BIOGRAPHIES: A Message to Speakers, Authors, and Business Owners on Shameless Self Promotion

“Boxing was the only career where I wouldn’t have to start out at the bottom.

I had a good resume.”  – Sugar Ray Leonard

Seems that I spend much of my career-business coaching hours on sales and marketing, bios and curriculum vitae. And it seems that almost every client I have ever worked with says the exact same thing, over and over again: “I’m good at promoting and bragging about others, just not about myself. It feels impossible… What do I say?!” Of course, this lack of skill (at least in our own minds) to express all our qualities, quirks, and qualifications in black and white terrifies most of us. Even for really arrogant and cocky people. My theory is simple: when we write it down and format it in an official way (Bio, Resume, CV, marketing materials, website content, etc), it all becomes glaringly real. We look at these documents, read over every word, and ask ourselves: Did I (or my company) really do all that… and is this really me (my company)?

Here is someone who answers: Yes, you did… and yes, it is.

Hiring Managers and Decision-Makers know that self promotion comes with a twist – they look for information between the lines, possible embellishments, and any trace of in-authenticity. If they are good, they will know if what they are reading is real or not, exaggerated to the slippery slope of falsehood or embellished in that “normal” kind of Bio/Resume/CV way. The key is making sure that what you have included, you can deliver. If you can do that, then shamelessly promote yourself to your heart’s content.

A simple example: I once had a client who was genuinely brilliant, and had begun to engage in public speaking for local professional organizations. Most of his gigs were pro bono, but the exposure and experience gained was worth the generous contribution of his time. He was also a pretty solid speaker, and was often asked to return. I heard this story, took notes, and created a position for him called Public Speaker and Meeting Presenter. I noted where he had spoken to date, and a little information about his topic focus. I also added this info to his bio. Well, when he saw this, two things happened: first he felt proud and deeply inspired, and then immediately after this feeling, he felt deeply uncomfortable. “Can I say that?” he asked. “Can you speak and present publicly and are you any good at it?” I returned. Without a hesitation, he said “Yes.”  He wasn’t lying to me or to himself – he is a solid speaker and presenter, and in that moment, he knew it down to his gut. Voila… an excellent example of how shameless self promotion can work. He got over it, and we added it to his CV and bio.

One more thing to consider: do not lie. Do not falsify information or embellish to the point of nonrecognition. This is not only unethical and creates bad career karma, it is illegal and might burn bridges for you. Ok, you have been warned. Good career coaches have a talent for understanding this fine line, this gray area of documentation. However, we also adhere to a code of integrity that prevents us from stepping over a certain professional line. Just saying…

Here are three points to consider and two examples of Bios I have done recently. One is for a client who has been getting more public speaking engagements for his work with leadership and working in global IT environments (name/details are changed to protect client’s privacy), and the other one is mine. I change it every so often to update the content and relevance, but the nuts and bolts of writing a good one is there. Before you get down to writing, first consider these points:

• PERSONALITY: yes we want to know all about your Harvard PhD’s and all those awesome clients you have worked with, but where is your character and personality? Beware of dry language and lists. Some lists are unavoidable, so pepper in some creative images. Use a thesaurus and take advantage of the 500K words in our rich English language.

• ONE MINUTE COMMERCIAL: this is similar to your one minute commercial in that you might want to include a few key pieces of information – name, location, durations, title/position/job, industries or environments, qualifications/education (if applicable), clients or company names, and results. You can add testimonials to this as well, but I place mine on the last page of my CV after references. A good bio is like an expanded one minute commercial.

• RELEVANT and UPDATED: I recommend keeping this updated because, as the saying goes… you never know. It is also a good idea to have a few versions, depending on the “slant” you need. Most careers are pretty complex in my experience, so make sure you keep the data relevant and updated to fit all the different things you do. I have focused on HR, leadership and operations for the past decade, and have a slightly different bio for each of these arenas. I also have two different CV styles, by the way, to match either conservative or more casual work environments.

___________________________________________________________________

BIO EXAMPLE ONE:

PROFESSIONAL BIO – John Smith

John Smith is a 22-year professional of the IT, Systems Analysis, Business Analysis, Customer and Vendor Liaison, Strategic Planning, and Project Management arenas. His career began as a Technical Writer and grew into IT Consulting, Quality Assurance, Team Leadership, and Personnel Development, which has culminated into successfully managing numerous projects in various roles including Senior Program Manager. His expertise has been developed mainly in corporate environments at global firms including Lockheed Martin, DTE Energy, and Ford Motor Company.

John has a solid reputation for his exceptional leadership skills, and his natural talent for effectively navigating through complex projects, plans, and people. His ability to bring diverse teams together into a focused forward momentum is what makes him unique. As a dedicated leader and manager in IT, Program and Project Management, he  has created measurable results and proven success by analyzing business requirements, relying on his extensive technical knowledge, and designing and implementing creative and strategic solutions that improve productivity, communication, information flow, customer satisfaction, and employee performance. Working on budgets up to $5M, he is also known for bringing in projects on target and under budget.

