Interview Tips

1. Know about the company
Knowing about the company is like knowing about the girl’s family background and wealth before marriage in India-): Learn as much as possible about the company’s services, products, customers and competition. It shows to the interviewer that you are deeply interested about the company and will give you an edge in understanding and addressing the company's needs. The more you know about the company and what it stands for, the better chance you have of selling yourself in the interview and establishing that you are the best fit for the position. In today’s networked world you seek information about a potential employer from a multiple of source viz., company’s website, business journals, LinkedIn, Newspapers etc.,

2. Wear formals
I.T is about casuals in the valley and in India but in Canada wear formals. Always wear formals [blazers and ties are an absolute must]. Remember first impression is the best impression. A prospective employer forms an opinion within the first 5 minutes of an interview. Dressing plays a tacit role in exuding confidence.

3. Print and carry a copy of your resume
Even in this information age where email is passé and face booking is in, interviewer expect you to bring your resume. So print a color copy of your resume on a 32 lbs paper, hold it in a slide folder and bring it for the interview. Also remember to take a copy of your references, paper to take notes and questions that you intend to ask an interviewer.

4. Punctuality matters
Don’t get stuck on 401, and allow extra time for delays on the road. Ensure that you arrive at least 15 minutes before start of interview. It gives you time to acclimatize yourself to the environment and become more comfortable. Arriving huffing and puffing means you are not in the frame of mind to engage in a conversation with the interviewer.

5. Body language matters
Folded hands in India is respect, folded hands in Canada means a defensive mindset. A firm handshake and plenty of eye contact demonstrate confidence. Speak distinctly in a confident voice, even though you may feel shaky.

6. Listen
Interviews are not all about making your point and talking endlessly. It is about listening carefully and responding to the interviewer in a precise manner. Make sure you are not only listening, but also reading between the lines. Sometimes what is not said is just as important as what is said.

7. Make sure you understand the question and respond to the question asked
Do not assume or second guess! If you are not sure or do not follow what is being asked. Politely ask the interview to repeat the question. It gives you time to think for possible answers. You can also rephrase and ask the interviewer if this is what he wants to know. .

8. Don’t beat around the bush!
Try to be specific and to the point. Try to take examples from your previous work to respond to a question. It shows to the interviewer that you have been there and done it. This means that you have to invest time to prepare your stories before the interview. Prepare at least 2 stories related to your major challenges, key accomplishments, conflict resolution etc., If you do not the answers accept that you do not know. It is not necessary that you know everything about everything at the same time ask the interviewer if he could throw light on the subject. It shows your eagerness to learn new things.

9. Show interest and ask Questions
Many interviewees don't ask questions and miss the opportunity to find out valuable information. The questions you ask indicate your interest in the company or job.

10. Thank you note and follow up
At the fag end of the interview, express to the interviewer that you are extremely interested in the job. Exchange business cards [it is an information card that gives your name, certification if any, telephone number and email that can be printed at any Staples stores]. It allows you to follow up with the interviewer

How to choose a right career path?

Choosing the right career path is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your family. Whether you are choosing your first career or embarking on a second or third, finding something that you enjoy and excel at can do wonders to improve your whole life. While no job is ever perfect, there are some factors that you should consider to help ensure you get into the right career for you.

Interests

It's no coincidence that your personal interests often top the list of factors to consider when choosing a new career. Your own interests and hobbies can be an excellent starting point when it comes to making a career choice. If you are able to put your passions and skills into a career, you are more likely to enjoy your work and succeed in your position.   It is recommended that if you have any trouble deciding what you like to do and how your interests can be applied to a career position, you should take an interest assessment offered through a career development specialist in your area.

Career Opportunities

It's always a wise idea to consider the abundance of relevant career opportunities available in your chosen field. Highly competitive career fields or restrictive positions could leave you searching for an opening and unemployed for long periods of time. Consider whether there are career openings available to you in the area where you live, or if you may need to relocate to find the position you desire. Determine if relocating is an option for you and your family, and if you have the resources to move to another city or even another state or country.

Education and Training

You should also consider the level of education and training that may be required for the career you choose. If you already have the education and background needed for the position, you should be able to get started in your career relatively soon. If you need to pursue a degree or other specialized training, however, you will need to take into account the months or years required to train, in addition to the educational expenses you will incur preparing for your career.

Priorities

Your individual priorities also are a determining factor when it comes to your career choice. A career that requires a great deal of responsibility, working long hours or frequent travel may be more appealing to someone who does not have young children at home. If you have a family, or if you require a set schedule every week, those priorities may influence your career decision. For some, salary and benefits are the driving force behind a career decision

How to Choose the Best Institute For Career Training Courses?

Today students are more concerned about the education and career. They are more focused on choosing the right career and therefore are more likely to carefully choose the career training courses. The recent economic slowdown has made us make many adjustments in terms of our career choices. When during this time many occupations have ceased to exist many other have emerged more strongly. Therefore, we are now required to choose the career courses more carefully than ever. Along with we need to be careful in choosing the right Career Training Courses institute which would help us lay a strong foundation stone for our careers. This article discusses about the characteristics of a good institute for career training courses.

