60 Seconds & You're Hired

A vocational counselor for 20 years and the author of five career-related books, Robin Ryan says job interviews are like everything else these days: With time shrinking and distractions growing, you must sell yourself in short sound bites or you probably won't sell yourself at all. And as she believes that--even in job interviews--this means many of us can no longer truly focus our attention for more than a minute at a time, that's how she oriented this snappy career guide. The updated edition of 60 Seconds & You're Hired! (originally published in 1994) incorporates recent hiring trends and some strategies to meet them, but essentially reiterates Ryan's original method for effectively consolidating top attributes into five key themes and then repeatedly communicating them in precise, under-a-minute exchanges. She clearly explains how to distill strengths into verbal bullet points, refine them for specific interviews, and succinctly deliver them in appropriate responses. (For example, "What do you know about our company?" is a chance crisply to combine what the firm needs with one or more of your key themes.) The advice can be absorbed and utilized even the night before an interview, but more preparation would undoubtedly increase results. --Howard Rothman