How To Optimise Your CV For An Online Database

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Perhaps like thousands of others you have posted your CV onto an online job board. Registration is free and easy, and it almost seems too good to be true. You invest 10 minutes of your time, post your CV, and then sit back and wait for the phone and the emails.

This is a great way to minimise effort and maximise exposure to jobs you might never have heard about. However, if you don’t consider what happens to your CV once you post it online, you might have to wait for a long time for the interview call or miss out on plum jobs.

To improve your chances of success, it is worth knowing what happens to your CV once it lands in the online database , how a job board actually works, and how a recruiter uses this resource to find their candidates. Job boards generally operate by charging recruiters to search the database, that’s why it’s free for you to register. The recruiters will invariably be in a hurry and often under pressure in their candidate search, because the only way a recruiter will get paid, and their company profits, is by placing successful candidates with their clients.

How does a recruiter find my CV?

Recruiters will input combinations of search words to find the exact candidate they are looking for. Their search will be quick depending on how specific their search terms are: the number of CVs returned from a search may vary between just a few and several hundred. If the exact words for the skills, qualifications or experience that they are searching for do not appear on your CV in a narrow search you may never be pulled from the pack, or at best in a wider search you might appear so far down the results list that your recruiter has logged off and gone home before they even get to you.

In practice, a skilled recruiter will typically scan their target job description to look for search terms including the sector, job title alternatives, key skills, specific software packages or the technical, professional or academic qualifications which are essential criteria for the job.

They are looking for as close a match as possible, and will use a technique called Boolean or logical searching to mine the candidate database. Boolean searching uses “operators” which include the terms ‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘not’ to find the candidate with the right combination of keywords in their CV.

You can visualise a Boolean search by imagining a Venn diagram, for instance a Boolean search for engineer and graduate will find all the candidates who overlap in the group in the middle on your diagram, and who are both engineers and graduates. Alternatively a search for engineer or graduate will find all the candidates who have the either of the terms graduate or engineer on their CV.

The important point to remember is that if you don’t have the same terms that the recruiter is using in their Boolean search, you stand no chance.

To illustrate how critical this is in practice as an example, it means listing specific software packages, for instance: Excel or Powerpoint. If you have simply written on your CV, “good knowledge of Microsoft Office”, while clearly the semantics demonstrate that you have the skills required, the Boolean search performed by the recruiter does not have the logic to understand that “Microsoft Office” actually means Excel or Powerpoint. Consequently and disastrously you might be completely missed on a search for someone with Excel or Powerpoint.

Put yourself in the recruiter’s shoes

In order to optimise your CV you need to put yourself in the place of a recruiter, and imagine what search words they might use to find someone just like you for your target job. Don’t presume that because your previous company used one job title, that there’s no other term that could describe it, or that the recruiter will have sufficient knowledge or skill to use the various alternative phrases to describe your job title in their own search. As a rather tenuous but illustrative example, although a recruiter is highly unlikely to be looking for a beverage trading assistant, let us suppose that they were, and that they had only used the exact phrase “beverage trading assistant”. This is your forte, you have years of experience multi-tasking tirelessly in aiding and assisting others to imbibe alcoholic beverages, washing glasses and ejecting those who have become a little too boisterous. You dream endlessly of landing your next beverage trading assistant, and this one is paying £50 per hour. However you have exclusively used the term “bar tender”, and unless you have also peppered your CV with various descriptive terms including the term “beverage trading assistant”, then sadly you will never appear in that particular search, your CV will continue to languish in the depths of the database and your return to the days of working behind a bar will continue to evade you.

My advice is to invest some time now, reappraise your CV for an online job board, think like a search engine and let your CV spiral its way up to its rightful place on the desk of your future employer.

Originally published here: https://jobs.theguardian.com/article/how-to-optimise-your-cv-for-an-online-database/

 

How To Apply For Your Dream Job, When Your Skills Don’t Meet The Spec

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You see your dream job being advertised but you don’t quite match the job specifications listed: should you still apply?

