10 tiny things that can ruin your chances of getting hired

After many months of job hunting, my good friend David Hunt succeeded this week in getting hired into a part-time, seasonal job. Congratulations David; let’s hope for more good news soon!

During his search, he encountered and overcame many of the pitfalls waiting to catch out the unwary. So I was delighted when he sent me his list of traps he’d come across. Most are so small, you’d think they were unimportant, but in today’s jobs market, even the tiniest slip up can cost you the job!

All job seekers desire a quick conclusion to their job search. But the sad reality is that for many, this is not what happens. Today, job searches can easily last from several months to several years. Which means that as well as aiming for a fast outcome, we must also prepare for what may be a lengthy search.

Such awareness means adopting a long term strategy as well as short term focused action. This isn’t admitting we are defeated before we start, it’s simply a wise acceptance of the reality that luck plays a part. But we can still increase our chances of winning if we take sensible precautions and play the long game as well as the short one.

So here are David’s 10 things that shouldn't make a difference but often do. Don’t get caught out!



By David Hunt PE


1. Have a digital file of all your key documents to hand

If you are applying through an online ATS (Application Tracking System), open your resume file immediately after you upload it (so you can see it, and cut-n-paste, in case you have to fill in duplicate information – which is usually the case).

Have cover letter(s) already written: you may have the opportunity to upload one – they make a difference. Have your list of references file open too as some ATS programs require them to complete your application… and then immediately contact them to forewarn them you just gave their information out, to whom, and attach/include the job description, the resume you attached to your application, and any specific things you want them to stress.

If you don’t, you can have the ATS time out before you get everything open, or you frantically write a cover letter.

2. Don’t advertise your medical condition

If you have a medical condition of any type that requires you wear a warning – an allergy, a pre-existing condition, etc. – don’t wear a wrist band medical alert. Invest in a necklace. A wrist band will be visible, and will make people wonder what’s so wrong with you that you need it. And though it’s not legal, it can be held against you. This goes doubly if you have an infuser pump for anything and it’s visible. Again, it’s not legal to discriminate based on a medical condition, but it happens, and it’s undocumented, so it’s not legally actionable. (And an interviewer who was so biased would, doubtless, not even mention it; all they need to do is comment about your not being “a fit” even in internal discussions!)

3. Invest in your network relationships - with snail mail

Go the library once a month and peruse the magazine section. Try and look at trade-related magazines, but also hobby magazines, cultural magazines… basically, at least flip through every one. Why? Two reasons… you are looking for articles to send to networking contacts (actual and ones you’d like to make), and you are looking specifically in trade-related magazines for people at companies to write.

If you know of a person in your network that could use the information in an article, copy it and snail-mail it to them. This does not necessarily just mean work-related. (For example, a person I know is Portuguese and is there part of the time for work. I sent him an article about cork farms in Portugal… as it turns out, he owns a cork farm and really enjoyed the article. This makes an emotional impression, and keeps you in their mind favorably. Same thing for hobbies and interests that you know of, etc.)

Is there an article by someone at one of your target companies? Write them about it. Make it short, sweet, and ask a few questions to try and open a dialog. Do not mention you are out of work; this is a longer-term investment in cultivating contacts at target companies.

4. Polish your public speaking skills

Join a local Toastmasters group to start practicing public speaking. This is especially critical if you are more towards the introverted side of the scale. For networking and for your life and career, you need to be able to talk with people in a public setting, and give presentations. (I always loved the “Table Talk” events: you are given a topic for which you’ve not prepared or rehearsed, and then you need to talk for 60-90 seconds about it!)

5. Look for other people you can help

If someone approaches you because they’re also looking for a job, don’t blow them off. Try – as best you can – to help them. It’s good karma, and they’ll remember you for it. Over time, you will develop a reputation as someone who helps others.

6. The cleanliness of your car says more about you than the marque

Clean your car’s interior. Hiring managers have been known to go out to “scope out” your car while you are busy with other interviewers. If you’re political, get bumper stickers off (if you can). And if you have time, go through the car wash too.

7. Remember you are interviewing them as well

If a company can’t give you a list of the people with whom you’ll be meeting ahead of time, that’s a red flag about their organizational ability, as well as how they view you as a candidate.

8. Show appreciation to everyone involved

As you write your “Thank you” emails and/or notes, be sure to include the person who set up your interview. Odds are they were not on the interview schedule but, as someone whose involvement in the process was critical, reach out to them as well. It can’t hurt, and may help in making a better impression as they will likely forward it to the decision makers.

9. Protect your interviewers’ noses

Yes, you need to be subtle with any scents like cologne or perfume if not forgoing them altogether. But also… lay off the garlic, onions, carbonated beverages, beans and broccoli. And while it’s perfectly fine to need a bathroom break, try to eat a lower-residue diet for 24 hours. (Remember that smell is the only sense hard-wired into the brain unfiltered; if it registers in their nose, they will be consciously aware of it and its visceral and emotion-based response.)

10. Eating Etiquette

If invited out for a meal:

· Don’t go for expensive; they’re watching.

