Skills Are the Only Security

Skills are so fundamental to finding and holding a job that it seems silly to even write about this. But the reality I find is that, for some people, they don't make the obvious connection.

I will not paint everyone with this broad brush, but I recall an interview I saw a couple of years ago. The young man being interviewed had a very high opinion of himself and what he was worth. But not what the job market thought he was worth. No, this person said flat out and straight-faced that he would not take a job under $85,000 a year and under no circumstances would lower himself to work for minimum wage.

Ok, no problem..except for several problems: by his own admission he had no skills, had not made much progress toward a college degree, and his arrogance would not do well in a job interview.

I almost felt a bit sorry for him. He was so utterly clueless about what "working" means that he did not know he was clueless. His view was not "What do I have to offer." His view was, "This is what I expect."

As I say, I almost felt sorry for him.

But even older people can have startlingly distorted ideas about getting from where they are to where they want to be.

Many years ago I wrote an essay for my professional website about learning new technical skills. The example I used from my own experience was how I wanted and needed to learn a new and popular programming language called C++ (C plus-plus). I wrote that this was so important to me and the future of my family that after working at my day job, I would stay up until midnight or 1 a.m. in the morning learning this language, writing and testing my programs. I ended the article saying that the only criteria for security in today's job market was skills, and I wanted to learn the skills that were critical in programming at that time.

I received an interesting email from a man who read my little story. The comment he made was, "That's great for you but I have a family, I work all day, and I don't have the time to do all that."

How would you reply to someone who said this? Does this sound like someone charging ahead, even 1 small step at a time, to become more valuable on the market?

I took a couple days to reply because I wanted to my response to be measured and unemotional. I sent him a brief email that said, "I understand you feel very constrained but I did not share in my website article that I have two preschool children. I do not start my programming until after they are in bed. I don't watch television at all because that will not give me skills for the future. I spend these hours learning the skills that will open doors that will benefit my family. We all must do what we feel we can do. I wish you well in whatever you choose."

I never heard back from him.

What does this have to do with finding a job? It has everything to do with finding a job, because - and I repeat - the only security in today's job market is the skills you bring to an employer or client, skills that are in demand today, not skills that went out of demand several years ago.

How one identifies skills that she should obtain is not always easy. But in the Internet era no one should say they cannot find some information to make informed decisions. Gaining knowledge at little or no cost is possible through books, the Internet, libraries, even community colleges. Gaining hands-on experience and practice requires a more focused approach. Learning programming knowledge as I discuss above is more an investment of time than money. However, I recently made a decision to learn the practices and techniques of an Emergency Medical Technician. I want to be able to help people in distress from trauma or medical emergencies - certainly my own family. Learning how to put in an airway device or splint a broken leg can really only be learned by doing so I enrolled in a 6-month EMT course at a local technical college.

The four most important words in life: There are always options. Pursuing them may not be easy or comfortable. But little in life that is valuable can be achieved without sacrifice. Don't give up too easily.

Jargon in Resumés

Should resumés contain jargon? That is, vocabulary or terms that are specific to a narrow job area and understood only by persons familiar with that job area?

Yes, and No. It depends on your goal.

Yes, you should include (some) jargon if your resumé is targeted to the particular job area that employs that jargon. Technical (e.g., engineering), professional (e.g. legal or medical) and military job domains all have their own vocabulary, abbreviations and idioms. If your experience is in one of these domains, and you are submitting your resumé to be considered for a position in one of these domains, yes, you should include some jargon.

Note I say "some" jargon. I have seen resumés that go so overboard in this area that a) they become tedious and difficult to read, and b) the litany of abbreviations, acronyms, and specialized words leave a strong impression that the author was listing these words just to take up space. Every word in your resumé should provide value to the reader. Overuse of jargon can create the opposite impression.

I work in the computer software field. I write programs in several languages. I am skilled at software design and architecture. Most of my projects have been conducted producing software solutions on the Microsoft Windows operating environment, but some have involved the Unix environment as well as other less-familiar ones.

Here is an illustration of how I might include jargon to describe a project I have worked on.

* Led 6-member team in delivery of embedded, multi-threaded, RTOS/CAN-Bus implementation of automated, robotic-driven, fluid assay platform constrained by hard, 12-second cycle times from sample injection to result report. Followed Scrum approach with 2-week sprints. Component architecture implemented using GOF Design Patterns including: Abstract Factory, Decorator, State, and Strategy. Robust OO implementation in C++ rigoursly followed SRP, OCP, LSP, ISP, and DIP principles.

Now, if I am submitting my resumé to an organization that is doing RTOS and C++, this language and content may be perfect because the hiring manager in such an organization can reasonably be expected to be familiar with these terms and concepts.

However, if this illustration is all "Greek" to you, that is perfectly normal. If you have not worked in this area you would not be expected to understand all of this. But, and this is my real point, a lot of software managers who would receive my (or your) resumé also would not understand all of this because not everyone in software has worked in some of these niche topic areas either. Even an experienced software manager leading delivery of business applications would not necessarily be familiar with many, or any, of these terms or acronyms, and might decide I am being condescending or just trying to show off. I don't ever want to create that impression.

So, could I tone down the jargon? Sure I could. Here is the same description as the illustration above, but simply written for a reasonably intelligent reader - not for me the author:

* Served as Technical lead for 6-member team in delivery of a medical device that performed analysis of patient body fluid samples in an assessment cycle that could not exceed 12 seconds. Device was implemented in C++ in a real-time operating environment. I led the selection of appropriate design patterns and principles to assure desired quality and ease of maintenance.

Hopefully this is a bit more understandable even if you do not work in this narrow area of software. And just as importantly, it should be more understandable to a hiring manager who generally understands software delivery and just wants to get a clear, uncluttered idea of what I have done in the past.

And this is where I have to say that if your resumé is targeted to obtain a position different from those on your resumé, No, you should not include jargon. Or, at best, only a little, but include some explanatory descriptions. If I were to submit a resumé for a management position in, say, a financial area, the reader of my cover letter and resumé can be assumed to know little or nothing about low-level technical software concepts. So I would want to write a new "management" resumé for such a position, tailoring each set of responsibilities and accomplishments to show how I used or grew management skills in my previous jobs.

Here is the same illustration above, but now tailored to showcase the management skills I used:

* Served as Technical lead for 6-member team in delivery of a new medical device. Managed team staffing, and maintained budget tracking for executive sponsors. Provided first-level input on team member Pay for Performance assessments. Evaluated supply-chain vendors for device components and monitored their compliance to our agreed Service Level Agreements on defect correction. Assisted legal department in negotiating hardware contracts and costs.

Is this a different job that the RTOS/C++ illustation? No, actually it is not. It's just a different view on what I did on that project. Some of what I did with that team was highly technical. Some of what I did was purely project and product management. But in this third example there is no need for technical jargon: the content is for a potential management position.

