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| Helpful Tips | Interviewing Tips | Deadly Traps | Five Secrets | Q&A | Illegal Questions Helpful Tips For The Interview Career Placement has compiled this list of helpful tips to aide you in the interviewing process. These will guide you through the interview and give you an edge over other candidates. There are also some frequently asked interview questions that, if answered correctly, will put you in the running for the job, ahead of the other candidates. We have also provided sample answers to those tough questions for your interviewing purposes. Some Interviewing Tips In the present economy we are experiencing, the job market is tough - even for the skilled applicant. These days, you won't get the job solely based on your skills. When placed against others, the prize goes to the best prepared. Interviewers are making decisions in critical areas and are looking for someone who can do or exhibit the following characteristics: Can you do the job? Will you complement or disrupt the department? Are you willing to take the extra step? Are you manageable? Is the money right? The effect of those blunders is cumulative, and each reduces your chances of receiving a job offer. Watch out for these four deadly traps:
The Five Secrets of the Hire 1. Ability and Suitability: Today you have to prove ability and suitability. Itemize your technical/professional skills as they parallel the requirements of the job then recall an incident to illustrate each of those skills. When you have done this, and not before, you will be in a position to begin justifying your ability and suitability to an employer. You must show that you understand why the specific industry/business needs those skills, not just that you have the skills. 2. Willingness: Today, the issue isn't whether you are prepared to do demeaning tasks, such as retrieving coffee. It is whether you are the kind of person who is prepared to do whatever it takes to help the team survive and prosper. Can you take the rough with the smooth? Are you prepared to go that extra mile? You are? Great. Think of a time when you did, how it helped the company and rehearse the story until you can tell it in 90 seconds. 3. Manageability and Teamwork: Manageability is defined in different ways: the ability to work alone, the ability to work with others; the ability to take direction and criticism when it is carefully and considerately given; and, perhaps dearest to the manager's heart, the ability to take direction when it isn't carefully and considerately given, often because of a crisis. Also crucial is a willingness to work with others regardless of their sex, age, religion, physical appearance, abilities or disabilities, skin color, or national origin. Such "manageability" considerations make a job interview tricky. The rules here are simple: Don't bring up religious, political, or racial matters during the job interview. Even a casual reference to such topics can put a potential employer on the spot, since he or she could subject the company to a lawsuit if a racial or religious topic is perceived as having influenced a hiring decision. You are a team player, someone who gets along well with others and has no problem tolerating other opinions or beliefs. Demonstrate that with your every word and action. 4. Professional Behavior: The traits that are most desirable to employers are learned and developed as a result of our experiences in the workplace. Simple statements such as "Determination - yeah, that's me," don't leave any lasting impression on employers. Anecdotes that prove a point do, such as telling a story about how your determination proved beneficial to the company. 5. Everyone Hires for the Same Job: Regardless of job or profession, we are all, at some level, problem solvers. That's the first and most important part of the job description for anyone who has ever been hired for any job, at any level, in any organization, anywhere in the world. This fifth secret is absolutely key to job hunting and career success in any field. Think of your profession in terms of its problem-solving responsibilities. Identify and list for yourself the typical problems you tackle for employers on a daily basis. Come up with plenty of specific examples, then move on to the biggest and dirtiest problems you've been faced with. Again, recall specifically how you solved them. Question & Answer Project a series of personality traits that are universally sought by all successful companies. Building these key traits into your answers to the interviewer's questions will win you any job and set the stage for your career growth at the new company. Use these for a reference as you customize your answers to the tough questions in the following examples. Personal Profile: Drive: A desire to get things done. Goal-oriented. Motivation: Enthusiasm and a willingness to ask questions. A company realizes that a motivated person accepts added challenges and does that little bit extra on every job. Communication Skills: More than ever, the ability to talk and write effectively to people at all levels in a company is a key to success. Chemistry: The company representative is looking for someone who does not get rattled, wears a smile, and gets along with others - who is, in short, a team player. Energy: Someone who always gives that extra effort in the little things as well as important matters. Determination: Someone who does not back off when a problem or situation gets tough. Confidence: No braggadocio. Poised. Friendly, honest, and open to employees at all levels. Not intimidated by the upper management and executives, nor overly familiar. Professional Profile: Reliability: Following up on yourself, not relying on anyone else to ensure the job is well done, and keeping management up to date. Honesty/Integrity: Taking responsibility for your actions, both good and bad. Always making decisions in the best interests of the company, never on whim or personal preference. Pride: Pride in a job well done. Always taking the extra step to make sure the job is done to the best of your ability, paying attention to the details. Dedication: Whatever is takes in time and effort to see a project through to completion, on deadline. Analytical Skills: Weighing the pros and cons and the short- and long-term benefits of a solution against all its possible negatives. Listening Skills: Listening and understanding, as opposed to waiting your turn to speak. Achievement Profile: Money Saved: Every penny saved by your thought and efficiency is a penny earned for the company. Time Saved: Every moment saved by your thought and efficiency enables your company to save money and make more in the additional time available. Double bonus. Money Earned: Generating revenue is the goal of every company. Business Profile: Efficiency: Always keeping an eye open for wastage of time, effort, resources, and money. Economy: Most problems have two solutions: an expensive one, and one the company would prefer to implement. Procedures: Procedures exist to keep the company profitable. Don't work around them. That also means keeping your boss informed. Follow the chain of command. Profit: All the above traits are universally admired in the business world because they relate to profit. As the requirements of the job are unfolded for you at the interview, meet them point by point with your qualifications. If your experience is limited, stress the appropriate key profile traits (such as energy, determination, motivation), your relevant interests, and your desire to learn. If you are weak in just one particular area, keep your mouth shut - perhaps