Interview Doctor

Job Interviewing

Master your Job Search with this free training!

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job search training online freeWhen you are in a Job Search, it can be a very stressful time for anyone. Even for friends and family. You worry about what to say or not to say to the person who is looking for that dream job.

Knowing the statistics on how many people are applying for the jobs and how many get hired, can add to that stress.

For every 100 Resumes sent in for a job opening, they will generally lead to 5 job interviews and then only 1 person is hired for the job. One person out of 100.

Are you in the top 1%?
Will you stand out as the best choice from all the other applicants?  
Are you Ready to Master your Job Search?
We know you CAN and we are here to help.
On July 12th, Katherine Burik, a Career Coach and one of our Interview Doctor founders, is hosting a free session online to help people learn more about having a successful Job Search.
The session, 5 Tips to Kick off a Successful Job Search or Career Transition, will be held online via webinar at 7pm Eastern on Tuesday, July 12th.
This session is for new graduates or people who are in a current job search or who have been looking to make the switch to another job or career, this training class will help them improve their job search plans.
Feel free to share this free session right away with your friends or anyone you know looking for a new job.

We will be covering the 5 Most Important tips that can help prospective candidates see success when looking for a new job. Tips that when applied to a job search can make a big difference in the results and help them find their ideal job!

Let us help you be in that 1% and find a job faster… and the ideal job for you!

Sign up for the session today. It is at 7pm Eastern on Tuesday, July 12th and you can join us online from your home or office. No travel necessary!

Calm, Confident and Courageous – Memorial Day Thoughts

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memorial day“The bravest thing you can do when you are not brave is to profess courage and act accordingly.” – Cora Harris

Calm, Confident, and Courageous. When you say it, you feel it. You sit up straight and take a deep breath. Even if you are pretending.

Soldiers do it all the time. They have to. Who in their right minds would go into battle armed with a pointy stick that shoots bullets? They profess courage and act accordingly.

On this Memorial Weekend, take a few moments to thank a brave man or woman who served. We appreciate their courage.

 

Sell yourself in the interview with stories

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Most people find that selling yourself in an interview is not an easy thing to do.

Job Requirements Comparison ListChuck has been trying to get into XYZ Company for a while now. It is one of his target companies. He is doing the right networking things. He saw an advertisement for an Application Engineer, tracked down the person he suspected was the hiring manager. We will call him Tony. Chuck found an introduction to Tony from someone he knows, then connected with Tony on LinkedIn.

After a few exchanges of email, it seems Tony was not the hiring manager. But they got along well enough. Tony sent Chuck’s resume to HR. A Talent Acquisition person from HR contacted Chuck and said she liked his background and would Chuck be interested in this other position as a Product Manager.

So far so good. Except Chuck has never been a Product Manager. He is a skilled and experienced Engineer who has done a variety of product related jobs but not something called a Product Manager.

But it is Monday and the phone screen is on Wednesday. Chuck’s question: How to prepare for an interview for a job he never held before?

Has this ever happened to you?

If you can open your mind to the possibilities then there are plenty of ways that your past experience can be effectively employed in something a little bit different. In Chuck’s case, a product manager in a technical product is all about the voice of the customer in how products are designed and distributed. He can do that. The Talent Acquisition person at XYZ Company can see that too.

Let’s explore Chuck’s question a little. Here are the four steps I suggested to Chuck to prepare for this interview. It all starts with the stories that demonstrate that he can do this job.

  1. Take apart the job description. What are the most important elements of this job, the “critical success factors” or the ways the person in this job will be successful. You don’t have to be an expert to know this. Just apply your business / engineering / customer relationship experience to what you read in the job description. Think about it this way, if you were the boss, how would you know if the person holding this job was successful?

Stand back from the details and think critically about what you would think is most important.  Here are some important points I see:

  • Voice of the customer
  • Research to facilitate product development plans
  • Maximize overall product line performance by getting everyone to work together – lots of emphasis on cross functional get-along.
  • Market research to understand what customers want (VOC) and what is out there in the marketplace or not
  • Figuring out how to get those new products out to people who can sell them to customers – again with the cross functional relationship stuff
  1. Write those important factors down. Next to each factor, to make a list of the experiences you have had that demonstrate you can achieve this factor. These are your stories.
  1. Prepare the stories you want to use. Each story should have a beginning, middle, an end, and “what I learned”. Make sure you can tell each story in about a minute so you have to edit them down. The purpose of the story is to use the story to show what you can do. You are not bragging; you are just telling a story about a real situation that you handled.
  2. Prepare for the interview. What are the 3 points you want the interviewer to know about you? Figure out how you will get those points out in the discussion. Every story should support those points. All those stories and points should support the important factors.

