In a tough economy, recruiters have a larger pool of candidates to choose from.  For careers in Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Enterprises, and Nonprofit Management, a key to success is to blend values and skills in your interview answer.  The following fundamentals will enable you to increase your chances to translate an interview into an offer in any economy:

CRAFT YOUR STORY

First, review the job description to craft your story! The job description advertised by an employer is a ‘wish list’ of the skills and attributes they are looking in the perfect candidates.  All recruiters know that they will never find the perfect candidate.  However, your goal is to demonstrate through your interview how your profile is the closest they can find to that of the dream candidate they have in mind.  To do so, review your experiences and skills, and draw connections between your background and the position’s description.  In addition review the organization’s values statement online and conduct informational interviews to clearly articulate how your values system and that of the organization align.  Use result-oriented statements and examples to demonstrate your fit with the position.  These stories and examples can be drawn from paid or unpaid positions, what counts is your ability to clearly highlight and demonstrate how close you are to the dream candidate the recruiter is looking for.

TRANSLATE YOUR PAST INTO A FUTURE THE INTERVIEW CARES ABOUT

Second, research the organization to translate your past experiences into keywords and statements that are relevant and engaging to the interviewer.Use print and online resources along with informational interviews to gather information about the organization, industry trends, and about the position.  Translate your research into statements and questions to highlight your values-based fit through your relevant knowledge and experiences.  Also use your research to craft researched questions you can use to engage with the recruiter during the interview process.

WHAT TO EXPECT

CONGRATULATIONS!  Being invited for an interview means that you are among the few that successfully used their resume, cover letter and networking channels to demonstrate that you have similar values than those embraced by the organization, along with the job skills highlighted through the job description!  This is a solid foundation that you need to use and build upon during the interview process.  An employer will be using the interview process to further evaluate three things:

• Competency: Do you have the academic background, technical qualifications and skills to do the job?
• Soft Skills: Do you have the personal characteristics and competencies necessary for effective performance?
• Fit: Are you a good fit with the organization based on shared values and goals?

Beyond consulting firms that have traditionally been using case interviews as an integral part of the interviewing process, an increasing number of employers now include case questions to their interview procedures.  If you know you might be facing a case interview in the hiring process, we suggest the following resources – CasePlace by the Aspen Institute provides socially and environmentally responsible cases that will help you get ready.  McKinsey and Co. has also created a series of free videos that will further help you get ready for case interviews.  Finally, LiveCareer has created a resource page that will further help you sharpen your case interviewing skills!

The fact that you have been invited to an interview is a great sign, it proves that through your resume and the previous steps you have taken in the hiring process you have convinced the recruiter that you meet the basic criteria and qualifications for the job.  The recruiting team will use the interview process to further investigate your background and how your personality and interpersonal skills match the candidate they are looking for.  Recruiters also want to assess how likely you would be to accept the job if they were to make you an offer (recruiters are reviewed and evaluated based on their conversion rate of number of job offer accepted over number of offers made). 

Be prepared to present your relevant accomplishments and credentials, as well as to reiterate how excited you are in joining their organization:

• Engage the recruiter through your non-verbal cues (lean forward, make eye contact, use tone to highlight the key points of each of your stories/examples)
• Have 2-3 results-oriented statements ready for skills areas relevant to the job (recruiters are trained to ask for multiple examples of your leadership skills – how to motivate peers/reports towards a goal, your ability to think critically and strategically about a problem you have to address, your analytical skills and your ability to generate results).
• For organizations that are hiring for just in time positions, the timeline of hiring is in general 6 weeks between the posting of the job and the hiring date.  Therefore, be prepared to also tackle questions about start dates and possible relocation in order to further emphasize your interest in the position and the organization. 
• If you don’t understand a question, ask for clarification. Do not guess.
• Observe and build on areas of interest as indicated by the interviewer’s non-verbal cues.
• Avoid being negative about previous jobs, supervisors, or organizations. Show the positive side of all situations.

