No strings attached!!
Just enjoy what you have before you.
For your copy of the whole book go to
PLEASE do not sell these sections as they are a gift...
go ahead and give them away if you'd like.
Enjoy Section 5 of 8 HERE!
3A.
Oz-nicity: Intermediate Lesson: The Oz
Factor
3B.What
I bring to the Employer
3C.
You are Who You Are/ Ain’t Who You Ain’t
3D.
Before You Leave Your House - Adjust your words
3E.
Questions You Need To Prepared For (and more)
3F.
Dealing With Stress Interviews
3G.
Be Careful To End With a Period
3H. When Their Mind Wanders Oznicity
Employers
are looking for essentially the same thing, no matter their area of work...
**
Do you have the brains for the job?
**
Do you have the heart to deal well
with the customers and “stakeholders” of our place of work?
**
Do you have the courage, honesty and
conscientiousness to handle each day well,
accepting blame when it is rightfully
yours to take?
Well,
fans of the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, we are looking for
the brains, heart and courage found in Oz... and in you as well. Everyone
has brains, heart and courage already and with help can show them to others. (Sounding like a wizard a bit there, eh?)
Show you have brains! An
employer's unasked questions here are:
Have you ever had to learn something
quickly and/or thoroughly? In your work
here, you have to learn how we do business; do
you have what it takes?
Have examples ready even if they at first seem distant from what the
employer does, it will prove to him or her you have the smarts.
For
instance-- maybe you have never used a cash register, but you are comfortable
with computers and can show what you know.
By heart: The unasked
questions include: Can you get along with the customers we serve on good and
bad days; can you mix in well with the different kind of people already working here? Can you have the right
mix of compassion and toughness needed to care for our customers/clients
here? What are some experiences you have
had that show you have the heart?
For example
– you may never have worked with the elderly, but you have cared for your
disabled relatives and can give compassion to those different from yourself.
And courage... Like telling
the truth when a lie would be easier or being reliable when you could find an
excuse for being 'off that day'.
Employers wonder will you be just as reliable on a good day as on the
days you do not feel well?
Do
you have honesty where I can trust you to do the right thing when no one is
around to watch? Will you accept blame,
correction or criticism when you are in the wrong? Can you give examples/references on this
because just words are cheap?
For example—name
the greatest stress/failure you have faced?
How did you deal with it and learn from it?
How did you work it as a food service
clerk when other staff left with the flu in your busy season? Did you work the late hours to finish that
report with the impossible deadline?
Every
job from grave digger to CEO requires certain Oz Factors. As you learn what the employer wants and what
you have to offer, use the Oz factors as your guide. Know how your brains,
heart and courage match their needs and be ready to show your factors,
proudly.
Making It Work:
Pick
your top four employer prospects and write down, from their perspective, what
are the essential Oz factors they want: what abilities
to learn (biology, selling tactics, how to build a sandwich?), 'heart skills' (getting along, challenges on a bad
day) and courage (what if you make a mistake,
can you take it?).
After
that is completed, compare your factors with their needs. Amend your factors as needed; looking for
gifts/talents you had overlooked to match what they are looking for.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oz factor: what I bring
This
is where you can connect your Oz factor with the concerns of the employer’s Oz
factor needs.
You
have already considered all of the things that show you have the brains (things
you have already learned, examples of how quickly and thoroughly you can learn
things and can put things into action) heart (how effectively you deal with helping
clients and customers as well as co-workers and supervisors) and courage
(how well you learn from your mistakes, giving “an honest day’s work” every
day).
You
have also considered the concerns perspective employers have in finding their
next employee.
•
Brains to learn the job (has the applicant learned similar
things in the past? How well?)
•
Heart to do the job (can they handle the social stresses
of the job well?)
•
Courage (can I walk away for a while and know the job is
getting done as I need it to get done every day?)
Now
combine the two lists because this is where the employer figures if hiring YOU
is a good idea.
Making
It Work:
•
Set up the two
lists side by side.
•
Circle places
where your factors and skills match the employer needs, even if they are not
exact.
•
Look at the
materials you are currently using in your job hunt (resume, interview
preparation, applications, JIST cards) and see if you are emphasizing the areas
you have just circled.
•
Write out ways
you can emphasize these points of your OZ factor and their Oz needs and
integrate them in the new, improved materials.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adjusting Your
Words
All of the pieces are there now to rewrite your
resume, applications and JIST cards to best present yourself to any employer.