Currently, John is a Senior Program Manager in the Global IT Application Division at Ford Motor Company. He has a BS in Information Technology from the University of Michigan, and is an MBA Candidate in Management from Walsh College. In addition, he regularly engages in professional development education, and has participated in countless seminars and workshops in the areas of Leadership, Project Management, Six Sigma Lean Manufacturing, and IT Applications. He is an active member of the Michigan Council of Technology Professionals as a Mentor in their Mentoring Program and a regular Public Speaker and Meeting Presenter at various foundations and professional organizations including Young Leadership Council, Professional Leaders and Entrepreneurs, and the Project Management Institute. For more information, please visit…

___________________________________________________________________

BIO EXAMPLE TWO:

BIO – Michele Wilke

With 25+ years in the professional coaching and training industry, Michele Wilke brings an extensive background to HR, team building, operations, international business, systems development / documentation, and leadership. She began her career on the West Coast getting trained in coaching and studying applied behavioral psychology at the Kairos Foundation in San Jose, California. The core of this in-depth, often challenging training remains in her work today. Michele also comes from a long line of business owners, and grew up working in her family’s printing and advertising business. There, she began to develop and collect valuable hands-on, soft and hard skill business tools.

In 1988, she relocated to Kyoto, Japan and spent eight years working as an adjunct professor in the Japanese university system focusing on HR and communication courses, and also as a cross-cultural management trainer and coach at a variety of companies including IBM Japan, Mitsubishi, and Omron. Opportunity brought her to Regensburg, Germany for almost nine years, into the heart of BMW, Siemens, Bavarian engineering, and the German autobahn. There she trained and coached executives, business owners, and culturally varied teams in the areas of HR restructuring, team building, diversity and cross-cultural communication, leadership, operations, and strategic planning. Once again, she taught as an adjunct professor specializing in international HR, international management, international marketing, east-west studies, personality profiling and cross-cultural training.

Michele returned to the US in 2004, and has continued to coach and train around the country in various industries including manufacturing, financial services, culinary-hospitality, and health care. Corporate clients include Google, Live Nation, Home Depot, Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management, and AxleTech International – A General Dynamics Company, as well as small to medium sized businesses, sole-proprietors, and municipalities.

Finally, she regularly educates and inspires groups with her insightful public speaking engagements and workshops. Topics include: Team Building, Recruiting, Communication, Leadership, Conflict Solutions, Global Business Alignment, Project Management, and Change Management. She offers high-performance and high-accountability tools and solutions that support clients, participants, teams and companies to go from good… to achieving the extraordinary. Michele Wilke has the tenacity of an Olympic athlete and the patience of a saint. For more information, please visit: www.velocitycoachingservices.com.    

___________________________________________________________________

There are a thousand ways to do this.

First step is to dive in and start promoting your talents or services.

Get to work writing (on your own if you can write – or get professional help).

Shamelessly, of course.

LOCALS ONLY NEED APPLY: Hidden Hiring Practices & How to Overcome Them

“Discrimination is a disease.” – Roger Staubach

First a brief disclaimer: This article is not intended to offend the brave souls who actually engage in EOE (Equal Opportunity Employment). Instead, it is being written in response to countless instances in which discrimination has hindered careers moving forward, and for no other reason than say, being a woman, or Hispanic, or a Yankee. I am looking for work again, and I just read this on a Craigslist ad for a large, local restaurant chain:

“Local candidates true to southern hospitality are encouraged to apply.”

When I first arrived in Southeast Louisiana in the spring of 2010, I worked with a recruiter who specializes in the hospitality/culinary industry. After several attempts to land an interview for me (and failing), she flat out told me to wait at least a year. She offered advice that still stings in my ears: “you are not a local… talk to me in a year and then we’ll see if that helps. Good luck.”

With a solid background in culinary savvy San Francisco as well as solid culinary experience in Asia and Europe, recruiters love me and my CV. They are powerless, however, to get past insipid forms of discrimination. Yep, I am not a local. I was not born in New Orleans. Therefore, I must be handicapped because of this, since we all know that only those from the south understand the concept of good food and service? I guess these Hiring Managers have never had the pleasure of dining elsewhere…

I decided to relocate to New Orleans last year BECAUSE of the culinary industry and famous food culture of this area. Yes, this is a foodie city indeed. Love it. But so are San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Austin, Miami, Seattle, Kyoto, Rome, Berlin, Shanghai, Sydney, Bangkok… (if I did not mention your fine city, my apologies). I did my research and knew that there is a “locals only” mentality here, but in my naiveté I did not pay much attention to this. Silly me. Oops. Now what do I do? How do I overcome this “hidden” obstacle?

