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Posts Tagged ‘interview advice’
Tips For Marketing Yourself as a Prime Freelancer
2/2/2012 3:39 PM By Artisan
So you’ve been searching for employment and you’ve just discovered your dream job. Maybe it’s a marketing position, a freelance writing project or a chance to draw snow cones — it doesn’t matter; this job speaks to you. The problem is, the project also speaks to 250 other freelancers, some of whom may be more qualified than you are. How do you make your voice heard? Here’s some self employment advice that will give you the upper hand.
First, we need to go back in time a bit. Before you started searching for employment, did you update your portfolio and resume? Let’s face it, for freelancers in particular, hiring is all about history. Every freelancer claims to have the most talent, be the best person for the job and be passionate about the work. However, it’s not about what a freelancer can say, but rather what he can show a potential employer in respect to his abilities. A good portfolio is a must. The best piece of self employment advice is to make sure that your best work, particularly your most recent best work, always finds its way into your portfolio.
Another trick to making yourself more attractive to potential employers is to stretch your limits and learn to do different things within your chosen field or related fields. Just because you’ve never written a press release before doesn’t mean you should assume you can’t write press releases. Give it a try — you might be good at it and even enjoy it. Then, when the employer advertises that a need for somebody to write a bio for the CEO for an event, you can say you are able to do that and a press release for the event, too.
Another word here about history and reputation — just as you can build a good reputation, you can build a nasty one even more easily. Any good marketing person knows that good news travels fast, but bad news travels faster so the mistakes you make and the bridges you burn can, and will, come back to haunt you. If you habitually miss deadlines, turn in low-quality work or generally don’t act like a professional, your reputation will precede you and you will find yourself being passed over for jobs.
There is one last simple piece of self employment advice you need when searching for employment as a freelancer. Be confident. If you don’t believe you’re the best person for the job, you will never convince anyone else. Besides, when you look at the portfolio you’ve prepared, you’ll see that you’ve accomplished a lot as a freelancer and you have every reason to believe that the job you apply for is yours for the taking. All that’s left to do is go get it!
Roger C is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
How to Stand Out at Creative Staffing Firms
10/17/2011 1:14 PM By William Pirraglia
Millions of words have been written with advice to help you ace job interviews, but less has been explained about interviews or presentations to creative staffing firms. Remember employment agencies owe their first obligation to their clients to recommend the best talent that fits their companies’ needs.
Instead of restating 5 or 10 tips to deliver a fabulous job interview performance, here is just one: Treat your approach to creative staffing firms just as you would for an employer job interview.
For example, assume you seek lucrative production artist jobs and opportunities.
- Research creative staffing firms to find those that seem to offer the exciting assignments you like. Seeking freelance or fulltime web design jobs with a staffing firm that specializes in accounting and finance personnel may not be the best option.
- If you’re a newer freelancer, practice, practice, practice your approach and presentation to experienced recruiters. You should practice until you are totally comfortable with discussing your qualifications and convincing creative staffing recruiters that you are a reliable, skilled and dedicated professional.
- Create a career resume that sparks sincere interest in you, not just your qualifications. If you were seeking talent for creative jobs, what resumes would trigger your interest? Put yourself in a talent representative’s shoes—if you received dozens of resume each day, what information, layout and highlights would make certain candidates stand out?
- Always remember that your recruiter (interviewer) is on your side, but has deeper obligations to their client (employer). Present yourself as a “likeable” candidate. However experienced and clinical, recruiters and hiring managers prefer to work with people they like. Recruiters understand what their clients want and do their best to match the ideal candidate for them. However, you’ll always stand out if you are cooperative, talented—and likeable.
- Remain calm and professional. Creative staffing veterans understand that you may be a bit nervous when interviewing. If you develop the ability to remain calm and professional during the “getting to know you” process, you’ll stand out, as it will be assumed that you will project this attitude during your assignments.
