iPad Job Search Tips | Take You With You (Part 2)

In Part 1 of Take You With You, I opined about ditching the paper resume and bringing it with you inside of your iPad.  It is an engaging way to change the interview from the back and forth volley of a Q&A to a more tactile and interactive conversation.

But let’s not limit it to the resume – why not take all of you (at least the professional you) into the room.

The following program is brought to in living color

Portfolios, sample work product and other “leave-behinds” have been strewn across the desks of interviewers infinitas infinitio.  However, digital and “moving pictures” were not so easy to display (unless you had your own 3DBB). Stopping an interview in its tracks by setting up a projector (and littering the room with the vibe of a stale drive-in movie hot dog) was not a good idea. 

But in the tablet era – you are able to bring those nice bright colors of your life to life without jarring the interview off the rails.

Phrasing in tribute of Dick Clark’s recent passing, let me describe to you the things you would find on my iPad during an interview:

• A picture (shown to the left) of a project network diagramming session
• A series of pictures from a field study I conducted with a client for a Service Cloud implementation for their field service techs
• A diagram about governance and Salesforce.com (to illustrate the importance of the product manager mindset that you need to adopt with your social enterprise tools).
• The books I am reading (great conversation starter)
• A Home screen bookmark to this blog as well as other Apps that are a fit for that interview (e.g. The Chatter app or CloudOn).
• Pictures of the Big Boot (yes – I have worked it into an interview answer)

Of course – if you have access to “the interwebs” – you can show even more of your work.   Heck -  I can even show you my personal Facebook site (without giving you my password).

Never do I want to hear another word…show me

Whatever it is that makes you a most valuable candidate to a potential employer – show them.  Online, offline or how you drive results to the bottom line – bring all of that with you to the interview to help “digitally enhance” the picture of you that create in the interview.

Up next, in the final chapter of the “Take You With You” trilogy, I mention some “safety tips” when bringing your iPad to an interview (i.e. pants on, ethics and Lady Ga-Ga).

 

Related and not so related links:
iPad Job Search Tips
All of Me (Billie Holiday)
NBC Network ID (1968)
Tennessee Tuxedo - The Bridge Builders
It’s Time for a tasty and refreshing snack (Drive in Move Intermission film)
Kodachrome (Paul Simon)
Salesforce.com explains the Social Enterprise (Forbes)
Best Winner’s Circle Ever (25,000 Pyramid Billy Crystal)
Show Me (Audrey Hepburn)

iPad Job Search Tips | Take You With You (Part 1)

As you’ll hear here – and on the likes of 60 Minutes - the hardcopy resume is swimming towards the top of the dead pool.  It is on the same trajectory as the Blackberry: stolid corporations still love it - but consumers and progressive companies loathe it. 

But until the world catches up  – you still need to have a resume along with all your social media derivations (at least a Linked In Profile for  professionals – other sites depending on your industry and job). 

But now is the time for you to show the world – and your perspective employer – that you’re ahead of the curve.  You need to show them you’re not doing your homework on the back of a shovel with Honest Abe and that you are relevant in the digital and social age.

It’s a thousand pages give or take a few

Earlier this year, on my trek along the job search process, I decided to go paperless and also green.  For certain interviews, I printed zero copies of my resume and simply loaded a PDF of it onto my iPad. 

As often happens, a number of interviewers would come to the meeting empty handed and ask, “do you have a copy of your resume”?

With one tap of the Home button, I closed whatever app I was using to take notes, opened my Kindle for iPad (with my resume already loaded), and flipped the iPad around and handed it to them and said, “here you go”.  

Better still – you can click to your Linked In profile and show them a recommendation that underlines a point you had just been making in the interview.   At that point – like the iPad itself, the interview becomes interactive and tactile.  You can show them you are relevant online by showing them you online.

 

Epilogue: Let’s make this clear about these posts on the iPad and job searching:  You do not need an iPad to get a job.  If there is any reason that cash is king for you and your family, then be smart.  But if it makes sense for you – and is a differentiator in your industry - it’s another tool in the bag.  In other words, have style. There are always other ways to demonstrate your prowess during an interview.

Further – we all know results vary.  Make sure you know the person on the other end of the table will appreciate this tactic (“you never open your mouth until you know what the shot is”). 

 

Related and not so related links:
iPad Job Search Tips | Every Move a Picture (3Minus3)
3Minus3 Facebook site
”The resume will become an obsolete tool” (Trapped in Unemployment-60 Minutes)
”Style ain't the jeep U bought when U know your broke ass got bills” (Prince)
Paperback Writer (The Beatles)

iPad Job Search Tips | Every Move a Picture

I mentioned the other day that I recently went through an interview cycle on the way to a new gig with an awesome company.  During this process, it is easy to see (what you should already know) how smart phones and social media are increasingly intertwined with the interview/job search process in big and small ways.

