5 Last-Minute Interview Issues That'll Throw You Off—and How to Prepare for Them

Sometimes, no matter how much you’ve prepared and researched before your interview, something completely unexpected happens. And no one would blame you if it threw you off your game. After all, interviews are stressful enough even when everything goes pretty much how you imagined it would. The good news is: There are ways to prepare for the unexpected. You can still make the best possible impression—even when everything goes awry.
Here are five situations that come up more often than you think, and how you can be ready for them so you don’t get caught off guard.

1. The Replacement Interviewer

When you apply for a position, more often than not, you’re contacted directly by the team who’ll be hiring you. (Or, at the very least, you’ll see a schedule in advance with the names of the people you’ll be meeting with.) So, you spend days checking out your interviewer’s LinkedIn page and background. You’re well-versed on his position, and how it relates to the position you’re interviewing for.
Then, when the door opens, a completely different person walks in.
Your stomach may have dropped to your ankles, but don’t panic—or dwell on how you researched someone else. Instead, use the opportunity to get to know your interviewer and let her get to know you. Ask questions about her position, specifically how her job relates to the one you’re gunning for, and ask about her career background in case you have something in common.
Although it can be disquieting at first, after you get over the initial surprise of the switch, you’ll likely find that you can talk just as much to this person as to the one you planned on interviewing with originally. That displays your adaptability and willingness to take on an unexpected challenge. Remember: No reasonable company would expect you to be fully prepared for this switch—and it’s completely OK to ask those introductory questions.

2. The Time Mix-Up

There are plenty of great articles out there about what to do when you’re running late for your interview. But what about when you made a simple mistake of getting the time wrong?
One of the worst moments of my career came right before I interviewed for a position I was incredibly excited about at Clopay Door. I was 15 minutes early and took a seat in the waiting room to get ready when a woman my age walked in and sat down next to me. I noticed she was also dressed for an interview and had her resume out. A bit flustered at thinking I might be sharing this interview, I started looking through my notes and stopped in horror when I saw that although I had written 2 PM on my calendar, the notes from my initial call said 1 PM.
The key in this situation is to remain calm, apologize sincerely, and ask what works best for the interviewer. Make sure you’re not overdoing the apology, as this demonstrates a lack of confidence and can actually backfire.
In my situation, I was tempted to just walk out from sheer embarrassment, but the interviewer was very understanding and let me schedule for a later time. Remember: The hiring manager is human and makes mistakes, too. Even if you sense a little frustration initially, odds are high he or she will understand.
Want proof of that? I ended up getting the job!

3. The Bad Interviewer

As I just stated, the person sitting across from you, asking you all these questions, is human. Not everyone’s going to be good at interviewing candidates for a position. A few reasons you may encounter a bad apple could include inexperience, unpreparedness, distraction, or a negative outlook on the job or company.
So what can you do in the event you’re meeting with someone who doesn’t know how to interview you?
Make sure you have in mind the points you want to discuss about yourself and the questions you want to ask about the position. Then, take an active role in directing the conversation to keep the person on topic. For example, if there’s a lull, you could say, “Would you like to hear more about my experience working at my last company?” Or, “Did I answer your question, or would you like to hear another reason why I’m interested in the job?” Or, even if the interview’s not winding down, you could give it a kick in the pants by asking one of the questions you’ve prepared.
This strategy will help keep the interview going and ensures you’re coming across as the right candidate for the job.

5 Questions To Ask Before Going Into Business With A Friend

Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor, co-presidents and co-founders of Juicy Couture became famous for their celebrated casual clothing line, which they went on to sell in 2013 for a whopping $195 million. Sure, their story of success has had its share of ups and downs—like any other business—but according to the best friends, the greatest decision they ever made was to go into business together. Noted Skaist-Levy, “You spend more time with a business partner than almost anyone…When you’re together, the highs are even higher and the lows don’t seem so bad.”

As great as this kind of 50/50 arrangement sounds, so many partnerships, especially among friends, don’t survive.  In fact if you research how to start a business with a friend, you’ll see that expert after expert likens business partnership to marriage: Are you willing to hang in there with this person through the celebrations and failures? The curveballs and the monotony? Can you accept that the little things about them that may annoy you now could only magnify under stress?
If you’re considering your own friend-based startup, asking and answering these kinds of questions is exactly what you should be doing. Here’s my own list of questions—the big five—for you to carefully think through before taking the plunge together:

1. To What Extent Do You Trust Your Partner? Where there’s friendship, hopefully there’s trust.  But you should ask yourself just how much you trust your potential partner. Most of the time? With your life? On and off? Zero in on what area, if any, gives you pause and think through what would happen if your partner lapsed in judgment. Is it something you can live with? On the other hand, would it decimate your company’s credibility? If your partner tends to overpromise slightly on deliverables, that’s one thing, but if they dance on a line that’s unethical, that could be quite another.
2. How Will They Exemplify Your Brand? As you hone your company’s identity and distill your service or products down to the essentials, think through how your partner will personify your brand. Experienced Advertising Executive and Assistant Professor at the Temple University School of Media and Communication Stacey Harpster, advises, “…Ensuring that your new partner fully embraces your brand tenants, avidly enforces your brand standards and consistently delivers on your brand promise is vital for your business’ success. A strong brand cannot exist unless the leadership is unified…in living the brand at all times.” If, for example, your partner is technically brilliant but appears disorganized or disheveled in front of clients, it will hurt your brand authority.
3. Do They Have a Key Skill or Selling Point You Don’t? At the end of the day, your partner should have a compelling value proposition that you lack.  Be strategic about what you need whether it’s executive experience, the cache of a big company name or someone with vast contacts.  Startup consultant George Deeb  advises, “If you are launching a new search engine and you have a Google engineer on your staff, that will get a VC’s attention. …The VCs will be impressed by your hiring skills (finding the best talent) and your sales skills (getting these proven winners to buy into your vision). This kind of team around the management table is exactly what the VCs want in order to ensure that your business is more than a ‘one-man show.’”
4. Are They In A Stable Place In Life? There’s a reason that 60% of employers  check a potential employee’s credit score and history. How a person handles their own finances may seem like a private matter—but in a startup, your own bottom line becomes more public, especially between owners. Your partner need not be wealthy necessarily, but if they’re in dire straits, you could end up in a situation where rather than bouncing back from a failure, you’re forced to close your doors. Similarly, if your potential partner is in the beginning, let’s say, of a bitter and drawn out divorce, it will be incredibly difficult for this matter not to spill into your business arrangement. During times of major turbulence in your life, think about how grounding a stable, calm person could be. That’s the kind of person you want in your corner!
5. Can You Do a Beta Test? In the best situations, you and your partner can do a pilot or trial before fully committing to your startup. Recommends Melinda Emerson, author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months: A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business that Works, “It’s best to test the relationship so that you can see how your potential partner works with you on a project. You need to know if he or she is a person of action or if they need instruction. Are they an ‘in-charge’ kind of person who always needs to be the leader? Can they follow your lead sometimes?”  A pilot or beta project would reveal just the answers you need to these kinds of questions, a necessity before committing your energy and capital to a startup.

Along with envisioning what would happen if the company were to become wildly successful, you also need to think about what will happen if things go south. According to web entrepreneur Marie Forleo, “The best partnerships handle the worst case scenarios in advance.” Don’t wait to engage a lawyer when you’re in trouble or it can often be too late. Bring them in at the beginning, helping you to draft an agreement of your roles, capital investments, and exit strategies. Agree as partners to operate on a no-surprise basis, something that’s easier to do if you have built-in communication routines every week.