Interview Protocoll (most are common sense tips, but might be easily forgotten when one is stressed and interviewing):

• Remain enthusiastic, energetic and engaging no matter how many interviews you have had that day/week.
• Smile, maintain eye contact and give a firm handshake.
• Think before you talk, momentary pausing to collect your thoughts is a sign of confidence.
• Be prepared to ask 4-5 pertinent questions to the interviewer and it is ok to have prepared a list.
• Do not ask about salary. If the interviewer asks you about salary, deflect back to them at least 2-3 times before providing them with a range that you have found through your research.
• At the conclusion of the interview, ask what the next steps in the interview process and time frame are.
• Close the interview by asking for the job and by highlighting your top 2 most relevant points you want the recruiter to remember about you as a candidate for the job.
• Write a thank you note within 24 hours (email is fine).
• If at all possible, do not write anything down until after the interview is over.
• Take note of the name of the recruiter/interviewer so that you can find their email address later on to send them a thank you note post-interview.

WHAT WILL I BE ASKED?

Basic questions:  As a management professional, you will be asked various versions of 4 basic questions:

• Tell me about yourself or Walk me through your resume.
• Why are you interested in this position and our organization?
• What relevant skills and experience do you have that will make you successful?
• What have you learned through your education and previous experience that makes you a better candidate for this job?

Your goal in addressing each of these questions is to convince the recruiter that what you bring to the table as a candidate is as close as it gets to the ideal candidate profile described in the job description of the position you are interviewing for.  When appropriate weave in information you have learned through your networking conversation and your research to highlight your fit and desire to join their organization.  Practice your 30- to 60-second answers to these common questions and your CAR statements with peers and with a career coach to refine your strategy and maximize your ability to tailor your answer to convince an interviewer that you are their candidate of choice.

An extensive interview guide and tutorial is available for free on LiveCareer.  If you are a member of Net Impact, you can also access additional interviewing resources through their career programming.  Think about addressing each type of question by adding ‘and how does this make you the candidate I am looking for as a recruiter?’ at the end of each question.

“Tell me about yourself:” or “Walk me through your Resume” The 60-second response

As you know “Tell me about yourself” or “Walk me through your resume” are two very commonly used questions to start an interview.  Open-ended questions such as these are used by employers to assess how well you can focus and succinctly convey why you are a top candidate for this job.  Responses to this question should be geared to show understanding of your skills and interests, and how these and your past experiences would contribute to the position and organization.

Use a 60-second guideline when answering this question.

• Focus the first 10 seconds on any engaging personal information you wish to share (e.g., where you are from);
• Focus 10 seconds on your careers goals (e.g., the function you are interested in and are interviewing for);
• Focus the next 20 seconds on your relevant experience (e.g., work, leadership activities, internships, volunteer work, board service);
• Focus 10 seconds on your academic experience (e.g. major, course projects, travel abroad if relevant);
• Focus the last 10 seconds to discuss why you are interested in the position (given the background you just discussed).

Remember, this is a quick introduction to your key selling points highlighting why you are a great candidate for the position. The recruiter will come back to some of these points through other questions, which will provide you with the opportunity to elaborate.  Practice your ‘Tell me about yourself’ question with a friend or a networking contact to gain feedback!

Behavior-Based Interviewing and result-driven statements

Most employers will use behavior-based interview questions and take your past experience and results as a prediction of your future results and performance.   This prevalent view in interviewing is based on the premise that it is better to ask about how you did behave in a particular context than asking you about how you would behave in such circumstances.  Whether your answer was convincing or not, expect the recruiter to question, probe, and ask you for further details about the experience.  Choose examples carefully and make sure to design and deliver your answers by highlighting the Context of the situation, the Actions you took and the positive and measurable Results that you generated through your actions (for more on the CAR structure – see for example Blue Steps Advisors).

HOW TO ADDRESS QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR WEAKNESSES?

Some of the most challenging questions my coaching clients struggle to build a strategy around involve discussing their weaknesses. Again, thinking about the question behind the question can be very helpful. What does an interviewer seek to learn by asking questions such as, for example:

• What is your biggest weakness?
• If I were to talk to your current or most recent supervisor, what would s/he say are two things you need to improve upon?
• What are your areas of personal or professional growth/
• What are the challenges you foresee if you were to join our team?

These questions are designed to really uncover your thinking around (1) your ability to be self-aware about your strengths and areas of development, (2) outline that when you are aware of an issue, you set out to work on it, and (3) that weakness or work in progress will not become a liability for the team/employer who will hire you. To address this questions, I recommend that you use a sandwich method of outlining one positive trait (your self-awareness), the negative weakness or issue, and then end with a positive note (how you have concretely been working on this issue in a way that does not make the weakness a liability for the organization you’re interviewing with.

