More Interview Prep

Here's a few more suggestions for prepping for an interview.

Have a really solid answer for the question of "what drew you to this organization" and its variations. Incorporate specific goals and missions of the company/organization/department. Statements like "I like you because you're really comprehensive" fall a little flat. That's not memorable or a very accurate portrayal of our knowledge of our hoped-for employer. Not that I speak from experience or anything.

Over-preparation is good. Think of it as free therapy. We really get to know ourselves if we have to dredge up and then succinctly remember real-life stories which answer questions like "what is your greatest weakness?" Even if I'm never asked about my work habits, self-reflection can't hurt right?

A good night's sleep is a must. If you have to ship off the resident cats/dogs/children for the night to ensure rest, let me recommend you do this. They always know when you have something important to do in the morning.

Send thank you emails. And real thank yous, if appropriate. They make you look like you care (which you do, right?), plus thank yous give you an opportunity to share the perfect response to the question you couldn't/didn't answer in the interview.

Let our references know they may be contacted. Send them the interview resume you used and let them know what they should talk about (ex. for your advisor be sure to tell him/her to emphasize your grant writing success vs. your teaching awards if that's what is needed for the job). Prepare the referee as much as you can. On our reference list we might list our relationship to the referee and why we have included them, especially if it isn't immediately obvious or if you are a multi-talented kinda of person. Be sure to let that referee know.

I'm sure there's 1000 more ways to prep for and recover from an interview....but these seem like some more basics we shouldn't forget.

Interview Prep

Over the last week I've been reading about and talking with friends and colleagues about how to do a job interview. Here's some tidbits I think are important (and don't want to forget!). I'm sure these are blatantly obvious to most folks, but cut me some slack, I've been in academia for a long time...

Best advice so far come from a friend:

Answer every question with the group/organization/employer in mind. The standard "where do you see yourself in 5 years?" question really means--what will you be doing in 5 years, how will it benefit us, and what steps will you take to get there, and where do we fit in all of this. The "what is your greatest strength" question--same thing. Translation: what do you do best that we would want to use.

I totally did not realize that interview questions were to be explicitly answered with the organization in mind. Now I'm not so puzzled by the "five year" question (my original answer was "owning a pony"). It was probably self-evident to most of you that all questions are suppose to reflect back to the potential employer. I'm just denser than most.

"The goal of the interview is to prove that you can do the job" (Bible, 127). Don't be passive, be confident (Leadfoot says to self as she breaks out into a cold sweat). What to do ahead of time to boost self-assurance: learn everything about the organization, know how my background fits into the organization's needs. Use specific examples from our experience or specific examples from the organization whenever possible.

Use specific examples in our answers and comments is also directly related to using our resumes in the interview. Refer to items on it. If the interviewer(s) ask about my time management skills, I'll refer to the speakers' series I have listed under my "professional activities" and explain what it was (10 speakers over two semester), why it made competing demands on my time (lots of emailing and scheduling problems) and how I successfully organized it (planned ahead) so that I was never cramped for time (asked for help). All those details are assumed, but not explicit in my resume line. The resume will hopefully remind the interviewer of that conversation, post-interview.

When we talk about specific examples or refer to our resumes, use the STAR method (this shows up in multiple job books, I found it in this awesome interview survival kit). STAR refers to: Situation or Task (i.e. brief background), Action (what I did to solve problem), Results (how I competently accomplished the task--what are the "long term effects of my leadership"). I personally find this extremely difficult to do in regular conversation--can I just take a written interview? Must work on my STAR method to stay on message.

In thinking about why I'm an awesome candidate for any alt-academic job, I have had to really rethink my work and research experiences. Instead of seeing these experiences in the light of "when I was doing research, this is the data that emerged," I've been thinking about "when I was doing research, this was the process. This process is transferable/applicable/analogous to an employer's needs." The particular details or specific results are less important than the skills that developed as a result of these experiences.

"Show that [we] can produce results rather than simply discuss a problem" (Bible, 137). This advice is for all us post-academics. I can analyze a problem or situation to death. I'm not getting hired to do that. I'm getting hired to fix the problem and fix it quickly. Must remember that I don't have 8 years to figure a situation (ahem, dissertation).

"Practice your two-minute introduction" (Bible, 132). I'm going to revise that to more like 30-60 second introduction. Based on my informational interviews and attempts to tell my parents/family/nonacad friends what I do, I usually only get about 45 seconds before they glaze over. So 30 seconds of who I am then another 60 seconds on why I'm awesome for the job. Bolle of the Parachute book claims that we should only use 20 seconds to 2 minutes to answer a question (2010 ed, p. 75). This goal of brevity should be applied to self-introductions as well.

As they say with the academic job market--we are on the job interview the entire time. From initial email to closing deal, we are being evaluated.

These are just some basic tenets I want to keep in mind for the lucky day that I interview. There's tons more--books are helpful, but talking to people familiar with the field is more helpful. But as general guides, these are a start.

