Session learnings and Feedback - Strengths-based Resume Writing

Extremely happy to have conducted two sessions on Strengths-based Resume Writing and Interview Preparation for the students of R.A. Podar College in Matunga (E), Mumbai.

Approximately 170 students were covered in two separate three-hour batches conducted over 2 days.

Here is the feedback for both days.

This is where they have stated how they feel about writing their own Strength-based Resume after attending my session.

What they will apply from the sessions-

Extremely grateful to Ruta Vyas and the management at R.A. Podar College for the opportunity.

Do connect with me to conduct such sessions for students.

If you want personalized individual coaching for writing your resume or preparing for interviews, please do write to me at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com or call on +919820155778 for a discussion.

Dealing with career setbacks

Source: pexels-cup-of-couple-6633044

Life can deal us many blows.  Some of the toughest events to deal with are those related to the career.  This is because many of us have our identity tied to what we do for a living, and when this is threatened or taken away, there is a profound feeling of loss and confusion. These events could be anything from being laid off, get passed over for a promotion opportunity, missing out on an employment opportunity, frequent rejections of your resume and so on. 

When your resume gets frequently rejected, or you don't clear the final round of the interview at the organization where you were very keen on working, or if you are laid off, your morale can really drop.  You start wondering if you are good enough, or if you ever will be.  The imposter syndrome kicks in, and you end up feeling worse. Check out my article about using your strengths to tackle your imposter syndrome.

Here are some ideas to deal with career setbacks, particularly job interview rejections:

• First, introspect honestly on the circumstances that brought you through your current place. Clearly articulate your role in the entire process before anyone else's role.
• Revise your strategy and keep trying.
• Reflect on top 3 situations / interviews that you think went really well.
• Identify and note down 5 things that you did particularly well in those situations.
• Similarly, for 3 situations / interviews that you feel went really poorly. Reflect on what could have gone better. Note these down.
• Consider how you could enhance the use of your strengths to improve.
• If you can call someone who was present at the time for feedback, you can ask them for 3 things you did well and 3 things you can improve on. Don't get defensive during these calls and only make notes of their suggestions.  Thank them of course.
• Consider how you can improve your adaptability to the environment.
• Finally, remember that what happens to you can define you personally, only if you let it get to you personally.  It's ok to fall down now and then, just don't stay there.

Accordingly, you can now modify your approach and restart.  You could consider engaging a strengths-based career coach (like myself) to help you polish your approach.

Wish you all success in bouncing back from your setbacks.

Three Key Competencies to Showcase When you apply for a Leadership Role

Well, actually - Four Competencies!.

But let's turn back the clock a bit.

You feel you are read for a Manager's position or a Leadership role (internally or externally) and want to apply?  

Why? Because you have the work experience and have ambitious growth plans. You feel you get along well with people, including your colleagues.

Great! You have some clarity about where you want to go career-wise. 

But what happens is that you apply many times internally or at different organizations, but don't get through.  You have no idea what you are doing wrong since there's no real feedback for you to work on.

Based on my HR experience in the corporate world and having coached clients who are applying for senior roles, here are my thoughts that may help you understand where the mismatch might be.

When applying for a Leadership position, whether in your own organization or in another organization, here are the key competencies / abilities that you have to showcase in your cover letter, resume and interview:

Finance - Particularly, how the business makes money and awareness of the critical cost areas beyond your department.

Why this is important? - As a leader, you will be in charge of a finite budget (size doesn't matter). Your strategic utilizaiton / consumption of this budget will impact EDBITA, as well as meet your goals. It's an opportunity to showcase application of your knowledge of finance.

Marketing - This includes understanding the product / service, customer and how the product / service is marketed and sold (based on your industry, this could include how the product is made).  This means that your industry knowledge should be as upto date as possible.

Why this is important? - Customers come to our organization because of the products / services being offered. As a leader, your work directly or indirectly impacts this.  So showing your understanding of how this works will be a major plus for your candidature.  After all, the business survives and thrives because of the spending habits of it's customers.

Human Resources - This means showcase how you manage people, groom them for higher roles and lead the team to deliver value consistently. If you are able to also inspire people, that is a bonus.

