As both co-organizer of the job fair and administrator of WorkNEPA, the regional job board mentioned in the document — and author of the guide itself, it’s my pleasure to share it with job seekers and career development professionals.  ~Karla

Job Fair Thank You Doc

Most fall into the third category — Most likely that means you.

Feel comfort in knowing you’re not alone and remember, there is no such thing as being overly prepared. Roll playing with someone by phone and in person is  indispensable, however there are also several other steps you can take to improve your interview performance and lessen your nerves.

Start by recognizing that some level of nerves is normal if you are taking this potentially life changing event seriously… it depends on your level of interview experience, self-confidence, how aligned you are with the job description and employer expectations, what’s going on in your life at the moment… the variables are endless here.

Depending on how much interview experience the interviewers has, she could be could be as nervous as you are. This happens often with smaller companies that direct hire without a recruiter on staff or with a new hiring manager. I have trained and coached interview techniques to many managers and a lot of them are nervous. Remember, they need to hire the right person. A lot of companies look at candidates who don’t work out as “bad hiring decisions” and place a lot (if not all) of the responsibility for a new hire on the person that made the decision. No one wants to regret the decision they made or have the boss or others saying “Well, you hired him/her”. The point here is that it is an even playing field when it comes to nerves.…

Interview nerves come from at least some level of lack of confidence and/or low self-esteem combined with self-pressure to perform  and emotional discomfort from someone we have minimal to no rapport with being “in control” of our situation. Here are some things you can do to be more confident and enhance your performance at game time:

Research the company. Learn as much about it and the job you are applying for as you can. Devour the company website, spend time there and take notes. Showing you “did your homework” says a lot about you in the interview.…namely that you want the job badly enough to be interested and prepared, but it also shows your initiative and mental energy.  In addition, you will have more confidence in the interview if you are prepared and you’ll find you depend less on your notes and are able to maintain more consistent eye contact. This can be the differentiator between you and your competition.

Ask the HR representative or receptionist what the dress code is if you don’t know. Ensure you go dressed appropriately. An office setting requires a suit or at the very least business casual clothing. Regardless if it is an executive position or unskilled labor, you must be detailed in your appearance and appropriate. Women should always dress conservatively unless they are applying for jobs where they would be expected to wear revealing clothing to work. The bonus here is that when you look your best you are more confident.

Arrive as early for the interview as you calculate you’ll need to relax and feel confident to walk in the door with good self command and composure. The drive there is always stressful enough, arriving last minute will just increase your adrenaline and make you more nervous. Sit in your car or in the lobby and give yourself a chance to calm down and prepare yourself. While you’re at it, check your #1  first impression weapon — your smile. Smile at yourself in the mirror, check your teeth, lipstick, whatever else your face has going on — to make sure it looks the way you mean it to. Smiling, Job Qualifications, and Ratings of Job Applicants, a study by Western Carolina University, clearly shows that “Smiling applicants were more likely to be hired and received higher ratings on additional attributes.”

Remember that an interview is a two way street.…you should also be interviewing the employer to see if you really want to work there as much as you think you do. It has to be mutually beneficial or one or both parties will not be happy and it won’t work out. Go prepared with questions about the company and the position. In addition to showing the interviewer your interest you will get the answers you need to know if you really want the job, if you would just be settling or if it’s not for you at all.

When we are tense we tend to raise our shoulders and fidget with anything in reach. Make a conscious effort to relax your shoulders by taking a few slow deep breaths, lowering them a notch with each exhalation until they are in their normal position. Maintain good erect posture and resist the urge to act like you’re all strung out on caffeine or whatever.. A candidate playing with a rubber band missed taking out my left eye by millimeters once. His behavior completely sabotaged the interview. He became embarrassed, red in the face, started to sweat, could no longer look me in the eye and forgot his lines. He squirmed until it was so uncomfortable for both of us I ended our misery by cutting the interview short. I couldn’t tell him it was OK — because it wasn’t.

