What to Do After Your Job Interview

So you've had a job interview and now you're waiting to hear back from the employer. Now what? Do you just sit and wait, or should you be doing anything in the interim? The answer is a little bit of both. These seven steps will help keep your candidacy strong, while also keeping you from going crazy with suspense.

1. Send a follow-up note. Within a few days after your interview, send a follow-up note by email or postal mail. These are often thought of as thank-you notes, but a good one will go well beyond thanking your interviewer for her time. A really effective note will reiterate your interest in the job and build on the conversation from the interview, even referring back to points that were covered and your thinking on them since then.

2. But don't follow up excessively. As eager as you might be to hear back from the employer, following up too frequently can turn a good candidate into an annoying one who won't get hired. Phoning or emailing weekly or checking in before the time when you've been told a decision is overly aggressive and may kill your chances for an offer.

3. Review the questions you were asked in the interview and how you did. Were there questions that tripped you up, or where you felt your answers were weak? Write these questions down so that you can practice better answers for next time.

4. Think about whether you want the job. Too many job seekers just accept any job that's offered to them, without thinking through whether they're the right fit for the work, the culture, and the people. That, of course, is a recipe for ending up in a job where you're miserable. So think through what you've learned about the job and the company. Is this work you'd like to do every day? Is the manager someone you'd want to work for? Being thoughtful about these factors can help you end up in the right job, not just any job.

5. Realize that hiring often takes longer than anyone involved thinks it will. Don't be alarmed if you don't hear back from the employer immediately. The hiring process often takes longer than the employer intends, for all sorts of reasons—the decision makers are out of town, scheduling conflicts have delayed a final interview, the bureaucracy required to finalize an offer takes time to work through, and so forth. It's nerve-wracking, but don't read too much into it.

6. Keep applying for other jobs. Whatever you do, don't stop your job search while you wait to hear back. It doesn't matter how great your interview was, or how much you clicked with your interviewer, or how perfect the job seems for you. It doesn't even matter if the interviewer told you that you were the top candidate and you should expect an offer soon. Until you actually have a firm job offer, preferably in writing, keep applying for other jobs. Too many people have stopped their job search because one particular job seemed like a sure thing—only to have the offer never come through. Don't let that happen to you.

Plus, applying for more jobs is a good way to burn off nervous energy while you're waiting for them to call.

7. Move on mentally, if necessary. If you find yourself agonizing and frantically checking your email every 20 minutes, wondering when you're going to hear something, do this instead: Move on. There's nothing to be gained by the agonizing and waiting and wondering; you're far better off putting it out of your head and moving on. If the employer eventually calls, it will be a pleasant surprise. And if they don't, you'll have already moved on anyway. 

College students are taking many low-wage jobs, so what for the rest ?

Jeanina Jenkins, a 20-year-old high school graduate from St. Louis, is stuck in a $7.82-an-hour part-time job at McDonald’s that she calls a “last resort” because nobody would offer her anything better.

Stephen O’Malley, 26, a West Virginia University graduate, wants to put his history degree to use teaching high school. What he’s found instead is a bartender’s job in his home town of Manasquan, N.J.

Jenkins and O’Malley are at opposite ends of a dynamic that is pushing those with college degrees down into competition with high school graduates for low-wage jobs that don’t require college.

As this competition has intensified during and after the recession, it has meant relatively higher unemployment, declining labor market participation, and lower wages for those with less education.

completed only high school grew 4.3 percentage points to 10.6 percent in 2013 from 2007, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Unemployment for those in that age group with a college degree rose 1.5 percentage points to 3.7 percent in the same period.

‘‘The underemployment of college graduates affects lesser educated parts of the labor force,’’ said economist Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a nonprofit research organization in Washington.

‘‘Those with high-school diplomas that normally would have no problem getting jobs as bartenders or taxi drivers are sometimes kept from getting the jobs by people with college diplomas,’’ said Vedder, who is also a Bloomberg View contributor.

Recent college graduates are ending up in more low-wage and part-time positions because it has become harder to find education-level appropriate jobs, according to a January study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The share of Americans ages 22 to 27 with at least a bachelor’s degree in jobs that don’t require that level of education was 44 percent in 2012, up from 34 percent in 2001, the study found.

Competition can leave less-educated — yet still qualified — individuals with few employment options, said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.

‘‘College graduates might not be in a job that requires a college degree, but they’re more likely to have a job,’’ she said.

