4 Things You Should NEVER Do in an Interview

4 Things You Should NEVER Do in an Interview Looking for a job can often become demeaning, stressful and hopeless. Sometimes it takes time for your luck to shine  and your hard work to bring  results. This does not mean you should stop believing in yourself or that you will never get a job. There will be a time when you will actually realize that the break you had during your job hunt was worth it, once you start working and get into the thick of things. There will be times during your job hunt phase, where you will get the chance of an interview with your prospective employer. Getting to that interview stage is one of the biggest achievements, as in this tough time, an  interview is not something that can be an easy one to fetch. So the moment you get an interview call, take it seriously. Ensure that you take the right steps to  prepare for the interview beforehand and give  your top game when you arrive for the interview. The importance of planning and preparing for the interview cannot be stressed enough, but still people make mistakes that result in interview failure and we are going to talk about four things that you should absolutely avoid during the interview session. 1) Freeze during the session: Many candidates have an amazing job profile as well as decent communication skills. However, when they arrive at the interview, it probably is not their day or they just get lost in the moment. Make sure you have the backup plan arranged in case you freeze up during the interview. No matter how confident you are, people usually end up completely lost and out of answers, this not only makes the situation awkward but leaves a very bad impression. So you can do anything but freeze up during your interview session. Your backup plans to avoid that could be conversational topics already thought of, changing the topic smartly or preparing generic answers for something you might not know about. 2) Try to be dominating: Your prospective employer is experienced and has a much bigger profile or stature compared to you, so you should always respect that. Never try to dominate your employer by being overly aggressive, talkative or over confident about anything. The moment you do that, your employer will start judging you. 3) Being too casual or sloppy: The worst thing you can do during an interview is to show that you are not serious about it or the job. Never leave an impression that you do not want the job or you are taking it too lightly. Employers are busy people, yet they are giving you time, so at the very least respect that. 4) Talk negatively about the previous company or the company you are at: You might not like some policies of the company you are applying for, but do not voice those opinions like you are coming there to change. Always be diplomatic and pleasant in your tone. If you have previously worked somewhere, do not talk negatively about that company. Author:  Katherine has an immense experience in hiring specialized people for different organizations, who are advised by him across the blog. He also quite seriously talks about different interview and recruitment aspects at ChiefPapers.com

Job Search Rules for a Soft Economy

Job Search Rules for a Soft Economy Its important to understand  the ways in which this  slow economy  changes your job search.   During a recession, employers change their screening processes â€" they become more demanding about qualifications.   As one WorkSource business customer put it recently, “Now, I can afford to really dig deep for the best qualified candidate. I don’t mind that it’s a tough choice. For a while, a few years ago, I felt lucky if I had more than one resume to choose from!”  Here are two ways to make sure you are competitive in this economy:  Set clear goals and know what you can contribute to a company.   Companies now have the leisure of choosing not only the best qualified candidates, but also the most motivated.   Demonstrating motivation can be tricky.   Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a matter of claiming to be able to “do anything, once you get a chance.”   No one can do everything â€" saying so in business comes off as naïve.   A better strategy is to talk about your goals and values, and the skills you bring to the job. Include information on your computer and research skills, and a push for your oral and written communication skills. Be prepared to compromise.   You may consider yourself lucky to get any offer in your field, so be thinking in advance about where you’re willing to compromise.   There are three things that comprise job “satisfaction”: Salary and benefits, interesting and challenging work, and potential for growth.   Rank these in order of importance for yourself.   Are you willing to wait out a recession almost anywhere, as long as the work is challenging and the people are great?   These are the questions and answers that will help you make decisions among offers.   There are no wrong answers, but one thing you may not have the luxury of doing is mulling too long over choices.   Know in advance what your preferences are. Make it something you can live with â€" you may have to wait out a recession in this cubicle or office. But make no mistake â€" good times will be back eventually.   Keep an eye on the economy, and plan for a bright future.   That way, you’ll be ready when it comes back ar ound.