I hope this clarifies that the answer to using jargon in your resumé really is Yes and No. And I hope it also strengthens your appreciation that having at least two versions of your resumé is a really prudent approach: one for continuing in your current job area if you find such openings; another version that is more immediately understandable to the reader if you pursue a new job area.

27 Weeks and Discouraged

Since I wrote Hired! I have had contact with many jobless people across the salary spectrum and diverse job skills. A fairly consistent percentage of newly unemployed are understandably grateful that state jobless benefits are available to them to lessen their shock. But a recent article in The Atlantic comments on darker transitions for the long-term unemployed, that is, those out of work for more than 27 weeks.

First, longer periods of unemployment can have a very detrimental effect on lifetime income. Future earnings after one returns to the job market suffer, and this occurs disproportionately based on the national unemployment rate: lifetime earning losses are much greater when the national rate is above 8 percent than if it is below 6 percent.

Second, persons who experience long-term unemployment are eventually forced to take jobs that are lower-paying than the job they lost. The imperative to take such a job is certainly driven by the termination at 26 weeks of unemployment benefits in most of the United States.

Third, as I write about in Hired!, the grinding toll of job search, confusion about how and where to apply for work, dismal employer responses, and sheer discouragement lead many to simply give up. These people become invisible: they do not have jobs, and are not counted in the government's job statistics because they are not actively looking for jobs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) February 2015 jobs report indicates that 31% of people unemployed in that month have been out of work for 27 weeks or more. This is a stunning number but five years ago the number was worse, reaching 45% in 2010.

What do these numbers mean? For me they are a reminder of the damage that unemployment can do - if we allow it to do so. I have not forgotten the first night when I was completely ready to just give up. I was only 4 weeks into my search and every job I interviewed for just yielded nothing. It was a very rough night. The next morning I woke early from anxiety, went into my office and in the quiet of that morning I started to analyze: What have I been doing? What am I doing wrong? What do I need to change? That brief morning escape gave me two new ideas to try and that gave me some new motivation.

When I was making notes for Hired! and helping my grown children find jobs, I wrote out daily goals for them on 4" x 6" index cards. When I could see real discouragement in them, I gave them the day off - to regroup their thoughts and recharge themselves, not to sit around the house.

The BLS February report does indicate that our jobs economy is improving, but still at the lowest rate for any economic recovery since the Great Depression of the 1930s. However, your personal jobs economy may still be stagnating or declining. I encourage you to be vigilant to the discouragement that is inevitable whether you work on a road crew, or you are a CEO.

The biggest danger of long-term unemployment is that we might allow it to become too-long unemployment.

I wrote Hired! to help with issues of job targeting, finding hiring managers, how to learn about job openings without going through Human Resources and more. But I do not have magic words for holding off the discouragement that can put you in this fraternity of "27 weekers." Discouragement is going to hit you - probably hard. Be ready and accept that it will come. Deflect it. Do not just "settle" for government benefits. Do not spend 25 weeks looking for the same job you lost. You are not a job title, and your skills are valuable in many different job areas.

There is a little post floating around Facebook that is relevant here:

An old man told his grandson,
"My son, there is a battle between
two wolves inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed,
discouragement, inferiority, lies and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace,
love, hope, humility, kindness,
empathy and truth."

The boy thought about it, and asked,
"Grandfather, which wolf wins?"

The old man quietly replied,
"The one you feed."

There is wisdom here.

Job Titles in Your Resumé

Today I had a conversation with Yvonne, a woman who is a former HR Manager. She raised an important issue with respect to resumé clarity. Her observation was that many people list their current and past job titles on their resumé, and this can actually make the resumé more difficult to understand.

Here is an example. Janet's resumé lists her current job title as Process Design Consultant II. Her responsibilities and activities in this position include: website support, contract negotiation, software development consulting within the company, and running an interactive community of business people.

Is this what the reader of her resumé would expect from the title "Process Design Consultant II"? Is there a basis for real concern in this mismatch of expectations? Indeed there is.

First, the reader's company probably has a totally different set of job titles and will not be immediately able to map between the two sets of terms.

Second, Janet's list of responsibilities and accomplishments might not align with the reader's expectation based on the job title the writer associates with those responsibilities.

Last, this misalignment resulting from the reader's expectations can create suspicion about Janet's integrity when the real issue is simply the misuse or misassignment of job titles by the Janet's employer.

What is the solution?

The simplest solution is to omit company-specific job titles like "Process Design Consultant II" or "Consulting Analyst" and instead list the role, or roles, you have filled. Roles are more easily understood than job titles because role names are not specific to a company. So, list "Java Developer" rather than "Consulting Analyst"; "Project Manager" rather than "Vice President"; "Business Analyst" rather than "Technical Delivery Manager."

When you have your telephone or face to face interview you can explain that you have listed the role names for clarity, and you will be happy to provide the actual job titles if requested.

And as Yvonne emphasized you really must list the actual job titles when you submit a Job Application with a candidate company. This is a legal and moral issue: if you are not completely above-board and the candidate company does its due diligence and uncovers a discrepancy, that may very well be the end of your relationship with them before it actually begins.

After the Interview

Heed this excellent advice from David Perry, one of the co-authors of the creative Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0. When you really like a position, follow up with a last, brief marketing contact. Craft an e-mail saying that, after considering everything that was discussed in the interview, here is what you believe you bring to this relationship, how you see yourself fitting into the organization, and the immediate value you can deliver. Send this follow-up within 48 hours after your interview. This last, carefully crafted contact will convey a positive impression, and when they are considering your candidacy, every positive attribute can only help. Because speed is essential to this follow-up it is fine to send this letter via e-mail to each person with whom you interviewed. This is one reason why I urge everyone to collect the business card of each interviewer, and to verify it lists that person's correct e-mail address.

Send this "thank you" email to every person with whom you interviewed.

And what if you now think this is probably not the right position for you? Or you think the interview did not go well? Follow-up with a slight difference.

If you decide this is just not the right position or company for you even if they should make you an offer, send a follow-up e-mail to the both the HR person and the hiring manager (if you spoke to a hiring manager). Tell them very briefly that you have carefully considered everything you learned in the interview and you have concluded the position is probably not a good match for you. Thank them for their time and consideration, and don't say anything more. They will now not have to spend the effort of putting together an offer, or Letter of Decline. A professional and courteous communication like this will be remembered and appreciated.

If you think the interview did not go well, avoid at all cost sending an email follow-up with a lengthy explanation of what you really were trying to say, or apologizing for something you did say. First, the interview may not have gone that badly from their perspective. Second, too much correction will sound like whining. Third, let them show you their perspective by waiting to see if they make an offer.

