This comes from Peter Jones at THEJOBNETWORK. For more, visit www.larrylitwin.com Here are eight powerful examples interviewers are sure to love.
Here are eight powerful examples interviewers are sure to love:
Here are six standard, but tough interview questions. For the short snappy answers visit Peter Jones at THEJOBNETWORK or ask Prof. Litwin in class. For more, visit www.larrylitwin.com or write mlarrylitwin@gmail.com
[To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com] From Larry’s ABCs of Strategic Communication come the following:
Tips to Succeed:Do you have a brand? – Evaluate your 5 Ps
Your brand consists of a complex set of characteristics and dynamics
that play out in thousands of scenarios each workday.
You can use your brand to positively influence your image to others
and enhance your career using these five Ps:
Persona – The emotional connection and reaction you elicit from
other people as a result of your personal style.
Product – The sum of your qualifications, experience, technical
and/or functional expertise, ideas and results you’ve delivered
over time.
Packaging – The presentation of your personal appearance, surroundings
and tangible results of projects and assignments on the
job.
Promotion – The way you inform your market about your value
and impact.
Permission – The sense of legitimacy, confidence and core belief
that you have important contributions to make.
Thank you to Susan Hodgkinson – The Leader’s Edge
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This week’s blog comes from
Dale Carnegie Training Newsletter
By Anita Zinsmeister
In The Next 12 Months:
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This is excellent advice via the Courier-Post on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018:
BY Michael Hoon THEJOBNETWORK.COM
See cpsj.com for full story:
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This is excellent advice via the Courier-Post on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018:
BY ERIC TITNER
We’re all familiar with the obvious benefits of exercise — regular physical activity can keep us looking and feeling fit and healthy, increase our energy levels and confidence and help us maintain high levels of self-esteem. Staying active can also help us fight off a wealth of potentially life-threatening illnesses.
If you’re still not sold, perhaps this will help seal the deal — exercise helps fuel and maintain a healthy body, and it can actually improve your ability to think and retain information.
WHAT EXERCISE DOES
Recent studies have shown the following cognitive benefits of exercise:
Boosts brainpower: If you’re looking to take your brain’s ability to the next level, you can’t do much better than regular exercise. Studies have shown that exercise can actually increase the volume of key areas in your brain.
Enhances thinking ability: Regular workouts will help kick away the dreaded “brain fog” that keeps you from thinking clearly and keep your mind and thoughts razor sharp all day long.
Helps you process and remember new information more effectively: If you’re trying to acquire a new skill or task, like learning a new language or tackling a new job responsibility, combining it with regular exercise can help. New research suggests that physical activity can increase the size of the medial temporal and pre-frontal cortex of your brain, key areas that regulate and control thinking and memory, so you’ll be able to master that new skill faster.
Improves ability on cognitive tasks: Do you have an important test for work or school coming up? Whatever your mental goals are, exercise will help you succeed on all sorts of cognitive tasks that test your intelligence and brainpower.
Keeps away the negatives: Regular exercise will help keep your mood positive and upbeat, help you achieve more restful sleep at night and help reduce anxiety and stress, ensuring your brain works at its best.
WHEN, WHAT AND HOW MUCH?
Now that you know it works, let’s explore how you can make it work for you.
Although there’s some debate regarding the type of exercise that best serves to promote brain function, according to a recent article by Harvard Medical School, “researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning. Resistance training, balance and muscle toning exercises did not have the same results.”
Research also suggests that although you’ll receive a brain benefit regardless of when you decide to exercise, the most promising results typically occur when you do your workout before or even during a cognitive task.
Another big question you might be wondering about is how much exercise you should do in order to receive a cognitive benefit. The same Harvard Medical School report suggests that “standard recommendations advise half an hour of moderate physical activity most days of the week, or 150 minutes a week.”
If you’re worried that you’re simply too busy to exercise or find the very idea of exercise daunting, a great way to take a step forward toward a regular active lifestyle is to start small. Try taking a brief yet brisk walk for 10 to 15 minutes each day, and gradually increase your workout in both length and intensity as time passes.
Now that you know all about the many benefits that exercise will bring to your life, put the excuses aside and get up and get moving toward yoursuccessful future!
Eric Titner is a career advice journalist for TheJobNetwork.com, where this article was originally published. He investigates and writes about current strategies, tips and trending topics related to all stages of one’s career.
