Phone Interview Planning and Preparation are Key to Success

Phone Interview Planning and Preparation are Key to Success System Checks for a Phone Interview I have a guest blog to share interesting story with a very practical set of recommendations. Enjoy! Coach Wolfgang My phone interview begins in 3 minutes. Ive done all my prep. My resume is in front of me. Job application, company website, questions I intend to ask check, check, check! At 8:30 the Vice President of Sales is calling me on my home phone. I chose my home phone since its easier to have a conversation on a land line rather than a mobile phone line. Its 8:34 am I check my cordless phone handset no missed calls, power on. Its 8:39 am... something is wrong. I call my home phone from my mobile phone it goes straight to voicemail! Aagghhh! Its 8:40 am I glance to the right of my desk and see the base unit for my phone UNPLUGGED! Double aagghhh! Turns out my wife scheduled our bi-annual professional carpet cleaning for that afternoon. We moved furniture out of the living room the night before, including the stand for the base unit of our home phone. Thus, the phone got moved to another room where it sits UNPLUGGED! (I may have mentioned that already.) Unfortunately, the VP decided not to reschedule the call, even after truthfully explaining what happened. Its not an easy feeling to live with. Not only did I put in a lot of time researching the company, studying the VPs background and preparing for the interview but I also thought the job would be great. My regret is not having performed a simple system check. Im confident that this is NOT a reflection on my qualifications for the job just a simple mistake. Therefore, Ive decided to turn this into positive energy and an opportunity to help others avoid this and similar mistakes. Systems are a way of life these days: your car has to run, the alarm clock has to ring, your laptop has to connect to the projector and the water has to flow to your shower. We take many of these things for granted everyday. When a system goes down it can ruin your whole day. If something goes wrong, it is usually easy to deal with. However, when something important is on the line and you only have one chance to get it right, check your systems and create a backup plan. Heres my list of system checks for remote interviews. System Checks for a Phone Interview Question: Will you hear your phone ring? System check: test the ringer volume and the phone has power Question: Will the caller hear you answer the phone? System check: Ask a friend to call your phone and confirm she can hear you, once you answer. Make sure your headset is plugged in and not on mute. Question: Will your phone last the entire call? System check: look at the battery level for all phones and start charging the low ones. Question: What is your backup if your phone stops working or the call drops? System check: keep a charged mobile phone handy and get the phone number for the interviewer. System Checks for a Skype or Webex Interview Question: will your computer work? System check: test microphone level, webcam and volume. what will you do if the electricity is out? Question: will your voice quality sound good? video quality? System check: find out the system requirements for the video/audio service and compare them to your computer system and internet speed. Question: will any distractions intrude on the interview? System check: reduce outside noises and keep people from entering the room you are in. also, close all other computer applications and turn off phones. The bottom line is to put yourself in the interviewers shoes. Go through their motions. First, he or she will pull up the email you sent with your phone number, type the number into the phone, wait for you to answer and say hello. Step through a dry run of the entire interview. Youll see where you are vulnerable and the systems that you are counting on. Most importantly, ensure that you have a backup solution for a true technology failure. If your land-line phone or mobile phone go down can you contact the caller via the internet? If your internet connection goes down can you call the interviewer? Have your bases covered because 1) the unexpected WILL happen and 2) failure to have a backup plan can result in losing the opportunity. If this preparation seems like overkill then just think of me at 8:40 am realizing that a simple mistake just cost me a great new job.

My Word for 2018 - When I Grow Up

My Word for 2018 - When I Grow Up Do you decide on a Word of the Year? I have, since 2012-ish. While its always set with the best of intentions, sometimes it sticks and sometimes it doesnt. This years word, Be, was one that didnt. It wound up not meaning much when I reminded myself of it. Its still a concept Im trying to wrap my head around, and maybe it was premature. But maybe it was also because my word of 2016, Accept, was the biggest stick-er of all. It was nothing short of transformative for me, and lead to a huge year of growth both personally and professionally. So here we are, looking at 2018, and Ive known my word for months now: Compassion. Heres something not many people know: I am incredibly hard on myself. Ive always been the teachers pet, the people pleaser, the honor roll student and the performer who lived for applause. When I was going through my life coaching certification, I discovered my biggest limiting belief, instilled since childhood: Busy = Productive = Successful. So, I kept busy. So busy that, as I look at 40 (T-25 days), I can hardly sit still. And when I do sit still before 9pm-ish comes around when my brain says Im allowed to relax I feel guilty about it. I compare myself to others and focus on where Ive fallen short rather than the things Ive done that I know others admire, and that feel successful to me. While Ive been much better asking for help over the years, and choosing to spend time doing integral wellness work (meditation, yoga, exercise, journaling, etc.), I still hem and haw about it. I convince myself I can handle it all, and that there are more important things to be done than whatever I need in that moment for my own self-care, anxiety or sanity. Thanks to the hard work Ive done with my own life coach, Ive known for a while now that my world would change if I extended just a bit more   Compassion to myself in my normal day-to-day life. What would happen if I treated myself like my own best friend? What would expand if I told myself that I Am Enough, and decided to trust and believe it? What would change if I went beyond making a gratitude list most days and started recognizing my accomplishments of all sizes? I have a hunch that Id feel less anxious and more present each day, while feeling more gracious, calm and kind overall. I have a feeling that this would allow me to break through in my business in new, exciting ways. I have an instinct that my relationships would get deeper and stronger, and that Id be more forgiving towards others. I have a sense that this will allow me to start a new decade with an open mind and a grateful heart, ready for new beginnings and a foundation of good health. As my life coach says, Allow yourself to be surprised, so now Im asking, requesting, attracting, demanding that Compassion surprise me in 2018. Im ready for it.

