April 2009 - Page 3 of 3 - Palladian Career Resources

Top 8 Reasons to Schedule a Mock Interview

Mock interviews simulate actual job interviews, allowing the job seeker to practice their interview skills. Interviewing is a performance. Without practice, a job seeker cannot perform at their best. This makes mock interviews one of the most important steps in a job search.

Few job seekers complete a mock interview during their job search. There are a few reasons for this. Some job seekers fail to realize how much a mock interview can improve interview performance. Other job seekers believe their interview skills are exceptional and do not need to be improved. There are even job seekers that are afraid of the feedback after a mock interview. Many people have a fear of public speaking and are intimidated in interviews. The idea of conducting an interview in front of someone who will criticize their interview performance is terrifying. This is unfortunate since the people most afraid of interviewing often need the most help.

There is no replacement for mock interviews, though. You cannot practice interviewing alone. You have to have someone ask you a question that you must answer on the spot. This is the core of any interview and can’t be recreated without the interviewer.

There are a number benefits to mock interviews, and below are the eight most significant:

Practice allows you to try different ways of answering common interview questions
You can make a mistake in a mock interview without hurting your job search
A mock interview is the only way you can prepare for unforeseen questions
You can get specific feedback from the interviewer in a mock interview that an employer will never share with you.
Mock interviews can help build your confidence
Interviewers often think of questions the job seeker doesn’t anticipate
A mock interview offers a chance to try different styles of interviews
Mock interviews are one of the fastest and most effective ways to improve your interview skill

If you haven’t completed a mock interview in your job search, schedule one now. Ideally, the interviewer you choose will be similar to type of interviewer you will encounter in a real interview. This may require finding someone you don’t know to conduct a mock interview. Interviews with close friends or co-workers may make the mock interview less effective due to your familiarity with the interviewer. If you can’t find a suitable interviewer, find a professional interviewer coach that can conduct the mock interview with you.

Interview Tip #10

Interview Tip: Don’t try to make a fashion statement in an interview.

Interview Tip: Don’t try to make a fashion statement in an interview.

How you dress for an interview will not help you get an offer, but it can hurt your chances. In most situations, conservative professional attire is expected. There are a few exceptions, but they are rare. Research the company. If nothing in your research indicates unusual expectations for how a candidate dresses, stick with a professional appearance. You want to be remembered for your skills, experience and potential, not your fashion choices.

Resume Tip #10

Resume Tip: Include on your resume training classes that directly relate to the core skills and activities of the job you are pursuing.

Resume Tip: Include on your resume training classes that directly relate to the core skills and activities of the job you are pursuing.

Staying current in your industry and developing new skills is important to success in a career. This is also important in your job search. Listing the professional development courses you have completed can help sell you to an employer. The key is staying focused on the courses that are relevant. Many job seekers go overboard and list every course, seminar and workshop they have completed. Many of these end up being routine courses every job seeker would have taken, such as basic orientation classes, safety courses or annual regulatory compliance classes. These do not differentiate the candidate.

In our 2008 survey of resumes, we found three quarters of the resumes included continuing education courses.

Interview Skills in a Cover Letter

I read a cover letter today that did something I see very rarely. It focused on elements that are critical to a recruiter and usually overlooked by job seekers. A cover letter with a sales pitch for the candidate isn’t unique. What was unique was how the cover letter focused on attributes that a recruiter seeks.

I read a cover letter today that did something I see rarely. It focused on elements that are critical to a recruiter, but usually overlooked by job seekers. A cover letter with a sales pitch for the candidate isn’t unique. What was unique was how the cover letter focused on attributes that a recruiter seeks.

Below are three sentences taken from the cover letter:

I interview well and have appropriate skill sets for large scale operations. I possess excellent verbal and written language skills. My style is articulate while always remaining humble and connected to my audience.

What set this cover letter apart was the mention of the candidate’s interview skills. The experience, skills and accomplishments of a job seeker are important, but this is only a portion of what a recruiter looks for in a candidate. The other component that recruiters want to see in a candidate is the ability of the candidate to sell themselves in an interview.

For a recruiter, it is important that a candidate can articulate their strengths and potential. A candidate with a great resume and terrible interview and communications skills will often be rejected for a candidate that interviews better. Additionally, candidates that interview very poorly can hurt a relationship with a client if the client thinks the recruiter cannot find the best candidates.

