The First Job and Importance of Execution

I’m with Dale on that; entry level jobs are long on (important) detail and short on having to provide (important) smarts.

But if you want to advance, you have to have both.

My answer to “Are you detail oriented?” would be “I’m result oriented… Let me show you what I have done at the tactical level to reach these (fill in your blank) strategic goals. That way you are showing what you can do, but also showing you understand the greater plan.

Allan

I agree that one should never say they aren’t detail oriented and that changing the scope of the question is a much better tactic.

For the last two months, I’ve run the gamut of job interviews and I seem to be stuck in a box. I’m 10 years past the college grads and entry level marketing and PR positions, but I’m halfway to those with 20 years experience in managing marketing departments.

I’m banking on a mix of the importance of execution for short-term goals with a splash of creativity and vision for long-term goals.

I think it is so overwhelming for those of us who are about to graduate from college. We are not trained how to respond to difficult questions like “Are you detail oriented?” We really have no real life experience in the job field other than when we do our internship. I just feel so unprepared for an interview. I know that a company could not hire if I answer one question wrong.

It just worries me that the jobs are so competitive now and most companies don’t want employees who are fresh out of college; that want employees with five or tens years of experience. I know people who have had to do three or four internships before they ever get offered a job. I guess so of it depends on how hard you work and how good you really are at your job. But, I think I speak for everyone when I say that I feel totally unprepared to enter the real world.

Maybe I’m just not very confident in myself yet. I know we are getting some of the best experience in our classes because I know about a lot of different computer programs and software. Hopefully, by the time I graduate I will have a better understanding of what employers are looking for.

I guess the old saying “It’s the little things in life that really matter” is true. Being detail oriented encompasses not only your ability to take on contemporaneous tasks, but shows employers your skill in conquering difficult assignments from a creative perspective.

As future college grads, we might be letting this question scare us a little too much. Are you detail oriented basically means to me, how efficiently can you multitask? No matter how little experience we have, and how much we don’t know, we certainly know all about multitasking.

I don’t know any students who aren’t in the middle of a million big class projects, demanding minimum-wage jobs and numerous extracurriculars. We can easily show employers how detailed we are by telling them about our concurrent duties that have challenged us, and that we have successfully completed. This would be a good way to answer this question that also changes the scope.

For the college student that is busy poring themselves into every available outlet, there is no reason to not be confident. If you are doing everything possible to make yourself a desirable employee, then rest assured in that. That may not mean a fantastic job one week after graduation, but it means something.

Hopefully I’ll be in an interview where I am asked if I am detail oriented, because hearing it after reading this post will bring a real smile to my face and a little confidence boost. Ah, now there’s a question I can answer!

I absolutely agree with the point that Dale brought up about strategy and creativity. Some of the largest and most creative (as well as expensive) ad campaigns have failed because there was no strategy. Take for example GAP and MILK. The creative individuals behind these campaigns did their job because they caught the publics’ eye, yet when the public payed attention…the campaign had nothing to say. There was no strategy.

While these were extremely popular and publicized campaigns they weren’t successful because there was no strategy. The failure of these campaigns cost the respective companies’ millions of dollars. This ties into what Dale said. Overall, an employer wants someone who can cost-justify hiring you. Therefore you have to prove your abilities.

Creativeness and innovativeness only goes so far. The ability to execute orders and the ability to handle details are very important traits for a potential employee to have. From my personal experience those that are able to execute properly and are more detail oriented are not necessarily more intelligent, but are more reliable… Furthermore, even with personal relationships we all seek reliability and an employer is no different in their hiring process. So just think about the traits that you would find appealing in an individual that you would trust with your money and reputation and try to emulate them.

When I first read the post I got a lump in my throat from the question, “Are you detail oriented?” I about to begin my search for a job or possibly another internship (because I don’t feel as though I have had enough experience in my feild of choice) and I have started to think through some of the possible questions that I could be asked. The reason I had a lump in my throat is because I didn’t know where to start. I agree with you completely that we as students do have a experience with details in our life that can apply to the real job world. For example, when we work on those group projects and have presentations and severely long papers to write. That takes organization and making sure everyone else is informed. While this might not be as impressive, but there are lots of us today that juggle a job, full school load, family, friends and homework, homework and more homework. I would say these people are extremely detail oriented. I also agree with Nikki that when I hear “detail oriented,” I think of multi-tasking.
I also hope that if this question is asked during one of my interviews that I will be able to use my experiences in college to show that I have always been detail oriented and I will continue to do so because that is also a way of life. I can’t imagine only accomplishing one thing a day. Even my grandmother has a bizillion things to do each day and she is 82. I know that if this question is asked during my interview that it will be one of the easier of the questions, unless the employer is looking for a totally different answer than what I am thinking. In that case, I might not get the job.