Questions Your Mentor Should Ask You - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Questions Your Mentor Should Ask You - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career When you seek out a mentor, you may mistakenly want a cheerleader or supportive therapist. But, in a mentor: you need a leader. A person who can tell you the brutal truth, and expect you are strong enough to keep your unwavering faith. A mentor is the person who creates a way for you to go where you have not been before. Especially when you aren’t feeling so brave. That doesn’t feel good most of the time. So many clients and students are worried about asking someone to do the job of mentoring. I wonder why. To that end I ask: what are you willing to do for a mentor? Not as a payback. But, what are you willing to change about yourself and the way you are going about your career or business? It is that change that pays off a mentor’s investment. The currency of change is courage. It’s immensely brave for you to do things differently than you have or would be nature. To get off the track you have been traveling, to get to higher ground. To stop trying and start succeeding. A real mentor is an honest critic, not a reassuring hand-holder. A mentor is a person devoted to uncovering what is holding you back, without wasting time. Oftentimes, a mentor reveals that the person holding you back is the person you see in the mirror. You. That means you are going to feel criticized. If you need bad news sugar-coated, easy to digest and in microscopic increments: you probably don’t need a mentor. You need a nanny. The type who flies in with an umbrella and has a big sweeping skirt. A mentor is not a nanny. Your mentor might be a gray haired elder of the tribe you would like to lead one day. He might also be your partner, an associate, a parent, a friend or a neighbor who has some wisdom to impart. Your mentor might be a series of people you meet and have moments with, in various times of your life.   A woman who sits next to you on an airplane and questions your allegiance to Robert Kiyosaki, Napoleon Hill or whomever you are currently reading and believing. A college friend at a reunion who expresses shock upon learning you abandoned astrophysics or botany or whatever it is you once were deeply engaged in.  You may not be inviting this feedback into your life or career, but you should take mentors when and where you find them. A mentor should ask you: Why are you doing this? How did you go wrong? Who are you blaming and why? What do you need to make things right? What makes you defensive, and what does that say about what you need to do now? Search the earth if you have to, to find at least one person who helps you see and feel the brutal truth, while trusting you can maintain your unwavering faith. That is the Stockdale paradox that all successful people master: truth and faith. I wish you the brutal truth and unwavering faith. Author: Nance Rosen  is the author of Speak Up! Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen

Is Visibility More Important Than Money - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Is Visibility More Important Than Money - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career The cost of content is decreasing, but the importance of content is increasing. Now and in the future, your main differentiator will be your personal brand.   Distribution and promotional costs are being reduced in price because of social media tools that allow you to achieve both.   More and more people are preaching that social media is free, yet the labor cost is extremely high.   Visibility is becoming just as important, if not more important, than money because everyone needs it just as much as they need food, water, internet, etc.   You can look at visibility in a positive and a negative way. Positive: Visibility creates opportunities. Negative: Lack of visibility creates commodity. Narcissism and the need to be visible There has been much chatter in the past few years about the narcissism epidemic with online personal brands. Some blame it on the Me 2.0 ?? generation (Gen-Y) and others feel that its everyone.   People are sharing updates across networks that are both personal and professional, without giving much thought to who is viewing their updates and what impact they may or may not have.   By perception alone, updating your status message is about attention seeking.   People want you to know if they got press or if they just launched a business or if they are going on a exotic vacation.   This need always excited but now the internet has given people a channel to show this quality. Two interesting research reports: 80% of people on Twitter self-promote and 20% of people share information (Miami Herald). 57% of young people feel that their generation uses social media for self-promotion (Youth Pulse). The reason for this trend I believe is that its much easier for people to talk about themselves than to talk about others.   I also truly feel that people understand that if they dont make their lives visible, no one will know what they are up to.   As you grow older, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep in touch with old friends, but these tools allow you to update them so they can follow your life, without any effort. Visibility or money? Depending on your current situation and career goals, you will value visibility over money or the other way around. If youre looking for a long-term brand building strategy with future potential of revenues, then you may want to sacrifice some compensation right now.   Brands can demand a premium price over commodities and since brands take years to build (and a lot of effort), its easy to grab the paycheck and run, instead of making the investment.   People are starting to put prices and value on the number of friends you have online because the number of friends you have is viewable. Its harder to attract new followers and build a bigger platform by constantly selling to people instead of giving value and in the end the platform you build will be much more monetizable than any amount of money you made along the way.   What would you rather have, money now, or the brand to monetize later? You crave visibility, dont lie Were on the brink of a mass attention craving society that will relinquish money for visibility. Ive seen it many times and it will occur even more in the future because everyone is now a competitor.   Your neighbor, your coworkers, your classmates, and everyone else is competing for visibility.   People will write for your blog, your magazine, your book and anything else that has viewership for free, even if you lack subscribers.   The reason for this is two fold:   they want links back to their site for traffic and PageRank purposes and they want more attention in hopes that it will convert into more subscribers or other opportunities. Visibility multiplies. Tom Peters What most people dont recognize is that if you get one press hit, it might become six more.   Journalists, producers and bloggers read each other and if they see you as a potential source for a future article, they may reach out to you, which creates more visibility.   The hardest part is to get the initial boost in visibility that will start the domino effect.   In my opinion, if you can start small (not Forbes level) and then slowly build your profile over time (like I did), you will be able to engineer this visibility effect that will send your brand to the moon. Remember: If you arent visible, then you dont exist to the world. Your turn Are you visibile?   Would you sacrifice money today to build your brand and make much more tomorrow?

