What Your Words Say About You in Interviews

If you were under the impression that cramming for the SATs was the last time you'd ever have to worry about vocabulary, you're mistaken. In interviews, the words you use are often viewed as related to your level of education and general aptitude.

Whether you're applying for your first postcollege job or trying to break into the executive ranks, it may be your vocabulary -- the subject you first encountered somewhere back around third grade -- that seals your fate.

Why Vocabulary Matters

"I think it's one of the major reasons why an individual gets hired or not," says Tom Defillipo, a 15-year veteran of a recruiting business that places IT candidates. "Very often, clients will ask us to qualify people on their ability to communicate verbally."

This doesn't mean you should try to grandstand by using fancy words for the mere sake of demonstrating your intelligence. "Some people use highbrow, academic vocabulary words, where you have to almost build a sentence around the word," says Greg Ragland, cofounder of Executive Vocabulary. "Then a lot of people give you a blank stare when you use it, and you have to explain what it means. That's not going to get you anywhere. You can be called out really easily if you use a word you're not comfortable using. You have to be really comfortable using a word and feel comfortable other people will understand it."

Improve Your Vocabulary

Ragland suggests focusing on "power words." He and his partner spent years compiling a list of power words they had heard executives use effectively during meetings. Ragland says there are many powerful expressions and words people have in their passive vocabularies, or the pool of words people know and understand but tend not to actually use themselves. He suggests trying to make the leap to incorporating these words into your active vocabulary -- words you can use comfortably and confidently.

"If you're using words that are in most people's passive vocabularies or can be understood when used in context by most business professionals, people will take note of the word and be impressed," says Ragland. He says the intellectual imprint you make on an interviewer through your vocabulary happens both on a conscious and subliminal level.

Ragland suggests that when job seekers are prepping for an interview, they should "look at words they think will describe their experience or their desire for the job and find ways to lace them into anecdotes about their past experience, schooling or whatever value they're going to bring to the position."

Ted Corcoran, former president of Toastmasters International, agrees a person's vocabulary serves as an informal barometer of that person's intelligence. "Certainly, the more educated you are, the better constructed the sentence, the more descriptive the words you use, the less verbal crutches you use, like ‘like', ‘you know' and ‘um,'" he says.

"People with a wide range of words can find the right word at the right time," Corcoran says. "And they can more succinctly make their arguments. There's nothing worse than people trying to explain something and not finding the words or the grammar to do it."

Read More

Tactics for Handling a Panel Interview

By Carole Martin, Monster Contributing Writer and Kathryn Troutman, Monster Federal Career Coach 

There you sit alone in front of the room, waiting for the assembled strangers to attack you with interview questions. It's really not quite that bad. In fact, there is an upside to panel interviews. You'd probably have to talk to each of these people individually at some point in the process -- this way, you get it over all at once. 

Panel -- or board -- interviews are often characterized by a standard set of questions for all applicants. Typically formal and organized, this interview format is often used in academia and government or for high-level executives. Occasionally, you’ll encounter a panel interview for other positions in a company. 

Interview Preparation: Don’t Be Ambushed 

Find out what type of interview you can expect. The recruiter setting up your job interview can probably give you an idea ahead of time. If you have the opportunity, ask how long the interview will be and who will be on the panel? You can better tailor your answers when you understand the interview conditions. 

And remember -- no matter how uncomfortable the interview situation -- you are there as a professional to learn just as much about them as they are eager to learn about you. 

Different Perspectives, Same Purpose 

How do you deal with so many interviewers in one sitting? The best way is to take them one at a time. The board or panel is not one entity, but several individuals coming together with the common goal of hiring the best candidate for the job. At the same time, each person has his own agenda or department's interest at heart. 

For example, the HR manager will be checking to make sure you are a good fit with the culture and people working at the company. The hiring manager will want to know about your technical skills or business know-how. And the person from accounting will want to know if you are savvy enough to operate a business budget. 

What to Expect from the Panel 

You may be asked to speak about instances when you demonstrated particular behaviors or skills that are key to performing your desired job. This form of interviewing, known as a behavioral interview, relies on the premise that past performance is the best indicator of future behavior. 

Always be prepared to provide a sort of elevator pitch -- a brief summary of who you are and your career goals. This message can include your overall mission, top-level skills and interests, but not a recitation of your life’s history. Be ready to share your concise message at the beginning or end of the interview. 

Practicing for the interview with a video or audio recorder is extremely helpful. The best interview answers include examples that are compelling, on-target and spoken with interest and some enthusiasm. When speaking, don’t hesitate to lean forward. Check your posture at a table and lean forward to demonstrate interest in the position. Remember to look at each person who asks the question, and then shift your eye contact to the other members of the interviewing team. 

