I was having a conversation recently with a coworker of mine about how your professional life has such a major impact on your personal life but it kind of got me thinking, how about the other way around?  What are some things that have the ability to hurt your career that stem from your personal life? Think its completely separate? Well, back and relax, I am going to hand you a big steaming pile of context.  Here are some personal things that can rough up your career.

1) Living a truely deviant lifestyle and/or crime
Everyone has the ability to choose what they want to do with their lives and hey, more power to you.  But there are things that go too far, particularly if you want to have a successful career.  If you are spending time in jail, doing illegal things, or are even too far out on the fringe of social normals, like or not but your career will suffer.  “Uh boss, yeah I can’t make it into work for the next 30 days, I am uh well, there was an unexpected…uh, Im in jail.”  Yeah thats gonna go over like a porcupine in a balloon factory.  This is also the part where affairs, and other improprieties can really nail you.  Don’t believe me?  Ask our last president.

2) Taking care of personal things at work
So everyone makes a personal call at work every once in a while, its unavoidable.  Some people do more than that, much more.   Do not be one of those people, you will at some point run into something. At best, have some awkward moments.  At worst case you could be fired.  An example is, I never write any blog entries at work, aside from being unethical, it could also get me in trouble.  I will occaisonally post from work as far as just pressing the post button, but that is as far as it goes.

3) Myspace/Facebook
I know someone that I work with that I can promise you if senior management saw this person’s myspace page this person would be fired on the spot.  Yes I know its a place for self expression but guess what, its public domain.  If your employer or someone researching you finds this, its completely fair game for making judgments on character. And yes,they can discriminate based on what they find on your page.  You created a public record of yourself and things they could never ask you in an interview they are now finding out based on you offering it up.  I’m not saying you shouldn’t be proud of who you are, but think of recent cases of teachers being fired for drunk pics on their myspace pages.

4) Expressing views/beliefs in office
Bringing your personal views out in the office can cause a ton of tension and a lot of bitterness.  These parts of your personal life should stay way away from the office.  I like to count Tom Cruise in this category because though he wasn’t necessarily expressing his views on set, he make such a scene off camera that his studio dumped him.  Ouch.

Bucking the trend:
Office Romance – This one is obvious why there could be some serious problems having an office romance but considering Lauren and I met at work, I can’t really tell other people not to do it.  I will say if things hadn’t worked out between us it could have been very difficult.  If you are going to pursue someone that you work with make sure that it is really someone you are interested in for the long term, I think that is generally the litmus test.  In my case, I think wife counts as long term

..so you finally graduated, what a relief. You are free to manage your time as you wish. You don’t have to think about your term paper topic for hours. You believe that all the difficulties are already behind. And it is…but it isn’t. You finally got that sweet job you’ve been waiting to get and you are going to save up and buy that Ferrari, travel to Greece in your time off and roll around in your money like a pig in his northwestern wallow. You and your coworkers are going to live in a hippy commune like bliss, have happy hours, and be like a giant family. Now all of that may be true but I have some bad news: even in the best of companies there are going to be office politics. Welcome to the real world.

-You are having a great first week in the office when you hear some of your co-workers talking about going for happy hour. You chime in “hey, that sounds great” and they all look at you like the white guy in the Godfather when he asks to be part of the family business.

-There is that one man/woman who just plain hates you and you can’t figure out why. They are rude to you and just downright impossible to deal with.

-You find a group of people gossiping about someone you have been getting along with

-You work your butt off and give them to a peer who promptly shows them to a superior while claiming it as their own

These are all common things that I have seen happen or heard about happening from various friends. Its not unique to any one company and you can bet you will find it going on in places from large companies to small companies to offices to churches (ladies rotary brawl anyone?).

The good news is that you are probably somewhat prepared for this having gone through middle school and high school. The bad news is that now it directly affects your money making ability.

