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I work in the IT industry, so this post may be slightly skewed towards those types of careers, but I believe that most of this will apply to just about everyone. This post will be about getting from Interview to where you want to be in your career. A lot of people I know make key mistakes that hurt their advancement and therefore their overall happiness. This post aims to help these people.
Disclaimer: I've tried to focus on the not-so-obvious aspects of this topic, but I realize they may be more obvious to others.
Have you ever caught yourself thinking or saying any of the following?
"The job market is terrible"
"I hate having to work a job I hate"
"Bob kisses so much ass, and he got the promotion"
"My boss is an asshole"
"I wish management noticed how great an employee I am"
I will address this type of thinking, what causes it, why it is poisonous, and how to correct it.
The Interview:
There is a lot of helpful information already out there regarding the interview process, do's and don'ts etc, so I won't spend a huge amount of time on this and I'm going to try to focus on some things that people either don't want to admit, or won't say publicly.
1. If the interviewer likes you as a person, your job is pretty much done. Most people won't admit this, but your skills, schooling etc are what gets you in the door to an interview in the first place. Once you're there, how likeable you are is infinitely more important than how well you demonstrate your knowledge. Don't view an interview as an exam where you practice specific answers to questions you think you might get, treat it as a "getting to know someone" experience. A good parallel to draw is to imagine you're meeting your girlfriend's parents. Smile and be friendly.
2. Confidence is key. I realize this one is overused and redundant, but I just wanted to focus on it for a minute. Confidence is so important that if you have to err on the side of either not confident enough, or too confident (cocky), always err on the side of cocky. I realize this is counter-intuitive and by no means am I saying that you should try to be cocky, I just mean that it's better to be cocky than timid in almost all cases. If it is obvious to the interviewer that you believe in what you are saying, they will almost always believe you. Being timid makes your interviewer uncomfortable and awkward, and it's very difficult to come back from this.
3. Be prepared. Again, this is another one that is redundant, but let me take a minute on this topic. Learn 2 or 3 key things about a company before going in. (If they're a public company, did they do well this year? Have they merged or acquired any other companies recently? Has there been any management changes?) Let me give you an example of how effective this can be:
Interviewer: OK Bob, do you have any questions for me?
You: I know that your company acquired a large firm late last year. In my last role we had a similar situation and I'm interested to hear about some of the challenges you've had with integrating the two companies?
This is powerful in two ways. One, it's a very open-ended question and the interviewer will very often give you information he would not have otherwise. Also, having the interviewer share personal experiences about his position creates trust and a "bonding" relationship which is so important. Second, it demonstrates that you've got real-world experience in the exact situation they are going through. Have a story or two ready to explain how you handled a similar situation.
Getting Ahead:
Now that you've got the job, lets talk about getting where you want to be. If you're like me, you're ambitious and the job you get hired into is not typically the job you want to keep forever. Have you ever wondered why certain people get promoted? Have you ever thought it was due to ass-kissing or something like that? In my experience, people rarely get promoted for ass-kissing (I didn't say never!). Even though there are a lot of people who get promoted who aren't right for the job, it is due to other reasons entirely. Understanding these reasons will let you (the better employee) exploit these ideas to both you and the company's benefit. I could probably write a book about these ideas, and maybe I'll write more later, but right now I'm just going to focus on a couple of VERY KEY ones. These ideas obviously assume you actually ARE a good employee which I'm sure everyone on TL is 
1. Assertiveness. I realize this again is something that is relatively obvious. You would be amazed at how many people aren't promoted because they don't ASK. Not everyone wants a promotion (really!) so while you stew about how you keep getting passed over for that great role, your boss may honestly have no idea that you're interested! Let management know what you want. Talk openly about your desired career path both in informal meetings and definitely in performance reviews. Ask your employer what they think about your desired path and ask for suggestions on how to achieve it. Ask for what you want and always be able to back it up with solid facts.
2. Self-promotion. People won't generally talk about how great you are. They won't bring up that cool project you just finished in management meetings and talk about how great you are. This is one of the most difficult things for a lot of people to do, because it feels like tooting your own horn. It's necessary. Did you implement a new process that saves money or time? Did you work an 80 hour week to improve a certain customer's perception of the company? Did you go above and beyond? A huge reason for people's low morale at work is when they don't feel they make a difference or that their work isn't noticed. Make it noticed. Send an email to your boss and CC some people who directly benefit from the work you've done. Tell them what you've done and ask for feedback. Keep records of everything like this and bring it up at every performance review. This is kind of abstract, so let me provide a short example:
I thought of, and implemented a process at work that saved another department probably 1 man-hour per day. It also saved the company about $50 dollars per day in supplies. That's $1000 dollars per month in supplies and 20 man-hours (Another $400 approximately). I expected the department I helped to tell management about how awesome I was! They never did. I created a report with details about how the new procedure worked compared to the old one. I forwarded it to my boss and the department (And the department's manager) and offered a 30 minute training session on the new procedure. Things like this get your name and accomplishments out there.
3. Learn to speak to groups. Take toastmasters, a public speaking course, or (luckily) just be born with great public speaking skills. This falls under the "confidence" umbrella as well. If you believe in yourself, others will too. Here's an interesting thought experiment: Try to picture all the high-level executives you've ever seen both at work and in the media (Apple, Microsoft, any other large corporation). How many of these high level executives seemed timid or afraid when speaking in public?
4. Aim to be 100% right until you're wrong, then admit it. Phrases like "I think" or "In my opinion" are weak phrases and don't inspire confidence in people. If you're proven wrong, thank the person and admit it immediately. Example:
Wrong: "I think profits may have been higher this year than last year"
Right: "Profits were up 20% this year over last year"
Otherdude: "Actually, that's incorrect, here's proof"
You: "Thank you, I stand corrected"
I realize this again "feels wrong", but try it and you'll quickly see which is the better way to approach this. Keep in mind that nothing here is dishonest or shady. Actually, honesty is another extremely important attribute that will get you where you want to be. Admit when you're wrong and be honest and people (coworkers as well as management) will respect you for it.
