Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Results Proven Job Interviewing Tips
Among the plenty of interview tips that you will come across, the best interview tip you will ever get is to be yourself. Don’t be afraid to smirk & be proud of who you are & what it is that you represent. You are a distinctive individual & must bear in mind that there is no six else like you on this earth. In believing in yourself, you can successfully get ready psychologically for that nerve racking interview!
Second in line for great interview tips is that you ought to be on time. You ought to not ever show up for an interview late, not ever! If you think that you may run in to a problem getting to a interview on time, leave your residence extra early to ensure that you will get there on time. Showing up for an interview on time shows that you are a responsible person; a sure indication of a professional individual.
A great tip to recall while on an interview is to turn off your mobile phone or pager. There is nothing more annoying to an employer than a potential employee that has a mobile phone ringing every six minutes during an interview. And, continuous interruptions may be a sign of unprofessional behavior so it is best to either turn off your mobile phone or leave it at home.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions during the interview system. In fact, make sure that you do. If you don’t ask questions, you won't get all of the information you need & you may even come across as excessively confident. Even worse, you may come across as apathetic. Therefore, show your interest in the job & ask questions at every opportunity.
Pay attention to the interviewer while you are being interviewed; this tip is essential & cannot be overrated. An interviewer’s tone of voice, their demeanor, their style of speech & their body motions can indicate to you how you ought to answer the questions they pose. For instance, if an interviewer is stern with direct, to the point questions, you ought to respond with to the point answers. Conversely, if an interviewer prompts you to tell them about yourself, your hobbies or your likes & dislikes, feel free to elaborate—just don’t go overboard & start rambling about your favorite pastimes!
Don’t be enthusiastic to answer questions while on an interview. Excessively enthusiastic individuals tend to cut off the employer while they are speaking & interrupt the employer during their questions. Wait until you are sure the employer is completed asking the query before you provide your answer. If you wait until the employer is completed speaking, you will also give yourself time to reflect on the query being asked & an insightful employer will see that you have seriously thought about your responses.
There's literally hundreds of Interview tips on the Net. Nevertheless, not all interview tips are excellent tips & it is important that you logically weed out the lovely tips from the bad ones. Therefore, if something doesn’t sound like a lovely idea to you, then basically refrain from taking the advice. Finally, the best advice you can get is to remain true to yourself, relax & be quiet throughout the entire interviewing system.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The Essential Job Interview Checklist
Be Prepared – This means practicing answering interview questions , doing your homework on the potential employer and matching your skills with your answers for the duties related for the open position.
Dressing for Success – Dressing professionally makes the best first impression. While it may not be necessary to purchase a business suit, it is very important that you dress the part.
Don’t Be Late – Arriving on time for a job interview means getting to the interview location at least 15 minutes early. Indeed the job interviewer will take note of your arrival time and will allow you to review all your notes for the interview.
Keep Eye Contact – Making eye contact, along with a smile and solid handshake will convey confidence to the job interviewer.
Show Enthusiasm – If the job comes down to you and another candidate, this is an excellent way to stand out to the interviewer. Showing your enthusiasm for the open position lets the interviewer know that you are serious about the position and are driven to succeed.
Let Them Know You’re a Team Player – Hiring managers want to make sure that they hire someone who can take direction. They also want someone that can lead a team to meet the company’s objectives. Provide real work examples of how you can lead a team and also how you can be a team player for a company.
Make Sure You Sell Yourself – It has been proven that people buy from people they like and this theory does apply when hiring someone. Remember a job interview is like a sales pitch. Have a list of your core competencies and be prepared to discuss how you have showcase your competencies in the past and they will be beneficial to the potential employer.
Always be Truthful – Never mislead the job interviewer, especially about your skills and past experiences. Most companies will conduct a background check before they hire someone and you don’t want to be in the boat where they find out that you were being dishonest to them.
Be Professional at all Times – Although this should always be done without saying, sometimes people do need to be reminded from time to time. Don’t chew gum, pay attention and sit up straight.
Ask Interview Questions – Asking questions demonstrates to the interviewer that you are interested in the job. So much to the fact that if you don’t ask interview questions you could come off as frail and useless. Also asking questions allows you to evaluate the company so that you can make sure that company is a good match for you.
Always Thank the Interviewer – When the a job interview comes to an end make sure to smile, stand up to extend your hand for a firm handshake and say “thank you. Ask the interviewer when do they expect to make their decision and if you should follow up with them if you don’t hear from them by the decision date.
