How to win at an interview -

How to win at an interview - The  perfect interview  is every job seekers dream. A great interview also gets the recruiting or hiring manager excited about a great candidate. How can you become that ideal candidate who is a slam dunk for the job? Its probably not as tough as you think. Unfortunately, when you talk to hiring managers and recruiters, you find that many interviewees are unprepared and unimpressive. They make basic mistakes and often lose opportunities as a result. When you are just a little more prepared to  answer interview questions  than the next candidate, you can come out smelling like a rose. Follow these tips to a perfect interview; Apply for the right jobs. This step happens before the interview. You need to make sure to apply for jobs that suit your skills and experience. Dont bother with a lot of jobs  you are overqualified  to do, and eliminate jobs where you cant prove that you have the majority of the skills they seek. This key step will help you save time in your job search, as you wont be spinning your wheels applying for positions you dont have a chance to land. Research the organization and the people. Do not go to an interview before youve done research that informs you about the companys major issues, also known as point points. Scan all of the online information about the company, including what it says about itself as well as news mentions. Make a connection between the companys goals and what you offer. For example, if you read that the organization is working to improve its customer service focus, be prepared to explain how your background prepared you to contribute to this goal. Specifics regarding how you contributed to similar successful efforts in the past will help you stand out from the crowd. You also should take advantage of the opportunity to learn about your interviewers. You can bet that youll be able to find something out about anyone youll meet online.  Start with LinkedIn,and if you cant learn what you need there, Google the interviewers name. You know they will do the same for you, so you might as well be on equal ground. During the interview, feel free to bring up any information you found on LinkedIn, Twitter orGoogle+,  as long as it is professional and seems like something the employer would want you to know. For example, I see you also attended the University of Illinois! Or, Im a big movie buff, too. Use Problem Action Result stories and answer questions completely You need to have several stories to demonstrate you can handle any challenge the job may bring. Each story should have three elements: 1) A problem. 2) The action you took to solve the problem. 3) The result: what happened and how did your actions affect that result? This is known as a PAR story; people who structure their responses to interview questions in this way will be sure to address all of the key points. Oftentimes, interviewees forget to describe the result of their actions, or they may forget to detail how they affected the results. When you have several PAR stories at the ready, youll be prepared for most any interview question. Think of times when you overcame a big challenge, worked with difficult people or had to make an unpopular choice. These are common interview questions you can answer with a PAR story. If you research the company well, you may be able to predict some of their questions and plan some good stories to tell. Dont talk too much. Sometimes, the best thing to say is as little as possible. Especially when asked something you dont want to talk much about, such as  why were you fired, your best bet is to cut to the chase and move to the next question. Do not dwell on anything negative and always present things in the most favorable light possible. Follow up. If you really want the job, make sure to write a thank you note after the interview  to each person you met. Comment on each meeting in individual notes; dont duplicate the same message to each interviewer. This is your chance to elaborate on something you want them to know and to remind the interviewers why you are a good choice. As long as you dont include any typos or other mistakes in your letter, it can only help you stand out in a crowd of candidates. More advice: 10 reasons you arent getting hired 6 most revealing interview questions Snap judgements hiring managers make Originally published on AOLJobs.com.

Benfits of Having Writing for a College Newspaper on a Resume: the Ultimate Convenience!

