10 Tips to Prepare for & Rock a Job Interview

Congratulations! You landed a job interview at your dream company! A lot of hard work has gone into determining which companies to apply to, networking, writing fantastic cover letters & submitting applications. You should be proud you made it past the initial resume screen. It means you look great on paper. Now it’s time to prove you are even better in person!

Uses these 10 tips to Prepare for your Interview:

1. Get organized - Write down the date, time and location of your interview in your smart phone or date book right away. 

•      Tip: Ask the recruiter for key information like the name of your interviewer and the interview style to help you prepare in the below steps.

2. Research the company:

•      Their website - Check out their mission statement, values/competences, services or products, case studies, awards, blog and Executive. Be confident you can summarize why you want to work at the company and why you make a great company fit.

•      Job Site – See what current job openings they have other than your specific interest. This will give you a well rounded view of the company.

•      LinkedIn – Do they have a company page? Any relevant information that isn’t on their website?

•      Google Search – Look for press releases or any awards/information that the company may not have highlighted on their website.

•      Tip: Print off any key information and highlight it or take notes. Don’t be afraid to take this prep package with you to the interview in a folder so they see you are prepared. Also write down any questions you have to ask to determine if the company is the right fit for you and you are the right fit for them.

3. Get the REAL Story via social media:

•      Check out their Facebook page to see photos, comments and general company news. This can be a great place to see company social event photos.

•      See if they have a twitter account or a company #hashtag so you can see what your future colleagues are tweeting about

•      See if there are any employee videos on YouTube

•      Check out Glassdoor.com and valut.com – see ratings and candid feedback from past employees

•      Tip: Seeing the inside scoop from current employees helps you understand your future colleagues and the “real” experience working at Company X!

4. Research your interviewers:

•      If you have the interviewer names, check them out on LinkedIn. See how long they have been with the company, positions they have held.

•      Tip: You can use this information when asking them about their experience at X Company or when asking questions at the end of the interview. Example: “I see that you have been at X for 5 years and have worked in the recruiting and marketing teams tell me why you love working here…” This shows you went above and beyond in your research.

5.      Research the industry:

•      What are top trends in the industry right now?

•      Why do you feel this industry is a great fit for you?

•      Who are the biggest competitors of this company?

•      Tip: Use this information when they ask you the question “why do you want to join company X or what interests you about this industry” - Show that you are passionate about the industry & well versed!

6.      Reach out to Friends or Connections

•      Do you have any friends that work at the company or have interviewed? Find out what type of interview questions they ask – behaviour based? Is there a competency exam?  

•      Tip: Getting the inside scoop always sets you up for success. If you have a friend who works there, ask them about the person interviewing you and typical questions. Also, don’t be afraid to ask them to refer you or highlight your name to set you apart from the rest of the applicants!

7.      Practice Being Interviewed:

•      Ask the recruiter what type of interview it will be (usually the answer is behaviour based). Google “behaviour based interview questions” and see a ton of great examples.

•      Have a family member, friend, or roommate ask you the questions & practice giving answers. Some great sites will not only list the question but also key skills to highlight.

•      The best trick with behaviour based interview questions is answer using the following technique: outline the Situation, Action, followed by the Result. Focus the majority of your time on your specific Action. Think of outlining the Situation and recapping the Result as bookends.

•      Tip: Remember to always tell the truth and focus on situations that you played a lead role!

8.      Plan your Interview Outfit:

•      Don’t wait until the morning of your interview to figure out what to wear. Plan it out the night before & ensure it is ironed and ready to go first thing.

•      Tip: Do your research on the company dress code. My rule of thumb is to dress one level above their dress code for your interview. Example: If the office is very casual, dress business casual. If they are business casual, dress more business formal (suit).

9.      Re-Read Your Notes & Prep Your Own Questions:

•      Read over your research the night before or even when you are having breakfast that morning. Don’t memorize everything but ensure you know their service offerings or products, their vision/mission statement and any top trends in the industry.