When I hear the words “detail oriented,� my first response is “paying attention to the specifics.� However, that’s not enough, and my mediocre definition doesn’t encompass the entire idea. Yet, as I read Dale and Allen’s comments, an old tennis term, that my coaches used to always use, kept popping into my head. “Follow through! Follow through! Follow through!� (I can hear them yelling it now). As an athlete, the follow through was the most important part of my game. Sure, I could run up and down the court and make contact between the racket and the ball, but unless I fully executed the swing, I would have little control over the shot. The follow through is what separated the good athletes from the great athletes; a good game from a bad one.

And, while it may be a silly analogy, my mind keeps coming back to it when I think of “detail orientation,� or “result orientation,� as Allen put it. Hard work and an eye for detail only pay off when you follow through and execute the task to the best of your abilities.

With that said, Sara mentioned several fears that I feel as well. Jobs are very competitive and experience seems to play a large role in that competition. All this talk of interviewing has made me more aware of areas that I need to reconsider and plan for. There are thousands of bright, creative students that will be entering the career field at the same time as my classmates and me. In order to stand out and excel, we need to heed this advice and work on our follow through.

The old saying “God is in the details” holds true in the work force as well. I like the point that Allan made, instead of stating how you are detail oriented, state how you are result oriented. That’s not only a more fun question to answer; it gives the interviewer a better idea of what you can accomplish should you be hired.

In your answer of how you are result oriented, you will obviously mention the details that got you to the result. This will further prove to the interviewer that you are qualified for the position.

Interviews are scary things. They are extremely intimidating especially for new college graduates that haven’t had much experience with them. We’ve all been through campus interviews and most of us have had some type of internship or part-time job interview, however, these interviews are not quite on the same level as the highly competitve job interview.

I feel like I’ve gotten better interview training in the past few weeks on Marcomblog.com than I have all through college. All the contributors have no idea how much y’all are helping us by giving us your insights and experiences. Please, keep the advice coming! When we graduate in the coming months, we will be more than prepared. We will be ready to blow our competition out of the water.

We as college students struggle to finding the correct answers to the interview questions that we could possibly face when looking for a job next semester. I for one am fairly confident and hope that I convince my employer that I am the right person for the job. Being detail oriented is such a broad topic in my opinion. Details are everywhere in our life right now. Juggling between school work, organizations and service projects are just some of the details in our life.

For me, it is all about balance. A good question that I read one time that an employer asked was if I had a good balance in my life and how I expected to keep a good balance. Balance is key. I talk to many students who say that they never have time to do homework or who did not have time for a group meeting. They need balance. If you are able to shuffle 10 different things in a week, then you are at the same time, detail oriented and result oriented.

I agree with Sara on being unprepared for the real world, but for me it is just one detail in the whole grand scheme of things. I hope that by learning from professionals and grasping the concept of job interviews and the workplace, I can get a better perspective on the whole outlook of how much my life is going to change in the next year. Looking into the future, I feel like being detail/results oriented will be the most important aspect in the career path I decide.

As it gets closer to graduation, I get more and more nervous about finding a job. I know the working world is competitive, and the best jobs are flooded with applications from recent graduates. It’s frightening to think that I might not find the job I want, or any job, immediately after graduation. I might be searching for awhile, or may even intern several times in order to get my foot in the door.

Honestly, interviewing is very scary to me. I have had many jobs, but never a real interview. Answering questions the way a potential employer would want, and in a unique way that makes me stand out above the competition, is what I am most nervous about. I feel that having been through the PR program at Auburn, and having tools like MarcomBlog that teach us about the real world, will be an advantage my classmates, and myself.

Answering a question like “Are you detail oriented?” can be difficult. It can be answered in many different ways, but I like the result-oriented way of answering. I agree with everyone who said it would be easy for us to discuss how we as college students are required to pay attention to detail and multitask on a daily basis. Explaining how you reached a goal while doing a project for school or an internship would be a great way to answer the question. But, in the back of my mind I still think, am I answering the question the way they want me to? I think I’m going to need a lot more practice before the interviews begin so I will be a little more confident and prepared.

I can really appreciate what you had to say about the importance of details. Often times we find that it’s the little things that matter most. Sure we might be able to come up with brilliant ideas and sure we may be able to execute them, but to what degree. Without the details, the whole picture is never accomplished.

If we imagine the details like the ingredients to a cake the picture is clear. We all know what the cake is, how it looks and what it should taste like, but leave out even the smallest ingredient (like the salt) and everything is thrown off and the whole thing flops. The same is true with details on the job. Even in the simplest projects there are many small details, and if you can’t follow through and accomplish them all, how can an employer expect you to finish successfully.

