Month: March 2013

What Questions Do Employers Want to Hear at an Interview?

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Once you’ve received the call from an employer inviting you in for an interview, the real preparation begins. Prior to an interview, candidates should research the company so they can not only answer questions, but have questions ready to ask the hiring manager as well.

The interview is where the job candidate and employer get to know each other. Think of it like dating. While a job interview is in a professional setting and the outcomes are different, the intentions are the same. You’ve exchanged information because you think there might be a connection, and now you’re ready for your “first date.” As much as you want to make a good first impression, the employer needs to make a good impression, too.

Just like a first date, you don’t want one person to dominate the conversation and ask all the questions. It should be a balanced dialogue, and you should ask questions that get to the heart of the matter: Who is this employer, and why should I work for this company?

The right questions to ask
Alan Guinn, managing director and CEO of The Guinn Consultancy Group, works with employers every day. He recommends that recruiters listen for these 10 questions from job applicants to see if they’ve done their homework and truly want the position:

1. I’ve been told that I work very well as a team member. What are some of the ways your company encourages teamwork?

2. We all know how important job satisfaction is to everyone. I want to be happy in any role. Is the company committed to promotion from within, whenever possible?

3. I love your published mission and values. How are these reflected in day-to-day life at the company? Can you share some examples with me?

4. If your son, daughter or a friend was looking for a job, would you recommend working for this company? Why?

5. What do you think distinguishes this company from its competitors, both from a public and employee perspective?

6. How often do you speak with your C-level officers? When you do, what do they normally ask you? Do they ask for your opinion?

7. How does the company demonstrate a sense of pride in its employees? Can you help me understand what it looks for in return?

8. Are there paid, ongoing learning opportunities offered at my level of job responsibility? What obligations do I have if I elect to take advantage of them?

9. What does the company expect in the way of personal and professional growth for a person hired into this position?

10. Does the company value a difference in work and personal time, or does it blur the responsibilities between the two?

Think about your goals first
Don’t feel obligated to walk into the interview with a set number of questions, but these give you an idea of the right questions to ask. Also think of the questions in terms of your career and personal goals. If you’re moving into a role with more responsibility, how will that affect what questions you ask? If you’re starting a family soon, what do you want to know about the company’s commitment to work/life balance?

Thoughtful planning and preparation for an interview will not only help you feel more confident but will also leave a great impression on the person interviewing you.

Six Ways to Mess Up Your Interview

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Here is an interesting article by CareerBuilder Witer Susan Ricker. Here at BarryStaff we can do everything right to get you that interview with our client. But after that it’s up to you to not blow it. Take note of these mistakes.

Six Ways to Mess Up Your Interview

From applicant tracking systems to appropriate résumés, there are more than enough hurdles to overcome before getting a job interview. The interview itself might be the biggest challenge for some job seekers, who leave having no clue how it went.
CareerBuilder surveyed hiring managers to find out what’s going on in job interviews and why a promising candidate may not get picked. Six factors contributed to why interviews go badly for some, and while these mistakes may not seem substantial on their own, the job market is still too competitive to allow these simple errors to slide.
When asked to identify the top mistakes made by job seekers during interviews, hiring managers reported:

 Mistake No. 1: Appearing uninterested — 62 percent of employers
Tip: Body language and how you respond to the interviewer’s questions may be sending a different message than what you mean. Be attentive during the interview, sit up straight and make eye contact with your interviewer. Take your time responding to give thoughtful answers that convey your interest in the position.

 Mistake No. 2: Answering a cell phone or texting — 60 percent
Tip: As soon as you enter the site for your interview, turn your phone off and put it away. While it may be tempting to use your phone while you’re waiting or leave it on silent, don’t risk your chances of getting the job because you wanted to check your phone. Focus your attention on the interview.

Mistake No. 3: Dressing inappropriately — 60 percent
Tip: While what you wear on the job will vary by industry and company, the standard and most appropriate look for a job interview is a business suit or “business casual,” a collared shirt and dress pants. You should look and feel professional so both you and the interviewer can focus on your answers and not on your clothing.

Mistake No. 4: Talking negatively about a current or previous employer — 58 percent
Tip: Interview answers can walk a fine line between showing your appreciation for past employers and asserting that the current job opportunity is preferable. Stay positive during your interview and concentrate on how your past roles have prepared you for the current role. If you did have a negative experience, keep your answer short and end on a positive, such as what you learned from it.

Mistake No. 5: Failure to make eye contact (72 percent) or smile (42 percent), bad posture (38 percent) and a weak handshake (28 percent)
Tip: While interviews can be stressful and nerve-wracking, do your best to appear confident and friendly by preparing for your interview and practicing your answers ahead of time. When you’re adequately prepared, your confidence and smart answers will wow the hiring manager.

