Tag: communication skills | Page 14

Eliminate the Negative: Tips on What to Avoid in a Job Interview

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012|

Whenever I have an interview coming up, I go through my preparation process. By the time the interview arrives, I know exactly what I want to say, at least to the standard interview questions I’ve encountered before, and I’ve prepared questions to ask – if the topics don’t come up naturally.

However, it’s also a good idea to make a clear list of the subjects you would rather not discuss, and how you will handle the situation if and/or when these topics do arise. Here are some ideas from the recruiters at Artisan Creative about things to avoid on your interview – and some positive alternatives:

Talent Manager, Laura Burns:

Avoid saying anything negative about your former employer. Rather, plan to talk about a good relationship you had with the company and how that helped you do a better job.
Don’t talk about your personal life, even if the interviewer does. It is very easy to get caught following their lead. Try to steer the conversation back to the workplace.
Don’t talk about salary or benefits right at the start. If you’re working with a recruiter, let them discuss those items for you. They can probably get you a better package and will most likely have more experience negotiating than you do.

Creative Recruiting Manager, Jamie Grossman:

Don’t take credit for a whole project – even if you think it sounds better. Instead, discuss your accomplishments and how you worked with all those involved in the project. Employers like to know that you are a good at collaborating, too.

Sr Account Manager & Recruiter, Carol Conforti:

Instead of “I hated my last boss,“ say “I did not share the management philosophy.”
If you didn’t get along with someone try “my coworkers and I had different ideas about how things should be done.”
Don’t look for a promotion before you get hired. However, you can say “I feel very capable of doing a great job; is there a career path for this role?”
Instead of “When can I get a raise?” try “What is the review process here?”
Avoid asking “Do people work hard or spend long hours here?” If you want to know, say, “What is a typical day like here?”
Always have a question ready. Even if you don’t really have any, try, “What are the next steps?”

And a recent addition to the team, Account Manager & Recruiter, Melinda Geniza:

Always put a positive spin on your challenging experiences and talk about lessons learned.
Don’t be too modest about your achievements or contributions on certain projects: Avoid statements like “this was just a little thing I did…”
Generalities when describing your work are not as effective as specifics. Use technical language and details when talking about your process.
Don’t come across like you aren’t interested in the job. Even if it’s not your dream job, you must be interested or you wouldn’t be at the interview. Interviewers can pick up on your lack of enthusiasm through body language and eye contact.

I hope you got the theme in these answers. As the song says, “Accentuate the positive!” Prepare yourself to talk about your previous employer, your experience and your hopes for working in the future in a positive light and your interview is sure to go well!

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

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Brainstorming: Important Factor in Company Culture?

Thursday, February 16th, 2012|

There’s been a lot of chatter lately about brainstorming:

How to brainstorm better
Brainstorming isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
It’s okay if you’re not good at brainstorming
Our kids are being trained to brainstorm instead of think up their own ideas

Brainstorming, like every idea-generation technique, has its place, certainly. I have a friend who sets up great brainstorms for a very large multinational corporation, and they definitely get some wonderful ideas out of that process. They also get some lousy ones. But everyone agrees that making time for that process – coming together to “be creative” is what makes all of those ideas – good and bad – possible.

However, if brainstorming sessions are not run properly, it is remarkably easy for brainstorming to turn into groupthink without anyone realizing it. Groupthink has the negative connotations that brainstorming escapes: people getting together and forming a mob, not really a consensus. If everyone is thinking the same thing so it must be a good idea, right?

Utilizing brainstorming best practices to properly structure a brainstorming session – going for as many ideas as possible, allowing one speaker at a time, deferring all judgment during the session, allowing “builds” and visuals, and ensuring all ideas are documents – groups can avoid the pitfalls of a groupthink session.

While there’s a lot to be said for working in small groups to throw ideas back and forth, many also argue the more solitary ways of coming up with ideas as well.

Recent research studies are showing that although we need criticism to improve our ideas, we need solitude to come up with them in the first place. Socializing during the creative process can help to refine ideas, but at the same time, true originality comes from one person trying to solve a problem.

When it comes to problem-solving, all companies have their own culture and ideas about brainstorming. Understanding this process – especially as it relates to creative idea generation – is certainly an interesting question to ask at an interview. Knowing how you would be involved with presenting your ideas and/or editing those of others could be a big factor in whether a company’s creative or marketing department is right for you?

