Job Interview Questions

DO make direct eye contact. People who fail to make direct eye contact often come across as shifty people with something to hide. So even if you are a shifty person with something to hide, train yourself to look right into their eyes. Allen does make an interesting suggestion, if the person is ugly, look at the bridge of their eyes. Wow, I would never have come up with that gem on my own. That knowledge would have made it so much easer to survive high school in New Jersey.

DO smile. Smiling really matters more than most of us realize. I used to have a photo attached to this column that I really liked. But I wasn't smiling. And people would write to me about it. Then I replaced it with a smiling photo, and the reaction is totally different. Smiling matters. One trick you should try is to practice smiling in front of a mirror. Sure it sounds dumb, but anything that increases your smile ratio is worth the time and trouble.

DO greet by name. We've all met the annoying people who keep repeating your name when they first meet you, are all you insurance agents out there listening? But just because people do annoying things using your name doesn't mean that we should all just nod at each other anonymously. Learn people's names and use them. You'll notice that most people really appreciate your acknowledgement of them.

DON'T wimp out on the handshake. It sounds like a cliche, but a firm handshake really sends a message of strength and confidence. On the other hand, one of those dead fish handshakes just makes me want to keep my hands in my pockets. And this isn't just something for men. Women you need to learn how to give a confident handshake. All bets are off however, if Avian flu ever strikes our shores. Elbow bumping, anyone?

Experts on career guidance and hiring say answering one particular question in a job interview is a no-win situation for the applicant. If it comes up, they actually recommend you politely decline to answer.

Arizona State University senior Gabriela Johnson says the question came up in one of her interviews: "In a previous job, has there been a company policy you disagreed with?" Brian Gagan calls it "a dangerous question". Gagan is a partner at

"This is filled with a lot of pitfalls," said Karen Lamb, Assistant Director of ASU Career Services. "Any way you answer it you're going to look like a renegade." According to Lamb, the "rule of thumb" for any interview question is to find a way to turn a negative into a positive. But she told 12 News, "It would be difficult to have any amount of honesty here and not get yourself in a difficult situation."

Lamb advised Johnson, "Never say anything negative about your former employer, even if they were Attila the Hun...because it's going to reflect negatively on you." Lamb added, "I think if you're criticizing any (company) policy, no matter how valid (the criticism is)...you're going to look bad. I would almost step away from this question." Politely decline to answer the question and emphasize that you would always follow company policies.

On Tuesday night, just as the sixth and final season of "Lost" gets under way, New York City’s own reality TV show, "Job Hunt," will kick off, as well.

While it won't have the appeal of polar bears and smoke monsters, "Job Hunt" may tell you what color suit to wear to a job interview, or how to use Google and social media to your advantage. The 10-part series, which runs on New York’s NYC Life network, tries to help New Yorkers get back on their feet if they are out of work. And just to give the audience a little extra inspiration, it stars actual job seekers.

"You may know the season premier of 'Lost' is on for two hours tonight, but if you are looking for a job then you know what? The only show for you to watch tonight is 'Job Hunt,' " said Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn's borough president.

The city’s efforts mirror a national push to help the unemployed. In his budget plan, President Obama proposes to extend unemployment benefits. For the past week, Mr. Obama has announced a new jobs-related program almost every day, including Tuesday in New Hampshire, when he unveiled one to jump-start hiring at small businesses.

We’ve been told it’s a new year — a new decade in fact — and things are different now.

Although they spent last year grappling with the problems considered top priority, like cap and trade and getting the healthcare bill through, congress has now decided its time to refocus on what really is the number one issue. With the unemployment rate sitting at above 10 percent, Congress has decided it is time to completely focus their attention on the very pressing issue of jobs — their own.

I find it amusing that when it looks to members of Congress that they could actually become one of those unpleasant statistics standing in line at the unemployment office — figuratively speaking of course — this issue suddenly moves to the top of the list.

Last year during the cap and trade bill negotiations House Speaker Nancy Pelosi even managed to convince people the bill was really as much about jobs as it was about green energy — really. I find it difficult to equate that with the fact that the bill has $4.2 billion written into it to compensate for the jobs that will be lost once it’s implemented. This $4.2 billion, to be spread out from 2011 to 2019, allows $1,500 per person for job-search assistance for people expected to be put out of work because of it. It also gives them an unemployment check for up to three years while they look for a new job or get retrained in another field. In fact, experts say when implemented, the bill is likely to cause a 0.5 percent drop in jobs in the first 10 years — and that’s over and above the unemployment rate we’re already dealing with

I'm not too concerned about nonverbal signs unless I see a definite conflict between what a person is saying and what their body language is telling me. If I see a large contrast, it's a signal for me to get more detail about the experience the candidate is describing to me. I also might ask the candidate for a reference in order for me to verify the facts I am being presented with. I do pay attention to body posture, tone of voice, and verbal pace. I like to mirror my candidates posture, tone, and pace in order to more effectively communicate with her/him.