Here are some options I have considered:

• Move to a different area. Live and work in a place where the melting pot of the US is not a big deal. East Coast, West Coast, and places like Austin, Chicago, and Boulder Colorado all come to mind.
• Stop applying online, via recruiters and even through other connections. Start showing up in a suit, resume in hand, a pep in my step, a smile on my face. See what happens.
• Add more local references with 504 numbers to my CV, even though they are not professional references.
• Word my cover letter to include that I am not a local, but I am a local in spirit and want to stay in the area. Gently talk about the “white elephant”. Use self-deprecating humor.
• Change professions, get a McJob, and call it a day.

I just got off the phone with a local contact. She is in a similar situation as I am but she knows EVERYBODY in town. She is going to introduce me to some of her contacts this week – owners who are opening up new restaurants and need someone with my extensive background. Fingers crossed. She is the flip side of what I am writing about: she is helpful, open-minded, and inclusive by nature. Thank goodness for small miracles.

Or perhaps this is “bad karma” I am working off. I recently hired three people for my last contract job, and observed that the company needed more men. Most of the front of house staff is female who are fairly thin-skinned and not physically strong. The company needed strength, stamina and thicker skins, and therefore I set out to hire more men to create a balance. Too much estrogen (or testosterone) in a team is not effective – a mixed demographic creates a more successful team. Recent statistics are proving this: the more diverse a group, the better for the company. So, I hired two men, young and strong and qualified… and one woman who is similar to the people the owners usually hired (I hired her because my gut also told me that she would be a solid, long-term employee). Maybe the difficulties I am having as a non-local is my own bad karma? Hmm…

My gut tells me at the time of this article, that New Orleans may not be a place I will set down roots. Then again, maybe I will. Hard to tell at this point. If these hidden obstacles continue to thwart my progress, I may not have a choice but to find my fortune elsewhere. Not ready to give up quite yet, but yeah… I am getting close. Unfortunately, I cannot change my gender, age, race or place of birth. I am kind of tired of hearing that it’s ok that I am from the West Coast… good thing I am not a Yank. I hear this on a semi-regular basis. What this message feels like is this: “you are not us, go back where you came from”. I realize that sounds harsh. Keep in mind that it is merely a reflection of some of the harsher realities here.

So what to do? I will continue to develop my famous thick skin. I will continue to network my network. I will continue to post CVs, pound the pavement, work with recruiters, and pray. And I will continuously tweak the wording in my communications to local Hiring Managers… and include information about me being a local in spirit. I will show up in a suit with my CV and a smile. Locals often say that all the people who live in New Orleans have CHOSEN to be here. Crazy as this seems, people like me have chosen to live here, too. But I cannot stay if the doors remain shut to outsiders.

In the last two weeks, there have been 13 armed robberies in the neighborhood where I just finished a contract job. Two break-in-and-enter rapes occurred last weekend about a mile from my flat. We live in a sinkhole here and the levees so far have saved us from the rising Mississippi. So far so good. But for how long, and is this a viable place to lay down some roots? Right now, my gut says no. Even with the justice department and FBI’s presence here since Katrina, things have NOT improved. The local culture is perhaps too attached to business as usual. So be it. Fair enough.

And Southeast Louisiana will lose good folks like me, who love this adopted city and want to contribute to making New Orleans an even better place. Having worked and lived overseas (Asia and Europe) for much of my professional career, and having the good fortune of finding success in these foreign countries, it would seem that a little place like New Orleans would not be so challenging. Argh. Time will tell, indeed. Stay tuned.

Moral of the story? Networking is key. Period. And (almost) EVERYTHING takes longer than any of us plan for… Perhaps it’s time to re-open  my file called PLAN B? Onwards.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP: From Churchill to Cher on Failure, Endorphins & Bouncing Back

“When you are at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” Franklin D Roosevelt

 

HUMAN NEEDS… Hard times ahead. Many of us are still struggling and just hanging on to the end of our ropes. Well, consider for a moment how two keen observers of human nature viewed our basic needs. Maslow and Jung show us how fortunate or perhaps unfortunate we are when we think about the Human Needs “Pie Chart”. I find it fascinating that when I write down my own human needs, my answers occasionally change. This means my perceptions are always behind all choices, conscious or otherwise. Sometimes I need security more than contribution, and at other times I am content to live in growth and connection, while the other needs seem to be rather insignificant.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs Insight Self-Actualization Esteem Love and Belonging Safety and Security Basic / Physical

Jung’s Six Human Needs Security Variety Significance Love and Connection Personal Growth Contribution

THE RABBIT HOLE… Then consider for a moment how resentful and regretful we all become when our needs aren’t met and things don’t go our way. I am guilty of this myself, and as a matter of fact just last weekend I was in a funk. The kind of dip in the road that makes us want to eat copious amounts of pizza and drink beer all afternoon. These resentments and regrets eat at our energy and stamina. They hold us back just because we are not ready or willing to clean them up and let them go. Why do we feel that we are alone in our struggles, when actually we are all in this together? We seem to be trying to do our best, and be the best “us” we can possibly be, but we are still stuck… a lot. This next quote inspires us to move on, if we find ourselves down the rabbit hole:

“Someone was hurt before you, wronged before you, hungry before you, frightened before you, beaten before you, humiliated before you, raped before you…yet, someone survived…You can do anything you choose to do.” – Maya Angelou

LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE… And then VOILA! there is this wonderfully constructed anecdote to suffering. It has been given to us in order to wake up the endorphins and feel good molecules all around us, so that we can carry on one more day in the midst of hard times (no matter what “hard times” look like). Humor ladies and gentlemen… I present you all with the best medicine ever! By the way, the book: Laughter, Sex, Vegetables, and Fish: The Ten Secrets of Long Living People by Dr John Tickell is fabulous. Comedy Central, Bill Cosby records, watching Paul Rudd on SNL work wonders for our smile lines:

“Humor is just another defense against the universe.”  – Mel Brooks

FAILURE… Of course a discussion on resilience and not giving up would not be complete without Mr Thomas Edison’s famous quote about failure. Failure is at the CORE of success and perseverance, and it is still astonishing how many leaders fail to remember this. Too many decisions are being made with an imbalanced amount of short-term thinking:

“I haven’t failed. I’ve identified 10,000 ways this doesn’t work.” – Thomas Edison

STANDING UP… Why is it so hard to develop patience, a long-term plan, the ability to stay the course, no matter what? We give up so easily because for most of us, we were taught that failure is to be avoided at all cost. This is faulty thinking, indeed. Failure, and getting back up again, is what success and resilience LOOK LIKE. Staying down is failure, as Mr Ali and Japanese wisdom have reminded us:

“Inside of a ring or out, ain’t nothing wrong with going down. It’s staying down that’s wrong.” – Muhammad Ali

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

LIFE ARCHITECTS… Let’s move now into the realm of how our perceptions ultimately offer us the lives we lead. We are the architects of our families, relationships, jobs, and communities, sometimes with more power than at other times, but we are there, morning, noon, and night, no matter what. What this means is: we seem to create our realities, most of the time anyway. This is actually good news. We can then learn how to say yes or no, to accept criticism or praise with an open mind, to move forward or slump down into the abyss. The ability to see that we do have choices (even teeny tiny ones!), translates into a stronger ability to bounce back from whatever life hands us. It’s all about the lemons quote. Make lemonade.

“Women have to harness their power – its absolutely true. It’s just learning not to take the first no. And if you can’t go straight ahead, you go around the corner.” – Cher

ABUNDANCE… Another way to tread forward with determination and diligence is to engage in the Abundance Mentality made popular by Stephen Covey. He said that most people are deeply scripted in what he calls the Scarcity Mentality. He said they see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else. He describes the Scarcity Mentality as “the zero-sum paradigm of life” (deep stuff, eh?!), and added that people with a Scarcity Mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power or profit. They also have a very hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people. Beware of this mind-set as is will surely ZAP you of any thread of resilience you might have left! On the other hand…

“The Abundance Mentality flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everyone. It results in the sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.” - Stephen Covey

SANITY… So how do we know that we are doing OK, even when we don’t feel like we are OK? Is this when our best friends come over with cheap Chinese food and a bottle of our favorite spirits? They regularly check in and ask how we are getting on, offer cliches that ring true, and generally make sure we keep on swimming. They remind us of how resilient we truly are. Bless these angels. In my own adventurous life, family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors are the ones who keep me sane. They get me and vice verse. What a relief. This next quote personally resonates like a temple bell:

“Not all who wander are lost.” – JRR Tolkien

RESILIENCE… Finally, always keep in mind that life is not TOO hard… it’s just VERY hard. See the difference? TOO hard means that we are about to give up, what’s the point, we’re done. And VERY hard means that sometimes life’s a bitch, a pain in the backside, and we just want to crawl under a rock and sleep for a decade… but we don’t. We don’t walk away when the kitchen gets hot. We never, never, never give up. So I leave you with this final quote from a powerful woman, one who has earned her place in the resilience hall of fame:

“Don’t take your toys inside just because it’s raining.” – Cher

FROM HARD SKILLS TO SOFT SKILLS: How Hiring Managers Approach Interviewing Business Analysts and Project Managers

“Death will be a great relief. No more interviews.” – Katherine Hepburn

These ten approaches were compiled from March to June, 2010 via a Linkedin Discussion I started as well as from actual Hiring Managers (by the way, one answer is from a BA interviewee, and one is from a test designer – but they are worth adding here). I asked: What advice can you offer BA and PM candidates for nailing their next interview? Because interviews are as varied as the people who give them, there are unfortunately no “right or wrong” ways to interview. However, the following information might help candidates know more about how some Hiring Managers approach the complex professions of Business Analysis and Project Management.

