oliviatamccue

This past week has felt like a very LONG week!…  I am glad that it is coming to the weekEND.   Job opportunities sometimes come in spurts, its arrival tends to do a very good job to kill rhythm or other plans.

Last week has 5 interviews on different job nature, very different companies.  It has taken some mental strength to prepare and show-up.      It feels like travelling to 5 different countries in 5 days, good experience yet exhausting.

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Cool Unique Questions:

My top ranking:

– how heavy is this building?

– spend 3 minutes to teach me a new skill.

– how would you set up at disney to get new customers sign-up for a credit card company?  how much would you charge per every successful sign-up?

– plus brain teaser type of question.

These make the experience unique and quite memorable.  How it could have helped the selection, it is still beyond me in spite of hiring experience.

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Towards the end of a conversation:

Job seekers sometimes would be suggested to ask questions like “How do you see my fit to this position?”   So far, I find this question could be intimidating to some, it is like “tell me my score right there?”.   I prefer this following series of questions:

– What makes a best fit for the position?  Or what would make a great partner for you in this position?

If the response echoes, that is wonderful to provide feedback; if it represents another individual, it is food for thought offline.

The other question I think is easier on both sides of the interview:

– Are there further areas I can answer to complete your assessment?

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Success story 

one lady in my job group got an offer in an exciting company, she has been in one company for the last 30 days, and have no job search experience, until now.  Isn’t it exciting news?

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After a holiday hiatus, it is time to dust off the sleeping-bug and get back to some rhythm.

January 4, 2013 is one of the best days ever for wedding.  Why? January 4, 2013 in YYMD format becomes 13-1-4, the Chinese pronounication of 1314 in Chinese has a meaning.   CCUE means everything is as wish; 1314 means “forever in the whole life for the whole century”.   Imagine how sweet for a couple to get married on such a date “love forever in the whole life”.

Let’s say it creates some good-luck charm for anything we start today.

Finally there is a deal for the US fiscal cliff.

Well, for job searcher, there are different types of cliff that can easily get a person in low spirit.  What is a job search (fiscal) cliff?

• You run into a job opportunity that fits like a glove, all the interviews are done and the conversation flows beautifully, and the hiring manager promises to get back to you quickly.   It feels an offer is on the way.  Then next day comes and goes, another day and then more days of anticipating until the news that another candidate has been selected or there is a change in the hiring direction.  This is a cliff where the high expectation turn to a low disappointment.
• You run into a long period of no action.  It seems all applications go to a black hole. What happens?
• You finish an interview, and the interviewers end the conversation making you feel chance-less for a job that you consider qualified when you apply.
• And believe me, more forms of cliff.

Like the law of physics, after a cliff fall,  it takes extra anti-gravitational energy to get back up and it is not easy.  It is good for the endurance test.  It is even more challenging to get back up higher, and to-be-ready for another cliff.

Some thoughts to climb out of the hole from the fall over the cliff…

– Think of the positives.  It is encouraging to go deep in the process, than not getting started.  It is like “well, you are the runner up”, while the defeat is hard, it is still a good show.   You have conversations with more folks of this company than many other jobs that you have ever applied, aren’t you?  Not everyone is a born positive thinker.  Next …

– Distraction.  Most are born with natural survival and recovery ability, often it takes time. Some take a couple of hours, a day, some take much longer to recover from a rejection.  Distraction can be in the form of doing something related to a hobby, reading a book, sports…   If you run out of ideas, then just trying something easy and new.  For example, if you are never a music person, try to pick up a crazy teenager music from the library; or pick up a new free class, from the zillions of web sites.

– Keep getting at it.  The best recovery is to create new hope and opportunities.  That means, going back to the drawing board, be it be more job applications or more networking.

– Be Better.  The good news is there is always room for improvement.  If you get the offer, it feels like the end of the journey; if you don’t get it, it forces reflection.  These reflections are pre-mortem for the next opportunities.   If you are in a job search group, it is a good window to ask for feedback.  Failure, to get what has been expected, helps to grow character and resilience.

I wish all to be healthy and happy 1314.

Much to the prediction of some recruiters and confirmed by job seekers, December turns out to be a more active month.   With holiday fast approaching, it feels like the last push before the end of the year.

When the market is active, job searching activities are much like managing multiple projects at the same time – different positions, different requirements, different teams, organizations and culture.   The experience of this would be a credential that effective job seekers have the skills asked of many position – the ability to manage multiple and very different projects in parallel.
There are additional similiarities between career transition and program/project management.  How so…

– explore the opportunities Vs opportunity definition

– define a position plan Vs program objective

– network or career transition services Vs program team or stakeholders

– submit resume Vs launch project investigation

– interview Vs business analysis

– offer Vs sign-off, often it involves the negotiation to get one working.

Seemingly a lot of common techniques.

What if the job seeker does not like project management?

How about this analogy with tennis tournament?  There are many tournaments, each has only that many players in the main draw, amidst many tennis pro.

First, the players get to the main draw, similar to networking or submitting resume.

The interview is like the single elimination process in tennis match.   Winner stays, other move on to next tournaments.

The initial rounds are a bit easier, when it gets to semi-final or final, the competition is more intense.  The intent to attend any tournament is to win and get the trophy.

