This Valentine’s Day take a moment to open your heart to the love around you. Let that love propel you to action for a fuller life.
The Interview Doctors, Katherine and Dan
Blog [ Original ]
It is a Brand New “Resume” World Out There
You can often tell how old someone is by his or her perspective of resumes.
In the “olden days”, say 15 or 20 years ago, resumes – summaries describing an individual’s last few jobs and education – were typed or printed on special fancy paper purchased from the local stationary store. Laid off employees might attend an outplacement workshop to develop a final resume. At the end of the day, they received 50 copies of their new resume, printed on nice paper to begin their job search. Then off went the prospective candidate to hand out resumes and find a job.
Young people reading this are muttering to themselves, “Typed?” “Fancy paper?” “Stationary store?” What the heck does that mean?
It is a sign of the times that things have changed so much so quickly. Business has changed. The world has changed. Resumes have changed too.
You no longer need to find a secretary to type your resume professionally. You do not need special paper from a special stationary store (translation: stationary = paper) to use exclusively for business purposes.
I still have printed copies of old resumes in my file cabinet. Maybe you do too. If you do, then you probably are one of the parents who advise their children to seek out a professional to write their resume. Those parents believe that a fancy, printed resume these days is the ticket to a new job; they still believe that resumes are static and must be professionally prepared.
Do not get me wrong. Part of our service is writing resumes for people. We are glad to do it. However, technology has changed the world. As a result, resumes have a different role in today’s job search.
Resumes have a new role in the 3.0 generation. Resumes are one of many tools required by job searchers. However, they are not necessarily the centerpiece of today’s job search as they were in the past. Your job search is flexible; it is personalized to your interests. Therefore, to support that job search, your tools must be flexible as well. Today we must look at resumes as a part of the strategic toolbox you will assemble for your job search.
Don’t get stuck in an old fashioned job search. Use 3.0 generation job search tools.
Chinese New Year: A New Start
Friday January 31 is Chinese New Year! The year of the Horse. Rembrandt, Harrison Ford, Aretha Franklin, and President Theodore Roosevelt were born in the year of the Horse.
According to infoplease people wear red clothes decorated with poems on red paper. Families gather for feasts on New Year’s Eve to celebrate a new start. They drive away bad luck with fireworks and dragons.
No housecleaning or buying books during the new year celebration; it is considered bad luck. Pay off your debts; starting the new year in the red is a bad sign of things to come.
A new year represents a new start. On January 1 we make resolutions or promises to ourselves that we will behave differently or accomplish certain goals.
How are you doing on the goals or resolutions you set on January 1? As the Chinese New Year approaches we have another chance.
Didn’t make it to the gym yet or already gave up on that resolution to lose weight? Don’t worry. Start over on Chinese New Year!
This Chinese New Year represents an opportunity to correct your path and tackle those promises you made to yourself.
Celebrate with some candy and renewed energy to really tackle the changes you want to make in your life.
Gong Xi Fa Cai
(Happy New Year!)
Inane Interview Questions – why waste time?
Candidates complain about the experiences they have during their job searches.
It takes too long, some company representatives are rude, they get no feedback or acknowledgement, and the people they interview with don’t really understand the open position. But the biggest complaint I hear is that the interview questions are silly.
Many hiring managers honestly don’t know what to ask. On the company side, company representatives are frustrated that they think they are hiring one person and someone completely different shows up on the first day of work. Not a different person, just not the person they thought they hired. They simply don’t know what to do about that.
Everyone is frustrated.
At a recent meeting to a business group about better ways to organize a job search, someone asked about unusual questions. Then coincidentally another friend sent the ultimate list of silly interview questions – Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions. Good timing!
How would you respond to these doozies:
- “If you could sing one song on American Idol, what would it be?”
- “If you could throw a parade of any caliber through this office what type of parade would it be?”
- “Can you instruct someone how to make an origami “cootie catcher” with just words?”
Or my personal favorite:
- “You’re a new addition to the crayon box, what color would you be and why?”
Please tell me how these questions give insight into a candidate? How should you even respond to that question? I supposed these questions are one way to gauge a candidate’s ability to think on his or her feet. I guess that is critical if you are interviewing someone for a job as a standup comedian. But if you are looking for an accountant or an engineer, hard to see the application.
I don’t like unusual questions. I like questions that are related to what you want to learn about the candidate.
My advice to hiring managers is to think a bit harder about what knowledge, skills and abilities you need in the person you hire then formulate questions around those important factors.
My advice to candidates is to prepare for whatever smart or silly questions the hiring manager might throw at you. Find a list of Frequently Asked Questions on our website and check out the Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions. Write out your answers in advance and practice your responses until they come out smoothly. Most important, be clear what you want the hiring manager to know about you before you go into the interview.
Then when you become a hiring manager yourself, contact The Interview Doctor for a better way to organize your next opportunity to hire someone.
Recruit with a Solid Talent Search Marketing Plan
Does this sound familiar? Your boss meets you in the hall when you return from lunch.
“Can you talk to the guy in Conference Room B? I think this might be a good candidate for that opening in Marketing. Let me know what you think. Ok?”
Really? Now? You have twelve things on your TO DO list today and interviewing a candidate for marketing is not one of them.
But you go to Conference Room B, scanning the resume as you walk. You ask a few generic questions about his goals and experiences, then explore the resume a little. After a respectable 30 minutes you say goodbye and return to your desk. After a quick note to your boss, “He seems nice. Go for it.”, you return to your TO DO list.
This scene is repeated over and over in Corporate America. What did you learn about that candidate? How will that candidate fulfill the job tasks? Will he or she get along with the team? Is this the right person to make a difference for the team? Or is this candidate just a nice person you would like to have coffee with?
Most companies focus on filling a job quickly with the best talent they can find at the moment without considering whether the match will produce results. They might want to get results but the method of handling the interview process does not always produce the results they want.
A better approach is to recruit with a plan, a talent search marketing plan. Understand what you want, the job goals, and what questions you should ask to understand whether the candidate actually fits.
Don’t get stuck filling the job quickly with the best candidate available at the moment. Don’t pick up interviewers at the last minute without preparation. Don’t take short-cuts that end up costing you more in the end.
Be sure the next candidate you interview can answer yes to these questions to be sure you have the right candidate:
- Can the candidate do the job?
- Will the candidate love the job?
- Will the candidate work well with the team?