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Know
Yourself
by ResumeEdge.com
The Net's Premier Resume Writing and Editing Service.
When
the interviewer asks you where you see yourself in five years,
what will you say? How about describing your ideal working
environment? What are your strengths? And what are your
weaknesses? How do you take criticism? How do you deal with
conflict situations? What motivates you? What is your management
style?
Yikes.
If you are not prepared for these kinds of probing questions,
they will undermine your interview. Pondering Socrates or Freud
is not necessary preparation for your job interview. Still,
taking time to do some soul searching is helpful when it comes
to presenting yourself in an attractive way.
Each
question posed by your interviewer requires that you sift
through a repertoire of professional and personal experiences,
gazing at your life in an instant and conjuring up an answer to
the basic question: who are you? Doing that on the fly is bound
to be confusing. You should know yourself before you shake the
interviewer's hand and flash your first friendly smile. The
prospect can daunt even for those of us who are in touch with
our inner child.
To
make substantial headway in self-reflection, spend some time on
the following exercises. When considering your responses, think
beyond your professional life and current circumstances. Include
instances as far back as your youth.
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Make
a list of five accomplishments that you enjoyed.
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Make
a list of five things you have done that make you proud.
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Describe
three scenarios in which you felt highly motivated to
accomplish something.
-
Describe
three scenarios in which you lacked motivation.
-
Think
of three scenarios in which you felt appreciated by other
people. How did they communicate that appreciation for you?
-
Make
a list of how your colleagues, staff, and supervisors
describe you. Include the positive and negative feedback.
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Make
a list of how friends and family describe you.
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Make
a list of ten of your best personal qualities.
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Think
of two small and large decisions that you have made.
Describe how you went about making those decisions.
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Describe
two situations that seemed risky to you. What did you do?
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Describe
a conflict situation between you and someone else that was
resolved to your satisfaction. How was it resolved?
-
Describe
a conflict situation between you and someone else that was
not resolved to your satisfaction. What happened?
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Complete
this sentence: When I am responsible for leading or
supervising other people, I prefer to. . .
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Complete
this sentence: When I want to show appreciation for other
people, I usually. . .
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Complete
this sentence: I work because. . .
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Complete
this sentence: From a job I want. . .
After
you spend an evening or afternoon reflecting on your life, you
might wish to have others explore your responses with you. Look
for themes and trends in your responses, finding information
that overlaps. Focus on what energizes you and what saps your
spirit. Notice your preferences. Consider for example what we
can discover about Suzanne's professional aspirations and
tendencies from her responses.
Five
accomplishments that I enjoyed include:
-
Launching
an anti-drunk driving campaign in high school.
-
Training
an intern in critical thinking.
-
Negotiating
with diverse teams to get creative projects completed.
-
Finding
the overlap between different company's interests so that
they can establish mutually beneficial relationships.
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Seeing
my college students think in new ways.
Five
things that make me proud include:
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Going
to France by myself to learn French.
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Setting
a high performance goal for myself and meeting it.
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Having
vision for what needs to be done in different situations.
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Being
in shape.
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Listening
to the concerns of my friends and honoring them.
Three
times that I felt highly motivated to accomplish something
include:
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When
I had tons of work to do to meet a product launch deadline
and had to stay extremely organized and focused in order to
complete the work.
-
When
I came up with an idea for panel discussions at my church,
which led to much improved communication and many new
friendships.
-
When
I worked on projects with colleagues and had to complete my
work so that we could discuss things and move to the next
stage.
Three
scenarios in which I lacked motivation to accomplish something
include:
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When
I worked all by myself after my boss died and my new
supervisors were not accessible.
-
When
I had to process details all day, day after day-entering
data, completing forms, and other rote tasks that only
challenged my patience but did not engage my mind.
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When
I felt like my employer was making decisions that sacrificed
his employees.
I
felt appreciated by people when:
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I
got a significant raise after having my value to the company
reconsidered.
-
My
supervisor and colleagues verbally praise my efforts and
thank me for my way of working.
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My
supervisor expressed confidence in my abilities and did not
micromanage me, but spent time helping me when I needed
support or ran into problems.
By
analyzing even these first five questions, we get a sense of
what kind of job would fit Suzanne well. For example, we see
that Suzanne enjoys influencing people; each of the
accomplishments that she enjoyed includes affecting the way that
other people think or act. She also feels gratified when she is
able to bring people together for a common purpose they might
have overlooked. The things that make Suzanne proud are a bit
more diverse. Some include a sense of meeting difficult
challenges-like learning French through immersion and raising
the bar of performance or being in shape. Having vision means
that she has something to offer that affects common purpose.
Acting ethically toward people also seems important to her.
It
already begins to make sense, then, that she would feel
motivated to accomplish things when she initiates them, when she
is accountable to other people, or when she needs to meet a
specific goal. Deadlines appear to affect her in positive ways
by helping her to focus when she might not otherwise.
Contrarily, her energy and drive are sapped when she works in
isolation without gaining feedback, when the tasks are rote and
do not require creativity or initiative, and when she perceives
that people are treated badly. She feels appreciated by her
employer when her supervisor recognizes her vision, drive, and
ability to focus and gives her the space she needs to excel
while still staying connected with her. She feels appreciated
when her company gives her a raise for good work, but also when
others verbally praise her. And, even though she likes to work
without tight supervision, she feels appreciated when her
supervisor has time for her.
Intriguing
as these discoveries might be for Suzanne, she cannot unload her
personal psyche on the interviewer. She still has to formulate
professional responses to specific questions. Knowledge about
the company provides guidance for how to craft these materials.
Self-knowledge provides the raw materials for devising
compelling responses.
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