This makes it essential to quickly assess the job seeker’s interview skill. The cover letter addresses this with three sentences focused on the candidate’s interview and communications skills. This claim impresses me a lot, but not because the job seeker is a good interviewer.

I read cover letters and resumes every day that make claims about skills and abilities. Some are true while others prove to be exaggerations. There is nothing in the cover letter to convince me the job seeker’s claim of having excellent interview skills is an accurate assessment.

The reason the focus on interview skills impressed me was the job seeker thought about what would be important to me. Many candidates focus on what is important to them. This could be their goals and objectives. It could include specific experiences or accomplishments they are especially proud of. Unfortunately, what is important to a job seeker is not necessarily important to the hiring manager.

Prioritizing Info on Your Resume

Choosing what information to include in a resume is important, but an even more important consideration is the order. The most significant elements of your background need to go at the top of the resume. Unfortunately, many job seekers fail to prioritize information effectively. A resume I read today illustrates this common mistake.

The resume was from a manufacturing professional with a good education and good experience. The job seeker didn’t know how to package his background effectively. The first problem was with the order of the sections. Below are the section headings in order:

Objective
Education
Additional Training
Select Career Achievements
Professional Experience
Summary of Qualifications
Technical Skills

The job seeker has more than 15 years of experience managing manufacturing operations. This experience should not be buried in the middle of the second page. Compounding the mistake, the candidate prioritized Additional Training towards the top of the resume. The additional training section contained routine courses like Hazmat, Sexual Harassment and First Aid. Classes like this are routine in most mid-size to large companies. They do not differentiate the candidate.

The Select Career Achievements section listed several impressive accomplishments. This section should have been at the top of the resume. The accomplishments will get a hiring manager interested so they keep reading.

The Education section raises a question, though. The job seeker has a Six Sigma Black Belt, an impressive credential. The remainder of their education is ordinarily – a bachelor’s degree and a few additional courses. This education is important but isn’t going to make the candidate standout. The candidate needs to move the Six Sigma certification to the top of the resume and the rest of the education to the bottom.

The Summary of Qualifications section was just a listing of responsibilities the job seeker had. This section needs to be merged into the Professional Experience section. The is no need to break the responsibilities out from the job descriptions.

After making these changes, the new resume has a top section containing the objective, the Six Sigma certification and a few accomplishments. This section becomes the Professional Summary or Professional Profile. With this new section, the resume takes its new structure:

Professional Summary
Professional Experience
Technical Skills
Education
Additional Training

This structure leads off with the most important elements. It then moves into the basic information about the job seekers work history. From there, the resume wraps up with other information, the skills, education and training of the job seeker. The overall impression is much more impressive.

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Graduation Dates on Your Resume

I read a couple resumes recently that had unusual graduation dates. The dates listed detracted from the impression the resume made.

Six Years of High School

A candidate with a bachelor’s degree and 40+ year career listed his high school on his resume. With a bachelor’s degree, there is no need to list high school. This isn’t a major problem though. The problem was range of dates. The high school listing had the dates 1961-1967, a six year time period. I don’t know if this was a typo, if the school system considered high school to be 7^th through 12^th grades, if the candidate had repeated a couple years or if there was another explanation.

Including the dates raises a question that is meaningless. The candidate’s performance in high school more than forty years ago has nothing to do with their capability today. Additionally, including the range of dates makes no sense. It is generally assumed if you include a single date, it is the graduation date. Finally, many older workers report instances of age discrimination. Highlighting your age with a high school graduation date can’t help your search, and may hurt it.

Super Fast Bachelor’s

A candidate listed their high school graduation and their college graduation dates. They included the months of each. This made it clear exactly how long the candidate had been in college – a year and a half. Reinforcing this, the candidate listed the number of credit hours completed to get the degree and a 4.0 GPA. Ordinarily, I would assume a graduation date only 18 months after getting out of high school would indicate a diploma mill, but the school is a big state school with a good reputation anyone would recognize. My conclusion is the date is either a typo or the candidate is lying. Neither is a good impression. There was no need to list the high school, or any of the graduation dates.

Employment dates are a critical element of a resume, but graduation dates are optional. Unless you are a recent graduate, drop your graduation dates. They will offer little value.