Mistake No. 6: Not providing specific examples — 34 percent
Tip: When answering your interviewer’s questions, remember that they’re trying to make a smart business decision about whom to hire. While you may think that you’re the most creative, capable and task-oriented candidate, it’s best to provide quantifiable proof of your worth, such as how much new business you brought in or the top ways you saved your company money.

What else can job seekers do to prepare for interviews? “A job interview can be one of the most nerve-wracking experiences out there, so it’s important to plan and practice,” says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “Have a friend run through a mock interview with you, asking questions you think will come up and some curve balls you’re not expecting. Thoroughly research the company ahead of time, and draft responses that incorporate your accomplishments. The more prepared you are, the less likely you are to run into mishaps.”

St Patrick’s Day

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St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March 17, the saint’s religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1,000 years. On St. Patrick’s Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink and feast–on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.

St. Patrick and the First St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Saint Patrick, who lived during the fifth century, is the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland. Born in Roman Britain, he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16. He later escaped, but returned to Ireland and was credited with bringing Christianity to its people. In the centuries following Patrick’s death (believed to have been on March 17, 461), the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in the Irish culture: Perhaps the most well known legend is that he explained the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock.
Since around the ninth or 10th century, people in Ireland have been observing the Roman Catholic feast day of St. Patrick on March 17. Interestingly, however, the first parade held to honor St. Patrick’s Day took place not in Ireland but in the United States. On March 17, 1762, Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City. Along with their music, the parade helped the soldiers reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as with fellow Irishmen serving in the English army.

Growth of St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations

Over the next 35 years, Irish patriotism among American immigrants flourished, prompting the rise of so-called “Irish Aid” societies like the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Hibernian Society. Each group would hold annual parades featuring bagpipes (which actually first became popular in the Scottish and British armies) and drums.
In 1848, several New York Irish Aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one official New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Today, that parade is the world ‘s oldest civilian parade and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 participants. Each year, nearly 3 million people line the 1.5-mile parade route to watch the procession, which takes more than five hours. Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Savannah also celebrate the day with parades involving between 10,000 and 20,000 participants each.

St. Patrick’s Day, No Irish Need Apply and the “Green Machine”

Up until the mid-19th century, most Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to 1 million poor and uneducated Irish Catholics began pouring into America to escape starvation. Despised for their alien religious beliefs and unfamiliar accents by the American Protestant majority, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs. When Irish Americans in the country’s cities took to the streets on St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate their heritage, newspapers portrayed them in cartoons as drunk, violent monkeys.
The American Irish soon began to realize, however, that their large and growing numbers endowed them with a political power that had yet to be exploited. They started to organize, and their voting block, known as the “green machine,” became an important swing vote for political hopefuls. Suddenly, annual St. Patrick’s Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans, as well as a must-attend event for a slew of political candidates. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman attended New York City ‘s St. Patrick’s Day parade, a proud moment for the many Irish Americans whose ancestors had to fight stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in the New World.

The Chicago River on St. Patrick’s Day

As Irish immigrants spread out over the United States, other cities developed their own traditions. One of these is Chicago’s annual dyeing of the Chicago River green.  The practice started in 1962, when city pollution-control workers used dyes to trace illegal sewage discharges and realized that the green dye might provide a unique way to celebrate the holiday. That year, they released 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the river–enough to keep it green for a week! Today, in order to minimize environmental damage, only 40 pounds of dye are used, and the river turns green for only several hours.
Although Chicago historians claim their city’s idea for a river of green was original, some natives of Savannah, Georgia (whose St. Patrick’s Day parade, the oldest in the nation, dates back to 1813) believe the idea originated in their town. They point out that, in 1961, a hotel restaurant manager named Tom Woolley convinced city officials to dye Savannah’s river green. The experiment didn’t exactly work as planned, and the water only took on a slight greenish hue. Savannah never attempted to dye its river again, but Woolley maintains (though others refute the claim) that he personally suggested the idea to Chicago’s Mayor Richard J. Daley.

St. Patrick’s Day Around the World

Today, people of all backgrounds celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, especially throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. Although North America is home to the largest productions, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in many other locations far from Ireland, including Japan, Singapore and Russia.
In modern-day Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day was traditionally been a religious occasion. In fact, up until the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17. Beginning in 1995, however, the Irish government began a national campaign to use interest in St. Patrick’s Day to drive tourism and showcase Ireland and Irish culture to the rest of the world. Today, approximately 1 million people annually take part in Ireland ‘s St. Patrick’s Festival in Dublin, a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions and fireworks shows.