What are your thoughts on brainstorming? Do you prefer solitary or group settings? Hours or short bursts?

Whatever the answers, knowing how you like to tackle problem-solving – and the way potential companies choose to handle it – could be more telling about a long-term culture fit within an organization than we realize.

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

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The Creative Interview

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012|

Most of us have interviewed for many different roles in our working lives, from our first summer job in high school (where they needed to know if we could mop floors) to interviews hours of testing to prove our skillsets were as solid as our resumes claimed.

We’ve talked a lot on our blog about how to prepare for a typical interview – and even for a more atypical one – but we’ve never talked about how a creative interview differs from a more general one. Nor have we really talked about what creative recruiters are looking for versus their counterparts in another field.

I asked the recruiters at Artisan: “How do you think ‘creative’ interviews differ from ‘regular’ job interviews?”

The answers were pretty consistent.

- The portfolio is the number one factor during a creative interview. Whether the interviewer has already seen work samples via a website or a PDF, the design aesthetic and body of work are always the most important consideration. However, further explanation of that work is always required. Talent must be prepared to explain their portfolio fully.”Creatives must be able to walk us through their work, their involvement in producing that work, their challenges, their inspiration and the effectiveness the work had,” said Account Manager, Jess Bedford. “The finished work is only part of the whole creative process. Understanding how creatives work through that process, helps us better qualify talent for the culture and team fit.”
- Creative rapport is essential. As is often the case, initial interviews may not always be held with like-minded or department-based interviewers. HR, for instance, may not understand the full creative processes as well as a Creative Director. Therefore, establishing an interviewer’s level of understanding for one’s creative specialty is essential. Do it upfront, too. Therefore, when one gets to the portfolio review, you know which work will illustrate something relevant to their needs / interest, and how in-depth your review should be.

Past resume experience is not always the key factor. What’s more important than the clients you’ve worked for is being able to demonstrate, through both paid and/or spec work, a keen eye for design and the ability to push the creative envelope.” For so many of our clients – the resume is second to the creative work,” said Carol Conforti, Sr Account Manager, and Recruiter. “Many creatives make the mistake of only including work that’s been paid for and/or approved. Some of the best portfolios I’ve seen include both finished work and the other concepts that the clients didn’t use. Many even have concepts designers have ‘played with’ in their free time.”

What I take most from these answers (thanks, recruiters!) is how essential a portfolio is to the creative interview. And being able to review that portfolio effectively is just as important!

But that’s only part of it. Research, once again, turns out to be really helpful as well. Whatever you can find out before the interview about the company, about the job responsibilities, even about the background of the interviewer or their client, will help you present your portfolio in the very best light possible.

Wendy Stackhouse for Artisan Creative

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7 Ways to Improve your Memory

Thursday, February 9th, 2012|

I am a list-maker. I also set alarms and, when they go off, I have to try to remember why I set them. I lose my keys, my phone, my iPod—I’m lucky I don’t lose the kids some days!

Who hasn’t struggled to remember the name of a business associate at a networking event, a key point during a presentation or the date that big project is due?

Whatever the reason we experience a lapse in memory – chances are we could all use a few ways to help us improve it?

Here are just a few of the best exercises I’ve found to strengthen our ability to remember people, places, ideas – and everything in between:

Use pictures – If you tend to forget names, tie a person’s name to a mental picture. If their name is a word or like a word, this is easy, but using rhymes or words that sound like the name also helps. The trick is the picture, not how you got there.

Change fonts – If you’re trying to learn something from text on your computer screen, reading it in an unfamiliar font makes you concentrate on it more.

Say it out loud – If you’re going to a business meeting where you know some of the people who will be there, say their names out loud to yourself before you go to put them in your short-term memory bank.

Learn a new language – People who speak more than one language are more likely to have a good memory. If you already speak another language, translate what you’re trying to remember into it. It puts double connections down in your brain, while making you focus on the information.

Interact, in-person or even online – Using language to communicate keeps your brain engaged, no matter the medium.

Get some exercise – Exercise builds synapses and synapses are the connections your brain makes to create memories.

Get more sleep – Getting enough sleep is essential for high functioning in many areas, but memory is certainly one of them.

Where was I? Oh, yes.

