A guide to staying completely calm and confident in interviews and presentations (Part 1)

A guide to staying completely calm and confident in interviews and presentations
 

Part 1: Why interviews can fill us full of dread

Why is it that perfectly competent, professional and capable people, can suddenly turn to jelly at the thought of going for an interview or giving a presentation? You might be quite amazed at just how common this can be – the sweaty palms, the crack of the voice, the inability to think straight and remember even the simplest of things, and then afterwards, how we beat ourselves up for the way we behaved. Sometimes it all seems so unfair after all the preparation and effort you put into getting as far as an interview.

So, what’s going on?

The most primitive part of our brain, the limbic system, is designed to keep us safe and is responsible for the fight or flight response which I am sure you are familiar with. It’s a really good thing if you are faced with a sabre-toothed tiger, that this part of your mind is instantly engaged and reacts automatically, producing a response which rapidly prepares the body to run like crazy or fight the beast, by increasing heart rate and rate of breathing, mobilising your legs and arms, sweating more to keep us cool, all the things we need for fight or flight - channelling your resources away from the thinking mind. After all, if we started to reason about the best course of action, we would probably be eaten pretty quickly!

So, as we go through life, our minds ‘learn’ which stimuli should produce this response, by laying down patterns which we (automatically) pattern-match against, before we are consciously aware of it.

So, this is what is going on when we start to feel our hearts beating faster, as we start to sweat and breathe more rapidly. Somehow, something about the interview or presentation has matched a pattern for fight or flight. Quite often it can be quite straight forward to change the meaning of this pattern in a one-to-one session, and the really good news is that there are things that you can do for yourself too.

In this short series of articles, I would like to share with you some of the techniques that you can use for yourself to enable you to remain calm and in control whenever you need to.

Cathy Simmons
Cognitive Hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner

www.cathysimmons.co.uk

http://TwitJobs.net - Search Jobs Today

Are you selling an end or mean?

I had the pleasure of meeting with a colleague last week to help him with the ‘branding’ of his finance consulting business.

As we walked through his documents, he was leading with some very technical skills, which is very similar to what you see in resumes.

I shared with him the best marketing advice that I had received “Your clients don’t buy your products; they buy what your products do for them”

After another 10 minutes, the document now had all of the items that he could deliver at the top of the page – using terms and language of the client, not a finance person. The second page was his experience/technical skills, revised to use lay person language to back up the first page’s claims.

Now helping my friend was easy for me, because I went through the same transformation of my pitch during my job search. I am sure that I bored several networking contacts to tears with my technical skills delivery. Thankfully for them, I got things sorted out.

Companies are interested in the ‘end’, not just the ‘means’ – so when you read your pitch, use that great advice I got “Companies don’t hire your skills, they hire what your skills do for them”.

Good luck today.


Mark Richards
www.candidateschair.com
Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking
Candidates Chair LinkedIn Group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=2328268

http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

Its just a few days to Christmas...Don't Panic - we can help.

Leading up to Christmas there are literally 100's of new jobs that appear for short term / part time positions in your local area, the problem is often finding these positions and starting ASAP.

The job sites that you may automatically go to every day might not cater for these types of roles, or they may not be offering the flexibility that is so important for so many job seekers at this time of year.

Maybe you are looking for work just leading to Christmas/New year and then not looking to work after that period, perhaps you are looking for additional hours in this busy time but don't have them available with your current job.

Lets face it, everyone needs a little extra cash at this time of year, so don't be afraid to start your search now.  We have partnered with some amazing job services to provide over 10 million worldwide jobs available right now.  Not just in the UK and USA but also in India, UAE, Japan, China, Australia, France, Germany and Brazil. 

You can start searching 100's of local opportunities for contract, part time, freelance and flexible jobs right now at TwitJobs.net

We wish you all the best in your search and hope you can find your perfect job using our fantastic service for more and more people all over the world.


http://TwitJobs.net - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

UK Job Centres - Are they working hard enough?

We've had a few discussions within our linkedin group thats covered this topic, and the thoughts from a range of employed, unemployed, recruitment consultants and HR managers seems to point at a big fat no being the answer.

Sure, when it comes to a certain type of jobseeker, and I say that meaning no disrespect to the people looking for those type of jobs, after all the country would'nt run without cleaners, drivers, shop workers etc - and for those people, i'm pretty sure the job centres in the UK do a great job.

A good range of local jobs part time and full time in your area with immediate starts, flexible hours are perfect for many people.  I'm sure you can feel a but coming...and there is a big but - the gap between unskilled and skilled workers - and the difference in support these people need. 

The problems that i've been told about with the job centers right now is that they seem to have the inability to help (to the right level) more skilled managers/former directors/managing directors etc.

