General Tips and Advice

8/6/2019 General Tips and Advice

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REPORT ON

INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES


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Introduction

General Tips and Advice

Before your interview find out everything you can about the company (read their annual reportwhich can be obtained by telephoning them). Re-read your application, thinking through your

own career and the questions they might ask you. You should try to anticipate the generalquestions which they will ask and also prepare some questions to ask them.

To do well at the interview you will need to convince the interviewer you are technically

qualified to do the job. You will also need to show that you are sufficiently motivated to get the

job done well and that you will fit in with the company's organisational structure and the team inwhich you will work.

You should dress smartly for the interview and should leave home earlier than you need to on theday of the interview - you may be delayed by traffic or for other reasons. Be courteous to all

employees of the company. At the interview itself you must be positive about yourself and yourabilities - but do not waffle.

Interview Questions You May Be Asked

Before attending an interview you should think about your responses to the following questions.

Your answers may depend on the job or company in question, so you should go through yourresponses just before each interview.

Why do you want this job?

Think carefully about this question. Stress the positive aspects which have attracted you to

applying for this position. Do not mention the negative aspects of your current job or the job inquestion.

What qualities do you think will be required for this job?

Their advertisement for the job may help you a little bit, but you should also think of the otherqualities that may be required. These may include leadership ability, supervisory skills,communication skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving, analytical skills, etc.

What can you contribute?

This is your chance to shine. Tell them about your achievements in your previous position(s)

which are relevant to the new position you are applying for.


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Why do you want to work for this company?

Emphasize the positive reasons why you want to join their company, but avoid aspects such as

more money or shorter hours. These would not endear you to a prospective employer.

What do you know about this company?

This is your chance to impress the interviewer with your knowledge of their company. Give them

a run down of their products/services, sales figures, news, company figures, customers, etc.

What interests you about our product (or service)?

Again, your research into the company should aid you in answering this question.

What can we (the new company) offer that your previous company cannot offer?

Tread carefully here! Again do not mention money. Stress opportunities for personal growth,new challenges, etc.

CV writing advice & tips

You will find lots of free resume / CV writing advice and tips on these pages so please bookmarkthis site now so that you can return to it in the future. On our other pages you will find tips and

advice on how you can successfully find a job and handle interviews, links to over 200,000 jobsand much more.

The word Curriculum Vitae literally translated means the story of your life. The wordsCurriculum Vitae are usually abbreviated to CV or C.V. and you will sometimes see it

incorrectly written in lower case as c.v. or cv. The possessive form of Curriculum Vitae / CVshould be written as Curriculum Vitae's or C.V.'s or CVs, but not as c.v.'s or cv's.

Your CV is a very important document; with it rest your hopes and dreams for the future - that

next step up the career ladder, a better position, more money, new challenges, etc. Your CVtherefore has to represent the best you have to offer if you do not want to miss out on that job

you saw which was 'perfect' for you.

These days employers often receive a lot of CVs for each advertised position - jobs advertised in

national papers can often attract hundreds of applicants. So your CV has to be just that little bitspecial to stand out if you want to obtain interviews. The good news (for you) is that most peopledo not know how to write a CV and only spend a short time preparing a CV. Writing

professional CVs is a skill, which these people have not learnt.

Of course your CV can continue to work in your favour even after it has obtained an interview

for you. It can help you at an interview by carefully focusing the interviewer's mind on yourgood points and on your achievements. Once you have left the interview it will continue to work


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in your favour as the interviewer will probably reread it before making a decision, either on whoshould be invited to the second interview stage or who the job should be offered to.

When it comes to salary negotiations a well written CV can help. If your CV conveys your full

worth you are likely to get a higher salary offer than you might have done with a poorer CV. So

do not skimp on the time you spend on writing a CV as it will probably be a false economy.

Interview thank you letters - what should you

write in your job interview thank you letter?

You should write your job interview thank you letters soon after you have had your interviews.

This will make you stand out from everyone else who has been interviewed, because very fewpeople (if any) will actually bother to write a letter to say thank you.

In this letter you should personally thank the interviewer for meeting you and if possible providesome additional information about yourself, perhaps positioning yourself as an expert that cansolve a particular problem that the company needs a solution to.