Being in the Military Details are a way of life… all the way down to the creases in your under garments. For the very beginning they drill into us “Attention to Detail” because on a mission details are essential. Imagine if we were off by one grid coordinate on an important raid in Iraq… What a mess that would be!

My point is I understand that details are often the driving force in big projects and to have a future employer ask me “Are you detail Oriented” only seems to make sense. However I would have to agree with Allen by adding more to the comment by saying I am “Result Oriented” which opens the table for further discussion.

Is there a correct answer to the “are you detail-oriented?” I can’t imagine anyone saying that they don’t pay any attention to detail, so interviewees have to be coming up with something. I feel as if I do pay attention to detail, but how could I answer that question? I definitely think that details have to be attended to, but I am scared I will choke during an interview if asked a question like that and blurt out “NO!”

I have only about a month of classes left before I graduate, and I am getting more and more nervous about the interview process. I have obtained 3 internships and all of them have been sent through e-mail and responded to without having an interview. I guess I have just gotten lucky, but I know that my luck will run out and what if I am not prepared because I haven’t had the exposure of an internship interview.

I definitely agree that, “execution is more important than strategy or creativity.” I hope that I am able to live up to that. I think that even though I haven’t had a lot of real world experience with interviewing I have had classroom experience and have learned the skills needed to best communicate myself in an interview setting. I just need to become more confident in myself. I hope that after I complete my internship that confidence will build. Marcom Blog and commenting on other blogs has definitely helped me to become more comfortable with voicing my opinions and speaking with professionals.

As I read your comments about this entry, I agreed with the majority in that it is a scary question, as well as a very important one. Detail oriented does not have to deal with only small things. There can, and will, be big details that can easily be missed. Look at September 11, 2001. Several HUGE details were overlooked. I mean, some of the government officials were basically slapped across the face before the attack happened. That’s an example of big details being missed. However, sometimes it is the smaller details that are even more important. Think about how important it is to turn the stove off when you are finished cooking. Not only could someone get severely injured if they touched it, but it could also burn down your entire house. That is a little detail (in respect to the intelligence example) that can have a huge impact on someone.

I guess all of these reasons are why it is important to be a detailed person. Whether you pay close attention to the small details, or the big ones, they are both important in completing a task successfully. We all need to be prepared to answer that question in a job interview because that is very important to the employer. Different jobs require different criteria, and some may not be as detail-oriented as others. Obviously, being a doctor is going to be more detail oriented than being a manager because someone’s life is at hand. However, through the crashing of so many large American corporations over the years, we can also see how even though no one’s life is ultimately in the manger/CEO’s hands, overlooking one tiny detail can cause disastrous results and consequences.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about execution. Yeah, there are times when you can have the best strategy. Then something factors in the mix, and you execute, but not according to your strategy.

It’s certainly possible you aren’t thrown off your game, or, if you are thrown off, you may recover without any problem. However, I can’t help but wonder if execution mishaps come from not knowing your strategy well enough, or knowing it too well to where you may jump the gun.

I believe attention to timing is one key factor to which an effective execution is attributed. If you’re so eager to make a move, you may just get a penalty for being offsides. But, we all know what happens when we sit back and let our opportunity pass us by. I guess they don’t say “strike while the iron’s hot” for no reason.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “Are you detail-oriented?” or “Are you a list person?”. It is an “uncomfortable”question. I say uncomfortable because you want to be able to present yourself as a person who cares about the small things, but also a person who is able to step back and visualize what the big picture is supposed to be.

When answering this question, I always try to maintain a balance between being concerned with every minute detail and only concentrating on the outcomes. I like to consider myself “flexible.” I can focus on the small (and big) details that make a project or campign what it is, but I also don’t wrap myself up in things that ultimately won’t affect the outcome. I try to prioritize the tasks and assignments so that I can assure that the final project will be fully completed.
I am thankful for Dr. Fitch-Hauser’s PR Campaign class which teaches us to focus on all aspects of a campaign, whether they be small details or large concepts. Her class is teaching us about the importance of execution.

As I have begun sending out resumes and interviewing for jobs, I hope that I am able to clearly communicate my skill in priortizing and executing tasks. It is something that we have been well prepared for at Auburn, through class and extracurricular activities. Now, it is up to us to go out and prove those skills!

Being detail oriented is one of the most important things one can be when applying for a job, or carrying out everyday activities. Think about what our lives would be like if we forgot all the little details of everyday activities.

If someone booked a flight, but didn’t know which terminal to go to reach the plane, they wouldn’t be taking that flight.

If GM decided to ignore the fan belts in their vehicles, they wouldn’t be selling too many more cars.

Paying attention to detail is very important and knowing how to execute on those details and get things done right in a company will not only get you hired, but will keep you at the organization