Leave A Positive Impression

Everyone knows the job interview isn’t over until the thank you letter is written and sent. But sometimes it’s difficult to know exactly what to say. Then there’s the sending. Email or mail mail? Hand written or typed? This is your last impression. You want to make sure it’s a memorable one!

 

Essentially the thank you letter is like a feel good, post interview highlight reel. You get to quickly reiterate the skills/experiences you discussed during the interview. Bring up an interesting point of discussion you shared and say one more time just what a good fit you are for the job.

 

When to send it

Since you’ll be talking about things that happened during the interview you’ll want to ensure you send the letter within 24 hours so you are still fresh in the interviewer’s mind. The best way to ensure it arrives in good time is to send it via email. A way to make sure you stand out even more is to also follow up with a written thank you note. If you go that route make sure you touch on different points.

 

Notes on the note

A thank you note shouldn’t be long. Your first priority is thanking them for their time. After that find something of interest from the interview to highlight. An interesting point of discussion you had or something about your skills/experience that stands out for this particular job. Try to mention something that will help them remember your interview in particular. Reiterate how excited you are about the job and say again how much you would like the position. Ensure your contact information is part of the note.

 

Note: Even if you think the interview went badly it’s important to still send a note. It’s good practice for you and it will leave a professional impression with the interviewer.

 

If after the interview you decide this job really isn’t for you, send a note anyway. Tell the interviewer how much you enjoyed meeting them and hearing about the opportunity, but let them know it’s not for you.

 

Who to send the note to

Obviously you’re sending the thank you note to the person who interviewed you, but what if you were interviewed by numerous people? If it was a group interview, you can go ahead and send a thank you to the team. If you were individually interviewed by more than one person then each of them gets a separate note. Ensure you are collecting business cards as you go so you have the correct spellings and titles of each person!

Learn To Be A Great Communicator

Being a hard worker, being knowledgeable and dedicated will all contribute to your success but another piece of the puzzle that’s even more important is one you may not be paying close enough attention to. Your ability to communicate effectively and create a rapport with the person you’re speaking to.

 

Communication is your key to creating strong, lasting relationships. No matter what field you’re in, you’re going to spend large chunks of everyday communicating with other people.

 

If you can create a rapport with people they will like you and trust you and whether it’s for five minutes or five years, they’ll want to hang around with you.

 

Learned skill

Even if you’re not a naturally born life of the party, you can still learn to become a great communicator.  Most people find it somewhat easy to build a strong rapport with people who are similar to themselves. It’s easy to find areas of commonality and interest, but when they get into communication with people who are different they run into problems. A strong communicator can get into a rapport with anyone.

 

Questions are a great start, but they don’t create rapport. They are a door opener. An opportunity not just to listen to what the other person is saying, but take note of how they’re saying it.

 

Look past the words

Words aren’t your only means of communication. As a matter of fact they’re not even the most powerful ones. More powerful than words is body language. People who are in rapport subconsciously begin to mirror each other’s body language and vibe.

 

Their tone of voice, their way of speaking, tempo, volume. You can also mirror the way they speak. If someone uses a certain word consistently then you can bring that into your conversation. If you mirror someone’s tone of voice they will feel like you are like them and they will feel connected to you.

 

To create a rapport with someone you want to match what they’re doing with their bodies and mirror it.  You can mirror posture. If they stand tall, you should also stand tall. If they have more of an introspective posture then mirror that.

 

We like people who are like ourselves

People like people who are like themselves. One of the most powerful ways to create rapport is to bring your breathing in sync with the other person. It creates a feeling of closeness.  Everyone’s idea of what’s comfortable in terms of personal space is different. Notice the personal space boundaries of the person  you’re talking to and mirror it.

 

You don’t have to mirror everything someone does movement by movement to create rapport. Rather you should be aware of all the elements where you can create rapport and mirror them naturally within the context of the conversation. They will feel in sync with you and want to listen to what you have to say.

Need A Helpful Conversation Starter?

Are you one of those people who can’t wait to get to a party so you can meet all kinds of new people and talk away the night? Do you relish networking events because you delight in the challenge to speak to as many people as possible? If so, then this not for you.

 

If on the contrary, small talk and conversations with strangers in general make you want to dive as quickly as you can back under the covers, then carry on.

 

Open the door for conversation

If you’re not big on small talk, but you’re at a party or networking event, questions are a fairly painless way to ease into a conversation. If you can get someone talking then chances are you’ll eventually find something you can join in with. However, not all questions are created equally. Depending on how you phrase the question you could hear an extended detailed answer or it could come in the form of a single word.

 

Open-ended vs. closed-ended

Let’s say for example you know the person you’re talking to was at an interesting lecture the day before. You could ask the question in two general ways:

 

Did you have a good time last night? Or

 

How was last night?

 

The first version is a closed-ended question, meaning there’s a good possibility you’ll get a yes or no answer. “Yes, I had a good time.”