In all of these scenarios you simply must follow-up with a note of appreciation. And the most important motivation I can instill in you is that you may be the only person out of a hundred who does this. Be courteous. Be professional. Be remembered.

Getting Pumped with Information

The biblical admonition of "Ask and you will receive" has always been a favorite of mine. I have never been afraid to just talk to people and ask for their help or insight, and I continue to be amazed at the valuable information I learn just doing this simple act of communication. Tonight I stopped at a gas station and a young woman was filling her car in the aisle next to mine. The brightly colored shirt she was wearing caught my attention immediately. I smiled and asked, "Do you work with a pediatrics office?"

"Yes, I do," she said.

"May I ask you a question? I am working with a young woman who is interested in going back to school and pursuing either phlebotomy** or becoming a Certified Medical Assistant. Are those good areas today?"

"Oh yes," she said without hesitating. "I am a CMA and a phlebotomist, too. CMAs are the new nurses. Doctor's offices are not hiring as many nurses now because RNs and even LPNs are too expensive. The offices are hiring Medical Assistants and having them do a lot of what the nurses do. And with a certification in phlebotomy she can work in either a doctor's office or a hospital. With a phlebotomy certification she can go in a dozen directions, and the jobs pay well."

"The local vocational school indicates that the starting salary for a phlebotomist is around $22,000 to $24,000 per year. Does that sound right based on your experience?"

"Yes, it does. And even more when she gets more experience."

I thanked her sincerely for sharing her experience and as I drove off I was thinking, "If I had not asked that simple question that led to a two minute conversation, I would now not have any of that data from someone working in that field." I immediately called the young woman I have been assisting, told her what I had learned, and encouraged her to get her school application in as soon as possible.

Sometimes it's so simple. There's no need to make this complicated.

** A phlebotomist is the person who takes blood or puts in IVs.

During the Interview

Things to Never Do In an Interview

• Never call, answer, or text. Turn off your phone and don't turn it on again until you leave the company location!
• Never smoke, even if they do.
• Never use profanity, even if they do.
• Do not accept any offering of food, coffee, sodas, or other refreshments.

You are there for a business purpose, to build a business relationship. It's not yet time to act like this is a social event.

Ask for a business card from everyone who interviews you, and verify that the card has that person's correct phone number, e-mail address, and surface mail address. You will need this information for your follow-up after the interview.

Ask the Interviewer(s) Some Questions

A relationship cannot begin without interest in both directions, so show them that you have already learned about their company as well as having an interest in a possible job. Visit the company’s website beforehand to learn what the company does, the products or services it provides, and the different lines of business the company pursues. Identify anything that is unique or notable. For instance, Zappos (www.zappos.com) is not just a shoe company. It has a business model built around extreme customer service, free shipping, and free return shipping. Netflix (www.netflix.com) started by mailing DVDs to customers rather than expecting customers to come to a brick and mortar store. Now Netflix is leading in on-line delivery of movies directly to your TV or compatible device. When you show interviewers you care enough to learn about their business, you cannot help but impress them.

What They Can, and Cannot, Ask during the Interview

Federal laws place numerous constraints on what an interviewer can ask in a job interview. Basically, the interviewer is not allowed to ask questions that do not apply to your prospective job or your performance of that job.

A detailed list of "30 Questions You Can't Ask", and 30 ways an interviewer can try to get around these, is in an excellent article published at http://www.hrworld.com/features/30-interview-questions-111507/. HR World is a website devoted to human resources issues. Here is a list of categories the 30 Questions fall into, and representative questions interviewers should not ask you:

• Nationality (Are you a U.S. citizen? What is your native tongue?)
• Religion (What religion do you practice? What holidays do you observe?)
• Age (How old are you? How long do you plan to work before you retire?)
• Marital and family status (Are you married? Do you have children?)
• Gender issues (How do you feel about supervising men, or women?)
• Health and physical abilities (Do you smoke? Drink? Take drugs?)
• Questions about "residence, legal troubles, and military service" (Have you ever been arrested? Were you honorably discharged from the military?)

This website article also describes "Sneaky, Legal Alternatives to Get the Same Info," so be aware that what sounds like an innocent question might be an attempt by the interviewer to get disqualifying information about you. Unfortunately, this happens all too often.

If you have the misfortune to run into an interviewer who tries to ask questions in the categories above, politely reply that your nationality or age or family status are not factors for your performing your work for them, and you do want to learn as much as you can about the job position and their company. This will satisfy any reputable human resources person, but some hiring managers are not versed in the 30 Questions.

Regardless, if you suspect an interviewer is pursuing potentially disqualifying information about you, you may have a hard decision to make. You can

• Give them the information that they should not be asking for, or
• Tell them the question is not relevant to the job position, and accept that this may result in ill-will toward you, or
• Recognize that this is a company whose ethics and morality are already suspect. You might do better to accept that this interview is not going in the right direction, and that you do not want to pursue a deeper, long-term, and financially-dependent relationship with them.

Canned Questions from the Interviewer

I have been on a lot of interviews with a lot of companies. I have been both amused and appalled at some of the spectacularly lame questions that some interviewers ask. I sometimes wonder if there is a cheat-sheet of interview questions that these persons are given to read. Here is a short list of some of these questions that I have been asked:

• Tell me about yourself.
• What really makes <fill-in your name> tick?
• How would you handle a co-worker who is difficult to work with?
• What are your 3 biggest weaknesses?
• What is the #1 area of your life that you want to improve?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
• How would you feel if your manager asked you to work on a weekend?

Whatever the source of questions like these, you may hear some of them on an interview. They have no right answer, and obviously your responses are supposed to give the interviewer some insight into who you really are. Not only are these probably not specific to the job you would be working in, but they may allow the interviewer to indulge grave interpretive biases. Just be aware and answer these as best you can without being disrespectful or flippant. I recommend you try to keep all of your answers focused to be job-related, or school-related if you do not have much work history.

The strategy I eventually found that worked best for me when I was asked a very open-ended question like "Tell me about yourself," or "What are your 3 biggest weaknesses?" was to reply saying, "That's a pretty broad topic area. Can you narrow it down a bit for me?" This can buy you a little time to think about what they really might be asking, and puts them in the position of actually limiting the scope so you can provide a more specific, and less interpretation-prone, answer.

Pinning Down a Decision

Before you leave the interview you should ask the interviewer when you can expect to receive a decision on your candidacy. This time frame is important not only for your own continuing job-search schedule, but also to know when you can appropriately contact them if you do not hear from them.

Preparing for Your Interview

This is the season of job interviews. I confess that I am alternately amused and appalled at the self-destructive behavior of young people trying to enter the job market. So, I am offering this series on the proper performance of a job interview: preparing for the interview, the actual interview event itself, and what follow-up the candidate must carry-out.