What To Do If Your Credit Card Is Declined On An Overseas Trip

Credit card technologies
Presently there are two primary credit card technologies in the world. Beginning in the 1960s, cards were issued with a magnetic stripe to carry encoded cardholder information on three invisible tracks within the stripe. There are millions of point-of-sale terminals in the world and all of them can read the magnetic tracks on the back of every credit card. Your name, card number, expiration date and other information is available for terminals to process.
The problem is that the magnetic bits of information are very simple to decode and replicate with inexpensive parts from almost any electronics store, even Radio Shack. The decoded information can then be re-encoded on another credit card and used to make purchases from merchants. While the credit card companies have enhanced their fraud protection programs, losses from counterfeit cards, skimming of numbers, cloning and other techniques still plagues the industry.
Europe and the rest of the world are way ahead of the United States in its ability to combat fraudulent losses because they introduced a newer card technology several years ago.
This system increases the security of the card and reduces the ability to defraud the system by encrypting cardholder data within a chip that is embedded within the card and which resembles the SIM in your smartphone. These Chip-and-Pin cards, known as EMV (for Europay Mastercard Visa) offer several advantages for banks, merchants and consumers and are authenticated by a four-digit PIN rather than a signature. The card is theoretically more difficult to use by a thief or unauthorized individual who does not know the associated PIN.
Wireless handheld terminals are used by merchants to process transactions more securely than is possible with a mag stripe. The chip-and-PIN systems will be standard in the United States by 2015 because a new law that shifts liability to merchants and banks if they do not implement the more secure technology.
If you travel overseas, you want a chip-and-PIN card, especially when you use trains or subway systems that allow payment for service. Many of these will only accept the newer card format.
What happens if your card is declined?
When my Visa and Amex cards were declined it was because we were in a high-fraud area. The card issuers identified the transactions as suspicious and triggered certain critical events that affect the transaction and card holder.
Once Amex and Visa made the automatic decision to deny the charge they also blocked further use of the card. The system, depending upon the card provider, may attempt to call the cardholder or will usually send a text or email message in an attempt to directly communicate about the transaction.
If your card is declined it will be blocked from future use in order to protect the issuer and cardholder from fraudulent charges. To clear this fraud block you must contact the card issuer and confirm that the attempted charges were valid. You will usually be required to speak with a live fraud specialist, although some systems will let you enter your responses automatically by touch tone. Regardless of the system, the card companies will not allow any further transactions until they reconcile the charges and verify that they were actually valid and made by the authorized card holder.

The merchant may not know why your card is being declined, and sometimes there is a problem processing a transaction from a specific terminal that has nothing to do with your card provider. Often the same “charge declined” message will appear even if the local terminal is not even communicating with the credit card provider. If the transaction is declined and there is no credit limit problem it is best to confirm with your card issuer if there is a problem before you try to use your card again.
In order to minimize your inconvenience when charges are questioned, I recommend that you do the following before and while traveling:

• Be certain that you have supplied a valid and current email address and cell phone number to each of your credit card providers. If you call-forward your U.S. cell phone number to a second phone that you use for international travel, remember that SMS text messages do not transfer. This means that if you told your card issuer to contact you by SMS, you may not get the alert;
• Always carry a cell phone that has been provisioned for international service, (both data and voice) so that if your card company calls you or sends you a message you can be contacted;
• Tell your credit card companies that you will be traveling outside of the United States so they can more closely monitor your account and approve routine foreign transactions;
• Be certain that your debit cards (including gift cards) are authorized for use internationally; some are not and will not work on ATMs or at merchant terminals;
• Sign up for alerts from your banks and credit card companies for all charges and account changes. Most offer this feature but you must go into account settings to enable these services. Once these are added you will receive an instant email or text alert for every charge on your card. This is the best way to prevent fraudulent charges. Be particularly vigilant to notifications that indicate that the card was not present for a transaction;
• Know the phone numbers for each debit and credit card provider so if you have to call them to report a lost or stolen card or to clear a suspicious charge, you can do so without delay. Obtain both their toll-free number and regular telephone access. From some countries you cannot dial a U.S. toll-free number;
• Determine which of your credit cards charges a foreign transaction fee. This is standard with most providers and can be about three percent. Certain cards, such as Amex Platinum and Delta Amex Platinum do not collect the fees, but the card annual costs are more expensive than for normal cards. For us that travel a lot internationally and charge everything, the increased annual card fees are offset by the savings in transactions fees that we would normally accrue;
• Use a service such as  to LifeLockfurther protect your cards and notify you if they have been compromised. The annual fee is well worth the enhanced fraud monitoring and insurance for identity theft;
• Record all card numbers prior to leaving the country and be certain that all credit cards are signed;
• Demand a Chip-and-Pin card from your bank, credit card companies, and brokerage houses;
• Try to use your card at restaurants that have wireless handheld terminals that are brought to your table rather than having the service person disappear with your card to make the charge. Always know where your credit card is and treat it like a valuable identity document. If the waiter, clerk, or other service person processes the transaction in your presence there is less chance to skim the data from the card;
• Keep a copy of all charge receipts and verify the amounts against your monthly statements. I have encountered many occurrences where duplicate charges were run through the system and are never caught by the card holder. It is free money for the merchant;
• Be certain that your credit limit will be sufficient, especially for long trips. This is important if you have automatic debits to your card for bills at home, such as utilities, cable service, insurance and other charges;
• If you have an ATM card be sure that you know the PIN;
• If you are asked for the billing zip code of your card, be certain that the number is entered correctly. Cards can be shut down if more than one invalid entry is made because it can indicate a stolen card;
• If you receive a call from your credit card company telling you that your card has been suspended for fraud, be certain that the call is not a scam, phishing for personal information. The card company will ask you to confirm past transactions and will rarely ask for personal account information. It is usually easy to determine if the call is valid or an attempt to obtain critical card information;
• Finally be sure that you have a PIN enabled for your credit cards if you want cash advances from an ATM. If you have a debit card from a brokerage house your ATM fees may be waived as part of your yearly maintenance charges.

Remember, once your card is declined for other than credit limit or late payment reasons, you will not be able to use it until you contact your bank or card issuer to clear the fraud-hold. Be sure that you know how to contact them and if you are in a foreign country, you also need to understand overseas dialing patterns to reach your home country. From your cell to call the United States, and depending upon your carrier, either dial 1+ the number, 001+ the number, area code and number, or hold down the “0” button until a + occurs, then dial 1+ the number.

More Secure Credit Cards With Chips Coming To The U.S.

By the end of 2015, 70 percent of U.S. credit cards and 41 percent of U.S. debit cards will have security chips — called EMV for Europay, MasterCard MA +0.71%, Visa V +0.78% — according to the Aité Group.

While Europe, Canada and Mexico have had chipped cards for years — usually with a chip and a PIN (personal identification number), the U.S. card issuers have studiously avoided the more secure, but more expensive, cards. To some extent American issuers didn’t need the card-based security. Unlike Europe, the American card industry had grown up with cheap telecommunications, so merchants could check cards in real-time as they accepted a card in payment. American technology vendors also developed very sophisticated, if sometimes alarmist, tools to detect fraudulent card use. Really, should a New Jersey resident’s $30 gas purchase in Massachusetts trigger an alert just because she rarely ventured so far from home?

Anyway, as other countries went to chip and PIN cards and the U.S. continued to rely on a less secure magnetic stripe, the predictable occurred. Just as having two loud German shepherds makes it likely thieves will move to the house next door, America’s continued reliance on mag stripes has made it an attractive target TGT +1.26% for card fraud.

“The fraud rate has doubled from 5 basis points to 10 basis points now,” said Julie Conroy research director in retail banking at Aité Group. “It speaks to the fact that criminals are targeting the U.S. because we are the weakest link in the chain.”

Even now most American card issuers aren’t going with chip and PIN, preferring chip and signature.(The dearth of chip and PIN cards from American issuers has caused problems for Americans traveling in Europe — see story on left).  Conroy said that the American card issuers have mostly gone for chip and signature which is less expensive and less complicated to issuers than chip and PIN, where the PIN has to be mailed separately and lost PIN card replacement becomes more complicated.

