I am in the people business. I enjoy building and running winning teams of people. What amazes me is the number of people who have wanted me to hire them that show up for work/life unprepared. Of course, they have a pretty resume and all sorts of credentials. Their references are seemingly impeccable. Oh they make it through the HR and hiring manager with flying colors, and everything looks great. I ask them into my office or meet them in an interview room. They are groomed and seem eager to help our company grow. They tell me about themselves and I confirm that these are some pretty good candidates for high paying jobs. Everything is going fine until I ask a simple question: What are your goals in life?

Okay now I am talking to you Mr./Ms. Hotshot coder, engineer, BizDev, marketing, sales wonk! How can you expect me to hire you when you have no clear goals? Don’t tell me you don’t have any or that they are in you head. Give me that answer and you have failed the interview. The company has a business plan chock full of goals, timelines, and objectives and a map of the tasks needed to achieve corporate goals. Why would I want to hire someone who wants me to set out their primary goals for them? I want people to have goals so I can help them achieve those goals…through a paycheck, through a work culture, through supporting their personal lives! Then they in turn will help the company achieve its goals. Simple and straight. So, before your next interview, before you close this blog, jot down your goals and know why you are working, and what you are working toward. Heck I even have a nice little goal outline to get you started. (I will continue to build up better goal management tools, so stay posted). Enjoy!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 at 8:56 am and is filed under Career and Business, Sites, Tools, Tips and Gadgets, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.