When you get into your job you might be thinking “ah yeah, Ive got it made, I have all the essential qualities down PAT.” Your train of thinking may go something like this:

Drive - energy and your desire to work. Ive got it, I am the man (woman).

Team-commitment – Ive got this down too. In college I took my turns being the one to pump the keg.

Communication skills – I am good at talking to people and getting things across.

Those are great and all, but there is one extra little quality that can be very helpful:

Savviness – this the the unspoken one that happens to be one of the most important. There are various forms of savvy, and you want to pick the honorable one. You will need to use your wit to overcome poor political situations. There are the people that that walk on others, and people that get walked on. Then there is the third kind of people that hold their ground while not throwing others under the bus. This is the area you want to be in.

There is always the ability to just “not play” the politics game but there is a good chance of losing favor and your perceived job performance can suffer. It doesn’t matter how well you are doing if Bob is taking all the credit for what you are doing.

So play the game. Dive into the politics but don’t sell your soul. Thats that middle ground I am talking about. Heres is your approach:

-Dont compromise your integrity or sell yourself short

-Stay away from gossiping.

-Stand up for yourself, always. Let people in a respectful way that you will NOT be intimidated. When you deal with people directly it cuts right to their core and and stabs a sword in their BS.

-Don’t be afraid of ANYONE. The most politically powerful people in the organization are not to be feared or to be sucked up to. They are to be dealt with honestly and respectfully but also directly and openly.

-Form relationships with coworkers. It makes a huge difference, don’t be the hermit.

-When things get nasty in a meeting and the words start flying, don’t get into it. If it goes on, get up and leave. If asked later why you left, be completely honest and say that you felt the conversation was unprofessional. Its as simple as that. There is a difference between a heated but respectful debate, and an insultfest.

-Be positive. Without optimism, work will not be fun.

-Be confident in your abilities and view yourself as an important contributor. You need to develop a good self image. It will not go unnoticed. Stand up for your own opinions.

-Don’t get emotional. Logic destroys emotion in the work environment. The cool calm person holds 100X more power and words fall 10X as heavy as the ranting screamer.

Lets just lay it out there….choosing a career is HARD

When people begin their career quest starting from ideas of who they want to be in high school through college, the choices and options they have before them are basically limitless.

How does one select a path or future title? It is not like a 18 year old can see how these choices at such a young age will translate into stature, stability and security decades later. In the past people took great efforts to respect and learn from elders and that gave somewhat of a basis for predicting a lifetime outcome if selecting the elders profession. But today for the most part the people that are regarded in the best light in the eyes of kids are celebrities, sports or music “stars”. Since it has been so long for anything significant in the sciences area like a moon walk or explorer discovery, the reality based role model inspirations are slim.

Unrealistic expectations from being flooded with media “idols” and other fads
can only confuse an impressionable mind. If a father or mother figure don’t
provide inspiration or even offer guidance it falls to over whelmed and under
creative high school guidance counselors who may or may not have the kids best interests in mind.  College counselors are even worse (ooo here comes the hate mail).

Some lucky ones will have a chance encounter with something unusual that
will peak an interest in a potential career selection. Most will wander
aimlessly through the education years hoping they will learn of some
fantastic opportunity.  I know I did, I had no idea what I wanted to do (and to some degree I am not sure I chose correctly)

They get all “educated up” but have not tasted or smelled the real world.
College professors are well known for not having a handle on real
world reality. In fact that “A” from the professor speaks more for your
ability to study for a test or suck up to the professor
than a judgment on how well you’ll do in the courses subject matter.
Virtually every employer will tell you forget everything you just spent
4 years learning since none of it relates or applies.  “You got your piece of paper? congrats! Now burn it.”

College is only a token to be used to get past the gate… the interviewing
gate. Everything else begins the day you start work. From that point
the career ladder is an uneven game of mastering all kinds of skills
and avoidance of pitfalls. And no matter how hard you might try in
some employment situations you will find obstacles, some
impassable. Then you learn the jump and switch maneuvers
moving from one employment situation to another. How well you
keep your eye on the ball will factor into how well you do in the
decades ahead.