· Don’t be picky when ordering. I.e., “I’d like the ‘X’ but can you leave ABC out, substitute ‘this’ for ‘that’…”. If there’s a dish you really want but it has something you can’t eat, after ordering – explain. (E.g., eggplant will put me in the hospital for 2-3 days… but occasionally I’ll order a dish with eggplant, minus the eggplant, and then explain I have an allergy.)

· Don’t season the food until you’ve tasted it (I read this is one screening technique an executive uses and it’s a deal-breaker for them).

· When presented with multiple utensils, start outside and work your way in.

· Elbows off the table – and other etiquette.

· At most one glass of alcohol, but best to abstain. This is not the time to try and match someone drink for drink!

Hope these are useful thoughts for you in your job search.



© 2015, David Hunt PE

David Hunt is a Mechanical Design Engineer in southern New Hampshire. Currently employed part-time, he is looking for a full-time professional that allows him to design new products and shepherd them to stable production. His LinkedIn profile is: www.linkedin.com/in/davidhuntmecheng/; he blogs at davidhuntpe.wordpress.com and tweets at @davidhuntpe.

Being early – a secret way to access the hidden jobs market

By Neil Patrick

Fortune favours the punctual. Here’s why.

I post a lot of information here about techniques for getting hired in this hyper-difficult jobs market.

And they all involve some amount of effort. But here’s one which doesn’t. It just requires an adjustment of your schedule.

I was talking yesterday with a friend who’s a job search coach and he told me an interesting story.

He had a client who had applied for a job and got asked to attend an interview. She actually arrived almost an hour early and after signing in at the desk began her wait.

At this point, most people will sit down quietly in a corner waiting to be called to their interview. They’ll browse the magazines and newsletters, or read their resume and the job description over again.

This lady didn’t though. It was a busy open plan office and people were coming and going through the reception area constantly. Instead of quietly sitting down, she chatted with a few people. She told them she was there for an interview. And a little about what her background was.

Because she had prepared properly and knew a good deal about the business, she could talk about some of the things she knew the company was doing. She had also perfected her elevator pitch and used this as an opportunity to practise it. One person even asked her for her contact details.

She actually discovered a few more things about the firm that were useful snippets of information for her interview.

She had the interview. And a few days later she was called back to be informed she’d not been chosen.

She wasn’t in the least bit disappointed though. Because before she got this call, one of the people she’d talked to in the reception area had called her already to ask if she’d be interested in taking on a role they needed filling.

The job hadn’t been advertised. It was more senior and better paid than the one she’d interviewed for and she didn’t have to compete with any other candidates. Needless to say, she took the job.

Now this story isn’t statistically proven. It an anecdote. No more no less.

And will it happen to everyone who arrives early for an interview? Of course not.

But neither does it cost you anything. There’s no downside and a lot of possible upsides.

But what I like most about this story is that it shows how thinking outside of the box can make a big difference to outcomes. If this lady had just done the normal thing and quietly sat down waiting for her interview, speaking to no-one, she’d not have been hired. But she didn’t. She didn’t even plan this as a strategy; she just thought she’d make the best possible use of her time while waiting.

It just goes to show – fortune favours the brave…and the early!

How to transform your interview and defeat your competition

By Neil Patrick

If you think you know how to prepare for a job interview, think again. A recent survey of employers by job site Careerbuilder.com found that 39% of jobseekers failed because they didn’t properly research the company they were being interviewed by.

Whilst it might seem an obvious point that research is a key part of proper interview preparation, there’s a powerful secret extra benefit to doing this which I’ll reveal in a moment.

As Monster.co.uk points out, "Nothing is as disappointing as when a candidate oozes enthusiasm and then doesn't even know the most basic facts and figures about a company."

What’s more, in this digital age where so much information is freely available online, companies expect you to do this. There really is no excuse not to anymore.

What you need to know

Naturally, your aim is to appear knowledgeable about the company, its market position, plans for the future and the particular role you're applying for. With smaller employers especially, you should also reassure yourself that the company is financially sound.

It's also valuable to know about the culture within the company and a little about the person who’s interviewing you. You might just discover that you have connections, background or interests in common.

At the very least, their career history will give you valuable insights into how they are likely to think and what their particular focus at interview might be.

The company website

The first and most basic information source is the organisation’s own website. Any reasonably-sized firm is likely to have a blog or media centre. You'll find out what the company is doing right now, its products and services and how it markets them.

The website will probably also contain biographies of senior staff - possibly including your interviewer - and a list of important clients. If you extend your research to these clients, you can also pick up some very useful information that will enable you to talk knowledgeably at your interview.

Social media

Most companies now have a Facebook or Twitter account, and this can provide you with a good insight into the company culture. It's also very useful to look up the person that's interviewing you on LinkedIn. Do you have any contacts in common? If some of these are good personal connections of your own, it may well be worth having a private chat with them to get their insights.

Other websites

Job sites including Glassdoor and Inside Buzz, contain profiles of thousands of companies. Some have reviews written by current or former employees, which can tell you a lot about what working there is like.

