Guide to Answering the Most Common Interview Questions. Wouldn’t it be great if you knew exactly what questions a hiring manager would be asking you in your next job interview? We can’t read minds, unfortunately, but we’ll give you the next best thing: a list of more than 40 of the most commonly asked interview questions, along with advice for answering them all. While we don’t recommend having a canned response for every interview question (in fact, please don’t), we do recommend spending some time getting comfortable with what you might be asked, what hiring managers are really loo ..read more

7 Tips for Running a Successful Team Brainstorm—Even When Everyone’s Remote. I’m a user researcher, so brainstorms are the bread and butter of my discipline. A brainstorm helps teams to gather wild and inventive ideas to imagine the future of our products. Or it can help participants step back from a thorny situation and chart a path forward. Whether you’re brainstorming something as specific and targeted as what set of features a product you’re designing must include, something as strategic as how to build more inclusive working environments, or something as timely as how to adapt your team’s ..read more

Aside from submitting a resume full of typos, the quickest way to be eliminated from consideration for a new job is making an avoidable interview blunder – like putting your foot in your mouth. Here are some tricks of landing into your dream job: Nervous Even if you’re more nervous than you’ve ever been, no company wants to hire someone who lacks confidence. So, in this case, honesty is not the best policy. Don’t tell your interviewer how nervous are, or were before the interview. Just fake it ’til you make it. Weaknesses or mistakes Never voluntarily talk about your weaknesses unless they ask ..read more

Understanding Business If you do not understand your company’s cash flow well, you will never know why you were replaced by someone.  If you don’t understand business, you will not align your interests to that of your firm’s and, thus, miss out on the most valuable growth and learning opportunities. Promoting Yourself Invest in learning how to craft a good CV and get short listed for roles. Practice hard for interviews and learn to sell yourself in short interactions. Finally, learn to stand up and advertise yourself and your accomplishments so that rightful credit and resources ..read more

How to protect company culture during COVID-19 Nightmares are on the up. If a viral pandemic and a potential global economic crash weren’t enough, reports of increased nightmares during this time show that stress levels are heightened. Significantly. As a manager or leader, this means that your now remote team or company is likely a lot more stressed than they are letting on. A recent study with LinkedIn and The Mental Health Foundation has shown that: Fears of burnout and presenteeism are increasing with more than half of HR professionals believing mental health issu ..read more

Hire for Attitude and Train for Skills A valuable employee is one with the right attitude for your organization. Someone with a positive attitude has a tendency to react positively in most situations, whereas someone with a negative attitude has a tendency to react negatively in most situations. Most people will fall somewhere in between positive and negative attitudes. The key is to find someone who is more positive than negative. Smart recruiters look for attitude over skills because most skills can often be gained, while attitude is harder to change. Thinking Outside the Box Both compa ..read more

Working together effectively: Four tips to get it right with Hiring Managers Did you know that 56% of recruiters claim the biggest bottleneck is hiring managers moving candidates through the hiring stages and a further 43% say it is hiring managers reviewing resumes? That’s a lot of disgruntled relationships with hiring managers! We’re going to guess while you might not have known the exact number, the general consensus doesn’t surprise you. While this common problem hasn’t been overly affected by COVID-19, there are some evergreen issues that need addressing. Here’s are four tips to help ..read more

Candidates can look so good on paper that they trick you into thinking they are the perfect fit for the job. It’s important that you spot the basic warning signs during the interview to prevent yourself from taking on a problem candidate. There are lots of factors that you need to take into consideration; Will they get on with the rest of your team? Are they reliable? Are they capable? Most importantly, Are they telling the truth? Even if they aren’t lying, there may be a couple of things that they say or do that may put you off. Here are 5 things worth looking out for before they ..read more

6 Steps to Setting Professional Development Goals—and Actually Reaching Them Your skillset is your career capital. That’s why it’s so important to invest time and energy into your professional development. By doing so, you’ll hone your functional expertise, get better at the job you have now, and prepare yourself to take the next step in your career (and the one after that, and the one after that). So it’s no surprise that professional development is top priority for so many career-minded folks. In fact, in a 2018 survey of users of The Muse, having access to learning and development opportuni ..read more

Tips For Virtual Networking. Online or virtual networking is a lot like networking in person, it requires time and dedication for it to be successful. As we operate in the shut-in economy, with working-from-home as the new norm, we wanted to share our best practices for virtual networking so you can continue to make connections while staying inside.   Start with a list When was the last time you sat down and thought about who you know, who you’d like to know, or who you’d like to know better? Start by making a list of people – former colleagues, alumni, friends of friends, who you’d like ..read more