because you can go to school while you work and that is a great situation to have. Going to school and working will take longer to complete your training but offers the best of both worlds.

Trade Schools Can Fast Track You

Trade schools offer another great way to get new career skills. Trade schools teach a specific trade and eliminate the general education that you get in a university or college. Trade schools tend to be the fastest way to get new career skills but will require you to attend the school Monday through Friday during the day making the option less suitable for those that work. In some cases trade schools are offering training in the evenings or weekends. You should check in to what is offered and when to make a decision that is best for you.

Community Colleges can let you work while you learn

In cases where you have been let go from a job you might be eligible for assistance in acquiring new career skills through a retraining program that is funded by unemployment insurance. This option is one that is well worth checking in to because you may be able to get new career skills at no cost to you. Depending on your situation and the state or country you reside in you might even be able to continue to collect unemployment insurance while being trained in your new career.

If you feel you have reached a dead end in your job or you believe you might lose your job you should check in to what options are available to you to get new career skills. Waiting is never a good option so start looking for that career now!

So you just found out that you have a job interview tomorrow and unfortunately procrastination is a weaknesses you haven’t yet conquered. Here are the down and dirty tips to pull it together at the last minute.

1. Look at the job posting you are applying for, and develop sound bites that address the needs of the employer. Think of examples where you demonstrated the skills that appear in the job posting and develop answers that clearly show an employer that you are the perfect candidate for this position. All sound bites should be 2-3 minutes in length.

2. Use the TODAY acronym to develop additional sound bites of your experiences. TODAY stands for Teamwork, Overcoming Obstacles, Duties of your past positions, Achievements, Your strengths and weaknesses. Remember to clearly describe exactly what you did in each situation. The employer is hiring you, not the other people in your story.

3. Research the company. Search the internet for any recent press releases and check out the company’s website. Know what they do, and develop some idea as to how the position you are hiring for fits within the company.

4. Think of questions to ask an interviewer. Look at the job posting and your research about the company and think of 3-5 questions you can ask during the interview. What are you curious about? Do they manufacture a product you are familiar with, or never even knew existed before you started to research the company? Where does this department fit in the grand scheme of the company? What projects is the department currently working on?

5. Lastly, prepare answers to the following questions: Tell me about yourself, Why did you leave your last position, or why are you looking for a new job, Why should I hire you, and The Salary Question. You know that these questions will be asked in one form or another, so there is no excuse to not have prepared an answer.

And that’s it. Interviewing is just that simple when it’s broken into it’s simplest components. Focus on preparing answers to all of the scenarios above, and you will be ahead of the game. Remember to clearly articulate in each and every sound bite exactly what you did. Practice with a tape recorder to critique yourself, or with a friend to repeat back to you exactly what you did in a situation to make sure you’re preparing correctly.

For more tips, use the link below to purchase the booklet “Successful Job Interviews Revealed.”, or attend the upcoming “Sweaty Palms and Awkward Answers” Continuing Education class in Stamford. And yes, I am always willing to try to fit in a last minute coaching appointment for interview emergencies.

© Red Inc. Melanie Szlucha

Even if you don’t get this question, you should have a very good answer for yourself. I have listed this as # 12, but this can be even an opening question. At this point in an interview, you should be able to say with conviction “Because I am the best candidate.”

The key to making this work for you is in the reasons. You bring your unique experience and skills to the table and you should know the top 3 or 4 most relevant marketable skills for the position you are applying for. It may be something very specific to the situation, or it could be a general statement about how diligent, motivated and skilled employee you are going to be. The content of your answer is about 50% and the other 50 is the confidence you put into it. I will say it again - if you are not convinced in what you are saying, how do you expect the interviewer to believe you.

OK - now here is what the interviewer is really trying to learn about you, when asking this question:

1. “Why you?” is in a way a challenge to the candidate and some recruiters don’t even feel comfortable asking it. But when they do the first thing they want to see is your reasons why you think you are the best candidate. They may already have decided from your previous answers if it is a “yes” or a “no” and they are just looking for a confirmation from you. In any case - this is yet another opportunity for you to close the deal. (While they are still talking to you - everything is an opportunity). You can summarize what you have already said in answering other questions and offer the logical conclusion, which is “I am the best for the job!”

2. If this is a question asked at the beginning of the interview, then the recruiter is also trying to see how well you articulate, and how much you are aware of your strengths. They are giving you a chance to set the tone and the direction of the interview.

3. Because it is a bit of a psychological aggression, the hiring manager will also look for your purely emotional reaction to this. How well you perform under stress is important in many jobs and this is why you should prepare and find the answer, that resonates in the best possible way with who you are.

