There appears to be a growing trend towards more panel or group interviews and it is becoming increasingly common for job seekers to meet with panels of three or more decision makers in one interview. Career Journal recently ran an article about panel interviews that’s worth taking a look at. Here are a few of my own tips on how to survive a panel interview.

1.  When you meet each person on the panel, ask for a business card. Before the interview begins, place the cards in front of you and facing in the direction of the appropriate person to help you remember the names of the people you are interviewing with. Refer to each person by name during the conversation to personalize your responses and build rapport with the group.
2. Don’t assume that the most senior person is the decision maker. Frequently business leaders rely on their team to help make decisions about candidates. Be sure to include everyone in the conversation. If one person in the group asks you a question, begin your answer by responding to that person, but then make eye contact with the others to build rapport with everyone in the room.
3. Try to size up the agenda of everyone in the group. The needs of the marketing, operations, and sales teams will be different, so make sure you can showcase stories of success that will resonate with the different business heads you are interviewing with.
4. Send everyone in the group a thank you letter and make sure each letter is unique. The thank you letter is a great tool for reconnecting with the hiring team, but in order to be seen as authentic, you need to communicate your thanks to each person individually and avoid redundant content. Try to focus on one key point or exchange with each person you interviewed with. It’s a bit of extra work, but in the long run, it’s worth it.

While my dad was never a career strategist and never even had to face a career transition (he was with one company for 30 years), he did give me some sage advice about my career along the way. Here are a few of my favorite nuggets:

1.  A lot of bosses are idiots. Everyone I’ve ever met has an interesting story about a bad boss. The trick is to figure out either how to manage that relationship or get out of it. The DISC assessment tool is very useful for figuring out how you communicate with people and how those around you respond to your method of communication. It can help you discover how to tweak your communication style to improve your relationship with a difficult boss.
2. You will never be able to please everyone. It seems like our entire lives are spent trying to please someone…a teacher, a boss, a family member. Some people only hear from their bosses when something goes wrong. Be sure to keep track of your stories of success throughout the year so your discussion at performance review time focuses on your positive contributions rather than just the things that need to be improved.
3. No job is worth risking your health for. I meet many people who have sacrificed their health for their jobs. Stress can contribute to numerous health issues including obesity, heart disease, and depression. Examine your career choices and regularly assess how well they are aligned with your overall life goals.
4. Getting fired is not the worst thing that can happen in life. Being fired can be an enormous blow to one’s ego, but many people report that it was the best thing that ever happened to them because it allowed them to gain perspective on a bad situation, discover their strengths, and move forward to a more fulfilling career.
5. Put as much money in your 401k as you can. These plans are an easy, relatively painless way to save money. There’s really no reason for anyone, even someone who is just starting out in their career, to pass up this opportunity.
6. Don’t expect others to manage your career. My dad taught me a long time ago that no one cares about my career as much as I do. It’s certainly beneficial to have a mentor along the way, but ultimately you have to own your career. Take responsibility for that ownership by keeping your resume up to date, networking regularly, maintaining relationships with recruiters, and monitoring your online identity.

Happy Father’s Day!

 I often remind my clients that when they are interviewing for an open position they are interviewing the employer as much as the employer is interviewing them. By paying attention to the subtle clues in the office environment, job seekers can gain a better perspective on the culture of the company or division they are interviewing with and make more informed decisions regarding fit.  Here are a few tips to help you size up the work environment of the company you are interviewing with.

1. If possible, schedule your interview early in the morning,  late in the day, or during lunchtime. When you arrive look around and see who else is there at that time. If you have an early morning or early evening appointment and the office is packed, chances are that the culture is one that necessitates coming in early or staying late. If you interview during lunch and everyone seems to be eating at their desk, that too could be a clue about the culture of the organization. If you are interviewing with a company that has a company parking lot, observe how full the lot is during these hours to determine if late nights or early mornings are part of the culture of the entire organization.
2. Ask to do a walk-through of the office. If you have made it to the second round of interviews, consider asking to see the office space. This allows you to canvas the physical space but again gives you important clues about the office culture. Is the set up cubicle style, big open spaces, windowed offices, or a lot a closed doors? Does the space appear clean and well maintained and a place where you would feel comfortable and safe?
3. Make small talk with the receptionist. This is important for several reasons. Many hiring authorities ask the receptionist their impressions of candidates that come in to apply for jobs. Make sure their first impression of you is positive. Through your conversation, you may gain valuable tidbits of information or see first hand what types of people come through the reception area and how they interact with each other.
4. Note any interruptions during the interview. Again, this could be a sign of what it’s like to work in that particular environment. Did your interview start on time or were you kept waiting? Is the interview conducted in a quiet environment behind closed doors? Does the person interviewing you interrupt the flow of the meeting to take phone calls? Does the interview end abruptly due to some sort of office crisis? While there are some hiring authorities that “stage” interruptions to see how you deal with them, I truly believe that for the most part these are not planned, but instead are indicative of the department’s culture or the hiring manager’s style.

