Career Couch: Before the Job Interview, Do Your Homework

A. Research the company and the industry, says Adrien Fraise, founder of Modern Guild, which provides online career coaching to college students and high school seniors. “Know the major industry trends and news,” he says, and be able to talk about how they could affect the company.

Find out who runs the company and how they got there. “Look at their profiles on LinkedIn and see if you find a common bond,” says David Lewis, the chief executive of OperationsInc., a human resources outsourcing and consulting firm in Norwalk, Conn. “If you are able to say, ‘I went to the same college as you’ or ‘I also majored in psychology,’ that demonstrates you really did your homework.”

Familiarize yourself with the company’s products or services and look for ways, even small ones, to possibly expand or add value. Note the positives, then talk about opportunities you see, says Moses Lee, C.E.O. of Seelio, a platform that lets students and recent college graduates post samples of their work and search for jobs.

“Let’s say you are talking about a recent marketing campaign,” he says. “You could say, ‘I enjoyed that campaign and if I had the opportunity to work on it, I might frame it so it resonated with millennials, too.’ ”

Q. What questions can you expect, and how can you prepare to answer them?

A. You may be asked to walk the interviewer through your résumé, so prepare concise, articulate anecdotes to illustrate what you did or learned in each experience you’ve listed, Mr. Fraise says. Highlight what you achieved and the skills you used — and how you want to keep using them. “Rehearse in front of the mirror and then in front of others,” he says. “Be so comfortable with it, it doesn’t sound scripted.”

Interviewers often ask questions like “Can you give me an example of when you had to work as part of a team or learned something new quickly?” Mr. Lewis says your examples might come from experiences in a club, fraternity or sorority. “Did you organize a membership push? Plan events? Do recruiting?” he says.

If you’re asked a question like “Why did you choose your college major?” be complete in your answer. “Don’t just say ‘because I really like psychology,’ “ Mr. Lewis advises. Instead, note from a business perspective why you liked the subject. “Maybe you found the classes to be informative about human behavior, which is a key to success in anyone’s business,” he says.

Take along samples of your work — whether from an internship, a class or an extracurricular activity — in a folder or on a laptop computer or tablet.

And always prepare questions to ask at the end of the interview, says Alexa Hamill, American campus recruiting leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Philadelphia. Questions on the interviewer’s own career progress are a way to conclude, she says: “What opportunities have been presented to them? How were they trained and developed? This shows you are looking at the job as something potentially long term.”

Q. You want to exude confidence and maturity. What are some ways to bolster your confidence before an interview?

A. Develop a personal elevator pitch — a 30-second to one-minute summary of your academic career, your interests and what you did outside school — and correlate that to the job you want, Ms. Hamill says. PricewaterhouseCoopers offers a free tool on its site to help think through those questions, she says.

Q. What are some basic interview etiquette rules, in terms of dress and behavior?

A. Turn off your cellphone before walking into the company’s offices, and don’t take it out during your interview. “Don’t remind me you’re a 22-year-old,” Mr. Lewis says. “Have a firm handshake, maintain eye contact and don’t fidget.”

Remember not to talk about inappropriate topics like a recent fraternity party or something you saw on Facebook, Ms. Hamill says. When speaking to interviewers, “face them with your knees pointing toward them, sit up straight and stay engaged,” she says. After the interview, send a thank-you e-mail and include a link to your online portfolio or Web site if you have one.

Unless the company recommends dressing casually or informally for the interview, men should wear a suit and tie and women should wear a suit or skirt and blouse, Mr. Lewis says. You may be the only one in the office dressed that way, he says, but it’s usually better not “to walk into an interview dressed as if you are already part of the team.”

Career Couch: The Groundwork for Good References

A. Ideally, you are continually cultivating references by doing good work, seeking out mentors and developing strong relationships with peers and supervisors. When you are ready to move on to a new job, ask those people if you can list them as references. “Job seekers should never list someone as a reference without having talked to that person about it first,” says Tom Gimbel, C.E.O. of the LaSalle Network, a staffing and recruitment firm in Chicago.

Let your references know about the positions for which you’re being considered and what they will most likely be asked, says Jennifer Takacs-O’Shea, president of Caterpillar Career Consultants in Calverton, N.Y.

