The Behavioral Interview

Tell me about yourself.
Why are you looking to leave your job?
Why do you want to work for our company?
Tell me about a professional conflict you've had.

These are all very common questions asked by recruiters and hiring managers that every job seeker should be ready for. What exactly are employers looking for when they ask you behavioral questions that aren't necessarily related to your skills or the role?

Employers are looking to see if they'd want to work with you and if they'd like having you on their team.

When listening to your answer, employers are evaluating you on a few core areas.
1) Is this person excited about this position at this company or do they just need a job?
2) Can this person play well with others and solve problems or could they disrupt the current team dynamic?
3) Is this person aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and will they take criticism well?

The best way to prepare for a behavioral interview, in addition to doing mock interviews, is to do some soul searching. Have your resume in front of you and take notes about each job you've had, specifically what did you like/dislike about the job, what did you do well/accomplish, what did you learn, and how did you work with others. Being aware of these factors will help you understand what responsibilities you don't like, and more importantly what duties and roles you do like.

After you've analyzed your work history and are more aware of what you're looking for in a career move, it's important to come up with examples and stories that can be used in an interview. If you have a handful of specific examples with detailed stories at hand, you can use them for a wide range of questions. The types of examples you want to have should address the following:

• An accomplishment/success
• What are you proud of? Have you won any awards or received a promotion?
• Conflict resolution
• How do you work with difficult people? What would you change about your manager? When have you disagreed with a colleague?
• Challenges
• What has been the most difficult responsibility or project you've tackled? Have you spearheaded a new project/program? How did you successfully complete it? Did you exceed expectations?

Job searching, again? What now?

By: Marché Howell

For one reason or another you’ve come to the point where it is time to look for another job. Let’s be honest. Searching for another job is quite comparable to dating after being in a long-term (or sometimes short-term) relationship. You find yourself asking questions like ‘how do I update my resume?’ and ‘where should I search?” You’re questioning the value of LinkedIn or even rethinking going back to school or getting that certification renewed.  Whatever the case may be, you are looking to advance yourself to the next level in your career – or looking to start one altogether.

Here are a few things to consider when placing yourself on (or back on) the job market.

Invest in a quality resume.

Your resume is the first thing a hiring manager, employer, or recruiter sees and you want it to reflect you in a positive light.

Find the role you that you want and add the qualities of an individual that works in that role to your resume.Now, use discretion here, of course. You want to be honest, yet purposeful in the things that you highlight within your resume. So, if you are looking for a role in customer service, be sure that ‘customer service – like’ skills are within your resume. Lookup key words or buzzwords that coincide with the role that you want and find a way to incorporate that into what you are currently doing.

Not sure how to improve your resume? Utilize a professional resource like Inside Recruiter to get a revision consultation and other tips on things to do when job hunting.

Use sites like LinkedIn to display your resume as well as job hunt.

According to a recent study on LinkedIn usage, LinkedIn has over 433 million users with 128 million residing in the US alone.

Facing the facts, we live in a digital age where everything is done electronically and digitally. Social and grassroots media has taken over by storm and changed the way we do every day things – including looking for a job and sourcing for employees. Employers are using LinkedIn to post positions; and recruiters and HR managers are going there to recruit talent. Wouldn’t you want your information to be seen by employers? How are you supposed to get noticed by that hiring manager, director, partner, etc., if you don’t put yourself out there? Use your resources!

Practice your interview etiquette!

To the more seasoned job seekers, I know what you’re thinking. You’ve being doing ‘x’ for so long and shouldn’t have to practice…but that’s not the case at all. You’d be surprised by how difficult it is to tell an individual who didn’t work along side you what you did, how you did it and the impact or affect it yielded your department/team. These are things to practice telling a friend who works in a different industry, to be sure they understand you and can repeat back to you what you’ve said. Simple things like articulating your strengths can make or break your interview and either make you look sharp to a potential employer or unprepared.

  

It seems like a full-time job in itself to look for a new job, project to join, or next career move, so the more that you can do to be prepared, the better. Doing the little things like updating your marketing materials, investing in a quality resume, and practicing communicating your strengths are the very things that will make you stand out to employers and prove how serious you are about advancing yourself professionally. 

Just remember, employers want to know what YOU can bring to the table, so TELL THEM! Be confident and diligent in your search and that next position is yours!

Happy Job Hunting!

