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Monday, July 21, 2008

Interviewing Skills You Can Use to Tell the Truth Intelligently


Interviewing Skills You Can Use to Tell the Truth Intelligently

Among the most critical of interviewing skills is telling the truth intelligently. Cathy learned she needed to upgrade her interviewing skills when she blew the second interview for a job she really needed by telling the truth poorly. The interviewer frowned when she said her last boss was an abusive screamer. Telling the truth bluntly can be a disaster.

Jose started to work on his interviewing skills when he got caught telling a lie about the reason he left one of his previous jobs. He said he was laid off, but the truth was that he was fired. When the potential employer found out, Jose lost the job. Telling lies can also be disastrous. Lying may seem like a good solution, but it can change the nature of the conversation. The interviewer will almost certainly feel subtly different about you, and you'll be uncomfortable, fearing they'll find out.

Their work on interviewing skills paid off for both Jose and Cathy. They learned that job interviews are not therapy sessions for baring intimate secrets, nor a courtroom where you swear to tell the whole truth. They are opportunities to market themselves. As they worked on their interviewing skills, they learned to plan carefully what information they wanted to get across and what they wanted to withhold. After all, interviews last only a short time, and you want to be sure you leave the right impression and communicate the right message. They were prepared so they didn't leave their common sense outside the door of the interviewer's office.
Here are just a few of the pointers they learned in their interviewing skills training.

Interviewing Skills Pointer #1 Don't Criticize Or Blame
Cathy's boss might well be a contemptible miscreant, but she learned to never criticize him in an interview. Employers will think, "How long before she starts criticizing me?"

Interviewing Skills Pointer #2 Keep Sensitive Personal Details Private
Sometimes, sharing parts of your private life can be a liability. Jan is moving across the country to rekindle a romance with an old high school flame she saw at her reunion. She fears employers will think she's flighty. Our coaching to Jan was don't create problems where there are none. The employer doesn't have to know. She might simply say, "I used to live here, I like the city, and I decided to move back." It's all true. Employers will never guess the rest unless you tell. Don't.

Interviewing Skills Pointer #3 Put The Best Spin On The Facts
Ron quit his job and spent a relaxing summer at the beach, doing volunteer work, and planning his next move. He feared employers would think he wasn't a dedicated worker. We coached Ron to tell employers he had been working really hard, decided to take time off to plan his next career move, and had some great experiences with his volunteer work. Now, he's focused and ready for work. Again, no lies, and no need to mention the beach.

Interviewing Skills Pointer #4 Tell The Truth Powerfully
Sometimes, there's no good way out. You can't avoid the truth. Still, even the most negative blotch on your resume can be transformed into a "lesson you learned." There's always a spin consistent with the truth. Bob overcame a black mark worse than most of us will ever have on our records. He demonstrated that powerfully telling the truth can win employers over.

Bob couldn't hide his past--and couldn't even hope it wouldn't come up. We recommended beginning his interviews by telling the truth. "There's something I want to bring up. I was convicted of dealing drugs 5 years ago, and served 3 years in prison. During the entire ordeal, I worked to keep my family together, and succeeded. I used the sentence to study, pray, and focus myself on what's most important in life, and am clearer now about what really matters."

"I know the consequences of being out of integrity, and believe in being 100% honest in all transactions and communications. I have a question, Is there anything in this job that might demand an association with anything illegal? If so, we don't have a match. If not, you'll need to judge whether you're willing to hire me despite my past. I regret it, but can't change it."

Interviewing Skills Pointer #5 Rehearse, Rehearse, and Then Rehearse Some More
Many people spend untold hours drafting and redrafting their resumes to give just the right impression, but just wing it in job interviews. Don't make this mistake. Determine what you want employers to know about you and how you will present that information. Anticipate any sensitive issues you might have, and prepare exactly how you will respond. Be ready for salary discussions. There will be times that a question will catch you off guard in an interview. Just make sure you don't get burned by the same question twice.

Visit http://www.activ8careers.com for other free career articles.
David Hults author of the book "From Cornered To Corner Office" Overcoming the most unexpected obstacles that stand between you and your career dreams http://www.fromcorneredtocorneroffice.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Hults

Friday, July 18, 2008

5 Common Mistakes In Interviewing



How effective is interviewing in most companies? According to research by Michigan State University, the typical interviewing process used at most companies is, at best, only 14% effective in predicting successful hires. The remaining 86% keeps you extremely busy managing the revolving door of resumes, applications, hires, and fires.

In turn, your profits suffer from lapses in staff coverage that equate to lost opportunities, erosion of customer satisfaction, continual training expenses, and seriously wasted time for management.

5 Common Mistakes in Interviewing:

1. As we have mentioned before, most managers are not trained in hiring. Most of them don't know how to prepare for the interview. We recommend having a list of questions to make sure that you cover the essential components of the job.
2. Most managers and sales professionals are people-oriented and hence are more impressed by the "personality" of the candidate than the credentials and ability to perform the job. Some candidates do a great job of being persuasive.
3. Another problem in interviews is the desire of the manager to dominate the speaking and sell the job to the candidate.
4. Quite often the focus is more on how the manager feels about the candidate than what data he is collecting during the interview. Your gut feel is important, but it is not the only determinant of the desirability of the candidate.
5. Sometimes a manager does not have an accurate job description. The manager has not written a list of behaviors, attitudes, and motivators that are necessary and critical to the success in job performance.