Take Your Resumé

Even if you have already submitted a resumé with an earlier application, set out two or three printed copies of your resumé to take to your interview. The person interviewing you might have six other people to interview the same day as your session. It is not uncommon for an interviewer to accidentally misplace a resumé. You also might be interviewing with multiple persons over several hours, so take extra copies so you will have one for each person you talk with plus one for you to refer to, just in case.

Organize Your Interview Logistics

The following recommendations may seem like overkill, but you will realize how prudent they are when you have two or more interviews in a week, or if the day of your interview turns into pure chaos.

Capture in one location the specific information about each interview:

• The name of the company you are interviewing with
• The date, time, and location of the interview
• The name and position of the person who will be interviewing you, if you know
• A phone number for the person who will be interviewing you, or the Human Resources office (so you can call them if you get delayed in traffic, or get sick)
• Parking information if you will be driving to the location

Research the Company

The single biggest error candidates make in interviews is also the most devastating: they walk in knowing little or nothing about the company whose time and resources they are consuming. Too many people sit down with an attitude that the company is in total control, and the company is the only party making a job decision. Wrong! The interview is a forum just as much for you to decide if this company is right for you, as for them to decide if you are right for them.

Show the interviewers you can do your homework. When you walk into that interview you should have a clear view of the company's locations, branches, product lines and growth profile. Start with the company's own website. Product lines and locations are usually prominent on the site.

For publicly-traded companies you should additionally search the major financial websites for corporate information to validate what you learned on the corporate website. These financial sites include:

• Yahoo Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com)
• Forbes (http://www.forbes.com)
• Money (http://money.cnn.com)
• Google Finance (http://www.google.com/finance)

With this knowledge, even at a high-level, you will be able to ask informed questions when you actually get into the interview, and you will leave a very positive impression.

Dressing Smart

Choose your clothing very, very carefully. The basic rule for both men and women is "dress up one level." This admonition is easy to grasp if you think of it this way: if you dress for your interview in the clothing you will wear on the job, then you are under-dressed for the interview. If you dress one level up from what you would wear if you work for them, you are dressed appropriately.

For example, for a man, if the normal workday clothing is jeans and work boots (as in construction or trades), or just casual clothing (as in a shopping mall retail store) then one level up is a dress shirt and complementary tie, and chinos or Dockers slacks. If the workday rule is business casual (as in most office work) then one level up is a suit.

If you are a woman applying for a professional or management position, wear a neutral- or darker-color suit and high heels. If you are applying for a retail or any customer-facing position you have an almost infinite number of options from dresses to pant suits, and from high-heels to low-heels. Make sure your shoes are polished, and please do not wear any perfume! None! Not even a smidgen! Remember your make-up may have a perfumed scent in it.

Ladies, the quickest path to not even finishing the interview, much less getting a job offer, is to wear clothing that is too tight, too short, too revealing, or just too provocative. In other words, "too anything." If you have any question about whether an item is "too anything," then it probably is.

I have many more observations in Hired! including what you should use to take notes during the interview, the payment etiquette of lunch and lunch-time interviews, and how to prepare your list of references. Don't be unprepared for your interview.

The Personal Connection

Many years ago I learned a deceptively simple lesson that changed my life. After graduating from college with my first degree I actually got a job as a milkman. Yeah! I drove a truck and delivered milk, bread, and other items to residences and businesses. One morning I was riding with the man who was training me. He took a basket of items into a small store and I waited in the truck. And I waited...and waited. I was very impatient. When he finally stepped back into the truck my first words were something like, "What took so long? We're way off schedule now." He looked at me with some deserved disdain and and simply said, "Son, a customer will leave you, but a friend won't."

I have never forgotten those words. Everything in business, in job search, in interviewing is made immensely easier when a personal connection exists, no matter how tenuous that connection might be. This is why I wrote Hired! around the theme that job search is really relationship building.

In my blog on Tell Me About Yourself  I cover the kinds of answers you should avoid in a job interview, and some productive ways to raise interest in you without possibly offending your interviewer. But simply telling the interviewer about you is very one-sided.

Here is a scenario that may allow you to establish a more personal connection if the right elements are available, so this connection is more two-sided. Be aware, however, that if you do not have a genuine interest in people you will probably come across as stiff and manipulative if you pursue this approach.

Let's assume you are being interviewed by Ms. Johnson. If you are in Ms. Johnson's office look around for items that obviously reflect personal aspects of Ms. Johnson. You might notice photos of the beach, or a mountain climb. Or you might notice pictures of children on her desk. Perhaps one is a sports picture of a 9 year-old boy in a baseball uniform or a 14 year-old girl in a ballerina dress.

When she asks you, "Tell me about yourself," just pause for a moment and say, "I would love to, and I know we are going to talk alot about the job opening and what ABC Company is looking for. But perhaps you could first tell me a little about Ms. Laura Johnson? I notice the pictures on your desk. Are they your children? Are they fond of sports and dance?"

Or, "Is that a picture of you hanging off the side of the mountain?"

That is all you have to say. Just let the conversation go where it will. I recently walked into the office of a manager whose team I am helping with a big shift in how they deliver their software. I had never had more than an email exchange with him. I immediately noticed some U.S. Air Force plaques on his bookcase. After our handshakes and initial introductions I asked, "Were you Air Force? I'm an Air Force brat." The next 10 minutes were on his fighter pilot training and military life for children of officers. It was a great way to begin.

Eventually you will talk about yourself, but at the very least the two of you have had a brief exchange outside the narrow scope of the job opening. I am a techie but I really like people, and learning about what they do and who they are. My work decisions are based at least as much about the people I meet in the company as they are by the actual job responsibilities. In fact, the job in which I am currently working was a very difficult decision for me until I met the man I would be working for. He was the deciding factor because we have some common interests, and our chemistry was great. So keep your eyes and ears open for a way to make a personal contact even if briefly. It will make both of you more fully defined in each other's mind.

Tell Me About Yourself

One of the original reasons why resumé examples always recommended listing your hobbies and interests was for the reader to get a look into the real you as a person. However, today your hobby or interest may violate someone's sensibilities of political correctness. So this is why I always recommend you omit this personal information on a resumé.

But when you walk into an interview one of the questions you are virtually guaranteed to hear is, "So, tell me about yourself." What should you do? Well, first you should think about your answer before the interview.

Your answer should be honest, but it should not be too revealing. Let me explain. As I discuss in detail in Hired! there are certain questions that under Federal law an interviewer is not allowed to ask. These are questions that have no relevance to your ability to do the job you are interviewing for, but may consciously or unconsciously provide information to disqualify you from consideration.

Your response to "Tell me about yourself" should avoid providing answers to these questions that have not been asked. The topics you should avoid providing information about are

• Nationality
• Religion
• Age
• Gender issues
• Sexuality issues
• Marital and family status
• Health and physical abilities
• Residence, legal and military status

Of course it is prudent to avoid projecting political and economic biases as well because the person you are talking to may be on the other end of the political or economic spectrum.

