Being in the recruitment game, there’s never a shortage of stories about job interviews that took a wrong turn or candidates making the same common mistakes in interviews. Not long ago, I probably would have considered a blog post about best practice job interview tips to be kind of unnecessary, but on second thought, there’s no harm in laying down some ground rules. Here are 10 foolproof tips for interviewees (that are not as obvious to some as they should be!) that should prevent any interview from turning into a comedy of errors! DO: 1.Prior to an interview, do your research. Being able to tell your interviewer about their company or a latest product release is an easy way to earn brownie points. 2. Conduct a practice interview with a friend. Practice answering questions you’re likely to be asked during the interview – being caught off guard by questions you’re not expecting is also great practice as it gets you thinking on your feet. 3. When you arrive for the interview, be just as polite to the person who greets you as you are to the person who you’re having the interview with. Chances are, these people may trade notes anyway! 4. Make eye contact with your interviewer and give them your full attention. Trying to catch glimpses of the office by looking past them is distracting for an interviewer and gives the impression that your focus is not on the conversation.
5. Find creative ways to touch on key competencies of the role during your application and interview. This lets the employer know that you’ve invested time and thought into your application, i.e. that you haven’t just applied for a ton of similar roles en masse!
DON’T: 6. Wear anything you wouldn’t wear to meet your significant other’s parents for the first time. As shallow as it sounds, first impressions are everything in situations like these. Yes, this rules out overly tight clothing and plastic footwear!
7. Let the interviewer know if you’ve arrived more than 15 minutes early. Letting them know 10 minutes ahead of the interview, tops, is as much notice that’s needed to show that you’re timely and keen. There’s actually an inverse ratio between the earlier you arrive (beyond the 10 – 15 minute mark) and the more organised you seem. Arriving 40 minutes early may put pressure on the interviewer to race through whatever they’re doing so as to not keep you waiting, or may make it seem like you read the time of the interview wrong! Or that you can’t tell the time – also not ideal. 8. Exaggerate your skill set. Employers aren’t looking to hire candidates who are overqualified for a role (or who sound too big for their boots). 9. Blabber. During the interview – listen, consider a question carefully, then answer. It can be difficult and awkward to extricate yourself from a tangent you went down about your neighbour’s cat when you realise the story is totally unrelated to the question you were asked!
10. Forget your Ps and Qs. Always thank the interviewer at the end and shake their hand, even if you think it was a flop and that you’ll never hear from them again. If they liked you enough, they might just give you call about another role some time down the track! What are some of your best tips for job interviews?
Image Source: Pexels Source: JobAdder Blog – Recruit Everywhere http://blog.jobadder.com/10-foolproof-job-interview-tips/
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Written by guest author Josh Tolan. Video interviews have become a common part of the modern hiring process. However, there is one mistake employers and hiring managers make when it comes to using video interviews: they assume they are the same as traditional interviews. They think the same techniques and questions will transfer over to video. The truth of the matter is that video interview questions are inherently different – and in many ways better – than conventional questions. The trick to properly using video technology is understanding these differences so you can take advantage of all the extra insight you can glean from recorded interview responses. Let’s start with how video interview questions are different: Clarity is incredibly important In an early round phone interview, candidates can ask for clarification if they are unsure about what a particular question is asking. This isn’t always possible in a one-way video interview. If a question is vague or ambiguous, the candidate has to make their best guess about what the interviewer is looking for. When crafting video interview questions, pay close attention to how they can be interpreted. Is it possible for candidates to misunderstand what you wanted to know? If so, make the inquiry more concise. Also, be more forgiving with talent. If someone gives an answer that doesn’t really make sense, consider whether or not there could have been some confusion. Look at the response from a different perspective. You might discover that their answer was quite impressive, they just interpreted the question in a different way. They are reviewable There’s no rewind button on life. Unless you’re in the habit of recording all of your phone interviews, there’s no way to listen to a candidate’s responses again if you forget the details they shared. Or if certain