Finding your voice

Vicki Salemi has written this very good piece in US News & World Reports' On Careers blog called: "5 Speech Tips to 'Find your Voice' for the Big Interview". In this piece advice from noted career expert Caroline Dowd-Higgins discussed several key tips for when speaking in a job interview:

• Use ample volume, don't speak too quickly, and think before you speak.
• Watch for nervous ticks ('um', 'ah', 'like', 'you-know') that manifest as filler words.
• Allow the words to "land and be heard without the filler."

The article then outlines the following five tips to let your voice shine:

1. Eliminate the filler words.
2. Practice with technology.
3. Listen to your interviewer.
4. Carry authority.
5. Remember to breathe.

Now I can only hope that most of these are things that we have all heard before, but I think that this nice reminder can help any of us who are still looking. As the interviewee it may feel like the pauses are long and unbearable... but if we had someone time them for us in practice, then it will turn out that these pauses (when practiced) are very short and help the interview. Couple that with tip three 'listening to your interviewer' can allow you to truly hear the questions and answer what they are asking of you. This, combined with the research you have done on the company/position will make you standout from the crowd of applicants.

I would love to hear about examples of using the pause to effect.

Job hunting secrets/Interview tips

So I have been reading a lot lately about things that either are or could be come trend in hiring/employment. Several of my recent posts have been about these trends, especially the raise of the freelance economy. In some industries/sectors this is nothing new. For example academia has called this class of employee adjuncts and the practice has been around for decades.

Because of this focus I haven't had as much time to pass on general job hunting and interviewing advice columns. These two did register on my radar and I set them aside to pass along. The first is by Lou Adler, who wrote The Ten Best Job-hunting Secrets of all time. The second is by Jeff Haden, who wrote What Interviewers Wish They Could Tell Every Job Candidate.  Neither of these seemed groundbreaking to me, but admittedly I read a lot of these columns/articles, so they may be new to you.

In Mr. Adler's piece he provides 10 tips, mostly about networking and answering interviewer questions. They are all sound, but as I said nothing that seems radically different. Also as is typically the case there is very little description or explanation of how to apply the tips. One thing I will give him credit for is linking job seekers to a column he wrote on advice for the interviewer to use in judging our answers, so obviously it might be helpful to review that advice as well.

In Mr. Harden's piece he talks about nine traits/attributes that the interviewer wants to see/pick up on in the interview. Used along side the two articles by Mr. Adler these could help develop a picture of what you might expect the interviewer to think/feel about you as a candidate.

So as a example the #3 tip from Mr. Harden's column was that interviewers what candidates to stand out. If you paired that with the #'s 7 & 8 tips from Mr. Adler's piece (and some Google searching for what exactly SAFW is and how to do it...)you should be able to construct some strong answers to questions you expect the interviewer might ask.

How do you determine what questions they might ask (you might be saying to your self...) well you have a few choices:

• First examine your resume and cover letter and be prepared to talk about any and all statements, experiences, accomplishments you have provided  to them.
• Try a sight like Glassdoor.com (I wrote this review) and look up sample interview questions.

Another interviewing technique similar to the SAFW that Mr. Adler describes is STAR. It is another way to help you organize your thoughts and prepare a strong answer.

Hopefully these and other things I have written about over the past year and a half are helping people out. As always I would love to hear from readers and get a conversation going.

Job search inspiration

TED talks are great, and the folks over at Mashable have picked their 5 favorites for job search inspiration. I have not yet watched them all, but the first one seemed to tie into my piece last week about The Freelance Economy. If a system like the one Mr. Rowan describes could be unleashed it would go a long way making such an economy more usable/comfortable for the worker. Take a look and let me know what you think.

The Freelance Economy

Well this concept is certainly nothing new... I wrote about an article I read almost a year ago that bemoaned this practice of moving away from full time employment towards contract work. That original article The Age of the Freelancer written by Gary Stern for Fortune Magazine mainly focused on the individual worker. This week The Diane Rehm show on NPR focused on the effect on the entire economy in a program they called The Freelance Economy. It is worth a listen if you missed it, especially if like me you are stuck working several part time jobs to get by.

The thing I was heartened to hear (because the trend data showing that this is the way the economy is headed can be a bit depressing...) was the various groups that are forming around the country to help support people who are living this new lifestyle (either by choice or due to circumstances out of their control.) The also made an interesting connection to the Affordable Care Act and how it will help improve the lifestyle of workers in this category.

I will be trying to keep track of this trend and continue to blog about it as it develops. As always I would love to hear from anyone with direct experience, especially if you have found unique or different ways to deal with some of the challenges we are facing (health care, saving for retirement, dealing with debt especially student loan debt, etc.)