How to make the most of informational interviews

How to make the most of informational interviewsHow to make the most of informational interviewsYouve pinpointed a new industry, company, or role. Youre excited to transition, but youre not sure how. What would help you succeed? Information from someone who has gone before you.If you were a mountain climber, as otzu sich climbers come down the mountain, what would you want to ask them? Maybe Whats the best path to the top? What challenges did you encounter? What do we need to reach the peak?These kinds of insights are invaluable to a successful and efficient ascent - and for a job transition.Why ask for an informational interview?Talking with someone who is in (or recently left) an industry, company, or role that you want to pursue will offer you valuable information and important referrals.To land an interview and get the job, you will need skills, experience, credentials, relationships, a strong reputation, and an understanding of the inner workings of the industry, company, or ro le. Before you begin the interview process, you will want to know how well your skills and background translate to what theyre looking for.Which credentials are essential, and which are assumed to be necessary, but really arent? How can you build and improve your relationships and reputation? You will need to know who succeeds, who fails, who are the thought leaders to follow whats changed recently that changed everything, who are the decision makers, and whats important to them. Only insiders can give you the answers.How do you offer an incentive for your connection to act as a champion for you? Bring value to her.Lets say you attended a leading annual trade conference and have handouts from a best practices workshop. Because she welches probably too busy to go, those handouts are valuable to her By providing them, youre not just someone asking for information, youre a resource. When an opportunity crosses her screen in a week thats a fit for you, there is a better gunst der stunde she will forward it to you. If you keep providing items of value and stay in touch, she may refer (and even recommend) you for professional opportunities.When an opportunity crosses her screen thats a fit for you, there is a better chance she will forward it to you. If you keep providing items of value and stay in touch, she may refer - and even recommend - you for professional opportunities.What makes an informational interview different than a job interview?The primary difference between an informational interview and a job interview are the goals. The goals of a job interview are to investigate your fit and land the offer. The goals of an informational interview are to gain information and/or referrals. There is no position available.A secondary difference is how you can bring value to the other person. With an informational connection, anything of value to them is an option. I had a client who noticed on the connections LinkedIn profile that he was a Cub Scout Den Leader. My client was also and offered ideas for Den activities. The connection loved it, and it kept them in touch.However, for a job interview, any value you offer has to relate to the decision maker and the opportunity available. It would be pretty strange to offer an interviewer Cub Scout activities.Whats the best way to conduct an informational interview?Many people do not get value out of an informational interview because they do not think about goals for the meeting. I suggest two, which create the agendaAsk for her story (how did she do what youre trying to do get into the industry, company, or role?)Ask for her advice, given your background?This two-step agenda simplifies informational interviewing. You start the meeting by asking, How did you get into alternative dispute resolution? The question engages the connection and gives you the information you wouldnt have known to ask for - what you dont know you dont know. And there will be nuggets valuable to your transition.Next, you e xplain your story to give her context, and then ask, If you were me, how would you get into alternative dispute resolution? This is stronger than just asking for advice you are asking her to look at the problem from your perspective. Thats why telling your story is so important it provides the building blocks for her to work from.What now?Reach out to someone for an informational interview following two criteriaShe or he can be helpful to you in some way.There is a high probability she or he will agree to meet.As you start, the second criterion is far more important. Just meet with someone and practice asking for his or her story, telling your story, and asking what she or he would do in your shoes. Extra credit for bringing your connection value (hint check LinkedIn profiles, company bios, blog posts, interviews, etc.).Then ask whom else you should meet with. Youll be on your wayTad Mayer is acareer coach, trainer, speaker, executive coach, and co-author of theforthcomingbook,Own the Job Hunt.