HOW TO CLOSE AN INTERVIEW?

Questions You Can Ask an Interviewer

At the end of interviews, you will be provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the recruiter.  Make sure to have a total of 4-5 questions that focus on industry trends, the organization (and its culture), and the position.  Each time you ask a new question, introduce your question by briefly highlighting what you have learned through your research and your informational interviews before asking your questions.  For example, instead of “what would you say is the general culture at your organization?” ask “I liked learning more about your values of [value 1], [value 2], and [value3], how are you living these values in your work?” Keep track of time and offer to continue the conversation off-line if you find that the interviewer is running late for his/her next interview.  Follow the lead of the interviewer if your interview slot is ending and you have more questions to ask. 

Ask about Next Steps and Time Frame

After the recruiter addresses most of your questions, thank the recruiter for his/her time, ask for the job, and highlight 2-3 reasons why your experience would be a great fit for the position.  Reiterating your 2-3 selling points at the end is sure to help the recruiter remember you in a positive light.  Offer a firm handshake and follow the interviewer’s lead on how to leave the room, and the interview area.

Send a Tailored Thank You Note

To demonstrate how your interest in the position was strengthened by the interview, it is key to send a tailored and individual thank you note to each of the interviewers you meet through the process.   If your interview is occurring at GCS, you can handwrite a thank you note and ask a GCS staff to deliver it to the recruiter before their leave.  Alternatively, you can send a thank you email to your interviewers.  Make your thank you note stand out by reminding the recruiter of 1 or 2 key points that make you a great candidate for the job.

Further Follow-up Steps

If you do not hear back from the recruiter based on the time line discussed during the interview process, follow up with the recruiter to reiterate your interest.  Unless otherwise indicated by the recruiter, a follow up call every 2 weeks maximum is most appropriate to reiterate your interest in the position.  Being pleasantly persistent is likely to pay off in any economy!

I also like this post on being pleasantly persistent by The Muse.

During my first conversation with job seekers, I often hear “I have applied for hundreds of jobs.” They know it is counterproductive (they don’t get invited for interviews) but they keep doing it. Why is that?

Our brain is wired to allocate its limited cognitive resources to reach goals with minimal effort. Hence, if you believe that job search success is all about applying for jobs, you feel good after each online applications you submit.

In contrast, effective job seekers see submitting applications as part of the bigger picture. They define job search success as getting a job offer. This small mindset difference leads to significant behavioral changes and, ultimately, job search success.

Another key aspect of your job search success is whether you adopt “to-go” or “to-date” thinking strategies. Studies from Professor Fishbach at the University of Chicago showed that people who tend to focus on what they have left to do (to-go thinking) to achieve their goals are more likely to reach their goals than people who focus on what they have already accomplished (to-date thinking). We all use both types of thinking every day. For example, a cyclist on the Tour de France can think about the miles already covered or the ones remaining on this leg of the race. A manager aspiring to become an executive can focus on the number of promotions needed to achieve C-level responsibility, or on the number of promotions already received.

Job seekers who anchor their job search goals around applying online and use to-date thinking will focus on how many applications they have submitted. Applying online feels good, especially if you are achieving your goal (e.g. applying online), and adopt to-date thinking (I have applied for hundreds of jobs).

In contrast, the most effective job seekers use to-go thinking to reach their goal of getting a job offer. The behavior of applying online becomes a step towards that bigger goal. They apply for fewer jobs but take steps beyond applying online to get to their bigger goal.

Have you been a victim of to-date thinking in your job search? If so, here is a way to train your brain for job search success. Remind yourself that your goal is to get an offer, and keep doing the following until you reach your goal:

Keep track of your activity. Create a tracking sheet (or use specialized software such as careershift or JibberJobber), to track your activities for each job application you have submitted this last week. Organize your search tool by organization, and use it to keep track of any networking activity, job application, and job searching activity with that organization.
Blend networking with applications. What can you do to leverage your network to convert your application into an interview? Who can you follow up with to ensure that your application has been received and considered? Using proactive and reactive search strategies can make all the difference in converting your applications into interviews.
Tailor interview answers to showcase culture fit. Hiring managers can sniff a canned answer from miles away. If you are answering interview questions the same way in different employers for different jobs, you are doing it wrong. Tailoring your interview answers to showcase how your past results and your skills fit within each employer’s culture is key to convert your interview into an offer.
Remain pleasantly persistent after interviews. Yes, you are close to the finish line. You aced the interview, and they don’t get back to you, you are anxious to get this over with. Remaining pleasantly persistent with your sponsors, interviewers, and contacts within the organization might be the linchpin to converting your interview into an offer.

