Friday 3 July 2009

Interview well: Dress in a suitable and professional manner

Being able to Interview well is an invaluable skill. The initial opinion formed by the Interviewer can be crucial to your Interview success, that is why your Interview attire can be considered a highly important Interview technique.

You need to ensure that you are dressed in an appropriate manner and a way that conveys the message that you are a professional and successful individual. This is an important segment in your ability to Interview well.

When applying for the majority of roles (this won’t be appropriate for every job Interview) make sure you stick to the following Interview attire:

Wear solid, conservative colours.
Wear a neat, tailored suit or dress.
Go easy on jewellery.
Women - go light on makeup, perfume and hairspray.
Men - go light on cologne, and after-shave.
Overdress rather than under dress. Be neatly groomed
Wear a smile!

If you are in appropriate Interview attire, the Interviewer will pick up the message, that you are professional, you are interested in the position as you have dressed appropriately and that you take a general pride in your appearance and more than likely will do with your work.

If you fail to dress in an appropriate manner I’m sure you can guess that the conclusions drawn by the interviewer will probably be quite the opposite to what’s above. I hope this demonstrates how important wearing the correct Interview attire is and that in future when you use this check list your Interview will go well and your Interview success as whole will increase.

www.land-that-job.com

Interview well: Dress in a suitable and professional manner

Being able to Interview well is an invaluable skill. The initial opinion formed by the Interviewer can be crucial to your Interview success, that is why your Interview attire can be considered a highly important Interview technique.

You need to ensure that you are dressed in an appropriate manner and a way that conveys the message that you are a professional and successful individual. This is an important segment in your ability to Interview well.

When applying for the majority of roles (this won’t be appropriate for every job Interview) make sure you stick to the following Interview attire:

Wear solid, conservative colours.
Wear a neat, tailored suit or dress.
Go easy on jewellery.
Women - go light on makeup, perfume and hairspray.
Men - go light on cologne, and after-shave.
Overdress rather than under dress. Be neatly groomed
Wear a smile!

If you are in appropriate Interview attire, the Interviewer will pick up the message, that you are professional, you are interested in the position as you have dressed appropriately and that you take a general pride in your appearance and more than likely will do with your work.

If you fail to dress in an appropriate manner I’m sure you can guess that the conclusions drawn by the interviewer will probably be quite the opposite to what’s above. I hope this demonstrates how important wearing the correct Interview attire is and that in future when you use this check list your Interview will go well and your Interview success as whole will increase.

Interview well: Don't complain about your current or former employer

Being able to Interview well is an invaluable skill. This is rather an unusual technique as it’s a behaviour you need get out of the habit of doing as supposed to one you need to learn to start doing. Countless number of Job Interviewees do it (including myself at one point) and that is slating your current/ previous employers or boss. Just avoiding doing this simple thing will help you to Interview well and raise your Interview success.

Lets discuss why this simple Interview technique will raise your Interview success. Any respectable Interviewer will want to employ someone that is loyal, slating your prior boss or employer isn’t the actions of someone who is loyal.

The other reason you need to avoid this bad habit is because it can look like you are perhaps covering the real reason why you left your current position. I can recall on several occasions where I have interviewed candidates who have really torn strips off their prior employers, then when further research was carried out into the candidates background it turns out the candidate was fired or performing badly there. So its best to avoid slating prior/ current employers and bosses altogether.

If you are asked why you left or are looking to leave answer the question similarly to this:

“I am looking for a new challenge and to move in to position where I can progress within my career and improve upon my skills set. I don’t believe this is something I can achieve staying with my current employers.”

You will Interview well if you follow this basic Interview technique, the main reason being is it stops the Interviewer forming negative thoughts about you. The key to Interview success is to make the Interviewer positive about not only your skills and how you can aid the Interview but positive about you as an individual.


Learn the secrets to land th job you desire: www.land-that-job.com

Interview Well: Prepared answers for Interview Questions

Being able to Interview well is an invaluable skill. Your preparation for your interviews will be an integral part of your success. We are going to discuss, being prepared for the questions you expect the Interviewer to ask you in your Job Interview. This is an important Interview technique to learn as it will positively affect your Interview success in more than one way.

There are several advantages to being prepared for questions that you expect to be asked:

Your answers will be well structured.
Your answers will be delivered with confidence.
Your answer will portray you in a positive light.

Needless to say not being prepared for Interview questions can have the opposite effect, you can come across incoherent nervous and portray yourself in a negative way with your answers.

