Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
Too many candidates mistakenly believe that being called in for an interview is being guaranteed a position. Nothing could be further from the truth. You might be the last person on a short list of candidates. Your skills, knowledge, and abilities are good – but not a perfect match for the company. However, the hiring manager is interested enough to meet with you and allow you to sell yourself to the company.
How do you do that? Preparation, preparation, preparation.
1. Know how to dress. If you’re not familiar with the company culture, visit their website or their offices during work hours to see how staff dress. No matter how casual they may be, the key is for you to look professional – you’re not on staff yet.
2. Do extensive research about the company. Know what they’re about. Nothing’s worse for a hiring manager than to interview someone who hasn’t a clue what their company produces.
3. Compose a list of questions about the company that indicates your interest in what is produced and how things work.
4. Prepare a list of answers to the most frequently asked interview questions. For example: Where do you see yourself five years from now?
5. Practice, practice, practice. Make certain your voice and body language don’t give away your anxiety.
6. Know how long it will take to get to your interview so you arrive on time.
To assist you in interview prepartion, consider the ResumeEdge.com JobInterviewEdge service. Details at this link: http://www.resumeedge.com/services/jie-home.html
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
by Jeri Hurd Dutcher, ResumeEdge.com Editor, CPRW, CEIP, CPCC
My client has been invited to interview for a network technician job. He’s not quite done with his CCNA, so that’s a wonderful thing. The catch is it’s about 70 minutes from his home where his wife owns a business. He lives in a place where winters mean blizzards and bad roads. Can he afford to commute or rent a studio apartment to reduce driving time and in case of storms?
He needs to find three pieces of information to be prepared to negotiate:
1. His personal wants and requirements.
2. The range the company will pay.
3. The average salary paid in the geographical area where he plans to work.
First, he gets out the household budget and figures out the minimum he will accept. This process should also define and prioritize the benefits he needs and wants and what he is willing to negotiate away.
Second, if there is no salary range listed on the job posting, he calls the company’s HR Department and asks what the salary range is for the job. If they say there is none, or it depends on experience, he asks what the current employee in that position earns. If that is not forthcoming, as well, he networks his way to someone else in the company who may know or can find out.
Third, he determines what the average salary is in the company’s geographic area. The best place to look for that is www.Indeed.com. On the main page, he clicks the salaries link in the upper left corner of the screen. He fills in the search fields and scrolls down to see the average salary, national salary trend, and average salaries of jobs with related titles (with links back to those jobs).
Other places to search include:
• http://online.onetcenter.org/
• Compensation.BLR.com (offers free trial)
• Salary.com
• www.payscale.com
• Library Resources
Research companies and job search specialists are also available to complete research. They often require completion of a form or a phone interview to define the desired position.
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Today I’d like to introduce a new service that will be implemented shortly at ResumeEdge.com. Our mission has always been to assist jobseekers in whatever way possible, so they attain their dream jobs. To that end, we will be adding JobInterviewEdge.
What is JobInterviewEdge?
It’s a job interview coaching service that will prepare you for the daunting job interview process by providing computer-based interviewing skills training and a personalized mock interview with a certified interview professional.
Personal coaching will be conducted by our editors who have been awarded CEIP (Certified Employment Interview Professional) certification through the PARW/CC (Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches) and those who have reached certification through ResumeEdge.com. The standards are high, the training intense. Each certified editor is an expert in interview counseling and will shepherd their clients through the arduous interview process.
The Personal Coaching element will include:
1. Job Interview Preparation Sheet to provide your coach with information to prepare your mock job interview
2. Consultation with your coach to review your job interview preparation sheet
3. “Mock” job interview by telephone with your certified coach
4. Immediate Telephone Critique of the mock job interview with your coach
5. Formal Written Critique of your mock interview delivered within 24 hours
Each mock interview is recorded, providing you with an opportunity to play it back and review it at a later date.
In upcoming blogs, I will detail the service offerings and the intricacies of an interview.
To make this service truly valuable, we want to hear your thoughts on what else you’d like to see and how we can improve on what’s provided.
No Comments yet; your thoughts are welcome.
Category: Executive, Federal / KSA / Government, Job Interview, Job Search, Professional, Tips | Tags: Tags: CEIP, certified writers, challenging job markets, coaching service, computer-based interviewing skills training, interview techniques, job interview preparation, JobInterviewEdge, mock interviews, new service, PARW/CC,