team members were unable to join the call, they can’t review it later and give their input on the candidate. The hiring process can take a long time; with recorded questions and answers, you can remind yourself of what candidates said later on in the process. That makes it easy for you to keep their responses clear and fresh in your mind. For those of you who think different doesn’t necessarily mean better, consider these advantages to video interview questions: They allow candidates to think things through The aforementioned Software Advice survey compared candidates’ opinions of video and phone interviews after they’d been through a video interview. Forty-seven percent of candidates would rather participate in a video interview in the future. Only 36 percent wanted to go back to phone interviewing. One of the most common reasons respondents of the survey said they preferred answering questions via video was the fact that pre-recorded interviews allow them to take a second and compose their thoughts. That made them more confident and less nervous. And it gives you a better idea of who they really are. Take for example, the popular scenario questions. These are about hypothetical situations that require out-of-the-box, critical thinking like, “How would you describe the color yellow to a blind person?” Granted, interviews are supposed to assess how job seekers react under pressure, but this situation isn’t like your typical work environment. In real life, employees have a chance to think about their answer or action. By letting candidates take a moment before hitting record, you receive responses that are more valuable and closer to what they’d actually deliver if hired. See what they’ve learned about the organization Researching a potential company has become a major part of the job search. In fact, a 2016 LinkedIn survey found that after hearing about an opportunity, 59 percent of job seekers go straight to the company website to find out what the organization is like. What they discover helps them begin to form a picture in their head about what it’d be like to work there. Video interview questions give you the unique opportunity to see how well they’ve really understood things like your company culture. For instance, during the video interview stage, most candidates have not been to or seen your office. So by asking them to describe what they think the office might look like, you get an idea of what they expect from your company and if it’s actually a good fit. When it comes to hiring the best candidates out there, video is the way of the future. But to successfully use the technology, you have to understand what makes video interview questions different and unique. Because one thing is for sure, they’re not your traditional types of questions.
What are some other ways that video interview questions can be better than conventional ones? BIO: Josh Tolan is the CEO of Spark Hire, a video interview solution used by more than 3,000 companies across the globe. Connect with Spark Hire on Facebook and Twitter.
Image Source: Pexels Source: JobAdder Blog – Recruit Everywhere http://blog.jobadder.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-perks-of-video-interview-questions/ Last week JobAdder attended the RCSA’s highly-anticipated 2016 International Conference as both exhibitor and golf sponsor. We had an awesome turnout at the golf on Wednesday morning and our #NextGenRec t-shirts were a hit! Among the group of impressive speakers at the event, it was a talk by RecruitLoop’s Paul Slezak that resonated with us most. Paul spoke on the subject of building a distributed workforce and the advantages of establishing a virtual office, such as embracing trust and transparency. The concept of a virtual office is one that JobAdder has proudly supported for many years now, with a strong contingent of Adders currently working remotely from many different countries around the world. Not only do they get to explore local marketplaces or exotic fields of rice paddies on their lunch breaks, they are motivated to work even harder because they have a great work/life balance and they make an extra effort to stay connected with their teams. During his talk, Paul revealed some of the key tools that allow RecruitLoop to maintain their virtual office; these are Teleport Sundial, Asana, Slack, HipChat, Trello, Mightybell, Status Hero, 15Five and of course G-Drive. Thank you to the RCSA for putting on another great event and congratulations to recently-appointed RCSA CEO @CharlieCameron5! Source: JobAdder Blog – Recruit Everywhere http://blog.jobadder.com/nextgenrec-at-the-2016-rcsa-conference/ Do you rely solely on email to communicate with your candidates and contacts? Considering how easy it is for emails – and calls for that matter – to be ignored, if you’re a recruiter who falls into this category, now is the time to diversify your communication strategy. Off the back of JobAdder’s integration with the Burst SMS platform we’ve produced this Case Study exploring SMS as a recruitment solution. See examples from two recruiters of how using JobAdder in tandem with Burst SMS results in a great response rate from candidates and removes the need for other hardware.