Keep adopting this approach for each job until you (1) get an offer, (2) hear that they have hired someone else, or (3) learn from a reputable source that the position has been withdrawn.

Keep in mind that your goal is to get offers, and switch to to-go thinking, you will be surprised by how fast you can train your brain for job search success.

An earlier version of this post was published via my LinkedIn profile.

After all, who would put their reputation behind a stranger? Probably not people who you want on your side.

Instead, here are simple steps you can use to leverage your network and convert more applications into interviews.

STEP 1: Follow directions when applying online. Online applications might be tedious, but hiring managers use them to assess your attention to detail and your ability to follow detailed directions. In most industries, this is neither the time nor the place to showcase your creative side.

STEP 2: Get to know the organization beyond its human resources department. Within 10 days of your application, we recommend that you:

• • Craft questions about their cultures based on your own unique skills, sector, and impact preferences;

• • Learn as much as you can online about the organization (what is their best selling product, what is the 10K or annual report telling you about their future strategies, if they are a nonprofit, where did they get most of their donations or grants from, what are the main events or initiatives they have underway);

• • Create research-based questions. With all the information available online, if you ask generic questions such as “What would you say the culture at [organization] is?”, you will come across as unprepared. Instead, integrate your research in each of your questions. For instance, if you like how they drive innovation in every vertical of the organization, you could say something like “I really like how your organizations encourages innovation in all verticals, can you tell me about one or two innovative projects you have been contributing to in your current position?” The more you learn online about the organization (and about their employees via Linkedin and twitter), the easier it will be for you to craft engaging and research-based questions that will differentiate you from other candidates;

• • Conduct informational interviews with people who work at the organization (ideally in your department of interest). Ask them your questions, and learn about their experiences at the organization. If they ask if you are interested in a job, you can say yes, but focus the conversation about their experiences at the organization, taking notes about how these conversations further strengthen your interest in the organization.

STEP 3 – Keep track of what you learn. Knowing what you have learned from which contact and how this information helps you decide whether an employer is a good match for your triple fit is critical to your ability to write good follow up and effectively address culture-oriented behavioral questions. We recommend using our Employer Tracker Tool or any best practice that works for you. The goal is for you to have a written record of what you have learned about an organization, through whom, and why is this information a plus or a tradeoff between your preferences and their culture.

STEP 4 – Integrate your informational interviews into a follow up note. About 10 days to 2 weeks after you apply, send a follow up email or call the hiring manager to ensure that s/he received your application, and to reiterate your interest. Then include 2-3 additional points from your conversations with people from within (provide their name and their title as well) that make you even more interested in the opportunity.

Beyond this follow up, give them a call every 10 days to two weeks if you don’t hear from them. Always remain pleasant in your conversation, reiterating your interest, asking if the person has any insights regarding the hiring time line for the position, or needs any additional information regarding your application.

As compared to the vast majority of other candidates who might not have followed up or taken the time to learn more about the organization, this step might become your differentiating factor. Most importantly though, this step will also enable you to find out whether this organization is the right environment and culture for you.

Many of you have already heard that 80% of job opportunities are never advertised, and are instead filled through networking. Today, we will focus on the 20% of job (and internship) opportunities that are actually advertised, and how you can best compete for those!