13 Tips to Working More After Less Sleep

13 Tips to Working More After Less Sleep Have you ever spent a night just counting the parallel lines on your ceiling’s PoP design, which you had not noticed even when you got your dream house constructed? Or may be checking your phone a million times and reading all those push messages which you would normally sift through trash without even glancing at them? You will know what I am saying if you have ever passed the night in bed with little or no sleep only to feel sleepy when it is time for the alarm clock to buzz.Photo Credit â€" Pexels.comSleepless nights are common, and if you are unfortunate, you may come across such nights quite frequently? If it happens on a weekend, trust me you are lucky. The next day you can spend in bed to compensate the night’s loss. But the million dollar question is…what you do if it is at the start of a week or mid way. Trust me your boss would not like to read a leave note which says: “Inability to deliver work today because of sleep deprivation last night.”Or what if you are an entrepreneur or a freelancer and you have an important client meeting scheduled early morning and perhaps the anxiety to fix the deal has not let you catch sleep the previous night.evalWell, you cannot rewind the night, but yes you can still play the day with the same vitality and liveliness which you would do after a sumptuous sleep.Let us unravel some sleep hacks which shall give you a successfully productive day despite a failed night of sleep.1.Resist that snooze buttonDon’t borrow sleep, especially after that night when you struggled for it. Just push that alarm button with full grace and step out of the bed to face the day.2. Keep yourself hydratedDrinking plenty of water is the magic mantra behind most of life’s problems. Believe it or not fatigue usually sets in when your body is dehydrated. With more water, your visits to the rest room increases and gives you those much needed breaks, without which you may be found napping at your desk. So it basically keeps you awake a nd replenished.3. Move with some stretchesThe turmoil of the night is over. Leave the warzone and stretch out. Kick in a few punches before that bubble bath or may be jog around in your backyard. All this will not only cause a rush in your adrenaline levels but also signal to your brain, to stop its attempt of falling asleep which it did in the previous night. It will not only kick start your day with energy but possibly help to grab the sleep tonight that you missed last night.4. Feed on smaller mealsDon’t vent out the frustration of a poor night’s sleep on a large lunch pack loaded with carbohydrates, spices and greasy fried frankies. This lunch will only add to your troubles and make you lousy. Eat lighter, smaller meals that are rich in proteins. Whole grains, yogurt, beans, fruits and veggies should be your perfect choice.5. Get lots of sunLack of sleep slows down your immune system. So when you break for lunch, go out and absorb the sun. It shall help to fight the afternoo n drowsiness and give you a good dose of vitamin D and vitamin B.6. Take a cold showerevalA cold shower at the beginning of the day shall help you to wake up instantly even if you were sleepwalking. At work, take a few seconds of break to the rest room and splash cold water on your face. You can also keep an ice pack on your temples or eyes for some temporary respite.7. Spice up your dayEven if you have never done it at the workplace do it today to surprise your co-workers or rather your sleep monster. Go around the office and may be chit chat with a remote colleague, watch a YouTube trailer, learn a new recipe, do some power yoga steps even in the disguise of teaching a colleague or for a change just go in for Candy Crush Saga, if everything else fails. These small moments of unwinding will help to spice up your day and concentration levels at work.8. Keep chewingNo not your lunch all day…but try chewing gum, if your workplace permits it! Chewing gum not only activates your mouth and cheek muscles but also your cerebral activity. And remember to stick to mint flavor…why? Simple it gives a burst of freshness.9. Sort out your dayYour brain is already bogged down by yesterday’s activities which were not washed away by ample sleep, so do not clutter it further with added load. Prioritize your work. Keep important things early in the day; delegate some of your work to subordinates This is really important for you and for others on the road. Seriously speaking, driving with half concentration or lousy eyes can be really dangerous. Leave your car in the garage. Go for public transport or take a lift from your colleague. This will also give you some additional minutes of sleep while someone else drives you to the destination.11. Catch a power napIf you work for yourself, this is easy if you have an air mattress in one corner for occasional resting. Otherwise, try to find a quiet corner in your office and grab a quick power nap. Remember to keep your phone silen t or you may again end up wasting those precious ten minutes of sleep. A quick power nap can recharge you for the rest of the day.12. Drink CoffeeUnlike other occasions where we keep desisting you from holding that coffee mug, here we tell you to drink some coffee but in moderation. Drinking two cups of coffee during the day after a bad, sleepless night may help you in maintaining your alertness level, especially if you have something important to summon at work.13. Sleep BetterThough you are not able to sleep more, increase the quality of your sleep. Which will compensate your sleep deprivation in the long run. Try to avoid sleeping on your stomach and tend to sleep on your back, it will help your body immensely. These small lifestyle changes will help you in conquering the day with full energy in spite of having less sleep,Every day is not a Sunday, and literally every day or night does not bring you the same levels of comfort and rest. Accept this fact. Enjoy the nights when you sleep peacefully but more so, enjoy the challenges of a day pursuant to a bad night of sleep.With the dozen tips shared in this piece of writing, you can surely make the most of a challenging day that follows a troublesome night. When you challenge last night’s sleep with unparalleled energy during the day, it shall submit to you tonight, just catch it right and sleep tight.