This is the question that often is left out. Sometimes the interviewer forgets about it, and sometimes she wants to see if you will have enough interest and courage to ask about the job and the company. In any case your questions should be an essential preparation for your job interview. You have to show interest in the job, in the company and apparently you can’t learn everything from the web-site. So you have to look at this as an opportunity to both demonstrate interest and actually get answers to questions that may be essential for you.

OK - now here is what the interviewer is really trying to learn about you, when asking this question:

1. The hiring manager first wants to know what your level of understanding about the position and the company is. Or in other words - how much do you already know. Your questions will inevitably confirm your professional awareness about the job. It is OK if you don’t know everything - what is more important is that you ask the right questions.

My general advice would be to focus on open-ended questions about the strategic direction of the company or the department. Another good question always is about what it takes to be successful in the position you are applying for. In any case - the more specific your questions - the better. Also - please, avoid inquiring about negative or embarrassing moments in the company history. Your future compensation and benefits is also not a topic you should touch. If the interviewer attacks you with the question how much you expect to get paid - the best thing to do is deflect by saying you really want to make sure it is the right opportunity for both parties, and would certainly expect compensation within the industry standard.

2. The second thing that will become more clear with this question is your level of interest in the position or the company. If you only skimmed the home page and didn’t really spend time researching the company - it will show. In some cases this may not be very important and in others it will be. So your best bet is to prepare. If there isn’t much available information about the company you may use this by asking questions that will fill the gaps for you. This will again show your interest and preparation.

3. The recruiter is also looking to clarify important elements about the position. Details that are important may not have come up, so at this point you might help the situation with your questions. For instance you may help a hiring manager clarify the expected time commitment: “The hours for this position are 6:30 to 3:00 in the afternoon. Is this going to be a problem?” Some recruiters will also have a prepared summary about the company and the position and they would present it at some point (often in the beginning). If this summary answers your prepared questions you will have to quickly come up with new ones.

This is a variation of the notorious “Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?” and many job-hunters really do not have an answer to this one. Here is a secret - most people including yours truly also have no answer to this question. There are always several possible scenarios, but they never add up to 100% of the possibilities for me and for most of the people I have worked with. Then why is this question even needed? Well, this is the place for you to remember that a job-interview is all about the business. So for you, the candidate, the question should really read more like - “By possibly assuming this position with our company, what other personal business goals would you have, in addition to being a diligent, motivated and committed contributor?”

OK - now here is what the interviewer is really trying to learn about you, when asking this question:

1. Obviously the first thing the recruiter is looking for is ambition. Ambitious employees learn faster, try harder and in general achieve more. They are more responsible and proactive and their energy level is usually higher and more contagious. So in general to show ambition is a good thing. The question you want to keep in mind is - What is the right kind of ambition they expect for this position?

2. This question can often serve as a reality check for the recruiter. If the position is “Analyst” and the candidate says “I want to be Vice President in 5 years!” this will definitely raise a red-flag. The candidate may have a good plan how to get there, but at the present moment this may look a little too ambitious. There is a fine line between ambitious and over-zealous employees.

3. The other important quality you want to demonstrate here is the ability to plan ahead and to think strategically about a situation. Certainly nobody realistically will expect you to stay in the same position for 5 or more years. So if you also are aware of this - it will be a good thing to have a plan for your future. Thinking in time and showing good judgment while at it may be the decisive difference between you and the next guy.

Even if it is not necessarily a part of your expected job-description, the risk profile of a candidate can tell a lot about their work habits and decision making. So are you a risk-taker, or are you risk-averse? This question shouldn’t really matter that much, because in most cases the recruiter will not make their hiring decision based on your risk profile. This question in your job-interview is about your thought process more than anything else. For the prepared candidate it is another opportunity to give favorable examples of past job situations, which would illustrate further what a great fit she is for the positions in question.

OK - now here is what the interviewer is really trying to learn about you, when asking this question:

1. The recruiter wants to know details about specific situations that were tricky for you. In a surprising number of interviews the risk that the candidate describes comes down to the approval of the boss. The risk was either a) Do the right thing with the project (report, memo … fill in the blank here) and risk the manager’s fury, or b) Wait for the boss to come and make the “right” decision. This usually works well except in rare organizations, where pro-active employees are discouraged.

2. Another side of you that will be revealed with your answer to this question is how pro-active as an employee you are going to be. Will you always wait for proper guidance in all your work, or will you look for ways to improve the process? This may be of paramount importance, especially in companies, where change is on the agenda (and lately change is on the agenda for all).

3. In some cases the recruiter will also look for signs of the rare breed of over-zealous change agents. This type of a candidate usually is not looked upon favorably because it is believed that the over-zealous candidate is doing it to cover for some personal or professional shortcoming. This is why it is important to do an inventory of your marketable skills and select those skills, which most perfectly fit the image you want to project. And of course you need to find good examples from your career so far, which answer the question. Go check the DVD “Mastering the Job Interview” for some great answers.