Here are a few suggestions for you to use the job (or internship) posting to maximize your chances to convert your application into an interview:

• The job posting represents the profile of the ideal candidate the company wants to hire: The hiring manager knows that it is unlikely that s/he will find the ideal candidate. Therefore, your job is to show how close your profile is to that of the perfect candidate described in the job posting.
• Don’t let the job description intimidate you: Job seekers are quite often intimidated by job descriptions and don’t apply for jobs they actually are qualified for. As a job seeker, remember that 100% of people who get the job applied for it! Therefore, if your profile meets most of the requirements and some of the preferences listed on the description, apply and let the hiring manager make a decision!
• Requirements versus preferences: Hiring managers know that they will not find a candidate with all the requirements and preferences they listed on the description. Based on numerous conversations with recruiting managers, it is not uncommon to hear that the job description changes as they meet with candidates. Therefore, focus on the value you can create by highlighting how much you have in common with the ideal candidate.
• A computer will first review your application: In the digital age, your application is likely to first be evaluated by a Applicant Tracking System (ATS) program. An ATS system will compare your resume and your cover letter with the terms used in the job description.  If your cover letter and resume match at about 60%-80% of the terms used in the job description, your application is likely to be discarded. Therefore, it is important to take the time to send tailored applications for your jobs of interest. This will increase the probability of your application to be taken seriously, and to be reviewed by the hiring manager.

Read the Mind of Recruiters.  The job description is a portrait of the ideal candidate in the mind of their future boss.  The more they want specific skills or areas of knowledge, the more the job description writer will mention those specific keywords and skill names in the job description.  You can therefore read the mind of the recruiters by deriving a word cloud of job or internship postings:

• Open a word count platform (I like tagcrowd.com but there are many others, including wordle and wordaizer).
• Copy and paste the job description into the word count window.  Additional options to consider:
  • Maximum number of words to show? Select anywhere from 50 to 75 depending on the length of the job description.
  • Minimum frequency? I would suggest that you select “2” or “3” depending on the lengths of the job description.
  • Show frequencies? Select “Yes.”
  • Don’t show these words: Include terms such as “work, description, candidate” and any generic terms that might not be relevant.
  • Click “Visualize.”
  • Follow the same process to create a separate word cloud of your resume and a separate one for your cover letter.

Tailor your resume to the job description. As you explore the clouds generated for your job description, resume, and cover letter, assess the gaps and leverage keywords to further tailor your resume or cover letter (while at all times remain truthful).  For your resume, here are places you can think about to increase keyword matches between your resume and the job description:

• Education Section:
  • If you have multiple majors, select the major and/or minors that are more aligned with your target job.  More majors or education might not always be interpreted as being able to take on more, it might also be interpreted as “this person does not know how to make decisions,” or “this person can’t discern what is important to me.”  Avoid the confusion, and focus on what is most relevant to the job, not necessarily what was most important to your development as a person.
  • Select 2-3 courses that are most aligned with the job, not the courses in which you learned most, but the ones that are most aligned with the employment opportunity you are pursuing.

Good luck with your job applications, and as always, I look forward to reading your questions and your comments!

My conversations with emerging and established sustainability professionals often reminds me of Shaq Vs. In this show, Shaquille O’Neal, who is best known for his stellar NBA career, challenged other athletes in their own sports. For example, Shaq would swim against Michael Phelps, or throw a football against NFL Quarterback Roethlisberger. In an other episode, Shaq challenged Misty May and Kerri Welsh in beach bolleyball.

Now what’s interesting here is that similar skills and abilities are valuable in both basketball and volleyball. Players that are tall, have excellent ball anticipation abilities, and possess team leadership skills are very valuable in both sports. Furthermore, Shaq was paired up with Todd Rogers, who won the Beijing Olympics Gold Medalist in the men’s beach volleyball event. Given his partner and his transferable abilities, could Shaq be as good in beach volleyball as he was on a basketball court? Well, not really. Shaq got quite frankly humiliated on a volleyball court. It turned out that Shaq’s amazing size was an asset when he was at the right place at the right time both in basketball and in volleyball. Unfortunately, most of the time, his size was a liability when he attempted to move on sand. Despite benefiting from a great partner and many transferable skills, Shaq lost in two sets against Misty May and Kerri Welsh.

What does this tell us about your sustainability job choices? We are all great athletes, with strengths, skills, and the knowledge we have acquired through education, professional experiences, and our volunteer or service efforts. But the same job can be a basketball court for one professional, or a volleyball court for another professional. How do you discern whether a job you are considering would be a basketball or a volleyball court for you? You might be among the many professionals hungry to get business done better that are simply unable to articulate (and therefore recognize) what job and employer combination is a basketball or a volleyball court option based on your own unique skills, job priorities, and impact area.

