This post is the third in a 10-part blog series to not only get you ready for that dream job interview, but put you on notice for how you are going to make it happen!
Ten Questions You Should Never Stop Asking
What is my work’s purpose? In Part II of this series we posed this question and investigated the critical component that purpose plays in the discovery of our perfect fit job.
Part III looks into this question:
What is it that I do that creates the most value in my work?
What is it that you do for work?
Perhaps you know all the MS Office Suite of products cold and can make an Excel spreadsheet sing like no one else. That’s great – but it’s just one dimension of you and it probably has all the flavor of cold, dry toast in an interview conversation. If you are great at creating spreadsheets – this is what you do. Who are you going to be when you do what you do?
You might be an analytical and an effective communicator - able to take a complex spreadsheet or issue and break it down to understandable pieces and parts and communicate this in a way so others can understand the concept. Warmer, Warmer.
Or, it may be that you are an extraordinary customer support technician and you are thinking how tough it might be to get hired on with a company for whose products you have no working knowledge. Colder, Colder.
There is more to being extraordinary with handling prickly customers who have problems with the product than diagnosing what’s wrong and putting the fix in – right?
Possibly you have the ability to empathize with the customer and immediately disarm them, gain their trust fast. Maybe you are so great at building the relationship with a dissatisfied customer that you are able to sell them more products that will help them be more efficient, right then, on that call. The customer comes in like a lion and back out like a lamb after speaking with you. Warmer, Warmer.
Are you a do-er, a connector, a strategizer, an empathizer, a leader, a problem solver, a communicator, a builder, a relator? Do you have awareness – self-awareness as well as awareness of others? Do you have an abundance mentality or do you come from scarcity? Are you adaptable?
Whatever it is that you do in your work that creates value for others is who you are as a talent. Interviews are conversations and great conversations are about people and their stories. Focus here. Contribute to a great conversation with a potential employer and be the spark for building a new relationship.
By changing the question – ‘what do you do for work’? – to - ‘who are you when you do what you do’?, you have created the opportunity to access deeper conversations with total strangers, i.e. potential employers, that lead to connecting with them in a meaningful way. This is how to effortlessly build new relationships. The more authentic connections you make and new relationships you build, the more power you hold with more people to be recommended to others for interviews when the opportunities arise.
This post was written by: Marilyn Carpenter
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