Dear Career Strategist,
1. Should I have my resume professionally done?
Do not be fooled by resume writers. Content is the important aspect of a resume, not formatting. One page is best, two at the most. If you have 20 years work experience, only provide extensive detail for the last five years. I have examples on my website at www.nucciconsultinggroup.com - both well and poorly written. The key to writing a good resume is clarity, directness and readability.
Do not provide an objective in your resume. Everyone quickly scans someone's resume and discerns whether their experience is a match for the relevant position. A resume is nothing more than a screening tool. A resume does not get you a job, it either opens a door or keeps you out. Too many words, too many pages, and too many positions are red flags.
2. What questions will your interviewer ask?
Every interviewer basically wants answers to these ten basic questions:
He isn't going to ask you this question, but he is going to assess if you can do the job during the interview. He will evaluate you based on your skills, personality traits, work ethic, integrity, and attributes. The key is for you to know that you communicate through your words, your tone, your non-verbal communication (facial expressions, etc.,) as well as your dress who you are. This is the basis for determining whether or not it is a fit between you....and the company. .
- Can you do the job the way I want you to, from a performance, style, attitude and culture perspective? Will you be able to fit into our organization culturally?
- Can you solve my problems and meet my challenges?
- How will you increase my revenues or decrease my costs?
Are you going to help me cut my costs or are you a brilliant strategist/innovator and identify new markets or new products? If you can't define what you are great at doing, then why should he hire you?
- How will you contribute to the organization?
OK, now you take the research you did on the companies' competitors along with your past, synthesize the research you did on this company and put together your brilliant WAMBAM, Thank you Mam, idea. This is why you need to hire me, Mr. Interviewer.
- Tell me how you have contributed to your organization.
What you want to do is tell stories of how helped your organization achieved goals. Highlight your achievements and demonstrate how you will help them achieve their goals....use words such as...initiated, developed, coordinated, achieved,established
- How have you have worked as a member of a team.
Again, tell a story abut a team project you worked on and how successful the project was.
- How have you grown professionally.
He wants to know if you have stopped growing. Why? His concern is whether or not you have been Peter Principled. You have to demonstrate whether or not you have the capacity to continue to grow professionally. You need to demonstrate your ability and desire for professional growth. Such as your ability to take constructive criticism-for example, "I am an avid believer in constantly improving myself and seek constructive input from all. For example, one of the things I implemented at my organization was the 360 degree feedback program. Many senior executives were reluctant to implement both the 360 program, however, I believe that in order to grow, you need to understand your weaknesses. In my last review, control and perfection issues were addressed."
- Demonstrate how you will be a good return on my investment.
No one wants to hire someone who is coming in looking to hide on their 2X4. So it is up to you to take the initiative in the interview, how you are going to be a good ROI. If you don't take the initiative, then you haven't done your job in the interview. (for example, "Initially, the goal was to the division up and running within the first six months. However, I was able to reach our 18 month sales goals within the first six months because I achieved our staffing goals within the first two months. Quite honestly, I would attribute that to my ability to attracted, identify and retain superior talent." So what just happened? You just told the man you are interviewing with that you are a dynamo....he has got to be a fool not to hire you, right?)
- What motivates you, what drives you.
Give me specific samples of things you have done. Tell a story of what drives you. (Great example is the following, "I grew up with four brothers, and ingrained in me from a young age was an incredible and fierce competition. It's not that I compete with anyone else. I compete against myself and the desire to be the best that I can be. It's just a driving force from within."
The interviewer wants to know whether or not you can do the job, probably never asking you that specific question. The greatest answers will merge your experience, accomplishments and attributes into a seamless thread of how you can contribute to the organization.
3. How should I prepare for an interview?
Do not, I repeat, do not regurgitate your resume in an interview. The purpose of an interview is to provide information and detail that is not on your resume. For example, when an interviewer asks the question, "tell me about yourself," the last interviewer wants to hear is you regurgitate everything on your resume. Think about it, what stays with you? How someone makes you feel right? It's not going to be what you said, its not going to be how you said it, what will stay with the interviewer is how you made him feel. So if you words demonstrate to him that you are passionate, enthusiastic, driven, focused, competitive, etc., then those feelings will stay with the interviewer won't they?
The interviewer hears the same stuff over and over again. So consider for a moment if you were to tell him a story that gave him a flavor for who you are. For example, "I was born in Pittsburgh into a large family of four brothers and one sister. I was born an entrepreneur by starting my first business at 9 years old. I built...... In addition, you want the interviewer to enjoy the interview. So a great interview will take 60 minutes but feel like only 10 minutes-you want to have a discussion instead of an interview.
My recommendation is you write down answers to questions typically addressed by every interviewer. Why write the answers out? The key to a good interview is preparation, preparation and preparation. By writing out the answers to each question, you will clearly communicate how your skills and talents will benefit the hiring organization.
Remember, you only have 30-45 minutes to tell someone who you are. Communicating who you are and your benefits to someone in 45 minutes should require vast preparation shouldn't it? So prepare, write, re-write, and read your answers to friends, etc. until you have a great story to tell.
4. How do I separate myself from other candidates?
There are a few basic things you can do to make a strong impression with the interviewers, consultants, and employers.
- Thoroughly understand the business of the employer through comprehensive research, (the sites you need to visit are on the links section of this website.)
- Research top competitors and evaluate what the firm's competitors are doing or not doing.
- Read industry and global trends to understand how the company is currently or needs to be positioned for the future
- Develop astute and perceptive questions based on information you have assimilated through out your search.
- Based on your research, fuse the client's needs with your experience and attributes.
- Send a thank you email within 24 hours of the interview.
- Send a hand-written thank you note within 48 hours of the interview.
NOTE: I use the term he generically, as for ease of use. Please do not take offense.
Copyright Ev Nucci 2006