And if you are leaving under less-than-desirable circumstances, be honest about that when you talk to your manager. “Have the humility to acknowledge you weren’t that good at the job,” Mr. Gimbel says. Commit to working on your weaknesses in the future. Then talk about strengths you had — like being a team player, having a good attitude, meeting deadlines — and ask if your manager could stress those characteristics in a reference check.

Q. What if you discover that a former employer is giving you an undeserved negative reference?

A. Although many companies have a policy of limiting reference information to confirming employment dates and job titles, to protect against possible litigation, some people still give negative feedback, says Jeff Shane, executive vice president at Allison & Taylor, a firm in Rochester, Mich., that conducts reference checks for corporations and job seekers.

Employees who feel that their character is being defamed could sue the employer to stop it, says Susan K. Lessack, a partner in the labor and employment practice of the law firm Pepper Hamilton in Philadelphia. But that should be a last resort. Being known for suing a former employer isn’t likely to help your job search, and defamation is hard to prove, she says. “I don’t think there’s much upside,” she says.

One possible path is to contact the person you believe is giving the negative reference and discuss the situation, Mr. Shane says. Try to reach agreement about what the person will say in the future so it’s not perceived as negative.

You can also contact the human resources office, as it is usually more objective than a former supervisor, Ms. Lessack says. “Ask for some assistance or agree that the company will provide only neutral information,” she says. “You might try to get a written reference that mentions a few positive things and stays away from the negative.”

If you still can’t be sure if your reference will end up being mainly negative, address the possibility during your job interview. Mr. Gimbel says to provide the name of your supervisor, along with your view of the situation, noting the quality of your work wasn’t the issue.

Q. If you were a highly valued employee but your company will only confirm dates of employment and position, how can you get a good reference?

A. Companies may have a policy of giving out only neutral information because one manager may think an employee was great but another may not, Ms. Lessack says. “Companies want to speak with one voice and be consistent,” she says.

Ms. Takacs-O’Shea suggests checking with human resources to see whether your manager can speak personally — rather than professionally — on your behalf: “He can talk about things like your character, enthusiasm, willingness to contribute and that the projects you worked on had a high success rate.”

Ms. Lessack agrees. Depending on the company, she says, you may be able to work out something that allows your manager to speak about you in a way that doesn’t violate the company’s policy on professional references.

Q. Do recommendations on LinkedIn mean anything to employers?

A. It depends on the employer, but many look at them, even if they have less force than usual references, says Bill Peppler, managing partner of the staffing firm Kavaliro in Orlando, Fla. “One of the first things I do when I’m looking to hire for our corporate office is pull that person up on LinkedIn,” he says.

Although LinkedIn’s endorsements feature — a way to recommend those in a network for certain skills — is relatively new, Mr. Peppler has used it to find the most endorsed person with a specific background in a particular city. “It’s hard to know how meaningful that will be in the long run, but to me, it makes them one of the most influential people in that region for what they do,” he says.

When Career Planning, Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Attorneys reach out to legal recruiters for a variety of reasons. Some of the most common are: they don't like the people they work with, they want more money, a better quality of life or to work for only one client.

While all of these are valid reasons for seeking a change in the short term, the career planning advice that we most often give to young attorneys is straightforward: Set a career goal that fits your personality, needs and desires, and base your career choices on how much each one helps you to get closer to the goal. Or, put more simply, keep your eyes on the prize.

Think it through ... very carefully.

Being unhappy today should not be the only catalyst that moves you to your next job. I encourage every attorney to take the time to step back and think long-term about their careers. Setting a goal now can help you better evaluate every move you make, ensuring that each step along the journey is aligned with a few key indicators that have been defined before embarking on the path to future success.

I always start by asking my candidates two questions: who they are and what they want to be when they grow up. These questions are genuine and aimed at getting to the heart of a candidate's goals. The answer to these basic questions will help shape your career path and determine the choices you need to make along the way.

Of course, as you will see below, it isn't just about these two questions. The process I am recommending will help you determine, at the ultra-micro level, the type of job that will make you the happiest, and what you need to do to get there.

WHO ARE YOU?

As we often hear, each one of us is a "work in progress." Every person can benefit from regular self-assessment and self-evaluation, as well as constructive feedback from those we know and trust. While this helps us to always have an eye on personal and professional growth, it also reminds us that we are each wired a certain way that affects how we respond to different situations and circumstances. This "wiring" is important for us to understand so we know ourselves better, and thus can take a more deliberate approach to choosing the career that will be the best fit. There are various tools that can facilitate a journey of self-discovery, including books, personality tests, psychological profiles, work evaluations and other resources.