Eighteen-year-old Georgia Goodman faced this scenario last year when she applied for a digital marketing graduate scheme, despite having no university degree. Instead she had three months’ experience in marketing via an apprenticeship.

“I was pleased to be offered an interview and told that, although I wasn’t a graduate, my passion and experience working within the B2B sector is what made my employer change his mind about the position they were advertising,” she explains. Georgia is now a digital marketing assistant at the Nottingham-based company and has been funded to complete a vocational qualification.

“You have to be in it to win it,” says Becky Mossman, a HR director at HireRight. Ambition like Georgia’s is one of the key things that employers look for and as long as it isn’t a wild pipe dream, it’s commendable. “A lot of the time candidates have more skills and experience than they even realise, the struggle is often when it comes to articulating those skills in a meaningful way,” she adds.

“No one candidate is ever actually perfect,” points out Jon Gregory, editor of win-that-job.com. Any shortlist will therefore represent a spread of skills, qualifications and experiences and you could aim to fit on one end of that spread.

Highlight your transferable skills
If you’re short on specifically required qualifications, show that a combination of your other qualifications and experience are at least as good, if not actually better, says Gregory. What else have you done that brings along sufficient relevant experience? Where do you bring something unexpected and potentially very valuable with you to the organisation? It could be a relevant foreign language, or an extra qualification, for example.

Draw from your academic experience as well as your work experience and think about your transferrable skills, says Mohammed Rahman, business development and placements executive at London School of Business and Finance. He says: “As an example, customer service skills are needed in every profession and are important skills to have.”
He adds: “A lot of companies promote opportunities with requirements and would be willing to consider and take on people who do not meet all the criteria but have an open mind regarding how far they are willing to go to train and learn on the job.”

Make a strong case at the start – and don’t be negative
Make a clear, strong case in the introductory summary about your overall suitability, and at all costs, avoid drawing attention to your shortfalls, says Gregory. “One sight of those will switch the reviewer to a negative mindset, reading on only in search of further justification to drop your application into the shredder.” Don’t be deceptive, just selective.

Demonstrate that this is your dream job
“This is the application that has to hit the back of the net, nothing can be standard,” says Mossman. For example, if it’s a creative role, do something big that sets you apart from the field and makes the recruiter question whether the pure job description match is what they really need.

“If it’s really your dream job, then you should be able to make a clear case for why that is, and still come across as completely genuine”, she says. Think carefully about what skills you can bring to the table – they might be from a job you had five years ago, they might be from a sports team or hobby. If they apply, make it clear what you’ve gained from that experience, and why that’s as valuable as the tick box achievements that are on the job description.

Do your research – and remember they will do theirs too
Gregory advises that candidates research deeply into the company before compiling an application or tailoring your CV. “You need to show that you really do understand the role, the challenges, why this role is important to the organisation as a whole and what it is about you that makes you viable to shortlist for interview,” he explains. If you can, speak to the HR people organising the selection process and your potential line manager. The more you can engage in a dialogue with people inside the organisation and breed familiarity, the better.

While you do your research on the company, remember that the company might do research on you too. Perhaps most importantly of all, check your entire online presence to make sure the image you paint in the application is consistent across LinkedIn and your references, warns Mossman. “Otherwise, the hard work of wowing them will all be for nothing. “Employers don’t all admit to checking up on applicants via external channels, but it’s not uncommon for decision makers to use every means available to reassure themselves of their choice,” she explains.

And finally, remember: there are upsides to applying even if you don’t get shortlisted. Rahman says: “Remember, you have nothing to lose. If it is a dream job then it is worth the time invested in applying. It will act as a good testing ground for future opportunities.” Recognise that you have nothing to lose and everything to gain, even if that’s only a list of what you need to work at for next time a role like that comes up.