- Display confidence, not cockiness. People, recruiters included, respect confidence and control. Few, if any, enjoy big egos. Being thoroughly prepared for a telephone or in-person interview with a staffing recruiter should give you the encouragement you need to make a strong impression.
Creative staffing firms (and their clients) want to deal with professionals. Even if you are a fairly new graduate or beginning a freelance career, display professionalism, commitment and dedication to your craft. Experienced creative staffing recruiters will respond with more confidence and belief in your abilities and talent.
No-Brainer Interview Tips You Might Actually Forget
9/27/2011 1:56 PM By Vince FontThere are some interview tips that are so obvious and intuitive, you wonder why it’s necessary to put them down in black and white. If you feel this way, you’re probably one of those conscientious types that makes an effort to actually get to your job interviews on time – you might even get there early enough to ensure you’re not out of breath on arrival. Good for you. But believe it or not, there are people out there for whom the following interview tips do need explicit saying.
- Practice answering job interview questions with a friend or peer. The fact is, you’re going to be asked a boatload of challenging questions in the course of your interview and the worst possible answer to any of them is “I don’t know.” You have to know. Everything. Or at least fake it. Practicing with someone who can hit you with the kinds of questions you’re likely to get asked is the best possible preparation.
- Don’t be late. And if you are late, you better have a darn good excuse for it. If circumstances arise at the last minute that are going to prevent you from getting to your job interview on time, pick up the phone and give your interviewer a call. Giving someone a heads up is always preferable to simply showing up 15 minutes late. Your chances of getting that job are severely limited if you can’t even be bothered to do that.
- Dress the part. You’d be shocked at how many horror stories have been told by interviewing managers who tell of people arriving in torn jeans and t-shirts to interviews where the daily dress code is business casual. If you don’t have anything nice to wear, buy something. It’s an investment that will pay for itself if you get the job you’re applying for.
- Maintain eye contact. You don’t have to frighten the person you’re interviewing with – in fact, one of the biggest interview tips is to not creep out the person that you’re trying to impress – but unless you make eye contact frequently and show them that you’re engaged, you’ll make a lousy impression.
- Be inquisitive. Ask questions, even if you have to make something up or if you already know the answer. This serves two purposes: it tells the interviewer that you’re genuinely interested in learning more, and it increases the level of your interviewer’s engagement with you. That can only bode well for your chances at landing a job.
Not everyone can ace an interview – but if you implement the aforementioned interview tips, you’ll greatly increase your chances of hitting a home run. They could be the difference between work and unemployment.
Getting Over the Fear of Job Contract Negotiation
9/13/2011 4:11 PM By Vince FontContract negotiation scares the heck out of people who haven’t had any experience in it. But there’s good news for the fearful. Just as you can easily pick up job interview techniques to help you increase your chances of landing a killer job, the same can be done for job contract negotiations. There are just a few steps you have to take in order to accomplish that.
Step One: Take away the power of the word. To many people, negotiation is a very intimidating idea. The reason for that is, people see negotiation as another word for “power play” or “fight” when in reality, most contract negotiations are pleasant experiences carried out in a highly civil manner. But if you enter into it with the thought that you’ll be seated under hot blazing lights while an executioner stands silently in the corner, you’re sunk from the outset. If you remove the negative connotations of the word and any erroneous associations you have with it, you’ll find one major hurdle removed from your path.
Step Two: Know your worth. This is one of those all-encompassing tips that carries over into almost every aspect of your professional career and can be used in everything from job interview techniques to contract negotiation. It’s important that you not only value your own input as a creative force in the company that you work for, but that you’re able to cite examples of how your work has benefited the company. Being able to recite your accomplishments without coming off as arrogant can be a real challenge. But doing so is certainly preferable to remaining silent out of a sense of modesty. Being modest isn’t what gets you raises or promotions – knowing how to toot your horn does.