Resume Writing For Freshman - How It Can Help You

Resume Writing For Freshman - How It Can Help YouIf you're a budding new college student, resume writing for freshman may not be something that you thought was going to be of any use to you. However, it may actually be very beneficial. If you know how to use a resume properly, you'll be able to walk right through a lot of hurdles that may arise on the job hunt. A good resume helps you to not only land the job that you want, but also build a strong foundation for the rest of your career.A good resume is one that tells just enough about you to make a potential employer know what you are looking for. It's important to put all of the right keywords in there as well. There are a lot of career coaches and online career coaches who can help you along with their other services. Find a good place to start.However, you don't need to have a great writer for your resume to be very useful. If you are the kind of person who can quickly write down what you need to get across and make it work, you c an go ahead and do so. Remember, even if you're a good writer, you should never hire an employee or get into a bad situation because they don't know what they're doing. The more people that make mistakes, the less likely it is that you're going to land the job that you deserve.In fact, this is something that many people end up doing during a job search. They are the people who want to be in the position of hiring and those who want to be in the position of choosing. The truth is, they are both in the same position at the same time. If you get hired on to a job then it will be for their position. Therefore, it's up to you to make sure that you're not taking a job in another department and let it go unnoticed.You have to make sure that you are always ready to be interviewed and you should always prepare yourself for your interview. This means that you will be meeting with potential employers and their representatives. Make sure that you have the proper things with you and that you're always on time.Resume writing for freshman is one of the best ways to get into college. If you can get a job in your field then it will definitely help you. One thing that you should do is keep the phone number of the person that you're interviewing with because the last thing you want is to be rejected by them because you didn't list your contact information on your resume.For college students, this is the first step in getting yourself on the right track. With a good resume, you're definitely headed to college. Just remember that college is where the real work starts.

How to Stop Procrastinating

How to Stop Procrastinating You have to hand it to the people who make up minor holidays: they know how to pick their dates. For example, today is Fight Procrastination Day, and if you’re reading this through one bleary eye while scratching your last bug bites of the season, you can see the wisdom in choosing today. Of course, your boss doesn’t care that you’d rather be sitting in a hammock, eating leftover BBQ, which means that you have to power through the urge to procrastinate and get to work. Here are a few tricks to help you do it: Put money on it. What if missing a deadline meant that you’d be forced to donate money to a charity you absolutely hated? StickK can make it happen. The process is simple: you select a goal, set the stakes, and pick a friend to referee. Fail to meet your self-defined commitment, and say goodbye to the cash. Read Next: 3 Ways to Deal with Toxic Coworkers “You can select other options and you don’t have to put in money, but c’mon, go big or go home!” writes Gregory Ciotti at Lifehacker. “Also, can you honestly think of a better way to get yourself to take action than an impending deadline that will send your hard-earned cash to an organization you despise? What if you knew that $50 was headed to a place like the Westboro Baptist Church if you don’t get that new wireframe/article/logo finished? I rest my case!” Of course, if you feel like you have enough apps in your life already, you can always do it on your own, although it still makes sense to get friends involved, if you want to make sure you’re not going to cheat. Harness the “Goal Looms Larger Effect.” Do you find yourself constantly putting off the smaller items on your to-do list, until the sight of all those seemingly meaningless tasks weighs you down and saps your motivation? Reframe those smaller items in the context of the larger goal, and you’ll feel more motivated to get them done. Read Next: Is Your Horrible Coworker Ruining Your Relationship? “This idea relates to the phenomenon known as the ‘Goal Looms Larger Effect,’” writes James Ullrich at Psychology Today. “Researchers have long since established that motivation to reach a goal increases the closer one actually gets to achieving it. This results from an unconscious action in our brain which removes blockages to our energy when we realize that a goal is indeed attainable and that our finite resources of focus and energy will likely not be wasted in pursuit of it.” Settle for good enough. “Perfection is the enemy,” Sheryl Sandberg says. And yet, if you care about your work, you want to get it rightâ€"right? The goal here is to remember that getting it right doesn’t mean getting it perfect. You don’t work in a vacuum, and your projects are not going to turn out differently in reality than they would if you had endless time and resources. Don’t wait for things to be perfect. Settle for close-to-perfect, and move on to the next. Use the “(10+2)*5” method. Sometimes, you just don’t have it in you to put your head down and work for a solid hour or so. That’s OK. Working in shorter sprints can be just as effective, provided that you string enough of these sprints together. Read Next: Top 5 High-Paying Jobs With Rising Salaries Years ago, at 43 Folders, Merlin Mann outlined his “(10+2)*5” procrastination hack. Basically: Work for 10 minutes without a break. No checking email, no noodling around on social media, no staring out the window. Just work. Take two minutes off to do whatever you want. Do this five times in a row. Work with yourself, not against yourself. If you’ve tried all these tricks, and nothing’s helping, it might be time to throw in the towel. Can’t afford to take the day off, or even skip out of the office for a 10-minute break? Switch projects. As they say, a change can be as good as a rest.

