I strongly agree with her that “looking for a job” should not be a full-time job; instead, you should be picking up part-time volunteer work, taking classes or doing something else that will make you marketable and show you’ve been spending your time well.
Wow! I’ve run into people who admitted that the exciting project on their resume was a one week class project where they had minimal involvement, but nothing this bad.
I’d say that an interviewee should have a story prepared for each item on the resume that provides specifics about abilities and which supports the main thrust of their claim of being a good match for the job.
For instance, not just “I was captain of the riding team” but “While I was captain of the riding team I built it from 10 people to 50, and learned a lot about selling and managing.”
I’m officially ready to declare this person a hack.
Looking for a job absolutely must be a full time job. Granted, there is absolutely truth to the argument of quality over quantity, but that doesn’t mean you should spend half your time fucking around. That means you need to spend more time trying to locate those strong matches and more time investigating them, mining for contacts and boosting your cover letter/resume. Saying looking for a job should be a full time job isn’t the same thing as saying your should spend 40 hours a week clicking “Apply” on every listing in Monster, it means that you should be active and aggressive about looking for a job and that you are never “done” until you are hired, and even then you should keep looking a bit more.
Taking classes is fine up to a point, it’s only valuable if you’re absolutely certain that it’s going to be relevant and improve your chances of landing a job. If you’re learning how to sculpt pottery that’s a waste of your time, save it for the weekend. Ditto with volunteer work, if it’s in a relevant field and can help you network have at it, but if it’s just getting out out of the house and keeping you active it’s a waste of time a energy.
If you find a legitimately strong match you should spend a full day or more researching it and trying to get in the door. Drop everything, attack it, do not wait for tomorrow because they might be scheduling final interviews already. If you promised to volunteer somewhere or signed up for a class you’re costing yourself opportunities that are very scarce and high demand.
While it may not be smart to outline how hard you’ve worked at it in an interview, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. It’s not smart to talk about the time you spend at the gym and beach either, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t something you should be doing.
Alas I did not get the job. But I was smart enough to make sure my next interview was late in the day. That job I got. She told me I was the only candidate who wrote a thank you note.
I love this advice. I have an interview tomorrow, and after writing down a list of the skills needed for the job, I built stories out of each item on my resume. Hopefully it will go well. Thanks!
Over the years, I have averaged one job offer for about every 1.5 interviews.
So I think I have a bit of experience in giving the interviewer what they want. Now I am a manager and I do the interviews
Dress well
Be on time (hell be early)
No cell
Sit up and look interested.
Don’t look desperate. Confidant as in never let them see you sweat.
Smile
If there is more than one person, get names. Note them down on your notepad.
Ask what skills they are looking for for the position. (this is a great way to find out how you should close the interview, by telling them how you are a great fit for what they are looking for)
DO NOT BRING UP $$$$ let them do it, or hold off till a final interview.
When the interview is over, shake their hand(s) and address them by name.
Ask them when you should follow up with them.
A note is a wonderful idea ( I use email if I have it, but either way works)
Don’t forget to follow up!
I’ve hired more than a few people and I have to say that if I saw that cover letter both it and the associated resume would go directly in the “Definite No” pile.
Don’t write down their names. ASK FOR A BUSINESS CARD. it always contains the correct spelling of their name. You know what’s worse than no thank you note? A thank you note with the interviewer’s name misspelled.
The minute you get done with the interview, write a couple things about the interviewer on the back of the card. Whatever will jog your memory in a week or two, perhaps something in particular you discussed. The adrenalin of an interview can fuck up your short term memory and you can find yourself drawing a blank when it comes to note-writing time.
I recently took part in interviewing for the first time. This is my takeaway: Interviewers WANT to like you. They WANT you to be the person that fills their position and fixes the gap in their organization and makes everyone shut up about “when are we hiring that new person???” They already liked you better than almost everyone else – on paper. Be the person they want to see day in, day out. That’s who they will choose among a field of equally well-qualified candidates.
