Interview Identity


Throughout my pageant experience and several job changes, I realized early on that the INTERVIEW is the key to landing that next position or obtaining that raise and added benefit package you have had your eye on.  But, with that being said, many people truly do not know how to interview.

In today's job economy, it isn't about what you have on paper concerning your college degree or graduate school, work experience, or civic organizations you may be a part of - it is about the INTERVIEW and the CONNECTION between you and the interviewers, how you paint the picture of what you can offer to their company or organization.   The "paper pieces" just back up what kind of experience they had with you in your interview.

For example:  Male, 3.75 GPA, UVA undergrad, Harvard Graduate School of Business, worked as a business manager for 10 years with AEP, and the CFO position just opened up.  You've met all the prerequisite requirements, but operating as the CFO means many more meetings and working with others from various departments.  You are shy but are excellent at your job because you are able to work alone, crunching numbers and finding saving solutions.  Many in the workforce know both of these facts about you.  The position will be "won" by the interview and the work experience calculated into the job offer position.

Need a little help with your interviewing skills?  

Want to land that promotion interview,
or land a new/better job?

Let me help you with your interview!

How this works:
Mainly, most of it would be done by phone or Skype.  If you would like to meet in person, arrangements could possibly be made.  You would send me your resume via email.  I will look over it and see how it can be revised so that it presents your qualifications and experience in a succinct and polished presentation so that you will be able to land that interview you are seeking. 

During our session, I would be acting as the company's interviewer and asking you the questions I feel would be asked in the interview to see how you answer them.  You will be critiqued on your answers and provided homework at the end of our session.  If you would like to continue sessions, a reduced price will be determined by the number of sessions you feel would benefit you the most.  

1 Session
(1 Hour Long)
 $25.00

$25.00 interview preparation session could mean a $25.00, $250.00 or $25,000 raise!

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Marie Claire @Work

I love magazines.

I love women in power.

And...I love Marie Claire.


I have started to do a lot of "Image Workshops" for college students at many campuses in West Virginia.  This presentation is called "The 'Skinny' on Success in Today's Professional World."  It is mainly a preparedness speech, letting future grads know what the job economy is truly like, what will get you noticed even before you are offered an interview, how to sail through with a successful interview, and how to keep your job once it has been offered to you!

Because of this presentation, I am always looking for new and current facts and pieces of information that would be helpful to note and provide a different outlook than mine.  Marie Claire has a @work column and I love the stories that are always featured!

In July 2012, they featured four different women in a column called, "I Started at the Bottom...Now I'm the Boss!"  The tips that they gave were unique and I felt were great pieces of information to pass on.

Kate Gutmann, President of Worldwide Sales at UPS said she was a senior in college when she landed an internship at UPS and was quickly offered a job upon graduation.  Kate's No. 1 tip:  Be open to relocating.  She had ten different positions and moved seven times before now operating in the position she is in currently.  Tip No. 2:  Make sure the decision-makers know your name.  She wanted to get promoted and knew that in the massive company of UPS it was a "who's who" that would get the promo.  So she wrote a memo called "Who's Kate Gutmann?" detailing why she would be the best candidate for the position and sent it out to the entire company.  Let's just say she got an interview right away!  Tip No. 3:  Seize ambitious projects - even if the odds are against you.  When approaching Japan Fortune 500 companies about using UPS for their shipping service, she wasn't sure that culture would take a young American female seriously.  So she read three books on Japanese culture and studied up on everything from what suit to wear, to traditional gifts to bring, even what color of paper to wrap them in.  She led the presentation and won the sale!

Mellody Hobston is now the President of Ariel Investments, but like Kate, started as an intern.  Her No. 1 tip is:  Measure success in years, not months.  She says she is patient and not always looking for what's greener on the other side.  She feels her willingness to stay, learn and ride out the hard times has a lot to do with her success.  Tip No. 2:  Show - don't tell - how great you are.  Tip No. 3:  Successful friends are often more valuable than mentors.  Facebook's COO, Cheryl Standburg, is one of Mellody's closest friends.  They met in college, clicked, and have been in touch off and on since, but no matter how much time goes by, they still have the "spark" they did when they first met.

Julie Greenwald, Chairman and COO at Atlantic Records, was bound for law school when she took on a summer job as the aide for Lyor Cohen, the head of the hip-hop label Def Jam Records.  Now, the 42-year-old-mother starts with her No. 1 tip:  Ask a lot of dumb questions.  For every ten dumb questions, one of those will be a question never thought of by anyone else in charge.  Tip No. 2:  Don't whine - fix the problem.  Where she worked on the corporate side of the label, all the guys would go out golfing and she couldn't golf and was never asked.  So she suggested another activity for all - skiing or to a basketball game - and that's how she fixed the problem.  Tip No. 3:  Even the greatest jobs demand sacrifices.

Tina Schiel, Executive Vice President of Target Stores, started with Target right out of college stocking shelves.  She said her No. 1 tip would be:  Bored?  Ask for more to do.  Complete one task after another like you are going to be checked for accuracy and the ability to receive more work because you have proved yourself.  Tip No. 2:  Work with people who are different from you.  Tip No. 3:  Always seek out unfamiliar terrain.  She had only worked managing stores and then was offered a position to be a part of the brand development team.  It was much more low-key, but energized her to go back to store management, and that is what catapulted her to the position she serves in today!

If you want to read more stories like these, visit the Marie Claire @Work tab.  


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Ten Mistakes Made 
[in a Job Interview]


I just laughed out loud at some of these.




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