Power Interview Tips

Author: Nancy Stokes

Power Interview Tips And Interview Questions And Answers

Knowing and Building Your Uniqueness is important in your Job Search. The first important job interview tip here is this:

Looking yourself in the mirror and objectively pointing out your strengths , weaknesses and positive differentiators can be difficult. That's why it's always, always easier to get a job from someone who knows of you and has heard positive things about you. In many cases, it may not be the case if you're changing careers or if you're fresh out of school. In our videos, we'll teach you how to build this credibility with tools around you.
Timing as to when you should apply for a job is important. Sometimes, many people resubmit applications and you should too as many smaller firms don't really keep track of who has applied before if they have not got a reply. Following up with a phone call with HR can also be helpful if you think it makes sense.
-First thing one needs to show is to show credibility in your resume and for the love of God- please don't lie or stretch the truth too far, you'll get caught and it can be very embarrassing.
-Position your resume taking account:
-Core competence and basic requirements, ensure you have these on your resume and also if you're able to show you have these skills if interviewed. For example if it's a financial analyst job which requires Excel spreadsheet skills and understanding accounting ratios - make sure you have these skills, if you don't go learn and make sure you're competent enough in it to do it on the job. Build your own skills.
-Your differentiation - Highlight this with evidence, for example, if you responsible in starting an office, or saved the company xxx dollars in a cost efficiency programme or sold xxxx units in yyy number of months, put it down on paper and mention it unabashedly at the interview.
There are many ways of building competence and uniqueness and this has become a specialty of mine ;-) and you can find more if you subscribe to our videos.

Employers really hate people who job hop or who can't stay longer in one place for anything longer than 1 year - unless you have a very good reason. Many Silicon Valley start up guys have this problem, but then silicon valley is probably the only place that would also hire people with short attention spans because they're full of people like that there.

But in an economy like ours today - no one is looking hires who are going to leave after a couple of months after things settle down. Even if you are, ensure you don't exhibit those qualities.

1. Justify short stints on your resumes.
2. Don't put in too many 'personal reasons' or say that you can't get along with people in the firm because it may show you're a difficult person to work with.
3. Always give reasons where it was a business or a career decision which you took because you wanted bigger and better things or it wasn't really within your control.

If you find yourself in a desperate position are in need of money to really cover living expenses, try to be honest and go for jobs (can be contract jobs or something which does not pay very much) where you can perhaps gain a new skill but has enough to cover your expenses for the time being. There are people who can tolerate short stints so go know where to look.

Like I said in one of the earlier lessons, a job search is a sales process. You have to ensure the potential employers don't have a good reason to leave you out of the interview process. So don't do things like having spelling mistakes in your resume or cover letter or anything that indicates shoddiness on your part. Common things potential employers may nit pick on include:

o Employment track record including short stints
o Lack of skills, not enough core skills and they need to train you again all over again blah blah.
o Inconsistencies or gaps in employment record including length of service
o Too much rubbish and hype in your resume or cover letter. Just stick to the point and highlight in short concise sentences. You see ads in newpapers and TV ? It's all about being concise and punchy. It's the same here.

If you want to check out more detailed tactics on this, subscribe to my videos here.