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How To Shine During an Interview

The biggest mistakes that you can make in an interview are lying and not being yourself. Yes, your qualifications matter. But they don’t matter near as much as your authenticity. If you want to shine during an interview, you need to know and do these things.

Research:

We’ve said it before, and we will say it until the end of time. Do your research before you go into an interview. Research the company, its history, purpose, management, etc. Look up recent news articles about them and any press releases. Knowing your facts and being able to showcase that in the interview will give you so much confidence and help you put your best foot forward.

Practice

There are several common interview questions that you need to be prepared to answer. Those include things like “Tell me about yourself,” “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” and “Why do you want to work here?”

Practice your answers to these questions so that you aren’t spending the entire interview trying to think of answers. Just be careful not to over practice so that you sound like you’re reading from a script.

Be honest

While an interview is meant for you and the recruiter to get to know each other better, the recruiter did their research on you just like you did on the company. They performed reference checks and reviewed your resume. If they haven’t done that before your interview, you can bet they will after, so don’t lie. Don’t embellish your work experience or qualifications. They will find out and it will not be good for you.

Be yourself

You were called to the interview because the recruiter wants to get to know YOU. Not the person you think they want to see. The most important thing you can do to shine during an interview is to be yourself.

Do you have any more tips on how to shine during an interview? Drop them in the comments!

Unspoken Office Rules You NEED to Know

Lisa Yannett Office Comments Off

Every office culture is different, but there are some unspoken office rules you need to know.

1. No loud music

It may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people crank up the tunes in the middle of a quiet office. If you want to listen to music while you work, invest in some head phones and keep the volume low enough that your coworkers can’t hear it.

2. Label your food

In many offices, a lot of items, such as coffee, food, and snacks, are provided for employees to share. For this reason, label anything you don’t want others to touch. Along with this, respect other people’s labels. Just because theirs looks better doesn’t mean you should help yourself.

3. Avoid strong smells

This goes for food and perfumes. Avoid bringing anything that has a very strong smell. Not everyone wants to smell you heat up the salmon you cooked last night. On the other side, strong perfumes can cause headaches. Don’t be that person

4. Don’t get too personal

It’s great to make connections with your coworkers. I mean, you almost spend more time with them than you do with your family, but make sure you set healthy boundaries and avoid getting too personal. Remember, you’re in a professional environment with other professionals.

5. Don’t discuss salaries

You’ve probably heard this one before, but let me break it down for you. People have different backgrounds, qualifications, job requirements and time with the company. All of those things go into deciding a salary for an employee. Don’t discuss your salary with your coworkers because it will inevitably lead to someone getting upset with their rate or how much you make. If you want to talk salary, meet with your supervisor.

Do you know of other unspoken office rules you wish you had known before you broke them? Share them in the comments!

Posts like this one: 5 Questions You Need to Ask on Your First Day

3 Productivity Killers When Working From Home

Lisa Yannett Uncategorized 1 Comment

When you’re working from home, you don’t have the focused environment that the office provides. Understandably, you could be killing your productivity by making these easy mistakes. Don’t worry though. If you identify these mistakes in your daily routine, we’re going to tell you just how to fix them.

Social Media

One of the biggest killers of productivity is social media. When you’re working from a computer, and especially your phone, social media can be a deadly temptress. What starts as a 5-minute break can easily turn into an hour of meaningless scrolling, a.k.a. wasted time.

The great thing is there is an easy solution to this problem (unless you have to be on social media for you job) – log out.

If you struggle to stay off of Facebook or Snapchat while you’re working, logout of those accounts when you’re on the clock. It’s easy to open an app or pull up a browser that you’re already logged into. By logging out, you’re adding another step and hopefully a deterrent to your distraction.

Children

While you can’t just get rid of your children when you have to work from home, there are ways to limit the distractions that come with having to parent while you work.

Distractions: Supply your children with ample things to keep them distracted while you’re working. Whether it be toys, movies or crafts, find things they can manage with little supervision that will keep them distracted for pockets of time.
Meal prep: Kids have to eat, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend excessive amounts of time cooking their meals and feeding it to them. In the evenings, prepare easy to cook or ready to serve meals that they can feed to themselves. Obviously this won’t be of much help if you have a young child that still needs supervision while eating or is bottle/breastfed, but it is a great way to save time with the older ones.
Separate: An easy way to eliminate the distractions that come from working at home with children is to have a designated workspace and play area. It may seem logical to work in the same room as the children so you can keep better supervision of them, but if you use solutions 1 and 2, number 3 will be much easier. Have an area toy-free that you can focus on work, and help your kids learn to play in another area. Get more advice on setting up an office at home here.

Netflix

Now this doesn’t specifically target Netflix as a productivity killer, but rather your TV and anything you put on it. Some people swear by having a movie or TV show playing in the background while they work, but this can actually limit your ability to focus on work, even if you don’t realize it.

Just like with social media, there is an easy fix to this. Don’t have a TV where you work. Avoid the temptation of turning on your favorite show by eliminating the medium. No TV – No temptation.

Instead of turning the TV on, consider listening to one of these playlists to help you focus.

Have you found other ways of staying productive while working from home? Share them in the comments!

The Key to a Successful Interview: Leave Something Behind

Lisa Yannett Interview Tips,Uncategorized 1 Comment

You probably go into an interview with very little in your hands. Your phone is in the car, keys in your pocket, and your resume is tucked inside a notebook you will use to take notes during the interview. What if I told you that you’ve forgotten something? Not sure what it is? Let me help you. You need a leave-behind.

What is a leave-behind? I can hear your panicked voice already. You’ve been preparing for this interview, and you want it to be as successful as possible. That’s why you want to put together a folder with content that you plan to leave with the interviewer at the end of the interview.

