Today’s interviewers expect you to know something about their company. It’s an indication to them that you’re interested in the position and the company. In fact, some interviewers will ask, “What do you know about our company?” If you haven’t done your research on the company, you’ve just shot yourself in the foot. On the other hand if you have, this is your invitation to showcase how your qualifications and expertise will allow you to drive and deliver on the company’s goals and objectives. So here’s a shortlist of tips: 1) Research the company’s size, industry position, market share, brand ..read more

With millennials predicted to comprise more than 35 percent of the workforce by 2020, it’s inevitable to see members of this millennial generation in hiring-manager positions, recruiting and hiring senior-staff members who may be far older and more experienced than they are. Understanding the way millennials think about work, jobs, and career is key to making the right impression in the interview, getting hired, and fitting in with a multi-generational workforce. Here are five general observations: 1. Leadership, teamwork, and communication are always in vogue. Millennial hiring managers seek ..read more

A dozen years or so ago, a popular trend in the job-search world was the idea of a career portfolio – a physical, tangible set of artifacts, often in a binder, showing skills, experience, strengths, and more. The job-seeker, armed with the portfolio, would look for opportunities to present parts of it in interviews. Portfolios aren’t talked about as much these days, but that doesn’t mean that visual representations of your employability aren’t still a good idea. But just like the fat books of software documentation that have shrunk down to a single card, portfolios have become more streamlined ..read more

Non-verbal communication strategies can help improve your interaction with the interviewer. Interviewers typically trust the non-verbal messages they’re receiving as well as the verbal messages. If there’s a discrepancy in the verbal and non-verbal, it creates a feeling of uneasiness. Therefore, it’s important to be aware of your body language, posture, eye contact, facial expressions, nervous habits, voice pitch, tone and speed. Body Language: Your body language speaks volumes about you. How you walk into the interview, how you shake hands, how you do or don’t make eye contact, how you sit, h ..read more

Brainteaser questions require you to answer an unusual or abstract question and develop a suitable answer based on logic, analysis and hypothesis. They are used to assess your capability to solve a complex problem. In many cases, you are not expected to reach a correct answer. Rather, the recruiter is more interested in your methodology and creativity. Always Anticipate that a Brainteaser Question May Be Asked. Brainteasers are increasingly likely to be asked across the spectrum of disciplines. Just as you anticipate traditional screening questions, behavioral questions, and situational quest ..read more

  The phone rings at 4:30 in the afternoon, and it’s Tom Headhunter, dropping upon you a tempting position that’s a “must” career move. At the end of 10 minutes of talk, you know little of the position and nothing of Tom Headhunter. What do you do? How do you decide if this position–and this person–are worth doing business with? It’s hard, because you don’t want to be taken for a ride into a vast unknown, risking your confidentiality and relationship with your current employer–and perhaps other executive-search consultants. Just the same, you don’t want to hastily turn Mr. Headhunter asi ..read more

One of the most common tactics interviewers apply when interviewing candidates is to see whether you’ve researched the organization before the interview. Here’s a guide for responding to company-knowledge questions. Interviewer motivation for asking: Quite simply, the interviewer wants to know that you’ve done your homework. The employer expects you to come into the interview with thorough knowledge of the organization and the position. The interviewer wants you to know the organization well enough so that you also know what you can contribute and perhaps how you can respond to the employer’s ..read more

Employers often ask questions early in the interview process that opens the door to a selling opportunity. The interviewer’s motivation in many cases is to decide whether to move you forward in the interview process; some of these questions are designed to screen you out if you don’t fit the criteria for the responses the employer seeks. Another motivation is to break the ice, put you at ease (that’s the theory, though questions like “Tell me about yourself” can be nerve-wracking), and help the interviewer learn more about you. These questions also challenge you to explain why you are here ..read more

Employers are increasingly using pre-screening and assessment techniques early in the interviewing process, typically after one or more initial phone screenings and before the first face-to-face interview or between the first and second interview. Sometimes they are used only when the field is narrowed down to just a few candidates. Surveys indicate more than 80 percent of Fortune 500s use assessments for executive positions and that small businesses also use them. The use of assessments is growing. According to those employers who use them, pre-screens and assessments assure the organization ..read more

Your branded value proposition is your unique promise of value. It is a statement of the tangible results a company expects to gain by hiring you. But how do you define this value and, most importantly, how do you demonstrate your value to the company you are interviewing with? When defining value, it is important to keep these key factors in mind: Your value proposition must be compelling. For instance, significant cost cutting, hefty profit improvements, large sales increases, opening major new markets, or customer satisfaction turnarounds that spell the difference between company success a ..read more