Category Archives: Attitude

2 great questions to ask in an interview – a Scout is helpful

Posted on April 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

Why do bosses hate to hire?  Here is what happens before you are hired.

“I will lose my job if I can’t get more done.  I’m working 60+ hours each week.  I have 200 responses to my ad for an assistant.  All anyone wants to talk about is what is in it for them.  In ten interviews so far no one has offered to help, but everyone wants ‘a job’.”

Hiring is a major stress. Finding someone who will help in any way needed would be nice.  Competence would be nice.  Helpful? Wow!  Helpful is often the key to getting a job.

In your next job interview, find out how you can help.  Ask, “Everyone hires because they have problems to solve.  What are the most important problems I can help you with?”

If you don’t get a clear answer then try asking, “What will I be able to do to help you meet your goals?”

Exploring needs and problems with a hiring manager may be all you have to do.  Just showing interest is more than most candidates do.

Concentrate on being helpful.  You’ll stand out like a nurse in a battlefield.  They’ll find something for you to do.

Something to do today

Put those two questions down on your pre-interview review sheet.  Go into your interview and try to see how you can help.

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Later: Interview like an Eagle -5

Start a salary bidding war

Top secret job hunting

Read want ads even if you are NOT job hunting

Free career intelligence

How to turn your dishwasher into a snowplow

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Posted in Attitude, Interviews

Eagles are loyal, but what if your boss is horrible?

Posted on April 4, 2013 | Leave a comment

Lee’s boss yelled at him, changed project specs constantly, did not give him a raise in 3 years of outstanding service, was occasionally late with paychecks, and was basically the boss from …. you know where.

I found out about the 3 years of no raises in our first interview.  When I asked why, Lee said, “The company never did take off financially, so they couldn’t give me a raise.”  Then he refused to talk about it more.  No gossip. No backbiting.  Nothing.  Lee was loyal to him.

I liked Lee.  He had great skills and had just finished an MS in his field.  I wanted to find him a new job. I needed to call his references.  He wouldn’t let me talk to his boss, but I did talk with his coworkers. Stellar references came in.

I got a job offer contingent on a reference from his boss.  Reluctantly Lee told me about the skeletons in his boss’s closet.  The boss would give a horrible reference.  Lee gave notice to his company and I called his boss.  It was a massacre.  The boss was totally unreasonable.  Lee only gave 3 weeks notice so Lee was a traitor.  I listened to a 15 minute tirade.  Then I asked, “But how was Lee’s performance?”  I got another tirade that I interrupted with, “Fine, but you kept him 3 years.  Was he any good at his job?”  The boss slowly let me pull a very positive reference out of him.  Lee was a great worker.  His boss was terrible.

Lee was loyal.  His boss was not.  Because of Lee’s loyalty I never knew how bad his boss was until I absolutely had to know.  Lee got that new job.  And just for the record, he got a 50% pay raise at his new job.

It is easy to be loyal to great people.  Learn to be loyal even to rotten bosses you were associated with.  Don’t dump every bad thing there is to know about him and the company. Give the necessary information and stop.  Long explanations come across as gossip.

Loyalty is an important trait you can show by NOT telling everything.

Something to do today

Write down one sentence replies to questions you don’t want to delve into during an interview.  Go over the list an hour or two before the interview.  Right before the interview read the list of things you want to emphasize.  You need to be thinking positively when you go into your interview.

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Later: Interview like an Eagle – 4

Start a salary bidding war

Top secret job hunting

Read want ads even if you are NOT job hunting

Free career intelligence

How to turn your dishwasher into a snowplow

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Posted in Attitude, Interviews, References

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The unofficial 13th point of the Scout Law is a job interview secret

Posted on April 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

The unofficial, hidden, but occasionally admitted 13th point of the Scout Law is: A Scout is Hungry.

In your interview, you have to be hungry. You have to want to change jobs. You must crave opportunity. You have to believe you can really do something worthwhile in this new job.

A true terrible job interview

One man leaned back and put his feet up on the desk of his interviewer (mentally). He literally then looked over steepled fingers and waited to be told why he should care about working there. He interviewed for 6 months without getting a job. After I beat him to a bloody pulp in an interview debriefing, he got the idea. He had a job offer within a couple of weeks. He was hungry, and he began to let it show.

Assume the best if you have to interview cold. Assume it is the perfect company. Assume that their products sell themselves and that there will be a bright future. Interview like you will get the absolutely perfect job. Be keen, sharp, and ready to start. You have to interview to find out if it is really the team, boss and company you want to join.

Do your research. If you can, do research before your first interview. You can do it after the first interview if necessary. Find out if this is the company for you.