5. "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have"
This is so overused that I almost didn't include it but I cannot stress enough how important this is. People (Especially nerds like us) really think that our work will speak for itself and our appearance doesn't matter. This may be the single biggest mistake people make at work. Spend some money on professional work clothes. Subscribe to GQ or something similar. I GUARANTEE it will pay dividends.
Anyway, I may add to this later but for now, I hope these few things help you in some small way.
 
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Your post is 100% factual and amazing =D You really have to put yourself out there and push it, or else people are just going to be like... =_=
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
Nice post
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Is it wrong to ask your boss what is the dress code for working as IT? Like I though there was a golden rule when it comes to working IT with wearing shirt and tie?
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Great article, gave me a bunch of tibits to store in the back of my head until the time comes.
However, #4 seems a bit vague. So what if you really weren't sure it was 20%? You still wouldn't say 'think' but rather state it as a fact? Even if you take the correction well, I don't think anyone would appreciate someone continuously spouting out unsure facts.
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On September 20 2010 04:35 Kuo wrote:
Is it wrong to ask your boss what is the dress code for working as IT? Like I though there was a golden rule when it comes to working IT with wearing shirt and tie?
It is definitely OK to ask about dress code, but it never hurts to "overdress" a little bit. Most IT positions do not require a suit and tie. Most are business casual, meaning dress pants (sometimes khakis are OK) and a collared shirt. It doesn't hurt to dress it up with a nice sweater over the collared shirt and a pinstriped dress pant or something similar. Spend a couple hundred on shoes too, and keep them clean. Shoes will last a long time if you take care of them.
On September 20 2010 04:40 Treeplant wrote:
Great article, gave me a bunch of tibits to store in the back of my head until the time comes.
However, #4 seems a bit vague. So what if you really weren't sure it was 20%? You still wouldn't say 'think' but rather state it as a fact? Even if you take the correction well, I don't think anyone would appreciate someone continuously spouting out unsure facts.
You're right it is a little vague. You shouldn't say things unless you're at least pretty sure of it. I didn't mean to say that you should just always be 100% certain of everything, but the point I was trying to make is that you should generally try to make strong statements rather than weak ones. Thanks for the clarifying question!
Edit: I realize I did say "Always be 100% right" so it is unclear, changing it.
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very helpful! asking lots of questions is so key, but I'm always too quiet :/
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On September 20 2010 05:15 stalife wrote:
very helpful! asking lots of questions is so key, but I'm always too quiet :/
Is it due to nervousness? I really recommend any type of speaking course, toastmasters etc. Like anything that is driven by fear, desensitization is the only way to go! If it's not due to nervousness, and you just have a quiet personality, you can always try to have a couple of questions prepared and force yourself to ask them. The great thing about open-ended questions is that they require about 10 seconds of talking and like 10 minutes of listening!
P.S. Big fan Stalife drop ftw.
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I have a big interview on Tuesday... I'm so nervous but I'm a fairly good speaker and feel confident I am a really good fit for the job I'm interviewing for.
Good advice!
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I think self-promotion is really difficult. Of course I understand the underlying concept but running around shouting how awesome you are seems to be so wrong even if you're in fact doing a great job. The best thing which can happen is when your coworkers are so grateful, that they do the promotion for you
(then again this is unlikely in a very competitive environment, but that's no place where I want to work anyway)
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I do get nervous when I'm speaking in front of a large audience, or in a crowded mall with lots and lots of people..  I get sweaty and stuff, but much less so when it's an interview with 2~3 people in the room. I really like going to those seminars, etc. by industry professionals to see how they present their message. The messages themselves are all very similar, but the way each speaker presents themselves are so different and unique. Asking questions in an interview is not so much of a problem as I research/prepare questions beforehand..
Which company do you work at ~?
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On September 20 2010 05:38 shin ken wrote:I think self-promotion is really difficult. Of course I understand the underlying concept but running around shouting how awesome you are seems to be so wrong even if you're in fact doing a great job. The best thing which can happen is when your coworkers are so grateful, that they do the promotion for you (then again this is unlikely in a very competitive environment, but that's no place where I want to work anyway)
I realize this is the most difficult aspect for most people. It was definitely the most difficult part for me when I first started out in the corporate environment. It really is absolutely necessary though. The trick is to find ways that aren't really obvious. I tried to cite some examples that I thought were not so "LOOK AT ME", but maybe another example would help. It pays to be creative here, as you're absolutely right, you don't want to be the guy who's always telling everyone how awesome you are.
I honestly think the "feedback" idea is one of the more effective ways to deal with this that I've thought of. For instance, you do something or have some idea and you ask for feedback. This has two major advantages. One, you're showing that you've done something good. Two, you're showing that you value feedback and can take constructive criticism about your work. Another example of this, other than the one I wrote in the original post, let's pretend I'm a systems administrator and I stay up all night working on a problem with a mail server. (First of all I can personally guarantee that if you work in an operations type role, the only time anyone will be talking about you is if something is broken). So I've been up all night, and I get everything back up and running so that everyone has access to mail when they come in in the morning. Here's what I would do:
Send an email to my boss and a few other select managers/businesspeople, or even the whole company in some scenarios.
"Good morning,
Last night there was an email outage that began at 8pm EST. It was due to a software problem with the company's spam filter. The issue was resolved at approximately 4:30 AM. No mail should have been lost during this outage. Please let me know personally of any issues that you may be experiencing today relating to email"
Now, what I've done is shown that I worked from 8pm until 4am last night in order to get everyone's mail back up and running. I've done it in a way that looks pretty innocuous. Now, I'd send a separate email to my boss saying:
"Good morning,
As per my previous email, there was an email outage last night. This outage was caused by <insert technical reasons here if your boss is technical>. The following was performed to resolve the issue <insert resolution>. To prevent this issue from happening again, I suggest <insert suggestions, new hardware purchase, monitoring software installation etc etc>.
"
What do you think?