Skill of 2010: Computer Skills

Every year around January 1st, I resolve to learn a new skill over the next 365 days. I often don't have a skill in mind, instead they usually present themselves. One year I learned how to play Texas Hold 'Em poker. Another year I learned how to rock climb. Several years I tried to learn Spanish (okay, that was a real resolution).

This year, 2010, I wasn't sure what skill I was going to acquire or work on. But after having an awesome whiz-bang techie afternoon at my job, I realized the skill this year has been computer savviness.

This might better be called, "thank god I learned Excel." It was painful and I still don't know much beyond the basics, but figuring out how to work those lil boxes has been my number one biggest techie achievement to date. Excel has made life sooooo much easier. Yesterday's golden moment involved making microsoft Word correctly talking to Excel to do a "mail merge". For you non-geeks, essentially I had Word use a spreadsheet I had constructed over a month. Word drew data from that spreadsheet to correctly personalize a bunch of form letters and then email said form letters to over 80 people. I didn't have to do a single cut-n-paste, not a single retype. By spending 30 minutes figuring out mail merge, I saved myself 1000s of clicks and over an hour's worth of work. Plus, I now can say I know how to do mail merge.

Ditto for the time spent figuring out how to set equations in Excel. Grades were finally a snap this year--I just had to figure out the formulas and bang! it was done.

Second awesome tech accomplishment to date: learning basic web programming. Again, I'm talking basic. But, for example, now I know how to make italics and bold at will, and without having to use the buttons in Blogger (though that's what I prefer to do...). I learned how to write web code from working on this blog. [I knew this blog would be good for something.]

RSSs have been another techie tool I never understood. Now I can't imagine life without RSSs feeds.

Last month I learned how to shrink long urls [psst: go here or here].

Now, I admit. I don't understand Twitter, but that's my next challenge. I'm on it as @leadfoothunting. You can "follow" me, but at the moment, I don't do anything. I mean, I don't tweet.

Okay, so why am I bragging about my e-prowess? Basically because I realize that these are skills that I'm going to need in any workplace--especially when I go alt-academic. I also think that employers want to know if we can do the electronic game. Did anyone hear this recent NPR story about a guy who landed his dream job? He got it by buying google ads and personalizing them. $6 for the ads=>phatty position with biggest, baddest advertising company around. That's some basic savviness put to good work.

Contributors to wrk4us (btw, hope you all got the memo about its new home) also admit to googling potential employees. Many jobseekers have been asked about something that was not part of their application materials, but googleable (as if I didn't need to tell you--Facebook privacy, yo!)

You know that "please hire me" email I sent last week? I mentioned that I included my website in my signature line. What I didn't mention in that post is that I spent almost as much time cleaning up my websites (yes, plural), as I did on that email.

My university nicely gives us server space to host our own professional websites. My website includes the following pages: "contact" "biography" (short blurb people can cut and paste), "publications" (with links as possible), "Research Resume/CV" (abbreviated version online, up to date, downloadable, pdf version at bottom of page), "Research Background" (long narrative about my work) and a "Publishing and Editing Experience" page. The Publishing and Editing Experience page gives a brief summary of my work in publishing, includes an up to date publishing resume, and a link to my editing website. The editing website is pretty extensive.

The "professional" website I outlined above is linked to my department profile page. Which also includes a lot of the information of the "professional" website, but in short form.

Oh, and my editing website and this blog show up in my facebook account. Keeping academic separate from personal, I don't have my university website on facebook. Besides, that's totally lame.

Bottom line, I want employers to find me. I want to make it as easy as possible for them to get to know me virtually. I don't include personal life stuff (well, except some here and a lot on facebook), but I do include my picture and more information than you ever want to know about Leadfoot, ABD (yes, I'm treating ABD is a lettered achievement, just like MA and BA).

We are kidding ourselves if we don't think people aren't going to e-stalk us. They will--they pay me at my hourly job to e-stalk people.

Okay, enough with the rambling self-congratulations. This is peanuts, compared to what most professionals know. But still, alls I'm saying is that loving my computer programs has been one awesome experience so far this year. And, dare I dream? I think being computer savvy may just give me the edge I need over 1000s of other job candidates who want the same jobs as I do.

Please Hire Me (asked nicely)

I finally sent off that “hi, I want to work for you” email. After weeks (literally) of writing and revising it, you'd think I'd be all calm about sending it off. I wasn't. Still nervewracking.

As a quick recap. I did an informational interview with a research and policy center back in March. I wasn't looking for a job at the time (seriously!), I was just trying to figure out if research and policy centers did what I actually thought they do (they do, and more!). I learned a ton from my meetings with the two co-directors and since the spring, have been learning more about research and policy. I've also been thinking more concretely about my future and what it is I actually want to do professionally and personally. I really like how this policy center operates, both in terms of its mission and how it thinks its recommendations should be accomplished. I also have realized that I'm no longer totally interested in the PMF and the glamor that is DC; I'd prefer to stay in City for a while where Honey has family and a job, and where I can really contribute to ongoing debates and projects.