2 tips to boost your job-search self-esteem - Hire Imaging

2 tips to boost your job-search self-esteem - Hire Imaging Many people who are in a job searchâ€"particularly one that’s lasted for a few months or longer, complain of times when self-doubt creeps in. If this describes you and you’re lacking confidence, you may find this post helpful! Step up self-assurance with your mind One of the prime confidence-busting culprits is negative self-talk. We can be our own worst enemies. So, how can you change your thinking? Use visualization to erase negativity. If you find that you are beating yourself up, sit quietly for five minutes and picture a loved one’s face. My client, Nancy, tried this and said it worked well! Any time she realized she was overcome with self-defeating thoughts, she sat in silence and conjured up images of her grandmother, mother, or husband. They were all Nancy fansâ€"unconditional Nancy supporters. Studies back this method up. British researchers found that this spurs your brain to produce more oxytocin, a bonding hormone that helps fire up feelings of self-worth! And, just reminding yourself of someone who believes in you, can soothe away anxiety. Ask yourself this one question: “What’s easy for me that’s hard for someone else?” Whether it’s your cooking skills, business savvy, athletic abilities, knack for technologyâ€"whatever your talentsâ€" pinpoint the areas where you excel. Doing this revs up your ego and amplifies your confidence, according to a recent study. Maybe because you’re not feeling so confident, you’re a bit unsure; you’re downplaying your abilities. Call your closest friend and ask her or him what your biggest strengths are; hearing them from another person can make you believe them! Also helpful (and actually a must in the job search) is to write down a list of your achievements. Seeing your accomplishments in black and white can spur you to achieve even more! And don’t stop with job-related successes. Include volunteer, personal and academic successes as well. If you’ve done assessments in the past, look at your strengths or compliments from others in a Reach 360 or similar feedback. Or garner accomplishments from prior performance reviews. Draw out your internal coach. And crush your inner critic! It can be as simple as changing your internal dialogue from “I can’t” to “I can”!     The way you talk to yourself is so powerful. It can be the difference between success and failure. In a recent study, volunteers who told themselves they could complete a complicated puzzle, did so in half the time of those who worried they couldn’t do it! Use your body to reverse insecurity Experts say that adopting the right body language can actually transform your feelings of doubt to those of empowerment! Tilt your head back! Try angling your face slightly upward. It changes your thought process by signaling your brain that you’re feeling upbeat. As a result, it produces more confidence-boosting hormones! An added benefit is that a slightly raised chin shows people that you are self-assured. Nod to believe in yourself!   When you are having a conversation, try nodding your head a few times as you’re speaking. Researchers found this simple movement inspires your belief in what you’re saying, increasing your self-esteem by as much as 30%! Hone a powerful posture! One study shows that keeping a straight spine and holding your shoulders back enhances your faith in yourself! It just may be that slouching signals your brain that you’re blue; while keeping your spine straight tells it you’re more assured. And it can actually trigger you to act that way! Most of us lack confidence at one time or another. While perfectly normal, lacking self-esteem will not serve you well in a job search. You need confidence to keep on keeping on! It’s good to know there are ways to combat these types of feelings! Photo:   The Welsh Poppy

Resume Tips - Learn How to Fill Out a Resume

Resume Tips - Learn How to Fill Out a ResumeIf you want to increase your chances of getting the job you want, you will want to learn a few resume tips. There are many things that can make you appear less qualified, and this can be a good thing. If you aren't being selected for the job because you have a weak resume, you will be in a much better position to get the job you want.One great way to get an interview is to send your resume out as soon as possible. Many employers will begin looking at it weeks before they will actually call. This can be a big advantage, since you may not get a chance to show your resume to others.If you are not sure how to do this, there are several resume writing services available. These services are affordable, and the writers can help you with a variety of styles. You will not only be able to get your resume in front of the right people, but you will also be able to use the software and format that the service has provided you with.Another one of the mos t important resume tips is to make sure that your resume clearly shows what you have done. Employers are going to ask you to describe your past work history, and it should be easy to do so. You should write something short and informative, and it should show what you have done in the past.It is also a good idea to get advice on how to write your resume. Most companies will provide some type of advice when you fill out a form to apply for the job. This can include showing them a sample resume or providing them with feedback on your resume from others.If you are considering writing your own resume, make sure that you learn as much as you can about the process. You can find plenty of information online on how to write a resume, and even learn how to add one. There are plenty of samples on the internet, and you should be able to find a guide that includes a sample resume for you to follow.Once you have some samples to look at, you will be able to see some of the various resume tips that can be helpful. There are various types of resumes, and different forms to fill out. Make sure that you are using the right form, and making sure that you answer all of the questions that you are asked.If you keep these ideas in mind, you will be able to find a few of the most important resume tips. This should help you with your efforts to get a job. Find a good company to help you with your resume, and you will be a lot more likely to get hired.