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On September 20 2010 05:46 stalife wrote:I do get nervous when I'm speaking in front of a large audience, or in a crowded mall with lots and lots of people.. I get sweaty and stuff, but much less so when it's an interview with 2~3 people in the room. I really like going to those seminars, etc. by industry professionals to see how they present their message. The messages themselves are all very similar, but the way each speaker presents themselves are so different and unique. Asking questions in an interview is not so much of a problem as I research/prepare questions beforehand.. Which company do you work at ~?
Ah yes. Luckily I've always been a pretty good public speaker, but I have many friends who get nervous in public situations where they have to speak. I like that you go to those seminars. In addition to those seminars I've also found that good professors usually have good public speaking skills and can teach a lot not just about the subject matter, but also about getting the message across in an entertaining and practical way.
For the last year I've worked for a smallish startup you haven't heard of, but it has grown about 40% in the last year, so maybe soon you will!
I've worked for mid sized to large enterprises such as HP services (They manage enterprise systems, some of the big Canadian banks ie: CIBC, PC Financial. Not the printer division, hehe) and a few small to mid-sized ISP's.
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awesome post, yeah it takes a lot of balls to get to where you actually want to be.
There's no challenge in settling.
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this is why i love this community so much. I'll take you're advices sir, even if they are kind of obvious and i've always been apllying them so far, it's good to see them written and i hope you'll let us know more about cute little things we can do to improve ourselves
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On September 20 2010 05:51 babolatt wrote:Show nested quote +On September 20 2010 05:38 shin ken wrote:I think self-promotion is really difficult. Of course I understand the underlying concept but running around shouting how awesome you are seems to be so wrong even if you're in fact doing a great job. The best thing which can happen is when your coworkers are so grateful, that they do the promotion for you (then again this is unlikely in a very competitive environment, but that's no place where I want to work anyway) "Good morning, Last night there was an email outage that began at 8pm EST. It was due to a software problem with the company's spam filter. The issue was resolved at approximately 4:30 AM. No mail should have been lost during this outage. Please let me know personally of any issues that you may be experiencing today relating to email" Now, what I've done is shown that I worked from 8pm until 4am last night in order to get everyone's mail back up and running. I've done it in a way that looks pretty innocuous. Now, I'd send a separate email to my boss saying: "Good morning, As per my previous email, there was an email outage last night. This outage was caused by <insert technical reasons here if your boss is technical>. The following was performed to resolve the issue <insert resolution>. To prevent this issue from happening again, I suggest <insert suggestions, new hardware purchase, monitoring software installation etc etc>. " What do you think?
To be honest, while it might be cultural at least in my experience those kind of things are just so dependant on the persons you work with/for. If I wrote a letter such as your first I would get such a hiding from my boss that my head wouldn't stop ringing for weeks. Or at least I would if he would have a chance of ever taking me on, which he won't the old git. He is a old style salesman type, he expects you to do all those things and as long as it works you're not to bother him with it and if it does it just means you did your job. He is a awesome salesman and probably one of the best people I know but you need to keep a chummy attitude with him rather than going all out "professional" because that's just how he works. It's all about reading the person your supposed to talk to and having set responses for a situation without analyzing it seems a bit counter productive.
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Absolutely. I've had bosses that didn't respond to this type of letter, and obviously I can't write an example for every personality type. It definitely comes down to reading people, but generally in a corporate environment (How large is your company? and what do you do?) professionalism in email trumps chummy almost every time at least in my experience.
Although you have mentioned that that specific example wouldn't work in your environment, do you know what would? I really think that just accepting that nobody is going to notice or care about your work is the wrong attitude. You say your boss is in Sales, are you in Sales? The great thing about Sales is no self promotion is needed. Your performance has a direct impact on the bottom line in terms of revenue. Salespeople (I've been in technical sales) have the unique privilege / problem of having a numeric representation of their ability all the time. Did you hit quota? How much did you exceed it? How much have you sold lately? These are all things that can be answered either yes or no or with a number. No self promotion required.
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I'm actually beginning my interviewing process over the next two months to get picked up as a CA articling student and reading this thread has been helpful to me.
Great post
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On September 20 2010 06:56 babolatt wrote:
Absolutely. I've had bosses that didn't respond to this type of letter, and obviously I can't write an example for every personality type. It definitely comes down to reading people, but generally in a corporate environment (How large is your company? and what do you do?) professionalism in email trumps chummy almost every time at least in my experience.
Although you have mentioned that that specific example wouldn't work in your environment, do you know what would? I really think that just accepting that nobody is going to notice or care about your work is the wrong attitude. You say your boss is in Sales, are you in Sales? The great thing about Sales is no self promotion is needed. Your performance has a direct impact on the bottom line in terms of revenue. Salespeople (I've been in technical sales) have the unique privilege / problem of having a numeric representation of their ability all the time. Did you hit quota? How much did you exceed it? How much have you sold lately? These are all things that can be answered either yes or no or with a number. No self promotion required.
It's not a big company between 6-10 employees depending on season. I am a Translator aswell as the IT guy. Aye, didn't mean to contradict you on that, if you are going to send and E-mail blindly that is the way to go, just wanted to point out that the best way is like in Starcraft to scout your opponent early and build a good counter. I guess it's that he uses the sales logic for everyone as you say. He always praises you if you've done good aslong as he is the one to point it out.
EDIT: As a response to what would work would simply be something like. Between 20:00 and 04:00 the email servers crashed. Nothing should have been lost because I am just that awesome, and you better have some coffee ready when I get there tomorrow,
Ofcourse it would be in Swedish and worded a slightly diffrent but that's the gist of it. Only things included that are relevant to him so he knows what going on but not deeper than that. I would mostly include a note on how he is ridiculously lazy, but that's a long running gag in the firm.
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The info. in this post is something I also recently came to understand, albeit a semester too late. I'm in an engineering program with tons of brilliant, but soft-spoken, people. You would expect the smartest people to get hired for the best jobs, but in our class it's the people who are articulate who end up at top-tier firms. And for the most part, the people who can articulate pretty much articulate bullshit. The employers don't care how much you know... if you feel uncomfortable and awkward around you, they're not going to hire you.
These two sentences by the op. basically sum it all up.
