• Interviewing

    Interview Tips – October 2008

    Following up.  Following up after an interview is a great idea.  It keeps you freshly in the mind of the interviewer, shows you are interested and indicates that you are proactive.  One follow up is great.  More is questionable to me, but might be OK to do others according to the industry. For example, in sales, tenacity can be of great value. But for most other positions, more than two is going to possibly draw the ire of the interviewer.

  • Interviewing

    Interview Tips – September 2008

    The economy has seen better days in the United States.  It’s only going to get worse.  This makes the job market a bit skewed towards employers.  But don’t let this keep you from making sure that you are a good match for a job.  Don’t let the job market make poor decisions insofar as what job you are going to accept.  Remember that the creme always rises to the top.  If you’re good at what you do then the economy will not likely effect your job search much in the least.

  • Interviewing

    Interview Tips: July 2008

    Time Management.  Whether they ask during the interview or not, all employers will look kindly on the interviewer who has good time management skills.  Feel free to point out instances where you were able to manage your time effectively to bring success to a given situation.  You can even work this into the answer for various other unrelated questions, although make sure to still answer the questions you were asking about.

  • Interviewing

    Interview Tips: June 2008

    Be mindful of your appearance.  Clip those nails, comb that hair and don’t wear the jeans with the rips that you cut off at the bottom.  Look clean; sure, there are a variety of jobs where appearance doesn’t matter, but you know what?  It can’t hurt to look your best, but it could hurt not to.

  • Interviewing

    Interview Tips: May 2008

    When an interviewer asks you technical questions then you can assume that you are going to be in a fairly technical role.  Remember when you’re looking for jobs that if you are at a point in your career where you want to be management that if the line of questioning is very technical that the role might not be a good fit.  Feel free to ask questions about the role and what percentage of your time should be spent doing what if this is a concern.  Average costs to hire a new employee are estimated to be anywhere from $7,600 to $25,400.  There is no reason to waste the hiring…

  • Interviewing

    Interview Tips – April 2008

    Business vs. technology.  Most employers these days are looking for candidates who can provide value.  This may be value to customers, value to the organization, value to end users, etc.  Most interviewers will give you the opportunity to add comments about items they haven’t asked about.  If they don’t ask you about how you have provided a business value to your organization then this is a great opportunity to do so.  Remember, reducing total cost of ownership is only one way to create value.  The ability to increase an organizations return on investment, which may cost the organization more on a technology level, can often end up increasing revenue or…

  • Interviewing

    Interview Tips – March 2008

    Stay on topic.  Remember that time is something many do not have.  When you get off topic it can cause interviews to take much longer without filling in the blanks the interviewer is looking to fill in.  Most of us have a set of requirements we need to verify a candidate must fulfill.  This is difficult when the candidate strays across topics.

  • Interviewing

    Interview Tips – February 2008

    An offer isn’t always a final offer.  Feel free to negotiate during the interview process to get what you want.  Hopefully each position is looked at from a long-term perspective.  Set the foundation early and if the organization isn’t willing to meet your needs then perhaps the position is not a good fit.