Being human, we all make mistakes. In a job search, unfortunately, we will make mistakes. I once mailed a letter to a CFO and had the wrong name in the letter! We all do it at some point. Go ahead and get it out of your system and make the mistakes, then the key is to learn from them.  I only made that mistake once!

You only have to be 10 minutes late for your interview or have bad grammar or spelling errors in your resume to learn you will never do that again. We become quick learners when those mistakes occur. The more common mistakes we all make come when meeting with a recruiter, a phone interview, an in-person interview, follow-up correspondence, a cover letter and much more.

Chances are, and you need to know everyone makes them, it comes down to mistakes we make with personal interaction related to an interview.  Here is the good and bad news at the same time: since every person is different, every interview is different.  The bad news is no 2 people are alike and therefore it is difficult to know exactly what the hiring manager really is looking for in a candidate. The good news is when you don’t receive a call back, you get to have a fresh attempt with someone new.

There is a tendency to believe if we can just get the interview we will land the job. But too often the interview is where most people struggle. Somehow we believe that we can walk in and ace the interview almost automatically. Sure we prepare, but we still believe we can perform extremely well the first time and every time.

Yet, conducting a successful job search uses the same mindset and perspective as when attempting to achieve any new goal. Whether climbing a mountain, learning a new skill or your first attempt at bowling, no one gets it right the first time. I have had my share of mistakes through the job search process. In fact I feel like I have made most all of the ones you can make. There was one company where I had always wanted to work, and on interviewed with them on two separate occasions. Neither time was good. On one occasion the interview with the HR person lasted no more than 15 minutes – I knew something was wrong then!  This particular company had a very unique culture, and on my second attempt the position I was interviewing for was a step up for me.  I ended up being intimidated by both scenarios and hence did not do well.

After the pain of many interviews I learned the value and importance of understanding the mindset of people and human behavior.  This understanding helped me transform my job search although it took some practice.

Don’t get down on yourself because you didn’t get a call back on an interview, especially in hindsight if you can determine what you should have said or what you probably should not have said.  Share your answers with someone and get their reaction. The key is to learn from the process and not be angry or disheartened. Once I truly factored into my interview process that every person is different, I learned the keys to on how to connect with each person, especially the hiring manager.

A job interview – talking with someone, especially in person is just as much of an art as it is a science. Even if done via Skype, there is still a personal connection to be made. Having great answers to 100 questions is important, but unless you understand the “art” of the process, it will be a challenge to personally connect with the hiring manager. One of the keys I learned was that I stopped trying to be someone I wasn’t. Instead, once I understood that there was much value in just being me, I was much more relaxed, confident and able to convey my expertise and skill set in a convincing manner.

While everyone is focused on key words in their resume and profile, keep spending more time focused on the key words you use in your interview and the key words you hear from the hiring manager. Learning how to listen and learning to interpret what you hear, including reading body language as you probably are discovering, are essential to a successful interview.

View each interview as an opportunity to learn and grow and you will land that job offer because you have become a great candidate. When you become poised and confident in the interview gained from your mistakes in previous interviews you will quickly become the perfect fit for the job.

Please share a comment or question. Struggling in your job search? Click here to break through in your job search. www.garyspinell.com/40keys

When unemployed the question we all want answered is “When is it going to end?”

There is no greater experience of uncertainty as when you are unemployed. In contrast, we much rather prefer having certainty and just as important consistency in our life. Yet, when unemployed, we must deal with both uncertainty and definitely a lack of consistency in what each day, each conversation and each interview brings.

People generally don’t handle uncertainty very well because of the inability to plan and to plan our future involves belief in events occurring in a specific timeframe. Having to manage uncertainty is difficult because of not knowing the conclusion and the timing. When unemployed we not only are extremely eager to know when it will end but what the resolution will look like. This uncertainty can be extremely stressful.

When employed we can establish an end date for a project completion and work toward that goal. The key is that when we are employed we are in control of the process and can actually set the end date and how the outcome will look. Unfortunately, when we are unemployed control is elusive. As much as we can do we can’t make anyone hire us, and definitely not in a timeframe that we desire or require.

It is much easier mentally to know on what specific date an event is going to occur. We know when our birthday is, we know when holidays are celebrated, we know when our children will graduate and we know when we will finish a seminar, certification or degree.

Not knowing when something will occur puts an enormous amount of strain on someone not only mentally, but emotionally and physically. How can you plan for the conclusion of an event when you don’t know when, and if it is going to occur?

How does all of this impact us and what can we do about it? This confusion and lack of decisive information profoundly impacts our thinking, beliefs and actions. Just watch how the stock market makes traders crazy every day, and often people lose money, because they make irrational decisions totally created out of the fact they don’t know what is going to happen.

A human trait is that when we are not sure what is going to happen, we start to make assumptions, or come to conclusions on what next steps to take, mental approach to employ, and adjustment in our beliefs and subsequently what is the best course of action.