Related Resources: http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/by-the-numbers-a-few-important-linkedin-stats/

Staying Positive After Interview Rejection

Rejection is hard, but it's a part of life. As a recruiter, one of the most heart breaking things is desperate and depressed candidates.  This is because they won't get hired, making it a horribly vicious and unfair cycle.  This is why your internal monologue is so important.  If you have been rejected or are having a difficult period in your life, do everything you can to find a way to stay positive and optimistic.

I saw a great YouTube video, and the message about accepting your feelings and controlling your thoughts really resonated with me.  Identify what you're feeling and allow yourself to feel it, but control your thoughts and think positively.  If you didn't get that dream job, it's ok to be upset and disappointed, but it's important to remember that there could be a million reasons you didn't get the job, most of them having nothing to do with you.  So let the emotions take their natural course in and out of your system and don't let them control your attitude or take over your life.

You are good enough!

• Don't let rejection make you feel unworthy or lesser than others, everyone gets rejected. Instead of being hard on yourself, that job just wasn't the right fit for you.  Everything happens for a reason and the right job for you will come along.

Be realistic!

• There is always room for improvement.  If you got a rejection, look at it as an opportunity for improvement.  Do you need to revise your resume? Brush up on your interview skills? You are not perfect, no one is, so take rejection as an opportunity to test your resume and practice your interviewing skills, and then adjust accordingly.

How do you stop the negative emotions from taking over your thoughts? Share your tips in the comments below! :)

The Employment Gap

A lot of candidates have gaps in their employment, especially with the recent Great Recession. While this is very common, you should fill the gap if possible.  Did you volunteer or go back to school? Were you a stay at home mom/dad? Travel the world? Did you care for an ill family member? It is better to list these things on your resume than have a 1 year+ gap.

If you did freelance/contract work, be as specific as possible! If you were a freelance writer or contractor list the publications/companies you worked with and projects you worked on.  If you don't do this, employers will assume you just put that on the resume to fill the gap and didn't actually have any clients.

The cover letter is a great place to explain employment gaps.  If  you were laidoff, say so.  If you survived 3 rounds of layoffs but got let go on the 4th, say so.

Show that you made use of your time and did more than just sit at home during your gap in employment.

Do you have any helpful tips for how to pass the time when you're not working? Share them in the comment section below!

Resume Tips

In honor of the Game of Thrones Season 4 premier, I'll be tweeting resume tips all weekend - Game of Thrones style ;)  

Follow me @Natasha_29. 

Mini Rant: Buzzwords - Just Stop It Already

You are not a guru or ninja, so just to just stop it already. It may have been cute a few years ago for the first five people who used these terms.  The people that thought of them were creative, but when most people start adding these "buzzwords" to their LinkedIn profiles or resumes it gets annoying and truly does not add any value.  It's not important, it's not creative, and it doesn't mean anything so just don't include it.

What are some buzzwords that you can't stand?

Dates on a Resume

Dates on a resume are very important and something that EVERY employer looks at. They want to see how much experience you have and if you have any gaps in employment. This is one of the reasons why I don't like functional resumes, they don't show what position you gained your skill at and how many years of experience you have.


Graduation dates:Unless you're straight out of college and starting your career, I would typically recommend leaving graduation years off. They're a clever way for employer's to guess your age, which they don't need to know.  Another reason to include those dates would be to account for job hoping or a gap in employment while going to school.

"Degree - University Name, Year"

Employment dates:Include them, period. Months and years to and from preferably.  This should be for each position you've had and need to be consistent throughout your resume.  Don't use years for one job, and months/years for another, keep the formatting uniform.

"Title: Company Name, Location. MM/YY - MM/YY"

Resumes 101 - What to Include and What to Leave Out

Resumes are meant to give a brief overview of your experience and skills and to highlight your accomplishments.  Resumes have four basic sections: summary, skills, experience, and education.  Resume objectives are outdated and pointless, so leave them off and replace them with summary of what you bring to the table.  There are several thing that should be left off your resume, which I list in this post; and your resume experience should be in chronological order with you current or most recent job listed at the top of the page and your oldest experience listed last.

When you get into your experience you can do several things.  I recommend to list any awards you've received first, followed by your most important responsibilities like supervising other employees or growing the company's revenue. Then, you should list your other important responsibilities, BUT this should only be 5-10 bullet points at most.  Your resume is not meant to be a job description or list of every single thing you do at your job - just the highlights.  You can explain your other responsibilities in a phone screen or interview if needed.  If you're struggling to find things to include on your resume, view this post.

