Create a Personal Power Statement

In 30 Second Summaries and in Resumes, consider the power of words that describe a person's character, values, and skills perfectly. Creating a power statement is imperative for all persons at any level. Individuals need to be effective in communicating their strengths and accomplishments at any educational level. 

When presenting oneself to others, there is a need to present information to validate one's values, character, and skills in a powerful and succinct manner. 

This could be difficult without the guidance presented here.

Things to say in an interview

Your interview is usually your first (possibly only)  opportunity to present yourself.  You need to be able to effectively communicate your skill set and show the best competitive advantage to secure employment. 

During the interview process, you want to highlight as many of your strengths as possible. An easy way to do this is by slipping a few simple phrases into the job interview. 

Find seven things you should be ready to say in an interview here.

Evaluate Your Job Offer

A job offer ? – Congratulations! You’re probably excited, but don’t let your excitement get in the way of evaluating the offer objectively.  Make sure that you fully understand the terms being offered to you before you accept it.

You seldom have the luxury of deciding on multiple offers.  Any offer usually requests a reply in just a few days. What other interviews do you have outstanding? Might you make a follow up call to determine the decision time-frame? Be sure to observe the offers specified deadline.

For five points to consider in accepting an offer see the entire article here.

Research with an Informational Interview

An informational interview is a meeting to learn about the real-life experience of someone working in a field or company that interests you.

It's not a job interview, so it's important to keep focused on getting information, not a job offer. It has future value in its planning and conversational interaction. Three steps will outline the process:

• Find contacts.
• Make connections
• Hold a meeting. 

For details on utilizing an informational interview, see the article here.

Use and Evaluate a Mock Interview

In order to polish your performance in an interview you can engage a person to ask some tough questions.

As a job seeker, you have to practice for your upcoming interview.  This practice interview, or mock interview, provides the opportunity to gain experience fielding questions for the purpose of polishing your answers and professional presence.

Maximize the benefit you gain from this valuable exercise by creating a rubric from which to assess your mock interview performance.

See the criteria for an assessment in the full article here

How To Calm Your Mind For An Interview

Job interviews are stressful business, but they do not have to make you crazy with worry if you focus your thoughts on three main things: 

• preparation
• positive thinking
• presentation

The thought of a job interview can make your head spin. There can be much anxiety prior to an interview– What will they ask? Will I know the answers? Do I look okay? What if I just freeze? Will they like me? Will I like them?

For more details on the three key factors see the article here.

Address Long-Term Unemployment in Interviews

For the long-term unemployed feelings of despair and bitterness are understandable. It is important to deal with those feelings privately, and not carry them with you into a job interview. It is human nature to respond to positivity and avoid negativity – employers want to hire someone upbeat and positive.

There is no sure opportunity killer than expressing your views about the economy or job market in your interview. Employers know the market setting, but in the interview setting, all they care about is finding the right person for the job. 

For thoughts on answering questions related to frustration long job searches see the article here.

Polish Interview Skills at Job Fairs

At any stage of our job search you can take advantage of Job Fairs. Even as you are preparing your resume, which of course you want to be perfect, use a job fair as a dry run for interviewing. This includes dressing for the occasion, and a 30 second summary.

Use the Job Fair in parallel with your other preparations – practice for the final event of a real interview. This interview will be very short, so the pressure will be less.  The handshake, eye contact, speaking and responding are all valuable experiences to have been through prior to receiving a real interview invitation.

For more details see the complete article here.

Job Fairs Are Not a Waste of Time

Armed with your resume and the floor plan of the Companies participating, you are ready to stand in some long lines. Your objective is to present your resume to a select few of the recruiters.  To make the most of the opportunity some upfront planning and research is warranted.

This is an opportunity to present yourself in a mini-interview without the presuure of participating in the real thing. What you do at the fair may or may not result in any further contact.

For a list of 25 reasons to prepare and attend a fair see the article here.

Your Elevator Speech

The 30 second summary, often referred to as “the elevator speech” is a simple concept; it’s how you present yourself to others in 30 seconds, whether it is a person with whom you are networking, or perhaps an old friend who you actually do meet in the elevator!

Crafting that perfect elevator speech is not so simple. Most people experience some degree of difficulty in deciding what information to include in their summary.  Many are fearful about their ability to deliver their summary in a smooth, conversational tone.  Although 30 seconds does not seem like a long time, think about a 30 second commercial on television; you can convey a tremendous amount of information in 30 seconds!

A 30 second summary must be compelling and leave the listener wanting more.  For considerations to accomplish this see the full article here.