Of course these scenarios are predicated on the individual
being in the corporate wars. If you chooses entrepreneurial
endeavors your focus becomes performance and drive minus all of the crap you are bound to encounter in the corporate world.

The career choice phase really isn’t such but a life long journey
where interpersonal discovery and learning limits, abilities and
potentials occur. As in any discovery or exploration you try different
things and look for a groove that feels comfortable. You night try a
dozen new titles or environments before you single out your life
choice…or you might fall into something you like, either way the end goal is happiness.

Through out this discovery phase you might encounter
some failures but determination, will power and creativity
should prevail. History is full of successful people and careers
built on missteps and bumps in the road.

Today too much emphasis is placed on the number of degrees
or years of education….I can tell you that my masters degree is basically worthless.  Sure I learned some good stuff but its definitely not worth the time and money investment.  I cringe to think that I could have spent that three years doing something I enjoyed.  All it does is it delays and stalls the start phase in the real world.

Entering the real world you’ll discover your real talents and abilities.
That first acknowledgment of respect that comes from peers or a
superior regarding your real world talents is the spark that lights the
barn fire of dreams and optimism. It creates the internal plan to
achieve their goals.

So lets get started on choosing a career.  Finally!
Beginning steps to choosing career:

Since you are the person who will make the choice and
live with it try a planned approach to get started.

List out all your assets and talents

-What are your interests
-What do see as your skills
-What do you seem to grasp easily. mathematical or
artist things etc…?
-Where types of places do you think you would like to work at?
-Are you able to afford years of college or are more present needs a
priority Look into the career area or companies in that area.
-Look online at sites that offer job descriptions. Try Salary.com
-Look at companies in the industry. Try monster.com
-Talk to people in the industry. A good place to talk with people
in the industry is in Blogs or forums. Just Google for Blogs or
forums that have these types of people in them.
-Attend job fairs in your area and ask for some one on one time with
a recruiter. Recruiters can tell you what the company looks for
in an employee.

Career Plan

-Create a personal career options checklist listing out the areas and
companies you researched. Eliminate the unattractive ones and focus
on a few short listed ones.
-Evaluate what it will take in education, experience to gain a toe hold or
get an entry level job in the career area.

Traditional job search

-Eventually you will begin submitting your resume for consideration.
So create your resume, cover letter and practice your interviewing style
to develop the skills necessary to compete with your peers for your chosen
career area.
-Your resume and in particular your cover letter should be tailored to fit the
career area of choice.
-Learn and follow interviewing etiquette and always error on the side
of professionalism. In the college world casual and relaxed rule but not
in the business environment. You know have to meet real world bosses
standards but it is not that hard and your natural talents with practice,
persistence and proper education will win the day.

The Celebrity Apprentice finished up and and the celebrity apprentice winner was announced. One more season is down in the books. Admittedly, I like the apprentice to a degree…its fun seeing terrible candidates or B list celebrities getting whats coming to them after having tried to rat on team members and in laughing at the depths of humiliation people will go to to try and win.

The main problem with the apprentice, and even more with celebrity apprentice is that people take it much to seriously as some sort of reflection of the business world and careers. I was at a bachelor party last night and one of the guys their was talking about the apprentice and he said I quote “I think its a good inside look at the business world with Donald Trump.”

There were episodes with people running around trying to sell tickets to something, or fruit to people on the street. Its a completely ridiculous game: except that it is supposed to be a serious test of business skill. Its more a test of who can run their mouth the best, as the winner of celebrity apprentice Piers Morgan is proof of.

Its not that business isn’t stressful or competitive or that you don’t ever have to sell anything, but even the most cut throat business are a mixture of competition and co operation….vs the apprentices focus on greed, backstabbing, accusing, and blaming. Thats no way to build a career.

Remember folks, for entertainment, watch the apprentice (and read this blog) and for career information read some good books (and this blog). Oh and the answer to the question:

What did the celebrity apprentice teach us about business?

