Book Review of How to Interview Like a Pro by Jackie Paulson

How to Interview Like a Pro: 43 Rules for Getting Your Next Job

Author: Mary Greenwood, JD, LL.M is an attorney, Mediator, and Author of many books. Mary has a BA from New School for Social Research, an MA in English from the University of Southern CA, and a Law Degree from California Western School of law. Mary lives in Florida.

Publisher: iUniverse

Genre/Market: Law, Business, Economics, Psychology


5 Out of 5 points


How to land your next job.


Quote: “Getting a job is like parking, you have to be at the right place at the right time.”

When this book arrived I was very happy because I have been looking for a job for quite some time in 2011. I believe so many people have either lost a job, got laid off a job, or the company downsized that learning how to properly interview from Mary Greenwood would benefit everyone.

In the book there are many rules but the first few rules seem to narrow down the basics for anyone new to the interview process.

RULE 1: In order to get a full time job it is best to apply online to the many job boards as possible and check back with them daily. It is very important to have your resume’ up to date. *For example, I just moved into a new place and totally forgot to update the address on my resume! It is also important to go out and talk to people and stores and network.

RULE 2: Prepare your elevator sentences. This will tell in 30 seconds or less who you are, what you offer, and what you can bring to the new job.

RULE 3: Make a list of (EVERYONE) you know.

RULE 4: Let everyone know you are looking for a job.

RULE 5: Make sure you use social networking sites such as LinkedIn.

RULE 6: Make sure your resume and cover letter fit the job you are currently applying for.

RULE 7: Be Flexible and Professional and prepared so that the unexpected is an invitation you are well ready for whether you are out shopping or what have you.

What I loved best was the 27 Do’s and the 26 Do Not’s of Interviewing along with the “Glossary of Terms.” As I was reading this book I realized it would be a great reference or even a great stocking stuffer for a friend or relative as the holidays approach. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking employment at any stage they might be in.



© 2011 by Jackie Paulson

website: www.marygreenwood.org

How to Interview Like a Pro Awarded Readers Choice by iUniverse

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Universe Publishing has just announced that How to Interview Like a Pro; 43 Rules for Getting Your Next Job has been awarded the Readers Choice designation based on its sales in retail outlets.

Greenwood's book already has the Rising Star and Editor's Choice designation. How to Interview Like a Pro has won eleven book awards.


Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney and Author of How To Negotiate LIke A Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes, Winner of six book awards and How to Mediate Like a Pro, winner of twelve book awards.

Email: howtointerview@aol.com; website: www.marygreenwood.org

Second Column on Book Awards at WritingRaw.com

How Book Awards Can Boost
Your Marketing Campaign

There are over 1.4 million book titles in print and about 200,000 new titles each year in the USA and Canada. Being a new author with a new book can be daunting especially if you are self-published and responsible for your own marketing. Being a winner of a book award can instantly bring you credibility and help you promote your book. Winning book awards can really help boost your marketing campaign. Readers want to read award-winning books; book sellers and librarians want to stock award-winning books and journalists want to write about award-winning books.
In this column, I will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of applying for book awards.

Advantages:
First of all winning a book award is a morale booster for the writer. It gives recognition for a solitary profession. A writer may have doubts about whether a book is any good, but a couple of book awards can dispel those doubts. You can now call yourself an award-winning author and this is a relatively inexpensive way to get publicity for your books. (Book awards cost $50.00 to $150.00 to enter.) When one gets an award, one can make it a media event. If you win more than one book award, you can call yourself a multi-award winning author and that is even better!
Being a award-winning author can help you open new doors and get new contacts. You can attend book festivals and galas when you win the award. You can also get some good tax deductions. It can help you get a Book Club gig or be a featured speaker. It can help you sell foreign rights or make the leap from self-published writer to a writer with a publisher. It is also a nice way to meet other award-wining authors.
Book awards are a good alternative for shy writers who don't want to be in the public eye and speak about their books. Winning book awards speaks for itself. Book awards are also a good alternative if the writer is unable or unwilling to go on the book tour/lecture circuit.

Disadvantages:
Of course, not winning book awards can be demoralizing and can get fairly expensive so start slowly. We are not talking about the Pulitzer Prize or the Booker Award so look out for book awards that might not be prestigious enough for your book. Many companies that sponsor book awards are businesses and provide services, which they are also selling. Once your know the pros and cons, you can decide whether to go forward.

Mary's Tips for Entering Book Awards

1. Do your research and go slowly.

2. Look at the categories to see if you have a match. (Look at last year's titles). For example my titles are in "How to", "Self-Help.
"Business", "Career" and "Law."