Job Interview Tips for Job-Seekers

When you have successfully mastered cover letters, resumes, and job applications and are receiving requests for interviews, it’s time to understand how to succeed in the job interview so that you are ever closer to your goal of obtaining one or more job offers.

See the 10 most important job-interviewing tips for job-seekers here.

Successful Interview Techniques

Being well prepared for an interview will help you be confident and impress the interviewer(s).

The key to a successful interview is adequate preparation. Most employers ask the same basic questions, so prepare answers before an interview. A list of questions frequently asked by employers, with some ideas on how you might answer can be found in the complete article here.

Use Impressive Written Communication

Aside from resumes, your job search will likely require you to write effectively to communicate your capabilities.  Interviews are great when you can get one, but they are usually the result of prior written communication. 

Your effectiveness in writing cover letters, completing applications, and sending follow-up thank-you letters depends on paying attention to the details. For pointers on these three necessary documents see the material here.

Job offer? Ask yourself 5 questions

If your carefully crafted Resume, job searching and a few interviews have finally landed you a job offer, what now?  No longer is it necessary for job seekers to jump at the first opportunity that comes along; if you’re talented, experienced and personable enough, there will be more where that came from.

But for candidates, simply realizing they have a certain amount of agency and leverage in the job hunt is only the first step. After all, having a measure of power is one thing, but making a power play is another. If in the course of your search you land on a job that, on the surface, appears to suit your interests, it’s important to ask some difficult questions of the position, the company, and yourself before saying yes.

See five key issues to consider here.

Contact Hiring Managers Directly

Wish you could contact hiring managers directly? And without necessarily sending out your resume first? Today's technology is literally changing how this is possible. 

The Switch Job App is a new way to test the job searching market without necessarily looking for a job. There are no time-consuming applications to fill out and no job searching needed. It takes only a few minutes to sign up with nothing being posted on the Internet for full security. You complete a short profile on-line in four minutes or less with two major ingredients: 

• Provide your Linkedin URL and identify the specific job titles that you are most interested in. The Switch Job App does the rest by regularly sending you directly the jobs that best meet your expectations.
• Your Linkedlin posting is your calling card! But have your resume and other credentials ready to go when you receive contact information of each job's hiring manager if you both match up through your social media postings.

Presently, there are over 1,000 employers connected to the Switch Job App which is totally free and it is growing exponentially. The rest of what happens is rather innovative. If your Linkedin account is razor sharp and meets the needs of the posted jobs, learn more about this new way to directly contact hiring managers here.

Impress anyone in under 30 seconds

Experts estimate that 85% of your financial success comes not from your skills or knowledge, but from your ability to connect with other people and engender their trust and respect.

Within seconds, everyone you meet forms an impression that largely determines whether they’ll like, trust, and and respect you. Making a good impression is absolutely critical.

Whether you are raising money for your company, or you are managing your team or leading your business, connecting to people and making a great impression is very important.

For some tips to help win hearts and minds in 30 seconds see the article here.

Surprising Job Interview Tips

Your carefully designed dynamic resume landed you an interview; now it’s time to seal the deal. So what’s the best way to prepare?

Drawing on experience, interviews, research, and most importantly, employees from today’s most coveted companies, useful tips have been developed. These are deep insights beyond the typical “sit up straight!” and “dress to impress!” commonly suggested.

See the dozen best tips before, during and after your interview here.

Using Power Statements

Communicating your value to the reader of your resume or your profile is of prime importance. Your value or ability to satisfy the positon requirements is being compared to many other candidates being reviewed. Using well thought out power statements helps you hold a position for further consideration.

Power statements are appropriate for use in your application, resume and online profile. During an interview these principles are applicable to your work experience examples s you reply to questions.

Review the use of power statements here.

Add Pizazz to Your Interview

The job interview is the most anxiety-inducing part of the job search; it's incredibly frustrating to spend time, energy and effort on making a great impression without getting the position as your reward. If you find this happening to you over and over, you may need to sharpen your interview skills. Make sure the following techniques are part of your strategy.

• Use your resume as a reference point
• Present your accomplishments numerically
• Understand the company
• Let your personality come through

For the details of these points see the complete article here.

Interview Etiquette

If your effective resume or a personal introduction has provided you with an invitation to interview, do not mess it up.

The first step to a career victory is to adequately prepare for the interview. Use etiquette tips for interviews to ensure you are making the best impression possible to your prospective employer.  To see a graphic path to success, with do's and don't, select the link here.