The Right Formula to Get Hired

By Raymond Kenneth Kaelin

A comprehensive guide on how to get the right job, and keep it, with everything you’ll need to know, and do, to get the job you want.

This book will provide the right formula to build confidence, acquire skills, develop action plans and ace any interview. It will show you how to turn job seeking uncertainties into assets and build confidence before, during and after the interview experience. It will align your needs and accomplish your goals in a powerful manner.

Overcome crippling interview anxiety with a step by step formula that I term ‘The Right Formula to Get Hired’:
(1). The ‘Right’ Job Goals
(2). The ‘Right’ Resumes/Cover Letters/Business Cards
(3). The ‘Right’ Meeting Scripts/Positioning Statements/Raps
(4). The Right Interview Techniques and Meeting Skills
(5). The ‘Right’ Psychological Mindsets/Confidence Techniques/Training
(6). The ‘Right’ Job Seeking Actions/Preparations/Rehearsing

Furthermore, this book will reveal how to succeed in any business, academic, government or political environment by continuously growing your value to those you serve and discover how to get what you want from the positions you seek – before you begin them.

I’ll provide examples, templates and guidelines for you to learn and develop the necessary skills required to ace any interview and uncover the critical “must have’s” before you embark on a career quest – with real world examples and job seeking document templates.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raymond Kenneth Kaelin
• Release date: Sep 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9780988189218

Raymond Kenneth Kaelin

Ray Kaelin has over 30 years experience within Fortune 200 companies in Operational Financial Management, Reengineering Consulting and Business Solutions Development. He lives with his wife in Lavallette, New Jersey Throughout his career, Ray has always had dual roles within controllership and strategic analysis positions spearheading or leading many internal, enterprise-wide reengineering and technology improvement initiatives. He has extensive experience working closely with many of the major consulting firms staffed with the brightest and most talented people on projects within some of the best-run companies on the globe. As both a Business Process Reengineer and as an Application Architect, he offers his thoughts on this exciting subject of “Self-Guided Reengineering” for you and your organization to explore and discover.

Book preview

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Part I: Going For and Getting the Right Fit

Section One: Set Yourself Up Before Venturing Out:

Chapter One: Define Yourself

Chapter Two: Defining the Right Fit for You: Your Job Goal

Chapter Three: Learn How to Tell Your Story: Develop the Right S.I.R.s (Social Interaction Raps)

Chapter Four: Segue Your Raps into Creating and Crafting the Right Resume and Cover Letters

Section Two: Develop Interview Scripts, Prepared Responses and Create a Winning Image

Chapter Five: Develop, Practice and Rehearse the Right Interview Scripts To Alleviate Panic or Self Doubt

Chapter: Six: Remember the Twenty Questions" of Every Interview

Chapter Seven: Always Ask Your Own Set of Twenty Questions

Chapter Eight: Create the Right Image before You Walk in the Door

Section Three: Learn and Rehearse the Right Interview Skills

Chapter Nine: Those Absolutely Necessary To-Do’s before the Interview

Chapter Ten: The Interview Itself

Chapter Eleven: Interviewing with Venture Capital Firms

Chapter Twelve: The Right After-Interview Actions: Negotiating For the Right Fit

Chapter Thirteen: The Anatomy of a Hire

Part II: Keep Your Job by Advancing in your Career

Section Four: The Right Job-Start Actions

Chapter Fourteen: Ok, I’m Hired – Twenty One Things to Do Now

Chapter Fifteen: The Right Way to Leave a Job

Section Five: What to Expect in Today’s Organizational Settings

Chapter Sixteen: The Modern Office is Often an Ersatz Playground

Chapter Seventeen: The Banes of Every Organization: Toadies and Sacred Cows. (And They’re Everywhere, Unfortunately)

Chapter Eighteen: Having the Right Attitude is Not Seeking Perfection but Finding Satisfaction

Epilogue

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INTRODUCTION: BOOK SUMMARY

The purpose of this book is to help you land the right job for you. Through it you’ll receive all the training and equipment necessary to overcome any crippling interview anxiety, ace any interview and adeptly handle all the interview follow up negotiations. As regards the interview itself, I will provide the appropriate behavior modifications geared towards reducing anxiety and increasing your effectiveness during and after the interview process.

