Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
How to Answer the Interview Question - "Tell Me About Yourself"
Almost all interviewers these days begin with this question "Tell me about yourself." They do this for a several reasons, the most important of which is to see how the interviewee handled him/herself in an unprompted or an undefined situation. Moreover, they do it to judge their eloquence, confidence and the type of impression they would make on the people with whom they would have to deal with in the future.
Most candidates are afraid of this question and find it difficult to answer. This is a wrong conception, it should rather be taken as an opportunity to expose yourself positively and highlight your strengths. This has become a popular, inevitable question these days. So be prepared to deal with it.
Replying to this question by saying, "What do you want to know?" is equal to a job-suicide. This shows you are unprepared for the interview and hence your lack of enthusiasm for the job. Another mistake people make, is thinking the interviewer wants to know about them as a person. They start saying things like I was born in Houston, and my father was a...' It's totally wrong. The interviewer is only concerned about whether you can do the job or not, how well you will fit in the organization, what are your accomplishments in life and what and how did you do in your prior jobs. Hence you need to be well prepared for the answer.
Almost all coaches agreed that that the following two points should be kept in mind while answering the question, 'tell me about yourself': "Focus on what would interests the interviewer" and "Emphasize over your most important accomplishments". It is recommended that you start with your most recent employment and explaining why you are well qualified for the position. Sell yourself to the buyer who is the interviewer in this case.
So tell me about yourself" response should directly fit the interests of your prospective employer." While making your accomplishments prominent in the interview, many coaches advise to tell a memorable story about your achievements or personality. For example, if you tell an interviewer that people think of you as strong-willed, provide a brief story that shows how you have been persistent in achieving your goals. Stories are powerful, interesting and remembered.
Most importantly keep your answers brief and captivating. The interviewer wants to know a little bit about you not your entire life story. Just offer up two or three things that are interesting and relevant. A minute to answer it would be ideal. Rather than fearing this question, a candidate should welcome it. As a well prepared answer would let the candidate take over the interview and set the tone which would allow them to answer questions they are willing to answer.
Three Ways to Control Your Future
One of the most common complaints people have nowadays is that they have no control over their own lives. While that may well be the case, it probably always has been. However, there are different dynamics at work today than there were in the twentieth century, let alone the nineteenth. Whereas the last two centuries saw the self-employed individual being drawn into a relationship with the factory owner as an employee, whether or not he or she wished it to be so, collectivization made that a logical process. From the water power that drew weavers into early Industrial Revolution factories in Great Britain and New England, to the automobile factories that Henry Ford introduced with the revolutionary production line, there was security to be had in the weekly wage.
The Great Crash of 1929 saw the uncertainties of the capitalist system affect the United States in much the same way as such depressions had done to Great Britain in the nineteenth century, but it was only a minor glitch when taken into account with the demands made of industry throughout the world during the Second World War and thereafter during the Cold War.
Perhaps it is with the crumbling away of the Soviet Empire in the early 90s that there was a stock-taking by people in the West and many saw new technology as showing the way to a new and independent future. The power blocs were collapsing - Jugoslavia fell apart, just as East Germany fell and democracy was restored. The republics that had been under Soviet control in Eastern Europe reasserted their right to self-determination and, at the same time, cell phones became smaller and cheaper, the costs of calls became cheaper as the market began to intervene and smaller, laptop computers came onto the market, many using the cell phones to access the new medium of communication; the internet!
Now, with the current recession following the credit crunch, many people are reconsidering their futures:
One - should they return to employment and face the possibility of being made redundant again in the future, or;
Two - should they become self-employed and have the same problem that many small businesses have had to deal with during the same economic turbulence and find that they are squeezed out of business, or;
Three - opt for both solutions. Secure paid employment for the relative security that offers and, at the same time, use the benefits offered by the internet and set up a small business using a website and some advertising (often free these days) to make a little nest egg for any future rainy days.
To see more of this in detail, go to http://www.4-a-job.com which gives you all the tools to secure a salaried job, but which also gives heaps of down-to-earth information sources to set up an online business of your own. (oh - and there's a free book to download when you click on this site. It's called, 'Internet Business for Newbies'). It's yours to keep.
Forging a Twenty-First Century Career
Not long ago, it would have been regarded as foolhardy to have thought about self-employment when there were so many large companies looking for employees. Any major economy in the West had its General Motors, BPs and other, major household names employing tens of thousands world-wide. However, since the Millennium, we have seen these major companies shedding huge numbers of jobs and selling off subsidiaries. Many well-known names have disappeared from the streets and are now history - Arthur Andersen, one of the Big Five international firms of accountants, or Lehmann Brothers, for example.
What lessons can we draw from this? We still need to pay our bills. We still need gas for our cars and food to feed our families, don't we? However, the sea-change which is becoming daily more apparent is that the impetus is now changing direction. Whereas the tide was going towards the creation of huge enterprises in the nineteenth century and, indeed, in the twentieth, there is a difference now. Technology has intervened and has meant that a one-man (or one-woman) band can now have as large a profile on the internet as a larger company run by several people.
