Interviewing

Numbers, Numbers Everywhere!

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I frequently discuss the importance of including metrics in your resume, during your interviews, in your self-assessments / accomplishment reports, and anywhere you can. People are always telling me that they don’t have these numbers or can’t remember them.

Numbers are important because they give context to your work and they prove your accomplishments. If you say that you lead a team or manage a budget or generate reports, I have no way of knowing whether that team is 2 or 200, your budget is $1 or $100M, or you generate 1 report a quarter or 1 per week. When you are in the middle of doing your job, it’s easy to forget the impact of your work. And of course readers of your resume, interviewers, etc., will not have the framework for knowing that context. It is important for you to keep track and share both the context of your work and your impact with others. One way to think about this is to answer the question, “how many, how much, and how often.”

To be more specific, here are some questions to consider to help you identify numbers to use in your career documents:

  • Size of your budget
  • Size of your team (and for those of you who are supervisors, how many direct reports, indirect reports?)
  • How large is your territory? How many states / countries do you cover?
  • How many people do you support?
  • How many projects do you oversee at one time? What is their dollar value?
  • How long are your reports? How often do you write them?
  • Are all of your team members in one place or are they geographically dispersed? And if so, over how many states / countries / time zones?
  • How much money did you save?
  • By what percentage (or number of days) did you reduce processing time?
  • How many customers do you have?
  • Can you show a “before” and “after” comparison to demonstrate your impact—and quantify it?
  • How many contracts did you approve? What was their total dollar value?
  • How much growth did you see in customers? In sales? In something else?
  • How quickly were you promoted?
  • Did you complete something ahead of schedule? If so, by how many days / months?
  • Did you bring a project in under budget? If so, by how much in dollars?
  • How many audit findings did you identify? How many did you resolve?
  • What is your response time? Does that represent an improvement?
  • Did you reduce complaints? By how much?
  • Did you increase “clicks,” engagement? Morale? Something else? Be specific.
  • Did you reduce turnover / improve retention?
  • Did you increase profits / sales revenue / donations?
  • What was the average rating of classes you taught? How many classes? How many participants?
  • Did you reduce the error rate? By how much?

You get the idea! And of course, when using numbers in your accomplishments, be sure to use actions verbs: increased, shortened, improved, reduced, generated, etc. Be sure to track your numbers throughout your career so you have them available when needed. Using numbers in your resume, during interviews, and elsewhere to tout your accomplishments and provide context to your work is a real differentiator and will make you standout.

Tell me about yourself: 5 Strategies for Creating a Strong Brand

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You may have heard about branding yourself and wondered what it has to do with you; after all, you’re a person, not a product. That’s where you’re wrong!

Whether you’re looking for a new job or seeking a promotion—or even wanting to be well regarded at work, branding yourself is essential. Your brand is what makes you stand out from everyone else. What is branding? Branding is about how others see you and how you see yourself. Obviously, you’ll want to control the narrative as much as possible.

How can you go about establishing your brand? Recognize that branding yourself is about understanding yourself, how you are known to others (basically your reputation), and how want to be known. It needs to be authentic to you. It is both your real self and your online self—and those need to match.

Here’s how to get started on identifying and creating your brand:

1. Think about what makes you unique. Where did you grow up? What are your special talents and skills? What do people say about you? What are you known for? What do you care about? Write these things down. This is part of understanding who you are.

2. What does your current employer want / need? What about prospective employers? When employers are considering you for promotion or hiring, they want to know what you offer—in the context of what they need. Is there a match between who you are and what your current / future employers are looking for?

3. Create your value proposition. Sum up your brand in one sentence. It should be easy to say, understand, and remember. This will be the essence of your resume, your LinkedIn, and your answer to “tell me about yourself.” This will not be identical across all platforms but it should be consistent.

4. Communicate your brand and value. How do you communicate to your current and future employers? The obvious ways include your daily interactions, your resume, and your LinkedIn presence. All of these should be consistent and communicate the same message. Almost all employers (and yes, even government employers) will do an online search of applicants. What is your online presence? Does it match what your resume says about you? How you behave on a daily basis? If not, you have work to do. Your message needs to be consistent across the board.

5. Reinforce your brand. It’s not enough to put a brand out there. You have to reinforce it. If you say you’re an expert, prove it. Post articles about your expertise. Comment (appropriately) on others’ posts. Be yourself. And keep it up; you do not want to be static; this is not a “one and done;” you want to manage your brand so that it stays fresh and current.

Creating and maintaining your brand takes time and effort. But taking the time to do it right is time well spent. After all, your brand is yours alone and your career is worth it!

You’ve Been Hired, Now What?