There comes very different points of view about job market in the month of December.   A lot of suggestion that  November and Decemeber are quiet months with holidays kicking in; the contrary view points out more people land on jobs in December than any other months.    What’s what then?

My personal observation confirms that since November, there are less jobs posted.   Yet, seems more momentum from hiring teams to close existing job positions or shortlist candidates.  I have interviewers coming back for further interview earlier than set schedule; and that hiring manager has the tones that they like to close req. before the holiday.

For motivated job seekers, month of December could be a very good month with the intent of hiring manager, and a number of job seekers taking a break!

Some thoughts while going through more interviews….

Almost every investment bronchure would mention “past performance is not indicator of the future”.  One of the most popular forms of interview is “behavorial interview”, or “situational” questions where we are asked to relate how we address situation in the past.  Does it really help to forecast the future performance?  Situation changes, environment changes, and priority changes.

For many companies, people are the talents and they are the differentiator.  I just start to ponder it would be a cool problem to solve to figure out  ways to improve the quality of interview and the hiring process for companies.  Before I finish thinking, I read about a tool iLiftOFF, an online recruitment testing engine to help companys recruit better using online tests.

OK, how about companies having cool ways to measure “on the job performance” against “interview performance”.   With advance in technology and data analytics, maybe it would not be too long to find an app. doing this.

Job seekers get lists of typical interviewing questions,  they are like “questions that would show up in examinations”; and they show up in interviews.   So the list is great to help the preparation.   Some questions are more commonly used.   There are questions like “tell me about the greatest accomplishment on the job”… it is a tough one as it is  like choosing the best fruits of all, or in sports, discussion about “greatest of all times”;  or questions like “tell me of a difficult situation or a failure”.  If a difficult situation got overcome, would that stay as “difficult situation” in memory?  If the situation is a failure, do we want to remember, let alone share it in an interview…

I appreciate those hiring managers paraphrase the “real challenges” in the job, and ask the candidates how they approach.  We are then trying to solve a real situation in the present, and not trying to guess which past experience could be relevant.

I recently interviewed a company which produces birth control devices for women.   If not for the job search, it would take an unlikely coincidence to be aware of the progress in medical devices for birth control.

From my perspective, social challenges like Food, Shelter and Poverty have a lot to do with the population trend of the countries; and it is a surprise that would not be a visible topic in those economic summit of the country leaders.  It is as simple as demand and supply.  More people, more demand on the basic needs.

I have been in two places where population management was an agenda.  In Hong Kong, around 2 decades ago when it was still governed by British, there were educational commercials on how a family with 1 kid were cute; 2 kids were wonderful; 3 kids became burdensome; 4 kids the family became broke; or sometimes got a superstar celebrity to advocate the same thing.  That was really smart, its influences were not just for the current generation, but more to the next generation who listened to these commercial tunes as they grew up.    Time forward, in the current generation, it is not so often to find a family in Hong Kong with more than 2 kids; and with 4 kids, very uncommon.

China adopted a more forceful approach on one family one kid.  This is just so in line with its image; similar intent on population control, it caused so much international criticism in at least the first decade of the policy; almost two decades after, it only took one real bad situation to undermine the policy and made it really inhumane.

How about for other developing countries?

Could it be a win-win for company with birth control medical devices to link with government or non-profit organizations, and help folks in other parts of the worlds to be aware of the choice?

Technology may ultimately solve the social challenges around food, poverty, hunger; it is very hopeful.  At the same time, many social problems like environmental, hunger and others, don’t they have some relationship with the size of the population?

Recruiters have tough competition and have many challenges to overcome.   There are a lot of recruiters and recruiting firms.

There are some recruiters whose behavior are hard to understand, maybe all have good reasons.

Case 1: these recruiters reached you multiple times and told of a very urgent position and could not wait; just then after giving a  response and requested information, they vaporized as quickly as snow in summer.  Are they just trying to collect enough resumes and candidates for their clients?

Case 2: the recruiter conducted screen interview, and spent the phone interview to almost convince that the job was not the right fit for you.   Why bother to waste time on both sides?  Do they have a quota in terms of number of folks to interview before making an offer to the secret candidate they have in mind?

Case 3: the recruiter criticized a company on the resume, like “so-and-so company is conservative”. How would they know?  and if they know, why would they interview a candidate who used to work there?

There are mind-boggling yet real situations.

To write or not write a cover letter for job positions applied?

– Applying a job without a cover letter is like showing up in a house for a date, without asking first.

– Yet with a cover letter,  it can also be the quickest way out of the consideration if there is flaw easily noticed.

To reveal or not reveal age?

 – At 50, it may still be possible to be disguised as a 40ish.

– At 60+, it takes magic to be disguised as a 40ish.    Why bother?

In Chinese sayings, 三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命，六十而耳顺，七十而从心所欲不逾矩 roughly translated to “thirty and independent; forty and not be tempted; fifty and know the fate; sixty and accept differences; seventy and everything is as wish”

– Share one  as a sandwich:  Strength at the top and the bottom; weakness in the middle.

– Share one irrelevant to the position.

Tell me about yourself?

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