No we can’t be prepared for every question any Interviewer can ever fire at us but we can be prepared for the more common ones and figure out the best way to answer these questions and demonstrate our suitability for the role. For example:

Tell me about yourself

Answer by highlighting your finest traits which best match with the proposed job.

What are your strengths?

Outline your strengths that are relevant to the position you are applying for.

What are your weaknesses?

Use a weakness that can be turned into a positive such as “at times I get annoyed if other peoples work doesn’t meet up to the standards as this can reflect badly on me but I have now learnt to refocus my energies into making sure what I’m responsible for is to as high a standard as possible as it’s the only part I can influence.”

Using this Interview technique will allow you deliver your answers in a confident & concise manner, not only that but you will have also demonstrated your suitability for the role. This is one of the main behaviours to master that will help you Interview well and will vastly improve your Interview success. Think of other questions you may be asked in an Interview and how you can answer them in a way that will demonstrate how you can help the organisation reach their goals.

Mastering this Interview technique will get you far in to your journey to be able to Interview well and will have a positive outcome on your Interview success.

Learn the secrets to land the job you deisre: www.land-that-job.com

Thursday 2 July 2009

Interview well: Eye contact & body language

Being able to Interview well is an invaluable skill. If its something you don’t already do maintaining eye contact and portraying positive body language is a very good Interview technique to pick up and improve your Interview success on a high scale.

Things to avoid:

Not making eye contact with the Interviewer they are talking to you and visa versa.
Covering your mouth with your hand when speaking.
Tapping your foot against the table.
Crossing your arms.

Reasons

Not maintaining eye contact can make you come across shifty and give the impression of dishonesty.
Covering your mouth when you speak implies that you don’t mean what is being said and the interviewer could draw the conclusion your not being honest or that you are lying.
Tapping your foot against the table can give the impression of nervousness and you want to be portrayed as a confident individual.
Crossing your arms makes you appear defensive and interviewers may think you have something to hide.

Now we’ve covered what you shouldn’t do I will briefly go over what body language we should use to Send across the right messages and improve your Interview success:

Maintain eye contact approximately 80% of the time.
Hand placed in front of you on the table.
Sitting with back straight.
Feet should be still in front of you.

If you follow the tips above you will portray the right body language, once you eventually get this interview technique perfected it definitely will help you to interview well and should dramatically improve your Interview success and in the long run the amount of job offers you get.

Learn the secrets to land the job you desire: www.land-that-job.com

Interview Well: Have a prepared list of Questions

Being able to Interview well is an invaluable skill. One of the main parts of your Interview will be your opportunity to ask the interviewer some questions about the position, company, Industry etc. The importance of asking the Interviewer good questions is an Interview technique a lot of candidates forget altogether. Being able to do this well should vastly improve your Interview success.

Asking the Interviewer good or bad questions can have the following positive and negative affects on the interviewers opinion of you:

Positive:

They have done some research into our organisation and have some questions accordingly.
They have listened to what I’ve said and some questions regarding what I’ve said.
They have listened to what I’ve said and noticed there are some things I haven’t covered and they ant to go over it, they must be interested in the position.

Negative

They probably haven’t done any research as they don’t have questions about the company.
They probably haven’t listened as they are unable to ask any questions related to what I’ve told them.

The negatives don’t paint a very good picture of you as a candidate hence being able to ask the Interview effective questions is an important Interview technique and should help raise your Interview success levels.

The types of questions you should be asking the interviewer are:

Is there any scope for progression or training within this role (demonstrates you would be looking to commit to the organisation)
How do my skills and experience aid your company (this reconfirms in the interviewers mind what you will have already told them about your suitability for the role)
Try to ask at least one question based around the research you did on the organisation.
Try to ask at least one question based on what you were told and weren’t told throughout the interview.
Ask when they are looking to make a decision on the hire and when will be a good time for you to catch up with them (this confirms your interest in the role)

You get this Interview technique right and your on the right track to Interview well and vastly improve your Interview success.

Learn the secrest to land your ideal role: www.land-that-job.com

Interview Well: Speaking clearly and illustrating your points concisely

Being able to Interview well is an invaluable skill. Two things that will affect your Interview Success and Interviewers opinion of you, is your ability to speak clearly and illustrate your points concisely. Getting those Interview technique is crucial and I will elaborate as to why.

Speaking Clearly

The main worries for employers when a candidate can’t speak clearly during an Interview are:

They may not be confident in what they are saying and are therefore perhaps not being totally honest.
Other members of the team may struggle communicating with them, which could lower work efficiency and essentially productivity.
If they are dealing with customers, they may lose out on business as a result of poor communication and someone who can’t speak clearly isn’t a good representative for any organisation.