So, what could you talk about? There is no one-size-fits-all formula because each of us is unique, but words matter and they matter a lot. I suggest that you prepare an honest and informative, but non-provocative, answer that you have scrubbed of content in any of the areas above.

For example, I have a single statement that I use as my answer: "I love puzzles and I have collected take-apart puzzles for many years. I like to go to the gym and I still play soccer in an over-30 league. I serve as assistant coach for a youth soccer team. And I am a real techie at heart. I am always reading technical material both about programming but also in other areas of science."

Any activity that involves serving others in a neutral setting, such as being a soccer coach, will create a positive impression. I do not, however, tell them that the youth soccer team is in a Christian soccer league. Am I afraid to say that? Not at all, but I don't want to add unnecessary "color" to the description that might raise a negative response in the other person's mind. If I am not the right person for the job I want that decision to be made strictly on the basis of my skill, knowledge, and experience. Period.

Note that I end my statement with a personal activity that relates directly to the technical nature of the job I would be applying for. Again, I am always thinking of a structure that will lead back to the reason why I am in that person's office. Otherwise, I could finish with something as personal as "...and I love Chinese food," but there would be no tie-in, would there? And is loving Chinese food really going to enlist a positive impression in the interviewer?

You are going to be asked this generic question about yourself. I have heard it as "Tell me what makes Gary really tick," or "What do you enjoy doing outside work." I strongly suggest you have the answer that is correct for you, long before you hear the question.

Finding the Right Career?

A brief article titled "Finding the Right Career" in Investors Business Daily captured my attention.

Test Drive Other Options

Thomas Maple is a college counselor who made the interesting comment, "A career decision-making process should involve many hours of exploration over the course of weeks and months." Agreed. In Hired! I discuss the danger of a career approach exactly opposite to this advice: thinking of oneself only as your most recent job title. As I talk with people engaged in job search and reemployment, I continually emphasize my common theme that everyone is an owner of skills and knowledge, and not just a job title. All of us can identify job and career paths that intrigue us. To actually carry out this exploration Maple offers three imminently practical paths:

1. Talk with people already in that potential job area and get real information from people with "boots on the ground."
2. Shadow or apprentice yourself to people already in that job area so you can actually experience what the job is like.
3. Volunteer, especially in pursuing nonprofit organizations, so you can be meaningfully involved in contributing in that job area as you learn about it.

Get a Second, or Third, Opinion

Another comment that impressed me was that all of us have blind spots and we can always benefit from an outside perspective from family, friends or colleagues. Maria Moats found herself confronted very early in her career with a dilemma when her father became ill. "Family has to come first," she said, and she had to decide between continuing her work in Dallas, or quitting to move to her family in El Paso. Or so she thought. When she shared her decision to quit with her partner, his unemotional and detached perspective uncovered a third option: Moats could transfer to the company's El Paso office. As she summarized this she said that an inexperienced worker, "My perspective was limited. I was not thinking about my value to the firm."

It's Your Life - Not Your Parents' or Your Uncle's

Maples makes the terse observation that "A desire to please other people with one's career choice is one of the chief causes of career dissatisfaction." I have a family story that matches this very closely. A relative started his career in engineering but after a couple of years in the engineering world his brain was about to explode. He was pretty miserable. He had not chosen engineering as much as it had been chosen for him. He did his best to conform but the dissonance was just too much. He then applied to and was accepted to law school. He has been in law practice for almost 4 decades now and still loves it. But he still wishes he had been more introspective before spending all that money on his engineering degree.

So be focused, be cautious, and be flexible. Good advice.

More Resumé Overhaul

Adam reached out to me through the recommendation of a common friend. Adam is 20-something and a few months ago finished a Nuclear Medicine degree at a local college. But he was having dismal success in even getting interviews. When we connected by email I asked Adam to send me his resumé so I could get some idea of his education and work background before we talked.

Adam's resumé was pretty much straight out of the 1970s. I do not fault him at all. He is just entering the job market. What absolutely stunned me was he told me one of his instructors had helped construct his resumé. Here are the mistakes I found:

1. The first section was "Objective"  As I discuss at length in Hired! you should not list an "Objective" section. Let your cover letter address your objective for each job to which you submit a resumé.
2. The second section was "Qualifications" and listed his Nuclear Medicine Certificate and other certifications. My concern here is that the reader now has two ancillary sections to look at and skip over to get to the meat of Adam's education and work experience.
3. The third section listed Adam's work experience: primarily the clinical rotations he went through in his degree program, followed by his other jobs over the past few years. Good stuff here but three structural issues jumped out at me. First, the structure of this section was obviously the product of an academic mindset because the content was arranged in outline format [1, a), (1)..]. Recommendation: use simple or even bulleted sentences, but never outline format. Second, there was little mention of responsibilities and accomplishments in his degree activities. Recommendation: tell the reader what you accomplished in each significant activity. Third, his work experience was in a mixed time order. Recommendation: list all work experience in reverse chronological order (most recent to least recent). 
4. The last section of the resumé was "References." Today, readers do not want to see references on a resumé, and do not write "references available upon request." Everyone expects you to be able to provide references if asked.

Adam and I spent quite a bit of time going over these concerns. I provided him the sample chapter on "The Resumé" in Hired! If you would like to read it, you can download the PDF from my Hired! website.

A few days later Adam sent me his revised resumé. Wow! A total overhaul and much more effective. Looking at this new resumé I could see Adam's responsibilities and what he accomplished in each of his job positions. The layout was dramatically more attractive with just enough white space on the page to let the text "breathe" - the words were not too dense and not too sparse.

I suggested one small change to make the content more efficient for the reader, but what Adam put together was terrific, and just in time for him to attend a job fair in Charlotte. With this new resumé he should be creating some interest in potential employers.

The bottom line is that a resumé is a marketing tool and that means it has to create interest about you. If you have been discouraged that you are not getting the response you want, ruthlessly evaluate the first thing you are putting forward to represent you - your resumé.

"I Cannot Afford to NOT Be Assertive"

I've been emailing this week with a reader of Hired! Yusuf is a computer programmer who recently rolled off a large contract job. With additional time on his hands he decided to explore his whole career path. I was very pleased when he shared that he pursued a personality survey such as those I discuss in Hired! He discovered that he is an INFP: Introspective, iNtuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving - a combination characterized as "The Healer." This knowledge has given him new ideas about what kind of work will make him happy.

I was delighted to hear what Yusuf thought was the Big Takeaway for him: "I did really enjoy your book. Throughout the book you demonstrate following up with people and developing relationships with them. You talk about not taking 'No' for an answer and working around this obstacle. At first I was thinking to myself, 'Oh I could never do that. That is too forward for my style.' But after rolling off my last project and going through my exit interview, I realize I CAN'T AFFORD not to be more forward and assertive. You mention in your book at some point that this is going to affect your take home pay. Boy, are you right."