Why the perfect resume wont get you the job

Why the perfect resume wont get you the jobWeve all been therethe seemingly endless hurs of toil, the struggle and intense focus, the attention to every detail both large and small, the tweaks and rewrites based on multiple rounds of feedback and criticism from everyone who was ever important to us in our livesuntil as close of a version of perfection is achieved. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) What are we talking about?Yes, we can only be talking about one thingits your resume, and we all know how valuable a document it can be. In short, your resume is your initial handshake, your smile, your first impression to potential employers and hiring managersand you really want to make it count.According to a recent article in Psychology Today, the power of first impressions is undeniable and first impressions matter, for good and bad (Google the halo effect if youre curious and want to learn mora about the lasting power of first impressions). We also know that the competition to get a new job is intense, and some fields are even tougher than others, so the time and effort spent on perfecting your resume is time well spentHoweverif you think your resume will be your golden flugschein to your next job, think again. While its true that an impressive resume can help open doors and put you in the running for new job opportunities, even an absolutely perfect resume wont automatically guarantee you the job.You resume may open doors, but it likely wont get you the keys, if you get our meaningits a document designed to grab the attention of hiring managers and potential employers, but its up to you to seal the deal. Remember, theyre looking to hire a person, not a piece of paper, so more than just your resume will be under review during the hiring process. While its true that your resume canand hopefully willget them interested, theyll want to know if you actually live up to the initial impression they got from reading about you. Furthermore, the competition youll face is just as hungry for the jobs youre going after and you better believe that many of their resumes will also be perfect too. So, in a universe of impeccable resumes, the thing that separates the winners from everyone else in the job-hunting game is what they bring to the table after their resumes makes the initial first impression.So, if youre lucky enough to get to move forward in the hiring process, perhaps to a phone call or video conference call, or even a face-to-face interview, youre going to have to continue the job that your resume started. This means looking your best, demonstrating impeccable communication skills, instilling confidence that your skill set, experience, and innate abilities match well with the job, and giving the impression that youd be a great person to work alongside everyday and a valuable addition to their team. Youll also need to make a convincing case why youre a better choice than all the other people with perfe ct resumes that youll be competing against.Heres the bottom line its definitely worth your time and effort to craft a stellar resume, but if youre really serious about landing that job opportunity you have in your sights you need to pay just as much attention to making sure that you make as good of an impression as your resume does. Dont forgetyour resume will get your foot in the door, but its up to the rest of you to keep it there