This book will reveal how to succeed in any business, academic, government or political environment by continuously growing your value to those you serve and discover how to get what you want from the positions you seek – before you begin them.

When it comes to job seeking, if you haven’t done this already, you’ll need to develop a target job or occupational goal in order to properly focus your efforts. With all that being said - have you developed and documented what you’ll need to have and what actions you’ll need to take in order to successfully go after the job(s) you want?

Ultimately your goal will be – did I get the job that most matches my personal criteria for happiness?

However, on the road to that goal, your first real test will be on how well you’ve positioned yourself to sit across from an interviewer and say,

I’m the right person for the job because I have the qualifications that you’re looking for and the desire to excel in a company like yours – and here are the reasons why!

This book aims to bring you to that point quickly, as well as to go well beyond that to an overall strategy to get hired.

It will show you how to turn job seeking uncertainties into assets and build confidence before, during and after the interview experience. It will align your needs and accomplish your goals in a powerful manner. In addition, it will give practical insight and instructions on what to do once you step into your new role.

This formula combines step-by-step directions on how to acquire basic job search needs and skills (well before beginning the interviewing process) with the necessary professional accoutrements of a basic search i.e., the resume, the cover letter, the social interaction ‘raps’, the purpose-based business card and much more.

THE FORMULA

The right formula is:

(1). Set Yourself Up Before Venturing Out:

(a). Define the Right Job Goal for You expressed as The Right Fit for You

(b). Create The ‘Right’ S.A.R.’s (Social Interaction Raps)

(c). Craft The ‘Right’ Resumes/Cover Letters/ Business Cards

(2). Develop The ‘Right’ Meeting Scripts and Prepared Interview Responses

(3). Create a Winning Professional Image Easily, to Establish Non-Verbal Credibility. This would be the ‘Right’ Professional Image for Interviewing & Networking

(4). Learn and Rehearse the Right Interview Skills to Overcome Meeting Panic

(a). Develop a Routine for the ‘Right’ Interview Preparations, Techniques and Panic Avoidance Skills

(b). Choreograph the ‘Right’ Interview Processes

(c). Plan and prepare the ‘Right’ After-Interview Strategies

(5). Keep Your Job by Advancing in your Career

(a). Immediately Go About Doing The Right New ‘Job-Start’ Actions

I’ll provide examples, templates and guidelines for you to learn and develop the necessary skill required to ace any interview and uncover the critical must have’s before you start on a career quest – again, with examples and templates

This book does not intend to be just an interviewing guide, as I believe mastering the entire process of successfully landing a job is OVERWHELMINGLY important to your career progress. Landing a job requires mastery of all phases of the contact process. It is something that you’ll want to do right – the first time, and each time thereafter. You don’t want to be ‘learning’ how to develop your interviewing skills in front of a perspective employer.

Chances are: if you’ve not prepared yourself properly or are totally new to the game of interviewing; you’ll probably screw it up. You can’t afford to learn this way. Too many opportunities will pass by before you get it right, and by then the job you really want may go to someone else.

THESE ARE A LIFELONG SET OF SKILLS

If you’re like most people nowadays, you’ll probably have more than three or four different employers in your career. Gone are the days of cradle to grave employers. Since this is a crucial set of skills you must develop them well in order to advance in business, academia, government or any other arena of endeavor.

I’ve devoted the majority of this book to managing and maximizing the entire interviewing process; that if done well, will land you a job. I’m confident it works. I’ve successfully used this process many times myself as well as showing others to use them. Over the years I’ve honed and adapted these techniques with each new experience. I’ve aided many people in their job searches from college grads to over 50 corporate refugees. I am interested in empowering you.

I KNOW BECAUSE I"VE DONE IT: OVER AND OVBER AGAIN

In the area of job interviewing, I believe I know more than any academic or professional employment recruiter and as much as any other job seeker who’s done it many times over.

Throughout my career, I’ve read (and bought) almost all of the books written by academics, therapists and purveyors of enlightened human resource management concerning career and job management , and for me, they all feel short of hitting the mark. These folks never really worked in the trenches of day to day corporate operations managing people and projects under the gun of ‘sink or swim’ real-world dynamics.

