Speaker 1: My colleagues. We'll start commenting on everything. I get. My
Speaker 1: insist rolls, eyes at people and meeting Why does my
Speaker 1: coworker keep taking credit for all my ideas? Have any
Speaker 1: wisdom for me? Hi, I'm Alison Green. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Aska Manager Podcast. Right answer questions from listeners about life
Speaker 1: at work. Everything from what to say if you're allergic
Speaker 1: to your coworkers perfume to what to do if you
Speaker 1: drink too much at the company party. Let's get started. Hi,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the show. Today. I have lots of
Speaker 1: interesting questions to answer. The first question today is from
Speaker 1: someone who's worried that she's inadvertently becoming the office secretary,
Speaker 1: even though that's not her job. Hello. I work at
Speaker 1: a larger educational institution and have a job that directly
Speaker 1: served and basis students. I love my job. When I started,
Speaker 1: we had a part time front office person who basically
Speaker 1: managed the office, ordered all the supplies, handled block in traffic,
Speaker 1: et cetera. We had an additional agreement with most of
Speaker 1: our office staff about to beating up the more menial
Speaker 1: task so that one person has never sattled with all
Speaker 1: the dishes cleaning the conference room vacuuming, etcetera. Our front
Speaker 1: office person left in early April of this year, so
Speaker 1: I've been covering this position for almost a year now.
Speaker 1: I normally wouldn't mind, but it's starting to if I
Speaker 1: try to see my job. I took this position thinking
Speaker 1: it was a step up with higher pay, more responsibility
Speaker 1: from a previous front office position I had, and specifically
Speaker 1: took it because I knew I wouldn't be the front
Speaker 1: office person a k secretary. However, the dynamics have changed
Speaker 1: in the absence of a front office person. Menial things
Speaker 1: are starting to take up my time. More and more.
Speaker 1: Coworkers may comments and requested me now that are much different.
Speaker 1: Um like asking me if I can fix the vacuum.
Speaker 1: You'd be so proud of me. I fixed a copy
Speaker 1: jam by myself. Our water tower seems gross. Can we
Speaker 1: get a new one? I wouldn't mind, but it's starting
Speaker 1: to affect my confidence at work. I'm all for helping
Speaker 1: out around the office, but I'm getting sort of bitter
Speaker 1: that I'm now to go to for me neo tasks
Speaker 1: and not to go to like before, for more technical tasks.
Speaker 1: Are questions instead of being asked to me coffee. Our
Speaker 1: main supervisor will now cry into his mug like a
Speaker 1: baby until I notice and ask if you'd like coffee? Folks,
Speaker 1: who I startuple motion for a pen instead of asking
Speaker 1: me for a pen? I know these things seem small,
Speaker 1: but it's starting to feel a little bit dehumanizing. And
Speaker 1: then I'm only there to be a secretary and not
Speaker 1: value for the more technical skills and background I was
Speaker 1: hired for. I've been trying to track it up as
Speaker 1: a temporary situation, but by boss needs to think we
Speaker 1: don't need to rehire that position because it's just an
Speaker 1: issue with office coverage, something I've tried to bring up
Speaker 1: multiple times again. I'm all over begining around the office.
Speaker 1: But what options do I have here to get back
Speaker 1: into loving my job? Should I stuck it up and
Speaker 1: grin and bear it? Thanks so much? Oh do not
Speaker 1: suck it up and grin and bear it, because if
Speaker 1: you do, it's very likely that the will become your
Speaker 1: job and it will get so ingrained that you won't
Speaker 1: be able to change it after a while. In fact,
Speaker 1: I am worried that that may have already started to
Speaker 1: happen because you have been a good sport about it.
Speaker 1: For so long. The fact that people are motioning to
Speaker 1: you to get them pens rather than getting their own pens,
Speaker 1: for example, worries me. It's a small thing, but you
Speaker 1: would never do that to appear who wasn't in charge
Speaker 1: of pens. They think you're in charge of pens now.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you've got a short circuit this and get
Speaker 1: it changed now. You said you've brought up with your
Speaker 1: boss multiple times that the front office needs more coverage,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't think he needs to rehire for it.