ONE: My team created a case study where the candidate documents the as-is state, options for future state, their views on potential use cases, etc. These two blogs might be helpful:

• http://www.b2training.com/2007/05/21/how-to-interview-a-ba/
• http://www.batimes.com/blogs/127-jonathan-kupersmith-/527-mr-business-analyst-youre-not-a-good-fit.html

TWO: My team runs a structured process for taking in BAs. We have a basic domain round and thereafter call the candidate over to our premises. Each candidate thereafter has to go through a test on logical reasoning and language skills. These tests follow GMAT patterns. The next stage is a case study which needs to be analyzed. The candidate has to prepare and present a scope statement, requirement statement and a high-level clear choice between various solution options.The process is then capped by a deep dive general and domain interview round.

THREE: We developed one for BA and PM positions. It has three main sections:

1. Skills/Tools inventory where a candidate indicates what they feel is the most important for their success.
2. Personality Matrix where candidates rated their preference on a 5-point scale between opposite terms/concepts.
3. One answer scenarios – partially intended to verify knowledge, but more importantly to indicate maturity and composure levels.

FOUR: We start with case study analysis for BA / PM recruitment. We usually give a case study/scenario to candidates and ask them to analyse and write use cases. Candidates are given full liberty to express in the format they wish and also to give as much information as they want. Usually good candidates will give lots of important information along with use cases such as architecture diagrams they think their application will have, error messages etc. Usually people miss out on these small but important pieces of information. We start with a role play exercise which will involve a “real-life”scenario where we act as the customer and the candidate will have to actually negotiate with us on requirements, action plans and follow-through.

FIVE: (advice from a Test Designer) If your organization has a psychometrician (a fancy name for test designer) on staff, I suggest that Hiring Managers get their thoughts around this. Any tests that are developed should be fairly and objectively designed. A test designer can help with this, to limit any potential liability.

SIX: Self Assessment / Formal test (mostly validates knowledge and does require test designers to avoid cultural bias / Role play or case study application to validate experience (can be one answer selection, essay, or role play). These can be combined in different ways depending on your BA enterprise environment and maturity level. Core competencies (soft skills such as facilitation and negotiation) are more difficult to assess without seeing the interaction through a face-to-face interview with some given situations and one or two role plays.

SEVEN: When we interview BA’s, we do an informal one on one test. We incorporate a LOT of situational interviewing techniques. We don’t  accept answers if someone can’t explain their point with detailed examples of how they handled specific situations in their careers. One of the most telling, and one of the most useful questions we’ve found, is to ask the interviewee, to pick a situation where a stakeholder did not agree with the rest of the stakeholders, and what the candidate did to resolve this disagreement.

We then take their response and “twist” the scenario to see how quickly they can respond and the quality of their new answer. By the way, we started doing this after we heard a few BAs who answered that they had never had a stakeholder disagree with anything they were doing! We tried not to laugh or roll our eyes because, in our experience, we’ve never known an experienced BA who has had ALL stakeholders approve of EVERYTHING they proposed.

The other thing we do is to always request a portfolio of work. If they bring us nothing or a couple random documents with lots of people’s names on them, they usually don’t prove to be a good BA (there are exceptions, but…). If their portfolio is  organized by document type and they can clearly point out each and every line that was their work v/s the work of a team… and then prove that they understand the information (while the portfolio is closed) and they can recall details because of their direct experience with the work, then we consider that experience and expertise valuable… and they will pass the interview. Some of this approach can be applied to project managers or the project management aspects of the BA position. But if we are primarily looking for a Project Manager, we don’t usually expect them to show a portfolio in the same way.

For our recruiters, we prepare a questionnaire with expected responses included, to facilitate their pre-screen. That’s our primary, written test. We’ve had plenty of people pass this test who were not a good fit for a position, but we’ve yet to have someone pass it who didn’t at least know the core competencies of being a BA.

EIGHT: Here is an unconventional suggestion and it has consistently worked for us. First, ask the candidate a generic sounding question such as:

• What was the most embarrassing job-related incident that happened to you?
• What was the most successful project you were on and what was your role?
• What accomplishment are you most proud of?
• What was your most frustrating professional experience?

The actual question does not really matter, nor does the actual answer. The question should include some reference to an emotion (pride, frustration, embarrassment, etc.) and a qualifier (best, most, worst, etc). You actually don’t care about where the answer is truthful or made up. What matter is the manner in which the candidate answers the question.

You are looking for two clues. First, does the answer or incident described involve any people? If, for example, the candidate describes a tough programming or other technical experience devoid of people, or emphasizes the candidates personal experience instead of a team or group experience, the candidate is less likely at this time to be successful as a Business Analyst without help in the form of coaching and training to polish up their people and communication skills. When the candidate expresses pride, embarrassment or joy about a team effort or one in which the candidate was instrumental in facilitating communication, then the candidate should be put on your short list.