When applying to small companies, provided you have some basic financial knowledge it is worth creating a Deudil account to check out the financial well-being of the company. That way, you won’t be blinded by any smokescreens by interviewers to cover up the real story. Make no mistake, companies in difficulty often keep on recruiting right up to the point of collapse…

Google is your friend…

The company’s website will only tell you what the company wants you to hear - and this may not give you the full story. Create a Google alert using the name of the organisation and/or business unit. This will give you daily updates of any news items about the company.

You can find out how your target company is doing by using Google searches such as "(company name) + research + share price". With luck, you'll find research reports about how your target company is performing, and some independent expert opinion on its prospects.

You'll need a context in which to put all you've learned about your potential new employer. So check out their competitors' websites too.

Get smart with social media tools

A valuable tool to help you establish the success level of the company on social media is Kred. I was recently talking to a client about their online marketing strategy. I showed them how their competitors were scoring higher than them on Kred and why. They had no idea this was the case. And this news made them really sit up and take notice of the plans I was proposing for them. Had I been applying for a job, this sort of insight would have been really valuable too.

How to use the information

After all this, you'll have a heap of information about your prospective employer. But you need to utilise it tactfully. Posts to the company's social media sites, may well include some customer complaints; unless the site's swamped with them, this doesn't automatically mean you should reject the company as a prospective employer.

Once you get into the interview, it may be tempting to try and showcase all your homework by dragging as many facts as you can into the conversation. Whilst this will make you look keen, it's much better to hold back a little and simply use what you've learned as and when it comes up. Your aim is to look as if you knew it all already. Where you've uncovered negative information about the company, a lawsuit, a fall in profits or any other negative information - it's best to avoid mentioning it altogether.

So, prepare, prepare, prepare!

I promised I’d let you in on a secret at the start of this post. And here it is.

A couple of years ago I was interviewed for an executive board position on a major UK plc.

Before the interview I wrote down every question I thought I might be asked, from the deceptively simple ‘tell me about yourself’, to the testily specific ‘what’s your take on the regulatory frameworks in the market’. And everything in between. I scripted the best answers I could come up with, polished them and learned them so I could more or less recite them word perfectly.

But I didn't just prepare answers, I prepared almost as many questions. I wanted the interview to be as much of a discussion as I could make it. And for that, I needed good questions. This would not only take the pressure off me a little, it would show if I chose the right questions, that I had really done my homework.

To find the right questions I really went to work on my research. I mean really went to work. I got hold of every news report and company statement I could find. I tracked the share price history. I used LinkedIn and other social media to discover the name and background of every senior person in the business. I researched their competitors. And their competitors’ strategies. I made notes on all the market sector reports and analysis I could find.

All in all, I think I spent about five full days of work preparing. But at the end, I was so prepared and ready, that I knew I would put on my best possible performance. When the day came and I sat in the reception area, waiting to go into the interview, I was calm, focussed and actually looking forward to the interview and having the discussion.

As it turned out, the interview was just between the CEO and myself. And it was the simplest interview I’ve ever had. It was more like a friendly chat than an interview.

And this was because my research meant that instead of me passively responding to a string of questions, I was able to not only answer every one, but also bring up relevant topics I had discovered through my research. And since most CEOs love talking about their companies, we ended up having an interesting and engaging discussion.

At a stroke, I had proved that I was super knowledgeable about the business and therefore interested and qualified. But critically, the interview turned into a two way discussion…and I’m certain that it facilitated a more meaningful dialogue as a result. I was no longer a passive participant - I was actively steering the conversation too.

Of course this couldn't have happened if I was being interviewed by several people or a panel. But the key point remains - proper preparation will make you more relaxed, more confident, and more knowledgeable. Do it thoroughly and the extent of your preparation will be clear, proving that you really want the job...in a positive way.

So don’t just think that research is about showing that you know a little about the company…do it right and you can change the whole interview process for the better and empower yourself too.

Show you mean business and let your competitors have the stress instead!

The 6 job interviews you can never win

By Neil Patrick

There are six job interview situations, in which it doesn’t matter how good you are, how excellently your perform at the interview, you will not get hired.

For all the talk about excellent hiring practices, process quality, talent management, investing in people, the hiring process has always been and will continue to be imperfect.

If you are struggling to understand why you didn’t get hired for a job you were easily the best candidate for, I’m willing to wager that one of the following six reasons applied.

Here they are:

1. The comfort factor. These are legitimate reasons from the employer’s point of view. They include your current or previous salary level, relocation requirements, and recent experience. You may be perfectly willing to settle for a lower salary than you have enjoyed previously. You may also be perfectly happy to up sticks and move to the other side of the country. And learn any new skills that may be required. But the employer will perceive that these adjustments will make you feel uncomfortable and hence less motivated. Result: you’re rejected. 

2. Your age. I’m not just talking about discrimination against older candidates here either. For some roles, the grey hair factor is a definite plus. Of course it’s nonsense. And yes it’s also illegal, but it’s so easy to dodge the accusation of age bias, that plenty of employers can and do. 