Speaker 1: I think instead, you should tackle it from a different angle.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's up to him if he rehires or not,
Speaker 1: but you want to step out of the role that
Speaker 1: you had stepped into temporarily to help out. I would
Speaker 1: sit down with him and say something like, I want
Speaker 1: to talk to you about my role here. I was
Speaker 1: happy to help out with front office coverage when Jane left,
Speaker 1: but I've been doing it or months now, and I'm
Speaker 1: concerned that doing it any longer will mean a permanent
Speaker 1: shift in my role. I actually took this job in
Speaker 1: part because it wasn't the front office person, and it's
Speaker 1: important to me to be able to focus on the
Speaker 1: technical skills that I was hired to use, and which
Speaker 1: are the reason that I took the job. Make sure
Speaker 1: that you use that language that stuff about the reason
Speaker 1: that I took this job, because that is emphasizing that
Speaker 1: the job is evolving into something that you didn't and
Speaker 1: wouldn't have signed on for. And then say, you know,
Speaker 1: I stepped up to help cover that work because I
Speaker 1: wanted to be helpful and I figured it would be temporary.
Speaker 1: But admin work is starting to take up more and
Speaker 1: more of my time, and I'm seeing people just assume
Speaker 1: that it's my job, doing things like asking me to
Speaker 1: fix the vacuum or handle the water tower or bring
Speaker 1: them pens or coffee. And again, I was willing to
Speaker 1: help out in a pinch, but at this point, I'm
Speaker 1: concerned that it's really overshadowing the work that I came
Speaker 1: on board to do, and I want to return to
Speaker 1: focusing on that. If you don't plan to rehire for
Speaker 1: the front office work for a while, can someone else
Speaker 1: take over most of this coverage so that I can
Speaker 1: get back to the work that I came on to do.
Speaker 1: So something like that. So the thing that you're pushing
Speaker 1: is not you need to hire to fill that role.
Speaker 1: It's that you're going to step back from doing so
Speaker 1: much of it. Again, you volunteered, so just d volunteer yourself,
Speaker 1: un volunteered, whatever the word might be. Also, if there
Speaker 1: is a mix of genders in your office, if there
Speaker 1: are some guys in there too, I would also say,
Speaker 1: I don't want to fall into a trap where people
Speaker 1: are turning to me to do this work because I'm
Speaker 1: a woman. It's really important to me to have your
Speaker 1: support in making sure that that doesn't happen, because that
Speaker 1: is very much a thing that does happen. Women step
Speaker 1: in to fill this kind of vacuum far more often
Speaker 1: than men do, and you don't want to get pulled
Speaker 1: into that. And sometimes when you're talking to your boss,
Speaker 1: that can help to make that very explicit. Especially well,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say especially as a man, but but
Speaker 1: actually it's helpful to point it out to women too.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people just don't realize that that gender dynamic is
Speaker 1: playing out, and when you name it, they realize, oh okay,
Speaker 1: and they're more willing to help you out with that. Also,
Speaker 1: to some extent, it sounds like you may be sort
Speaker 1: of enabling your coworkers dependence on you for the admin work.
Speaker 1: You know, if someone is whining about not having coffee,
Speaker 1: even if it's your boss, you absolutely do not need
Speaker 1: to volunteer to solve that. It's not your job, and
Speaker 1: there is a danger that people will start thinking that
Speaker 1: it's your job if you keep doing it. So don't
Speaker 1: do it, not at all, not even one more time.