Of course nothing is perfect and I’m not suggesting that you penalize a company or hiring authority for a misstep. But I do think that it is important to observe the rhythm of the office and factor that information into the final decision making process.What have you observed during your interviews and how has that information influenced your feelings about a company or a job?Â

I recently got back into running again after a very busy winter and some less than perfect weather. To track my progress, I added Voomaxer to my Facebook page to log my miles and track my progress. But there was another key reason that I added the application and put it up on my profile page for all my friends to see…accountability. I know how easy it is to make a commitment to do something and then slack off or get distracted or discouraged. Are there days I don’t feel like running? Sure. But somehow because I have added this silly little icon to my page, I feel obligated to run…I feel accountable. So what does this have to do with job search? Well, it’s just as easy to slack off or get discouraged in a job search. Or get wrapped up in unproductive methods of search, like zapping out hundreds of resumes to job boards. Unless you create some accountability for yourself and your search. Unless you reach out to trusted professionals and advisors during your search. Here are a few suggestions for adding accountability to your job search.

•  If you were part of a larger downsizing, reach out to someone else from the company who was affected by the restructuring. Chose someone with a different job function or at a different professional level. Set up a time once a week to discuss strategy and progress and share relevant job leads and networking contacts.
• Join a support group for job seekers. Meetup is a good place to start because you can search groups for job seekers in your geography or professionals in your industry and become a part of some face to face meetings.
• Set up regular meetings with a close friend, partner, or spouse. This allows the important people in your life to get an update and helps alleviate some of the stress you both might be feeling due to the job search. Discuss your job search plans for the upcoming week and offer a progress report the following week. Scheduling these conversations at a specific time eliminates the chances of being nagged or micromanaged about your progress throughout the week. 
• Hire a coach from a reliable coaching organization. Not only can a coach help you organize and fine tune your search, but they make excellent accountability partners. A coach can structure a plan for you and hold you accountable for a certain level of progress each week or month. 

There’s no need to go it alone. By connecting with others during your search, you can decrease your stress level and potentially decrease the amount of time you spend unemployed.

In honor of Memorial Day I wanted to put up a post about a networking site dedicated to those who serve in the military. Military Planet is a social network for past and current members of the military. Through the buddy search feature, members can search for each other based on branch number, unit category, location, or station. Members can communicate with each other though blogs and message forums. If you are a current or former member of the military, this is a site worth checking out.     Â

Many people want to network but they struggle with finding the time to book lunches and coffees or attend professional meetings. Others are concerned with the costs associated with attending events and some feel extrememly uncomfortable in networking situations.

Online networking provides a sound alternative to traditional networking and while I don’t advocate it as a replacement for in-person networking, I certainly see the value of incorporating these tools into your career management strategy.

The new social networking “darling” is Twitter, a form of microblogging that allows you to make mini-posts or “tweets” of 140 characters or less to your network or “followers”. With Twitter you can do everything from update your network on what’s happening in your life, make plans, solicit advice, share information, find friends, follow friends, form strategic partnerships, or learn what’s going on in your community or industry.

In the past few weeks I have used Twitter to:

1. Congratulate a colleague on the second anniversary of his business.
2. Teach a colleague how to synch her Facebook and Twitter feeds.
3. Solicit resources for an upcoming presentation.
4. Share information on career resources.
5. Share blog posts.
6. Brag about my recent interview on telecommuting on CNN.
7. Discover that a colleague has just authored a new book on networking.
8. Give my two-cents on the benefits of reputation profiles.
9. Inform my followers of a Spoke interface on Simply Hired.
10. Complain about all the rain we are getting in NYC (I got a lot of sympathy for that one)

I’m using Twitter to build and deepen relationships, keep my contacts top of mind, and stay on their radar as well. I’m following people who are recruiters and career experts and thought leaders in the industry. I’m building inroads with the people I want to learn from, grow with, and get in front of. What about you? No matter where you live, I’m sure you have time for a New York minute, a human exchange, a touchpoint, a tweet. You owe it to yourself and your career to get in on the conversations that will help you build professional and personal relationships. If you would like to follow me on Twitter, you can find me here.

Great words of wisdom from Nick Corcodilis over on the Ask the Headhunter blog…Nick reminds job seekers that the job boards put all sorts of limitations on the job seeker. You can’t be an empowered candidate when you use job boards as your only source for job leads. The job boards put you at a distinct disadvantage because they don’t let you “pass go and collect your $200″ unless you follow their rules.

And their rules are many. Often the listings on the boards screen candidates by salary requirements and don’t let applicants complete the application process without supplying this information. Offering up salary information before you have a conversation about what the job entails is counterproductive and it could screen you out of a position where there is a good fit.

Instead of being a sheep, be a lion and seek out the real decision maker in the hiring process. Market your qualifications directly to that person and build a relationship based on the value you can bring to the organization, not a reference to a salary requirement. Create a compelling arguement for why you are the candidate of choice and move the conversation away from “too expensive” to “I’ve got to have this person on my team.”

Career Builder posted some good tips from Robert Half on Common Job Search Traps. Here are a few I would like to add to the list.

