As a sequel to my previous post on how to do well at job interviews, this post will talk about the preparations that you can do in the time leading up to your interview. These are practical guidelines to help you tie up loose ends and mentally prepare yourself so that you do not have last minute and unnecessary stress over things you may have overlooked.

When you are contacted for the interview, you should ask a few preliminary questions to help your preparation. You should always ask about what documents are required when you attend the interview. Jot them down and make sure that you have them ready. If it is not asked of you, you should still bring a copy of your resume to the interview. This will also help you as a reference in case you have many versions of resumes sent to different companies at the same time. You don’t want to be confused over which set you have sent to that particular interviewer. You should also bring your education certifications, last three months’ pay slips and any proof of a pay increment, if any.

You should also ask who your interviewers are. Find out their names and their positions in the company if possible. When you have this information, you can do some research and find out more about these individuals so that you know what to expect in terms of their management style, personalities, etc. It is not that easy to find out such personal information most of the time, but if you are well connected, you can ask around friends and get to know who may have heard or know your interviewers.

Also, ask for a contact number and person should you need to contact them. This will come in useful in case of emergency. If for some reason you need to reschedule the interview, at least you are able to be in touch and explain your situation. Also, if you happen to run late on the day of the interview, you should have the courtesy to call to inform.

Take time to decide what you want to wear to the interview. Select something that you feel comfortable and confident wearing. A day or two in advance of the interview, give your outfit a good ironing. Doing this in advance would be a big time saver on the day of the interview, as well as an insurance in case things go wrong on the day you need to wear your power suit, like a power cut which prevents you from ironing out your clothes. This is not paranoid thinking, it could very well happen. In addition, you should also decide on matching shoes and give them a good polish in advance.

Plan your route in advance too, especially if your interview is scheduled at peak hours. Expect delays in traffic conditions and give yourself plenty of time to get there. No harm getting there earlier than to sit in traffic and panic that you will be late. You may also want to enquire about the parking arrangements if you are not familiar with the venue. At most corporate buildings, there are ample parking spaces in the basements, but there are also some buildings that have limited space so you may need to find alternatives. If you have this information beforehand, it could save you a lot of time scouting the area for parking.

As much as the interview will be on your mind a lot, you should also try to take it easy. It is advisable that you take the day off from your job to attend the interview. Most people tend to take half a day of leave if the interview is scheduled in the afternoon. I would like to suggest that you take the entire day off so that you have the morning free and easy. Have an early start on the day of the interview. Do things at a pace that you are comfortable with. Have a hot shower, listen to your favourite music, burn some essential oils and have a positive mindset.

You should do some homework about the company, the role that you have applied for and of course go through the thought process of the possible questions to be asked. You can refer to my earlier post and think through your answers.

Last but not least, you know yourself best and how you can relax the best way possible. Do what it takes and stay in a happy mood. It shows when you are cheerful and confident and it helps to present that positive disposition around you when you meet your interviewers.

Related Tips

• How to do well at job interviews
• Tips on writing a concise resume

This post is brought to you by: Useful Tips For Life

How to prepare for an interview

Attending job interviews can be nerve-wrecking. Especially so for people who do not know how to sell themselves well. It’s as much some science as it is an art to be able to do well in this. Fortunately, improving your interview skills is something that you can learn and practise on. Practise makes perfect, so if you are called for an interview, make sure you put in as much effort as you can to do some homework so that you can perform your best. You don’t want to walk out of an interview feeling that you’ve just blown away a great opportunity just because you did not spare the time to work on it beforehand.

Here are some tips on how you can prepare yourself for that all-important interview, and hopefully ace it.

You have heard the phrase “first impression counts” and that is absolutely true at a job interview. Show up at the employer’s office in a well-groomed manner, meticulously dressed if you have to. Pay attention to small details like making sure your hair is not in a mess, your make-up should be kept to a bare minimum instead of appearing like you’re ready to party all night. Ensure that your shirt, trousers/pants or skirt is properly pressed and your shoes are clean. For guys, also be sure that you are wearing a pair of matching socks (it’s easy to mismatch a blue and black sock when looked under dim lighting!). Try to avoid clothes that are made of easily crumpled materials such as linen. Wear clothes that are you comfortable in so that you do not feel self-conscious.