Second, evaluate your own understanding of the response. If the candidate tells you a story about the event such that you can see and understand the episode, you have a really good business analyst candidate. If you actually feel what the candidate is describing, hire the person. A business analyst’s primary role is communication and facilitating people – both business and technical – in understanding and agreeing on issues. A person who can clearly and completely describe a scenario to a stranger has the qualifications you are looking for. If however, the candidate simply gives you facts assuming you will understand, or is “married” to the technical terminology of what was done (preferring to impress you with technical knowledge)… and all you have at the end of the answer is a vague understanding of a lot of words, end the interview early and save yourself some time.

Finally, try this test as a secondary check, but a little more difficult to do. At some point, perhaps early on, launch into a short discourse about something, perhaps a bit of background on the company or yourself, or something in the industry. Do not do it at the very beginning. Segue off after you have learned something about the individual. Then later in the interview make a reference to what you said. You might even state something obtuse during the discourse, something that would normally invoke a question from the candidate. What you are testing for in this case is the candidate’s listening ability. If the candidate asks you for clarification, and later on responds to the reference, you have a good listener. Of course, take into account that interviews are tense, so it is difficult to be a good listener because the candidate is so concerned about making a good impression. If, in this intrinsically awkward and stressful situation, the candidate shows exemplary listening skills along with the ability to communicate to you, you have yourself a solid business analyst.

NINE: (from a BA Candidate as Interviewee) When I interview for BA roles (or for any role actually), I consider it an audition. Act the part you are hoping to play, don’t simply talk about what you might do if you get the part. I ALWAYS take notes because I want to make sure I understand what I am being told about their business – and when they refer to any strife (and they always do), ask questions to understand the nature of the conflict. You can take notes discreetly and make sure you maintain eye contact throughout. Bottom line is: taking notes and really paying attention shows your interviewer that what s/he is saying is important, and that you are the type of BA who doesn’t take the details for granted.

I also consider such generic questions an opportunity to demonstrate in real-time that WHO I AM is the person that helps resolve such issues, by myself and not bothering my supervisor if possible (every job’s #1 role is to make their boss’ life easier, yes?) and providing clear indication of the circumstances I would escalate, and how. That gives the hiring manager the confidence to know that I will communicate any project challenges to them in a way that allows us to jointly develop a strategy to deal constructively with the situation, rather than causing embarrassment and looking like we are not on the same page.

My “most embarrassing” or “worst engagement” or “biggest challenge” is always on the tip of my tongue. It is true, it was a colossal screw up (not mine, but I had to clean up the mess), and it resulted in excellent Linkedin recommendations from both the client and the employer (don’t bother looking, neither was insensitive enough to reveal any details about the situation ). In any event it most certainly was not a technical problem – the real problems almost never are.

TEN: We have several rounds of interviews. If a candidate passes our first round (where we discuss experience, responsibilities, deliverables, professional affiliations – if they have not heard of the IIBA, they will not make it to the next round! -, certifications, achievements, career motivation, team work, knowledge of software development methodologies… we ask them to come in for a short test followed by a second interview.

The test checks that their abilities match the claims they have made in the first round interview (often quite revealing!) and also involves some tasks that demonstrate familiarity with use cases (which are our main requirements document). Without revealing what the test questions are, the test has three questions:

1. the first question allows candidates to demonstrate their level of understanding of UML, specifically associated with use cases.
2. the second question allows the candidate to demonstrate their understanding of user goals as well as their understanding of the SDLC.
3. the last question involves drafting a use case (fully elaborated, with accompanying business rules) – demonstrating their understanding of use case structure and also tests problem solving, attention to detail and written communication.

For more information: www.VeloCityCoachingServices.com

ACCELERATED JOB SEARCH: How I Found a Great Position!

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life… Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want.”

- Steve Jobs

Not being a big fan of empty promises with one-size-fits-all methods for job search strategies, I am reluctant to share my tips and tricks. Although I do not claim that what I just did to get a great job in 48 days will work for everyone, perhaps this information will at the very least inspire YOU that life can be filled with limitless possibilities, indeed.

Here are SEVEN STEPS that landed me a job that seems to be custom-designed for almost every skill I possess. No really. The position I just got has my name on it. And it was not that hard to do. Don’t get me wrong – I did not say it was easy… I am just saying that the concept of something being easy or difficult is relative. Think about that for a moment. Ready to get inspired and nudged out of some of your more stubborn mind-sets to land a job? Onwards…

ONE – Comfort Zones: Get out of your comfort zone for an entire day, and pay attention to your real-time environment. This is the most difficult step because you will need to look at things like possible relocation, wage cuts, fear of change, and your local economy. The big stuff. The wisest thing you can do right now is tell your comfort zones to go on holiday at least until you get a job. Say a tough-love sayonara to what gets you regularly stuck. You can do this.