that dimension will not arise. If the area is probed, be prepared to handle and overcome the negative by stressing skills that compensate and/or demonstrate that you will experience a fast learning curve. If for any reason you get flustered or lost, keep a straight face and posture; gain time to marshal your thoughts by asking, "Could you help me with that?" or, "That's a good question; I want to be sure I understand. Could you please explain it again?" Use these examples and explanations to build answers that reflect your background and promote your skills and attributes. These are just a few of the questions interviewers may ask during an interview. Develop your own style and have your own customized answers ready when you go for the interview. "What did you like/dislike about your last job?" So, in answer, you like everything about your last job. Criticizing a prior employer is a warning flag that you could be a problem employee. No one intentionally hires trouble, and that is what is behind this question. Keep your answer short and positive. Focus on areas you know the company is looking for in an applicant. For example, the only thing your past employer could not offer might be something like "the ability to contribute more in different areas in the smaller environment you have here." You might continue with, "I really liked everything about the job. The reason I want to leave it is to find a position where I can make a greater contribution," if you work for a larger company. "What is your greatest strength?" "What are your outstanding qualities?" "Describe a difficult problem you've had to deal with." "Well, I always follow a five-step format with a difficult problem. One, I stand back and examine the problem. Two, I recognize the problem as the symptom of other, perhaps hidden, factors. Three, I make a list of possible solutions to the problem. Four, I weight both the consequences and cost of each solution, and determine the best solution. And five, I go to my boss, outline the problem, make my recommendation, and ask for my superior's advice and approval." Then give an example of a problem and your solution. Here is a thorough example: "When I joined my present company, I filled the shoes of a manager who had been fired. Turnover was very high. My job was to reduce turnover and increase performance. Sales of our new copier had slumped for the fourth quarter in a row, partly due to ineffective customer service. The new employer was very concerned, and he even gave me permission to clean house. The cause of the problem? The customer service team never had any training. All my people needed was some intensive training. My boss gave me permission to join the American Society for Training and Development, which cost $120. With what I learned there, I turned the department around. Sales continued to slump in my first quarter. Then they skyrocketed. Management was pleased with the sales and felt my job in customer service had played a real part in the turnaround; my boss was pleased because the solution was effective and cheap. I only had to replace two customer service people." "What would your references say?" It is a good idea to ask past employers to give you a letter of recommendation. That way, you know what is being said. It reduces the chances of the company representative checking up on you, and if you are asked this question you can pull out your letters and hand them over. If your references are checked by the company, it must by law have your written permission. That permission is usually included in the application form you sign. All that said, never offer references or written recommendations unless they are requested. "Describe a situation where your work or an idea was criticized." One of the wonderful things about a new job is that you can leave the past entirely behind, so it does not matter how you handled criticism in the past. What does matter is how the interviewer would like you handle criticism, if and when it becomes his or her unpleasant duty to dish it out; that's what the question is really about. So relate one of those it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time ideas, and finish with how you handled the criticism. You could say: "I listened carefully and resisted the temptation to interrupt or defend myself. Then I fed back what I heard to make sure the facts were straight. I asked for advice, we bounced some ideas around, then I came back later and represented the idea in a more viable format. My supervisor's input was invaluable. "What kind of decisions are most difficult for you?" "Why have you changed jobs so frequently?" You can say: "Now I want to settle down and make my diverse background pay off in my contributions to my new employer. I have a strong desire to contribute and am looking for an employer that will keep me challenged; I think this might be the company to do that. Am I right?" "What do you feel is a satisfactory attendance record?" If you are not in management, the answer is easy: "I have never really considered it. I work for a living, I enjoy my job, and I am rarely sick." Employers favor good attendance records. Absenteeism is costly to both the employer and the employee. Try to reflect this in your job performance and in your answer to this important question. Illegal Questions Basically, an illegal question is one that delves into your private life or personal background. Title VII is a federal law that forbids employers from discriminating against any person on the basis of sex, age, race, national origin, or religion. More recently, the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed to protect this important minority. Some questions are tricky because if the question is job pertinent, they may ask it. Following are examples of some questions and the reasons for asking: "How old are you?" is an illegal question, but they may ask whether you are over eighteen years old. "Are you married?" is an illegal question, but they may ask how you would like to be addressed (a common courtesy) and whether you have ever worked for the company before under a different name. "Does your religion allow you to work on Saturdays?" is an illegal question, but they may ask something like, "This job requires work on Saturdays. Is that a problem?" So you can see, if the question is pertinent to the job description and duties, the question may not be illegal. If asked an illegal question, instead of a defensive or angry reaction, try asking, innocently, "Could you explain the relevance of that issue to the position? I am trying to get a handle on it." That response, however, can seem confrontational; you should only use it if you are extremely uncomfortable, or are quite certain you can get away with it. Sometimes, the interviewer will drop the line of questioning. Illegal questions tend to arise not out of brazen insensitivity, but rather out of an interest in you. The employer is familiar with your skills and background, feels you can do the job, and wants to get to know you as a person. Outright discrimination these days is really quite rare. With illegal questions, your response must be positive - that's the only way you're going to get the job offer, and getting a job offer allows you to leverage other jobs. If you have any questions about this or any other interview questions, please feel free to call Career Placement, Inc. at (713) 621-8880 and speak to one of our representatives. We're here to help. Information from this handout was excerpted from Knock'em Dead by Martin Yate, published by Adams Media Corporation, 1996 edition.
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