In the Career Service's four-step plan to rethink your career after redundancy, the first step is simple: "Know yourself."

"Know what you have to offer - your skills and attributes," says northern regional manager Dale Bailey.

"Often people's identities are tied up in their current occupation. They may not realise that the skills they used in their old job could be transferred to a new setting."

Transferring resources from one setting to another is what a recession is all about. It is capitalism's painful way of shifting capital out of low-profit businesses, which are the first tofall over in a downturn, into more profitable fields. And many workers have no choice but to shift too.

Recognising this, job interviewing techniques have also become much more general, probing people's broad attitudes and behaviours rather than their narrow technical skills.

`How would you describe yourself?"

"Why would you be an asset to our company?"

If you're preparing for a job interview, regardless of the job, don't expect to be asked broad, open-ended questions like these. Employers today aren't interested in hearing job candidates talk about themselves in general terms. With no time or money to waste on hiring incompetence, employers instead are asking questions that require candidates to provide evidence of their ability to handle specific on-the-job situations and challenges.

Thus, "competency-based interviews are quickly gaining popularity among hiring professionals as the most effective questioning strategy to identify and hire the right people," notes career consultant and columnist Linda Matias.

The secret to acing such interviews, says Matias, who is also author of "201 Knockout Answers to Tough Interview Questions: The Ultimate Guide to Handling the New Competency-Based Interview Style," is to recognize and speak well of your accomplishments. To come up with diverse examples to draw upon, she encourages candidates to dig into their past and to "think small."

"Interviewers do not expect you to provide extraordinary examples every time," she says.

But they do expect well thought-out answers. "Think SOAR," says Matias. "First, set up the Situation or Obstacle you encountered; next, explain the Action you implemented; and finally, close with the Result."

Instead of resume writing, the first step in your job search is career planning. For example, you may need to know if you want to find a job in academic, industry, or even start your own company. You also need to have a long term vision in your mind to guide yourself. Government statistics show that average American has more than 10 jobs in his lifetime; and ten years from now, half the working population will be in jobs that have not yet been invented. Without a clear vision in your mind, you may easily get lost in job market. After all, even if you get your perfect job, how long can you keep it?

Your career planning can all boil down to your self-analysis. You can ask yourself some questions like "What kind of person am I", " What kind of person do I like best to work with", "What kind of knowledge and skills do I have" and "What's the most important things for me in a job?" etc. Be honest to yourself and take some time to reflect on it. You may not really know what's your perfect job until you first do some self-exploration like this.

Then you can brainstorm some job titles that sound interesting to you. For example, if you're a recent electronic engineering graduate, you can pursue job positions in the following fields: electronic engineer, technical support, sales representative, consultant, etc. Compare your options and decide which career path interests you the most. People tend to select careers they think they already know: law students become lawyers, engineering students become engineers. But what if after several years, they find that they don't like their jobs at all? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are about 22,000 occupations in American society. If you can think outside the box and develop a broader vision of your career possibilities, you'll find a career that you enjoy doing and also do well, a career which is based on your interest, aptitudes and personality.

First, let's look at some terms. A job is a collection of tasks and responsibilities that an employee is responsible to conduct. Jobs have titles. A task is a typically defined as a unit of work, that is, a set of activities needed to produce some result, e.g., vacuuming a carpet, writing a memo, sorting the mail, etc. Complex positions in the organization may include a large number of tasks, which are sometimes referred to as functions. Job descriptions are lists of the general tasks, or functions, and responsibilities of a position. Typically, they also include to whom the position reports, specifications such as the qualifications needed by the person in the job, salary range for the position, etc. Job descriptions are usually developed by conducting a job analysis, which includes examining the tasks and sequences of tasks necessary to perform the job. The analysis looks at the areas of knowledge and skills needed by the job. Note that a role is the set of responsibilities or expected results associated with a job. A job usually includes several roles.

Typically, job descriptions are used especially for advertising to fill an open position, determining compensation and as a basis for performance reviews. Not everyone believes that job descriptions are highly useful. Read Dr. John Sullivan's article listed at the end of the following links. He points out numerous concerns about job descriptions that many other people have as well, including, e.g., that too often job descriptions are not worded in a manner such that the employee's performance can be measured, they end up serving as the basis for evaulation rather than performance, etc. Read the following links to buid your own impression.

Here's where you can learn about the three-step process for successfully writing your college admissions essay.