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Know Yourself
by ResumeEdge.com
- The Net's Premier Resume Writing and Editing Service
When the interviewer asks you where you see yourself in
five years, what will you say? How about describing your
ideal working environment? What are your strengths? And
what are your weaknesses? How do you take criticism? How
do you deal with conflict situations? What motivates you?
What is your management style?
Yikes. If you are not prepared for these kinds of probing
questions, they will undermine your interview. Pondering
Socrates or Freud is not necessary preparation for your
job interview. Still, taking time to do some soul searching
is helpful when it comes to presenting yourself in an
attractive way.
Each question posed by your interviewer requires that
you sift through a repertoire of professional and personal
experiences, gazing at your life in an instant and conjuring
up an answer to the basic question: who are you? Doing
that on the fly is bound to be confusing. You should know
yourself before you shake the interviewer's hand and flash
your first friendly smile. The prospect can daunt even
for those of us who are in touch with our inner child.
To make substantial headway in self-reflection, spend
some time on the following exercises. When considering
your responses, think beyond your professional life and
current circumstances. Include instances as far back as
your youth.
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Make a list of five
accomplishments that you enjoyed.
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Make a list of five
things you have done that make you proud.
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Describe three scenarios
in which you felt highly motivated to accomplish something.
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Describe three scenarios
in which you lacked motivation.
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Think of three scenarios
in which you felt appreciated by other people. How did
they communicate that appreciation for you?
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Make a list of how
your colleagues, staff, and supervisors describe you.
Include the positive and negative feedback.
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Make a list of how
friends and family describe you.
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Make a list of ten
of your best personal qualities.
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Think of two small
and large decisions that you have made. Describe how
you went about making those decisions.
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Describe two situations
that seemed risky to you. What did you do?
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Describe a conflict
situation between you and someone else that was resolved
to your satisfaction. How was it resolved?
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Describe a conflict
situation between you and someone else that was not
resolved to your satisfaction. What happened?
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Complete this sentence:
When I am responsible for leading or supervising other
people, I prefer to. . .
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Complete this sentence:
When I want to show appreciation for other people, I
usually. . .
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Complete this sentence:
I work because. . .
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Complete this sentence:
From a job I want. . .
After you spend an evening or afternoon
reflecting on your life, you might wish to have others
explore your responses with you. Look for themes and trends
in your responses, finding information that overlaps.
Focus on what energizes you and what saps your spirit.
Notice your preferences. Consider for example what we
can discover about Suzanne's professional aspirations
and tendencies from her responses. 
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Five accomplishments
that I enjoyed include:
Launching an anti-drunk driving campaign in high school.
Training an intern in critical thinking.
Negotiating with diverse teams to get creative projects
completed.
Finding the overlap between different company's interests
so that they can establish mutually beneficial relationships.
Seeing my college students think in new ways.
-
Five things that
make me proud include:
Going to France by myself to learn French.
Setting a high performance goal for myself and meeting
it.
Having vision for what needs to be done in different
situations.
Being in shape.
Listening to the concerns of my friends and honoring
them.
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Three times that
I felt highly motivated to accomplish something include:
When I had tons of work to do to meet a product launch
deadline and had to stay extremely organized and focused
in order to complete the work.
When I came up with an idea for panel discussions at
my church, which led to much improved communication
and many new friendships.
When I worked on projects with colleagues and had to
complete my work so that we could discuss things and
move to the next stage.
-
Three scenarios
in which I lacked motivation to accomplish something
include:
When I worked all by myself after my boss died and my
new supervisors were not accessible.
When I had to process details all day, day after day-entering
data, completing forms, and other rote tasks that only
challenged my patience but did not engage my mind.
When I felt like my employer was making decisions that
sacrificed his employees.
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I felt appreciated
by people when:
I got a significant raise after having my value to the
company reconsidered. My supervisor and colleagues verbally
praise my efforts and thank me for my way of working.
My supervisor expressed confidence in my abilities and
did not micromanage me, but spent time helping me when
I needed support or ran into problems.
By analyzing even these
first five questions, we get a sense of what kind of job
would fit Suzanne well. For example, we see that Suzanne
enjoys influencing people; each of the accomplishments that
she enjoyed includes affecting the way that other people
think or act. She also feels gratified when she is able
to bring people together for a common purpose they might
have overlooked. The things that make Suzanne proud are
a bit more diverse. Some include a sense of meeting difficult
challenges-like learning French through immersion and raising
the bar of performance or being in shape. Having vision
means that she has something to offer that affects common
purpose. Acting ethically toward people also seems important
to her.
It already begins to make sense, then, that she would feel
motivated to accomplish things when she initiates them,
when she is accountable to other people, or when she needs
to meet a specific goal. Deadlines appear to affect her
in positive ways by helping her to focus when she might
not otherwise. Contrarily, her energy and drive are sapped
when she works in isolation without gaining feedback, when
the tasks are rote and do not require creativity or initiative,
and when she perceives that people are treated badly. She
feels appreciated by her employer when her supervisor recognizes
her vision, drive, and ability to focus and gives her the
space she needs to excel while still staying connected with
her. She feels appreciated when her company gives her a
raise for good work, but also when others verbally praise
her. And, even though she likes to work without tight supervision,
she feels appreciated when her supervisor has time for her.
Intriguing as these discoveries might be for Suzanne, she
cannot unload her personal psyche on the interviewer. She
still has to formulate professional responses to specific
questions. Knowledge about the company provides guidance
for how to craft these materials. Self-knowledge provides
the raw materials for devising compelling responses.
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