Career Related Tips newsletter

CAREER RELATED TIPS

Bryan Thorby Publisher webmaster@career-related.com http://career-related.com

Date: June 8, 2005

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In This Issue:

Thoughts of the Day

Article : How To Say, "Thank You" -- And Get Hired by Kevin Donlin

Article : Why One Word Answers are Bad News at Job Interviews By Roger Clark

Article : Searching For Jobs Online By Heather Eagar

Disclaimer & Privacy Statement

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Hi there. I hope all is well with you.

I've been busy the last week updating the website, changing the site navigation and adding more content and resources. Still a lot of work to do but I'm making good progress.

Let's talk a bit today about getting prepared for interviews.

When you are called for an interview, it is useful to find out who will be doing the interviewing and how many other people will be involved. It is nice to be able to greet your interviewer by name at the beginning of the interview without first being told who they are. It shows that you are on top of things, and have prepared before hand.

Walking into a panel interview situation when you aren’t expecting it can be quite traumatic.

You will also want to do some research on the person or people that will be conducting your interview. Learn what they do for the company and try to get some examples of their achievements in the company.

If you know what department that you are going to work in you may want to get the names of your potential colleagues and superiors prior to the interview as well. This way you can get some information about their roles in the company and the types of work that they have done.

Mention some of the things that you have learnt about your potential colleagues in the interview and about how much you look forward to working with them in the future. If you can, give an example of their work so that you will appear more sincere.

All the best,

Bryan

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Thoughts of the Day

"It's taken me all my life to understand that it is not necessary to understand everything." -- Rene Coty

"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death." -- Earl Wilson

Article

How To Say, "Thank You" -- And Get Hired copyright © by Kevin Donlin

There's a simple way to make hiring managers take notice of you -- even in a crowded job market. It takes less than 2 minutes to do. And it costs just 37 cents (as of this writing).

What is it?

Writing and mailing a thank-you letter to employers after every interview.

Simple? Yes.

But ... as with dieting (Eat right, exercise more) or drugs (Just say no), simple is not the same as easy. Sending thank-you notes must be difficult for most job seekers, because so few do.

So let's break this whole thing down into a Q&A format, with answers from two recruiting professionals and my own client files. Our aim is simple: to make it easy for you to say, "Thank you" -- and get more job offers.

Q. First of all, when should you send a thank-you letter to employers?

A. "Mail your thank-you notes right when you get home from the interview. I prefer a handwritten thank-you to email because it can set your further apart from other candidates," says Mario DeCarolis, Executive Search Consultant for West Bay Group (www.westbaygroup.net).

Q. Whom should you address thank-you letters to?

A. In my experience, you should get the name and title of everyone you meet, including the receptionist. Sending thank-you notes to several people at your target company can start a positive conversation among all of them about you, which can lead to a job offer.

Q. Should you mail or email thank-you notes?

A. "Email makes it easy, but a personal, handwritten note is really nicer," according to John A. Challenger, CEO of executive search firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas (www.challengergray.com).

It's especially important to mail a personal letter to each of the decision makers who can hire you -- those people deserve more than an email.

Q. What should you write?

A. "Be positive," advises Challenger. "If you can note something in the interview that was particularly important, include it in your thank-you. You might ask about when you can meet again or what the next steps in the hiring process are."

DeCarolis adds: "Think of your thank-you letter as a second chance at the interview. You can address any concerns employers may have had or re-emphasize parts of your background that you know were a direct hit."

Q. What common mistakes should job seekers avoid in thank-you letters?

A. Both Challenger and DeCarolis agree that failing to send a thank-you letter is the biggest mistake of all. And I concur.

But as bad as not sending a thank-you is sending one marred by mistakes in spelling or punctuation. Because, when you don't write well, it implies that you don't think well. So do what it takes to create a letter that's 100% clear and error-free.

"When I first started reading the thank-you letters job seekers were sending, I found myself saying, 'Oh, my God. You sound like you're in sixth grade,'" says DeCarolis. "Now I try to proofread all the letters my candidates send to employers, as a matter of course."

Challenger adds: "Avoid writing something long winded or that mentions negatives. The thank-you letter is no place to raise concerns about salary or the size of the office you want, for example. What you want is not important here."

Q. What's the bottom line on writing a thank-you note after every interview?

A. "If you aren't doing it, you're really making a mistake," says Challenger.

There, that was simple, wasn't it?

And if you want to set yourself apart from about 75-90% of other job seekers (that's the combined guesstimate of Challenger, DeCarolis and myself) the solution is simple: write and mail a thank-you note after every interview.

Every time.

