Have you ever wondered what others did to set themselves apart? Are you missing out on great opportunities that you feel you are qualified for? Here are some great tips directly from our staff to help you land the job!
Tag Archives: interviewing
Interview Instant Failures
Are you wondering why you are booking several interviews but not landing any job offers? Here are some common interview mistakes that will likely end in an instant failure!
- Poor hygiene. Whether you arrive wearing stained clothing, have a strong odor, clothing that does not appear to fit, or you appear to have just rolled out of bed; chances are you’ve already made your impression. Any of these could give the impression that you have lack of interest in the position or attention to detail. Your goal should be to look professional, prepared, and interested in the position. Avoid anything that could distract the hiring manager from focusing on your skills and abilities.
- Arriving late. Many hiring managers book interviews back to back and are working with a tight schedule. Arriving late can demonstrate that you have punctuality problems, poor planning skills, do not see the interview as a priority, and do not respect their time. Plan ahead for traffic, road construction, and plan to arrive early to ensure that you are able to find parking and the correct building entrance while still arriving a few minutes early.
- Lack of preparation. Applicants who forget who they are supposed to meet with, do not bring a clean and professional copy of their latest resume and references, or seem unsure of their answers tend to fall short of an employment offer. The interview is your opportunity to sell your skills, professionalism, and prove to an employer that you are the best candidate to represent their organization; be sure to start by showing them that you can represent yourself well.
- Falsify your information. Whether you falsify your resume, an application, or your experience in an answer; chances are the truth will come out eventually. Most employers have a policy against falsifying an application which can even lead to termination if you do obtain the position. Chances are between reference checks, background checks, skills testing, and their previous knowledge; a hiring manager will likely catch on to your lack of honesty and look to other applicants.
Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of top level talent? Contact us today! If you are a stand out in your profession and seeking contingent or long term career opportunities, visit our job seekers section for more information!
Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.
How To Market Today's Job Fair
Are you preparing to host or participate in an upcoming job fair? Pre-event marketing is essential to compete for talent with today’s job fairs. The previous marketing efforts of print ads, signs, and flyers just won’t get the job done. Let’s face it, what’s worse than sitting at a job fair only speaking with unqualified candidates or no candidates at all? Well, not much.
The Applicant's Investment In The Interview
Generally speaking, most hiring managers have a good idea of what they have invested in an interview considering time and resources. Have you considered your applicant’s investment? If your recruiting efforts leave you struggling to book interviews, now may be a good time to reconsider what your applicant is being asked to commit to.
Whether you are overbooking interviews or struggling to book them at all, take a moment to consider what an applicant has invested in the interview. With many hiring managers and recruiters targeting passive candidates or finding that many of their qualified applicants are currently employed, your applicant may be investing more than you have initially considered. Here are just a few of the investments an employed candidate may have made in order to interview with you:
- Hourly compensation
- Vacation or sick time
- Time away from their current workload that they’ll likely have to make up another time
- Jeopardized their current employment
- Made arrangements to have others assist with their duties in their absence
Even if the applicant is a salaried employee and has been able to use paid time off to participate in the interview they have given you valuable time that they could have used for other occasions. Now consider the likelihood of them landing the position.
If you already have hesitations about their qualifications for the position, you may want to reconsider asking them to commit to the interview considering their investment in doing so. If you are struggling to attract candidates to attend an interview consider alternatives such as phone interviews, off-site interviews, after hours interviews, or video interviews to accommodate their schedules.
Are you a stand out professional, technical professional, driver, or skilled worker seeking contingent, temporary, or long term career opportunities? Visit our job board for more information! Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of professionals and skilled workers? Contact us today!
Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.
How To Land A Job At A Job Fair
Let’s face it, most job fairs are filled with hundreds to thousands of applicants like yourself that are all chasing the same positions. Standing out against the competition, especially when the hiring managers and recruiters are likely to be overwhelmed by the end of the day can be very difficult. Here are some great tips to help you land a job at a job fair!