Less-educated young adults are then more likely to drop out of the labor market, said Paul Beaudry, an economics professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver who studies US employment trends.

The labor participation rate for those ages 25 to 34 with just a high school diploma fell four percentage points to 77.7 percent in 2013 from 2007. For those with a college degree and above, the rate dropped less than 1 percentage point, to 87.7 percent.

‘‘At the complete bottom, we see people picking up the worst types of jobs or completely dropping out,’’ Beaudry said.

The share of young adults 20 to 24 years old neither in school nor working climbed to 19.4 percent in 2010 from 17.2 percent in 2006.

For those ages 25 to 29, it rose to 21.3 percent from 20 percent in that period, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Boston report in December.

Those with the least education have trouble securing even the lowest-paid jobs. Isabelle Samain looked for work in Washington from April until September of last year.

As prospective employers continually passed over her applications, the 20-year-old mother of two from Cameroon realized she was missing out because she lacked a US high school diploma.

‘‘I don’t even remember how many places I applied,’’ Samain said of the ‘‘frustrating and discouraging’’ search.

Samain passed the General Educational Development test in December and recently started working at Au Bon Pain in Washington for $8.50 an hour for 36 hours a week.

A yearlong survey that ended in July 2012 of 500,000 Americans ages 19 to 29 showed that 63 percent of those fully employed had a bachelor’s degree, and their most common jobs were merchandise displayers and clothing store and cellular phone sales representatives, according to Seattle-based PayScale Inc., which provides compensation information.

The share of recent college graduates in ‘‘good non-college jobs,’’ those with higher wage-growth potential, such as dental hygienists, has declined since 2000, according to the New York Fed study.

Meanwhile, the portion has grown for those in low-wage jobs paying an average annual wage of below $25,000, including food servers and bartenders.

Yet those with degrees have more opportunity to advance, even in lower-paying fields.

Kimberly Galvan, 34, a vice president at One Off Hospitality Group in Chicago, cites her own career as an example.

She got a job as a hostess at Blackbird, a One Off restaurant, while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Germanic studies and communications at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1999.

And what about after 1 month job searching ?

The US economy stirred to life last month, creating more jobs than in the previous two winter months and raising hopes that momentum in the labor market would gradually pick up as the cold weather in many parts of the country eases with the arrival of spring.

The report from the Labor Department for February, which came on Friday after job figures for December and January that were much weaker than the underlying trend, eased fear that the economy was downshifting to a slower pace. The data led some experts to conclude that weather, not a fundamental slowdown, was a major factor behind the recent shortfalls.

With employers hiring 175,000 workers, the payroll gain in February was hardly cause for celebration — it was still well short of the pace needed to return the economy to full employment in the next few years. But it was twice the number added in December, when the cold and snow arrived.

“It’s a normalization,” said Julia Coronado, chief economist for North America at BNP Paribas. “It’s not clear just how much effect the weather had, but it seems like we’re on a moderate but steady hiring trend.”

The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage point to 6.7 percent, a reversal of the sharp downward trend recorded since last summer. Some experts argued that was not cause for alarm, but rather a sign that more people were moving back into the labor force and searching for jobs as openings increased.

The Labor Department announcement had been awaited eagerly and was viewed as a wild card, with economists struggling to estimate the impact of wintry weather in many parts of the country as well as seasonal adjustments by government statisticians.

Before Friday’s report, the consensus among economists on Wall Street called for employers to have added 149,000 positions in February, with the jobless rate remaining flat at 6.6 percent.

In December, the economy added 84,000 jobs, and in January, it created 129,000 positions. Both numbers fell well short of expectations among experts on Wall Street.

The healthier-than-expected gain in hiring in February is very likely to remove some of the anxiety that has been hanging over the economy because of the weak labor market data in the previous two months, as well as other gloomy signals like a downward revision in the government’s estimate of economic growth late last year and a decidedly mixed holiday shopping season for many retailers.

It is also almost certain to mean the Federal Reserve will stick with its plan to slowly ease back its stimulus efforts when policy makers meet at the end of this month. In December, the Fed announced the scaling back after job gains of more than 200,000 in the fall, only to watch the pace of hiring shrivel.

“In our view, the February employment report signals that the United States has returned to moderate job growth and that better economic data lie ahead once weather effects subside,” said Michael Gapen, senior US economist at Barclays.

