Top tips for the perfect telephone interview - Viewpoint Viewpoint careers advice blog

Top tips for the perfect telephone interview - Viewpoint Telephone interviews are now part and parcel of many hiring processes, yet they are often overlooked or can be seen as less formal, simply because they aren’t face-to-face. On the contrary, your telephone interview performance will likely dictate whether or not you are invited in for an interview or in some cases, offered the job. Understandably, telephone interviews can sometimes feel awkward and unfamiliar. But, if you prepare properly, this stage of the process can be crucial to making a good first impression and building that all important rapport with the hiring manager early on, setting yourself apart from the other interview candidates. These are my top tips for giving the perfect telephone interview: Before the telephone interview: Prepare as you would for a face-to-face interview Ok so maybe you won’t iron your best shirt and plan your journey, but other than that, you should take the time to prepare for this telephone interview, just as you would a face-to-face one: Confirm with your recruiter how long this interview will take and clear your diary for at least an hour either side of the interview so that you aren’t pushed for time Research your employer and your hiring manager beforehand Read the job specification thoroughly, and identify what you can bring to the role in terms of skills and experience Practice answering common interview questions Prepare questions to ask the interviewer at the end Some candidates will treat the telephone interview like an “informal chat”, and do no preparation at all. These candidates rarely make it to the next stage of the hiring process. Perfect your verbal communication skills Fine tuning your verbal communication skills is key before a telephone interview. After all, the interviewer can’t read your body language and see your expressions over the phone. They only have your voice to focus on, thus any bad habits will be more pronounced. Run a practice interview with a friend, and record yourself on your phone. This will help you to detect behaviours such as speaking too quickly, interrupting, mumbling, covering your mouth or using filler words such as “um” “like” and so forth. On the day of the telephone interview Warm up Especially if this phone interview is first thing in the morning and you sound slightly hoarse. Do some tongue twisters and vocal exercises and drink plenty of water. Get into a positive mind-set Do some breathing exercises before the interview to calm your nerves, and give yourself a pep talk, reminding yourself of all of your achievements to date. I would also recommend visualising positive outcomes, such as being offered the job. This will remind you of your end goal, motivating you to give your best performance during the phone call. Get organised Check that you have phone signal, full battery, have the hiring manager and recruiters name and number saved on your phone. Make sure that you are clear on who is calling who, and at what time. Be ready for the call 15 minutes before, ensuring you are in a quiet space and can talk. If you are at work, step outside of the office, and if you are at home, switch off the TV and radio, and let anyone else in the house know that you can’t be interrupted for the next hour or so. Remember to also turn off your personal phone to avoid the chances of this ringing. During the telephone interview Answer the phone in a professional manner Pick up within two to three rings, and answer in a professional manner, for instance, “Hello Alex speaking”. Maintain this professional tone throughout the call. Have all the information you’ll need to hand Keep your CV, bullet points of your key skills and achievements, plus any headline information about the company in front of you in case you get stuck. Remember not to read these notes word for word, and be careful not to shuffle the paper too loudly and give the game away! Adjust your body language Even though your interviewer can’t see you, getting your body language right during your telephone interview can make all the difference to how you sound and come across. Sitting up straight or standing when answering questions will improve how well you project your voice, and smiling and gesticulating will inflect a positive intonation as you speak. Speak at an even pace It is harder to appreciate just how fast we are speaking over the phone, especially when we are nervous. If you notice this happening, pause and take a deep breath. I would also recommend getting up and walking around, this can help you to regulate your speaking patterns and feel more at ease. Remember your manners Just because the interviewer can’t see you, that doesn’t mean you can get away with bad manners. Avoid eating and chewing gum, this can be very off putting for the interviewer, and certainly don’t start doing anything else which could be perceived as rude during a face-to-face interview, such as scrolling through social media on your phone or messaging your friends. It will be obvious to the interviewer that you are distracted. Interrupting people too much is also deemed as bad manners, and unfortunately is more likely to happen during a telephone interview, mainly because you can’t read