Depending on each individual situation, this could be a very short or a little longer discussion point. If the company you worked for went out of business and was closed then it is what it is. If you, however, decided to change ship, then an examination of your reasons can be a further source of useful information for the hiring manager. There can be all kinds of personal and business aspects of your decision and this again can be an opportunity for the candidate to strengthen her case.

OK - now here is what the interviewer is really trying to learn about you, when asking this question:

1. The hiring manager would want to know how long you plan to stay if you are hired. If every one of the last three jobs on your resume was less than two years then this can be a red flag and the recruiter has the right to examine the situation. Perhaps you are applying for the perfect position, and want to stay there till retirement. Still you have to convince the company that these are your intentions. So regardless of your personal situation - you have to focus on the business reasons and present a strong and convincing case that you have made a sound business decision when you left your previous job.

2. With this question the recruiter is also probing for possible signs that you are an opportunity minded individual. This can be a very good thing for some positions and not so good for others. If you consistently took every career opportunity, this may be a good sign that you will continue to do so in the future. So if the company has the practice to promote its top-performers - then this could be an ideal prospect for both sides. If however the opposite is true, than this would be a red flag for the recruiter.

3. The hiring manager is also looking for signs that might indicate the candidate was fired, or somehow let go under unfavorable circumstances. Any discrepancy in the story, when answering this question, can harm more than anything else. So be ready to give good business reasons why you decided to change your career by leaving your last job.

Many job-hunters believe that the answer to this question should not be a weakness, but a strength, which is only presented as a weakness. Not true. It may work, but it is not worth the risk. This should be an honest discussion, because anything else will likely be sensed by the hiring manager and will not work in your favor. There is the presumption that everyone embellishes a little bit on their resume and when talking about their achievements. This is why the weakness question is meant to serve as some kind of reality check. It really is another opportunity for you to strengthen your case if you have prepared correctly. The key is in the second part of the question — what have you done to fix them?, which by the way is often omitted by the interviewer. You should, however, always focus on answering this second part more than anything else.

OK - now here is what the interviewer is really trying to learn about you, when asking this question:

1. Although these are rare — the focus of the interviewer is on any major discrepancies between your expected skills and your real skills. For instance - if you are applying for a position that requires you to make daily data analysis and you give as a major weakness your excel knowledge - well you may have just shot yourself in the foot.

2. Many recruiters are really interested in the amount of work and time you have dedicated to fixing any shortcomings in your professional arsenal. If you show awareness for your weaknesses and at the same time demonstrate that you have been very serious about improving yourself - this sends a very strong positive signal. You can also go a step further and talk about a limitation that is already pretty much in the past. When you can walk your listener through the problem and how you became aware, how you worked on it and how it is not a problem any more - this can become another big gold star for you in the notebook of the interviewer.

3. In addition to the specific shortcomings and the work you have done to address them - this discussion will reveal more about your personal and professional characteristics. The recruiter will try to evaluate your business strength in light of the pressures and requirements of the position in question. So while relevance still counts, it is probably a good idea to avoid discussing any of the core skills for the position in question.

This is the heart of a behavioral job interview. This is where people prepare most and this is where it gets most personal. It is not about the team, or the department, or the company - it is about you. You need to tell the story of what you had done. So candidates who have difficulty talking about themselves and especially difficulty “bragging” about their accomplishments can be at a disadvantage. Another issue usually comes when a candidate has prepared multiple answers and does not want to limit herself to just one “greatest” achievement. In this case it may be a bit easier if she would use the count-down approach. It would go somewhat like this: “Among the top 3 thing I accomplished as a manager, was this one project, where … Another accomplishment I am really proud of is … And the number one accomplishment in my professional career so far is … !”

OK - now here is what the interviewer is really trying to learn about you, when asking this question:

1. The greatest achievement question is usually pretty straight forward to answer and most recruiters are really looking for examples of past behavior as a predictor for the future employee you will be. Often the “how did you accomplish” part is omitted in the question, but make sure you give it as part of your answer. The circumstances of a simple month-end general ledger close can sometimes provide enough drama, which in turn would show how great you are.

2. Sometimes discrepancies and warning signs will pop-up and raise red flags in the mind of the recruiter so watch for relevance in your answers. If you are applying for a store manager position and tell the interviewer that your greatest accomplishment was the punk-rock CD that you produced and recorded in your basement a couple of years ago - it would be pretty obvious where your heart is.

3. What you consider an accomplishment is also another helpful way for the recruiter to tell about your business and professional goals. People tend to speak about what they like, so if for instance a candidate describes a managerial project as her greatest accomplishment, then this is usually a pretty good sign that she liked being a manager.