A whole lot of nothin

When you’re in college, you are either:

1) Broke
2) Living off your parents
3) Old and living off money you saved
4) 1 and 2, 1 and 3

Ah but now you’ve graduated and gone on to the real world, and so have all of your friends. Its a party, and you’re rolling in your newfound money, and the world is all you imagined it to be. Ok, so that may or may not be true, but one thing that IS true is that now is the time when all of your friends that chose different majors are starting to figure out exactly what their college degree is worth.

Its also the time when everyone gets curious what everyone else is pulling in. Dont give in.

There are a lot of reasons why you shouldn’t tell your friends how much you make, especially if you work in similar fields. All we have to do is look at the various situations to see that the outcome is almost never good.

You make about the same for the same kind of work

This is the only time that ends well but this is the minority of all cases.

You make more than them

1) They get envious of you and resent you. They may be jealous or discouraged, either way its not good.

2) They will expect you to pay more. Its true not all friends will, but the temptation will be there. “Oh John can pick up the bigger tip, he makes X”

3) They might try to borrow money. Lending to friends is pretty much a terrible idea.

4) You’ll have to justify not spending big. The words “come on, I know you can afford it.”

5) They use your salary as leverage to get themselves a raise. This is especially a problem if you work together. If Bob knows you make X and he does a similar job but makes y, he might pull the “Bob makes..” card when his salary review time comes. Just imagine how uncomfortable that will make things for you.

They make more than you

1) Superiority complex. If they make more than you, they might figure they are worth more than you, or are harder workers than you, or more intelligent than you.

2) YOU get envious and resentful. You don’t want to be resenting your friends, do you?

3) They pity you. This is the worst probably, no one wants to be pitied. If you like being pitied, you have a serious character flaw.

4) You are tempted to use it against them or the company. This could ruin friendships, and careers.

Yes I know its not like this with all friends but the truth is, why risk it?

Networking is one of the most trite terms floating around right now, mostly due to social networking sites exploding. There is myspace, facebook, twitter, linked in etc etc. As much as I hate to use the word, its one of the most important things you can do for your career and your life. So lets dive in.

The first thing to understand is that every where you go, you are networking. Networking is simply this: building relationships. I know that kind of sounds weird…well, am I networking when I go to the store to buy groceries? Potentially, yes. The other day I was at Albertsons buying some groceries. I don’t normally buy any groceries at Albertsons because its not near my house, and its not near my girlfriends house. I went to the back to buy some tilapia and struck up a conversation with the guy working the seafood counter. Even though I knew I was going to get tilapia I asked him what his favorite fish was and how he liked to cook it. I told him I was going to get some tilapia because I like less “fishy” fish at which point he told me “Oh you’ve got to try this shark!” I said thanks for the recommendation but it was kind of expensive so Id just stick to the tilapia…so he said “well, we are having this special and shark isn’t included, but Ill toss it in for you, you’ve gotta try it!” So I went home with some shark instead.

Now take that and dissect it. Networking is about learning things about other people. You are doing yourself a major disservice if you do all the talking when you meet someone. People have had great experiences and everyone has some sort of wisdom that they have gained. The vast majority of people are dying to share their wisdom and expertise with you and help you in any way they can, provided you are actually building a relationship with them and are interested in what they have to say.

Networking in person
What you want to do is ask questions to learn about the person. The truth is for anyone in the world there is some sort of common ground. The real key is listening to what they say because you can then build on that to ask another question. Most of us do this naturally in everyday conversation when we are interested in what someone is saying but sometimes you have really make yourself focus.

