SMARTer Job Hunting's Jobcast

In the weeks to come, we'll be
exploring what kind of job you really

want and need, how we can find it
quickly, how to prepare for your

interview and how to pitch yourself.

How to Make a Great Impression, Ways to
Negotiate Your Salary and Benefits, and

How to Become a Star Once You Get the Job.

We'll interview guests, including
hiring experts, job seekers, and

companies looking for workers.

We'll also briefly review research in
the field and important news articles.

Who's this for?

This is for you if you're someone hunting
for a new job, especially a well paying

job in a time of many strikes and layoffs.

If you're in a job now, but
are considering a career

move in a new direction.

If you're in a job, but are unhappy.

or stressed or underpaid
and want something better.

Or if you want to get in the
business of job placement as a career

counselor or someone starting a
new company who might need insights

in how to hire and keep people.

You'll gather insights into the many myths
out there about how astonishingly low the

unemployment rate is and how jobs are just
waiting for you to walk through the door.

Those will have you sending hundreds
of resumes to open job postings,

with a n average 1% response.

We'll also cover some brain tricks
from neuroscience, both to keep you

motivated and to elevate your status
with your interviewer or new boss.

Who am I?

My name is Dr.

Christopher Harz.

My teams and I have used next gen
educational technology to train

thousands of students worldwide with
psychological motivation, chunked or

short segment learning, game based
learning and other uses of technology and

experience to learn and influence others.

I have advanced degrees in applied
psychology and international business

management, and a doctorate in
educational tech and neuroscience.

I've worked on hiring many
technology teams from military

and civilian contractors.

I've also worked on DECOPS,
Deception Operations, and PSYOPS,

Psychological Operations for the U.

S.

Military and Intelligence Services.

And I'll reveal some of those
secrets in the coming weeks.

Today, let's get started with skills
you need to master job hunting, and for

success in your job once you land it.

One of the most important
skills is storytelling.

Why should you tell stories?

Most people nowadays present themselves
as a set of facts, assuming that bosses

make decisions based on pure logic.

But that's a myth.

That's not how humans function.

Just repeating key phrases like,
Oh, I'm a good team player.

Or, I'm great at collaborating.

Or, I am passionate about rapid
product development will not make

you stand out from the thousand other
people applying for that position.

If you were an employer, would
repetition of phrases like that

motivate you to immediately
hire the person that said them?

Not real likely.

What's more, if you state a bunch
of facts about how great you are,

it can come across negatively.

Like you're bragging.

How humans like to communicate and
make decisions is with stories.

You should remember stories that
illustrate various qualities of

yours and write them down, both
for networking and job interviews.

Think about it.

You still remember stories like Bambi and
the Little Mermaid from many years ago.

How well do you remember a PowerPoint
presentation you saw three years ago?

The facts about your job
skills will already be lying

on the table of the recruiters.

What you need now is to
create an emotional connection

with a series of stories.

Most people think human memories are
like data in computers, but they're not.

Every one of our memories has
an emotion attached to it.

It's your job to make it a good one.

Emotions can actually work in your
favor, especially if you're hoping to

go into a new field where you don't
have a lot of factual experience.

Stories can illustrate that you
have certain skills that translate

across even very different fields.

I've watched successful
marketers and salesmen selling

themselves through the years.

Their secret to success
was the stories they told.

They had clearly identified
and rehearsed those many times.

Let's give an example.

Let's pretend you're a programmer for
a real estate company, and you're trying

to become one in the healthcare field.

You get some time with a
person you'd be working for.

You could now present a long list of facts
about, how you're a great programmer,

but you won't because, A, you don't have
experience in the healthcare industry, and

B, you're too smart to bore her to tears.

Instead, you'll tell her a
story, such as the following.

Have you ever had problems with
software projects coming in on time,?

Where I work now it was a real disaster.

Program managers would get an estimate
for time and costs from the code

heads, and then double or triple
that and hope they got even close.

To solve this problem, I
tried something different.

I noticed that they didn't get
feedback until late in development,

and then kept zigzagging around
to change course to correct it.