Lastly, make sure you get each person's business card, hopefully at the beginning of the interview, so you can address each person by name and follow up with individual thank-you notes afterwards. 

Team Interviews 

Another multiple-type interview is the team or "good cop/bad cop" interview. The team is usually made up of two interviewers, one who asks the questions and one who takes notes. The two typically trade roles, which can be confusing if they have different styles. Keep in mind that these inquisitors are working together toward the same end, so treat them equally. 

Although these interviews can be stressful, interview practice and preparation can pay off. When you rehearse your answers and your physical presentation beforehand, you will feel more confident no matter how many people you have to face.  

Read More

Visualize Interview Success

Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Michael Phelps employed visualization and relaxation techniques before his races. Golf superstar Tiger Woods incorporates visualization into his pre-swing routine. And Phil Jackson, the legendary former head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, implored his players to visualize victory before games.

So if your career goal is a better job, visualizing your interviews in advance could be worth trying.

The Power of Positive Thoughts

Many of us have visualized worst-case interview scenarios. It's not unheard of for people to have nightmares about upcoming interviews. According to Lynn Joseph, vice president of Parachute, an outplacement company in Point Richmond, Virginia, that power can be harnessed in a positive direction to get what you want from an interview. [Note: The author is also employed by Parachute.]

Athletes, entertainers and salespeople have been using visualization for decades. Now job seekers are using this technique as well.

The Journal of Consulting Psychology outlined an experimental study of visualization techniques. One group of job seekers received traditional career counseling and interview coaching. Those in the second group were exposed to the same career counseling and interview training, but these job seekers also learned to use visualization techniques related to these subjects.

Two months after the training, 21 percent of those in the group who did not use mental imagery found new jobs. But 66 percent of those who used this technique were employed within two months.

Train Your Mind

What distinguishes good visualization techniques from a passing daydream is that you purposefully program your mind to visualize only the positive things you want to happen. Follow these steps to seize the power of your imagination and program yourself for a successful interview:

• Lie down comfortably in a quiet room. Close your eyes, and use each breath to relax your body from head to toe.
   
• Imagine yourself preparing for the interview on the morning it will take place. When you visualize getting to the employer's office, use your senses to imagine the colors, light, shadows and objects in the room. In your mind, hear the interviewer's voice when he greets you. Notice your emotions are calm and confident as you shake hands.
   
• When you meet the interviewer, imagine you are smiling warmly, and he is smiling back at you. As the interviewer begins to ask questions, imagine you answer them spontaneously and easily. You feel confident and comfortable. Ideally, at the end of the interview, you might imagine hearing the interviewer say something like "You're hired" or "Welcome aboard!"

The more you use your imagination in this way, the better you'll get at effective visualization.

Make Visualization Work for You

Cynthia, a financial analyst who was terrified of interviews, started using mental imagery to prepare herself for them. "Before I used the imagery, I felt like a scared puppy," she told me. "Now I feel like a lion." Cynthia got a job with a higher salary than she had imagined.

Brenda, a triathlete who used to cross the finish line in about the 20th percentile, now says, "If I practice visualizing a ‘win' for about a week before the race, I'm ensured a third or even second place." Even the NFL's San Francisco 49ers and the US Olympic gymnastic teams make mental imagery a compulsory part of their training programs.

You have nothing to lose by trying this technique for succeeding at job interviews -- and you might just find it works. Imagine that.

Read More

Focus on Your Strengths

What do you have to offer an employer? Why should that employer choose you over someone else? What will make interviewers remember you after they're done with their first round of meeting potential candidates?

It's about matching their problems and needs with your qualifications, skills and traits. Your mission is to convince interviewers that you are the solution they've been seeking.

Make Your Case

Concentrating on your five best strengths will help you focus during the interview and will make it easier for them to remember you. You can begin before the interview by identifying your five key strengths and matching them up with the job requirements. Once you've done that, determine ways to bring up these matches during the interview.

Susan Croce Kelly of Kirkpatrick International in Houston is a communication specialist who writes speeches for executives. She advises telling your audience what you are going to say early in your presentation and then repeating your points throughout. “It is not unusual for people to say ‘What a wonderful speech,' and then five minutes later can't remember what it was about,” says Kelly. “If they remember two ideas from a speech, that is scoring high. Repetition is really important, because they might miss it the first time. Keep going back to the main point.”

You can actually use the speech model to prepare your presentation. Think of ways to present your key qualities throughout the interview. For example, let's say you're interviewing for a position that requires strong organizational skills.

The first interview question the interviewer asks is, "Tell me about yourself.” Part of your answer should include a statement about your organizational skills. “One of my key strengths is being organized. If you were to ask my coworkers, they would tell you I am the ultimate planner.”

Later in the interview, you could repeat your strength in a story format: “One project I worked on was very complex and detailed. It required a lot of forethought and planning on my part. I was able to do this using Microsoft Project software for tracking and scheduling.”

