Archive for the ‘Interview Preparation’ Category
Friday, August 8th, 2008
Since you need to connect with the person responsible for the interview, it is helpful to discover as much as you can about that person as well. Is this your prospective boss or someone screening applicants? If possible, discover what the person is interested in and where he or she previously worked or went to college. Gather information that will help you establish an easy rapport.
Your quest for information can seem elusive without the ability to conduct an audit of the company’s financial statements or at least interview employees of the company. With a bit of networking, the latter might be more feasible than you would initially think. Several other resources will help you:
• The company website
• Company statements and brochures
• Newspaper and magazine articles
• Reviews of best and worst companies
• Employees of the company
• Public records
• Information held at local job search agencies
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Friday, August 8th, 2008
The three main ways of making contact are telephone, email, and snail mail. If you call your potential interviewee, it might help to write down what you plan to say ahead of time. If you send something written, be sure to proofread your missive. It is especially important that you do not say or do anything that makes it sound as though you’re trying to get the person to hire you. While that would be nice, it’s not the point of the informational interview.
Telephone calls, emails, and letters basically follow the same structure:
1. Introduce yourself
2. Explain that you’re interested in the field in question, but that you would like to learn more about it through someone like your potential interviewee, who has a lot of experience and wisdom.
3. Give a specific reason you’re interested in talking to the potential interviewee – you’ll show you’re serious and focused when you, for example, tell the head of a public relations firm that you know her organization does a lot of work for environmental groups, and you’re specifically interested in that aspect of PR.
4. Ask if the person has time for a 30-minute meeting during which you could learn more about the interviewees’ work and thoughts about their career.
This whole process of contacting interviewees might make you a little nervous – if you’re new to the working world and low on the totem pole, calling up a business executive can be a little frightening. You may be especially hesitant because you feel like you have nothing to offer in return for that executive’s time. Relax. Most successful members of the working world have an intimate understanding of the networking system. They know that when they were inexperienced, seasoned professionals helped them out. And now that they’re the high-level executives, they’ll talk to you at a business conference or grant you a 30-minute meeting – with the understanding that when you’re a big shot, you’ll take a few minutes out of a busy day to advise a newcomer about your line of work. And, if that answer doesn’t satisfy you, remember that most people love talking about themselves and relish the experience of feeling like an important expert in their field.
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Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
Part of the job search process can include salary negotiation. With a basic knowledge of negotiation, your anxiety will be reduced and your success rate for negotiating will increase. There are several ways to make the process of salary negotiating effective. Start by taking a good look at your own salary requirements as well as developing an understanding of what your skills are worth in the current employment market.
==> Research salary ranges before you begin the interviewing process. Contact the professional association which represents your career field for salary information. Look at your monthly cash requirements. Keep in mind that your pay cheque after taxes is approximately 28% less than your gross monthly salary. Include savings and contingencies in your budget planning.
(You do not need to tell anyone your salary requirement: it only provides you a foundation on which to make decisions.
==> Enter the salary negotiation portion of your interview with a firm understanding of your skills and what they are worth to different segments of the economy and in a variety of industry settings.
==> The first inquiry about salary may come in the form of an application. When completing application forms, be sure to use “open”, “negotiable” or “competitive”. Avoid stating a specific figure.
==> Factor the organisations entire compensation package (ie. Tuition benefits, superannuation, health plan, and any perks) along with salary in your negotiation discussion. Compute the dollar worth of these benefits and add this figure to the salary for a more realistic picture of how the organisation compensates. If it is important to you, you may decide to negotiate benefits rather than an actual dollar increase.
==> When an interviewer asks for salary history or salary range, he/she is interested in establishing a starting point for negotiation. The important thing is to avoid basing your desired salary on your current salary. Do not lie about your past salary reference checks can easily provide this information. Provide information about why your salary may have been lower, if appropriate.
==> When starting a salary range, it is acceptable to extend the range to approximately $5,000. This shows that you are within the employer’s price range but interested in somewhat more compensation.
==> Determine opportunities for promotion. Job progression is an important factor in making salary decisions. Ask how promotions and salary reviews are handled.
By taking a good look at your own salary needs, understanding the current market, and approaching salary as something that you and the employer will agree on as mutually beneficial, your chances of successfully negotiating a salary are greatly enhanced.
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Career Development, Career Planning, Finding a Job, Interview Preparation, Job Compensation and Benefits, Pakistan Job Market | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
GETTING READY AND APPEARING FOR INTERVIEW
Preparing for interviews before the day:
• Collect Information – Find out details about the employer and the job
• Plan for the interview
• Find out if you will have to do a test and what it will entail
• Find out who will be interviewing you
• Plan your journey making sure you know where to go and leave yourself plenty of time
• Prepare for questions you might be asked
• Think about what you will wear. Recommended clothes are preferably a suit with necktie or a coat necktie and a dress trouser
Thorough preparation will give you the confidence to do your best at an interview. Gather together the information you will need at the interview.