Every call, interview and email should show you are hungry. It should be undeniable that you want a great opportunity.

Hunger is the unofficial 13th point of the Scout Law. Be hungry.

Being in the army is like being in the Boy Scouts, except the Boy Scouts have adult supervision. (Blake Clark)

Something to do today

If you are not hungry, you are probably bored and boring. Find something you can be hungry for.

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I’m preparing  10 Boy Scouts to become Eagle Scouts in the next year. That’s why I will be talking about being an Eagle (Scout) in interviews for a couple of weeks.

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Later: Interview like an Eagle – 13 parts

Start a salary bidding war

Top secret job hunting

Read want ads even if you are NOT job hunting

 

Free career intelligence

How to turn your dishwasher into a snowplow

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Posted in Attitude, Interviews

Tagged , , ,

The single most important trick I use to get myself to make phone calls

Posted on March 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

My telephone weighs 470 kilograms if I do not pick it up and make a call out by 8:30 in the morning.    I get nervous.  I can’t pick it up.  I make my living calling people and sometimes I just can’t do it.

So I use a rubber band to help pick it up.  I put the rubber band around my wrist.  Every time I start to think about being nervous I snap it hard against my wrist.  If I pause before picking up the phone, I snap it and pick up the phone.  If I feel nervous, I snap it and pick up the phone and dial somebody, anybody.  The real trick is that I interrupt my thought patterns.  I have a mechanism to deal with nervousness.  The little snap of pain also trains me that nervousness is unpleasant.  More important than the pain. is that I interrupt my negative thoughts.  I start concentrating on the positive, and do something positive.

When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them. (Confucius)

I should have told my daughter how to use a rubber band to change her thought pattern when she and her friend were talking about their fear of needles.  It might have helped her channel her thoughts so she wouldn’t cry before the needle touched her.  Irrational fear or just nervousness can ruin an hour, a day, or a lifetime.  Control the negative by finding something to interrupt the negative thoughts and think about the positive.

You really are what you think about.  If you need to think about something else, figure out a way to do it. I use a rubber band to help pick up the phone.  What do you use to get over nervousness?

Something to do today

Research ways to interrupt your thought patterns and channel them positively.  There are a lot of great books on the subject.  The classics are The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, or Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  Read it. Absorb it.

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Later: Fledging falcons on the DEP building

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Posted in Attitude, Networking, Perseverance, Time management

How you can accidentally make job search success impossible

Posted on March 27, 2013 | Leave a comment

This story relates directly to your job search, phone calls, interviews, writing your resume, and getting a job offer.

Complete panic, worry, and unhealthy fear were created by my 17 year old daughter as she graduated from high school. In an hour she was going to get her wisdom teeth removed. She’d kill me if I use her name, so let’s call her Gina.

Gina and a friend spent a few days swapping stories about cowardice in the face of needles. They talked about it often enough to amplify their concerns. So Gina was panicked about getting the IV before they put her under. The thought of getting near a needle is horrible to her now. Her friend was bragging about cowering against a wall while she was restrained two years ago to get an inoculation. Gina was fantasizing about how badly she would react when the needle gets close.

Gina came back from the oral surgeon alive.  She had tears streaming down her face before the needle even touched her. She had three holes in her arm because they didn’t get it right. I think part of the problem was hers. Competent nurses became incompetent when faced with her dread and complete lack of faith.

People who need to leave their job are often the same way. They focus on visions of starvation and divorce for months and years before they leave.  All the horrors stories they have ever heard play through their mind over and over.  The will to better themselves is frozen and then shattered by fear.

Even worse than mere fear, you can attract all your worst dreams to you.  As you concentrate on horrible possibilities, you will be drawn to those situations.  The characteristics you concentrate on, will be in your new company.

I don’t know the exact mechanism, but most people get the job they think about the most.  If they concentrate on finding a great job, they usually find at least a good one.  If they concentrate on avoiding horrible, mean spirited, lying, deceitful people in their new company, the usually join below average or horrible companies.  They get the coworkers they dreaded. They are trapped in job after job in companies of despair.

Instead of spending your time talking to someone unemployed who lost their job in November of 2011, talk to someone who just got a new job. Talk to people who have made great job choices. Reminisce with folks who did things right.

Look for a job while you are still employed.  Find out about the company you are moving to.  Talk to your new coworkers before you take the job.  There is a lot less danger than you have been worrying about.

If you concentrate on the positive, you will find the good in every experience.  If you concentrate on the negative, you won’t have a good experience, no matter how good the experience is. You can make good things possible or impossible.