The employer has a special way of looking at the job
(the Employer Oz factor), you have a set of brains, heart and courage that you
can continue to develop (your own Oz factor) and you appreciate the importance
of finding the right language to meet the employer’s perspective (Nova, Janitor
and other chapters). Now we bring these
all together.
Just a reminder on what is a JIST card. People you are competing against have
experience and training appropriate to the job but that gets lost in all of the
reading the hiring manager has to do.
In order to stand out while showing appreciation for
their time pressures, give the employers a snapshot of your best qualifications
related to the job and their specific perspectives on a 3 by 5 card.
CHEAP HELP:
JIST Cards give you the opportunity to keep your
name in front of the employer and to spotlight the points you want to
make. They also give you the opportunity
to show the employer that you value their time by putting what you want to say
in bite-sized morsels.
Get yourself some index cards and work with your
friends on what to say knowing that you are the expert on YOU.
Making
It Work:
Get out your resume and applications for your top
four employer prospects and circle the verbs in them. Also review the points you are making about
your accomplishments.
Get out your answers to earlier “Making It Work”
exercises on your Oz factors (your brains, heart and courage) and the
employer’s Oz factor (the type of brains, heart and courage they are looking
for).Being true to yourself, are the specifics in your verbs and statements
appropriate to the Oz factors involved?
Change them where they are not. Are the words used what they need to hear and
are you clear in how you say it? Are
they prioritized with your important points in the first spots and either bold
or underlined to emphasize those points?
* note that sometimes, putting strong selling points
at the end of a section can draw an employer’s attention as well.
•
•
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
you R who you R
Growing
up one of my favorite songs was sung by Arlo Guthrie and it was about letters
sent to an advice columnist, Dear Abby.
Take a moment and catch some of the lyrics:
Dear Abby, Dear Abby, my feet are too long
My hair's falling out and my rights are all wrong
My friends they all tell me, they're no friends at all
Won't you write me a letter, won't you give me a call
Signed Bewildered
Chorus: Bewildered, bewildered you have
no complaint,
You are what you are and you aint what you aint.
So listen up buster and listen up good,
Stop wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood.
Signed, Dear Abby.
You are what you are and you aint what you aint.
So listen up buster and listen up good,
Stop wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood.
Signed, Dear Abby.
Dear Abby, Dear Abby, you won't believe
this,
But my stomach makes noises whenever I kiss.
My girlfriend tells me it’s all in my head,
but my stomach tells me to write you instead.
Signed, Noise-maker.
But my stomach makes noises whenever I kiss.
My girlfriend tells me it’s all in my head,
but my stomach tells me to write you instead.
Signed, Noise-maker.
Chorus: Noisemaker, noisemaker you have
no complaint,
You are what you are and you aint what you aint.
So listen up buster and listen up good,
Stop wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood.
Signed, Dear Abby.
You are what you are and you aint what you aint.
So listen up buster and listen up good,
Stop wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood.
Signed, Dear Abby.
Tell
the world that although you are working on your imperfections, you know what
they are. The best way an employer can hear of how you face adversity and meet
it is in your descriptions of your flaws and how they make you unique and
special.
Describing
your flaws benefits you from the employer’s perspective because; from her point
of view your description –
•
Gives a fuller
picture of who you are (there are so many people well-rehearsed in what to say,
it is refreshing to get the real news.
•
Let’s the hiring
manager know that you see yourself with some honesty.
•
There are fewer
surprises on the job when problems inevitably arise.
Making
It Work:
Make
a list of the habits you have that make you less than perfect. Now ask two other people whom you trust to
make a list from their point of view of your imperfections. Tell them you want them to be brutally honest
and you don’t mind what they say (and mean it).
Sleep
on it one night then take a good look at the lists – these will give you a good
amount of information describing that you are who you are and you ain’t who you
ain’t.
Avoid
taking this personally or permanent, but know that it is truthful and will give
you some honest answers to “tell me about yourself”.
See
the commercial and the 3 questions in other books in the JHTK series.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 questions
In
all of the interviews you will have through the years, there are three
questions that are either asked directly or indirectly and your being ready for
them will put you ahead of the people who are not ready.