 

Written by Kirstie Brewer, Originally published here: https://jobs.theguardian.com/article/how-to-apply-for-your-dream-job-when-your-skills-don-t-meet-the-job-spec/

10 Mistakes To Avoid When Job Seeking

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Applying for jobs is often a difficult and demoralising process, but it’s important to stay positive and learn from your mistakes. Here are ten common mistakes you should try to avoid:

1. Passing on responsibility for your job hunt

It’s important that you don’t try and blame others for your job hunting difficulties. Focus on positive action rather than negative thoughts. Brush pessimism to one side and look to the future. What’s happened has happened, but by taking control of the current situation and letting your personality shine through, you will overcome this.

2. Make your job search your sole focus in life

Enjoy family time, eat well and exercise. Leave the house each day, volunteer, learn new skills, meet people and maintain a balance in your life. We all need interaction and variety: often the harder you chase something, the more it eludes you.

3. Take rejection personally

Unfortunately it’s rare to be offered the first job you apply for — it’s just not that easy. So, accept rejection as part of the process and always ask for, and even more importantly learn from, feedback. The job you don’t get helps you next time so always push for feedback and act on it.

4. Search in the same place as others

Surfing the online job boards is an important first port of call in finding a job, but there are also lots of other places you can explore. For example, you could look at recommendations, referrals and professional networks as this market can be less competitive.

5. Fail to deliver a clear message

Employers are interested in where you have added value, not everything you’ve ever done. Make sure they can see the wood from the trees. Think of yourself as a movie trailer and not the whole film – what is it about you that generates enough excitement and interest for an employer to buy a ticket to the main feature?

6. Hide it from the people in your life

Although searching for your next job is a personal experience, don’t try and do it all alone. Share the experience with your loved ones and you’ll be far stronger and more effective in your quest.

7. Apply for every job you come across

This makes you look desperate and you’ll lose focus. Try to take more time on fewer applications and don’t adopt the scatter gun approach. Throwing more mud at the wall won’t lead to more success, just more mess. Nothing puts an employer off more than you not knowing anything about their business or what the role entails and, if you have multiple applications out in the field, keeping track of them all becomes an impossible task.

8. Be afraid to push yourself forward

This is no time to lurk in the shadows. Don’t be afraid to shine, blow your own trumpet and tell people how good you are and what value you can bring to their business. Confidence, not arrogance, is the key here – don’t let your skills and experience be the best kept secret.

9. Forget that times change

If you’ve not been in the job market for a few years, you might have expectations that are unrealistic. It’s easy to think that it’s exactly the same as when you last looked for a position, but times have changed. Take a more enlightened approach and try to gain more understanding of the modern job market and how best to place yourself in it.

10. Take your eye off the competition

Make sure you differentiate yourself from other jobseekers. Instantly falling in line with what the competition is doing will put you at a distinct disadvantage.

Think not only about your skills and experience but also your key achievements. These should be things where you have made a difference and done something out of the ordinary. Your competition is likely to have similar responsibilities but achievements are unique to you. Think about a particular situation, what you did and quantify the outcome or result where possible. This way of thinking and presentation on your CV falls in line with the competency-based interview style of questioning and will help you make an even better impression once you get to interview. Knowledge is power and the more you know about yourself and what makes you different, the better placed you are to attack the job market and find your next position.

Originally published at https://jobs.theguardian.com/article/10-mistakes-to-avoid-when-job-hunting/

CV Tips: What Recruiters Are Looking For

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When pursuing a dream job, your CV will need to impress recruiters and show them that you are a strong suitable candidate. But what exactly do recruiters like us want to see in a CV and how do we need the information presented?

The first hurdle

Firstly, you must persuade recruiters to open your CV. Even the best CV in the world is useless if it sits unopened in a recruiter’s inbox. To ensure that recruiters open your CV in the first place, you must include a powerful cover note to tempt them in. Keep your cover note short and sharp to save the reader time and provide a summary of how your skills and experience match the job advert requirements. Remember to address the recruiter by name and write in a friendly tone to create a good impression and start to build a rapport with them.

