This blog entry is somewhat delayed because my Mac's hard drive crashed on Monday night. Yes, it can happen on a Mac! I had most of the entry written on the plane, and when I got home the blue screen of death was all I got. I know you are thinking to yourself that the blue screen is only reserved for PCs, but I am living proof that one can mourn the death of a Mac just as easily as a PC. I lost 88 days of files because my husband and I were "too busy" to fix the backup program we had downloaded. Please learn from our mistakes - at least until everything is floating in the so-called "cloud". There are just some things too important to ignore...filing your taxes, smelly trash, and now a computer without its files backed up! I appreciate your bearing with me through my moment of technological catharsis. Now on to the actual blog entry...
Coaching has been on my mind lately because I recently received approval to take on an interdisciplinary approach to my MBA via an Executive Coaching Certification Program offered through my university's college of education. To provide a bit of background, I had submitted the petition to have the courses comprising the program count toward my MBA electives several months ago. I sent two exceedingly kind requests for updates on the status of my petition to the program administrator, only to find out from our department chair that she was waiting until the last minute to process my request to prove to me (along with other students waiting for responses) that she had more pressing concerns to attend to. Upon receipt of the department chair's coaching to "remain patient", I only grew more inflamed. I waited until a week ago (two weeks from the college of education's course registration deadline) and then decided to call in a "referee." Shortly thereafter, my petition miraculously made its way across this administrator's desk and within 24 hours it was approved by the department chair and the dean of all three MBA programs! Moral of the Story: If after several coaching attempts you aren't arriving at a desired result, you may need to call in a referee - or therapist!
Here are a few quick tips to coach you through the interview process as it relates to some of my recent experiences and the sports metaphor...For the record, I am lousy at organized sports (I sweat just thinking about athletic competition), however I played one season of softball and my brothers played baseball and umpired for years, so I am declaring myself a pseudo-baseball expert for purposes of this blog entry.
Read the playbook I was recently asked to serve on a search committee for a new assistant rabbi at my synagogue. Our committee is tasked with getting to know each candidate on paper and in person and with participating in group interviews to collectively evaluate the candidate's ability to connect with and serve our congregation as a whole. It's a tall order, but I am loving the opportunity to play recruiter again without having to wine and dine ungrateful candidates in excess (oops, did I write that out loud?). Last week, I drove one of the candidates back to our synagogue after a breakfast with several committee members - let's call her Leah. Before we even pulled out of the restaurant parking lot, Leah commented that she really enjoyed reading my blog! Well, I was so excited that I almost ran the car through a red light (which wouldn't have been the first time - hate driving and miss public transportation). My grin grew even wider when she told me that she forwarded the URL to her sister who would soon be graduating from college. I asked Leah how she even knew about my blog and she shared that she had Googled all of the members of our search committee prior to her interview day. Smart woman! She followed my
http://www.joyschwartz.com/2011/02/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it/ blog entry related rule #2: Make them love you. Well, I sure was sold - hook, line, and sinker and I'm supposed to know how the game is played!
Bases Loaded
I recently mock interviewed a student who got so nervous in his interview that his confidence and personality completely evaporated - let's call him Jerry. Now, I am not an intimidating interviewer, contrary to what some of my former New York colleagues might have said! I try to set the candidates at ease before I grill them to identify and start probing into the red flags. While debriefing, I asked Jerry about what would make him so excited that he would jump up and down screaming and shouting. He couldn't come up with anything at first, so I went back to his resume and was reminded of his interest in international soccer. "How about if you received an all-expense paid first class trip to London to watch Arsenal play on their home turf?" Well, you'd have thought I told him he was going to get automatic A's that semester based on the size of the smile on his face. "I want you to think about that trip before you go into every interview, okay Jerry?" He nodded happily, and went on his way. Keep your fingers crossed that he clears the bases (i.e. has a few successful interviews)!
Hitting a Homerun
The most prominent piece of constructive feedback my colleagues and I receive from employers is that candidates haven't conducted an appropriate amount of research on the organization. I usually tell students to think about what they are looking for in an ideal employer (e.g. challenging work, promotion based on performance, opportunities to be mentored, etc.) and to ask the interviewer how he or she has been impacted by or experienced one or more of those areas in his or her career path. It is critical to close out an interview by asking insightful questions which demonstrate that you have internalized your connection to the workplace in general and more specifically to the employer. In my experience, a candidate rarely makes the connection between him or herself and the job description. Another rabbinical candidate I interviewed clearly committed the job description to memory and found subtle and not so subtle ways to connect herself to the skills, qualifications, and responsibilities outlined in the job description. She took it one step further by mailing personalized thank you notes to the synagogue, further connecting herself to the job and reiterating key dialogue from her interview process. It was truly impressive and hit a home run for me.
Career Blunder: No Todah
Todah means thank you in Hebrew, which is sadly one of the few remaining words I can recall from religious school. I was speaking with another friend over the phone last night who coincidentally happens to be on the search committee for a rabbi at another synagogue. She shared that one candidate sent personalized thank you letters to each of member of her core selection team. She was so moved by the note she received that she basically "wrote off" the other candidate, who wasn't quite as strong as the thank you note writer. Often, the thank you note can make or break the outcome of an interview process. I advise the students I work with to email thank you notes to their interviewers and the recruiters immediately following their interviews. Interviewers often check their blackberries during breaks and a well-written thank you can sometimes make the difference between an office visit and no office visit, especially if the decision is between two similar candidates!
March 24th, 2011 - 10:02
I really like the idea of having a student think about something that makes them so happy everytime they go into an interview to calm their nerves! And getting them to identify what that “thing” is with you so they don’t get stuck at the “I don’t know” phase. Great idea!