Choice favorite subject: Before you decide on the right career training courses institute find out about your areas of interest. The modern time of changing economy has opened channels before us which we were not aware of earlier. There have been many new career choices now available before the students. It is also important to find out about the changing job trends before deciding on the career training courses institutes.

Search around: Once you have decided on the path that you would like to pursue its time to search for the career training courses institutes that would offer the course. Search on the Internet to find the websites of career training courses institutes. You may also find the advertisements made by the Collect their brochures and check out about faculties, infrastructures and career assistance offered by the college.

 Check out with the alumni: If possible interview couple of alumni of the institute. This will give you a fare idea about the claims made by the career training courses institutes. If possible also check the placement record of the institute. Check out which companies and corporates they are associated with.

 Find out about the course: The suitability of the course would depend upon your career objective. Your choice of career training courses would depend upon course fees, duration, timing (full-time or part-time), nature (classroom or correspondence) and job availability.

Accreditation and accolades: There are many career training courses institutes in the market who are not properly accredited or recognized by the respective authorities. Hence, students should be careful in choosing career training institutes with proper accreditation. Further, check out the awards and prestige’s received by the training institute before signing up for the course.

Talk to industry experts: Before you join your favorite career training institutes talk to some industry professionals to find out about the career prospects after completing the course. The technological advancements are rapidly changing the world around us. Some trends which may seem robust today may get completely eliminated in a decade. Hence, you need to foresee the future of your chosen career path and decide accordingly.

 Choice of the career training courses institute requires serious considerations. The wrong choice can cost you dear in the long run. While choosing the right institute you may also consider the prospects of advanced courses in the institute.

How to ace an interview in a tough job market - the checklist

A job interview is a screening tool. For you, it's an opportunity to assess whether or not you want to work for a company. For the employer, it's an opportunity decide whether or not they want to hire you. Both sides are looking for a match.

You can ace an interview and win the job you want in this economy, even with the competition that wants the same job as you. You will have to work hard, but it can be done. Know that the work you do upfront and afterwards will make interviewing much easier for you.

Here is a checklist for you:

Before the Interview

·         Do your homework and find out who you will be interviewing with, you are looking for job title, responsibilities, accomplishments, as well as anything else that impresses you about this person.

·         Know as much about the company as possible. Get on their website and memorize their products and services. Look at their press release section for news. Talk to a few people about what they know. Look online for comments, discussions, blogs, forums and additional insights. Don't just look for good news. Look for challenges that the company is facing, and think about how you might contribute to their success.

·         Write down what makes you different or unique.

·         Have a story / example for each bullet on the job description and each bullet in your resume. Include challenges you were up against, the action you took to solve these challenges, and the results you achieved.

·         Write down the answers to questions as your strengths, weaknesses, where you want to be in future etc., the questions that employers don't always feel comfortable asking. The same questions you don't always feel comfortable answering. Nevertheless, expect to be asked these questions anyway.

·         Write down the answers to the questions you don't want to be asked. If you have a gap in your resume, have a good response for when you are asked about it. If you were fired, be prepared to tell the employer why with a positive spin. Don't shy away from these questions and hope they won't be asked. Expect them to be posed to you and have your answers mapped out and ready to go.

·         Write down the questions to ask the interviewer, three to five should do. Questions like "what are you looking for in a candidate"" "what keeps you up at night?" "What's the biggest challenge you are facing right now?" These questions may be answered during the interview, and other questions may come up as the discussion progresses, but these questions will give you a place to start.

·         Write down an introduction, an opener that says who you are and what you do. Include your past title, the type of work, you have been doing, why you are excited to be interviewing with this company.

 During the interview

·         Be upbeat, passionate, and excited to be there.

·         Use your prepared introduction to introduce yourself.

·         Right after the introduction say something flattering to the interviewer. Reveal what you like about the person or the company/ include what impresses you the most. Sincere flattery starts the interview off in a positive way.

·         Answer questions and ask them. Remember, it's a two way conversation, and an opportunity for both parties to see if there is a match. Don't forget to listen and let the interviewer talk.

·         Make sure you cover anything that was not discussed in the interview before you leave. For example, did you cover your 3 points? Did you tell the interviewer what makes you different? Did you handle all objections properly? Did you ask the questions you wanted to ask? Cover this now or afterwards may be too late!

·         Tell the interviewer again why you want the job.

·         Ask what the hiring process is, and when you can follow up with them again.

After the interview

·         Send a thank you note. Email and also send a handwritten version. Thank you cards work well here.

·         Include in your email anything you left out during the interview. Add credibility to your email by mentioning something specific the interviewer said that impressed you.

·         If you promised to follow up on a specific day and time, keep that promise.

Continue interviewing till you land in the dream job. All the best!

Is Your Resume Branded to Maximize Response?

