Sometimes, It's Just Hard

This has just been one of those weeks. With a big fat Disney hangover from last week's vacation and plunging back into the world of overflowing InBoxes and missed homework assignments and consolidated meeting schedules and broken violins for music class, my whole family is a little off-kilter.

So it's no wonder that yesterday morning wasn't smooth. I had an epic wardrobe battle with a 9 year old who couldn't possibly understand why I wouldn't let him wear Under Armour and track pants to see the symphony at the Kennedy Center on a 4th grade field trip. The other 9 year old, unhappy with his broken violin, picks a fight with his 4 year old brother, and little brother hurls a step stool at him. All before 8am.

On my way to work I get an email from a girlfriend who shares that her iPhone auto-corrected "kids" to "jihad." Not to make light of a serious topic, but after my morning, that sounded just about right. Thank you Steve Jobs from the great beyond!

The point is, it's ok. It's not you, there's nothing wrong with your family, it's just hard sometimes. You love your children, you wouldn't trade your job as Mom for any title in the world, but it's challenging on the best days and damned near impossible on others.

Earlier in the week I performed a little calendar magic and made it to one of my favorite yoga classes. When my teacher asked how I was doing, I replied "no focus." A fellow mom of three, she explained that just managing the logistics for that many other people can be draining and advised some deep breathing through the hard parts.

Today is a new day, I'll pick my battles wisely, hug my kids often and pick up a referee whistle at the sporting goods store on my way home from work, just in case all that deep breathing can't be heard above the fray.

Back to Work: Ace The Interview

Interviews are never easy, and the skill comes more naturally to some than others. But that’s just what it is, a skill, and it must be practiced. If you’ve been out of the workforce for more than 5 years it’s perfectly conceivable you haven’t interviewed in the better part of a decade. You need to prepare, practice and follow up.

• Prepare: Know everything you can about the company and the organization. Use LinkedIn to find an “insider” in your network’s network who can give you the inside scoop. Aside from website research, Follow the company on both LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to get a sense of the culture, trends and most recent news releases. Review the LinkedIn profiles of the mangers with whom you’ll be interviewing. Develop a list of thoughtful questions that demonstrate your industry and company knowledge. We had a candidate not get selected for a second round of interviews because the client interpreted her lack of prepared interview questions as a lack of enthusiasm for the role.
• Practice: It sounds silly, but you need to do some mock interviews. Ask your spouse, neighbor or best friend to grill you. Start out with easy, standard interview questions (walk me through your resume, strengths/weaknesses, tell me about a time when….) and then try and get to more difficult questions. You want these answers to be polished and roll off your tongue. The most difficult question to answer is “how can you transition back to work after such a long employment gap?” (or some variation thereof). Have this answer ready. It might be something like “I’ve been a member of XYZ industry group, have attended networking events, learned about recent policy changes such as ABC law and have volunteered on such-and-such committee.” If you’re a bookkeeper, let the interviewer know that you took an online course to get certified in the latest QuickBooks version. Demonstrate enthusiastically that you’re prepared to hit the ground running with minimal onramp time.
• Follow Up: Similar to the networking informational interview, this is the part that most folks forget. Ask for a business card from each person with whom you interview. Send a thank you email immediately and a written thank you (on professional cardstock) straight away. Be specific in your interest and sincere in your gratitude.