Speaker 1: He can get his own coffee, or if he doesn't
Speaker 1: want to, he can hire someone who has that in
Speaker 1: their job description. But it's not your responsibility. Stop volunteering
Speaker 1: to get him coffee. The same thing with the pens
Speaker 1: and the vacuum and so forth. If someone motions to
Speaker 1: you to get them a pen from now on you
Speaker 1: have no idea what they're gesturing for, give them a
Speaker 1: weird look, and if necessary, you can say the pencer
Speaker 1: in the supply closet or or wherever they are, or
Speaker 1: give them the same response that they would get if
Speaker 1: they did that to the dude in your office who
Speaker 1: has no idea where the pens are. Along the same lines,
Speaker 1: if someone asks you to like fix the vacuum, your
Speaker 1: answer can just be huh, I don't know how to
Speaker 1: do that anymore than you do, and I'm right in
Speaker 1: the middle of something. Sorry, I can't help if someone
Speaker 1: asks you to do other things that aren't your job,
Speaker 1: same thing, you know, Sorry, I just don't have time
Speaker 1: to do that right now. I know that you want
Speaker 1: to be helpful, but you are going to train people
Speaker 1: to think that you are the admin and you're not.
Speaker 1: If you want to do the job you're hired to do,
Speaker 1: you're going to have to put up boundaries and focus
Speaker 1: on doing that. Don't worry about fixing a problem that
Speaker 1: is not yours to fix. It's your boss's problem to fix,
Speaker 1: and if he wants to fix it, he will look
Speaker 1: around at all of your coworkers who have decided it's
Speaker 1: not their problem and take your cues from them. I
Speaker 1: know that you want to be helpful, and that's a
Speaker 1: lovely trait, but by making it your problem to solve,
Speaker 1: you're making it really easy for your boss to avoid
Speaker 1: doing anything else about it. So from here on forward,
Speaker 1: you are not the front office coverage anymore. We're gonna
Speaker 1: take a short break here and then come back with
Speaker 1: a question from someone who was getting ready to make
Speaker 1: a job offer and then found the candidates Instagram. Hi Allison,
Speaker 1: I work for a very conservative nonprofit organization and we
Speaker 1: are currently hiring for a high level position. We have
Speaker 1: narrowed it down to two candidates, and there was one
Speaker 1: candidate who um clearly was more qualified and ready for
Speaker 1: the job. So UM we were about to make an
Speaker 1: offer and I did some Internet flu thing and noticed
Speaker 1: that on his Instagram page he is following some very
Speaker 1: inappropriate accounts. So not to get too detailed here, but
Speaker 1: the accounts are I guess what you would call Instagram models,
Speaker 1: but um barely closed and in latex type clothing, often
Speaker 1: showing um much skin. And he follows about you know,
Speaker 1: these um different accounts. So I don't know if that
Speaker 1: is a reason that we would not hire him based
Speaker 1: on that one piece of information alone. So would love
Speaker 1: to hear any advice you have. Thank you. You know,
Speaker 1: this is tricky in general. I am a big believer
Speaker 1: that people get to have a private life and it
Speaker 1: shouldn't really have any bearing and whether you hire them.
Speaker 1: But Instagram isn't exactly a private life. It's public enough
Speaker 1: that you can see what he's doing there, and he's
Speaker 1: knowingly putting out a certain image, or if not knowingly,
Speaker 1: then he's certainly not maybe displaying the type of savvy
Speaker 1: that you would want for someone that you're hiring for
Speaker 1: a high level position at a conservative organization. Now, if
Speaker 1: this were a lower level position, I'd be more inclined
Speaker 1: to say not really your business. But you said the
Speaker 1: jobs high level job, and he said the organization is
Speaker 1: a very conservative one. So I don't think it's entirely
Speaker 1: off base to think about this. At least, it's hard
Speaker 1: to say exactly how you should navigate it without more
Speaker 1: information about the job that you're considering him for. There
Speaker 1: are some jobs where it really shouldn't matter, and there
Speaker 1: are other jobs where it would, especially if it's high profile.