Benfits of Having Writing for a College Newspaper on a Resume: the Ultimate Convenience! Rumors, Lies and Benfits of Having Writing for a College Newspaper on a Resume It is possible to also include several of these in your resume. In school, you must take classes, you must study, you must do homework, it's because in schools teachers have to answer to the authorities in case the outcomes of a certain class are bad. Let's walk through three distinct resumes for different sorts of post-college jobs. Benfits of Having Writing for a College Newspaper on a Resume - Is it a Scam? You are going to be able to pursue your academic targets and have a set of skills that are crucial for your success beyond the college. Some are highly intelligent in subjects, a number of them are great in sports and leaderships and a few of with YO YO. Whenever you would like to emphasize that you're ambitious, that you understand what you want in a career, or you have the skills for the particular job, you could benefit from a resume objective. A resume objective might also incorporate where you've been, and where you would like to go in your career. As a result, while your resume objective should incorporate information on the career that you would like, you also need to spell out why you are the perfect candidate for the job. A resume writer's detailed intake procedure will make you seek out quantifiable data in your previous computer files. Also, in the event you unexpectedly lose your work, it's sensible to have your resume updated and ready. Resume examples and templates are really helpful, especially when you're writing one of your very first resumes. Top Choices of Benfits of Having Writing for a College Newspaper on a Resume One of the risks of a resume objective is that you're able to focus too much on what you would like in your career, and not enough on how you are going to add value to the business. There are obvious explanations for why you might elect to e mploy a resume writer. A resume objective can explain why you're qualified for the job, even if it's the case that you do not own a lot of related experience. The feeling of duty or responsibility is the manner of human improvement. Quite often it isn't necessarily what you study, but the simple fact that you studied something in the slightest. It's also important to ask three or more people. So, you have the feeling that however intelligent you're in the subjects, but there are different men and women too. A lot of people know they want to attend college, but don't know just why, or the way it will enrich their lives. The folks who suffer the most out of job cuts are lower level employees who just have high school diplomas. That mixture of benefits is why so many individuals make the investment of time and money to visit college. Entering college, not everybody is aware of what they would like to do when they grow up. Attending college is an important commitment of time and money, but it is likewise a down payment on success. Delivering a sermon is at least as simple as delivering a speech. Possessing an audience away from the classroom assists the student find more importance of writing. Knowing you've got the outline solidly in your head will help ease your nerves and enable you to be more natural in your speech. Students confess they must enroll on a private writing lesson or seek research paper writing services merely to obtain the skills to start.