Recruiters scan your CV for relevant content

Once a recruiter has opened your CV, the first thing they will do, is spend an initial 6-10 seconds scanning the CV for the essential skills and knowledge. This is initial scan is just to ensure that your CV has enough of the role’s candidate requirements, before they invest the time read your CV in full. If your CV doesn’t pass this quick scan, then it’s likely that the recruiter will close your CV down and move on to the next one. To ensure that your CV makes an instant impact when opened, make it easy to read and highlight the skills that are relevant to your target roles. Use a clear simple font, break text up, structure the pages well and make your relevant talents prominent.

Recruiters focus on your current role

Your current or most recent role is by far the biggest indicator of what you are capable of at this stage of your career; so recruiters will spend a lot of time studying this section of your CV. They want to know things like:

  • Your position within the organisation
  • Overall goal of your role
  • People you interact with (managers, suppliers, customers etc.)
  • Tools/software used (IT packages, machinery, hardware etc.)
  • Work produced (reports, websites, physical products etc.)
  • Targets and achievements

Write about your current role in great detail to give recruiters lots of information and show exactly what you have contributed to your employer. Older roles can be shortened down and summarised to save space on your CV.

Recruiters look for numbers

Facts and figures are excellent indicators of value for recruiters because they give an idea of the scale of impact you have created. So recruiters love to see numbers on your CV that quantify the results you have achieved for yourself, employers and clients. When writing your CV, try to add some measurable achievements such as:

  • Generated 150 unit sales in 3 months
  • Resolved 95% of complaints in 24 hours
  • Cut department spending by 15%

Recruiters are very cautious

Recruiters work hard to maintain good relationships with hiring managers and providing bad candidates can seriously damage those relationships. For this reason, recruiters are very careful about which CVs they recommend for positions. Things like gaps in employment and sloppy formatting can be enough to worry recruiters into leaving out of the shortlist. Don’t give recruiters any chance to doubt you; ensure that your CV looks professional and has no deal-breaking mistakes.

 

 

 

Originally published at: http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/recruiters-read-cv/

How to Make Your Own Luck at Networking Events

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No matter how experienced you are professionally, networking events can be overwhelming. You’re thrown into a room with dozens and dozens of people you don’t know, and you have a limited of time to make an impression. While it’s tempting to stand in the corner and sip your drink nervously, here are some tips on making the most of your time at these types of professional events:

Head into the Event with a Goal in Mind

Do you want to talk to a specific person who you know will be there? Do you want to exchange cards with three people? Perhaps you want to talk with someone who has a management role in your field. Setting goals for yourself ahead of time makes it easier to track your success.

Don’t Bombard People with Requests

Networking events are a great way to get to know other professionals, but they’re not the time to start hounding people with requests. Get to know the other person and focus on building a relationship first. If you introduce yourself and immediately start inundating the individual with requests, you’ll position yourself as someone who’s just there to use others, even if this isn’t really the case.

Listen More Than You Talk

No one wants to get caught listening to someone give a monologue. To be a desirable conversation partner at a networking event, make it a point to ask questions about the other person. What do they like about their job? What are their hobbies? Do they have children? What brought them to the area? Offer up relevant details about yourself as they come up, but don’t spend the whole time going on and on about your own accomplishments.

Listen Closely

The best way to have a conversation with someone you just met is by listening carefully. When they provide an answer to a question, actually listen to what they’re saying and ask follow-up questions based on their response. When you sit there and pepper someone with questions without listening to what they’ve just told you, don’t be shocked when they start looking for a way to politely exit the discussion.

Keep in Contact After the Event

You can have dozens of productive conversations at the event, but if you fall off the face of the planet once you walk out the door then you’ve just wasted your time. In order to build a strong network, stay in touch afterwards. Connect on LinkedIn or Twitter, send an e-mail telling the person it was nice to meet them, and make it a point to meet up again at a later date.