Something to do today

Make a list of the people who tell horrible war stories about job changes.  Stay away from them.  Stay away from everyone who teaches you fear and panic.

Buy The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, or Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.  Read it. Absorb it.

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Later: The rubber band solution for nervousness

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, Interviews, Negotiating, Networking, Resumes

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Are you too stinkin’ meek?

Posted on March 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

Are you too stinkin’ meek to get a job, a raise, or a promotion?

One PhD student conceived, executed and documented an experiment that was amazing. He also finished several other lesser experiments.  A week later the professor who supervised his PhD program came back from a trip and said, “You’ve come up with some wonderful results here.  Why don’t you publish most of these experiments in your dissertation, and I will publish this one as my own.  Don’t worry, you will get a footnote for your work.”  The student decided to be what he thought was “meek”.  He let the professor steal his work.  The professor got a Nobel Prize.  The student got a footnote. He resented it the rest of his life.  He became a respected professor of Physics, but never got a Nobel Prize.

Let’s redefine meek.  Meek does not have to mean you let others take advantage of you.  It does not mean you refuse to stand up for yourself.  Meek is not afraid, shy, scared or worried. Jesus Christ was called meek but he used a whip to clear the temple.

One definition of meek includes, “seemly and forbearing…yet strong enough to resist aggression.”

My definition:

Meek: someone who knows his place.

I don’t think scared, quiet, shy, and reclusive is meek. It is “crushed” instead of meek.  The “crushed” who do not believe in themselves will not inherit the earth.

The meek person who knows and fills his place WILL inherit the earth.  A King, CEO,  Senior Secretary or Mechanic who knows his value can be meek well paid and rewarded. If you know your place and capabilities, you will not accept less than you should.  If you know your place and value, you will expect and demand to be recognized and rewarded.

Be meek.  Find your place.  Fulfill it.  Accept nothing less than you deserve.  Don’t expect to be a Nobel Prize winner if you haven’t done the work.  Don’t accept being a footnote in a paper you wrote.  Be the author.  Be what you are.

Something to do today

Ask a spouse, friend or coworker if you undervalue or overvalue your own work.  Then just listen and thank them. Don’t attack them or defend yourself.  Just listen and say, “Thank you.”  Be meek. Your job is to listen.

 

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Later:             How to quit

The old boy network

Exploit the old boys

The money question

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Posted in Attitude, Interviews, Negotiating, Promotions, Quitting or Fired, Raises

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Are you passively employed ?

Posted on February 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

Thinking of yourself passively — as being employed and, therefore, subject to the dictates of someone else — can be fatal to your long-term success. In reality, you’re the president of your own personal-services corporation. You’re completely in charge of production, quality control, training and development, marketing, finance, and promotion.

Seeing yourself as self-employed forces you to recognize that you are also self-responsible and self-determining. That everything that happens to you happens because of your conduct and your behavior. You’re in the driver’s seat. You’re behind the steering wheel of your life. It’s up to you to decide how to utilize your talents and abilities in such a way as to bring you the very highest return on the investment of your time and energy.  (Brian Tracy)

read the whole thing here.

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, Raises, Time management, Training

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What to do about a totally unfair firing

Posted on January 31, 2013 | Leave a comment

My son was the best checkout clerk in the store.  His checkout speed was consistently the best.  Customers loved his happy personality.  He often had the most “add on” sales at the cash register.  Then one day he was put on probation.  Shortly thereafter he was fired.  It was because he had decided not to double check when the cash register said that a particular coupon had no corresponding product bought by the customer.  Most of the cashiers ignored the warning at least part of the time.  One of the baggers had noticed it and informed the managers.  They checked, asked him, and found out he was guilty.  Probation was a formality.  They fired him as soon as they could get it approved.

I’m proud my son accepted responsibility and never told anyone who the bagger was. When asked, he admitted what he was doing immediately.  He was fired as a warning to the other checkout clerks.  He didn’t have a chance to eat crow and change his ways.

The real question is: What about the other clerks?  The clerks had a chance to get upset at the baggers in general. They could moan and complain on breaks about how unfair it was.  They could become paranoid and follow each rule to complete stupidity. Or they could eat crow and humbly accept the truth, like my son did.  They knew they had been costing the store money by not checking coupons.  They had been breaking the rule all the time, not just when the checkout lanes were jammed.  They had talked about it.  They weren’t listening to the managers about it anymore when the firing occurred.  It was time to eat crow.  And crow is best served warm, when the offense is fresh.

How about you?  What do you do when someone is fired for doing something everyone does?  What about when you are passed over for a job you apply for?

