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As a career coach, I am at times asked for such advice as whether I believe a person is a good fit for the person’s current profession or some future one. Usually, I refer such a case to my business partner, who is a well-qualified and experienced career counselor who meets with clients several times before a mutually agreeable answer is reached.
I’ve seen people change careers even after a very long period in one profession. Such a change is very challenging, because typically, the person has already attained a certain salary level, and starting in a different profession does not afford such a job seeker the credibility and experience needed to compete with others who’ve been already on that track for several years. However, in a different context, parents of juniors and seniors in high school ask my opinion about their children’s future. And in that context, I came across a comprehensive study by Georgetown University. The study focused on the value of having a bachelor’s degree.
The study evaluated 171 majors and found some eye-popping results. For example, the study found that the median annual earnings of someone with a bachelor’s degree can vary from $29,000 for a counseling psychology major to $120,000 for a petroleum engineering major. From that example, one could rightfully question the value of a college degree to start with. About 8 percent of all college majors fall into the category of business management and administration; those graduates have a median annual income of $58,000. About 5 percent of all majors are in general business; those graduates have a median annual income of $60,000. Accounting majors make up 4 percent and have a median annual income of $63,000.
The Georgetown study also looked at the correlation between college major and pursuant profession. For example, 19 percent of physics majors went into computer and management occupations; 14 percent went into engineering. About 18 percent of liberal arts majors went into management; 15 percent went into sales. At the other end of the spectrum are majors that are extremely unpopular—to the point of representing less than 1/100 of 1 percent, or 0.01 percent, of majors—such as nuclear engineering, soil science, and pharmacology.
More interesting and unsurprising facts that the study found are that the nursing major is made up of 92 percent females and 8 percent males, that nuclear engineering attracts 91 percent males, and that elementary education comprises 91 percent females.
The study ranked respondents by race and ethnicity. For example, among African-American students, the most popular major is school student counseling, at 38 percent. For Hispanics, biology engineering is the top major, at 22 percent.
The most fascinating information in the study covered people’s earnings. Customarily, earnings are bracketed as falling in such categories as high, low, and then the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles. As mentioned earlier, the major with the highest earning capacity is petroleum engineering, whose 75th percentile is $189,000 annually, whereas the median is $120,000.
A subset of the study dealt with the disparity between male and female incomes. In most cases, males are paid more than females by various percentages, but in some cases—for example, the information science major—females’ median annual earnings are $75,000, whereas males’ earnings are only $65,000. The conclusion is that women earn the most with a degree in, say, pharmacy-pharmaceutical science and administration, and the least in, say, theology and religious vocations.
In summary, nowadays the options and opportunities for young people to pursue their careers’ desires are very complex. A good decision and a good fit can keep a person happy and well compensated, whereas a career based on a poor or haphazard decision can result in many years of misery and a path to poverty.
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I am a practicing career coach and have noticed that in most cases, I guide my clients through 10 certain deeply held beliefs of mine that have evolved over my years of practice. I decided to call the concepts the Landing Expert Principles—naming them after my Web site, www.landingexpert.com
- Job seekers should have their résumés written by a recommended, professional résumé writer known to produce excellent résumés. In today’s economy, just plain “very good” résumés don’t make the cut.
- Based on the theories of Albert Mehrabian, professor emeritus of psychology at UCLA, an interviewer judges a candidate 55% on visual appearance, 38% on voice, and 7% on words.
- The interview is a competition. The winner is the one who outshines other candidates, who knows the rules of the game, and who knows how to deploy all the tools.
- The hiring decision is made during the interview, based on the impression the candidate leaves behind, which in turn is based primarily on the interviewer’s gut feelings. Unfortunately, such decision making is certainly not pure science.
- The interviewer knows the candidate is there to sell himself, but the interviewer is not ready to buy everything the candidate wants to sell—except when two conditions occur:
- The candidate recites facts and gives evidence about career background and ability to do the job.
- The candidate uses adjectives or other kinds of self-descriptions in sentences that are in the third person—that is, the otherwise self-descriptions were said by others.
- Interviewing is like dancing: it cannot be learned from a book but only from practice. The more one practices, the better one becomes at it.