TWO – Money: Wage gouging is here to stay for a while longer. How much longer is hard to predict, but it is an employer’s market. If you made 110K for the past 4 years, you may have to wrap your head around earning, say, 70K for the same position, depending on where you live. A recent client almost refused a job offer at an EXCELLENT organization because the salary offered was half her ‘usual rate’. After an hour of intensive coaching, she took the job. The first week made her ego hurt badly. Now, after two months on the job, she LOVES the job, and sees room for growth. A success story.

THREE – Geography: Detroit, where I just lived for the “crash of 09”, is like Ground Zero for the Unemployed. The market is beyond tough there, and I watched dozens of people leave the state to get work in stronger economies. (In fact, whenever I hear my friends from San Francisco or Denver or Switzerland complain about the economy, I politely inform them to wake up and appreciate how GOOD they have it… sheesh!!!). If you have elderly parents, under-valued real estate, or kids who will make your life miserable if you move them, I honestly empathize. AND… what is your goal? To find a job, right? Is being unemployed for over a year in a very bad geographical market working for you?

FOUR – Forward Momentum: I NEVER get tired of saying this to myself, to my clients, to anyone who will listen! Positive forward momentum is KEY and is the essential ingredient for your daily operations. You are selling yourself, and all great Sales Professionals will tell you that a lack of forward momentum is death. What have you done today to create traction in your search? Everything counts: sending a thank you e-mail, researching one more company, connecting to one more networking contact.

FIVE – Research: Websites can be a façade – companies pay good money to create an image that may or may not be real. And, some job postings already have an ideal candidate, however companies need to do their due diligence and post the job anyway. Yes, they are perhaps wasting your time, however you never know. The Hiring Manager might like you, and keep you in mind for future positions. I would estimate that 75% of the last 48 days in my job search entailed some form of research, including online, books, experts, other networkers, and just good old-fashioned paying attention. I got a great lead on a local company from a local bartender at 1am. You never know.

SIX – Targets: Where do YOU want to work? What kind of position do YOU want? Of course when money runs out, we need to get any job (my friend calls these ‘McJobs’). However, statistics consistently show that 87% of the people looking for their target job (like a dream job) will land it within 18 months. For more stats, check out What Color Is Your Parachute? I just got a job at a company I targeted, in a position that was created for me. They were not looking for someone at the time I contacted them, but they were thinking about implementing some positive changes for future growth, and voila! My resume arrived in their mailbox (I send snail mail resumes and cover letters – another guerrilla method that has worked for me), and Serendipity did the rest. In the past 48 days, I targeted 21 local companies here in New Orleans: I received 4 no thank you’s, 14 no replies, and 3 companies who called me in for an interview. It only took ONE.

SEVEN – Nail It No Matter The Outcome: Negotiating with NOTHING TO LOSE is the most powerful position. This is a fact and can also be backed up by stats (do yourself a big favor and read Negotiate This! by Herb Cohen). I knew I nailed the interviews way back in February, and felt solid the whole time. The first ten minutes of meeting the owners of the company who hired me went smoothly, and the rest was just a matter of time. Those first moments are KEY – if you go into the interviews (and into the entire process for that matter!) with the idea that you are going to nail it no matter the outcome, you have now created authentic self-expression and peace of mind, even BEFORE you get started. This is powerful, and good Hiring Managers will sense this inner calm and confidence, too.

Recently, I got an email from a fellow networker and former client I met in Michigan and on LinkedIn last year. She did a one hour session with me to get an overview of her strengths, weaknesses, successes, and roadblocks. She recently moved to South Carolina where her sister lives, and she is feeling a renewed spurt of optimism as she continues to navigate her job search efforts in her adopted state.

She wrote: Thanks for the wonderful feedback. My sister moved to South Carolina a couple of months ago. I drove down from Michigan last week and I’ve started searching in this area. I’m sure that I will be working in this area soon. So, I’ve followed your lead! I’ll write back when I accept a job offer! (Can’t you just FEEL her forward momentum?!).

Ready to get back to work?

For more information, please contact Michele Wilke at info@velocitycoachingservices.com

NEW “RULES”: Resumes and Letters of Introduction

“The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

First, get it out of your heads that there are RULES… You can show ten people your resume: some will hire you, others will throw it in the garbage, others will have no opinion at all. This is a fact. You don’t know who will look at your documents or whose they saw before yours. No matter what you have learned before, unlearn it. Ok? Ok!

Of course, there are common sense items that need to be applied: no mistakes, no grammar errors, spell check is NOT enough. Using adjectives like hard-working or team player makes Hiring Managers yawn. Use a Thesaurus and get specific: diligent, fortuitous, tenacious, patient. If you say you are a Leader, what kind are you? Level-headed, no-nonsense, consensus-building, forward-thinking? The English language has 500,000 words in it, more than any other language on the planet. Use it! It is a beautiful thing. Show your personality; write at least one thing that really stands out!

Here are TEN SUGGESTIONS about some trends that you also might want to pay attention to.