“Last year about half [of issuers] were leaning to chip and signature, 25 percent chip and PIN and another quarter undecided,” Conroy explained. “Now the vast majority is chip and signature, one is going chip and PIN and four are undecided.”

Lost/stolen cards, which is where PIN is most valuable, make up only 13 percent of U.S. fraud, she added, while cyber-criminals have shown with incidents like Target, Neiman Marcus and other card data thefts that they can do vast  damage without possessing the actual card.

“Issuers are addressing the biggest point of pain with chip,” Conroy added. “I had so many issuers tell me that if you look at the business case, and the attrition risk if our user experience is more cumbersome than that of our competitors. They are going with the numbers [chip and signature] and I think that makes sense.”

At the same same, time card networks have been pushing hard to get their cards accepted at unmanned kiosks, such as train stations in Europe, where PINs were required in the past That will help avoid inconvenience to American travelers who don’t have PIN cards. (I still find it hard to understand why American card providers didn’t offer chip and PIN to their cardholders who traveled to Europe frequently. And when they did provide chip and PIN cards, they didn’t show them on their Web sites or inform call center reps that such exotic devices existed.)

Two rather widely separated catalysts have accelerated the adoption of EMV in the U.S., according to Conroy. The 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, the Icelandic volcano, stranded many Americans in Europe for weeks, forcing them to rely on cards that weren’t always widely accepted in businesses like restaurants and train stations at night where unmanned terminals required chip and PIN. Then came the Target card breach which exposed 40 million card holders.

Still, said Conroy, at Charles deGaulle airport in Paris Americans can expect to find long lines at the two agents who take signature cards, while PIN cards can be used in kiosks.

“Visa [which last year told me rather vehemently that chip and signature was quite enough for the American market] has pushed PIN in other geographies. The investment is already there. If you look at the U.S. market, we have a unique set of consumers. As one issuer put it —’We are not convinced Americans can learn to do two new things at once.’ ” Sadly she did not name the source of that comment.

“As you look at the competitive pressure in the U.S., it is so much more significant than in other countries. We have 14,000 banks and credit unions competing for consumers’ business. Nobody wants consumers, who have 3.4 other credit cards in their wallet, to have a bad experience with one card and then send it to the back of their wallet. A number of issuers said they wish it had been done five years ago because they are getting killed by the fraud; the counterfeit card fraud is increasing 20-30 percent year on year. We are the last G-20 country to go to EMV and the fraud rings behind it are organized crime rings with P&L demands.”

The transition will be challenging, she added.

“We are going to have all these different permutation of transactions at point of sales (POS). Some will be EMV-enabled with EMV terminals, some terminals will be ready and some cards will have fraud assessment challenges. It will be a big task for issuers and you can be sure fraudsters are aware of it and will prepare attacks.”

Some companies are using traditional analytics to confront fraud, while others are looking at big data capabilities to improve insight into customer behavior, she added.

“They want to understand this is the behavior of my customer to avoid declines. Some issuers have the capabilities to leverage the same big data stack for marketing, although many of the capabilities of the issuers are still pretty siloed.”

Why You Should Never Accept A Counter Offer When You Resign

It was a moment in my career that I will never forget. I had accepted a new job at a different company and when I went into my boss’s office to quit, with resignation letter in hand, he offered me a higher salary if I would remain in my current job.
Even if you think this would never happen to you, it is best to prepare in advance so you’ll feel comfortable with your response, which should always be: “No, thank you.” Surprised that I’m telling you to decline your manager’s counter offer? Here’s why…
If you followed the process I explained in a previous blog (Job Seekers: Consider This – Before You Change Jobs)  – to analyze the reasons WHY you want to change jobs – then you’d already have identified the issues that were within your manager’s or your ability to control. And you’d already have worked through ways of fixing those issues.

• If you felt you were underpaid, you’d have asked your boss for a raise.
• If you were bored in your job and wanted more challenging work, you would have discussed this with your manager and asked him or her to assign you to projects or tasks that will broaden and deepen your work experience.
• If a lengthy commute was lowering the quality of your life, you’d have negotiated to work from home a few days a week.

Whatever the reasons were for wanting to change jobs, you would have analyzed them and made every attempt to fix the issues that were possible to fix. So what does that leave you? Issues that weren’t fixable – the deal-breakers. They were the reasons you went out and found a new job that better fits your career requirements or goals. So why would you suddenly want to stay in your job just because your boss offered you more money?
If you previously couldn’t get a raise from your boss when you provided proof that you are underpaid, ask yourself: “Why is my manager offering me a raise now that I’m resigning?” If you weren’t valuable enough to be given a raise before, why would your boss be willing to give you more money now? Most likely, it is not because you’ve suddenly become a more valuable employee. It’s because your manager doesn’t want to deal with the work disruption your departure could create.
Let me state that one more time to be sure you understand… it is not because you’ve suddenly become a more valuable employee. It is because your manager doesn’t want to deal with the work disruption your departure could create.
Don’t waiver on your decision to change jobs. You took the time to identify your reasons for leaving. You worked to fix all the issues that were within your control. There were issues that weren’t fixable and these were your deal-breakers. Because you couldn’t change the deal-breakers, you found a new job that was a better match to your career goals and aspirations. Don’t let your ego or feeling flattered that you’re being offered more money cloud your judgment or cause you to make a bad decision. You already did your homework, so feel secure about the process you went through to seek a different job.
If you begin to second-guess your acceptance of the new job and consider accepting your manager’s counter offer, think about what else would change if you stayed (besides receiving more money). Review each of your reasons for wanting to switch jobs and take an honest look at your deal-breaker issues. Will they somehow magically disappear if you accepted the counter offer? Nope. So look your boss in the eyes, smile nicely, and say “No, thank you” to that counter offer.

