Page 171 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

The Accelerated Job Search

After talking for a while, she decided to give it one more try.
Her twelfth call, to Time Warner, yielded a talk with a vice presi-
dent. He granted her an interview. She now has a job, earning over
$100,000 a year.
Is an hour of making repeated phone calls, and possibly fac-
ing momentary rejection, worth that kind of money? You decide!
Your goal is not to sound polished or even friendly. Your goal is to
get an interview.
Once you get the interview, stand up and cheer! Then, send
the hiring manager a brief note or e-mail confirming the date and
time of the meeting and thanking him or her in advance for his or
her time. (See the following sample confirmation letter.)

Preparing for the Interview
You made it! Now it’s time to prepare for your interview. One of the
very best ways to prepare is to know your talents and skills and be
ready to tell anecdotes (examples) about how and when you used
those talents. Preferably your specific examples should be in story
form using quite specific details and Q statements.
Since you are a career changer and you don’t yet have stories
to tell about your new career, you may have to bring your transfer-
able talents from former occupations, school, or even hobbies to
bear in your interview.

Transferable Talents
Remember, transferable talents are things like analysis, manage-
ment, and problem-solving and interpersonal skills that can trans-
fer from one occupation to a completely different one. Here is a
list of transferable talents, similar to the list we saw in Chapter 2.
Check off each of these skills you have performed—you need not
be an expert. You may need to rely on talents you haven’t used
since high school, but if you used them once, you can improve
upon them and use them again!

❑ Advertising ❑ Arranging
❑ Advising ❑ Assessing performance
❑ Analyzing ❑ Assessing progress

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