Rule No.71 Offer A Diamond With One Hand, Take It Away With The Other

“To a brave man, good and bad luck are like his left and right hand. He uses both.” – St Catherine of Siena

The interview is broken down into several parts, from the introduction, followed by the interviewer’s brief overview of the company, to the interviewer checking you are a suitable candidate, questioning you to extract what value you can add to the company, to the interview close.

Throughout the interview you will have used a variety of techniques to increase your chance of the interviewer realising you are the ideal person for this position. At the interview close stage, you need to close the deal, to finally ensure the interviewer will choose you.

But, first you need to understand why people want what they can’t have. Scarcity makes us want a product more, which is why collector’s items are so valuable – there’s not that many of them. I have a friend who collects album covers with faults; the guitarist jacket is the wrong colour, a name is spelled wrong. These items are worth quadruple the price of a normal collector’s item even though the product was wrongly produced, the value is in the fact that this item is unique, one of a kind. And it’s being one of a kind, a unique item that will secure you a job offer.

If you have followed the rules in this book, so have already sold your unique selling point and highlighted on several occasions the value you will bring to the organisation, so all that is left is to make yourself scarce.

If I was selling a necklace, I would put a big sign in my shop window saying “Ruby Necklace Only 10 Remaining” if I was selling an old comic I might say “Limited Edition Superman Comic Only 100 Ever Produced” but when making yourself look scarce at a job interview you need a different tack, but the psychology remains the same – the interviewer doesn’t want to miss out.

With the interview being highly impressed with you, mainly due to your new selling skills or by you embedding commands into your interview answers, telling him to recruit you, you next need to highlight that you are not freely available and you can do this in two ways:

At some point towards the end of the interview, explain how you are under pressure from other companies to accept a job offer “Thank you for inviting me to the interview today; I have really enjoyed meeting you and learning more about your organisation. I have a hard decision now, I’m really impressed with the vision you have for the company and I can see myself fitting in here really well, but a company that interviewed me last week is pushing for me to accept their job offer” this is highly effective, especially when it sounds of the cuff and as if you really talking to yourself out loud.

A different version is to use a similar line to highlight that you have 3-4 job interviews lined up. “Thank you for today, I’m really impressed with your company I have several other interviews lined up this week for similar positions I hope they can match your high standards”

Remember by this stage of the interview, the employer is already highly impressed with you, all you are doing here is saying, “Look I’m not going to hold out for this job” if you have done your homework and the interview has gone as planned, the interviewer will want to hire you anyway, but they can’t as they have to follow their company policies and procedures and interview the other 4-5 candidates that made it through the first round of CV’s and application forms, and now they have the fear that an opponent company may snatch you up first, making them want you even more.

By highlighting how you can add value to whichever organisation you accept a job offer from, the current interviewer or their competition, you are now taking the interviewer on an emotional journey.

Taking them on a high when they realise how they can turn your skills into profit and down to a low when they realise that a competitive organisation is still in with a chance of recruiting you. emotional journey will add to your unforgettable performance, but as we started on a high, you need to end on a high….

September 23, 2013December 11, 2020

Interview Handshakes

Shaking Interviewers Hands:

You want to give an employer an equal handshake, you don’t want to dominate the interviewer and you don’t want to be seen as submissive, again these thoughts are always subconscious. If you ask an interviewer they will often say they make their mind up about someone after the interview. Research has proven this to be wrong.

If you shake hands with your palm facing upwards you will come across as submissive – From this, we can see the origins of the phrase – “Giving someone the upper hand”.

If you shake hands with your palm facing downwards you come across as domineering or aggressive.

You need to shake hands with your palm facing sideways, as this will give an equal handshake.

If an employer walks towards you with their palm facing downwards (they want to dominate you) all you need to do is take their hand and clasp your other hand on the back of their hand and use this to gently turn their hand so that it faces sideways.

September 18, 2013December 11, 2020

How To Answer The Interview Question What kind of person would you refuse to work with?

Start by explaining how you get on well with everyone, and then stop to think.

Carry on by saying you would not want to work with someone who was violent or someone who was lazy.

