Practice Being A Manager

Finding a Management Job Management is a wide-ranging and exciting area of work. One way to gain a sense of the possibilities is to study the advertisements for management job openings. Companies advertise their management openings in a variety of ways, including print advertisements in such newspapers as the Wall Street Journal (especially its Friday career section) and online ads at job sites like Monster and CareerBuilder.

Step 1: Find a job you'd like to have. Search through the newspaper and online ads and locate several detailed job descriptions for management positions. Select the one that you find most appealing-a job that you could picture yourself interviewing for either in the near future or later in your career.

Do not be too concerned about your current qualifications in making your selection, but you should see realistic prospects of meeting the qualifications over time (if a job requires an MBA, for example, you should see yourself completing this degree sometime in the future). Print your selected detailed job description and bring it to your next class session.

Step 2: Share your job description. In class, your professor will assign you to a pair or group of three. Write your name on your selected management job description, and exchange your job description with your partner(s). Each member of the pair or triad should now have a job description other than their own.

Step 3: Think like a hiring manager. Read the job description you received from your partner. Imagine that you are the manager responsible for hiring someone to fill this position. A human resources specialist in your company has already screened the applicants' resume and background. Thus, you may assume that your partner has met all the basic qualifications for the job. Your job as a senior manager is to ask questions that might get beyond the resume to the person-what might you ask to learn if someone is well suited to thrive in this management job and in your company?

Step 4: Take turns interviewing. Each member of the group should be briefly interviewed (5-10 minutes) for the job he or she selected.

Step 5: Debrief. Discuss your experiences with your partner(s). What was it like to be interviewed for your selected position? What was it like to role-play interviewing someone for a management position? Now imagine the real thing. Brainstorm about how you might prepare yourself over time to be the top candidate for an attractive management position and to be a senior manager responsible for hiring the best qualified managers for your company.

Step 6: Discuss with the class. Share your interview experiences and brainstorming ideas with the class. Do you hear any similarities across the pairs/triads? What ideas or questions are most significant to you as you consider management job interviews?