Career Cube Blog

Career development is not always about moving up in the organization. It’s more about constantly improving yourself and getting the most out of your job and work life. Regardless of whether or not you are interested in promotion right now, you are interested in standing out at work. To stand out in a good way, you need to be aware of the consequences of what you think, say, and do.

WHAT TO THINK, OR NOT

* Think you can (and will) succeed:

People have confidence in us when we have confidence in ourselves, and few things lead to success like self-confidence. We gain confidence as our skill and knowledge grows. The trick is to have confidence to try new things, when immediate success isn’t as likely as when we do things we’ve already mastered. To do this, go slow. Create self-development plans that ease you into a new task. It is easier to overcome small mistakes, and small wins keep you motivated and moving forward.

* Think good thoughts about performance feedback:

Performance feedback — particularly in review meetings — are our chance to talk to our manager about where we are, where we want to be, and how we might get there, in our job and in our career. Your attitude about receiving positive and negative feedback will help determine the outcome — whether the feedback is more developmental and future-focused or evaluative and focused on the past. Help your manager give you constructive feedback that helps you grow and reach your goals.

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Popularity: 8% [?]

There is much talk about Interviewing Styles: The Directive Interview, The Behavioral Interview, The Stress Interview, The Qualifying Interview, The This Interview, The That Interview. Articles outline different styles, list typical questions for each and tell you how to prepare for them, as well as suggesting appropriate answers.

That’s all well and good, but there’s an obvious question here that begs to be asked: how do you KNOW which style you’ll encounter? When you phone to schedule the interview, do you ask, “Oh, by the way Mr. Interviewer, what interview style do you use? I’d like to study that one and ignore all the others.”?

I absolutely endorse asking questions that you need to know the answers to (when it’s the appropriate time)……but THAT question is obviously an exception!

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Popularity: 17% [?]

How can such a seemingly simple question cause such confusion in a job seeker’s mind? Some people can get so befuddled by it that they find themselves discussing their elementary school education, stint as president of the high school student board, first day of college, favorite flavor of ice cream, and how they bought the car they drive now. Twenty minutes later, they are desperate for a glass of water, and the interviewer just wants to show them the door.

“Tell me about yourself” is typically the first question an interviewer will ask a candidate when they are ready to begin the interview. In the interviewer’s mind, they are just trying to give you a simple question to answer. Think of it this way, the interviewer has just dug your resume out of a pile and left their desk to meet you in the reception area. Their mind, however, is still on the last problem that just appeared in their email. They don’t want to look unprepared by re-reading your resume in front of you, so their intent is to ask you a basic question that reminds them about your credentials and experience.

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Popularity: 6% [?]