We all have good days and bad days for remembering things. If you want to have more good days, try some of these techniques and let us know if you see any difference!

Wendy Stackhouse, Consultant for Artisan Creative

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The Proust Questionnaire for Creatives

Thursday, January 26th, 2012|

You’ve heard of the Proust Questionnaire, I’m sure. Made famous in the back pages of Vanity Fair Magazine, it was named not for questions, but for the answers given by Marcel Proust to a set of questions asked by his friend Antoinette Faure.

I remember them best from a television show called “Inside the Actors Studio” where, at the end of every episode, host James Lipton would ask these questions of the famous actors he interviewed. His questions included: What is your favorite sound? What is your favorite curse word? If you weren’t an actor, what would you be instead?

Barbara Walters uses a variation of the Proust Questionnaire in her interviews – which, in turn, inspired us at Artisan.

I asked our Recruiters what Proust-like questions they would like to ask (or do ask) when they interview talent, and I love the responses! Definitely a lot more interesting than the adage “Tell me about yourself”, the answers to these questions reveal aspects of a candidate’s personality that help hiring managers determine if someone is the right cultural fit for their position.

And so I bring you…(drum roll, please)…The Proust Questionnaire for Creatives

Some that aren’t too outside the box:

What is your definition of creative?
What is your ideal job and where?
What inspires you?
Who is your favorite designer?
Who is your favorite architect?
What is your favorite source of design inspiration (website, magazine, blog, etc)?
What projects have you worked on that you are most proud of and why?

Some that would be fun to answer, take some real consideration but still be job related:

Name 3 things you could not live without?
What is your favorite part of the day or favorite part of your job?
We used to have the drop shadow, now we have the reflective surface, what do think is next?
What keeps you motivated?

Some that might make me wonder what they’re looking for exactly:

Where is your ideal travel destination and why?
What 3 things that you use in everyday life should be designed differently?
What was the last book you read?
What is your favorite TV show or Movie?
What is playing on your iPod right now?

And a few that I’ve honestly never thought about before an interview (but maybe I should)!

In your time away from work, what do you do?
Are you doing what you love or doing what pays the bills?
If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
If you could invite three people (dead or alive) to dinner who would they be and why?
Do you believe in aliens?
What’s the most despicable act a creative supervisor has done/can do to you?

I’m definitely going to add some of these to my interview preparation list!

Granted – these are just some of the unusual questions potential hiring authorities could ask during an interview. The best advice is to be prepared to answer these kinds of questions as honestly and calmly as possible. Guess that’s just one more reason to do some practice interviews with imaginative friends!

Wendy Stackhouse, Consultant for Artisan Creative

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Creatives and Business Meetings: 5 Tips on How to Stay Engaged

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012|

Creatives are not known for being comfortable in a formal business setting. Suits and ties and long strategy sessions are not their normal M.O.

But freelancers do end up going to business meetings or formal pitches and it is important to stay involved in the material and remember what was discussed, since they will probably be sent home to work on the project at hand.

Some meetings, sad to say, are not as interesting and exciting as they could be and creatives may very well have trouble staying engaged. Here are some tips to keep you looking and feeling like you are fully present at your next formal business meeting:

1. Active listening—When someone is talking, we all receive much more information non-verbally than verbally. Put your attention on the body language, facial expression, and tone of the speaker. Concentrate on how that information adds to (or detracts from) what is being said.

2. Look at the speaker—Making eye contact will make a good impression on your meeting leaders and keep you on track. Your mind is bound to wander if you stare at the table or out the window.

3. Don’t chat with your neighbor—Although it is a good idea to sit near someone of like mind at a business meeting, don’t start side conversations while the main speaker is presenting. Not only is it bad manners, but you will miss the main points of the presentation.

4. Take notes – During any meeting there are bound to be hundreds of topics (big and small) discussed. No one could remember them all. By continuing your active listening, noting key facts or action items on paper, you can stay more focused on the topics being discussed. Because you’ve written them, you will also be more likely to remember them later as well.

5. Ask questions—If you have trouble keeping your mind on the topic at hand, while listening, think of a question to ask. When there is an opportunity, ask them. A good question can help a presenter further engage with his or her audience and enable all to remember the material better if a discussion occurs as a result.