Step Three: Don’t demonize the opposition. One of the biggest mistakes that anyone could make in contract negotiation is to demonize the other side and get it in their head that they’re headed into an adversarial circumstance. Keeping focus on the fact that the person on the other side of the negotiating table is 100 percent human, just like yourself, will help eliminate much of the stress involved.
Practice Makes Perfect: How to Beat Interview Stress
9/12/2011 2:29 PM By Vince Font
There are two types of people in this world: people who admit that job interviews scare them and others who lie about it. The fact is, everyone gets nervous before a job interview so take heart. Even people with the best interview skills in the world feel that stress. But there’s a big difference between feeling interview stress and letting it control the outcome of an interview. By far, the most important way of controlling this is through preparation.
Without a doubt, one of the reasons so many people feel overwhelming stress when going into a job interview is because they feel wholly unprepared and are anticipating things going poorly. This isn’t to say that butterflies in the tummy are a sign of ill preparation. As mentioned before, it’s only natural to be nervous. But that nervousness could be significantly decreased with thorough preparation. So how do you prepare for a job interview? You practice, that’s how. Over and over. Here are a few tips for how get started.
• Enlist a trusted friend, co-worker or mentor to help you prepare by running a series of mock interviews where your friend plays the interviewer. In order to better prepare for a real-life scenario and sharpen up your interview skills, have them draw up a list of difficult, thought-provoking questions that you’ll have to answer on the fly.
• Work on your handshake. This might sound silly to some, but a lot of prospective employers are put off by people who offer weak handshakes or, worse yet, sweaty palms.
• Practice your vocal delivery. True, this isn’t a talent competition and you’re not going to be asked to stand in the center of the room and perform. But pulling off a great job interview has a lot of similarities to performance, and one of the most important parts of that is to be heard loud and clear. If you mutter when you talk, work on it. If you’ve ever been accused of being mousy, now’s the time to shake that off.
• Do a dry run. One of the biggest interview stress factors is not knowing where you’re going and getting lost on the way. You can slice away a huge percentage of the stress factor by practicing the route to your interview location so that when the day comes, that’s one less thing to fret over.
Interview stress is one of the leading causes of doing poorly in a job interview. Preparation is key to being able to take the edge off of this nervous energy and giving yourself the mental peace necessary to knock it out of the park.
What to Include in Your Graphic Design Portfolio
8/31/2011 1:41 PM By Patrick Ogle
When interviewing for a freelance design job with a creative talent agency, it’s usually best to have both a physical and an online portfolio available. But what specifically needs to be in graphic design portfolios? What will entice freelance job agencies or other companies to hire you as their freelancer? Specific items you choose to include will highlight your designer qualifications, but nothing speaks louder than samples of your work. Here are some examples of what you may want to include, if it’s in your repertoire, to show your versatility:
- Magazine ads
- Logo and identity design
- Any other printed material like posters or collateral
- Screenshots or pdfs of web-based work with hyperlinks to the active work if possible
Whenever you complete a project for a client, ask to keep some samples of your work for your physical portfolio. If you have worked on billboards or even large posters for events, always remember to take photographs of those items and save the original file. Take several photographs from multiple angles, even some close ups, to ensure you end up with a high quality image. The more options you have to choose from when creating your portfolio, the better.
Often when creating work for the web, designers assume their work will always be there. That isn’t necessarily the case. A company where you did your best work could go out of business and the website may no longer be readily accessible or the page with your work could be taken down. Make sure you get screenshots of your work so your experience is documented for future use.
And remember, always ask your client or employer before taking samples. Some might consider your work proprietary, and at the very least it is the respectful thing to do.
How to Hire and Get Hired in Chicago
8/24/2011 4:37 PM By William PirragliaAs Chicago freelance work opportunities increase in the post-recession economy, entrepreneurs and small businesses often face challenges in finding the employees they want. Likewise, many newer freelancers are unsure of the best strategy to get the jobs they desire.