On September 20 2010 03:51 babolatt wrote:
Most people won't admit this, but your skills, schooling etc are what gets you in the door to an interview in the first place. Once you're there, how likeable you are is infinitely more important than how well you demonstrate your knowledge.
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On September 20 2010 07:11 Hynda wrote:
I guess it's that he uses the sales logic for everyone as you say. He always praises you if you've done good aslong as he is the one to point it out.
Yeah, very small companies are exempt from most of the normal corporate rules. They typically function more like families (Not in an emotional sense, but in a "mom and dad are in charge" but everyone is important sense). Also, it's much less important to self-promote when it's super obvious what you do strictly due to the size of the organization.
EDIT: As a response to what would work would simply be something like. Between 20:00 and 04:00 the email servers crashed. Nothing should have been lost because I am just that awesome, and you better have some coffee ready when I get there tomorrow,
Ofcourse it would be in Swedish and worded a slightly diffrent but that's the gist of it. Only things included that are relevant to him so he knows what going on but not deeper than that. I would mostly include a note on how he is ridiculously lazy, but that's a long running gag in the firm.
Hahah, well that works as well.
On September 20 2010 07:27 xiaofan wrote:The info. in this post is something I also recently came to understand, albeit a semester too late. I'm in an engineering program with tons of brilliant, but soft-spoken, people. You would expect the smartest people to get hired for the best jobs, but in our class it's the people who are articulate who end up at top-tier firms. And for the most part, the people who can articulate pretty much articulate bullshit. The employers don't care how much you know... if you feel uncomfortable and awkward around you, they're not going to hire you. These two sentences by the op. basically sum it all up. Show nested quote +On September 20 2010 03:51 babolatt wrote:
Most people won't admit this, but your skills, schooling etc are what gets you in the door to an interview in the first place. Once you're there, how likeable you are is infinitely more important than how well you demonstrate your knowledge.
My degree is in Computer Science (I'm doing another degree in Business Technology Management now) so I know exactly what you're talking about. It's probably even more pronounced in compsci. 95% of my class would definitely not interview well, and unfortunately most people had this notion that they would graduate and get huge six figure salaries at big development shops. A lot of them ended up unemployed or doing less "social" roles like fixing computers in a small repair shop.
They were smart technical people, but even if you know that as an employer, it's sometimes just a bad decision to hire smart antisocial people. One thing to keep in mind is that most adequately intelligent people can LEARN how to do something technical, but a lot of really technical people can't be taught how to be more personable. It's definitely unfortunate for these people as it's difficult to change so late in life, but not impossible.
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On September 20 2010 07:43 babolatt wrote:Show nested quote +On September 20 2010 07:11 Hynda wrote:
I guess it's that he uses the sales logic for everyone as you say. He always praises you if you've done good aslong as he is the one to point it out.
Yeah, very small companies are exempt from most of the normal corporate rules. They typically function more like families (Not in an emotional sense, but in a "mom and dad are in charge" but everyone is important sense). Also, it's much less important to self-promote when it's super obvious what you do strictly due to the size of the organization. Show nested quote +
EDIT: As a response to what would work would simply be something like. Between 20:00 and 04:00 the email servers crashed. Nothing should have been lost because I am just that awesome, and you better have some coffee ready when I get there tomorrow,
Ofcourse it would be in Swedish and worded a slightly diffrent but that's the gist of it. Only things included that are relevant to him so he knows what going on but not deeper than that. I would mostly include a note on how he is ridiculously lazy, but that's a long running gag in the firm.
Hahah, well that works as well. Show nested quote +On September 20 2010 07:27 xiaofan wrote:The info. in this post is something I also recently came to understand, albeit a semester too late. I'm in an engineering program with tons of brilliant, but soft-spoken, people. You would expect the smartest people to get hired for the best jobs, but in our class it's the people who are articulate who end up at top-tier firms. And for the most part, the people who can articulate pretty much articulate bullshit. The employers don't care how much you know... if you feel uncomfortable and awkward around you, they're not going to hire you. These two sentences by the op. basically sum it all up. On September 20 2010 03:51 babolatt wrote:
Most people won't admit this, but your skills, schooling etc are what gets you in the door to an interview in the first place. Once you're there, how likeable you are is infinitely more important than how well you demonstrate your knowledge.
My degree is in Computer Science (I'm doing another degree in Business Technology Management now) so I know exactly what you're talking about. It's probably even more pronounced in compsci. 95% of my class would definitely not interview well, and unfortunately most people had this notion that they would graduate and get huge six figure salaries at big development shops. A lot of them ended up unemployed or doing less "social" roles like fixing computers in a small repair shop. They were smart technical people, but even if you know that as an employer, it's sometimes just a bad decision to hire smart antisocial people. One thing to keep in mind is that most adequately intelligent people can LEARN how to do something technical, but a lot of really technical people can't be taught how to be more personable. It's definitely unfortunate for these people as it's difficult to change so late in life, but not impossible.
Well it suits me really well and I'm really happy being there, can't imagine working for a huge company with people I don't work with on a day to day basis. You're right when you say it works like family and everyone has their roles aswell as always backing each other up. There was a situation when there was a ISP issue were our connection kept timing out every 5 minutes making it useless, and everything I did just made shit worse even managed to cut the phonelines for a day without noticing. Nobody was pissed everyone was super supportive and in the end I fixed it. (it was such a stupidly simple issue aswell that I felt rather ashamed afterwards)
I do appologise for being slightly off-topic and I shall stop now.
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On September 20 2010 05:46 stalife wrote:I do get nervous when I'm speaking in front of a large audience, or in a crowded mall with lots and lots of people.. I get sweaty and stuff, but much less so when it's an interview with 2~3 people in the room. I really like going to those seminars, etc. by industry professionals to see how they present their message. The messages themselves are all very similar, but the way each speaker presents themselves are so different and unique. Asking questions in an interview is not so much of a problem as I research/prepare questions beforehand.. Which company do you work at ~?
Stalife if you get nervous speaking in front of bigger groups it can be useful to film yourself while doing this. Or practice it in your living room with a friend filming you.