Applying this at work
For some reason most of us have divided what we do for work and what we do daily into different buckets. This is fine for some things but when it comes to networking we should be doing the exact same things. For instance my talk at the grocery store was just natural, yet these kinds of things don’t necessarily happen at work – especially in large corporations. Get to know the people you work around…don’t think of it as “networking” so much as connecting and finding common ground with people. Talk and get to know them, just like you would meeting a friend of a friend for the first time. The trick is breaking through the “work” layer when you are networking into the “personal” layer.
What is the payoff?
Luckily I have a story about this as well. When I was 16 I started working at Hewlett Packard doing web design for an internal web page and ordering office supplies. I was outgoing and got to know all of the people around me. Now fast forward 7 years. I am working for my current company and someone from my old team called me because they heard a position was opening and a lady I knew from all those years ago was the hiring manager. As it turns out the job req was already closed and they had all the candidates they needed. All of which were people with MASTERS degrees (I have a Bachelors). Well, the lady recognized me and brought me in to interview anyway….skipping the first two screening interviews. I got the job. Now, in the end, I did not take the job and decided to stay at my current company but look at what it can do for you. If I had not been so proactive in networking all those years ago I could never have had an opportunity just get handed to me like that.

No matter what you are doing or where you are, always keep in the back of your mind exactly how powerful networking is.

There is an episode of the TV show South Park where there are a group of “underpants gnomes.” The “Underpants Gnomes” are a community of underground gnomes who steal underpants, notably from Tweek (one of the characters).

The Underpants gnomes have a three-phase business plan, consisting of:

1. Collect Underpants
2. ???
3. Profit

None of the gnomes actually know what the second phase is, and all of them assume that someone else does. This sounds surprisingly like a lot of people I know. And it seems to be pervasive in EVERYTHING.

The Bad Career Plan: In my life I have probably asked at least 3000 people “what is your degree?” and a there was a good splattering of every major you can think of. Unfortunately outside of the engineers, who are a very minor number of total people I know/grads (so we shall ignore them) I would say 80% had NO idea what they were going to do when they graduated.

The Worse Career Plan:
A very large portion of those graduate and STILL don’t know what they are doing

The Ugly Career Plan:
A good portion end up working doing the exact same thing they were doing DURING school, or doing something making comparable money.

The Insane Career Plan:
16% of Americans said winning the lottery is an important wealth building strategy. I should add that you are 4X more likely to DIE driving to buy a lottery ticket than you are to win the lottery.

The Lesson:
If you don’t have one already, make a career plan. No matter what you got your degree in, figure out where you want to be in twenty years and make a plan to get there. The magic-career-fairy is too busy to help you so help yourself. If you are in the career you want to be then for your twenty year plan ask yourself these questions:

1) Is it possible to get there in my current job?
2) What salary do I need to achieve to get to that place?
3) Am I building the necessary connections to help me get there?
4) Where do I want to be living?
5) Does this fit with my family/life goals?

Next up on our list of “plans people don’t seem to think they need, but they are so wrong I want to give them the business end of a cattle prod” is retirement planning. Most peoples retirement model looks like the picture on the right. This one is both simple and extremely complex at the same time. The simple part: download my 401k/Roth IRA calculator and go to town assuming 8% rate of return (conservative). The complex part: deciding how to setup your portfolio, deciding what age you want to retire at. If you want to retire early, deciding how you are going to get by before you can withdraw from your retirement accounts (and don’t tell me you WANT to pay those huge tax penalties unless your retirement portfolio contains the united states treasury). Next make a plan (just like the career plan….how’d you guess I was heading that way). Ask yourself the following questions:

1) What age do I want to retire?
2) At my current rate of contribution can I retire at that age?
3) How much more can I afford to contribute to retirement?
4) Am I being aggressive/conservative enough considering my current age?
5) What is my favorite golf course?

Just remember, plan your career, plan your retirement, and when we are retired we can crack open a high quality beer on the golf course and talk about how smart we were to plan.