On Thursday, William C. Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, told The Wall Street Journal that the “threshold is pretty high” for a major deviation in the course of reducing its monthly bond purchases, adding that his view of the economy had not been shaken by the weak batch of the data recently. Despite the slow but steady pullback in the stimulus efforts, overall monetary policy, he said on Friday, should remain “highly accommodative” given the uncertainty about just how fast the labor market is improving.

For all the anticipation that preceded Friday’s report, Wall Street’s reaction was muted as tensions in the Ukraine overshadowed the jobs report. The Dow Jones average rose 30.83 points to 16,452.72, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 ticked higher to close at 1,878.04. The Nasdaq Composite fell 15.91 points to 4,336.22.

In February, white-collar professions including accounting, bookkeeping, and consulting led the gains, as the professional and business service sector gained 79,000 jobs. Blue-collar hiring was more muted with the manufacturing sector adding 6,000 positions and construction gaining 15,000. After years of being a headwind on job growth, government hiring helped the figures for February, although all of those increases were at the state and local level. The federal government shed 6,000 jobs.

Interviewing Tips: When the difference really matters

Following is a list of 8 keys to a successful interview. These guidelines have been compiled by our Search Consultants.

• Arrive 10 minutes early. Do not be late. Ask for directions if there is any question about the location.
• Visual impressions are extremely important. The interviewer will make judgments about you based on your attire alone. Dress appropriately. When there is a question about casual dress versus professional dress, always dress professionally. Men should wear a dark suit, pressed shirt, clean tie that hangs to the belt and shined shoes. Women should also wear a suit, conservative blouse, hose, polished pumps and moderate makeup.
• Body language is also extremely important. Look the interviewer right in the eye. Maintain good posture while seated. Smile and laugh when appropriate. Focus on answering the questions completely and concisely and be sure to avoid rambling. Remember to pause after an important question. This "thinking pause" increases the value of your answer. Answer questions honestly. Use specific examples whenever possible.
• To the extent possible…relax. Being relaxed in an interview comes from practicing your answers to the questions you will most likely be asked. At a minimum, you should rehearse answers to the basic questions about strengths, weaknesses, reasons for leaving and qualifications for that particular position.
• Be prepared to ask 3 or 4 key questions. It's best if these questions come from research you have done about the company prior to your interview. Use the Internet for research.
• Ask for the job. Too many candidates leave interviewers wondering about their interest. If you are truly interested in the position state that clearly to the interviewer and inquire about the next step.
• Send thank you letters to each person you interview with. Keep these letters brief and be sure to send them timely. Verify names and titles prior to sending. E-mail thanks are better than no thank-you at all.

The gift of gab can be something of a curse during an interview. You could end up talking your way right out of the job.

It's important to remember that interviewers are only human, and their attention tends to wane as you speak. Fully understanding this is critical to effectively communicating during any interview. Your response should be less than a minute and a half when an interviewer asks you to “tell me about yourself.” Why? You'll have that interviewer's attention for just about 90 seconds.

The average interviewer's attention span looks something like this:

• As you begin speaking, the interviewer is listening with nearly full attention.
• After about 10 seconds, he begins listening with less intensity.
• After 60 seconds, his mind begins to wander and he's devoting less then half his attention to you. The interviewer starts asking questions about your response or begins formulating his next question.
• After you've been speaking for 90 seconds without interruption, the interviewer is barely listening at all.

It's tough to avoid typical interview traps if you're unsure what they are. Here are a half dozen to watch out for:

1. Confusing an Interview with an Interrogation.

Most candidates expect to be interrogated. An interrogation occurs when one person asks all the questions and the other gives the answers. An interview is a business conversation in which both people ask and respond to questions. Candidates who expect to be interrogated avoid asking questions, leaving the interviewer in the role of reluctant interrogator.

2. Making a So-Called Weakness Seem Positive.

Interviewers frequently ask candidates, "What are your weaknesses?" Conventional interview wisdom dictates that you highlight a weakness like "I'm a perfectionist," and turn it into a positive. Interviewers are not impressed, because they've probably heard the same answer a hundred times. If you are asked this question, highlight a skill that you wish to improve upon and describe what you are doing to enhance your skill in this area. Interviewers don't care what your weaknesses are. They want to see how you handle the question and what your answer indicates about you.