The good news if you are a Shaq on a volleyball court is that we have a simple solution for you! We have developed career modules to help you leverage our Triple Fit Framework (download our handout) and clarify your own unique priorities and preferences:

• • What impact area is a better fit for your values and passions (Get Clear Module #2)?

• • What types of organizational culture and jobs would be a better fit for you in terms of how each job would fit your priorities in terms of material rewards, prestige, community, family, and self-development (Get Clear Module #4)?

• • What career assessments (e.g. CareerLeader, SkillScan) can tell you about the transferable skills you have that you can bring to your next job (Get Clear Module #3)?

Defining your triple fit will enable you to build your impact-driven networking pitch. This process will also enable you to conduct better employer research (Get Connected Module #1), and increase your chances to convert your applications into interviews (Get Hired Module #2), and your interviews into offers (Get Hired Module #4).

If you feel like Shaq on a volleyball court in your current job, know that you have more career choices to feel more like Shaq on a basketball court than you think! Of course Shaq has now retired from the NBA. He is trying different things, searching for his next basketball court. Will it be becoming a sports commentator? Will he become Professor O’Neal now that Shaq earned his doctorate in education? As we all are, Shaq is on a journey to earn good money by leveraging his talents, skills, knowledge, and passions. We hope that our triple fit model will help you get hired faster so that you can get well-paid to have a positive social and/or environmental impact on our world!

Note: An earlier version of this post was published on JustMeans in 2010.

The visioning lab thirty-three attendees included diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and cross-sector experiences that led to a rich and vibrant conversation on the role and goals of higher education. Among the many topics raised throughout the day, I particularly enjoyed participating in five threads centering around education and employment.

Thread #1: Tension between job ready and lifelong learner. Both Philip Auerswald and David Carter made great points on the need to consider lifelong learning. Often, I hear lifelong learning being put forth as a goal that somehow excludes helping students be job ready by graduation. These two are not mutually exclusive, one can become a lifelong, job ready, graduate. GMU, as well as universities around the world, are faced with the challenge of helping their students understand and articulate the skills they gain through their education in terms employers will want to pay for. The debate between job ready and lifelong learning also varies by degree program and majors. It is most prominent among faculty, staff and university presidents in liberal arts degree programs. In contrast, it is almost non-existent in other degree programs (e.g. business, game design). No matter which degree a student pursues, students are not prepared to fully articulate their skills, sector/culture preferences, and impact/industry priorities in a way that helps them best compete for 21st Century jobs:

• • Undergraduate and graduate degrees in business or in Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields predominantly focus on skills and technological knowledge graduates need to succeed on a number of jobs. However, these degrees often fall short in terms of helping students define their culture/sector priorities and impact/industry preferences.

• • Specialized degrees and certificates in public affairs, nonprofit management or business administration are legacy degrees that focus on best practices in specific sectors, but often fail to help students refine their impact/industry preferences, as well as articulate their transferable skills and knowledge.

• • Liberal arts degrees help students become fluent and effective at researching complex issues at the impact/industry level. However, they fall short at helping students understand and translate the employable skills in terms that employers will understand and value.

Our triple fit assessments help students become fluent at all three levels of the employability equation (skills, sector/culture, industry/impact). This allows them to learn and use the industry-specific terminology they need to convince employers to hire them.

Tread #2: Graduate and hustle afterwards. Several of the GMU students and alumni in attendance described their college experience as “I graduated and then looked for a job.” This is a predominant view among college students and professors. It might have been a reasonable assumption thirty years ago, but in today’s job market, this belief would be equivalent to telling high school students to graduate and then try and get admitted into a good university. Universities, especially those like GMU that have a significant proportion of first generation students on their campus, play a critical role in helping students remain accountable as they formulate how they will turn their education into employment (or graduate study, or a fellowship program). An open question for GMU and universities around the country remains around how to do so without pushing students to focus on salary or employment prestige as the primary measures of success at graduation. We are working on a senior springboard program designed to help juniors and seniors optimally design and implement whatever post-graduation plans they want to pursue.

