Candidate Resources

How to Best Prepare for a Job Interview

By Delaplane, eHow Member
User-Submitted Article
Of the hundred or so applications received in response to most job ads, only five or six applicants actually land interviews. That said, congratulations on making it this far! Now what? Now you need to prepare for the interview. No, I'm not talking about what to do during the interview, I'm talking about the preparation you need to do before you walk in the door for the interview. Instructions

1. Do some research on the company you're applying to. Search the internet (particularly newspaper databases) to find out about long-term goals the company has. Try to determine which of the company's initiatives are of particular importance to the company's (and the community's) future. Knowing this information will help you prepare for any interview questions regarding WHY you're a great candidate for the job.
2. Conduct some research on the person scheduled to interview you (if known). Knowing a little bit about the interviewer will help you gauge potential questions she or he will ask. For instance, if the interviewer founded the company you are applying to, you should brush up on the company's history and the positive impact it has made on the community (particularly since applicants are often asked what he or she knows about the company). A simple internet search should provide you with sufficient information. Of course, the company's website should be your first stop.
3. Drive around the company's neighborhood a day before the interview. Arguably, the most important bit of advice I can give is to arrive early for an interview. What happens if you neglect to check out the route between your house and the company beforehand and fail to realize the road is under construction? You'll end up being late for the interview, and I'm sure you know how good of an idea that is.
4. Update your resume and print out multiple copies to bring with you, because you may end up being interview by several people. Make certain to adjust your resume to highlight any of your experience that is relevant to the job you're applying for. Additionally, bring a list of references with you to the interview. Be sure you inform each reference of your interview so he or she will be prepared for a call from the employer.

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Show Them You're Worth the Money

Rachel Farrell, CareerBuilder.com writer

As a job seeker, you constantly hear that one of the biggest detriments to your job search is not quantifying your achievements on your résumé. Yet still, many don't understand what that actually means.

Admittedly, some positions are easier to quantify, such as a sales agent or manager. But even less concrete jobs, like an editor or administrative assistant can be quantified -- sometimes you just have to work a little harder.

"Quantifying achievements is essential to creating an impact as a job seeker. Whether we are making widgets or making multi-million dollar deals, we seldom take the time to carefully consider how each task we complete has a beneficial, ripple effect throughout our organization," says Kirsten McKinnon, a professional development coach.

"The first and often most challenging step is to fully acknowledge our workplace contributions. It's so easy to get immersed in the daily grind and not step back to take stock of the full impact of what we do. We can begin to take our strengths, talents and achievements for granted, resulting in the 'I was just doing my job' phenomenon," she says.

Richard S Deems, co-author of "Make Job Loss Work For You," suggests job seekers take the "So what?" approach to quantifying results.

"If you just tell me you're an editor of a monthly periodical I'll yawn and grab the next résumé," he says. "OK, so you're an editor -- so what? 'Well, I edit articles for a monthly periodical.' So what? 'Well, I get letters back from authors telling me they appreciated my editing work.' So what? 'Well, my superiors have noticed this.' So what? 'Well, they have asked me to submit several articles for a variety of awards and recognitions.' So what? 'Well, this past year I've received five awards for articles I've edited.' So what? 'Requests for reprints have increased by 41 percent.'"

To quantify your achievements, McKinnon says to remember that your role is part of a bigger picture. "No matter how mundane the task, each plays a role in the ultimate bottom-line of an organization. Everything we do (or don't do) has an impact on our workplace. This concept can be simultaneously empowering and daunting as we recognize the importance of our role," she says.

Cheryl E. Palmer, president, Call to Career, gives the following suggestions for areas when trying to quantify your achievements:

Time or money saved: "If you instituted a process improvement that saved time and made a procedure more efficient, you can estimate the amount of time saved by comparing the amount of time that the procedure initially required with the amount of time it took after you improved the process. This can be stated in units of time like hours, days or weeks, or it can be stated as a percentage," Palmer says. "By the same token, you can quantify the amount of money you saved for your organization. For example, you might have saved $1 million by switching vendors and negotiating a better price. You can state the dollar amount or the percentage of money saved."

New business for the company: "Even if you are not in sales, you may still have contributed to the bottom line by referring new business," Palmer reminds. "You can estimate how much money you earned for the company. Or perhaps your work led to more sales. If you are in marketing, you may have created materials that were used by salespeople to increase sales. Quantify the sales that were generated after the marketing collateral you created was implemented."

Increase in customer satisfaction: "You may have been in a position to directly impact customer satisfaction. If your company measures satisfaction through customer surveys and you know that there has been a significant improvement in the customer satisfaction scores as a result of your intervention, you can quantify that increase and write it as an accomplishment on your résumé," Palmer says. "You could say, 'Boosted customer satisfaction scores by 30 percent in six months by instituting a process that resolved most problems with one call.'"

