Author Archives: Laura Machan

When you are thinking about moving your career in another direction, you need information.  You need to understand what it’s really like, how it pays and if possible, how to get there.

One of the best ways to do this is the information interview. This is when someone who is in your chosen segment/field/industry agrees to sit down with you to share some of those details.

You can meet with company presidents, people who sit on industry associations, technical experts.  They are all potential sources of information to support your decision making.

When you approach people, make it clear that you are looking for information, not a job (even if, deep down, you are looking for a job). They should see meeting with you as a low risk, low maintenance opportunity to show what they know.

When you are in one of the meetings, your body language needs to be calm and relaxed.  Remember this is not about a job and it is not about you.

But that doesn’t mean you can go in unprepared.  

Think ahead of time about what you want to learn.  Have five or six questions you want to have answered. Make sure one of them focuses on the person who is giving you all this good intel.  You could ask how they got into the business or what it is that they really love about it.

Take notes if you’d like but make sure to do lots of listening.  That’s what you are there for – to listen and learn.

When the person starts to shuffle around and look like they are ready to finish, respect that.  Stand up, shake their hand and thank them for their time and willingness to share what they have shared.

It is wise to send a thank you note the next day.  It can be handwritten or emailed – It’s a great way to show how much you appreciated the respect they gave you.

You might want to drop a note to the person who referred you.  We frequently lose sight of those people and let’s face it, in many cases, they really got the ball rolling for you.

Information interviews really are a great way to get the inside info on what’s going on – make the most of them.

I got a good refresher on the candidate experience this week.  I was surfing around LinkedIn when I saw an interesting job posted.  It looked like something I might want to do.  I hemmed and hawed for a while on the decision-making teeter totter.  Should I?  Shouldn’t I?  I like what I do but what if there is something better?

I took a deep breath and  sent an email.  Whew.

Then I went about my day and forgot all about it.  Until two days later when it dawned on me that no one had called me.  All of the sudden, I was back in sixth grade.  Do they like me? Was I too forward?  Am I barking up the wrong tree?  When should I call to follow up?  Now?  Maybe I should wait.  For about ten minutes, I was like a dog chasing my tail.

Then the phone rang.  It was not the employer.  It was a client.  I got my head back in the game and forgot about the whole thing.

Later, I actually did get a call from the headhunter.  We had a nice chat.  Ultimately, we decided that my experience did not quite fit the employer’s wish list.   This was not heartbreaking news.  I love what I do and I am doing it in one of the best places to do it.  It was an interesting exercise that confirmed exactly what I thought: I am in the right place for right now.

It was also an interesting exercise because it reminded me what it’s like to be a candidate: putting it out there, waiting for some feedback, trying to continue focusing on other things while you wait to see if you are wanted.  An excellent lesson indeed.

We are approaching one of the best long weekends of them all – Canada 150.  Everyone will be celebrating in some way: barbecues or fireworks or family reunion picnics.  What ever plans you have, you are certain to run in to people you have not seen for a while or people you just don’t know.

This represents a great opportunity to network and get yourself out there.  I am not saying you will have a new job on Tuesday but you might make some valuable connections that you can develop over the summer.

Here is the problem:  everyone I know (including me) is walking around complaining about how tired they are and very busy they have been.  That is not the best frame of mind to be in if you want to maximize your opportunities.

Of course you are tired.  Of course you are too busy.  Even retired people are too busy.  Get over it.

Take a few minutes to identify a few good things that have happened over the last quarter.  They might be work things or family events – it doesn’t really matter as long as they are positive.  Maybe you finished a big project or got a promotion.  Maybe your kid graduated from something or you got engaged.

Park these thoughts in your brain, near the front.  When you meet someone at the grocery store on Sunday and they ask how you are, these are the things to share.  Not “same old, same old” or “I have been soooo busy”.  These are lame responses and you come across as too lazy to thing of something meaningful to say.  That does not beget new connections or relationships.  It makes you look as interesting as a dish mop.

You are better than that.  So tomorrow, when you are wrapping up loose ends before the long weekend, think about your positives.  Jot them down on a Post-It note or your hand.  Be ready to smile and throw some good energy at people.  You might be surprised at what happens.

Happy Birthday Canada!!

We are all nervous when we go to interviews.  It never changes. It does not matter how senior you are or how many interivews you have done, you will still have sweaty palms and sweaty armpits.

We also, in that situation, tend to speak just a little too quickly.  We get caught up answering in a gush of words that were probably not the best choice.  Our answers are either too short or too long.  When you can no longer remember the question, you have gone on too long.

One of the ways to combat this is to take a pause before you start to answer a question.  Not a long pause, just a short breath in while you compose your thoughts.  It will feel like you are taking an hour but only to you.  The interviewer is processing pretty quickly too.  A breath might be a welcome pause.

This will allow to quickly flip through the possible answers and examples in your head to select the best one and then lay it out clearly.

Once you do this the first time and see how it feels, it will be easier to continue it through the interview process.

You can even practice at home before you get to the interview.  When someone asks where the measuring spoons are, you can take a small pause and then answer.  What’s neat about this approach, is that sometimes the person answers their own question while you are pausing.  This is especially helpful with teenagers.

