Interviewing Skills Articles

What were your responsibilities in your last job? Your answer to this question about your job responsibilities depends entirely on the role you played in your last job. What were your major responsibilities? You want to list those out.

Companies you’ve interviewed with before Companies you’ve interviewed with before but never worked for are a place to network that most people don’t think about. It’s really overlooked. It won’t work for everyone, but it will work for some and it will be extremely fruitful. Let me give you an example: I interviewed with Fisher Diagnostics back in 1996 for a product management role in Houston, Texas. And actually, they also offered me another role within Fisher in a different area at the same time. But I didn’t end up taking either job. I took a job with Chiron instead.

More than 90% of the job interview is conveyed by non-verbal means.nnYou did all the homework for your interview. You know everything about the company, their vision, management style, what skills you have that would benefit this company, and where you expect your career to be in 10 years. Briefly you know all the correct answers to 249 interview questions, but at the end of the day what really counts is the main question: did you have good chemistry? Can they trust your mess

Why research the interviewer before your phone interview? Look at it this way: The job interview is a sales process in which you are both the product and the sales rep. One of the first rules of sales is “Know Your Customer.” You can’t sell effectively unless you know a little something about your customer. How annoying is it to have a sales rep come up to sell you something without even asking a few questions about your problems or issues? They have no idea what you’re interested in, so they’re not effective. The same principle is at work in the interview process.

How do you handle stress and pressure on the job? Hmmm….how DO you handle on-the-job pressure? - I cry, yell, or complain. - I hide in the bathroom. - I love stress! It’s so motivating! - I don’t get stressed. Obviously, they want your answer to be (c) or (d)…either one works. Either you get some kind of adrenaline high off of the pressure and perform better, or you maintain a Zen-like calm and don’t ever get stressed out.

How do I know you still have the ‘fire in the belly’ to do this job? If you’re of a ‘certain age’ in the job search, you already know that age is a big issue. It’s a very real obstacle to getting a job. Older workers have a reputation of not being up on the latest technology, not being willing to adapt, not being willing to take orders from younger bosses, and not having the energy or motivation to keep up with a heavy work schedule. That’s what this ‘fire in the belly’ question is really asking: Are you still motivated to work hard?

What are your phone interview goals? The bottom-line goal of any phone interview is getting the invitation to come in for a face-to-face. That’s the whole point of a phone interview. Your goal in this interview is not the job. It’s the next interview. The phone interview is a screening process to weed out too many candidates and narrow down the time spent doing in-person interviews. Even though getting to the face-to-face interview is your biggest goal of the day, there are several smaller goals to aim for that will help you get to that big one.

Ịn ịntervịews, your job ịs to convịnce a recruịter that you have the skịlls, knowledge, and experịence for the job. Show motịvatịon and convịnce a recruịter that you fịt the organịzatịon's culture and job descrịptịon, and you get that much closer to an offer. This is tips on how to prepare for an interview 13 killer Step for preparing yourself before an interview- 1. Research the organịzatịon Thịs wịll help you answer questịons —

What’s the point of a phone interview? A phone interview is an inexpensive, time-saving way to determine whether or not you are worth the time, effort, and expense of a face-to-face interview. That’s it. For the employer, it’s a screening process: Do you merit further consideration? For you, it’s an obstacle: How can you get past this phone interview and get to the face-to-face?

Are you ready for your next job interview? Do you know the secrets of pulling off a great interview and getting hired for the job of your dreams? Use these five simple steps to prepare yourself and you will leave the best possible impression you can with the hiring manager. 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?

Here’s a secret: There’s really only so many interview questions you can ask. Some hiring managers like to break out of the rut and ask crazy things to catch you off guard, like “What kind of tree would you be?”, but most of the time they tend to ask the same kinds of questions. There’s just basic information that they all need to know in order to make the decision to hire you. So what you need to know is what questions they’re most likely to ask you so you can be ready to answer them. What are the most typical phone interview questions?

