What’s even more amazing about Zappos is their culture. It begins and ends with customer service. I mean real service. Sad that a focus on the customer is so unique.

But the real magic of the organization, according to CEO Tony Hsieh (pronounced “shay”) is in the hiring. When interviewing at Zappos you might be asked,

“What’s your theme song?” or “How weird are you?”

By asking these questions, Zappos finds out if you’re flexible, creative, funny and interesting.  So would you want to work in a place where these were the interview questions?  I would.

I’ve often said I’m a little too weird for the normal people but too normal for the weird people. So add this (maybe) to the list of interview questions to prepare. What’s your favorite interview question?

Photo credit: Miss Communications.com

If you are in HR or looking for work; you need to read this article. Here are just few of the highlights:

- On Twitter alone “more than a million tweets about job openings go out every month from 6,000+ employers and 7,700+ job channels via TweetMyJOBS.com

- The traditional job board is disappearing and being replaced by ‘direct sourcing’ which is when hiring decision-makers “identify, reach out to, engage, and convert” only the highly desirable candidates. Passive candidates become the new gold. The better your digital footprint, the easier you’ll be to find.

- Job sites are adding “Who do I know”? buttons to their sites so you can see who you know at a company without going to Linked In.

And one of my favorites… Paid Interviews.com. It actually pays candidates when they successfully interview (read: get hired) and has a virtual water cooler feature which is “a place for candidates to talk about their past employment experiences, it’s like Amazon product ratings, but for companies. It’s a place where you can get unbiased answers about employers around the world.”

If you’re a company with a lousy culture… the good old days might be evaporating before your very eyes. Between sites like paidinterviews.com and glassdoor.com and social networking; hiding is going to get tougher. Ahhh, transparency. Welcome.

Photo credit: http://itaysworld.com/blog/2009/03/03/funny-money-but-of-the-real-kind/

What do I mean by a ‘fishy’ handshake? Well, when you offer just the fingers of your hand or when you fail to grasp the other person’s hand and shake it with confidence; you run the risk of having people think you are weak. This especially goes for men shaking hands with women. It is disrespectful to barely shake hands with a woman. It makes them think that you don’t think of them as equals.

You’ve probably heard the story about why we shake hands, i.e.,  to show that we have no weapons in our hands. Aside from the way we dress and eye contact, our handshake is another very important signal of our confidence.

When you shake hands, please, oh please I’m begging you, look the person in the eye and give them a gentle but firm handshake. This isn’t a strength contest but it is a chance to make the other person sit up and take notice of your positive manner.  So ladies,  put your hand out there and shake firmly. Guys, do the same. it’s so important!

Photo Credit: Ads of the World

I know keeping up our skills is hard and that trying to make sure we’re networking and connecting is a pain. But consider the alternative. “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less,” said General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army. He wasn’t referring to the job market but, it does apply.

Each of us needs to be thinking about being a proactive career manager. Are you diligently building your network? Are you getting training? Are you actively discussing key aspects of change in your field?  Do you read blogs that are relevant to your industry? Are you out of your comfort zone?

I want to be one of those people that companies are willing to fight to recruit. How about you?

In 25 Oddball Interview Questions, the author lists interesting interview questions from companies like Google, Goldman Sachs, AT&T, Facebook and Amazon.  These interviewers learned a lot from the responses to these off the wall queries.

You might think, no one is ever going to ask me, “How many traffic lights are in Manhattan?”, but if you get asked an oddball question; will you be prepared with a creative answer? More than ever, organizations need people who can be flexible and think differently about problems.

If you’re hiring manager and had, say,  3 candidates all of whom were equally qualified – how would you figure out which one to hire? You might try asking one of these questions to see how creative and spontaneous the interviewee can be.

So, how would you answer: “How many basketballs can you fit in this room?” Here are a few answers:

• Probably the same number of soccer balls
• One. You didn’t ask what is the maximum number of basketballs you can fit in the room
• Measure the room in basketballs. The room is 16 basketballs (length) by 12 basketballs (width) by 9 basketballs (height). Then it’s just a simple volume multiplication.

My answer would have been, “Why do we want to bring basketballs into this room? Hmmm, what does that tell you about me?

Photo credit S-Fun.com (Solid Fun)

Nielsen Research indicates that nearly half of American adults will have ‘smart phones” by the end of 2011. Mobile payment structures, comparison shopping, geolocation, interest driven profiles, group buying and so much more are evidence that this (r)evolution is coming on strong.