3. Enter one or two and see how it goes.

4. To increase your odds, enter in two categories. Usually there is a discount for the second entry.

5. Pick a category where there may be fewer entries.

6. Be aware of cost. At $50.00 you can enter two or three contests instead of one $150.00 one.

7. Read instructions carefully. How many copies? What is deadline? postmark date?

8. See if list of books already entered (Florida Book Awards.)

9. Look at what is offered to winners: comments, free website listings, press release, stickers, book festival, award ceremonies,
and literary agent.

10. See if there are book awards just for your discipline or for your state (New Mexico Book awards.)

Next month, I will cover specific book awards.






Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney and Author of How To Negotiate LIke A Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes, Winner of six book awards; How to Mediate Like a Pro, winner of twelve book awards; How to Interview Like a Pro, winner of eleven book awards.
Email: Howtointerview@aol.com. website www.marygreenwood.org

Mary Greenwood an Exhibitor at the Melbourne Florida Book Fair for Authors

Mary Greenwood will be exhibiting her books: How to Negotiate Like a Pro, How to Mediate Like a Pro and How to Interview Like a Pro at the Authors Book Fair in Melbourne, Florida.

Here are the specifics:


Saturday & Sunday, November 19 & 20, 2011
Time: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Coincides with the Eau Gallie Art Festival

Eau Gallie Civic Center
1551 Highland Avenue
Melbourne, Florida 32935

In conjunction with Art Works:
Eau Gallie Fine Arts Festival






Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney and Author of How To Negotiate LIke A Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes, Winner of six book awards, How to Mediate Like a Pro, winner of twelve book awards, and How to Interview Like a Pro, winner of eleven book awards. Email: howtointerview@aol.com; website www.marygreenwood.org

Mary Greenwood is one of the New and Emerging Authors at the Dahlonega Literary Festival November 12-13

The Dahlonega Literary Festival would like to welcome our New and Emerging Authors for the 2011 Festival. Come check them out and support our authors! WE will be exhibiting our books on Saturday, November 12, at St. Lukes Catholic Church Parish from 9:00 to 6:00 and on Sunday November 13, at Hancock Park. Please stop by and say hello if you are in the area.

New and Emerging 2011

William Anderson, God’s Arm
Tori Bailey, Coming Home
Chuck Barrett, The Savannah Project
Kenn Bivins, Pious
Dyan Crawford, Christina and the Lazy Day Surprise
Shane Etter, Bottom Dwellers
Amber Evans, The Wrath
Robert Faulkender, Filtered by Time: A True Story of Success in Vietnam
Sharon and David Goodwill, The Chief Executive Survival Kit, Simple Foods for Complex People, Peter Geter and Friends
Jonathan Grant, Chain Gang Elementary; The Way It Was in the South: The Black Experience in Georgia
Mary Greenwood, How to Mediate Life a Pro: 42 Rules for Mediating Disputes; How to Interview Like a Pro: 43 Rules for Getting Your Next Job
Chad Hepler, Intervention: Anything But My Own Skin
Katandra Jackson, The Diary of a Bride to Be
Emory Jones, White County 10; Distant Voices: The Story of the Nacoochee Valley Indian Mound
Elizabeth Madson, Pieces of the Past; Tuffy; The Favor; The Contract
George W. Martin, I Will Give Them One More Shot”: Ramsey’s 1st Regiment Georgia Volunteers
Ashland Menshouse (Robert Thompson), The Last Seer and the Tomb of Enoch
Jeremy Owens, What is Life and Who Am I?
Angela Sasser, Angelic Visions
Melody Scott, Auraria Dead
Richard L. Stewart, Jr., The Amherst Protocol (Richard Lionel)
James R. Tuck, " He Stopped Loving Her Today," (short story in One Buck Horror anthology); Blood and Bullets, 2/2012
Luanne White, Thief of Innocence




Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney and Author ofHow To Negotiate LIke A Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes, winner of six book awards; How to Mediate Like a Pro, winner of twelve book awards; email, How to Interview@aol.com; website: www.MaryGreenwood.org

How to Interview Like a Pro by Mary Greenwood is Finalist in Business/Career Category in USA Books News Book Awards

How to Interview Like a Pro; 43 Rules For Getting Your Next Job is a finalist in the Business/Career Category in the USA Book News Book Awards. This is the 11th book award for Mary Greenwood's latest book.

