If your plan is to wait until the holidays are over to really jump start your job search, think again. The holidays are actually a great time to hunt for a new job. Here are some helpful tips, provided by About.com, for boosting your job search.
Be Available to Job Interview
When employers have an end-of-year hiring crunch, being the applicant who can interview on short notice can help your candidacy. When you have a really good opportunity be as flexible and as available as possible when it comes to scheduling interviews. Your availabily may help you be the candidate who gets the job offer. Don’t forget a thank you note and if time is short, an email thank you is fine.
Job Interview Guide
How to Dress for an Interview The first impression you make on a potential employer is the most important one. Here’s how to dress professionally for a job interview.
Interview Questions and Answers
Questions you’ll be asked when interviewing, how to prepare answers to interview questions, and sample answers.
Job Interview Types
The various types of interviews that employers conduct, including behavioral interviews, group interviews, phone and video interviews, second interviews, and even interviews held during a meal.
Want to learn how to set yourself apart from equally qualified job seekers and land job offers? A well-written thank you note, sent immediately after a job interview is key, says an IT staffing expert.
In this employer’s market for talent, job seekers need to pull out all the stops to impress hiring managers and distinguish themselves from the legions of other qualified candidates looking for jobs. That means sending thank you notes to hiring managers immediately after job interviews. It sounds like basic job search advice, but the practice of sending thank you notes is not as common as it should be, especially among younger workers, according to Tracy Cashman, partner and general manager of the information technology group at staffing firm Winter, Wyman & Company.
A prompt, sincere thank you note can make all the difference in your job search. When faced with two equally qualified candidates for a job, Cashman says she has seen her corporate clients pick the job seekers who sent thank you notes after job interviews over individuals who didn’t. She adds that she’s received calls from clients expressing surprise and delight upon getting a post-job interview thank you note from a candidate she sourced. (Her clients also let her know their disappointment when they don’t receive thank you notes from prospective employees.)
“Writing a good thank you note is never going to be a negative for a candidate,” says Cashman. “It’s one more way to sell yourself. It shows initiative and an interest in the position.”
Any article about what to wear to an interview might well begin with a qualifying statement covering the extremes in various states (New York and California, for example) and industries (technology, manufacturing), which are possible exceptions to the normal rules of fashion. But it might surprise you to learn that those extremes have, over the last couple of years, begun to move closer to the middle ground.
Nowadays, if you were to ask 100 people their opinion about what to wear to an interview, the majority would answer, “Dress on the conservative side.” With that in mind, here are some suggestions on how to avoid fashion blunders.
Anna Soo Wildermuth, an image consultant and past president of the Association of Image Consultants International, says, “Clothes should be a part of who you are and should not be noticed.” She cites 10 dressing faux pas to avoid when interview time comes around:
Wild Nail Polish: This tip is for women or men. Extremely long or uncut nails are a real turnoff, too. Your nails should be groomed and neat.
Jangly Jewelry: Don’t wear more than two rings per hand or one earring per ear. And no face jewelry or ankle bracelets allowed.
Open-Toed or Backless Shoes: And mules are a definite no-no. Out-of-date shoes should be thrown out or kept for other occasions.
Bare Legs: Wear stockings, even in humid summer weather. Stockings can be in neutral colors or a fashion color to match your shoes.
In preparing for a job interview, you’ve probably practiced a firm (but not too firm) handshake, rehearsed answers to tough questions about your background, and polished up your lucky interview shoes. But many job hunters overlook a crucial part of the interview process: the very end.
As you finish an interview, you have one last chance to sell the interviewer on your skills–and get the information you need in order to follow up. Experts offer these tips for successfully closing an interview:
Don’t leave empty-handed. To be sure you can follow up later, don’t leave the interview without getting the names, titles, and contact information of everyone you met. This includes people you may dismiss as unimportant. “You don’t know who has pull,” says Laura DeCarlo, president of Career Directors International, a global professional association of resume writers and career coaches.
Know the next steps. You should also ask what the next steps are in the process: Will the most-promising candidates be called back for another interview? Is the company about to make a hiring decision? How soon does the hiring manager expect to move to this next step?
How to answer when the interviewer says this at the beginning of the interview
This is the question that is most often asked at interviews. Often it will be the first question. The general nature of the question can be a trap. Have your answer prepared and do not ramble.
Here is a simple and effective way to prepare your response to “Tell me about Yourself.”
Prepare your response in three steps and then put the steps together.
1) Work out what the THREE most important qualities are for the job. Begin your answer by stating that you have these qualities. For example, if it is a sales job, the most important qualities they are looking for might be:
The ability to communicate well with people.
