Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Beyond Work

Beyond Work is our line of resources for people and community leaders looking for something new and innovative outside, be it a new job, career change, or personal development outside of work.

  • How to Answer the Interview Question “What is your greatest weakness?”

    How to Answer the Interview Question “What is your greatest weakness?”

    How to Answer the Interview Question “What is your greatest weakness?”

    I can just hear the canned answers to the question, “What is your greatest weakness?” from an interview candidate.

    Most of the time the response goes something like this… “Well, I’m a perfectionist.” Or, even better, “I’m a workaholic.”

    Or how about the question, “Tell me about a time when you’ve failed?” and the candidate just stares at you before responding, “Well, I can’t think of a time when I’ve failed.”

    I’ve actually had more than one student being interviewed for an ambassador program at a their high school tell me and the other panelists on the interview team that they have never failed.   This may be a lesson for another day about parenting, but we’ve all failed. Obviously, these kids haven’t learned anything from it.

    And that’s the point. The reason the interviewer is asking you these questions that seem to seek to convey you in a negative light or get you to throw your own self under the bus, is nothing of the sort. It is actually an assessment to see how you have learned from or adapted from weaknesses and failures.

    So how do you move beyond the canned answers and respond to these difficult questions without hanging yourself out to dry?   You answer them the way you should answer any other interview question, and that is through the STAR or (SAR as some use) method.   (For a worksheet to answer questions using this method, click here for the Behavioral Based Interview Prep Tool)

    This method, with any interview question, outlines a response by the candidate defining:

    1. The Situation.   Think about a time where a weakness of yours has been demonstrated or a time when you failed. Describe that situation to the interviewer.

    Example: “The company I worked for honored industries in the area that were celebrating 25 year anniversaries.”

    2. The Task:   Describe what your assignment/task was related to the situation.

    Example: “I was asked to invite members of the leadership team of the company to a dinner in their honor.”

    3. The Action: Describe what you did to fulfill that task.

    Example: “I called the CEO of the company and invited him and his leadership team to the dinner and gave him the details of the event. He said he would call back with a headcount once he found out who could attend from his team.”

    4. The result: Describe what happened because of your action(s).   In the case of questions related to a negative trait or situation, this response should include what you LEARNED as result that led you or would lead you to take a different action next time.

    Example: “The CEO called back and said he would have 20 people from his company attend. This was way over the number of people we had planned for which made the event way over budget.   I had to express to him by ‘leadership team’ I meant his top 3-5 leaders; he had included all of his middle managers in his ‘leadership team’.  

     

    It was my mistake that I wasn’t clear with him, so I apologized and we absorbed the added cost.   From this, I have learned that I need to be more specific in my communication with others.   For example, I should have given him the number 3-5 people, not assumed that he could read my mind that this was the number of people we were thinking. Now I always make a point to be specific when communicating details and requests to others.”

     

    Let’s face it, we all have weaknesses and we’ve all failed. Trying to hide that by acting like we don’t doesn’t make us look like the ideal job candidate, it makes us look like we’re lying, or quite honestly, dumb. Instead, be honest when these questions come up, because they will, and tell the interviewer about a specific situation (just like you should do with every interview question) how you responded to it, and most importantly, what you LEARNED that led to change behavior so you won’t make the same mistake again at their organization.

    Need more help as a job seeker? We have just the tool for you.

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  • 1 Tip for Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads Ready to Re-enter the Workplace

    In talking with a successful realtor (see her story on Thursday’s blog post!) about her transition back into the workplace after ten plus years out of the pay-for- working world (believe me she WORKED while she was at home, she just didn’t get paid to do it) her advice to those seeking to do the same was simple:

    Figure out where you frequent and pursue work opportunities there.

    Where you frequent could be a physical place or it could be a place in your mind. For example, this stay-at-home mom turned realtor featured on House Hunters found that she loved looking at and thinking about properties and houses and also had a desire to promote the community she loved, which she had done quite frequently through volunteer work with the schools and the hospital in town. She realized that she could continue to promote the community through marketing and selling homes, and in fact, this could potentially be the best way for her to give back and make the most impact to promote her community.

    In considering where you frequent look around and consider the jobs that may be available there.