At the career fair I attended today yesterday. I really wanted to take a camera with and photograph the worst dressed interview candidates but I couldnt quite figure out how to 1) do it without getting caught and 2) ethically justify it to myself. Ok mostly #1. Anyway I couldn’t do that so there went idea number 1 for funny random post of the day. The good news is there are enough stories to make an entire post! (And let this be a lesson to act professional)

Conversation with one computer science major:

me: “Hey hows it going? So what kind of employment are you looking for”
kid: “well I want a summer internship doing no more than 5 hours a week.”
me: “Why only 5 hours? I spend 5 hours a week washing my car in the summer”
kid: “I hate working”
…

Then there was the kid walking around in the always classy flannel pajama pants, flip flops and a tshirt with messy hair wandering around asking for interviews. hmmm.

Another great conversation. A girl comes up to me very professionally dressed with a nametag that reads “mathematics”. Ok a math major that wants to talk to a software/consulting firm interesting, but Im game for listening to her pitch. “Hi, so what kind of employment are you looking for”
“well Im not really sure but I saw your website and I had a dream that I fit in perfectly with your company I can’t quite explain it, I felt a strong core attraction to your company. I feel something telling me to work here.” “Well we have development openings, some marketing openings, etc etc do you have any experience with anything there?” “No” “Do any of those things interest you?” “No” “How do you see yourself fitting in at our company” “I dreamt you would know” “Huh. Well, let me pass you off to our recruiter” Wherein I took great joy in seeing him go through the same thing. There is something cathartic about torturing friends/co-workers.

Here are a couple bonus career/finance related quotes:

baseball great Yogi Berra, on the Broadway show Biloxi Blues:
“It reminds me of being in the Army, even though I was in the Navy.”

Overheard:
“I like investing. Mostly money.”

“If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.”
JP Getty.

“I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor: Rich is better.”
Sophie Tucker

“Part of the $10 million I spent on gambling, part on booze and part on women. The rest I spent foolishly.”
George Raft.

And Ill leave you with:

“Beyond its entertainment value, Baywatch has enriched and, in many cases, helped save lives. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to continue with a project which has has such a significance for so many.”
- David Hasselhoff, Actor

Baywatch saved my life, how bout yours?

As I have previously mentioned in my article Top 5 tips to land a good job one of the most important skills you can have is to be able to interview well. You can have the best resume in a huge pool of people and it won’t make a bit of difference if you get out interviewed. On the flipside of that, if you have an average resume but killer interview skills, you will pass the entire field ahead of you. So, its about that time in the post where you are probably saying to yourself “Wheres the beef?” Well, heres a nice step by step process that will work well for you 99.99% of the time including THE MOST underutilized interviewing skill that quite frankly can take EVERYTHING else out of the equation that I really think has the most to do with 100% interview record. Yeah, that big time.

1) Do your research on the company
The very first thing you need to do is study up on the company that you will be interviewing with. The very first thing you want to do is figure out what their “style” as a company is. It may be somewhat difficult just using outside information but it is good to at least try. Every company is different and sometimes the differences have a very strong influence on who they will hire. For example, are they more concerned with only your specific skills or are they the kind of company that wants to “get the right people on the bus” ala Good to Great. More on this later.

2) Think ahead of time what kinds of questions they will ask you
If you are interviewing for a technical job, think about what kind of questions they will ask you about technical details. For example they might ask a programmer about inheritance, or they might ask a crane operator about procedures. Whatever your particular field is, think hard about what kinds of tough questions they might come up with.

Bonus: a lot of companies do variations on a test that my company calls the “who” test. These kinds of questions are open ended questions designed to try and figure out what kind of person you are. They might have to do with integrity or ethical situations. An example might be “Describe a time when you thought something a manager was doing was unethical and what you did about it.” They are not meant to be “trick” questions with a right or wrong answer, but rather a way of probing personalities.

3) Dress nicely/appropriately
As tempting as it might be to show up in jean shorts, tshirt and sandals it really isn’t a good idea. Well, its a good idea if you want to be laughed at after you leave, or maybe not even let in…but otherwise not so much. It might sound like a no brainer but for my most recent position apparently one of the interview candidates actually did show up in sandals. Showing up naked also not advised…stick to business attire. If you don’t have any nice clothes go buy some.

