Common Mistakes in Interviews I won’t go so far as to say it is the mistake that matters most or even the one that most interviewers will recognize, but let’s face it—interviewers are looking for reasons to rule you out as a candidate for the position. Perhaps some of them aren’t but most are and […]
There Are Three Interview Questions You Should Never Ask If you’re fortunate enough to be invited to interview with a company, do yourself a favor and do not waste their time. What do I mean by that? It’s simple. Most people who are assigned to an interview team probably don’t want to be there. To […]
An Interview Is Like a Date I think it’s safe to say that the majority of people reading this have been on a date before. It may have been a long time, but I’m sure you remember the drill—or most of it. Your time for dating may be over, but probably not for interviewing. I […]
Interview Questions When I think of the interview questions a person needs to ask, quite a few come to mind. Some of the ones I recommend are a little too risky, but there are others that you’d be wise to consider; in fact, many companies expect you to ask them. Candidates don’t often think of this, but […]
What a Headhunter Doesn’t Tell You Working with headhunters can be beneficial, helpful, troublesome, and frustrating. And sometimes all of these can be rolled up into one experience. The best way to deal with headhunters is for both parties to be honest. The problem is that not all job seekers—or headhunters—follow that rule. I’ll cover […]
What To Say When You Don’t Know The Answer To An Interview Question Interviews are easy, especially when you’re prepared for them. Some people, however, grow anxious as interview time approaches. They are unsure how to answer interview questions. Relax. Take a deep breath. I know you may be nervous, but there’s no need to […]
Behavioral Interview Questions—Tell Me About Yourself Before we get started with this section, let’s talk a little about how to answer questions. Yes, (said with a sigh) there is a method to everything, especially when dealing with behavioral interviewing questions, and especially when dealing with the seemingly innocent “tell me about yourself” question. Most companies […]
How To Close the Job Interview Your Way There are a gazillion (I know I keep using that word, but I love it) ways to close the deal, and if you read enough articles and books, you’re bound to encounter conflicting opinions on how to do it and what the most important thing to do is. My […]
Preparing For the Question—Why Did You Leave Your Last Position One of the most important parts of an interview is the preparation phase. That is where you research the company and the interview team, and practice how you’ll answer the questions the team might ask. And trust me, the outcome of the interview’s success is […]
Learn How to Hire the Right Person—It’s Like A Horse Race Some of you might think that’s a strange analogy, but learning how to hire the right person and selecting winning horses are very much alike. And neither one of them is easy. When I was a little kid, I worked at the race track selling papers. […]
Is The Weakness Question The Most Important Interview Question? HR reps and headhunters don’t always agree, but one thing they are usually in sync on is the most important interview question—what is your greatest weakness. You might be reading this and think…”They didn’t ask me that in my last interview.” But they probably did, although […]
I Feel Good When I ask people “How are you?”, I typically receive a response of “I’m well, thank you.” But is that the right response? Should you say good or well? This is a particularly sensitive issue, because in almost every interview situation candidates are asked something similar to “How are you?” And you’ll probably […]
Interview Don’ts That Will Help You Seal The Deal I realize a large part of the advice I’m dishing out is “don’t do this,” or “don’t do that.” And I’m sure you’ve heard most of them previously, but in case you forgot, or maybe missed a few, here’s a quick reminder. It’s important because knowing […]
Interview Myths, Or Facts? Okay, you made it through the phone screen, you did your research and other preparation, and now you’re going for an on-site interview. Before you go, let’s review some of the more common interview myths to see if they’re true or not. The Interviewer Is Always Prepared—Myth Unfortunately, that’s not always […]
The Danger of a Coffee-Shop Interview Don’t Think a Coffee-Shop Interview Is Easy Many candidates think a coffee-shop interview is as easy as it gets, and yet, it might be the toughest—if you don’t keep your guard up. How tough can it be? You are dressed casually. You’re at a public place on neutral ground. […]
Be Perfect On Your Next Interview—Use The Goldilocks Method I realize this sounds ridiculous, but when you give it thought, a large part of the interview process is about avoiding mistakes. Yes, you have to show them you have the experience to do the job. Yes, you have to be able to answer their questions […]
Body Language, A Candidate’s Perspective If you’re preparing for an interview, you need to give some consideration to what your body language is saying about you. I’m not a fan of body-language interpretation, but I think I’m in the minority because everyone else seems to be on a body-language kick. Do an Internet search for […]
New Interview Technique Using “King Of The Hill†as an Interview Technique I’ve been in the recruiting business for 30 years, and I’m always searching for a new interview technique. A lot of what I’ve learned in life has come from observing the animals on our sanctuary; it’s amazing what you can pick up from […]
How To Handle Interview Feedback In preparation for writing my No Mistakes Careers books, I talked to hundreds, perhaps even thousands of candidates and asked them what their biggest complaints were about the hiring process. I told them we wanted their input and it didn’t matter whether it was about dealing with headhunters or directly […]
How To Answer Interview Questions Tell Me About Yourself This is an almost universal question, but the problem is that you never know why they’re asking it or what they expect to hear. Many people think the interviewer just wants to hear your answer. Unfortunately, a lot of times this question is asked because the […]
Use or Utilize This post is more for the professional crowd. I may have mentioned that I worked as a headhunter for more than thirty years. During that time, I got a lot of résumés—more than twelve thousand of them. One thing that used to jump out at me was how people tried so hard […]
Make Sure Your Résumé Isn’t Wasting My Time When companies need to hire someone, they resort to what they feel is a process that works, and all too often, it’s a black-and-white decision. It has to be. The person screening résumés has a stack of 200–400 or more applications in front of them, and they […]
Ten Best Words to Put on a Résumé A while ago, I did a post on the ten words to avoid on your résumé. You can see it here. In that article, I mentioned how many of the “go-to” words people typically use are useless. I’m including a table I used in that post to show […]
Rules You Shouldn’t Break When Writing a Résumé The easy answer to that statement is “all of them” but that wouldn’t be correct. As we saw in a previous post, there are a few rules you want to break. The majority of them, however, should be adhered to. So read on for a quick rundown […]
Seven Worst Résumé Mistakes There are a lot of mistakes people make when writing résumés. Some are forgivable and some not. But instead of talking about all the mistakes, let’s just discuss the seven worst résumé mistakes. What Is a Résumé’s Purpose? We’ve talked about this before also. A résumé has only one purpose—to get […]
It Takes a Great Résumé to Get an Interview Before we begin, let’s look at a few things that take a résumé down a peg or two. Spelling mistakes. This may be the number one reason why résumés go into the trash, and yet they’re so easy to fix. A quick run with a spellchecker […]
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