Resumes can feel strange to write because people aren't used to thinking about their strengths and how to market themselves to companies.  However, if you can get over this and be confident in your abilities, you can create a resume with really strong content.  Once you have the content done, it's about formatting and making the resume easy to read and visually appealing.  Bold font for companies and job titles is great, along with italics for awards or promotions, but the majority of your resume should be in plain text and all the same font.  It's important to stay away from long paragraphs which are difficult for recruiters to skim, and instead list skills and experience in bullet points, which are much easier to read.

End of Summer Sale!

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• Resume
• Cover Letter
• LinkedIn Profile
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Insider Secrets for Your Job Search

Interviewing should be a conversation, you shouldn't be rambling on for 10 minutes answering one question, and you shouldn't be give one word answers either.

Be confident, not cocky!  Interviewers aren't going to hire you if you doubt yourself or are super negative.  You're also not going to be hired if you  come across as cocky and arrogant.

Explain your responsibilities like I've never heard of that job before.  Some of what you might consider irrelevant and simple tasks can be really important and transferable, so don't leave them out.

Organization and simple formatting on your resume go a long way.  Have everything left-adjusted, use bullet points for your experience and bold the job titles and companies you've been at.  Condense what you can so there isn't a ton of blank space on your resume.

What are some tips you've heard that really resonate with you?

Skills on your Resume

The skill section of your resume is a great place to highlight your strengths and it gives you another opportunity to focus your resume.  Again, this section should be factual!  There should not be any areas of your resume that are just meaningless buzzwords.

The skill section of your resume can include software and programs that you are comfortable with, how many WPM you can type (if 50 and above, otherwise do not include), specific industry knowledge or skills (i.e. - medical terminology or reviewing budgets and revenue statements).

This section is best when it's in bullets, not paragraphs.  It should typically be at the top of your resume, under your Summary of Qualifications or Education sections.

Do Resumes Really Have to be One Page?

The answer is no, resumes do not have to be limited to one page.  However, it depends on how much experience you have.  If you're entry level, or have only had a couple jobs, then yes, your resume should be one page.  However, if you've been working for several years and have enough content in your resume to warrant two pages, then go for it.  Recruiters aren't going to toss your resume because it's two pages.

That being said, not much time will be spent screening the second page, so make sure your main highlights and most recent experience are on the first page.  Also, (this is going to sound nitpicky) if the second page is only a couple lines, rearrange things so it fits on one page.

There are some very easy ways to cut a few lines off your resume:

• Combine your phone number and email onto one line using a symbol or " | " to separate them
• Remove your full address, just leaving city and zip code
• Combine similar skills and/or responsibilities into one bullet point
• Don't include the full address or phone number of previous employers, you can put that on the application
• Include your job title on the same line as the company name
• Remove really old jobs (This is a judgement call, but it's ok to remove that fast-food job you had right after high school)
• Remove the references section, I say this all the time, it's unnecessary
• Reduce the font to 11 pt (Don't go any smaller than this)

Profile Summary for Resumes

I am a strong believer that Objective Statements on resumes are pointless, so how should you start off your resume?  Well a "summary of qualifications" or "profile summary" is always a good idea and can highlight your main strengths as well as give your resume a focus.  If you're a student or recent grad, this is a great place to include what area or industry you want to go into.

The most important thing to remember for the summary section is to keep it brief, focused, and quantitative.  Do not use this section to say how much of a team player and goal oriented person you are (those are just buzzwords anyway).  Instead, use this section to say how many years experience you have, what industry or career path you are focused in, and any skills or experience that's relevant.

For example, if you have been working in retail or the food industry and are now going to school for nursing, not only should you focus on the customer service and human interaction in your jobs, but you should make sure your summary focuses on your schooling and the skills you've learned in your classes.  Any recruiter or manager looking at your resume will know that you are focused in healthcare and nursing roles.

Skills and Experience on your Resume

When listing your skills and experience on your resume one of the most important things to remember is to show not tell.  Buzzwords may be helpful if a company uses applicant tracking systems, but won't do any good when your resume gets in front of a recruiter.  Instead of using buzzwords on your resume, be as descriptive and quantitative as possible.

If you're team-oriented, you can say "Trained new employees on systems and procedure" or "worked with coworkers to create a presentation on the department's metrics".

Do not just copy and paste your job description on to your resume, but you can refer to it to make sure you include all your important responsibilities.  Your bullet points should be brief but descriptive and include measurable skills and accomplishments.

