Snowstorm Interview Questions

It may not look like much, but it paralyzed GA in January!

In light of the recent snow and ice we had in Georgia, it occurred to me that there are some interview questions an employer can ask a prospective employee related to the storm. 

The first question that pops into mind is, “What did you do during the week that the snow caused so many businesses to close?”  I wonder what an employer could learn from the responses…

“Well, I turned on my laptop and did a lot of work from home.  Luckily we have that capability in my current company!”  Congratulations Employer  -  you may have found one of the people who has a strong work ethic and high engagement with their work! 

“I enjoyed staying home with my kids – we played in the snow and made cookies  and just had some great family time together!” Good news or bad news? On one hand, it’s refreshing to find people who are closely connected with their family and what a treat for them to be able to spend time together.  Or, is this the sign of an employee who was just looking for an excuse not to work? 

“I tried to drive to work, but the roads were terrible, so I just turned around and lazed around the house!” What conclusion should you draw here?  Easily beaten by obstacles?  Or has a lot of common sense?

“It was so nice to have a vacation from work – I just relaxed and didn’t think two seconds about work!  It will be there when I get back!” Again, hard to say – is this a lazy uncaring employee or a person capable of going with the flow and compartmentalizing?

If you were a snowflake…

Then again, there are some “different” questions one could ask to see inside the mind of the candidates…

If you were a snowflake, what shape would you be?

 

Why do snowflakes have unique shapes?

 

If you had a choice, would you rather be a snowflake or a raindrop?  Why?

 

 

I don’t know if these questions would help pick the most qualified candidate, but they might be fun to ask! 

What interesting questions have you asked or been asked in an interview?

Happy New Year! What will 2011 be like for employers?

Happy New Year! What will 2011 be like for employers?.

What happened to employee loyalty – is it dead?

I was chatting with a retired worker the other day while we were watching our boys play baseball.  He mentioned to me that it seems like there is no loyalty anymore from employees.  He had worked in a large corporation for his entire career and was lamenting that employees just don’t seem to be loyal like they were back in the day.  I have to admit that the thought went through my head “why should they be, especially given that even the best and brightest are vulnerable to layoff through no fault of their own?”  The world is a lot different than it was 25 or more years ago. My father worked for the same company his entire career – Bell Labs.  When he retired in the mid-eighties, the company was beginning to change and has since been named and renamed, lost its stock value and reinvented itself, but he never worked for anyone else.  He got out just in time!  What was it like though for him?  It was a pretty good arrangement – the company got a loyal, long-term employee and in return, he was rewarded with good pay, stability and great benefits. And his loyalty was rewarded after he left too – he has a nice pension  to this day.  And then, he had a secure, solid career, was able to save for his retirement and also send his kids to college, never worried about health insurance.  Why wouldn’t he be loyal? He didn’t have to worry about layoffs and “reorganization” and all the things that exploded in the later eighties and nineties. 

In the eighties, massive layoffs began to happen around the U.S. business world.  Former “career” employees lost their jobs and so the era of loyalty based on stability began to die.  There is a great blog from  Tammy Erickson in the Harvard Business Review (see link to article at the bottom of this post) and I quote her, ”Here’s the equation I believe will form the basis of trust between corporations and workers for the decades ahead: The organization will provide interesting and challenging work. The individual will invest discretionary effort in the task and produce relevant results. When one or both sides of this equation are no longer possible (for whatever reasons) the relationship will end.”

I think she’s right!  Lamenting the good old days won’t do employers or employees any good.  Let’s realize that there is a new formula for success on both ends of the relationship.  There are many good and smart reasons for both parties to adopt the attitude above and to take responsibility for encouraging the long-term success of all by doing so.

So employees – workers – take note!

• As workers, it’s my belief that nowadays, we all work for ourselves, even if we have an employer. 
• We all need to constantly make ourselves more valuable and relevant. 
• We need to stay at the top of our game.
• We need to make sure that we offer what our employer needs to be successful.  (i.e. make profit, increase sales, reduce expenses, offer ideas etc.)
• We need to stay marketable. 
• We need to make sure we never stop networking, never stop building connections and being open. 



As employers, we need to do some thinking too.  We need to create a culture that:

• encourages our employees to feel passionate about the goals of the company
• provides for their needs (i.e. fair compensation, attractive benefits, tools to do their work) so they aren’t distracted by problems at work
• ensures that we offer meaningful work with opportunities to grow and learn
• encourages strong relationships at work with supervisors and peers to make work a friendly place
• treats employees with a sense of fair play and open communication
• and so much more!

If both employers and employees remember that they have to continuously earn each other’s loyalty and trust, maybe we can extend the relationships or at least make them more powerful while they last.  It’s a different world than the one our parents and grandparents lived in – some parts better and easier, some not and we need to adapt and try to make it work for us!

Read Tammy Erickson’s blog by clicking this link:  http://blogs.hbr.org/erickson/2010/05/restore_trust.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness%2Ferickson+%28Tammy+Erickson+on+HBR.org%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

What About Kids Who Don’t Want or Can’t Go To College after Highschool?

This is Part 4 of conversations I’ve been having with students at the local highschool. Let’s face it, in all student populations, there are some kids who are just not college-bound.  To be blunt, some kids can’t academically handle the rigors of a junior college or university – they were lucky to get a high school diploma.  Other kids have just had enough – they aren’t “school” kids.  They didn’t like it when  they were there and can’t begin to imagine voluntarily going for two or four or more years.  Either they were bored, or it was too hard and they are tired of struggling, or they have a gift of using their hands and a traditional education isn’t for them.   Then there are some kids who don’t have the money, or the parental support, or can’t find scholarships – they slip through the cracks when it comes to the process of getting into college.