1. Come prepared. Sounds simple right? Some simple steps such as dressing professionally, researching which employers will be on hand that you are most interested in meeting with, researching those companies, and having a professionally built resume are the biggest steps to achieving success at a job fair. Many applicants consider a job fair to be a less formal setting and may appear more relaxed in their dress, often run out of a resumes, and can be seen wandering about hitting every booth. Walking with confidence to the locations that you are most interested in pursuing a career with can quickly set the tone for your conversation. Better yet, have a personalized cover letter for each of those employers to demonstrate that you came to the event seeking a career opportunity with them specifically.
2. Have your pitch ready. You’ll likely have 60 seconds or less to speak with a hiring manager or recruiter. Creating a strong first impression is key. Speak confidently, be to the point, and make sure you are express your strongest skills and accomplishments during this time. There is plenty of time in the future to discover what positions they have open currently and what they anticipate for the future. This is your time to convince them of why they need to meet with you formally.
3. Demonstrate professional etiquette. Similar to any job interview you should come dressed professionally, avoid chewing gum, silence your mobile devices, and avoid strong smells such as smoke, coffee, or cologne. Make sure that the employer is focused on your skills and abilities, not something with your presence. Be sure to stand a safe distance behind the candidate ahead of you in line allowing them to speak confidentially with the hiring manager and not making either party feel rushed.
4. Leave with information. After meeting with each employer make any notes from your conversation on the back of their business card. This will allow you to follow up with information that may trigger them to remember your conversation such as “We had spoken in regards to your desire to expand your engineering services into the Phoenix market, that is something that I would have a strong interest in participating with”. Be sure to note any follow up actions that were requested of you such as submitting an electronic version of your resume. Remember to send a personalized thank you card within 24 hours, expressing your continued desire to speak further with them in regards to career opportunities and what you can bring to their organization.
What Are The Most Popular Interview Questions?
Most job seekers take the time to mentally and emotionally prepare for an interview. Do you research and prepare to answer basic interview questions? If not, you probably should. Not only is preparation the key to acing an interview, it also is important to fully understand yourself as a potential employee before you can decide what positions or organizations would be the best fit for you.
Taking the time to practice answering the questions and being fully honest with yourself can prepare you to determine what type of roles may be the best suited for your future career plans. It’s just as important that the career is a good fit for you as it is for you to be the right fit for the company. If you have to lie, deceive, or change your responses to obtain the position; chances are it won’t be the right position for you in the long run. Take some time to review the most popular interview questions and analyze your responses. According to Forbes the most popular interview questions are:
- What are your strengths?
- What are your weaknesses?
- Why are you interested in working for [insert company name here]?
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
- Why do you want to leave your current company?
- Why was there a gap in your employment between [insert date] and [insert date]?
- What can you offer us that someone else can not?
- What are three things your former manager would like you to improve on?
- Are you willing to relocate?
- Are you willing to travel?
- Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
- Tell me about a time you made a mistake.
- What is your dream job?
- How did you hear about this position?
- What would you look to accomplish in the first 30 days/60 days/90 days on the job?
- Discuss your resume.
- Discuss your educational background.
- Describe yourself.
- Tell me how you handled a difficult situation.
- Why should we hire you?
- Why are you looking for a new job?
- Would you work holidays/weekends?
- How would you deal with an angry or irate customer?
- What are your salary requirements?
- Give a time when you went above and beyond the requirements for a project.
- Who are our competitors?
- What was your biggest failure?
- What motivates you?
- What’s your availability?
- Who’s your mentor?
- Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss.
- How do you handle pressure?
- What is the name of our CEO?
- What are your career goals?
- What gets you up in the morning?
- What would your direct reports say about you?
- What were your bosses’ strengths/weaknesses?
- If I called your boss right now and asked him what is an area that you could improve on, what would he say?
- Are you a leader or a follower?
- What was the last book you’ve read for fun?
- What are your co-worker pet peeves?
- What are your hobbies?
- What is your favorite website?