The interviewer asks, "“Why should we hire you?” Your interview answer should repeat information about being organized. “From what I have heard throughout the interview, it sounds like you're looking for someone to come in and bring order to projects here. Since I am known for my organizational skills, I know I would be a real asset.”

By the time you leave the interview, the interviewer should have a strong sense that you're a very organized person. Since this is important for the job, you will probably receive serious consideration as the solution to the company's problem.

What Are Your Strong Points?

Identifying your five strengths and matching them to the job is an important step in preparing for your interview. Read through the description and identify the key factors needed to do the job. Be sure to read between the lines. For example:

• Will interact with accounting, engineering and manufacturing departments.

What will it take to perform this task? What kind of person is this company looking for?

It will require good communication and interpersonal skills, and the ability to interface with a diverse group of people and levels. If these are your areas of strength, focus on letting the interviewer know that you have the ability and experience to interface well with many different groups.

Like the speechwriter, you want your audience to remember the important points you have made. By concentrating on a handful of strengths, you will find that you are more focused and succinct about telling what you have to offer. More importantly, the folks you meet are more likely to remember you for your strengths.

Read More

Five Tips to Ace Your IT Interview

IT recruiting has evolved tremendously over the last decade. As organizations have become more IT-friendly, clients are expecting the same in return. Because IT providers now rely heavily on providing quality service, they need a staff who can accommodate these evolving -- and demanding -- needs. To prepare for an upcoming IT interview, be sure to keep these five IT interview tips in mind.

1. Be an IT Softie

Soft skills are valued in today's workforce, regardless of your job. Your future boss wants to make sure she can trust you to interact well with peers, suppliers and, most importantly, clients. Employers are becoming more willing to invest in a well-spoken junior resource who can be trained rather than a guru who does not communicate well.

To wit: Be friendly, stay natural and show how awesome you are. Many candidates are understandably nervous and assume more rigid personas during interviews. Don’t. You have a personality -- use it! Always remember, if hiring managers are taking the time to meet with you, they want to like you. It is in their interest. Let them.

2. Be Honest About Your Knowledge

A necessary evil of applying for an IT job is the technical interview. This is an often a harrowing affair in which there is often a very defined answer to a question. You either know the answer or you don't, so be honest if you don't. Nothing makes an interviewer more uncomfortable than a candidate taking wild guesses when answering interview questions. Doing so will make you sound and feel insecure, and will surely impact the tone of the meeting.

Be honest and say that you don’t know while suggesting how you would go about finding the answer. This will demonstrate your ability to solve problems and think critically. If you’re caught in a 50-50 proposition, argue both sides to illustrate the merit of each. Your interviewer is not necessarily looking for the right answer; he is looking to see how you would go about arriving at an answer. This helps keep the momentum on your side and will keep the interview on stronger ground.

3. Steer the Conversation

This is a universal interview tactic: Try to keep the conversation focused on your strengths. In fact, go one step further. If you’re applying for a Unix system administrator position and you have, say, experience managing Active Directory, it does not hurt to discuss it.

An IT-oriented organization is always looking for multiskilled talent who can fill in knowledge gaps. Stating your cross-platform skills could put you in the running for other career opportunities you don’t know about at that company.

Keep in mind that companies hate turning away a multitalented candidate, unless of course the candidate has an irritating personality.

4. Be Enthusiastic with Your Enthusiasm

Interviewers love enthusiastic candidates. If you come across as confident and positive, your interviewer will be more at ease and more likely to want to engage you. In addition to your technical aptitude and personality, an interviewer wants to make sure you’ll be happy if you’re offered the position. Feel free to ask about training programs and professional IT certification as a means of showing a passion for learning and advancement.

Also, mention some positive, nonwork-related attributes that will assure the interviewer that you’ll want to join her team. For instance, if you live close to the office, mention what a pleasure the commute will be. Interviewing candidates costs organizations time and money, so they want to make sure they get it right. Graduating from candidate to employee has as much to do with enthusiasm as aptitude and experience.

5. Get Your Geek On

When in the throes of a technical discussion, discuss your personal interests and opinions on the topics at hand. You’re in a room with like-minded people so they will naturally be interested in discussing mutually interesting topics. Take advantage! This probably doesn’t happen nearly as often as you’d like, right?

If you’re asked about the merits of MySQL partitioning, discuss your experiences with, say, MongoDB sharding and why it did or did not succeed. This will help you develop a rapport with the interviewer quickly.

Interviews don’t need to be uncomfortable, nerve-wracking episodes in your career. If you’re still nervous, remember that the interviewer wants the meeting to succeed as much as you do. Do your best to be positive and engaging so the interviewer can get a good sense of who you are and how you’ll fit into the job and the company.

Read More