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Posts Tagged ‘job interview’
How to Answer the Most Frequently Asked Job Interview Question
1/16/2012 3:13 PM By Vince FontEveryone’s always looking for new and innovative job interview techniques. But the fact is, job interviews haven’t really changed much; they have no need to. Therefore you’d think it wouldn’t be that tough to learn how to ace them, but still we all struggle sometimes. For example, one of the most frequently asked job interview questions—“Tell us about yourself”—is one that many people find the most difficult to answer.
Why? Because very few people are comfortable divulging personal details to strangers. If this sounds like you, then it’s very possible you’re going about answering that question in the entirely wrong way. Your potential bosses don’t want to know how you like to spend your Saturday nights. What they’re asking for is a fleshed out picture of the “professional you.”
Here are a few tips to help you answer the most common of all job interview questions.
• Come up with a list of talking points that speak to your work life and leave out personal details.
• Include statements and circumstances that exemplify your passion for what you do.
• Discuss what drove you to pursue your career, and what’s driven you to apply for the job you’re applying for.
• Work in a statement about your talents and abilities without sounding cocky, but don’t shy away from letting a potential employer know that you think you’re worth hiring.
It’s also important that you not go on too long with your answer. One of the most effective job interview techniques is to give them what they want without overstaying your welcome, but also without being monosyllabic or too short. Aim for an answer that takes you a full minute to deliver and you’ll nail it.
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.
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.
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.
Keep Political Views Away From Job Interviews
5/31/2011 3:04 PM By William Pirraglia
While it’s undeniably noteworthy that you’re heavily involved in your local political environment, you should downplay your preferences at all job interviews. As most CEOs (Donald Trump and a few others excluded) will tell you, leaders of companies, large and small, often must adopt a “fence-sitter” mindset to perform favorably.
Be honest with yourself. Regardless of the intensity of your political passions and involvement, your actions alone probably have little influence over local, state or national politics. Unless you are applying for a specific position directly with your treasured political party, your preferences and sympathies have little effect on your desirability for that given job. Since you probably do not know the political leanings of your interviewer or prospective employer, you could do much more harm than good by including your political preferences on resumes or brining them up in an interview.
People often forget that their political preferences are customarily immaterial to potential employers. Spending time discussing them, in most interviews, is valuable time wasted by both you and your interviewer. Your strong political focus, while an important component of your overall persona, has little influence on your professional skills in the opinion of most employers.
Focus tightly on the target of your interview: Generating a reasonable offer for the job you want. Would you concentrate on your gender, race, religion or ethnicity to display your skills and expertise? No. This same mindset applies to your political allegiance, regardless of your passion and commitment to its philosophy. Why introduce this additional risk, with the prospect of so little reward?
15 Most Commonly Asked Employer Interview Questions
5/30/2011 6:47 PM By Jeff OrloffWhether a company is looking to hire a full time employee or they are trying to find a freelancer, the people interested in the job are going to have to perform well in some sort of interview. Like any performance, prior knowledge gives you a distinct advantage. To gain the upper hand in the hiring process, it helps to know the employer’s interview questions before you meet so you know how to best answer. While getting the exact employer interview questions may be unlikely, there are some standards that are commonly used. For any interview, be prepared to hear many of the following:
- Why did you leave your last job?
- Why do you want to work here?
- How can you be an asset to this organization?
- What is your greatest strength?
- What is your greatest weakness?
- What is something in your last job that you found to be a challenge?How did you overcome this challenge?
- Have you ever had a problem with a supervisor?
- Have you ever had problems with co-workers?
- What motivates you to do your best?
- Give an example of a time you learned from a mistake.
- Describe your work ethic.What do you look for in a company?
- Describe a person that you would refuse to work with.
- If you were hiring someone for this job what type of person would that be?
Race, Ethnicity, Age—and Resumes
5/27/2011 2:33 PM By William PirragliaCandidates often question whether they should include information on their resumes concerning categories which they may fall under. While it is often difficult to mask your gender, most experienced recruiters, human resource professionals and wise hiring managers recommend against specifically indicating that you are a diversity job seeker.
Many of the minority hiring regulations and initiatives of the 1960s through 1980s have been misinterpreted over time. Consequently, some resume evaluators subconsciously acquire the erroneous idea that your candidacy is dependent on your diversity and little else.
Remember, resumes do not generate job offers. You must depend on your resume to initiate interview invitations. Your race, ethnicity and age will often be apparent during a personal interview, but this face-to-face meeting also offers the opportunity to validate your resume, which should focus on your skills, expertise, experience and professionalism. The interview allows you to turn a two-dimensional resume into a polished, three-dimensional person, who offers high value to a prospective employer.
Creating a resume with your goal—being invited for an interview—at the forefront, empowers you to focus on your skills, abilities, past successes, and proven reasons why an employer should become interested in speaking with you. You already know that your race, ethnicity, and age have little to do with your qualifications for a responsible position.
Avoid giving resume readers any incentive to disregard—or even accept—your resume for reasons not directly ascribed to your skill set or qualifications for the open position. Resumes accurately targeted to reader interest and interview generation seldom include any irrelevant information, particularly data highlighting your race, ethnicity, or age.
How to Prepare for a Freelance Job Interview
5/26/2011 12:46 PM By William PirragliaUnderstand a critical component of all interview tips: Your preparation for a freelance job interview is as important as the meeting itself. Use the Internet, your talent representative and other employer sources to perform research on the employer and prepare yourself for a winning interview.