3. The internal candidate. Firms will sometimes advertise a position even when they have no intention of hiring because they have an internal candidate lined up. But the company wants to legitimise this decision, so they benchmark the internal candidate against who else is available. The odds are heavily stacked against you in this situation. The internal candidate, who is a known quantity is almost guaranteed to get the job.

4. You’re better than your boss. Again, this is almost impossible to win; the hiring manager feels that you are so competent that you could do their job. Even if you don’t want their job, and are fully prepared to be a supportive sub-ordinate, they will worry that your expertise may expose shortcomings in their own. The outcome is they will choose a less well qualified candidate. 

5. Looks matter. Nepotism is alive and well. So is positive discrimination that favours the physically attractive. The sad truth is that if you’re up against someone with film star good looks, they’ve got an automatic bonus card over you. I won’t even discuss what happens when a hiring manger feels a strong physical attraction to a candidate. 

6. Incompetent interviewers. Hiring managers are rarely trained interviewers. This has always been a problem, and it’s become worse. In the tough times we have gone through, interview skills training for every manager is a luxury few can afford. The result is that at best your technical competencies will get a fair appraisal, but your other soft competencies and value adding capabilities will not. Worse an untrained interviewer may be easily influenced by a less competent candidate that can dazzle them with slick talking.

If you have an interview failure and any one of these situations applies, you can at least take consolation that even though you were not chosen, it doesn’t reflect badly on you.

Yes, it’s not fair. Yes it may be counterproductive for the employer. But you can walk away with your self-confidence intact…and that’s exactly what you should do. Never take such situations personally and move on, safe and confident in the knowledge that you were not beaten by a better person.

If you've experienced any of these situations, do please share these in the comments below.

Job fit - the key to understanding who gets hired

BY MARCIA LAREAU

Recruiters talk a lot about finding a good fit. Do you know what this really means? The answer may surprise you as Marcia La Reau explains here.

After an interview, jobseekers often say, “I hope I get that job…it’s a good fit.” 

When I read Human Resource and Recruiter blogs about hiring, they are constantly asking about job fit. And yesterday, a potential client spent about 90 minutes telling me about her current job, which could be summarized by, “It’s just not a good fit.”

What amazes me is that everyone is talking about something different. Job security is greatly dependent on fit, so attending to this single factor is critical. 

* * *

Sam was escorted to a room for his interview. There was a table with a chair and a few other chairs were pushed against the wall. A small side table sported a few magazines.

He checked the papers in his portfolio and felt his tie to make sure it was straight. He was early. He picked up a magazine and found an interesting article.

A young man entered the room and sat down at the table. He was wearing shorts, a wrinkled tee shirt and tennis shoes—no socks. He sat down at the table and placed a tablet and some papers on the table. Sam nodded and returned to his magazine.

After several minutes, the young man said, “Hi. I’m Cam…Cameron.” Sam smiled and said, “I’m Sam.” …and returned to his magazine as he checked his watch.

After a few more minutes, Cam said. “Well, how about if we get started with the interview.” Sam couldn’t believe it. THIS was the person who was going to interview HIM?

The interview continued for about 10 minutes and finally Cam said, “If you are having a problem with me, and that’s obviously the case, then this place is not going to be a good fit for you.” The interview was over. 

* * *

Recently a client was telling me about a lesson learned earlier in his career. He reported to the CEO of a large multi-national firm. They were interviewing for a Senior Vice President of Sales for North America.

After a finalist left the CEO’s office, my client said, “ He seems to be a perfect fit.” The CEO replied, “We will not be hiring him. His suit was slightly wrinkled, and it didn’t quite fit.” The decision was final. 

* * *

Job fit—by whose definition?
When I have a spare moment, I spend my time reading and listening to hiring professionals from recruiters, HR professionals to hiring managers—anyone involved with the hiring process.

What do recruiters look for?
This topic is central. Jorg Stegemann is a leading international recruiter with Kennedy Executive. In a recent post, How To Hire Someone: Checklist (7 Tips), Jorg asks if the candidate has 70% of the technical requirements and 100% of the personal requirements.

Other questions on Jorg’s list included:

1. Do I trust the candidate?
2. Do I want him to represent the company when I’m not around?
3. Can I imagine the candidate with my team? Does it look good to me?

Only one of his seven points address skill sets. The other six are about fit! Now do you see why I blog about this topic a lot? Most jobseekers think it’s all about their skills! It isn’t.

Candidates tend to focus their idea of job fit on skills and experience. Managers concentrate on the ramp-up time and the energy it will take to get a candidate to the point of adding value.

How about HR? Same as recruiters…or different?
A recent survey of online HR chat can be summarized in this article on the top 10 HR issues.

The top three issues cited here are retention, recruitment, and productivity. 

Here are a few quick excerpts that reinforce the point:

• Employees are the lifeblood of the company.
• Your business will also have invested significant time and money into ensuring maximum productivity wherever possible.
• The second major challenge facing the Human Resources’ department is recruitment of talent. Finding staff with the correct blend of skills, personality and motivation is difficult.
• The HR department needs to provide each employee with the right combination of culture, remuneration, and incentives.

