In order to prepare for an interview there are a number of issues to consider. Preparation is in fact the key to success; sadly it is not simply a case of turning up on the day and hoping that the interviewers will be dazzled by your personality and knowledge. In fact it is a case of understanding the process of the interview and turning it to your advantage.

Your first considerations when you prepare for an interview are the practicalities. There is positively nothing worse than turning up late for an interview, so your first task should be to check you know where the venue is, how to get there and how the journey takes. If you can you should check out parking facilities or if using public transport you should look at timetables. If possible you should do a “dry run” before the day itself just to make sure.

Your other practical consideration is to think about what to wear. You should do this prior to the day to make you actually have suitable clothing available. Etiquette for job interview demands that you should dress smartly and conservatively.

Your other main task when you prepare for an interview is research. This means to research both the job you are applying for and the company that you hope to work for. In relation to the job you may be sent information prior to the interview. If you are sent a job description then you should study this carefully and make sure that you fully understand all tasks that are a part of the position. Also think through your existing skills and experience a consider how you can demonstrate how these may be relevant to the job that you are applying for. In relation to the company, then you should visit their website, or any other sites that make reference to them. Whilst it is unlikely that you will be asked any direct questions to test your knowledge about the company, if you can drop in small pieces of information into your answers demonstrating that you have done some research then this will put you ahead of your competitors.

By: Mark Daymond

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For many any job interview is a traumatic experience. You are a contestant in a competition conducted on unfamiliar territory where the winner takes all. To succeed you must impress people you have never met. You must deal with brain paralyzing stress to present unrehearsed convincing responses to every question. Interviews can be unpredictable and you are in constant risk of making an embarrassing mistake.

In a world that values perfection, it is a common human survival trait to either completely dismiss a disastrous experience such as an interview from the mind, or to rationalize that there were circumstances beyond your control that lead to your failure. Some individuals are expert at forgetting everything within minutes of leaving the interview room.

There is merit in this strategy, because individuals must move forward, otherwise they risk becoming stuck in an endless loop of negative emotions arising from the contemplation of past interview failures.

Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister during World War II once said “Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.”

Do you know that some of the most successful entrepreneurs have experienced more failure than success? They have made an art of treating mistakes or even failure as an opportunity to recognize risk, and take evasive action to minimize, avoid or prevent them from having to go through a similar experience in the future.

Interview performance can only change when individuals choose to learn from their past experience.

Each interview experience is a gold mine for learning and self development.

This three-step strategy is simple – capture, analyze and strategize.

CAPTURE

Preferably within an hour of completing your interview, go to a place close by such as a cafe, where you can quickly and comfortably write down EVERYTHING you remember hearing, spoken, experienced and observed.

Do not worry about replicating the exact order of the interview. The primary aim without indulging in excessive self-judgment is to record as much as you can remember.

Listed below are suggestions for this recording task:

- Honestly describe the range of your feelings at any point, even in the days leading up to the interview, for example, how nervous or confident you were feeling
- List all questions asked including your own to the interviewer
- Add your responses include the structure, organisation, and the confidence of your delivery, as well as any stories used to illustrate you possess the desired skills, experience and knowledge
- Note down the reactions of the interviewer(s): interested, smiling, impatient, indifferent, rejecting, or that they looked bored.

The stress and overwhelm of an interview experience often prevents individuals from remembering ALL details in this initial session. There will be some parts that will stand out – and it is often the worst experiences or the best. You will remember more over the days that follow the interview. It is very important and productive to capture these observations as well.

ANALYZE

As soon as possible after you finish the initial information capture session of your review, rewrite and arrange all information to make it easy to analyze and/or add additional observations. It is important to connect context, what was happening or being said, with your reactions as well as those of the interviewer.

The following framework is recommended:

A. COMPANY: Opening, Introductions, Information about the Company along with a description of the role and responsibilities of the position given by the Interviewer along your reactions, impressions and feelings.

B. QUESTIONS: List each question asked by the interviewer at the top of its own page.
Write underneath detailed descriptions of
- Your response
- Your feelings
- What you noticed in the reactions of the interviewer, both verbal and nonverbal at any point
- Any discussions, include jokes, different points of view, and
- What recommendations could you make to improve your impact on the interviewers.