Staff retention rates: "Instead of saying something generic like, 'Increased morale in the office,' talk about the fact that you initiated programs that boosted staff retention rates. This is significant because it is very costly to replace staff," Palmer says. "You can either mention the decrease in turnover or the increase in staff retention. Human resources should have data on staff turnover that you can use to compare what the turnover rate was before you came and what the turnover rate has been during your tenure."

If you're still having trouble attaching a number to your achievements at work, Heather Krasna, author of "Jobs That Matter: Find a Stable, Fulfilling Career in Public Service," suggests considering the following questions about your job duties:

1. What would have happened if you had done a bad job? How much money would have been lost; how many clients would have been disappointed; how many files misplaced? This helps you see your impact, she says.
2. Ask yourself if your contributions improved your organization. "Are things more efficient than they were before you came along? If so, by how many days was the turnaround time improved? How much staff time was saved, in hours per week? Are things being done in a higher quality way? If so, how many errors per month were reduced? Did you win an award or recognition for the improvement? Do your best to add numbers or percentages," she says.
3. For every bullet point in your résumé, look for the nouns in the statement and ask if a number or percentage can be added. "For instance, how many phone calls did you answer? How many records were in the database you managed? Make sure to include context -- list the timeframe within which you did the work," she suggests.
4. If you don't already, start keeping track of your accomplishments as soon as possible, she says. "Go back to your job and start a tally of how many clients you see per day, then make a guesstimate of how many you see per month. Look at your client notes, or go through your calendar and compile your appointments. Tracking your accomplishments will help you in performance reviews, even if you aren't job seeking. Even if you left a job, you can often call your former boss or co-workers and ask whether a project you worked on led to a certain result. Did your recommendations get considered, or better yet, implemented? If so, have they led to the desired result?"

No matter what your duties entail, it is possible to attach a number to your accomplishments. Take the time to do it, and you could find yourself in the running for your dream job.

Some Suggestions for Writing a World Class Resume

What IS a resume anyway?
Remember: a Resume is a self-promotional document that presents you in the best possible light, for the purpose of getting invited to a job interview. It's not an official personnel document. It's not a job application. It's not a "career obituary"! And it's not a confessional.

What should the resume content be about?
It's not just about past jobs! It's about YOU, and how you performed and what you accomplished in those past jobs--especially those accomplishments that are most relevant to the work you want to do next. A good resume predicts how you might perform in that desired future job.

What's the fastest way to improve a resume?
Remove everything that starts with "responsibilities included" and replace it with on-the-job accomplishments.

What is the most common resume mistake made by job hunters ?
Leaving out their Job Objective! If you don't show a sense of direction, employers won't be interested. Having a clearly stated goal doesn't have to confine you if it's stated well.

What's the first step in writing a resume?
Decide on a job target (or "job objective") that can be stated in about 5 or 6 words. Anything beyond that is probably "fluff" and indicates a lack of clarity and direction.

How do you decide whether to use a Chronological resume or a Functional one? The Chronological format is widely preferred by employers, and works well if you're staying in the same field (especially if you've been upwardly-mobile). Only use a Functional format if you're changing fields, and you're sure a skills-oriented format would show off your transferable skills to better advantage; and be sure to include a clear chronological work history!

What if you don't have any experience in the kind of work you want to do?
Get some! Find a place that will let you do some volunteer work right away. You only need a brief, concentrated period of volunteer training (for example, 1 day a week for a month) to have at least SOME experience to put on your resume. Also, look at some of the volunteer work you've done in the past and see if any of THAT helps document some skills you'll need for your new job.

What do you do if you have gaps in your work experience?
You could start by looking at it differently.
General Rule: Tell what you WERE doing, as gracefully as possible--rather than leave a gap.
If you were doing anything valuable (even if unpaid) during those so-called "gaps" you could just insert THAT into the work-history section of your resume to fill the hole. Here are some examples:

• 1993-95 Full-time parent -- or
• 1992-94 Maternity leave and family management -- or
• Travel and study -- or Full-time student -- or
• Parenting plus community service

What if you have several different job objectives you're working on at the same time? Or you haven't narrowed it down yet to just one job target?
Then write a different resume for each different job target. A targeted resume is MUCH, much stronger than a generic resume.

What if you have a fragmented, scrambled-up work history, with lots of short-term jobs?
To minimize the job-hopper image, combine several similar jobs into one "chunk," for example:

• 1993-1995 Secretary/Receptionist; Jones Bakery, Micro Corp., Carter Jewelers -- or
• 1993-95 Waiter/Busboy; McDougal's Restaurant, Burger King, Traders Coffee Shop.

Also you can just drop some of the less important, briefest jobs. But don't drop a job, even when it lasted a short time, if that was where you acquired important skills or experience.

What's the best way to impress an employer?
Fill your resume with "PAR" statements. PAR stands for Problem-Action-Results; in other words, first you state the problem that existed in your workplace, then you describe what you did about it, and finally you point out the beneficial results.