the interviewer’s visual cues in order to judge whether they have finished talking. Avoid interrupting the interviewer by pausing for a second once you think they have finished speaking, before you start responding. Conclude as you would a face-to-face interview On the subject of manners, remember to thank the interviewer for their time, and state that you enjoyed learning more about this opportunity. Reiterate your interest in the role, and clarify the next steps if the hiring manager hasn’t already done so. Again, just because this isn’t a face-to-face interview, doesn’t mean you can’t leave a strong last impression with the interviewer. After the telephone interview After the interview, if you are still interested in taking this opportunity further, I would advise that you follow up just as you would a face-to-face interview. Phone your recruiter straight after the interview to give your feedback, and send a thank you note to the interviewer via your recruiter, affirming again, just how interested you are in this opportunity. Remember to keep your phone close by in the coming days. Hopefully by now you are feeling clearer on how best to prepare for a telephone interview. The key is to perfect your telephone manner, specifically your verbal communication skills, and put as much effort into preparing as you would a face-to-face interview. Do you have an interview coming up? Read our interview tips to ensure its a success: Change your thinking and calm your interview nerves How to leave a great last impression with your interviewer The worst questions to ask your interviewer So tell me about yourself 15 questions to ask your interviewer How to use your EQ to ace that interview

Write a Book While Building Your Personal Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Compose a Book While Building Your Personal Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, the line among showcasing and composing a book has been eradicated; todays web-based social networking makes its simpler than any time in recent memory to fabricate your own image by composing a book. With a bit of arranging, you can compose your book while building your image! Think about your book as a monster jigsaw puzzle; every one of your blog entries turns into a different bit of the riddle! Points of interest of the jigsaw puzzle similarity There are various points of interest to composing a book as a progression of blog entries. The most significant is that any undertaking becomes simpler when you split it up into a progression of moderately little errands. For some, composing a book is scaring; it just appears such a difficult task. What's more, on the off chance that you consider composing 5,000 wordsor 50,000 wordsat a solitary sitting, it is a challenging task. Be that as it may, when you see 5,000 words as ten 500 word fragments, composing a book out of nowhere turns out to be increasingly achievable, particularly on the off chance that you just need to compose 500 words per week! This is probably the hardest exercise to learn; Im as yet learning it. As Ive composed previously, I had the option to do term papersincluding my Honors thesisin eruptions of overnight greatness. Recently have I understood how undesirable and how unsuitable a minute ago composing can be; it not just puts the very late author under huge pressure, it forestalls the rich reflection that can happen when you have the opportunity to compose and audit before opening up to the world about your words. To what extent does it take to compose 500 words? Youve simply read 262 words- - and Ive scarcely begun! Another approach to see 500 words is to think regarding 4 great estimated passages, similar to the one above, and 4 shorter one-sentence and two-sentence sections (this way), or somewhat more. On the off chance that you can blog once every week, youre on your way to a distributed book. On the off chance that you can blog two times per week, youre well on your way to a distributed book. Notwithstanding composing your book in a progression of short working meetings, composing your book as a progression of blog entries additionally advances your book while youre composing it. This offers you a chance to test your business sectors response to your thoughts while building expectation for your book. Instances of jigsaw puzzle online journals at work Numerous ambitious writers have composed books dependent on their blog entries. Models include: Fellow Kawasakis Reality Check Bud Bilanichs Straight Talk for Success Rajesh Settys new Blogtastic Step by step instructions to begin There are two different ways to begin: Good fortune approach. One methodology is to blog what you need to state every day (or week) and, after a whilewhich could be a half year to a yearyou amass the blog entries into a book. This is an OK approach on the off chance that you pay attention to your blog composing, and compose each post as an investigation of a thought, subject, or challenge your market faces. The upside of this methodology is that you might be exceptionally astonished by the bits of knowledge you find when you return and audit your blog entries. The detriment is, When do you quit blogging and start on your book? Orderly methodology. Another methodology is to begin with the end and distinguish the data you need to