How to nail the dreaded phone interview Dan Miller

Studies have shown that 90% of communication is nonverbal.  So how do you shine in the increasingly popular phone interview?  You can’t take advantage of your good looks, great wardrobe, firm handshake, eye contact, and JLo perfume. 

But there are unique elements of a phone interview that you can use to your advantage:

• Stand Up.  Standing changes your breathing and your tone of voice.  It makes you sound stronger and more confident.  (I stand and walk when doing phone coaching so I don’t risk sounding tired or too casual.)
• Have a Mirror Handy.  Yes, be looking yourself in a mirror.  Your smile and facial expressions come through more than you may realize.  Respond physically like you would in person and much of that enthusiasm will be translated via the phone anyway.
• Have Your Answers Written Out.  This is an open-book test.  You can have your answers to all of the expected questions written out and actually sound much more polished than you may be able to in person.  “What are your three greatest strengths?  What do you look for in a supervisor?  Why did you leave your last job?  Be ready with clear responses to these and many more.

Don’t see the phone interview as just a preliminary step of little importance.  It’s the real thing.  Put yourself at the top – it’s fairly easy to outshine the competition.

Here’s just a sampling of the kinds of questions being asked in today’s workplace: 

1. What would your previous employer list as your greatest strengths?
2. What motivates you to put forth your greatest effort?
3. What have been some of your most significant accomplishments? How were you able to achieve those accomplishments?
4. What are you looking for in a new position? Why do you want this job? What do you find attractive about this position?
5. What important changes or trends do you see in this industry? How do you think those changes will affect the way we succeed in this company?
6. What do you look for in a supervisor? Describe the relationship that should exist between a supervisor and his employee. What do you see as your most difficult task as a manager? What is your management style?
7. Do you prefer working alone or as part of a team? Are you better working with things, people, or ideas? Are you better at creating or doing?
8. What kinds of things outside of work do you enjoy? What magazines do you like to read? Name three books you have read in the last year. Are you achieving personal goals you have set?
9. What does a typical weekend consist of for you? What do you do to relieve boredom?
10. What other kinds of positions have you been looking at? If we do not select you for this position, would you be interested in another (office, sales, administrative, etc.) position with this company? How does this job compare with others for which you have interviewed? What makes this job different from your current/last one?
11. Why should we choose you for this position? What can you do for us that someone else cannot do?

If you have the new edition of 48 Days To The Work You Love, you can see an extensive list of questions you can expect on pages 164-167.  I also list unusual questions and 17 questions you should be prepared to ASK.     

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Hey I got on the wrong boat! Dan Miller

The phrases people use to describe where they are in life never cease to amaze and amuse me.  In the new 10th Anniversary Edition of 48 Days to the Work You Love I share just a few of the revealing statements about where people see themselves:

• 51-year-old businessman — “I feel like I’ve lived my whole life by accident.”
• Wife of professor — “I feel like we have been free-falling for the last 13 years.”
• Salesman — “I feel like I’m a ball in a pinball machine.”
• 56-year-old (PhD. in Theology currently driving a bus) — “I feel like I’ve been given six seconds to sing, and I’m singing the wrong song.”
• 53-year-old businessman — “I feel like my life is a movie that’s almost over, and I haven’t even bought the popcorn yet.”
• Collection Agent — “I’ve lived my life up until now as though driving with the parking brake on.”
• 46-year-old “successful” car salesman — “I feel like a lost ball in tall cotton.”
• 39-year-old automotive engineer — “I’m a butterfly caught in a spider’s web, with my life slowly being sucked out.”    
• 27-year-old computer specialist — “I’m a box of parts and nothing fits together.”
• 31-year-old attorney — “Law school sucked all the life and creativity out of me.”
• 55-year-old dentist — “Failing in my practice knocked the wind out of my sails. Still waiting for a breeze to bring me in.”

Recently I received the pre-coaching information profile from a 40-yr-old teacher.  He wrote, “I feel like I got on the wrong boat, and now my life is half over.”   Wow – what a painful statement about moving along in this journey called life.  Are you clear on where you are going?  Do you know your purpose – your calling?  If not, why not?  How can we find fulfillment, peace and meaning without being clear on our “mission” in life?

In sharing this with my wife, Joanne, she paused and then related her absolute confidence in knowing what she was sent here to do.  She can’t imagine being unclear or confused about her mission at this stage in her life.  Yes, it’s a process – but if we pay attention to the signs along the way, the path ought to become clear.

Four things must be blended for you to have the confidence of living out your purpose:

1. Your Skills & Abilities
2. Your Personality Traits
3. Your Values, Dreams & Passions
4. A ready market for what you produce

There should be enough information from these four areas to help you identify your direction and purpose.  It’s not something superimposed from the outside – looking at yourself and what God has already revealed to you should give you a clear starting point.