You more than likely submitted samples of your work when you applied, but the interviewers may not have seen them or might not remember what was your work. For that reason, you want to pick some of your best samples. Showcase your writing skills or graphic design experience. If you’ve managed social media, bring some analytics that highlights your talent to reach an audience. All of these should be found in your online portfolio, but it is much more convenient for the interviewer if you have physical copies to show them and discuss during the interview.

Here are some key things you should include in your leave-behind.

Folder – Don’t ever leave a stack of loose papers. Head over to Walmart and get yourself a cheap folder with prongs and a pack of plastic paper cover dividers. You won’t impress them by buying the most expensive folder and professionally laminating each paper. Something cheap will do.
Resume – ALWAYS have a copy of your resume. ALWAYS. When you go into the interview, they will likely have a copy of your resume already. Bring several copies anyways. Some interviews are conducted with panels, and nothing is more inconveniencing than having several people lean over one sheet of paper. Print several copies, and put them in the front pouch of the folder.
References – As you know, your references should not be on your resume, so print out your references and put them as the first page in your leave-behind.
Writing samples – If you have a lot of experience writing, or the position you’re applying for requires a skilled writer, you NEED to provide proof of your writing skills. Pick 2-3 of your best writing samples, and include them in your leave-behind.
Graphic Design – Graphic design is a sought after skill these days. Many positions require applicants to have some knowledge of graphic design programs like Photoshop and InDesign. Show the interviewer that you have the skills they’re looking for by including 3-4 samples of graphic design work that you have done.
Analytics – Creating compelling social media posts is impressive, but to impress, even more, provide analytics of social media accounts you’ve managed. Include the following and engagement when you started compared to when you left.

What NOT to include in your leave-behind

Your selfie – You may think that having your picture in your leave-behind will help the recruiters remember you, but it can cause more harm than good. Including your image can open up the door for the interviewers to make a decision based on bias. You want them to call you back because of your qualifications, not your face, so focus on your skills and experience instead of your appearance.
Your address – No interviewer on the earth needs to know your full home address. While it’s fine to provide the area that you live in to assure the interviewer that you can make the commute to the office, they don’t need to know exactly where you rest your head at night.
Bad samples – Your goal is to impress the interviewer. Providing samples with grammatical errors or poor design will only guarantee that you don’t get a callback.
Plagiarized work – While it may impress them in the interview, the truth will come out, and let me just tell you – recruiters talk with other recruiters.
Group work without attribution – This falls under plagiarism, technically, but it needs to be stated separately. If you were not the sole author or creator of a piece of work, you need to attribute it to all contributors to the project. It is okay to provide group work in your leave-behind, but make sure you highlight the portions that you worked on the most.

Do you include something in your leave-behind that didn’t make our list? Put it in the comments below!

Navigating Job Boards – Finding the Perfect Platform

Lisa Yannett Job Search Comments Off

There are so many ways to share job listings or apply for open positions. We’ve broken it down and explained some of the most common job boards today.

ZipRecruiter – Most people don’t know this, but ZipRecruiter is actually a search engine much like Google and Bing. ZipRecruiter is great for job posting because it pushes your post to 100+ job boards but keeps all your applications in one place. Unfortunately, it doesn’t post to large job boards like Indeed, Monster, or CareerBuilder, but you can share your job on LinkedIn for an extra charge. It is simple and easy to create a job on ZipRecruiter, and their prices are reasonable, which is always a plus. As far as job seekers, it can be a little more difficult to find the specific job you’re looking for, but with the right search terms and an updated profile, you can find the job of your dreams on ZipRecruiter.

Indeed

Indeed gives you the ability to post jobs for free (terms and conditions apply), and is easily used on mobile devices. It also allows you to sponsor listings and get them in front of jobseekers quicker. Indeed is one of the largest job boards with over 250 million visitors each month. For job seekers, you can upload your resume and send it easily to recruiters.

While LinkedIn could be viewed as a professional’s Facebook, it is also a job board. The downside to posting your open positions on LinkedIn is that there is no free option. However, if you’re looking for someone with specific experience, you may want to consider paying to post on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great platform for professionals to network and share industry information, but it is also ripe with young professionals looking for entry-level positions and experienced professionals looking to make a career change.

Facebook

Yes, Facebook is a job board. Though Facebook is predominately used to connect socially, it allows companies and individuals to connect professionally as well. You can create job listings, for free, on a business page, and share them across Facebook Jobs and employment groups. You can also boost your job listing on Facebook and have it reach more people much faster. Compared to other job boards, boosting your job on Facebook is a cheaper option.

Monster.com

While a little bit pricier than other options, Monster has a lot of really great features. One of the most impressive is the Job Fit Scoring that scans your interests and skills and tells you how much of a match you are for certain positions. Monster also offers free resume assessments to make sure you are putting your best foot forward with your resume. The price might be a turn off for some recruiters, but there are more users on Monster than Indeed. The cost might be worth it. You decide.

There is more research that you could do to decide which platform best works for you, but there is an easier option. Staffing agencies do the research, job posting, resume screening, and more for you! Rather than spending months trying to find the right candidate from thousands of applicants, hire a staffing agency that will only send you the most qualified applicants who are screened and ready to work. Save your company time and money that could be used in other areas of your business.

Staffing agencies are great for job seekers also. Instead of sending your resume to the closest 100 marketing companies or applying to every warehouse in the area, find a staffing agency that staffs in your industry and send them your resume ONCE. They will match you with an employer that is looking for someone with your skills.

If you’re thinking about using a staffing agency but still aren’t sure, check out this great article that further explains the benefits of staffing agencies.

You already know you want to hire a staffing agency? Perfect! Give us a call today at 912-355-5966 to find out how we can help you achieve your goals!