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Before You Go For The Interview…

PREPARING FOR THE INTERVIEW

By asking only a few questions an interviewer can get a good idea of whether or not you are suitable for the position. The information you receive from us about the company and the work will help you to understand the background of the position for which you are being considered. Even more important is knowing yourself and being able to present that information to the client, your past achievements and your present strengths. The interviewer wants to understand these areas so he can determine how you will fit into the organization.

Your manners, social sense, and ability to speak clearly and directly count. You should dress appropriately and neatly, and pay attention to grooming.

Above all, listen carefully to the interviewer’s questions and take your time in answering. Don’t feel you have to be talking constantly. From time to time ask questions ourself to clarify the meaning of a question or to show appropriate interest.

Here are some basic questions that might be asked of you. The interviewer wants to get a sense not only of what you CAN do, but also what you WILL do. In answering any questions, look for ways to giving a correct but positive impression of yourself.

1. What have you been doing for the last six months (or the last year)?

The client already has your resume. He wants to hear you talk about your activities, the technical aspects of your last position(s), whether you prefer to work alone or are a team player, how you handle pressure and deadlines, etc. and he wants to see how you handle yourself. Be prepared to spend a few minutes discussing your assignment(s) for the last year or two. Respond with specific details and examples; avoid abrupt “yes” or “no” answers.

2. Why did you leave (do you want to leave) your last position?

If you left for a reason other than completion of the project, state your reasons honestly and simply. Do not give a long, detailed answer on the “wrongs” you found at the job.

3. What are your strengths? Weaknesses?

The ability to talk about your strengths is an indication of self-confidence. As for your weaknesses, it is probably accurate to say that none have been called to your attention that would prevent you from doing a good job in the position under consideration.

4. Tell me about yourself.

Before you answer, you can ask, “Which part of my experience would you like me to start with?” Then give a two-minute response that shows you to be a positive, enthusiastic person who can be of value to their company.

BE POISED. BE INTERESTED. BE DECISIVE. BE MODEST.

• Try to connect both with your sight and your thoughts
• Be strong, but not rude
• Don’t be mushy, but be like-able. The interviewer needs to like you in order to hire you regardless of your skills

Strategies: It's a good time to start a business. Really

Strategies: It's a good time to start a business. Really

Yes, I am very much aware of what's going on in the economy and the stock market. Yes, I know credit is tight, customers are cautious, the equity in your home is plummeting, and your 401(k) is more like a 201(k). Doesn't seem promising for starting a business, does it? But it is.

History bears me out. When times are bad for the economy, it can be a great time to start a business. In fact, 16 of the 30 companies that make up the Dow industrial average were started during a recession or depression. These include Procter & Gamble, Disney, Alcoa, McDonald's, General Electric and Johnson & Johnson.

Let's take a look at the years 1973-1975. At the time, the United States had an unpopular president, was in the midst of the Watergate scandal and was at the tail end of an extremely costly war that had divided the country. Gas prices jumped by nearly 50% in two years. Consumer confidence dropped to an all-time low.

It was a terrible time to start a business, right? Well, here are just a few of the companies started in those awful years of the early 1970's: Supercuts, Chilis, Cablevision, Industrial Light & Magic, Famous Amos cookies, Oakley and, oh, yes, a small company called Microsoft.

Why? What makes it possible for new companies to thrive when times are so bad? Why can it be a good time to launch out on your own?

First, there's a lower "opportunity cost." In good times, if you already have a safe job or the company down the street is hiring, starting your own business means giving up the opportunity of a good job. There's a cost to that: a salary, health insurance, other benefits.

Of course, if you have a good job or are offered a good job, I'm not telling you to quit to start your business now. But what happens if you lose your job or you're just finishing school and no one's hiring? There's little opportunity cost in hanging up your own shingle rather than staying home and watching a rerun of "The Simpsons" or Oprah.

OK, but that might just mean creating some income for yourself until you find a job. What actually makes it a good time to start the next Intuit, Whole Foods, J.Crew, Costco, or Applebee's (all launched during recessions)?

Here's what happens in bad times — disruption. Disruption means things change. And things often change quickly and dramatically. When things change, there are opportunities. And entrepreneurs seize opportunities — that's what makes them entrepreneurs.