Technori.com writer Adam Robinson wrote an article “How to Hire in Chicago” that has suggestions for employers to find the best talent. Among the tips for entrepreneurs, the simplest tend to be most effective. For example, consider the following suggestions:
- Allocate what’s necessary to your freelancer search. Do not get distracted by other issues at the expense of spending quality time finding your best candidate. Invest around 30 to 50 percent of your time evaluating resumes, interviewing, and selecting your preferred candidates.
- Create a standardized hiring process. This strategy helps you avoid wasting time recreating the process for every candidate. It also allows you to establish consistent evaluation standards, leading to more effective hires.
- Start recruiting early. Hopefully, you can begin your search 60 days before you need a candidate to be on the job. This strategy should minimize wrong hiring decisions and the high cost that accompanies bad hires. Installing new employees on the job without painful gaps improves your operational efficiency.
Freelancers must do their part to find the best jobs and terms available. For example, assume you’re looking for a Chicago web designer position, quite popular in this market. With expanding job opportunities in Chicago, consider taking some or all of the following steps.
- Prepare a clear resume of your specific talents and achievements. This is a good recommendation for all candidates but is particularly important for creative freelancers. Save yourself and potential employer time by clearly stating your expertise. Little is gained by confusing employers, leading to missed opportunities or fruitless interviews.
- Use top freelance job agencies. These firms have the most up-to-date lucrative jobs, expertise and experience in matching creative talent with the right employers, and credibility with their client companies.
- Concentrate on discussing employer expectations at interviews. Many problems arise from simple misunderstandings about the specific results employers want. Successful freelancers must understand their employer’s desired outcome or result and how it will be measured.
- Stress your commitment to meeting goals and deadlines. Although important in full time hiring situations, this issue is critical in freelance and project assignments. By taking the initiative at interviews, freelancers can strongly impress employers with their professionalism and dedication.
The Chicago freelance work environment is experiencing a renaissance in new opportunities. Area employers and freelancers must work together to save time (which, of course, means money) by establishing effective hiring practices (employers) and maintaining clear and precise dialogue (freelancers) to forge the best matches.
The Distinct Advantages of Working With a Creative Talent Representative
8/8/2011 11:37 AM By William PirragliaThere are many excellent employment recruiters in the US, but high tech professionals are wise to deal with a creative recruiter. For example, a strong experienced financial recruiter may lack some expertise with matching talented professionals with creative jobs. Experienced creative talent recruiters, however, understand the nuances of your profession and market.
For example, creative recruiters seeking Chicago freelance talent know their area clients and understand their preferences. They further realize that, even in a large metropolis, the creative community is typically tight and many people know each other. Just as a successful sales recruiter knows the players and can be an outstanding performer for clients and candidates, experienced creative recruiters have a distinct advantage in making successful matches.
These top recruiters, like those at Artisan, offer another priceless advantage: Effective interviewing tips and resources. For example, a recruiter knowing graphic design firms in Indianapolis might know which employers prefer clean or flashy portfolios and which favor more understated resumes. Neither freelancers nor full time candidates would receive this important knowledge without experienced creative recruiter assistance.
Another common interview benefit is the recruiter’s knowledge of those employers favoring a “be yourself” policy and those preferring a more traditional interviewing climate. For example, if your typical work uniform is a plaid shirt, blue jeans and boat shoes, some employers are now comfortable with interviewing you as yourself. However, other clients may still prefer that candidates wear classic gray suits with white shirts or blouses.
Working with a creative recruiter that knows their market and clients can help you perform better during the always critical interview process. Communicating the superior level of your talent, while forever important, may be easier and less stressful by having the helpful inside information an outstanding recruiter can provide. Use this information to focus on discussing the exact employer or project needs without added stress or distractions.