One of the biggest mistakes executives make when writing their résumés is failing to put themselves in the place of those who will review their résumé - recruiters, HR professionals or other hiring managers - and giving them what they want and need. It goes without saying that your résumé will probably not even be read if it contains glaring mistakes - typos, grammatical errors, sloppy formatting, too much or too little content, irrelevant information, etc.

But even if you do deliver a well-written, error-free traditional executive résumé, it probably won't be enough to land you at the top of the list, generate quality leads, and incite unwavering interest in you.

What you don't include in your resume can jeopardize your chance to even be considered. Several critical elements need to be incorporated into your executive resume:

Consider the Reader
Hiring decision makers want and need to see concise, easily-accessible statements of value that immediately communicate who the candidate is, what they have to offer, how they'll improve bottom line, and whether they'll be a good fit for the company. Make it easy for them to quickly get to what they need to know about you. When this information is supplied in a vivid, compelling way, it will capture and hold the reader's attention.

Keep it brief and value driven
Their need for brevity and to the point writing is driven by a number of factors, including the lack of sufficient time to fully read every résumé in front of them and the method they may be using to review documents. More and more hiring decision makers are reading résumés on hand-held, BlackBerry-type devices that have very small screens. A tedious résumé laced with repetitive lists or unnecessary information can bog them down, or worse yet, bore them.

You will gain more attention with well-crafted, brand-focused statements of ROI and promise of value, surrounded by enough white space to make each one stand out. Deeper slices of critical contributions can be supplied in a suite of accompanying or follow-up documents such as executive cover letters, achievement summaries, leadership initiatives addenda, career bios, etc.

Imprint your executive personal brand throughout your resume
Think again about those reviewing your résumé and considering you for their organization. With possibly hundreds of flat, similar-reading documents to get through, they will immediately be drawn to one that gives them a real feel for the candidate's personal attributes, vitality, and pivotal strengths - their personal brand.

Your brand is as unique as you are - and just as unique as the value you will bring to your next employer. The fact that you are savvy enough to write a personally branded resume signifies that you are a visionary, thought leader who embraces proven, cutting-edge approaches to doing business. Make it clear that you possess this valuable attribute.

The latest trend in executive résumé branding is to include a strong brand statement. Here is an example of part of one:

"To build business, I turn things upside down and around to create strategies that capture market share - and propel triple-digit advances in growth. I deliver spectacular results in client-facing, knowledge-based environments that embrace creative thinking."

Whether or not your resume includes a stand-alone brand statement, your potential value will truly shine through if your brand is evident throughout your resume.

Supply evidence of your ROI and value proposition
Replace an unnecessary "objective" statement with a hard-hitting introduction that immediately captures the reader's attention and compels them to read the whole document:

Before: Objective - A challenging and rewarding position that will maximize my experience in technology.

After: Skilled problem identifier and trouble shooter with abilities to pin point and resolve errors in early stages of development to avoid time expenditures. Remember that the top part of the first page of your resume will be read first. Use this section to your best advantage.

Each section of your résumé represents another opportunity to communicate your unique value. Instead of simply listing your responsibilities in the "professional experience" section, supply crystal-clear evidence of how you added value in these areas:

Before: Responsible for identifying and developing new accounts.

After: Propelled advances in market share and revitalized stalled business by persistently networking and pursuing forgotten market pockets - lost sales; smaller, untapped businesses; and prospects overlooked by the competition.

Begin building your brand and value proposition

How do you begin to incorporate all of this in your executive résumé? Start by answering questions like these:

Personal Branding:

• Where do your greatest talents lie and how have you used them in your role as a developer / team leader?
• What do you most want prospective employers to know about you?
• What makes you better than anyone else doing the same work as you?
• What things would you relish doing, even if you weren't paid for them?

ROI & Value Proposition:

• In what critical areas did you add value? What actions did you take to accomplish this? How did the company benefit?
• What are the top things you did for past companies that wouldn't have happened if you weren't there?

This kind of information in your executive résumé provides evidence of your value, positions you above others vying for the same job, and compels the reader to feel she already knows you. People like to hire people they think they know. Supply them with the information they are looking for and improve your shot at landing the job you deserve.

Begin building your brand and value proposition

How do you begin to incorporate all of this in your executive résumé? Start by answering questions like these:

• Where do your greatest talents lie and how have you used them in your role as a developer / team leader?
• What do you most want prospective employers to know about you?
• What makes you better than anyone else doing the same work as you?
• What things would you relish doing, even if you weren't paid for them?

ROI & Value Proposition

• In what critical areas did you add value? What actions did you take to accomplish this? How did the company benefit?
• What are the top things you did for past companies that wouldn't have happened if you weren't there?
• How well did you embrace the company's

This kind of information in your executive resume provides evidence of your value, positions you above others vying for the same job, and compels the reader to feel she already knows you. People like to hire people they think they know. Supply them with the information they are looking for and improve your shot at landing the job you deserve.

Before: Responsible for identifying and developing new accounts

After: Propelled advances in market share and revitalized stalled business by persistently networking and pursuing forgotten market pockets - lost sales; smaller, untapped businesses; and prospects overlooked by the competition.