Originally published at: http://blog.sparkhire.com/2016/01/10/how-to-make-your-own-luck-at-networking-events/

Where do you see yourself in five years? Avoiding interview cliches

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“Where do you see yourself in five years time?” is one of the most infamous interview questions, yet it’s difficult to answer without resorting to dreaded cliches like “I just want to be doing something I enjoy”, or “I’m not really sure”.

Why are employers so keen on asking this? Probably because it’s one of those sneaky interview questions to which your answer can reveal much more than you might imagine: from whether you’ve got a solid career plan and know what you want to do, to how well you understand the position you’re applying for and how you define success.

For all these reasons, this question has a tendency of throwing interviewees into panic mode. Here are some pointers on what interviewers really want to hear:

Be ambitious, but realistic

Employers will always be attracted to ambitious candidates – after all, nobody wants an employee who feels apathetic about their job. That said, you need to be realistic in terms of how quickly you can rise through the ranks. For instance, if you say that you want to be leading a team of 20 within three years’ time, and this would only usually happen within a 10-year period in the company you’re talking to, you risk being perceived as a little arrogant and unprepared.

To avoid voicing wildly unrealistic aspirations, do your research. Search the company website and the LinkedIn profiles of current employees before your interview to look for any hints about how long members of staff have taken to progress.

Talk in terms of achievements and responsibilities

Another common mistake candidates make when answering this question is to talk about money or company perks. For example, “I want to be earning £50,000 or more, have a company car and a life-insurance policy.” In the vast majority of careers, perhaps with the exception of recruitment or sales, motivation to make large amounts of money or get company perks isn’t always going to be seen as an attractive quality. It will make an employer think you’re more interested in the things that come with the career they can offer, rather than the career itself.

Instead, your answer should focus on your professional development. Speak in terms of skills you’d like to acquire or ones you’d like to be using, qualifications you’d like to have completed or responsibilities you’d like to have.

Be specific, but flexible

Giving a vague answer to is another familiar faux pas. For example, “I’m not sure, five years is such a long time away. I could see myself working my way up in marketing, but I’m also interested in finance.”

Employers want to know that you know what you want. After all, hiring, training and developing people is an expensive business – if you’re going to leave in six months, your employer will have lost both time and money.

While you certainly shouldn’t lie about your plans, you can be less than candid if you’re considering several career options – only ever speak about your interest in the industry in which the company you’re interviewing with operates.

Although specific aspirations will be well received, rigidity in your ambitions won’t be, so choose your phrasing carefully. Rather than saying, “I need to have been promoted within a maximum of three years and I’ll be really disappointed if I’m not working with high profile clients in five years’ time”, you could say, “I’d like to have more responsibility in the next three to five years, ideally I’d be working on some of this company’s fantastic high profile accounts.” The first answer implies that if the company can’t fulfil your ambitions, you’ll be dissatisfied, while the second answer suggests a little more compliance on your part.

Talk about your professional, rather personal, ambitions

Unless an interviewer specifically asks you to comment on your personal ambitions, the safest option is to avoid mentioning them altogether. Saying that you want to be captain of your local tennis team, to have visited Japan or that you hope to be married with two children may not be well received. Employers want to hear about where you see your work self in five years’ time, anything else is irrelevant and can make you seem unprofessional and ill-prepared.

Emphasise the value you can bring to the organisation

While at first glance the five years question seems like it is probing your ambitions and wants, you should never miss an opportunity in an interview to subtly emphasise what you can do for your potential employer. It can be shrewd to end your answer with something like: “Overall I want to be making a marked difference to X of your company, helping to secure and add to its current reputation as a leader within Y and contributing to the company’s overall growth and success.”

Originally published at: https://jobs.theguardian.com/article/where-do-you-see-yourself-in-five-years-avoiding-interview-cliches/

5 Silent Habits That Are Affecting Your Success

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If you don’t believe in yourself, why should anyone else?

