Career Insanity – Pivoting the response – Part Trois

For the third and last scenario we have Mary.  Mary works for a VERY large technology company in marketing operations. She is very good at her job.  Mary likes to be able to control her schedule.  Her current job is completely interrupt driven. This drives her nuts!

Mary needs to work in an environment where she knows who is in control.  She has had a new manager every six months for the last three years. Not Good!

Mary has a very high social service interest.  She likes to help people.  She coaches girls soccer teams and just loves it.

She has networked her way into a smaller organization where she has applied for an HR position.

How should Mary answer the question — Why do you want to leave your current position?

One response could be:

I want to take my operations skills and transition them into a position where I can have an impact on peoples lives.  I want a stable, within reason,  work and management environment.  How long have you been the manager of this team and how would you describe your management style?

She asked for what she wanted and immediately pivoted the conversation back to the interviewer.

You should come into any interview with at least 10 questions that you would like to get answered.  Print them out and keep them in front of you.  Take notes and record the interviewers answers on the paper.  By writing down the responses it gives you time to think about where to take the conversation next!

Controlled pauses (that is my term) give you a chance to think about the flow of the conversation.  Another example of a controlled pause is to restate the question you were just asked.  Let me make sure I understand your question. You asked….. Remember it is YOUR DAMN INTERVIEW!

It was brought to my attention today that I should write about what not to do.

What should you not do?

GET NEGATIVE! If you find anything you say sounds, smells, or tastes negative — stop — regroup — start again with a positive tone.

Mary should not say that she dislikes being interrupt driven or that she dislikes that her manager changes every six months. It is her responsibility to ask enough questions to find out whether the environment is to her liking. I cannot state this enough – this is like Dating and Marriage! Both sides need to come prepared to find out whether this is a match.

Next we will move on to Step 5 – Negotiating for what you want and it is not about money.

Check out the Cure for Career Insanity webpage and sign up to get updates on this program.

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Marc Miller Career Design Specialist