If you blame another person, you are human.  If you blame society, you are human. You are not right.

If you got fired for poor performance, accept it.  If you were the best at a particular job but got passed over for a promotion, there was a reason.  Eat a little crow.  Find out why.  Don’t brag about how smart you are and how stupid the managers are.  There was a reason.

Back to job hunting.  If the job is evil and bad, drop out of the interviews or don’t apply.  If you found out the manager, company or division is full of idiots because they didn’t hire you, thank God you didn’t get that job. No need to ceaselessly murmur about the idiots.  However, you may want to eat crow and find out why you really were not hired. Getting the truth can be difficult.  Still, the time to eat crow is when it is still warm.  Ask what you did, said, or put on paper that disqualified you.  Then decide if you want to fix it.

Something to do today

Ask why you didn’t get the job.  Ask the recruiter.  Ask the company.  Ask the hiring manager.  Don’t worry about offending someone.  They already offended you by not hiring you, didn’t they?  Ask politely, but ask..

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Later:                           Catechism

Your interview questions

How to get more vacation

Moth traps

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Posted in Attitude, Interviews, Quitting or Fired

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Do human “eagles” flock?

Posted on January 25, 2013 | Leave a comment

Eagles don’t flock, you have to find them one at a time. (EDS recruiting slogan)

I used to believe that eagles don’t flock.  I’d seen flocks of geese, starlings, and turkeys.  Never a flock of eagles.  For some reason, I believed the best people didn’t flock either.  After all, my employer used it as a recruiting slogan.  You have to find the great people one-by-one.

8 years into EDS, I worked with a dyed-in-the-wool environmentalist.  On her wall she had the Sierra club calendar.  There was a picture of a dozen eagles all sitting in the bare branches of an Alaskan tree.  I commented on the incongruity of all those eagles flocking together.  She said, “My husband and I were in Alaska when we took that picture.  It really isn’t that uncommon of a sight where there are a lot of eagles.”

Looking for flocks of eagles became a hobby of mine, particularly since my employer’s recruiting slogan denied that eagles flock.  I found that there really are a lot of lone eagles.  They are islands of expertise and productivity in an ocean of mediocrity.  My current profession is to find those eagles and move them into flocks.

There are a few flocks of eagles in every industry and city.  Places where eagles are naturally attracted.  Once you know where those places are, it is pretty easy to get an eagle to move to that flock.  Some choose to remain the lone eagle among sparrows.  I can’t blame them.  Besides, they can move to a flock anytime they want.

Just being around eagles makes you grow.  You can’t help but want to be like them even if you are just a sparrow.  Somehow, you absorb their attitude and habits.  Even if you don’t really want to become an eagle, being around them is exhilarating.

So keep your eyes open for flocks of eagles and individual eagles.  Find a way to work closely with them.  You’ll learn and grow.  You’ll find your career is enhanced and your outlook improves whether or not you ever want to become an eagle yourself.

Something to do today

Ask around.  Where is the flock of eagles you would like to work with?  Where are the lone eagles?

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Later:               Laying a foundation later

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Posted in Attitude, Finding jobs

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Are you a Hoover?

Posted on January 15, 2013 | Leave a comment

Hoover enters the room and smiles a second.  Then the weary look of trench warfare, mustard gas, and too many days huddled in muddy water take over his face.  Listening to one conversation he closes his eyes and barely moves his head side to side. He adds one point of gloom to another conversation. By the time the meeting starts everyone feels a little hopeless.  Then the manager comes in and gives an upbeat presentation about success, profits, goals and objectives.  Somehow it doesn’t quite take off.  Everyone has a vague feeling of unease.  Only a few trace it to Hoover.

Hoover enters a room or a team and sucks the life out of it.  He has been warned about his negative attitude, so he is subtle.  Hoover never comes close to committing a firing offense.  He should be fired anyway.  Immediately.

You can teach a dog to do brain surgery with less effort and damage than trying to teach a Hoover to be happy.  Hopefully some cosmic shift will happen and Hoover will take charge of his life.  Once he really starts making progress in the areas that bother him, the rest of the world will shift.  His outlook will shift.

The trouble is that change has to come from within.  Bosses, coworkers, spouses and children have tried to change Hoover for years now. Hoover has to change Hoover.  When that happens, he will add life to other people instead of sucking all the joy out of living.

Something to do today

Are you a Hoover?  Are you the whiner, moaner and complainer?  No?  Prove it. Count how many positive things you say for every negative thing.  What is the ratio?  What is the effect?

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Later:               How to tell who is great

Oil drums on the horizon

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Posted in Attitude

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