If you have not been in an interview situation for a while, it is worth the time to practice with someone you know.  Pick a few examples of your successes, resilience, empathy and anything else that might be relevant and then sit down with a friend and try out the stories.  Make sure you insert the pause before you begin each story.  It will be worth your time.  You will feel way more confident going to meet the next hiring manager and that’s a big part of success.

I was talking about LinkedIn with a group of people on Monday evening.  One of the big questions that came up about invitations. When someone invites you to connect, should you accept?

Some people only accept invites from people they know. Others, like people in my profession, accept most, if not all, invitations.

The answer lies in why you got on LinkedIn in the first place. Is it a place to hang out with former colleagues?  A place to develop your consulting reputation?  Maybe you want to grow your community of influence, so that when you throw a highly pithy comment out there, you get lots of feedback.  It is a pretty cool feeling to get lots of positive comments when you throw something out into the webosphere.

Most of us keep our profiles current and polished so we can get noticed. We want prospective employers or clients to find us and look us over. The way we get “found” is by broadening our networks either by sending invitations,  accepting invitations or joining groups.

Here’s a way to manage the invites that seem to collect on your profile:

• Take a look at your invites once every week or so. You don’t have to do it right away. They will not evaporate.
• If you don’t know the person, click on their name. Maybe their profile will jog your memory and you will realize that they know a lot of the same people you do.
• Decide if you want to accept, ignore or procrastinate a little longer.

It is up to you to decide if your network is going small and exclusive or open and diverse but when review invitations,  think about how you want to be treated. When you reach out to someone, you want to be acknowledged, right?

My son is very laid back.  For the most part, it’s a good thing.  He does not freeze up before tests or freak out when an assignment is due.  He just goes about his business and gets it done.

The down side to this is that he really only has one expression.  It’s neither happy nor sad, it is just kind of flat (except before 10 am, then he looks just plain dopey)

He has started going to job interviews and this has proven to be quite a liability.  His face and body language don’t give off the air of an enthusiastic, new graduate who wants to learn the ropes.  To a hiring manager, he probably looks more like a bouncer at a club.

I have been talking to him about putting out a little more energy when he is talking to people but I’m pretty sure it’s falling on deaf ears.

People in the workplace, whether they are peers or managers, need energetic feedback.  You don’t have to bounce off the walls but you need to be able to nod and make eye contact with at least a bit of spark in your eyes.  Otherwise they will keep repeating the same instructions over and over because they think you are just not getting it.

Try it now.  Stare at your screen with a flat “whatever” look.  Now, pretend someone has just come in to take a photo.  Sit up a bit straighter.  Clear your throat.  Crack your face muscles into a smile and turn on the lights behind your eyes.

I’m not saying you need a 10 megawatt smile to tell your boss that you are going to lunch but if you want the team to go with your strategy, then you need to get a little projection happening behind those  eyeballs.

We tend to get hung up about our first job.  Whether it’s a summer job or a full time gig, we worry that it won’t be in line with our goals and ambitions.  Stop worrying about it.  As long as you learn a lot and make money, that’s all that matters.

Want proof?  Here is a list of some pretty successful people and their first jobs.

• Warren Buffett sold newspaper subscriptions and delivered papers
• Barak Obama worked in an ice cream parlour in Hawaii
• JK Rowling was a researcher at Amnesty International
• Lady Gaga was a server (and there are many others to add to that list!)
• Director James Cameron drove a truck before he saw Star Wars and decided to try out the movie business.
• Frank Stronach, founder of auto parts giant Magna, apprenticed as a tool and die maker in Austria before moving to Canada.
• Bryan Baeumler – ran an air cargo business before he made the leap into home renovations and was discovered by HGTV
• Peter Mansbridge was a ticket taker at the airport in Churchill, Manitoba

I am sure they can each point to something valuable that came out of the experience but it’s clear that they did not take the job because it lined up with their future plans.

So get on with it.  Take that irrelevant job with no “meaning” or “impact” on society.  It will make for great stories later.

I heard a fantastic phrase last week.  One of our senior sales leaders was talking with us about value propositions, enhanced authenticity and other eye rolling stuff.  I was starting to glaze over when he came out with this gem:

Don’t just show up and throw up.

What a perfect way to describe what happens when you head into an interview and you are nervous as hell.  The first question is thrown out and off you go.  You do a complete and uncontrolled brain dump.  Then you run out of oxygen and can no longer remember the question.  So embarrassing…..

Don’t get me wrong.  Nerves won’t ever go away.  There should always be some anticipation and a sense of excitement when you meet with new people.  I get that feeling even when I am meeting people I already know and I talk to strangers for a living.

The key is confidence and that comes with research and practice.  Once you know you have secured an interview, research the company.  Use LinkedIn, industry news sources and your network to find out what you can about the company.  Look for information on growth, awards, competitors, culture, locations and values.

Spend some time thinking about your experience and what might be relevant to the hiring team.  What stories could you share that would induce some good eyebrow raises and head nods?

Prepare five or six stories that illustrate how you deal with challenges, how you set priorities, how you tackle something new.  Practice telling these stories.  Make sure they sound smooth and they hang together so you don’t drift off in the middle.

A good career example is like a good joke.  You have told it many times and you know when to pause and when to keep going to get the desired impact.

That preparation should allow you to walk in to an interview ready to share what you know and learn what they need.  And that’s the goal.