You Want a Friend? Get a Dog! But, Use Your Interviewer's Time Carefully!

In a job interview, both you and the interviewer are there for only one reason... to assess your applicability for the executive position at hand. Use the interviewer's time, and yours, very carefully. Unless you're applying for a position in sales or customer service, don't waste the interviewer's time trying to make friends. Personality is important in almost every career position. But, given the stiff competition that currently exists for executive positions of almost every shape and size, your main objective is to get to the true benefits the company would derive by hiring you.

I'm not suggesting that you act like a robot or be devoid of wit and warmth. But, too many executives mistakenly believe that interviews are personality contests. If you happen to find a real connection between you and the interviewer, that could certainly help break the ice. But, absent that, trying to make the interviewer take a liking to you is a waste of time.

The interviewer is not there to make friends and neither are you. Spending time in an interview trying to "buddy up" is a cheesey trick. It shows bad form and suggests that you may be a weak candidate seeking to cover-up your deficiencies. Moreover, what would happen if you were the best qualified for a particular position but, spent too much time playing Mister Personality, and either didn't demonstrate your experience and abilities or the interviewer didn't like you?

Get to the point (Read "Advancing Your Career May Be As Easy As Telling a Joke in Reverse!"). If you have limited time and can demonstrate only one trait in addition to your qualifications, make it confidence, trust, creativity, or conciseness. After you've convinced the interviewer that you're best qualified to help his / her company accomplish its objectives, then turn on the charm.
Good luck!

Did You Really Expect to Land that Job by Sending an Email?

Email is passive. Most people aren't email addicts, like me, who focus on answering their clients' emails within minutes of receiving them. The phone only weighs ounces, not 500 pounds! Any form of communication other than a conversation between humans [and mental telepathy] is passive and risks delay, being forgotten or completely ignored, and basically risks your message not getting across and your not achieving your desired results.

Whether you're seeking a job interview or offering a service or product for sale, look at it this way: A question asked in a telephone conversation usually gets an immediate response, not necessarily an answer but, a response. An email permits the reader to do any one of a number of things, such as:

* Never read your email
* Delete your email
* Decide to read it later
* Scan it quickly and decide to read the details later
* Read it and not respond
* Read it in detail and respond to it later
* Read it and respond to part of it upon receipt or later
* Respond to all of it upon receipt
* And, more....

Here's the important part about email communications. Since most of the above alternative reactions permit the reader to get back to you at a later date, email communication can be much less intrusive on the recipient than a phone call. And, because you probably don't want to be too pushy by interrupting people, you'd rather not be intrusive....right? Well, then by sending email instead of calling, you are sending a message to your email recipients that you do not need a timely reply, that your communication to them may be of a casual nature, that it may not even be important, and if they don't respond to you...at all...it's ok! If that's the nature of your communication, then email away!

When you were employed as an executive in your last position, those employees, service providers, business partners, and others who reported to you probably watched carefully for every email you sent them, lest they be fired for non-responsiveness. When you sent an email, they replied...completely and quickly...right? It is also likely that your peers and maybe even your superiors were focused on the emails you sent and replied in a reasonable time frame. So, you're used to email being an effective, efficient, and timely tool that got the job done.

Unless you're in the midst of an intense project with a group of people who send and receive a steady stream of emails, email as a communications tool is passive. Email permits people to choose to respond, to choose when and how to respond, to choose not to respond, or not choose at all.

Think about all the other obstacles that could keep you from receiving a response to your email, including:

* Your email gets caught in the recipient's spam filter
* The recipient mistakenly deleted your email and didn't know it
* Like dialing one wrong number when placing a telephone call, you misspell the recipient's email address
* The recipient is out of town or unable to read email for an extended time period and sets your email to read on some future date
* The recipient doesn't read his or her own emails and has them reviewed and prioritized by an assistance (this is happening more and more)
* Trust me, there's more!

So, if people receive an email from you, they'll likely assume that you're in no rush to receive their reply. And, they'll decide if, when, how, and in what detail they'll respond to you...that is, if they make any decisions about your email at all. I mean, if you're in no rush, why should they rush to respond to you, right? They've got lives, families, careers, and things to do, too.

So, if you need an answer, PICK-UP THE PHONE! What are you so afraid of? Someone will say "no" or worse, hang-up on you? Look at it this way, if the person you call says they won't help you, aren't you better off hearing it now, right away, then waiting for days, weeks, or months, and after sending multiple emails and wondering when you'd hear from them? Hey, even if they do hang-up on you (which few people would likely do, unless you're an obnoxious so-and-so), at least you'll know where you stand with that person and you'll know to no longer waste your energy on them.

Email is passive. If you need an answer quickly, pick-up the phone or meet face-to-face. Good-luck!