Preparing for interviews on the day:
• Give yourself time to get ready
• Make sure you have all the relevant paperwork
• Try to relax and keep calm
At the interview:
• Be polite and friendly
• Look interested
• Provide examples to prove your achievements
• Sell yourself
• Be positive
Remember most employers like:
• People who listen
• People who answer questions with examples
• People who come prepared
• People who appear smart and confident
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Thursday, June 12th, 2008
A typical job interview has a single candidate meeting with between one and three persons representing the employer; the potential supervisor of the employee is usually involved in the interview process. A larger interview panel will often have a specialized human resources worker. The meeting can be as short as 15 minutes; job interviews usually last less than two hours. The bulk of the job interview will be the interviewers asking the candidate questions about their history, personality, work style and other relevant factors to the job. The candidate will usually be given a chance to ask any questions at the end of the interview. Questions are strongly encouraged, not only do they allow the interviewee to acquire more information but they also demonstrate the candidate’s strong interest in the position and company. A candidate should follow up the interview with a thank you letter expressing their appreciation for the opportunity of meeting with the company representative. The thank you letter ensures that the candidate will stay fresh in the interviewer’s mind. The primary purpose of the job interview is to assess the candidate’s suitability for the job, although the candidate will also be assessing the corporate culture and demands of the job on offer.
Lower paid and lower skilled positions tend to have much simpler job interviews than more prestigious positions; a lawyer’s job interview will be much more demanding than that of a retail cashier. Most job interviews are formal; the larger the firm, the more formal and structured the interview will tend to be. Candidates generally dress slightly better than they would for work, with a suit being appropriate for a white-collar job interview, but jeans being appropriate for an interview as a plumber.
Additionally, some professions have specific types of job interviews; for performing artists, this is an audition where the emphasis is placed on the performance ability of the candidate.
In many companies Assessment Days are increasingly being used, particularly for graduate positions, which may include analysis tasks, group activities, presentation exercises and Psychometric testing.
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Thursday, June 12th, 2008
It is often easier to get a job interview than it is to do well during the interview to actually get the job. Preparing and organizing both yourself and the materials you need helps. The more you have it together on the outside, the more calm and collected you will feel on the inside. This confidence that you have everything taken care of should show through during the interview process and may ultimately land you the job.
First, think about your past. Not only are you going to have to list your educational background, previous employment experiences, and extracurriculars on your application, but you are probably going to be asked about those verbally in the interview. You do not want to have to use crib notes in order to remember dates and names, so memorize this information so that you can answer questions more easily during the job interview.
When filling out an application, many people give one word answers when it comes to their previous employment duties. This can lead the interviewer to think that you did not take your previous jobs seriously, or did not feel that they were important enough to write about. Give detailed information about your job duties. Remember to write in complete sentences – no one word answers.
If the interviewer gives you information about the job you are applying for, you need to show them that you actually want to do the job. If you give the interviewer the impression that you could not care less whether you get the job then you will probably not get it.
If you are already aware of the duties that you would be performing if you were hired, make a mental note of instances when you have done or mastered those tasks in the past. If you can show the interviewer that you not only know what you need to do the job, but that you have already done it successfully in the past, you will have much better chances of getting the job.
Confidence and ability is not only shown through the spoken word, it is demonstrated through how you look and your body language as well. If you do not look the part, you are not as likely to be taken seriously.
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Thursday, June 5th, 2008
Unless one is born with a silver spoon, more often than not, a person has to work at some point of his or her life. We can safely say that a very significant amount of our waking hours is spent working or making a living.
Writing a good resume is very important for securing a job. This article provides some tips for writing a good resume.
When one is applying for jobs, it is crucial to understand the job description thoroughly before submitting your application.
A very helpful practice is to review and align the resume to the requirements that is being listed in the job descriptions. When one is able to address the job requirements via the information in the resume, one is very likely on the right track for getting the job.
However, there may be a handful of skills that employers are looking for but are not listed in the job description. These skills are typically known as employability skills. Below are some of the important employability skills:
1. Initiative and enterprise skills
2. Teamwork skills
3. Communication skills
4. Problem-solving skills
5. Learning skills
6. Planning and organizing skills
7. Technology skills
8. Self-management
A good method to demonstrate these employability skills is by putting them in the resume through the experience and qualifications section. Writing down and list the things you have participated in displayed teamwork, under a deadline, or as a self-starter.
Demonstrate your loyalty through pointing out your accomplishments at an organization and how they benefited your team as a whole (not just you).
You can also write the employability skills in your cover letter too.