What are your experiences? - and we'd be really interested for both good and bad, this is certainly not an effort to have a go at the job centres in the UK - more of an idea of their strengths and weaknesses.


http://TwitJobs.net - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

Where to find us - (Updated)

We have been getting a lot of questions about which are the best profiles to follow and in which locations do you have live so far, so just to clear all that up - here is the list as of 22/11/2009 (This is also available on our websites).

UK - http://TwitJobs.co.uk
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsUK
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsMedia
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsGrad
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsFinance
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsMarktng
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsCreativ
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsFashion
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsIT
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsUKTemp
http://Twitter.comTwitJobScotland
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsRetail
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsMedical
http://Twitter.comTwitJobs_Sales

USA - http://TwitJobs.net
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsUSA
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsUS
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsCA
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsNY
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsMA
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsTX
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsIL
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsNV
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsAZ
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsDC
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsFlorida

CANADA - http://TwitJobs.net
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsCanada
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsToronto

INDIA - http://TwitJobs.net
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsIndia

UAE - http://TwitJobs.net
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsUAE

AUSTRALIA - http://TwitJobs.net
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsAUS

CHINA - http://TwitJobs.net

http://Twitter.com/TwitJobsChina 
http://Twitter.comTwitJobsHK

JAPAN - http://TwitJobs.net

http://Twitter.com/TwitJobsJapan

GERMANY - http://TwitJobs.net

http://Twitter.com/TwitJobsGermany

BRAZIL - http://TwitJobs.net

http://Twitter.com/TwitJobsBrazil

 

http://TwitJobs.net - WorldWide Job Network 

http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

Hows social media helping recruitment?

The last few months we have certainly learnt a whole lot at TwitJobs, some of it interesting, some of it painful but all of it is necessary for us to continue to progress and grow as a business.  It's a fantastic growth surge with a lot of knowledge building all the time through our small team.

These learns have been vital and will continue to be vital to our businesses continued growth.  But the simple facts remain, every day people are talking about social media.  Facebook itself has grown into a global animal of a social network with 100's of millions of users on a daily basis - that's just one network that businesses just can't continue to ignore.

LinkedIn has been the professional choice for businesses to hook up and maintain contacts for the last few years.  It's an incredibly valuable tool for any business looking to meet new people or just maintain contacts you have connected with over the years.  Very valuable information indeed.

These two networks as examples both have incredible power alone.  This is what social media is all about.  Preferred choices of ways of communication, whilst utilising the platforms features and benefits.

It continues to amaze me how many experts in social media and particulately the recruitment agencies that claim to understand social media, completely fail at making it work for their business.  A blog, a twitter profile and a facebook page is not 'doing social media'.

Without naming names, (and I could list a dozen right now) companies that have blogs that dont get updated for months.  Twitter profiles with 10 followers, and just a rss feed plugged into it.  Facebook fan pages with 500 fans, that they never do anything for - so why are they fans?

But - having said all of that, for some people it's a confusing space to operate in.  Some of these businesses have been established for many years and the people running the businesses just don't think others are interested in their business, certainly in that way anyway.

Its a really important aspect for recruiters to start considering.  If they are recruiting lets say a "Head of Social Media", do you advertise the job in the same places you have been for the last 5 years? - Do you use a job board aggregater just to get a whole bunch of cv's to pass on (and hopefully impress) your client?

The businesses I have spoken to don't want 100's of CV's (or resumes) from agencies.  They want 4-5, hoping that they can perhaps see 3 of them and hire 1.

OK, so quality is the issue? - but how are you going about quantifying the quality? - theres a simple shift to other ways to find the better people.

Right now, there are many, many talented people who are early adopters in this social media space.  How can a recruitment consultancy (and lets say they specialise in social media) advertise positions in non-social media spaces?

TwitJobs continues to innovate and lead in this space today, and into the future.  Our worldwide beta launch is just the tip of the iceberg for a whole bunch of new innovation that we will continue to bring to talented people around the world.  How can we measure this?  Take a look at our site and see how social media should be done.

We appreciate everyones support and fantastic attitude to share our content.  Social media is not rocket science, it's what businesses have been doing for years - talking about themselves, their products and the services that they provide - its just another channel to do so.
  
Jason

TwitJobs WorldWide
TwitJobs UK 

Embracing the ‘dark’ side – A lesson in pitching one’s self

In 2007, BusinessWeek did a survey asking business people to rank their performance. The result: 90% believed they were in the 10% of performers. (Seems to makes the saying “there’s no room at the top” a load of hogwash.)