Instead, I set my team to
rapid prototyping doing

scrum on a fast schedule.

We got feedback, at every
meeting for every piece, and

we made our mistakes early on.

We had to make sure the people
giving the feedback understood these

were prototypes, not complete, but
it allowed us to discover problem

issues in the initial interface
design and correct them early on.

Then, as the deadline approached, I
knew I had to motivate the team to

late hours to keep up the momentum.

I thought about ordering pizza for night
meetings, but that just puts you to sleep.

I needed something spicy to wake them up.

And I discovered Godmother sandwiches
from a place called Bay City's

Delicatessen in Santa Monica.

They were really spicy.

Those woke them up all
right, and we kept going.

They went with it because they knew I
was paying for those great sandwiches

out of my own pocket, at 12 bucks a pop,
and staying even later than they did.

We finished the project the
night before it was due.

When I presented it to my vice
president, he didn't believe it at first.

He thought I was trying to trick him.

When he asked how I did it, I
answered, simple, it was the godmother.

I don't know whether he thought I
was mafia or not, but he went with

it, and we made great progress
over the next three years.

He's a good guy.

I'd be there forever if he'd stayed
on, but unfortunately he recently

left to get a job in Austin, Texas.

Now, take a step back and notice
that you told them the following.

You're dedicated to the
company and the job.

You're good working with teams.

You're productive and you meet
deadlines, even working overtime.

You're loyal and you'll
stay for more than a year.

You can think outside of the box.

You didn't make the common pitch
mistake of talking about yourself

and bragging how smart you are.

The whole pitch focused on something
that was important for the interviewer,

that is, reducing budgets and time.

In our next section, we'll go
over some stories that you could

tell for the typical questions an
interviewer is going to ask you.

But first, let's take a look at
the elements of a short story,

and you've got to keep them short.

A short story doesn't have time
for all the classics, including

character arc and plot and so on.

It's like a joke.

There's a relatable setting, there's some
action, and maybe a twist at the end.

The important parts are...

One, details.

Avoid generalizations like,
We sold a lot of this product.

Instead, throw in some specifics like,
Against all expectations, I sold 1.

94 million dollars in the small
Rhode Island market in 14 months.

Second, is dialogue.

A good short story is a combination
of narration and dialogue.

Which makes it more personal.

For instance, contrast these two stories,
the first of which is going to fall flat.

Two hunters go out into the woods
and encounter a fierce bear.

One of them takes off his boots
and puts on running shoes.

He tells his companion he
intends to run faster than him.

Contrast that with...

Two men are hiking through the woods
when they're confronted by a huge

grizzly bear which growls at them.

One man immediately pulls off
his hiking boots and puts on

a pair of Nike running shoes.

What are you doing?

yells his friend.

You can't outrun the bear,
even with those running shoes.

I don't have to outrun the
bear, the first hiker replies.

All I have to worry
about is outrunning you.

The third element is conflict.

Every great story, like every
Hollywood movie, has to have conflict.

That makes the listener curious
about how it's going to turn

out, how it'll get resolved.

So you have to introduce
the conflict early on.

You get extra points if there's a
twist at the end and the conflict

gets resolved in an unexpected way.

As an example, the boss has
500 resumes on his desk.

He feels totally overwhelmed.

He tells his interviewer to throw out
all but 50 of them and call those up.

The interviewer, shocked,
says, Throw out 450 resumes?

What if the best candidate is in there?

You have a point, the boss says.

But then again, I don't need people
with bad luck working for us.

Next, keep it short.

For interviews or other
presentations, stories should

not be longer than two minutes.

Whenever You're practicing one,
use a stopwatch to time yourself.

Talk fast, and be really
enthusiastic, and practice it.

Do not trust yourself that you can
deliver it on the day that you need to.

Some tips for storytelling.

First, know your audience.

Is the person you're interviewing,
or maybe it's even several, going to

understand the elements of your story?

Avoid any political, racial,
or religious content.

Two, make it personal.

Instead of a story about other characters,
have it be about you and close associates.

Three, focus on the takeaway.