“I always get on well everyone I meet, I am often told how friendly and approachable I am. I like to give everyone a chance but I wouldn’t like to work with someone who is violent or lazy”

June 28, 2013November 18, 2021

Interview Questions for Teachers

To pass any job interview means preparation.

To prepare for your job interview, first read the job specification and write an interview question for each essential criteria. Finally write an interview answer using a real-life example.

Suitability to the role

Tell about your teaching experience
Why did you apply for a role in this school?
Why did you choose to teach this particular age range?
What are your core strengths in terms of teaching?
What is your greatest teaching success?

The school and staff

What makes a successful school?
How would you cope with a lack of enthusiasm from colleagues?
How would you work efficiently with a teaching assistant in your classroom?
Do you know what OFSTED score we received? How would you make improvements to the school?
What is the most difficult piece of feedback you have ever had to give, and why?
How do you react to criticism?

Teaching and learning

Describe your perfect lesson?
Describe a bad day. What were the reasons for this?
Describe the teaching method you find most effective and explain why
How would you organise teaching and learning for a mixed-level group?
What are the important things to consider when planning any lesson?

Ensuring pupil progress

What assessment strategies would you use in lessons?
How do you ensure all pupils are involved in the lesson?
How would you motivate a reluctant pupils?
How would you meet the needs of gifted and talented children in the class?
What strategies do you use to manage children with special educational needs?

Behaviour management

How would you deal with a disruptive pupil?
What do you think is the best way to motivate pupils?
How do you deal with bullying in and outside the classroom?
What experience do you have with child protection issues?
Tell me about a time when a child or young person behaved in a way that caused you concern. How did you deal with that?
Why do you want to work with children?

June 18, 2013November 24, 2020

Five Failsafe Ways to be Prepared for your Job Interview

Be Prepared for your Job Interview

This Months Guest post comes from Simply Marketing Jobs

The golden rule of being interviewed is BE PREPARED! It sounds obvious but so many well-qualified job seekers make the mistake of arriving for interviews without planning properly in advance, hoping their experience and personality will carry them through. So what can you do before the big day to ensure you impress the interview panel and land that job?

How to Prepare for a Job Interview.

Carry out extensive research on the organisation

It’s vital to do all the research on the company that you can.

Spend time going through the company website and if the post you’re applying for is senior, get a copy of their latest published accounts (normally these are available to download from a company’s corporate website).

Google is of course a fantastic tool for finding out some interesting facts about the organisation you’re hoping to work for.

“What do you know about our company?” is one of the most commonly asked interview questions, so having to scrape around for something to say instantly looks bad. If the information is on their website, there is no excuse for not knowing about it, and having pre-prepared opinions about recent business activities and marketing campaigns will demonstrate your interest. It’s best to keep any negative opinions to yourself of course.

Areas of the business you must research:

· What does the company do?

· What’s the company culture?

· Which products and services does it sell?

· Growth plans for the future

· Main competitors

· Financial performance

· Recent published trade news

· Who will be interviewing you and what is their role?

Presentation

First impressions really do count so don’t risk everything by looking scruffy or inappropriately dressed.

Always overdress rather than risk being under-dressed. Studies show that often the average length of time between a candidate entering the interview room and a decision being made is less than four minutes.

After this time, recruiters are often looking for evidence to support the decision that – perhaps subconsciously – they have already made.

If you are at all unsure about the dress code ask the recruiter well in advance. Remember to think about your body language too – smiling often, sitting upright rather than slouching, and making plenty of eye contact will all show you in a good light.

Punctuality

As a professional, you don’t need to be told to arrive on time, but if you have interviewed extensively yourself you’ll know just how many job seekers still arrive late.

Make sure you find out where you are going and plan how you are going to get there. If you are unsure of the exact location of the interview print out a map.

Allow plenty of extra time in case of travel delays, particularly if you are heading into central London, or any other major city for the job interview. If you arrive very early find a nearby café and collect your thoughts and make any final preparations e.g. ensuring you have your mobile phone turned off before you go into the interview.

