Career Advice

Interview Tips: Picture this: You have lost your job and stayed for quite a while without getting another job. Second scenario: You left your previous job to start a business, the business fails and you resort to employment again. You attend an interview and the panel asks you why you have been unemployed for such a long time. This could be

Common HR Interview Questions: The thought of sitting in front of a stone-faced panel of interviewers who are throwing all manner of tough questions at you can be quite intimidating. It is a nail-biting moment that calls for thorough preparation. Did you know that there are some common questions HR managers will ALWAYS ask you in the interview room? These

Jobs Interview Tip: This could be a make-or-break question. The interviewer mostly likes what he sees, but has doubts over one key area. If you can assure him on this point, the job may be yours. Simple answer: This question is related to “The Fatal Flaw” (Question 18), but here the concern is not that you are totally missing some

Phone Interview Tips: Since we haven’t descended into SMS texting interviews quite yet (praise be to Google), phone interviews are still a regular staple of the job hunter. Today I’m telegraphing over some top tips for owning the phone interview. Find a good location. Make sure you are in an area with good cell phone reception (or, ideally, use a landline),

Jobs interview question Tip: Illegal questions include any regarding your age…number and ages of your children or other dependents…marital status…maiden name…religion…political affiliation…ancestry…national origin…birthplace…naturalization of your parents, spouse or children…diseases…disabilities…clubs…or spouse’s occupation…unless any of the above are directly related to your performance of the job. You can’t even be asked about arrests, though you can be asked about convictions. Best answer:

Jobs Interview Tip: Much more frequent than the Illegal question (see Question 55) is the secret illegal question. It’s secret because it’s asked only in the interviewer’s mind. Since it’s not even expressed to you, you have no way to respond to it, and it can there be most damaging. Example: You’re physically challenged, or a single mother returning to

Jobs Interview Tip Seems like an obvious enough questions. Yet many executives, unprepared for it, fumble the ball. Best answer: Give a well-accepted definition of success that leads right into your own stellar collection of achievements. Example: “The best definition I’ve come across is that success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.” “As to how I would measure

Jobs interview Tips: Always express your skills and qualities in the present tense – even if you have an accounting qualification that you are not using at the moment, this is still a relevant certification to list. Reinforce positive skills and qualities to make sure they jump off the page. Example: If one of your strong points is that you

If you’re reading this, you’re probably in one of two boats, you’ve just joined the job market and are looking to land your first job or have been around and are looking to make a change. Either way, you definitely want to make sure your interview skills are sharp before you start (or continue) making the rounds. If that’s you,

Your totally honest response might be, “Hell, no, are you serious?” That might be so, but any answer which shows you as fleeing work if given the chance could make you seem lazy. On the other hand, if you answer, “Oh, I’d want to keep doing exactly what I am doing, only doing it for your firm,” you could easily