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Showing posts from December, 2010

Interview Checklist – Are You Really Ready to “Wow” Me?

In my last post, “What Might be Keeping You from Receiving the Interview Phone Call”, I shared some of the main reasons candidates can miss the mark with hiring managers when it comes to their resumes. Today, I’m assuming that you did get the interview call…and want to provide some tips to help you prepare to have an interview discussion that will make a “wow” impression upon the hiring manager: Preparation. Use the vast amount of resources available to you (Internet, libraries, people in your network, etc) to help prepare for your interview by learning as much as you can regarding the company (e.g., history, products & services offered, rank in their industry, management team/philosophy, recent news items…) and your interviewer (LinkedIn, Google, etc). The more of this knowledge you are able to incorporate into your interview discussion, the more impressive a candidate you become – because the vast majority of those submitting resumes invest little to no time doing such res

What Might be Keeping You from Receiving the Interview Phone Call

Just a few days ago I had dinner with a long-time friend who is the Marketing Director for a large non-profit organization. When I asked regarding what was the most frustrating part of her job, she immediately replied, “hiring new people”. She went on to relate how 400 resumes were received within two hours of posting an opening for a Marketing Assistant. When I asked how many of the 400 resumes she felt were good enough to warrant a call for an interview, my friend responded, “less than 10…and a few of those are borderline”. This is today’s reality for hiring managers. Regarding the most common reasons why she did not select a resume to be added to the “short list” of people to be called for interviews, I was told the following: No results – Bullet points that read like a laundry list of duties and responsibilities rather than specific examples of accomplishments and “how” those results/outcomes were accomplished. You cannot just tell me that you can do something well – you