Three interview questions you need to be ready to answer!

Here are the three questions that Forbes says all other interview questions boil down to.

Employers are no longer relying on standard interview questions like “Where do you see yourself in five years?” To ace your interview, you need to be ready to answer a whole variety of new questions, including some rather odd ones, like “How many quarters would you need to reach the height of the Empire State building?.”

But an insightful article on Forbes says all those questions really boil down to three:

• Can you do the job?
• Will you love the job?
• Can we tolerate working with you?

Here’s why they’re so important.

Can you do the job?

In a time where jobs are becoming increasing complex and specialized, employers need to make sure you can do the job. That means not only making sure you have the right technical skills and experience for the job today, but the ability to learn and adapt, to think critically, to embrace new technology and approaches, to work in multidisciplinary teams, to communicate effectively with others, to take the job to the next level, to move to another area in the organization, etc. Because the job they are hiring you to do today will likely change fairly radically over the course of your employment with them.

The interviewer might not ask you all this directly, but you can be sure they’re looking for clues in your answers.

So make sure you share examples of how you continually adapt and learn on the job, stay ahead of technology trends, work with others, manage risks, think critically and make decisions. Give them a broader view of what you can bring to the organization and the value you can provide.

Will you love the job?

So much research recently has focused on employee disengagement and its cost to organizations. So employers aren’t just looking to hire people with the right skills and experience for the job and “fill the seat”. They’re concerned about finding the right candidate, who’ll be fully engaged in the role and be a high performer.

Here again, it’s hard for an interviewer to directly ask you about your engagement level. And clearly, if you’re looking for a new job, you’re likely not fully engaged in your present role. But many of the questions they ask give you the opportunity to express your passions for your work.

So make sure, as you answer questions about your work experience, you share with the interviewer the aspects of work that you love. What are the things at work that “turn you on” and make time disappear? Do you love solving problems? Are you passionate about satisfying customers? Do you thrive on the details or guiding the big picture? Do you need to work on teams? Are you jazzed by beating the competition?

What are the things you need in a role to be fully engaged? And what are the things that disengage you? Be honest about both; it’s in everyone’s best interests for you to work in a job that you love.

Can we tolerate working with you?

Cultural fit has also become a key consideration in hiring. So much work these days is done collaboratively that you need to be able to get along with your coworkers and work effectively with them.

But more than that, as organizations recognize that their employees are their only true source of lasting competitive advantage, organizational culture and competencies are becoming more critical. More than products/services or technology, this is what differentiates an organization from the competition.

So interviewers are likely to ask you questions that help them understand whether you share their core values and competencies. Afterall, if you’re a good fit, you’re likely to be more engaged and to perform better.

To help them determine this, start by getting as much understanding of the organization’s culture, values and core competencies as you can. There are lots of areas on their website that will give you clues to these. Look at their company history, careers page, mission and values. Look at the words they use to describe themselves, their products/services, market and customers. And decide for yourself whether the organization will be a good fit for you, and you for it.

Most companies will be looking for things like: customer focus, commitment to quality, innovation, integrity, speed, care for the environment, responsiveness… But each will live that in a different way.

If you think there’s a good fit, let them know. As you answer questions in the interview, tell them about your shared values and competencies. Give examples of how you’ve exhibited those on the job and outside of work. Let them know that you’re more than just the skills and experience you bring to the table and that you share a commitment to the same things.

 

Check out the original article over at Tech Republic. Credit to the original author, Sean Conrad.

Master the changing face of job interviewing

The new trend in hiring in 2013? Challenge-based and video interviews. Read how you can master these new challenges.

Just when you got the hang of the in-person or phone interview, things are changing. According to HireArt, a company that helps employers make hires, the new trend in hiring in 2013 is utilizing challenge-based and video interviews.

“Businesses and recruiters are using video interviews and work samples as a way to effectively vet job candidates before bringing them in for an actual interview so employers can “try before they buy” and ensure they’re finding the right candidate for the job.”

For example, if a business is hiring an engineer, they may present a coding challenge to candidates; if they’re hiring a social media manager they may ask candidates to create compelling tweets.

Here are some tips from HireArt to ensure that candidates are prepared for both the challenge-based and video interviews that are becoming more common in today’s competitive job market.

1. Act like you want to be there.

Being energetic over a video interview can go a long way in making you stand out against other candidates that seem bored or uncomfortable. Even though it might be more difficult to seem enthusiastic about a job when you are just talking to the camera, you should try to come across as excited and passionate about why you want to be there.