Strong customer service representatives can say "Helped over 90 customers a day with questions and product solutions"

Look at the job you are applying to, and tailor your resume to it as much as possible by highlighting your experience that will be needed for this new position.  When speaking to your recruiter, ask if there's anything they'd recommend you focus on, and consider updating your resume to reflect that.  If you're having trouble thinking of responsibilities to include, think about what you do on a typical day at work, the things you like about your job, and the things you don't like about your job, don't assume that the recruiter or hiring manager knows what someone would do in that role.

How Internships Will Get You a Real Job

Internships are amazing, and it's not just me who thinks so.  I wish I knew the value of internships when I was still in college.  It was something Cal Poly Pomona encouraged, but I didn't understand how truly important they can be.  Many companies will hire on their interns full-time when they graduate, which is how I got my first job in recruiting.

Some internships are paid, some are not, but they are excellent ways to get experience and potentially get a full-time job.  One of the biggest questions I get from job-seekers is how to get a job without having any experience, and the answer is internships.  Internships are great ways to get the 1+ year work experience required for entry-level positions.  Several large corporations have internship programs, such as Disney, NBC, Target, and Sony.  There are also many smaller corporations and companies that offer internships.

Your college career center will most likely have ways to apply to or contact intern programs, or you can search online at sites like www.internships.com, www.internmatch.com, and www.college.monster.com/education.  You can also go to companies' career pages and see if they have intern openings.

Comment below and tell me how you got your initial experience or what internships you're interested in.

Leveraging LinkedIn to Find a Job

More and more recruiters are using LinkedIn to find good candidates so if you're not on it already, I definitely recommend setting up a profile (I offer LinkedIn help on my Services tab).  You can see my LinkedIn profile here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/natashaaguirre.

LinkedIn is essentially an online version of your resume, so if you've followed my resume tips seen here and here, you should be able to copy and paste most of your fields.  Make sure you include something in the Summary section of your profile, this can be a shortened version of your Summary of Qualifications from your resume.

Profile Picture - This can be a selfie, but is not a Facebook duck face picture, it should be professional and just you (not kids or pets).  You don't need to spend money on professional glamour shots, but should have good lighting, be in focus, and not wearing anything to revealing.  Smile in your picture, it makes you look more approachable and confident.  It should also look like you, don't include a picture from years ago that doesn't look like you do today.

Custom URL - Great feature, should be some variation of your name (see my URL above)

Privacy Settings - Check out the privacy settings on LinkedIn, and please keep in mind that this isn't like other social media, this is for your career, so I would recommend making your profile public and accepting invitations to connect if they're relevant to you.

Skills & Expertise - List what you're good at, as you type options will pre-populate for you.

Recommendations - This is one of the most important sections of LinkedIn and you need to use it.  After you've added people you know and have worked with as connections, send requests asking them to write you a recommendation.  You should only ask people you've worked with and who can attest to how awesome you are at your job.  Don't worry, you get to preview this before it goes on your profile.  This is a great tool that companies look at and can use as references.

Groups & Companies - LinkedIn offers great ways to network with people in your industry through groups and companies.  Join groups that are relevant to you and can connect you with people in your industry who might know about job openings or can connect you with someone at the company you're applying to.  The company section is a great way to research the companies you're applying to and learn more about them.  You can also use it to follow your dream companies that you'd love to work for.

A Resume With No Work Experience?!

Resumes typically have a standard format: Name, Contact Info, Education, Experience, Skills.  That's no shock to anyone, but what about new grads, or current students, who need a resume but have no experience?  This is where you can get creative, and by creative I don't mean lie - NEVER lie on your resume.  By creative I mean you can make your experience section anything you want it to be.  If you have never worked, list clubs, volunteer work, extracurricular activities, etc.  Experience is anywhere you have acquired and used skills.

I wish I kept the first resume I ever made, but I'm pretty sure I listed my school's Interact Club and Mock Trial coaching.  This "experience" shows that you've done more than just go to school, and that you can be responsible and dependable.  If you volunteer somewhere, do you handle cash or help "customers"?  If you've babysat for non-relatives, include that experience.  In Speech and Debate I had to sell candy for overnight competitions - that's experience.  Have you volunteered at your local animal shelter or nursing home?  Whether you're an inexperienced student, or a professional in between jobs, volunteer work is valuable experience that you can list on your resume.  Make sure you list it just as any other job, including Company Name, Dates Worked (MM/YY-MM/YY), Responsibilities, and Accomplishments.

Let me know if you have any questions and please let me know what topics you want me to cover next! :)