How long will it take for you to make a significant contribution? I love, love, love this question. This is a ‘roll out the red carpet, here’s your golden ticket’ opening to introducing your 30-60-90-day plan.

What kind of money would you be interested in making? Hiring managers always want to know how much you’re going to cost them, so they will ask the salary question a hundred different ways: “How much did you make at your last job?” “What are your salary expectations?” Or this one, “How much money do you want to make?” As much as you would like to say, “I’m interested in making as much money as I can!”, you can’t say that. Even if it’s true. (Wouldn’t we all?)

What happens if you talk too much in a phone interview? Or related to that, you offer up Too Much Information? Both show poor communication skills that could keep you from getting the invitation to the face-to-face. It’s important that you know how much to talk and what to say to have a successful telephone interview.

What are some of your greatest and/or proudest accomplishments? This is a great job interview question, but a lot of people don’t do it or themselves justice when they answer it. One of the worst mistakes people make is that they will say that their greatest or proudest accomplishment is something that matters to them personally, like their two kids. It doesn’t matter if your kids are saints who never fight, spend their weekends feeding the poor, and have just won the Nobel prize…that’s still the wrong answer.

How do athletes win championships? Practice. How do violin students become virtuosos? Practice. How do you get better at interviews? Practice. Interviewing is not a talent. It is a skill. Most people don’t get a chance to spend much time honing that skill, because most of us don’t interview that often. It takes time spent doing something to get really good at it. The good news is that to be impressive in a job interview, you don’t have to put in the hours and hours that a Olympic athlete or an award-winning musician would. But a little practice goes a long way.

Are you going to have your phone interview conversation on a landline or on a cell phone? I personally think you should always, always use a landline. The sound quality of the conversation is better, there’s no risk of dropping the call, and there’s never any questions like, “Can you hear me now?” This is such an important conversation that anything at all you can do to reduce the risk of a problem is a very good idea.

Ok so you’re new to the facilities maintenance field, or hope to be, and you have stumbled across this article and hope that it can help you land that position in the maintenance field. It can if you are brutality honest about your abilities and willingness to learn. You will need to address several areas of concern. The first being why should the company pick you for its facilities maintenance position from the thousands of applications? What makes you stand out from the cr

Congratulations! You’ve landed that coveted teacher interview. Now it is extremely important that you impress in your interview and large part of that is coming prepared. Items to bring: • Copies of your current resume: If you need to distribute them to the panel, you should have enough to do this. Most likely they will have a copy, but they may be testing your to see if you are prepared. • Copies of your letter of intent/cover letter: This should be brought alongside y

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: your best is no longer good enough. I know...I know...it sucks, but it's the truth and what this means is "you don't get brownie points for doing something you're supposed to be doing," to paraphrase a Chris Rock routine!rn rnIf someone hires you, they expect your best...Period. Average is no longer an option. And "doing just enough" simply isn't a consideration. Boy, have times changed. Remember when people used to say, "Showing u

What will you do if you don’t get this position? This question is mostly likely to be asked when you’re interviewing for an internal promotion. You’re probably going up against other candidates in the company, and maybe even some external candidates, too. They’re worried about how you’ll take it if you don’t get the job, and they want to know if you’re more interested in the good of the company or just in your own career advancement.

It happens to everyone and you are definitely not alone; interview nervousness. The way I always looked at it was if you're not nervous for an interview, then you really don't care about the job. If you are nervous about the interview, that shows that you really care and it's something important to you because you want to do your best. How Do You Overcome Interview Nervousness? Preparation

How have you responded to a colleague who is putting you down at work? This is a pretty specific question, but it’s basically just another version of “How do you react in difficult situations?” This type of question is often asked in one version or another in behavioral interview situations. Employers want to get a sense of your judgment and decision-making abilities. Your answer here gives them a good idea of how you react to stress.

