Interview Pitfalls: Are you prepared?

Many companies have begun planning their Recruiting budgets & huge manpower requirements are out this year owing to the near non existent hiring last few years. Thinking of changing your job?

Now..
■ How does your cv look? Is it professional? Clean? Cluttered? Ancient?! Well Written..? Highlighting your best aspects & expertise? Is it relevant to the job you are interviewing for? Or are you just following a basic template everyone follows?
In this unpredictable sea of Monsters & Pirates & Gold & Treasure, where will you sail? How will you sail? Because only skill & experience will help you steer clear of Icebergs & sail smoothly away to beautiful destinations.
Let us look at some common problems & important questions, one should not avoid being ready for, in an interview.

■  At HR Interface Corporate Services, we prepare more than 200-250 people per week for interviews, consult them on repairing their cvs, managing job jumps, sabbaticals, breaks, industry changes, helping them project their personalities & profiles in the right light, answering these questions & more with elan & perfection. 

■  We believe the best interview is a smooth interview where the employer feels the positive impact you make on the room & on your resumé. It is questions answered proactively BEFORE they're asked & answered with relevance & proper context AFTER they are asked.

■  We help you work out problems as only we can, after having conducted over 30,000+ interviews across all industries & all levels.

Pre Interview Grooming Services By Us Include:
■ Helping you work out Career Transitions
■ Handling Job Jumps
■ Industry / Functional Area Changes
■ Career Scripting & Planning - Long term
■ Salary Negotiation Tips
■ Whether or not to apply for a Particular Job or industry
■ Aligning Your cv & Your Jobs Perfectly
■ Repairing of Cvs Spoilt by sporadic jumps & bad decisions by consulting you on your next move
■ Cv writing
■ From Graduate/PG Freshers to CEO/CFO/CXO Level pre interview grooming services personally by us.

Also, To give you a very good idea of why you should come to us for Pre Interview Grooming [pls write to interviewgrooming.hrinterface@gmail.com to know our offerings & charges] Pls read this article, the link to which I have mentioned below that I wrote not a very long time ago.
It will bring to the table the many, many unidentified errors/issues/disconnects lurking in your cv, in your interview & more so follow you through all interviews you give. I help you up your chances of success, by helping you polish your cv, your interview experience & your career view overall.
Pls find the blog post on
Regards,

■ Are you thoroughly prepared to give (successful) interviews?

■ Have you got disastrous job jumps & gaps on your cv that you do not know how to handle or express?

■ Unsure of whether you should move from your current company?

■ Don't know how to return to work after a long sabbatical?

■ Confused about what academic courses you should do to complement your work?

■ Do some interview questions leave you stumped & speechless?

■ Have you planned your next 5 years, work wise?

■ Do you randomly job hop? Taking up a job opening that randomly comes to you? 

■ Could you have ignored a winning job opportunity just because you didn't plan your career well?

 ....& about a thousand other questions.

The Interview process is one which needs to be approached with a method that is almost scientific, logical, methodical with a wee bit of Human Intuition / Intervention thrown in for good measure. The process has evolved, & so have Interviewers, along with the parameters which decide your selection, factors influencing Likeability, Job-worthiness, evolving skillsets, desirability of certain backgrounds as also ofcourse..the rejection parameters! What was seen as acceptable yesterday, may be unacceptable today, One company might see your blogging habit as a threat to company confidentiality, another might see it as a must have attribute. Some jobs prefer men, some prefer women, some have age limitations, Some don't prefer hiring freshers, while another hires freshers only!

1> Tell us about yourself.
2> Why have you decided to interview for a job at our company? 
3> Why do you want to quit your current company?
4> Why did you quit your last 2 employers?
5> Is bad health an issue?
6> Why were you on a Sabbatical?
7> Are you persuing any education at the moment?
8> Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
9> You have worked in a different industry that ours, how do you expect to fit in?
10> What if you don't get this job?
11> What does your routine day look like?
12> What do you do on weekends?
13> What was the last challenging problem you faced at your current employer's place & how did you handle it?
14> How do you fit into the role you are interviewing for?
15> Would you work for your ex-employer again? If no, why?
16> Would your ex-employer hire you again? If no, why?
17> Having a family business, why do you want to work elsewhere?
18> Do you have plans to marry/have kids in the near future?
19> Where else have you applied for interviews?
20> Why did you leave your last employer without a job in hand?
21> Why have you changed your industry?
22> Why did you do that particular course?
23> Are you open to working abroad? 
24> Are you open to travelling?
25> Are you open to working weekends?
26> What are your hobbies?
27> Do you like to travel?
28> Do you like reading? What was the last book you read? What did you think of it?
29> Who is our Founder? When were we founded?
30> What latest news about us have you read?
31> Name 3 aspects of yourself you'd like work on.
32> Do you have any further study plans?
33> What are some brands in our industry that you admire?
34> If you were sitting in my chair, what question would you ask yourself as an interviewer to an interviewee?
35> What was the last movie you watched?
36> What is your favourite movie/book?

