The preparation for a job interview - Part II

Ok, you have verified your qualifications for the job, now you have to pay attention to you resume. Is there some skill missing in your resume? Now is the time to add it.

Something very important is to know your own resume; I have seen some cases where the recruiter ask the applicant something that is written in the resume, and the applicant doesn't know even what does it mean. The reason? Because someone else wrote it for him/her. If this is your case, try to figure out which questions may a recruiter do about the things written in your resume. For every statement (what) try to answer yourself the how, when, where did it happen. For example, if your resume says you are proactive, you should be able to answer how you have shown you are proactive, when (specific situation), and may be where (Of course, I assume that if the word proactive is in your resume, you know what does it mean :-)

In job interviews, you have to answer questions about yourself, for example, the classic one: Why do you want to work for us? Or Do you consider yourself organized? Those ones are just examples, we will review a complete list later. By now what you have to be aware of is that you will have to talk about yourself (This has been a problem for me, but I have learned to manage it). You may use the following as a checklist when preparing for your job interviews:

• I know the organization I am applying to.
• I have the "must have" qualities for the job
• I have written all the pertinent skills and experience in my resume
• I understand everything that written in my resume, and I am able to answer questions about it.
• I am prepared to answer personal questions about myself.

If you do, then you are prepared for your interviews. Go for it!

Job interview tip, preparing for a job interview

The preparation for job interviews- Part I

This is one of the most important aspects in job interviews, and that people fail to do. Imagine something: you are reading the news in the morning and you see an ad that gets your attention. The ad says: "X enterprises is looking for a candidate for the position (insert position here)", and after reading it, you feel you can apply to it. The first thing to do in your preparation is wonder, do I know this company? if the answer is no, then you should investigate what is "X enterprises" about; the reasons are simple, most of the job interviews start with the question: Do you know what is our business about? The fact is that if you do know, this will have a good impact in the interviewer, this is the very first impression you will cause. I have done so, and even if I am not able to know everything about the company, I feel a noticeable impact in the expression of my interviewer.

Another reason to investigate is to know if you will be willing to work in the activity that this company is dedicated to. What if you consider that eating meat is wrong, and when you arrive to the interview you figure out that "x foods" is a meat processing plant? If you are not willing to work for it, you'll have wasted your time.

Next, you should verify your qualifications for the job. Most of the job ads display the requirements of the recruiter for the applicants to the job; try to identify which of them are specified as a must and compare with your experience. If there are some of the "not a must" requirements that you don't fulfill, don't be worried. Job ads are often made with an ideal profile, and the truth is that recruiters cannot always find prospects with all the qualifications.

After you know what the job is about, and you have verified your qualification, the first part of the preparation is done!

Job interview tip, preparing for a job interview

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