Are you prepared? Do you understand what mobile is going to do to your business? Let me know what you think about mobile.

As I go through my talk, inevitably the most vocal opponent (the one who kept telling me how insightful they are and how stupid I am) sees the light and suddenly  wants my help. Hmmm…

Why are there so many jobs posted on Twitter?

– It’s free, fast, easy, has an incredibly broad reach AND all those people who think social media  is stupid won’t be looking there!

Back to the job hunt. Of those 500 job posts per minute, there are, of course, redundant jobs BUT… the question is… how can you use what’s there to help you?

Using Hashtags to Boost Your Job Search is a terrific article on how to use Twitter effectively (Hashtag =# = keywords).  Hashtags such as #jobs, #jobadvice, #jobhunt and #jobsearch offer both job openings and general job search advice.  If you’re looking for high-level information to help your job search,  start here.

Put the hashtag in the twitter search bar and up will pop articles (links) that may help you.  Geographic hashtag can narrow your search, #roc = Rochester, NY.  Also, there are hundreds of recruiters on twitter, Check out this resource. Follow the smart people on Twitter and you might be surprised how much you’ll learn. Got  Twitter job search tips? Please share.

Our discussions at the conference went beyond Facebook and Twitter and included a broader set of tools like  Yammer, Glassdoor.com, Wikis, video and so much more. Beyond the toolkit, there is the ever important compliance piece of this equation and we covered that as well. You can find the presentation here.

Wherever you work and in almost whatever department, you need to understand the fundamental shift that is occurring and why it is changing the way we work, collaborate, think, relate and engage with stakeholders. Before I went to the conference, I read a post by the former PunkrockHR blogger.  She now blogs under the title of http://cynicalgirl.com. I loved this post about kicking HR to the curb. It’s all pretty much common sense but whether you are an HR professional, an employee or a job seeker, I hope you will take a minute to check out the funny way this information is pulled together. We love it, we hate it but we can’t ignore it.

To that I reply, “You don’t have to.” If you can grow your company, find a job, network effectively or accomplish your other goals without it, then good. If however, you’re looking to inexpensively reach new contacts; you may want to have an open mind. I encourage people to learn what twitter is and how it might help them. I agree Twitter isn’t for everyone but only make that decision after its capabilities are understood.

If you are unfamiliar with Twitter you may think that you have to follow people and have followers and that is what it’s all about. The power of twitter is in REAL TIME SEARCH. All the information that is attached to a ‘tweet’ is there because a person thinks it’s worthwhile.

Here are just a few facts about twitter for job seekers. Did you know that:

• There are a minimum of 180 recruiters on twitter?
• There are over 50 companies who regularly post jobs on twitter?
• You can find jobs by searching on a profession e.g. @engineering
• You can find an internship by searching @findinternerships
• You can research jobs by geography
• Check out 50 Terrific Twitter Tips for Job Seekers

Companies post jobs to twitter because:

• It’s free
• It can easily reach passive and active candidates
• People who find jobs there already ‘get’ the power of social media and don’t need to be trained

I regularly teach social media for job hunters, my next session is on October 29 at the Pittsford Library, Rochester, NY. Let me know if you’d like to join us. The sessions are free, fun and you can network at the same time as you learn. I am looking forward to meeting you.

So how do we get to be “A+” players? I’d like to suggest that while we may not all be “A+” players, we can learn to be “A+” versions of ourselves in our chosen field.

1. Commit to learning how to manage yourself (Peter Drucker) and never stop. Find a mentor or co-mentor and tackle the hard work of self examination. What can I do better; how can I be more effective? What are my strengths and how can I build on them?
2. Read books. Smart people write books.  I love to talk to people about the books that interest them.  Reading a book takes effort and it feels great when you finish.  Add the book and what you learned to your Linked In profile.
3. Listen. This seems so elementary and yet, I’m always working on this.  Here’s a test.  The next time you meet someone new, sit down immediately after your conversation and write down the questions you asked them.  Think about how much time you spent listening versus talking. After you shake hands to part company, honestly assess how well you listened. What are the 5 things you learned about that person? What did you admire about them? If you can’t recall, you probably could have listened better.
4. Demonstrate passion. Guy’s advice to recruiters is to hire passion not skills.  To job hunters he says, “Passion can overcome the lack of a ‘perfect’ educational background and work experience.

I learned to listen while raising my children. The more I talked, the less they listened. The more I listened, the more they talked. Pretty simple.  Let me know how you are growing to or maintaining your “A+” status. I need all the ideas I can get!