My point is this: Human Resource professionals define job fit in terms of productivity. Also consider that when a company doesn’t make its profit margins, HR gets blamed for not hiring the right people…no pressure huh?

Please consider reading this article on The Science of Hiring. It focuses on job fit from the HR perspective.

What is important to the hiring manager?
The criterion of Hiring managers may not be essentially different than HR, however, the manner in which it is expressed will be.

Hiring managers look for the candidate that will be able to quickly become a member of the team and bring tangible value. It’s a combination of the time it will take to integrate into the team, embrace the tools to do the job, and produce the product that meets the need at hand.

This article sites three essentials and all of them assume that the skill sets, education, and experience are in place.

What are the essentials?

1. Credibility and reliability. The real issue was dependability.
2. Teamplayerism. This was about social skills.
3. 110-percentism. This addresses “self-directed enough, without a lot of hand-holding…”

Note that none of these are tangibles like an MBA or 7 years experience in a lab, or the ability to use specific software. The success factors deal with personal attributes and character traits.

And what about the jobseeker?

Jobseekers rarely think in terms of the concerns outlined here. Their idea of “fit” focuses on how comfortable they are with their colleagues, whether they get along well. Jobseekers concern themselves with the energy level of the environment, whether they can work at home, and if there will be work-life balance.

There is nothing wrong with those concerns and they are prime considerations. However they should not be the focus during an interview. The consequence of taking this mind-set into an interview is to send the message, “This is all about my comfort in the office.” That won’t win an interview.

Do business ALWAYS look for job fit?
The answer is YES and NO.

A careful read of a job posting should reveal whether the position is part of a change initiative. When a company is going through change, then they may look to hire people who have a different approach to problem-solving than the current staff. AND…yes, most companies are going through continuous change.

However, a prime candidate will be someone who can bring change with the least amount of angst—someone who can smoothly work through change without undo interruption to productivity as work-flow processes adjust to meet new business directives.

Understanding the differences in the needs of each player in the hiring process is critical and I hope this article helped. The next step is to clearly and succinctly demonstrate your attributes on your cover letter and résumé so each audience understands your value.

Need help?
That’s what we do in the Forward Motion Differentiation Workshop. This workshop is offered all over the U.S.

Called a Creative Thinker, Career Futurist, and a person of unusual solution, Marcia LaReau founded Forward Motion, LLC in 2007. Since that time, she has become a recognized leader in the employment industry, and Forward Motion has spread across the United States and abroad to help jobseekers find jobs that fit.

Website: http://forwardmotioncareers.com/
Blog: http://forwardmotioncareers.com

How to turn yourself into a winning job candidate

By David Hunt, PE

In replying to someone’s comment on my posting Am I a Fit? in a LinkedIn group, I had a flash of insight for another essay.

When writing resumes, and especially when in an interview, there are several acronyms for techniques used to outline your accomplishments. The one I know is SPAR - Situation, Problem, Action, Result. What was the Situation – the environment, the product or service – in which you were working? What was the Problem you faced; what Action did you take; what Result came from that action (ideally something quantifiable)?

But there’s something missing. And so at the risk of creating an unwieldy acronym, I want to propose:

SPARTACUS

Situation, Problem, Action, Result… Transferable, Aimed, Customized, and US.

Transferable: Based on your research, can you highlight the skills you exercised in this item that can transfer directly to the company where you are interviewing?

Aimed: The examples need to be aimed at specific problems they’re having – or are likely to be having.

Customized: The more you can customize your story to that particular company, the better.

US: Try to discuss the problem and your transferable skills as if you were already there.

Now that I’ve probably got your head spinning, let me back up. Much of this presupposes that you already understand specific problems the company is having. Well, as many job search advice articles hammer home… do your homework.

Read up on the company, both on their own website, the product line, competitors, and the industry in general. Peruse the job description word by word. Often times the order of duties in the description/posting is keyed to the problems they’re experiencing. Can you network to people in the company through LinkedIn or elsewhere to learn more – assuming, of course, that you have the time to do this. But even an after-hours phone call can yield great information; you don’t need a face-to-face lunchtime informational meeting. An article on LinkedIn gives some interesting tips for this.

Can you post to topical LinkedIn groups? Put out the word on your own network (alumni groups can be of enormous help in this) that you will be interviewing at the company… not only will you – hopefully! – get some good info, but it’s entirely possible that someone from that company might see your request for information. First, they might offer to help. Second, they may know someone who is interviewing you (or be one of the interviewers). Showing publicly that you have an active interest in being informed can, IMHO, do nothing but good things if the company learns you are doing solid preparation.

Next, there’s the interview itself. Take charge. As the hiring manger enters the room, be standing already. Proactively go over as they come in, shake their hand; “Mr. So-and-so, glad to meet you. I’m really excited at being interviewed for <position title>; what kinds of problems would you have me working on out of the gate?” (Remember, many people don’t like doing interviews; so long as you’re not pushy about it, they may appreciate your taking an active role in the conversation.)