Monday, November 16, 2009
5 Must Interview Questions You Need to Ask!
Through some preparation and consideration, you should have no trouble coming up with 10 to 15 first interview questions to ask. However these five interview questions in some shape or form must always be asked.
Not only will they assist you to determine if the job for which you are interviewing for meets the standards of your ideal job, but the answers, when formulated, will give you a fairly accurate description of what's actually is happening behind scenes of the job interview.
1. WHAT ARE THE DUTIES FOR THE POSITION THAT WILL NEED TO BE IMMEDIATELY ADDRESSED?:
As you know the title of the position doesn’t tell you anything. The job description is helpful as it will tell you what you will be expected to do on a daily basis, but again it doesn’t reveal much of anything. Since you listed your accomplishments on your resume, you should be given the same sense of what the position requires from you as an individual. You need to be able to know if you are walking into a position that will require you to clean up someone else’s mess. If that is the case, are you going to be able to do it? If you don’t have this information available to you already, this will provide you with some insight about the hiring manager and the previous employee.
2. WHY DID THE PREVIOUS EMPLOYEE LEAVE? HOW LONG DID THEY HOLD THE POSITION?
Most of the time, when answering the first part, the hiring manager will answer the second part as well. However, if they decide not to answer the second part, make sure you ask. If the previous employee was working with the employer for a relatively short time, you will also what to know how long the previous person before the last employee left was there.
Do you understand why we are asking these questions? If the opened position is constantly disarray and the last two employees were there for only a small period of time and/or were fired, you won’t need to ask any of the other interview questions in this article. Make sure you end the interview elegantly and then leave as fast as you can! Because if you are hired for the job, it won’t be too long before you either quit the job or get fired from it, because you were not able to meet the objectives of the position, despite if the duties listed can be done in a realistic time frame of not.
3. CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOUR MANAGEMENT STYLE? HOW DO YOU MOTIVATE YOUR EMPLOYEES TO SUCCEED?: This question will help you determine if the hiring personnel is a micro manager. Is the manager is a good communicator? Will they keep you in the loop with everything? Will this person leave you alone and only work with you when you need help? Will this person provide mentoring? Of course, the person is not going to come right out and tell you that they are a micro manager! Instead they may say, "I like to keep a very secure watch on what's going on in my department," or "I visit with each of my employees on a daily basis to make sure they're staying on track," or something related. You’ll find that the hiring manager will be fairly straight forward in sharing their management style with you. What you want to pay attention to is how they word it.
4. WHAT TYPES OF PEOPLE DO WELL AT THIS COMPANY?: People who work great in teams or committees? Employees who kept their manager in the loop of everything? Perhaps people who are workaholics? This will help you learn about the culture of the company. Someone who is has an entrepreneurial spirit won’t do well in a committee type environment. At the same time, sales driven personalities can vary immensely, the lead achievers are goal driven and inspired to achieve, rather than self-righteous. People who are adjust to thinking for themselves will find themselves chafing in an organization that has a more dictatorial approach, while those who perform better when they're told what to do will find themselves lost in a organization that requires its employees to think for themselves.
5. HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED FOR THE COMPANY? WHY DO YOU STILL WORK HERE?: This question will give you a good idea as to the general feeling of the company. The way in which the hiring manager answers this question will also give you addition insights about your potential supervisor, their management style and what type of personnel do well with the company.
These questions are not challenges, these are valuable informational questions. Make you are legitimately interested each of the answers, sine you are gaining information that will be valuable for your future. When you leave the job interview and start thinking about the information gained from the interviewing, you’ll be matching what you learned with what you are searching for.
Pay attention to the job interviewer’s facial expressions and body language. Does the interviewer help fill in some of the spaces? Are they relaxed during the interview? Do they speak to you or do they speak at you? Do they answer your interview questions briefly and then quickly fire back with another one. These, too, are priceless cues, and after the interview, you'll need to piece them together with the verbal information you received. Your ideal job might land in your lap by good luck and fortune. But more likely, you'll need to search for it. It's there, but to identify it, you'll need to know what it does not look like, as well as what it does.
Monday, November 9, 2009
So personality isn’t just the reason? This is a yes and no answer. Having a personality that presents yourself in the best possible way and can carry a conversation is very important in a job interview, however not many people have this engaging personality. There are a lot of people who get jobs than people with outgoing personalities and the reason is that they know how to interview well. Yes, job interviewing skills can specifically be and ought to be learned. Now the question is, how do people learn?