2. Watch your presentation.

You don’t look as good on camera as you look in person (it’s true!). So, don’t let basic components of your interview, such as attire and lighting, negatively affect how you come across. Dress as you would dress were the interview taking place in the office. Record the view in a bright place that allows the interviewer to clearly see you. And make sure the quality of your audio allows the interviewer to really understand what you are saying. Although these things are not related to your skills, they could count against you when other candidates have them and you don’t.

3. Don’t be sloppy.

Typos and lack of attention to detail in your online applications often immediately disqualify you. Take the time to be careful!

4. Know your own pitch.

Most video interviews require you to record a two minute pitch about yourself. Really think about what you want to get across, what experiences you would like to highlight, what sets you apart from other candidates, and how you want to say this in a succinct way.

5. Make sure you know the company, its competitors and the industry inside and out.

If you are invited to an interview, even if it is an online interview, companies expect you to understand the position and know the company well. Use this information to craft your pitch and at every other chance you get. Articulate specifically why you want to work at the company – what specifically drew you to this position.

 

Find the full, original article written by Toni Bowers, over at TechRepublic.

10 things to consider before leaving IT for the end business

If you’re hoping to climb the ladder on the business side of your organization, be sure to ask yourself these questions before saying goodbye to IT.

If you are employed in any enterprise where IT is not the end business, you will find IT is a support function. There’s nothing wrong with making an IT career in companies like this — unless you aspire to be the CEO. Companies almost always look for someone with experience in sales or in a line of business to fill that role. That’s why many IT’ers who have enterprise CEO aspirations decide to leave IT for a functional area that is considered strategic to the business.

But not so fast. Before you make the decision to leave IT, here are 10 things you should ask yourself:

1: Am I going to like being on the business side?

Once you make the transition from IT to a business area, your workload is going to change. There isn’t as much difference between IT and the end business if you are making a transfer into engineering. But if your new area is a product line for a heavy equipment manufacturer or sales or marketing for a retailer or card services for a bank, the difference will be huge. If possible, you should gain as much familiarity with your “target area” of the business as you can before you make the leap. Talk to others who are in that business area and learn everything you can about it. Most important, think about that area of the business and yourself. Can you see yourself there — and do you think you will be happy?

2: Am I going to be able to leave IT alone?

Often, the first thing a welcoming business area does with a new employee from IT is to put that person in charge of technology for the department. This can be a good thing, because it allows you (as a new business employee) to establish a worth and a credibility in your new department. However, it can also be detrimental if you 1) find yourself “stuck” in departmental IT so that you don’t get to learn the end business like you wanted to or 2) find yourself naturally gravitating to all the department’s IT projects because deep down, you really like IT better. You won’t meet your business career objectives if you step into any of these sand traps.

3: Do I have the business savvy?

The best business people have a natural savvy about how successful businesses work, and they don’t get sidetracked by the many incidental things that can come up during the day. They can also see the big picture of what the business must accomplish. By nature, IT folks are highly analytical and detail-oriented. Before making an IT-to-end-business move, assess yourself and your natural talents. Will you be able to focus on the business first — even if this runs counter to IT thinking?

4: Will moving to the end business hurt my career if I decide to rejoin IT?

Not necessarily. If you develop in-depth expertise on the business side, you can often find a path back into IT as a business analyst (always in short supply). However, if your IT skillset is highly technical in nature, you will find it more difficult to reenter IT the longer you stay away from it. The rule of thumb here is: If you make a move to the end business and decide to switch back to IT, do it as quickly as you can. This leaves less time for your skills to erode, and it usually is understandable to both the business and IT if a relatively new assignment just doesn’t work out.

5: Am I a “cyclical” or a “project-oriented” person?

I remember once walking to work with an accountant friend. She told me that one of the things she really liked about her job was that she knew exactly what she was going to be doing every day of the week. There are many people like this. They want an office life that is predictable. But if you’re in IT, life is anything but predictable! A system can crash or there might be an immediate need to provision a new server. IT professionals thrive on change and a constant stream of new projects. How do you like to work? This is a crucial question to ask yourself, because if you like the constant change of projects in IT, a more cyclical function (like accounting) — where you repeatedly do the same things daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly — might not be able to contain you.

6: Do I have the communications, political, and people skills?

One of the nice things about IT or engineering is that the people who work in these disciplines tend to be “thing” oriented, and less political. The downside of this is that IT folks often come up short in interpersonal and communications skills. These skills (as well as the politics) are important in most end business areas. If you don’t feel that you can do well in these areas, you might be best served to remain in a discipline like IT or engineering.

7: Can I think non-logically?

Areas like engineering and IT rely on logical and deductive thought processes to solve what in many cases are mathematical problems. But if you’re in a business area like sales or marketing, the emotional content of what people are saying and thinking becomes highly important. Intuition and creativity also count. This is in sharp contrast to the way IT thinks and works-so it is a good idea to assess how strong you are in the alternate forms of thinking before making a career change.