They RARELY had to hire people, fire people or got fired themselves in a hostile company takeover. They may have studied it, counseled those going through it or even consulted those same firms on how to do it - but they never lived through it by actually experiencing it for themselves.

What I discuss, describe, explain and instruct in these pages comes from a lifetime of winning and losing; in real time, in real work environments. And what I’ve distilled out of all these experiences is the essence of what constitutes success – for anyone who’s willing to listen and learn.

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PART I:

GOING FOR AND GETTING THE RIGHT FIT FOR YOU

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SECTION ONE:

SET YOURSELF UP BEFORE VENTURING OUT:

DEFINE THE RIGHT JOB GOAL, DEVELOP THE RIGHT SOCIAL SKILLS AND CRAFT IMPACTFUL, PROFESSIONAL PAPERWORK

Whenever someone asks for my help in starting a job search, I always begin by asking them in return if they’ve decided on a specific job goal or occupational area. In addition, I ask if they’ve put together any standard professional paperwork (resume, cover letter, etc.) to help them seek out those types of jobs.

It gives me an idea of where I should start to help them further. However, a comprehensive job search is much more than just a goal and some paperwork, which is why I developed the right formula to get hired.

Granted these will sound like no-brainers even though many folks do not do this from the start - which causes them to lose many opportunities upfront. Something you can’t afford in this job market. You’ll need to set yourself up for success before venturing out.

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CHAPTER ONE:

DEFINE YOURSELF

The funny thing about a job search is that the interview process begins the moment you begin discussing your job search with friends, associates, teachers and relatives. I say this because any one of those people can be a potential lead or reference to a job or an employer. A successful job search maximizes every conversation, contact or chance meeting - at the get go.

This is an important mindset. Rather than mumbling about unclear ideas on what one wants to do; give every chance social interaction or contact something to walk away with that can be easily repeated to others.

This begins with a brief descriptive statement (one short sentence) that someone can easily repeat to others about who you are and what you want – i.e., He’s an accountant looking for a controllership spot. or She’s a lawyer looking to start he own environmental research firm, or He’s a recent army veteran looking to own his own restaurant. or He’s a waiter graduating night school looking for a teaching position. etc..

However, I’m getting ahead of myself. This is only one step in a larger process of entering a greater arena.

Before defining what you need and what you should do, explore some basic questions about what you want and what you have to do to get what you want. The answers will become the foundational elements for a job search effort. It sounds simple enough but you’d be surprised how many folks fail to ask themselves these important questions; until they’ve wasted a lot of time blowing opportunities.

Consequently, to begin this properly, one must start with a self examination involving exploration of seven essential job search questions. These are the seven basic questions that must be answered by any job seeker who has ever hit the pavement looking for work.

And all it takes is a few minutes of one’s time, and its effects can last a lifetime.

THE SEVEN BASIC QUESTIONS

Although they can be explored in any variety of ways, I begin with a set sequence of questions, which build upon each other for maximum impact in terms of job goals, professional summaries and personal competencies with which to build cogent resumes and memorable cover letters.

In addition, they are meant to expose your degree of preparedness (or unpreparedness) to conduct a proper search with success. Consequently, I begin with the first and most important question:

(I). "Do you know what kind of job or occupation you’re looking for and can you describe it so you can tell others about it?"

I’ve talked to many people who’ve told me that they have no idea what they want to do. But when I ask them, What do you see yourself doing? or If you could visualize yourself in a job, what would that be? They almost always give me a one or two sentence blurb on what they’d like to do, albeit in rather vague or general terms. However, it’s a start – a very good start that can be built upon.

Establishing the appropriate job goals that align with your skills, temperament, values and desires is essentially the end goal of your job search endeavors. Finding a job is easy, finding the right job takes a lot of work – albeit worthwhile.

The next chapter will explore this further, in much greater detail.

(II). Can you put together a brief summary statement of one or two sentences to tell people who you are and what you’re looking to do?

Again, I explore further the question of visualization but I also look for them to tell me two things – who are you right now, and what do you see yourself doing.

(III). And if they want to know more, do you have a brief 30 to 60 second story or bio that tells the listener where you’ve been, what you’ve done, where you are now and what you’re looking to do in the future, quickly and succinctly?