Three Things That Get Your Resume Tossed In the Trash

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Here at BarryStaff we know that resume mistakes can often cost someone that job they really want.  If it’s not done right your resume might get tossed or deleted before you even are considered for an interview.  Here is an excellent article about some of those mistakes written by angela Smith of The Daily Muse.

Three Things That Get Your Resume Tossed In The Trash

You know all about getting your resume noticed. (Clean layout! Accomplishments, not duties!) But do you know what’s on the flipside? What you might be doing that could cause recruiters to overlook your resume—or worse, toss it in the trash?

Gasp! The trash? I know what you’re thinking, but the truth is, recruiters have dozens, even hundreds, of resumes to comb through every day. So, in an effort to cull them down to a reasonable amount, they’ll simply toss any that don’t meet what they’re looking for.

To learn more, I sat down with a few recruiters and asked them about the resumes that make the cut and those that get tossed. Here are three of their deal-breakers.
 

1. You Don’t Meet the Basic Requirements
First and foremost, review the requirements listed in the job description and confirm that you have the skills and experience the recruiter is looking for. This is the “first knockout factor” for many, says Christina Lord, a technical recruiter at Dealer.com. “Make sure you look at the requirements before applying to the job, and identify if your skills are a match,” she says.

Sounds basic, but job seekers make this mistake more often than you might think, thanks to career counselors and advice websites that say to go ahead and apply for a job even without all of the qualifications. And while you shouldn’t be afraid to aim high, no amount of resume tailoring will cover for the fact that you only have three years of management experience, not 10, or don’t have the technical skills required to do the job. “Resumes just won’t be considered if the basic skills aren’t there,” agrees Joanna Thomas, a human resources professional at an agency in Burlington, VT.

A similar mistake: You have the basic requirements, but they’re obscured by extra or unnecessary information. “Lay it out simply for me—that means less investigation I’ll have to do,” says Thomas. For example, if you’re applying for a position in marketing, but your experience is a combination of marketing and sales, tailor your resume to focus on your marketing experience and skills, and minimize—or even remove—the sales information.

2. You’re Not a Culture Fit
It’s of utmost importance to recruiters to find a candidate who’s a “cultural fit as well as a skill set fit,” according to Thomas. They love when a candidate “gets it”—and they’ll toss your resume if you look like “just someone looking for a job.” (Think summary statements that cover a wide range of skills and industries, or cover letters that don’t mention the company by name—or at all.)

To avoid the circular file, you’ll want to tweak your resume based on the position and company, making deliberate connections of how your experience, skills, and personality are a perfect fit for the job. Use industry terms, spell out accomplishments that you know will make an impact, and don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through. Thomas remembers an applicant who listed, “I’ll drink an iced Americano any time, day or night” under the interests section, which not only revealed the applicant’s “personality and sense of humor,” it was a great fit for Thomas’ agency, a highly creative design firm with its own specialty coffee shop in the basement.

3. You Don’t Pay Attention to Detail
When it comes to your resume, the devil is quite often in the details. Recruiters get annoyed by small things that you may not think of—like whether or not the text on your cover letter and resume is the same font and size (it should be), if your margins are off (makes it tricky for us to print), or to whom you’ve addressed the cover letter (it should be the recruiter’s name, not “sir,” “madam,” or “to whom it may concern”).

They’ll also take note if you don’t include everything the job posting asks you to send. A cover letter and resume? What about work or writing samples? Be sure to include everything that’s asked of you. Also, does the job posting refer to the position as Project Manager II? If so, state that in your cover letter, exactly—don’t write Proj. Mgr. or Project Manager. Companies put a lot of time into determining job titles, and when a recruiter is looking to fill both the Project Manager and the Project Manager II positions, any ambiguousness from you will make it harder for them.

And, it should go without saying, but “one spelling error and I’m out,” says Thomas. Proofreading your own resume is a must, but don’t rely on spell check and grammar check alone—ask family or friends to take a look at it for you. Lord recommends that you “always, always have several eyes look at your resume.”

Applying for a job can often feel like a huge challenge, and knowing that there are so many applicants out there can be daunting. But if you follow these simple rules, you’ll make sure your resume gets past the first hurdle: the trash can. Better yet, if you tailor your resume and make sure it’s a fit to the company and job, you’ll definitely increase your chances of getting to the top of the pile.

STRANGE INTERVIEW MISTAKES

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CareerBuilder’s annual look at the strangest interview mistakes shows how frequently job seekers say and do the wrong things during interviews. Some of these missteps could have been the result of nerves, and others are just so weird there’s no way to explain them.

Here are 13 outrageous and real interview mistakes that surveyed employers have experienced and how you should avoid them.

