Top 10 Interview Tips

ATLANTA, GA - Regular readers of this blog might have noticed that my posts were light in January.  That's because recently I started Twittering.

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.  Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them.  Most Tweets are random, topical bursts involving one or two people.

Twittering is like being a fortune cookie writer.  In bed.  And reading Twitter is akin to sorting through a restaurant dumpster for a fresh donut.  Yummy!

But Twitter has its advantages.  Due to the 140 character constraint, participants are forced to communicate their ideas in very interesting ways.  Since I'm normally a long winded communicator (No!!!), the 140 character constraint is forcing me to evolve as a writer.  Basically, if I can't say something of value in 140 characters, I can't Tweet it.

Anyway, I have decided to break my Tweets up into different categories. One of the categories is Interview Tips. If you haven't been following them, here's a laundry list of what I consider to be my top 10 interview tips ...

1. Interviewing with a company that wants to create a new line of business? See "Startup Metrics" at http://tinyurl.com/8p5pl4 [link]
2. When writing multiple thank you notes within the same company, make sure they are different. Recipients often share them. [link]
3. "Hard on the issues, soft on the people." When asked why are you leaving your job, don't discuss the personalities involved. [link]
4. Director-level candidates are finding VP-level candidates applying for Director-level jobs. Best defense: INTENSE PREPARATION. [link]
5. "A narrow mind has a broad tongue." To be perceived as broad minded, ask thoughtful, open ended, hypothesis-driven questions. [link]
6. "A+" ecommerce candidates are STRONGLY encouraged to bring this up in job interviews: http://tinyurl.com/bk94qz [link]
7. Ask the hiring manager: "Specifically, what are your top three daily frustrations in this department?" and "How can I help?" [link]
8. Major Achilles heel for VP-level candidates when applying for Director-level jobs: Over confidence + a sense of entitlement. [link] Some of these Director level candidates are smart ... and hungry!
9. A growing number of category-specific etailers think their REAL competition is eBay & Amazon. Study up: http://tinyurl.com/c25ue5 [link]
10. Does the company keep its customer promises? Ask about its "conversion rate," "out of stock rate," and "perfect order rate." [link]
11. Always ask "What's the best question any candidate has asked so far?"....."Why was it the best?"....."What was your answer?" [link]

Note: Only in a blog of this quality would you get 11 tips for the price of 10.

The point of Twitter is not to compile lists for one's blog.  But until I can figure out exactly what the point of Twitter is, that's what I intend to do with it.  So, every time I reach a ten post milestone in a particular category, I will post the list here.

Until then, you can subscribe to my Twitter feed here.
______________________________________________________________________
Submit Your Resume | Download my vCard | Get My Searches | 97 Job Search Tips

Comments

[agnes]

Thanks for providing such a great wonderful tips.

[Kristen Bennett]

These are excellent tips! Very authentic and original, as so many articles on interviews recite the same information. #2, #7, #8, and #11 are particularly relevant and to be kept in mind across the board. Also useful is mind one's language, such as emphasizing "action" words in resumes and interviews, such as saying "performed" or "oversaw" as opposed to descriptives like "responsible for," as it invokes a more proactive individual. There's a link to the article--

http://www.job.com/my.job/careerlib/aid=565/st=1/cat=0/term=management

--from www.job.com and its sister sites. They have over 14 million jobseekers and 1.5 million job postings, in case that might be of use to any readers.

[Mike Lally]

Harry! Excellent tips. Thank you. I followed your advice and created mikelally.net. I am also domain forwarding a bunch of other sites to that one. I've been using twitter as well. I use it to drive traffic to the site. I've conducted some testing and my click rates seem pretty good to me. Next step is to follow more people and get them to follow me. Ive been targeting recruiters, headhunters,etc. Just got my first lead via a twitter contact! - Mike