You’ve no doubt heard motivational messages like this one before, maybe from your manager; perhaps a parent. When you’re clearly in need of some kind of motivational boost and someone rattles off a line like this, it’s easy to shrug it off as a corny, slightly patronising gesture. Thanks, but no thanks!

The thing is, we do need to believe in ourselves if we want others to. We are our own harshest critics; the first to call ourselves stupid or beat ourselves up about missing an opportunity. We put immense pressure on ourselves to achieve the unachievable, and when we don’t; stress about how we could have done things better. These thought patterns are poisonous and slowly sabotage our chances at success. As much as we’d hate to admit it, often we are actually to blame for bringing ourselves down.

The good news is it’s never too late to pep ourselves back up. Sometimes all it takes is a little self-reflection and resistance. If you want to start achieving great things, these are the toxic habits you’ll need to break first:

1. Comparing yourself to others

If you look around your office or scroll through your Facebook news feed, it’s easy to convince yourself everyone’s more successful than you. When you start to feel like you’re lagging behind your peers, friends or family members, you need to stop right there. Everyone is leading totally unique lives, full of different challenges and successes. Nobody likes to broadcast their troubles; so you’re probably comparing your bloopers to their highlight reel anyway (as the saying goes). Stop focussing on everyone else, and start concentrating on reaching your own potential.

2. Taking too much on

Living life on the verge of a major panic attack from being overworked is incredibly unhealthy; both physically and mentally. Stop saying ‘yes’ to everything, and learn how to say ‘no’. Taking on an unrealistic workload and over-committing yourself will leave you feeling exhausted all the time, and will strip the enjoyment out of everything you do. You’ll start resenting everything that eats into your precious energy stores and things you used to enjoy will likely become burdens. Recognising your tendency to burn yourself out is the first step in breaking this habit. Stop letting guilt pressure you into spreading yourself thin.

3. Failing to switch off

Mastering the art of relaxing outside of work hours is difficult to do, but imperative to your success. If you want to start each day feeling refreshed and motivated, you need to learn how to switch off when you leave the office. Stop checking your work emails at 10:30pm before you go to bed; stop taking client calls at dinner time. Remember, you work to live; not the other way around. The sooner you prioritise ‘switching off’ when you’re not on duty, the sooner you’ll start to feel your energy levels and drive at work increase.

4. Holding onto your mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes; no one is perfect. Holding onto past slip-ups and misfortunes will only prevent you from moving forward. If you keep referencing your failures and obsessing over how and why you let it happen, you’ll only feel lower about yourself and hold yourself back form accepting new challenges, for fear of failing.

5. Making self-deprecating comments

This one’s not really a silent habit, as it involves talking, but the quiet mental fallout that occurs after you’ve brought yourself down is where the real damage manifests. Stop selling yourself short and making jokes at your own expense. A cheap laugh like this will cut into your confidence. The moment you start taking yourself seriously and supporting your own goals is the moment others will follow suit.

 

Originally published here: http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/silent-habits-sabotaging-success/

A Guardian Jobs guide to the top ten interview questions – and how to answer them

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Wouldn’t it be great if you knew in advance what your interviewer was going to ask you? Unfortunately it is difficult to know precisely, but the following questions are more than likely to crop up in some shape or form. Here, interview experts give their advice on how best to answer them.

Tell me about yourself
Yes, it’s a very open question, but the interviewer isn’t looking for a long and rambling story of your life, warns Jon Gregory, editor of win-that-job.com. “What the interviewer most wants to hear is what you’ve got about you that makes you relevant and potentially a great choice,” he explains. Summarise your early career in as few words as possible to cover your background and then cut straight to your most recent and relevant experiences.

“Deliver the facts, rather than a sales pitch and try to relax,” says Gregory. “Smile, be enthusiastic and engage with the interviewer because this is your opportunity to help steer a positive tone to the whole proceedings.”

Why do you want to work here?
Find out as much as you can about the organisation and its competitors – this should help inform your answer.“This is your chance to demonstrate that you have done your research into the organisation’s unique selling points and core values”, says David Cairncross, director at Hays.