Here's an example: "Transformed a disorganized, inefficient warehouse into a smooth-running operation by totally redesigning the layout; this saved the company thousands of dollars in recovered stock."

Another example: "Improved an engineering company's obsolete filing system by developing a simple but sophisticated functional-coding system. This saved time and money by recovering valuable, previously lost, project records."

What if your job title doesn't reflect your actual level of responsibility?
When you list it on the resume, either replace it with a more appropriate job title (say "Office Manager" instead of "Administrative Assistant" if that's more realistic) OR use their job title AND your fairer one together, i.e. "Administrative Assistant (Office Manager)"

How can you avoid age discrimination?
If you're over 40 or 50 or 60, remember that you don't have to present your entire work history! You can simply label THAT part of your resume "Recent Work History" or "Relevant Work History" and then describe only the last 10 or 15 years of your experience. Below your 10-15 year work history, you could add a paragraph headed "Prior relevant experience" and simply refer to any additional important (but ancient) jobs without mentioning dates.

What if you never had any "real" paid jobs -- just self-employment or odd jobs? Give yourself credit, and create an accurate, fair job-title for yourself. For example:

• A&S Hauling & Cleaning (Self-employed) -- or
• Household Repairman, Self-employed -- or
• Child-Care, Self-employed

Be sure to add "Customer references available on request" and then be prepared to provide some very good references of people you worked for.

How far back should you go in your Work History?
Far enough; and not too far! About 10 or 15 years is usually enough - unless your "juiciest" work experience is from farther back.

How can a student list summer jobs?
Students can make their resume look neater by listing seasonal jobs very simply, such as "Spring 1996" or "Summer 1996" rather than 6/96 to 9/96. (The word "Spring" can be in very tiny letters, say 8-point in size.)

What if you don't quite have your degree or credentials yet?
You can say something like:

• Eligible for U.S. credentials -- or
• Graduate studies in Instructional Design, in progress -- or
• Master's Degree anticipated December 1997

What if you worked for only one employer for 20 or 30 years?
Then list separately each different position you held there, so your job progression within the company is more obvious.

What about listing hobbies and interests?
Don't include hobbies on a resume unless the activity is somehow relevant to your job objective, or clearly reveals a characteristic that supports your job objective. For example, a hobby of Sky Diving (adventure, courage) might seem relevant to some job objectives (Security Guard?) but not to others.

What about revealing race or religion?
Don't include ethnic or religious affiliations (inviting pre-interview discrimination) UNLESS you can see that including them will support your job objective. Get an opinion from a respected friend or colleague about when to reveal, and when to conceal, your affiliations.

What if your name is Robin Williams?
Don't mystify the reader about your gender; they'll go nuts until they know whether you're male or female. So if your name is Lee or Robin or Pat or anything else not clearly male or female, use a Mr. or Ms. prefix.

What if you got your degree from a different country?
You can say "Degree equivalent to U.S. Bachelor's Degree in Economics-Teheran, Iran."

What about fancy-schmancy paper?
Employers tell me they HATE parchment paper and pretentious brochure-folded resume "presentations." They think they're phony, and toss them right out. Use plain white or ivory, in a quality appropriate for your job objective. Never use colored paper unless there's a very good reason for it (like, you're an artist) because if it gets photo-copied the results will be murky.

Should you fold your resume?
Don't fold a laser-printed resume right along a line of text. The "ink" could flake off along the fold

References obtained from Yana Parker (http://damngood.com)

Dressing for Success

How you dress can make a difference in an interview. Just like a firm handshake or arriving on-time, your appearance is a part of your presentation why you are the best candidate. What you are wearing is the first thing a potential employer will notice about you and this is the first opportunity you will have to make a good impression. Your clothing should emulate the company’s and the industry’s environment and standards. A law firm, for instance, is usually very conservative while a more creative industry might more lax. If you cannot gauge the company’s dress code, even after viewing the company’s website, it is best to err on dressing conservatively and more formally than to arrive in inappropriate attire.

A few things to consider preparing for your interview:

• Dress comfortably; if you are uncomfortable, that might come across in an interview by you being distracted or fidgeting.
• Conservative dress entails solid colors, usually dark or muted, and nothing loud or flashy, such as big, or too much, jewelry.
• Women can wear either pants or a skirt, but hemlines and necklines need to be conservative.
• Ties should coordinate with a collared shirt, and have solid colors.
• Shoes should be polished and scuff-free. Women should avoid very high heels and any shoe that is difficult or uncomfortable to walk in.
• Fragrances, cologne, perfume, aftershave, scented lotions, etc., should not be used in case of an interviewer’s allergies.
• Hair and fingernails should be clean, neat and professional.

An interview is stressful enough, it is a great idea to have your outfit planned, cleaned and pressed.