Source: JobAdder Blog – Recruit Everywhere http://blog.jobadder.com/case-study-burst-sms/ The deal has just been sealed on JobAdder’s integration with Volcanic, spelling good news for recruiters who need to strengthen their digital footprint. In a nutshell, Volcanic are experts when it comes to building high-performing recruitment websites. Currently powering over 300 recruitment websites worldwide, analytics are one of Volcanic’s core components and are used to quantifiably improve the performance of each website they create. Websites built by Volcanic are completely customised and are designed to help recruitment businesses get better results, achieve increased revenue and naturally attract candidates.
For each of these reasons, Volcanic is a natural fit with JobAdder.
Purpose-built for all recruitment business, particularly new businesses getting off the ground, JobAdder is easy to use and lends structure and simplicity to the recruitment workflow. So much more than a recruitment CRM, JobAdder is a complete Recruitment Management System. Head of Growth Stuart Read says, “It’s important for recruitment business owners to ensure their website has the capacity to be optimised easily for search, so Volcanic’s service is a great value add to JobAdder users.” Thanks to this integration, once a custom website is created by Volcanic, that recruitment business can then post jobs directly to their own (awesomely upgraded) website to attract even more candidates than ever. We are excited to welcome Volcanic to the JobAdder Marketplace! Source: JobAdder Blog – Recruit Everywhere http://blog.jobadder.com/jobadder-integrates-with-recruitment-website-experts-volcanic/ For those recruiters Down Under who’ve braved out a third and final month of bitter winter (today’s temperature in Sydney being a sunny 22 degrees) a respite is just around the corner in the form of the RCSA’s 2016 International Conference in Port Douglas. Kicking off next Wednesday 24th August, the theme of the conference is ‘Next Generation Recruitment.’ As the leading industry body for recruitment and HR in the ANZ region, this year’s highly-anticipated event is sure to be unmissable. Team JobAdder will be there in full force and frankly we couldn’t be happier with the RCSA’s tropical choice of venue! If you’re attending, be sure to drop by Table 2 where we’ll be exhibiting during the event and catch us bright and early on Wednesday morning getting into the swing of thing on the golf course. In anticipation of the event, we recently launched the #NextGenRec Twitter campaign focused around the insight each keynote speaker is bringing to the event. To name just a few, Steve Shepherd will analyse the factors driving change in the recruitment industry, Kay Clancy is going to shed light on workplace diversity and Brett Minchington will explore the importance of employer brand leadership and the business model.
What does #NextGenRec mean to you? Does it mean finding more creative ways to reach top candidates and clients? Or incorporating social media and video tech into your recruitment strategies? Tweet us @JobAdder and let us know! See you next week recruiters!
Image Source: Pexels Source: JobAdder Blog – Recruit Everywhere http://blog.jobadder.com/rcsa-getaway-only-one-week-away/ If you’ve been searching for a simple way to engage your new employees, while making managers look like rockstars, you’re going to love JobAdder’s latest integration. Enboarder is a highly-customisable platform that optimises the onboarding experience for employers and their new employees. Enboarder’s mobile-first platform allows employers to engage new hires before Day One with personalised, automated messaging, making it easy to give all employees the same warm welcome. In this way, companies can add structure and consistency to their method of onboarding, by funneling all tasks and documentation involved with the process through one portal. “The best part of this integration is how simple it is to connect the systems, we integrated them in just a couple of days” explains Enboarder Founder Brent Pearson. “For the user, they just enter their JobAdder credentials into Enboarder’s setting screen and new hires will automatically start flowing into the onboarding engine!” JobAdder makes it easy for hiring managers and recruiters to stay in touch with their candidates as they progress through the stages of application with sophisticated CRM and automated messaging. Thanks to this integration, once a candidate is successfully placed in a role with JobAdder, their profile will flow seamlessly through to Enboarder. Users simply tick ‘Export To Payroll / Timesheets’ from within the placement record in JobAdder to push data through to Enboarder. Of the integration, JobAdder Product Manager Erin Chmelik said, “We are excited to provide JobAdder users with a simple, smart solution to onboarding that goes hand in hand with our recruitment platform.”