3. Failing to Ask Questions.

Every interview concludes with the interviewer asking if you have any questions. The worst thing to say is that you have no questions. Having no questions prepared indicates you are not interested and not prepared. Interviewers are more impressed by the questions you ask than the selling points you try to make. Before each interview, make a list of five questions you will ask. “I think a good question is, ‘Can you tell me about your career?'” says Kent Kirch, director of global recruiting at Deloitte. “Everybody likes to talk about themselves, so you're probably pretty safe asking that question.”

4. Researching the Company But Not Yourself.

Candidates intellectually prepare by researching the company. Most job seekers do not research themselves by taking inventory of their experience, knowledge and skills. Formulating a talent inventory prepares you to immediately respond to any question about your experience. You must be prepared to discuss any part of your background. Creating your talent inventory refreshes your memory and helps you immediately remember experiences you would otherwise have forgotten during the interview.

5. Leaving Your Cell Phone On.

We may live in a wired, always-available society, but a ringing cell phone is not appropriate for an interview. Turn it off before you enter the company.

6. Waiting for a Call.

Time is your enemy after the interview. After you send a thank-you email and note to every interviewer, follow up a couple of days later with either a question or additional information. Additional information can be details about your talents, a recent competitor's press release or industry trends. Your intention is to keep everyone's memory of you fresh.

Asking Questions Is Key

Near the end of your response, it's important to keep the interviewer engaged by asking questions.

Skilled interviewers will pose behavioral-event questions, asking you to describe specific examples of your experience. In these situations, your response can easily last much longer than 90 seconds. In such situations, interrupt yourself by asking the interviewer a question like, “Is this the level of detail you are looking for?” or “Is this the type of example you're interested in?” This strategy helps to engage your listener and promotes two-way communication.

According to Kent Kirch, the global director of recruiting at Deloitte, interviewers are more impressed with your questions than any selling points you try to make. "What's really disappointing to an interviewer is at the end of an interview and I ask the candidate, ‘Do you have any questions I can answer for you?' and he says, ‘Nope, I think you answered them all,' and that's the end of it; it's just really frustrating,” he says. “It all goes back to preparation, and [your questions] tell the interviewer you thought about this interview before you walked in the door.”

Asking questions can also give you a strategic edge. "People love to talk about themselves,” says Austin Cooke, the global recruitment director at Sapient. “So if you as a candidate can kind of get interviewers talking about themselves, you're one step up."

Your interview goals are to ensure you are understood and to make the best presentation of your talents. Engaging interviewers in two-way communication by asking questions helps you ensure they are listening while you deliver your response.

The “ONE” question you must ask each interviewer:

The last question you should ask before concluding with any interviewer is: “Do you feel I have the qualifications necessary to be successful in this position?” Listen very carefully to how the interviewer responds. If they give you a resounding “yes”, you have done a good job of covering all the issues that are important to them. If they say something like: “You appear to have all the qualifications we’re looking for, but…” Listen for that “but” and whatever comes next is an area you need to strengthen in any future interviews or discussions.

How Low Can You Go in Your Salary Negotiations?

Two conversations I’ve had with job seekers recently helped me to consider another aspect of salary negotiations.

Always Ask For More… Right?

There you will find a great deal of practical advice on how to land where you’d like to land.

However, what do you do when an offer comes in extremely low compared to expectations? What options do you have?

Here are some observations and points to consider…

What was communicated in the interview process?

When an offer comes in particularly low, it’s not unusual to see a correlation to part of the discussion that took place earlier in the process. One job seeker, when asked what he was looking for in regards to compensation, told them what he earned in his last full-time job 5 years ago and before he earned his bachelors degree. They made an offer just slightly above that amount and he felt “low-balled”, without realizing that he gave them the basis for it. They thought they were offering him more than he quoted, and he felt they were taking advantage of him.

Setting expectations properly is critical.

Often, job seekers give low numbers out of fear that they will be dropped from consideration if the salary they need is too high. That may be, however, if you give them a number that you can’t accept, it wastes both their time and yours. Giving a legitimate range that is workable for you will dramatically improve the chances of gaining an acceptable offer.

Know your numbers!

In order to give an acceptable range, it’s important to know in advance what an acceptable range would be. That seems basic. However, it’s interesting to me how often people don’t do the math until they get an offer, and then realize they can’t pay their bills on a salary they gave in their range.