Here’s one small way: documenting what you wear to an interview.

Tryin' hard to look like Gary Cooper

Ok.  Guys have it easier on this front.  2 suits, a sports jacket, a few shirts and a few more ties and you’re ready for 3-4 rounds of interviews at a number of companies.

But for every gift there is a down-side.  Most dudes are not normally fashion conscious.  Unless our favorite sports teams have given us the Garanimals head-start (e.g. Patriots Nautical Blue suit with a white shirt and red tie), we may be challenged.  It is such a blind-spot for some guys that I have a recruiter buddy who escorts charges to the first meet to ensure they are dressed like an adult.

Snap, Snap!  Grin, Grin!

Enter the iPad camera.   Snap a quick self-pic on the way out the door and then tag the photo when you get home (e.g. Job x, Interview 2). 

Eureka! 

You’ve got a pictorial catalog of how much variety you are mixing into your wardrobe that you can store right next to your “customized for that job resume” you did (because you did – right?).  This “scrapbook” can be especially valuable given the extended sales cycles of most jobs in this market (interviewing with more people over and extended period of time).

Any interesting ways you are using your iPad or social media in your job search you care to share?

Related and not so related links:
“Every move a picture” (Jerry Lewis)
Putting on the Ritz (Taco)
Nudge, Nudge (Monty Python)

Facebook Strip Search

Having just successfully completed a job interviewing cycle, and having gone through more than my share of background checks for employers/clients (that required me to hand over my fingertips or a bottle of pale yellow liquid from time to time), I’m all for qualifying candidates.  I have often used “the Google”, Linked In or other tools on the “interwebs” during my hiring process (as have people that I have worked for – I know because they often have mentioned this blog during an interview).

Cutting to the chase, given the hue and cry in the news, I’m pretty sure I would think twice before giving my login credentials to my Facebook account during an interview. 

Let me be clear – I have nothing to hide on Facebook (which has mostly an open profile).  I assume that anything on my Facebook page is public – or may be  (“the web is forever”).   Therefore – sorry ladies – there’s no pictures of me shirtless on Facebook.  As my Facebook friends can tell you – my posts are mostly “tame” (and more often than not – much like this blog - obtuse and random).

The Right to Chose 

My pause to produce my Facebook passwords during an interview is based on – like the Bozo Interview Question – I don’t know why you care or what you intend to learn from my timeline?  Do you want me to dig up my high school yearbook so you can see what folks wrote in there (other than “stay gold”)?

How I look at it - unless I am applying for a job that requires top level clearance (TSA) or the job as your Social Media Director – it is likely not germane.  That being said – let that be a choice between me and the person interviewing me.  If you REALLY want to ask me for my password and I REALLY want the job – then you may get lucky and see pictures of my cats (who by the way – also have Facebook pages of their own).

Trying to write a law (Bill Would Put Facebook Off Limits To Employers) is silly and not needed. To quote my good friend Joe – “the marketplace is brutally efficient” and will take care of this hiring manager.  Companies will properly screen many candidates this way – which is to run away.

p.s. Max (the cat) said he’d also give his credentials to you for the right opportunity (such as Cat Food Quality Control Engineer).

Conjunction Junction – make that your function

If I was to sort and group my email Sent folder by Subject text, “30 Second World Famous Introduction” would be one of the most used texts.  I just finished sending another one of these networking “blind dates”.

I talked about this in a longer post in 2009 (20 Job Search Answers You Need To Know | #4 How do I start to network?) but I wanted to hit this specific topic again (because it is so important).

To quote that post (and myself): 

(Connecting people) is something I strongly believe in (and do at least once a week). This is all about hooking-up folks whenever you can - WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED. Whether you call it pay it forward or Instant Karma (as I prefer to), connecting others in your circle expands your circle, too.  So if you know two people that could benefit from meeting each other – hook them up. 

I often hook-up people with my “Blind Date Introduction” email I am fond of sending (just did it last night). 

The email comes in 4 parts and goes something like this:

• The set-up:  Why I think you two should meet
• Person 1 Bio:  How I know you and why you are special
• Person 2 Bio: How I know the other person and why they are special
• Contact: Provide each others contact info with a note to contact the person (or not) as they both see fit

If you do only one thing in 2011 to grow your network – make connecting people that one thing.

Stop Asking Bozo Interview Questions

Let’s start with an admission: I have asked stupid interview questions.  I’m not proud of it. But now – I’m in bozo recovery.

