Episode 07: How To Ace The Interview With Google's Ginny Clarke

Are you an ambitious woman who wants to dominate your career? In this episode, Monica Marquez talks with Ginny Clarke, Director of Leadership Staffing at Google and author of Career Mapping: Charting your Course in the New World of Work. Ginny shares critical insights on what you need to do to gain clarity about your strengths and how to communicate with recruiters to level up in your career. Ginny is a single mom who faced adversity yet learned about herself and her strengths through each season on the way to becoming a leader in her executive recruiting career. She shares pearls of wisdom, specifically for women, that she has learned along the way while encouraging the listeners to continually develop their skill set, not be bound by limited beliefs or fear, and stretch beyond here and now in their career.  Ginny underscores that finding your success is a mindset which involves discovering your strengths and core competencies while pushing past what others think you should be doing. In addition, she shares consistent patterns that she sees hinder women from having confidence and owning their success.  She also expands on the importance of balancing personal and professional goals with boundaries, building a community around you, and the value of communication and time management skills. Tune in to level up your self awareness and practical life application while learning the intel to owning an interview and the future of your career.

Highlights: [1:03] About Ginny Clarke [5:34] How someone discovers their unique strengths in order to communicate to people [7:40] How do you use those transferable skills to switch industries or switch roles? [12:19] Struggling with fear and limiting beliefs [16:04] Patterns that prevent women from showing up with confidence and owning their success [20:56] Expiring skill sets and stretch opportunities [24:58] Balancing personal and professional goals and setting boundaries [30:02] Importance of community [34:32] Future of work in digital age [38:00] Advice on digital interviews

Quotes: “Often what we love to do, is what we’re good at..often, that can mean we have to push away what other people expect of us.” – Ginny Clarke “I’ve watched so many people get locked into one thing and what they don’t understand is they are a free agent and can own this process.” -Ginny Clarke “Part of growing up is learning to deal with the ambiguity of uncertainty….You can’t be rigid and risk averse because that will limit you.” -Ginny Clarke “Some of the mistakes women make in interviews and more broadly in their careers, they don’t come in willing to assert, ‘This is what I’m good at and this is how I do it.’” -Ginny Clarke “Competencies trump experience...you have to be your own advocate. In the digital world, go learn it in your own time...to keep moving.” -Ginny Clarke “Asking for help doesn’t mean you’re weak...if you’re sharing your vision, sometimes you don’t even have to ask for help.” -Ginny Clarke “Communication is essential...one way to stand out is to be a really good writer and communicate effectively...be able to have a conversation and drive meetings.” “Be crisp and clear what you want to share about yourself. Don’t just respond to questions...take yes and no questions and extrapolate.”

About Ginny Clarke: Ginny Clarke joined Google in 2016 and leads the non-tech Leadership Recruiting Team as well as Diversity and Internal Mobility in Mountain View, CA. She oversees a team of recruiters who hire senior leaders (Directors +) for finance, sales, marketing and other G&A functions across North America. Additionally, she is responsible for driving diversity for all of Leadership Staffing, and for Internal Mobility of senior Googlers, globally.

Ginny is the author of ​“Career Mapping: Charting Your Course in the New World of Work” (published by Morgan James, 2011). The book provides a framework that empowers individuals to plot and assess their professional competencies, and strategically navigate their careers by leveraging their network to create opportunities for themselves. She earned her BA in French and Linguistics from the University of California at Davis, and her MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School. Links: Website (coming soon): https://www.ginnyclarke.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginnyclarke/ Twitter: @ginnyclarke