Kevin Donlin is President of Guaranteed Resumes. Since 1996, he and his team have provided resumes, cover letters and online job-search assistance to clients in all 50 states and 23 countries. Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today, CBS MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal's National Business Employment Weekly, CBS Radio, and many others.

For more information, click HERE http://career-related.com/apm/gresumes,htm

Article

Why One Word Answers are Bad News at Job Interviews

By Roger Clark

It takes a lot of time and effort to get invited to a job interview. Don't blow your chances by being misunderstood by the interviewer. Not many people are aware that giving one word answers to questions, substantially increases your chances of conveying the wrong impression.

Active Listening Skill Tips for Interviews

During a job interview, a potential employer asks, "Can you take on more than one project at a time?" If you respond, "Yes," you may want to rethink that answer. According to Dynamic Listening: Interview Skills, a computer based training module from Mindleaders in Columbus, Ohio, you should avoid one-word or one-sentence answers.

Be specific. And speak money-language. Here’s a preferred answer to the question above, "In general, depending upon the type and length of projects, I believe in efficiently handling more than one project at a time. This could save a company as much as 30%." Let’s check out the definition of "active listening skills" and learn more to help with your next interview...

Active Listening Skills

Just as everyday "speaking" is not the same as public speaking; "listening" is not the same as active listening. Active listening means two things: analysis and response to the message being communicated.

An active listener maintains eye contact and good posture with a slight lean towards the speaker. During the interview, the listener nods, smiles and takes notes. Be ware, however, that a daydreamer or pseudolistener, can adopt these behaviors. So a listener’s physical response does not necessarily mean good listening skills are at work.

Nonverbal communication, more than just the nod or smile, is important. Gestures, appearance, timing, voice responses, facial expressions, spatial distance ­ all affect how the speaker (or interview) interprets the listener. So a person preparing for a job or work project interview should consider the cultural climate and norms of society of the interviewer. In short, perceived active listening based on nonverbal signals can vary from culture to culture.

Especially in this age of such great cultural diversity, be courteous of others regardless of cultural, sexual or societal backgrounds. If you are a woman and get to a door before a man, open it. If your interviewer doesn’t speak English very well and looks puzzled at your words, go back and explain yourself again in different words and re-establish a good communication exchange.

Note: a major part of active listening is paraphrasing. It’s not the same as summarizing. A summary is a shortened version of the original message, focusing on the main point. To paraphrase means to re-state the message in your own words.

Active listeners take notes by paraphrasing or restating what the speaker said in their own words, and summarizing main points. A good listener is not the same thing as a silent listener. Good listeners ask questions, even something like, "Is this an accurate paraphrase of you have said?" to let the speaker know that you understand the message being communicated.

About the author: Roger Clark is senior editor at http://www.top-career-resumes.com who provide free information to job seekers on all aspects of finding a new job and http://www.medical-health-news.com where you can find the most up-to-date advice and information on many medical, health and lifestyle topics.

Article

Searching For Jobs Online

By Heather Eagar

Searching for jobs online is easier than ever, but also more confusing than ever. Any Internet user doing a job search online will find that they can choose from hundreds of national employment listing web sites and the numbers can often be staggering. When performing on online job search, it is a good idea to choose from an online employment classified web site that allows for regional searching. Localized searches can narrow down employment opportunities so that the job searcher doesn’t have to search through hundreds or even thousands of posts in order to locate a handful of listings in an individual’s local area. When performing an Internet job search, it is important to keep in mind that not all local employers will post job listings online, but they will post their openings in local newspapers. Most newspapers allow for an online job search in their classified sections if the newspaper is also available for viewing the Internet.

If doing a job search online is the way an individual prefers to begin searching for employment, the best way to begin is to use the job search box that is often located somewhere on the home page of employment web sites. By using the search box, an job seeker can get results from many different categories in various databases that might not have been present if an individual chose to search in a single database. Searching options can be very simple or allow an individual to search by specific keywords, job location and other relevant information. This may not always present an individual with the kind of results that they are looking for, but most employment sites will send notification of new listings that might be of interest as they become available.

The advantages seeking employment online reach far beyond accessing thousands of available positions around the world. Most employment sites offer resume assistance, the ability to post resumes for potential employers to view and even the ability to instantly submit a resume to positions of interest. Conducting a job search online eliminates a part of the stress associated looking for work as well as matches employees with employers much faster than ever for better pairing and more effective results.

About the author: Heather Eagar is the owner of http://ResumeLines.com. Want more resources for your job search? ResumeLines.com is a comprehensive site that provides unbiased reviews on professional resume writing services and resume distribution sites.

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