#1 Reason You Hate Work (And How You Can Fix It) - Work It Daily

#1 Reason You Hate Work (And How You Can Fix It) - Work It Daily Why is it that most people describe the Corporate America work culture as “difficult”? And trust me, the word ‘difficult’ is an understatement when I consider words I have heard other people use to describe it! Struggling to find both happiness and success in corporate America is the norm â€" not the exception. Almost everybody has issues there and most of these issues consist of many outside circumstances that make their life miserable at work. The boss you can’t get along with. The mean and hateful co-worker. The deceitful management team. The meetings you no longer are invited to attend. The job tasks that were suddenly taken away. The job title change. The new role you were just assigned. The promotion that never comes to be. The raise you don’t get. The president who can’t be trusted. The job tasks you hate. The recognition you don’t ever get. The value that no one perceives you have. The work assignments that someone else claimed as their own. All of this is compounded by the clock that doesn’t tick fast enough and the weekend â€" the only 2 days you live for â€" that can’t ever get here soon enough. What gives? Why do most people seem to live this life at work? After 15 years working in corporate America, specifically in human resources, I left (for the most part) for one or more of those reasons. I left because I was tired of playing “the game.” This was over two years ago now and it took me a long time to figure it all out. But it has left me with the realization that there actually are no games going on in the workplace. Okay, technically there definitely are a million and one games going on in corporate America every single day and in almost every . These games bring rise to what you call your “problems” at work, many that are listed a few paragraphs up. However, my journey since leaving corporate America has taught me that the only games that really went on at work were the ones I created in my mind. The Biggest Reason You Hate Work As blatant as some of the “problems” were and as obvious as it was that a situation was definitely going on outside of me and causing me a lot of stress, the only thing that created my misery was my interpretation of that problem. Do you ever notice the constant mind-bending and twisted chatter that goes on in your head every minute of the day? Someone walks in your office and says something quite off-putting to you. Or a raise was promised and not delivered. That is the situation. The problem is now you and the voice in your head that talks non-stop about it for hours, days, weeks, and even months or years. The voice interprets what that situation actually means to you and can’t shut up about it! “Oh my gosh! I didn’t get a raise! She hates me. I bet she’s gonna fire me. She is so evil. She never keeps her promises! She doesn’t appreciate me, she doesn’t value me, she doesn’t give a crap about me at all! Screw her. I’ll show up at 8:00 and walk out the door at 5:00. She doesn’t deserve a minute of my extra time! I’ll just do what she pays me for and that’s about nothing! I gotta find another job before she fires me. I hate it here… Gosh, she is such a %^#$^$#!” And therein lies the problem. This is your ego interpreting what just happened and incessantly talking about it in your head, keeping you awake at night, and never letting it rest. The more it talks about it, the bigger the problem gets. And it will now seek evidence, in every way it can, to prove you are right. The ego is never satisfied and never happy. You May Not Be Right... We don’t ever stop for a moment to check in with the voice in our head. So, two days later, you aren’t invited to a meeting. Perhaps there is a perfectly valid reason for that, but to you, it’s more evidence that your boss hates you and is out to fire you. And the voice talks about it some more. This is what we do every day at work. We interpret things that happen at work, and run with it until we can’t see straight anymore. But the problem is â€" as real as your interpretation seems to you â€" your interpretation was made only through the eyes of your past issues. You interpret it based on how you see the world, which is only based on your own personal experiences that you have had in your life up until today. It’s not grounded in reality, as much as it seems like it is. Someone else may also not get a raise that day and their voice in their head might say this, “This company is in trouble. We haven’t gotten raises in a year now. I can’t remember the last time we got a big sale and there were even layoffs five months ago. I should start keeping my options open â€" I think this company might fold.” See how that works? Yes, there are people who can be downright mean at work. But why are they mean? Because they are interpreting their work situations through the eyes of their past as well. And because we all do this, we all are operating in a constant state of fear. You could have a great day at work today â€" perhaps you had to present a project and you kicked it out of the ballpark. It was awesome! But now your co-worker is suddenly being hateful to you. She excludes you from important communications. You have no idea why. Hence the “game” starts. But in reality, you were nothing more than a mirror to her when you gave your presentation. You showed her up and made her feel insecure about her place and role in the office. She interprets the meaning of your presentation through the eyes of her own issues. The Fear Factor The games at work are nothing more than fear running rampant and unchecked throughout your office. What can you do about this? It is so critical for you to dig through your past and list out all the critical events that happened in your life. Once you do this, list out the interpretation you assigned to each event. For example: “My boyfriend dumped me after six years for no reason.” Interpretation: “I am not worth being with.” This interpretation creates an “I am worthless” mentality from that day forward. It happens unconsciously, but it happens. This will cause you to feel worthless and interpret other people’s actions as them thinking you are worthless. Look through your list and all its interpretations and start assigning NEW meanings to the events in your past. Your boyfriend dumped you after six years â€" perhaps the new meaning is “I did all I could. It’s his problem that he was scared to commit to marriage and he has his own issues to deal with. This has NOTHING to do with ME.” Understanding this concept greatly helps you understand other people and why they act so crazy sometimes. Most importantly, it stops you from taking what others do so personally. The key is to start thinking consciously. Pay close attention to that annoying voice in your head and the things that bother you at work to cause it to go into a tailspin. Dig deep to discover why you see the situation the way you do and then ask yourself, “Does this really mean what I think it means?” Most likely, whatever upsets you today comes from a place in your past where you assigned an interpretation to an event unconsciously. This drives your behavior today and will always drive your behavior unless you are conscious about changing it and questioning your thoughts on a regular basis. List out what it is and change that interpretation to what it really means and work hard on reminding yourself of this every day. We really do create our own misery by letting the voice in our heads run rampant unconsciously. Conscious thinking takes effort, but it also will give you great peace. Among many other things, it gives you the power to decide how your day goes â€" no longer can others walk in to your office, say a bunch of words, and ruin your day. This is the key that will help stop corporate America from sucking the life out of you. Enjoy this article? You've got time for another! Check out these related articles: What To Do When You Hate Your Job 9 Ways To Be Happy In Job You Don’t Like I Hate My Work, Should I Change Jobs? Photo Credit: Shutterstock Have you joined our career growth club?Join For Free!