Watch the tape afterward and try to analyze how you did, how the audience perceives you and how you can improve your performance. You can also ask your friends/family to watch the tape (or better, you performing a presentation live) and have them tell you what they thought of it. This can help you a lot (in my experience) with improving your techniques and the overall impression your audience gets from you. The way you deliver your message is almost as important as the message itself.
If you appear uncertain of yourself your audience will focus on that and won't listen as attentive to what you are saying as them would have done otherwise. Even if you are uncertain of yourself you have to appear confident if you want others to listen to you and believe you.
If you don't feel sure about a presentation just bluff your way through it. Most people won't doubt what you say if it's delivered with confidence. Even if they know what you say isn't correct they start doubting themselves if you deliver the message with confidence.
Personal example: When I was in college we had a course for one semester called "Presentation". A part of this course was that we had to present a subject to the entire class and were filmed while doing it. Afterward the whole class could comment on how you did and what could be improved and you got to take the tape home for your own benefit.
I have always a pen or something like that in my hand when working and clicking the top on and of etc. and naturally you don't want to do a presentation like that so I was empty handed. One thing that happened was that I tended to go faster as I should have. Without the pen I was continually making hand motions, taking my hand in and out of my pocket, talking faster as I should have, etc. This made the whole presentation rather erratic and hard to follow from time to time because people were actually focusing on my hand and somebody speaking fast is always harder to follow in a presentation.
I have learned that whenever possible I need to have one hand on a lectern or desk to slow down my speech and create a calmer environment for the presentation itself. This calmness is also reflected to the group, giving them the opportunity to better focus their attention on the presentation itself. This has also the benefit that you automatically seem more confident and professional.
This calmness gives you also the opportunity to build in small pauses in your presentation in which you can collect your thoughts before moving on. Don't be afraid of these small silences but embrace them as an oases of tranquility. Through this your audience is also given the opportunity to collect their thoughts about everything you told them and they will appreciate it.
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I'd have to say that most of these tips are applicable in the corporate setting up to even the biggest ones. Very good post; but I'll point out that for the larger companies, it's also about knowing the higher-level people and attracting their attention that you can work well with them. The higher they go, the more they can pull you up; recommending you be put in their old jobs, or referring you to other companies if they feel where you're at is not going to work out for you (like if they already left).
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you can also start making youtube recordings of yourself speaking about something...its good practice
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This is such a great thread and great information on the OP. I finished reading it through and also learned about what "toastmasters" was for the first time as well! Definitely useful advices and food for thought to think about! Sweet!
But after reading all this and googling toastmasters, I can't help to think a few things... So basically unlike most of you here who are aiming for IT type field, I am going for a field in media. Most specifically, my dream/goal is to someday be a reporter and then an anchor for TV News. (And then hopefully rise up to a celebrity level where I have my own talk show, move out of news to entertainment, etc...)
However, I have one big problem atm, public speaking and communication skills... I am partly fine when I talk to new people with introductions one on one but when it comes down to sitting down and talking to several people or a group at a time, I froze and sorta get like a stage fright. I noticed this when I presented myself in my school club meetings where I am the president of one of them. The other thing is reading and talking properly, saying each word perfectly and properly and gathering thoughts in my mind to say such things even in a good manner. These things I still lack which troubles me a lot of my capability of being a future reporter/anchor.
To OP or anyone who wish to help me out with my situation...
So what can be some advices to give me in that case for someone who is pursuing a path in media/news/TV and radio? Can toastmasters really help all the problems I have? And seeing how the locations near me seem like a pain to me, do you think if I start one at my school, that'll give even more props and benefits (since I can sorta put that down on my resume and all) in getting a job?? Thanks!
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On September 20 2010 08:31 Ciryandor wrote:
I'd have to say that most of these tips are applicable in the corporate setting up to even the biggest ones. Very good post; but I'll point out that for the larger companies, it's also about knowing the higher-level people and attracting their attention that you can work well with them. The higher they go, the more they can pull you up; recommending you be put in their old jobs, or referring you to other companies if they feel where you're at is not going to work out for you (like if they already left).
So true. I have a saying hanging on my wall that translated goes something like this:
Somebody who has made big successes in life, owes this more to the people he knows as to his knowledge.
+ Show Spoiler +Original Dutch:
Iemand die het ver in het leven gebracht heeft, heeft dat meer te danken aan zijn kennissen dan aan zijn kennis.
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Stage fright and public speaking problems can be helped by toastmasters, public speaking classes and some of the other suggestions in this thread (recording yourself etc). Really the only way you can get past any type of fear is to do it over and over again until you aren't afraid anymore.
I'm honestly not an expert when it comes to teaching these types of skills, so others may be able to help you more than me.
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thank you for the read 
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Wow, such saddening truth in that post.
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excellent post, will come handy sooner than later
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Good read, and for the record I am one of those people who don't really want a promotion. Right now I'm perfectly happy where I am.
In the future though...
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This is great information that you can't hear often enough. It's definitely something that's talked about a lot like you mention in the OP but you have to keep reminding yourself of these things to actually remember and utilize them.
It's also very good to hear from a personal perspective like this, there are some very good ideas in there. Thanks for the post.
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On September 20 2010 09:02 QuickStriker wrote:
So what can be some advices to give me in that case for someone who is pursuing a path in media/news/TV and radio? Can toastmasters really help all the problems I have? And seeing how the locations near me seem like a pain to me, do you think if I start one at my school, that'll give even more props and benefits (since I can sorta put that down on my resume and all) in getting a job?? Thanks!
In my old college, we had a "career development center" and they offered mock interviews, leadership sessions, and presentations critiquing entirely for free. The only one I took advantage of was the presentation, they would have someone film and listen to your presentation and then critique and show you the video afterwards.
Ask around in your school, these programs are common and you pretty much already paid for it with your tuition already so you might as well take advantage of it 
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Just really amazing to read the posts in this thread. Keep it up guys!
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Glad to see that this topic and post have been useful for some people. I have quite a few more that I will share in the very near future as I've seen it generated some good discussion.
Thanks for the feedback and questions.
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I have a big time interview tomorrow and I'm so nervous! I will remember to go by the advice in the op here!