“Try to avoid saying things that suggest a short-term interest in the role,” advises Cairncross. For example, avoid saying that the role may be a stepping stone to your future goals or, perhaps for a UK-based role, that you are interested in the prospect of international work, as this will suggest you are looking to move on quickly.

What are your strengths?
For this question, Jonathan Burston, founder of the Interview Expert Academy, advises candidates to prepare in advance by following the ‘rule of 3’:

Rule 1: Make a list of what you think you’re good at, what you enjoy doing and what others say you’re good at.

Rule 2: Take that list a step further and ask yourself why you consider each strength to be a strength – list three reasons per strength.

Rule 3: For each strength listed, detail three examples of where you’ve showcased that strength.

What are your weaknesses?
Interviewers ask this question to see how self aware candidates are, according to Sarah Archer ofCareerTree. “They don’t want you to start listing all your weaknesses and provide them with a reason not to give you the job – remember they want you to do well,” she explains. “But you must prepare for the question because answering off the top of your head could be fatal.”

Think of a weakness that you have – that is preferably not a crucial requirement of the job – and show the interviewer you have a strategy for managing it. For example: “When under pressure my attention to detail can be less than I like so I build in extra time for checking my work or ask a colleague to do a final proof read for me.”

Why should we employ you?
This question isn’t simply about whether you meet the criteria of the job specifications, you need to demonstrate you can deliver what is required, says Victoria McLean, founder of CityCV. Start by reiterating the role outcomes (“My understanding is that the business requires an individual who can expand the client base and …”), then illustrate the skills you have to achieve those outcomes with some tangible examples.

Next give them your “differentiator”, says McLean – what sets you apart from your peers, what is your USP? “Use emotive language and wrap up with something super positive and memorable,” she advises. “Reiterate again how excited you are about the opportunity and to close your answer on a really positive note.”

What accomplishment are you most proud of and why?
Use this question as an opportunity to showcase your strengths, says Cairncross. “Think of where you have personally made a difference, but avoid overselling yourself,” he adds. Use the STAR technique to tell a compelling story, outline the situation you were in, the task you had to accomplish, the action you took and then the positive results.

Using the STAR technique should ensure your answer has a clear structure and doesn’t miss out any key details. Cairncross also advises that the candidate highlights the obstacles they overcame to reach the achievement.

Describe a time something went wrong and how you dealt with it
“We all have experiences where something went wrong and employers want to learn how you deal with it,” says Burston. He recommends making a list of examples of projects or goals that didn’t go according to plan and then listing what happened and why. Next, review the reasons it failed, how you felt about it and, most importantly, what you learned from the experience and what you’d do differently next time. Once you’ve got a clear example in your head, you can structure your answer using the STAR technique, in the same way as question 6.

Where do you see yourself in five years time?
This is tricky. “You don’t want to be under ambitious, but equally you need to avoid having unrealistic or mismatched expectations,” says Gregory. What does work, according to Gregory, is to say that you would hope to develop and be trusted with increasing responsibility over this next five years. “This shows that first and foremost you want to be recognised as someone who does an excellent job, and that this would underpin any career development and promotional opportunities,” he explains.

What motivates you?
This is a broad question designed to understand a person in the round, according to Kelly Roberts, head of HR consultancy at accountancy firm Kreston Reeves. Perhaps you might like a challenge? Or you want a job that pays enough for interesting foreign travel? “There is no right or wrong, but honesty, enthusiasm and self-belief are qualities a recruiter will hope to see reflected in the answers,” she says.

Have you got any questions?
Remember that interviews are a two-way process. “Interviewers will want to know if you’re interested in them and their organisation, so you should never go to an interview without a list of pre-prepared questions,” says Burston. Ask about the company and the opportunities for personal development and, of course, ask more about the role, its challenges and the team. Questions directed at the interviewer themselves are a good move too, says Burston. What do they like about their job, the company, the culture?