STRATEGIZE

Reviewing your interview experience allows you to develop your own recommendations for behaving and responding to similar situations at future interviews.

Create a check list about what you could do before to prepare better or would do if the same situation arose again. For example, an outcome of your review maybe identifying a need to

- improve your research of the hiring company to also include its clients and products
- rehearse a response on why you want the job
- make a great response to explain why you are the best candidate
- create a profile on your communication skills with examples from your past
- make a list of your weakness as well as your strengths
- list the best clothes to wear, or
- remind yourself to calculate total travelling time so that you arrive at least 15 minutes before the scheduled interview time.

Over time you will build a profile of companies and the interview experience you had with each of them. You will begin to know what to expect in the initial stages of an interview. Your prior experience and knowledge will give you a strategic advantage in interviews. It will help you formulate questions if the interviewer does not cover the topic areas that interest you the most, either at the beginning or at the close when an interviewer often asks if you have any questions.

This strategy allows you to build your own personal resource tool box based on your own background of interview questions asked, and your recommendations for how to organize and present your responses to favorably influence an interviewer.

Successful job applicants are individuals who

- Are willing to examine each interview experience, their mistakes and failures without excessive self-judgment

- Know their own areas of weakness and have developed countermeasure strategies

- Treat their mistakes or even failures as an opportunity to raise their awareness to identify potential risks, thereby being able to avoid or prevent a similar disastrous situation from happening in the future

- Initiate strategies such as an Interview Checklist to remind them of key resources they have available to improve future performance

- Demonstrate a willingness to unlearn ineffective behavior patterns such as monosyllabic (yes/no), or defensive responses, and

- Can always look past failure, and keep striving to succeed with their goal to efficiently engage the mind of interviewers on the benefits of hiring them.

By: Melody Braithwaite

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Friend of his? If not, check the clip and decide whether you would employ this guy if you ran a company. Any comments are welcome.

✿Sing along✿ asked:


I’m going for an interview tomorrow as a Hotel room service order taker/cashier. And they are going to give me a math/cash handling test. What can i expect, so i can practice because i am really bad at math.

When applying for a job, two documents are most commonly requested: a cover letter and the curriculum vitae. Other documents may be requested, but these two are always at the top of the list.

It is a common misconception by most job hunters that cover letters do not hold as much importance to employers’ eyes as the curriculum vitae does. The reason for this may be rooted to the fact that comprehensive technical, personal and educational background about an applicant can be found in the curriculum vitae. That could be the reason why people spend more time building up their curriculum vitae, or resume, and delegate only a piece of their time to writing a good cover letter.

However, that line of thinking has its flaws. The people at the human resource department actually look at a person’s cover letter when determining which applications would be short listed for an appointment and a job interview. When a person’s cover letter is deemed unsatisfactory, it is most likely sent to the paper shredder and your application is lost, your chances of employment at the said company gone to dust.

Hence, there is the need to come up with a spectacular cover letter to grace your resume. How can you make the cover letter that will bring you the job that you are looking for? Here are some tips.

The Cover Letter Should Be Effective at Attention-Grabbing

Cover letters should get the reviewer’s attention. That’s the number 1 rule when writing a cover letter. Do not be too generic and rely on sample application letters that you can find on the World Wide Web. You can use these samples as a template or a reference, but you should take the time to edit them or even revamp them to make them more relevant to the job position you are applying for, and to eliminate possible grammatical and spelling errors. This will enhance the image of professionalism that you are conveying to the potential employer.

The Cover Letter Should Be Specific about Your Interest in the Company

This means that when you are writing a cover letter, the letter should convey your intention: to apply for work. State the position that you are applying for, and a brief yet definitive background as to why the company should consider you for the job. Do not waste valuable space outlining how you qualify; a brief educational background or job experience will do. You should also display passable knowledge about the company background to show that you have been so interested that you have conducted research into the firm.

Follow Proper Structure

Here is the classic structure that people should follow when writing their cover letters:

• First paragraph contains your introduction. This is where you announce your intent to try and apply for a position in the firm.
• The second paragraph serves as a support for the first. Here, you put in your past qualifications for the position.
• The final paragraph should convey your interest for the position. This is where you explain and display your interest in the company.

By: Clara Ghomes

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