If answers aren’t generating themselves as fast as you would like, it’s OK to ask for a moment to formulate the response to a question. Just say, “I have several examples, I would like a moment to give you the one that best exemplifies my skills and abilities”. No interviewer will have a problem with that.

Refrain from TMI and speaking about personal things unless they relate directly to the job. Remember it is an employment interview not a date (though there are similarities), stay on on topic. People who tend to discuss their social life and outside of work interests usually do so to fill in those awkward moments of silence or when they don’t know what to say… and it is apparent to the interviewer. If you face an awkward moment of silence just smile, ask a question you have prepared or comment on your vast wealth of knowledge of the company that you gained from your research. It will be much more impressive than whatever beans you were about to spill…

Most importantly, remember that an interview is really a sales presentation of yourself. The employer needs to “buy” your skills and talent to hire you. Your objective is to present yourself in the best possible light to show the employer why you are the best possible candidate. You must prove that if you are not selected the loss will be theirs. Sometimes, thinking of yourself in the 3rd person as a product is helpful.

Here is an exercise. Let’s say your name is Sam. Take a piece of paper and write down all the qualities you should be hired for. Stand in front of the mirror and sell Sam’s qualities. Tell the person in the mirror why they should hire Sam. Be convincing, and if you are not convincing to yourself you will not be convincing to the interviewer. Do this exercise until you are convincing to yourself and then ask a friend to listen to you give your presentation. You can “program” yourself to understand or believe just about anything. When you write, see and listen to a message multiple times you give yourself repeated mental impressions. Whether they are positive or negative, they will be deeply ingrained. That is why this exercise is valuable.

When it comes down to evaluating your performance, your advanced preparation will give you a clear advantage over the arrogant know it all who “doesn’t need to prepare”, and the self-sabotaging candidate who doesn’t want the job as much as she thinks she does — or she would prepare for it as if it were an Olympic moment.

Unless you were born with crazy mad communication and presentation skills — you’ll need to practice and refine yours if you want to walk out of the interview leaving them running to the nearest computer to draft your offer letter.….

Are you a job seeker? Ask me your questions.…. Are you an employment professional? Tell me your thoughts.….

“I left a message and no one called me back.”

“They said I would hear feedback on my interview in 2 weeks and it’s been 4.”

These are the comments frequently heard from job applicants and candidates. Sure, it’s an employer’s market and a gazillion people apply for every position out there. Many of those who apply have no applicable experience and you feel they have wasted not only their own time but yours as well.

Sign of the times, people are desperate. They think if your company is hiring for that position maybe one is coming up they would qualify for and they’re doing the smart thing by getting their resume to you now. You know, being proactive, beating the crowd, showing initiative. Most people who aren’t recruiters don’t know how it really works and that secretly (or not so secretly) you are cursing them, calling them idiots for applying to jobs they’re not qualified for.

It’s often brutal on the job seeker’s end; the hunt, the wait, the rejection… and I have observed on many occasions, a holier than thou, I’m in charge here and your future depends on me attitude - from recruiters, that is far from professional. We could be on the other end of an ATS in a heartbeat.

We should always remember that…

Yes, it is highly irritating when someone overkills with follow-up to the point of being within 1/10 of an inch of being an official stalker. It’s horrid when someone files an unfounded EEOC claim of discrimination because they were not selected. It’s worthy of hazardous duty pay when a candidate didn’t deal well with being turned down and becomes verbally abusive or goes off the deep end of desperation and confronts you loudly in public, keys your car, or any number of illegal acts of vengeance (which always provide ample validation of your decision making skills).

But, none of that should desensitize us to the point of dehumanizing a process which should be just the opposite; engaging.

Here are 5 simple customer service tips to help ensure you’re not hurting people or the employer brand you’re representing:

Screening calls is fine, if you don’t want to speak with the person, send an email — but send the email.

In your communication use time lines so applicants know when they’ll hear by and that if they don’t it’s because they weren’t selected.

