You said what on your interview?!

Wendy Terwelp 1 Comment

Thanks to Jackie Farwell of The Associated Press for providing these lovlies courtesy of a recent poll by staffing firm Accountemps. In this poll executives were asked to name the wackiest pitch they’d ever heard from a job seeker. Here are some of their responses:  

“An individual told me he was allergic to unemployment.”

 

“One candidate said that we should hire him because he would be a great addition to our softball team.”

 

“A person said he had no relevant experience for the position he was interviewing for, but his friend did.”

 

“One person brought his mother to the job interview and let her do all the talking.”

 

“One job seeker said he should get the job because he had already applied three times and felt that it was now his turn.”

 

“One candidate sang all of her responses to interview questions.”

 

“One individual said we had nice benefits, which was good because he was going to need to take a lot of leave in the next year.”

 

The nonscientific national poll included responses from 150 senior executives with the nation’s 1,000 largest companies.

 

Want to be a rock star on your next interview? Check out these interview tips right here: www.knocks.com/news.html. Enjoy!

Take Action – be in the top 5%

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Courtesy of Marcia Yudkin, www.yudkin.com

When L.A. filmmaker Jeff Bollow moved to Sydney, Australia a couple of years ago, he planned to launch an independent feature film studio but couldn’t find enough commercially suitable screenplays. To beef up the supply, he began teaching screenwriting workshops in his new homeland.

Four years later, he had trained 641 workshop participants, but he still did not have a dependable stable of screenwriters. Although nearly everyone in the workshops loved the training, less than 5% of participants did anything with what they learned.

From what I’ve observed, this outcome has nothing to do with Australia or with screenwriting. It’s human nature. And where Bollow lamented his 95% wasted energy, I see vast opportunity for the 5%.

Taking action on what you know puts you ahead of the majority of your peers. Many know how to attract publicity, for instance, but just let that knowledge sit. When you not only take action, but do it well, you’ll find yourself way, way ahead of colleagues.

Ignoring all the usual excuses may be the most powerful step you take!

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What can I say? Marcia rocks! This advice is essential when job hunting. Don’t just pour over internet ads – NETWORK. Take action. Be creative. For more ideas, check out our newsroom at www.knocks.com/news.html.

Interviewing: What’s your ROI?

Wendy Terwelp 2 Comments

Are you a Matt Damon or a Russell Crowe?

Here’s an exerpt from today’s ERE.net ezine:

“Let’s look at an example to illustrate the ROI of top actors. If you were going to hire a well-known actor for an upcoming action movie you could pick from many obvious choices like Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Angelina Jolie, or you could hire “Joe Nobody.”

Each of the well-known actors will cost you significantly more than hiring an unknown newcomer, but each also has a demonstrated ability to attract a greater return. Forbes.com recently completed a calculation of the ROI of top actors and what it found was:

  • Matt Damon returned $29 in gross movie revenue for every dollar that he was paid (29X or 29 times his salary).
  • Brad Pitt returned $24 for every dollar that he was paid.
  • Tom Cruise returned only $12 for every dollar in pay.
  • Russell Crowe returned only $5 for every dollar in pay (five times his salary).

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do these calculations. The results, even to an untrained eye, are startling. If you hire Matt Damon, he will return nearly six times more per dollar invested than Russell Crowe. That’s not a 6% difference; it’s a 600% difference! If the comparison was made broader to include the comparison of hiring “Joe Nobody” as a lead actor (instead of a noted star), the difference in the ROI would simply be mind-blowing.

The lesson to be learned here is that the “on-the-job performance” of the hire (often called quality of hire) can be quantified and converted into dollars in the sports and the entertainment industry and that the same calculation needs to be done by the recruiting function in the corporate world.” (Author: Dr. John Sullivan)

So, you’re not an actor, why is this important? It is essential to know how employers look at you when hiring. Next time you are on an interview, think about what you bring to the table that no one else does.

Calculate your ROI – on a per project basis. Take a look at your performance over the past few years. Is there a project you worked on where the resulting savings was more than your salary? If so, how much more? Or if you add up all the projects, ideas, suggestions, enhancements, improvements you made to the organization over the term you were employed, how much money did you save the company? How much – in terms of revenue – did you bring in through yours (or your team’s) sales efforts? By what percentage did you improve the company’s bottom line?

When you calculate these numbers against your salary, are you a Matt Damon or a Russell Crowe? Be sure to convey your star ROI in terms of results on your next interview.

Rock on.

Show me the money – Top Best-Paying Jobs

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Here are the 20 best-paying jobs. This information has been excerpted from “150 Best Jobs for Your Skills” (Michael Farr & Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D.) This list denotes occupational category and annual earnings.

Internists, General – $145,600+
Obstetricians & Gynecologists – $145,600+
Psychiatrists – $145,600+
Chief Executives – $142,440
Family & General Practitioners – $140,400
Lawyers – $98,930 Marketing Managers – 92,680
Sales Managers – $87,580
Financial Managers – $86,280
General & Operations Managers – $81,480
Public Relations Managers – $76,450
Training & Development Managers – $74,180
Post-Secondary Education Administrators – $70,350
Medical & Health Services Managers – $69,700
Advertising & Promotions Mangers – $68,860
Physical Therapists – $63,080
Dental Hygienists – $60,890
Market Research Analysts – $57,300
Clinical Psychologists – $57,170

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Do you have what it takes to land one of these gigs? To find out more about these careers check out: The Occupational Outlook Handbook (www.bls.gov/oco/) and the Ocupational Information Network (http://online.onetcenter.org/).