remember for your book, and make a point by point list of chapters for your book. Essentially, you compose each blog entry as a component of every part in your book. Each blog entries turns into the premise either a total section, or as one of the subhead subjects inside every part. The upsides of this methodology are that each blog entry takes you closer to your own image building book, and you can without much of a stretch keep tabs on your development. The inconvenience is that it might be hard to see the entire before you collect the parts. Neither one of the approaches is great, in any case, while investigating the alternatives, youre liable to make your own mix of Serendipity and Systematic. For instance, you may choose to post two times every week. One post will be required substance for a particular area in a particular section. The subsequent post will be on point that youre enthusiastic about, however not really sure where it will fit into your book. The procedure is what matters In either case, obviously, the procedure is whats generally significant. By making a move, by focusing on a forceful blogging program during 2010, and focusing on getting a book distributed during 2010, youre undertaking an excursion that will change you and your relationship to your market. Nothing, ever, is extremely unsurprising. Startling difficulties and openings are probably going to appear en route. However, when you proactively assume control and set sail to a more grounded individual brand during 2010, the excursion starts and you are freeing yourself up to new chances and individual marking prospects. Is it true that you will act? Or then again, will 2010 be only one more year of the same old thing? Creator Roger C. Parker is a 32 Million Dollar Author, book mentor, and web based composing asset. His 38 books have sold 1.9 million duplicates in 35 dialects around the globe. Roger has talked with many effectively marked verifiable writers and offers what he's found out at Published Profitable and his day by day composing tips blog.

The Mystery of DD Resume Nobody Is Talking About

The Mystery of DD Resume Nobody Is Talking About The absolute initial phase in making an extraordinary resume is through composing a fascinating and productive introductory letter. You've just seconds to explain the Earth, the story, and what makes everything so staggering. On the off chance that you have numerous pages of substance, be sure to incorporate a chapter by chapter list, notwithstanding an official outline. Over the long haul, it's your decision to settle on a choice with respect to what kind of configuration and hope to utilize. Maintain your emphasis on what you may offer to the current job that you're chasing. The enrollment specialist may look for the administrations of a local speaker to rate your capability level as it compares with the prerequisites of the association. Hard aptitudes tend to be increasingly specialized, and every business or sort of occupation will frequently have its own fundamental set. Moreover, it ought to draw out your comprehension of that pa rticular occupation. D Resume Ideas Other people include noteworthy money related hazard and should be used with alert. Associations now and then avoid being extremely conclusive about the sort of individual they need, usually since they don't wish to be seen as being one-sided some way or another. People tend to compare a general release with a respectable one. Organizations are investigating openings in various locales as an approach to gain by relative money saving advantages and economies of scale. In the event that it isn't plausible to reevaluate the sentence, at that point the word should be promoted. Additionally, make sure to keep the language clear and simple. The absolute first word in a sentence should be promoted. A word or expression that is utilized with or as opposed to a person's name is promoted. What the In-Crowd Won't Tell You About D Resume Start-up financing is only perhaps the greatest test another business should manage. After the employing administrator says , I might want a human components engineer. You are going to require a business program and be in a situation to show that you have the experience to run the organization and the organization will bring in enough cash to make the financial specialists an extraordinary benefit on their venture. Before giving your organization supports something to do on anything, you should make yourself a specialist. The Hidden Secret of D Resume for instance, assume you're a web facilitating organization and you have a pick in mailing rundown of web designers. Layout plans are for private utilize just and probably won't be exchanged or redistributed under any conditions. You will get a PDF guidance document with connections to where you may download the them. On the off chance that you're pondering, the spared playlist document with the spared Bookmark is very little in measurement. Be sure to feature the aptitudes you've learned in school. Continuously finish your Career Objective by expressing ap proaches to help the center accomplish its destinations. Discussion straightforwardly about your volunteer understanding just as it was a previous activity. The program additionally should be intended to improve their capacities. There