If you read 100 resumes, 100% are in the top 1%. The first rule of resume writing is present yourself in the best light. I did, you did, they did, etc.

In 2008, I met some investors from the San Francisco area, who got me to rethink my “top 1%” approach. In seeking advice on how to pitch better, they said “We don’t invest in people who have not been part of a failed company. They cannot recognize problems and fix them”.

My first reaction was “If you eat meat from a mad cow, won’t you get mad cow disease as well?”

Then I thought about some my career’s hard-earned experiences. Most were associated with a disaster of some sort. None were on my resume. Yet all made me a smarter and shaped how I approached business. But how does one go about pitching a disaster?

“Learned valuable lesson by being part of budget with significant cost overruns due to misidentifying client requirements”

Not much of a compelling bullet point. More like taking a bullet.

“Reexamined client requirements to bring project costs in line with budget, saving $10 million in development costs”

I find that during my interviews that if I discuss my key lessons and poke a bit of fun at my mistakes, virtually everyone does the same.

When it comes to making mistakes: I do, you do, they do, etc. – now we are in the 100%!

Good luck today!

Mark Richards
www.candidateschair.com
Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking

Candidates Chair LinkedIn Group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=2328268





http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

Power of a Marketing Plan

Don’t let the title mislead you, this is not a multi-page plan on how you will approach your search.

It’s one page. Whew.

It’s also the most powerful tool to in your networking; because it gives people the specific direction they need to help you. If you ask someone to help, the ‘AFTER’ statement below will give them the ability to ‘think’ of connections.

Before: “I’m looking for a senior-level finance position in a company that is seeking a leader”

After: “I am looking for a CFO role at a privately held service firm over $500 million in Atlanta. Firms like ABC Architecture, DEF Call Centers or GHI Industries.”

A marketing plan takes that statement and puts it on one page (along with a bit more on your background), which can be sent before a meeting, used during a meeting as a discussion tool and as a follow-up.

A marketing plan tells people the role you seek, a resume shows you have the experience to rock at it.

http://candidateschair.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/marketing-plan-outline-candidates-chair.pdf

Here is an example of a marketing plan – use it as starter for your own.

Good luck today.

Mark Richards

www.candidateschair.com
Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking
Candidates Chair LinkedIn Group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=2328268



http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

Taking Advantage of the Freedom in your Schedule

There’s a saying “The problem with unemployment is that when you wake up, you’re on the job.” – Actually that’s not completely true, though it does feel like it.

Outplacement firms and fellow candidates will recommend you spend 35 – 40 hours a week on search. After 40 hours, your productivity begins to slide.

In discussions with fellow candidates, we all agree as you tend to focus on issues with diminishing returns - but it is also a way to drag down your attitude which is even worse than wasting time.

Your weekly priorities should be to dedicate time to your search and then dedicate time to yourself.

Use the extra time to take some on-line courses/seminars to develop your skills, volunteer, etc. – it does not matter. Just think of all the stuff you never had time to do when you were working. If you can, sleep in on Wednesday.

The non-search activities allow you to make progress and accomplish tasks.

For ideas on your schedule, take a look at Candidateschair.com - under Candidates Tools you will find “Organizing Your Search Week”

Good Luck today,

Mark Richards
www.candidateschair.com
Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking
Candidates Chair LinkedIn Group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=2328268



http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

The Best Method to Learn - Teach It

To discover how to improve your search, I recommend accepting any opportunity to speak about or teach others about networking and job search.

In order to deliver a concise presentation, you need to distill your experience into a few key concepts. Your explanation of these concepts are pure gold to your fellow candidates.

But here is what you will discover during the process of distilling and explaining - a greater sense of clarity within your own search.

I have given 30+ presentations on different areas of job search. With each presentation, I was able to reshape my approach to networking and search - by taking away activities that were ineffective or inessential.

Some discoveries will be bigger than others, but all will save you time - which is one of your most precious commodities in search.

Even in a recession there are jobs available, its a matter of how effective you are finding them - trust me, if I can land one during a recession, anyone can.

So take this lesson - no, better yet, give a lesson.

Good luck today.

Mark Richards
www.candidateschair.com
Job Search from a Candidate's view - advice and tools

Fellow candidates - Please join my LinkedIn group "Candidates Chair" and teach others.


http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

Getting Creative in Raising Your Profile

In the past few months, I have connected or encountered with several job seekers who have taken advantage of different social media/web tools to raise their profile and promote their skills.

http://surkanstance.blogspot.com

Michael Surkan has used his blog to reach out to people to be interviewed for his podcasts. In the process, he made connections that may not have happened through a normal networking.