Knowing yourself better can even help you choose a practice area. For example, if you know that you don't mind dealing with moral conundrums, you might want to consider environmental, white-collar crime, products liability or insurance coverage, as opposed to real estate, IP or tax. If you prefer to analyze gray areas in the law, you may lean toward family law, litigation or trusts and estates, as opposed to those practice areas that analyze more concrete issues, such as regulatory and corporate securities.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE?

Subscribe to The Legal Intelligencer

You must be signed in to comment on an article

Sign In or Subscribe
">

Judge's Career Inspired by Personal Experience With Ted Bundy Case

By Carlos Harrison All Articles 

Daily Business Review

December 21, 2012

Palm Beach County, Fla., Court Judge Laura Johnson was in college the night a serial killer attacked. It changed her life, and her career path.

Johnson was the last person known to have entered the Tri Delta sorority house in Tallahassee on the night in 1978 when Ted Bundy slipped into the nearby Chi Omega house to kill two female Florida State University students.

She knew both victims.

"I was identified as the last person to come into my sorority house," she said. "I was woken up by the police and interviewed by the police that morning."

She was a sophomore finance major.

"I didn't have any intention of going to law school," she said. But the murders "changed our way of life at FSU. ... I followed that case, day by day by day by day. I lived through the horror of it, and I just became interested in the whole process and the whole way it played out."

Even then, though, she "anticipated more of a career on the non-litigation side."

Right out of law school, she landed a job doing criminal appeals in the attorney general's office. Four months later she was recruited to do the same thing at the Palm Beach state attorney's office. "And I was hooked."

She stayed as a prosecutor for 19 years.

'TRADITIONAL ROUTE'

Subscribe to Daily Business Review

You must be signed in to comment on an article

Sign In or Subscribe
">

Judge's Career Inspired by Personal Experience With Ted Bundy Case

By Carlos Harrison All Articles 

Daily Business Review

December 21, 2012

Palm Beach County, Fla., Court Judge Laura Johnson was in college the night a serial killer attacked. It changed her life, and her career path.

Johnson was the last person known to have entered the Tri Delta sorority house in Tallahassee on the night in 1978 when Ted Bundy slipped into the nearby Chi Omega house to kill two female Florida State University students.

She knew both victims.

"I was identified as the last person to come into my sorority house," she said. "I was woken up by the police and interviewed by the police that morning."

She was a sophomore finance major.

"I didn't have any intention of going to law school," she said. But the murders "changed our way of life at FSU. ... I followed that case, day by day by day by day. I lived through the horror of it, and I just became interested in the whole process and the whole way it played out."

Even then, though, she "anticipated more of a career on the non-litigation side."

Right out of law school, she landed a job doing criminal appeals in the attorney general's office. Four months later she was recruited to do the same thing at the Palm Beach state attorney's office. "And I was hooked."

She stayed as a prosecutor for 19 years.

'TRADITIONAL ROUTE'

Subscribe to Daily Business Review

You must be signed in to comment on an article

Sign In or Subscribe
">

One Lawyer's Path to Finding Meaning in His Career

Last month on my way out of a CLE at the federal courthouse that was very well-attended by young lawyers, I looked at an empty fishbowl that was intended to be a drawing for a gift card to iTunes, courtesy of the event's sponsors. I dropped my business card into the fishbowl. There lay my card, all by itself. I expected to be a guaranteed winner.

It was only a few years ago at around this usually delightful time of the year that I contemplated leaving the profession altogether. I did not know what I wanted to do next, but I knew it was not what I was doing at the time. I wanted to do anything else. Anything.

I was a frustrated lawyer. I was frustrated with the work I was doing -- work that I felt no attachment in performing, and work that I felt no accomplishment in completing.

I also was frustrated with the amount of money that three years of law school cost me. It did not appear to be giving back to me anything close to what I had hoped for, both financially and emotionally. That was depressing.

The questions I pondered at night were not whether I could assist this client who needs my help, or what my next career step as a lawyer would be. Instead, my mind was filled with what appeared to be never-ending doubt. I asked myself, "How did I get myself into this situation?" "Am I ever going to be able to recover?" and "Was going to law school the worst decision of my life?"