Here are the other ten book awards:
1. Winner, Reader Views Awards
2. Winner Pinnacle Achievement Awards
3. Winner, Indie Excellence Awards
4. Winner, ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards career category
5. Finalist, Next Generation Indie Book Awards
6. Finalist, Eric Hoffer Awards
7. Honorable Mention DIY Book Festival
8. Honorable Mention Readers Favorite, business/finance category
9. Extra Mention, Millennium Puboishing Book Awards
10.Honorable Mention Mention, New York Book Festival


http://www.usabooknews.com/images/637_usabestbooks2011awards.jpg


Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney and Author ofHow To Negotiate LIke A Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes, winner of six book awards; How to Mediate Like a Pro, winner of twelve book awards; email, How to Interview@aol.com; website: www.MaryGreenwood.org

My First Column on Book Awards for Writing Raw

It Is Nice to be Recognized

Like many things in life, my best book award was my first book award so my first column is about that experience. Future columns will be about individual awards and what to do when you get one.

When I won my first book award (Best "How To" Book, DIY Book Festival) for How to Negotiate Like a Pro, I was very excited and felt validated as a writer. I had been involved in the lonely art of writing a book with little feedback from others. I was not sure if it was a "good" book or not. I liked it and it really boosted my spirits to know that someone else liked it, too. I was thrilled that I could now write, "Mary Greenwood, award-winning author" on my marketing materials.

All the winners of the DIY (Do It Yourself) Book Festival Awards were invited to an awards banquet in October in Los Angeles, California. It was only a few weeks away and I could hardly afford it, but I said to myself, "Mary, you may never win another book award so you owe it to yourself to go." I made my airline and hotel reservation using frequent flyer miles. Since this was Hollywood, I thought I might get discovered just like all those famous actresses at Hollywood and Vine.

When I arrived at my hotel in the Hollywood Hills, it had no record of my reservation and even worse it was totally booked. I must have sounded desperate. "I am a writer and I am getting an award tonight and I really need a room." The desk clerk, who was also a budding writer, said that there were apartments above the hotel that they owned and that there was a vacancy.

He said that he would show me the apartment, which Jerry Bruckheimer used when he needed peace and quiet to write. I was thinking that if it was good enough for Jerry Bruckheimer, it would be good enough for me! The apartment was very sparse and a little dumpy, but it did have a killer view of the Hollywood Sign. I was wondering where exactly Jerry Bruckheimer wrote in this apartment and what he was working on. Of course, I said I would take it and forgot about the nice hotel room below.

I went to the Awards Ceremony and got my award; it was very nice to be recognized. However, It was a little anti-climactic because the highlight of my trip was the "fact" that I stayed in the same apartment as Jerry Bruckheimer. Since then I have had a nagging feeling that the desk clerk made up a story so I would take the apartment, but it could be true.

Whenever I see the closing credits of CSI, I ask myself whether he was working on the script for that or was it the Pirates of the Caribbean?




Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney and Author of How To Negotiate Like A Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes, Winner of six book awards; How to Mediate Like a Pro, winner of twelve book awards; How to Interview Like a Pro, winner of ten book awards.
Email: howtointerview@aol.com; websites: www.howtointerviewlikeapro.org;
www.marygreenwood.org

Mary Greenwood exhibiting at Dahlonega GA Literary Festival November 12 and 13

I will be exhibiting my books: How to Interview Like a Pro, How to Mediate Like a Pro and How to Negotiate Like a Pro at the Dahlonega, Georgia Literary Festival. On Saturday, November 12, the Book Fair will be held at St. Lukes Catholic Church Parish from 9:00 to 6:00 and on Sunday November 13, the Book Fair will be held at Hancock Park. Please stop by and say hello if you are in the area.

About the Dahlonega Literary Festival & Writer's Seminar:

The Dahlonega Literary Festival is a yearly event that takes place the second weekend in November. Set in Historic Downtown Dahlonega, the festival continues to grow and become more and more entertaining as the years go on. All festival events are free and open to the public. This year (2011) marks the first year of the correlating New Directions Conference on the campus of North Georgia College and State University. The conference, while connected, is a seperate event and does require registration. For more information, check out our "Writer's Seminar" page.

History of the Dahlonega Literary Festival and Writer's Conference

Begun in 2004 by Kate Quigley McElliott, the Dahlonega Literary Festival celebrates books, writers, literacy, storytelling and literary performance art. Late in December, 2003, Kate called together a group of interested community and university people to begin The Dahlonega Literary Festival & Writer’s Seminar.







Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney and Author of How To Negotiate Like A Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes, Winner of six book awards; How to Mediate Like a Pro, winner of twelve book awards; How to Interview Like a Pro, winner of ten book awards.
Email: howtointerview@aol.com; websites: www.howtointerviewlikeapro.org;
www.marygreenwood.org

Kindle Highlights from Amazon for How to Interview Like a Pro

Kindle Amazon Highlights from How to Interview Like a Pro






Amazon's Highlights program is a real eye opener for the author. It gives the author a window to those passages that resonate with her readers. If you are not familiar with the program, scroll down any Kindle listing and you will see the Highlights. It is great tool for authors and readers.

Here are the highlights from How to Interview Like a Pro; 42 Rules for Getting the Job You Want:

1. Ask what the company’s expectations are for this position. This allows the applicant to see what the company is looking for and can respond accordingly.
Highlighted by 5 Kindle users

2. This is not just a job for me. This is the place I want to be, and I am passionate about working in this field.
Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

3.What is your management style and how do you interact with your employees?
Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

4. Ask questions about the organization chart.
Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

5. Ask what brought the interviewer to this company and what he or she likes best about working there. I love this question because you are doing the interviewing now but in a positive way.
Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

6. What kind of training will be provided and who will do it? 3. Who was formerly in the position and why did they leave?
Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

7. I can be a perfectionist, but I am taking measures to overcome this. I realize that everything I write does not have to be perfect to be acceptable.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

8.In this economy, you need to show the future employer why it needs you and how your experience and expertise are going to help it. This is where your research comes into play.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

9. What exactly will be my job duties? I have read the job description, I but don’t know what the priorities are.
Highlighted by 3 Kindle users




Mary Greenwood, Mediator, Attorney and Author of How To Negotiate Like A Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes, Winner of six book awards; How to Mediate Like a Pro, winner of twelve book awards; How to Interview Like a Pro, winner of ten book awards.
Email: howtointerview@aol.com; websites: www.howtointerviewlikeapro.org;
www.marygreenwood.org

How to Interview Like a Pro Reviewed by Mir Haynes, Resume Expert

“How to Interview Like a Pro: Forty-Three Rules for Getting Your Next Job” by Mary Greenwood is the latest how-to book from the author of “How to Negotiate Like a Pro” and “How to Mediate Like a Pro.”

"How To Interview Like a Pro" delivers the kind of instructive and sound advice that job candidates need. It’s a quick read, too; I envision job seekers downloading and reading it one day, then acing an all-important job interview the next. For readers of the digital version, like myself, the book is available within moments of purchase and its page layout and font are readable and screen-friendly.

Whether you buy the eBook or paperback, Greenwood delivers a superb interviewer’s toolkit. Her advice ranges from the detailed and practical (if a company you interviewed with said they'd let you know in two weeks, wait three to call) to the philosophical and subtle (be observant when you take a tour of the office where you're interviewing, watching interactions, environment, and personnel for “red flags”). She maintains this balance throughout the book, as she covers all phases of the interview process: Getting organized and prepared ahead of time; researching the company you’re interviewing with (and, importantly, their competitors); making the most of your professional, personal, and online social networks; the nuts and bolts of the interview (everything from the right handshake and what to wear to useful advice about out-of-town interviews and reimbursement for travel expenses).

Job seekers will appreciate the entire chapter Greenwood dedicates to common interview questions and sample answers. Providing actual verbiage you can familiarize yourself with and customize to suit your situation, Greenwood draws from her years of experience interviewing with law firms and high-power executive offices to give you answers to sticky questions like “What is your greatest failure?” and “What don’t you like about your current job?” and “Tell me about your best boss.”

The book wraps with a chapter dedicated to knowing the law and whether you are in a protected category (did I mention that Greenwood is a lawyer?), sensible tips on how to navigate the post-interview waiting game, what to do if you did—or didn’t—get the job, and appendices on interviewing do’s and don’ts, terminology, federal discrimination laws, and state fair employment agencies.

Greenwood’s book is absorbing, timely, and informative. She writes in a “helpful friend” voice and sprinkles in numerous anecdotes, which makes the book entertaining and easy to read. As a professional resume writer and online job search expert, I have been looking for an interview-preparation book that I can recommend to my clients. I have finally found it!



Mir Haynes is a professional resume writer, social media expert, and author of “Resume to Payday: Online Secrets to Find and Land Your Dream Job.” Connect with her via Twitter (@RTP_Resumes) or www.rtpresumes.com.




Mary Greenwood, email: howtointerview@aol.com websites: www.marygreenwood.org, www.howtointerviewlikeapro.org