What's in your Career Portfolio?

Interviewer: So….what are your strengths and weaknesses?
Candidate: Uh…..


Ok, perhaps a bit tongue in cheek. But, preparation is the key for any interview. Sometimes, even when you are prepared with what you consider a good answer, do you feel confident in your delivery? Does your answer reflect your own opinion, or that of your past/present supervisor, or your peers? Can you back up your answer with work related performances, successes, and data that support its strength?


For seasoned interviewing veterans, speaking in a confident manner regarding positives and negative attributes may present no challenge. But, there are some who might find themselves feeling like they have been thrown to the proverbial wolves. This post may help in that regard.


My advice is that candidates should prepare themselves for just these moments. And I don’t mean when you find yourself suddenly unemployed and desperately searching for a new job. I mean every day. It is a daunting task to sit down and write, or even update your resume after a few years of employment, or heaven forbid…after 10 or 15 years of consistent employment. So, why do we put ourselves in this position? Because we are not thinking about “when” we need to access our resume, we are thinking about that next big deadline at our current job.


But as many of you know, things change. Today's headlines are rife with staggering unemployment figures. And although I have heard some pretty heartbreaking stories this past year of how entire departments have been escorted out the door, we need to accept some responsibility for our own paths. Or at least the next road travelled. Will you spend months responding to job postings, of which there are potentially hundreds of other applicants? Spending big bucks having a “real” writer reformat your resume and beat you over the head for your lack of numbers? Focus hour after hour cold calling into your target companies hoping to reach a hiring manager? Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying those are not all viable methods. I am certain that there are many people getting hired from job postings. Certainly, a professionally- written resume may be effective, or luck will prevail, fortune will smile and you'll work your way through the hiring gauntlet to reach the exact person hiring inside your target Company.


Here's another thought. Before you spend another dime on "professional" services or throw your hands up in the air frustrated with current results, you should invest in spending a little energy on you. Invest in getting to know yourself. Yes, getting to know those strengths and weaknesses and building your own career portfolio. Artists do this regularly. After they produce a new piece, they take a copy and place it in a special vinyl sleeve and slip into their portfolio. So when they are in a position to present their work, they are ready.


Why don’t more professionals do this? Each time we develop or sell a solution or product, we document the revenue figures or the proposed savings to the client. Good idea, isn’t it? What about new products we have designed, or events we have produced, or the numbers of people we have supervised, or performance reviews where our supervisor raved about us? Unfortunately, we wait until years later when we are forced to sit down and update our resume, to torture ourselves into remembering our successes, and maybe even failures.


I envision my portfolio including global procurement deals negotiated, contributions made towards significant increases in bottom line profits, the implementation of operational best practices, custom client solutions chock full of savings, etc. Awards and honors I have received, articles I have written or been quoted, career milestones achieved. Skills or personality or behavioral assessment results, seminars or classes participated in, professional organizations joined, or certifications earned. And with every entry to my career portfolio, I make notes about lessons learned both from success and failures. I continuously update my references with the most relevant contacts.


Throughout this process I have invested in building my own confidence based on an understanding of my accomplishments, of the people I have touched along my career path. I am in touch with how I was viewed by my employees and can be realistic about the sort of a team player I really am. I am in touch with my real strengths based on a history of performance, and therefore can converse with anyone and everyone about who I am and what I have done in my career. And better yet, I have a firm grasp on what I am really good at and what I truly enjoy. It is a liberating process and one that allows me to pursue those roles for which I have passion. I have an edge over the other guy.


Interviewer: So….what are your strengths and weaknesses?
Candidate: Well, John, in the past 5 years I have been consistently responsible for driving sales up by 25% across my division, and I attribute that to …..