The Interview Moment of Truth – Learning from my mistakes

After two job searches, I’ve been through loads of interviews. Here’s a few of the big mistakes I made, they may seem obvious, but often this is what we overlook.

One: Too much prep, Too little practice
It’s all in the delivery. I would figure out the key questions I expected to get and write out my answers. That is good. However, I never practiced saying the answers aloud – so when the time came, I just rambled or sounded mechanical. The solution: Practice saying your answers aloud 5 or 6 times. You will feel more confident, cut out the clutter in your answers and sound natural.

Two: Talking to an insider
There are loads of ways to learn about a company, but the best way is to meet a current employee. Spend a coffee with someone and you’ll be amazed at what you did not know. You get a good feel for the culture, common language used and issues facing the firm.

Three: Build the brand in advance
Sometimes it’s not the best skill, but the best brand. The more people that know your story inside a company, the better the chances you advance in the process. Work your network like crazy to either meet people inside the firm or have your network call on your behalf. Don’t try to sell yourself, just reach out to connect.

Four: Let the story build
I felt compelled to share my amazing story in its full glory… well, it seemed amazing to me. Think of your answers like a commercial – short, informative and compelling. If the person interviewing wants to learn more, then they will ask. If they don’t ask, then perhaps they heard enough or it’s not a key decision point for the position. Either way, just be patient and build your story.

Five: Being able to answer “Do You Have Any Questions for Me?”
This is an easy one to miss, because we focus so heavily on what to say about ourselves. It only took me once of answering this question with “Ummm, let’s see…” to know I needed a change. I prepared a written set of questions for every interview and brought copies to share. Many questions got answered during the interview, but there several that did not about the position, business model, peers, current staff, etc. I highly recommend, “201 Best Questions To Ask On Your Interview” by John Kador – a great resource.

As always, hope this helps!

Good luck today!

Mark Richards

www.candidateschair.com – Tools and Advice from a Candidate’s viewpoint to help get past job search roadblocks and keep your spirit strong. Please take a visit.




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5 Tips to Posting Jobs on Twitter...

If you're reading this and thinking about making a twitter account to post jobs, or already have a twitter account and want to get the most out of posting jobs here are 5 tips to posting jobs on twitter.

1) Measure.  Using services like http://bit.ly you can track the short urls that you post, this is just one way of measure the click throughs to your jobs and having a service such as google analytics you can track the 'journey' of your users.

2) Tag.  Using hashtags such as #jobs are useful for people to find the latest opportunities that are posted.  Make sure you use tags that are relevant for your job postings, and don't over tag.  Usually, 2 or 3 is enough.

3) Conversation.  Depending on how serious you want your twitter presence to become, conversation is vital in providing the best possible service.  Services such as best buy's 'twelp force', 'BT' and '02' have made their channels a great route for customers to give feedback and ask for help.  Replying and getting back to people is important to show how you take your business seriously.

4) Listen.  Monitor your updates and what people are saying about you.  Services such as SocialMention give you indepth analysis on all your social media landscape, but also hootsuite and splitweet are great for monitoring conversations.

5) Dedication.  With using all these tips, it takes time.  Think about how much time you can allocate to your social media recruitment campaign and use every available moment to repeat the 4 tips above.  Doing so will give you a greater return in the long run.

Have fun! - and get those jobs out there!


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The Art of Managing Downtime

A last minute call cancels a networking meeting. You have an extra hour on your hand. Now what?

When we are employed, there is generally a well-stocked backlog for any extra time. When unemployed, we can adopt a less urgent focus on time, as we seem to have all day.

A colleague of mine, Tom Kulikowski, once remarked “He stayed ruthlessly organized” during his search.

The ruthless organization was as much for eliminating unnecessary work as it was for keeping your weekly search time under 40 hours a week. It is easy to occupy 60+ hours a week, but after 40 hours, both your productivity and effectiveness drop off like a rock (trust me, I know).

These extra hours happen. In fact, they happen more than you like. So use them to your advantage. Time is your most precious resource in search.

Here were my most effective ways to use that extra hour. My primary tools were my calendar for the last month and upcoming two weeks and my Targeted Company list – which I always carried with me.

One: Upcoming meetings – Have you determined what you want from the meeting and how you can offer your contact something to make you memorable? Try this networking meeting checklist: http://candidateschair.com/?attachment_id=604

Two: Empty Spots in Your Calendar – Using my Targeted Company list, I would figure out who I needed to meet either within the company or to get me in the company – then started to get out invites to meet. Here is an example of a Targeted Company list if you don’t have one: http://candidateschair.com/?attachment_id=402

Three: Follow-up to past networking meetings – Follow-up is what takes networking meetings from interesting to relevant. Your follow-up on commitments and reminders of theirs is critical – especially demonstrating action on your part.

These three were generally enough to fill an hour. On that occasion you are caught up, then I recommend enjoying a large coffee and get ready for your next meeting.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards

Please feel free to visit my site - www.candidateschair.com – built on my own experiences from being in transition. It’s job search, from a candidate’s viewpoint.

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



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Five Ways to help a fellow Candidate

Here are five ways to help a colleague in job search – you can pick as many as you like. Anything you provide will be appreciated as insight from fellow candidates is often the most valuable.
1. Listen to their story - Do their documents match their story? Are they underselling themselves?

2. Listen to their pitch - Is it clear and crisp? Do you know what role they want? What are the 2-3 skills that make them unique? If not, help them rework their pitch.

3. State of networking - Are they effectively using all the tools available to locate opportunities or networking?

4. 2-3 Contacts - Start them off with 2-3 contacts to see how they perform. Call your contacts to see how it went. You can give them valuable feedback.

5. Follow-up - Drop them an e-mail or call every 45 days or so. A friendly call can go a long way (for both of you)!

Many people may not feel comfortable in asking for help – so reach out and offer!

Good luck today!
Mark Richards

www.candidateschair.com
Please feel free to visit my site for 24 tools and tips - from a candidate's perspective on job search





http://TwitJobs.net




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