Some of the things that are changing:

•Weakened competitors. It's likely that many of your competitors are facing tough times, tightening their belts, perhaps retiring or selling out. Hey, even many of the biggest companies are closing up shop.

•Customers seek cheaper alternatives. When times are good, customers are likely to stick with the suppliers they're used to — even if they're a more expensive alternative. Now, however, customers are looking around for cheaper alternatives to get the products and services they need.

•Big corporations cut back. They slash their marketing and reduce their services, especially to "smaller" customers who might be great customers for you.

•Loyalties loosen. As competitors reduce services to customers, and as customers look around for cheaper alternatives, it means they're less likely to be loyal even to longtime suppliers.

That means opportunities for you. Specifically, what you can do:

•Be the inexpensive alternative. Target customers who use more expensive options now.

•Market aggressively. As loyalties loosen, your competitors' customers are more willing to jump ship.

•Innovate. Come up with new solutions, especially less expensive ones, for customers' problems; they'll be in a more receptive mood.

•Present yourself as an outsource source for big corporations. You'll be less expensive than the in-house staff they're laying off.

•Hedge your offerings by also having products and services that are counter-cyclical.

•Expand. See if you can acquire some of your weakened competitors.

In a world of good times, customers are happy, with the attitude that "if it ain't broke, why fix it?" But suddenly, things are broke — and they need fixing. You can be the fixer. Rhonda Abrams USATODAY

Types of Interviews

Screening Interview: Screening interviews are typically conducted over the phone or via video conferencing but can also be completed in person. During screening interviews, the employer wants to make sure you have the proper requirements for the job and that you have
good communication skills. These are often used to assist the employer in narrowing down the candidate pool.

Telephone Interview: The first step in the hiring process is usually a telephone interview. Typically, the telephone interview will be your first contact with a company.
Take note of the following guidelines prior to your interview:

• Work with your recruiter/hiring manager to set up a specific time for the call.
• Smile when you are speaking, it does make a difference.
• Be fully prepared and avoid environments that preclude having an effective interview.
• Avoid using portable or cellular phones for the interview.
• Since you cannot see nonverbal queues, you may ask “does that answer your question”
• after a response.
• Do NOT interrupt your interview to answer an incoming call.
• Have a cup of water, research notes, and your interview prep sheet in front of you.
• Only 85-90% of your energy comes through the phone versus in person. Be sure to
• display the necessary enthusiasm.

Personal Interview: Personal interviews are your opportunity to make a lasting and positive impression while differentiating yourself from others.
There are several types of personal interviews that you may encounter:

1. Case-based Interview - The case interview is often employed by management-consulting firms and investment banking companies, but it is increasingly being used by a wide range of other types of corporations as a portion of the job interviewing process.When the case interview is used, it is most likely to be a feature of the second or third round of interviewing, but a small verbal case can even be part of an initial screening interview. Through the use of the case study, businesses hope to discern how well candidates identify structure, and think through business problems. Therefore, how you go about dissecting the cases may be more important than the specific content of your answers. It is often helpful foryou to do a little “thinking out loud” because it allows the interviewer to experience yourthought processes.
2. Lunch or Dinner Interview - Interviews during a meal are used to assess your social skills and ability to be comfortable under pressure. Be sure to order food that does not consist of a large portion and is easy to eat. Never order alcoholic beverages even if others at the table do. See the career brief on Dining Etiquette.
3. One-on-One Interview - This is the most common type of interview used by managers. Be sure to maintain good eyecontact. Ask the interviewer about the most pressing issues facing the organization and try to have strategies and solutions to overcome them and/or show your interest in being part of the solution.
4. Peer Group Interview - Employers often like for you to meet with your potential co-workers. Peer Groups are often looking for individuals that have a personality that they feel will fit into their environment. Be polite and agreeable during these interviews; peers typically have a solid influence on the final decision.
5. Selection Committee - Selection committees have become more and more common during the interview process. It is important to have extra copies of yourresume with you in preparation for a group of three or more interviewers. Be sure to shake hands with each person in the room while introducing yourself before you sit down. Move your eyes around the room to each individual while answering questions to include all present.
   

Don’t Fire Your Recruiters Just When the Recovery is About to Begin

Hiring will start to recover in Q2, 2009, and now is the time to rebuild your recruiting team and massively upgrade your sourcing and hiring processes.