We’ve all been to meetings that seem like a waste of time, led by unskilled presenters, or the coverage of information we already know. They can be very frustrating. Best advice for dealing with these types of meetings: find a way to get something out of the meeting, whether it be a lesson in reading body language, making a positive impression on a manager or adding value to a presentation by asking questions or offering your own expertise as a resource. Any meeting can be useful, even if you have to set your own agenda.

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

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Preparing for a Behavioral Interview

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011|

In doing research for this article, I went back to basics.

What is a Behavioral Interview?

A Behavioral Interview is one in which the interviewer asks questions about past behavior in the hope of being able to predict how you would handle a situation at their company in the future.

An example of a behavioral interview question would be: Tell me about a time when you set a goal & achieved it.

This and other behavioral interview questions are the perfect opportunities to tell a great story. We have talked before on our blog about telling stories and here is where those stories come in handy.

During your general interview preparation, write out a few stories about specific events or projects which were very successful or fulfilling for you. Even something that didn’t work out perfectly can make a good story if you can talk about what you learned from it.

If you have been preparing for interviews very thoroughly, you will have compiled a list of stories from which to choose and can focus on a few for each interview. Read the job description again and see if any of your stories involve any aspects of that job and practice telling them.

Many people use a technique known as STARR to prepare for these kinds of questions. STARR provides an outline for your answer which ensures that you will hit all the important points and stay on track while telling your story. STARR stands for:

Situation – be specific about where you were and what you were doing.
Task – what you were trying to accomplish.
Action – what you did to accomplish the goal you were working toward.
Result – the outcome of your efforts.
Reflection – what you learned from your experience.

Practice moving from one of these elements seamlessly into the next. Be sure to point out positive results and reflections.

If you are prepared with a few relevant stories, you will never again be thrown by behavioral interview questions!

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

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Body Language Tips for Creatives

Thursday, December 1st, 2011|

Have you ever come out of a meeting with no clue how it went? You feel like your presentation was clear and effective. You know you were prepared and your materials were informative.

Maybe you were paying more attention to what you were doing than how your audience was reacting, but if you play it back in your head, you might have more of an idea of how your presentation was received.

You also might be able to make it work better!

If you can put some of your attention on watching your listeners, you can learn a lot about how your pitch is going and maybe even change it up midstream and close the deal.

Is your listener…

Leaning his head on his hand? He is bored. Change the pace of your presentation or ask a question to re-engage his attention.
Leaning forward in her chair? She is interested. Keep up what you’re doing.
Touching his ears? You are connecting. Give him more information.
Making a suggestion with her palms down? This is no suggestion, this is what she wants. Tell her how you can give her what she has suggested in a definitive way.
Making a suggestion with his palms up? He is looking for a discussion of the issue and is open to your input as well as his own.
Putting her hand over her mouth? She doesn’t believe what you’re saying. This is a good time to offer some quantitative evidence or examples.

How about you? What are you revealing with your body language and how can you make sure your messaging is what you want it to be?

Are you…

Slouching? Sit with your back touching the chair, but leaning forward a bit. This projects confidence and engagement without seeming stiff or nervous.
Crossing your arms? This makes you seem defensive or closed off. Stop as soon as you realize it.
Restless? If you know you are a “wiggler,” it is a good idea to practice your interview or meeting with a trusted friend who can help you become more aware of your habits. Restless behavior like twirling your hair or bouncing your knee can be distracting to your listener when you want them to hear what you have to say.
Making eye contact? Great! Active listening is an important skill and keeps your mind on the question at hand.

Both you and your interviewer are getting more information from each other nonverbally than verbally. If you are paying attention, you can control the information they are getting from you and understand the information they are giving you back.

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

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7 Tips for Better Negotiating: How to Close the Deal

Thursday, November 10th, 2011|

As a freelancer, I found myself presented with a rather unattractive job offer this past week and ended up thinking a lot about negotiating and how I wanted to handle the situation. I would like to close the deal and have some additional work – but was I willing to compromise significantly to make it happen? I decided to do some research about successful negotiating and found some pretty useful tips for anyone who might be searching for a job or freelance work:

Be prepared. Once an offer has been made, you should have an answer ready for any scenario. The salary might be lower than expected, but you get to work from home. The drive might be further, but you would be working with one of your dream companies. Know your deal-breakers and what you are willing to compromise.
Plan your next move. When the offer is not ideal, make sure you are clear on what is most important to you. It might be vacation days, overtime, salary, or telecommuting opportunities. There might be a way to get a concession on whatever your sticking point might be. Don’t be afraid to get creative with a counter-offer.
Know what the other side needs. Their agenda is not your agenda, but they do need something from you. When presenting a counteroffer – layout exactly what value you bring to the table and make sure they understand that what they are getting from you is unique.
Be sincere, polite, and business-like. By being yourself you remind them how much they would like to work with you day in and day out. Even if these negotiations don’t work out for either party, don’t burn any bridges. If they really need you, they might come back to you at a later time – but not if your relationship has been damaged by the negotiation process.
Practice. Try out your presentation on someone else first. It will help clarify your thoughts and the language you will use in the negotiation. The more constructive feedback – the more focused your presentation. The more you practice, the better you will deliver.
Know when to walk away. This is the hardest one, especially in a down market for employment. Remember that the way they treat you before you are hired is a good indicator of their company culture. A deal that negatively affects either party in some way is not a good deal. If it doesn’t offer you something you can be happy with, try again somewhere else.

As for me, I have decided to walk away from my unattractive offer for a few reasons and am preparing for that conversation later today. I have run my arguments by a few trusted friends and am determined to be polite and sincere, but express very clearly that this is no longer a good deal for me. We shall see if there is a counter-offer in the cards!

UPDATE: My negotiation meeting went very well and I received a better offer a few days later, which I accepted!

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

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Communication 101 for Freelancers

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011|

It’s World Communication Week (November 1-7) and a good time to think about the challenges of communications in today’s working environment. Many more people are working as freelancers and working offsite, presenting communication issues that don’t arise when everyone is working in the same office together.

Some things to consider about communication as a freelancer:

Time Zone

If you are working offsite, you might be in a different time zone or even a different country from your client. Either one of you might have expectations of prompt responses to emails or calls which seem unreasonable to the other. I have one client in Central Time, which means he takes lunch right when I’m working. If I send him an urgent email, he won’t respond until it’s too late for me to make my deadline. I know I have to text him to get a quick answer. Talk to your client about your working hours and the best ways to communicate with each other.

Get it in Writing

Phone calls are great for saving time when exchanging small pieces of information or asking a question or two. However, having detailed instructions or answers in writing proves invaluable when you sit down to actually work on your project. An email can serve as your checklist, ensuring haven’t missed any important elements. Even when I have a meeting by phone with a client, I take notes and write them up clearly when it’s over. This might seem like a bit of extra work, but the wasted time over mistakes or having to clarify is much more significant.

Updates

Clients can get nervous if they haven’t heard from you in a while during your project. Even if you haven’t finished anything, regular updates, about what you have accomplished so far and what your next steps will be, are essential. For some clients – this means a morning and evening update. For other clients it might be every few days. Confirm with your client ahead of time how often you should be in touch. Services such as Basecamp can be a great tool for managing your project, timelines and updates.

Ask Questions

We all want our clients to feel like we “get it” right away and are off and running. But we’ve all delivered a project we thought was complete only to find that it needs significant reworking. Sometimes this is because the client doesn’t really know what he or she wants until they see it. But often, it is because we failed to ask key questions throughout the process. If in doubt, check it out!

Use Collaboration Technology

With the amount of technology out there to improve communication – there is really no excuse not to be better communicators. Skype and Chat services (AIM, iChat, etc) allow for instant, free communication. You can even share send and share small files. Services like Dropbox, box.net or Google Docs make it easy for you to share files with your clients and get their feedback, no matter what time or place you are working. Google Docs even allows you both to edit and track changes to your documents in real time. These tools are just another way to allow clients to monitor your pace of work and deliverables.

As we talked about last week, freelancing has a lot of good points: flexibility, choice, environment, independence. Successful freelancing, like any other work situation, thrives on good communication.

If you put some thought into the best ways to keep the lines of communication open, your freelancing relationships will not only bring you monetary rewards but also more clients in the future.

Wendy Stackhouse, for Artisan Creative

Wendy has worked as a freelance singer, transcriptionist, legal assistant, writer, web designer, choral conductor, and web content development instructor. Right now, she is freelancing full-time for clients in recruiting, environmental services, public relations, web content, and music, and will be teaching a workshop in Website Content Development next month.

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