Fully understand what you need as a minimum, taking into account employee benefits, quality of life, and other factors. Know what you would really like to aim for, taking into account competitive compensation in the marketplace and comparable experience to others in the organization. Then give a range that’s more educated and acceptable for you.

What’s going on?

At times, even if the right things were communicated in the process, an employer may make a very low offer. There are multiple reasons that may happen…

• The position you are pursuing is below your experience level and can’t pay what you hope
• Internal equity issues with current employees prevent them from offering what you would like
• The salary grades the organization has established are not competitive or out of date, and the hiring managers hands are tied
• They are simply trying to hire someone as cheaply as they possibly can

The last point is an outlying exception rather than the rule in these cases, however, they occasionally do exist. Generally, companies want people to come in feeling they have been treated fairly and feel good about the new role. “Low-balling” a new hire rarely accomplishes that.

Appeal to their sense of fairness.

When an offer is very low, rather than taking on an aggressive negotiating stance, better results more often come from an open-handed appeal.

Thank them for their offer… let them know you are definitely interested in the position and the prospect of coming on board… express disappointment that the offer is quite a bit lower than was expected… give them a range you are hoping for… and ask if there is any additional information they may need from you that would help them raise the offer to a level that would work for both of you.

There may be some explanation necessary on your part to help them understand the basis of your request. It should never be about your personal financial situation, rather it should involve career and/or business considerations. It may be…

• The compensation is too far less than you’ve earned in the past
• The compensation doesn’t take into account new education or skills that you’ve acquired
• You have a higher competing offer (Don’t bluff on this! If they decline to offer more, it becomes very awkward to then still accept)
• The common salary ranges in the marketplace for the same kind of role is quite a bit higher
• …or other considerations as well

Often, with a reasoned and non-threatening negotiation, an employer will reconsider and make a more suitable offer.

Then what?

At times, however, they may still not move. Then you have a decision to make… are you prepared to walk away? If they have not come up to a level you can accept, you can certainly let them know flatly that you cannot accept an offer below your minimum amount, but still hope an agreement can be reached.

If they then come up… terrific! If not, you know this wasn’t the right position for you and you can continue your job search with other organizations. Decline politely, and let them know that if things should change, you would like to hear from them again (they may change their minds later if they can’t find an acceptable substitute).

Nothing works every time, and at times you may have to be willing to walk away. However, following these guidelines your chances of a workable agreement improve dramatically!

Congratulations on Your Military Service… Now Here Are 9 Reasons Why I Won’t Hire You

So, you’ve decided to hang up the uniform after years of distinguished service to our great nation. You’ve attended a few transition classes and have your interview suit and shiny new resume as youmake the leap into the civilian world.

You feel confident, because you’ve seen your colleagues leave the uniform on Friday and come to work the following Monday in a suit and tie making twice as much salary. You storm the job boards and job fairs. Never mind that although you’ve drafted a plan of action and milestones (POA&M) for every significant evolution of your military career, some of you have invested the least amount of time and effort into your own transition POA&M.

Those of us in the hiring and recruiting business know firsthand that not all veterans are created equal, and, sometimes, it’s a great business decision to hire a military professional into our companies. Often, though, many don’t. Why? Because you’re just not the right fit. A more impressive candidate captured our attention, or maybe, through no fault of your own, we found someone internally or received a referral from one of our own employees.

The irony is that many veterans and servicemembers have the skills and experience to make the cut, or even get the second interview, but blow it. As amilitary candidate recruiter, I see consistent themes in why military professionals don’t get the job. Many may blame the new Transition GPS, their branch of service’s career center or even the employers themselves, but here are the top real reasons why you’ll never get hired:

1. You Can’t (or Won’t) Accept That You’re Starting Over

Let’s suppose that immediately after graduating from college or high school, I went to work for one of the well-known defense contractors. During the course of my 20+ year career at that company, I was very successful and promoted to the position of Program Manager, frequently working with the military. However, I’m now at that point in my career where there isn’t any opportunity for further advancement, or I’m simply weary of the industry.

I’m now in my late 30s or early 40s and decide it’s time to leave the company to pursue a different career. I’ve worked with the military my entire adult life, so I decide I want to join its ranks. Because of my previous experience with managing multimillion dollar budgets and hundreds of personnel, I feel I’m the equivalent of a Commanding Officer or Senior Enlisted Leader. When I talk to a recruiter about my level of entry, what would they tell me?