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Nice post. Have seen a lot of your points on various occasions.
Things you can add that I have come across. Won't elaborate that much, in a hurry atm
Respect for your coworkers no matter their position. Reasoning of course being that you will be seen as a more positive person and you will be able to gain a lot more help and a more positive environment if the people around you like you. You may never know when you could need some help from someone so you should have an as big positive network as possible.
Be solution oriented and not problem seeking. If you seem like a person who looks passed the problem and want to contribute to a solution and helping rather than blaming and problem seeking it will get noticed. And leader what someone who takes action.
Make a priority schedule of your work day, this to make it easier for yourself to do the right things at the right time. And should something with higher priority come up than do that first unless it is very inconvenient. Should use something that looks something like this:
First priority: Urgent and important
Second priority: Urgent but not so important
Third priority: Not urgent but important
Last priority: Not urgent and not important
Build up your knowledge. Study relevant and modern literature about the sector you work in so you can use that to your advantage, good leaders has a very solid foundation build up your own asap. Leadership theory may also help a lot.
Quick tips that may help some.
Could read pickup books to help make a good first impression on others.
Learn different persuasions technics from books.
Start to get fit. People who are fit and take care of themselves are generally seen upon as more serious and people will be more positive towards fit and people who take care of themselves. Being fit will also help you by having more energy and more mental stamina.
Selfimprovement in general can help you, calm and positive people are more likely to get a promotion than someone whos not.
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Very good post with a lot of useful tips.
For the people interested it is more of a sum-up than a complete guide though and they should invest time reading more on the subject.
I just want to add, that most of it can be rephrased as : "Be charismatic". And it does not apply to work but everything in life (confidence for dating for example). Though, again, the specific tips are right on.
Approved.
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Very helpful. I am just starting my career and the point I can see will cause me the most trouble is self-promotion.
Please could you expand this point as I will find it particularly informative?
edit: I have read your p1 reply and can understand the advantages, but its just not my character to enguage in this activity. What advice do you have to 'get the ball rolling' and start promoting yourself?
Thanks.
Other than that I can only add that you have the interview process spot on. My advice to people would be to practice this stuff. I failed my first XX interviews due to lack of confidence, etc. If you have a careers service you can go to, get a practice interview! Once I became more confident performing in front of an interview, the job offers came. It was very hard and depressing before then however. Rejected, no reasons, no feedback tt.
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1. Work on exciting projects.
2. Do a good job
try to get into groups or attach to a manager with a lot of interesting and important projects underneath him. Make sure you get whatever you need to do a good job and make sure to produce quality products. self-promotion isn't really going to make up for poor or uninteresting work.
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As I expected, the self-promotion aspect seems to be getting a lot of attention. I'd like to mention that it is absolutely and totally normal to feel weird about this. It isn't really in my nature to self-promote either as I'm generally not a very cocky person (Confident though!) so really you're not the exception for not liking the self-promotion aspect, that's a very normal feeling.
I will expand on this idea a little later tonight hopefully and throw something up here on the blog about it. I'll try to go over the idea itself and some of the reservations about it, as well as focusing on some of the ways you can overcome this feeling, and some additional examples of ways to do it in a more "humble" way. I will probably make it a new post, but will link to it from this post so you know it's up.
I really want to reiterate that it is absolutely super important so finding a way to do it that fits your personality type is crucial.
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As someone who has just started looking for a job and has just started interviewing, I really appreciated the detail and thought you put into this post. Thank you.
I am still reading through the thread so maybe you touch on this again, but the point I found most difficult to implement is bringing up relevant information that you've found out about the company. Even when I gather a few facts about the company, I find it difficult to incorporate it naturally into the interview process or into a relevant question. I appreciated the specific example you gave.
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On September 22 2010 09:42 Sabu113 wrote:
As someone who has just started looking for a job and has just started interviewing, I really appreciated the detail and thought you put into this post. Thank you.
I am still reading through the thread so maybe you touch on this again, but the point I found most difficult to implement is bringing up relevant information that you've found out about the company. Even when I gather a few facts about the company, I find it difficult to incorporate it naturally into the interview process or into a relevant question. I appreciated the specific example you gave.
Yeah it's not all useable information, and sometimes you aren't able to find anything you can specifically use to your advantage. Be creative though, there are a lot of things you can find out about a company that you can use. I'll pick an example about a piece of information that is pretty useless: The company just redesigned their website. I can't think of anything much more useless than that, but a question that comes to mind about that is: I noticed you've recently done a website redesign. Was that part of a new marketing campaign or corporate strategy?
Anything that shows you're thinking and you know how business works can be useful.
Also, check Google for things like press releases etc. Lots of times, companies will do press releases about almost anything to generate free advertising.
Another great idea is to check linkedin.com and look up the company or specifically your interviewer's name. You may find that he's linked with people from an organization you do know, and you may find information that way. There's many ways to look for stuff and it's an opportunity to be creative!
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I prefer this business blog to some of those other business blogs out there *cough cough*... The OP is informative and written in an unassuming and accessible way. And I'm typing this at IBM while taking a break from shitty administration and databasing assignments.
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The OP was very accurate and good. I learned some of this the really, really hard way, some I'm still trying to grok... and some I just learned from OP! My two cents, which is long, but I hope this conveys my appreciation of the OP and it's value to me:
1. The interview
Confidence is definitely key. We are looking for someone to solve our current problem. We are not looking to give someone a break or a 'chance'. My disagreement with OP is just that "being well liked" is not superior to being knowledgeable. Your knowledge and expertise didn't get you the interview, and the interview is not merely a social engagement. Your resume claiming this expertise got you an interview, so you can demonstrate or elaborate on this knowledge.
I like most people I interview. But being liked is a prerequisite, not an alternative strategy. Yes, if you are extremely experienced and knowledgeable, but we sense any personality difficulties, you are on shaky ground (we've been burned badly). Nobody wants to work with a dick, and dicks severely hurt productivity. But you're not dead yet. Alternatively, if you don't know your IF from your ELSE, we can't hire you.
