Hey Winner, Did I hear you say 'Informational Interview'

I hate to say it but summer will be over next month and for many of us, that means we’ll start frantically assessing whether we’ve made progress on our 2016 goals. If you had any career-related aspirations on that New Year’s resolution list, it’s not too late to achieve them. In fact, an informational interview might be the pivotal factor that gets you closer to the goal whether you are trying to get a new job, start your own venture or get into grad school. Executing an informational interview is a simple but genius act that propels you past your competition because it gives you insider knowledge. And personally, it has saved me years of turmoil because I learned that I just couldn’t thrive in certain industries through these informal conversations. Informational interviews also played a huge role in getting me into Johns Hopkins for grad school and helped me land my current role as a research analyst at a highly selective organization. If you are anything like me, you at least need to attempt to achieve your goals in order to feel at peace by the time New Years Eve rolls around. Here are my ten steps to getting an informational interview and killing it:

1.     Identify exactly what you want. If you know what role you are looking to fill, great. If not, enter this process with the mindset that you are conducting informational interviews to learn about roles that allow you to use your skills and interests. 

2.     Why do you want this role or why you are exploring this industry? Your answer to this question should weave in your skills and interests. You should feel confident about this answer because it is going to be in your opening statement when asking for a meeting and when you start the actual informational interview. And be honest with yourself because we all know a bull-shitter when we see one and you don’t want to be one.  Even if your reason is, “I need a job and this seems like the least boring”, that is a better place to start than a cookie cutter answer you found on the internet.

*And if in fact, your reasoning is that you need a job and this seems like the least boring, you can improve your language by articulating it along the lines of: “After my last position as a ________, I knew that I wanted to pursue a job that excited me and this position seems like one that I would learn from and contribute to because I am interested in _________, _________ and _________”. 

3.     Write down each of your questions for them. Even if you are just conducting informational interviews because you want an “in” so you can get your resume through the backdoor, you should still ask questions about the company that you can’t find the answers to online. This makes the person on the receiving end of the call/email feel like you are genuinely interested in a piece of their world instead of feeling like you are just using them.

4.     Go on Linkedin and search for the company’s (or companies’ if you are interested in exploring a new industry) name and you will see existing connections that work at that firm. The person who is closest to you at that company will be the first one you reach out to. The people you know least will be the last ones you reach out to. Linkedin is great for this kind of interaction because people expect your message to be about career-related. That being said, if you aren’t connected to someone on Linkedin, but you have their email, reach out to them via email.

5.     Email them asking to meet in person or connect via phone or Skype and specify why you want to meet with them.

6.     Do everything you can to make this whole interaction as convenient for them as possible. You should be prepared to pay for the meal or drink (assuming you will meet at a café or restaurant) and make the meeting location suitable for them.

7.     Follow up a couple of days before the actual meeting day confirming that you are excited to meet with them and repeat the logistical details.

8.     The day before you meet this person, do a quick google search on what is happening in the industry. You don’t want to show up at an informational interview completely unaware of a major current event in their world.

9.     When you meet with them, smile and mentally prepare for an honest conversation. You are not asking this person for a job, you just want to hear their perspective and share your thoughts. This is a two-way conversation so loosen up and allow it to be just that.  If it becomes obvious that you would be better off in a different role or industry, you can ask if the person has a contact in that role or industry. And if the position is in fact a good fit for you, you can close by asking if they could pass your resume on to the hiring manager for the position.

10. Follow up within 24 hours with a thank you email (this one is good) or handwritten note (this one is better) that specifically states what you gained by meeting with them. For bonus points, also let the person know what you are going to do with the information they gave you. This last step reaffirms for the person that they made a good choice in spending their time on you.

That is it!

Not that hard right?

Ok now, go get’em.

I Just Negotiated a Salary...And It Went Surprisingly Well

If you are anything like me, you hate the idea of asking your potential employer for more money than they originally offered you. Are you going to seem greedy? Is he/she still going to want to work with you? Here is the thing, the wage gap still exists partly because most women do not negotiate their starting salaries while men do. So whatever questions come up around whether you should negotiate, please know that you should almost always negotiate a starting salary. 

When my future boss offered me a position and told me the starting salary, I was excited and impressed but asked for some time to think about it. I called back the next day and used the template below to negotiate relocation assistance and my starting salary. Let's be clear, negotiating felt uncomfortable but I knew I had to do it. And at first, my boss said she couldn't negotiate the salary but appreciated that I asked for more money because women often don't. While this might seem insincere to some, I really liked that she encouraged me. Later that afternoon, she called to offer me a starting bonus and an impressive salary. Yay!!!

So hopefully now you have some courage around asking for more money. And you can use the guide below if you find yourself in the position to do so. 

If you have any negotiation tips that you've used, please share them with us in the comments section :)

                                                                                                                                     With lots of candor, 

                                                                                                                                                        Hiwote

Who Else Wants to Become Ridiculously Productive?

Productivity is how effective you are at producing an end result. And being extremely productive seems almost impossible in a day and age where Netflix seduces us with entire seasons of epic shows like House of Cards, and Instagram taunts us with dreams of doing what everyone else is doing, and Youtube gets us with 3 minute videos of everything on the planet. But being productive at what you do, is imperative to building a successful life. 

For a long time, I thought productivity was just about being more focused but I never explored what that really meant. I spent more time focusing on why I couldn’t concentrate on my work, and attempting to answer that question would often leave me completely paralyzed. This paralysis would grow as deadlines loomed over my head, leaving me stir-crazy until the project ended. And once the deadlines were met, all I wanted to do was nap for three days straight. After scrolling through my mini-feed, obviously.

So, in my brief moments of sanity, I decided to create a step-by-step guide on how to make my productivity both consistent and anxiety free. I hope this helps you as this continues to help me. 

1. Make a Master List

Productivity is often hardest when you know there is a lot to do and aren’t sure where to begin. Creating a master list means writing down every single thing that’s floating around in your head. My master lists change once every couple of weeks and I add new things to it as they come.

2. Call it Quits on BS Tasks

Once you’ve made your master list, get yourself out of the things that don’t actually serve you. If you consistently sign up to do things you think you should do, instead of things you actually want to do, you are going to feel miserable. This was and still is the hardest step for me, because it’s often easier to inconvenience yourself trying to make someone else happy.  Learning to excuse yourself from doing things that serve others while killing your soul should be seen as a huge victory. 

3. Get Excited

Everything left on that list should be things that get you excited or tasks with an end goal that will get you excited. BTW, you can’t get rid of tasks that help you towards achieving your goal just because you don’t feel like doing them. For those tasks, you can either delegate that task, or you can just focus on the what, where and who. Here is what I mean… I, for example, hate sending networking emails but I know that this is just something that I have to do in order to get the job I want. So instead of focusing on how soul depleting it will be to write that email, I choose to focus on what this is (a tool to help me get a job), who I am writing to ( I attempt to approach everyone I meet/write to as someone who wants to see me succeed and as someone whose success I can facilitate), and where (am I meeting them for coffee? Could I find something fun in that part of the activity?). 

4. Prioritize

Once you have a list of things you could get happy about doing, separate them into the matrix below (also known as the Stephen Covey time management grid). Make sure you’re serious about what you consider urgent. i.e. that pedicure is not urgent, I promise you will get to it once you are done with your real work. 

5.Clean Up That List Girl

If something is urgent and important, take care of it immediately (not after you finish this episode, not after reading this post, DO IT IMMEDIATELY). Then write down the tasks that you should start either later in the day or tomorrow. Get rid of anything in the not-important-but-seemingly-urgent box or tasks that are just time wasters (Quadrants III and IV). 

6. Kick Ass

When later or tomorrow comes, do not call it quits until you’ve at least started on each of the tasks that you said were important but not urgent. There is a large possibility that this list is way bigger than the time you have to do it. If it is, shorten the list for tomorrow. I for example, used to have 8-10 things to do each day. After months of feeling like I could never keep up with my list, I try to stick to a list of 3-5 things that I try to get to each day. I also have friends who are super productive because they have a set list of things they MUST do and then a couple of other things they will try to accomplish if they have time at the end of the day. Something that usually comes up when most of us try to focus and do our work are distractions. Your phone buzzes, you notice you have a new email, you remember something that is important that you want to take care of before you forget. The good news is, these problems have solutions. First, turn your phone off (not airplane mode) if thats the biggest source of distraction. And if focusing while you are on your computer is where you struggle, consider these resources. Second, tape a sticky note to the edge of your laptop or your desk and write down any distracting thoughts that you know are important, but aren’t a priority at the moment. That way, you’ll make sure they aren’t forgotten about.

7. Take a Break

Unless something truly tragic happens, most days can have a lot of fun infused into them, but it won’t always happen out of the blue… you have to create it with intention. I usually work for 2 hour spurts and take a 30 minute break doing something fun, like getting coffee with my favorite coworkers, or looking up something interesting for the blog, or searching flights to a destination I’ve always dreamt of going. I try not to use all of those breaks to get on Instagram and Facebook because that just reinforces old habits, whereas doing something new or something with people I like improves the value of my time. 

*Try not to be a maniac with this rule on how long you should work before taking a break, if you are someone like me who gets addicted to your goals to the point of stress. The amount of time you should work between breaks is entirely up to you. And even though you should work for long enough that you are actually seeing progress in your work, some days that might be 25 minutes on and 5 minutes off while other days, it’s 2 hours on 30 minutes off. I think there is a way to remain extremely productive without being high strung. 

8.Treat Yo’ Self

If at the end of the week, you’ve gotten the things on your important and urgent/important list done, do something that you love to do. Go get that pedicure, watch 50 shades of grey, take a pole dancing class, whatever it is, just make sure you are happy to be doing it. 

In short, life can be fulfilling and fun but it takes a little bit of an effort; you don’t have to be Type A to get a lot done. Do the things you’ve set as your goals without backing out on yourself. And if at times you feel you just can’t focus, it might be time to re-evaluate what goal it is you are trying to achieve, and if it’s still something you want. Trust yourself enough to know that focusing on what you’ve considered important is worth your attention, but more importantly - Relax, life is meant to be enjoyed. 

And, in situations where none of this works, just do like Mindy and channel your inner Bey.