Fine Tune Your Job Interview
Posted: Thursday, September 08, 2011
by The Old Gray Mare
www.DressYourHorse.com
When seeking a job these days, you need to be armed with a stand-out, finely honed resume. This article assumes you have done your homework and your resume is getting results for you.
Take advantage of some expert (and substantiated) guidance from recruiters across the country. With just a few simple strategies, you may increase your edge over the competition for jobs.
?Put online job-networking websites to work for your job search. LinkedIn and other online sites will post your job search and resume for free.
By all means post your resume, already in top form and polished, but consider adding a profile shot of yourself with it. This photo should be a headshot, preferably a professional photograph. Do not use a snapshot, an informal photo, or take any artistic liberties with this headshot. Never forget your goal – that is to obtain a job or your desired position in a company you’ve targeted. Fix yourself up to impress, and take the headshot facing to your right. The resulting photograph should capture your image from the shoulders up only and a pleasant, natural, every-day kind of smile is best. Keep it professional and sharp, with focus on your face.
You might wonder why you should bother to furnish a photo right up front – Statistics show that potential employers and head hunters are “seven times more likely to take a look at your profile if you’ve posted a photo,” according to New York’s recruitment agency NationStaff. It shows that you are genuine, comfortable, and professional.
?Check out GlassDoor.com. This site lists information from employees about their own specific companies, on an anomymous basis. It provides information such as job interview hints for their companies and how to answer questions. Better yet, you may be able to glean ideas for favorably impressing the decisionmakers at these companies.
It is all about being prepared. The more composed and ready you are for questions that may be “thrown” at you in this job market, the more you are likely to impress.
Couple of Interview Techniques –
?Believe it or not, current research has determined that you can increase your chances of obtaining the job simply by wearing (ta-da!) spectacles. Yes, glasses! The study was done in Britain. It found that wearing glasses could potentially increase your chances of being hired by 43%. According to the study, interviewers automatically assume that the candidate wearing glasses is intelligent.
What can you do? If you really want a job, or that particular job, get outfitted in a pair of fake but stylin’ glasses.
?Take particular heed of this suggestion. Do not use the filler word “like.” It has no rhyme and no reason in sentence structure, so do not use it. Don’t let it slip out. Practice and role play ahead of time and fight off the urge to use it.
?Dress neatly. It is not appropriate to wear anything but business attire. An interview is not the time to wear jeans, or trendy clothes and, for the women,
low cut tops or short mini-skirts. Think professional.
?Dress yourself in vertical stripes and give yourself a potential edge. There’s a subliminal message conveyed by vertical stripes. It suggests height. Again, studies by image consultants summarize that taller people are more likely to be hired. Do your best to stretch your appearance.
In fact, vertical pinstripes even give you a thinner look. Combined with heels for the ladies, stripes mean taller, thinner and more professionally confident.
?Follow up your interview with a personal note. Surveys of human resource types and bosses reveal that handwritten notes are less desirable than
personally-written email thank you’s. (Author's note: Several sources have come up with this. Think I'd still prefer the handwritten note with a classy card if I were the interviewer.)These few tips are hot off the human resource presses. It couldn’t hurt to try them, and if they give an extra boost to your professional image, why not?
The Old Gray Mare writes for www.DressYourHorse.com and her blogs.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)I have never heard of the glasses thing. Wow. What a study! You have done a good job here. From you, dear girl, I would at least expect a recommendation to go to your interview driving a Mustang! I know, it was stupid.
Yours,
ChristoferI hate to admit this but I can remember having to wear a hat and gloves no less. Eeeee gads! Of course I would not have been seen dead in my glasses years ago. I have one main vanity, now thrown out the window, about never wearing glasses - wouldn't have been seen dead in them. Now that I need Ponce deLeon's help, to heck with contact lenses or even eye makeup - glasses are fine. Just let me see. You know, I've never even considered a Mustang as a car. I like much more creature comfort. For sporty I'm a Porsche lady and for luxury sporty I'm a Mercedes gal and what do I actually drive, duh, I drive a Pathfinder. Mustang. Hmmm OK
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