However, I admit we can't interrogate an interviewee as fully as we'd like to ensure they know what they're doing - so yeah, give me a winning smile when you give me a vague, ass-covering answer. It will help a lot. Hey, I'm human.
After you get the job, being confident, well-liked, but mildly incompetent is a much, much better triad for career growth, than being under-confident, reasonably liked, and very competent. But get the job first. Oh, and under-confident, very competent people still often find very nice niches free of lifelong corporate/political headaches. It's not all doom and gloom, my fellow nerds.
2. Getting ahead
The self-promotion part is the bane of many nerds' professional existence. But I've seen it work and I am much more cynical than OP. I've seen a guy come in, and essentially say, "Hey, I'm awesome and I'm lighting this place on fire." Then, a couple days later, I heard a couple pointy-haired bosses discussing this person, "Hey, that guy's really lighting this place on fire!". This is nearly verbatim. It was darkly awesome to witness.
The downside of this strategy is if you are a cocky self-promoter, your co-workers will resent and undermine you. It's likely they are justified, and you are, in reality, a detriment to the enterprise. But, if you hit just the right mark, you can be pretty useless and still climb high. However, this is harder work than actually being useful, and probably much more stressful.
However, I don't believe my CIO knows just how awesome I am, and I am 90% to blame for this. You need to take control of this.
4. Aim to be 100% right
OP, why didn't you tell me this a long time ago! Yes, yes, yes! I tend to use hedges like "I think" all the time. I thought I was reflecting my cautious, thoughtful, non-self-promote-y approach to problem-solving. I was really reflecting a seeming lack of confidence. See Interview #1, above. Your boss wants his problems solved without him having to stress and lose sleep. He needs to know you will take care of it, without his babysitting or oversight. You need to be his expert. "I think" presents him with the need to evaluate your proposal, and he doesn't yet even think of your proposal as a solution, because you didn't tell him it was. You told him it was a nice idea to consider. Instead, "This is how we solve the problem" allows him to tend to other problems, assure *his* boss that everything is well in hand, and leave at 5:30. This isn't cynical; he hired you to do your job so he wouldn't have to.
A co-worker pointed out my hedge words to me. I now routinely review emails for hedge phrases like "I think" or "as far as I know", and give them the ban-hammer regardless of how cocky I think the resulting text is. In conversation, I continue to work to remove these hedges. It helps that I actually *am* a relative expert within my team, but that shouldn't stop you from honestly doing your best to present confidence. I will never be, nor advocate quite the "I'm always right!" attitude of OP, but you should find a comfortable goal at least 75% of the way towards that approach. OP is right and going 100% *is* probably more lucrative, but annoying.
Overall, I can't advocate this point of the OP's enough. It is really important, professionally and personally.
5. Dress for the job!
On September 20 2010 04:35 Kuo wrote:
Is it wrong to ask your boss what is the dress code for working as IT? Like I though there was a golden rule when it comes to working IT with wearing shirt and tie?
Yes, it's wrong! You decide yourself how much more you are willing to dress. That's a bit of the point of the OP. I work IT and can dress very, very casually. However, I finally looked up from my cave and noticed that those in higher positions don't dress as casually. It's like a dress code honeypot or sting operation, where those who make the dire error of dressing down to the lowest acceptable level... stay at that level. I phased in a better personal dress code. You should, too. It's just clothing, and slacks aren't really that much less comfortable than jeans. Man up. In fact, often I prefer them.
And if you think that clothing reflects your personality and you can't let your free spirit be trampled by The Man... well, yes, if the threads and cloth you wear on your body are a large part of your 'personality', then we probably don't want your vapid 'personality.' [Yes, crappy uniforms excepted - those suck but that's not what we're talking about].
Put yourself in your boss's shoes - would he ever bring you in to explain or demonstrate something to your VP (or let's say, someone two levels above your boss)? Dress in a way that your boss could picture doing that, but don't dress so well, at least overnight, that you look awkward in your team. Slacks, button-down, belt, non-sneakers should do it.
Wherever you are right now, whatever job you are currently doing - if you want to stay, and want to grow there, then start phasing in a better wardrobe than is standard for your level.
My own 6.: Actually want to get ahead
One problem is that many IT nerds don't actually, truly, in their hearts, want to have the responsibilities of those above them. Corporate budgets, HR headaches, meaningless and vague strategy initiatives... blech. IT do-ers get to solve logic puzzles all day using specialized expertise. Managers, etc., don't. Some people like this, or can effectively fake it. Either learn to fake it, or find that promotion that will still make you happy. Better yet, create one! This is often wildly possible. I'm doing that successfully myself. The point is, however, that people can smell it when you're not really "into it". It also shows in your enthusiasm.
I found that a desire to create a better work environment for myself and my beloved co-workers, produced by superior decision-making (my decisions!), was the motivation I needed to stop poorly faking it, and "smell" like a true up-and-comer. Also, I really like money.
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Hey Zen, great post and thanks for contributing. The majority of your slight disagreements with my post are bang on, and strictly stylistic. You shouldn't be a cookie cutter mould of what I've outlined in my original post and there is a lot of room for your personality to shine through. Still, on a basic level if you're really not comfortable with some of these concepts yet, my aim was to make it as simple as possible without introducing additional complexity. That said, there's really nothing wrong with the majority of things you outlined.
I will still slightly disagree with you about the interview process. I've been on both ends of the interview table many times, and it sounds like you have as well. If I'm interviewing someone, I'm looking obviously for several things in an applicant, and your knowledge is definitely one of them. What is infinitely more important to me personally are three things:
1. Do you have a good attitude
2. Are you going to be easy to work with
3. Will you fit in with your coworkers
Absolutely regardless of your knowledge, if you don't absolutely knock these three points out of the park, I'm not inviting you back. I will take the guy with 7/10 on the knowledge scale who nails those three things over the guy who is 10/10 and only hits 2/3 of the above every single time. Maybe this is just personal preference, but I really think that if an applicant fails one of those three tests, he isn't the best choice regardless of level of skill/knowledge. Let me say though that this assumes that the people I'm interviewing at least have close to the level of skill required. Obviously if you are the nicest person on the planet but you generally do not have the skills required to do the job, it's not going to work either. I'm going to make sure what you've said in your resume is accurate, and that you've represented yourself correctly from a skill-level perspective, but then after that it's all about organizational "fit", attitude and ease of coexistence.