Wham! You’ve shown you have energy, drive, and you’ve opened the door for them to vent about their “pain points”. You’ve also painted yourself as if you’re already in the position ready to get started on Day One.

As they talk, take mental notes. The things they say will then guide your SPARTACUS answers from then on. Remember – you are not in an interview because you need a job, but because they have problems they need to solve.

By taking a SPARTACUS approach to the interview conversation you:

1. Highlight accomplishments you’ve already made

2. Show how you can transfer skills to their problems – don’t rely on them to make those inferences

3. Demonstrate enthusiasm and initiative because you’ve clearly taken the time to do your homework

4. Get the interviewer to envision you in particular in the role

© 2014, David Hunt, PE

David Hunt is a Mechanical Design Engineer in southern New Hampshire looking for his "next opportunity" that allows him to design new products and shepherd them to stable production. His LinkedIn profile is: www.linkedin.com/in/davidhuntmecheng/; he blogs at davidhuntpe.wordpress.com and tweets at @davidhuntpe.

Body Language Makeover for Interview (and life) Success

By Neil Patrick

We all know that some people are more confident about themselves than others. We also know that this confidence often makes them more successful, whether their true aptitude warrants this or not.

And we’ve all observed how confident, even arrogant personalties seem to be able to harness something almost primal to win through. What is this?

Is it just attitude? Is it body chemistry? Is it social conditioning?

Are there things that we can all do which can make us feel more confident and thus perform better? There have always been plenty of coaches and other pseudo-scientific types telling us that this is indeed possible. But the assertion was always just that – it was never really backed up by much science.

But it turns out now that this isn’t just new age nonsense. The truth is now borne out by the results of experiments.

Amy Cuddy at Harvard business school has carried out research to discover how certain body postures affect our performance at critical events in our lives. She tested results at job interviews in particular. She used what she calls ‘power postures’ to see if these could make a difference. And the findings are frankly amazing.

Both humans and animals express power through their bodies. They tumble in on themselves when they feel unsure, making themselves smaller by hunching over, crossing their arms over their chest and avoiding big movements. When they feel on top of the world, they sprawl out. Amy wondered - could adopting these postures change a person’s internal state actually make them feel more powerful?

Not only that, could this feeling of increased power really result in better performance and how we are perceived by others?

“Our nonverbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves. Our bodies change our minds,” she says.

But it’s not just about feeling better, Amy’s research found that when positive physical postures and self-talk, as she calls it, ‘fake it until you make it’, have a profound influence on the actual outcomes in people’s lives.

If you think that you’ve not really got the results you deserve, then this is a must see video. Better still, you’ll discover what you can do that takes almost no time at all, to capitalise on what Amy has discovered.

To hear Cuddy’s powerful story of how power posing helped her get her own life on track, watch her TEDx talk below. You’ll hear stories of how power posing has worked for others, as well as transforming her own life, enabling her to overcome a car accident which seriously damaged her mental faculties.

The acclaim for Amy’s work has been widespread:

From a male high school physics teacher in the United States:

“I introduced my AP Physics students to power posing last spring. One student in particular was always so nervous during assessments and therefore her test scores did not represent her abilities at all. We all know that old saying about correlation and causation — and this was no scientific study — but from that day forward that student power posed before every physics test and her grades went from high ‘C’s and low ‘B’s to where she belonged — in the mid to lower ‘A’s. I’m convinced that power posing helped her even if it is difficult to prove.”

From an online commenter:

“It’s nice to see that there’s scientific support for Oscar Hammerstein’s King and I lyrics: ‘Whenever I feel afraid, I hold my head erect and whistle a happy tune, so no one will suspect I’m afraid …The result of this deception is very strange to tell, for when I fool the people I fear, I fool myself as well.’”

From a male musician in Canada:

“I tried your ‘power positions’ right before I went on stage with a symphony, and I have to say, it was the best performance I have had in terms of nerves in my life.”

From a woman in finance in the United States:

“I power posed before my third interview for a job the other day! Moving onto fourth and final interview on Tuesday!!! I was seriously nervous and power posing calmed me down … Okay, there was a fifth interview today. I was freaking out, so while waiting I walked outside and power posed on the street. I can’t believe how much better I felt. And I did really well on the interview.”

How (not) to get a six-figure salary job

By Neil Patrick

If you are going after the highest paying jobs around, it’s really important you do your homework and here’s why…

A little while ago I was approached by a head-hunter about a job.

At first I wasn't especially interested. It's not unusual for this to happen. But I looked into the job and it soon became clear this job was a great match for my skills and experience and I knew I’d be able to make a big contribution. It was a board level job in a plc. with a solid track record. It also had a very large salary and bonus attached.

I managed to extract from the head-hunter who the client was. Then I went to work. I mean really went to work. I got hold of every news report, annual accounts report and company statement I could find. I tracked the share price history. I used LinkedIn and other social media to discover the name and background of every senior person in the business. I researched their competitors. And their competitors’ strategies. I made notes on all the market sector reports and analysis I could find.