- Interviews are counter-intuitive: they’re not about the candidate; they’re about the candidate’s skills and experience as they relate to ability to solve the interviewer’s problems.
- The interviewer is listening, but his hearing is selective: that is, when the candidate talks about himself, the interviewer barely hears it; when the candidate talks about how he can solve the company’s problems, the interviewer becomes more interested and attentive and is thinking, “Louder, louder!”
- Before you answer each question during an interview, ask yourself in turn the question “So what?” which will force you to recount significant and meaningful examples pertinent to the questions.
- To convey the most credibility as a candidate, provide facts via success stories from your professional past. Often use the expression for example and then (1) briefly describe a job situation needing resolution, (2) list the specific actions you took to resolve the situation, and (3) end by pointing out the resulting benefits to your team or employer.
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Ten minutes after I meet with a coaching client for the first time, the client is facing my video camera for 60 to 90 seconds. Then we watch the video together. Differently from in real life and because we have modern technology, I can separate the impression—and the client’s image—from the spoken words. I simply turn the speakers off so I don’t get influenced by the video’s verbal content and context. This is a powerful experience, one that provides rich information. In most cases a client can use that information for improving job interview skills and then can apply the newly learned skills during a job interview. Most people are awestruck by their video experience. In less than two minutes, people can see for themselves how they’re perceived by others—something they couldn’t have known before.
Albert Mehrabian, currently UCLA professor emeritus of psychology, published his findings on inconsistent communication of feelings and attitudes and on the relative importance of verbal messages and nonverbal messages. He devised what’s known as the 55%-38%-7% rule. Professor Mehrabian’s basic tenet is that when we communicate with other people, we’re being judged to the extent of 55% by our nonverbal behavior such as body language and facial expression, 38% by our tone of voice, and only the remaining 7% by the actual words we speak and their context. Moreover, if the words we use are incongruent with our body language and tonality, then the other person tends to believe more in what he sees and hears and less in the meaning of the words.
When we interview, our body language says a lot about us and about our emotional state; and poor body language often sends the message that we’re stressed or fearful. But even before the interview interaction begins, the interviewer looks at your face, your hair, your clothes, and the image you’re projecting. Thus, he forms an opinion about you before you’ve even had a chance to formally meet.
The interviewer observes your body language and interprets it quickly, knowing at once whether you’re scared, passive, under- qualified, or something else. If you say the wrong thing, the interviewer can forgive that, but if your body language says something different from what you actually say—for example, you say you’re a person who works well in stressful situations, but your body language betrays the fact that you’re indeed stressed; or, for another example, you say you’re confident, but your body language again betrays the fact that you’re not—well, those are things an interviewer knows you can’t change.
Following are a few body language mistakes to avoid during a job interview.
- Crossing your arms, which suggests you’re either overconfident or uncomfortable
- Lack of eye contact, especially while the interviewer is talking
- Not smiling, which makes you appear nervous or unfriendly
- Hiding your hands, because the interviewer will want to interpret how open and honest you are by looking at your hands
The only way to improve correspondence between the words you say and what your body language says is to prepare for the interview and practice, practice, and practice some more. It’s best to practice interviewing with someone who can point out to you your areas of deficiency and can guide you in making improvements.
So, finally, you receive a call to schedule an interview.
All your efforts have paid off. A person calls you to schedule another interview. This is a huge compliment! You were selected from dozens or, at times, hundreds of people who applied for the very same position. You typically feel elated on one hand and apprehensive on the other. The reason is clear. You know that the real test lies in the interview process.
Even if you think you interview well (because you’ve gotten jobs in the past!), the interview represents a big challenge. Over the past several years, the business climate has changed dramatically, and at the same time, the market has gotten flooded with highly qualified candidates. Interviewing is a skill that can be improved through hard work and preparation. There are so many applicants for only one opening that the process has become extremely competitive. You need to outshine your competition. Unless you kept your job search skills honed in on job market developments, you’ll most likely need to improve in this area.
So, what to do? You can do your own research and preparation via the Internet. Millions do so, but that process can take weeks or even months. Instead, you could hire a career coach! The career coach’s job is to prepare you for the upcoming competition. Such coaching will shorten your search as well as teach you how to do things right and how to avoid making costly or even, at times, fatal mistakes. The coach might also assist you in negotiating a better compensation package, which will more than make up for what you paid for coaching services.