That aside, great post and thanks for contributing!
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On September 22 2010 12:10 madnessman wrote:
I prefer this business blog to some of those other business blogs out there *cough cough*... The OP is informative and written in an unassuming and accessible way. And I'm typing this at IBM while taking a break from shitty administration and databasing assignments.
Thanks! It was my first post of this type, maybe I will write some more based on the feedback.
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Oh Zen I'd also like to comment on your section about self-promotion. Your coworkers are only justified in their resentment if what you're saying is untrue or exaggerated which I STRONGLY disagree with. Only self-promote when the work you are promoting is unassailable. Make sure it stands up to strong scrutiny, and invite positive AND negative criticism. Self-promotion has this funny side-effect of actually motivating you to be more accurate in your work, because anything you toot your own horn about is fertile ground for criticism, and you should welcome it!
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OP, if you wrote a book on this, I would buy it. Your style could be applied to more than just the business world - aka "getting ahead in life".
Food for thought...
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On September 22 2010 13:37 babolatt wrote:
I will take the guy with 7/10 on the knowledge scale who nails those three things over the guy who is 10/10 and only hits 2/3 of the above every single time.
Okay, yes, I agree with these numbers. A lot of knowledge holes can be filled in a year or two's time. Being a jerk? That's an unlearn-able skill. In fact, we had a guy in here two weeks ago with oodles of experience and knowledge, but I passed on him. He was a bad fit. However, it is certainly very important, especially to my boss, but also to myself, that I assess a candidate's skill. So, if the question is "what are important qualities to look for in a candidate", then you and I are probably in moderate-to-strong agreement. But if the question is "what are interviewers going to judge you on", as is the thrust of your OP, then I contend that it is very important to be able to back up your resume with detailed discussion, showing fluid and extemporaneous knowledge and comfort with the subject matter. Sitting ten yards away from me is a pleasant, but shy and poor "social" interviewee, who we still hired and have been nothing but pleased with.
One thing I've learned in the past few years, which is when I have done the bulk of my interviewing, is how poor so many candidates are. Granted, we tend to be looking for experienced and specialized candidates, so the pool is smaller, but sheesh. People, get a suit! Smile! Go over every bullet point in your last couple jobs and be able to tell a story about it. Know what that story is beforehand! And for Pete's sake, have somebody else review your resume and cover letter for typos, misspellings, and grammar. These are nearly immediate show-stoppers. After that, just relax and be confident, and things will improve immensely. Be cocky way, way down deep, as if you're doing us a favor by joining us, and you look forward to solving our problems. Surprisingly, I don't think I mind nervousness too much. It's very understandable. I hope it doesn't, but it may subconsciously.
Really, what I've learned is - wow - recession aside, if this is the best recruiters can give us, then I'm not nervous anymore if I have to go out and go on interviews again.
Your response to me about being 100% correct is personally interesting. I actually suffer from being neurotic about being 100% correct and thorough before I respond - "[motivation to] be more accurate in your work" is my problem, not my cure! It can be paralyzing, as I spend a lot of time verifying what I'm about to say. What I've learned from your post is the need to believe in my best judgment, given time/resource constraints, but then fire away, and be willing to quickly admit error.
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On September 23 2010 06:43 ZenCaser wrote:Really, what I've learned is - wow - recession aside, if this is the best recruiters can give us, then I'm not nervous anymore if I have to go out and go on interviews again.
This a thousand times. Unfortunately (Or fortunately for me from a competitive perspective) the talent pool for technical positions is absolutely horrendous. I don't know if I just expect too much from people, but this is how it looks for me approximately:
- I throw out about 85-90% of resumes, maybe even more.
- Of those thrown out, about 75% of them are because of GLARING problems like spelling/grammar. If you can't be bothered to put a lot of effort into your resume, it says a lot about you as a perspective employee.
- Of the say, 5-10% I may actually interview, honestly 50% are terrible, and another 30% or so are so-so. I'd say out of a stack of 100 resumes, there may be 2-5 people who knock it out of the park. Those numbers are pretty bad. This is part of the reason I wrote this as I've gone through a round of really bad interviews lately and I wanted to potentially help some people because if you write a good resume and interview well, you're going to do better than 95% of the people in the job market.
I actually suffer from being neurotic about being 100% correct and thorough before I respond - "[motivation to] be more accurate in your work" is my problem, not my cure! It can be paralyzing, as I spend a lot of time verifying what I'm about to say. What I've learned from your post is the need to believe in my best judgment, given time/resource constraints, but then fire away, and be willing to quickly admit error.
Yeah, it's really like an exam in school. Remember how much better you did when you went with your first choice rather than overthinking a question and second-guessing yourself? I honestly think it's the same thing. Trusting your judgement is really important and generally I think people are accurate more often than they think.
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This thread is interesting. The values that make a salesperson successful (assertiveness, appearance, etc) helps propel a very technical IT employee. Whereas, in sales, if you have technical skills with software or programs, then you get propelled quickly.
The golden rule is to hedge your skill sets to stand out.
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On September 23 2010 12:37 itzme_petey wrote:
This thread is interesting. The values that make a salesperson successful (assertiveness, appearance, etc) helps propel a very technical IT employee. Whereas, in sales, if you have technical skills with software or programs, then you get propelled quickly.
Mostly because at a fundamental level, your ability to sell yourself has a direct impact on how successful you are.
As a salesperson if you're too timid, nobody wants to buy what you're selling
If you're too aggressive, people get turned off
If you're a liar, people will view you as slimy
Confidence and product knowledge! It's not about convincing someone that they want something they don't need (unless you're slimy), it's about understanding the client's (your employer's) requirements, and then proposing a solution that best addresses them (your skills).
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Very informative post, especially since you are where I'm hoping to see myself in a number of years(career wise)
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EPT