Speaker 1: I think what I would ask is, if your staff
Speaker 1: or your donor saw what you saw, would that cause issues? Like,
Speaker 1: for example, if he would be in a position where
Speaker 1: he's going to be managing women or evaluating women, is
Speaker 1: that going to give those women some pause about how
Speaker 1: he will treat them and if he is fair and
Speaker 1: if he's someone they feel comfortable with. If, for example,
Speaker 1: he would be working in HR and he would be
Speaker 1: handling sexual harassment complaints, are women going to feel comfortable
Speaker 1: bringing harassment complaints to him? And I don't know, um
Speaker 1: I mean that that sounds I feel like that sounds
Speaker 1: like I'm sort of pre judging the answer, But I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think it really depends on your context
Speaker 1: and the job you're hiring him for. And also if
Speaker 1: you are working for like a gender equality group or
Speaker 1: an anti porn group and he'd be a spokesperson, is
Speaker 1: that going to look off? So I think you've got
Speaker 1: to think about the specific job that he'll be doing
Speaker 1: and how he'll be interacting with people on your staff,
Speaker 1: and decide from there if it would affect his ability
Speaker 1: to do the job with credibility. And again, I'm not
Speaker 1: pre judging it. I feel like I'm sort of leading
Speaker 1: you to the answer of yes, it would be a problem,
Speaker 1: but I genuinely don't know. It really does depend on
Speaker 1: those details. One other possibility is if you do decide
Speaker 1: that it's something you're concerned about, you could try raising
Speaker 1: it with him directly. You could say something like, we
Speaker 1: think you're a strong candidate, but I've got to be honest,
Speaker 1: we're a conservative organization and this is a high level position,
Speaker 1: and this is a thing we noticed, and we're wondering
Speaker 1: how it would play with our staff and with our donors.
Speaker 1: And then see what he says. Who knows, I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe you'll hear it's an abandoned account and it's been
Speaker 1: taken over by spammers, which is a thing that can happen.
Speaker 1: Maybe you'll get some other real sin that will make
Speaker 1: you think, oh, okay, this is not going to be
Speaker 1: an issue. And there is certainly a school of thought
Speaker 1: that if you are going to rule someone out because
Speaker 1: of something like this, it's better to give them the
Speaker 1: chance to respond to it. You don't have to, but
Speaker 1: if he's an otherwise great candidate who you are excited about,
Speaker 1: it could be worth doing. Okay, here is our next letter.
Speaker 1: H I've been working for a small nonprofit for a
Speaker 1: few years. I've recently been given a new position. It's
Speaker 1: a sideways move rather than a promotion, but involves managing
Speaker 1: a small team, whereas before I didn't have direct reports.
Speaker 1: The person who used to head up this team just
Speaker 1: left and management decided to restructure rather than recruit directly
Speaker 1: to replace them. However, I've heard from others that the
Speaker 1: person who was second in command and the old team
Speaker 1: was very disappointed on hearing this news, as I think
Speaker 1: he expected for his boss's position to be open and
Speaker 1: that he could throw his hat in the ring for
Speaker 1: what it's worth. He is great at his job, but
Speaker 1: younger and a little less experience than me. Again, on
Speaker 1: well with him, and I think he likes and respects me.
Speaker 1: But we've not worked closely together before, and he will
Speaker 1: now be my direct report. Any advice on how to
Speaker 1: deal with this? Should I acknowledge the elephant in the
Speaker 1: room and get that out of the way, or just
Speaker 1: skip over it? Thanks, I would definitely talk with him.