Prepare for the likely questions

Many people fall down here, simply because they haven’t spent sufficient time thinking through answers to fairly straightforward questions. Here are a few classics that will remind you of what to expect at an interview and what kinds of answers to give.

Why do you want to work for us?

The interviewers want to know you are genuinely interested in the company and the opportunities this job provides.

So you must demonstrate that you understand what makes this company different from its competitors, and what you think will be the interesting/challenging/rewarding things about working there.

Think carefully about what really appeals to you about this job and company and how you can stand out from the other people who are applying for this job, and come up with at least three points – e.g. the brands are powerful and widely admired in the marketplace; it’s an award-winning company; you’ve read fantastic client testimonials on the company website.

How would you describe yourself?

Whatever you say it’s important to be honest and genuine.

You want the interviewer to feel confident that they are seeing your true personality rather than telling them what you think they want to hear.

Remember to give plenty of evidence to back up statements or claims about yourself. Rather than telling the interviewer you are ‘target driven’, give live examples of when you have hit or exceeded targets and describe the steps you took to ensure targets were never missed.

What are your strengths?

The interviewer wants to know what your key strengths are in relation to this particular job. Make sure you choose examples that are relevant to this role but also examples that set you apart from other applicants.

Try to have four or five strengths available in case the interviewer asks for some further examples. Remember that for most jobs you will want to include an example of working well as part of a team, and fitting in well with others.

What is your greatest weakness?

Of course, be careful not to say anything too negative about yourself – such as you struggle to concentrate, or are badly organised.

Prepare an example of a weakness that you have overcome – for instance, your time management skills have improved in recent years because you now use a certain system. “I used to accept too much work in an effort to please everybody, but soon discovered that I was diluting my focus and not performing as I should…. Today I try not to be superwoman, but explain carefully to colleagues why I must prioritise my workload.”

Where do you see yourself three years from now?

Don’t overstate your ambitions here. The company really just wants reassurance that you’ll stick with the company and stay motivated over time. So it’s best to say something like: “I envisage myself enjoying my work in a progressive company like this one, and being valued as an asset to the organisation. I hope I would have performed well enough to have earned a promotion, having proved I am worthy of such a position.”

Have questions prepared too

‘Do you have any questions?’ is actually a very important part of the interview process, so don’t say ‘no’, whatever you do.

Asking insightful, pre-prepared questions when given the opportunity is as important as any of the answers you will have already given during the interview, this is well worth remembering.

Not having relevant questions or squirming uncomfortably as you try to think up an intelligent question on the spot will make you look badly prepared and disorganised.

Have 10 questions prepared before you go into the sales job interview. As the interview progresses several of these will no doubt be answered as part of the general interview dialogue. However, when it is your turn to ask questions, pick the 3 to 5 questions that seem most relevant at the time.

Good questions to ask might include:

• What is the company’s approach to training and development?

• How would you describe the company culture?

• What is the biggest challenge facing your company currently?

• How will my success in this role be measured over the next 12 months?

• What kind of person does really well in this division?

Being fully prepared in these ways should set you off on the right track. The more prepared you are, the more confident you will appear on the day, which should also help reduce nervousness. So put in the time, and the rewards really are within reach!

This article was provided by Simply Marketing Jobs, a leading marketing recruitment board.

April 21, 2013December 12, 2020

7 Unbelievable but Absolutely True Interview Fails

Beware!!! These interview fails can happen to you, learn from their mistakes and prepare for interview success.

Scared to Death

You have to agree that the job interview is one on the scariest situations you can put yourself in. Interviewers will often feedback that nervous interviewees constantly sweat, tremble and shake.

But for one 17yr old interviewee, having the interview shakes was a life saver. This young nervous interviewee thought nerves had gotten the better of him; he started to shake prior to the interview, in the interviewee, the shakes got worst, so bad the interviewer started to become concerned.

He shook so much throughout the interview, that he was rushed to hospital, later to find that he had a massive Brain Tumour. Shaken Stevens eat your heart out, read how this amazing but terrifying interview saved his life.