All of this had nothing to do with my job at the time. I liked my job, and was performing well in certain capacities. Every day, I went to work. Every so often, I made some clients happy. Once in a while, I made my bosses happy.

I also received a paycheck every two weeks. While by no means was I able to save money because of my student loan debt, the income was enough so that I could take my wife out to dinner and to see a movie once in a while. At the same time, I had enough money to pay the bills every month.

Things could have been a lot worse, too. I recognize that life was, overall, pretty good. But life professionally was not great, or at least as good as it could have been. The fact that I did not know what, or whether, I could do anything about it frustrated me.

Something about my path was not sitting well with me. I was being led by a random series of events and choices I made based upon whatever options were presented to me at the time. And as a result, I was not performing to my potential. I knew that, and it left me puzzled.

I needed to take control of my life professionally, so that when choices needed to be made regarding my future, the options presented to me were a direct result of my efforts and more consistent with my wishes and desires, not just a bunch of job opportunities that happened to present themselves at the time I happened to be seeking something new.

Subscribe to The Legal Intelligencer

You must be signed in to comment on an article

Sign In or Subscribe
">

Preoccupations: Follow a Career Passion? Let It Follow You

For many of my peers, this decision would have been fraught with anxiety. Growing up, we were told by guidance counselors, career advice books, the news media and others to “follow our passion.” This advice assumes that we all have a pre-existing passion waiting to be discovered. If we have the courage to discover this calling and to match it to our livelihood, the thinking goes, we’ll end up happy. If we lack this courage, we’ll end up bored and unfulfilled — or, worse, in law school.

To a small group of people, this advice makes sense, because they have a clear passion. Maybe they’ve always wanted to be doctors, writers, musicians and so on, and can’t imagine being anything else.

But this philosophy puts a lot of pressure on the rest of us — and demands long deliberation. If we’re not careful, it tells us, we may end up missing our true calling. And even after we make a choice, we’re still not free from its effects. Every time our work becomes hard, we are pushed toward an existential crisis, centered on what for many is an obnoxiously unanswerable question: “Is this what I’m really meant to be doing?” This constant doubt generates anxiety and chronic job-hopping.

As I considered my options during my senior year of college, I knew all about this Cult of Passion and its demands. But I chose to ignore it. The alternative career philosophy that drove me is based on this simple premise: The traits that lead people to love their work are general and have little to do with a job’s specifics. These traits include a sense of autonomy and the feeling that you’re good at what you do and are having an impact on the world. Decades of research on workplace motivation back this up. (Daniel Pink’s book “Drive” offers a nice summary of this literature.)

These traits can be found in many jobs, but they have to be earned. Building valuable skills is hard and takes time. For someone in a new position, the right question is not, “What is this job offering me?” but, instead, “What am I offering this job?”

RETURNING to my story, I decided after only minimal deliberation to go to M.I.T. True to my alternative career philosophy, I was confident that all three of my career options could be transformed into a source of passion, and this confidence freed me from worry about making a wrong choice. I ended up choosing M.I.T., mainly because of a slight preference for the East Coast, but I would have been equally content heading out to Microsoft’s headquarters near Seattle. Or, with the advance from my first book, I could have hunkered down in a quiet town to write.

During my initial years as a graduate student, I certainly didn’t enjoy an unshakable sense that I had found my true calling. The beginning of doctoral training can be rough. You’re not yet skilled enough to make contributions to the research literature, which can be frustrating. And at a place like M.I.T., you’re surrounded by brilliance, which can make you question whether you belong.

Had I subscribed to the “follow our passion” orthodoxy, I probably would have left during those first years, worried that I didn’t feel love for my work every day. But I knew that my sense of fulfillment would grow over time, as I became better at my job. So I worked hard, and, as my competence grew, so did my engagement.

Today, I’m a computer science professor at Georgetown University, and I love my job. The most important lesson I can draw from my experience is that this love has nothing to do with figuring out at an early age that I was meant to be a professor. There’s nothing special about my choosing this particular path. What mattered is what I did once I made my choice.

To other young people who constantly wonder if the grass might be greener on the other side of the occupational fence, I offer this advice: Passion is not something you follow. It’s something that will follow you as you put in the hard work to become valuable to the world.

Cal Newport is the author of “So Good They Can’t Ignore You.”