Most managers have not created a list of desired behaviors especially the soft skills (see chapter on axiology) for each position such as attention to detail, teamwork, leadership, control, initiative etc.

Minesh Baxi is the co-author of "Stop Hiring Losers" and you can listen to one hour of free overview of the book at http://www.stophiringlosers.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Minesh_Baxi

5 Tips on Conducting a Job Interview


By interviewing potential employees, you have an opportunity to determine whether or not the job candidates who have applied are a good fit for your company. Because the interview process is so important, you will want to make sure that you handle it properly. Here are 5 tips on conducting a job interview.

Prepare for the Interviewing Session, When interviewing potential employees, you will want to make sure that you choose a private setting free of distractions. You will also want to prepare a list of questions to ask during the interview.

Ask Open Ended Interview Questions, Open ended questions are questions that require more than a yes/no answer. By asking open ended questions during the interview, you can get potential employees to spill their guts and tell you everything you need to know.

Ask the Right Interview Questions, When developing interview questions, you should determine exactly what sort of employee you are looking for. This will help you to create questions that are tailored to the needs of your organization.

Explain the Position, Potential employees need to know what they will be doing on the job. During the interview, make sure that you take the time to explain the position in detail. Talk about job duties, as well as the expectations and goals of the position.

Put Potential Employees to the Test, The best way to determine whether or not potential employees can do the job is by putting them to the test. When interviewing an employee, ask them to perform a task related specifically to the open position. This will let you know whether or not the job candidate can live up to your expectations.
Visit http://www.businessadmin101.com/ to find more information about how to interview potential employees. Also, visit businessadmin101.com to find more Tips for Business Managers.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=L._Sampson

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Job Interviewing Skills




Job Interviewing Skills

Job Interview Skills are essential to being effective in your job hunt. The interview is the first goal that you are after when applying to jobs. Thus when you land an interview you should be prepared and confident in your skill to fully sell yourself. There are many different approaches that you can take in developing these skills however, I am going to touch on just a few that I think are essential to the process.

Eye contact is one of the most important Interview Skills you can develop. It is crucial that you are able to maintain a constant eye contact during any interview process. By maintaining eye contact you are showing interest in what is being said to you. Also, you are able to gauge just how interested the person conducting the interview is interested in you. If they are making the attempt to maintain a constant eye contact with you that is a good indicator that they are interested in finding out if you are a good fit. If the interviewer is looking down or just seems to be going through the motions that is an indicator that you are going to have to get their attention and force them to maintain eye contact with you.

Posture is another skill that you should master for any interview setting. How you sit and conduct yourself is all part of the impression that you are wanting to give off to your potential employer. If you are slouching in your chair then you are not showing signs of actual interest. The best thing you can do to develop good posture is to practice in front of a mirror. Sit in a way that is comfortable yet allows you to look attentive and punctual.

Dressing for an interview is a skill in itself. The goal here is to make your dress to the job culture at the company you are going to be interviewing for. The easiest way to determine what you need to wear is to simply ask. If you are uncomfortable asking the hiring manager you have been in contact with then simply call the Human Resources department at the company. When you call just say simply that you are going to be interviewing for a job in the coming days and would like to know what the accepted dress is for the department that you are going to be interviewing for. They will have no problems telling you. If the culture is jeans and t-shirts, wear a polo top with some nice jeans and shoes. Do not wear a suit! However if the culture is "business casual" then you'll want to go with the polo top, slacks and dress shoes. Allow common sense to rule in this case. Your goal is to dress as you would if you actually were working in the job that you are interviewing for.

Conversation flow is something you want to keep a close watch on. You might want to make sure that you are not mumbling too much. Keep your answers short and to the point. Don't add a lot of "Padding" in your answers. Try and have an answer already prepared for the basic interview questions so you can answer such questions quickly and without much thought.

I have touched on 4 valuable Interview Skills that will serve you well in your job hunting endeavors! Good luck!
For more job tips and tricks you will want to go to my website at http://adventureonthewave.com/!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Derek_Todom

Interviewing Tips to Get That Job




Interviewing Tips to Get That Job

To obtain a job after graduating from college, or to get a transfer, you must do some footwork. In addition, you must also network with others to find a good position. Jobs are becoming scarce today as many large companies are downsizing and closing. Do take advantage of any interviewing opportunity as it is a great way to express yourself. Someone once asked, "How do I prepare for an interview?" One way to prepare for an interview is to do role playing. One person acts as the interviewer and the other the interviewee, while exchanging questions and answers about the position. The following are a few helpful tips on preparing for an interview:

1. Read books to strengthen your interviewing skills
2. Attend seminars to avoid making costly mistakes
3. Learn more about the interviewing process
4. Get information on the organization’s function, goals, objectives and structure.

Try to find an organizational chart to review the company’s structure, if you have access to it. The advantage of doing this is that it will make you feel comfortable when talking about the position, and the company. The more you know about the company and the people who run it, the more confident you will feel while interviewing.

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