Your wonderful interviewing skills will be enhanced by properly preparing. Here are some preparation suggestions to help you make a superb impression.
- Assemble details on the employer. Spend sufficient time to gather all possible details about the prospective employer. You’ll be able to exhibit some key points at the interview to display your company knowledge.
- Ask your recruiter for any employer information they have. If you learned of this job through a top freelance recruiter, they may have some additional information that is valuable.
- Prepare answers to common freelance job interview questions. Many Internet sites list common questions that countless interviewers ask. Prepare effective answers to as many typical queries as you can remember.
- Prepare thoughtful answers to specific questions about this opportunity. As you read about the job in question, try to anticipate some direct questions relating to the project. Construct valuable answers that address the assignment needs.
- Compile answers to questions that might pertain to your career resume and your specialty. Your resume may spark additional interviewer questions regarding your specialty and/or former assignments. Prepare answers that are thorough and cohesive to showcase your expertise.
- Create a one-page portfolio and testimonial summary. Compile a snapshot of your portfolio of satisfied clients and former employers. Should you have testimonials, for which you have permission to use, note some. You may use a web address or brief quotes that communicate the essence of the testimonial.
- Construct intelligent questions to ask your interviewer. If you are unsure of any job necessities, ask—and continue to ask—questions about what the employer needs. Technical requirements and employer expectations are particularly important to permit you to excel in this position.
How to Handle Inappropriate Interview Questions
5/25/2011 4:36 PM By William Pirraglia
In the US, the federal government has implemented many regulations targeted to eliminate hiring prejudices in all forms. Since these laws have been sanctioned for countless years, you might think that every business owner, interviewer, human resource employee and hiring manager is well aware of all manner of inappropriate interview questions. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
If you are a member of one of the primary protected categories, you may still face questions that relate to your gender, age, race, political affiliation or religion. While you cannot prevent these questions, you should have a workable game plan to manage your answers. Here are some suggested responses to too often asked, inappropriate—or illegal—questions.
Place of Origin
If you are obviously not originally from the US, you may hear questions that attempt to reveal information. “Where are you from?” “Is English your native language?” These and similar questions attempt to learn about your ethnic background.
While it can be disadvantageous to simply refuse to answer, you can massage them effectively. For example, you could deflect a native language question by responding, “I speak English perfectly and I also speak (yuo native language), which might be valuable to your company and this job.”
Questions about your native country or the home of your parents can ellicit a response that you were born or raised in the US, without answering the essence of the question. If you don’t wish to answer and don’t mind being upfront, you can respond directly that you prefer not to answer.
Marriage and Children
Women often face illegal interview questions about marriage and children. Sometimes, these questions are disguised in conversation, such as, “We’re a very family-oriented company. Do you have children, too?”
If the question is implicit, answer the real concern, will you fit the corporate culture? A suggestion: “My research suggests this is a wonderful company to work for, which is why I am so interested.”
Should questions regarding marriage and children be more direct, compose a thoughtful response that doesn’t answer. Try something like, “Could we refocus on my qualifications to become a valuable employee at your company?” This statement is respectable, empowering and avoids you from answering something you don’t have to.
Design a Winning Game Plan Before the Interview
5/18/2011 12:09 PM By William PirragliaAll superior football coaches spend hours preparing a solid game plan for their upcoming opponent. Regardless of experience and expertise level, creative professionals should prepare a game plan before a freelance job interview. In most situations, this is more than good advice—it is critical to a successful career.
Freelancers will find hundreds, if not thousands, of interview tips on the web. While these are valuable, most are targeted to general, full-time employment candidates. Creative freelancers need to develop some specialized interviewing skills because of their status as contractors.
Your game plan should reflect the focus of the freelance job interview and the type of job offered. For example, an employer seeking freelance talent to be a long-term contractor for a variety of needs, requires a different game plan than for a freelance job interview targeted to a specific project or solution.
Longer term associations typically require that candidates fit with the employer’s corporate culture. Singular project assignments usually focus on the pure talent and experience of the freelancer. Valuable interview tips for freelancers reflect the typical focus of employers hiring freelancers.
- Always be professional. While casual workplaces are now common, an interview demands that you look and act like the consummate professional. Be honest. Would you commit significant budget money to a freelancer wearing flip-flops and telling you about walking his orher dog at 3 a.m.? Probably not.
- Do your company research. Even though you may not be seeking full-time, long-term employment, your pre-interview employer research is equally important—possibly more critical. Employers viewing you as a problem-solver or independent business professional must be convinced that you understand their company and their issues. Research is the only way for you to understand the employer and the solutions they need.
- Focus on your specialty for the project. Hiring managers are always facing time challenges. Since you are interviewing with a prospective employer to solve a problem or complete a specific project, most of your other considerable talents are superfluous for your current interview. Spend this valuable time convincing the interviewer that you’re perfect for their needs.
- Concentrate on yourself. Regardless of your world-class technical skills, people still want to do business with people. Make a personal connection with the interviewer to lift you above your competition. After skills are objectively analyzed, hiring managers will typically select the candidate they like. This is natural, understandable and highly beneficial to you, if you can make a positive connection.
- Ask questions frequently. While always beneficial at interviews for full-time employment, freelancers have a much stronger obligation to use questions to enhance their image. Further, you must have full knowledge about the available project. Misunderstandings, however minor, can cause unhappy employers and prevent future candidate consideration.