Well, that is all for the article on resume writing. Hope that it has been useful. Thank you for reading.
Posted By: Nasir Sultan (Manager Operations, MechTechnologies)
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Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
The first impression you make on a potential employer is the most important one. The first judgment an interviewer makes is going to be based on how you look and what you are wearing. That’s why it’s always important to dress professionally for a job interview, even if the work environment is casual.
You’ll want that first impression to be not just a good one, but, a great one. The candidate dressed in a suit and tie is going to make a much better impression than the candidate dressed in scruffy jeans and a t-shirt.
=> Don’t bring Gum to the interview
=> Don’t bring Cell phone to the interview
=> Don’t bring Ipod to the interview
=> Don’t bring Coffee or soda
=> If you have lots of piercings, leave some of your rings at home
=> Cover tattoos
Interview Attire Tips
=> Before you even think about going on an interview, make sure you have appropriate interview attire and everything fits correctly.
=> Get your clothes ready the night before, so you don’t have to spend time getting them ready on the day of the interview.
=> If your clothes are dry clean only, take them to the cleaners after an interview, so they are ready for next time.
=> Polish your shoes.
=> Bring a breath mint and use it before you enter the building.
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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
What do you like to do? Whatever it is, it may be directing you towards a career. Do you like music, IT, art and writing more than anything? Or do you enjoy hands-on projects, crafts and building? Maybe experiments, research and science tests are more your thing? A couple of factors have been shown to be highly correlated with success in jobs.
1. Intelligence
2. Conscientiousness
3. Openness
4. Agreeableness
5. Extraversion
A number of studies have shown that general intelligence often correlates well with job success. Basically, it means that intelligent people are generally good at jobs. Hire bright people and they will be able to do what you ask of them.
There may also be other related factors in this. For example you could argue that intelligent people are able to understand not only the task factors required to succeed in a role but also the social factors. Following the conjecture, if you link intelligence to education and a ‘good upbringing’ then values-based factors such as conscientiousness and agreeableness may also be seen as related.
Conscientiousness has also been shown by several studies as being highly correlated with job success.
If a person is conscientious, then they will work hard to complete work they have committed themselves to doing. They can also be left alone without need for constant supervision.
Other factors have also been shown to be linked with success, although showed that these tend to be more related to some jobs more than others.
Beyond (and as well as) these, you may well need to do a thorough job analysis with some kind of factor analysis that isolates both individual and clusters of success factors for specific openings that you have.
If you are open to experience, are ready to challenge yourself and learn and welcome feedback from others, then you will not only learn far more, you will also be perceived as a pleasant person by others who will be more ready to work with you. Unsurprisingly, this tends to make people better at jobs.
When paired with conscientiousness, a person who is easy to get on with becomes even more successful in many jobs. Particularly if the work requires working with other people, a person who is disagreeable is not likely to gain good cooperation.
Sometimes agreeableness is not required in large quantities. For example a salesperson who is too nice to customers may not win the tough bargaining deals.
If you are outgoing and get your energy from being with other people, you will probably do better in many jobs than others, especially (of course) those that require you to work actively with others, whether in managerial or team environments.
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Friday, May 30th, 2008
Hold Fair, Legal Job Interviews
The job interview is a powerful factor in the employee selection process in most organizations. While the job interview may not deserve all of the attention that the job interview receives, it is still a powerful force in hiring.
Other background checking and work history references provide much less personalized and more factual information, and hopefully, you have added these checks to your hiring decisions, too. But the job interview remains key to assessing the candidate’s cultural fit. The job interview remains the tool you can use to get to know your candidate on a more personal basis.
The job interview process helps other employees “own” the new employee who joins your organization.
How to Select Candidates to Interview
Your starting point, before scheduling a job interview with a candidate, is to review each candidate’s:
• Resume cover letter and
• Resume.
When faced with 100-200 candidates, it’s important to use tools that separate the great candidates from the many. These will help you select the candidates for the job interview. They will also help you prepare your list of questions to use to telephone screen candidates and ask during the job interviews.
• Read Why This Resume Rocks.
• Hold a recruiting planning meeting.
• Devise a list of qualities, skills, and experience to use to screen resumes and job interview candidates.
Telephone Screen Candidates Prior to an Interview
The telephone interview or candidate screen allows the employer to determine if the candidate’s qualifications, experience, workplace preferences and salary needs are congruent with the position and organization. The telephone job interview saves managerial time and eliminates unlikely candidates. While I recommend developing a customized interview for each position, this generic job interview will guide you.
How to Prepare for the Job Interview
The interview team was selected at your earlier recruiting planning meeting, so the interviewers have had time to prepare. You will want to use the list of qualities, skills, knowledge, and experience you developed for the resume screening process.
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Interview Preparation, Skills Training | 1 Comment »
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