• The first third or half of the document needs to have the most relevant information. You are trying to get people to “peek over the wall”. They have seen page after page after page of information, they are tired, they know how expensive it is to hire someone who is not a good fit, and they are, frankly, shocked at poorly written, murkily expressed resumes.

• Up to five bullet points per job. If you can’t express what you did in five bullet points, you might come across as either verbose or not succinct. And, the human brain generally shuts off after five bullet points, so keep that in mind, too. Include at least one really juicy specific measurable result per job (SMR).

• Be consistent. Absolutely, positively, one hundred percent consistent. All points, periods, dashes, italics, spacing, etc need to be the SAME at every line of the document. Perfection in writing is possible. This is a science. No, really.

• Eleven point is small enough. For the main document, use the eleven point size. For additional documents, you can get away with 10 point, depending on the font.

• One page, two pages, three pages, four pages? More? I have a six page CV Package: Bio, Introduction Letter, Two-Page Resume, Extra Page, and References- Testimonials Page… I sometimes add a one sheet or the 60-Second Commercial for my company. Sometimes I send only the Bio and Extra Page.

• Have different resumes and intro letters already done. TWEAK away! You need to spend the time to post your info. It is NOT a waste of time.

• Do NOT make the person reading the document look for information. If it is not clearly formatted, no matter how awesome you are, it will not fly.

• Uncle Joe may be a good writer, but can he write a good resume or intro letter for you? This is word-crafting at its best… and perhaps the most challenging.

• Try not to get lost in the jargon. Of course KEY WORDS are, well, key. Also, knowing the “right” combination of conventional, unconventional and guerilla approaches is vital. Where is your personality and approach to life, work, or leadership within your documents?

• READ the job description carefully – there are GEMS of information between the lines.

Here are examples of what the first paragraph of a resume can look like. Y0u can also use this information in an intro letter. Again, there are no RULES, but this might help inspire good writing and expressing not only the facts of you, but also the personality of you!

Overview: A 25-year veteran of the business development arena, Jane’s career began in Sales and Service and grew into Leadership, Training and Analysis for local and global outreach and development projects. Her ability to bring diverse Teams together into focused, effective forward momentum is what makes her unique. Passionate about driving the business community forward, innovation and the art of connecting, she brings a patient tenacity and a knack for high-performance management, accountability and positive outcomes to her work.

PROFILE: Industrial Technology Specialist, Senior Manufacturing Engineer and Project Manager with over 17 years of professional local and global experience in process and quality improvement, advanced supplier development engineering, reliability testing, and equipment assessment, procurement and maintenance. With a keen sense of detail, takes initiative to produce specific measurable results, while effectively managing diverse teams and handling day-to-day operations with tenacity, a hands-on management style and the unique ability to stay on target, on time and within budgets.

OVERVIEW: Program Manager driven to exceed customer expectations and organizational goals through high-caliber leadership and well-executed planning. Committed to reduce costs, eliminate process inefficiency and add value through effective resource utilization and continuous improvement. Joe has the ability to ‘see the dirt in the corner’, every time.

Team Leader / Creative Problem Solver / Follow Through to Completion / Proactive / Detailed / Highly Organized / Tenacious / On Time, On Target, Within Budget

Summary: Leader, Business Developer, Non-Profit Coordinator, Engineer and Program Manager with a record of successful leadership and project deployment in multiple industries including automotive, aerospace, software IT and non-profit. Accomplished and experienced in facilitating diverse teams for local and global development projects. Primary competencies in strong team building and motivation through mentoring, clear communication, and ability to establish relationships and communicate upwards, sideways and downwards throughout the organization. Jane has a solid reputation for handling new and complex arenas; while keeping a keen eye on the details, her approach remains clear and forward-thinking.

Summary: A 27-year veteran in the Enterprise Architecture, IT, Technology, Leadership, Project   Management and Business Analysis arena as Chief Technology Officer, Director of Global Web Architecture and IT Planning, Senior / Executive Program Manager, and IT and Technology Expert, Strategist, Implementer, and Author. Has extensive local and global background and expertise in Risk Management, Change Management, and Financials, as well as Resources Strategies, Investment, and Cost Reductions. High-caliber negotiator, influencer, leader, and manager of complexities among people, projects, programs, and planning.

And here is mine: notice the pop of personality at the last sentence!

Profile: A 26-year veteran of the Global Relations, Leadership, Business, Career and Life Coaching and Training arena, Adjunct Professor, and Small Business Entrepreneur with extensive academic and business experience in Asia, Europe and North America. Michele brings a knack for operations, management, problem-solutions, efficiency, leadership, communication, behavior change and a forward-momentum attitude to any personal and professional endeavor. And, she is an extraordinarily effective Entrepreneur, Coach, Trainer, Leader, Manager, Developer, and Public Speaker. She has the tenacity of an Olympic athlete, and the patience of a saint.

For more information: www.VeloCityCoachingServices.com