BoomersNextStep Guest Author

8 Interview Mistakes to Avoid

April 13, 2021 by BoomersNextStep Guest Author Leave a Comment

No one wants to make mistakes at an interview for a job they want. Yet so many people jeopardize their future career by making avoidable interview mistakes that spoil their chances of getting the job.

Avoid these common interview mistakes by being aware and well prepared.

Interview mistake #1: Lack of company research

Don’t attend an interview without preparation. Research all you can about the company. Yes…. mission, vision, number of employees form a part of this. But you could do better by studying the sector in which the company is doing business. Companies these days look for candidates who think out of the box. Be prepared to mention about how the industry as a whole is performing. Do not limit yourself to mission, vision. Everyone talks about those aspects of the business. Be different.

Interview Mistake #2: I am a Perfectionist

Do not give the impression that you are a perfectionist. You can indicate that you like to do a job to the best of your ability, but don’t try to seem perfect. Be truthful.

Interview Mistake #3: Focussing only on what you did

These days companies are looking for people who are team players. Therefore bragging about your individual achievements will not yield the desired results. Tell them how you have exhibited your talents in a complementary skilled team of individuals and how you managed to succeed with the help of your team.

Interview Mistake #4: Not ending with a conversation

Often interviewees do not seek clarification or ask questions of the interviewer. An interview is a perfect platform for you to ask about the organizational structure and other company-related information. So come out of your shell and show you are interested in matters that are related to the company.

Interview Mistake #5: Focussing only on the JOB

Most candidates only refer to their previous jobs when answering questions. If your personal interests or talents are relevant to the job for which you are being interviewed, and if your previous jobs haven’t really demonstrated this, then bring this into the conversation.

Interview Mistake #6: Tense and Nervous

The last thing an interviewer wants is an uptight employee. If you seem overly nervous you will not give an impression of competence. Show your confidence by speaking firmly on points. Give examples of how your achievements with pride but not arrogance. If you are likely to be exceptionally nervous make sure you prepare well for the interview to give you greater confidence.

Interview Mistake #7: Rambling during the interview

Do not wander away from questions that the interviewer has asked. Do not provide unrelated answers. Definitely do not make up answers if you don’t know an answer. Prepare for the interview thoroughly so you can respond using the STAR formula or similar.

Interview Mistake #8: No followup

After the interview make contact with the interviewer. Send a follow up note thanking them for their time and mention how excited you are with regard to the job. Interviewers are people too and everyone likes to be appreciated.

- Job Interview Success Tips and Strategies
- Six Ways to Successfully Handle an Interview

Financial Planning

October 23, 2020 by BoomersNextStep Guest Author Leave a Comment

What is a financial plan?

A financial plan mainly reflects the current financial situation of a person, the person’s monetary goals, and the necessary steps to be undertaken to achieve those set goals. A financial plan may be personally formulated or with the aid of a board-certified financial planner.

What are the steps involved in financial planning?

First and foremost, you must carefully examine your current financial situation. Scrutinize and list all your assets. Assets include physical properties (real estate or motor vehicles), cash in the bank, investments, and anything else you possess of significant monetary value. Afterward, look into your liabilities. Liabilities include any form of debt – credit card debt, student loans, house mortgage, incremental car payments, and so on. Then, inspect your cash flow. Note all sources of income and expenses. These factors show your potential savings, capabilities of investing, and risk tolerance.
Secondly, identify and clearly establish your goals. State your short term and long term monetary goals.

Financial goals vary. It changes throughout your lifetime and depends on what stage you are in life.

Early Adulthood

During early adulthood, you prioritize and heavily invest in your education and career. You also start looking into buying your first home and starting a family.

Mid-life

When you hit mid-life, you look into investing, home renovating, health care planning, managing debt, and retirement planning.

Pre-retirement

During your pre-retirement years (roughly twenty years before you plan to retire), you focus on eliminating your debt, helping your children be financially independent, and devising a smart business exit strategy.

Retirement

When you retire, you put your attention on protecting your assets, preserving your capital, securing a good health care plan, and drafting your will.

Thirdly, devise a strategy to meet your monetary goals in a realistic and timely manner. Appraise and consider products and services that would help you efficiently attain your set goals.
Fourthly, put your plan into action. Be resolute and stick with the course of action you have cautiously planned and developed.
Lastly, periodically review your plan. Do the results satisfy you? If not, retake all the steps until you derive a plan that satisfactorily meets all your expectations.