This research suggested to me some strategic weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the business. I was restricted of course in the information I could access, but I was certain the business was in a much weaker position than its headline results suggested. Which posed an interesting question. Should I raise these questions and risk appearing foolish or negative because I couldn’t access all the information I really needed, or should I present my analysis and queries for discussion?

Rightly or wrongly, I opted for a compromise. I compiled a list of key questions about the business, the job and the business’s strategy touching on what I thought were the key weaknesses, but not actually digging into them too hard.

The problem with this approach was that if I was offered and accepted the job, I’d be getting into a business I had serious strategic worries about. And as the newest member of the exec team, I might be at risk of alienating myself from day one if my view was in conflict with theirs. I decided to worry about that question only when and if I was ever offered the job.

Appear keen whatever reservations you may have

I told the head-hunter I was interested in the job. Very interested.

After this, I agreed to meet up with the head-hunter and we talked for a couple of hours over lunch about my background and the role in question. The meeting went well and my interest level increased. The head-hunter explained to me that it might take a while to hear anything further as he was having a dozen or so meetings like the one he’d had with me, then he’d need to go back to his client and review the candidates he’d found and decide who to invite for interview.

I waited for several weeks but kept in touch with the head-hunter once a week or so. Things did as he’d anticipated take a while to progress. The reason was that his client was the CEO and he was having big difficulties getting a slot in his diary to meet and decide who to select for interview.

Then about a month after our first meeting, the head-hunter called me. I’d been selected for interview by the CEO along with two other candidates.

Prepare, prepare, prepare

So I went back to intensive preparation. I wrote down every question I thought I might be asked, from the deceptively simple ‘tell me about yourself’, to the testily specific ‘what’s your take on the regulatory frameworks in the market’. And everything in between. I scripted the best answers I could come up with, polished them and learned them as mini-scripts so I could more or less recite them word perfectly.

But I didn't just prepare answers, I prepared almost as many questions. I wanted the interview to be as much of a discussion as I could make it. And for that, I needed good questions. This would not only take the pressure off me a little, it would show if I chose the right questions, that I had really done my homework.

All in all, I think I spent about five full days of work preparing. But at the end, I felt I was so prepared and ready, that I would put on my best possible performance. When the day came and I sat in the reception area, waiting to go into the interview, I was calm, focussed and actually looking forward to the interview and having the discussion.

I was surprised that the interview was just between the two of us. Perhaps this was a preview, before the final panel interview? I never did find out. But I did put on just about the best performance I was capable of. And at the end, I left feeling satisfied that I’d done the best job I possibly could.

Then wait, wait ,wait

As usually happens, I waited. And waited. After a couple of weeks the head-hunter contacted me and told me I was the second choice. And the first choice person had been offered the job. And accepted it. Naturally I asked what the reasons for the decision were. He said it was because the person they selected came from within the same industry and I did not.

This may or may not have been the whole truth. I will never know. Head-hunters are people too and they will usually select the reason they think will be the simplest and least hurtful to the applicant. Which of course actually isn’t the most helpful information the applicant can receive.

Why failure isn’t the end, it’s the beginning…

But here’s the interesting part of the story. A short while ago I picked up the business section of the paper and on the front page was a big headline about the firm in question. Their share price had collapsed to about 10% of the price it had been when I was interviewed. The business had not posted their annual report and accounts. The chairman said there was no realistic prospect the business could recover its revenues.

It was a tale of corporate catastrophe. My concerns about the business’s vulnerabilities had been borne out even faster than I’d imagined possible.

And I could only imagine what the daily experience of working at the business would have been like. Pure misery I suspect.

Which leads me to what we can learn from this.

1. Time spent on company research is never wasted

I still don’t know if I would have accepted the job if I’d been offered it. Before accepting, I think I’d probably have asked for a further meeting to talk in detail about the concerns I had and only then would have made the decision.

But quite apart from this aspect, the detailed preparation filled me with confidence about my capability to do well at interview. Nerves were not a problem and I actually enjoyed the experience.

2. All that glitters is not necessarily gold

It would have been easy to be blinded by the status and reward package on offer. But I actually feel I escaped a near miss rather than experienced a failure. And the fact that I spotted the vulnerabilities that subsequently came to cripple the business has boosted my confidence in my own judgement.

3. Trust your instincts and research

By carrying out all the due diligence I could before the interview, I not only felt I was very well equipped to handle the interview, if I had have been offered the job, whether I’d accepted it or not, I’d have made the decision with full knowledge of the critical facts.

4. Don’t rely on everything a head-hunter tells you

My experience proved again that you cannot rely on head-hunters to tell you the truth. I’m not saying the head-hunter was deceitful or not acting in good faith - but they are in the business of simply finding the best people for a job, not carrying out forensic evaluation of their client’s businesses. That's down to us.