Be organized enough to use calendar reminders, post-it notes — whatever — to remind you it’s time to make those updates you promised.

Tone — Don’t ever show or express frustration or irritability with applicants.

Remember to thank candidates for thinking of the company as a prospective employer.

Check out what Microsoft does to make candidates feel special when they come in for an interview in their candidate experience lobby. Just imagine how relaxed and psyched for an interview one must be after a hands on experience playing with all the toys. Granted, not every company has that to offer. But, even a warm greeting and scrapbook of good times in the lobby to provide a glimpse of the culture is better than staring at 4 walls.

What candidate experience tips do you have to share?

Once a year there is another type of event at the Arena that is totally different. It’s an interactive event that can literally change your life. It’s the NEPA Job Fair. Similar events are held in cities across the country every year. So, if you’re lucky enough to have landed here through finding this blog in a Facebook or Twitter post or Google search it’s for you too.

Now of course, you can walk in the Arena doors and on to the floor and weave in and out of the maze of employer booths like a spectator – that’s what most people do. Then you’ll go home and talk about how it was, “OK but nothing special, there are no opportunities around here.”

That’s the big mistake most people make, they treat a job fair as a spectator sport. Find out how to work the job fair over at the NEPA Job Fair blog…

Marginal or good doesn’t work when jobs are scarce and candidates are plentiful. Marginal or good works when jobs are plentiful and candidates are scarce.

Painful to hear, someone gets the job when there is an opening. Not getting the job doesn’t mean you weren’t a worthy candidate or that there isn’t a job for you.

If you are objective you’ll realize it means someone else:

• Had more relevant experience
• Presented herself more impressively
• Had more refined persuasive skills
• Showed more passion for the company’s mission
• Expressed more desire to do the job the way the company wants it done
• Left the hiring manager(s) feeling synergy and they missed her the moment she left

In other words.….….…. someone else was the better fit.

Instead of having self defeating feelings, if you were not selected for a job you have interviewed for, it means you probably wouldn’t have thrived in that position (or maybe that culture) as well as the person hired. You wouldn’t want to work somewhere that isn’t a great match, you wouldn’t be happy. So, learn from the experience. Analyze how you can refine your search for a better fit and and any other area you might improve on. Write it off and keep looking for the opportunity that is a match.

Keep on searching, look for unpublished jobs. They do exist. This week, a company in Wilkes-Barre told me they have grown to the point they need another person on staff and asked me to help them find an office manager with exceptional organizational skills and bookkeeping greatness. It’s a laid back, progressive, very cool place to work, with very competitive pay and benefits. –» This isn’t posted on a big job board or even their company website.

When someone lands the job of her dreams, it is huge cause for celebration. Check out JT O’Donnell’s Job Jam to see how it’s properly done!

For instance, there once was a woman named Reina.….. It’s your lucky day for I will spare you the very gory details.

It’s not a common name in the US and it had been a few years years since I had been subjected to it. About 7 years ago as a call center manager I received a calendar appointment to interview a “Reyna”. The hair stood up on the back of my neck. Immediately, all I could think of was there was no way I was going to deal with that even though I knew with 100% certainty that it was not the same person.

I got up and took a walk.  I needed air. And as I walked I talked with other personalities that reside in my mind and as we conversed and sorted it all out we came to the conclusion it was important to give this person a chance.

It’s not the same Reina so what are you worried about? She doesn’t even spell it the same way. You can’t judge a person by her name, don’t be ridiculous. What if you dismiss her because of something in your past that nothing to do with her, miss out on a great hire and do her an injustice? Just get over it.

I took some deep breaths, convinced myself to do the right thing and accepted the interview. Reyna turned out to have very high performance reviews over the next 5 years and in most respects really was a model employee.

This is a true story! I’m glad I recognized it wouldn’t be fair to judge someone on something that wouldn’t be performance related. Had I allowed my personal bias over a name to influence my decision it would have been a very big mistake.