•      Write down a list of potential questions you would like to ask the interviewer.  This always impresses!

•      Tip: Remember that an interview works both ways – you are interviewing the company to see if it’s the right fit for you just as they are interviewing you.

10.  Arrive Early

•      Leave yourself plenty of time to arrive at your interview location. There is nothing worse than panicking about being late.

•      Tip: Remember to have confidence in introducing yourself with a smile, confident tone and great eye contact. Showcase all of your great research and

Good luck in your big interview! With this preparation you will have confidence and show them what a great employee you will make!

 

5 Simple Steps for a Social Media Audit

Social Media continues to be a strong branding tool for recruiting Gen Y. However, when recruiters mention it to Executives they struggle to gain buy in. This article will outline 5 simple steps to conduct an audit and shape your 2012 social media plan to set you up for success in the new year.

Building a business case includes understanding why there is business rationale to using social media and speaking to Executives in the language they understand – dollars & cents. This means building a case that includes targets and ROI metrics. To design your targets, first understand why you want to use social media, audit your current use, and build a case to showcase your plan.

Potential HR & Talent Acquisition Uses for Social Media:

•      Recruitment & Promotion

•      Employment Brand Management

•      Employee Onboarding

•      Executive Culture Check

•      Knowledge Sharing, Training and Development

•      Employee Reward and Recognition

Once you understand the ways in which you want to use social media, start shaping your business case. All business cases have 3 main components:

5 Simple Steps to Creating a Business Case & Completing a Social Media Audit:

1.      Conduct an Audit:

·         Who? Audit yourself & your top 3 competitors

·         What to look for? Understand trends (i.e. which platforms everyone is using) & what hook is being used on each platform

·         Where? Audit  main social media properties (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare) and then integration via widgets of social media into their traditional job sites

·         When?  Do it NOW! Determine a regular frequency to complete an audit (at least every 6 months)

·         Why? Your New Hires & Existing Employees are already talking about you. Be part of the conversation

2.     Determine Metrics to complete in regular Audits to help determine ROI

Examples include: Sentiment, Post Frequency and type, Engagement, Growth and Share of Conversation versus competitors.

3.     Set Objectives

Having targets allows you to measure learnings, mistakes & successes. Many social media objectives are around branding versus always clear applications, interviews & hires. Setting social media targets should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely). Ensure you understand ROI and ask the right questions like:  What is the impact of shifting 1/8 of the advertising budget to build a Facebook page? Determine priorities that make sense for your recruiting targets and filter distractions.

4.     Work Your Plan

Remember as you work on your plan that you must:

·         Have a regular presence on social media sites

·         Listen and adapt ongoing as social media sites are always changing

·         Set monitoring and reporting standards for your organization/department

·         Assign responsibilities

·         Seek support & increased education with: internal departments and external resources  (tool kits, consultants, contractors)

5.     Work Smart

Use tools to work efficiently and effectively.

•      Determine Content Mixture and Themes for each Platform

•      Develop Regular Communication Calendar

•      Automate Activities with Tools: Excel, Social Mention, Hootsuite, Google Reader, Crowd Booster

Good luck in evaluating your current social media activities and in building a 2012 business case for increased investment in graphic design time and recruiter time. With regular activity you can drive increased hires from this tactic.

Remember that social media is only one piece of a successful Gen Y recruiting strategy and must be used in conjunction with strong on campus branding and a strong Employment Value Proposition. Good luck!

How Companies use Social Media for Recruiting

Are you as a company on trend in using social media to find the perfect candidate to join your team? Find out what your competition is using!



Credit: Mashable - http://on.mash.to/mXWPGR

Fresh Start: New School Year

Hi All
I have been a bit of an absent blogger for the last 2 months as I was launching campus programming in Canada (one internal & one for a client), the USA, China & preparing Russia & Ukraine for launch next month. Not only is it busy with recruiting but I'm moving into a new role as Director Talent Strategies, North America in my day job. Life has been slammed.  Additionally, though I haven't been posting, I've working on a whole new integrated website & new blog site :) Stay posted for more details there!