In order to Interview well you do need to be able to speak clearly, here are some tips to remember to make your voice sound as clear and pleasant as possible.

Speak slowly (even if sounds ridiculously slowly to you, I guarantee it won’t sound that slow to the person listening)
Imagine your performing on stage, project your voice like you would in that scenario, so you are not shouting but speaking in a way that ensures your voice is heard (obviously don’t go over the top with this)
Smile when speaking, smiling makes your voice sound far better in both a face to face scenario and over the phone.

Illustrating points concisely

The main worries for employers when a candidate can’t illustrate their points concisely are:

That they are not confident in what they are saying which means they may not be being honest.
They may cause internal confusions if they can’t communicate clearly with colleagues.
The may lose them business if they are dealing with customers and they communicate their points clearly.

Being able to communicate your points concisely is a crucial Interview technique to learn it will help you to Interview well and improve your general to your Interview success.

Getting these interview technique correct will dramatically improve your Interview success, these little things can be the difference between you interviewing well and the interview going not so well.

Learn the secrest to land your ideal role: www.land-that-job.com

Interview Success: Addressing your strengths & Weaknesses

Being able to Interview well is an invaluable skill. One of the questions that will always come out in an Interview in one form or another is “what are you’re strengths and weaknesses”. To ensure your Interview success you need to be able to answer this questions well and in a way that lets the employer know you have the experience skills and attitude they are looking for.

Before we can answer this question in an effective way we first need to know what the employer is looking for in terms of skills and experience. I believe the best way to approach this is to ask yourself the following questions:

What skills do I have that can help the employer reach their goals?
How are my life and work experiences going to be of use to this company?
What traits do I possess that the employer will see as a positive?

Now we know the answer to these questions you are well on your way to improving your Interview technique which will improve you Interview success.

Now lets start of with the positives, when you are asked what your strengths are it’s not enough to just list the skills, experience and traits you have that will be of use to the employer, you have to elaborate and explain how it can help the employer reach their goals, this one of the main keys to Interviewing well.

For example saying “I have a lot of contacts in the Industry” isn’t enough you need to further elaborate as to how having those contacts can help the employer, whether it’s a case of due to your contacts you know you can increase their sales or lower their production costs. You need to go into explicit detail how your strengths will be of advantage to the employer. That can be the difference between an average Interview and a super Interview.

Lets move on to weaknesses I suggest you name just one and if you are intelligent you can use it to highlight another one of your strengths. I suggest when discussing your weaknesses you say something along the line of “my main weakness is” then go on to name a positive trait such as precision. We then turn this into a slight negative by saying something like “I’m very hot on everything being precise, at times when other peoples part of the project isn’t up to the companies standards I get annoyed.” What you then do is continue by saying its something you’ve learnt to deal with and again highlight the strength which in this case would be precision.

So as an example a full answer to the questions what are your weakness could be “I’m very hot on everything being precise, my main weakness is at times when other peoples part of the project isn’t up to the companies standards I get annoyed. I’ve learnt to deal with this however and as supposed to getting annoyed I channel my energies in to the precision of my part of the project and making sure it’s as good as possible.”

Following these interview technique and you will dramatically improve your Interview success, this little tricks can be the difference between you interviewing well and the interview going not so well.

Learn the secrest to land your ideal role: www.land-that-job.com

Wednesday 1 July 2009

Interview Well: 8 Behaviours to Discover for Interview Success

Jobs can be won or lost at the Interview stage and due to the current financial situation the job market is highly competitive, so you will need to make every interview count. In order to give yourself the best opportunity of getting the positions you interview for, you need to be able to create the right impression to make the Interview a success.

In order to Interview well, you need to develop good interview technique and be prepared for whatever comes up in the interview. Here are eight key behaviours to develop that will improve your interview success.

Know what your strengths and weaknesses are and be prepared to address them in the interview.

Speak clearly to the interviewer/s and demonstrate your points concisely.

Have a prepared a list of questions you want to ask the interviewer.

Maintain eye contact.

Have answers prepared for the questions you expect to be asked by the interviewer.

Don't complain about your current or former employer.

Don't discuss salary; benefits holidays etc. unless the interviewer brings it up.

Ask what the next steps are in the process. Try to get a specific answer, i.e....When they will be in contact.

Dress in a suitable and professional manner.

Being able to Interview well is an invaluable skill. Failing to do these things can drastically affect your Interview success. I will be going into further detail as to why in future posts, so for further advice on how to Interview well check out my future articles.

Learn the secrest to land your ideal role: www.land-that-job.com