Trap #1: You don’t have an accomplishment-focused resume. Job seekers often create resumes that are no more than a laundry list of job tasks. Such documents do little to differentiate you from the competition. Instead of writing about things you did, write about the accomplishment within the task. Rather than saying that you make widgets, explain that you exceeded the company’s quota for making widgets by 25% by retooling the production process and eliminating redundancies.

Trap #2: You don’t have a system for organizing and tracking your job search materials. When you are in a job search, you start to accumulate a lot of information. You may have different versions of your resume, multiple cover letters, scores of job postings you have applied to, business cards from networking contacts, company research, and job search articles and tips. You need a system for organizing and automating this information as much as possible so you can quickly retrieve what you need and cut down on the clutter. Save yourself the headache of creating your own system and sign up for a free account on Jibber Jobber.

Trap #3: You don’t have an online presence. Your resume says you are an accomplished professional and a leader in your field. Yet when a hiring manager or recruiter puts your name in a search engine, either nothing  comes up or they find others with the same name and can’t distinguish you from the others they see listed. Many hiring authorities will want to research your candidacy past the resume  and an online  search is one of  the best ways to do this. Make it easy for them to find you by creating customized online identity, business , and social networking profiles. Some important tools to look at are LinkedIn,  ZoomInfo, Ziggs, and Plaxo.

Trap #4: You don’t have a personal marketing plan. Rather than trolling the job boards, think about what you want in your next job. Identify the type of position, industry and companies, geography, company size, and corporate culture you are interested in. Then do some research to uncover which organizations best match the descriptions of your dream companies and market yourself directly to those organizations whether they have an open position or not. Reach out to your network to see if you are connected to someone who knows someone in that company and ask for an introduction. The goal is to build inroads into these companies before they need you and later leverage that relationship when they are in need of new talent.

Trap #5: You don’t have an accountability partner. Being in a job search is often like being on a roller coaster. There are highs and lows and job seekers need to have someone in their lives to help them move forward and remain accountable for their search. Relying on a friend or loved one for support can sometimes be problematic and add stress to the relationship. A better strategy is to find someone else in search and partner with that person to share advice and leads and offer support.

Over on the WorkIt, Mom! blog, there’s a thought provoking post referencing a recent Wall Street Journal article that describes how mommy “swat teams”(smart women with available time) are being recruited through networking and staffing firms to handle crash projects for corporations.

What I love about the concept is that women are working through their social circles to find opportunities that leverage their skills and keep their minds stimulated while allowing for the flexibility of raising a family. The red flag here is that in some cases, the companies seem to be getting women “on the cheap”.

Women should remember that compensation is a function of what the market will bear, not what they think they need. Even if money is not the main motivator behind the desire to work part-time, it is still in a woman’s best interest to benchmark the market and compare the offer against other similar positions. Talk to past colleagues, recruiters and members of professional associations to gain a better understanding of what organizations might pay for similar full-time work and use this information to help gauge what a fair and reasonable part-time or project-based salary might look like. Also check out salary.com and payscale.com for additional salary information.

Stay at home moms can offer incredible value to organizations and as businesses become more virtual, professional opportunities for SAHMs who have continued to network with clients and colleagues in the corporate world will continue to grow. Be sure to leverage these same networks to validate that you are being paid competitively for any assignments you take on. Happy Mother’s Day!

I was recently interviewed for CNN’s Your Money on the topic of telecommuting. This is certainly a hot topic among job seekers as people continue to seek more work/life balance and flexible arrangements. But I think there is a misperception about how to secure a telecommuting arrangement. It’s unlikely that you will land a telecommuting job through an online job board (and be wary, because most of these opportunities are scams). Most telecommuting jobs start out as traditional jobs that evolve to a more flexible arrangement through a mutual agreement between the employer and the employee. You must first prove to an employer that you are trustworthy and loyal and that the telecommuting arrangement presents benefits for the company as well as the employee. If you are considering requesting a telecommuting work arrangement, here are some potential employer benefits you can reference during your conversation.

Reduced infrastructure costs. Employers can save on their real estate, technology and telecommunication costs by offering telecommuting arrangements.

Decrease in distractions. Traditional office settings are plagued by time wasting activities and ongoing interruptions.  Who hasn’t been in a situation where they were constantly interrupted by people coming into their office to ask questions? And how often have you seen co-workers wasting time gossiping by the coffee station? All these distractions can be eliminated in the telecommuting arrangement.

Increase in work hours. The telecommuter can continue to work during the time they would normally be commuting. This increase in productivity can translate into more money earned or saved for companies or more interaction with important clients.

Increased morale. Employees that have greater control over how they manage the competing demands in their lives tend to be happier in their work. This positive attitude can contribute to increased productivity and better rapport with colleagues and clients.

Increased employee loyalty and retention. Employees who feel that their employers are supportive of their workplace flexibility needs tend to stay with their companies longer. In the long run this saves employers enormous costs associated with sourcing and training their replacements.

If you hope to secure a telecommuting arrangement in the near future, start targeting companies that embrace workplace flexibility now. Start off in a traditional in-office role and prove your ability to be productive with limited supervision. Build trusting relationships with colleagues, clients and supervisors. Doing so will help improve your chances of securing a telecommuting arrangement at some point in the future.