The ability to set goals and stay on track.
The ability to handle rejection.
So you would say: “I am an extravert who interacts well with people. I like to set myself goals and keep them and I’m very persistent.”
2) Say where you last worked (or say the job that was most relevant to the position that you are applying for now) and pick one or two things you achieved at that job. For example: “I worked as a sales rep for the Savoy Company and I was their top salesman for three years running. Last year I sold over 1 million dollars worth of widgets”
3) Say why you want to work for the particular company you are applying for. Show specific knowledge about the industry and the company that you are applying for. Show enthusiasm about the company. Example: “I want to work in pharmaceutical sales because it is an area where I can use my ability to create solid long term relationships with clients. I want to work for your company in particular because you concentrate on gastroenterological drugs which is an area that is growing at the rate of 20% a year. That gives you a solid base from which to introduce new products like Endophine. I’d like to be part of that.”
If you put 1, 2 and 3 together in our example, you get a reply to “Tell me about yourself” that goes like this:
“I am an extravert who interacts well with people. I like to set myself goals and keep them and I’m very persistent. I worked as a sales rep for the Savoy Company and I was their top salesman for three years running. Last year I sold over 1 million dollars worth of widgets. I want to work in pharmaceutical sales because it is an area where I can use my ability to create solid long term relationships with clients. I want to work for your company in particular because you concentrate on gastroenterological drugs which is an area that is growing at the rate of 20% a year. That gives you a solid base from which to introduce new products like Endophine. I’d like to be part of that.”
NOTES FOR “TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF”
The wrong way to put it is: “I want to work for your company because you have great benefits and pay good commissions” That shows interest in YOURSELF and not interest in the company.
Don’t make the reply to this too long. Two minutes tops. You want to interact with the interviewer as soon as possible and if you go over two minutes you are giving a speech, not interacting.
Don’t forget to make eye contact. You want to look the interviewer in the eye and connect so don’t look down when you give your answer.
THE BIG BONUS
Ask a question at the end of your reply. The key to winning at the interview is to get your interviewer talking. At the end of the reply in our example, instead of just pausing and waiting for the interviewer to ask something else, our interviewee could say: “How are the sales of Endophine going?” This would be a good way of getting the interviewer to start talking.
It now takes almost as long to get a job in the U.S. — seven and a half months — as it does to produce your next of kin. That’s the longest slog since the Labor Department began tracking job search duration in 1948. Looked at another way, there are currently an average of six people vying for every job that you are, each of them doing exactly the same things — combing job boards, networking, prepping for interviews — as you. Is there a way to speed up the job search and stand out from your competition?
Recruiters and other experts say that the only way is to put in the extra work to present yourself so that employers realize they absolutely need you, and that they need you right now.
Mary Berman managed to do it. After interviewing last fall for a job she really wanted in event management and marketing, the 56-year-old Berman decided to ditch the typical thank-you note and instead spent the whole night after the interview creating a detailed action plan for her first 30, 60, and 90 days in the job. She described to her future boss how she would learn the job, build rapport with employees and customers, contribute to the company’s bottom line, and fulfill every function outlined in the job description. And it didn’t hurt that she had already sent the person she first interviewed with, as well as the office receptionist, a chocolate-dipped apple to go with her thank-you note. Three days later, Berman heard back with an offer — just two months after she started her job search.
Here’s how to copy Berman’s success and stop wasting valuable time:
1. Forget Monster.com
In fact, forget CareerBuilder, HotJobs, and all the other mass job sites. While these boards seem like a good place to start, how many people do you know who actually found a job that way? Even hiring managers don’t want to sort through the hundreds and hundreds of resumes they get for each position they list on these sites, so they’re increasingly turning to industry-specific job portals, says Debra Yergen, author of Creating Job Security. So if you’re looking for a job in the food and beverage industry, you’d likely be better off searching CareersInFood.com or ProduceCareers.com. You can find these more focused job portals by simply Googling the name of your industry and the phrase “job boards;” industry associations also often have job boards on their Web sites.
Another tip for making your job searching more efficient is to sign up for alerts for specific positions at sites like SimplyHired and Indeed.com that aggregate job listings from a variety of good sources. “You set it and forget it; you never have to go to another major job board again,” says David Perry, managing partner of recruitment firm Perry Martel International and co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0.
2. Borrow from Headhunters’ Tricks
Headhunters use a variety of ploys to get information and find candidates, and you can learn from them. One trick that Perry uses to get intel about a company’s vulnerabilities and hiring needs is to target people who have recently left a given company by using a smart Google search. These folks are usually more willing to talk about the company than people who are still working there and don’t want to jeopardize their jobs. The search that Perry does is “[name of company] + resume + experience -apply”. The “-apply” at the end weeds out most of the employment ads, Perry says. You can also find former employees of a given company by searching for that company on LinkedIn; you’ll get a list of current and former employees there that are within two degrees of you.
