Syndicated columnist and blogger Penelope Trunk has been on a roll lately providing valuable information that could have just as easily been written for PharmBoard. She decided to write for Yahoo! instead.

In Networking for People Who Hate Networking she clearly defines five things you don’t have to be in order to be a successful networker. My favorite…

You don’t have to be a manipulator.
Networking is about being nice. It’s about figuring out what someone needs, and determining how to help him get it. Be aware of what people are trying to accomplish in their lives so that you can help them reach their goals — either by helping them yourself or putting them in touch with someone who can help them.

This grand slam of an article came just six days after Nine Steps to Acing a Job Interview. While I don’t agree with all of the points she makes in the article, there are a couple that are truly exceptional - especially for PharmBoard readers…

Understand the behavioral interview.
When someone asks you a question that begins, “Tell me about a time when…” it’s a cue that you’re in a behavioral interview. There are established ways to answer this type of question.

The interviewer is trying to see how you acted in the past, which is a good predictor of how you’ll act in the future. You need to tell the interviewer about a situation you encountered, the action you took to solve the problem, and quantify the results. This is called the STAR response — Situation or Task, Action, Results.

PharmBoard.com is loaded with behavioral interview questions just waiting for a STAR response. Those who are best at the STAR response have mastered the art of Penelope’s 1st tip from this article…

Tell good stories.
When someone says, “Tell me about yourself,” they don’t want to hear you rattle off a list of what you’ve done or what you’ve accomplished. People want stories. Stories are what make you stick in people’s minds.

Penelope Trunk is a career columnist at the Boston Globe and Yahoo Finance. Her syndicated column has run in more than 200 publications. Earlier, she was a software executive, and then she founded two companies. She has been through an IPO, an acquisition and a bankruptcy. Before that she played professional beach volleyball. Her forthcoming book is Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success (Warner, May 2007).

If you find this site helpful, please send a link to your career services department so your fellow alumni know about PharmBoard too! I've already written the message for you. :)