4) Arrive early for your interview
This is somewhat obvious but there are other reasons aside from just looking good. When I went into an interview for HP I showed up at the building (actually it was one of the mods onsite) and there was no front door. Thats right, a corporation and the place I was supposed to meet at had no front door. Not only that but EVERY DOOR WAS LOCKED. Luckily I was about 30 minutes early and after about 15 minutes someone saw me standing outside. If I had been running late I might not have ever had that interview…and that job for six years.

5) Stay calm and confident
You want to show you are poised, relaxed and overall a badass that is up for tackling everything. They want someone ready for challenges? Bring it on. They want a team player? You’re their man(or woman). They need someone who wrestles alligators? You make crocodile dundee look like a wuss.

6) Establish Rapport and then turn the interview around
Here is your secret weapon. This is your fourth ace when theres a flush on the table. Every other sucker in the interview room is being interviewed, you are interviewing. Here is what I mean. Several years ago my friend, roommate and former coworker was interviewing for a job. He came home and I of course asked him “Howd it go?” – “Great” – “What did they ask you about” …….. “I don’t really remember but I know the hiring manager’s life story. I start next week.” Even the most seasoned hiring professionals are susceptible to this. Why? People love having things in common with other people and people love talking about their company and then themselves. In a group interview environment this is much harder but still has an opening. Ask about the company and their group. You surrender information about yourself gracefully and answer technical questions to the best of your ability, but when it comes discussion time, pour it on. You can BOMB the technical part of the interview and save yourself here. I had an interview with Dell (that I didn’t end up taking the job) and they never even got around to asking me more than two questions, and (no joke) ended with the senior interviewer telling me “well, we will have to have a beer at <a pub in houston that has belgian ales> when you get down here”

7) Most interviewers ask about your weaknesses. Answer with Strengths.
Here are two different examples that I have used before:

“Name a weakness that you have in your day to day working environment”
-”Well I would say my main weakness is that I do sometimes get frustrated with people that do not pull their full weight and put in 100% effort.”

“Name a personal weakness”
“Sometimes I drive myself too hard. I am a perfectionist and so I tend to be hard on myself at times.”

Two things you should never say:
“I don’t really have an weaknesses” -It comes off as an arrogant lie.
“I am not really sure” -The employer point of view is: you mean you don’t know yourself?

8] Follow Up
This is HUGE. I have had one job where I did not think I got it, only to be surprised when I followed up with a phone call. “Oh yes, we haven’t been able to send out the formal offer yet, but we are extending one to you.” Always always always follow up. Always.

In an ideal world we would all be paid what we think we are worth and no one would ever have to ask for a raise. Then again in an ideal world I would be in cabo drinking a life size margarita right now. Unfortunately it’s not a perfect world, I am not in cabo, and gas is still 3 something a gallon. Anyway so you’re underpaid and unhappy. You haven’t had any automatic increases you say? Well it is time to take matters into your own hands, so here we go.

Before asking for a raise you should be doing some prep work. First of all you should be asking yourself a few questions. Remember the real goal is to align your paycheck with your value to the company.

“Am I making a contribution toward my employers goals above and beyond what is expected or SHOULD be expected from someone in your positions?”
This doesn’t mean you are working 14 hours a day. It means that either your employer is demanding more of you than average or you are doing work above average.

“Have I been given a reasonable raise lately?”
If yes, maybe its time to wait a while, if no, then you are a go.

“Am I completely prepared for everything the boss might throw at me?”
Before you go in its good to understand that when you do go in there are three different things that could happen. One, you get a raise. Two, you do not get a raise. Three, you work out a deal where the boss evaluates your performance in a certain time frame and agree to meet back in the future. Ive read some sites on careers that say be careful, you could get fired. Quite frankly, I have never heard of anyone getting fired merely for politely asking for a compensation review.

Ok, so you are sure you are going to do it.

