This month’s career collective bloggers question is: “What should job seekers do now to prepare for interviews?” Scroll down for thoughtful ideas and useful tips from my fellow bloggers.
You might ask yourself: What does being prepared for a job interview mean to me?
I had a client who thought she was prepared. She’d never had trouble finding work before. Even in a bad economy, she expected unemployment would be short. She had her interview clothes (both a suit and a pants/sweater version in winter and summer material!) set aside just for this. She updated her resume weekly with any pertinent activities. She contacted her references regularly to make sure they were current and used social media and her networks.
Nine months of looking and she hadn’t gotten a second interview. But she stayed hopeful. She felt as prepared as she could be — until the interview that showed her the holes in her prep.
This interview came through a colleague from her last job. As they talked, she was stunned when she realized that the person interviewing her knew that she had a chronic illness. Nothing was said, but she felt sure about it and was painfully aware of her own awful discomfort. Although her illness had not been a factor in her current unemployment, she froze thinking there was an “elephant in the room”.
She knew how to prepare for an interview as her “old/ healthy self”. But she had ignored illness as a factor in this job hunt and this was sabotaging her efforts.
The idea of a toolbox is really a joke– which is why I call it fantasy. Wouldn’t it be nice if life were so neat? I wish I could create a box filled with tools you could pull out when you need them. I’m sure it would make me rich. But there are skills you can develop.
In this case, my client needed to address her fears. She probably would have benefited from an “internal conversation” with herself as described in this post, Is there an elephant in the room: handling difficult conversations — (scroll to Part One, Internal conversation). That would have helped her to know what she didn’t want to face.
CAREERCOLLECTIVE BLOGGERS:
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Sit Down and Panic. The Interview is Yours @GayleHoward
How to Stand Out in a Job Interview @heathermundell
Avoid These Reference Mistakes @DawnBugni
Unspoken Secrets of Job Interviewing Prep: How Your Nonverbal Presentation and Behaviors Impact the Impression You Make @KatCareerGal
Prep for Interviews Now: Snuff out the Elephant in the Room Later! @chandlee << not working yet
What Should Job Seekers Do Now to Prepare for an Interview @erinkennedycprw
Take a Ride in the Elevator Before You Interview @barbarasafani
Are You Ready for the Elephant in the Room? @WorkWithIllness
“Tell Me About Yourself” (Oh, Yikes!), @KCCareerCoach
The job interview as a shared narrative @WalterAkana
Prepare your references for job search success @Keppie_Careers
No Pain No Gain In Job Search and Interview Prep @ValueIntoWords
Job searching? Take a cue from the Boy Scouts @LaurieBerenson
Preparing for Career Success Starts with Interviewing the Employers @JobHuntOrg