The cold dose of reality is that despite all of my experience, I’d have no idea what the organizational culture is like in the military. I’d be set up for failure if someone allowed me to don the collar devices and step into a command position. On day one, something as basic as sending an email to a flag officer could go very sour very quickly. This is because even though I may have transferable skill sets, I lack the knowledge of industry norms and protocol experience to succeed.

A senior military professional transitioning into the private sector faces the same dynamic. The transition is a bit easier within the Department of Defense and Federal arenas, but you’re starting anew. It’s imperative that you understand this. As a result, you should seek ways to learn the organizational structures of potential employers many months before you’ll be entering the job market.

Just as I would have been far better informed had I spoken to a military recruiter before I left my civilian job, so should you be similarly informed before entering your last year of service. Use recruiters, headhunters, employment counselors, hiring managers, etc. to gain intelligence and information so you can be pragmatic in your expectations and planning. Also, getting a mentor who has successfully navigated into the private or government sector and is also a veteran will provide invaluable insight from a perspective you’ll be able to relate to.

2. You Believe You’re Unique (Just Like Every Other Transitioning Person That Day)

Each and every day, 200 to 300 servicemembers exit the military. This number will only increase as the nation’s wars come to an end and forces continue to draw down. In 2012, an average of 470,000 resumes were posted on Monster each week. Essentially, for every job opening in the U.S., there are roughly 187 qualified and unqualified job applicants.

This is the challenge you face in relying on job boards as your sole method of getting a job. I suggest you think of hitting the “apply” button as being similar to walking down to the local convenience store and buying a lottery ticket, then deciding to not do anything else (or continue buying lottery tickets) until they call your number.

Are job boards still relevant? Yes. However, it’s best to post your resume to a niche job board that aligns with your background or industry — and make sure your resume is targeted specifically for the jobs you apply to.

3. Your Resume Is Longer Than the CEO of Our Company’s (or Shorter Than a Recent College Graduate’s)

A long resume doesn’t impress me at all. Even worse, a resume that has neither definition nor clarity is guaranteed to be placed in the trash. I’m probably going to look at it for six seconds, tops.

Your resume should be a windshield document. That is, it should reflect the positions you’re going towards. (Click here to tweet this thought.) It shouldn’t be a rearview mirror which simply lists all of the duties you performed. It should contain keywords, which websites such as wordle and tagcrowd can help you identify in both job announcements and your resume. This is because your resume will most likely be filtered by Applicant Tracking Software before it even gets to a human resources screener.

And, while I appreciate that you volunteered to clean up a highway or had some collateral duties in addition to your main assignments, I’m looking for candidates who have years of matching relevant experience, the right job titles and are in the same industry. Most importantly, I’m not looking for a “jack of all trades”; if I were, the job posting would have said so.

How do you craft a resume that’s forward-looking? Find about 15 to 20 job announcements that match up with your ideal target job title. Incorporate their language into your resume and make it contextual by inserting your metrics. Review each bullet point you’ve chosen to use by asking yourself if it demonstrates a problem you solved or action you took and the results that were accomplished. The actual length of your resume? It depends on your audience. Seek out current or former employees at the companies you’ve identified in your target list and ask them what their company’s preference is.

4. You Didn’t Proofread Your Resume

I would be a millionaire if I got 10 bucks for every time I come across a candidate who’s an “experienced manger.” There isn’t any substitute for attention to detail here. Don’t trust spellcheck, and don’t rely solely on your own review. Have your resume reviewed and critiqued free of charge by as many eyes as possible. The trained professionals at your Fleet and Family Support Centers, Army ACAP, and Airman & Family Readiness Centers are the best resource to catch those mistakes before I do.

After getting your resume reviewed for spelling and substance, take it to the local university’s English department and have it critiqued for proper grammar. Seem a bit excessive? Well, if I see misspellings and poor grammar on your resume, what will I expect from you if I need you to communicate with my clients?

5. You Don’t Have a LinkedIn Profile (Or, Even Worse, It’s Not Complete)

In a 2012 JobVite survey, 89% of hiring decision-makers and recruiters reported using social media sites such as LinkedIn to find their candidates. If this is the case, shouldn’t you have a profile already?

Your knowledge of managing your online presence lets me know how proficient you are in using technology to communicate. It also allows me to see your skills, even if they’re nascent. If you have an incomplete profile, it may communicate that you might also expect me to complete your work for you.