Nine HR Policies That Drive Good People Away

There is a particular, awful feeling you get working in a company that is sinking. You can tell the minute you walk in the door that the energy is off.  If you pay attention to the vibe you get on a job interview, you’ll know when a company is broken. People don’t look you in the eye. No one wants to be there, but you might take the job regardless if you’re out of other options.
You can tell when an organization’s culture is busted. The signs are there, if you’re paying attention to the air quality in the room. Job interviews in broken companies vacillate between the message “You’d be lucky if we hired you” and “Please take this job,” because misery loves company. Sometimes interviewers apologize for the brokenness of the joint while encouraging you to work there anyway. Sometimes the salaries in sinking organizations are appalling. Sometimes they’re suspiciously high, because money is the only way the company can hang onto people.
I don’t blame you if you take a job in a broken company, because we all have to live. I hope that if you do, you keep your job search going. You can take another job a week or a month later. You can leave the short-term stint off your resume entirely. Don’t settle into a broken culture, whatever you do. Keep your job search going at full steam when you know you’re planning to be a short-timer in a downward-spiraling place.
What kills a company? Incompetence and fear are the two culprits, and they always work hand in hand. Sub-par leadership is afraid to hire people who could make a positive impact, for fear of being shown up or not being the smartest people in the room.
The mediocrity cascades downhill until every supervisor and team lead position is filled by a rhesus monkey and good people start flying out the door. You can spot a dying company very quickly by reading its Employee Handbook, so if you’re on the interview trail, be sure and ask for a copy of the handbook before you get to the job offer stage.
If they won’t hand over a copy, there’s your signal from the gods! Get out of Dodge at that moment and find a place where they get you, and therefore deserve you.
Here are nine HR policies rooted in fear and guaranteed to drive smart and capable people into the arms of competitors. Are any of these talent-repelling policies in place at your employer? If so, leave copies of this article lying around and pin one of them to the bulletin board nearest to HR! You won’t win the talent wars by treating people like children — but that should go without saying.
 Nine HR Policies That Drive Good People Away
‘Chain Gang’ Time Off Policies
Time-off policies for salaried employees are easy. I was an HR chief for decades, and saw the the direct correlation between time off policies that assume your employees are adults and 110% effort from the team. For your salaried folks, the best policy is “We will pay you on every payday, and you give your best and come to work unless you can’t.” You don’t need to track one- and two-hour absences and tote them up in columns called Personal Time and Sick Leave. You only need to track vacation (in the U.S.) because the company is liable for unpaid vacation time. You need to know when a person is using Family Medical Leave Act time off. That’s it.  Otherwise, you can keep paying your employees and expecting them to show up, and they will not let you down. After all, you hired them, right? Don’t you trust yourself to hire adults?
You’ll need a more detailed attendance policy for hourly and non-exempt employees, but your creative HR team can figure out ways to treat those employees like the professionals they are, as well. Attendance policy development is not rocket science, unless fearful weenies get hold of the project and nickel-and-dime it to death.
No Latitude Policies
Talent-aware employers give their employees room to move, to make decisions and come up with great ideas. Fearful zombie companies quail in fear at the thought of an employee having an independent thought, much less acting on it. When my brother worked for a major chip maker, he got called on the carpet one time for assembling in a conference room with four other guys prior to traveling to a remote location to check on a testing center. Some blowhard manager walked into the conference room and said “Who called this meeting? I don’t see anybody here at a level to authorize a meeting!” That’s a broken company. Policies that require three signatures to make the smallest move will send your best employees packing.
Stack Ranking
Stack ranking, also called forced ranking, is a loathsome practice whereby managers are forced to list their employees in best-to-worst order, as though human beings could be boiled down to one dimension (awesomeness?) and measured against one another like pieces of lumber. This was a popular practice in the Chainsaw Dunlap days. Any organization still hanging on to this turkey HR practice is headed straight downhill. If you’re working for them, bail!  If you’re holding stock in a company like this, dump it!
Stealing Miles
It’s always a good idea to save money, but not at the expense of your own employees. When your sales reps and other staff members stand in airport lines, undergo TSA indignities and indulge in those delicious little bags of airline peanuts, they’re earning the frequent flyer miles they accrue. Stealing your employees’ airline miles is the mark of a penny-wise and pound-foolish organization. If you value your employees’ personal time so little that you consider their lost evenings, weekends and other travel hours worthless, you don’t deserve to have them on your team.

Grandma Died? Prove It
HR policies are like bedbugs — once they get a foothold, it’s hard to get rid of them. Sometime in the 1990s it became popular to require your employees to bring in a funeral notice in order to get a few days of paid bereavement leave when a family member passed on. That’s about as low as you can get. If you don’t trust yourself not to hire people who will invent relatives and kill them off for a few days’ pay, you can’t call yourself a leader. When you’ve got an employee in personal distress due to a family member’s death, don’t add insult to injury by requiring them to prove it. This is a shameful practice that will drive any self-respecting employee straight to your competitors, and you will have only yourself to blame.
No References
“So if I understand correctly, I can come and work here, do a great job for twenty years, and then leave — and no one here will give me a reference?” That’s right — lots of large organizations simply won’t allow their managers to vouch for former employees. Why is that? They don’t trust their managers to give ‘safe’ references that will avoid a third-party defamation claim. Can you imagine trusting your managers to run their departments and not trusting them to give out references on former employees? Run away from an organization like this, and if your vendors subscribe to the no-references philosophy, find another vendor who believes in human integrity. Don’t your customers deserve that much?
Bell Curve Performance Reviews
Bell curve performance reviews are programs that allot a fixed number of slots to managers when they review their employees once per year. Only twenty percent of the team can be Excellent, Twenty percent can be Very Good, and so on. Twenty percent of the team must be found to be bad employees, worthy of termination. Why on earth would a leadership team want twenty percent of its employees to do a bad job? Fear is in the mix again. They don’t trust their managers. They fear that managers will be ‘easy graders’ just because it’s hard to give constructive feedback. If you don’t trust yourself to hire great managers and set them free, why do you trust yourself to lead?
Social Media Clampdown
It is prudent and appropriate to teach employees how to use Facebook, LinkedIn LNKD +0.75% and other social media tools with grace and dignity. It is ridiculous to shut down the use of these tools altogether as many organizations have done. In effect, these weenie companies are saying “We can have an online presence, but you can’t.” Run away from employers like that. You need to work among people who can grow your flame, not snuff it out!
Anti-Moonlighting Rule
The last horrendous HR practice on our list is the one that prohibits team members from holding outside employment of any kind. It is reasonable to expect your employees not to compete against you on their off hours. But lots of employers forbid holding a second job of any kind, from spinning disks at weddings to bartending on Friday nights. You are your own person. Insist on employment that lets you put as many oars in the water as you like — after all, it’s not like your employer is guaranteeing your income for any period of time!
This heavy-handed rule is a huge red flag that tells you an organization doesn’t trust the very people it relies on to delight customers and shareholders. Talk them into ditching the anti-moonlighting policy, or start looking for your next job. You deserve to work among people who treat you like the professional you are. They are out there — and the sooner you give a talent-repelling, undeserving organization the boot, the sooner you’ll find them!

How To Talk About Your Biggest Weaknesses In A Job Interview

You’re  in the hot seat and things are going well. You talk about your attributes, skills and strengths with ease. Just when you think it’s pretty much in the bag, the hiring manager asks that dreaded question: What’s your biggest weakness?

“This is one of the questions people have the hardest time answering,” says Amanda Abella, a career coach, writer, speaker. “[Your response] tells the interviewer a lot about your character, so it definitely holds a lot of weight.”

Andrew G. Rosen, founder and editor of the popular career advice blog Jobacle.com, agrees. “This is a go-to question for interviewers,” he says. “It’s a seemingly innocent question that has the potential to quickly expose a major flaw. It’s the Hail Mary of the interview; a final last-ditch attempt to trip you up and send you in the other direction. But with a little planning, most interviewees can easily neutralize this question; even use it to their advantage.”

It’s not a trick question and there’s no “right” answer—but interviewers are looking for something specific in your response to this challenging query.

“Hiring managers who ask about weaknesses during interviews are looking for examples of how a person faced obstacles in the past,” says Dylan Schweitzer, a group talent acquisition manager for Enterprise Rent-A-Car. “All employees have flaws, but how they deal with failure and have made steps to fix them are indicators as to how they will handle constructive criticism in the future,” he says. “Interviewers ask about weaknesses and failures because resiliency is a critical skill set which employees must have. As a manager, you expect to give constructive criticism to your employees and the ability of a person to take that and improve is important when choosing who you will manage.”

Abella concurs. “Hiring managers know that no one is perfect. However, they want to make sure of a few things.” First, she says, they want to know that you aren’t conceited and are aware that you make mistakes. “Confidence is great, but there’s a fine line between confidence and conceit.” Second, it’s also a question of character, she says. “If your weakness is that you have a bad temper, you may come off like a loose cannon who will be difficult to work with. Meanwhile, if a weakness is something like ‘I put a lot of pressure—sometimes too much pressure—on myself to succeed, but I’ve worked on this,’ then that doesn’t sound so bad.”

Interviews are designed to filter out bad candidates just as much as they are about finding the right one, Rosen says. “‘What’s your biggest weakness?’ is sort of a silly question and the interviewer is hoping they will catch you off guard, when you don’t have a scripted answer to fall back on. They think you will reveal something you didn’t want or expect to.”

To ensure this doesn’t happen to you, here are some tips for talking about your biggest weakness in a job interview:

Know your weakness(es).
Penelope Trunk, a career coach and author of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success, wrote in a blog post on the topic: “If you don’t know your weakness, take a personality type quiz and the results will show you. Everyone has specific strengths and everyone has specific weaknesses. It’s pretty certain that if you are not clear on your weaknesses then you are not clear on your strengths, and your value at the office will be questionable.”