Tell me about yourself…
The
employer is giving you the opportunity to connect what makes you special to the
demands of the job open. It is important
that you take this opportunity to talk first of all what makes you different
and how that difference makes you a good fit for the job.
Make
certain that you are brief and focused in this question because rambling on
about unrelated things (“I was born in a log cabin on the banks of…”) will make
the employer’s mind wander and when they wander, they normally wander away from
you.
Why should I hire you?
This
is where you can make an image of your working there and to transfer that image
to the employer’s mind.
Take
all of the reasons you have why hiring you is a good idea and boil them down
into four or five central points.
Essentially
you are showing how you are a better selection than others who may also be
interviewed and that you have the essential ingredients (the Oz factor) for the
job at hand.
Why do you want to work for me?
The
employer is really asking “hey, we are real strange folks here and we have some
tough pressures on us. Do you know what
you are getting into and will you have what it takes to stay here?”
The
related question is “hey, I am going to invest a lot of time, energy and
personal pride (you are the best person for the job in my estimation after all)
in you - - are you going to stick around?”
Making
It Work:
List
the three questions and leave LOTS of room for your answers.
Now
list as many ideas as you can to address each of them.
Next
step is to consider your top four prospective employers and put a number (1
through 4 for the employers) by each idea which will work from the employer’s
POV.
You
will want to have four to five points to make in answering each question and
you will want to also practice saying them aloud so you hear how they sound and
if they have the ring of being ‘you’.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stress Interviews
People
are often so rehearsed
in what to say and how to say it in job interviews that they need new
ways at getting at what “is underneath”.
Admiral
Hyman Rickover was in charge of promoting Naval officers during wartime and he
faced this problem every day. In order to get at the
real personality underneath the
practiced answers, he perfected what has become known as the stress interview.
For
example, Rickover would bolt a chair to the floor and ask applicants to move it
over to his desk to start the interview.
He had many of these “props”
(gluing a pen to a desk and ask to have it passed to him, having applicants
sink into soft chairs before his desk so he would look downward toward them,
etc.) so that the applicant never knew where the challenge would come
from.
Rickover
would study the applicant’s verbal and non-verbal reactions to the unexpected
and consider them as a sign of the real person underneath the practiced facade.
There
are dozens of ways an employer can throw you a curve during an interview. Be prepared and be confident for getting
through the rough spots and to understand that the employer just wants to see
the real you.
Making
It Work:
Before
you do your next practice or mock interview draw up five questions (or better
yet, have friends draw them up) covering the following:
•
How would you
handle the following problem at work? (Form a question which includes four
problems all happening at the same time).
•
What is the
worst part of the prospective job and how would you handle it?
•
What was your
greatest failure at work and what did you learn from it?
•
Role play with
an obnoxious or inattentive client or customer.
•
Have your friend
invent a few challenges for you in the environment of the interview (noises,
interruptions, seating arrangements, and off-beat questions asked). Have fun with this one.
The
best part about mock interviews is that you can get all the tension and
preparation without the stakes being as high as in an actual interview.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End with a period
Growing
up with my big sister, we had that sibling rivalry thing down pretty well. One day we were drying dishes together when
she dropped a dish (kblambo) and it shattered on the floor. Sh-sh-sh-shoomph she flew out of the kitchen like
a low-flying jet.
I
bent over to pick up the broken dish when my mother walked in, angry about the kblambo
she heard from the other room. I explained
to her with no real energy or conviction”well, my sister did it... She
dropped it... really...?”
Though
I knew the truth (complete with sound effects), when I explained it, it sounded
like I wasn't sure...? Like
maybe I was making it up...?
How
does this help you? Before seeing an
employer, review
what you plan to say about your
skills/experience that will make you a valuable employee.
Practice it out loud making certain
you end statements with a period. Like
you know what you're talking about because you know you better than
anybody else.
Remember: whenever an employer's mind wanders, it wanders away from you. When
something is open to misunderstanding NOT in your favor, that's generally the
direction it will go because the employer tries to avoid guessing and tries to never guess
wrong about hiring. If you leave room
for mind wandering, they will wander away from positive thoughts about
you.
How
to keep them from wandering? Know your points and express them with
a period. Only way to that is practice
out loud.
Making It Work:
Review
your Oz-nicity, your answers to the three main questions, your commercial,
other aspects of the interview and sound confident, out loud with what you have
to say. Practice three times on three
different days to get it right.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment