Clerks Who Publish – That Means You Too

Excerpted from MsJd.org (click here for original article)

Jumping off of the theme of using your time wisely during your judicial clerkship and closing gaps in your resume, this month’s post details the process for getting published. If you have never published before this may seem like a daunting task. However, it’s a great opportunity if you do not have law review experience or the “publications” section of your resume is blank/nonexistent. The time is right! While attorneys in private practice probably have it better in terms of publishers to choose from and opportunities to co-author with a partner, judicial clerks have time on their side.

Because navigating the publishing world is a long process in which attention to detail is key, I split this explanation into two parts. Part I (April post) will cover the process up until submission. Part II (May post) will cover the submission process and what you should do while waiting to hear back from publishers.

First, think about where you want to work and the types of industry journals and/or law reviews your target firms hold in high esteem. To do this look at the profiles of the managing partners and counsel in the practice groups you are interested in. Are you aiming for a state or federal practice? If you are targeting the latter, consider a national publication. The broader the audience the better!

If you do not clerk in a specialized court such as tax or bankruptcy, and are not sure what type of firm or practice you intend to enter into, then focus on leveraging the connections you already have to find a publisher. Consider contacting law school classmates who were editors on your law school journals. They might be able to put you in touch with current student editors so that you can see what types of articles the journal is accepting and what the submission deadlines are. Also, ask if your appointing judge is an editor for a publication. You never know…your appointing judge may offer to co-author.

Second, research your target publications. For example, if you plan to submit your article to the XYZ Trade Journal, Google this publication to see if XYZ Trade Journal has an online presence. Also, search for the publication on Westlaw and Lexis. Some publishers are associated with attorney networking groups. For example, the California Bankruptcy Forum, a group of California bankruptcy practitioners, publishes the California Bankruptcy Journal.

Keep an eye out for two things: (a) Submission deadlines. Some journals are very organized and have strict submission deadlines 6-8 weeks prior to the publication date. (b) A style guide. Some journals post editorial and citation guidelines to help authors understand early on what their final product should look like. Performing due diligence on the front end will enable you to tailor your submission appropriately and increase your chances of acceptance.

Third, if you feel as if you are charting new territory, consider readingAcademic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review, 3rd Ed., by Eugene Volokh. This book thoroughly explains the publication process and provides step-by-step instructions if you are faced with the prospect of promoting your own article and trying to find a publisher without any inside connections.

Fourth, settle on a topic. After selecting a few publishers that you plan to target either through your professional network or through a stellar cover letter, brainstorm topics. What do you plan to add to the ongoing scholarly discussion on this topic? Make sure that your work either contributes a fresh view point to the field or synthesizes information making the topic more accessible to practitioners. Think about whether the law will change significantly during the time you are researching and writing. If the answer is “yes,” the benefit is that your article, if published, will pertain to current events and might receive more attention. On the downside legislative changes or precedent-setting case law could moot your argument, making it harder to convince a publisher to accept your work without further revision. Be sure to run the topic and your list of target journals by your appointing judge before you delve too far into your research. This is especially important if your topic pertains to a case or legal issue before your appointing judge.

If you are fortunate enough to make contact with a publisher (via a cover letter or your professional network) before you start writing, try and get the publisher to approve your topic. Early topic approval makes it less likely that the publisher will be inundated with articles on the same topic.

Fifth, make a schedule. Take into consideration the following: (i) when you plan to start your job search; (ii) how busy you are in court…big trial coming up?; (iii) the publisher’s deadlines…are they rolling? Monthly? Bi-annual?; (iv) anticipated changes in the law; (v) holiday and summer vacations; (vi) Plan B: if all of your first choice publishers reject you allow enough time to send out a second wave of proposals. I recommend setting up a timeline that includes several drafts and allows for at least two weeks, preferably a month, for your readers to review your second or third draft. Be sure to account for time needed to conduct interviews if you plan on doing field work as part of your research.

Sixth, find proof readers among your colleagues and professional friends. If your article is geared toward informing the general public then make sure that your proof readers include attorneys and members of your target audience. Notice that I suggested finding proof readers even before you start writing…attorneys are busy and an email to a practitioner may go unanswered for weeks. As a result, have a long list of potential readers and start emailing them early. In your initial email, apprise them of your anticipated timeline and make it easy for them to decline. If you can, try and select at least three readers all at different levels of expertise (partner, associate, recent graduate/law student). This will ensure that you receive diverse, and therefore more accurate, feedback.

Seventh, research. Most likely you will be working off of research you already started for another work-related purpose so you will not be starting from scratch. Additional resources to consult include the librarian at your court, your appointing judge, and career clerks who can direct you to relevant industry journals.

Eighth, write. Put something on the page! Yes, the blank page or screen may present your most formidable barrier. Now that you’ve done all the background research and set the stage for excellence…get to writing. While writing consider the search terms that may be used to locate your work, especially if the publication is accessible via Lexis/Westlaw. I recommend listing out key terms that encapsulate your topic. Next, find synonyms for these terms. This exercise will help you vary your sentence structure, avoid repetition, and increase the chances that your work will appear in search results.

Ninth, write some more. Yes, unfortunately you may need to write cover letters to convince publishers to accept your article. No, cover letters are not only used for your impending job search. Sigh…I know. Just think of it as practice for your job hunt. Consult Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review, 3rd Ed., by Eugene Volokh for sample cover letters.

Stay tuned next month for an explanation of the submission process, tips on publicizing your article, and suggestions on jumpstarting your next writing project.

By Christine Schle

Etiquette Tip of the Week: Get the most from your toast…

Reposted with permission from Culture and Manners Institute

Once in awhile, we cover how to eat a slice of bread or a roll served at a meal. Tear off a bite-sized piece, butter it, then eat it. When you are ready for some more, tear off another bite-sized piece, butter it and eat it.

The question often comes up, “What about toast at a breakfast meeting? Do you tear off a bite-sized piece of your little toast triangle, butter it, jelly it, then eat it?”

As it turns out, there is a different approach to toast. Cut the toast in half (if it is not already served that way) and butter each half, while keeping it on your bread plate. Do not cradle it in the palm of your hand and butter it there. Same with the application of jelly, jam, preserves, marmalade, nut spread or what have you — the toast stays on the bread plate.

The reasoning behind this is that toast is best enjoyed when the butter melts into it. Though we all know most toast served in a restaurant arrives to the table at the same temperature before it went into the toaster.

Hold the toast by the edge and bring it to your lips. If any of the jelly slips onto your fingers, wipe your fingers on your napkin, not your tongue. And while on business, there is absolutely no dunking of toast in your coffee or tea.

Why You Should Take the Blame

Reposted from Harvard Business Review Blog (click for original article)

I was at a party in Greenwich Village in New York City. It was crowded, with about twice as many people as the space comfortably fit. There was a dog in the mix too. But it was a casual event and we all spent a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking and cleaning.

I was at the sink washing dishes when I heard the dog yelp behind me. I turned just in time to see a woman curse at the dog as it dashed out of the kitchen. She had obviously just stepped on his foot or tail.

“Watch out!” she shouted after the dog, then saw me looking at her and added, “He’s always in the way.”

Really? You step on a dog and then you blame the dog? Who does that?

Actually, a lot of us do.

We start blaming others at an early age, usually to escape parental anger and punishment, but also to preserve our own self-esteem and self-image. Then the behavior sticks, often well into our adulthood. I — and I am sure you — see people in organizations point fingers all the time.

Sometimes it’s at a departmental level: A struggling sales group blames a poor product, while the product people blame an ineffectual sales team or maybe lax manufacturing. Blaming a department or a product feels safer than blaming a person since it appears less personal, can pass as an attempt at organizational improvement, and might seem less defensive. But it’s counter-productive as the transparency of culpability betrays its disguises.

A few years ago I sat at a table with the leaders of a major stock exchange. They were struggling with setting goals for the year. The CEO, to whom they all reported, was not in the room.

I asked them what was getting in the way. “We need direction from senior leadership,” they answered in agreement.

“Seriously?” I was stunned. “Look around,” I said, raising my voice a little, “Everyone in the organization is looking for direction from you! You are senior leadership.”

“No,” the head of something answered with the others nodding, “The CEO isn’t here.”

I retorted: “You’re blaming the CEO? You’re waiting for him to tell you what to do? At your level? Really?”

An awkward silence followed. Then we got to work turning the company around.

Blaming others is a poor strategy. Not simply because everyone can see through it. Or because it’s dishonest. Or because it destroys relationships. Or even because, while trying to preserve our self-esteem, it actually weakens it. There’s a more essential reason why blame is a bad idea: Blame prevents learning.

If something isn’t your fault, then there’s no reason for you to do anything differently. Which means, in all probability, you’ll make the same mistake in the future. That will lead to more blame. It’s a cycle that almost always ends badly.

Recently, a CEO I work with fired Bill*, one of his portfolio managers. He didn’t fire him for poor results. He fired him for blaming his poor investment results on everything except himself. The CEO was only looking for one thing from Bill: Awareness of the mistakes he was making. But Bill continued to deny his role in his poorly performing portfolio.

The CEO was right to fire him. If Bill couldn’t admit to the mistakes he was making, why wouldn’t he make the same mistake tomorrow? Would you trust Bill with your money?

Thankfully there’s a simple solution: Take the blame for anything you’re even remotely responsible for.

This solution transforms all the negative consequences of blaming others into positive ones. It solidifies relationships, improves your credibility, makes you and others happy, reinforces transparency, improves self-esteem, increases learning, and solves problems. It’s as close as I’ve ever seen to a panacea.

Contrary to what you may feel in the moment, taking the blame is the power move, strengthening your position, not weakening it. First of all, because once you’ve taken responsibility for something, you can do something about it, which gives you strength.

But also because it takes courage to own your blame, and that shows strength. It immediately silences anyone who might try to blame you — what’s the point if you’ve already taken the blame? The “blame you” conversation is over. Now you can focus on solving problems.

Being defensive makes you slippery. Taking responsibility makes you trustworthy. You might think it puts you at risk because others may see an opening and jump on you. But that’s not what usually happens.

I was running a strategy offsite at a high technology company with a CEO and his direct reports. We were looking at some problematic numbers from the previous quarter. One by one each leader was trying to argue that he or she was not, ultimately, responsible for the issues, pointing to the other areas that contributed.

Then Dave, the head of sales spoke up. He proceeded to list the mistakes he felt he personally made and what he wanted to do differently in the future.

His colleagues didn’t pile on. In fact, they did the opposite. They began to say things to dilute his blame. One by one, they started taking responsibility for their role in the challenges the company was facing.

Taking the blame serves as an example. When you take the blame, others get embarrassed about not taking the blame themselves. When they see you don’t get shot, they feel emboldened to take the risk.

And even if they don’t, you will now be able to avoid making the mistakes you’ve made in the past, which, ultimately, is the key to your success.

By taking the blame, Dave changed the course of that meeting and, as it turns out, the course of the company. He also got promoted.

There is one tricky part of this. To take the blame, you need to have confidence in yourself and your capability. You need the personal strength to accept failure. You need enough self-esteem to believe you can learn from your mistakes and succeed another day. You need to accept failure as part of life and not a final sentence on who you are as a person.

In other words, it’s OK to step on a dog. It happens. Just don’t blame the dog.

By Peter Bregman  

How To Conduct An Effective Informational Interview

Reposted from careerealism.com (click for original article)

The informational interview is an effective way to build your network and gather information to move your career forward.

Informational interviews can actually be quite fun. Meeting for coffee, or briefly in someone’s office, takes the pressure off both parties.

The job seeker is simply asking for information, guidance, and advice. The person being interviewed is just providing that information and expertise.

No one is saying, “Please give me a job!” And, no one is making an offer. It’s just a chat.

That’s right — this is not about asking for a job! Not right away, at least. As a job seeker, you should hope to get some questions answered relevant to the industry you are in, the company where your interviewee works, and the company’s competitors.

You should ask about good ways to network in the field. Getting names of other professionals to contact for further informational interviews is a great result.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Make A List Of People You’d Like To Meet

Make a detailed list of people you’d like to talk to about the next move in your career. People who have mentored you in the past, people you admire in your field, and people at your target company are great people to meet with. Anyone who may be able to help you, or knows someone who can help, should go on your list.

2. Find Them On LinkedIn

Use the Companies tab to see who is on LI at your target companies. You can find their contact information easily on their profile. If they don’t have a profile, Google them, or use sites like jigsaw.com to get their phone number or e-mail address.

3. Call Them Or Send Them A Message

Phone messages often go unreturned and inboxes are often full for many professionals. Be persistent, try multiple avenues of communication, or go through a contact’s assistant. Be clear that you just want a brief meeting to discuss a specific set of questions and that you are not inquiring about a job.

4. Meet With Several Contacts Each Week

Be committed to holding 2-3 informational interviews consistently. Stick to the amount of time that you mentioned when setting up the meeting and don’t go beyond it, no matter how tempted you might be! You can always set up another meeting or use additional questions as a reason to stay in touch and build the relationship.

5. Bring Your Resume – Just In Case

Don’t offer it. But, if they ask for it, you’ll be prepared. Also, if the topic comes up in conversation, you can ask for advice on how to beef it up. Are there classes you should take? Organizations you might join? Get their feedback on what might make you a stronger candidate. 

6. Ask Relevant Questions About The Industry, Company, Or Position

• How did you become interested in this field?
• What brought you to this company?
• What is a typical day like in your position/department?
• How much time do you spend doing ______ each day?
• What types of problems do you solve in your position?
• What can you tell me about the corporate culture?
• What are the biggest challenges the company faces right now and in the future?
• What skills and qualities make someone successful in this field?

7. Give Your Branded Elevator Pitch, And Then Ask:

• With the little you know about me, what suggestions do you have that might help me to break into the field or a company like yours?
• If a position were to become available here, would you keep me in mind?
• What other companies would you recommend for me to explore?

8. Get More Connections Before The Meeting Is Concluded

Ask who they know who might be a good person for you to speak with. Get their contact information. Ask if it’s OK to tell the new contact who sent you.

9. Send A Thank You Message

Do this within 24 hours in the format of your choice. E-mail is convenient and green. You might be perceived as tech-savvy. Or, you might be looked upon as impersonal. A handwritten note is perceived as more personal by some.

Or, on the flipside, archaic. It’s up for debate and depends on your industry. Just pick one and thank your interviewee quickly.

10. Stay In touch

Connect on LinkedIn and send occasional messages updating the contact on your progress. If you come across any articles that might help her, pass them along. Monitor the company and your contact using Google Alerts. When you discover she has gotten a promotion or has spoken at a conference, be sure to send a congratulatory e-mail. Keeping in touch will help the relationship to grow.

Eventually, the informational interviews you conduct will pay off. Word will spread that you are looking for a new position. People will remember your personality and respectfulness. The relationships you are cultivating will result in a network that is keeping you in mind for when their company is ready to hire. Before long, you will be interviewing for real!

By Kristin Johnson

Seven Steps to a Successful Job Search

Reposted from Forbes.com (click for original article)

Know Your Strengths (and Weaknesses)

It is important to be honest with yourself about exactly what skills you possess. This is the time to take a long, hard look at your work history to determine what your experience really includes.

If you do not have a long work history to review, take stock of what you have done in school. Did you work on a specific project that can be compared to a job function? Maybe you have volunteer experience you can use to fill in gaps.

Ask yourself, “What am I good at? What tasks do I enjoy doing? When am I most happy in my work?” Then write them down. Seems simple enough, but without this step, your job search has no direction. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses helps you to create a job search strategy.

Create a flawless resume

I’ve talked about this before. Not only does your resume need to be free of spelling and grammatical errors, but it also needs to be geared towards the job you are attempting to obtain. This means you may need several versions of your resume. It does not necessarily mean you need to remove an entire job from your resume, but it does mean you need to emphasize specific job duties that pertain to the job to which you are applying.

Networking Works

Are you tired of your resume disappearing into the black hole of the online job application? Did you know that 60% of people learn about current job openings through networking?

There are a couple of tricks to making networking work for you:

1. Decide why you are going?

Are you trying to find someone who works at the company where you would like to interview? Are you hoping to meet someone who would be a good mentor?

2. Decide where you are going?

Where would you find these people? Where do they network? Do they attend industry events, professional events?

3. Go with a goal in mind.

Meet two people who can make an introduction for you or someone who works in the industry you are trying to break into. But once that is done, feel free to go home satisfied with the knowledge that your efforts were a success.

Monitor Your Social Media Profile

Whether you are about to graduate college or you are a Baby Boomer who finds herself unceremoniously laid off, you need to have a social media profile and more importantly, you need to monitor it.

Do not think that because you don’t have a Facebook account or other online account that you can skip this step. If you use the internet at all, odds are, your name is out there.  A simple monitoring tool is Google Alert. You can find it at www.google.com/alerts and you can use it to monitor your name among many other things.

Target Your Ideal Company        

What makes a company ideal for you? What are you looking for in a job? What do you love to do? How far are you willing to commute?

Once you have made your list of characteristics your new employer must have, how do you find out if they actually have them? Glassdoor is a good resource for obtaining company reviews from current employees. Find out from anonymous posters some of the red flags and also interesting insider tips.

Recovery.gov is a website which allows you discover which companies, schools and organizations have received funds for projects. It is searchable by zip code. Companies listed here may be hiring. You can also go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics which will provide you with economic and employment projections in addition to an occupational outlook by industry.

After you create your list of companies where you would like to work, you actually have to contact them. You can use Jigsaw and LinkedIn to find company contacts. Then, reach out. Check their job boards to see if they have an open position and if not, send a letter (or email). Explain how much you want to work for their company and you never know – when a position opens up, you may be top of mind.

Be Accessible

If you are seeking a new job, there is no point to having a social media profile if you have your settings designed to make you anonymous or block people from viewing you.

If you have not set up a LinkedIn profile, you are missing out on the jobs that are posted and the recruiters that are searching for you. Without a professional profile, you are invisible. There are some who dislike having their picture posted on the web and unfortunately, you’re going to have to get over it. Increasingly, recruiters use LinkedIn and other social media outlets to find skilled candidates and when you have a picture without a profile, the first thought is, “What is this person hiding?”

However, even if you have fully embraced the online life, remember that you can still be difficult to contact because of privacy laws and settings beyond your control (which are in place for a good reason).

Therefore, having a personal website for job hunting is a good idea. Visual CVis a website you can use to create professional online profile which is specifically designed for the job hunter. You can then include this website link in your LinkedIn profile and other social media profiles.

Prepare for the Interview

In my book, The Successful Interview: 99 Questions to Ask and Answer (and some you shouldn’t), I provide readers with common questions interviewers will ask, the questions you as the candidate should ask and I include questions that should not be discussed. This includes illegal interview questions and ways to handle some of the more non-traditional gaps in your resume.

The mere thought of answering interview questions can leave you with sweaty palms so adequate preparation is the key to avoiding a disastrous interview. You cannot expect to have a successful interview without doing each of the following steps:

~Research the company.

~Have an understanding of the company culture.

~Know the number one thing an interviewer wants to know is “Can you do the job?”

~Be prepared with your strengths, weaknesses and reasons the company should hire you.

~Have a thank you letter ready to mail (or send via email).

So there you have it. Seven easy steps!

By Stacey Gordon

 

Nonprofit Volunteering: Gaining Valuable Leadership and Management Experience

Reposted from MsJD.org (click for original article)

Lawyers, in my opinion, need to be leaders and managers. At various points in your career you may be leading or managing other lawyers, staff, or a large trial team. These are just a few examples, but if you spoke to many attorneys, they would tell you that they have been in situation after situation where they were called on to lead or manage.

Are we all born to be leaders?

There are many different styles of leadership and at times it might seem that some folks are better leaders and managers than others. But you know what I have definitely learned myself and heard from others? That leadership skills can be learned and gained through leadership experiences.

Take this great story told to me by a friend over lunch recently. We were talking about leading teams and I told her that I thought serving on a nonprofit board was a great way to hone your leadership skills even though it didn’t have anything to do with practicing law. She agreed. She told me about her role at her law firm where she managed a team of associates overseeing numerous cases. I asked where she learned the leadership skills she used managing that project and she laughed, “By running my sorority in college!” This is just one more example of how leadership skills gained in other arenas can be applied to your legal career.

Do you want to learn and practice leadership and management skills solely on the job?

I would argue, no. By the time you are called upon in your legal career to step into a leadership role, you want to have some skills and experience in your back pocket. There are a few ways that you can gain those skills. I have heard successful leaders talk about reading biographies about leaders or books on leadership. I know that some folks prefer to attend workshops or lectures on the topic. But I don’t think there is anything more effective than actually being in a leadership role to learn leadership skills.

It is for this reason that I feel that my nonprofit volunteering has been a huge benefit for me in my professional life.