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The job search is daunting — at times, it can feel hopeless, frustrating, and downright exhausting. And when you do land the job, challenges arise that the best of us need help to navigate.

Career books are a great source to turn to, no matter what stage of your career you’re in — whether you’re decades in at your organization or are looking to start a new career path altogether.

Here are 10 of the best career books to help you think about your career in a new way and get ahead:

1. The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels: By Michael D. Watkins
If you’re in a transitional period of your career, this is for you. Watkins focuses on the challenges of moving into a new role and knowing how to navigate the first three months of a new job. This book serves as your guide to every aspect of your transition scenario.
2. So Good They Can’t Ignore You: By Cal Newport
This is an eye-opening book that discuses the notion that you should follow your passion in your career, rather than what you’re innately good at. Newport sets out to discover how people end up loving what they do — he can change the way you think about your career and how you go about creating a career you love.
3. Second-Act Careers: By Nancy Collamer
This is for those who are at retirement age, but aren’t quite ready to live their lives work-free. Collamer looks at this period of life as an opportunity to pursue a new passion while continuing to make an income. Read this book before you embark on your golden years.
4. The Pathfinder: By Nicholas Lore
This book is a considered a classic for a reason. For everyone from college graduates to someone considering a mid-life career change, this book can help you choose a new career — or look at your current one through a completely new lens.
5. How to Win Friends and Influence People: By Dale Carnegie
Dale Carnegie’s book will teach you how to make people like you — an essential part of climbing the ladder of success in both your professional and personal life. You’ll learn how to win people to your way of thinking and how to get what you want in your career.
6. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: By Stephen R. Covey
This book encourages internal changes that can completely change how you operate day-to-day. As people have claimed it as one of the most powerful books they’ve ever read, this can be beneficial for anyone on any career path.
7. The Third Door: By Alex Banayan
From Bill Gates to Lady Gaga to Larry King, this book has incredible one-on-one interviews with some of the world’s most successful people, with invaluable information on how they got there.
8. Crushing It: By Gary Vaynerchuk
Nowadays, more and more people are rejecting a traditional, corporate career path to try their hand at entrepreneurship. This book explores the lives of people who have made it on their own, and how creating a personal brand is vital to success.
9. Willpower Doesn’t Work: By Benjamin Hardy
Benjamin Hardy presents a unique argument against willpower and for altering your surroundings to achieve the success you’re seeking. This book will give you guidance on how to make the biggest decisions of your life, and how to invest in yourself to upgrade your life and happiness.
10. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing: By Daniel H. Pink
It’s a common belief that timing is everything, but how do we act on that notion without leaving it up to fate? Pink dives into the science of timing, and how to take the guesswork out of the “when” aspect of decisions.

BONUS: If federal is your interest, please check out my books, published by FEDweek: The Complete Guide to Writing a Federal Resume, The Complete Guide to Interviewing for a Federal Job, and Making a Federal Career Transition.

Handbooks and guides here: FW books

How to Write Accomplishments & Show Your Value

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There are many people, sometimes 1,000 or more, applying for the same job. As an applicant, it is critical that you know how to differentiate yourself from others. There are lots of ways you can demonstrate your value—in a cover letter, in your resume, in your interview, and through your thank you note. No matter which way or ways you choose to show your value-add, the “how” is pretty consistent.

Follow these steps:

Track your achievements. Get in the habit of writing down (or using an electronic format) for your accomplishments throughout the year. Spend 5 minutes a week to make some notes. Not only will those notes be useful when you prepare your resume, they will be useful in writing your annual accomplishment report for your performance evaluation, preparing for interviews, etc. In that file, keep a copy of “kudos” received from customers, team members, and your boss, as well as awards and other recognition you have received.

Keep your numbers. In addition to tracking achievements, be sure to quantify those achievements. It’s one thing to say you saved money or increased productivity, using a number to describe the savings or productivity takes that achievements to a whole new level. When think about numbers, think: how many, how much, and how often.

Use strong language to describe your success.
There are lots of powerful verbs out there; use them! Some of the words you might use include:

  • Improved
  • Enhanced
  • Saved
  • Created
  • Developed
  • Reduced
  • Achieved
  • Identified

Think CCAR. CCAR (context, challenge, action, result) is a powerful way to frame your achievements and tell your story. CCAR can be used for resume accomplishments, as well as in your performance self-assessment and in interviews. Here is what it means:

Context.  Describe the individuals and groups you worked with, and/or the environment in which you worked, to address a particular challenge (e.g., complexity, co-workers, members of Congress, shrinking budget, low morale, impossibly short deadlines). Make sure this is at the executive level. Think about examples where you were the initiator of an idea that had enterprise-wide impact.