YouTube Posting a video on YouTube to try to find a job might sound like a desperate, last ditch effort, but think again. If you’re on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Plus, or other social media networks, why wouldn’t you be on YouTube? There are lots of things you can do on YouTube that you just can’t do through anything else. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Maybe a video is worth ten thousand. So what can you do on YouTube to find a job fast?

What will you contribute to this job? This job interview question is very similar to “Why should we hire you?” Or, “Why do we want you over the other candidates?” The job interview is a sales process in which you are the product and the hiring manager and company is the buyer. Your salary is the price of the product, you and your skill sets. It’s fair for them to ask, “What are we going to get for our money?”

Interviews can be nerve-wracking enough with just one person asking questions, but what about with a whole committee or panel? Do not let numbers scare you. You and the interviewers are there for the same purpose – they want to know if you will be the correct fit for their school district, and you want to know if they will be the right fit for you. Follow these eight simple steps to have a successful panel interview.rn rn1. Treat this interview the same as you would a one-o

Alumni Organizations Alumni organizations are great networking resources for you, which means they are also great resources to help you find a job.

Freelancing / Consulting / Temping

What do you know about this company? This is a very typical job interview question. Hiring managers want to know if you’ve done your homework. Have you done any company research? You would be surprised at how many job candidates can’t answer this question. Other candidates get a basic working knowledge of what the company does from reading through the corporate website and think that’s enough.

What makes you unique? What are hiring managers really asking in the job interview when they ask about what makes you unique? Well, they don’t want to know about what makes you special on a personal level. They want to know what makes you unique in relation to the job you’re interviewing for. Essentially, they’re asking, “Why should we hire you?” “Why should we choose you over everyone else?” “What makes you different from the other candidates?”

You just got the call for a job interview! This is great news, Congratulations! See how all the hard work you put into writing a professional resume, networking at various events and online job searching has paid off at last.

How do you evaluate success? I think the answer to this question has to be related directly to your work. Don’t wax philosophical about what success really is, or what a successful life is all about. If you go into a philosophical explanation, you’ll knock yourself out of a job. They don’t care that you’ll consider yourself truly successful if you have great relationships, or if you are able to retire to the beach at 60, or anything else relating to your personal life.

What motivates you? What’s the one big elephant in the room that MUST be ignored with the motivation question? All together now: “Money.” As much as the money question is a big part of why you work, employers want to think that you’re also doing this because you love it. And you should love it. You can make money doing a lot of different things, so you should enjoy the job you choose to do.

It appears that now than ever before college students are filling out online job applications following graduation with anticipation of getting a job interview. Before students graduate college they need to have an extraordinary resume. Most colleges offer some type of resume writing seminar and students should be able to write a good resume most of the time.

Do you remember when you were being let go, fired or reduced? It probably felt like the worst day of your life or maybe even unfair and unjust. The reaso I say this is because I recently watched a movie, Up In The Air, and it had a great a quote in it. George Clooney plays the main character and when he fired someone he would say, "Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it's *because* they sat there that they were able to do it."

Have any of you read Glassdoor's Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions? If not, I have copied in the questions below. Glassdoor compiled the top 25 weirdest interview questions for 2013. I want to talk to you about the questions and strange interview questions in general. - “If you were to get rid of one state in the US, which would it be and why?” - Asked at Forrester Research, Research Associate candidate. - “How many cows are in Canada?” - Asked at Google, Local Data Quality Evaluator candidate.

Wait! What? Don't ask for the job? Yup! It's annoying and no one likes it. What do I mean? With our job market still recovering back to its normal levels, there is an enormous amount of people who are still unemployed and we all know what they want. J-O-B-S! That's obvious, but then why shouldn't they ask for the job then?

Friends / Family / Church It is so important to talk to your friends, family, and church about your job search situation if for no other reason than they are your support system. The job search is too stressful to carry it on your shoulders alone.