The Quick Rap is your story about –who am I, what have I done, where I’m at and what am I looking to do – in 60 seconds or less. Even if you’ve got a lousy or somewhat sketchy job history up to this point. There are ways to address it succinctly and professionally without negativity or shame, and with an easy segue into what you want now. The focus of the rap is not on the past but on what you want to do / can do / are willing & able to do now.

(IV). Do you have something you can give people to remember you or to contact you, like a business card?

I’ve devoted a large section in one of the following chapter’s to the crafting of the business card; why it’s important and how to use it for maximum effect. It is a critical piece of interviewing and networking equipment that you can’t afford to be without.

(V). Have you put together any kind of a resume or job history and do you have you any introduction or cover letters developed for job inquiries?

The standard, chronological resume is an industry expectation that you can’t avoid. You’ll need to construct one, well. In addition, as you send emails or hard copy versions of your paperwork, normally an accompanying introductory cover letter is expected.

I will explore these two areas in detail. In particular, I’ll devote a significant section to crafting and creating your resume.

(VI). "Do you have any idea how to interview for a job you want? Do you know how to prepare for an interview? Do you know what to say, how to answer questions? Do you know what to ask for?"

Granted this is actually a set of questions but they all involve interviewing – the before, the ‘during’ phase, the interview closing and the after interview. Each section needs to be prepared for separately, each should have its own strategy and each will warrant a different desired outcome.

I will explore these in great detail, but in particular I’ll discuss methods and techniques you can use to overcome interview panic.

(VII). Do you know what to do once you start your new job? Are you aware of the dos and don’ts in starting in a new role?"

This is such an overlooked topic. I wished the many job hunting books I’d ever read provided at least a little insight into what one should do once they’re hired and start their first day of employment. Sadly, they hadn’t. But in terms of career success, landing the job is only the first step – navigating the choppy waters of starting a new job is where a solid foundation for success can be established. I’ll explain how.

As you develop your answers to these seven critical questions, the answers will dovetail into a series somewhat overlapping responses and needs. You will literally glean these responses to build your job search toolkit. At the end of the day, you’ll have the building blocks needed to answer the ten commandments of the successful job search toolkit.

ARE YOU PREPARED?

THE TEN ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS OF THE JOB SEARCH TOOLKIT

Unless your father owns the very company you want to work for, you’ll need to develop job goals, paperwork and interviewing skills to land the job that best fits you. As you explore those seven basic questions listed above, you now have the fodder for building your job search toolkit to help you land that job. But in order to do that successfully, you need to follow the ten commandments of the effective job search.

These commandments follow the similar sequence of the seven basic questions, with the most significant being the first, and so on down the line. And as you can see, each commandment is a response to each one of the questions, and more. Again, they appear in a proper sequence of first things first. Beginning with the most important: Thou shalt have the following as part of your job search strategy:

(1). – A Defined and Specific Job / Occupational Goal that is the Right Fit for You

(2). - 1-2 sentence Summary Statement

(3). - 30-60 second Quick Bio Social Interaction Raps

(4). - Business Card (yes, a simple business card – it’s a very important networking device and I’ll explain why)

(5). – A Standard Formal Resume

(6). - Introduction / Cover Letter(s) for job inquiries

(7). - Essential Interviewing Scripts:

(a). Basic Talking Scripts for each portion of the interview: Opening / Middle / Closing

(b). Rehearsed Responses to Standard Interview Questions

(c). A Premeditated Set of Questions to Ask the Interviewer

(8). Essential Interviewing Image:

(a). Leather Folder with Note Pad & Professional Pen

(b). The Proper Use of Business Cards

(c). 3 x 5 Mini Info Cards for References

(9). Defined Post Interview Strategy(s):

(a). Negotiation on Acceptance

(b). Negotiation on Rejection

(10). Defined ‘Job Start’ To-Do’s

(a). Upfront Transitional Actions

(b). How to Position Yourself

(c). Actions to Increase Your Value

If you’re confused or puzzled by this list, you’re ill equipped to carry on a proper job hunt. Furthermore, if you have no idea how to go about getting them, you’re in worse shape. But not to worry, this book will provide you with what you need, and more. I’ll explain each of these, give you guidance on how to develop them yourself and most of all provide ample examples on how to put them together.

