WorkWise Q&A: How can women veterans be more successful in interviews?

SOFTENING

Q: Dear Dr. Culp, Women veterans bring tremendous experience and skills to the workplace. How can we interview successfully when interviewers, mostly men, have never served and may even feel a bit threatened or overwhelmed by us?

Self-Promoter

A: Dear Self-Promoter, Military experience dwarfs that of most civilian environments. Don’t communicate the full scope of your work to forever-civilians and do soften your image.

"Come up behind them quietly," one retired woman officer says. That means to scale your remarks. You supervised 150 people in a $3.5 million operation over a 20-mile territory? Use fewer numbers and say you supervised a group of employees to avoid raising the issue of gender. Mention you met or exceeded objectives. If asked for specifics, seem more like other job hunters by toning down the objectives. You’re not reporting in. You’re gently briefing the interviewer. Make headway by saying a little less.

Also, soften your image. Skip black in favor of blue and grey. Wear a skirted suit rather than pantsuit. Accessorize with pastels and no more than three pieces of jewelry. If necessary, soften your voice and body language. Work where veterans work and you’re home free!

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TERMS

Q: A former colleague has asked me to be a subcontractor to his business. However, there are other things I also want to do. How do I evaluate his offer? Here are the factors that came to my head: role of my involvement, time commitment, compensation and ability to work on my side business, which is unrelated to his industry. What would you add to this list?

New Experience

A: Dear New, Decide how much time you’re willing to give over to him so you’re able to keep more than one ball in the air. As a contractor, you’re expected to be busy doing other things. Otherwise, you’d be a full-time employee.

What do you want your role to be? Identify five key tasks you’d like to have. Look for strategy, policy, sales, budgeting or project management. Integrate the relevant ones. They’ll move you out of the class of simple worker-bee. To negotiate the most favorable compensation, point out how you’ll help shape his operations in addition to being efficient, productive and managerial.

Don’t bring up the other things you do. Your colleague should have no influence on anything you do outside of his work that doesn’t conflict with his business.

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