Thread #3: Perspective expansion & failing forward. GMU’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ Dean Debbie Boehm-Davis and Director of Development Kelley McCaskill emphasized the importance of opportunities for students to both expand their perspective and iterative opportunities to fail (without failing too miserably). Mark Fernandes from Luck Company made excellent points on consequential learning in corporate contexts that aligned with these ideas. Experiential learning opportunities have long been used to respond to these needs. Whether through service-learning offerings to get involved in the community, by studying abroad, and more recently by participating in an incubator experience as an aspiring traditional or social entrepreneur, students have numerous opportunities to expand their perspective and grow as self-aware, global citizens.

But offering more experiential opportunities does not mean offering better educational experiences to students. Students are busier than ever, but they still are unable to articulate how these experiences fit into their post-graduation plans. In addition to offering a diverse set of experiential learning opportunities, I would suggest that universities set up mechanisms through their academic and career advisors so students can set up 80/20 learning journeys. 80/20 learning journeys would have 80% of each student’s courses, experiential learning and internship pursuits aligned with their current post-graduate goals, and 20% of their semester for stretch classes and surprises. Several of our university clients have been using our triple fit assessments (and especially our passions mosaic exercise) to help students develop their 80/20 learning journey and we look forward to reporting these results in future posts.

Thread #4: Reflection time. Related to the failing forward and learning journeys mentioned above is the necessity for built-in reflection. Currently, students keep busy, take a bunch of courses, go abroad, go to conferences, and get involved in a number of student organizations without strategically thinking about how each of these time and energy investments contributes to their personal and professional goals. More is not better, better is better. Providing students with built-in reflection and processing time on how their previous semester has contributed to their growth and how they will align their courses, experiential learning goals, and internship or job search efforts based on their updated awareness and goals would go a long way in helping students maximize their college experience and outcomes. I would suggest Marshall Goldsmith’s feedforward approach in this area, as well as iterative orientation programs that engages students each year of their education to take stock of what they have learned and how they will translate their 80/20 learning journey into their post-graduation plans.

Thread #5: High alignment mentoring. Everyone at the Visioning Lab agreed that mentoring and advising are key in one’s learning journey. During our group brainstorm, Zack Marom made great points on how mentoring needs to involve accountability and a range of stakeholders beyond the university. It is important to remember though that the same mentor can be a great mentor for one student and a horrible one for another student. Great mentoring relationships stem from a high alignment between the goals of a student and the work and personal experiences of the mentor. In an optimal mentoring relationship, both mentor and mentee have the same point B (career or personal goal) and the mentor’s role is to share best practices and tactics to help his or her mentee get to their shared point B faster and easier. For example, if a student is interested in innovative teaching methods, pairing him up with charter school teacher as a mentor is a great fit. High alignment mentoring relationships lead to high efficacy, and satisfaction for both mentees and mentors.

Unfortunately, high alignment mentoring relationships are rare in higher education. The issue is the assumption that any mentoring is better than no mentoring at all. This assumption is false: no mentoring is better than misaligned mentoring. Imagine the student interested in innovative education mentioned above matched with an experienced teacher who has been teaching the same subject in a conservative boarding school. The pieces of advice from his mentor might be a great fit within more traditional schools, but irrelevant or downright detrimental within the context of charter or progressive private schools. This happens even if the mentor has the best intentions. Indeed, anyone is biased towards believing that their path was a viable and valuable one. As a result, willingly or inadvertently, a majority of mentors will pass on their beliefs and assumptions to their mentees that are counterproductive to their growth.

Mentoring programs that are iterative and high alignment are needed to deliver optimal value to students and other university stakeholders. A way to do so would be to start each mentoring cycle with a meeting between a mentee and a trained coach to define each mentee’s top two or three goals for that cycle. Then each mentee gets paired up for a finite period of time with a mentor that has experience in one of the mentee’s top two prioritized goals. Throughout the process, the mentor and mentee receive tips and best practices on how to best frame questions and best practices to maximize an open dialogue within the mentoring relationship. At the end of the mentoring cycle, the mentee and mentor report back to the coach, and a new cycle is set up based on the mentee’s new set of goals. If the goals between the mentee and the mentor are still aligned, the relationship continues. If there is a divergence of goals and experiences, then the current mentee and mentor relationship ends and a new one is set up for the next cycle. Over time, some mentees will have multiple mentors, while some mentees will keep working with the same mentor over their learning journey. Balancing the breath and depth of the mentor pool needed to implement this program will be more costly at the onset. However, the benefits and mentor/mentee satisfaction will more than compensate for the higher initial costs.