Source: JobAdder Blog – Recruit Everywhere http://blog.jobadder.com/jobadder-integrates-with-enboarder-to-make-your-onboarding-process-easy/ About three years ago I had an idea. Well, it was honestly more of a farfetched dream. I had just finished interning at Disney and had packed up and moved to Denver, CO with my boyfriend on a whim, and while the change of scenery was exciting, I still had a nagging voice in the back of my head telling me I needed to see more. So I started reading travel blogs. Doing research. Saving money. Trying to figure out if there was any way I could do graphic design abroad and still be able to pay my student loans. I was working for a company at the time that was less than ideal and that definitely didn’t allow enough vacation time to make my dreams of long-term travel a reality, so I felt stuck and defeated. I eventually left that company and was lucky enough to find a place at JobAdder. Within a few months one of my co-workers in Denver announced that she would be moving to Australia to work with the JA team in Sydney. For the first time in years, I felt a renewed sense of awe and wonder – that could be me! Fast forward to now and I’ve been happily working with my fantastic JobAdder team for over a year, working remotely from across the pond. All of the programs we use to manage projects and collaborate are completely online, and with Skype it’s easy to join meetings and pop on a call whenever necessary. The cloud-based environment lends itself perfectly to working from anywhere with an internet connection, and the digital nomad lifestyle has since been embraced and encouraged at JA – meaning that as I type this from a beautiful co-working space in Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam, I have now officially realized my dream of traveling the world! This is my first solo trip abroad and I will be traveling Southeast Asia for a total of four months. It’s not without its struggles and challenges for someone as inexperienced at this kind of thing as I am, but working while abroad has been incredibly fulfilling. Not only do I get to tick places off my bucket list and push myself out of my comfort zone, but I also have a salary that pays the bills back home – this entire experience would have been impossible for me otherwise. Finding co-working spaces, cute cafes and getting to meet tons of fellow expats, digital nomads and locals from all over the world has kept me on my toes and made me excited to get out of bed each day, grab my laptop, and explore my surroundings. I am also now only 3 hours behind my Aussie peers instead of an entire day, so getting to talk to them in real-time has been a treat! Speaking of Sydney, I got to visit head office last year and am very excited to be heading back in November. Communicating via Skype and email works just fine, but nothing compares to hanging out with my JA family in person. There’s never a dull moment with that crew, that’s for sure! If you’re thinking of traveling, or even just daydreaming about it as I was a few years ago, I highly recommend seeking out companies that encourage remote working (which seem increasingly easier to find nowadays). Freelance/contracting work is always an option as well. While some would prefer to simply travel without working, I personally enjoy the balance I get from having a day job and co-working with peers from around the globe while also having my afternoons and weekends free to explore my new digs. This way I can keep practicing design and keep my skills fresh – what could be better? Being apart from my boyfriend of 6 years is a little rough, but we’ve done the long-distance thing before and he’ll be meeting me in Japan at the end of my trip, so it works out quite nicely. As cheesy as it sounds, this whole experience has taught me that anything is possible if you work hard and dream big enough. Take it from the girl who never even fathomed that this would be her reality only a few short years ago. You can do it too! To follow my adventures as a digital nomad, please visit my personal blog. Source: JobAdder Blog – Recruit Everywhere http://blog.jobadder.com/from-dreamer-to-digital-nomad-in-se-asia/ After months of being ‘liked’ by Kate whenever we posted anything on Instagram, we managed to finally put a face to a name when I visited her in person. Kate single-handedly runs her business, Fancourt Agency out of a beautiful serviced office in Double Bay. Keep reading to see what her thoughts are on the current recruitment industry trends and how she feels about JobAdder.
Kate: There are so many great features of JobAdder, it’s almost impossible to choose! JobAdder’s Dashboard makes my life so much easier, being able to see at a glance how each role is progressing by candidate’s status. My other favourite feature is candidate submissions – seeing whether our client has viewed the submission and allowing them to rate each client and make relevant comments in one central place.
Kate: ‘Hire Character, Train Skills’ is the unofficial Fancourt mantra.
Kate: The magnifying glass next to the candidate’s name – being able to review their application and notes at a glance, even adding relevant notes without leaving the current page
Kate: Candidates want to know about a client’s workplace environment and culture when considering a position more now than ever. It’s no longer just about the salary, it’s about what it’s like to work there and what the company stands for (values and vision). They’re doing their research – looking up the website, social media, looking for connections in their network that have worked there. As a result, companies really need to look at how their employer brand – their reputation and what they can do to become the employer of choice in their industry.
