Job hunting is never easy, so it’s no wonder that so many professionals are even more frustrated with the process today. We all know that in these very competitive times crossing t’s and dotting i’s is important, but what else should you be conveying to make yourself more attractive to employers?
William Rolack is a human resources and diversity executive who understands the hiring process from the inside. President of the Greater New York chapter of the National Association of African Americans in Human Resources (NAAAHR) and a member of the organization’s board of directors, he is also author of a self-titled book offering “7 Secrets to a Winning Job Interview.†Here he sheds strategic information on how to better position yourself to make a solid impression with a hiring manager.
Show results on the resume. It’s not necessarily about what you did or what you were in the act of doing. It should be about your accomplishments — things you started and saw to fruition. It’s important to determine how what you’re doing impacts the bottom line of the business so you can draw that correlation on your resume. If I’m in data entry, what is my impact on the business? Maybe it’s that my value ensured that 1,000 checks were processed accurately.
Do the research and use it. The important thing is to know when to use it. The critical point is in the silent pauses. That’s when the interviewer is shuffling their papers or looking for the next question to ask, you can then say, “Hey, I heard you have a new competitor in the space.†It could be in the form of a question or in the form of statement. What’s important is that you are conveying what you know about the business.
The morning of your interview, it’s also important for you to research again. There may be something critical that just came out that morning in the news that you can leverage or use in your interview.
Send an interview confirmation. Sending an e-mail or a formal letter before the day of your interview to confirm your meeting and to thank them for the interview, gives you another chance to make great impression. You get a real opportunity to express your exc
itement and it heightens the level of interest in the company meeting you. It also gives you an opportunity to include your letters of recommendation, which are more effective before an interview, not after.Get your mind right.There are a number of elements to consider during the interview, but your mental state is most important — being in a positive upbeat mental state. You need to feel like you are the best. What people don’t realize is that when they don’t feel good about themselves it shows. So those who defeat themselves even before the interview by saying, “It’s another interview, I didn’t get the last one,†are already canceling themselves out. There is no room for negative thoughts. A call for an interview means that out of hundreds, maybe thousands of resumes someone has determined that you can do the job. No one is invited into an interview without the hiring manager believing that. So in the essence of that phone call, you technically have the job. It’s up to you to close the deal.
Send a thank you letter. Please do it! We still get only two out of 10
thank you notes from interviewees. I don’t know what people are thinking about. You need to send a thank you note even if you don’t get the job. What people tend not to realize is that they may be second best. If No. 1 doesn’t work out, then you’re the next one to get a call. So if No. 2 doesn’t send a thank you note and No. 3 does, guess who’s getting the job.Have questions. If there is one thing that can shoot a person down is not having questions. If you don’t have any questions you don’t have a job. Because it says that I’m just looking for the next job, I’m not looking for a good match. It’s impossible to not have questions, because I couldn’t have told you everything you need to know about this company. I once interviewed a CIO who came in with four pages of questions, and I answered every one. He actually got the job.
Talk money–really. When you receive the first phone call asking you to come in for an interview, it’s important to ask about compensation then. And the
script is simple: “Thank you so much. I’m very excited about your call, but I would like to know what the compensation range is for this job.†A couple things will happen. They may say it’s commensurate with experience.Then you should get excited. Or they may say, for example, “The range is $45,000 to $60,000.†If that’s in your range, then you are good to go, but if your range is beyond that, you may not want to expend the energy. You don’t have to seal the deal, but you want to know before you go through the process that what they are offering is in the range of what you need to live on. Because of today’s tight market most just want the opportunity to get in, but everyone knows what they would like and what they can’t go below. Where are you willing to start negotiations? What is going to keep you satisfied and most important, what, if you get the job, is going to keep you from being angry that you settled.
For more job hunting tips or to purchase the book, visit his Website.