What personal bias have you had to deal with? Was it difficult to recognize it existed? How did you overcome it?

#9   Do you restrict Internet access?

#8   What time would I have to work until?

#7   Do you do background checks?

#6   Do you drug test?

#5   How many sick days do I get?

#4   Can I work from home?

#3   When can I apply for a promotion?

#2   When will I get a raise?

#1   How long will this interview take?

Job seekers, have you ever regretted something you asked in an interview? Recruiters, Hiring Managers and other interviewers, what are some of the most damaging (or funny) things candidates have asked you in interviews?

She lost her job 2 months earlier and since then had spent countless hours scouring job boards, employment websites and submitting resumes. Mine was the first call she had received. She was amazed the call had come within minutes of clicking the submit button.

I’m blogging this to let you know to not relinquish your job search because it is a certain season. Employers have year round needs and opportunity. We may take a little time to decorate, eat cookies and take a few days off but we still need to conduct business and meet our goals to accomplish our mission.

If you are unemployed you can’t afford to “take a vacation” from your job search. You must be relentless. Rise each morning as if you are going to work and then go to work on finding opportunity that matches your skills and employment goals.

Treat your job search as a full-time job!

When you find yourself becoming discouraged, remember that when you are depressed and down on yourself it shows and it could impact your interview. Think of your job search for what it is… you are marketing your skills and yourself as a product for prospective employers to lease. That’s right, an employer leases your time and talent! Make yourself as marketable as possible, showcasing your talents. An employer must feel that if they do not hire you they will be losing out.

If you fear rejection think about it this way.. In sales it can take 10 “no’s” to get a “yes”. You might get the yes the first or tenth time you ask for the sale, you can’t predict. Each “no” you get brings you closer to the “yes”! To be effective, you need to be steadfast and approach each potential customer with the same confidence and presentation — because that could be your sale. If you waiver, become doubtful, skip a step or lack thoroughness you could jeopardize the sale.

A job search is no different!

The key to a successful job search is to remain steadfast and remain consistent in your approach.

♦Treat each opportunity as if it will be a a “yes” and know that each “no” will only bring you closer to your new employment.

♦Present yourself to each employment opportunity as if it were the only opportunity. It will keep you sharp and make you work hard to win it.

♦Prepare for each opportunity by researching each company you apply to then target your resume for that particular job. It’s time consuming but it will stand out from the mass template submissions employers receive. Invest the same time and energy in your resume as you would if you were on the job and being paid to create an important presentation or report.

♦If you have anything less than a professional sounding email address create a new account such as firstname.lastname@host.com. Whimsical, cutesy, goth, TMI, sexual in nature, etc., type email addresses are simply inappropriate. After all, at least in my inbox the first thing I see, my first impression of a candidate, is their email address.

The key is to maintain a consistent professional image from A to Z

♦Keep a spreadsheet for (or jot in a notebook) the positions you have applied to. Include the company, contact, phone number, email address and date submitted.

♦Follow up with a call or email a few days later to ask if you are being considered a candidate. If the answer is no, ask for feedback on why. Don’t be afraid to ask — It will help you understand employer and industry needs and help you refine and target your search to match your skills. Thank the Recruiter for taking the time to provide you with valuable feedback and ask to be considered in the future for positions that match your qualifications. If a Recruiter has been particularly helpful it can’t hurt to follow up with a brief thank you email or note.

♦Start answering your phone in a professional way. “Hello, this is Sam” is a good greeting. Answering with “Yeah, who is this?” is less than impressive to a potential employer.

♦When a potential employer calls understand that is the first step in the interview process. That call is a phone screen. Put a mental “suit” on and conduct yourself professionally as if you were in a face-to-face interview.

♦If you are invited to interview in person ensure you arrive 10 minutes early. If you are not familiar with the location do a dry run. The day of the interview is not the day to get lost. Use that 10 minutes to psych yourself up for the interview and envision the job offer.