Speaker 1: I probably wouldn't start out with a really blunt hey,
Speaker 1: I realized that you may have wanted the opportunity to
Speaker 1: apply for this job. I think I would ease more
Speaker 1: into talking about his work and how you think he's
Speaker 1: great at his job, and kind of see how that
Speaker 1: conversation goes. Tell him you're impressed by his work, you're
Speaker 1: excited to work with him, and then, depending on how
Speaker 1: that's going, you could say something like I know you
Speaker 1: were second in command on the old team and might
Speaker 1: have been interested in this job, so I want to
Speaker 1: tell you that I'm really committed to working with you
Speaker 1: to give you more responsibility if you want it, and
Speaker 1: development opportunities and helping you get really well positioned for
Speaker 1: that kind of promotion if it's something you're interested in
Speaker 1: in the future. So it's not hey, you must be
Speaker 1: feeling weird, because that's pretty likely to make him feel
Speaker 1: weird if he's not already. It's more, I recognize that
Speaker 1: you're great at what you do and that you might
Speaker 1: have ambitions to move up, and I'm all about helping
Speaker 1: you do that if you want me to. The thing
Speaker 1: is in his position, he might be worried about what
Speaker 1: this restructure means for him and whether it will be
Speaker 1: in some ways a demotion for him, especially if he
Speaker 1: was second command in the old structure but isn't now,
Speaker 1: and he might be wondering, do you recognize what he
Speaker 1: brings to the table or is he going to be
Speaker 1: sort of unrecognized and unappreciated. So one of the best
Speaker 1: things that you can do early on is to make
Speaker 1: it clear that you do recognize what he brings and
Speaker 1: that you value and appreciate him, and that's likely to
Speaker 1: help the situation. Now, there are sometimes situations where the
Speaker 1: person who has passed over is resentful and handles it badly,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't sound like you're seeing signs of that
Speaker 1: in this case. So far. If that happens, of course
Speaker 1: you would have to deal with that head on. But
Speaker 1: you know, if he's just a bit disappointed, that's okay.
Speaker 1: I mean, it makes sense that he might be, and
Speaker 1: we can understand that as long as you're really underscoring
Speaker 1: to him that you appreciate the value that he brings
Speaker 1: and that you're not overlooking that, it's pretty likely that
Speaker 1: that will give you a good foundation to start building
Speaker 1: a working relationship with him. Okay. The next question we
Speaker 1: have is from someone whose boss sort of traps her
Speaker 1: in her office and rambles at her and she can't escape.
Speaker 1: I work overnights, and by the time I come in,
Speaker 1: my boss's schedules to just finish up his daily tasks
Speaker 1: and head out. Sometimes this takes a while, but he
Speaker 1: tends to make it even longer, like coming into our
Speaker 1: room it's connected to his office, and he'll ramble on
Speaker 1: and on about something, usually political, of which I have
Speaker 1: a strong opposing view. I can't argue too much because
Speaker 1: he determines whether or not I have the job, and
Speaker 1: because that will only extend his day in the office.
Speaker 1: Since he's a very my way of the highway type,
Speaker 1: and that makes him have to take more time to
Speaker 1: finish his daily work. I've tried turning my back to
Speaker 1: him while still giving like little uh huh and other
Speaker 1: minor engagements to show I'm not being rude and ignoring him.
Speaker 1: But what can I do about my rambling, ranting boss?
Speaker 1: That is annoying because you are sort of his captive
Speaker 1: audience because of the power dynamics, and he's using you
Speaker 1: as kind of a captive outlet for his ranting. A
Speaker 1: long time ago, I worked with someone who would always
Speaker 1: do this at the end of the day too, and
Speaker 1: it was not fun. Often with this kind of thing,
Speaker 1: where you don't feel like you can just directly say, hey,
Speaker 1: stop talking to me, the best thing to do is
Speaker 1: to have almost physical barriers to the person doing it
Speaker 1: to you. So, for example, if you have to make
Speaker 1: phone calls for your job, I wonder if you could
Speaker 1: save some of them for the time of day when
Speaker 1: he tends to come by on his way out. If
Speaker 1: you're on the phone when he comes by, it's going
Speaker 1: to head off him rambling it you. You could also
Speaker 1: just be about to get up and leave your desk
Speaker 1: to get coffee or to go to the bathroom. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you don't want to stand up and leave every time
Speaker 1: your boss enters your office, but you can do it
Speaker 1: some of the time. And you can also do it
Speaker 1: after he has rambled for five minutes, so you can
Speaker 1: say I'm dying of thirst, I'll be right back, and
Speaker 1: sometimes that's going to be enough to break up whatever
