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Five Interview Questions Employers Should Ask

By Uncategorized

Original Article at The Wall Street Journal

As the economy picks up, companies are starting to hire more. But managers often only get funds for a few key hires, so they have to select new employees wisely. That makes conducting a smart interview critical.

1. In what ways will this role help you stretch your professional capabilities?

2. What have been your greatest areas of improvement in your career?

3. What’s the toughest feedback you’ve ever received and how did you learn from it?

4. What are people likely to misunderstand about you?

 

5. If you were giving your new staff a “user’s manual” to you, to accelerate their “getting to know you” process, what would you include in it?

Read Full Article at The Wall Street Journal

 

 

Do Your Homework Before the Interview

By Uncategorized

Full original article at The New York Times

Research the company and the industry, says Adrien Fraise, founder of Modern Guild, which provides online career coaching to college students and high school seniors. “Know the major industry trends and news,” he says, and be able to talk about how they could affect the company.

Find out who runs the company and how they got there. “Look at their profiles on LinkedIn and see if you find a common bond,” says David Lewis, the chief executive of OperationsInc., a human resources outsourcing and consulting firm in Norwalk, Conn. “If you are able to say, ‘I went to the same college as you’ or ‘I also majored in psychology,’ that demonstrates you really did your homework.”

Q. What questions can you expect, and how can you prepare to answer them?

A. You may be asked to walk the interviewer through your résumé, so prepare concise, articulate anecdotes to illustrate what you did or learned in each experience you’ve listed, Mr. Fraise says. Highlight what you achieved and the skills you used — and how you want to keep using them. “Rehearse in front of the mirror and then in front of others,” he says. “Be so comfortable with it, it doesn’t sound scripted.”

Interviewers often ask questions like “Can you give me an example of when you had to work as part of a team or learned something new quickly?” Mr. Lewis says your examples might come from experiences in a club, fraternity or sorority. “Did you organize a membership push? Plan events? Do recruiting?” he says.

If you’re asked a question like “Why did you choose your college major?” be complete in your answer. “Don’t just say ‘because I really like psychology,’ “ Mr. Lewis advises. Instead, note from a business perspective why you liked the subject. “Maybe you found the classes to be informative about human behavior, which is a key to success in anyone’s business,” he says.

Take along samples of your work — whether from an internship, a class or an extracurricular activity — in a folder or on a laptop computer or tablet.

And always prepare questions to ask at the end of the interview, says Alexa Hamill, American campus recruiting leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Philadelphia. Questions on the interviewer’s own career progress are a way to conclude, she says: “What opportunities have been presented to them? How were they trained and developed? This shows you are looking at the job as something potentially long term.”

 

Read full original article at The New York Times

 

Business Week – Top 50

By News & Media

David Preng was named by Business Week magazine as one of “The 50 Most Influential Headhunters in the World.” This is the first year he made the list of the world’s most powerful talent brokers. At that time, the firm’s clientele numbered more than 700 companies. According to the Business Week report, executive recruiting worldwide is a $10 billion+ market and growing, as competition for top talent becomes tighter. The article also noted that individual reputation was the most important reason corporations engaged recruiters.

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