Five Qualities to Look for when Hiring a Freelance Designer
8/1/2011 4:22 PM By Jeff Orloff
Whether you are looking to hire someone on a freelance salary or on a per-project basis, you want to make sure you have the right designer for the job. While there are many questions that you can ask during the hiring process – unless you already know what kind of answers you want to hear – you may be going into this stage somewhat blindly.
When interviewing freelancers, be on the lookout for the following five qualities to help ensure you get the best candidate for the job or project.
#1 Talent
The best way to weed out applicants that certainly won’t work out is to gauge their talent. This may seem obvious, but it can be easy to be swayed by someone’s charm or professional connections. Looking over their work, you need to ask yourself, Can this freelance designer get the job done the way I want? If the answer is no, send a polite regret notice and continue searching.
#2 Experience
The second thing to look for is experience. Not just general experience, but experience in the project for which you are hiring. Also, it is important that they have experience in the technologies you will be working with so there are no compatibility issues. It’s also worth mentioning that the number of years is not always indicative of ability, so when interviewing a candidate, ask questions pertaining to depth of experience.
#3 Engagement
Do you get the feeling that you are just another job for the freelancer? If so, then move on to the next name on your list because he or she might not put the effort in their work you deserve. Look for someone who cares about your project and takes a general interest in what you are trying to accomplish.
#4 Flexibility
Your freelance designer should do what it takes to work with you and your schedule, within reason. Make sure that the freelancers you hire are flexible when it comes to deadlines, as well, meaning they respect them but also don’t moan if an assignment is pushed back.
#5 Dependability
Lastly, you want to hire a freelance designer that you know is dependable. He or she should meet deadlines, deliver work as promised and respond to communications in a timely manner. If this last quality is uncertain, then you may be left with a product you are disappointed with and a bad taste in your mouth.
Preparing for Interview Questions as a Woman
6/2/2011 11:31 AM By William Pirraglia
For reasons deeply embedded in society, women often face additional challenges in the work place that their male counterparts do not have to deal with, beginning with the interview process. Hopefully, you will not encounter these; however, it is best to come prepared for these possibly difficult (or illegal) questions at job interviews.
Age Questions
While males are also concerned with inappropriate questions regarding their age, their primary fear is being considered too old. Women often face a two-headed monster: Being perceived as too old or too young.
For example, women returning to the workforce, particularly after a long period of serving as mother and homemaker, are often perceived to have outdated skills. While blatantly illegal questions (“How old are you?”) are rare, inquiries like “When did you graduate from high school or college?” are still often asked.
Marital and Family Questions
For every possible legal interview question, i.e., “Do you face any obligations that might prevent you from maintaining your assigned work schedules?” women often face the illegal “Are you married?” or “Do you plan on having a family in the future?”
While an employer’s concerns about excessive absences or losing a valued employee to child bearing are reasonable, these questions violate federal regulations that protect the privacy of job candidates. Similarly, disguised questions, i.e., “Who do you live with?” may attempt to identify sexual orientation or lifestyle choices.
Personal Questions
Women sometimes face questions regarding height, weight, medical issues or disabilities, all of which are illegal or, at least, inappropriate. The only acceptable questions relating to these issues are those that address minimum requirements to perform the job in question.
For example, if a retail or warehouse position requires that an employee must be capable of lifting items weighing “x” pounds, the interviewer may ask if you are physically capable of doing so. Since such a question directly relates to the performance of job duties, the query is probably a legal alternative to other personal—and illegal—questions.
Solutions
While preparing for a job interview, women should construct responses that are polite, non-threatening and re-focus the meeting on qualifications and job necessities. It is wise to prepare thoughtful responses that allow you to avoid answering illegal questions, regain equal footing over the meeting and offer a non-confrontational escape for the interviewer.
If you really want the job, you must avoid creating a defensive environment, as only bad chemistry will result. You should, however, subtly exhibit your knowledge of federal regulations and try to answer the real concerns of the employer - if you qualify for the job and will be a dependable, high-performing employee.
