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Sell Yourself Like A Product

Good article and video about how to sell yourself like a product. Full article here

Interviewing for a job is in many ways comparable to a sales person making a sale. If you were a sales person and were about to sell a product to a customer you would do some homework or research so that you could convince your customers that your product was the best product on the market to fill their needs.

If you think of this scenario and apply it to the job interview process you will find that it is a powerful tool to use for your interview preparation. What do you have to offer (as a product), to the customer (the employer)? What do you have that will fill their needs (the requirements of the job)? What can you bring that is unique or added value to the position/company? (that sets you apart from the pack)?

To Lie or Not To Lie - There Is No Question

When creating your resume, it is important to maintain a balance between including relevant information without overwhelming the interviewer with superfluous detail.  Further, you should only include details you can provide evidence for, should this be required. There have been several documented cases of people lying on the resumes and suffering the consequences. And the worst outcomes don’t always involved simple job loss.

Andrea Stanfield, for instance, told her employer that she had a business degree, when she didn’t. She paved a well-regarded career for herself in management for several years before the stress of the lie became too much and she decided to come clean. She wrote a book about her experience called “Phony! How I Faked My Way Through Life”. Audio interview: Phony: How I faked my way through life Her story certainly makes you want to think twice about any level of resume deception.

Of course, nowadays it’s fairly difficult to tell too big of a big lie. Background checking by recruitment companies is stringent, and employers often turn to third party investigation firms to make sure that the wool isn’t being pulled over their eyes.

And it doesn’t take a genius in the field of human behavior to understand why people might feel they have to omit information or add some in to increase their chances of employment. So, in an effort at avoidance of this situation and the supremacy of truth over deception (here I go, off with the superhero thing again), here are a few tips to ensure that your resume remains clean:

- When you are writing your resume, make sure that you include current addresses, phone numbers, and names of the places and jobs that you’ve listed. This saves time and confusion for a prospective employer.

-Don’t leave out previous jobs, even if you have left them on bad terms. A potential employer will call them, that’s true, but a previous employer is only allowed to say if they will or won’t hire you again, and the dates that you worked there. If they say that they won’t hire you again, it’s not something that will make or break your chances of getting the job. Be prepared, however, to answer questions about it in your interview. If you do omit jobs that you have held in the past, these positions will come up in a background check and the potential employer will realise the omission. This will make you look as though you are hiding something.

-Remember what your parents taught you: don’t lie. When you lie on a resume, or omit information, a potential employer will eventually find out and you will lose your chance for an interview or, if you have already been hired, you can be fired very easily. So, it is always in your best interest that you provide the most accurate information on your resume to demonstrate to an employer that you are an honest person. This counts for big bonus points in the hiring process.

Anxiety and the Job Interview

It’s not uncommon for people to approach a job interview with a sense of trepidation.  For some, the idea of traveling in a plane at thirty-thousand feet is horrifying.  For others, it’s the thought of being face-to-face with a spider.  In the same way, for some people the idea of meeting new people, speaking confidently, and being judged makes them tremble at the knees.  When we consider that the symptoms of anxiety include sweating, an increase in breathing rate, muscle tension, lack of concentration and decreased sense of humor, the outcomes of anxiety can mean that perfectly competent people miss out on jobs because of poor performance during an interview.

Each of us has our kriptonite.  But while Superman’s only management skill was avoidance, here’s a list of methods that will help you face your fear:
- Prior to the interview, begin visualising your desired performance, rather than focussing on ways you might stuff it up. Picture yourself striding into the interview room with grace and confidence, chatting eloquently with the interviewer, being calm and relaxed. If sportspeople can use this technique effectively, so can you.
- Correct breathing helps too. To prove my point, try this experiment. Just while you’re sitting in your lounge chair at home, take a series of rapid, short breaths. If you do this for long enough, your mouth will go dry, and you’ll begin to feel dizzy and disoriented. If you’re prone to anxiety, your body may interpret these physiological symptoms as fear, thus triggering further “flight or fight” symptoms, such as sweating and gastric upset. When you are nervous, your breaths become quicker, therefore, the anxiety response increases. Belly breathing overcomes this problem. Instead of breathing through the upper parts of your chest, try taking breath right down into your belly, making it move in as the breath comes in, and out as it comes out. Watch your belly moving as you breathe. As silly as it may look, this form of breathing has a calming effect.
- During the interview, do a bit of acting. People who interact well with others do so partly because they know how to follow a few basic rules: eye contact, smiling, remembering another person’s name, good listening. In the same way that you learnt to write and ride a bike, these are skills you can acquire. Do some role-playing, acting out the role of a charismatic person. Practice. Makes. Perfect.
-There are loads of books on managing anxiety at local libraries and book shops. Read up a bit. Be proactive, rather than a victim to your tendencies.