Steps to prepare:

1) Gather up all of the data that you need to present yourself in the most positive light possible.

2) If your company has peer reviews, collect peer reviews.

3) If your company has a development plan then make sure yours is filled out.

4) Gather data about all the things you have accomplished. This is important to have on hand.

5) Decide exactly what you think is a fair raise for your current situation.

6) Research the market for pay rates for your job. Salary.com is a great place to check out what other people withs imilar experience and jobs are being paid in your area.

7) Read your employee handbook. See if there is anything in it about development and pay increases. Its good to know when you actually go in.

8] Try and network with other people at other companies to get a feel for what people are making. Once again, its good to know. On a side note, apparently 8 followed by ) makes a smiley face.

9) Make a list of your current responsibilities in your job. This is something it is good to compare to what you were originally hired on to do. There are cases where people started out doing an administrative or basic type job and have moved into doing jobs that include much more responsibility but are still getting paid based on the original salary curve!

10) Read up on negotiation tips.

Ok, now you have all the things you need. Next up on the agenda is to schedule a meeting with your boss. Its good to have specific time set aside so that you get your fair share of time. You don’t want to get into a situation where you just drop in on your boss and try and squeeze it in.
Meeting with the boss:

1) Be direct. Say something like “I scheduled this meeting today because I want to discuss my performance and compensation with you.” Raise is a harsh word for managers to hear so don’t say it.

2) Review your contributions and responsibilities. Be as specific as possible and show how your contributions have really benefitted the company. They aren’t going to want to give you more money for no reason.

3) Stress your loyalty to the company. They want to know if they give you more money you are going to show them loyalty.

4) If you are pressed on it, show data comparing your salary to that of other people in similar situations. The truth is most employers follow things such as salary.com as well.

5) Remember chances are you will not get an answer right away. Remember to be respectful and thank him for his time. You want your boss to be your ally, not an enemy.

What not to do:

1) Drop in on your boss without scheduling a meeting. You really dont want to get cut off halfway through your pitch

2) Make it personal. You want to stress value to the company but you dont want to try and guilt trip your boss.

3) Being general. “Ive been working hard and doing well and would like a pay increase.” Thats sort of like saying “um so, like, give me money, mmmk?”

4) Stressing NEED instead of value. You do not want to tell your boss “I can’t make house/car/child support/crack dealer/whatever payment unless I get a raise”

5) Threaten to quit (unless you really do have another job lined up). Chances are this will backfire and then instead of rolling in a money pile you will be hanging out at the local commune.

6) Throw a fit for any reason. Remember calm is power.

7) Ask for a raise at an inappropriate time. If the company is cutting back and things aren’t going well, DON’T ASK FOR A RAISE.

Now lets examine the three possibilities and figure out what to do next:

1) You get the raise -Thank your boss. Be happy. Buy a puppy. Then throw a party and have a beer. Buy your friends a beer. Buy me a beer. Take your significant other out to celebrate. Do whatever you want, be happy. OH and keep working hard.

2) You are told straight out no
-Ask your boss why and what you can do in the future to deserve further compensation. Inquire if there are other ways, sometimes you can negotiate a bonus or more time off or something along those lines. If not and you are unhappy, it may be time to start looking for another job.

3) Not right now
-Ask what needs to happen for it to happen. Ask what you can do and if there can be progress tracked. Set tangible goals to figure out further action. Remember that there is a difference between an employee who is doing a job as expected from a good performer and and employee who is really giving superior performance. They will most likely be looking for the second to give raises to.

When it is all said and done, regardless of what happens you will be glad you did because there is nothing worse than working thinking you are not being treated fairly and having no direction. This way you will at least understand where you stand in the companies eyes which will allow you to re-evaluate your situation. I can’t reiterate enough how important it is to take responsibility for your career, no one else will do it for you.

Good luck. And if you get a raise because of this article, my favorite kind of beer is Belgian Ales. Abbey Grand Cru if we are gonna get specific.