Strange interview mistake No. 1: Candidate said he had to quit a banking position because he was always tempted to steal.

Why it’s a mistake: No one wants to hire a potential thief.

What you should do: Say you wanted to explore other options or you needed a position that aligned with your career goals. Honesty is great, but an employer doesn’t want to hear that you’re possibly going to rob the company.

Strange interview mistake No. 2: Candidate denied that he had a cell phone with him even though it could be heard ringing in his briefcase.

Why it’s a mistake: A ringing phone is a simple mistake; a lie is a deal breaker.

What you should do: Say, “Excuse me” and quickly turn the ringer off. A sincere apology shows you’re sorry and lets you get back to the conversation at hand.

Strange interview mistake No. 3: Candidate emptied the employer’s candy dish into her pocket.

Why it’s a mistake: It’s just weird.

What you should do: Take a single piece of candy like a normal person. Pouring the entire bowl of candy into your purse makes it seem like you have no manners.

Strange interview mistake No. 4: Candidate said he didn’t like getting up early and didn’t like to read.

Why it’s a mistake: Separately, these statements sound like red flags warning the employer you’re not keen on working too hard. Together, these statements are worrisome.

What you should do: If early morning isn’t your preferred time to rise, you can admit that as long as you counter it by saying you have no trouble staying late. This works only if getting up early isn’t vital to the position for which you’re applying. Also, if you’re asked what books you’ve read recently, you should have at least one title to mention. If the questions continue down that path, explain that you spend most of your time outdoors or doing something else productive with your time.

Strange interview mistake No. 5: Candidate asked to be paid “under the table.”

Why it’s a mistake: Ethical employers frown on illegal activity.

What you should do: Don’t ask to be paid illegally.

Strange interview mistake No. 6: Candidate reached over and placed a hand on the interviewer’s knee.

Why it’s a mistake: Aside from the handshake, you shouldn’t touch the interviewer.

What you should do: Keep your hands folded on your lap, writing in your notebook or resting on the table. Basically, keep them anywhere that isn’t the interviewer’s body.

Strange interview mistake No. 7: Candidate commented that he would do whatever it takes to get the job done, legal or not.

Why it’s a mistake: Crossing the line from passionate to a legal liability is worrisome for a company.

What you should do: Stress your passion for the job and how eager you are to reach the company’s goals. Employers want to know you’ve got the strong will to make things happen, not that you’re breaking the law on their behalf.

Strange interview mistake No. 8: Candidate hugged the president of the company.

Why it’s a mistake: Hugging is never appropriate in an interview.

What you should do: Unless there is some very unusual exception to the rule, interviewers and job seekers shouldn’t hug. You really shouldn’t hug the president of the company, unless you’ve been asked to do so. (And if you have been asked to hug the president, you probably should find out why.)

Strange interview mistake No. 9: Candidate called his wife to see what they were having for dinner.

Why it’s a mistake: Your focus should be on the interview. Phone calls are never appropriate mid-interview.

What you should do: If there’s an urgent matter, such as your child is sick, explain to the interviewer that you might need to step out of the room if an emergency call comes in or that rescheduling might work better. What’s for dinner is not an emergency.

Strange interview mistake No. 10: Candidate asked to postpone the start date so she could still get holiday gifts from vendors at her current job.

Why it’s a mistake: That’s not a good excuse.

What you should do: If this or any other frivolous reason is why you want to postpone the start date, make up a better reason. Simply saying, “I have a prior engagement I can’t get out of,” is better than saying “I want gifts.”

Strange interview mistake No. 11: Candidate called in sick to her current employer during the interview, faking an illness.

Why it’s a mistake: You’re showing your potential boss that you have no trouble lying.

What you should do: Interviewing is tricky, because you usually have to lie in order to get out of the office to get to the interview. Employers know that. However, they don’t need you to tell that lie in front of them. It’s a sign that you don’t know how to be discreet and professional.

Strange interview mistake No. 12: Candidate said he didn’t want the job if he had to work a lot.

Why it’s a mistake: No one will hire a lazy person.

What you should do: Don’t admit you don’t want to work a lot. If there’s one thing you shouldn’t say in an interview, it’s that you’re looking for a job where hard work isn’t a requirement.

Strange interview mistake No. 13: Candidate wouldn’t answer a question, because he thought they would steal his idea and not hire him.

Why it’s a mistake: This answer makes you sound greedy and paranoid.

What you should do: You definitely don’t want to hand over all of your genius ideas and secrets, because a crooked company could steal them. However, you should be prepared to give a sample of your ideas, because sitting in silence or refusing to answer the question doesn’t help the interviewer evaluate you