Why this is important? In today's world, one person cannot do it all, but a team can (conditions apply of course, and a lot of those conditions depend on the leader).  This means knowing in clear detail the capability of your current team members, and the skills necessary to hire (so that you can leverage these) in your future team.

Now, suppose you have specialized expertise in one of these areas and think that it is enough to move to a leadership position (especially in today's times), then I can say that leadership roles will not suit you as you will be an incomplete candidate for the role.  You will find yourself getting skewed while executing your duties, leading to an imbalance in execution.

You don't need to know everything in great detail, but you must know more than the basics.

What's The Fourth Competency - you must have sufficient expertise in your own functional area, and consistently deliver value to the organization.  

What does 'sufficient' mean, you wonder?  It means you know enough about the job to train new team members effectively, hire and groom a new employee with little work experience into understanding and delivering the requirements of his / her role within three to six months.  Additionally it means you can manage the ambiguities of the role you are currently handling.

When you present yourself as someone who is familiar with all these areas, then you become a strong contender to take on the critical role of managing, developing and perhaps leading people.

Now that you know this - what next?

As a candidate applying for leadership positions, prepare your responses to questions in these areas, as well as other aspects of the job. Take same time to understand how these tasks are aligned with your strengths. The reality is that not all of them will be aligned to your strengths.  In which case, please explain that you would manage those out of alignment areas (i.e. possible weaknesses) by collaborating with your colleagues, and that you are a  great team player by lending your strengths to complement their weaknesses.  Integrity, of course, is non-negotiable. 

If you need help to prepare for your interview, get in touch with me at +919820155778 or write to me at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com for a discussion.  

As an organization looking to hire for leader / team manager roles, please ensure that you evaluate the candidate on these criteria in particular, amongst others that are important to the organization's growth and culture. Integrity is non-negotiable. Use psychometric, behavioural interviews, special assignments or assessment centers to evaluate candidates.

Should you wish to enhance your existing hiring process, contact me for a discussion on how my BEI Workshop "The Selection Discussion" can be effective in improving the quality of people hired for your organization.

Answering - Where do you see yourself in Five Years?

How to respond to the interview question - Where do you see yourself in Five Years?

It has been one of the most regularly asked interview questions for a very long time (and now outdated) ,so now it's quite ineffective for an interviewer to expect to make an informed hiring choice with this question.

Why? You might ask? 

You might even say - it shows me how the candidate plans for his future. In a linear world, this could be true. However, this is a valid but somewhat insufficient thought.  Terry Pratchett (one of my favourite authors), said it better than I could:

A similar thought was echoed by the creators of the Scrum Methodology.  You can find it in the Scrum Fieldbook.

What if the candidate asks you what your organization is doing to ensure that it will be around for the next five years?

Of course you can plan the future, you might say.

Reality says - sure, give it your best shot.  Show me the crystal ball you are using, and I will show you what happens when the time comes.

The point is - The world we live in is in constant flux, at a high speed, pulling and tempting us in multiple directions at once.  Changes in technology are happening so fast that yesterday's knowledge gets redundant faster.  What's worse, some of the things we once considered true and sacrosanct are now found to be inaccurate.

Another thing - we tend to base our plans on our past experiences.  While that's a fairly normal practice, that's extremely effective in a linear world, we don't realize that those past experiences occurred due to a multitude of factors, including situational factors beyond our control, our own stage of growth and maturity, and our reactions at that time.  This means that for our plans to be successful, we need to have the same set of factors occurring in the same degree, and we have to take those same steps.  This likelihood is really low.

Now, let's examine this question from the perspective of:

A Candidate, what could be a suitable response to this question?  Here's my suggestion - 

"I'm building my strengths and skills by undertaking diverse experiences and learning from them.  I supplement this with networking for knowledge, and working with a mentor.

I see myself applying my strengths in my future role of influencing or managing people to deliver great results in my chosen field of expertise for the organization, either mine or my employer's, leveraging suitable opportunities that come my way."

Please feel free modify the above so that it suits you, your profile  AND sounds like you, and not someone else.

I cover this and other aspects in my Interview Coaching sessions with both junior and senior clients.

An interviewer - my suggestion would be to modify the question as follows: 

"As you move ahead in your career, what do you see yourself doing five years from now?"

This could be followed up by - "What have you been doing so far to make this a reality?"

