Interview Success - the way Zagorski did it

In the April 2000 issue of the Reader’s Digest magazine, Nick Corcodilos, a famous headhunter, recounts how Zagorski, a professional seeking a new job, wowed an interviewer at a big corporation and got the job.

Zagorski went for an interview at AT&T. At the outset, even before Zagorski could settle in his seat, the interviewer told him that he had only 20 minutes to spare. Instead of feeling belittled or nervous, Zagorski got up and walked up to the marker board. He then started writing down the challenges faced by the company.

Fifteen minutes later, he wrote down his estimate of what he would add to the bottom line. When he paused to take a look at the interviewer, he found him completely dazed. The next thing he heard was interviewer telling him that there was no need for any further interview. The interviewer called in his team, introduced Zagorski to everybody and they began a working meeting, which lasted for two hours.

Most people go to interviews hoping to be questioned and assessed by an interviewer. They go anxious and worried, wondering whether they would get the job. People like Zagorski approach an interview with a completely different mind-set. They go well-prepared to demonstrate how they would fit into employer’s needs and bring value to their business. They go as a value provider, not as a job seeker.

Would you also like to impress your would be employer just like Zagorski? If yes, the next time when you get an interviewcall, don’t lose any time and get down to preparing a powerful presentation. Here is a road map:

1. Know the employer
Go to the company’s Web site and learn about its products and services. What initiatives this company is taking? Who are its competitors, and what challenges this company is facing? Read the “news” section to pick up the latest happenings there.

2. Review the job
Next, zero in on the job that you are pursuing. What are the employer’s expectations in terms of responsibilities, actions and goals? Also note the job requirements–qualifications, experience and skills–employer is expecting the right candidate to satisfy.

3. Review yourself
Look at your resume and review the assets you have: your experience, education, achievements, skills, knowledge and strengths.

4. Prepare a presentation
Having done the homework, now it’s time to prepare a short PowerPoint presentation. The presentation should essentially comprise the following parts:

Part 1: About yourself
Prepare a short introduction of yours in terms of education, experience and achievements.

Part 2: Employer’s business
This part is about showing your understanding of company’s business: products, services, markets, competition, etc.

Part 3: Employer’s needs
In this part, list all of employer’s expectations–responsibilities, actions and goals—you will be expected to meet. Also talk about the challenges you will be facing in the job.

Part 4: How would you deliver?
This is the heart of your presentation where you would demonstrate how you would tackle the challenges and go on not just to meet employer’s expectations, but exceed them. To make it credible, share actual examples from your past experience and use quantitative information.

On the whole, keep your presentation limited to 10 slides and 15 minutes long.

5. Practise: The last and final step is to practise delivering the presentation. More you practise, more relaxed, confident and convincing you will be during the interview.

Zagorski wouldn’t have been able to make that job-winning presentation if he had not done thorough preparation. Now, it’s your turn to follow his way and enjoy success at interview.

Atul Mathur is the author of three ebooks: 5 Quick Steps to a New Job, The Best Career Move: Know Yourself and The Secret of Finding the Right Career Direction.

Arti Sharma speaks to TimesJobs on new India Budget

Arti Sharma, Head HR, India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd.

Budget 2009 was not able to give much to salaried professionals. The increase of slab by Rs.10000/- will give little impact to few professionals.
- FBT abolition is good for corporates but required more clarity. Incase this will be passed on to employee on normal slab rate this will be a big hit for employees and that too at this time of recession, when no change or reduced salary .FBT abolition at employer end should not be passed to employees
as tax burden.
- There is one good step in last so many years that surcharge is removed for more then 10lacs salaried professional.
- Commodity rates are increasing, salaries in this tough market situation either no increase or cut , the budget was not able to give any relief.
- All salaried professionals were expecting increasing under Home loan exemption but no change made all unhappy.
- This is good step that Govt.is taking care of farmers and want to focus more on their development ,but Govt need to understand
that most of their tax collection is coming from salaried professionals.
There is nothing for salaried professional.
Overall the budget -2009 was not able to give any relief to salaried professionals ,and a big disappointment for all.

Article excerpt from TimesJobs blog.

How to’s and benefits of Job Fairs in time of recession

Job Fairs are especially effective in today’s current global scenario because they provide a cost-effective, and very convenient way to contact many recruiters in a surprisingly short amount of time. Another benefit is that they are all under one roof. Job fairs can be extremely beneficial provided you know how to make them work to your advantage.

When choosing to attend a job fair, it’s very important that now – more than ever with the job crunch – that you make yourself stand out as a candidate. Researching on various companies that are attending will show your interest and ‘tell’ them that you are proactive and right for the job.

Begin with getting a list of attending companies from the job fair organizers. Then, just choose out the companies that you are personally interested in working for and get to work on researching them.

Once you have completed your list, make sure you take note of the smaller details as well. Write it down. A short pencil is better then a long memory!

After your lister is done, make sure that your resume is up to par. If you want your job fair experience to be productive now that the market crash is here, you need to ensure that not only your research but that your resume shows you can stand out of the average. If it doesn’t, get it fixed.

Companies will not even bother to read through lengthy, badly worded resumes in the short amount of time they have with hundreds of potential employees. Your time is short, make it count.

How to do an online job search

Just because you’re using the internet does not mean it’s going to be easy. The internet has everything readily available, but the catch is that it’s always there if you know where to look.

