Interviewing Suggestions

Interviews are an opportunity to meet your future employer and for your future employer to meet you, get a feel for one another and for each of you to judge the interest in the other. It is basically like a first date. What do you need to accomplish in the interview? You need to show what is not on your resume. You need to show interest in the company and sell yourself. So here are few steps to take to help increase your chances of impressing the interviewer and getting the job you want.

Helpful tips for landing your next job:

1. First off know who you are meeting. Do some research on both the firm and the people you are meeting. Explore the firm’s website and Google everyone. Use the information you discover to develop questions to ask your interviewers. This will show interest in the interviewer’s background and the firm itself. Also, by asking questions it gets the interviewer talking about themselves and hopefully opening up. Also if meeting more than one person do not be scared to ask the same question more than once if you run out of questions. So do your homework and have questions ready.

2. Avoid answering the salary question if at all possible. If asked on the first interview about your salary requirements just simply state something like, “I am hear today just to explore the opportunity and really have not thought about my salary requirements.” If the interviewer continues to push for an answer just explain you would expect market value without going into specifics. Leave the salary negotiations to me. This way you will not look greedy and only concerned about the old might dollar.

3. Dress for success. While a lot of firms are moving towards the casual dress code it is not appropriate for an interview. It is better to be over dressed than underdressed. You can always adopt the casual dress code after you have landed the job. If you are in doubt with what to wear call me and we can go over this.

4. You are always going to have questions such as naming a strength and weakness. Name one thing you would like to improve about yourself. With this type of question you need to answer it but turn it into a positive. Give a specific example on how you have over come a situation. Such as I am reserve, but this gives me the chance to listen and actually hear what the customer is really saying. To prepare for this type of question think about them in advance and have specific examples and prepared answers ready to go.

5. When meeting someone always extend your hand and give a firm handshake while looking the person in the eye. While interviewing always make eye contact. Also, be sure you are not mumbling during your interview. Speak clearly.

6. Avoid painting your current firm in a negative light, even if you hate the current firm. Employers want to hire happy people and not someone being pushed out the door of their current firm. However, most interviewers will think you want out of your current firm. Instead, explain that you are happy at your current firm and were not looking for a new job until I called you. Let them know that you like to keep your options open and thought the position I called about was worth exploring in more detail. Employers want to hire happy people and not someone who is always complaining.

7. Finally, be sure you do not have information on the internet about yourself that could be viewed negatively by a potential employer. In today’s internet age many people do not think about the information on the internet about themselves. Many employers are using internet search engines such as Google to see what they can learn about a candidate before the interview. Others are searching Myspace, Facebook, Friendster and other social networking sites to see what a candidate may have posted. I had a candidate that had a Friendster page and had some questionable pictures on his profile. Also, he mentioned in his profile that he did not take responsibility serious. After the Partners viewed this information they called and told me they were no longer interested in interviewing my candidate. So if you have a social networking profile delete it or set it on private, because you never know how a potential employer my view the information no matter how tame you might think the information is.