    1. Where do you volunteer your time regularly? The animal shelter, library, volunteer centers, churches, etc. all have full and part-time positions that you may be suited for.
    2. Are you drawn towards volunteering frequently at your child(ren)’s school? Teaching or a role in education may be an option to consider. Teach.org has more information on how to get certified to teach state by state.
    3. Love to shop? Where is your favorite place to shop? People get paid to work there! Ask about job opportunities that may be a fit for you at your favorite store.
    4. Have a hobby? There are probably people in the market for what you make or the skills you have. Check out this post on where you can tap into the “free agent” society for your goods and skills: Are you a free agent by nature? All of the following are platforms to do this:

    Etsy

    Udemy

    Google Helpouts

    Freelance.com

  • 3 Steps for Growing Future Leaders with a Job Shadowing or Internship Program

    3 Steps for Growing Future Leaders with a Job Shadowing or Internship Program

    Do you want to grow tomorrow’s talent today? Some of the best companies know the value of an internship program to their talent management strategy. And current research shows that 40% of interns return to the organization they interned with for full-time employment   If you’re a college student, participating in an internship(s) is one of the best methods for ensuring job offers come your way before you graduate.   In fact, choosing a college based on their relationships with top employers and their established, quality internship programs should be a key factor in vetting a college.

    If your organization is considering how to best maintain a talent pipeline, establishing a job shadowing and internship or Co-Op program is a great way to groom and vet talent.  If you’re a university career center professional, establishing relationships with employers, launching successful internship programs is a critical factor in your success.  Starting small and growing a program may be the best route instead of trying to do everything at once.

    Step 1:  If you are an organization, start a job shadowing program through a simple bring your kid(s) to work day once or twice a year.  This can be as simple as having announcing to your staff the day that this will occur and encouraging them to bring their kid(s) to work to observe what they do all day.

    If you want to make the program more robust, consider surveying the students about what they want to be when they grow up and working to match the students interests with people in those roles instead having them simply shadow mom or dad.   Better yet, provide career assessments to students and use that to help match students to talent in your organization.

    Step 2:  Form a partnership business and school partnership to establish a job shadowing day for high school students and an internship or Co-Op program for college students.   Start with one at a time. Work to understand goals of each entity and then design and establish the program meet mutual goals.

    Step 3: This step really goes hand-in-hand with Step 2, but establishing a structured program that best fits the needs of both parties is important.  The structure needs to involve requirements to be a part of the program, application procedures, a calendar for the program and individuals within your company that agree to mentor an intern. Some things to consider when you structure a program are:

    • Model your program after some of the best out there
    • Focus on critical skill development areas where your organization is lacking or will be lacking in talent.  Worried about engineering, computer science or nursing positions, for example, then partner with those departments for your program.  It does not have to be a program that is open to all.  If you’re a college professional, you probably want to establish internships in the “fuzzier” program majors like the liberal arts.  Placement for these majors is more difficult, so establishing relationships with employers who want to take students from these majors is wise.
    • Provide training to those that are acting as mentors to students and allow them time to focus on development of that intern, which may mean removing some responsibilities from them in order to do so.
    • Focus on soft skill development through teambuilding, communication and problem solving activities and assignments.
    • Focus on exposure to a variety of people and experiences throughout the program, including fellow interns.
    • Focus on promoting the company as an employer of choice through exposing interns to the benefits of working with your company.  This may involve education about what “benefits” really are beyond what is traditionally focused on like salary and healthcare.
    • Design a way for high performers to get job offers before their internship experience is over- don’t loose them.   College professionals should help employers structure this, which will help with first destination rates for the school.
    • For college professionals, be careful about the partnerships you create around the issue of paid vs. non-paid internships.   Based on the current legal environment, we recommend you partner only with those who offer paid opportunities given that the definition of a non-paid intern is established, but gray at best.
  • How Personality Assessment Can Help You Be A Better Leader

    How Personality Assessment Can Help You Be A Better Leader

    “This is why I’m not married anymore,” said a participant in a recent leadership training class.   She was partly kidding, but it was obvious that the results of her personality assessment, which were being used to launch the leadership training series we were conducting for her company, had struck a cord.

    Her personality assessment showed that she was a highly dominant, take charge, get it done kind of person.  These characteristics had served her well in her role in finance with the organization, but she realized that maybe her personality had impacted the success of her marriage.

    In another conversation with the director of a college career center, concerns were expressed about students’ ability to know themselves- their strengths and areas for development- and take this knowledge into the workplace in order to succeed.  In designing a leadership workshop for them, our first approach was to implement a personality assessment to help these student leaders with the self-awareness they seem to so desperately need.