A lot of people have learned how to interview through trial and error. The more you do something, the more you become a pro at it. This can be very hard though, not many people want to learn like this. I mean, no one likes being rejected from a job interview. Indeed, interviewing isn’t a fun activity. Most of the time, people tend to fear them. Since this is the case, wouldn’t it be great if you could learn how to interview and impress the interviewer? Wouldn’t it be great to go into a job interview with all the confidence in the world and have the state of mind that you are evaluating them, instead of the other way around.
Another important thing to remember is that this goes much deeper than learning interviewing skills or tricks. The point being is that training that makes you successful at interviewing, will make you successful in life. Learning how to interview is learning how to communicate well. Good communication will help you with the ability to lead, network and social confidence.
Whether you are a freshman in college or an experience business person, learning and gaining interviewing skills is a profitable benefit for anyone. It is also good for you as it serves as a value tool outside of your career including dating, parenting, marriage and so forth. Don’t wait any longer to take control of your life and be successful in your career.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
5 Steps To A Great Job Interview
1. Get there Early – The worst thing you can do is to show up to a job interview late. What does that show to the hiring manager about your dedication level? Why would any hiring manager want to hire a person who doesn’t have the organization skills to show up to the job interview on time? By showing up early for the interview, you are demonstrating and showing respect to the organization and the hiring manager. Also by showing up early, you may have the opportunity for more face time with the interviewer. Face time is important, as the longer you have with the hiring manager, the better your chances you will be chosen for the job.
2. Do your Homework on the Company – Never go into a job interview without knowing anything about the company. You need to do your homework; find out how many locations they have, who is the CEO and what products and services they market. A good idea is to find out their financials from their company website and other investor relations. You should be prepared to ask some questions about what you findings of the company. At the end of every interview that I have been involved with, I like to ask “What questions do you have for me?” I am always amazed with people who have done their homework and are serious about working for the organization.
3 Make sure to Listen and Don’t Interrupt – It may seem counter-productive, however the hiring manger is speaking. It is a demonstrated reality, that hiring managers think interviewers go better, if they do most of the talking. Make sure you use your research about the company and ask a lot of questions to get the interviewer talking.
4. Bring Extra Copies of Your Resume – Hiring Managers have a lot to do and most of the time they don’t have a copy of your resume ready for the interview. Even if they do have a copy, there may be other people besides the hiring manager interviewing you. This also presents a good opportunity to hand them your resume on a good piece of quality paper. Resume paper is thicker and has a nice feel to it and that is what you want the interviewer to associate with you… a good feel. Later, when the hiring manager is reviewing your resume, you will stand out because of it and it provides you a better chance of getting a second interview or even better getting hired for the job.
5. Follow Up – It is always a good idea to follow up with the hiring manager and/or interviewer in some way after the job interview. If the hiring manager gave you their business card, make sure you use it. You can call them and ask a couple of follow up questions and thank them for the opportunity. Also, you should send them a thank you note email. If you didn’t get their business card, then just mail them a thank you letter. The main objective here is to remind the hiring manager about you. And the more they think about you, the better the chances you will get hired for the job.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Four Simple Tips For a Phone Interview
Another good phone interview tip that is very valuable is to make sure you have a good quality phone. It may appear crazy to even bring it up, however the better the phone you use for the interview, the better your voice will sound to the person on the other end of the line. Many years ago, people rented their telephones from the local phone company. In today’s world, people own their home phones and /or mobile phones, and while a lot of people do use good quality phones, there are still many that are cheap and don’t provide the clarity needed for a phone interview. Add this additional tip to the mix: if possible, use a landline phone with a cord and not a mobile or cordless phone. Weak or dead batteries, static sounds, no cell phone tower signals and weather obstruction can make you sound awful to the other party at the other end of the phone line and you may not even realize it. When doing your telephone interview you want to be clear and make a great impression. Take this tip to the bank and use a good quality landline phone.
The next phone interview tip that may seem like pure common sense, but sometime isn’t done: Do your homework before the interview! Start off using the Internet, as this resource should provide you with almost all the information you need. Begin your Internet search with Google. Google will allow you to submit the name of the potential employer to its search engine and it will provide you with any and all information about the company on the net! Other sites to check out include Hoover’s and Yahoo Finance. If you don’t have access to a computer and/or the Internet, you can go to your local library and tell the librarian that you are looking for company related information. The librarian will be happy to provide you informational sources (including the free library Internet computer), that will help you seem knowledgeable during your phone interview.
