High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: How to Start a Business in a Day

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• How to Start a Business in a Day:"take a little time to determine how many businesses like yours are out there and what services they offer. How can you differentiate yourself from them?"

• 10 Free Online Courses to Learn More About Business: "a number of top universities across the world offer free online classes for you to bolster your skills as a leader and business owner."

• How to Run Meetings You Actually Want to Attend: "The meeting you want to have is the one that leaves you feeling energized, with more clarity and focus than you had going in."

• A Psychologist's Advice for Talking About "Weaknesses" in Interviews: "your ability to pretend that you are thinking on the spot - or, even better, that you have been put on the spot - and have been forced to sincerely report on your biggest weaknesses, is likely to make a better impact on your interviewers."
• The Best Career Advice I've Ever Received: "Listening to their stories and being receptive to their advice continue to guide me and help me reach new milestones. Below are just a few of the best words of advice I’ve ever received."

Four Interview Topics to Keep in your Back Pocket

In a recent Daily Leap post we recommend that you have a current resume ready at all times. This is excellent advice for the reasons detailed in the post. Just as important as keeping a current resume handy are topics that can be used in an interview. When you are interviewed, you are asked questions about your work style, experience, character, decision-making, and other aspects about yourself. Keep from struggling to come up with answers by focusing in on these four broad areas, ones where - if you reflect on them regularly - you will be able to interview with ease.

1. Strengths and weaknesses: Nearly every interviewer will ask you something about your personal strengths and weaknesses, so it would be wise to have answers for these topics handy. Regarding your strengths, take a psychometric assessment such as the Strengths Finder 2.0 to obtain an objective appraisal performed, then add to it with examples of how those strengths manifest themselves in your work. For your weaknesses (or your strengths), complete a 360 degree evaluation of yourself to find areas of development, and address those areas in an interview and what you are doing to correct them.
   
 
2. Successes and failures: You will almost always be asked about your successes and failures as well, so as you go about your work make note of those projects that have been successful and the role that you played in them. The more successful projects that you led or provided substantial direction with, the better. Conversely make note of those projects that were not successful and what you learned from them. Both of these areas are essential topics for an interview.
 
3. Work style and environment: Be sure to have an answered prepared about your work style and ideal work environment. Do you like to be given a lot of direction or minimal? Do you prefer to frequently work with groups of people are you more of a solo contributor? Do you thrive in a fast-paced environment or one that is more slow and steady? Or do you like to work for larger organizations or smaller ones? Be prepared with answers to these and similar questions with clear, concise examples.
 
4. Working with others: Regardless of whether or not the job is strongly team-based, you will likely have to work with other people. Think about your experience working with others - including times you have had to professionally confront problems, work with a team, and had to work through divergent opinions - and prepare answers for them.

A good defense is the best offense. Reflect weekly on these four broad topic areas and - the next time you need to interview - you will be well prepared.

What are Your Weaknesses. How to Answer this Interview Question without Jeopardizing your Interview.

In an interview, the hiring manager is often looking for a reason NOT to hire you. Instead of looking for positives, the truth of the matter is that most interviewers take a negative approach to the screening process. Therefore, your goal in an interview is to ensure that you do not provide them a reason to say no to you.

However, one of the questions we are often asked is “What are your weaknesses?” If we are trying to avoid providing negatives about ourselves, it is difficult to properly answer this question. In the past we were told we should bring up a negative that really is not so bad. For example “I am such a perfectionist that I go above and beyond in everything I do.” However, this answer does not seem sincere and is not the approach I recommend in today’s market.

My rule of thumb when interviewing is that whenever you have to bring up a negative, state the negative and cover it up with a positive statement. The best approach to answering this particular interview question is to define a weakness that you have learned to overcome. Here is an example of how you can effectively answer this question.

“I am not very good at saying no and in the past I have taken on more than I can handle. This led to me missing deadlines or producing work that was not my best quality. I learned to overcome this weakness in several ways. First, I have learned to delegate and am a much better team player. I have also learned to manage my time, organize my daily tasks, and prioritize my day much better. I make a list for the next day at the end of each work day and review it first thing in the morning in order to better plan my daily priorities. Learning to deal with this weakness has led me to be a better time manager and to realize that I am not superwoman who has to say yes to every request myself.”

With this strategy you demonstrate that you are self-aware and that you are willing to admit that you are not perfect. However, you are also able to show your ability to solve problems and overcome obstacles. So, what weakness have you learned to overcome in