Candidates Who Have Been Coached

Further proof of why we put limited importance on the face-to-face interview: I recommend that you answer difficult questions with SANDWICH technique. Practice writing out your answer – be sure to sandwich the negative with an emphasis on the positive. (+) (-) (+) Here is how you should fill in the blanks: (+) Begin with a positive statement (-) Slip in the negative (or weakness) (+) End with a positive statement Most likely the new employer will request only confirmation that you worked at the company. We always change plans, so it is okay to change your plans – maybe you were planning to go to college??? I don’t think… Read More

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Bosses Gone Wild

Super Bowl week leads to this article from CareerJournal.com. I am a big Tony Dungy fan and the article provides an interesting look at his managing/coaching style (an excellent style in my opinion). The excerpt that I enjoyed: The vice president of marketing at a Silicon Valley company attributes rapid turnover at many West Coast technology companies to what he calls “screaming-bully bosses.” One such boss, a body builder who liked to show off his strength to managers by doing 25 pushups at the start of meetings, called him at all hours to scream about things that had gone wrong. A second bully boss, the CEO of a semiconductor-network start-up,… Read More

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How Interviewers Affect Candidate Decisions

Yesterday I attended a Webinar from Monster and DDI titled, “Thanks, But No Thanks: Keeping Top Prospects From Turning Down Your Offer” that not only echoed many of the points from this Selling Power article, but had the data to support it. There were numerous points that I wanted to share with you so I’ll post on them in bite-size pieces over the next few days. In our previous post, point #4 talks about trust. A candidate forms their opinion about trust in 3 areas with the interviewer being the first mentioned. I’m sure some of you thought that may have been a bit far-fetched but take a look at… Read More

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The Etiquette Of Retention

Does ‘Thank You’ Help Keep Associates? from CareerJournal.com takes a look at turnover/retention issues at a major law firm. Scary, I know. However, there is a good lesson in here in regards to retaining top employees. First the setup from the article: Faced with a surge in turnover of its associates, the prestigious law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP has been putting on a charm offensive to hold onto junior lawyers. The presentation showed that the New York firm, now with about 625 lawyers, lost 31% of its associates in 2004 and 30% in 2005. The average associate attrition rate for law firms of about that size or bigger for… Read More

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