Adding and Subtracting to Make the Next Generation of Hybrid 3DCNC Machines

Adding and Subtracting to Make the Next Generation of Hybrid 3DCNC Machines Adding and Subtracting to Make the Next Generation of Hybrid 3DCNC Machines Adding and Subtracting to Make the Next Generation of Hybrid 3D-CNC MachinesNo matter how powerful, 3D printers cant print everything.Though there are a number of technologies available for printing metal parts, there are also a number of exceptions. The compatibility of materials and machines can vary significantly, printers build volumes are limited in size, and often 3D printers cant replicate the kind of precision needed for mission-critical parts that require milling and machining to finish the surface.However, multi-machines that combine additive with other methods of manufacturing could turn out to be more cost-effective and efficient than conventional 3D printing.Several companies in the additive manufacturing (AM) space have begun exploring ways to combine subtractive and additive technologies. Hurco, an Indianapolis, IN.,-ba sed machine-tool company, has been experimenting with adding additive capabilities to its otherwise subtractive computer numerical control (CNC) technology. CNC machines use sophisticated computer models to control the speed and direction of a lathe, router, or other cutting tool mounted on a spindle, in order to shape complex parts out of a solid piece of metal or plastic.Adding additivebelastung year, Hurco announced its patent for an adapter to CNC machines, which effectively turns them into 3D printers.This 1990s era CNC machine was bought off eBay and upgraded with a LENS 3D print head, laser-safe hood, controller, and powder feeder, so that metal parts can be manufactured using both additive and subtractive technologies. Image OptomecSome of ur customer base spends time making prototypes for customers, and right now theyre losing some of that business to people who are making prototypes using 3D printers, says Elias Pavlakos, inventor of the patent.The company wrote in a relea se that the adapter allows users to go from print to plastic prototype to finished metal part on one machine without repeated setups and without multiple prototyping utilizing costly metals and raw material.3D printing is very useful in the ability to rapidly produce a design, get it to a customers hands, get some feedback from them, and then iterate again and again, Pavlakos says.You can produce a product that better fits your customers needs, because youre able to iterate many more times, and still deliver a final product in a relatively short period of time.Adding subtractiveElsewhere, America Makes of Youngstown, OH. one of the nations leaders in AM and 3D-printing technology researchperiodically issues project calls. Selected companies can receive Department of Defense funding for projects that advance the 3D printing industry.This complex metal part was created using both additive and subtractive manufacturing techniques in just three weeks, compared with the 52 weeks that wou ld be required using another method. Image OptomecOptomec, an Albuquerque, NM., supplier of AM systems, answered America Makes 2014 project call with a proposed next-generation 3D printer. The company ended up winning the award for its idea of combining a traditional CNC machine tool with LENS, its powdered metal laser-based 3D-printing technology.We took the critical components of our system, which is our print head, our powder feeders, and our control software, says Tom McDonald, Optomec program manager for the project, and we basically packaged it as a kit that we could take and put on any CNC machine tool.Many, many factories...have machine tools that are sitting there underutilized, where they could take an existing machine tool, add the capability to it, so theyve got both deposition and machining on the same work cell, Richard Grylls, Optomecs general manager for LENS technology, said in a video release.The company recently demonstrated the concept on an old CNC machine from the 1990s, purchased on eBay. We basically stripped it out, put a new controller on it, added laser deposition capabilitypowder feeders, laser deposition headand created a hybrid machine where we have both the ability to do conventional machining on a mill, and do laser deposition side-by-side, said Grylls.Originally Optomec only planned to make the technology available as a retrofit to resurrect an old system, but the concept has grown to selling it as an accessory kit for a new CNC machine, McDonald says.Theyre getting into additive manufacturing much cheaper than buying a full system, Grylls said. Only the market will tell in the coming months and years which direction its going to go.The new frontier of additive manufacturing can be intimidating to navigate fortunately, theres the ASME AM3D conference to help guide you as you integrate AM into your business. Learn more about the ASME Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Conference and Expo here.Holly Martin is an independent w riter.You can produce a product that better fits your customers needs, because youre able to iterate many more times, and still deliver a final product in a relatively short period of timeElias Pavlakos, Hurco

16 Google interview questions so tough they eventually banned them

16 Google interview questions so tough they eventually banned them16 Google interview questions so tough they eventually banned themSometimes the hiring practices of even the most successful companies can feel outright wonky.There can be strange interview questions that seem to have no answers, and standards that will knock candidates out of the race right off the starting line.Google used to be a big example of this, with a reputation for head-scratching questions.In fact, some of Googles questions were so bizarre, they were eventuallybanned from being asked altogether.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreIn 2009, Lewis Lin, a job coach in Seattle, put together a list of 140 questions his clients were asked by Google. Weve picked 16 of the wildest.Future Google employees should be grateful these questions are no longer on the table.How much should you charge to welchesh all the wind ows in Seattle?Why are manhole covers round?You need to check that your friend Bob has your correct phone number, but you canleid ask him directly You must write the question on a card and give it to Eve, who will take the card to Bob and return the answer to you. What must you write on the card, besides the question, to ensure that Bob can encode the message so that Eve cannot read your phone number?How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?How many times a day do a cloc ks hands overlap?How many vacuums are made per year in the US?Design an evacuation plan for San Francisco.Explain the significance of dead beef.If a person dials a sequence of numbers on the telephone, what possible words/strings can be formed from the letters associated with those numbers?You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?You have two eggs and access to a 100-story building Eggs can be very hard or very fragile, which means they may break if dropped from the first floor or may not even break if dropped from the 100th floor. Both eggs are identical. You need to figure out the highest floor of a 100-story building an egg can be dropped without breaking. The question is how many drops you need to make. You are allowed to break two eggs in the proces s.You have to get from point A to point B. You dont know if you can get there. What would you do?Explain a database in three sentences to your 8-year-old nephew.This article was originally published on Business Insider.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people