Know that there is no set template for financial planning. Your financial plan is unique and tailored to your personal wants and needs.

Do I need the assistance of a financial planner?

Making a financial plan of your own is doable but having a financial planner greatly helps. It eases your anxiety because a well-trained expert gives sound recommendations, determines all potential risks involved, and unbiasedly points out the strengths and weaknesses in your plan.

How can I get in touch with a financial planner?

To Brisbane residents, if you are interested in seeking professional help with your finances, please visit this site: https://fpa.com.au/find-a-planner/brisbane-4000/. This website would connect you to Brisbane’s best financial experts.

Remember that being prudent and proactive in managing your finances ensures you a stable and comfortable life. The earlier you plan your finances, the better the outcome.

How To Deal With 3 Sticky Behavioural Interview Questions

July 12, 2020 by BoomersNextStep Guest Author Leave a Comment

The good news is that you’ve been called in for an interview! But wait just a minute, the bad news is that you’ve been called in for an interview!

You are under the spotlight

The long-awaited interview can be your ticket to a new and better job, but it can also be an anxiety producer that keeps you up nights worrying. You have to prepare for sticky interview questions. You are going to be called on to perform at a high level by people who may determine the course of your career and therefore you future. There’s no easy way to say it; this a critical chance to show them what you are made of.

Getting into the proper mindset is important. First, know that you need to prepare for the event. Second, realize you can’t memorize and rehearse every move you’re going to make, meaning over-preparation can hurt you. And third, you are going to have to rely on some confidence, instinct, and self-knowledge.

Preparation for an interview involves a few basic things. Researching the potential employer, for example, makes you better able to align your skill set with their needs. Anticipating that you will need to communicate a positive attitude, subject matter expertise, interpersonal skills, and problem solving ability is important as well.

But knowing the type of questions you may be asked is one of the best ways to prepare. The purpose here is to see if you are a good fit for the open position. This is accomplished by directing questioning to see if you have the required skills, knowledge, and abilities to perform optimally. To determine this interviewers usually select questions that are behavioral and situational.

How to Deal with Sticky Behavioural Interview Questions

Sticky interview questions – also called Behavioural Questions – are designed to analyse actual instances that you have faced in the past to see how you performed. A school principal may be asked how they handled an irate parent of a student, for example. Situational questions are similar except that the context is hypothetical. So a structural engineer may be asked what immediate steps she would follow if metal fatigue was identified in bridge supports.

But an interview team is probably going to want to get a general sense of your overall character beyond just your specific qualifications. There are three questions that often come up that attempt to elicit this.

#1: What is an example of a time you made a real difference for your employer?

Even you felt that you were just a cog in a machine, being prepared to explain why you were a really good cog will help your cause. Firstly, by telling how you increased production, saved costs, and handled unique challenges. Then have a story or two ready for this question. And I do mean story, not just a short one or two sentence response.

#2: How do you deal with conflict on the job?

No matter the industry one of the most common complaints of management involves employees, including managers, who can’t get along. Poor communication and mismatched personality types lead to lost productivity and poor morale. Having examples of how you did not contribute to and even improved a negative social climate at work will show you to be the team player every employer wants.

#3: Why did you leave your last job?

Now let’s be honest here. For example, if the reason is that you truly see the next opportunity as an advancement for the new employer and your career, then the question is easy. However if you were terminated, then answering honestly becomes more challenging. Still, don’t come across victimized, focus on what you learned and how it has made you grow, and explain how you are even better prepared for adding value to their operation.

Here is your chance to shine, not shake. Do your part to turn the interview into a golden moment.

And if you prefer to watch videos

Top 7 Behavioural Interview Questions and Answers (YouTube)

[Updated July 12, 2020]

Top Four Goal Setting Mistakes

June 15, 2020 by BoomersNextStep Guest Author Leave a Comment

Are you making common goal setting mistakes that are undermining your plans? One of the biggest reasons many older people don’t continue to achieve as much as they could is not because they are unproductive. It is that they get too comfortable and fail to do what they did in their younger years when they were goal-driven and looking ahead.

Despite getting older you still need to make goals for yourself. Many Baby Boomers have accomplished great things in their working lives. As they begin to retire, some will take that same gusto and apply their expertise towards their finances, creating a business, or planning their ideal lifestyle. Others will become world travelers. But sadly many will be constrained by fears over money, debt, and health worries.

