Help Me Land That Job

Scan the Room Definitely an advantage you don’t get over the phone, being at the interview is an advantage. You get to do things you never could over the phone. Remember you’re coming in from the cold, you have to be like a detective and find something about this person. You can do this by quickly scanning the room for awards, degrees, photos, trophies, pets, anything that will give you some common ground to share. Find anything around the office that you can use to connect with the interviewer which can be part of your icebreaking pre-interview small talk. Be Your Best Self Be the best version of yourself, bring your best to the interview. Next to your skills, qualifications and experience, your personality ranks highly on the list of important factors when determining your success with the job. Why is your personality so important if you possess all of the skills necessary for the position? Everyone relies on somebody, even if you work in a leadership role, your job Read the whole story...

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The Handshake Upon your 5 to 10 minute early arrival, give a good firm handshake when meeting the interviewer for the first time. What your handshake says about you, in fact since just about everything has a degree of measurability these days, from your personality IQ to your emotional IQ, now comes, you guessed it, the “handshake” IQ. Your handshake can make a difference to your prospective employers perception of you. Believe it or not, handshakes can speak volumes of you and leave a subconscious impression of you. What you your handshake reveals about you: Strong, overpowering handshakes, the equivalent of the wrestling world’s knuckle crushing grip of death – yes this probably will make you stand out but not in a positive way. The weak, slippery fish handshake that leaves no lasting impression and can subconsciously make the interviewer think that you’re a little distant and aloof. The best kind of handshake is a confident one, firm with a moderate amount Read the whole story...

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How to Ace That Interview – Tips and Techniques That Win You the Job (Part 10) A couple of things: Be selective in what you choose to eat the day of your interview. Avoid onions, garlic or spicy foods as these tend to linger on your breath and can overpower your interviewer especially within close proximity of them. Make sure that you use deodorant if you tend to sweat with nerves. Don’t eat before an interview, especially saucy foods, don’t drink too much either incase you have to dash off to the little girls or little boys room. Eating before an interview you might experience an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction with a dab of sauce landing on your brand new suit jacket or white shirt. If you have to eat, eat sauce-less, clear foods or try an apple. Lose weight and work on your body if you need to drop a few pounds. I know, we live in a world that is obsessed with physical perfection and we ourselves are also judged accordingly. No one is exempt, it’s the unspoken Read the whole story...

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Getting All Your Ducks in a Row It’s important to make sure that you are aptly prepared for the interview. Pre-interview checklist: Do you know where you’ll be going? What time is the interview? Do you have all relevant documentation, and supporting evidence, i.e. resume, degrees, achievements, certificates, work portfolio if required, references, performance assessments, listed work achievements, etc. Have you practiced some interview questions and answers? Have you come up with some intelligent questions of your own? The Interview Process It’s no fluke that you made it this far it’s actually the result of well executed steps. You applied for the job that best matches your current qualities and skill set and you beautifully crafted your cover letter, followed by your resume. Both got read and got you shortlisted for a pre-emptive phone interview. You made it past this hurdle and have moved on to the actual face to face job interview. Remember luck had Read the whole story...

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Why Exactly Do You Want the Job? Let them why you want the job. If it’s true let them know how their core values and beliefs tie in with your own. Tell them what drew you to their company and why you can see yourself as their next employee, cheeky I know but what employer doesn’t like that? Confidence is appealing and will mark you as a leader for the job. Be careful however, this is a double edge sword, confidence is great, in fact it’s a must however too much and you can come across as arrogant which can hurt your chances. Your confidence should always be directed at the company and what you can bring to it rather than the focus to be entirely on you. For example, “Why I chose to work for Firth & Meyer is because I’ve been following your company’s progress throughout the years and am impressed with the amount of growth and development your firm has experienced. With my skills I would like to contribute further to that growth by…..”, then give details Read the whole story...

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Mock Interview It’s vital that you practice ahead of time. If you did get the phone interview, keep a note of these questions to answer in the real interview. Why is it important to have a mock interview? To get a feel for the real thing. You’re also training your mind of what to expect, when you’ve practiced something in advance it has a certain element of familiarity to it so that when it comes to taking the real interview you feel as though as you’ve already done it before. This helps you be more calm and relaxed when it comes to the real thing. Top Olympic training programs train athletes to visualize winning before they’ve even stepped onto a running track. This way they visualize the state of mind and mental preparedness required to perform at their peak. When they get to the running track because they’ve been there in mind, they follow in body. The next step of running at the top performance becomes second nature to them. The same also applies for you. If Read the whole story...

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Another Hot Topic of Debate - Salary Employers want to know first and foremost that you want the job and that you’re passionate about it, money although important is a secondary issue and the reality remains that it will always crop up, it’s only a matter of time so don’t feel the need to charge forward insisting you get some figures and estimates right away. The most important thing is what you propose to bring to the table and the rest is all in the detail. Don’t worry; salary negotiation will come up, just be patient. What Can You Offer? It’s time to be the show pony prancing around the stables now. You’re on display you’ve got to give it all you’ve got. One of the more quintessential questions you can answer with complete purpose and clarity is what you can offer the company and what you hope to get from working there. The priority should also be what you can bring to the table in terms of your abilities and skills but you need to know how you Read the whole story...

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The Elephant in the Room - The Uncomfortable Questions What happens when you have an incident that you would rather strike off your resume? such as a conflict with an employer?, which was why you got fired from your last job. Don’t try to hide it, embracing it shows confidence and ownership of responsibility. Sweeping it under the rug only raises more questions which only to be answered by the disgruntled ex-employer anyway when the interviewer talks calls them to dig a little deeper. Instead admit to it, be honest about it and the most important thing of all is to explain how you grew from it. How it made you a better person because of it. Employers love a redemption story and will be more willing to take a chance on you than if you were to hide it from plain sight. Remember, the truth always comes out in the end, just make sure you have your say and there are always two sides to every story so do it with grace. Don’t play yourself to be the victim, tell them what you Read the whole story...

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Tests Depending upon the type of job you’re applying for, do your homework ahead of time to determine if there are any tests you need to know about. Some technical departments require you sit a test as part of the job application process and details can usually be located on the company’s web site or by contacting a member of administration within the relevant department. Testing is more a filtering process just as the pre-emptive telephone interview is and discourages applicants from applying for the sake of doing so. Those who are serious about the job and feel they are a good fit for the position won’t be afraid to take a test if it means getting them one step closer to the position. Don’t let the thought of a test discourage you, if anything it only increases your chances and filters off the less serious candidates who are just trying their luck on the off chance they might get it. Prepare and take the test and you’ll be light years ahead of the competition. Some Read the whole story...

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The Pre-Emptive Telephone Screen Interview Here’s something you need to remember, you may be spending all this time preparing for a face to face interview when in reality there’s a high chance you could be interviewed via phone which is a pre-interview before the real one designed to weed out candidates before a meeting in person ensues. This interview generally tends to be around 10 to 20 minutes in length and covers general questions. In fact this is the technique employers use to screen candidates before they get to the point of interviewing them. It also helps to cull down that short list even further. The staggering figure of employers using the phone to screen is over 50%. This is because it’s not time effective or efficient to interview everyone face to face, the process is time consuming and labor intensive so it pays to further narrow down that list via phone. So instead of interviewing 30 shortlist applicants, that number might be then screened down to just Read the whole story...

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