Source

iPhone Owner Make The Worse Employees

A crazy company rejected a job applicant for owning an iPhone. The interviewer spotted the interviewee in the waiting area accessing his iPhone.

The crazy employer wasn’t concern that the applicant had a phone in his hand; he was disappointed that it was an iPhone saying “Students who have iPhones don’t work. Everything you have was bought by your parents. You haven’t bought anything by working yourself. You are wealthy and can’t stand the stress. Working at our company is tough. It calls for someone who can take the pain and suffering.”

Read more about this frustrated interviewer with incredible prejudices.

Source

Slow Worker for Fast Food Joint

An American student went for a job interview in the famous fast food chain McDonalds, famous for its Big Mac and speedy service, with this in mind the interviewee didn’t understand the importance of matching the employers criteria, answering one question by saying “speed in the workplace wasn’t his strongest point.”

Finally, the interview was lost when he followed this damaging statement up by telling the employer how he wanted to be an English teacher, not a fast food worker and finally topped the interview off by stating that he could only work certain days.

Read how not to pass the job interview here.

Source

Cat Kills the Interview

Telephone interviews are great, you don’t have to get up early, you don’t have to shave and you don’t even have to get dressed. You do have to remain professional….and lock your pets up. During a phone interview with RBS, the interviewee was set a complex maths question, while the interviewer listens on the other end of the phone.

Surprised, the interviewer heard, “You f*cking c*nt!” shouted down the phone by the applicant. Shocked the interviewer hung up the phone, ending the interview.

What the interviewee couldn’t see was the actual cause of the outburst, the interviewees cat had crept up a clawed her leg, which was the real reason for the outburst, not the complex interview question.

Source

Murder Arrested at the Job Interview

No matter how much experience and skills you have, one sure way to guarantee that you won’t receive a job offer during a job interview is when you get arrested for murder.

An unnamed girl accused of murdering two young men, was wanted by police who could not locate her, but they knew that the girl had a job interview due and waited for the girl to attend the job interview before arresting her – to the surprise of the interviewees

Source

The Heineken Interview

How would you react if your interview started by the interviewer wanting to hold your hand, crazy I know, later after a couple of general interview questions the interview stands up and faints. You get up to help him, only then the fire alarm goes off.

As your led outside a team of firemen are trying to get a stuck potential co-worker to jump out of the window onto the safety net, but there’s not enough fireman to hold the net, what would you do? Help out, watch or just go home? This is one of the best but bizarre job interviews ever.

Watch this amazing video:

Source

Interviewer Eats his Dinner In the Interview

Good interviewees know the signs of when the interviewer is getting bored, but none have been this obvious.

Luke went to the interview unprepared, the interviewer quickly realised this and became quickly bored of the interview. After a couple of interview questions and to the surprise of Luke, the interviewer put his feet up on the desk and started to eat his lunch, if that wasn’t bad a couple of minutes later and half way through a sandwich, the interviewer ask “you’re still here?”

Find out more about the worst interview ever.

Source

April 9, 2013December 12, 2020

Is An Interview Thank You Letter Really Worth it?

Is An Interview Thank You Letter Really Worth It?

The key to passing the job interview is to ensure the employer remembers that you meet the essential criteria for the position you are applying for. A great technique which is vastly underused is to summaries your interview success in a post interview thank you letter.

Most candidates don’t send thank you letters, and those that do only thank the employer for their time. They are both missing out on a great opportunity to get one last selling point across to the interviewer, as well as thanking the employer, also summaries the interview mentioning your unique selling point, the key criteria the interviewer was most impressed with this.

After interviewing all day it is easy for the interviewer to forget information discussed or even to confuse applicant’s answers, by summarising your selling points in a thank you letter the interviewer is in no doubt that it is you who has the correct skills for this position

April 9, 2013December 12, 2020

Odd Ball Interview Questions

“How do you get an elephant to fit inside a mini car?”

For oddball questions, as with all the interview questions, you need to practice and prepare your answers.

The only way to prepare for unknown and often quite random questions is by asking someone to through random questions at you.

Not all interviewers ask these questions.

