Janice Worthington MA, CPRW, JCTC, CEIP Send Janice a Question

Don’t Have You’re Interviewing Act Together? Be Encouraged! I thought of all of you last week and wish you could have been flies on the wall of the company that invited me to present them with a competitive proposal assisting their 26 lay-offs in securing new jobs. Certainly a savvy job search coach with three decades of experience would present nothing less than a perfect image and give nothing less than a stellar performance in presentation. Ok so I came through within 50% of expectation. It was much like interviewing for a job! There was competition for this outplacement contract, and I was interviewed by multiple parties. Oh I knew what to do all right but because the appointment was made with less than 48 hours lead-time during the busiest time of the month, I had very little time to prepare. (I don’t accept these excuses from my clients.) I wanted to customize their proposal and I did. I wanted to bring a portfolio of my accomplishments individually packaged for each of my scrutinizers and I did that too. I carefully wrote down directions from the gentleman by whom I was contacted and emailed a confirmation that I would be there. I also sent some of my published articles and some of my best-written letters of reference. The morning before my afternoon appearance my phone rang consecutively for three hours. Not wanting to be late for my 1:00 PM appointment, I quickly packed up my gear in one of my briefcases and out the door I went. Here’s a play-play: My directions specifically said to turn left on to Indianola Ave. Being geographically-challenged I was very careful in documenting these instructions however after not being able to find the building it was revealed that I should have turned right. So I arrived 10 minutes late. My briefcase had a scotch tape shadow on it; you know the adhesive part that you can’t remove once the tape has been pulled. And of course it appeared on the upside so that if it were to be hid the briefcase wouldn’t open. I couldn’t get into the briefcase without placing it on the conference table for all present to notice. I’m sure they did. My pen, included in this older briefcase months earlier, identified the name of a hotel chain and appeared to have been chewed on by everyone in my family plus several teething infants. I had to take notes on a legal pad with a piece of paper half-torn off the top. There was no hiding any of this. So there I sat with all of my imperfections out in the open for all to see. It was then that I decided that none of this would matter once the presentation was over. I had a strong passion and dedication for helping these displaced employees and when my presentation was completed my scrutinizers would be left with an undeniably compelling message. They wouldn’t care if I wrote with my finger and ultimately they didn’t. The following day I received the contract. I got the job! The lesson? You will inevitably walk into your interviews with your imperfections, perhaps not as visible as all of mine that day, but they could surface at any moment. I will not deny that image counts, but as long as humans, as opposed to robots, are making hiring decisions the power of your message delivered with contagious passion will dwarf imperfections every time. Be proud of who you are and take ownership of the job offer in spite of your pen. What do any of us have to lose?

Janice Worthington is President of Worthington Career Services, Ohio’s oldest resume preparation firm and one of the oldest in the U.S. With 14 years of corporate recruiting experience, Worthington Career Services opened its doors focused on applicant empowerment in 1973. She is known for advising some of America’s highest-ranking industry leaders. Please send Janice your questions at janice@worthingtonresumes.com .  For more information on Janice, please visit her website at http://www.worthingtonresumes.com/!