♦Dress, speak and act like the position you aspire to. One step up from the position you are interviewing for is a good guideline. Put on your best clothing and grammar (without gum in your mouth, of course), hold your head high and pretend you are the leading role in a movie. Be self-conscious of your posture and body language. Try really hard to have good eye contact.

♦Listen carefully to the interviewer’s instructions and questions. Focus and answer appropriately. Don’t deviate from the questions and do not offer up personal information. Remember it is a job interview and keep your comments to your skills, abilities and talents in regard to the position you are interviewing for. Arrive prepared to discuss examples of your performance, teamwork and people skills at prior places of employment.

♦Let the interviewer know you have done your research. Ask questions to show you are interested and engaged. If you don’t know what to ask some possibilities are about the number of employees and/or locations, what is a typical day like for a person in the position, examples of employee recognition, etc.

♦Thank the interviewer and offer a handshake. If you are still interested in the company at the end of the interview tell the interviewer. Something like, “I am very interested in this position, more so now after the interview and meeting you”. Ask for a business card and send a follow-up thank you email as soon as possible.

I look forward to your feedback on this blog post. Let me know if it is helpful to you. I would love to know what topics relating to employment you would like me to blog about and be sure to send me your success stories.

I want to hear your story!

That was my disclaimer, how I started the bare all session for 7 job club members who were facing the end of unemployment compensation.

They had all sent countless resumes, received calls and attended interviews. They were turned down every time during more than a year of searching. After longevity ranging from 7 — 30 years, and one odd duck that had never held a job more than 2 years, they were hurt and confused why no one “wanted” them. They had been loyal and hard working and considered themselves “lifers” at their jobs. They felt put out on the street even though they all acknowledged that it wasn’t personal.

“I go in, they look at me, see I’m in my 50’s and I can see it in their faces… they’re thinking, what are we going to get out of her, she’s old”.

“What happened to paper applications?”

I asked each of them what they considered to be their profession or career and how long they had held their longest job for. I found that they felt it necessary to manufacture resumes that look like lengthy to do lists rather than career marketing pieces with examples of strengths and accomplishments because they were proud of every single thing they did well.

“How do I know if they got my Internet application, there’s no name of anyone to call?”

“The job was taken down off the site a week ago and I still haven’t heard anything. How long should I wait to call?” Call about what,” I asked. “To see if I am being considered”, the professionally dressed 50 something asked. She wanted to know before she went on vacation so she could stop thinking about it.

“Here, let me help you”, I said.  I let her know that if the job was taken down it meant the search was over and a decision had likely been made or at the very least final candidates selected. She didn’t get it because she continued on. “What if I am one of them and I’m not home to get the call because I’m on vacation?” I tried to be gentle as I explained it was over… I asked if she needed to hear the rejection.. She said yes. I saved her the call and suggested she enjoy her vacation and get excited about new opportunities that might be available upon her return.

The patriotically dressed woman who was concerned about her age had difficulty coming up with her most important career accomplishment. After all, she was just an Admin Clerk who maintained hospital departmental records and administered the database over the past 30 years. “I don’t know you”, I said, “but let me guess what your strengths and accomplishments were and you tell me how accurate I am”.

• You have superior time management skills
• Your can learn on the fly and implement new processes and technology rapidly
• You are good at training and working well with others
• Attention to detail and accuracy are finely honed skills you possess
• Your attendance record is excellent and your personnel file lacks disciplinary action

And I went on… And her face lit up. Her demeanor changed as she agreed with what I was saying. “Yes, that’s me”, she said. I asked how many records the department maintained and the policies for record retention. I talked about converting the to do list into an achievement oriented resume that captured her skill as a repository specialist with great capacity for knowledge management.

She asked me to slow down so she could take notes. She was getting it…

There are people who need your help my friends. They are good people but they do not understand what we look for. It’s not their job to understand and we really shouldn’t expect them too. We’re out there looking for expertly crafted resumes and polished presenters. Fortunate individuals do not spend a significant amount of time between 18 — 65 searching for work. Why should they be expected to be experts at job search, resume writing and interviewing?

