How to Judge Potential Employees on Behavior and Mannerisms This is the title of a video from About.com Human Resources that says,"A potential employees behavior and mannerisms can be the most telling part of the job interview. Learn how to gauge actions and behavior to see if the candidate would be a successful employee."

Hopefully, I have successfully reverse engineered the process advised in this video so that my clients display appropriate interview behaviors to match any interviewer. Our goal is always to do what it takes to turn the interview into an offer.  You can always turn down an offer if you think your are not a fit or it isn't quite the right opportunity. 

But you don't want to hand over that power to the interviewer. You control your total delivery during the interview, not just what you say but how you look, sound and move when you respond.

The most scary statement a recruiter can make is to tell you to relax and be yourself. Do not do that!  But this does put you on the alert to be very attentive to the recruiter's body language, mannerisms and the non-verbal feedback to the answers that you supply to their questions. That's exactly what they are doing to you!

Interviewing as an art  should be a well choreographed dance between you and the interviewers. How many times have you lost out on a great position because you didn't read the interviewer correctly or rubbed them the wrong way? Record your voice as you practice answering questions. Use your laptop to video your practice interviews. Microsoft OneNote will actually record the screen as you to this so you can track your improvement. 

If you get really good at interviewing in any situation, with any style of interviewer, and any company then you can afford to be your self when you want to not when they want you to.

We all know by now about very successful launch of The Startup of You by  the founder of Linkedin. It has good tips and advice for the Social Generation's job search. 

But that's not my point here. I have been mulling the changes that 20 years can make in how we have careers, look for work and create our success.  

In 1990, Tom Peter's published in Fast Company, The Brand Called You.
During the past 20+ years, people, with the help of the Internet, have figured out and mastered how to brand, pitch, promote and market themselves to get or stay employed. 

Everybody is on Google+, Linkedin, Viadeo, Xing, and FB pages with profiles describing their accomplishments.  Many professionals (all my clients) are setting up professional websites, iPad profiles, and even Presumes. 

Yes, we have got the branding part down to the point that everyone is sick of hearing the word used. Unfortunately, being well branded, positioned and marketed isn't enough anymore.  The Startup of You addresses the really salient career challenges that the Social Generation faces today. 
How do you find a job and stay employed in a global marketplace for talent where there aren't enough jobs, the competition is fierce, and everybody is a brand?

Well the message is threefold:

1. Jack and Jill be nimble and quick to respond to market demands just like a start-up because plan A may not work, nor the rest of the alphabet. See my blog on Alice and the Red Queen.
   
2. Know where best to insert yourself into the marketplace while being true to what you want and who you are. And that's a tough one to figure out sometimes without the help of someone like me.
3. But the main take-away is something that the Social Generation really gets: your job prospects are only as good as your network. As I say, and many laugh, "the person who dies with the biggest network, wins."
   

Some reading this may say that this is all old news that is just repackaged. I don't think so. What is interesting to note is the shift in emphasis over 20 years from the sole individual with a brand to a person as part of a collective network.  

As we all live digital lives, building a the global village around us to support our career survival has become a most efficacious route.