Kate: How user-friendly it is. I have used a number of recruitment softwares over the years and JobAdder is the easiest to navigate by far! There are so many amazing features that are easy to use, while other software left me feeling frustrated. Also the great support available via live chat is a blessing, not having to wait for email responses or callbacks is a dream!
Source: JobAdder Blog – Recruit Everywhere http://blog.jobadder.com/spotlight-on-kate-fancourt-of-fancourt-agency/ Written by guest author Josh Tolan. Bad hires. They’re a recruiter’s worst nightmare. You think you’ve found the perfect candidate for a position after spending time and resources vetting them. But within a few months, you’re back at it trying to find a new person to fill the job, wondering how a costly bad hire got past you. According to a 2015 Brandon Hall survey, 69 percent of companies blame problems with the interview process as having the biggest impact on quality of hire. Although many believe the traditional process is the best way to get to know job candidates and their qualifications, it allows a lot to slip through the cracks. And if you’re only using in-person interviews when hiring, you’re going to continue to get subpar employees. Adding video interviews to the process provides a new level of insight that will tell you what a candidate is really like. With a more in-depth understanding of what talent is actually like, you can make better hiring decisions and avoid costly bad hires. Here are three insights only video interviews can give you about candidates: 1. How well they plan A 2015 Burning Glass survey found that, across industries, organizational, planning, and time management skills were among the top 20 skills employers are looking for in employees. However, it’s difficult to assess those qualities in an traditional interview. Whether or not they show up time is your only indication of whether they have those skills. With video interviews, there are multiple signs that tell you how organized candidates are and how well the plan their time. Since the candidate has complete control over where and when they record their responses, their choices say a lot. For example, seeing messy dishes in the background or hearing loud noises shows the candidate didn’t take the time to find a clean, quiet place for the interview. Pay attention to the environment in video interviews. Look for signs that the candidate put thought and effort into where they recorded. What you see will give you a good idea of how well they plan things out. 2. Their professionalism Being able to conduct yourself in an appropriate manner is incredibly important. In fact, in a 2016 National Association of Colleges and Employees survey, employers ranked professionalism a 4.7 out of five as an essential career competency. Yet, people who come into interviews in a suit and tie still show up for their first day of work in blue jeans and a wrinkled shirt. Since video interviewing is still relatively new, their rules of decorum are less defined or well-known. Everyone knows you dress to impress for an in-person interview, but what about one you record in your living room? Do you send a thank-you note after submitting your responses? Candidates who are dressed professionally in video interviews are taking the process and the position seriously. Taking the time to iron a shirt even though you’re not leaving the house is a good indicator of how professional someone is. 3. Accurate perspective When you’re trying to fit multiple in-person interviews into your schedule, it leaves little time to make well-thought-out hiring decisions. In fact, a 2015 study published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology found 52 percent of interviewers make their decisions within five to 15 minutes of the interview. Interviews that occur later in the day are also given less consideration. Making such quick or rash decisions leads to hiring mistakes. But since you want to make your choices while the interview is fresh in your mind, there isn’t another option with traditional interviews. Video interviews, however, can be reviewed later on. Take your time to think about different candidates and then rewatch their responses to confirm your initial impression was correct. You can also share the interviews of top candidates with other members of your team so they can provide their opinions on how candidates actually compare. That extra perspective will up the chances of hiring the right person. Interviewing job seekers is a great way to learn more about them and assess their qualifications. However, in-person interviews by themselves limit the number of insights you can gather. By incorporating video interviews you get a better idea of who each candidate is. What are some other employment factors that can only be revealed through video interviews? Share in the comments below! BIO: Josh Tolan is the CEO of Spark Hire, a video interview solution used by more than 3,000 companies across the globe. Connect with Spark Hire on Facebook and Twitter.
Image Source: Pexels Source: JobAdder Blog – Recruit Everywhere http://blog.jobadder.com/this-is-what-video-interviews-tell-you-about-candidates/ |