8: Can I handle open-ended situations?

IT’ers like clearly defined situations where something either works or it doesn’t. This is natural when the majority of your work life is in projects with tight deadlines that require rapid problem resolution. However, this mode of work can be different in other business areas, where decision-making can take longer and the work is more cyclical in nature and less project (and goal) oriented. Some IT’ers find this difficult to adjust to. You should ask yourself how well you do in a less defined and decision-oriented environment before deciding to make a change.

9: How committed am I really to a career in business?

Many IT’ers find that they really miss IT after they leave it. Unless you have an arrangement with your company that you are going over to a business area for a specific period of time (to enhance your business background) and that you will return to IT, you should be absolutely confident that a long-term career in business is what you really want.

10: Does the company really have an opportunity for me?

If your primary reason for switching to the business side of the enterprise is for long-term career advancement in the company, do all your due diligence up front before you make the move. Several years ago, a colleague of mine who was managing IT wanted to transition to the business side of the community bank he was working at because his ultimate goal was to be the bank’s CEO. He spent time in the bank’s branch system and ran the loan department. Today, he is the CEO — but he had a clear-cut goal in mind and had met with other bank officials to discuss the feasibility of this career path.

Credit to the guys and girls at TechRepublic for the original article.

Poll: Your preferred method for job hunting?

The dangers of accepting a counter-offer

You may think that getting and accepting a counter-offer from your company is flattering. You may have to think again.

It’s pretty tempting to think you’re quite the valuable commodity when your company offers you a higher salary to keep you from leaving to go work for another company. Not so fast, hot stuff. Here are a couple of things to think about before you accept that offer.

You will be looked on here on out as a bit of a traitor.

Sure, you ultimately decided to stay, but in your company’s eyes, you made an effort to find another job. And you might have interviewed on a day you called in sick, or asked to leave early using some excuse.

It may be a little naïve, but to your managers, your loyalty can’t be counted on. And if you were just using the other job offer as leverage to get what you wanted from your employer in the first place, it can be construed as a kind of blackmail. People don’t tend to forget that kind of thing, especially when promotions opportunities come around.

Money won’t solve your problems.

If you began looking for another job because you were unhappy for various reasons, you can be assured that a little bump in salary is not going to make those issues disappear.

You’ve burned a bridge with the company that wanted to hire you.

If you tell the manager of the second company who was making you an offer that you’ve decided to stay with your current company, he or she is going to take note. If you pulled the rug out from under them once, they’ll be very sure not to give you the opportunity in the future.

Last thoughts

By accepting a counteroffer from your company, you could be changing the dynamics of your relationship forever. And the counteroffer could just be buying time for your company until they can find your replacement–someone they feel will be glad to be where you are.

Credit to the guys over at TechRepublic for the original article.

Salary Guide (from The IT Job Board)

Are you earning enough?

The average salary of IT professionals is always changing. If your skills are in demand you could be earning more. Take a look at this easy to read,
free salary guide from the folks at The IT Job Board and see if you could be getting paid more.

With the 2012 salary guide you’ll be able to see:

• Average permanent IT salaries by skill

• Average contract daily rates by skill

• Average contract hourly rates by skill

• Year on year increase or decrease

Check it out here – http://www.theitjobboard.co.uk/browse/salary-guide-2012/en/

60 Second Recruitment Interview – Jacco Valkenburg, Recruit2

Under the spotlight is Jacco Valkenburg, founder of Recruit2 and Recruiter University, and an international recruitment expert, trainer and author of two books about LinkedIn.

Q – How long have you been in the industry, and what is your current job title ?
A – I started in 1996 working on (global) recruitment strategies and execution, spanning numerous countries for leading companies. I prefer to call myself a Recruitment Architect because, as founder of Recruit2 and Recruiter University, I provide companies with recruitment consultancy and talent management solutions and expertise. My mission is helping companies to improve the results of their recruitment efforts.
Recently I launched Refer2, a full service provider for recruitment solutions such as referral campaigns and mobile Apps.

Q – Do you have a mentor and if so who ?

A – I’m very active on social media, managing a group of 100.000 Recruitment Consultants on LinkedIn, and having my own recruitment blog www.GlobalRecruitingRoundtable.com. I still learn every day from the readers feedback and the news that they share.

Q – Are you by nature a pessimist or optimist ?

A – Optimist by nature. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn.

Q – What’s the biggest lesson you have learned in your career to date ?

A – Get the basics right first, before buzzing off to new horizons. A lot of companies think they understand recruitment but do the basic things wrong such as a poorly defined recruiting strategy, no planning, using out-dated practices, weak execution process, or because they don’t measure results (and make continuous improvement). A great hiring process, that has the potential to create the highest financial impact, is relatively simple; all that is lacking is creative recruiting’s leadership.