 

“How was last night?” Is an open-ended question, meaning it opens the door for further elaboration.  “Last night was really interesting. The speaker had a lot to say about this that and the other. I would recommend her lectures to anyone.”

 

Go through the open door

From here you have options to continue the conversation. You could talk about this, that or the other or other lectures by that speaker or another.

 

Do you think this is a good idea?

 

Wait, better question: What do you think of this idea?

Make Everyday A Successful Day

You wake up every morning, look in the mirror and say, “I am going to be successful.” Well affirmations are all well and good, but saying you want to be successful without action to back it up, will be about as helpful as saying you want to lose weight while simultaneously stuffing a donut into your mouth.

 

Specific goals

If you are not striving to accomplish something every single day then you’re probably just going to let the day determine what happens. You’ll get caught up with being mad about getting caught in traffic. You’ll get involved with the gossip floating around the office. You’ll let yourself get sucked into watching yet another episode on whatever’s streaming on Netflix. Without goals you are likely to end up going wherever the wind blows. However if you’re working towards a specific goal every single day then you are going to take charge of where you focus your attention and your energies.

 

Once you do achieve a goal don’t climb up to the nearest rooftop to start crowing about it. Create another goal. And write it down. Keep yourself accountable.

 

Strong people skills

You may be able to spend a day alone doing your own thing or even a few days, but eventually you’re going to have to come out of hiding and get into the groove with other people. Even novelists the most I need alone time! group of all, eventually have to come out and interact with their publisher and fans at large. Introverts and extroverts alike can develop people skills. The easiest way to start is to get good at asking people questions and giving them your full attention when they answer. People with strong people skills realize that everyone wants to be heard.

 

 

Stay enrolled in the school of life

Always keep your mind engaged. Whether that means learning new skills for your career, taking cooking classes an evening a week, or language courses online, it’s important to keep yourself challenged. Ideally you want to continually create a new and improved version of you.

 

A healthy body to go with your sharp mind

While you’re busy setting goals and learning new things and developing strong people skills you might inadvertently forget to take care of yourself, and that would be a mistake. You need a healthy body to carry that great mind of yours around in. You may not realize it but some of your greatest ideas will come to you when you are doing something entirely unrelated, like walking or riding a bike or running on a treadmill. Whenever you exercise your body you are also exercising your mind. Check out how Regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory, thinking skills from Harvard Health Publications

 

 

 

Less thinking, more doing

We all love to make plans for our future and that’s great. Like we said earlier, having clear, specific goals are one of the cornerstones of our success. The problem comes when we start spending more time thinking about our goals or our future than actually doing anything to concrete to start achieving them. The longer you think about something without actually doing anything to back your thoughts up, the harder it is to get going. Procrastination leads to more procrastination. Doing leads to more doing. You need to learn to be your own referee.

 

Push yourself even when you don’t want to get go. Get out of bed no matter how cosy it is under the covers. Get up every time you fall down without wasting inordinate amounts of time lamenting over what wasn’t. Success is going to hear you loud and clear.

Good News About Resume Gaps

You will often hear that having an employment gap on your resume is bad news. It raises red flags about your ambition and your dedication to your work.

The fact is there are lots of reasons for an employment gap. Maybe you decided to take time off to travel or to go back to school. Maybe you were busy taking care of a loved one. Rather than thinking of the negative aspects of a career gap, think about the ways you can talk about it positively.

Learned new things in an untraditional way

If you decided to take time off work to go back to school that’s a total plus. You realized the fast track to getting ahead was improved qualifications. You are now far more prepared for the changing employment market and bring brand new skills and determination to your new job.

Let’s say you did take the time to travel. Even if you spent all your time exploring the nooks and crannies of new cities without a thought about career or professional development, you still learned new things. Talk about personal growth. Talk about learning to think on your feet. The communication skills you built talking to people from all over the world. The new perceptions you bring to life and work in this country. Frame the experience as an opportunity for personal growth.

Learned new things in a more traditional fashion

Whether you took courses specifically to increase your skill set and employability or out of personal interest, the take away is you are invested in improving yourself. Talk about what your new skills/outlook bring to the job at hand. How you can’t wait to put what you’ve learned to practice.

The importance of priorities

Maybe you had to take time off to care for a loved one or yourself. Sometimes life chooses our priorities for us. When it comes time to talk about that gap during the interview quickly explain away the negatives and go to the positives. This is what happened. The most important thing for me during that time was X. That’s behind me now and I’m ready to focus on my career.

 

Specialization Vs. Varied Skill Set

In years gone by people could expect to pass through a natural progression in their employment careers. They’d start their job, probably somewhere near the bottom rung of the ladder. They’d good at what they did and move up. Eventually they’d develop some expertise in a specific area of that job. They might switch companies, but they’d generally continue moving up in the same field.  Finally they’d retire.

