Aside from a first date, the job interview can be the trickiest style and fashion challenge you’ll ever face. Here’s how to make sure you create the right impression.
Rule number one is to always always always risk being too formal than too casual. If you get things wrong, it’s far better to be seen as overdressed than underdressed.
For jobs with a lot of applicants, or in a remote location, it’s not uncommon for at least the first round of interviews to be conducted over the phone. That can be both a benefit and a drawback for applicants, so you’ll need to make the most of it.
One big strength is that you can use notes and refer to your CV during the interview, which you can’t always do in person. Make sure to have all the main details you’ll need to hand, but don’t have too much information written down or you’ll risk being unable to find something or being too reliant on your notes. On a similar note, keep a pen and paper to hand so you can jot down any notes or prompts.
A job or careers fair can be both an amazing opportunity and a source of terror. At worst it can feel somewhere between a speed dating night and a Friday night meat market. But there are several tips that can help you make the most of the day.
Planning is the big key. Try to get a copy of the list of company’s that will be at the even and work out which are your main priorities. This will help you work out a “plan of attack” so that you don’t run out of time — though of course you can always pick a couple of less important targets to visit first so that you get warmed up and overcome any nervousness.
While most job interview questions are sensible enough and deal with your experience and skills, there are several questions that sometimes pop-up that aren’t so easy to deal with. The trick is to understand what the interviewer is really trying to find out by asking the question.
“What are your greatest weaknesses?” often feels like a trick question designed to trip you up. If you say something bad, you are undermining yourself, but if you try to give a trick answer like “I work too hard”, you look arrogant. One solution here is to pick something that is a weakness but is very common and can’t be held against you. Another is to intentionally misinterpret the question and talk about a weakness you used to have but explain how you overcame it and either resolved it or turned it into an advantage.
The biggest problem in jobseeking is the no experience/no job paradox, but that’s run a close second by the irony of being unable to get a job because you are “overqualified”. But this doesn’t have to be a career killer, at least not if you understand why employers see it as a problem.
The main reason companies are wary about “overqualified” candidates is that they believe they are unlikely to remain in the job long and are using it as a stop-gap. This means that the staff time and money spent in training them for the new role, as well as the human resources admin, will be wasted.
Most of us were brought up to be honest, truthful citizens who could never tell a lie. But what counts as truth and lies can be a grey area, and you may have to give the subject some thought.
Above all else, telling a flat-out lie is a terrible idea, simply because it means an employer can immediately withdraw a job offer. While “probationary periods” are something of a myth, an employer could fire you if it turns out you’ve lived, particularly in your first year in the job.
More and more desk-based jobs these days are advertised for telecommuting roles, and in other cases employers may be open to persuasion. Here are a few things to think about when deciding if remote working is right for you.
The big one is the lack of commuting. The savings from not driving or taking public transport may be outweighed by a lower salary, but you’ll still be saving time and hassle: in effect you could easily be getting two extra hours to yourself each day.
Even in these tough times when any job opportunity can seem like a great one, we still turn to the salary when we look at a job ad. But simply finding the biggest number isn’t the best way to compare jobs. Here are a few other things you need to take into account.
What counts as a good salary depends on where you’ll be working. For example, while private jobs don’t have the formal system of public sector jobs London weighting, you could still expect a higher salary in the capital than in a more rural area, simply because the cost of living is higher. Wherever you work, you’ll need to take into account how much accommodation will cost and, for fixed-term contracts, whether the costs of relocating are worthwhile. If you’re looking for jobs nearer to your current home, the cost of commuting may be a big issue.
Getting through to a second interview is a classic good news, bad news situation. It’s good news that you’re being taken seriously as a candidate, but bad news because things are about to get a lot tougher.
The main thing to expect at a second interview is that things will become far more specific. Questions are likely to focus on how well you’ll do in the role and what adjustments will be needed. Because of this, you can’t simply be complacent and assume you’ve already proven your suitability. Instead it’s time to revisit your research into the company and the role: for example, while it might be sufficient to know about the national picture at a first interview for chain store jobs, Nottingham applicants going for a second interview should know about specific issues at the local branch.
When you apply for a job, there’s a good chance your prospective employer will verify your references, your work history or even your professional qualifications. But a recent survey found that companies are increasingly looking at social media profiles to get more information about candidates.
In some cases it’s hard to complain about the outcome. If your CV has a five-year gap from “travelling” but your Facebook photo album shows you celebrating as you walk out of HMP Pentonville, you can expect to miss out on the job. But sometimes there’s more of a grey line. For example, if your profile shows you have “Liked” an extremist political group, a potential employer might give you a miss, even though were you already working for them, they probably couldn’t fire you over that info. There are limits of course: when applying for jobs, Nottingham Forest fans should still get a fair shake from Notts County-supporting HR staff!
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