Sample interview thank you letter (solving an employer's problem)

In this sample interview thank you letter, we remind the interviewer that we faced a similarproblem to the one that they are currently facing and offer to provide a solution. This tells the

interviewer that you are someone that knows how to get the job done - which should move you

to the top of the pile for the second interview or even help you secure a job offer.


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24 Mansfield Drive,

Manchester,

M23 4DJ.

Tel: (0161) 234 1234

Mr Robert Brown, 10 January, 2011

Production Manager,

Express Foods Limited,

125 Waters Lane,

Crewe,

Cheshire, CW3 4FF.

Dear Mr Brown,

Re. Interview on 7 January, 2011

Thank you for interviewing me last week. I enjoyed meeting you and your team and

discussing the possibility of joining your company.

I have been thinking about the problem that you are currently having with your new

system. As I said to you during the interview we had a similar problem at Dairy FoodsLimited. I have spoken to my colleague Tim Bruce about this and will call you next weekwhen he has come back to me with the solution we implemented.

Yours sincerely,

x.y.z


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Group Interview Tests

Group tests are used by an employer to see how you react in a group. They will want to see if

you help or hinder the group reach its objectives. An observer will be watching to see how you

take criticism, whether you take on leadership roles and involve less communicative groupmembers. If you chair the meeting the observer will be checking on how you plan and keepcontrol of the meeting. If you are leading a group activity the observer will be interested in

seeing how good you are at delegating tasks and how much of the work you keep for yourself.

Job Interview Body Language

When you are being interviewed it is very important that you give out the right signals. You

should always look attentive - so do not slouch in your chair. Never lie to anyone in an interview,your body language and tone of voice or the words you use will probably give you away - classic

body language giveaways include scratching your nose and not looking directly at the otherperson when you are speaking to them.

If you have a moustache you may want to consider shaving it off - people with moustaches can

be perceived as being aggressive. You can always grow it again once you have got the job.

Factors that can Cost you the Interview/Job

y Being unprepared for the interview - you should always prepare thoroughly before anyinterview (this will also make you feel more confident at the interview).

y Poor/limp handshake - always a bit of a no-no.y Saying unfavourable things about previous employers - the employer will be wondering

what you will say about them when you leave their employment.y Not being able to communicate clearly and effectively.y Being aggressive or acting in a superior way - nobody like this so please don't do this.y Making excuses for failings.


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Job Interview Afterthoughts

If you're not getting the job offers you desire then you need to look carefully at your interview

performance. You should try and get as much feedback as possible from the people who have

interviewed you.

If you have been unsuccessful in obtaining a job ring up the interviewer and ask them where they

think you fell down and how they think you could do better. Once you have got feedback youcan modify your interview technique and hopefully do better at the next interview.

how to make a resume

This article will teach you how to make a resume, whether you have had previous experience in

writing resumes or you have never written a resume before.

You may also want to take a look at our resume tips section for other ideas on putting togetheryour resume. We have included additional tips in this section to help you prepare your resume.

Once you have learned how to make a resume you may also want to take a look at our freeresume examples and then use a resume distribution service.

Introduction

Almost everybody you can ask about how to make a resume will tell you that its job is to sell youto employers. But what does this actually mean?

Think about the last time that you made a major purchase. What attracted you to the particularproduct you eventually bought? To start with, your interest may have been caught by an advert.

This would have given you an instant impression of the products appearance, while highlightingits most outstanding features. You then decided to have a closer look, perhaps by looking at a

website or going into a shop to ask for more details. Encouraged by what you learned, you maythen have tried the product out firsthand, to see whether it lived up to everything youd heard.

Now think of yourself as the product and the employer the buyer. Your resume needs to have the

same effect as the initial advert and the closer-look information. If it works well, it willconvince the employer to ask you to an interview, when they get to check you out firsthand.

However, you are an extremely complex product. Your features include not only your past workhistory, but your potential in your next job, as well as your characteristics as an individual

employee.

Its not surprising then, that while youre sitting staring at the blank page, its hard to knowwhere to start, or indeed how to start. Here are some basic guidelines that will help you put that

elusive attention-grabbing resume together.


