Stop the Cycle of Hatred

You know how some countries teach their children to hate America and Americans? I just read an article about kindergarteners in a school in North Korea who take turns stabbing a cartoon poster of an American soldier with the words, "We love playing military games knocking down the American bastards." There is another poster in the same classroom with a picture of an American with a noose around his neck. This one says, "Let's wipe out the U.S. imperialists."

Who remembers the video of the celebrations following 9/11 where the Palestinian children are seen rejoicing in the streets along with men and women; their mothers and fathers? There are countless articles that tell us that in mosques in the United States, Muslim children are being taught to hate America. Hate doesn’t hide; it’s all over the world.

We all know that children are malleable and will do whatever it takes to ensure that they are loved and accepted. Their display of hatred is praised and they equate that with love and approval. These examples show that children can be taught to hate at a very young age. They weren’t born hating, it came from their parents, grandparents, relatives, church/temple/mosque members, townspeople, family friends, school friends (who learned it from their families) or teachers.

Now, look at what is currently going on in our own country. There is consistent division based upon race, religion, sexual preference, gender. It started a long time ago and by people who have been dead for years. Their legacy of hate has been handed down from generation to generation. Why do we still have to listen to their intolerant, hating whispers?

Look in the mirror folks; this loathing is on all sides. Who wants to break the cycle, take off the blinders and teach our children about tolerance and respecting differences?

Writing Your Resume - Some Tips

A wonderful woman came to one of my workshops and at the end of the program, introduced herself and said that she was not getting any bites on her resume. She asked if she could email it to me for some feedback. Well, we have gone back and forth on four or five different revisions and I finally think that it is ready to send out or hand over to her network contacts. This woman used to work in the theater industry and has many (very interesting) stories about the types of things that she did to make the visiting artists feel comfortable and welcome in the new town or how she negotiated with various venues to receive substantial discounts. The thing is, none of her examples (her accomplishments) were on her resume. Her original resume was four pages long and a listing of her job responsibilities. No wonder she wasn't getting any hits.

While I give someone credit for reviewing everything they have done in the past, it doesn't help if their resume isn't focused to a particular position, highlight accomplishments and make the hiring manager immediately put it to the top of the pile.

Here’s what I do to involve a client in creating his or her own specific resume template. Perhaps you can do the same thing to prepare your own resume.
1. Research your old job by going to the company website and bringing up your former position. If that job or a similar job is there, you're lucky. Expand on responsibilities and make them measurable by asking questions such as:
a. Who did I work with? Internal? External? Where were they located?
b. How many clients did I have? (If applicable)
c. Within this position did I save money, time, create a process, design a procedure, etc.?
d. Looking at that position, what were my biggest accomplishments? What was I proud of? Why?
e. What did I like about this job? What didn’t I like?

2. Look up the type of position on any job board,or website ( ehow, Indeed.com, LinkedIn or the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook). Do the job responsibilities align with what I did? Is there new wording that can be incorporated into the resume (new buzz words, technology, jargon)? Expand on these by asking:
a. Have I done these types of activities before? What specifically were the results?
b. Could I jump into this job tomorrow? Why? Capture the specific activities that support this.
c. Why am I perfect for this job? Again, capture the specific activities that support this.

3. Go to the online pages of the companies that you are interested in working for. Read the “About Us”, “Our Philosophy”, and “Our Employees” type of pages and read the wording. Ask yourself:
a. What have I done in the past that supports this company philosophy, etc.?
b. How would I fit into this company?
c. Why would this company want me?

All in all it is a lot of questioning, note taking and thinking. The responses are then culled down to specific wording and resume format. It's a great start, you are writing your own resume and in the long run, see yourself as an accomplished player with skin in the game.

The Exploratory Interview

The other day a client asked me for some assistance with an upcoming exploratory interview. Being that this woman is always on top of things, she googled the phrase and found out that an exploratory interview is similar to the informational interview. That interview can be defined as a meeting usually prompted by the job seeker, to gather information about a job, career field, industry or company.

This time, my client was asked to participate in a forty minute informational or exploratory meeting with the department head of a brand new internal organization. She thinks it’s because she interviewed with this person several months ago, before he was tasked with organizing this new department. While she didn’t get the open position back then, she has kept in touch with him and lately emailed him a short note about a recent accomplishment. 
Perhaps this manager or someone else in the new group wants her to come in to get a feel for her background and experience as they relate to the new department.

I suggested that she prepare for this interview as she would for any other interview; the only difference is that she doesn't have a job description or listing of position responsibilities. Since the recruiters in her organization use a list of canned competencies or soft skills during every interview, she followed those as she discussed with me her general tasks, projects and accomplishments. She has interviewed before and is familiar with the STAR (Situation, Task, Actions, and Results) behavioral method so we rehearsed several examples of her accomplishments.
We also covered some basic interviewing questions such as:
Tell me about yourself.
What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
This department will be tasked with ____. How do you see yourself and your skill set fitting in?
Finally, we came up with a list of questions to ask the interviewer. They included:

1. Will you be hiring for a particular position? (This might come out in the exploratory interview but if not, ask ).
2. What skills are needed to succeed?
3. What is the one skill that is needed for this position that I might be missing? How would you suggest that I correct it?
4. What advice would you give to a newcomer to your department? What mistakes do you think newcomers make when they start in your department?h

In the end we found that like any interview, preparation is key for the exploratory interview. You may not know the questions that will be asked but your preparation will go a long way in determining your confidence and grace under pressure.