Just think about it for a moment. You could still look for a job and have the security of a weekly, or monthly income. If so, then you need expert advice to beat the opposition to the job. That is a sensible course of action to take. Equally, however, you could use that same income to build up a little business of your own. The way that technology is now set up means that you could have a website promoting your company (let's assume that it will sell daffodil bulbs, for the sake of argument) which you grow in your large garden at home. Your website has a business address which you pay $50 a month for and to which your bills and checks get sent. Your phone number is answered by a company five hundred miles away in your company's name and messages are texted to you to call back during your lunch break, or after work. Your invoices are printed off, very professionally on your computer in the spare bedroom at home. Oh, and most of your orders come by email into that business account your pal, who does IT, designed for you for $100.
In the above scenario, you have the best of both worlds. You have the relative security of paid employment, backed up with the value-added of your own little niche market business at home, churning away a few hundred dollars a month.
Now, you can check out both of those scenarios by going to: http://www.4-a-job.com to see how you can secure a paid job through training that execs would die for, as well as exploring and downloading information on how to set up your own website, information you can sell on the internet and much, much more.
Creating a High Impact CV to Win it Contracts
How many CVs do you think an agent receives when they advertise a new contract role?
With so many people looking for work, agents are getting hundreds of applicants for each contract available. That means that, at most, you have just 10 seconds to impress the agent with your CV in order to get to the next stage.
Trying to win a contract is very different from applying for a permanent job.
As a contractor, you are a business-to-business service supplier, so you need high-impact marketing collateral to get you to the sales meeting - or interview - where you can pitch your product - you.
Even if you have a successful 30-year track record and five doctorates, unless you can communicate this information efficiently, you won't win any contracts. And remember it's not the best contractors who win the best contracts, it's the contractors who are best at winning contracts who get the work. So, you need a high impact 'killer' CV to get over the first hurdle - getting offered an interview.
What should you include in your CV?
Put yourself in the agent's shoes and image you've got 200 CVs to read before creating the shortlist to send to the client. Now, which CVs is the agent likely to pick - those that give a detailed life story, or those that say exactly what the agent wants to read and what the client has asked for?
In ten seconds or fewer, you must prove to the agent that:
- You have the skills the agent's client is looking for - You have loads of relevant and successful experience applying those skills - You are, in fact, exactly the person they are looking for.
To do that, your CV needs to be targeted, tailored exactly to the needs of the contract you are trying to win. You might have several degrees and 20 years experience, but if they're not directly relevant to the role, leave them out.
There's no point offering a 'sweetie jar' full of all your skills in case there is something the agent might fancy - agents don't have the time to read essays to try and spot if you are what they are after - your CV will just get filed in the bin!
The front page - your 10 second window
Target your CV with three sections on the front page:
- Profile - this is what you are - Skills and expertise - this is what you do - Achievements - this is things you've done.
Only include the skills and expertise you have that are relevant to the job. You'll have more success if you include tangible results and outcomes, with numbers where possible, in your achievements - things like 'Designed software that reduced processing time from three days to three minutes, saving the client £200K'.
'Killer CV' second page
If the agent gets to this page, then you've done well! Now you have the agent interested, don't mess it up. The agent knows you've got the skills and experience; now you need to provide the reassurance that you have:
- Worked for the 'right kind' of organisations - Had past contracts renewed, demonstrating your staying power - Recent examples of applying the key skills and experience.
Keep personal details brief: Include a brief overview of education, training and hobbies. Education becomes increasingly irrelevant as you gain experience. Training must be relevant. And legitimate hobbies are great, as they show you are human.
Target your CV
Your CV is a marketing tool to get you to the next stage in the sale process - the interview. So to make your marketing tool most effective, make sure you understand your market (i.e. your client) and what they want (i.e. the reason they have advertised this contract).
If you are new to contracting, creating your first high impact targeted CV is probably one of the most important steps to winning your first contract. Get this wrong, and you may never win a contract, no matter how good you are.
Get your CV right and you can enjoy a long and prosperous contracting career.
Learn the Easiest Ways to Earn Money Using Residual Income Streams
Proven money making programs are probably the best kinds of programs to hedge against risk. This is because these kinds of online money making programs follow a tried and tested system, which also ensures that you have a high chance of earning good money. In addition to that, it would also be good for you to take part in several income streams to further increase your chances for success. This is similar to the idea of diversification. Don't ever put your eggs in just one basket. Also, you ought to probably stay away from money making programs that have a poor reputation.
Online programs that associate with some kind of pyramid scheming, network marketing, and making cold calls are highly difficult to manage with. For one their credibility is very doubtful. And secondly, if ever the programs are worth it, they require a lot of tedious work, work that includes meeting with other people, complex internet programs, and conducting calls. One great alternative is called direct mail campaign. A direct mail is very simple indeed.
All you have to do is mailing postcards and nothing more, no need for laborious online programs and time-consuming calls. The idea is very simple. You simply have to join a proven system, which preferably has a good record to the public; you receive a list of highly targeted prospects; and finally you send out the postcards. The beauty about this kind of program is that everything will be laid out for you. All you have to do is follow a few simple steps to make money.
All in all, creating several streams of income requires a lot of analysis. For you to be really successful in this kind of living, you need to find the perfect program for you. This is why it is better if you read reviews about certain programs, ask people about them, or sign up for some kind of free service to get to see what they have to offer.
Direct mail postcards are perhaps the best way to make money on multiple income streams. This is due to the fact that while you get to receive a list of highly targeted prospects, you also get to convey your message to them in such a way that it will get them curious. The key is getting to know your customers. Before actually sending your postcards, you should first do an analysis regarding all your prospects, what they want, and what you can expect from them.