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Overall format

Appearances count as much as content. The way your resume is presented and laid-out will makean enormous difference to how much attention it attracts. If its badly laid out, the employer will

not feel like reading more than a few lines. Remember that they dont have time to do more than

skip through most applications, so you want to make life as easy as possible for them andencourage them to read yours.

The best resumes are usually no more than two pages in length, with critical informationsummarized in the top third of the first page. Information is presented clearly with plenty of

bullet points. Wide borders and white space between paragraphs also help make your resumeeasier to read. A clear font and simple layout will keep the employers focus where it matters:

on the content. Snazzy graphics, a messy, cluttered page and large blocks of text will only makeit harder to read and therefore put the employer off.

Your profile

This part of your resume is like the picture in the advert. But unlike a picture, it doesnt showyour face instead its a snapshot of your experience and skills. It sits at the top of your resume,

just below your name and contact details. Get it right and it will encourage the employer to readfurther. In two or three sentences, you need to highlight one or two important areas of your

experience and pinpoint two or three key skills and abilities. Make sure these are relevant to theadvertised job (you can change your profile to suit whichever post youre applying for). You can

also mention your career goals, or what youre seeking in your next job. Make sure this sectionsounds concise and fairly upbeat everybody is looking for a motivated employee!

Achievements

Next in your resume comes the Achievements section. Think of this as the extra information thatgoes into the advert. An achievement is a result that you personally brought about in your

current or post jobs. It isnt a fixed responsibility that anybody in that job would have fulfilled its evidence of how you made a difference. For that reason, it tells the employer what you might

deliver for them.

The best achievements to include are those that can be measured in financial figures, statistics,numbers of people or units, as these show how you can help to bring about results. Achievements

can also be differences that youve made to the way systems are set up or how organizations arerun. Reports youve written or awards youve won also count as achievements. Likewise, very

fast promotions within the same organization are worth including. List around six achievementsin order of impact.

Career history

Going back to our example of a major purchase, this is the extra information that youd find on awebsite, or that youd learn out by going into the shop. Its the small print that provides the more

in-depth information about the product (you).


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Start with your current or most recent job and work backwards through your work history. Foreach job, give the employers name and location, your job title and the dates you started and

finished (give the years only, you neednt include months).

Next, provide details of your duties for each post. Do this for the jobs youve held in the past 10

years. Start with the most important responsibility and work downwards. List about five or sixduties and mention any achievements that arent already in your Achievements section. Usebullet points to keep it neat and clear.

If there are gaps in your employment, due to unemployment or raising a family, try to explain

these briefly.

Education / Qualifications

This section is also like the small print. Contrary to popular belief, theres no need to list every

examination that you passed while at school. If you took your main educational qualification

over 10 years ago, then its not going to be of as much interest to the employer as the jobs youveheld since. So simply list what youve attained, along with the place of study and the dates whenyou qualified. If you have a degree, thats all you need to include theres no need for earlier

examinations taken up to the age of 18.

If your career is still young and youve only held one or two posts, then it may be worth givingmore details about your qualifications, but only if theyre relevant to the positions youre

applying for.

Also include any professional qualifications and memberships youve gained.

IT and Other Skills

Depending on the job youre interested in, this is where you can include other skills that are

relevant. IT skills are increasingly important in many sectors, so in this section list your softwareskills and training. If IT is very important in the job, you may want to include further details,

such as hardware, operating systems, architectures, etc.

If typing and language skills are relevant, include these as well.

Personal Details and Hobbies

Not everybody includes these more personal sections these days. If you do include aP

ersonalDetails section, add it at the end of the resume and include your date of birth, driving license (ifrelevant), marital status and nationality. The final two details are optional employers dont

necessarily wish to see them.

Hobbies and interests are not always important to an employer. However, for certain jobs, your

outside interests might tell them a bit more about you such as your personality, leadershippotential and team working skills.


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Also important the language you use

So now you know what needs to go into your resume. Next, you need to read it back to yourself.Do you feel that its selling you to an employer? Or is it a series of dull, dry lists? If it doesnt

have that buy now! factor, it may be due to the language youre using. As with all effective

adverts, the writing style you use in your resume is as important as the factual content.