I taught a Learning & Development session this morning about building your in person & online brand. It regrounded my goals & helped me have a "fresh start" on getting back to my blog.  So cheers to a fresh school year & a fresh start!

What do you want to start fresh on?

Global Campus Recruiting Best Practices

As I’m working internationally this week in Europe, I was inspired to share information about campus recruiting at a global level. As many of my readers know, my specialty is building campus programs & I have developed & successfully run campus recruiting programs in over 12 countries from North America to Asia to Western Europe and Eastern Europe. It may shock you that students around the world essentially want the same things – enjoyment of work, development opportunities, exposure to leadership, work/life balance. Though the cultures of each country influence the practices/students, best practices in student recruiting essentially do work globally. Building the right programming is important to find that perfect new hire!

Though many global companies build management trainee or global recruiting principles, there are some things to keep in mind that work globally & some things to consider in tweaking your programming for each individual market. Read on to find out more!

From my experience, here are some best practices for building campus recruiting programs in multiple countries:

-     Strong employment branding website with information about a day in the life at your company. Remember, your website should ENGAGE with students. Think blogs, twitter feeds, YouTube videos of your office, testimonials etc

-     Key messaging/job offerings that speak to students. Knowing what students want & ensuring your offering speaks to these categories is important. Look to local/nation surveys on student values to build out your messages

-     Campus Ambassadors, students who work a set number of hours per work promoting job opportunities with your company, helping to build your brand on campus & generate referrals.  I have seen this program work around the world. The key factors are training them, have ongoing management & KPI’s (key performance indicators) that they are rewarded for meeting.

-     Referral based programming works! Track referrals to applications & reward based on results.

-     Campus events are so important for building up your brand on campus and recognition among students. Job fairs, information sessions, company presentations, case competitions etc are a great way to engage students.

-     Relationships with Career Centers – Career Centers can make or break your experience on campus. Getting to know your contacts and  educating them on your company’s offering is very important as they will help market your campus events, promote your company to influential students & help you gain access to deans & professors

-     Relationships with Deans/Professors are very important. Guest lecturing in class rooms, supporting with real business cases to supplement curriculum and seeking referrals from influential professors will help gain traction with the right students.

-     Supporting student groups. Find those groups that are part of your target market and work to be a key advisor/support. Do not just provide sponsorship dollars but instead work to provide the group mentors, internships, and/or business advice as this will be a better use of your sponsorship dollars. By spending time with these groups you will get to know the top students you want to recruit for your company.

-     Giveaways are not a key part of a campus program. They are supplementary to educate students on your EVP (employer value proposition) but a cool giveaway is not going to sell a student on applying to your company

 Things to tweak on a country by country basis:

-     Consider Internet Access

o   Some countries outside of Western Europe & North America have limited internet access or slow speeds. Having a length application process that relies heavily on internet access/online testing may decrease your applicants and candidate engagement in some countries. Consider this access to technology when tailoring the application for each country.

-     On Campus activities really differ per campus. Some schools allow for class presentations by other students and some don’t. Know what’s allowed in your country & per campus to meet your KPI’s.  Work with your career center to understand what works best on their campus. Tailor this metric not only by country but also by school.

-     Postering/handouts – many schools internally have different rules about what is allowed on posters or if posters are even allowed to be hung on campus property. Ensure that you allow local offices to determine these nuances before ordering global quantities with a set design.

-     Timing – even within a continent, the countries may have very different calendar years. Your recruiting season in England and Germany are very different as German students don’t go back to school until October versus August/Sept in England. Thus, your timing for applications, interviews and job offers will be sensitive to each country.
-     Social media sites/usage varies per country. Ask your recent new hires what social media sites you should be using!

I hope these tips help you understand what global recruiting best practices work on a global level & what needs to be tweaked locally. Cheers & happy recruiting!

