Are You Taking Your Job Search Seriously?

desk_1Last night I attended a networking event and the topic of job searching came up. If you’ve attended networking events recently, you’ve probably noticed the same thing that I did: many (if not most) of the people that attend networking events are looking for work.

I shared a story from a speed networking event that I attended a while back. It struck me as odd how so many people looking for work didn’t think to bring business cards or resumes to the event. Others last night shared similar experiences so it got me wondering: are people taking their job search seriously?  Read more... (1082 words, 4 images, estimated 4:20 mins reading time)

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Job Interview Questions: Describe Your Ideal Boss

Talk about a loaded question. Imagine you’re sitting in your interview all dressed up and everything is going smoothly. Then you get tossed this humdinger of question. How do you answer? Do you describe the person sitting across the table from you? Do you tell the truth and say that you’re ideal boss is one that’s never around? Is there such a thing as a good answer to this question?  Read more... (869 words, 2 images, estimated 3:29 mins reading time)

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Job Interview Success: How to Dress for an Interview

dressing for a job interviewWhen dressing for an interview, you want to put forth a professional image and show the potential employer that you’re serious about becoming a member of their team. You can’t accomplish either of these goals when dressed inappropriately. So it’s important to put some thought into what you wear when dressing for an interview.

For a typical white collar office job, you want to wear formal business attire to an interview unless the person setting up the interview tells you otherwise. In the latter case, feel free to ask for clarification if you’re told something vague like “you don’t have to wear a suit” or if they say you can dress business casual. There’s nothing wrong with you confirming that you both share the same meaning of business casual.  Read more... (680 words, 4 images, estimated 2:43 mins reading time)

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Interview Question: What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Job interviewThis is a textbook interview question and is mainly asked because people who interview infrequently research questions to ask and this one always pops up with “where do you want to be in 5 years.” Some human resource professionals ask it because they believe the answer provides special insight to as to what the candidate thinks of him/herself.

The question has some variations such as asking for the top three or five strengths and/or weaknesses or the questions asked separately during different parts of the interview.

How to answer it:  Read more... (542 words, 4 images, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

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