Now that I'm about to move to City (T-minus a month), I figured I'd touch base, and at the same time, tell this group that I'd love to work/intern with them. (In March, one co-director gave me the opening and told me to check in with them once I moved to City. She may have said it off-handedly as a way to get me out of her office, but whatever. I still emailed them.)

Above I said worked on this email for weeks. This is no joke. However, I didn't work on it for more than an hour or so a day, and I really only touched it a few times a week. Still, I refuse to calculate how many hours I spent working on this—minutes/word, it was as depressing as grant writing. Luckily the Career Services counselor I worked with was amazingly patient and helpful and she really pushed me to write a strong letter. This is key—I worked very closely with a Career Services adviser. Go make friends with your Career Services people immediately. I literally visited my adviser once a week for a month.

In the process of writing essentially three different versions and countless sub-drafts, I learned even more about research and policy, I learned a ton more about this group I want to get involved with, and I learned the genre of “please-offer-me-a-job-even-though-you-aren't-advertising-an-opening-and-actually-you'll-probably-have-to-make-one-just-for-me”. Let me explain the genre using my final version.

First, the letter:

Dear Co-Director#1 and C-D#2,

I hope you both, and Policy Center, are doing well. Congratulations on your latest white paper, no doubt it will become another key guide for politicians, planners, and policymakers.

Thank you again for taking the time in late March to answer my questions about doing research and policy in State. I've reflected on our conversations and find myself coming back to a point you both made: analysts develop effective recommendations when they consult and collaborate with many different people. Having spent almost a decade talking with Residents about the global economy and the impact of local redevelopment programs, I was excited to learn of ways I might use my background to help strengthen State's future.

I will be relocating to City in mid-June and finish my dissertation there. As I establish myself in State, I would welcome any opportunity to assist Policy Center with its initiatives.

Many thanks again for all your useful information and advice this spring. Special thanks to C-D#2 for suggesting I contribute to Another Institute's call for essays—their Website posted my submission last week. I'm looking forward to moving to City, knowing that I will become part of a community that is working to ensure State and its residents reach their full potential.

With sincere regards,

Leadfoot

Leadfoot email signature with link to personal website (I mean my professional website with my CV and university address, etc. Not this blog website).

Here's the breakdown, so you don't have to suffer hours trying to figure it out yourself:

First paragraph: I used the opening paragraph to do the basic formalities, but also to indicate that I was up-to-date with their going-ons. The white paper was published just two weeks ago.

Second paragraph, 1st sentence: Identify myself and how we know each other. 2nd sentence: Career Services told me over and over “talk about them.” What did you learn about them? From them? What makes you excited about them? Talk about something concrete that you learned from them or that they do that you admire. After 15 versions, I finally got what Career Services was talking about. 3rd sentence, first clause: I'm gesturing towards my dissertation research (my expertise, if you will) without explicitly saying, "in my dissertation I demonstrate the skills you value." 3rd sentence, final clause: making the implicit connection between my expertise and the 2nd sentence (what about the group do I find exciting). The final clause also says, “hey, I too am engaged and want to be part of this scene”.

The majority of my revisions occurred in the second paragraph. At first I sounded very stand-offish and removed. One version included phrases like, “I'm impressed by the work you do” and “I look forward to witnessing the positive changes you do”. I want to be in the trenches doing similar kinds of work, but in trying to sound “professional” I actually just sounded detached. In fact, those early versions misrepresented myself and my goals.

Third paragraph: 1st sentence is purely about availability and my schedule (I don't have an exact date named because I'm not positive when I'll be fully moved). 2nd sentence, first clause: this clause essentially says I am serious; I will be around for a while and won't be leaving after 4 months. Final clause of the paragraph is a nice way of saying “please create a job/internship/volunteer opportunity for me”.

Final paragraph: 1st sentence begins the email wrap-up. 2nd sentence: Career Services brilliantly suggested I use this piece I recently wrote as an opportunity to a) show that their advice and suggestions really were helpful b) demonstrate that I can take advice and c) self-promote. 3rd sentence: another chance for me to express that I'm excited by whatever happens.

Here's the cliffnotes version:

paragraph 1: salutations and indication that I'm up on what they are doing

paragraph 2: make the case for paragraph 3

paragraph 3: please hire me

paragraph 4: gratitude for previous help and looking to the future.

It took me a month to figure out this genre and how to accomplish all these things in half a page or less. It was very reminiscent of writing a grant. Every word counts. Every sentence reinforces each other. And they can't be so complicated that it's unclear when read on a blackberry at the airport (which is where this email will very likely be received).

Let's hope I won't have to write too many more of these emails. But I'm not going to count on this email. I also have plans to start attending events in City that a) I'm interested in and that b) could plug me into important networks which c) if necessary, might get me a job down the road. Whew, there's a lot here! Hope you find something useful in all this mess. No word yet from Policy Group, but will keep you updated.