Be honest, but don’t mention essential skills.
“Do not give a bullshit answer,” Trunk writes. “Saying something like, ‘I pay too much attention to detail’ is actually a terrible answer for someone who is getting hired to do detail work. It means you have a deficit in the exact area you’re trying to get hired for. The best answer to the question is when you tell a truthful answer, because it’s very unlikely you will be hired for the thing you are most weak at doing.”
For example, someone who is a production artist could say his weakness is finance, she says. “So what if he doesn’t like finance? He is not getting hired to do it.”
To avoid mentioning a weakness that can crush your chances of landing the job, review the job description to see what exactly the employer is looking for.

Talk about how you’ve conquered the weakness.
 “Be prepared to share an example of a previous failure or weakness that you’ve successfully turned into a strength,” Schweitzer says. “Do not discuss areas of opportunity that you are still working on and have not yet fixed.”
For example, if you say that you used to come in late to work and usually come in on time now, you can expect to not get a job offer. “The example of coming into work late needs to have a story behind it of how a manager, mentor or family member talked to you about how timeliness impacts your personal brand and ever since then you arrive early to all meetings. In fact, an example of a manager recently complimenting you on being the first one to arrive at meetings or events would be the support needed to show you fixed this issue.”

Don’t prepare an exact response.
 Of course you want to be prepared for every common interview question—especially tricky ones like this. Think about your weaknesses ahead of time, but don’t rehearse a response. Your answer might change slightly according to the rest of the conversation with the hiring manager, and you don’t want it to come across as unauthentic or staged.

Only discuss work-related weaknesses.
“Always make sure that they are business appropriate,” Abella says. “Personal weaknesses are okay sometimes, but what these guys are really looking for are your weaknesses in the work place and how you’ve overcome them.”
You also want to avoid personal drama, she says. “Sure, everyone has got some, but companies want to ensure this won’t affect your job if you get hired. Besides, it’s considered completely inappropriate to bring personal drama into the business world.”

Don’t say you’re a perfectionist or you work too hard.
   Schweitzer says common responses that are immediately dismissed are: “I am a perfectionist,” and “I work so hard that I don’t allow myself to relax.” “Interviewers hear these examples all the time and often will ask for another example or just move on knowing you prepared for that question. Use the weakness question as an opportunity to share how you’ve overcome a professional challenge and how you now are better because of it.”

Trunk agrees that you should avoid the ‘perfectionist’ response. “If you are not being interviewed for detail work it’s not a believable weakness.  And if you are being hired for detail work being a perfectionist will make you slow and annoying.”
“Hiring managers know that people make mistakes, and they want to know how you’ve handled yours,” Abella concludes. “Being aware of your weaknesses is a good sign; it shows that you know where your boundaries are and aren’t suffering from a case of hubris.”

10 Things To Do When You Don't Hear Back After A Job Interview

Here are 10 things you can do if you don’t hear back within (or shortly after) the time frame determined during the interview:

Take the initiative.
Don’t just twiddle your thumbs and wait. Do something.
“In today’s market, it behooves job candidates to take the bull by the horns and follow-up,” Taylor says. “The squeaky (not screechy) wheel gets the grease. Nudge, don’t pester.”
She says when the timeline expires, wait a few days then write a “check-in” e-mail to your primary contact showing your continued interest. “Just make sure to offer something of value to the hiring manager in the e-mail, such as a link to an industry or competitive firm-related article, interesting blog, LinkedIn discussion or upcoming industry event.”
Hoover agrees. “If your initial follow-up message is tailored to the timeline you were given in an interview, you will come across as professional, prompt, and courteous. If you wait too long it could show a perceived lack of interest.”

Make a plan.
Parnell says if you call and e-mail too much, you become both annoying and desperate; if you don’t follow up enough, you communicate disrespect and a lack of interest. “It is important to be formulaic with your attempts by setting a schedule and sticking to it. Only allow yourself a particular number of attempts over the course of a limited time. If you get your feedback, great; if you don’t, move on–period.”

Be gracious.
Always be pleasant in your e-mail or phone correspondence, even if you’re annoyed with the employer, Taylor says. Maybe they’re still in the process of interviewing candidates and haven’t yet made a decision. Or perhaps they think you’d be a better fit for a different position within the organization, and plan to contact you when it becomes available. “Your level of professionalism will be remembered,” Taylor says. “It’s often how you handle setbacks that set you apart from the rest.”

Check your social network for connections.
Check Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for former colleagues or friends who currently work at the company, Hoover says. “If you discover a connection, try to solicit an endorsement from the person or at a minimum, try to find out the status of the hire and where they are in the process.”

Always gauge the responses to your outreach efforts before your next move.
 This begins with your real-time interview feedback, Taylor says. “If it’s a warm reception, then the door’s open for you to further engage. If it’s chilly at best, don’t waste a lot of time with serial badgering. Oftentimes no answer is an answer.
”
Move up the chain. “
While I have a healthy respect for HR and internal recruiters, when it comes to business acumen, sometimes they are a mixed bag,” Parnell says. “If you find that you’re unable to get a response from them after a material number of attempts, move up the food chain. In my endeavors, I’ve found that the higher up you go, the more respect you’ll find for the interviewee.” Reaching out (directly) to the person you’d actually be working for can often reinvigorate the process, or at least bring it to a close.

Follow your gut and be realistic.
  “Rejection is psychologically traumatizing; in fact, it has been proven to cause physical pain,” Parnell says. “It shouldn’t be a surprise that our minds are equipped with powerful mechanisms such as rationalizations to nullify its affects: ‘Maybe they didn’t get my last 37 emails.’ ‘I’ll bet they left the country this month and don’t have phone service.’ Rationalizations like these can serve to keep us pushing forward when we should be searching elsewhere. Follow your gut – it usually knows the answer.”
Taylor agrees. She says when an employer hasn’t responded to a couple of your follow-ups, or won’t take your call, don’t become a pest. “Read between the lines of a ‘no.’ Industry circles are small and you have better things to do than get a reputation of desperation. Do yourself a favor and move on with your work life putting all that energy into a positive, worthy pursuit.”

Keep the employer up to date.
As other activity manifests throughout the process, be sure to inform the employer of your progress in your follow-up correspondence, Parnell says. “By offering them tangential, employer-related information that might facilitate their process, you will remind them that you are still in the hunt without sounding self-serving.”

Don’t take it personally.
“For all you know, the job may have been reduced in responsibility, salary, timeframe, or even eliminated,” Taylor says. “Most companies do not want to broadcast that kind of news to the public and opt for the safer route, which is to say nothing. You have marketable skills, and one job (the right one) is all you need.”

Let this experience tell you about the company.
 The post-interview process doesn’t always directly reflect the corporate culture—but it can, Hoover says. You’ll want to remember this if they ever reach out in the future, or if you decide to apply for another position down the road. “Keep in mind that getting no response from an employer after you have followed up can be one more data point as to whether you really want to work for the company,” Taylor adds. “How you’re treated after the interview could be indicative of how you’d be managed once on the job.” If you’ve put all the pieces together and just don’t get a good feeling about working for them, go with your gut. “You might consider their lack of action a gift or preview–and a sign to move quickly to greener pastures.”

***

Here are 10 things you should never do:

Never offer a self-imposed deadline without due cause. If you have some legitimate reason–moving to the area by a certain date, receiving a promotion (at your current job) that may be accepted in lieu of an offer, an impending placement on an assignment, etc.–this flies in the world of interviewing. However, demanding an answer by the end of the week or else, does not, Parnell says.

Never lie. Any outright lie, especially one that seems implausible, will crush your chances with this employer, Kane says.

Never attempt to communicate with a hiring manager through their personal e-mail, home address, cell phone or telephone.

Never criticize the company on social media. “Unlike using your social network for good, do not give into the temptation of calling a company out on their lack of response to you,” Hoover says.