Think of it in terms of sports: All professional athletes have coaches even though professional athletes are highly skilled. Why is this? Since the coach has no bias, he will point out to you not only your strong points but also your areas needing improvement. He will guide you to attainment of your goal.
What’s important to the hiring manager?
A hiring manager considers several factors. For example, he will review your professional background and your career progression. He’s also going to question your accomplishments as described on your resume. Be prepared to elaborate on those accomplishments once prompted in your interview. In addition, of course, your education and credentials will likely weigh heavily.
It is a huge plus for you if you were referred by a trusted source. Why is that? It’s because the roles in the interview process are well defined: This is a transaction between you and the hiring manager. You are tantamount to a salesperson with the intent to sell yourself. The hiring manager is the buyer. His job is to select among several salesperson candidates. He is not inclined to buy everything the salesperson wants to sell. However, if a trusted person recommended you, then the hiring manager’s scrutiny is significantly minimized, thus dramatically increasing your chances of being hired.
What happens at an interview?
In preparing for a big interview, it might be helpful to take on the mind-set of someone who has just finished one. After an interview is over, you will have many questions in your mind: How did you do? Were you able to provide the right answers? Defend your liabilities? And convince the hiring manager that in your past positions you not only did what he needs done but, more important, also did it successfully? Was that job performance successful because you said so? Or because it was recognized by others? Recognition by others is what convinces a hiring manager that you performed with distinction.
Once the interview is over, you must follow up. Your thank-you letter should address any questions the interviewer may have about your candidacy. It’s up to you to find out what they are. When you’re asked, “So, do you have any questions for me?” ask the interviewer about your candidacy for the position. After all of this, the only big issue remaining to be addressed is whether you’d fit harmoniously into the organization. This fit issue has a lot to do with the chemistry between a candidate and a hiring manager.
So, why is the hiring process illogical?
As you can see, today’s hiring process is lengthy. A candidate uses logic throughout the application process, but the involvement of many people over such a long time can sometimes lead to an illogical result. Furthermore, in most of the cases of rejection, the truth is not revealed to the candidate because of the potential trigger of a lawsuit. Therefore, the only logical conclusion from the candidate’s point of view is that the process is illogical. However, an understanding of the entire process can equip you and help you through.
Unlike past scenarios, job interviews have become harder and harder. Employers have an abundance of very qualified applicants, many of them working with interview coaches to elevate their interviewing skills. The outcome is that it raises the bar for everyone. There are many books available to job seekers to read and brush up on interviewing skills, but the problem associated with that is that many of those books are old and reflect the thinking of the era in which they were written.
Employers have become sophisticated in the area of interviewing candidates. In the past, after snail mailing a cover letter and résumé to a target company, a job applicant would receive a phone call invitation for an interview with the hiring manager. Nowadays there’s very little personal interaction at the front end of the process. The résumé submittal is electronic and goes directly into a database. The résumé gets buried there until its resurrection via the appropriate keywords a recruiter is interested in. Then comes the initial screening-out phone interview, and only if that goes well is a candidate invited to a series of interviews with often large numbers of people. There are a number of reasons for these changes.
Today’s employers react to the current economic condition by focusing on higher productivity through the application of various technologies, new and better software, and outsourcing in order to reduce staff and associated staff costs such as office space, pensions, and health care.
The hiring process today is also significantly more selective than in the past. Companies need people who can quickly learn constantly new technologies, can adapt to continuous changes, can reinvent their own jobs, and can function while changes occur at faster and faster rates.
When employers select new employees, they’re looking for those types who can provide solutions resulting in increased efficiency and, at the same time, reduced costs. Otherwise, jobs will move offshore.
Nobody’s job is safe anymore. The past paradigm of building a solid career is no longer valid. People out of work need information and intelligence about growth opportunities and must adapt their skills to meet employers’ requirements. This is a challenging proposition for job seekers—and especially for those who are more advanced in age than other job seekers. Waiting for things to happen is often futile and certainly demoralizing. Career counselors can be of great assistance, but the majority of the burden is on the job seeker.