    As we’ve often said, self-awareness is the first step in establishing yourself as a leader.   Although it isn’t the only way, personality assessment can help with this self-awareness and then provide a framework for building interpersonal relationships, providing feedback, delegating and a host of other leadership issues.

    Here are some assessment tools/vendors we use based on client needs (Note: It’s important to know which personality assessment is right to use based on your organization’s needs.   You should define the needs first- are you wanting to facilitate teambuilding, leadership coaching or training, make better hiring decisions, etc.- then pick the best assessment, not the other way around.):

    Hogan Assessments

    DiSC Assessments

    Tools from Assessment Associates International

    Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

    How as a personality assessment helped you at work or in your personal life?

  • 3 Ways to Keep Your Adult Kids from Moving Back in with You

    The statistics are startling.  In 2009, 80% of college graduates moved back in with their parents according to CNN Money.  That’s just because the economy was so bad then you say.

    Probably not.

    Market Watch reported that a Pew Research Center Analysis determined that in 2012, 36% of adults ages 18-36 live at home with their parents.   That’s more than 1/3 of young adults in America not out on their own.  If you consider someone over 30 a “young adult”.  And Tim Elmore reports in his new book, 12 Huge Mistakes Parents Can Avoid, that in 2013 85% of college students planned to move back home after graduating.

    Many parents ask me what they can do to help their student be successful in college.  I think the better question is how can we help college prepare them to be successful as independent adults?

    In order to enable flight into the real world instead of a retreat back home, there are three things we need to focus on:

    1. Help them find a career path where their skills and talents are needed in the market place.  Not having a job or not having a job that pays enough to afford to live independently causes students to move home.  If we help them determine career direction and set them up to pursue that direction through their college experiences, then they will be more likely to find quality employment.
    2. Make them work.  With the above being said, just having an educational credential that is linked to a marketable field is not enough.   I recently had a parent of a college graduate call us to ask for help in getting his son’s resume in order to help him to pursue a job.  He had graduated from a top program in a marketable field, but had no job prospects.  He had moved back home with his parents.   When we got an initial draft of his resume from him, it was obvious why he wasn’t having any luck.   At age 24, the kid hadn’t worked a day in his life. On top of that, he didn’t have much involvement in student or leadership activities while in college.   We couldn’t make up experience for him to put on his resume. Simply pursuing an internship in the field of his major at the very least (where I know for a fact there are firms all over the campus he attended clamoring for interns and full-time employees) would have given him opportunities in his field and potential job prospects post graduation, not to mention the opportunity to learn skills and garner experience that can’t be developed only in the classroom.  As Dr. Elmore says in his book, “Work shapes us. Being productive is innately good for human beings.” In addition, working and being responsible for some of their own finances teaches valuable skills and can help with one of the reasons students can’t afford to go out on their own- student loan debt.
    3. Don’t do it for them.   The kid that couldn’t get a job in his field wasn’t calling me about his resume. His dad was.  After talking to his dad two or three times to try to arrange things, I finally asked him to tell his son to call me directly.   If his son had been given responsibility for his future without the crutch of his parents couch and his dad calling to get his resume drafted and pay for it, he might be out on his own now.  It’s just an example of a larger pattern in promoting lack of motivation and drive by doing and fixing everything for our kids.  We enable a can’t do instead a can-do attitude.

    I say this just as much as reminder to myself as a parent than anything. As I listen to my three-and-a-half year old scream that he can’t put his shoes and socks on by himself when I know his is fully capable of doing it on his own my mind flashes to him as a 30 year old at home on our couch.   I calmly tell him he can do it himself and walk away, hoping this doesn’t make us late. I haven’t always chosen this route.

    If your student is headed to college, who is filling out their college applications, writing their scholarship essays, asking for recommendations from teachers and scheduling college visits?  If we are doing all this for them as 17 and 18 year olds, what makes us think they are going to take ownership of things when they graduate from college (if they are even able to graduate by their own efforts) at 22 or 23?

    It’s sometimes easier said than done, but if we all want our kids to be successful in life, not just in college, we need to remind ourselves to think long term by helping them:

    • Discover who they are and help them match that to a need in the marketplace
    • Make them work to help them learn the value of being productive early on
    • Provide them with opportunities to do things on their own, without us constantly rescuing. This includes allowing them to fail when they don’t take responsibility for doing things on their own.

    Interested in more related topics? You may also like:

    Help Your Child Discover

    College Prep Checklist

    Help Your Child Create a Pros and Cons List not a Good or Bad List

    Be a Coach to Your Child

    What are you doing today to prepare your child for tomorrow?