If you want to make this next step of your life the best years ever it is wise to avoid these mistakes.

How to Avoid Goal Setting Mistakes

Consider these four necessary components of successful goal setting.

Be Specific
Make It Measurable
Keep It Realistic
Take Action Today.

Have you become complacent?

We have all set goals at some stage of life. Consider what you have achieved in your work life and personal life. It’s sure to include many times when you set a very specific goal and just went for it. When the pressure is on, for instance when saving for a home or renovating, it is very obvious that goals need to be set.

But what about now when life’s pressures are not so compelling? It is so easy to start to drift, to just let life evolve without a definite plan to make things happen. If you really want to achieve something don’t make these classic goal setting mistakes.

Be specific

It does not matter what you are aiming for, you need to be specific. If you do not have a clear target in mind you really do not have a goal, you have a wish. It is far better to have a goal of losing 15 kgs in time for your school reunion than saying, “Oh I need to lose some weight.” This is just not specific enough. How much weight do you need to lose? What will you eat and drink? What exercise will you incorporate into your life? How often? You will never know what you are striving for unless you are specific.

Make it measurable

Any goal, and I mean ANY goal, needs to be measured. Why? You could have the noblest of goals but not know if you have achieved it. This applies equally to the business world, to family life, or to taking a holiday.

Just suppose your goal is a three month holiday in Europe after you retire, but you do not want to pay for it out of your main Superannuation fund. You can talk to friends about where to go, watch Youtube videos about the great cities of Europe, search online for ideas of places to go and things to do. But unless you know how much it is likely to cost you, and start putting money aside for that specific purpose, you will not achieve your goal.

Yes, you might still go on that holiday. But your goal was to not dig into your main superannuation fund to pay for the holiday. That part of the goal probably won’t be achieved if you haven’t set a very clear and measurable goal.

Keep it realistic

You will accomplish your goals if you plan them carefully, so that they are both challenging and possible. There is nothing wrong with BHAGS – Big Hairy Audacious Goals. For many people, they create the motivation to succeed. But they still need to be realistic. When you set goals you know you will never reach the goal won’t inspire you and may even depress your efforts.

Take action today

This final step is really the icing on the cake. Without it, nothing else matters. We’ve all seen those Nike Advertisements – “Just do it!”. Well, that is what this is all about. Getting your goals off the paper and into your life is really about getting you into ACTION.

All you need to do after you have set your goal is to take some time to write out a basic plan of action and get going. You need to schedule it into your diary. When you do, you will avoid the biggest mistake of all goal setting – not taking action.

Make it happen

Your goals won’t just leap off the page and make themselves happen on their own. You’ve got to do what needs to be done. As a mature person, you have experienced successes and achieved a lot. Why not allow the knowledge of past success to fuel your efforts and make your current goals become your reality.

[Updated: 15 June, 2020]

Three Steps to Successful Information Interviewing

March 19, 2020 by BoomersNextStep Guest Author Leave a Comment

Most job seekers have heard the terms “information interview” or “networking interview”. But few people really understand how to use them effectively to make a successful career change. In fact, most job seekers don’t realize that there are multiple kinds of information interviews.

While all information or networking interviews share common elements the kind of information gathered depends upon the stage of information interviewing. Outlined below are the three stages of information interviewing and the goals of each. But first, let’s look at some of the many reasons why it makes sense to conduct information interviews.

Information interviews are a chance to:

Explore careers or clarify career goals
Identify professional strengths & weaknesses
Build confidence for job interviews
Identify industry trends
Expand your professional network
Identify current or future employment needs

Be clear about your goals

Regardless of online opportunities to network, personal contacts are still, by far, the most effective way to find a job. A networking interview is about making a personal connection with someone who has information helpful to your job or career decision.

When asking others for advice or information it is important to be clear about why you are seeking them out for assistance. There are a variety of reasons to schedule a networking interview

to gain clarity about next steps
for advice or industry specific information
to ask for referrals or information about specific job opportunities.

All of these are legitimate reasons for wanting to meet with a friend, colleague, or industry expert.

Three stages of information interviewing

Below are three distinct stages of information interviewing. Each stage has unique goals, questions to be answered, and networking outcomes. Understanding each phase is essential for the novice job seeker and career professional alike. Before activating your network decide what you hope to achieve from the contact and plan your approach accordingly.