Take the time and get your LinkedIn profile set up right. There are lots of placesand resources available online to get help at no cost, so there isn’t any excuse for not having one. Additionally, a complete LinkedIn profile allows you to take advantage of LinkedIn Labs’ Resume Builder to automatically generate 11 different resume styles based on your LinkedIn profile. Talk about a time saver!

6. You Think Social Media Is For Kids or Sharing War Stories

If you think social media is a huge waste of time and doesn’t offer real value, watch thisvideo.

The reality is that two out of three job seekers will get their next job using social media. What does that mean to you? It translates to lesser-qualified people using technology to their advantage to get hired. They know how to use each of the social networking sites to the maximum extent in their transition action plans. If you think Twitter is of little use to a job seeker or professional, your competition will be happy to land the job you want because they’re using it and you aren’t.

7. You Didn’t Prepare For The Interview

During the course of your military career, you’ve conducted countless boards and interviews. It seems to make sense that you should have no problem interviewing. After all, you did pretty well in your transition class mock interviews, didn’t you?

Wrong approach. I’ve seen instances where the most junior servicemember outperformed a much more seasoned military leader because of one simple strategy: practice, practice, practice. Practice with someone who regularly hires or who has hired people at your level recently.

Why do you need to practice? Because you need to be able to be conversational, convey energy and yet let me know you’re aware of what my business is, who my competitors are and even who I am. Did you go to the company’s website to see if we have a Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter page? Did we make the news recently? Google News is a great way to find this out.

I want you to distinguish yourself from the regular job seeker. I want to know you’re as passionate about my company and what we do as I am, not just out to get a paycheck and benefits. Make sure you have a set of questions that I haven’t heard before, and when we’re about to finish the interview, ask for the job. Don’t worry; I’m not going to be offended, because I want to see that fire in your belly. Just don’t overdo it by saying something presumptuous such as, “So… when do I start?”

8. You Wrote a Thank You Note (But Only to Say Thank You)

Sending a thank you note is something that sets you apart from the competitors also vying for this position. And while it’s appreciated and infinitely better than sending nothing at all, don’t just send the note to say thank you; use it to tell me how much passion you have for my company and the job. Remind me of those things that excited you during our interview and, if there were any areas you looked vulnerable in, ease my concerns.

9. You Don’t Know What You Want to Do

When asked what you want to do, the worst possible answer you can give is, “I don’t know” or “anything.” You have to be able say specifically what types of positions you’re interested in and how you can add value to them. If you don’t, you’re essentially saying, “Invest lots of time and money in me, and maybe it will help me figure out if I want to do something else.”

If you have no clue where to start, start by looking at colleagues with backgrounds similar to yours who have recently transitioned. Which industries are they in? What companies are they working for? Where are they living? What job titles do they have now? The LinkedIn Labs Veterans App is a great tool to help with this. Be sure to check it out. Start volunteering to gain professional experience and seek out internships long before you sign your DD214.

Employers want to feel secure in knowing that you’ll last and that they can depend on you in your new work environment. Doing an internship or volunteering will help both the employer and you determine if a position is a good fit. Additionally, due to the flood of resumes that come in for each job posting, applicants who have volunteered or performed internships will stand out well ahead of the others.

Military professionals, especially senior ones, have a lot to offer our country when they hang up the uniform. The President and American companies are working hard to ensure that servicemembers and veterans have well-paying jobs with opportunities to advance. However, no one is ever guaranteed a job, and the more senior you are, the more challenging the transition can be in terms of education, credentials, certification and relevant industry experience required. Having a powerful network is essential and can open doors for you. That said, your comrades, friends and family can generally get you tothe door, but it remains up to you to be fully prepared when the door is opened.

Congratulations Graduate! Eleven Reasons Why I Will Never Hire You.

Strategy is Dessert for Culture's Feast. Innovation is the Main Course

You have likely heard the popular phrase “Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast”.   A recent study from Booz and Company further reinforced this notion by surveying 2,219 senior executives.  Unsurprisingly, Booz found that 84% of executives believe culture is critical to their business success while 60% of executives believe culture is more important than strategy or their operating model.

Organizational culture is reflected in nearly every aspect of a company. We see culture exemplified through factors such as whether they are willing to take risks or if they prefer to play it safe?  do they focus more on driving results and achievement or on people and relationships? Is the company open to new opportunities and change? How do they generate and move ideas within the company?