Never complain to the employer about your frustration with them.

Never call or e-mail relentlessly. Leaving three un-returned messages is a social and professional faux pas, Parnell says. “While it is reasonable for an employer to miss or forget about a single phone message, missing or forgetting a second is terribly unlikely.”

Never call on back-to-back days. Hoover says this will become a hassle for the interviewer and rather than showing your continued interest, it might tell them that you’re not aware of boundaries.

Never try gimmicks, like dropping off a shoe at the reception desk because you’re trying to “get your foot in the door.”

Never stop by with more information in the hopes that you’ll gain points for enthusiasm.

Never bribe or kiss up. You want to win the job out of merit and self-confidence, not out of ill-attempted forms of schmoozing or flattery, Taylor says.

30 Motivational Quotes For Job Seekers

Here are 30 motivational quotes for job seekers:

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” –Japanese proverb

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” –Thomas Jefferson

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” –George Santayana

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” –Eleanor Roosevelt

“People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.” –Andrew Carnegie

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” –Benjamin Franklin

“Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.” –Katherine Whitehorn

“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” –Arthur Ashe

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”–Winston Churchill

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”–Norman Vincent Peale

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”–Wayne Gretzky

“Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” –Eleanor Roosevelt

“I’m playing; I’m here. I’m going to fight until they tell me they don’t want me anymore.” –Steve Nash

“Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It’s OK to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not growing.” –H. Stanley Judd

“Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.” –Author Unknown

“Opportunities don’t often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them.” –Audrey Hepburn

“Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true.” –Brian Tracy

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” –Alexander Graham Bell

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” –Confucius

“Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it.” –Marva Collins

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” –Robert F. Kennedy

“Never tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon.” –Author Unknown

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” –George Eliot

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” –Walt Disney DIS +0.46%

“Every experience in your life is being orchestrated to teach you something you need to know to move forward.” –Brian Tracy

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” –Thomas Jefferson

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and will always solve the problems of the human race.” –Calvin Coolidge

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” –Maya Angelou

“Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” –Theodore Roosevelt.

READERS: What is your favorite motivational or inspirational quote? Tell us in the Comments section below.

How To Answer The Question 'What Was Your Last Salary?

You have to be prepared to talk about salary on a job interview, even before you talk to people in person. There’s a good chance they’ll ask you about your salary history in the very first piece of correspondence you receive once you’ve submitted a resume in response to a job posting.

A lot of job ads tell you to send your salary history along with a resume and cover letter. Don’t do that — your salary history is nobody’s business but your own. You can give them what they need by specifying your salary target instead of your salary history. A screener looking at a stack of resumes or opening file after file in quick succession on her screen won’t even notice the distinction between salary history and salary target. As long as your number is within the range that the employer has already specified for the position, you’ll be fine.

You can just include a sentence in your cover letter that says “In this job search I’m focusing on roles in the $55K range.”

You will need to know your salary target as you begin your job search. Don’t use job ads and job interviews as your market-value research, because companies are trying to play it very cheap right now. They’ll delude themselves that they can get an experienced Director of Marketing with 15 years of experience running huge campaigns, and pay that person $60K. Don’t depress your own true market value by buying into other people’s delusions. Use Salary and Payscale to peg your actual, current market value.

There are employers who will tell you “We pay under market.” Think about what those words mean. The market rate is what other companies are paying. The market sets itself, like any market – like the value of your home or of a used car you’re looking to sell or buy. When somebody tells you “Our company pays under the market” they mean that they couldn’t care less what your value is in the talent marketplace. They are hoping someone who doesn’t know his value or whose mojo is depleted and self-confidence diminished will come and work for them for galley-slave wages. You can’t grow your flame in a place like that. Don’t do it!

Once you get to a face-to-face interview, the topic of salary is likely to come up. I don’t want you to bring it up on a first interview, but they might. They’ll do it like this most of the time:
THEM: So, what were you earning at Acme Explosives?
YOU: Er — sixty-seven five.

That’s a low-mojo answer. Your salary history is your own business. Are they going to tell you what they were paying the last person in this role? Is the HR person going to tell you what he or she is earning? They’re not going to do that, so why should you give up confidential information of your own?
If you believe that employers are godly and you are nothing, and if you believe that someone is doing you a huge favor by hiring you, you’ve got a mojo deficit. You can’t job-hunt effectively in that state. You have to gather your good friends around and get them to help you remember that you are strong and capable and that you’re worth every penny you’re asking for, if not much more.

When you don’t see your own value, you’re going to bring in employers who will undervalue and mistreat you. You’ve got to have your feet under you in order to go on a job search with the confidence that the right employer for you is out there. People who want to get the cheapest help they can find aren’t worthy of your gifts.

Let’s prepare for the question “What were you earning before?” and play it a different way.
THEM: So, what were you earning at Acme Explosives?

YOU: For this job search I’m focusing on opportunities in the seventy-five kay range.

There are two possibilities. One is that the interviewer makes a note on her clipboard and says “Okay.” The other is that s/he presses for your past salary.

THEM: Okay, your target is seventy-five thousand dollars. What were you earning before?

YOU: You know, if we’re in the same ballpark with the seventy-five kay figure then it makes sense to keep talking. My accountant would have my head if I shared my past salary.

(You can also blame your past employer, like this):

YOU: Acme is fanatical about confidentiality as I’m sure you can appreciate. I wouldn’t share my salary with anyone if I were working here, either.

If you find that a recruiter won’t let the question go, that’s a red flag right there. They don’t need to know your past salary. It has nothing to do with anything. If they can’t evaluate your talent based on your resume and your physical self sitting right there in front of them, ready to answer questions about anything in your career history, then they are not smart people.
We can feel compassion for folks like that, but you don’t want to work among them. Working with weenies is the surest way to dim  your flame. If you’re having an especially high-mojo moment, you can answer the Salary History question this way:

THEM: So, what were you earning over at Acme Explosives?

YOU: Right now I’m focusing on jobs in the seventy-five kay range, so if that’s a match for you it makes sense for us to keep talking. Is that within your range?

THEM: I think so, but I really need to know your past salary.

YOU: Every company and situation is different, so for me the seventy-five thousand range I’m shooting for is the most relevant piece of information. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be comfortable sharing the salaries of the team members in this department with me, and I don’t blame you, because it’s none of my business.  By the same token, my past salary isn’t especially relevant to our conversation,  now that you know my salary target. Does that make sense?

There are brilliant, creative interviewers in the business world and there are lots of drones. If you’re stuck in an interview setting with a person who can’t understand what you’re saying much less imagine stepping outside the lines to substitute your salary requirement for salary  history, your next question to the heavens should be “How did I get myself here?” If you don’t want to find yourself in a room like that facing questions like that again, step outside the lines yourself and contact your hiring manager directly the next time.
I’ve written zillions of columns about how to do that, here on Forbes and elsewhere. Google the term Pain Letter to find them.
It’s a new day in the talent marketplace. Switched-on managers know that only talent powers their engine for profitability and growth. Those are the employers you need to find and start conversations with. The old-line, stuck-in-the-mud, nothing-ever-changes-here people aren’t worth your time. But I can’t talk you into that view: you have to feel it in your body.
Do you?

5 Career Mistakes You Will Regret In 10 Years

Too many of us navigate our careers like we’re paddling across a lake, not sailing across an ocean. We are short-sighted when making decisions. We focus on completing the task at hand, fighting for the next promotion, outperforming a colleague. But there are many seemingly minor actions that can have a major impact on your career’s trajectory. Ignore them and you risk arriving on a shore you didn’t choose, or worse, capsizing on an unexpected reef! Here are 5 career mistakes that can negatively impact your career down the road:

1.    Network only within your company.
Most people are aware of the value of networking. Not traditional “gladhanding”, attending events just to pass out your business card, but real relationship building. Expanding your horizon with other people’s perspectives. Opening yourself up to new ideas. Building relationships that will make your day-to-day work easier and more successful. But too many people limit their networking activities to within their own company. Cultures can be quite different, as those who have worked in several companies know. Exposing yourself to truly new ideas and perspectives requires getting outside of your culture and the circle of colleagues you find most convenient to interact with. Sail more than one sea! Many of the most influential professional relationships you will have will be with those outside of your company – especially when times get tough. It may not be easy, but investing in these external relationships will pay off.