Once you find people, call them. This might sound like the type of thing that will get you mostly angry hang-ups, but it works, says Perry. “You say, ‘I’m doing research on XYZ company and I’d like to ask you a few questions.’” Or be less cagey and simply tell them you’re applying for a job at XYZ and want to ask them a couple of quick questions. In this economy, many people are willing to help others if they can.
That was Jeff Kruzich’s experience. Now a district sales manager for an industrial supply distributor in Chicago, Kruzich, 44, used Google searches and LinkedIn to search for former employees of companies he was targeting, then called and told them he was trying to get a job there. “I asked about their experience at the company where I wanted to work, and if they could connect me with anyone else that might be able to tell me more. Most people were really good about it,” he says.
Sure, this advice might force you outside of your comfort zone. But if you want a leg up on the other five [or 55] people just like you who are applying for that job, you’re going to have to stretch.
3. Dump the Timeline on Your Resume
One crucial thing Steven Hirchak did to get a job quickly was change his resume. Hirchak, 42, lost his job at an online retailer in November and was having limited success in his job search. He knew from experience that hiring managers are most concerned with return on investment these days, so he made sure his resume was focused on what he would bring to the bottom line, as opposed to the standard chronological job history, which had a lot of redundant information. He sifted through his performance reviews from the four years he had spent at his previous job, pulling out every project he led that generated revenue for the company.
“I highlighted some big ones I thought would impress prospective employers and also wove those into my talking points during interviews,” Hirchak says. As soon as he changed the format, he started getting more calls back from companies. And in January, he landed a job at an online education provider in Utah.
4. Get Ready for Your Close-Up
More than anything else, an interview is an audition, so you had better rehearse. In fact Shira Furman, 23, now a paralegal working for the federal government, had been looking for a job for months and getting plenty of interviews — but no offers — when she did a mock interview with the help of career coach Christine Bolzan of Graduate Career Coaching. Bolzan says one reason it often takes so long to get a job even if you’re getting interviews is that many people don’t know how to hone and articulate their message in an interview setting. “They aren’t aware of problems like using filler words, distracting hand gestures, and poor posture,” she says.
Furman did a mock interview with Bolzan, who videotaped it, and was shocked that she came across like she was chatting with a friend, her posture too relaxed and her answers too vague. Furman began preparing for her next interview by writing out specific and detailed answers to every conceivable question she might be asked, and also changed things like her posture, intonation, and amount of eye contact. “I don’t think it was a coincidence that the first interview I had after the mock session, I was offered the job,” says Furman.
// You don’t need to hire a coach to do this, just a helpful friend or two and a Flip cam or digital camera. Have one of them ask you questions you’re likely to be asked during your interview and the other tape the whole exchange. Afterwards, all of you can watch the interview and critique it. Yes, it can be a somewhat humiliating experience, but consider the options: You can embarrass yourself in front of your closest confidantes, or in front of a hiring manager who has the power to hand you thousands of dollars every two weeks. It’s a fairly easy choice.
5. Push the Envelope
What these success stories have in common is that the job applicant went above and beyond the usual pavement pounding to land a new gig. For Bill McCausland, a former national sales manager at an auto finance company in Dearborn, Michigan, it was detective work that did the trick. McCausland, 39, had been nonstop networking since he lost his job last June, and although he was getting interviews, there were no offers. So in September, after landing an interview with a marketing communications company he liked, McCausland decided that he would show up prepared to discuss concrete ways to improve the firm’s customer experience.
To do this, McCausland went to competitors’ Web sites to find their customer lists. He called, gave his name, and said he was doing some independent research about their service provider (which, in fact, he was). He let them know his questions would take less than five minutes to answer, then asked why they had chosen that particular provider. He also canvassed current customers of his target firm to find out what was being done right. During his interview, McCausland discussed what he had learned and made recommendations for improvement. “I knew the company’s strengths and that of their competitors, and they were very interested in what was being said about them,” McCausland. “This was actionable information they could use. I think they thought if I approached the interview this way, imagine how I would approach the job.” Two days later, McCausland had an offer.
When employers have an end-of-year hiring crunch, being the applicant who can interview on short notice can help your candidacy. When you have a really good opportunity be as flexible and as available as possible when it comes to scheduling interviews. Your availabily may help you be the candidate who gets the job offer. Don’t forget a thank you note and if time is short, an email thank you is fine.