I am grateful that Hired! has provided tangible value to Yusuf. He is intelligent and articulate, and has already started incorporating new options for his next engagement. He has recognized that he does not have to settle for the same old way of thinking. This is why I wrote Hired! and I have great confidence this reader is going to do just fine.

Keep It On the Record

When you begin making contact with any company, whether face-to-face or remotely, you can sabotage your progress in several, effortless ways. I see multiple examples of these mistakes committed by many job seekers, some of whom become the unemployment statistics you read in articles about people who have not been able to find work for 28 weeks, or for a year or more.

The simplest, avoidable mistake is to not make notes.

When you make any contact with a potential employer or lead, you must keep a record of it. You can make your entries on your smartphone, or your tablet computer, or you can use a website like JobKatch (www.jobkatch.com). You can go low-tech and use a notebook. If you go this low-tech route get a spiral-bound notebook so the pages don't fall out.

What is critical is that you have a recording mechanism that you can carry with you everywhere, and enter information immediately while it is fresh in your mind. No, you will not remember these details tonight when you plan to transcribe them. Immediacy is paramount so you can keep the information accurate.

For every contact you make, record everything that will provide what you need to follow up on this contact. This should include

• The date of the contact
• The business name and address
• The type of contact (face-to-face, on-line application, or a paper application)

If any part of the contact was face-to-face, capture

• The name of the employee or manager you talked with, and their direct phone number (ask for their business card because people usually put their direct phone numbers and e-mail addresses on their business cards), and
• Your impression of the conversation and anything of interest the contact may have said, even if they told you they are not hiring right now.

I never want you to be guilty of the following scenario: you submit applications on-line at three websites in the morning, you talk with a manager in the afternoon, and the next day you submit a paper application at a local business. Two weeks later you cannot remember what websites or businesses to which you submitted applications, you cannot recall the manager's name or the address of the local business, and you cannot remember the date you did any of these things.

Sloppy execution means sloppy results. Write it down.

Dream Jobs May Not Start That Way

Lindsey is 22 years old and she has a story that every young job seeker should hear.

Lindsey's story began about two years ago. This was in the middle of our recession, and Lindsey found a part-time job at a fast-food restaurant. It was a start but she wanted more hours. So she found an additional part-time job at an arts and crafts store. After a while she started looking around for something more. She shared that "My dad told me 'You don't quit a job until you have another.'" Smart dad, smart daughter.

Lindsey landed a job as a doctor's assistant at a national franchise vision center. It did not strike her as the dream job she was thinking of. In fact, she had no interest in working in a medical field but it seemed like a good opportunity.

And she loved it! She had never had an opportunity to learn that she loved helping people. "It was always different," she said. "Everyone had a different vision problem to solve. I loved helping them."

Then a pending family relocation prompted her to begin a new job search. She did not feel she had to go with her family, so she really was "just looking around." She went to a job search site, www.indeed.com, entered the city they would be moving to, and entered "eyes" in the job field. When the list of job postings displayed she picked the first one and opened it. It requested a resumé with the application. She downloaded a simple resumé template, filled in her brief job history and submitted it.

She got the job and starts in two days! She will be in a training program to be certified as an Ophthalmic Assistant.

Lindsey did everything right in these two years. She started where she could. She added a job without losing a job. Then she took a chance on a job in an area she had no interest in, and found that she was totally attuned to the work and contact this job offered. Then she planned and explored a job change while she was still working, with no urgent motivation to change, and she had the option to stay where she was.

When I asked Lindsey what she would say to other people in her age group, she spoke from her heart. "Even if a job does not seem interesting, don't pass it up. Even if it is not your dream job that doesn't mean it won't become your dream job. My job at the vision center drew out of me a desire I did not know I had. I loved working with the children and seeing them at that "Ah ha!" moment when they suddenly have clear vision for the first time. My new company has a special Pediatric section and I can't wait to work there."

Lindsey is young but has wisdom beyond her years. This young lady is going places, and she is loving the new journey she is on.

The Ten Powers

Attitude is everything...well, almost everything. But attitude is certainly a major factor in success or failure. Salespeople know this and live it 24x7. Jeffrey Gitomer (www.gitomer.com) is a leading author of sales books and motivational essays. He recently wrote an essay on "The POWER of Sales Success is 100% in Your Control."  Everything he says is also 100% relevant to job search, so here is my re-application of his "power" ideas.

The Power of a Positive Attitude.

Discouragement hits everyone looking for a job, but no one likes a negative person. Cynicism and pessimism are twin brothers born of a cruel mother. A simple defense to build a positive attitude is to have a tangible vision of where you want to end up. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." You may be out of work but focus on the blessings you have despite your unemployment. Even when everything seems to be going the wrong way, look to affirm something in your life. My attitude was changed, literally, in a hotel restaurant one morning when I reached for a sugar packet and read on it, "Instead of complaining about what you want and don't have, be grateful for what you don't want and don't have."

The Power of Daily Attitude Actions.

Discipline makes for productivity. If you let external forces and interruptions dictate where you put your energies, you will end each day with little to show as progress. As I discuss at length in Hired!, each evening should be a time of planning your next day. Any day you wake up without a list of goals and tasks to achieve, that is a day you will have to spend hours building that list instead of pursuing productive opportunities. Starting each day with specific goals, or appointments, or persons to contact will give you a major attitude improvement.

The Power of Belief.

If you don't think you have what it takes to find a job, then you need to have a serious timeout. If you cannot find a reason to believe in yourself, why would anyone else? To borrow a phrase from a little inspirational book by John L. Mason, "You're born an original. Don't die a copy." You are the only you in the universe. You have a package of knowledge, skills and personality that no one else has duplicated - ever! You must adopt the belief that you can achieve what is needed, even if it requires hard work. If you have faith in God, then turn to God in humility and affirm that you need guidance. You have overcome many barriers in your life. This is just another one. It may look like a mountain in your path today, but someday you will look back and see only a bump in your road.

The Power of Self-Confidence.

Confidence is earned from small wins. Don't set yourself up for defeat by engaging in make-or-break job search if you are not comfortable with the various skills required. If you become frozen in your tracks when you think of yourself calling a vice-president, then you need to start smaller and work your way up to that call. Experiment. Do some test runs, maybe a lot of them. Go into a business - a retail business is an excellent place to start - and look for someone who looks like a manager. "Are you a manager here?" "Yes, How may I help you?" "I would love to become part of a company like this. Can you tell me the best path to be considered for a position with ABC Company?" Then just answer any questions, take notes in your head (then write down the information as soon as possible), and be amazed that they talked to you person to person, and you did not melt into the floor! By the way, did you notice in this little dialog that the job seeker said "become part of a company like this," not "I am looking for a job"? Many people feel intimidated asking for a job. So don't! Just express your respect for the company, and ask for guidance on how you could become a member of their team. The words you use are important, especially the words you tell yourself in your head. Take control of the words you are thinking so they do not become your biggest impediment.