When I joined the GirlVentures Board of Directors in 2010, I took on a leadership role as the co-chair of our fundraising event committee. After that experience I was nominated to an officer position and in 2012 became the president of the board. In these different roles I have had the opportunity to lead and manage teams, be part of a hiring search committee, complete performance reviews, and learn about human resources processes. I have led teams of my peers, which, in my opinion, can be some of the more challenging leadership situations. Each time I have been presented with a leadership or management role, I have learned something valuable. I have made mistakes, tried new management techniques, learned what worked and what didn’t, and I can now apply all of those lessons to my professional life without making the same mistakes twice (hopefully). Every leadership role is a catalyst for a learning experience. Volunteering can present you with leadership positions with more significant roles and responsibilities than you likely will be offered in your career any time soon (especially if you are a young attorney).

What about while you are working on your job hunt?

Often these leadership experiences from your nonprofit work can give you something to add to your resume or make you a more attractive candidate to a future employer. With additional leadership roles your resume will stand out from the person next to you. And that is typically a good thing as far as the job hunt is concerned.

You can learn from other accomplished leaders.

There is another important part to this. When the management challenges came up while working with the nonprofit, I was able to seek advice from other board members, many of them incredibly accomplished leaders in their own organizations. Basically, I was volunteering for an organization passionate about leadership. And I was in my own form of leadership training, with some of the most accomplished leaders I know. I believe that mentors are critical to success and working with other accomplished leaders and managers is one key way to learn, grow, and get valuable feedback.

I already discussed how nonprofit work helped me learn the art of self-promotion. Now I have shared how I think nonprofit work can help you gain valuable leadership and management skills. Have I convinced you to get out there and get involved in your community yet? 

By Lee Burgess

Top Executive Recruiters Agree There Are Only Three True Job Interview Questions

Reposted from Forbes.com (click for original article)

The only three true job interview questions are:

1. Can you do the job?
2. Will you love the job?
3. Can we tolerate working with you?

That’s it. Those three. Think back, every question you’ve ever posed to others or had asked of you in a job interview is a subset of a deeper in-depth follow-up to one of these three key questions. Each question may be asked using different words, but every question, however it is phrased, is just a variation on one of these topics: Strengths, Motivation, and Fit.

Can You Do the Job? – Strengths

Executive Search firm Heidrick & Struggles CEO, Kevin Kelly explained to me that it’s not just about the technical skills, but also about leadership and interpersonal strengths. Technical skills help you climb the ladder. As you get there, managing up, down, and across become more important.

You can’t tell by looking at a piece of paper what some of the strengths and weaknesses really are…We ask for specific examples of not only what’s been successful but what they’ve done that hasn’t gone well or a task they’ve, quite frankly, failed at and how they learned from that experience and what they’d do different in a new scenario.

Not only is it important to look at the technical skill set they have…but also the strengths on what I call the EQ side of the equation in terms of getting along and dealing or interacting with people.

 

Will You Love the Job? -Motivation

Cornerstone International Group CEO, Bill Guy emphasizes the changing nature of motivation,

…younger employees do not wish to get paid merely for working hard—just the reverse: they will work hard because they enjoy their environment and the challenges associated with their work…. Executives who embrace this new management style are attracting and retaining better employees.

Can We Tolerate Working With You? – Fit

Continuing on with our conversation, Heidrick’s Kelly went on to explain the importance of cultural fit:

A lot of it is cultural fit and whether they are going to fit well into the organization… The perception is that when (senior leaders) come into the firm, a totally new environment, they know everything. And they could do little things such as send emails in a voicemail culture that tend to negatively snowball over time. Feedback or onboarding is critical. If you don’t get that feedback, you will get turnover later on.

He made the same point earlier in an interview with Smart Business, referencing Heidrick’s internal study of 20,000 searches.

40 percent of senior executives leave organizations or are fired or pushed out within 18 months. It’s not because they’re dumb; it’s because a lot of times culturally they may not fit in with the organization or it’s not clearly articulated to them as they joined.

Preparing for Interviews

If you’re the one doing the interviewing, get clear on what strengths, motivational and fit insights you’re looking for before you go into your interviews.

If you’re the one being interviewed, prepare by thinking through examples that illustrate your strengths, what motivates you about the organization and role you’re interviewing for, and the fit between your own preferences and the organization’s Behaviors, Relationships, Attitudes, Values, and Environment (BRAVE). But remember that interviews are exercises in solution selling. They are not about you.

Think of the interview process as a chance for you to show your ability to solve the organization and interviewer’s problem. That’s why you need to highlight strengths in the areas most important to the interviewers, talk about how you would be motivated by the role’s challenges, and discuss why you would be a BRAVE fit with the organization’s culture.

By George Bradt