Google is fantastic when it comes to top of the line searches conducted, and I myself am an absolute fan of the Google search engine and their other internet services (like Gmail, Gtalk, Google Chrome, etc). But no matter how fantastic Google may be, if you don’t know how to do an internet job search for your job employment options, you will get little further then seeing an excellent search-engine at work to the best of its abilities.

When it comes to doing a career job search, there are job websites galore and many, articles on how to do a job search, and still there are a few simple steps one must follow in order to ensure their job hunting success.

The first step is to decide on what type of job employment you are looking for. Are you a fan of books? Maybe you would suit a job as a librarian. Do you just love learning new programs and designing software? Maybe you would suit being Software Engineer. Choices in the market are limitless; it is just the job logistics you need to finalize.

The second step is to understand what makes the job search complete and workable. Unfortunately, there are many who believe that by solely reading the classifieds they would be able to get quick results and are often disappointed with the slow progress they seem to be making. In all of that, they end up spending all their effort on very few results.

You and I both know that we live in a very modern world, and much of our daily interaction with others, our jobs, lifestyle, etc relies on none other then the internet. There are many job sites as I’ve said before, and you can log on to just about any one of them in order to receive job availabilities, but my advice would be to look for the ones which have resume services as they normally have some combo packages for both making your resume and opening your account. Some even have job

Remember that there is no use in putting all your eggs in one basket so to speak, and you will get the most results if you apply to more then one website that caters to the local area in which you live, or as per your job location needs.

An important thing about searching for jobs on the internet is that it never takes a holiday and is ALWAYS available to you…unless of course – true to Hollywood style - America (God save her) is going down and the rest of the world with her.

But internet or no, we’ve already established the need to not ‘put all your eggs’ in the same basket, and that includes not giving up on those oh so faithful classifieds.

All the best with your search for jobs, good luck!

Recruitment methods for times of financial crisis

As is widely known, the recruitment industry has taken a nose dive in these past months. Thanks to the recession and the falling global market, recruitment agencies have had to deal with not only a greater amount of stress, but a shrinking market as well. Many are battling just to survive.

Here are some steps you can take to help your recruitment succeed:

1. You don’t need to sit out the storm. Take measures into your own hands and get proactive! Success will not come to you, you have to go out, grab it by the hand and do so proactively.

2. Expect no less than the best. Expect accountability from yourself and those on your team. Focus on changing your environment to one that is positive and moving forward.

3. Focus on closing monitoring the ever changing industries.

4. Note how other recruitment agencies are effectively getting the job done. Study their successful trends and incorporate the same as much as you can.

5. And finally, build a good relationship with your clients. They are key to keeping you in business and making you a success.

Using these tips should help improve your recruitment strategies. Improve your techniques and gain greater business in times of recession! Good Luck!

Do let us know your take on the same and share your ideas with the users.

Quality of work Life

The QWL or Quality of Work Life in an organization is essential to the smooth running and the success of its employees. The Work – Life balance must be maintained effectively to ensure that all employees are running at their peak potential and free from stress and strain.

The Quality of Work Life can affect such things as: an employees timings, his or her work output, his or her available leaves, etc.

An organization’s HR department assumes responsibility for the effective running of the Quality of Work Life for their employees.

Quality of Work Life helps employees to feel secure and like they’re being thought of and cared for by the organization in which they work. Is QWL important? Yes, it certainly is! What do you feel about it?? Do share with us.

Interview Success

Most people go to interviews hoping to be questioned and assessed by an interviewer(s). They go anxious and worried, wondering whether they would get the job. People who get successful are different. They go well-prepared to demonstrate how they would fit into employer’s needs and bring value to their business. They go as a value provider, not as a job seeker..

Would you also like to impress your would be employer? If yes, the next time when you get an interview call, don’t lose any time and get prepared. Here is a road map…

1. Know the employer
Go to the company’s Web site and learn about its products and services. What initiatives this company is taking? Who are its competitors, and what challenges this company is facing? Read the “news” section to pick up the latest happenings there.

2. Review the job
Next, zero down to the job that you are pursuing. What are employer’s expectations in terms of responsibilities, actions and goals? Also note the job requirements–qualifications, experience and skills–employer is expecting the right candidate to satisfy.

3. Review yourself
Look at your resume and review the assets you have: your experience, education, achievements, skills, knowledge and strengths.

4. Prepare a presentation
Having done the homework, now it’s time to prepare a short PowerPoint presentation. The presentation should essentially comprise the following parts:

Part 1: About yourself
Prepare a short introduction of yours in terms of education, experience and achievements.

Part 2: Employer’s business
This part is about showing your understanding of company’s business: products, services, markets, competition, etc.

Part 3: Employer’s needs
In this part, list all of employer’s expectations-responsibilities, actions and goals—you will be expected to meet. Also talk about the challenges you will be facing in the job.

Part 4: How would you deliver?
This is the heart of your presentation where you would demonstrate how you would tackle the challenges and go on not just to meet employer’s expectations, but exceed them. To make it credible, share actual examples from your past experience and use quantitative information.

On the whole, keep your presentation limited to 10 slides and 15 minutes long.

5. Practice & Go in Prepared
The last and final step is to practice delivering the presentation. More you practice, more relaxed, confident and convincing you will be during the interview. Go in prepared; it’s your turn to enjoy success at interview!