Having taken care of your appearance, you also need to show substance at the interview. You need to do a lot more homework in this area than your grooming efforts. One of the first things you should do is to do some research on the hiring company. Get to know as much of the company and its culture as possible. It bodes well with the interviewer that you have bothered to spend time and effort to find out about the company. This shows initiative on your part.

The next thing you need to work on is to anticipate some favourite questions normally asked at interviews. Some of these questions can be tricky to answer and some may even prove to be difficult. Nevertheless, it’s better to think ahead and prepare your answers than to be caught offguard. Here are some questions you can think about for appropriate answers before you attend the interview:

 ”Tell me about yourself”

This general question is usually the way an interviewer begins the interview. Your answer to this should focus NOT on personal information but more towards your education and working experiences. You are expected to give a brief description of what you have done (roles and responsibilites) at each employment. You can also talk about skills you have acquired and whatever additional knowledge you have.

“What are your strengths and weaknesses?”

Whilst it’s easy to talk about your strengths, it’s difficult to spell out your weaknesses. No interviewees will truly reveal the flaws in them. You need to think through this very carefully and give answers that do not jeopardize your chances of being employed. Some weaknesses can actually be looked at positively if you can position it wisely. For example, being a slow decision-maker can be turned around to give an impression of a person who takes time to thoroughly weigh the costs and benefits of a situation, a good way of risk management, etc. So you may want to think along the lines of how you can turn a “bad” into a “good”. No one likes to elaborate on flaws, so do not try to go into detail about your weaknesses, whatever they may be.

“Why should I hire you?”

To this question, it’s best that you channel your answer to focus on the value add you are bringing to the company rather than to make a comparison of yourself to other candidates or persons. Focus on what you can do good that will be an asset to the company.

“What value-add would you bring to the company?”

Match your skills and experiences to what the job you are interviewing for and see how you can contribute positively to it. If it is a similar job to your current one, your years of experience may give you an edge in terms of how you are able to help implement some best practises or bring about simpler yet effective ways of doing things. If you are interviewing for a completely different job or industry, what you may be able to contribute may be your vast views and different methods of looking at things and therefore bring about fresh perspectives of a situation. Sometimes, diversity works well.

“Where do you see yourself five years down the road?”

Many employers would like to know what your plans in life are like. To answer this question, think about where you want to move on in your career path. Naturally, everybody says they want to be better off, in a higher position than before, and so on and so forth. If you have specific plans in mind like being an expert in a certain field, let that be known. It may not be in the capacity you are interviewing for, and you may point out that the job is a milestone towards your end goal. If you are able to paint a clear picture of where you are headed and how you see yourself getting there, it should we well accepted.

There are many more questions that you can think of and prepare for. The ones highlighted above are just some of the more common and difficult ones to answer on-the-spot. So put on your thinking cap and work out convincing answers. However, when responding to these questions, avoid sounding too rehearsed with your answers. No one likes textbook answers and they are easily detectable if you sound too stiff and academic about it.

Apart from answering questions, you should also be asking questions of your interviewer. Ask relevant questions regarding the job scope, the company’s directions and expectations, etc.  You may even ask about the working environment and culture.

Some gestures are also important to the interviewer to form impressions of you. Usually, a handshake is the appropriate thing to do when you first introduce yourself to the interviewer. However, if you do not get a chance for a handshake at the start of the interview, you can also initiate one at the end when you stand up to thank the interviewer. When giving a handshake, give it a firm grip. It’s a no-no to offer a flimsy hand as it shows insincerity or the lack of character. A firm handshake shows confidence and look the person in the eye when you are doing this.

Whatever you do, always tell the truth at a job interview. The reason is simple. If you are asked to elaborate on a story you were telling, you will be able to explain it clearly and convincingly if it was a true occurrance. To make up a story on-the-spot to support what you said is not advisable because you will likely fumble the more you are asked to talk about it. So stay true to your course and earn the job through merits. After all, you want a job that you can cope with rather than to wear a hat that’s bigger than your head.

Here’s wishing you the best of luck and we hope that the tips have helped you. Go on and ace that interview and earn the dream job you deserve!