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Marketing moves fast, and working in this industry means you’ve got to get comfortable with change. At the drop of a hat, new marketing tools can change how we create and distribute our messaging, emerging technologies change how we track ROI, and trends can impact our decision-making processes.
Earlier this year, I made my own predictions for some of the biggest social media trends and content marketing trends brands should prepare for in 2018. To help us all get a more thorough understanding of what the future holds for content marketing, my team and I reached out to 11 marketing leaders for their predictions about the biggest trends in content in 2018:
“As we move toward 2018, now is the time to look at where your content lives, your site structure, your reader journey, etc. When someone arrives at your site or content hub, do they need to search to find what they’re looking for? If they do find it (and hopefully consume it), where do you want them to go next? Is it easy for them to get there? Is it a good experience for them? Building an audience in 2018 is about more than just telling a better story than you did in 2017. Make sure the actual experience of reading or watching it is better, too.” — Andrew Grinch, content director at Woodruff
“Your content should be all about quality, not quantity. Recent changes to search engine algorithms still value fresh site content, but that doesn’t mean you should just churn out blog article after blog article — your time is better spent creating more targeted content in more pleasing, easier-to-digest formats. And as search engines continue to display content based on a searcher’s intent rather than a string of keywords, creating content clusters centered around targeted topics is going to be the best way to spend your time.” — Doug Fowler, president at Waypost Marketing
“As consumer trust in brand-controlled messaging continues to deteriorate, it matters less what a brand says about itself and more that those claims are mirrored by what people are saying about it online. 2018 will see a pronounced expansion of the scope of a brand’s content strategy, extending beyond brand-owned properties to include the facilitation of favorable content published on third-party websites. The most impactful content will be authored by authentic, influential voices in relevant communities where customers are looking for unbiased opinions and recommendations at critical points in the customer journey.” — Angela Brooks, VP of brand strategy at Terakeet
“Reuse has always been a key part of content marketing, given how long good content takes to produce. However, the mediums have changed. Converting your whitepaper into a blog post and slide show has given way to podcasts and video stories on Instagram. Don’t be afraid to try these new channels to see what works for your content. Maybe your mailing list is still the secret weapon, but you won’t know unless you keep testing these new opportunities.” — Ash Rust, managing partner at Sterling Road
“2018 will be the battle for time. The opportunity to secure uninterrupted and focused time with consumers will still exist, but it’s going to be more challenging than ever to act upon. In order to capture hearts, minds, and — ultimately — wallets, the smartest brands will realize that they must stop thinking like advertisers and start thinking like media companies, giving core audiences value beyond just the products and services they provide.” — Jesse Greenberg, chief strategy officer at Ackerman McQueen
“There’s a growing prevalence of live and dynamic content, as opposed to static content, in social media, like an Instagram story or live story versus a static post. A growing number of brands are using this to tell a more authentic story via social media and connect with a base of Millennial consumers on a more personal level to create trust and offer a kind of ‘behind the scenes’ look, if you will.” — Sebastian Bryers, CTO at Ora Organic, a client of ours
“With the ever-increasing clutter and noise online, it will be crucial for brands to focus on reaching their desired audience with thought-provoking material that elicits a clear action at each step. I would encourage brands to build a foundation of content based on flagship stories they are telling. Focus on diving deep into key customer trends, needs, and solutions, and build a portfolio of highly relevant stories for your markets. High-impact value and continuity will be key to upholding a consistent message in the content avalanche facing your audience.” — Raj Kumar Munusamy, VP, content and messaging, global marketing at Schneider Electric
“In 2017, much of our focus as marketing professionals had been on native advertising, which remains an important factor in a content marketing strategy. Moving into 2018, however, there will be a greater focus on building a loyal audience that will give those trusted content brands multiple options to monetize that content.” — Alexandra Miscevich, director of marketing at Citadel Servicing Corporation
“Besides blocking ads, ad-block extensions block all tracking scripts running on any site, including Google Analytics, Facebook, etc. In 2018, ad-block use is predicted to double. Look at your server-side analytics from whoever you are hosting with, and compare those traffic numbers to your Google Analytics traffic numbers. Install a service such as GoAccess.io, which can pull more accurate traffic and data numbers from your server and help you improve your marketing decision-making.”– Dmitry Dragilev, founder of Criminally Prolific
“Video is here to stay, and you won’t be able to compete without it. Facebook and other ad platforms are showing preferences on organic and paid placements because the engagement rates are higher with video content. Hire a video agency, tell your story, and let consumers fall in love with your brand.” — Brian Rauschenbach, head of industry at Add3, a partner of ours
“As consumers continue to be more forensic in their efforts to discern the best products for them, readily available and easily digestible content will continue to be an important part of the marketing mix. For marketers, this means more short-form content and better search and mobile strategies. Millennial and Gen Z consumers expect to find what they want, when they want with just a few touches on their mobile phone — their life’s command and control center.” — Brad Harrison, VP of marketing at ECOS
What do you think about these predictions? Are there any other trends you’re planning for that I didn’t include? Let me know your recommendations in the comments.