Grown men who go around with Superman symbols on their tee-shirts definitely need a styling overhaul. But I can see the fascination with superheroes. They’re empowered, and strong and usually get to wear fab costumes. But each of them also has some sort of fear. If meeting new people and being under the social spotlight is yours, don’t let it stop you from flying.

Job Interview Etiquette

The word etiquette is defined as “a code that governs the expectations of social behavior, according to the conventional norm within a society.”  Arguably, etiquette rules guide the formation of our first impressions of people.  And nothing relies more on initial impressions than a job interview. 

So here are the golden rules of conduct in job interviews:
• Make sure you pronounce the name of your interviewer correctly. If it is a difficult name, listen when they are introduced to you and repeat it immediately out loud. If you have pronounced it incorrectly, at that point you can be corrected without embarrassment to either party.
• Have clean, well-groomed hair. Men’s hair should be freshly cut.
• Both men and women should have clean and trimmed nails. Women should avoid ostentatious or odd nail colors. Men should avoid nail color altogether (unless they’re interviewing for lead singer of a punk rock band).
• It is best to dress conservatively for a job interview, since you can’t be sure of the company’s dress code. It is always safer to overdress than to arrive under-dressed and be embarrassed.
• Arrive ten to fifteen minutes early for an interview. This allows time to complete paperwork, and to collect your thoughts.
• Make sure that your cell phone or pager is either turned off or set on silent. Never look at it during an interview.
• Present yourself as assertive and professional. Use a firm and confident handshake when you are first introduced.  This rule applies to women and men.
• Avoid using slang, and speech idiosyncrasies such as ‘like’ or ‘um’.
• Always thank the interviewer for their time.

As you have probably gathered, most etiquette is common sense, but these simple rules are often overlooked by interviewees.  Here’s a tip: if you think that you’re liable to overlook some of these points, print them out and glue them into your diary.  Then, each time you make a new job interview appointment, you can glance over them so that they’re at the forefront of your interview planning.

Resumes - Getting Started

Establishing a clear and concise definition of what a resume will get you started in the creation of a Really Great Resume. In actuality, a resume is a marketing tool that sells you to a perspective employer. The true purpose of a resume is to get an interview and a Really Great Resume serves to get your foot in the door. It also expresses your talents and potential.

When preparing to write your resume, you must first and foremost decide what your objective is in terms of a job. Ask yourself, “Who is going to be reading this resume” You will make it your goal to write in a way that would appeal to that person or persons. Ask, What do they want to see in a prospective employee. What skills, accomplishments, talents, etc.

Next, you will need to decide what type of resume best suits you. There are several types of resume formats and each is appropriate for its own use.

Really Great Resume Types:

Chronological - Your information is organised chronologically, usually the most recent experience is first and goes back. This resume places highlights positions held and where.
Functional - A functional resume puts emphasis on your skills or functions and the resume will be organised by such. Only the skills and functions of the prospective new job are what will be highlighted.
Accomplishment - This is a resume that features a list of very impressive achievements. After the achievements are listed a chronological work history may follow.

Note, that it is not unusual to combine features from two different resumes, such as Functional/Achievement or Chronological/Achievement.

Next, start by listing all of your work history. Think back through each of your past work experiences and examine them for what you liked about them, your favorite skills in each and what you liked about each position. Be sure to jot these down.

A job objective will now need to be identified. The job objective appears on the resume right after your name, address and phone number. The objective states what position you are considering or what level of responsibility you are willing to assume. You must be specific, otherwise employers will be confused as to what you want to do at their company.

Steps to Creating a Really Great Resume

- Establish your objective.
- Determine the basic functions of the new job.
- List jobs that you held in the past. Omit short term positions.
- Decide which of these past jobs provided the experience that will be useful for the new job.

Avoid writing a job description for each of the positions. Instead, record a few short lines about your accomplishments in that position, what you brought to that job that may have been valuable and unique or that was of benefit to that company. Don’t be afraid to be very specific. This allows the employer to visualise you actually doing those tasks in the new position. If there is a job that is non-relevant, simply write a one-liner that explains the responsibilities performed.

With this information in hand you are ready to put it all together. Keep it simple and clutter free. Use bullets to organize things clearly. Use an easy-to-read font. With some good thinking and note-taking you will be on your way to creating your Really Great Resume.