Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
Interview Dos
- Be prepared. Know about the organization and the job to which you’re applying. And practice for the interview before you get there.
- Be well groomed. Even if the company employees dress in business casual, err on the conservative side. For men: A jacket and tie. For women: A business suit. Keep the jewelry, makeup, perfume and cologne to a minimum.
- Arrive early for the interview. Fifteen minutes is about right.
- Be respectful of everyone you meet, including secretaries and other office personnel.
- Listen carefully to the interviewer’s name and remember it. Repeat it periodically during the interview when addressing the individual.
- After a question is asked, allow a moment for it to sink in and to phrase your response.
- Pay attention to non-verbal cues. If the interviewer appears particularly interested in what you’re saying, expand upon it.
- Ask how your role in the company can positively influence their bottom line.
- Be friendly, interested, engaged and confident – but not arrogant.
- At the end of the interview thank the interviewer and ask when you might expect an answer as to your candidacy.
Interview Don’ts
- Don’t behave as if the job is already yours or beneath you. Be confident, not arrogant.
- Never interrupt the interviewer.
- Don’t ask about salary or benefits unless the matter is brought up by the interviewer.
- Don’t trash your current or former employers.
- Don’t mistake an interviewer’s politeness for more than it is. You are not friends. Don’t be too familiar or chummy. Remain professional.
- Don’t bring up anything negative about the company you’re targeting, even if they’ve gotten bad press.
- Use appropriate English and business language. Avoid slang.
- Don’t let your body language (squirming in your seat) give away the fact that you’re nervous. Try to calm down and focus on your attributes.
- No matter how desperate you are for the position, don’t make it obvious to the interviewer.
- Don’t dwell on your deficiencies – we all have them – concentrate on your strengths and convey them to the interviewer.
Our JobInterviewEdge service offers one-on-one mock interview training with our certified editors. For more information, please click this link
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
During every interview, you’ll most likely be asked a question that throws you. You’ll start to sweat and may struggle for an answer. What comes out of your mouth may make you cringe at that point or later.
To avoid this, it’s best to be prepared for the unexpected. Here are some thorny questions you may be asked and tips on how to answer them:
1. Who do you consider your best boss? Who do you consider the worst?
Take great care in answering. The interviewer is trying to determine if you’re angry at past employers for something that may very well be your fault and if you carry a grudge.
The appropriate answer would be that you learned something valuable from every boss you had and used it to better the company’s operations.
2. What have you been doing since you were laid off?
Employers are wary of individuals with job gaps, even in this awful economy.
To allay the hiring manager’s fears you can detail activities you engaged in while also looking for a full-time (or part-time) position. These activities would include being a caretaker for someone in your family (eg: children, aging parents), learning a new skill (eg: technology) or engaging in freelance projects to pay the bills until you reached full employment again.
3. What do you consider your greatest weakness?
Everyone has them and the hiring manager wants to determine if you have insight into your failings or if you’re so enamored of your strengths, you’re difficult to work with and refuse to learn from past errors in judgement.
In answering, don’t make the mistake of saying your weakness is that you work too hard. Employers have heard this countless times and few believe it. Instead, focus on a true negative (you’re a perfectionist) and turn it into a positive (eg: I don’t want to hold up schedules by triple-checking everything to make certain it’s perfect, so I’ve developed a process so that mistakes are avoided the first time around).
The above are a few of the many examples of questions you may be asked, which will prove difficult to answer – if you’re not prepared.
With our JIE (JobInterviewEdge) service, our expert coaches prepare our clients to meet each interview challenge and to succeed.
We’d like to hear from you as to what other aspects of the interview process you’d like us to address to make JIE even more worthwhile to jobseekers.
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Being called in to interview is one of the most exciting times of a candidate’s job search. You get a haircut, perhaps a manicure. You make certain your business wear is spotless, your appearance impeccable.
Warning yourself not to show fear, to keep your voice steady and your eyes on the interviewer, you believe you’re ready. After all, you have the talent to fill the position and you’ve researched the job responsibilities and company thoroughly.
Good for you. But there may be one aspect of the interview you’ve forgotten about – non-verbal behavior.
Hiring managers are trained to look for nuances in a candidate’s personality that will tell them far more than words ever could. Here’s some of the things you should watch out for:
- Crossing your arms. Never cross your arms over your chest, it’s a defensive position. Even if you’re smiling and laughing with the recruiter or hiring manager, it’s off-putting. When standing, let your arms hang at your sides. When sitting, fold your hands in your lap and keep them there while the interviewer is speaking.
- Tapping your fingers or a pen against the arm of your chair, your lap, a desk – whatever. Don’t do it. It shows impatience. Even if you can’t wait to jump in and tell the interviewer how great you are, retain a composed posture. Keep your fingers from dancing.
- Shifting in your seat or from foot to foot. It makes you look nervous, which you probably are. If necessary, lock your knees while standing to keep yourself from moving too much. When you first seat yourself, make certain you’re as comfortable as you can be, given the circumstances, and then make a concentrated effort to stay just as you are. Excessive movement is distracting. You want the interviewer to notice your skills, not your fidgeting.
- Darting eyes. If you’re constantly looking away while the interviewer is speaking or while you’re speaking, the other individual will come to one of two conclusions: you’re so bored you can’t keep focused or you’re trying to hide something. Now that doesn’t mean you stare down the interviewer. You can glance away at appropriate intervals. Just don’t do it too much.
- Standing too close. It’s an aggressive stance and will put off an interviewer, especially if you’re a man and she’s a woman. Keep an appropriate, arm’s length distance.
- A stony-expression or a smirk. Neither is attractive. If you have no expression, the interviewer might think you’re difficult to work with. Everyone wants to deal with a pleasant personality not a cipher. A smirk will make you seem arrogant. Even if you don’t agree with what the interviewer is saying or you believe you’re too good for the job, make certain your facial expression doesn’t reveal it.
There are many other non-verbal behaviors to consider. We deal with these at JIE (JobInterviewEdge) a coaching service for our clients. Our certified, expert editors bring decades of real-world experience and advanced degrees in 40+ industries to assist our global clientele.
We’re always striving to better our products. So if you have a recommendation for JIE, we’d love to hear from you.
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
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. A warning, however: Even if they wear business casual, you should err on the conservative side during the interview – for men that means a sports jacket and tie; for women, that would mean a nice pantsuit or dress. The exception to that would be if you’re in a creative field and the employees show up in jeans and T-shirts. Then, you would dress business casual. The key is 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 indicate 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.
There are many, many more details that go into being interview ready. With our new service offering JobInterviewEdge, a certified career coach details the obstacles faced and how you can overcome them. These experts will help you prepare for the first step to your next great job – the all important first interview.
Details of the service will be provided in coming weeks. We want to hear from you as to what you’d most like to see in the service so that we can incorporate even more helpful information into it.