The light bulb went off for me the first time I was invited to speak at the local job club. I felt the questions were from far left field. Each time I go back I hear the same or very similar questions. So if it’s a bunch of people that do not know each other, at different times and places with the same questions… is it them or us?

It’s us. We’re expected to do more with less, we look for the perfect candidate on paper. It’s easier to put a resume in a no pile than the maybe pile and pick up the phone to help make that determination. We pop out the job postings electronically and sit back for ATS alerts that there are incoming. We don’t think about the effort and time put into each web application filled out, each resume and cover letter crafted.

We look to disqualify candidates, not qualify them.

I challenge you to pick up the phone. Call a local job club, state employment agencies (one stop job shops) all have them. Volunteer to speak. You’ll learn from them as much as they learn from you.

There are many flaws in the way current internship programs work.

There are several national internship websites that act as information portals and “job boards”. Many employers are not familiar with these websites and when career services offices tell them they need to create employer accounts and jump through hoops they quickly get frustrated and don’t follow through.  Because these websites are national, companies don’t necessarily attract local students. At the same time, most students manage classes and internships during the same semester so they need to stay local. It’s important to manage internship programs locally to allow for supervision of and assistance with the intern and employer experience. Introducing students to opportunities with local employers also helps aid in the retention of regional talent and prevention of “brain drain”.

Students and employers scramble to find each other. Employers willing to provide an opportunity to a student shouldn’t have to work hard to find one or have to reach out to multiple college career services offices to advertise. Student’s should understand employer expectations and how to conduct an internship or job search.

Another challenge is the concept many employers have of what an internship is. While there are companies that look to recruit entry level college grads and recognize that “try before you buy” is an excellent way to do it while assisting in the student’s education, many times what companies are looking for is cheap labor. Errand boys, envelope stuffers and filing clerks do not require college educations and internships shouldn’t be framed around these functions.

The goal is to enlist companies with a mission of community partnership and good corporate citizenship as extensions of higher education. That means that through this program they’ll pledge to do their part and take on a certain number of interns per year under specially crafted intern work plans based on job descriptions and goals that will be approved and provide meaningful experiential learning for students.

Students won’t just walk into an internship either. They’ll apply, interview and go through a selection process just like if it were a regular position they were going after.To help them prepare, they’ll attend program administered career preparation workshops to assist them with resumes and interview skills. They’ll learn the difference between non-exempt and exempt employees, go through mock orientation and non-harassment training and review and discuss example employee policies and handbooks.

Employers will provide an orientation, an intern mentor and regular coaching and feedback that is documented. Mid and end of semester formal performance evaluations will be conducted and delivered.

Students need to have tools and experience to set them up for career success. The program will provide a one semester real world career experience and the tools to be successful. Employers will have a more productive and functioning junior careerist on board, the opportunity to experience a potential addition to their team and a huge hand in the development of community talent in exchange for their commitment to act as “career labs”.

The logistics of the program require centralization to a regional common career services center shared by all area institutions of higher education and employers. This means students from all participating colleges will seek their internships from one source. They won’t have to be concerned that not all companies willing to provide internship opportunities haven’t reached out to recruit at their particular school. Conversely, employers will no longer have to reach out to many career services offices to announce internship opportunities. They’ll also have one contact, one source, to manage their talent search. College career services offices will serve as on campus liaisons for the program and have more time to focus on working with students to identify their career goals and provide resume preparation and interview skills assistance.

As a nonprofit organization at the helm, we’ll be happy to share our model with other like minded organizations everywhere who want to improve the ways talent meets opportunity. I’m asking you to reflect and comment here on the positive and negative aspects of your college internship and also about internships at the company you work for.  If you have great ideas about what would work better or what not to do I want to hear them. Your comments will help to create the greatest internship program on earth!