Fast changing market

Although some people still move through their careers in much the same fashion, in today’s increasingly competitive job market, confining yourself to a single area of expertise might not be the most reliable way to create success. Most likely you will be given choices in your career. Would you like focus on a single thing, become expert and rise through the ranks based on that? Or, would you like to stay where you are, build skills in a variety of things and take a little longer to move up?

Although in the short term it might seem like a great idea to specialize and move forward, there’s a chance you will eventually hit a plateau in regards to just how far this will get you. Or worse you might find your specific skill is no longer necessary in the market! Especially in the fast-changing world we find ourselves in now.

Expanded skill set

Instead of being complacent in your job keep tabs on what’s happening in the job market. Expand your skill set as necessary. Learn different things related to your career. Become proficient at a few of them. Stay flexible. Ready to move into different areas as the job market demands.

All those extra skills will do you well, especially later in your career when the competition becomes even more fierce. Your progression might not be linear. It might look more like a mind map, but it will get you where you want to go!

 

It Might Be Time To Re-think All That Overtime

Whether you’re just starting out in a brand-new job or you’re in an established position there will be times when you’ll be asked to work overtime. If the company is asking for overtime for a specific reason– a looming deadline or a particular situation that requires extra hours that’s one thing. However, if overtime is simply part of the company culture or a personal decision to try and secure brownie points with your higher ups, you may want to re-think whether or not it’s worth it.

You may seem less competent instead of more competent

You may think your boss is paying special attention to you because of all the extra hours you’re putting in. That your efforts are setting you apart from the crowd. That may be true, but not in the way you’re hoping. If the boss and/or your co-workers see you stay late day after day, rather than believing you’re doing extra work they may just assume you can’t get through your regular job in the allotted time. They may think you have a problem prioritizing.

 

If you really can’t get everything done during the work day, they may be right, maybe you do have priority problems. If that’s the case it’s probably time for you to have a good look at how you’re spending your time. If you’re wasting time on non-work related things during business hours. If you need more training in one aspect or another of your job.

If you really are just trying to impress the higher ups then impress them by finishing all you have to do – well – in the time you’ve been given.

 

Working longer hours can actually decrease productivity

We all know that all hours are not created equally. There are some hours where were work at peak productivity and others where it’s a strain to remember how to spell our names. That’s just par for the course of everyday life when we are getting enough sleep and our stress levels are in check.

When we spend a lot of extra hours at work it decreases our energy and focus throughout the rest of the day. We lose motivation, work becomes an unending slog and we burn out. Productive people take breaks. Every 90 minutes is good.

You can get taken advantage of

Maybe your boss actually does recognize your efforts. They notice all that extra work you’re doing without complaint. That you’re a go-getter, more than willing to go above and beyond. So, they take advantage of it. They know you’ll do more so they give you more. You are providing the company with more than they’ve paid for.

You want to be appreciated for your efforts, not taken advantage of. Know the difference!

 

Is it even worth it financially?

In some cases overtime is expected without any increase in pay. In others there is compensation. Either way, even if all this extra work has some benefits, you have to decide if it’s worth it. Are you paying extra in child care for this? Are your relationships suffering? Is it taking a toll on you physically, emotionally or mentally? It’s important to think about how working overtime affects your health.

 

Life is much a case of balancing the scales. Make sure the overtime you’re working is balancing out in your favor. If not, you may want to re-consider why you’re doing it.

Purpose is a Process

 

So often you hear people talk about how everyone needs to find their purpose in life as if PURPOSE is an elusive creature that could be hiding under the next rock you pick up or at the top of the mountain looming in the distance.

 

Although it’s true some people seem born with a flaming desire to do something specific – for most of us purpose is a process.

 

Legions of people have donned backpacks and headed off to all quadrants of the planet in search of that all-important purpose. That process can take years or a lifetime, and as often as not the searcher comes back as bewildered and purpose-less as when they started.

 

Purpose is to be created

The truth is not everyone is born with a specific purpose. Yes, each of us has unique abilities and sensibilities and perceptions, but they don’t necessarily translate into PURPOSE.

 

The search for a purpose or destiny for our unique abilities has left many people feeling empty and disillusioned because they couldn’t find it. What people don’t realize is, for the most part, purpose isn’t to be found, it’s to be created. That starts with the things that bring you joy.

 

Bring joy into the equation

When people say find your purpose in things you love what they’re actually saying is create your purpose around the things that bring you happiness and joy. I love walking in nature. I love writing stories. I love science fiction. I love gazing off into a vast star scape. I love wondering about life’s big questions. I can’t say that I have one specific purpose in life, but I can say that many things bring purpose into my life.

 

I make it my purpose to learn as much as I can about astronomy. I make it my purpose to write something fresh every day. Many of the things that give me purpose have contributed to my professional career. More important than that they’ve made my life more fulfilling.

 

Seek out the things you enjoy doing and the things that bring you joy and do them with full focus. You may not change the world at large, but you will change you own world and since that’s the world you live in, it is the most important one to you.