Clearly, culture has a huge impact on today’s business and has become a major differentiator for progressive companies such as Zappos, Starbucks and Apple , however, in the context of the analogy, strategy is just a mere dessert for culture’s feast while innovation is its main course.  Essentially, strategy will set the direction of a company’s desired destination,  while culture is in the driver’s seat with a much greater deal of influence on the company’s ability to evolve, innovate and leapfrog the competition.

There’s always been much discussion and debate around why companies fail to innovate.   Some argue innovation often defies and doesn’t fit existing business models or perhaps it is a matter of aligning the right talent or having the right innovation processes.  While all these arguments (and many others) are likely contributing factors to a company’s ability or inability to innovate, nothing stops ideas dead in their tracks than aspect of a company’s culture.

Venture Capitalist Ben Horowitz said it beautifully in a recent blog:

“Big companies have plenty of great ideas, but they do not innovate because they need a whole hierarchy of people to agree that a new idea is good in order to pursue it. If one smart person figures out something wrong with an idea — often to show off or to consolidate power — that’s usually enough to kill it”

Yes, you can have the best talent, best ideas, best processes, abundant resources and cash, but at the end of the day, if the key attributes and behaviors engrained in your organization’s culture do not align with the concept or idea, being successful innovation starts looking as if it’s a matter of luck.

Mandating innovation from the top also rarely delivers.  If the culture doesn’t support it, it doesn’t matter where in the organization the mandate comes from or how much executive support is behind it.   Let’s take a recent example at Nokia .  Nokia never suffered from a shortage of ideas.  It spent $40 billion on research and development over the past decade, almost four times what Apple spent over the same period.  Yet, if you read between the lines of Stephen Elop’s now infamous Burning Platform memo, Nokia’s culture grew so complacent and complex that despite having a product that resembled the iphone over 14 years ago, it shrugged off the idea and it never got to see the light of day.

There are different opinions and practices regarding what it takes to build the right culture, but what it comes down to is that culture is the outgrowth of leadership and it is the leaders, who through their shared vision, shape and foster the culture of a company.

There are many companies today that can demonstrate their success in building the right culture for innovation.  Netflix for example, which has been a disruptive force and has out-innovated many incumbents, has publicly shared their organization’s cultural handbook.  Netflix aligns all of its employees to nine behaviors and skills that are clear drivers of innovation (which include, among others, Selflessness, Curiosity, Communications and Courage).  They also clearly call-out behaviors and attributes that could inhibit innovation such as the intolerance of ‘Brilliant Jerks’ and curtailing process-adherence in exchange for creativity and self-discipline.

IDEO, one of the world’s most revered innovation and design firms, recently shared a glimpse into their culture, where attributes such as optimism, embracing ambiguity, selflessness and an orientation towards action reign supreme.  IDEO ingrains cultural guidance such as  “Deferring Judgment” and “Going For Quantity” in its culture.  Their culture is meticulously designed to create an environment that’s safe for taking risks.

As a 112 year-old company, 3M proves that fostering the right culture for innovation isn’t just possible in smaller companies or start-ups.  Though 3M has had a new CEO every five years on average over the past 40 years, the philosophy of William L. McKnight, its inspirational leader from 1929 to 1966, is passed along to every new scientist or engineer.  The company’s culture was shaped to firmly believe in tolerating fast failures, promoting networking, and allowing employees freedom by using 15% of their paid time to “chase rainbows” and hatch their own ideas.

Culture is a balance of attitudes; behaviors and actions that combined can create and foster incredible things.  The right culture does way more than guide the way a company operates or makes its profits.  It actively and passionately engages employees in the business, no matter which rank or level they are in the organization.  It strives to remove barriers such as bureaucracy, complexity and prejudice that are known for killing good ideas and instead encourages key ingredients to innovation such as creativity and risk-taking.   It empowers employees to take the necessary risks and let ideas flow through the organization.  Most importantly, it helps people deliver their best work.

Innovation is too important to be left to chance. No matter the industry, in a fast-pace and ever-changing society where the needs of the customer are constantly shifting, a company will struggle to keep up with competitors if their culture cannot foster continuous innovation. The right culture begins with the right leadership mindset. When leaders establish and foster the right organizational culture that supports innovation as a top priority, they open the door for growth.