Speaker 1: monologue he's delivering. You can also just say sorry, I've
Speaker 1: got to get this report done, so I better not
Speaker 1: get too involved in this conversation. What I would do
Speaker 1: is a mix of these different ones on different days,
Speaker 1: and also except that sometimes you'll have to just let
Speaker 1: him ramble too, but you can probably get it down
Speaker 1: to just being stuck listening to the rambling maybe once
Speaker 1: or twice a week rather than every day. Now, if
Speaker 1: you had a different type of boss, in that case,
Speaker 1: I might say no, just be direct about it, because
Speaker 1: with some types of bosses you could say, hey, I've
Speaker 1: noticed I get pulled into chatting with you when you're
Speaker 1: leaving every day, and I love talking to you, but
Speaker 1: I'm realizing it's making me get behind on my work
Speaker 1: on those days and then I have to rush to
Speaker 1: catch up. So I'm going to try to pull back
Speaker 1: on our five PM chats. But you said this guy
Speaker 1: is very my way or the highway, So with him,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing that maybe more subtle methods of avoidance might
Speaker 1: work better, or at least they might feel more comfortable
Speaker 1: to you to use them. Let's take a break here,
Speaker 1: and when we come back, we have a question from
Speaker 1: someone who can't seem to get hired. I'm recent college
Speaker 1: grad well, if you can count two years out of
Speaker 1: school recent, and I can't seem to land a full
Speaker 1: time job to remedy my situation. While I'm working two
Speaker 1: part time jobs. I've sent in applications probably over a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty to full time jobs across the country
Speaker 1: for the last two years. I consistently get good feedback
Speaker 1: on my performance at work and on my application materials.
Speaker 1: But I'm really worried I'm doing something wrong navigating the
Speaker 1: work world, and one is telling me what can I
Speaker 1: do differently to land a full time job. So it's
Speaker 1: really hard to say with confidence what isn't working without
Speaker 1: seeing your resume and your cover letter and seeing you interview.
Speaker 1: But what I can tell you is that the vast,
Speaker 1: vast majority of resumes and cover letters that I see
Speaker 1: are not good So the first thing that I always
Speaker 1: suspect when I hear someone saying something like this is
Speaker 1: that your resume and cover letter aren't as strong as
Speaker 1: they could be and are holding you back, because just
Speaker 1: statistically speaking, that's the case like n percent at the time.
Speaker 1: And what is interesting is that I will often hear
Speaker 1: from people who tell me, oh, I know that my
Speaker 1: resume and cover letter are fine. They're definitely not the problem.
Speaker 1: I've gotten feedback on them from people I followed all
Speaker 1: of your advice and writing them. And then sometimes I say, well,
Speaker 1: just to make sure, can I take a look at them,
Speaker 1: and they send them over, and much of the time,
Speaker 1: even though they were very sure that their material els
Speaker 1: were good, they're not that good. Even when people tell
Speaker 1: me that they have followed my advice and writing them,
Speaker 1: when I actually take a look at them, they haven't
Speaker 1: really followed that advice. So the first thing I would
Speaker 1: look at is that if you go to my website
Speaker 1: ask a manager dot org, there's a lot of totally
Speaker 1: free information on how to write a good cover letter
Speaker 1: and how to write a good resume, and there's samples
Speaker 1: of both that you can look at. The big thing
Speaker 1: with resumes that most people don't do is that you
Speaker 1: really really don't want it to just read like a
Speaker 1: job description. You don't want it to be a list
Speaker 1: of activities that you were responsible for, because as the
Speaker 1: hiring manager, just knowing that you were assigned task X
Speaker 1: doesn't tell me anything about how well you did task X.
Speaker 1: And that's the piece that I care about, and that's
Speaker 1: the piece that will make you stand out from other candidates.
Speaker 1: So as much as you can, you want to talk
Speaker 1: on your resume not about what work you were assigned
Speaker 1: or what work you were in charge of, but what
Speaker 1: outcomes you got by doing it. What were the results
Speaker 1: that you got, and that is going to make a
Speaker 1: much stronger resume. And then with your cover letter, you
Speaker 1: wanted to have personality and to be engaging. The most
Speaker 1: important thing is that you don't want it to just
Speaker 1: summarize the contents of your resume, which is what most
Speaker 1: people do with their cover letters. You know, dear hiring manager,
Speaker 1: I'm applying for your analyst position. I have ten years
Speaker 1: of experience doing blah blah and five years of experience
Speaker 1: doing blah. That's not a good cover letter. That's just
Speaker 1: giving me the same info from your resume a second time.