What do you expect from a supervisor? Be careful when answering this job interview question. There’s a line to walk. They’re looking to see (1) do you understand the general supervisor/employee relationship, (2) will your style match with your potential new boss, and (3) will you take this opportunity to badmouth your previous boss? Don’t be too specific, don’t be negative, and never, ever badmouth your previous boss. You probably don’t know too much yet about your potential supervisor’s management style. If you get too specific, you might step on some toes.

Previous Co-Workers People you have worked with in the past are a big networking opportunity for you in your quest to find a new job. (1) They can pass on job leads to you. People in your career space will naturally hear about job openings and happenings in other companies. If it’s not something that interests them for whatever reason (wrong skill set, wrong location, happy where they are, etc.), they can tell you about it.

Important job search advice: Job hunters must avoid using five phrases when communicating with potential employers in job interviews, phone calls, and letters. Job seekers who use these phrases risk appearing lazy or ludicrous and, worst of all, reduce the likelihood they will get job offers. 1ST Phrase to Avoid = “NO PROBLEM” Job hunters who say “No problem” in job interviews sound like lazy bums. Saying “No problem” implies you (a) will do work you do not consider a “probl

Social / Civic Events Not all social or civic events are hotbeds of job search networking…I’ll give you that one. Networking events are better suited for that. However, I believe that any gathering where someone might ask you, “So what do you do for a living?” is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to say, “I am a ____ who’s in between jobs and looking for a new opportunity.”

Phone interviews are often the very first step of the interview and hiring process. You’re not likely to get a call to come in and interview without some kind of conversation on the phone first. How Important Phone Interviews Really Arer Your resume got you the phone call. Now this one 10-minute conversation is the deciding factor as to whether or not you’ll get the interview. That’s how important it is.

As a college student or recent graduate, it can be intimidating trying to find your first job. One would think, in today's market, entry-level job seekers stand no chance... and that couldn't be further from the truth. As entry-level job seekers, you will make mistakes and that's okay. You can only read so much valuable information on websites, books and from networking. Making mistakes is a good thing because you will learn from them. Entry-Level Job Seeking Mistakes To Avoid Here are 3 mistakes that you can easily avoid today to help keep you on the right track.

The very best thing about phone interviews is the fact that they can’t see you—which means, you can use as many “cheat sheets” as you want to. So what’s a cheat sheet? Cheat sheets are just what they sound like: Notes that help you do better on the test, which in this case is the phone interview. Phone interviews don’t have many advantages for you, but this is a big one. Make the most of it with these cheat sheet ideas: Your Resumer

Green and Jack's a London bespoke shirt maker makes a bold claim that their bespoke shirts can get job hunters success at job interviews failing which Green and Jack's will refund half of the money to them on all full price purchases during the month of February 2009.nnGreen and Jack's an Internet bespoke shirt maker is making an extraordinary claim that their bespoke shirts can get job hunters success at interviews or they will refund half of the money on full price bespoke

Recruiters Recruiters can be extremely valuable to your job search. Why? First, they very often have an “in” at some great companies that you don’t…if there’s an opening and the recruiter says, “Hey, this is someone you should look at,” that’s going to carry more weight than if you show up and say, “Here’s my resume.” Second, many companies prefer to hire only through recruiters…so for those particular jobs, the recruiter is the ONLY way to get to it.

Internships / Volunteering Internships are fantastic. There are more paid internships than ever before, but even unpaid internships can be extremely valuable to you—if you can snag one at a company within your career area.

Most of us would agree that the first impression is a last impression. Nobody would want to go wrong with their first impression especially during an interview. Many people are confused about interview dress etiquette. Always remember, it is best to be over dressed than to be under dressed for an interview. Right choice of clothes can boost one’s confidence and vice-versa. Here, are some tips that may help in dressing adequately for an interview. Do not confuse your intervie

Networking Events Do you have a love/hate relationship with networking events? You know how important networking is for your job search and career success. Networking events are specifically set up so you can network and meet new people. That’s a very good thing. Yet, the thought of “working the room” and walking up to total strangers to introduce yourself makes you feel a little sick, at worst, or insincerely schmoozy, at best.