Where You're Headed knowing where you’ve been in your career is prerequisite to knowing where you're headed-perhaps for the rest of your professional life. If you have just been “de-hired” the chances are good that your employer's action has little to do with either you or your potential worth to another employer.
Organizations preach loyalty, and at one time in our history there were many opportunities to spend entire careers in one place. Now, however, mergers, acquisitions, downsizings, bankruptcies, and worse have shown us that loyalty can often be a one-way street. Although here do not view careers as a form of king of the hill or jungle combat, you need to remember that unswerving loyalty-although expected and even demanded-may one day be rewarded with a golden parachute, a golden handshake, or just a face-saving comment or two as the door closes on your way out.
In the managerial and executive ranks, what goes around does indeed come around, more frequently than we might think. The department head who interviews you may have come to that position after being let go somewhere else. Given enough time, you may find some of the people who aided or abetted in your de-hiring out on the streets themselves. More than a few executives have shared that experience with me, and I once had a supervisor who gave me the bad news hint that he himself was in need of a job and that I might be able to help him. The motto? The Boy Scouts of America have it right: Be prepared! Then if you suddenly find the door closing behind you-for whatever reason-you will be ready to continue your career elsewhere with little interruption. That door often closes because, during critical times, only the strong survive. The question is: strong in terms of what? That's one of the many areas we'll explore. But first we need to consider who you are and where you want to be.
What Have You Done?
Most prospective employers will want to know how you answer the question "What have you done?" There are many ways in which you might respond, and your answer will depend upon the skills you acquire for determining the interviewer's needs. Regardless of the response you choose, however, you will have to be prepared to back it up with specific, concrete information.
Where Are You Most Successful?
Like several other areas a prospective employer will have to explore, the question "Where are you most successful?" can lend itself to many responses. Again the key is to learn where the interviewer wants you to go and be prepared to follow that lead.
The first step is to know your strengths, the attributes that make you unique. The accompanying list will help you consider some of the many positive points that could realistically be made about you.
What Do You Like?
"What do you like?" also might appear to be a disarmingly simple question, but in fact, a considerable amount of forethought is prerequisite to having the right answer at hand when something like this is asked. Certainly, it would be to your advantage to show that you have already given the matter some thought.
Regrettably, there is no handy chart for this one, and it is doubtful that one could be developed. We can, however, provide you with some thought-starters that will lead you in the right direction.
Think back to a job that you have held-any job. Put yourself in an environment that you experienced within that job. Now go to a situation that will make you feel warm all over - not just attitudinally, but also physically warm as you think about it. Jot down the experience, and look at what you have written. Did the satisfaction come from something only you knew you did? Or did it come from something someone said? Internal if the source of satisfaction came from within, was it because you either proved something or showed somebody it could be done? Because of what it did for someone else? Because it brought you closer to others? Because you felt in control or took charge successfully? External if the satisfaction came from others' responses, did it come from recognition of your leadership skills? Your achievements? Your ability to get along with others or work within a team? Basically, your responses to these questions will help you determine (1) whether you depend on internal or external sources for feeling good about your life and (2) whether you derive the greatest satisfaction from activities based on power, affiliation, or achievement. It is important to know what motivates you before you even schedule a job interview. Suppose, for example, that you tend to be heavily power-oriented and that you have a strong need to receive recognition from others to gain personal satisfaction. In that case, you may want to steer clear of an organization in which your power drives would be thwarted by a superior who gives you no feedback. Internal People, Generally, people who get their satisfaction from within are internally oriented. Often they are independent thinkers who need little reinforcement from others as motivation. To go further, they may also tend to do well when they work independently of others. For that reason, they may be more oriented toward achievement than to ward power or affiliation.
External People, On the other hand, people who rely on others as a source of satisfaction may be mostly oriented toward power or affiliation. If power is their main drive, they often do best when they can lead projects. If affiliation is a stronger drive, they may function at their peak when they are part of a team effort.
Of course, it is possible that you have some of each drive within you; you may sometimes gain from self-satisfaction and at other times be most reinforced by the compliments of others. What you should look for here is a pattern, a way to help yourself predict the circumstances that will be most to your liking.
What Would You Like to Do?
When an interviewer asks you what you would like to do, you might find yourself giving an entirely different answer from that which was expected or wanted. The key, again, is to prepare yourself. The insights you gain here will help, and later you will learn how to elicit the inter viewer's intent before you respond to such questions. At this time, however, you should consider your options. You want to have a variety of responses at hand when you go into the interview.