The Blog Zone - a LinkedIn Group

Mike Clough started this LinkedIn group in early 2009 and it has almost 1,900 members to discuss blogging. He sends out announcements, start discussions, etc. to both provide and receive advice.

Success Through Networking - a LinkedIn Group

Marleen Graham is an IT specialist, who began the group as way to make connections. Her group is very active and had led her to being interviewed by Career Success Radio from Australia.

LinkedIn Answers

Charles Caro has made a name for himself by asking and answering questions on LinkedIn. This is one of the simplest ways to raise your profile.

My point is that all of these items are things that you can highlight to people with whom you network or seek employment. Remember that your goal does not need to be better than every other candidate to set yourself apart. You do not have to be a marketing whiz to do any of these items.

The beauty of the low cost of these models is that you change directions quickly.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards
www.candidateschair.com
Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Tools and Advice for networking


http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

First the UK, now USA, Canada, India, China, UAE and MORE!

Its just what people have been asking for!

Since we started back in March of 2009 (a whole 7 months back) we have seen a lot of messages come back our way through twitter, facebook and the other profiles we manage for TwitJobs massive distribution channels through social media.

This has given us amazing insight into our offering, and have been lucky enough to experiment with different options and ways to generate the best results for people.  What other medium would give a company the ability to do that at no cost?  Not many! - It would cost £10,000's for research documents, interviews, questionaires and such like.  So thank you to everyone that has given their feedback and opinions.  Good and bad, we have taken them on board, and continue to do so.

Now with that information we have more jobs than we have ever had before, with searchable jobs in 8 different countries (UK, Canada, USA, China, UAE, Australia, India and Ireland).  This gives our audience just what they have been asking for - more jobs in their area, and in their specialised area.  Wherever you are in the world (almost) you can use twitjobs.net and search for your perfect job.

Also, to make sure our advertisers are'nt wasting their money, we make sure we check each CV that comes though, just to make sure the person applying fits all the suitable criteria for the role.  This makes sure the advertisers are getting great quality applications from TwitJobs and we then continue to get the best possible jobs featured on our site for the 10,000's of people searching and sharing our updates.

Exciting? Well its just further incredible growth for our business.  As we expand we make sure we iron out all the things you don't like, and add more great content that you love.  Our blog, our Facebook fan page and our Linkedin Group are great places to interact with us directly, or you can always get in touch the old 1.0 way of email - Jobs@TwitJobs.co.uk / Jobs@TwitJobs.net we write back to everyone, its always good to hear from people!  Of course, another way is you can leave a comment on this blog.

We'll keep working on making our site the best for jobs across the social web in the UK and around the World - we have a lot of work to do, but please drop us a line if you'd like to contribute to our blog, or have an idea on how your business could collaborate with ours - or just for any reason.  Enjoy the new jobs!

Jason
http://TwitJobs.net - WorldWide Network
http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

Answering the question - Before someone else does

There is one last test before you send a resume, e-mail, and other correspondence.

If you were the reader do you see any sentences that leave an open question or thought?

Obviously, there is always loads of detail behind any bullet point or sentence when cramming in your work history into two pages. So don't worry about that.

You are looking for any inconsistencies, unfinished thoughts, conflicting points or anything gives the reader a reason to pause.

The goal is to answer the question before they do. Because they will not likely answer the question the same way you would.

After someone told me what they read in my resume was the eye-opener for me. It helped me look at what I wrote in a new way. Simply put, there is more than just fitting as much experience in those two pages.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards
http://www.candidateschair.com/
Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective









http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

The Person That Holds the Job You Want

Actually, there may be several people who hold jobs you want.

My advice is to reach out to them.

Why?

The can offer you some insight on how they got their job, what skills they emphasized, and what skills are being used now. They can also offer industry contacts.

They can also offer you job leads. As the person in the chair today, they are likely to be among the first called for similar jobs (by people in their network, recruiters, etc.)

I used this technique in my search - I learned loads and good several good leads. Also, I found that there were jobs where I was not a fit.

So give this a whirl - reach out to those who hold your the job you seek!

Good luck today!

Mark Richards

www.candidateschair.com



http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

It was Curiosity, not Persistence that Killed the Cat

Some of my best networking meetings after I got no response. I mean two e-mails or calls with no response.

No matter how strong the connection between the person providing the referral and the person you are seeking to meet, don't expect an immediate response.

You're call or e-mail may have caught them on a travel day, in a budget meeting, etc.

Only rarely did I not get an e-mail back where the person apologized for not getting back to me.

My rule: 3 tries, no response, move on.

Putting it another way, what would you expect from your employees if they hit a roadblock - they would try it again.

Good luck today.

Mark Richards
www.candidateschair.com
Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective


http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life