This helps move the interview into a detailed conversation where the candidate gets to share deeper information about themselves and you get more clarity on the candidate's potential capability.

I cover this and other aspects of Behavioural Event Interviewing in my specially designed workshop for organizations,  "The Selection Discussion".

Want support to know more? Write to me on +919820155778 or call +919820155778 to schedule a discussion.

What the research says about cultural alignment in hiring

We've heard the phrase "checking the cultural fit of a candidate" when hiring a candidate.  This is where all interviewers including HR professionals make errors in hiring at least once in their careers.

This fascinating article covers this in detail.

From the article: Research suggests it’s a lot easier to recruit and select for cultural alignment rather than socializing employees to match the values. That’s why including cultural alignment measurements in the hiring process can produce significant benefits.

Read the full article here

Interview Prep - The Jobseeker's Search for Green Flags

If you are going to look for green flags when applying for roles, you need to do some critical prework before you research the company - on YOURSELF.

The prework is that you have to get:

1. A clear understanding of your strengths & weaknesses.
2. Clarity on what kind of work is aligned with your strengths.
3. Clarity on what kind of work environment will suit your strengths

Info on point one you can get by introspecting on feedback given to you by colleagues, peers, bosses, customers, vendors (for freshers - classmates, teachers), or through a validated psychometric assessment like the PRISM Professional report (Ask me about it, I'm a Licensed Practitioner) because:

• It's validated at 0.9 on the Crombach scale
• It is based on neuroscience and identifies our preferences without labeling us
• It covers points two & three mentioned above in vivid detail.

Thereafter, your research from GlassDoor, social networks, customer forums, industry trends. past employees if you can contact them, current employees too if possible.

Once you have all this information, create a list of top five questions that cover your key non-negotiable points.  

Practice asking these questions, instead of reading them out, since you will come across as more prepared and professional.

To know yourself through the PRISM professional and to download a sample PRISM Professional Report, please visit www.prismbrainmapping.com

Upcoming Webinar : Sell Yourself Into Your Next Job - Jan 22

Are you having trouble 

1) getting interview calls

2) Clearing the interviews

You must attend this webinar.

 Register here : https://www.townscript.com/e/Season-8-sell-yourself-webinar-Jan-22

Last Minute Interview Coaching

Got an upcoming interview that's making you nervous?

Contact me for an interview coaching session. Yes, there are charges for the session that are based on your level of experience and the position you seek.

USE YOUR STRENGTHS - to take CHARGE of YOUR Career.

 

Why "Any Job" will not be appropriate for You!

What would you like to have? An ice-cream - which flavour? something from the picture above? Or perhaps a sandwich or a burger? A toy car or a football? An easy project or a challenging assignment?  A job close to your home, or a job in another city?

Throughout our life, we are offered preferences. A preference is about stating a choice from among different possible like-able options. I think it is important, to have and state a preference when offered, because the chances of instantly and completely liking whatever is placed in front of us, is not a surity.  Strangely, we hesitate to state our preferences.

At a party many years ago, a friend was offered a choice of alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks.  The friend kept saying "anything will do".  The more the host pressed him, he gave the same response.  So finally the host told him "Ok, you shall have water", to which an instant choice was stated, much to our laughter.

This kind of indecisive behaviour also enters our workplace.  Sometimes, you hear it at office meetings when the boss says "I'm buying ice-cream for the team - what will you have?"  Perhaps it's our upbringing or we're just shy.  

Normally, this behaviour is not going to impact our lives very much. There are some dangers however, as we may come across as indecisive and get a reputation of not being able to make up one's own mind.  Not really positive, is it? And unfortunately, some of us take this approach into our career and life choices.  How? We say things like "Any job will do", "I'm looking for any opportunity to show my skills" or other such phrases when we are asking someone to help us find a job.  This is a common thread, particularly with those who have lost their jobs during the past 10 months.  It's predominant among freshers, most of whom have little or no access to a career counsellor or career coach who is not selling them an education course.

This approach is quite ineffective, because now, your friend or consultant has no idea what sort of job to refer you for.  For freshers particularly, the friend or consultant may not know your skills well enough to make a judgement call on sending your resume to another organization in his network for a particular role. Additionally, a lot of resumes come in a common template format, which makes it hard for any reader to distinguish one resume (and by that extension, a candidate) from another.  And so your resume remains in the back since no preference was mentioned to keep it at the top of the mind, and you remain unemployed longer.