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Inc.‘s Janice Tomich wrote this article, first published on Jun. 25, 2016:
When you’re giving a speech, you need to be different, like Mary Meeker was when she recently delivered her presentation at the 2016 Code Conference.
She challenged the trend of using an image-heavy presentation style delivering 213 data-dense slides in 24 minutes and 40 seconds while sharing her 2016 Trends Report.
Rather than speaking at great length to her slides, Ms. Meeker moved at lightning speed spending about seven seconds on each one.
Image-heavy presentations aren’t the only traditional trends you should avoid. A few more examples:
If you fall into the trap of misguided techniques, you’ll be lost in the sea of noise and no different than every other speaker.
How do I know? Whenever it’s possible, I attend my client’s presentations. I sit near the front, close to a wall, so I’m able to do an inconspicuous 180 to evaluate audience reactions. My eyes and ears are listening and watching for the nuances of persuasiveness — those that are connecting and the ones that aren’t.
Here are five things you can do instead of following old-school public speaking instructions if you want to excite your audience:
I’m talking really skinny. Three or four lines that tell the story of why you are the person who is best suited to speak.
Have someone introduce you and be dogged about having them repeat your short bio word for word. If you’re not able to have someone introduce you with a delicate hand, thread your credentials throughout your speech in places where it aligns conceptually to illustrate your experience.
What do you think when someone constantly repeats themself to try to persuade you? I think they’re either “a dog with a bone” and are in desperation mode to sell me, or they underestimate my intelligence.
You need to be savvy when building in repetition to have your key message stick into hearts and minds. Use a variety of learning methods or phrase your key message in different ways.
For example, you can ask a question to draw out what you want to be remembered, use the power of gestures to illuminate your point, or switch up every fifth image (the keystones) for contrast in your PowerPoint decks.
We’ve been conditioned to believe that every presentation needs to use a slidedeck and that everyone who can turn on a computer is a graphic design pro.
Ask yourself, “Do I really need slides to support my ideas and can I make it look professional in the time I have?” Consider how you’ll stand out while being different than most presenters when you’re front and center and simply speaking of what you know.
Toastmasters is a fantastic venue for practicing. It’s a low cost opportunity to create a habitual practice for improving your pubic speaking skills.
There is one aspect of Toastmasters I have issue with. It’s the counting of verbal ticks such as ums and ahs. If I had someone counting the number of times I say “right” it would stress me out.
That aside, you have your unique tics and nuances that make you, you, and without them, you’d come across as predictable and over polished. I do draw a line, though. When verbal ticks are distracting, work to alleviate them so you’ll communicate with easy flow.
If you’ve provided a stream of helpful information, those who see you as the one to solve their problem will reach out to you. Whether people contact you or not is one of the strongest indicators of a successful presentation.
You’ve been warned. Old tired techniques will irritate your audience and put up a barrier to winning them over. Excite them instead.
Read the original article on Inc.. Copyright 2016. Follow Inc. on Twitter.
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From THEJOBNETWORD, the Courier-Post (on Nov. 12, 2017) and writer Peter Jones come these “tips.”
BY PETER JONES
THEJOBNETWORK
You know you’re going to be asked about yourself in a job interview, so don’t get caught tongue-tied.
It’s smart to have a small collection of adjectives that describe you well and show you off in your best light — bonus points if they aren’t the same old tired words everybody else is using.
Often the best strategy here is to think of action verbs, then modify them into adjective form. Think about how you would sincerely describe yourself, both personally and at the office, then put together a list and memorize it for ultimate interview success.
Here are eight powerful examples interviewers are sure
to love:
Communication is one of the skills most highly valued by employers, so this is a shrewd word to use. It suggests that you’re a people person, you are effective at disseminating information, you care about connecting with your clients and coworkers and you are intelligent enough to do so clearly and professionally.
Plus, you can segue this into concrete examples of how you used your communication skills to problem solve.