Challenge.  Describe a specific problem that needed to be solved. Remember to think as holistically as possible. Think about the large-scale project/problem, if you have suitable examples.

Action.  Discuss the specific actions YOU took to address a challenge. Use “I” not “we” even if you were part of a team.

Result.  Give specific examples of measures/outcomes that had some impact on the organization. These accomplishments demonstrate the quality and effectiveness of your work toward organizational goals. Metrics always help support your results. If your result was qualitative, how can you show it was substantial? Perhaps a quotation from an award recommendation or performance evaluation, or a comparison to a prior situation.

Here’s what it looks like in response to an interview question:

Context: “I work as an IT specialist at a small local government agency.  About a year after I started, the Director decided to update the agency’s website, my job was to test and launch the new website after it had been designed and developed.”

Challenge: “This was challenging because the website was 5 years old, used old technology, and no updates had been made since the original launch.  In addition, I was given only 2 weeks for testing and launching—there was a lot of pressure.”

Action: “I created a comprehensive testing strategy and schedule for reviewing all of the new website’s content and graphics.  I established daily check-ins with testers to ensure all timelines were met and all issues were identified and addressed.”

Result: “As a result of these efforts, I launched a new website within the timeframe allotted to update it.  Hits to the site have increased by 25% and our agency receives a lot of positive feedback on the new website. I have received requests from other local government agencies for advice on how they could update their sites.”

In an interview, using “I” is critical; if you were writing the above achievement for inclusion in your resume, it might look something like this:

In just 2 weeks [challenge], updated, tested, and launched a new website, overhauling a site [actions] that had not been updated in 5 years [challenge]. Hits to the site increased 25% within 90 days of launch [result].

Make the Interviewers Love You! Part 1 of 2

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We all get nervous when it comes to interviewing. And if you are one of those who say that if you could just get the interview, you’ll ace it, you should be nervous! Interviews are not the time to wing it; preparation and planning is the key.

Interviews, whether in person, via videoconference, or on the phone, all require that you promote yourself, your qualifications, and your accomplishments. Here are 5 tips to make the interviewers love you:

Tip #1: Show your interest in the organization and the job. Be ready to articulate why the specific job and organization are a fit for you; know why you are applying (and saying you want a promotion is not the right answer!) and how this particular position leverages your skills, experience, and interests.

Tip #2: Research the organization, the position, interview panel members, and hiring manager. Google the organization; review their website, recent press, and strategic plan, as well as how the position fits into the organization’s strategy and mission. Check out your interview panel and hiring manager on LinkedIn so you can learn a little bit about their background and use that information to connect with them. This is not stalking—this is doing your research!

Tip #3: Be ready for “tell me about yourself,” and recognize that this is not a chance to share your biography. This is your opportunity to highlight your skills, experience, and accomplishments in a couple of pithy sentences. Of course, you want to tailor your response to the specific job you’re interviewing for. Practice your answer out loud and time it; aim for 45 – 60 seconds.

Tip #4: Have CCAR stories ready. You want to answer interview questions with specific examples / stories of your experience. The best framework to use for telling your stories is CCAR: context, challenge, action, result. Here’s an example:

Context: “I work as an IT specialist at a small local government agency. About a year after I started, the Director decided to update the agency’s website, my job was to test and launch the new website after it had been designed and developed.”

Challenge: “This was challenging because the website was 5 years old, used old technology, and no updates had been made since the original launch. In addition, I was given only 2 weeks for testing and launching—there was a lot of pressure.”

Action: “First, I created a comprehensive testing strategy and schedule for reviewing all of the new website’s content and graphics. I established daily check-ins with testers to ensure all timelines were met and all issues were identified and addressed. I also did a “soft launch,” to ensure that the new website worked in real time. To ensure user feedback during the soft launch, I added a pop-up short survey to encourage input from actual customers. Finally, I drafted a regular update schedule so that the new website would remain fresh in terms of content, as well as programming.”

Result: “As a result of these efforts, I launched a new website within the timeframe allotted to update it. Our agency receives a lot of positive feedback on the new website and it now serves as a model for other local government agencies’ websites. In addition, use of the updated website increased 20% within 6 months of updating.”

Tip #5: Use “I” when answering questions: While most of us grew up hearing that it is wrong to brag, there’s no “I” in team, etc., an interview is not the time to be self-effacing. Even though most of us operate as part of a larger team, most interviewers want to know about your personal contributions. You’ll need to temper your use of “I” so that you don’t off as a braggart and give credit to a group effort when due, but don’t forget that hiring managers are hiring YOU, and not your team.