The story should focus on an element
of concern to the people on the

other side of the table, and it
should have a positive outcome.

Four.

Identify the conflict or problem.

Build some dramatic element, a
major problem that the people

across the table can relate to,
and focus your energy on it.

On how you overcame it.

Five, practice your story and delivery,
and the ability to hit its main

points, when to pause, and how to
deliver the punchline at the end.

That takes practice and feedback.

You may discover short pauses
help the delivery, as fast nonstop

talking can make you look nervous.

Now that we've gone over the elements of a
good short story, let's cover a couple of

tricks that I've learned over the years.

The first secret, think of, your
short story as being an elevator

story, something that you have to tell
between getting in on the 1st floor

with your interviewer or customer and
getting out maybe 5 minutes later.

So the elements are this.

You're making yourself a checklist.

Is your story clear?

Is it concise, so
somebody can remember it?

Try it out on, friends and
family and contacts and ask

them, What do you remember?

Give me feedback on what I said.

And is your elevator story compelling?

What's the emotional hook?

Remember to describe whom you're helping.

Describe the problem.

You might use the word struggle
and the description of the problem.

Then describe your solution
and end with the resolution.

How did you solve the problem
and what did it mean for the

people that worked with you?

Another storytelling secret
for your client or interviewer

is to tell a story of origin.

That is why you're in
the industry you chose.

And maybe give an example going
back to childhood when you decided

that you wanted to do this.

And how we got into it, what was
the problem that you encountered

and why is your approach
something that will help people?

For instance, this might
be my story of origin.

When I started in Engineering at
a big university, I was miserable.

My classes were big and all
the teaching was about formulas

written on a blackboard.

I just couldn't relate to formulas.

By accident, I came across a math
game, a video game, and the video

game, instead of a bunch of equations,
showed, areas under curves, it showed

colors, It had shapes and figures in it.

I loved it.

I could play with it.

Totally enjoyed it.

So I started making some game like courses
just like that and tested the students

on regular teaching from a pure book
and teaching with game based content.

And we found that the students
learned in about half the time

with the gamified content.

And then a year later, the book
learning group remembered less

than 10 percent of the material.

The game content group remembered
over 80%, and they even remembered

the emotion that they encountered on
playing with the subatomic particles,

the colors of neutrinos and electrons.

They were excited to
go through that again.

Those students really l it
up in the learning process.

Another secret is to tell case stories.

They tug at people's heartstrings
and make them emotional.

Remember first, the exposition, the
details of what time and who and what.

And remember that the hero, which
will be you, must be someone that

the listener can identify with so
that he becomes the hero in the story.

The Second element is the problem,
and the problem, again, should relate

to the person who you're talking to,
and the stakes have to be high, so

that the listener cares about it.

The Third element is the solution.

How you came up with a solution for
the problem and the skills that you

use d to come up with that solution.

And finally, the resolution,
which is the secret sauce.

What was life like for the
people that you helped?

As an example of the difference
between solution and resolution, if

you remember the wizard of Oz, the
solution was Dorothy going home.

The resolution was where she stops
at that point and realizes how

wonderful the people are in her world.

So, remember when you tell your
story to end it with a Wizard of

Oz moment about the people that you
helped and how they felt afterwards,

how you changed their lives.

A final secret to telling
stories is to create a playlist.

Different types of stories that may be,
more emotional, that may involve more

numbers and facts, have more pictures
or more nostalgia, especially for,

people that have been through a lot.

Get yourself a list of stories
and practice them so that you

can choose one for the particular
listener across the table.

Again, for your stories,
practice your story and delivery.

Put pauses in so you don't look
nervous, and put enthusiasm

into the punchline at the end.

Your enthusiasm is going to carry the day.

A lot of what we covered today
is in my recently published book,

SMARTer Job Hunting, available on
Amazon in print or as an ebook.

It addresses the problems that those
in the job hunting industry face,

including job seekers, job counselors,
and human resources executives.

In the coming weeks, we'll
go over sections of the book

.
In the meantime, thanks for listening.

Tune in next week and happy hunting.