If you don’t believe you can do the job, you won’t be able to convince anyone else. The trick to any interview and particularly Chuck’s situation is to know exactly what the interviewer wants and have a story or two or ten to bring home the point that you can do what they want.

To give you a head start, we are offering you The Interview Doctor’s Job Requirements Comparison List.

Get your copy of this simple comparison cheat sheet to prepare your own evidence that you can do the job.

 

Be Original – Avoid the FAQs

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The keys to the kingdom are only a few clicks away. We are talking gold. Not real gold but it might as well be.

I talk to many people who are terrified of interviews. Company people hate interviewing people. No one feels ready for it. Candidates hate interviewing too. They never know what to expect.

how to prepare for a job interviewSo if the folks conducting the interviews are scared and the candidates are scared, who has the advantage?

Candidates. Really.

Does that sound odd? Stay with me for a minute about this.

Company people interviewing candidates are stressed, have little time, and in most cases are not very well prepared. They fly out of their offices to get to the interview grabbing the resume off the printer and pulling out from their drawer a well-worn list of the typical interview questions. That is true.

I know it is true because that is what I used to do when I was in human resources. Despite my best efforts I had so much going on that I had little time to prepare.  I took the easy way out and asked questions off the FAQs.

Most interviewers ask questions off a list of “30 Frequently Asked Questions”. If you, the candidate, get your hands on the FAQs before the interview then chances are you can be more prepared for the interview than the interviewer!!

Here is what I suggest:

  1. Go to our website and on the right side margin is a box you can check to download the list of FAQs I used when I was in HR. I received this list of questions ages ago when I first learned how to interview. I know many people who still use this list during interviews to this day.
  2. Review and write out an answer to the questions. Edit your responses until you are able to express what you want to say in a way that makes you look good and feel confident. Remember we always tell the truth but you can tell the truth in a positive way.
  3. Then say each answer out loud until you feel comfortable and sound good. You might explore how attending a Toastmasters meeting might help you feel more confident when you speak. Toastmasters is a great forum for practicing your interview responses.

Interviews are a means of determining whether the candidate is the right fit for the company. Candidates should take every advantage. If being prepared enhances your chances of making a great impression, then get the keys to the kingdom. Know how to answer the FAQs.

8 Tips To Help You Improve Your Odds in a Telephone Interview

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There are steps you can take to make the telephone interviewing process, if not more pleasant, then at least more productive, allowing you to achieve a higher percentage of success.

Remember that this process is the same as a normal interview, except in hyper speed — and without the element of “in person” communication.

Here are some ideas to help you sharpen your telephone interview skills:

improve job interview skills

  1. Remember that the person on the other end of the phone may be just as uncomfortable as you are. Concentrate less on your feelings of inadequacy and more on how to make the other person feel at ease. Most people do not like the telephone interview process — remember that it works both ways.
  2. Smile over the phone. Believe it or not, smiling while you are talking will actually help you sound more “friendly” and open. Many telephone-marketing offices have a mirror on each desk so that their people can always keep this in mind!
  3. During the telephone interview, you are judged by the same criteria used in an in-person interview, i.e.: self-confidence. Self-confidence is judged differently by phone than in-person (where eye contact, for example, can be an excellent barometer). Instead, you’ll be judged by a much more subtle set of factors — the sound of your voice, your level of friendliness and enthusiasm, etc.
  4. It is critical that you speak succinctly about your past experiences and accomplishments. Many technical professionals launch into long, drawn-out answers to telephone interview questions. Because they do not have the sense of sight working for them, they are quite unable to tell if the person on the other line has gone to sleep!
  5. Many people find that the most uncomfortable scenario in a telephone interview is the occasional “dead air” of silence during the conversation. Do you have a list of questions prepared about the company and the opportunity that you can refer to when caught in one of those dead spots? Although both parties are responsible for good communication, typically you should fill dead air time.
  6. Although you are always judged on your ability to listen well, nowhere in the recruiting process do listening skills become more important than in the telephone interview. You’ll find that your nerves will sometimes make this very difficult. I suggest that you close off all thoughts about whatever is going on around you and concentrate on the words and voice of the interviewer.
  7. It should be remembered that since so much of your success in this situation is determined by your comfort in the surroundings you are in during the call, make certain that you get yourself situated properly. Perhaps it is by suggesting a time for the call that is after the kids have gone to bed. Or, if the caller takes you by surprise, ask for five minutes to get organized and get a phone number to call them back.
  8. Don’t ever talk about issues related to potential compensation, company benefits, problems at your current employer, etc., when in the throes of an initial phone interview. This is solid advice for any first-interview situation. It always amazes me when an experienced veteran launches into a diatribe about bad management at their company, or asks the infamous line “What’s the job pay?”

Do you have a question about interviewing for a job over the phone? Please share it with us on facebook.

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