Your descriptions need to be short and to the point, yet they also need to be readable and

persuasive from the employers point of view. Try to use effective statements and professionallanguage. Always be positive and keep your language short and punchy this makes the resume

a more inspiring read. Make it sound like you made things happen, rather than that thingshappened around you. Use active verbs for this reason. And always write in the third person,

avoiding use of the word I wherever possible.

Avoid being repetitive by using different wording to explain similar duties in different jobs.

Also, read the description of the job youre applying for and include some of the wording used

there.

Now check it and double check it

Run the Spellchecker on your word processing package to check that there arent any errors in

your resume. Then reread it several times. Reading it out aloud will help you to notice where thegrammar or sentence structure doesnt work. Ask somebody else to read it for you and give you

an honest opinion on whether it sells you to your best advantage.

Follow these guidelines and your resume will be a polished, finely tuned document that will

considerably improve your chances of gaining an interview.

Resume reason for leaving - should you

include reasons for leaving on your resume?

When putting together your resume, it's vital to ensure that this all-important selling document is

well laid out, punchy and informative.

This means focusing on your key achievements, the principal responsibilities in your more

recent/more senior roles and the career progression you've enjoyed along the way, whilst

avoiding the inclusion of irrelevant information that will clutter your resume and distract thereader from the most important points.

This is often easier said than done, and one area in particular where people struggle to decidewhat to include is with regard to their various job moves. Obviously, any future employer is

going to want to find out why you made the moves you did and how your career has progressedas a result, as well as exploring any gaps between jobs, but is your resume the right place to

include such information? In most cases, the answer is no.


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General information about straightforward job moves, such as moving to another company toprogress your career, should not be included. The wording of your resume should make clear to

any potential employer that these were positive career decisions, through a change in job title,wider responsibilities or greater role dimensions. Any information you feel is particularly

relevant, perhaps such as being approached by a former boss to join them, or your new company

being a more significant player in your marketplace, can be included in your cover letter.

But what if all hasn't gone to plan in your career and you have experienced some periods of

redundancy? It's still better in most cases simply to summarise your actual employment history,with the relevant dates, rather than going into detail about the reasons for any gaps on your

resume. Again, use your cover letter to explain any obvious gaps, which may be a result ofdownsizing, company relocation or market related problems within your particular industry, for

example. Keep the wording of your letter positive and forward-looking, rather than dwelling onwhat's happened, but be prepared to discuss the detail of any periods of redundancy openly at

interview.

Although the general rule is that the reasons for leaving a job should not be included in yourresume, there are certain notable exceptions. The first of these is if you have taken maternity

leave. If you have subsequently returned to your employer at the end of the allotted time period,this should be highlighted as a one-line entry on the resume under the same company heading,

rather than a job move as such. If relevant, make reference to any change of conditions on yourreturn, such as becoming home-based, or working on a more part-time basis.

If you have taken an extended period of time out to raise your family, simply highlight the dateson your resume, with a description such as "maternity break". Refer to any relevant part-time

work or study you may have completed during this period, if appropriate. Use your cover letterto reassure potential employers that you are now ready to return to the workplace and have made

reliable childcare arrangements, as well as indicating any efforts you've made to keep yourselfup-to-date with developments in your particular marketplace.

Other reasons for leaving a job that should be included in your resume are those that actively

enhance your appeal to future employers. These would include taking a study break, perhaps tocomplete a degree, MBA or some sort of vocational qualification, which would be seen as

expanding your skill-set and knowledge base, as well as indicating that you are ambitious andhave taken active steps to move your career forward. A travel break is also often seen in a

positive light, marking you out as someone who has a desire to broaden their horizons and issufficiently confident in their ability to carve out a successful career that they are prepared to

take a break for something that's important to them.

Finally, remember that your cover letter, which should be individually tailored for each jobapplication, is the appropriate place to draw attention to any other significant information aboutjob moves that does not properly belong in the resume itself.


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Cover Letters

Every time that you send out your resume you will need to send out a cover letter with it,

whether you are sending your resume in response to an advert or direct to an employer or

recruiter.

This cover letter needs to tell the person you are sending it to why they should read your resume.

A cover letter needs to say a lot more than just: 'Here is my resume!', which is all some peopleseem to think a cover letter should say. It needs to tell the person why you are writing to them

and outline why you are the ideal candidate for the job. You need to pick out the highlights fromyour resume that are relevant to this specific application.

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