Interview Questions What Did You Like Least About Your Last Job

Interview Questions What Did You Like Least About Your Last Job Ask Amanda How Do I Answer Interview Questions About My Previous Job?Each week, TopResumes career advice expert, Amanda Augustine, answers user questions like the one below from Quora and our Ask Amanda form. A certified professional career coach (CPCC) and resume writer (CPRW), Amanda has been helping professionals improve their careers for nearly 15 years. Have a question for Amanda? Submit it here.Q How do I answer What did you like least about your brde job? in an bewerberinterview?What should I say when an interviewer asks me what I liked least about a job I previously worked at? MikeWhat did you like least about your last job? is about as much fun to answer as the notorious What is your greatest weakness? because, in both circumstances, your interviewer is asking you for a negative answer. Luckily, with a little effort, you can answer this tricky interview question with confidence. Be prepared for the questionDont walk into the interview room without preparing a response to this question. The last thing you want to do is be caught off-guard and blurt out a response that tanks the interview.As youre preparing for your job search, reflect on your most recent position. Consider what could have been better about your role, your relationship with your boss, or the organization. Even the best jobs could be better in some way after all, why would you be looking for a new job if everything welches perfect?Be honest, but diplomaticIf your last job was a total nightmare, theres no point in pretending that it was a dream recruiters can see right through those lies. However, you dont have to bash your previous employer in the process, either.If you and your former employer parted ways on bad terms, be tactful when discussing the situation. Its alright to say that there were aspects of your previous role you wish were different.Focus on tasks, not peopleWhenever possible, avoid discussing particular pe ople that made your work challenging. Instead, focus on tasks or aspects of the work that you wish were different. For instance, if youre a people person who had to verstndigung im strafverfahren with an extraordinary amount of paperwork in your last job, perhaps you can say that you would have liked a better balance between these activities so you could focus on the areas where you performed best.Dont focus on an essential skillIf youre currently interviewing for a position thats similar to your previous role, avoid mentioning aspects of the job that are sure to be the same. For example, if you hated how much you had to travel for your last job and this new opportunity also involves travel, dont use this complaint as part of your interview response.In fact, if the aspect you liked least about your previous role will be a critical part of this next position, you may want to reconsider whether its the job for you.Tell a positive storyRedirect the conversation back to the job opportun ity at hand. How has your most recent role prepared you for this new position? What did you learn about yourself in the process? For instance, perhaps your last role helped you clarify exactly what type of company you want to work for and the type of role you want to serve within that organization. Use these points to bring the conversation back to why youre the right candidate to fill this employers open position.Not feeling confident about your interview skills? Work with a TopInterview coach todayRecommended ReadingHow to Explain Getting Fired From a Job During an InterviewInterview Deal-Breakers That Could Cost You the JobHow Professional Interview Coaching Can Help You Land the JobRelated Articles

Rumored Buzz on Best Words to Use on a Resume Discovered

Rumored Buzz on Best Words to Use on a Resume Discovered The hiring manager has to experience a pile of resumes every day and is the person who chooses the best resume to get carried forward to the interview procedure. Choose those that best describe what you need to offer, and you will maximize your odds of getting called for an interview. Youve got to fight for your spot and utilize all youve got to impress the man or woman looking into hiring you. An excellent method to prove that youre organized is to compose a well-organized resume. What You Dont Know About Best Words to Use on a Resume The peak of your resume should includecritical key terms and a fast snapshot of your core strengths, Leavy-Detrick states. Though your first reaction may be to concentrate on your abilities and experience, theres a lot of weight in the words you use that describe you as an employee. Everyone employs lead sooner or later on their resume. Instead, utilize a number of terms which best desc ribe your accomplishments to show employers the reach of your achievements. A Secret Weapon for Best Words to Use on a Resume Still, there are specific words and phrases that could definitely give your resume a boost. Only utilize adjectives to describe yourself if youre well prepared to back this up immediately afterwards. The next time you end up asking how you can create your resume strong, dont forget to turn to relevant verbs and steer clear of cliches and soft skills. Rather than adjectives, you can take advantage of nouns that are the foremost priority. Now you should determine the resume keywords and phrases employed for your intended position. Dont use the variety of your present employer if youve got one. See what you could discover useful in showing you made a significant effort ahead of sending your application in. Just upload your resume in their system then paste the full job description to begin the comparison. 25 to 30 is an excellent number, all sections o f a resume included. Best Words to Use on a Resume Fundamentals Explained Its necessary that your resume should seem good and hence use of voices is likewise very important. Attempt not to look as though youre a mimic and you are just borrowing their words for your resume. Dont make the error of answering each job posting with the very same generic resume. If youre applying for work in communications, its extremely important to use action words. To find out more on what it requires to be a Store Assistant, take a look at our complete Store Assistant Job Description. Begin a work search to get the keywords and phrases you will need, then upload your new resume to Monster. Make heavy use of keywords to demonstrate that you truly know the work distribution policy and are very well familiar with the work position you were doing earlier. The very first place to discover keywords to utilize in your resume is the work ad. Expert Stay away from the term expert, if you dont truly are, states Bensusen. Besides using suitable and productive words to compose a killer resume, there are different things to stay in mind.