3. Driven
If you’d rather, “ambitious” works here, as well — any adjective that shows you are not just showing up for the paycheck and free coffee is great. These words prove that you are in it to win it — both to advance yourself in your career and, in the meantime, to advance the company and its most important goals. Subtext: no one is going to need to hound or micromanage you to keep you motivated. You’re “self-motivating.”
This word hints at your attention to detail, your precision, your organizational skills, your ability to prioritize and the fact that you hate letting anything slip through any cracks.
If you’re meticulous, you’re thorough and self-managing and trustworthy. See how much work this kind of word can do?
Go ahead and say what a difference you made at your last gig. Go ahead and gloat.
You come on the job and get things done. You can totally brag here at this point, and throw in a mention of any accomplishments or awards you may have earned along the way. This word shows you don’t just make promises, you get results.
You don’t quit until the job is done (and done well). What’s more, you’ll get the project done on time. You’ll put in the extra work until the solution is found. This conveys that you’re “results-oriented,” as well.
You’re not rigid. You think outside the box. You’re able to adapt to challenging circumstances and find the workaround that no one else can see. You adapt on the go and keep adapting. You’re the kind of employee everybody wants because you’re willing to do things outside the purview of your job description — provided it makes sense for the company and for the goals of your team.
It’s always good to round off a list of descriptors of yourself with something that conveys a bit of humility — your willingness to sacrifice your own time and ambitions now and then for the good of the group.
“Team player” transitions easily enough to a description of how you’re also a “leader” … for those of you who want to score that last bonus point.
Peter Jones is a career advice journalist for TheJobNetwork.com, where this article was originally published. He investigates and writes about current strategies, tips and trending topics related to all stages of one’s career.
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Thanks to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017, we have these interview tips from Jon Simmons, Monster contributor.
Your palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. Why? Either you’re Eminem about to rap battle your opponent, or you’re about to go to a job interview.
If the thought of standing in front of a stranger, asking to be judged on your professional merits makes you want to vomit, you’re not alone—according to a study by Everest College and Harris Interactive, 92% of people say they get nervous at some point before a job interview.
Nerves are natural, but if your high stress level makes you appear less capable than you really are, that could be a big problem during your job search.
Take a deep breath and try to relax. Monster talked with some experts who shared their top tips for staying calm and focused, so you can conquer job interview jitters and land your next job.
One of the questions you’re most likely to trip over is also one of the simplest: “What can you tell us about yourself?”
It should come as no surprise that practicing talking about your skills and accomplishments will help you stay calm. But what exactly should you focus on, and how should you practice?
“Your pitch should include your most recent job, two accomplishments, key skills, length of experience, education and languages you speak,” says Amy Geffen, founder of Geffen Careers, a career coaching business in New York City. “Write down your pitch, and practice it in front of the mirror and with a friend. After you have it memorized and you become comfortable, say it in a conversational tone.”
It’s that easy familiarity that can help calm you down when you feel the pressure building in the real-life scenario.
You’re probably familiar with the feeling of taking an exam that you were underprepared for. It’s not a good feeling, obviously, and it’s also a total recipe for a stress attack. But on the flipside, you probably also know the opposite feeling—sitting down for a test that you know you’re going to crush since you took the time to prepare. That same recipe for success applies to heading into interviews.
Google the company to see if they’ve been made any news headlines in the past year. Of course, scouring a company’s website and social media accounts other ways to do your homework. What is their mission? What are their values? What are their future goals? What’s on their radar right now? Familiarize yourself as much as possible with the company.
Company homework aside, your research should also include preparing answers to some of the interview questions recruiters are most likely to ask.
Which do you think hiring managers prefer: a candidate who fires off a quick response right after the question (and doesn’t answer particularly well), or a candidate who takes a moment to gather her thoughts before replying with a concise, detailed response?
“Applicants are often nervous and feel they have to provide an immediate response as soon as the question ends,” says Susan Hosage, senior manager, human resources at CTE, Inc.,a PA-based construction services company. “Unfortunately, this practice often results in applicants not understanding what information is being requested or the required level of detail.”
So if you’re asked something you aren’t 100% sure about, stay calm, knowing that hiring managers prefer to wait for the right answer than listen to something that’s tossed back quickly and nervously.
“Listen to the question—even take notes if it’s a long one—and provide a thoughtful response,” Hosage says. That way, you’ll be able to calmly respond, which is half the battle when it comes to looking like you know what you’re talking about.
Content provided by The Inquirer Advertising Department
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