Before recovery, the bozo question I often asked (that I nicked from another bozo) was, “if you could be on a cover of a magazine, what cover would it be”?  That, of course was before the TMZ, broadcast yourself on social media era). 

After a year of asking that question, I got some good answers (PM Network) and some answers that I didn’t know quite what to do with (Dog Fancy) .  But then -  I just stopped. 

No - I don’t find salvation from some great epiphany (or reading a blog post from a bozo like this one), I stopped because I realized that whatever answer they gave me to that question – it had no bearing on whether I would hire them (there were no obvious screen out answers like I want to be on Hustler magazine).

Hey man, Jaws was never my scene and I don’t like Star Wars

I was reminiscing about those Bozo Questions of Interviews Past after reading the CareerBuilder post Star Wars or Star Trek? Questions you just might hear in the interview .  It was all about bozo interview questions – with one being “which do you like better, Star Wars or Star Trek”?

Really?

In addition to the bozo question of the title – it offered up a few more:

“I was once asked what I would bring if the department had a potluck.” - Amanda L.

“What color is your brain?” - Connie B.

“Which Winnie the Pooh character do you relate with the most and why?” - Celie H.

“If we asked you to wear a bumble bee costume, walk around and hand out candy to employees, would you do it?” - Lisa M.

Oh boy.

I’ll add one of my own (that I witnessed):

“If it was a dark alley at night, and I was a little girl, would you throw rocks at me”

Can I throw them now?

Incoming (Prepare for the bozo, not the question)

The CareerBuilder post went on to offer some more great examples and some good suggestions on preparing (like bolt if they ask you an illegal question).  But really, I don’t think you can prepare for a question a bozo may ask.  You just need to be prepared for the bozo on the other side of the desk. 

That preparation looks like:

1. Prepare for what you can Get your ducks in a row for the questions that are legit (and you are likely to get).  If you’re not sweating “why do you want to work here?”, you’ll have more time to side-step the bucket of confetti when it comes your way.
2. Breathe  When the bozo question hits you – just breathe.  Take a moment to formulate an answer.  Really – the answer shouldn’t matter and probably won’t.  If your job hinges on “I like Star Trek because Tribbles are cute” – it may be best to move on either way.  Answer calmly and as intelligently as you can (just don’t say you like the Cardassians – or heaven forbid that you like The Kardashians).
3. Don’t answer wrong  Don’t miss obvious wrong answers.  If you are asked, “What outdoor activity do you hate the most?” – don’t answer fishing if there is a large, taxidermied carp mounted on a board behind the hiring manager’s desk.  No reason to give a bad answer when other good answers (Lacrosse) are available in that spot.
4. May not be a bozo question Some questions may just appear to be bozo-filled but may be legitimate questions.  If I ask you how would you get out of a stuck elevator, for certain jobs, that type of thinking may be important to know (your McGyverness if you will).  Based on your prep work – you should be able to deduce what they are looking for.

Outgoing (If you have orange hair, a bright red nose, and big floppy shoes and are asking the questions)

For those of you still asking the bozo questions:

1. Stop it Right now.
2. Don’t Be a Shock Jock You have heard it before, right?  I ask off the wall questions to see how people handle stress in their job.  BS.  You ask them because you are a bozo.  That’s artificial stress that likely has no indication of how they will handle real stress, or the real stress in the particular job.  You’re not probing – your dangling people (like Michael Jackson did with Blanket).
3. Don’t Be Lazy Devise your interview question that get you the answer you need.  Using our stress example above, ask some probing questions about how they handled stress.  That looks like this: “talk about a stressful project were you had to resolve the problem…how did you resolve it, be specific…give me an example where a resolution did not go well, be specific….).   That should give you a better idea on how they think more than the “Boo!” approach.
4. You’re not Zappos  Zappos is a very unique, very successful, and has a well-defined company culture.  So when Zappos asks a candidate something like “On a scale of 1-10, how weird are you? Why did you choose that number?” – they can use that information to evaluate candidates (and after reading Tony’s book, I bet the second half of that question is the more important part).  At your company, how weird someone is more likely will determine the size of their cubicle.  That brings us to our next point…
5. Be genuine  If your inquiry is on the edge of a bozo question (but you think it is important in the evaluation) put the candidate at ease.  Loosen the jar (not the one with the pop out snakes) and let them know it is coming.  If you’re not a bozo in the delivery, they won’t freak out and will be able to give you a more telling answer. 
6. Stop it I mean it

Tell us (Shameless plug for Comments)

Have you asked a bozo question?  What made you stop?  What is the oddest question you were ever asked?  What is the weirdest answer you gave?

Please – leave a comment (share the bozoisty).