Along the same lines - be positive. Never, ever badmouth another organization, a past manager, or past coworkers. Never ever ever. Even if your criticism is objectively true and completely relevant. If forced to discuss something bad about a past job, discuss the badness vaguely in the passive voice (we experienced a budget shortfall) and move immediately to how you solved it, or, since the problem is rarely actually yours to solve, to what you learned (that was when I became adept at using free research tools).
I’ve interviewed many dozens of people for employment.
While the initial interview may take 15 minutes or so, there are three things I’m looking for.
[ul]
[li]When I ask you what you know about us - I expect you’ve a basic knowledge of what we do. It’s right there on our website. You did research that much, right?[/li]
[li]Do I think you will be a good fit with our corporate brand and culture? There isn’t too much you can do to prepare for this. It is natural to be nervous during an interview, but I look for some personality and qualities that will appeal to clients and co-workers.[/li]
[li]When I ask if you have any questions, have some questions. The best question an interviewee ever had for me got me talking about me - a great tactic. She asked me why I liked working for the company. I hired her.[/ul][/li]
I typically have a gut feel about someone by five minutes into an interview. You’re either shortlisted or not. There’s rarely anyone on the bubble.
I find a follow up note to be nice, but it probably won’t sway me.
I’m an English teacher and I sometimes work with people who have job interviews in English and want to practice. This is all the expertise I can really bring to the discussion, but what always strikes me is that people get caught up in why they want the job, rather than why the employer would want to hire them.
“I’m perfect for this job, because it is the next step in my career/it would provide me with experience in the x field/I want to work in the x industry”.
Sure, employers like to hire workers who are happy and interested in their jobs, but consider whether your wants and needs are really your employers problem.
Even when you are unemployed, you still have a client, and a job. That client is you, taking care of yourself is your job. Think of job searching as a job, set up goals for yourself and try to meet them. X number of online job searches conducted, y number of resumes sent out, z number of companies investigated for possible jobs. There is no way to guarantee results for the resumes you send/phone calls you make, etc., but you CAN control what you do.
And be good to yourself. You meet your goals during the day, enjoy your evenings. You may not have a job yet but you are working at it, so enjoy what you can. Money may be tight, but find ways to have fun. A week of steady plugging away at a job search could be rewarded with a weekend marathon playing your favorite video game. Reward yourself for working at finding a job, you’ll be more prone to hang in there and do what you need to do to find the job if you do.
Also, job applicants generally face a lot of rejection: a lot of the time, your resume gets deep-sixed, you get the interview, but not the job, etc. Remember that it’s not always something you did or did not do, or could have affected in any way. I once had a job interview with a very pregnant woman who clearly was past ready to have her baby and angry at the entire world because she was STILL PREGNANT dammit! I knew five minutes in I would not get the job, and it had nothing to do with me. That was a case where I knew what had bollixed me, but there are a lot of cases where you’ll never know because you’re not privy to the inner workings of the company that’s hiring. Know that, and if an interview does not work out, and you knew you did your best, move on to the next interview, don’t let your natural disappointment overshadow your subsequent job search.
I was watching salespeople role-play at work, and I saw something that has always stuck with me: the person making the call (in your case, you) pulled her chair closer to the desk.
I know this sounds nuts/silly/insignificant, but this was done here in Japan, the last place I thought I’d see it. The woman who did this did so seemingly unthinkingly, like she walked in, went to sit down, realized her chair was too far away from the desk, and just moved it–ever so slightly. I dunno, it just gave the impression that she was there on business, she had a serious mission, and she was going to cut down on the distance between herself and her interlocutors. To me, it would cut down on the intimidation factor, if there was one.
I’ve read the whole thread, and you’ve gotten much more solid advice than this, so please feel free to skip/point & laugh/snort if this seems ridiculous. But maybe it’ll cross your mind at some point. I’ve never seen it done, and the woman who did it was maybe mid-20’s, and a really fantastic salesperson.