5. Failures may lead directly to your next endeavour

Had I been offered and taken this job, I certainly would not have started this blog. And I certainly wouldn’t be enjoying the company of all the great people around the world it’s put me in contact with. The course of my professional life would have been totally different. I think it’s no exaggeration to say this interview failure has turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise.

Skype interviews: Why they are increasing and how to handle them

By Hannah Briggs

The job interview is an ordeal that most people face at some stage in their career. But as video starts to take the place of the face-to-face interview, is it easier or harder now to land your dream job?

The job interview as we know it may never have existed if it wasn't for Thomas Edison.

Frustrated with hiring college graduates who lacked the right knowledge, Edison devised the first employment questionnaire to narrow down his applicant pool.

The survey was thought to be so difficult that in 1921 the New York Times nicknamed it a "Tom Foolery test" and claimed only a "walking encyclopaedia" could succeed.

Questions included: "What is the weight of air in a room 20ft x 30ft x 10ft?" and "Where are condors to be found?"

But today the trick to making a good impression at interview may be less about what you know and more about how you come across on camera.

Jean Luc, a 30-year-old marketing professional from Greenwich, recently had his first video interview for a role at a web start-up company based in Berlin.

"I had the usual nerves before my interview. But I Skype all the time as my parents live in South Africa so it felt like a much more familiar process. What I found quite disconcerting was when I first turned on the video, my interviewer had his camera turned off.

"It would have been awkward if I turned my camera off and on again so I just went through the interview with a black screen. It was a bit like talking to myself."

Looking in the wrong place is just one of the common pitfalls of video interviews, says New York-based career coach and blogger Megan Broussard.

"It's tempting to watch yourself in that little box to make sure your hair isn't in your face or that you're not making weird facial expressions. But the truth is that it is very distracting to the other party and can come across as shy and even insincere - two qualities both employers and new hires want to avoid.

"It's OK to watch the speaker on the screen, but respond by looking into the camera to create the illusion of direct eye-contact, always."

In the US more than six out of 10 HR managers now use video to interview job applicants, according to a survey.

A growing number of UK firms are adopting a similar approach, says Claire McCartney, from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

"Video interviewing is becoming an attractive option as organisations branch out overseas," says McCartney.

How to cruise a video interview


Tips from Megan Broussard - aka Professional - a career coach and blogger from New York:

· Set the stage: Make the room you're in a reflection of your work -polished

· A plain backdrop can be less distracting

· Test the lighting: Even if your camera isn't the highest quality, make sure it flatters your features and the interviewer can see you clearly

· Dress the part: Be as conservative as the organisation - wear smart bottoms in case you have to get up during the interview

· Work the camera: Minimise the video image of you so you're not tempted to watch yourself

· The employer expects eye contact and anything else will distract him or her

· Do a test run: Call a friend or family member to make sure speakers and microphone are working and they can hear you clearly

As well as live interviewing on services like Skype, some firms are giving video "questionnaires" for candidates to record.

The UK company, Webrecruit, reports a steady increase in the use of automated video interviewing over the past few years. Employers can view recorded responses from candidates in their own time.

"Clients will input their questions, then the candidate receives an automated email inviting them to sit the interview," explains Webrecruit's Leona Matson. "The interviewee can then sit the interview within an allocated time frame, the answers are recorded, and then the client can view it at a time that suits them."

As hiring becomes more global for candidates and employers, video interviews can be much more cost-effective.

In 2012 employers in the UK spent an average of 10 working days interviewing, 16% of the working week travelling to meet candidates and £3,286 reimbursing candidates' travel expenses, according to a survey carried out by Cammio - a Dutch company specialising in online video services.

"The significant drain on time and resources companies face when scheduling and carrying out interviews means for many, it can be an expensive and time-consuming task," says Matson.

For large firms with international graduate schemes, the savings can be significant. Sellafield's graduate scheme cited cost savings of £14,000 using video technology to screen interview candidates.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) also report cutting recruitment costs by 20% using automated video assessments for first-round interviews.

First impressions are still crucial.

"You can definitely gain a better first impression of candidates using a combination of video and CV rather than their CV only," says Walter Hueber, chief executive of Cammio. "It's much more visual and allows you to get a broader assessment of the candidate."

But does the technology give the younger generation an unfair advantage?

"It can take some getting used to," says Peter Russell of VuCall, a company offering video consultations based in London. "When we started three years ago, it took some time for people in a business context to feel comfortable seeing themselves on screen. After a while though, they just got used to it and learned to relax."

Jean Luc says he would prefer to do all his interviews via video in future, to avoid unnecessary anxiety.

"This way you avoid the pressure of getting to the interview on time, getting stuck in traffic or worrying so much about what to wear. I felt much more at ease interviewing at home and I was able to think more clearly before responding."

But sometimes you can't beat face-to-face contact says Mike Parker, who runs Pitchcoach, a business communication consultancy.

"I suspect that for senior jobs face-to-face will continue. You can't see the handshake. You can't see how they walk into the room."

"Half of all business travel, in theory, could be substituted with telecommunications, but it isn't. Why?"

This post originally appeared here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21334710