- What makes you uncomfortable?
- What are some of your leadership experiences?
- How would you fire someone?
- What do you like the most and least about working in this industry?
- Would you work 40+ hours a week?
- What questions haven’t I asked you?
- What questions do you have for me?
Most often times your gut instinct is the most accurate and true. If you have questions that you struggle to answer, now is the time to identify your true strengths and passions. If you continue to question your responses, consider speaking with someone who is familiar with your work who can share with you an objective opinion. Sometimes we forget our biggest strengths and our greatest assets because they become second nature to what we do.
Keep in mind interviewing can be a difficult process. For more information on interviewing, resume writing, and follow up tips visit our job seekers section.
Are you a stand out professional, skilled trades person, or technical professional seeking contingent, temporary, or long term career opportunities? Visit our job seekers section for more information! Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of professionals and skilled workers? Contact us today!
Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.
How To Improve Your Interviewing Skills
Have you experienced a moment during or after an interview in which you wish you would have responded in a different manner? Chances are if you are actively interviewing and haven’t experienced this yet, you likely will. It’s well known that many people face “interview anxiety” just as many people experience a heightened level of anxiety before taking a test, making a difficult decision, or beginning a new experience. What sets many individuals apart from the masses, is how they choose to deal with these experiences.
An interview can be a nerve racking experience for even the most confident candidate. You are often facing a new environment, meeting new individuals, and you are most often unsure of what their expectations are for applicants and for the position. Even the most calm and collected public speakers experience a heightened level of nervousness or anxiety in an interview setting. So how can you prepare yourself?
As with any experience, the best way to improve is through learning from your previous experiences. Whether you wish you would have dressed more professionally, answered a question more quickly, or responded with a completely different answer; you more often than not cannot change the immediate response. What you can do is move past the decision quickly and change it for future interviews. Often, the response or reaction that you are concerned about may go unnoticed or leave less of an impact with the hiring manager if you remain confident and move on from the moment. Becoming flustered, attempting to change your answer, or trying to further justify your response can show signs of indecisiveness and draw more attention to the response.
The majority of hiring managers debrief themselves following an interview, you should plan to do the same. What do you feel went well? What do you wish you could improve upon for future interviews? Is there a question in regards to the position or the organization that you wish you would have asked? The best time to review your thoughts is within an hour of the interview. Take a few moments to document for future reference what you felt very positive about and areas that you could use improvement. Use this list to prepare yourself for future interviews by taking confidence in your interviewing strengths and preparing yourself for areas of weakness.
As with almost anything, practice and preparation can greatly ease your sense of nervousness in an interview setting. If you find that you are continuing to struggle with the interview process, consider speaking with those who are familiar with your work to ask them to identify some of your areas of strength, what sets you apart from your peers, and practice reviewing interview questions that can be found online. Some candidates greatly benefit from partnering with a recruiter or staffing firm to help prepare them for the interviewing and debriefing process. Find a process and comfort level that works best for you and remain persistent.
Are you a stand out professional or technical professional seeking contingent, temporary, or long term career opportunities? Visit our job seekers section for more information! Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of professionals and skilled workers? Contact us today!
Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.
How To Land Your First Job
Whether you’ve recently graduated or are entering a new profession, landing your first job can be difficult. While you may have a strong education and credentials on your side, the competition for entry level positions including Engineers, IT Professionals, HR Professionals, and Accounting Professionals can be steep. Looking to gain a competitive edge against your peers? Here’s how!
How To Hire The Wrong Person Every Time
Have you noticed a pattern in your employee turnover rates? If you are noticing a large volume of your new hires are not working out, chances are some simple changes to your hiring process could save you a lot of time, money, and resources. Not sure if your process is to blame?
Is Your Resume Costing You The Job?
Have you submitted what seems like an entire tree’s worth of resumes and still haven’t landed the job? While applying for multiple positions will certainly increase your chances of landing a position, sending out a resume or CV with certain mistakes can quickly get you ruled out for any position. Here are some quick tips!