1. Do I react (perhaps feel funny inside) when I hear that a male wants to pursue a career as a nurse or become an administrative assistant? Would I discourage such aspirations in a male?

2. Do I expect females to be better at literature and writing than males?

3. Do I treat females and males and different ethnic groups similarly with regard to application of classroom rules and privileges?

4. Do I give similar encouragement to females and males in identifying strengths and assets?

5. Is my language free of sex bias with regard to:

• Use of masculine terminology to refer to all people?
• Use or acceptance of derogatory terminology to refer to members of either gender?
• Use of word order which consistently places males first (he or she, boys and girls, men and women)?

6. Do I interact with females and males with regard to:

• Maintaining eye contact with them?
• Considering their points of view?
• Waiting for answers to questions?

How did you score? Was this quiz an eye-opener for you? Are there some areas in which you may want to question your beliefs and values?

Source: Improving Sex Equity in Postsecondary Technical Programs: A Resourcea Manual, Austin, TX: North State Texas University, and adapted from MECCA Trainer’s Guide, Utah State Department of Education.

When it comes to folklore about how to manage your career (and there are tons of it!), the interview often gets center stage. That maybe because of the false assumptions about the subject.

Assumption one: the interviewer is very prepared for the process.

The truth: most interviewers aren’t trained for interviewing at all. According to Adam Grant, Associate Professor of Management at the Wharton School “Many managers do no better than random chance in selecting high performers.” (October, 2011)

Assumption two: there are 10 (or is it 15?, 20?) “magic” questions I have to memorize the answers to in order to do well in the interview.

The truth: while some questions are common, it’s hard to believe anybody has gotten a buy off on the magic set of questions as they apply, unchanged, to every career field in every industry in every sector all across America.

And even if the idea is true, you’d have to not only memorize those questions (and an answer for each one), you’d have to recognize them no matter how they were expressed and respond well no matter which order they came in.

It’s no surprise if we leave the interview in the hands of the almost-always-untrained interviewer, what we get is an interrogation. But what you both want is a collaboration.

You want to know the most pressing problem they have as it relates to your career field. After all, if you don’t know what they need, you can’t tell if you can help them.

You’ve had those successful collaborations all your work life. Your boss asks you to solve a problem. You speak with her to find the basic information you need to start working on the solution. You propose ideas. She responds. Soon there is an agreement about what you are going to do, why you’re doing it, and how your work benefits the organization.

That—by definition—is an interview!

Entire books are written about the interview. My purpose was just to introduce a key idea. Make every interview into a collaboration by asking about the key problem the employer needs solved.

When you do everybody wins because the discussion is on ground comfortable to you and the person you’re speaking with.

It’s all about our favorite conversation: how you’re going to help the organization make a lot more money than it takes to recruit and retain you. You know. It’s the same conversation that made your career successful.

I’ve been watching and following this training since late 2011 and I love it. The video quality is excellent and the speakers are top rate authors and experts.

Check out our interview here…

Can you believe it? We have journeyed through 26 steps together. By now, you have hopefully created a 2012 Plan that inspires you and have sent your draft plan to your Board of Advisors for their feedback. And, with your completion of the previous step (Step 26), you should now have Magnificent Milestones created for each of your SMART Goals.

You are poised for a great year. But, being poised is not enough. I want you to have a great year. And, I believe there is one remaining factor that will determine just how successful you will be in 2012. That one factor is the quality of your Support Team. Winners surround themselves with All Stars.

am.

I’ve decided that February is going to be my re-alignment month.

Why?

As a blogger, entrepreneur, marketing coach, author, career strategist, speaker I’ve worn a lot of hats over the last few years.  It’s been an amazing journey full of unexpected surprises, great opportunities and, as you might expect, a few frustrations.

But, just like in job search, we have to be ready to push through the frustrations and obstacles in our path to get where we said we wanted to go in life.

So what does a realignment mean for me and how can you use the idea to help re-energize the things that are important in your life right now?

You used to be competing with about 200 other resumes for the interview. Now you are competing with about 600. Companies can’t bring in 100 people for interviews and they can be choosy, so your resume better make you stand out.

These days, with the economy in turmoil, the Canadian labour market is flooded with executive resumes for senior-level professionals looking for work. The current market has created an unfortunate situation for thousands of job seekers. Many of them are highly experienced and successful – and yet they find themselves in need of a new position.

Home stretch! Just five steps more steps. Just five.

The next step in the process is to convert each of your annual SMART goals into monthly “Magnificent Milestones.” Seldom does progress come in one giant step. More often it occurs because we take a series of steps that cumulatively result in a big step.

Think about the “mountain you have moved” in getting to this point in this planning process. Those of you who have gotten to this point did so because you took a series of bite-size steps. The cumulative impact is what I refer to as a “quantum leap.” But, the quantum leap occurred because of a series of realtively small actions.