are different techniques to start your resume, in light of your level of experience you'll have the option to investigate our stream outline here. Basically adjusting the business or sub-industry choice will make another arrangement of results. Your introductory letter should be great and it should feature the entirety of your latent capacity and working experience related with the activity which you are applying for. As an outcome, you may see that you'll be sparing yourself a decent arrangement of time by situating your resume in the internet. In the occasion the absolute appearance of your resume doesn't quickly get the regard of the peruser, you're in a tough situation. The premise of your organization is your kin. Remember which you're endeavorin g to offer yourself to them. You feel caught in your brain. Hence, the likelihood of choosing the mistaken individual raise. Each representative in a little business hugy affects execution, organization culture and the central matter. Among the greatest things that baffles employing directors is that selection representatives set aside an excessive amount of effort to discover the ability the business prerequisites. Show your planned business why you're ready to direct the activity better than others regardless of how much experience you have. Untruths You've Been Told About D Resume Therefore, on the off chance that you might want the activity, you should get a fastidiously created and practiced routine simply appreciate a comic does. A teacher gives you passing marks when you know XYZ, yet they won't raise your evaluation for being in a situation to deal with a dubious circumstance, demonstrating empathy, or comprehending a surprising issue. In the event that you've downloaded a f ew examples, make sure to redo them to the places that you're applying for. An AACOMAS application won't be required. There is a wealth of resume tests promptly accessible on the web. Exploration on the web and be certain data online matches the information on the person's resume.

3 Easy Ways to Optimize Your Resume for Submission - Walrath Recruiting, Inc.

3 Easy Ways to Optimize Your Resume for Submission - Walrath Recruiting, Inc. Its very important for a resume to be visually pleasing, and read well. Another factor that many candidates dont take into account however is if the resume is optimized for submission. Its important to remember that your resume is a file that will be one among many once you send it in. With that in mind, there are few things you can do to make yours stand out, and perform well with applicant tracking systems. Well be discussing three easy ways to optimize your resume below. Check For Keywords For some companies, when you submit your resume, it is filtered through an applicant tracking system (ATS). This system searches through your resume, and checks for keywords that appear in the job description. For example, if they want to hire someone with experience using Microsoft Excel, and your resume doesnt have it, it wont even make it to the hiring manager. Obviously you want to get your resume in front of a human, so its important to take those keywords into account. Scan the job description, and look for any keywords that stand out. Then go back to your resume, and integrate them. Dont make up any fake qualifications, just make sure you use the same phrasing as the job description. This will ensure that if you are qualified, you will pass the early check. Make The File Name Your Name This next one may seem obvious, but youd be surprised by the number of resumes we receive with nonsense titles. Naming the resume file after your own name just makes sense. First and foremost, it makes the file immediately recognizable. This will keep your resume from getting lost electronically. This could easily happen if the hiring manager is viewing or downloading multiple resumes at once. Having your name as your resume file name will make sure nobody loses track of it. The last thing you want to have happen is for your resume to get lost in a sea of poorly named files. Make it easy for a hiring manager to spot your resume by titling it with your name. Save It As A Document With Text We receive new resumes all the time, and one thing weve noticed is every once in a while we receive an image resume. This is a resume that was typed up, and then saved to be in image without text. Weve also received scanned resumes. We of course look through and vet all of them- but not all places do. The problem here is by saving your resume as an image or scan, youve removed all text. This means all of the applicant tracking systems looking for keywords, will find none. This hurts your chances even worse than if you dont optimize for keywords, since none are present. Also, scanning your resume could affect the quality and legibility of your resume. If you do have to scan or save as an image, re-print it and make sure you can read it. We recommend saving your resume as a PDF. This will compress the file, while still keeping the text intact. We hope given the tips in this blog, you understand why you need to optimize your resume, and the best ways to do it. Too many job seekers get caught up in formatting, and fail to think of optimization. With that said, well have a new blog on formatting tips as well, so check back soon!