The Power of YES!

I have always been amazed that some people fear succeeding. Sounds bizarre, doesn't it? But think of how many times you have said "No!" to yourself. "I can't make that phone call. They are probably not hiring anyway. I don't have as much to offer as someone else." Stop doing the weeding-out work for your potential employers. Let them decide if they want to say No! But you must stop saying No for them.

The Power of Keeping Conversational Control.

Resumés are primarily a marketing vehicle to gain a job interview. But the self-inflicted damage many job seekers commit in their job interviews is totally unnecessary. One of the most subtle mistakes job seekers make is to not ask questions during their interview! It is essential that you maintain control in the conversation in a way that you make it obvious you have read up on the company, its products or services, its customers, and even its business locations. An interview is not a one-way conversation where only they ask all the questions. Visit their website and read over all the major pages. Show them you have an active interest in becoming part of their team and that you have done the work of learning about them. Ask the interviewer questions about job topics of interest to you. After all, if you are in an interview you have already passed all the tollgates they use to weed-out unacceptable candidates. If you just sit there with little to say, and nothing to ask, the only door they may open for you is the door out of the building.

The Power of Preparation.

Every successful person prepares, so that when luck strikes they are ready. The Roman orator Seneca wrote, "Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity." Preparation is not just about knowing how to start your search. The best preparation also focuses on how, and where, to end your journey. Preparing means you are taking responsibility for your future. The entire first half of Hired! is about preparing for that coveted job offer: both how to start and how to end. You cannot plan to be lucky, but you can be prepared.

The Power of Creativity.

Creativity is the way to get out of a rut. It is so easy to keep doing the same things over and over, even after you have proven these are not working. I write in this blog about Mary who spent two years sending out resumés with no results. Sending resumés is what everyone is supposed to do when they are looking for a job, right? It did not occur to her that sending out a thousand resumés was passive, did not make her stand out, and was distracting her from potentially more productive search channels. Be willing to create new ways of looking. Think of what everyone else might be doing, and try something different. In Hired! I describe a young woman who was pursuing independent film making. She had experienced quite a few obstacles and rejections for one so young, and she said, "But life isn't about finding yourself; it's about inventing yourself." That is a profound and powerful sentiment. Invent yourself.

The Power of Being Memorable.

Your resumé will be memorable if it is filled with spelling mistakes, bad grammar, or obvious "truth-stretchers." Your interview will be memorable if you show up late, or in the wrong clothing, or if you take a phone call or start texting during the interview. This is not the kind of memorable to which you should aspire. In Hired! I provide numerous examples of how to rise above the masses applying for the same job position, and how to avoid Human Resources. Be memorable by making your value proposition clear and simple. If you submit a resumé make absolutely sure it fits the criteria I describe in Hired!: no text in a font smaller than 10 points, zero spelling errors, clear sentences that describe what you have accomplished for other employers. Accompany your resumé with a simple cover letter containing three or four bullet statements linking your job experience and skills to the position they have advertised. In an interview dress "up on level," take notes, ask questions that relate to the company's goals and growth plans for your job area. Ask questions about the business challenges that are causing them pain, and give them your explanation of why you can help them solve these problems. Follow-up with a simple Thank You note.

The Power of Value.

Value to you might mean the wage or salary you want to be paid. But what you want is not important to an employer. When I wrote Hired! I made this a major theme: All that matters to the employer is the value you can offer them. Period. Be prepared to explain in 15 seconds or less the value you can bring to the table. This is called an "elevator pitch." Craft it as your answer to the question: "What value do you bring that will benefit me and my company?" Practice it over and over so it flows naturally and is already in your mind when you make contact with a line manager who may need your skills. Commit it to memory so you do not sound like you are reading it from a page, and you must be able to convey it in no more than 10 to 15 seconds. It is your obligation to be able to articulate why you are the best choice for the position they have open. Don't expect them to dig this information out of your resumé, or that they will play 20 questions to understand your benefits.

Resumé Rennovations - A Perfect 10!

A resumé is the single aspect of job search that job seekers primarily focus on. I would say that finding the person doing the hiring is more important, but the resumé is a key, a key to open the door of an interview. I recently worked with a man to make sure his resume was an effective key.

Richard is a senior software guy looking for new opportunities. He has 30 years of experience developing and managing technical solutions in diverse industries. We have known each other for 12 years so I asked him to send me his resumé so I would know what positions he is targeting. When it arrived by e-mail I realized we could make some immediate improvements.

His resumé was written perfectly for the late 1990s, but the expectations of today's employers are quite different. The first improvement was to shorten and punch-up the content. The resumé was five pages long. "Cut it to two pages maximum" was my first response, because no one reads more than two pages of any resumé, and many readers do not go past the first page. Second, I asked him to remove the Qualifications section at the beginning. "Your qualifications will be apparent from your content, and this section is stealing real estate better used for your job achievements."

Next, the scope was too broad. Richard has the curse of being a multi-skilled, senior person. That means it was too easy to put everything he has done into one resumé. I suggested that he convert this one resumé into three resumés with each focused on a major skills area: software architecture, IT management, and software development. Employers need to fill specific job openings so one should always have a resumé that matches that job area, and the resumé should describe supporting skills that "come along free" as part of your skills package.

Then I suggested he make this the first of his three resumés and focus his content totally on his software architecture skills. This meant deleting all but the most in-demand software languages and tools. "For every job you have held, make your content sell your architecture skills. Craft it so it presents a unified picture of your value as an architect, not a set of independent snapshots." It also meant rewriting many job entries to tailor them to an architecture focus.

I sent Richard the "Resumé" section from my book so he could get the Big Picture on what resumés should look like today. It resonated with him. He was gracious and bought a couple of copies of Hired! on Amazon. When I received the last version of his resumé, I was really impressed.

Richard did it all - a virtual rewrite. His resumé now is exactly two pages. Every job entry describes not only his job responsibilities but also his achievements that will create interest in the reader. It is focused entirely on his software architecture skills with a dash of "sizzle" about his programming and management skills. It is well-balanced and emphasizes his most recent job experiences with lighter descriptions about his job positions more than ten years ago.

Then he blew me away. He sent another e-mail saying, "I LOVE IT! I got hits on it in under an hour after putting it up on Dice.com. I have an interview on Friday, with possibility of another while I'm there. For contract and permanent positions. Just got another email about a different contract gig with a State agency. Got an email from a start-up in Virginia needing an architect. Awesome."