Stage 1 – Career Exploration/Option Generation

In this stage your goal as a job seeker or potential career changer is to generate ideas and solicit information about which jobs or careers are a match for someone with your skills.

You want to answer as many of the questions below as possible:

Given my skill set what options are available to me?
What kinds of jobs are available for someone with my interests?
Are there potential career paths for someone with my skill set in this industry?
What is the employment outlook for this specific occupation?
How mobile is this career?
Is this a growth industry?

Stage 2 – Option Clarification

During the Option Clarification stage you are seeking to evaluate how realistic each of the most interesting options you uncovered are given your knowledge, skills, and experience. During Stage Two you are looking for additional information about how well each option fits.

Internal evaluation

You are conducting an internal evaluation to determine the following:

Of all of the options available, which one or ones best suit me?
At what level can I enter the field?
What are potential barriers to entry?
Does this job or industry fit my values?

To confirm which career options fit best, you must identify industry trends, credential requirements, and salary ranges for the positions that most interest you. You will also want to determine which companies are leaders in their field and gain referrals to respected industry professionals.

Stage 3 – Cultivating Opportunities

Stage Three information interviewing is all about pinpointing and targeting those companies and specific individuals with a current or near future need that you can satisfy. The purpose is to connect with and be referred to your target audience; those folks most in need of your expertise and therefore, most likely to hire you!

Used wisely, information interviewing can be your ticket to career success.

Get ready for your interviews, read these tips.

5 Tips on How to Answer Video Interview Questions
Preparing for Your Job Interview Questions and Answers
Job Interview Success Tips and Strategies

Follow Your Passion In Work To Find Success

March 15, 2020 by BoomersNextStep Guest Author Leave a Comment

Many people spend their working lives with absolutely no passion for their work. If you are still working as you get older, surely this is the time to seek work that involves unleashing some passion in your work.

What does it mean to have passion in your work?

Urban Dictionary defines it in this way:

Passion is when you put more energy into something than is required to do it. It is more than just enthusiasm or excitement, passion is ambition that is materialized into action to put as much heart, mind body and soul into something as is possible.

As a Career Coach I have always advised people to be aware that following your deepest passions as the main element of your career can lead to disillusionment. Music, art and elite sports are good examples of this. If the career path becomes extremely difficult you can end up disliking the work and losing the enjoyment of the passion in your free time. I try to help people find work that fulfills them in some way; work that they care about, using skills that they enjoy using.

But passion, as defined by the Urban Dictionary, is what builds a fascinating and fulfilling career and makes an employee shine or a business succeed.

How to Follow Your Passion In Work

It’s different when you are an older person seeking a different career path. You know what you really care about and what you love to do. If you haven’t had the opportunity in your life to pursue passion in your work, this might be the time in your life when you can safely focus on combining your personal passions and your career.

So how do you achieve this?

Some of us have discovered where our passion lies, and have pursued that path, reaping the rewards of this choice every single day!

Others understand their passion but lack the confidence or resources to make the leap of faith.

Some struggle to identify their passion and need only clarity to define it so that they can wholeheartedly follow it.

Following your passion means separating yourself from commonly accepted definitions of career success. It means using new criteria and discarding the beliefs that “this level of authority, or this level of income” will bring you happiness and success.

Ask yourself “When am I most happy?”

That’s what Michael Gill, author of How Starbucks Saved My Life did. At 53, he was let go from his Fortune 500 career. He had allowed his career to define him but through the years had lost his motivation and enthusiam for his work. After 7 years trying to re-establish his career, he prioritised his personal identity over his professional life and became a Starbuck’s Barista. His five lessons are:

1. Are you happy?

2. Ask yourself what contribution you feel you are making to others?

3. Is your life balanced?

4. How can you create more balance?

5. Are you respected by the people you work with?

Covid-19 problems

We all know what’s going on with job loss and unemployment at the moment. We know it’s bad. But for some people this might be the impetus they need to move forward. I don’t mean forward in an upward trajectory. I mean forward towards combining your passion and your work, and doing something you’d love to do.

Imagine the joy of a career that feels more like play than work. Imagine waking up every morning eager to meet the challenges that lie ahead rather than dreading the obstacles you’ll encounter. Imagine ending every working day feeling energized instead of drained.

This is the result when you follow your passion!

Be open to circumstances, people, and opportunities!

Read our tips

How to Handle a Career Change Late in Life
Is Your Next Step A Career Shift?
Tips for Creating A Successful Home Business