Overall, forward thinking universities such as GMU have a unique opportunity to stop doing more and instead do better with what they currently have. President Cabrera and his team understand that, and I very much look forward to the 21st Century learning ecosystem they will create based on the ideas generated during and beyond the Visioning Lab.

To help PhDs and their advisors and career coaches, here is a repost from my keynote address during the 2014 PhD Career Day Conference at my alma mater, the University of Rochester. Organized by the Graduate Student Association (GSA) and the Dean of Graduate Students, Dr. Wendi Heinzelman, the conference aimed at (1) exposing PhD candidates to career options in and beyond academia, and (2) bringing PhD alumni back to campus for two panels about PhD careers beyond academia.

A twist on the traditional “Publish or Perish” motto, my keynote address offered examples and best practices to help PhDs realize that, in many ways, earning a PhD is similar to growing a lean startup. All PhDs start with an idea, build experiments, measure the impact of different factors on a complex problem, and learn how to make significant and innovative contributions to human knowledge. All PhDs can choose to “Publish and Pivot,” or use their PhD training to add value to employers in any sector. The note I received this morning from an attendee emphasizes how important educating PhDs about their career options remains:

Some key insights on PhD career transitions that were shared throughout the conference also included:

The illusion of knowledge is worse than ignorance. Many PhD candidates believe that their only job options are postdocs, tenure track jobs or adjunct positions. This narrow view prevents many bright talent from learning about jobs that would make them both productive and happy. The UofR graduate school is making a smart move by starting the conversation through a PhD Career Conference. By helping their current and alumni PhDs connect, the university is building a future cohort of grateful alumni (and potential donors) that are sure to enhance its brand and, hopefully, improve its future bottom line.

Don’t anticipate that hiring managers will figure it out for you. Burt Nadler, Director of the Green Career Center, made excellent points on employment trends. Thirty years ago, there were lots of jobs and few PhDs. When that was the case, hiring managers who wanted to hire PhDs were more than willing to help PhDs figure out where they wanted to work within their organization. Today, there are more PhDs than jobs. As a result, hiring managers no longer have to help PhD figure out where they fit. PhDs have to clearly articulate their goals so that their career center staff can connect them with hiring managers that will recognize the value their can bring to their organizations.

You can be a researcher without working at a university. Several alumni talked about conducting research without being employed at universities. For example, Dr. Grace Scarborough has been conducting research on political ecosystem for 30 years (three of which were in an academic institution). Dr. Yong Zhang heavily relies on his Material Science PhD to develop and commercialize new materials at Sigma-Alrdich. There are many organizations beyond academic institutions where research is conducted, including think tanks, private labs, as well as innovation centers and R&D departments at a variety of companies. Use LinkedIn and employer directories to identify organizations that houses research groups you can add value to.

Communication agility is the linchpin to success. Different employers describe different skills and experiences using different industry-specific terms. Learning how to talk about your PhD skills using the language of your target employers will make your search considerably easier and faster. Dr. Yong Zhang was right on target when he cited Bill Carroll, former American Chemical Society (ACS): “Chasing degrees is a waste; chase knowledge and experience. And remember job-wise, a degree is an enablement, not an entitlement.” Mentioning your PhD will often be much less productive than talking about the skills and experiences you gained from your PhD that will help you solve problems for your future employer.

The only constant is change. While visiting my home department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences a decade after graduation, I was reminded of the high faculty mobility in multidisciplinary fields. No one from my dissertation committee nor my qualifying exam committee were at the department during my visit. Daphne Bavelier, my dissertation advisor, moved to the University of Geneva. Ted Supalla moved to Georgetown University, as did Elissa Newport. Mary Hayhoe moved to UT Austin. Dick Aslin and Jeff Runner are still at UofR but are both on sabbatical this spring.

Overall, the conference confirmed that no matter what their dissertation focuses on, all PhDs develop transferrable skills that are applicable to a wide range of careers in the private, nonprofit and government sectors. However, to secure a nonacademic job, PhDs need to be able to pivot and articulate, in the language of their industry of interest, how their PhD skills and experiences will add value to their future employer.