So here's the deal - Freshers and seasoned professions MUST tell their network in very clear terms-

1. What kind of job they are looking for
2. What kind of industry preferences they have  
3. What work they do well (specific rockstar skills they may possess) in that particular role.
4. Write their resume based on their strengths
5. Prepare for interviews based on strengths so that "Recall Value" is created in the minds of the interviewer.  Read my article about this here.

This is applicable to both fresh graduates and seasoned professionals.

So don't just ask for 'any' job.  Get clarity about your job preferences by doing the following:

• Introspecting about your likes, dislikes, and what interests that may be turned into careers
• Developing strong self awareness about your strengths, weaknesses and areas where you want to develop opportunities. Get a Strengths Based Career Coach for this.
• Understand that skills are not one dimensional and can be applied to different industries, thus you can generate more job options.
• Explore i.e. research industries that seem interesting to you through industry journals and news articles.  
• Leverage your network to find out about how it would be to work in organizations that you are interested in
• Inform your network that you are specifically looking for X type roles in Y type organizations or industries.  It creates greater recall value.

Yes it is a lot of work, but it will definitely help you become 

• More clear about what you want in a job and as a career, 
• More confident in your approach, 
• More memorable in the minds of your network, and 
• You stand a better chance of landing a job that you will love, enjoy and be satisfied with.  

Keep in mind.....

Want to know how to do this? Contact me.  I am a Strengths-based Career Coach and Career Transition Coach who can help you do this.  Call me on +919820155778 or email me at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com for a discussion.

Sell Yourself Into Your Next Job - Nov 2020

 Welcome to the 6th Webinar on this topic.

Register here:- https://www.townscript.com/e/Nov-20-sell-yourself-webinar

Sell Yourself Into your Next Job - 26 Sept 2020

 

Here's the flyer and link for #sellyourself into your Next Job - a #strengthsbasedresume writing and #interviewprep Webinar".

https://www.townscript.com/e/Sep-20-strengthsbased-resume-writing-and-interview-prep-webinar

Please do sign up and share with any of your friends who would be interested. Do take advantage of early bird offer.

#jobsearch #jobseekers #jobsearchtips #resumetips #resumewriting #interviewtips #interviewadvice #interviewskills #interviewsuccess #vacancy #strengthsdecoder

Sell Yourself Into your Next Job - Aug 2020

The next webinar of "Sell yourself Into your Next Job - A Strengths Based Resume writing and Interview Prep Webinar" is on 15 August 2020.

Details are in the link below. There is a special Independence Day Offer of Rs. 500/- this time only. Please take advantage and register soon.

https://www.townscript.com/e/Aug-20-sell-yourself-into-your-next-job-a-strengthsbased-resume-writing-and-interview-webinar-231114

Here's a few testimonials from previous participants.

Call +919820155778 or write to me in case of questions.

#jobsearch #resumewriting #interviewpreparation #interviewtips #strengthsdecoder #strengthscoaching #strengthsbasedresume #jobseekers #jobhunt

If your career path might need you to create a new one

This article provides useful insight about how your career path may require you to create a new one.

Enjoy!

 https://www.td.org/insights/3-questions-explore-how-your-career-path-may-be-shifting

Contact me if you want to design your career based on your strengths. 

This would be about 8-10 coaching sessions of 60-90 minutes duration where you would start by 

• taking the CliftonStrengths assessment
• a debrief of your Cliftonstrengths report
• Coaching to help you understand how your strengths manifest as behaviours
• A values inventory for you to understand which are the values  that drive your behaviour
• Coaching to help you identify a career that is based on and aligned with your strengths
• Any other behaviour issue that you wish to resolve

Happy to get on a call to discuss and answer any questions you may have.  I can be reached at +919820155778 or leave a comment here.

HR Job Hunting - Change Driver or Passenger.

This is an article with great tips for #HR #jobseekers positioning yourself as a #changedriver instead of a #passenger during your #jobinterview .

But I'm not sure how feasible or practical it is, especially for junior candidates, to do this. Even senior folk will have a tough time. For those from other functions, there may be something to learn.

Click here to read.

Need help in preparing for an interview - contact me @+919820155778

#jobhunt