Related Tips

• How to prepare for an interview
• Tips on writing a concise resume

This post is brought to you by: Useful Tips For Life

How to do well at job interviews

Nothing impresses a potential employer more than how you can say what they want to hear in the shortest time possible, and in a very easy to understand manner too. Imagine having to go through tonnes of resumes and to shortlist a handful in the hope that they are as good as they say, it can be a total nightmare. Remember that reading through resumes is only part of the job on top of countless deadlines. So if you are able to impress the reader at first point of communication, you will most likely be high on the list to get a call for an interview. Provided, of course, that you fit the job. Read on to find out some tips on how you can write a concise resume.

There are many samples of resumes that you can find either from helpful friends or even from online searches. It’s easy enough to start that way, just having to fill out whatever information from those sample resumes. However, it is also not such a bad thing to start writing your resume from scratch. It enables you to write it in the exact format that you want, and to only provide information that will truly be useful to your potential employers.

Let’s go through some categories of information that normally make up a resume.

Personal Details

In this category, you normally would provide your name in full, age, nationality, contact details, etc. All’s fine and necessary. But what I wish to highlight here are more of the “don’t do”. Here are some stuff that you should exclude and I’ll tell you why along the way.

Date of birth – If you have already provided your age, I don’t think it’s necessary to inform the reader when you were born. It’s not as if the reader wants to know your horoscope or zodiac sign from your date of birth.

Place of birth – This is also not necessary because it doesn’t tell the reader how capable you are. Don’t put this in just to add more lines to your resume. Remember that less is more.

Hobbies – I think this would be appropriate once you’ve been employed and the company requires you to fill out some forms provided by HR. The employer may want to know you better as a person but I don’t think a potential interviewer would like to know if you prefer watching TV or going for a swim.

Education Background

In this segment, it is important that you list down whatever awards you may have received, however small it may be. Nothing is too insignificant if you received recognition for it. If you don’t blow your own little trumpet, no one will do it for you. So be proud of all your achievements and flaunt it.

Don’t forget to mention other activities that you have been involved in during your school days too. These are important to show your all-roundedness. It is important for your potential employer to know your other talents on top of good grades in the classrooms.

Work Experience

If you ask me, I personally feel that it is of no harm if you list your work experience in point form rather than in long paragraphs. Of course it is useful to explain your achievements and it may build up well in a narrative way in paragraphs, but if you are able to put them in straight-forward point form, it will save your reader a lot of time. Remember that time is of the essence and the more time you save your reader to find out about you, the better.

It is also not that important to rate yourself in the area of using office softwares like Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. It is a given these days that you must possess some reasonable skills in using these vital tools. So if you are not a proficient user, all the more you should not be highlighting this. If you are a genius at it, you may rate yourself perfect but then again anyone can rate themselves a 10 out of 10 and it lies with the reader whether or not to believe you. So in my opinion, this is another waste of space and effort to read. Unless you have some very niche or specific knowledge of a particular software, then it will be worth mentioning, especially if it is written up as an advantage in the recruitment advertisement.

Other Information

It is important to let your potential employer know your estimated date of availability, i.e. notice period with your current employer. This is a must to include in your resume. You may also want to indicate whether you are for or against heavy traveling so that you and your potential employer do not waste time if you have deferring stance on this. More often than not, if you are not gamed for heavy traveling, it is normally not negotiable as you probably have very strong reasons for it. So be upfront about your preference if you know that it will likely be a deal-breaker.

One other thing which is subjective is whether or not you should reveal your salaries and your expected salary with the potential employer. From my own experience, I found that not talking about salaries in the resume helps me get a foot into the office for an interview. It is only upon judgement (if I may call it that) of my performance at the interview that the interviewer will consider if I am worth the salary asked for.

I hope the above tip has helped you in fine-tuning or even write your resume from scratch. Your resume should give the best of you in the least words as possible. In other words, describe yourself well in the most concise way. Say what you need to say in the most straight-forward way and avoid beating around the bush or using too flowery language. Having said that, it is also important to be grammatically correct at all times so do watch your language closely. Check and recheck your resume for errors before sending it out.

Related Tips

• How to prepare for an interview
• How to do well at job interviews

This post is brought to you by: Useful Tips For Life

Tips on writing a concise resume