Soft Skills - Ask a Wharton MBA
Develop Soft Skills – Work Smart & Live More
I had lunch with a Deloitte alumni friend recently. He is now a VP of Retail Sales at a major financial institution. Since he knew I had a passion for career coaching, he told me the following recruiting story. In the last few weeks, he has interviewed over 20 candidates for several sales openings, Manager or Director level roles. He told me over 50% of candidates made the same fatal mistake in the interview. Can you guess what it is? ...
I love it when my blog readers suggest topics for discussion. One reader suggested this article for discussion – It’s a job interview, not a beautiful pageant.
From reader 1: The article primarily discusses how a job interview should be treated – as an avenue to express one’s true self or as a formality to get through to obtain the coveted offer letter. More than the article, I enjoyed reading the comments by other readers. There are arguments for both sides of the case. ...
Most of you know that you must arrive early for an interview. But do you know what are the most common interview mistakes that even smart professionals make?
Today, US News posted on Yahoo finance an interesting article called 50 worst of the worst interview mistakes. While most of the listed are pretty obvious and funny, I want to comment on five mistakes that are commonly made even by people who have fairly good interviewing skills. ...
When practicing mock interviews, it’s important to ask specific questions after the interview to get the feedback that you need to improve. Here are some sample feedback questions to ask. This set of questions assumes that before the mock interview, you briefed your friend on the details of the job you are applying. ...
It’s amazing how much children (like my 21 months old) can repeatedly do things so they can learn a new skill, like how to build a puzzle. There is no hesitation or judgment – just pure focus on repeating an action until she gets it right and sheer drive to learn more everyday.
Developing your job search skills (e.g. interviewing skills) also need this kind of practice, focus and drive, but often times as an adult, we judge too quickly on how we are doing while we learn. A simple concept of practice makes perfect is often not executed because of constant self-criticism. To build your interviewing skills, for example, there are many ways you can practice. How many of these are you doing? ...
A friend sent me this article – The Worst Interview Faux Pas. It’s unbelievable what some people would do in interviews. In this article, various hiring managers dishes on the eight types of interview faux pas they have encountered.
Most stories should make you laugh or shocked, but if any makes you think “Wait, what’s wrong with that?” Perhaps you just answered your own questions. ...
Literally! We all know the concept, but I want to share with you a true story of how it was used in practice for job search. My friend (Mary – a false name) was laid off just a month ago and was told her last day will be July 24. What does she do?
Mary immediately calls her old company she previously quit (to get this current job) to see if her old position is still open. (Kudos to her for being so open minded and for keeping a good relationship even though she quit) To her surprise, her old position was still open. They were just finalizing on an internal candidate when Mary called and said they were willing to consider her, but it would need for them to open the job in HR to the public in order to hire her from the outside the company. They said they will get back to her next week. ...