In addition, we begin making assumptions and conclusions about our own ability. All too often upon not landing the job offer, our self-confidence is eroded. We may begin to doubt our interviewing skills, our networking skills, the layout of our resume and much more. We doubt until we wonder if we will ever land a job again. Consequently, we feel compelled to change wording in our resume, seek out the latest LinkedIn technique, rehearse another 20 interview questions and work continually on our elevator speech. Yet, when flying a plane and encountering turbulence, the airplane pilot does not land the plane and consider changing the tires, changes to the wings, changes to the engines and maybe a different airplane all together. Instead the airplane pilot adjusts to the wind and storms moving around them, yet remaining focused on the final destination.

In a job search we never really have all of the information on the status of our job search. We don’t know who has seen our profile or resume online, who might have forwarded our resume to a friend, or who might have brought up our name in a conversation. Making assumptions on the depth of our ability and impact of our networking connections can only lead us astray.

Remember you have the right skills, the right expertise and experience. Placing additional pressure on you to hurry and land that job creates unneeded stress and causes additional mental confusion. You also may makes decisions on an knee-jerk reaction instead of clear thinking.  If you know what direction you are headed, trust your experience and keep headed in that direction. An airplane pilot doesn’t spend time helping build the airplane – rather he/she trusts in its ability to fly, and fly effectively. Instead the pilot focuses on continuing to head in the intended direction.

Your time will come. Your job offer is coming. Remain diligent and focused on your path. Throughout my web posts and newsletters, you have noticed I focus solely on the impact of human behavior and mindset on your job search results. Our minds can play enormous tricks on us and impact our ability to be effective in the interview and when networking.  What you believe about yourself, your ability, the job search process, the world and people in general attract to you experiences mirroring those beliefs.  These are THE key factors in what you experience in your job search.

The reason I know is that I had to change the way I viewed myself and the job search process before I landed jobs I desired.  Painstakingly I learned these lessons, and do not wish those struggles on you. When I learned these keys, my job search results changed. And I saw this with others who were greatly successful.

The 40 Keys job search program focuses heavily on how to overcome these mental obstacles while providing a unique approach to job search tactics.  Quite often it’s not your resume or profile that creates the roadblocks to achieve the job offer or achieve any goal in life; rather landing the job all comes down to what you believe about yourself, your ability and your talent. If you have any self-doubts this program will transform your thinking to regain your confidence, effectively communicate your expertise and land that next job.

I know you can do it.  Your time is coming. Believe in you.

Have a job search question? Contact me at gary@garyspinell.com

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From the book, It Was YOU, All Along

When working toward any goal or desired outcome, there are countless possibilities of the path we will take to achieve that goal. We discover that the events, people and places we experience along that path are amazing and often surprising.  Why? Because we have a tendency to focus or contemplate on the possibilities, and path, we would like to appear. We visualize how each step of the process will be played out as if directing a movie.

At the same time we often view the world in the here and now. Our reality is based only on what we can feel, see and touch. We view our world in finite, exact terms. For example, many of us would like to win the lottery. Lottery jackpots have escalated in the last several years to over one hundred million dollars. When I was a child I could not “imagine” the significance of one million dollars. I could not understand fully the magnitude of that much money. If the amount was all in one dollar bills, I wondered how high the pile would reach if each dollar was stacked upon the next.

Today, I can conceptualize one million dollars or one million people in my mind, although it is still difficult. If we have difficulty imagining the magnitude of one million, or maybe one hundred million dollars, imagine the reality of one billion dollars or one trillion dollars, or stars in the universe. Some numbers are just too big for us to get our minds around.

The same is true for possibilities, and the experiences and accomplishments that can occur in our life.  If we attempt to focus on how our journey will unfold, we limit the Universal number of possibilities. There are a countless number of possibilities of what doors will open for us, who we will encounter each day and what unique piece of information will be presented to us to help us succeed. The nuance to master is by not forcing a particular path to occur we allow an infinite number of possibilities to unfold, which brings us to our goal much sooner.

In addition, the nuance to master is to not focus on how our journey will unfold, but simply to experience the journey.  Stay in the moment and focus on what work we need to do, and the possibilities to complete our journey will present themselves to us perfectly.

We often block the best options from occurring.  How? Well, our mind has a tendency to ONLY hold on to that which it can rationalize and comprehend. Since it is very difficult to understand and comprehend an infinite number of possibilities, our minds reduce large numbers to amounts to which we can relate to or understand.

 The problem occurs when we believe the amount
that we can relate to is all there is!

Any amounts or possibilities beyond those we can comprehend are eliminated in our minds as unachievable and not part of our realities. Yet, in reality, there are thousands of possibilities.  So let’s focus on the work to complete our goal and let the Universe bring us the perfect possibilities of people, places and events to achieve our goal, and complete our journey.

–   This exerpt from the book It Was YOU, All Along
Available on Amazon at http://amzn.to/XFZqWK

Discover all of the possibilities AND
how to get unstuck to cross the threshold to your dreams.
For a SHORT TIME ONLY – Purchase either
It Was YOU, All Along or
Beyond Intent: Crossing the Threshold to Your Dreams
(in any format) and receive FREE the other book in pdf.
Email me after purchase to receive your free copy.

Have a question? Contact me at gary@garyspinell.com. 
Thank you!