Thursday News Day: Employment Branding

As I’m currently consulting in Europe for clients, I was inspired to discuss global campus recruiting in this week’s articles. Despite my BEST goggle searches, I didn’t find any relevant articles about global employment branding or campus recruiting … this of course inspired next week’s post about campus recruiting and global best practices. For this week’s article (as it is Thursday News Day!) I have included a good piece about employment branding as knowing the basic principles in building your EVP (employee value proposition) will help set you up for understanding global best practices for campus recruiting.

Employment Branding:

 “Employment Branding: The only long term Recruitment Strategy”

-          Featured on: www.ere.net

-          Writer:  Dr. John Sullivan

-          Publishing date: Jan 7, 2008

-          Link: http://bit.ly/Wfj0a

Though this article is a couple of years old, it really highlights the basic principles of employment branding and those principles haven’t changed. The way you execute on your brand has evolved but this is a good introductory read to the key components of and long term benefits of employment branding. The author quotes that typically companies only spend 5% of their budgets on employment branding… which camp do you fall into?

I hope you read over this solid employment branding article so that in my next few posts about campus recruiting & global recruiting, you understand the benefit of having a EVP prior to hitting campus. Shockingly, I found very few other articles about campus recruiting unless they were tied to a company as a pitch document. Looks like I found a new wealth of things to write about! Stay posted over the next few weeks for posts on campus recruiting & global student behaviours.

Thursday News Day: Recruitment 3.0 - Are You Ready?

This week’s news comes from www.ere.net – one of my favourite websites for articles about recruiting, sourcing, social media & overall HR issues. Whenever I need supporting information about training hiring managers or what’s happening in the market place, this is one of my go-to resources.

This week’s theme:

Recruiting & SOCIAL MEDIA:

 “Facebook’s Tag Suggestions Raise HR Issues”

-          Featured on: www.ere.net

-          Writer:  John Zappe

-          Publishing date: June 14, 2011

-          Link: http://bit.ly/j5eWGV

This article discusses current flack on Facebook’s facial recognition software & the HR implications. The article quotes that as “84 percent of U.S. recruiters think it is proper to consider personal data posted online when evaluating a candidate” there are huge implications to this new picture tagging.  It comes as no surprise that professors and career counselors are cautioning students about the privacy settings & photos they post on social media sites.  This facial recognition technology is further complicating the problem as people can be “tagged” in photos that are not an actual picture of themselves, yet, a hiring decision may be formed based on such photos.

Read this article as a recruiter for understanding the technology fully. As a candidate, read on to find out the importance in opting out of this feature on Facebook.


 “A Vision for the Future of Recruitment: Recruitment 3.0”

-          Featured on: www.ere.net

-          Writer:  Matthew Jeffery & Amy McKee

-          Publishing date: June 14, 2011

-          Link: http://bit.ly/jcgRSF

This article is one of the BEST summaries I have seen about the changing recruiting landscape. It states that recruiting is going through a “a fundamental seismic shift... A change that will see many traditional recruiters falling behind and being replaced by new, differently skilled recruiters, ready for the challenges of Recruitment 3.0.”  The global race for talent is reaching new levels & the way to secure that talent is changing. Companies need to focus on the 90% of candidates who are not active job hunters and must use social networking & nontraditional sourcing methods to reach them.  

This is an absolutely fantastic article outlining the current evolutionary landscape that is Recruiting 3.0. It is a great tool for HR managers to educate senior leadership about the changing game called recruiting.

Happy reading! Thoughts on the article about Recruitment 3.0?

Following Up with Employers

Students, this post is just for you! I’ve received questions asking for advice on how students should follow up with employers after in-person encounters at tours, info sessions, career fairs, networking events, interviews etc. So here are some tips…

The first step is knowing how your perspective employer likes to receive applications. If they have an online application system – use it!  Don’t just email your contact your resume.  Many employers receive hundreds of applications a week and the only way they manage them is through their online application/candidate management system. Ensure that you write a cover letter highlighting the culture & unique features of the company & matching those points with reasons on why you are the perfect fit. In your cover letter mention the person you met at the event & why they made an impression on you. Knowing the culture of the company you are applying for is key. If they are a very corporate/professional environment a more formal tone is appropriate. I work in a very young dynamic marketing environment so I like to see real personality and energy come out in a cover letter to set someone out from the pack.