Awesome, indeed. His resumé became that effective key to open the door to these interviews. Results don't always happen this quickly, but if your resumé has not been severely pruned and tuned recently, you might might find that no doors are opening for you. I have more ideas on resumés and job interviews in Hired!

If you want to bring some new life to your resumé, the sample Resumé chapter Richard read is available for download at http://www.garykevans.com/sample.html.

Thinking Totally Outside the (Recession) Box

This story from CBSNews.com is tremendous. In a nutshell, job loss and program cutbacks pushed this couple toward imminent danger of a downward financial spiral. So, they stepped totally out of their "normal" activities and started writing. Writing novels. Now, one year later they have sold over one million e-books, and one book has become a New York Times Bestseller!

CBS News Video

This is a great story of nerve, and willingness to move out of one's comfort zone.

Three Killer Questions in Interviews

Job interviews can be cordial, challenging, or chilling. In this latter category I offer three "killer" questions that can scuttle your prospects in a flash.  Be prepared.

If you do have a current job, your killer question will be the innocuous, "Why are you looking to change jobs?"

Yes, why indeed are you looking to leave your current job? Years ago I had one interviewee answer this with, "To be perfectly honest, my boss is a jerk." Not a confidence-building response. Don't do this. Never, ever be negative about your current job situation. You can say you want a change, or a bigger challenge. You can say you want more opportunity for advancement. You can say you want to pursue a career path you always wanted to follow.  But do not say you are unhappy about your job, your employer, or your colleagues. Why not? Because the person interviewing you will be thinking, "OK, this candidate is a whiner and has personal issues we do not want to bring on-board."  Always say you are pursuing a change to move to new possibilities, never that you are running from a bad situation.

If you are currently not working the chances are good you will be asked, "Why have you been out of work so long?"

Being out of work in this stagnant economy is not a stigma. But you will certainly stimulate some speculation if you have been out of work for more than the seasonally-adjusted, average unemployment duration which was 36.9 weeks as of May 2013, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, the median unemployment duration is much less: only 17.3 weeks. The median measure indicates that one-half of all job seekers were out of work for up to 17 weeks before finding a job, and one-half were out of work for more than 17 weeks before finding a job.

Why is the average so much longer than the median? One answer is that many people stop looking while they live off unemployment benefits. Some people have drawn unemployment for up to 99 weeks. That's two years. The longer you are out of work the harder it will be to find a job, and the more a prospective employer might view you as a freeloader. It might not be fair, but it is what it is. If you are just at the beginning of your unemployment journey, focus your energies steadily and continually on job search. Use the process I describe in my book, Hired!, to deflect and overcome the discouragement that will inevitably come. Just keep looking - but be smart about how you look.

And whether you are or are not currently working, vacant time periods on your resume will bring the question, "What were you doing in these gaps between jobs on your resume?"

Today the job market is so convoluted that gaps in a resume are not an automatic disqualification. I spend quite a few pages in Hired! discussing how I have handled this issue with people I have assisted. (This blog entry goes more deeply into this topic.) Whatever the reasons for the gaps in your work history, be honest with the interviewer and turn the gap from a potential liability into an asset. If you have been filling-in your time with short-term or lower-paying jobs to make some money, explain that you took these jobs while continuing your job search. That will convey continuing initiative. If a job you took to tide you over is outside the area for which you are interviewing, explain that you did not list this job because it was not related to your job or career objective. Did you gain a skill, knowledge, or useful insight in the fill-in job? Then tell the interviewer how this "gap" has enabled you to benefit them better as an employee.

These three questions are simple, but potentially dangerous if you stutter or stammer, trying to think of how you will answer. Prepare ahead of your interview. In fact, prepare now because you might have a chance encounter tomorrow where someone might ask, "Really? What kind of work are you doing now?"

Dress for Success

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. That is certainly true in a job interview. You can find dozens of books on the subject of dressing for corporate success. But we live in a very "casual" age, so it is not surprising that so many HR people have shared with me that too many job seekers today just don't "get it" when it comes to looking hireable.

I recently read an article by Brian Maynor (http://www.brianmaynor.com). Brian is a style coach and I want to share a few of his ideas for being properly clothed when you go on a job interview. I cover many of these and other in my book, Hired!, but Brian's suggestions are all spot-on. After all, this is his day job!

• Keep your main colors neutral and understated. Navy blue and middle-hue blues look good on most people. Be wary of distracting patterns and textures.
• Use contrasting colors sparingly. A vivid scarf or tie can bring your neutral colors to life. But don't be so aggressive with one, or multiple, "pop" colors that three weeks later the interviewer is talking about your color wheel and cannot remember your name or face.
• Be neat. Whatever you wear must be clean, pressed, properly fitting, and well-coordinated. Make sure your hair is clean, properly cut, and well-groomed. Shoes must be polished! Scuffed or worn shoes have power to totally downgrade your entire look.
• Jewelry should not shout! Smaller is better. Pendant earrings are not a good idea for either women or men. One ring on each hand is quite enough. Look at yourself as a stranger would see you. Check your hands, wrists, neck, ears, ankles, and toes for any jewelry that will be distracting or controversial. When you find a guilty culprit: leave it at home!

I will add to Brian's list a few of the clothing suggestions I have in Hired! :

• Do not wear cologne or perfume. Nada. Not even a smidgen. Many people have allergies to scents. What you think smells great might make your interviewer nauseous. Not a good scenario.
• Cover up or use makeup to conceal your tattoos (unless you are applying for a job in a bar). Remove all visible piercing jewelry. The interviewer is really not interested in your epidermal artwork.
• If you don't have an eye for color or style, ask a knowledgeable friend or family member to help. Let them review what is in your closet. If they can't find elements that work together, ask if they will go to the store and help you pick out the piece that will tie the others together. Be prepared to spend some money to assemble a professional look. It's an investment in your future.
• Ladies, the quickest path to not even finishing the interview, much less getting a job offer, is to wear clothing that is too tight, too short, too revealing, or just too provocative. In other words, "too anything." If you have any question about whether an item is "too anything," then it probably is.
• Being dressed "appropriately" is easy to grasp if you think of it this way: if you dress for your interview in the clothing you will wear on the job, then you are under-dressed for the interview. If you dress one level up from what you would wear if you work for them, you are dressed appropriately. For example, for a man, if the normal workday clothing is jeans and work boots (as in construction or trades), or just casual clothing (as in a shopping mall retail store) then one level up is a dress shirt and complementary tie, and chinos or Dockers slacks. If the workday rule is business casual (as in most office work) then one level up is a suit.

In summary, don't make your clothing the focus of your interview. Dress so the people you talk with are not distracted by what you are wearing. You are the one looking for a job, not your attire. The best choices are the ones that help people remember you, not what you wore.