Speaker 1: Your cover letter is where you talk about why you
Speaker 1: would excel at the job without just regurgitating what's on
Speaker 1: your resume. So again, go to ask a Manager dot org.
Speaker 1: Go to the resume section and the cover letter section
Speaker 1: and the archives, and you're going to find loads of
Speaker 1: information about how to do this. Now, you didn't say
Speaker 1: if you are getting interviews or not. If you're not,
Speaker 1: then it's a pretty safe bet that your resume and
Speaker 1: cover letter are the things to focus on. Or I
Speaker 1: guess it could be also that you're applying for jobs
Speaker 1: that you're not qualified for, of course, but I'm assuming
Speaker 1: here that you're targeting jobs that you're a good match with.
Speaker 1: But if you are getting a decent number of interviews,
Speaker 1: then it might be that your materials aren't really the
Speaker 1: issue at all. In that case, I would be looking
Speaker 1: at your interview skills. Do you get really nervous and interviews?
Speaker 1: Do you prepare ahead of time? How much time do
Speaker 1: you spend preparing And actually I'm going to send you
Speaker 1: back to my website because I have a free guide
Speaker 1: to preparing for an interview that you can download and
Speaker 1: it will walk you through what to do step by step. Also,
Speaker 1: do you go in with specific examples of work situations
Speaker 1: that you've encountered in the past, and are you able
Speaker 1: to speak with specificity about times in the past when
Speaker 1: you've done the sorts of things they're hiring someone to
Speaker 1: do or something similar to it. Those are the things
Speaker 1: I'd be looking at. And also, if you have gotten
Speaker 1: some interviews, and if you had an interviewer who you
Speaker 1: particularly seemed to click with or who just seemed like
Speaker 1: sort of a nice and helpful person, you might contact
Speaker 1: that person and ask if they would be willing to
Speaker 1: give you any feedback. Tell them you're having trouble getting hired,
Speaker 1: and that as a new grad you'd be grateful for
Speaker 1: any guidance or feedback able to give you. Some people
Speaker 1: will say no because they're busy, so don't be discouraged
Speaker 1: if that happens. But some people will say yes, so
Speaker 1: it's worth trying the other thing that you can do.
Speaker 1: I don't always recommend informational interviews because I think they
Speaker 1: can be a waste of everyone's time, but in your case,
Speaker 1: it might be helpful to set up a few informational
Speaker 1: interviews with people in your field and see if you
Speaker 1: can get feedback on what you need to do to
Speaker 1: make yourself a stronger candidate. For people who don't know,
Speaker 1: the idea with informational interviews is that they're not a
Speaker 1: job interview. They're a conversation to help you get kind
Speaker 1: of the insider scoop on the field that you want
Speaker 1: to work in from people who are already working in it,
Speaker 1: so you don't go into it hoping that it will
Speaker 1: turn into a job offer or even the lead on
Speaker 1: a job, because people can tell when you're doing that
Speaker 1: and it's annoying. Be really clear upfront that you're struggling
Speaker 1: to find the type of work you want and that
Speaker 1: you're looking for advice on what you can do to
Speaker 1: be a stronger candidate. And I would really make sure
Speaker 1: to say that you're a recent grad because a lot
Speaker 1: of people like helping recent grads, especially if you're humble
Speaker 1: about it. So that's a lot to think about. But
Speaker 1: that is where I would start, and I hope that's helpful.
Speaker 1: That is our show for today. If you would like
Speaker 1: to hear your question answered on a future episode, you
Speaker 1: can record it on the show voicemail at eight five
Speaker 1: five four to six work That is eight five five
Speaker 1: four to six nine six seven five, or if you
Speaker 1: have a longer question where you actually want to come
Speaker 1: on the show and talk with me about it, email
Speaker 1: your question to podcast at ask a manager dot org.
Speaker 1: That's it for today and I will be back next
Speaker 1: time with more questions. M