2.    Make decisions based on money.
Statistics will say that no matter how much money we have, we always wish we had at least 20% more. Changing course on the promise of an incremental increase in earnings is tempting. We all find it tough to ignore a promotion, raise or even a change in company that will feed our hungry bank accounts. But over time in a career, you are paid for the impact you have had, not your title. Choose the path that provides you the most valuable experiences, develops the most significant relationships, and allows you to learn at the fastest rate, regardless of income. Prioritizing experience over income will lead to dramatically higher earnings over the long run.

3.    Avoid Failure.
Over the course of a career, you will often be faced with two alternative paths – one with seemingly much higher risk. Many high performers are often frustrated by always being put into very uncertain roles, where others have failed before and success may not even seem likely. But executives manage their high potential employees like this for a reason. Difficult situations lead to accelerated growth—not just in learning about business and leadership, but in learning about yourself. Long-term success is based on gaining a combination of experiences, but also on navigating toward roles that leverage your unique strengths and passions, and steering away from those that don’t. The most difficult circumstances often precipitate to the greatest personal growth.

4.    Buy a House.
 That’s right, buying a house can hurt your career, particularly early on. Organizations value mobility. They want their high-potential employees to gain broad experiences. Even at the CEO level, boards look for candidates who have experience across multiple functions, multiple divisions within the company, and global exposure. It’s hard to collect those assets when you are anchored in one harbor. Buying a house locks you into a location. Sure, you think that if a great opportunity presented itself, you can always sell it. But companies today are much less likely to pay significant moving expenses. And the effort and expense involved in selling a house and relocating can be a significant headwind, causing you to pass up what may have been game-changing opportunities.

5.    Miss opportunities to help others.
 When you do something that creates real value for organizations or others, you will almost always be paid for it, and almost never immediately. This is a fact of life in a professional career, but not one that is widely known. In my first book, The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers, our research found that the most successful professionals were over four times more likely to focus on the success of those around them than even their own success! Winning the long game in a career requires a broad base of support from peers and colleagues at every stage in your career. If you see an opportunity where your actions can truly benefit another, take the time to make it happen, without any expectation of return benefit.  Call it positive Karma or whatever you like, but over time the good will you build up will create a groundswell of support when you least expect it, but need it most.

These mistakes are relatively easy to navigate around, once you are aware that they exist. Network broadly; chart your course by experiences, not paychecks; embrace challenging situations; stay mobile and lead with generosity. By setting your sights on the distant horizon of your career, rather than the water at your prow, you won’t have to pay for these 5 career mistakes in 10 years—or ever.

10 Unconventional (But Very Effective) Tips For Job Seekers

In the market for a new job? You’ve probably been urged to “pursue your passions,” “leverage your network,” “tailor and tidy up your resume,” “do your homework,” and “dress for success”—among other things.

“These are foundational aspects to job seeking that are timeless,” says Teri Hockett, the chief executive of What’s For Work?, a career site for women.

David Parnell, a legal consultant, communication coach and author, agrees: “Much of this has been around long enough to become conventional for a reason: it works,” he says. “If you take a closer look, things like networking, research, and applying to multiple employers are fundamental ‘block and tackle’ types of activities that apply to 80% of the bell curve. They hinge upon casting a broad net; they leverage the law of averages; they adhere to the fundamentals of psychology. It’s no wonder they still work.”

But some of it “does get old and overused, because job seeking is as unique and creative as an individual,” says Isa Adney, author of Community College Success and the blog FirstJobOutofCollege.com. “When you ask any professional who has achieved some level of greatness how he or she got there, the journey is always unique, always varied, and rarely cookie-cutter. Most have, in some capacity, followed their passion, used their network, and had a good resume–but those things are usually part of a much bigger picture, and an unpredictable winding path. Instead of always following the exact by-the-book job seeking formulas, most were simply open to possibilities and got really good at whatever it is they were doing.”

We’re not saying you should discount or disregard traditional job seeking advice altogether. But it can’t hurt to mix it up and try less conventional approaches until you achieve your goals, Hockett says.

“Times are always changing and while it’s always good to follow the basic advice, we also have to get rolling with the times,” says Amanda Abella, a career coach, writer, speaker, and founder of the Gen Y lifestyle blog Grad Meets World. “For instance, group interviews are making a comeback, we’ve got Skype interviews now, or you may interview in front of a panel. All this stuff didn’t happen as often before–so while the same basic stuff applies, we have to take into account all the new dynamics.”

Hockett agrees and says if you are going to try some unconventional job seeking methods, you should “always be grounded with solid research and a clear direction of your intentions; then you will be ready for any opportunity to make a connection resulting in a positive impact on a hiring manager.”

Parnell says generally speaking, unconventional methods should be used sparingly, judiciously and only when necessary. “And when you do decide to use them, factor comprehensively by recognizing things like industry standards, personalities involved, and the general ilk of the position’s responsibilities, before strategizing.”

Here are 10 unconventional (but very effective) tips for job seekers:

1. Be vulnerable. It’s okay to ask people for advice! “Too often we think we have to sell ourselves as this know-it-all hot-shot to get a job, but I have found the best way to build relationships with people whom you’d like to work with (or for) is to start by being vulnerable, sharing your admiration for their work, and asking for advice,” Adney says. “I recommend doing this with professionals at companies you’d love to work for, long before they have a job opening you apply for.”

2. Don’t always follow your passion. “Follow your passion” is one of the most common pieces of career wisdom, says Cal Newport, author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love. “It’s also wrong.” If you study people who end up loving their work, most of them did not follow a pre-existing passion, he says. “Instead, their passion for the work developed over time as they got better at what they did and took more control over their career.”

Adney agrees to some extent. She doesn’t think job seekers should completely disregard their passions–but does believe that “challenging this conventional wisdom is vital, especially since studies still show most Americans are unhappy in their jobs.”

3. Create your position. Don’t just sit around waiting for your “dream job” to open. Study the industry or field that you’re looking to move into, and determine a company or two that you’d like to work for, Hockett says. “Then figure out their challenges through relationships or public information. With this, you can craft a solution for them that you can share directly or publically through a blog, for instance. The concept here is to get noticed through offering a solution to help them with no expectation of anything in return.”

4. Learn how to listen. Job seekers are so caught up in conveying a certain message and image to the employer that they often fail to listen.

“Powerful listening is a coaching tool, as well as an amazing skill to have in your life,” Abella says. “The art of conversation lies in knowing how to listen– and the same applies to job interviews. Know when to talk, when to stop talking, and when to ask questions.”

When you practicing for interviews, don’t just rehearse your answers to questions like, “can you tell me about yourself?” “why do you want this job?” and “what are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?” Practice listening carefully and closely without interrupting.

5. Start at the top and move down. We learned from Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith) in The Pursuit of Happyness (the biographical film based on Gardner’s life) that you need to start from the top and move down. “Why approach human resources in hopes that your resume makes it to the hiring authority?” Parnell says. “Just get it there yourself. Be careful to use tact, respect and clarity during the process, but nevertheless, go straight to the decision maker.”

6. Build a relationship with the administrative assistant. While you want to start at the top (see No. 5), you’ll eventually want to build strategic relationships with personnel at all levels.

“A terribly underutilized resource is an employer’s administrative assistant,” Parnell says. “As the manager’s trusted counterpart, there is often only a slight social barrier between the two. They know the manager’s schedule, interests, responsibilities and preferences. Making friends or even engaging in some quasi-bartering relationship with them can make all the difference in the world.”