Just being yourself, along with being comfortable is the last phone interview tip to keep in mind. Practicing for the phone interview is one of the best ways of maintaining comfort and confident. Ask a family member or friend to conduct a mock interview with you. Call one of your friends and provide them phone interview questions to ask you. This will allow you to practice answering interview questions over the phone. It makes perfect sense to practice for a phone interview, as you know that rehearsing anything is the best way to build your skills, and in this case your phone interview skills. Please take this tip to heart as it is the most important phone interview tip you will ever receive.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Top Job Interview Tips for College Seniors
1. Wear a well-fitted suit so that both males and females feel confident going into an interview. According to Monica Brooks of Brooks Consulting, “my experience with new or soon-to-be grads is that their wardrobes are horrible. Dress For Success isn't kidding, nor should it be taken lightly. Unpressed or ill-fitting, or old or worn-out or out of style clothes couldn't possibly enforce self-confidence. “
2. “Practice, practice, practice! Find a friend and have a mock interview.” According to Sonia Garrido of Sulzer, It is really helpful especially because you can sort of plan out the answers you can give to certain questions. Also, it makes you feel a little more comfortable when you are in the real interview and you won't be as nervous. Have your friend be critical about your answers and your overall presentation.”
3. According to Dana Bigman of the Casablanca Fan Company, “learn as much as possible about the company in advance and subtly weave that knowledge into your responses and questions. Also be sure to focus on what you can do for them (help them be profitable, solve a problem, etc.), not what they can do for you (a good starting salary, benefits, advanced education, etc.)”
4. According to Lewis Bryan of SellState Capital Realty, “be prepared to share your own (couple of them) business experience and if you do not have any, be prepared to share any life experience that would help the interviewer understand how you confront obstacle and how you handle yourself under pressure. Be honest in your answers and be yourself. Do not try to be someone you are not.”
5. “Make sure you firmly shake the hand of the interviewer and look them in the eye when you introduce yourself at the start of the interview.” According to Gary Trebels of IFC Credit Corporation, “make sure you firmly shake the hand of the interviewer and look them in the eye when you introduce yourself at the start of the interview. A flimsy handshake to me is weak and lacks confidence. First impressions are made in the first minute to thirty seconds and they are very hard to change. Why start off at a disadvantage when you can make such a favorable first impression within that first minute? My mother, who was a secretary to CEO's, drilled this into my head since I was 10 years old, and I am very thankful that she did.”
6. “Before the interview ends, and after you have decided if you want the job, in a polite way, ask for the job?” According to Paul Balutis of A#1 Southport, “So many people never close the opportunity at hand. You do not have to be too direct, just ask how you did, what's the next step, and oh by the way, I am more interested in the position than I was before this interview! This will separate you from the pack, this will make you stand out, and it may get you to step 2!”
Friday, September 18, 2009
4 Simple Tips that will help you succeed at a Job Interview
The first question most employers will ask you during an interview is “Tell me about yourself.” The way you answer this question will set the mood for the rest of the interview. That is why you develop a personal branding statement. Explain where you are from, your passions, what strengths you as a person bring to this position and what benefits your previous employer(s) have gained because of your employment. The Personal Branding Statement should be about one minute long.
Personal Branding Statement Example:"I am a seasoned marketing expert in property retail management, strong in driving traffic to mall retail centers through effective media buying and event planning. I grew up in Philadelphia and I have a passion for continuous learning."You should do this for three reasons:
- It demonstrates that you are comfortable with yourself. This places both you and the interviewer at ease.
- It will help you begin to control the interview.
- A well-delivered Personal Branding Statement will increase the interviewer’s interest in to you. Be careful not to show off - simply tell a story about yourself.
“I can get this job!”
The key to a great interview is keeping a positive attitude. The interview is about you. This is a major advantage for you. You are the one that shows the interviewer what is great about you. Keep in mind, your resume got you the interview, it’s the interview that will get you hired.
Be prepared for tricky questions and unexpected happenings, such as setbacks. Don't let these affect your positive attitude.
3) Dress for Success
There is a saying that clothes make the man (or woman) and it is certainly true. You only get one chance make a first impression, and if you want to compete with the rest of you need to dress to impress.
4) Follow Up with a Thank You Letter
After you conduct your successful interview, it is important to follow it up with a thank you note. This is the time acknowledge the interviewer’s time and to remind him or her why you are the best person for the position. You are only remembered if you show the interviewer that you can create value for the company. You should try to write a thank you as soon as the interview is over. You can personally write it and mail a note to the interviewer or email them.
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The above post was taken from InstantJobInterviewTools.com
http://www.instantjobinterviewtools.com/Job-Interview-Tips.html