Image: © Christopher Scott / Alamy Stock Photo

By Kirstie Brewer

Published: 17 Dec 2015

Ref: https://jobs.theguardian.com/article/the-top-ten-interview-questions-and-how-to-answer-them/

How To Pick Yourself Up When You Don’t Get The Job

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You’ve been applying for dozens of jobs with no success and have just got your third rejection email of the week. Picking yourself back up and ploughing on with the job hunt can be tough for even the steeliest of people. Here are some tips from resilience coaches on how to restore confidence after such setbacks, and ultimately prepare yourself for job success.

Remember, stress is caused by how we perceive a situation not the situation itself, says psychotherapist Rebecca Howard. “We could choose to look at the fact that we haven’t got a job yet and it’s our third rejection as a negative – but all that would happen is our mindset would shift into a negative gear and take our resourcefulness and confidence down an unhelpful dead end.”

She advocates the NAC approach – Notice, Accept, Choose – a way of thinking which means we don’t get stuck with negative ruminating thoughts about how good, or not, we think we are.

Notice that you are experiencing thoughts of being fed up, down, angry or whatever it is that you are feeling as a result of the rejections. “In times of stress our thinking tends to polarise in rigid, ‘all or nothing’ positions, seeing everything in black and white,” explains Howard.

“The process of noticing its impact allows you to begin to step outside of it, almost as an observer, and acknowledge what is happening, which in turn releases you from the mind spending endless energy.”

Accept what has happened. Many of us will think, “Why is this happening to me?” but asking a negative question leads to a negative answer, Howard explains. “Acceptance is recognising that as human beings we experience emotions, such as disappointment, and it is pointless fighting them.”

Choose to use the negative energy or stress you are feeling as a result of your setback. Having connected with the motivation behind the stress, you can channel that energy in a positive way by asking, “What can I do right now?” and “How do I do it?”

Andy Cope, author of The Little Book of Emotional Intelligence, suggests that we come equipped with “ordinary magic” – an in-built ability to bounce back from adversity. It all comes down to your “explanatory style”, which is psychology speak for the way you explain to yourself why you’ve experienced an event – be it positive or negative.

If your reaction to a job rejection is, “It’s only a rejection letter, nobody died, let’s learn the lesson and move forward,” you’ve got an optimistic explanatory style. But if your response is to think, “Oh my gosh, rejection. It’s a disaster. I’m so rubbish. There’s no point applying for any more,” your explanatory style is negative. Clearly, the belief generated by your explanatory style directly affects your actions.

But as Cope explains, it’s possible to train your inner voice towards something more positive. He says: “It helps if you can learn to be your own best friend. On job rejections (we’ve all had them) I always tell myself, ‘Crikey, they’ve missed out.’”. Be your own cheerleader and champion and remember that all emotions have positive intent, according to Cope, even negative ones. “Despondency (feeling sorry for yourself) is temporary downtime while you renew your energy for whatever comes next. Which brings me full circle to your inner reserves of ‘ordinary magic’,” he says.

Geetu Bharwaney, author of Emotional Resilience advises speaking to your main supporters and champions in life and asking them what they would do in your shoes, after this job rejection, and follow their advice. “Know the difference between the people in your life who can provide you with intelligent input from those who are likely to impose unrealistic assumptions on you,” she says. Approach the people you respect and whose opinions matter to you. “Some people will tell you it was either the wrong job or the wrong employer, so this action helps you to keep things in perspective.”

Finally, take the time to review your life experiences and achievements so far and make a list of positive “I” statements – things you can do, your strengths and what you are good at. Bharwaney explains: “When you are going to speak to anyone about your challenges, including your close colleagues, remind yourself of at least three of these affirmations, so that you can stay grounded in what you are good at during the dialogue. This will enable you to be your best self despite the current set-back.”

 

Written by Kirstie Brewer, originally published here:

https://jobs.theguardian.com/article/resilience-how-to-pick-yourself-up-when-you-don-t-get-the-job/