Q – What’s your favourite business quotation or life motto ?

A – My own favourite business quote: ‘Pray that I never become your competitor’s recruiter’.

Q – What’s the best business book you’ve ever read ?

A – My favourite business book is ‘From To Good Great’ by Jim Collins that aims to describe how companies transition from being average companies to great (financial performing) companies and how companies can fail to make the transition. Since then I’ve made it my goal to help companies from good to great staffing.

Interested to learn more about LinkedIn for finding new work or assignments ? Or want to make best use of this online professional network for recruiting ?

www.CareerManagementviaLinkedIn.com

www.RecruitmentviaLinkedIn.com

This article has been re-posted, you can read the original article over at Here Is The City

5 Reasons Why UK Graduates are Moving Away From Careers in Banking & Finance

This article has been re-produced. The original author was William Frierson.

Times are tough with the economy all round, but the financial services industry appears to be having a torrid time. Financial scandals coupled with changing business models have wreaked havoc with bottom lines during this prolonged downturn.

And issues like these have resulted in many graduates, who previously were keen to earn big money and work in ‘the City’, deciding that their futures lay elsewhere.

Here’s 5 key reasons why UK graduates are increasingly giving a career in financial services a wide berth:

1. Job security – the economic outlook and regulatory and capital pressures have significantly impacted revenues in this sector. Job security (or the lack of it) is a significant negative factor when considering a career in financial services.

2. Financial reward – where once a career in banking & finance was seen as a quick way to riches and early retirement, this is no longer the case. Political pressure and demands to achieve a better balance between employee reward and shareholder value has meant that compensation ratios have come down (and will fall further).

3. Work / Life Balance – always known as an industry that works employees hard, job insecurity has resulted in employees having to put in even more hours to try and justify their existence. In addition, cuts in headcount increasingly means that workloads have increased for those who remain.

4. Stigma – five years on from the start of the financial crisis, bankers in particular are held in very low regard. Where once a young professional was proud to show off a business card that confirmed he / she worked at a large financial institution, that is no more. Scandal has followed scandal, and there appears to be no let-up.

5. Uncertain environment – with the industry under a microscope like never before, and in the midst of a significant economic downturn fraught with further political uncertainties (the break-up of the Euro, the stability of Greece and other European countries, etc), the future shape of the financial services industry is now in question. Likely to go through significant structural change over the coming years, it is difficult to see how a career in this sector will unfold.

William Frierson is a staff writer for CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading job board for college students who are searching for internships and recent graduates who are hunting for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities

The Best Risk Recruitment Firm of 2012

Selby Jennings, who came out top in the Here Is The City 2012 poll of jobseekers and client companies.

Matt Nicholson, Head of Market Risk believes that the alignment of consultants within specialist market verticals is what clinched the win.

Nicholson explains why, ‘As part of the Phaidon Group, our key focus has always been on offering Best Practise recruitment solutions and providing a specialist service that truly understands the needs and requirements of our clients and candidates. Having grown the Risk team into specialist Market Risk, Credit Risk and Operational Risk verticals, feedback from our clients and candidates has always been that the experience of working with an expert in their sector really does make a difference’.

Harry Youtan, Head of the Risk Management Team adds: ‘Our approach is to align our teams into technical verticals that mirror our clients. It is this specialism within individual fields that really adds value to our clients and candidates, something that has been acknowledged with this award’.

Head over to the Selby Jennings website and take a look around…

See the full HITC article here.

10 things I wish I’d known before becoming an IT consultant

Takeaway: Careful research, thoughtful planning, and honest self-assessment can help you make a successful leap into the IT consultant role. But the realities of the job will still surprise you.

 

Before opening an IT consultancy, I did my homework. I interviewed lifelong consultants. I read books. I even took personality tests to confirm that my psychological constitution matched the challenges I’d face as an entrepreneur owning and operating my own business.

Some lessons, though, you just have to learn yourself. If you’re a technology consultant, or if you’re considering branching out on your own, take a few tips from my experience of supporting hundreds of companies of all shapes and sizes. Here are 10 things I’d wish I’d known before becoming an IT consultant.

By Erik Eckel

1: Some people are never happy

2: Not all IT pros make good consultants

3: Some clients never intend to pay

4: Vendors abandon you

5: Clients expect a know-it-all

6: And one more thing…

7: Immediate service, but 60-day payment terms

8: Clients only remember what didn’t work

9: You’re almost always working

10: Follow-up is not optional

Check out the full post for all the detail.

Credit to TechRepublic for the original article.