...& many more questions unique to each person's cv, experience, background & current situation.

■ Personal Etiquette & Grooming
■ Pre Interview Preparation & Mock Interviews for full prep.

Checklist for Giving a Great Interview here: http://recruitment-mantras.blogspot.in/2013/10/checklist-for-giving-great-interview.html & WRITE To us Today to avail of our services & book an interview preparation / Cv correction / Career Consultation session today by writing to us on:
interviewgrooming.hrinterface@gmail.com


HR Interface Corporate Services

The Networker's Guide to the Linkedin Treasure Chest.

So, let me start off by saying first whoever created the funny LinkedIn meme LinkedIn : Connect with people for no reason at all definitely was never on Linkedin.. 

Try something like.."For Selfies you have Instagram, for Unproductivity you have Facebook. For anything productive, there's Linkedin." based on the ever funny Mastercard commercials. or ANYTHING ELSE. Literally. But connecting for no reason? That's funny, but in an 'You're so ignorant' manner. :)

So Linkedin. Why do I love thee? Let me quickly count the ways...

1> Targeted Networking:

Linkedin has a Search feature which allows you to enter search parameters that help you connect to targeted pools of people, which may be relevant to your search. And of course, paid accounts have an ever increasing number of parameters depending on your urgency for such connnects which have an even deeper filtration. This can further be narrowed to geography, company, industry, degree, schools, company size, seniority level, looking for, etc etc. Go ahead, use as many as you require to make your search more specific & relevant!

2> Recommendations:

No, no. Not the endorsements tab [God knows why its even there], which almost just about anyone has thousands of, as random people click away everyday as it pops up on their linkedin screen. But the actual written recommendations. Although I have seen rare instances where people ask their friends & close contacts to recommend them [I funnily get recommendation requests from people I have never even worked with a day in my life, guess they don't know how it works, huh?], one can judge a particular person's work by seeing who else has recommended them, if these recommendations have Ex Bosses, Reporting Managers, Satisfied Clients, etc more or less that person is Linkedin add-worthy. So the ardent networker may choose wisely!

3> Its Where The Cool Kids Are At:

So, thanks to its every growing popularity, Almost everyone who cares about their Work / Career / Business is on Linkedin already. So that increases your chances of wanting to add someone & getting to add that someone, since in all probability, they're already on the site. Honestly! A long time ago, I used job sites / job boards at one point in time to connect with candidates. But because of the telling nature of those sites [Read: If you're on a job site, then you must be looking for a job!] many people choose not to be on job sites at all. But Linkedin is more of a must have, given it is a business network where you get to connect with your co-workers, clients, target market all at the same time & showcase how good you are [via Recommendations] without the bias of being a ''Jobseeker'' tag.

4> Global & Local Networks:

At any given point in time, if I wanted, I could be able to connect with the Director of a Native Tribal Health Consortium in Anchorage, Alaska or I could connect with a Legal Manager specializing in Criminal Law in Goregaon, Mumbai, India! Given its insane growth over the last decade, Linkedin has deeply entrenched itself, & in both Local & Global networks. So if you're an Aspiring Entrepreneur, A Global Company or a Travel Happy Jobseeker, you all would benefit from the many ways in which you can connect with Linkedin to just about anybody [with purpose, please :)] who may be 20 blocks, 20 miles or 20 flight hours away! I myself find it extremely easy to connect with just about anybody I want [I currently have 25,000+ connections] It isn't rocket science you know. :)

And please! Complete your Linkedin profile, have a decent picture people can identify you by, request recommendations from people you have worked with, & check your LinkedIn email atleast once a day!

Happy Networking!

Regards,

Neha Asthana