The right formula to get hired involves using each of these commandments to maximum advantage. After all, they can be used, but used poorly. I’ll provide step by step instructions on how to build skills and develop competencies to optimize these tools. I’ll also separate effectiveness from ineffectiveness in the use of these factors. This book is about the highly effective use of these basic tools to capture the job that’s the right fit for you.

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CHAPTER TWO:

DEFINING THE RIGHT FIT FOR YOU?

In my book The Right Fit which is a companion book to this one, I help people find their fit in this life. I help them explore in detail the best alignment of the individual person’s psychological makeup (which I call ‘personal criteria’) with the roles, occupations and pursuits that best fit these criteria.

The entire book is dedicated to uncovering the right fit for each person through a host of in depth personal self-examinations, exercises and activities. It gives a step by step sequence which leads, in the end, to a series of target jobs and occupations. These target jobs provide a great segue into this book which is the second half of employment management – going for and getting the right job.

As a way to give you sense of developing the right job search goals, I’ve excerpted a few paragraphs from The Right Fit that will insure that you’re on the right track to finding the right fit by discovering the right target jobs. Once you’ve discovered your ‘right fit’ in terms of a defined job goal, this current book will show you how to prepare for and execute the proper formula to get hired and stay hired.

THE FIVE KEY COMPONENTS OF THE ‘RIGHT FIT"

The key to finding the right career and the right fit are a series of five questions that follow in sequence. I found that these five questions (when combined) are an excellent exercise for finding out what you can do with your life. When you combine, align and harmonize the answers to these questions into a final question about careers, you’ll be able to clearly focus on a direction.

Explore for yourself by asking the five basic questions, the answers to which will put you on the road to the career you want:

(1). What do I like to do? (Your Desires, Your Passions) and,

(2).What am I good at? (Your Talents) (Please note - Beer Pong, bar hopping and head-butting with inebriated strangers during spontaneous, ill-advised challenges on summer break does not count).

(3).What do I value the most? What are my CORE Values? These are the critical things you value most. I don’t mean what’s your favorite color or which Pearl Jam album you like the most. These are the beliefs, ideas and things you want most in life, relationships and a career. I’ll delve deeper into this subject later.

(4). But the most important question you can ask yourself is "Can I make a career out of it?" (i.e., will people pay you money on a continuous basis to do this one thing?) On this, you’ll have to do some homework and I will equip you with the tools on how to do this.

(5). and lastly, "Do I have what it takes to do it?" This might sound like a no-brainer but if you’re five foot two inches tall at one hundred pounds with poor coordination – it is unlikely that you’ll be picked to play in the NBA But there are as many different requirements as there are many different jobs.

And, fulfilling the necessary requirements in one job will not qualify you for a position in another job. The point here is reality-thinking is necessary in judging yourself capable, competent and qualified to find your place in a particular line of work – even if your talents and desires align well with its features – it may not be the right fit for you. Your core values may conflict with the sacrifices and demands required for success. I’ll explore this further in the following chapter.

THE RIGHT FIT IS A FIVE WAY MATCH

These questions dovetail into each other and can align to form the basis of a target job. That in essence is the five way match. But if you have enough self-knowledge to answer the above five questions clearly, then you have your answer on your target job. But I doubt that you do. If you’re like most of us the process of coming to adequate self knowledge may never result into answering those questions with any amount of validity. I believe that’s the result of not having the opportunity to put it all together, succinctly and clearly – with the power of focus. But take heart, with a little time and applying the directives within these pages, you will. I guarantee you’ll enjoy the process of self discovery in the revelations that this book will provide in helping you find out.

As an illustration,

Each of the outside circles encapsulates one of the critical questions inside, the insightful answers to which will lead you to the result of the five-way match.

The great thing is that this process begins and ends with you – there is no other intervention that must be done. The only mysteries to unravel will be the mystery of you - and I’ll provide the means for you to do that. But don’t go it alone. In the first three questions, you can begin your self-discovery by asking those who know you best. Others will see things you’re good at that you may not be aware of as well as know of things you do well because they’ve seen you demonstrate these talents in some way. They also know what you like or have a passion about or like to do. In addition, they know your values and probably understand sides of you that you don’t see. But this input is still based upon someone else’s subjective opinions, so weight the results accordingly.

FIND YOUR ‘RIGHT FIT’

Assuming that you have a set