After applying online, reach out directly to the person you met at the event. Make sure at the event you ask for a business card of the contact. First make sure you actually speak with the contact though. When I receive a follow up email from a candidate, I want to actually remember that we spoke.  I want them to have stood out. At the end of an event, don’t rush around trying to meet as many recruiters or hiring managers as possible, asking for their card & sending them each form letter follow-ups. Instead focus on building relationships or connections with a few recruiters & let them really get to know you. This will give you more information to personalize your follow-up email & also help them remember you when they receive it.  

Sending a personalized email within 24 hours is key. Remember to attach your resume but reference that you have already applied online.  I also recommend for students to include their LinkedIn profile link in their email so recruiters can go online & see their photo/online resume if they need a reminder of who the candidate is.  Additionally in your email, highlight why you enjoyed meeting them, reference the interaction you had, and discuss why you think you would be a great fit for the company. This personalized touch makes a difference - you would be surprised how few students do this! When I receive a great follow up email, I always forward it directly to the recruiter who is leading the hiring for the position the candidate is interested in. I also go into our application system to copy the letter & insert my feedback into their file so other recruiters see how passionate the candidate is. The 20 minutes taken to write a great follow-up email are worth it if it follows a great in person conversation.

The same holds true after an interview: Make sure you send your interviewer an email thanking them for their time & highlighting what you learned about the company during your interview & why you think you would be a great fit.

Hopefully this gives you a few quick & easy tips on how you can continue to make that great impression with recruiters that might make all the difference in securing your first full time job! 

Though this article is aimed at students, these tips are also very applicable to any candidate who wants to follow up with a recruiter or hiring manager after a networking or interview opportunity. Good luck job hunters!

Thursday News Day: Online Interactions

This week brings 2 different topics: recruiting & consumer experiences - they are tied together by social media.

 Recruiters need to spend time where students are – on campus & online! Are you?    

Additionally, Harrods has joined the twitterverse – what does this mean for traditional department stores & keeping up with consumer trends?

Recruiting & SOCIAL MEDIA:


 “How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool”

-          Featured in: Globe & Mail

-          Writer:  Lynn Greiner

-          Publishing date: June 6, 2011

-          Link: http://bit.ly/lt6lzH

I’m a big believer in the importance of using social media as part of your sourcing & employment brand strategy. This is a good article highlighting social media’s place in recruiting. Love this: “Today’s tech-savvy candidates expect to find jobs the same way they do much of their social interacting – online.” Social media can actually let you target your sourcing better than job boards or general marketing. It is “the vehicle by which we can reach the top tier candidates by influencing them through their trusted networks.” Read this article to find out more!

Consumer Experience & SOCIAL MEDIA:

 “Harrods is Tweeting: Is Real-World Shopping Doomed?”
      -          Featured in: Globe & Mail

-          Writer:  Katrina Onstad

-          Publishing date: June 4, 2011

-          Link: http://bit.ly/jfJL5x

Brand are working hard to keep up with online shopping experiences to drive consumers to actually visit their stores. Thus, it’s not a big surprise the Harrods, the “august grande dame of department stores,” has launched an app that includes CPG to help customers navigate the store and receive store updates via a twitter feed. When traditional Harrod’s recognizes the need for social media what does this mean for consumer experiences & traditional shopping outlets?   The author states that the “Harrods app is clearly an if-you-can’t-beat-’em-join-’em gesture, as technology has so dramatically changed how we shop that it threatens Harrods’ very existence.” Read this article to understand how brands & by extension companies must joint eh social media world or essentially become extinct.  


Happy Reading!