7. Don’t apply for a job as soon as you find it. The worst part about job hunting is the dreaded scrolling of an online job board, applying for job after job, and never hearing back, Adney says. “When you find a job online that you’re really interested in, applying is the last thing you should do. Instead, research that company and the professionals who work there, and reach out to someone at the company before you apply for the job, letting them know you admire what they do and would love their advice.” Then, ask questions via e-mail or phone about what they like and find challenging at their job, and ask if they have any tips for you. “Most likely they will personally tell you about the job opening (you should not mention it) and then you can ask them about getting your application and resume into the right hands,” she says. “It is a great way to keep your applications from getting lost in the black hole of the Internet.”

8. Focus on body language. You’ve probably heard this before—but job candidates don’t take it seriously enough. “Body language is incredibly important in job interviews,” Abella says. “Watching yours (posture, your hands, whether or not you’re relaxed, confidence) will help you exude confidence,” she explains. “Meanwhile paying attention to the interviewer’s body language can let you gauge whether or not you’re on the right track.”

9. Don’t focus on finding a job you love now. Don’t obsess about how much you’ll enjoy a particular job on day one, Newport says. Most entry-level positions are not glamorous. “The right question to ask when assessing an opportunity is what the job would look like in five years, assuming that you spent those years focusing like a laser on developing valuable skills. That’s the job you’re interviewing for.”

Adney agrees. “When choosing a job early in your career or early in a career change, focus less on how much you would love doing the functions of the job and focus more on where you will have the greatest opportunity to add value to the company, network with top people in your industry, and have the ability to get your foot in the door of a company that mostly hires internally.”

10. Become their greatest fan. Once you find a company you’d love to work for, become their biggest fan. “Becoming a brand loyalist may lead to becoming an employee,” Hockett says. “But of course, you have to establish or participate in a forum where you’re constantly communicating that message; one they will see.” Organizations ideally want employees to love their company and be enthusiastic about their job. Loyal fans are passionate as consumers, and often make great employees because of this, she concludes.

Easily Avoidable Job Interview Deal Breakers

So you managed to get a job interview. That's great, but there are still many interview related deal breakers that can blow your chances of getting the job in question. The good news is that these deal breakers are fairly easy to avoid if you learn more about them. So today, we have compiled a list of five interview deal breakers to help you get your next job.

1. Lying Or Being Fake
If you lie during an interview, you are setting yourself up for disaster. Lying will put the odds against you if you get caught, so it is best to avoid lying completely. If you lie about your experience level or skill set, the truth will likely reveal itself later on. Try to be upfront and honest to save yourself from trouble down the line.
Another closely related blunder related to lying is acting fake. If you try to put on a fake personality because you think your interviewer might like it, you should really second guess yourself. Most interviewers are perceptive enough to see right through you and might be turned off by an attempt to fake a personality. It's still proper to act polite and courteous during an interview, but you shouldn't act like a completely different person.

2. Not Dressing The Part
When you show up to a job interview in wrinkled clothes, sneakers, and messy hair, you send a clear message to the interviewer that you are not very interested in the job. If instead, you take the time to dress well and groom yourself properly, your interviewer will be impressed and more likely to hire you. Dressing well and grooming properly shows that you can be professional and that you take your career seriously. So make certain you have the appropriate attire and are well groomed before going into your next interview.
As far as dressing well goes, pick clothes that are clean, pressed, and formal. If you are unsure of how dressed up you should be, be more formal rather than less formal. It's always better to over dress than under dress for an interview. You can always dress down later if you get the job. As far as proper grooming goes, shower, put your hair in order, and have clean breath, but don't chew gum. Chewing gum can distract the interviewer and make you look less professional. Also, if you must use cologne, use it sparingly.

3. Not Anticipating Common Interview Questions
If you come to an interview and you haven't brushed up on some common interview questions, you'll likely fumble around and make mistakes. You can easily give your interviewer the wrong impression and can really hurt your chances of getting the job. Learn some common interview questions and you'll be better prepared and more confident in your next interview.

4. Knowing Nothing About The Company
If you don't  know anything about the company you are interviewing with, it shows disinterest and a lack of preparation. So try doing a little research before your next interview. Some basic things you should know about a company are its history, its competitors, and its plans for the future. It is especially important to know about the company's competitors because you can give specific reasons for why you'd rather work for the company you're interviewing with. This shows a good potential for loyalty, and an added enthusiasm. All of this information is readily available online, making researching a company a piece of cake.

5. Being Overly Modest Or Overly Boastful
During a job interview, you do want to show that you are skilled, experienced, and competent, but you don't want to come off as being overly boastful. Being overly boastful is a generally unpleasant personality trait and shows your employer you might be difficult to train and teach. So don't be overly boastful, but don't be overly modest either. You should have enough confidence to tell your interviewer your strengths and accomplishments. If you are overly modest your interviewer might not know what you are capable of, which can hurt your chances of getting the job. Find a nice balance where you can share enough information with your interviewer, without being overly boastful.

Bonus: Not Following Up
Following up after your interview usually doesn't mean the difference between getting the job and not getting it, but it certainly doesn't hurt. All it takes is a simple phone call or email reiterating your interest in the position you interviewed for. It's that simple and can give you a slight edge over your competition.

5 Ways To Boost Your Energy At Work Without Drinking Coffee

Getting tired on the job is an all too common problem that can prevent you from performing your best and taking your career to the next level. Many people rely on coffee to give themselves the energy they need to get through the day, but drinking coffee can tax both your health and your wallet. So consider trying something on this list to boost your energy without drinking any coffee.

1. Exercise During Your Lunch Break
The first way to stay energized at work without coffee is to exercise during your lunch break. This is especially effective if your job forces you to sit in front of a computer screen for eight hours every day which can make you feel sluggish.
Exercising during your lunch break can be as simple as taking a brisk walk around the block or hopping on a treadmill or elliptical machine. If you have a gym nearby or in your office, it would be much easier to get some quick cardio to keep you energized during the day. Exercising during your lunch hour to boost your energy might seem counter intuitive because you're expending your energy when you exercise, but doing so will help bring your body to a higher level of performance.

2. Don't Waste Your Downtime Doing Nothing
Sometimes a lack of activity can be more energy draining than an over abundance of activity. If you have long stretches of downtime try to keep yourself busy with something instead of just sitting around. Not only will spending your downtime more productively keep you awake, it'll make you a more valuable employee than those who waste their downtime doing nothing.

3. Avoid Eating A Big Lunch
Eating a big lunch is a surefire way to slow you down in the afternoon. If you eat more than you should and feel tired after lunch, consider some of the following tips to reduce your afternoon sleepiness.

• Put some food in your stomach for breakfast
• Avoid junk food like chips, soda, and candy
• Eat whole foods like fruits, vegetables, and nuts
• Eat foods high in protein so you feel more full without overeating
• Spread your lunch out by eating smaller portions throughout the day

By following the above tips, you'll be less likely to eat a huge lunch that will put you in a food coma in the afternoon. This will help you get more done and perform better during the work day.

4. Get Enough Sleep Every Night
Of course the best way to not feel tired during the day is to sleep more at night. If you find yourself getting less sleep than you should, identify the reasons why you aren't getting enough sleep. You might have some late night habits that keep you from getting the sleep you need. You might be watching TV, surfing the internet, or going out with friends into the night, making it impossible to get a full night's sleep. Consider changing your habits so you have enough energy to get through your work day without feeling the urge to take a nap.

5. Improve Your Sitting Posture
If you work an office job and sit in front of a computer all day, having good posture will help keep you awake and energized. If you sink into your chair and slouch in front of your desk, your body will naturally feel more relaxed and your productivity will wane. So keep your back straight and your body in an ergonomically sound position to help you stay focused and on task during your work day.