This same gentleman continued in response to this question:  If the doctor told you today you had 6 months to live, what would you do in those remaining months?  He writes, “I would apologize to God every day that I couldn’t find what it was I was sent here to do.”  If this is where you are today, commit to change tomorrow.  Don’t let that be the final summary of your life.

Here is the complete list of questions I ask prior to coaching:  http://ift.tt/1JO33Al 

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Yes you are an artist Dan Miller

Here’s a shot of my newest “art” project.  A 1939 Plymouth pickup parked in a highly visible corner of our property.  Joanne says this is my canvas.  I wanted a pickup truck so I could have plants scrolling out of the bed.  And I wanted something with cowl headlights and rusted patina to show it’s character and meaningful life. Funny how when you get really clear on a goal, it sets things in motion to come into view.  I had a blast looking for about two months until I found this one in Gurley, AL. 

So what’s your canvas today?  We are all artists – just using different methods for sharing who we are.  Your canvas may be:

• how you cook
• how you decorate your house
• the kind of car you drive
• the music you create
• the paintings you do
• how you dress
• your own back yard
• the books you write

I love being able to create, to see things others don’t see, and to integrate the past, present and future. I’ll slowly plant and landscape to make this old truck a stopping point for reflection, awe and inspiration. I’ll likely use some old hollyhocks, lilacs, and peonies in the background then come forward with some knock-out roses, phlox and day lilies in the foreground.  I want to keep a trail so kids can walk back and touch the old truck.  I may use some solar panels to have the headlights softly lit up at night. 

Here’s one of my previous projects that I love sharing with people.  The bronze eagle is the perfect expression of my message with 48 Days – Dream, Plan & Act.  I decided to mount it on a big boulder from right here on our place rather than the polished granite foundation originally planned by the sculptor.  I thought it was a more authentic launching point for an eagle and kept it low enough kids can sit with it and rub it’s golden beak.

What opportunities do have to create your art?  What story is your art telling about you? 

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Fail big and still win Dan Miller

Are you hitting your goals for this year?  Here we are in the second quarter of 2015 already.  I just did a review of my goals and am reminded how far behind I am in some areas I thought were important.  I wanted to have the new workbook to accompany the 10th Anniversary Edition of 48 Days to the Work You Love ready by January 1st – and I’m just now finalizing it.  I wanted to have dropped 15 lbs but I’ve bounced up and down with cruises and lots of airline travel.  Just excuses, I know.

But here’s the question: Did I “fail” in that area?  I don’t consider that failure since I’m a whole lot closer than I was on January 1st. 

“Set your goals ridiculously high and you will fail above everyone else’s success.” - James Cameron, Academy Award-Winning Director

I love the thought here.  If you decide you are going to run three marathons this year – and you fail by only running two, you have still accomplished more than 99% of the people in the world.

• What if you had a goal of writing two books this year but only completed one?
• What if you wanted to reduce your cholesterol by 50 points but only cut it down by 40?
• What if you wanted to compose a new song a month but finished the year with only 10 great songs?
• What if you set as a goal to increase your income from $50,000 to $100,000 but only hit $85,000 by December 31st?
• What if you wanted to pay cash for a $15,00 car by November 15th but you accumulated only $14,000 by that date?
• What if you wanted the greatest marriage in the world but you only eliminated 80% of the painful points in the marriage you have now?

Do you have a goal that is so “ridiculously high” that even if you only hit 50% of it you will still bypass everyone else?

Failure comes not in setting a goal and not hitting it – it is in not setting a goal at all and being stuck in sameness.

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing .” — George Bernard Shaw

Where are you behind where you thought you’d be at this time?

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Is it Expensive or Valuable? Dan Miller

 

1. Here’s how I’m attending Escaping Shawshank!
2. I am becoming more and more afraid for my kids as they are going through public school.
3. How can I pursue my dreams when I’m paying off student debt and buying off brand macaroni and cheese and still just trying to figure out my life?
4. How do we change what we feel we deserve?

“Monotony is the awful reward of the careful.”  A.G. Buckman

Helpful Resources

Harrys.com – use 48Days as the code to get $5.00 off your purchase

Escaping Shawshank - the event in August where we’ll look at Prison, Purpose and Plan – Meet Dan & Joanne there.

Why do the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? – send your responses to askdan@48Days.com for the May1st episode

48 Days Coaching Mastery Program

The Ultimate Advantage Cruise – Feb 2017

Coaching with Excellence – May, 2015

Upcoming Themes:

How do we help our children find their creativity when they are in schools where “They are being molded to conform, memorize, do exactly what they are told, and create predictable things…”

How do we change our sense of deserving?

 

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