If you’re still considering cutbacks in your recruiting staff, think again. Recruiting top people is a repeatable sales process that’s fundamentally different than hiring average people. Instead of cutting back, replace the underperformers with people who can sell complex intangibles and services, those who can learn solution selling, and those who have demonstrated they can follow a realistic sales process including meeting quotas and being managed by the numbers.

Forget the Lone Rangers and those experienced recruiters who have not gotten significantly better over the past two years. Hiring top people is a business process, equivalent to selling your firm’s products and services. Now is the time to start implementing new training programs and changing your outdated pre-recession recruiting processes.

The amount of stimulus Obama, Bernanke, and Paulson/Geitner have already induced and are planning to induce into our economy system will jumpstart the recovery faster than can be imagined. So get ready to rumble. The best people are now sitting on the sidelines waiting for some reason to think about the future, rather than holding onto the past. (Take our annual recruiting challenges survey if you want some instant insight on what’s happening.)

Instead of minor changes and improvements, I’m going to suggest a wholesale rebuilding of your recruiting department is in order. This will give you a chance to hire the best people as soon as there is evidence the economy is changing direction. So starting with a fresh clean slate, here are three things you should be doing right now to get ready for the upcoming hiring recovery.

Set up a forward-looking workforce forecasting system. This is a quickie version of a workforce plan, but used more for predicting when hiring will come back in force, rather than a full forecast of all hiring needs. To prepare this, have your line managers forecast their hiring needs by quarter for the next 12 months for just your biggest needs. This could be all of your highest volume hires or those who are critically important to your business. Select job classes that drive your business and have some predictive power to reflect all of your job needs. Have your managers update this forecast every quarter or whenever they see a big change in upcoming requirements up or down. If you add some analytical rigor to these forecasts, rather than just rely on intuition, these changes will be meaningful and provide an early-warning signal that something big is about to happen. Most people don’t realize that forecasts are as much about improving communications throughout a company as for having reasonable numbers for planning purposes. Regardless, having a 90-day headstart on the competition will allow you to see and hire more of the best people, especially those now in the starting blocks just waiting for the gun to fire.

Create talent communities. These are talent hubs on steroids. A talent hub is a creative micro-site designed to be found by a group of people (e.g., developers, engineers, Gen Ys, retirees) who are on the margin — i.e., not actively looking, but open-minded. These people become prospects for your future opportunities, so you need to provide some incentive for them to give you basic bio data. These prospects then need to be nurtured along using some type of robust CRM (candidate/customer relationship management) system until something exciting pops up. Reporting is minimal since these people are not yet candidates for a specific job. The steroids bit has to do with the degree of automation, amount of regular contact in the form of emails and the variety of touch points, like video, RSS feeds, and chat features.

Build a team of great recruiters. The best people are more discriminating. Technology can help you separate the good from the bad (one example: search on award terms), but you need to be a good recruiter to convince the best that your job is worthy of serious consideration. Without good recruiters you’ll just be hiring the above average; that’s why a serious investment in upgrading and training your recruiting team is absolutely critical. In my mind a good recruiter applies applicant control at every step in the process, understands real job needs, and uses solution selling to position each job as a career opportunity, not a compensation move. (Here’s a quick recruiter test: if candidates frequently say they’re not interested in what you have to offer anytime in the hiring process from first call to final close, you don’t have applicant control. Recruiters who use applicant control switch roles and determine if they’re interested in the candidate at these points.) Applicant control is less important and easier to maintain when you’re dealing with an average or above-average candidate, but essential when dealing with a top performer. That’s why a well-trained recruiting team is critical if you want to consistently hire the best.

The first six months of the recovery will be a free for all. If you do nothing different, you’ll find a few good people and a few above-average people. But if you make wholesale changes in how you source and upgrade the quality of your recruiting team, you’ll dramatically increase the number of top people you hire who you previously would have lost. Even better, if you set up a predictive workforce forecasting system, you’ll know 60-90 days ahead of everyone else when the recovery in your industry is ready to begin. Start now and get the best people into your prospect database. Before you know it, you’ll be hiring great people every time. However, if you wait to read about the recovery, it will be too late. source: Lou Adler