Interviewers ask questions that are relevant to the position you are applying for, the question “How do you get an elephant to fit inside a mini car?” can be answered from the perspective of an engineer or from a creative perspective.

Employers want to check if you can think outside the box, problem solves, creatively think or analyse information which is why they ask these, which often seem random but are in fact skilled based interview questions

· Why are manhole cover round?

· If you were shrunk to the size of a pea and put in a jug how would you escape?

· Given the numbers 1 to 100, what is the minimum number of guesses needed to find a specific number when playing “higher” or “lower”

March 28, 2013

Does Your On-line Story Affect Your Interview

Your online story creates your personal brand. We are all aware that the interview is designed for the interviewee to sell your unique selling point, but in this digital age the employer has the advantage of checking your story online.

You may at the interview create a professional persona, impressing the interviewer. The interviewer, ready to offer you the position, makes one final online check only to fine your face book page full of photos of you out drinking and partying and your status updates recording how you feel to hung-over to go into work today.

With this in mind the digital job hunter can support their cause by creating an online brand. Your online brand can be the difference between a high salary job offer and the unemployment line, imagine your unique selling point is writing winning tenders on a contractual basis.

The employer investigating you online, finds your linked-in profile recording the extensive list of recognised employers you have successfully worked for, twitter updates stating the bids and tenders you have won, showing a timeline of your work and your face book wall creates a professional image of you with updates about your charity work and online references from happy customers and employers.

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March 28, 2013December 18, 2020

How to Answer The Interview Question Do You Consider Yourself Successful

A number of employers ask interview questions based on ‘success.’

Success is ambiguous, as each person views success differently. A young career professional may feel successful as they were the first in their family to attend higher education, but a second candidate who grew up in a household where education was deemed as the norm, may not view attending university as a success.

The underpinning objective for the ‘do you consider yourself successful? interview question is more about achievement and the journey to that achievement.

The frame of the interview answer should be one of a hardship the candidate has overcome.

Therefore, the interviewee, to score a high scoring interview answer needs to set out a problem, show planning and how they overcome difficulties and what it was they achieved.

A single parent, as an example, may talk about balancing a family, and a job while studying for a master’s with an open university course. The parent could then go on to discuss additional difficulties; maybe the child became ill or the employer had to make staff cuts.

The ‘difficulties’ is one way to show personality, work ethic and determination. Did the difficulties allow the parent to give up? Or did they grit their teeth determined to be a success?

How to answer the ‘success’ job interview question.

As everyone succeeded in something, this could be finishing school to climbing Everest, the initial answer should be a responding ‘Yes I have been successful….’

Next, state ‘…one example is…’ The ‘one’ example infers there are many other successes.

To answer the question follow these 4 steps:

Set the goal – to finish a master’s, become a world champion, to set up a part-time business.
Explain the current barriers; being a single parent, stating a disability, how everyone said you current achieve this goal
Through in additional difficulties – talk about the journey, how you were on track to be successful and then…a ‘difficulty’ happened.
Conclude. End the story by stating the success, but more importantly, what you learned about yourself along the way

Example Interview Answer.

“Yes, I would say I am successful. One example of being successful was when I set myself a goal to move into this job sector.

I had left school with no GCSEs and came from a family that didn’t encourage attending higher education – they believed that instead of spending money on education, everyone should find work.

Once I had committed to this career goal I created a careers plan, stating what qualification I needed to gain and enrolled in nigh school, initially gaining my GCSEs and then an access course for nursing.

It was half-way through my access to the nursing course when my father became ill. As an only child whose mother had passed away many years previously, it came down to me to be the carer for my father.

This took up a large amount of time, and my initial thought was that I should quit the course. But, because I am passionate about the profession I knew I had to plan better and manage my time to ensure I could be there for my father while having enough time to spend on my course.

Some of my friends were nurses and they use to tell me how busy they always were, having to do extra shifts and work long hours. So I imagine that caring for my father while studying was my job. This helped me frame it in the right way to stay motivated.

What I learned about myself is that I have self-determination. even when there is a problem I can knuckle down and get the job done.”