So what about these kids – what should they do as the world gets closer to 2020?  The US is continuing to become more and more of a knowledge based economy.  People without advanced education may drift into unrewarding, low paying jobs or a lifetime of welfare. 

What’s the best advice out there for non-college bound students?

I haven’t read anything or talked to anyone who recommends stopping education after senior year of high school.  Not one resource I’ve found recommends this course of action.  So students who don’t want to be students anymore need to make some decisions. 

• First, find your  passion, your gift, or at least an interest that can turn into work
• Second, try to make that into a skilled trade – not an unskilled role that anyone can do
• Third, consider services that can’t be out-sourced, like hair stylist, plumber, mechanic, installer, technician, dog walker, nanny – you get the idea – things that other people will need no matter how technologically advanced and knowledge-based we get.
• Fourth, accept that some more training is going to be needed and find a technical school to attend or an internship/apprenticeship to learn on the job.
• Fifth, if money is an issue – set a savings goal, get any job you can and start making positive moves in that direction.  Be disciplined and get going – write down your plans, share them with someone you trust and then work the plan.

Finally, remember that work is part of life – find a vocation that you can find pleasure in – whether it feeds your desire to help people, or create things, or fix things – figure out what you like to do and then turn it into a paying venture.  Don’t settle and don’t bow to pressure to do something you are sure you won’t like.  But keep your attitude open and consider the endless possibilities!

Engaging convicted felons as employees – giving them a chance or adding risk to your workplace?

Engaging convicted felons as employees – giving them a chance or adding risk to your workplace?.

What will the world of work look like in five years?

2015 – Can you believe that we are using dates like this already?  It feels like we are living in the future, and yet, the future is here.  Crazy!

I shared that I had spoken with the seniors at the local high school a few weeks ago and the counselors asked me to come back to talk with the sophomores.  So, last week, I spoke with the class of 2013.  What a great group they were!  I saw them classes through six periods of the day with about 100 students in each group. What was so interesting were the differing personalities of the classes. 

• Some, very studious and attentive. 
• Some, very active and chatty. 
• Some asked questions. 
• Some more passive. 

But all were interested in finding our more about themselves and the future. As these kids more into adulthood and their working years, they are heading into unchartered territory.  Just as my generation didn’t even know about the internet and didn’t get our hands on computers until college, this generation will experience change and new industries that don’t even exist today.  Imagine the possibilities!

I have a suggestion for you to read – check out “The 2020 Workplace” by Jeanne C. Meister and Karie Willyerd.  They have a great website you might visit!  http://www.the2020workplace.com/  What I love about this book and the research behind it is the vision of the global marketplace, virtual teams, multiple generational workforces and the concept of a social reputation.  Success will come to people who can navigate this changing world.  When I talked to the students at the highschool, we talked about the idea of social recruiting and how the Facebooks and other sites of the future will impact their career exploration and direction.  One idea I wanted them to consider is the importance of how they portray themselves on the internet, since there is such a low expectation of privacy.

My dream for the future workers is that no matter what the world of work looks like – virtual, green, socially responsible or much like it looks today – is that they will take control of their future – grasp the importance of self-understanding so that they can choose careers that will not only give them an income so they are self-supporting but more importantly – give them careers that are fulfilling – rewarding and supporting their values and ideals. 

What if everyone was excited to go to work on Monday morning?  That could be an awesome powerful societal change in our world.  Today’s kids can make it happen!

What do today’s business leaders want to see in tomorrow’s workers?

I’m getting ready to talk to a group of seniors at our local high school about careers – how to choose one that the market needs but that will also fulfill their own goals and desires.  In preparation, I contacted several business leaders I know and asked a few questions to find out what their industries see as necessary skills, qualified worker shortages and their vision of the future of the work world.  These leaders are in varied industries: 

• engineering
• consulting
• manufacturing consumer products
• cable/wiring supplier
• recruiting
• non-profit
• software development
• government

In this admittedly, unscientific survey, the responses were startling to me in their similarity.  It doesn’t seem to matter what field they were in – all industries surveyed see similar skill sets as crucial to the future marketplace.  So what did they say?

Part One:  What skills are needed for tomorrow’s workers?

1. Communication skills – interacting with other people with differing personality types, differing cultural backgrounds and differing skill sets.  In other words – soft skills in figuring out how to work effectively across invisible boundaries. 
2. Computer skills – there won’t be many jobs that don’t require proficiency in computers with the ability to learn new programs and ways of doing things constantly,  You’ve got to be computer literate!
3. Writing skills – so many people rely on short succinct replies and their technical skills, that they have not learned how to express themselves well in the written word.  No matter what your career, you will probably have to write reports and recommendations, letters and proposals – get better at writing!
4. Reasoning skills – there is a reason that word problems and math are so important in education.  Even if you don’t think you’ll use math as your main activity in your career, it teaches you how to think, how to reason, how to apply facts to actual situations.  Don’t just memorize facts, or definitions or stories – learn why they are important, what they mean today – apply knowledge, don’t just memorize things.
5. Social Skills – not only being comfortable in diverse groups of people, but also knowing how to act appropriately in business settings – business etiquette is still important and we need young professionals and para-professionals alike to be able to conduct themselves with professionalism.

The next few blogs will cover additional information from this survey of business leaders:

Part 2 – Is your industry seeing a shortage of qualified workers? 

Part 3 – What will the world of work look like in five years? 

Part 4 – What about people who don’t want or feel the can’t go to college?

Keep reading and please pass this on to the college or highschool students you know!