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By Karalyn | Categories: Accounting Jobs Sydney, Career advice, Insurance Jobs Sydney | No Comments
Many Aussies struggle to sell themselves in interview. I don’t know whether it’s because of the tall poppy syndrome here, where people think that talking about their strengths is chest-beating. I do think accounting and insurance people typically struggle with this. After all, many people in both professions are more used to talking in technical terms rather than their professional achievements.
An interview however, is one place that you should do some selling of your skills. This reason is really basic. If you do not have confidence in who you are or what you do, there is no way you will inspire confidence in others.
Behavioural interviews have been popular for years. Mastering how to present your examples in a behavioural interview will do half the sales job for you – without you actually having to tell the interviewer how terrific you are.
So no chest-beating involved. Here’s what I mean.
In a behavioural interview, you need to give a specific example – for example, a person, time, project, task or thing you did. You structure your answer with the situation/task, the action, and the result. That’s the STAR approach.
A good behavioural interview starts with self-awareness. You understand what you said or did that made you successful in the example you choose to present.
Many people however, fall down here. They will just tell the interviewer what they did. But there is no point just launching into an example or just providing detail about what you did. You also need to tell the interviewer why this particular task was meaningful and challenging for you.
When you describe the scenario, think about and talk about:
- why you are presenting that example?
- what was at stake, in the project or completing the task?
- why did you personally find the task challenging?
- what did you feel like when you were confronted with that situation?
To sell your examples you also need to pick examples that are vivid for you. These are the examples where you can easily remember details – perhaps this is because you did face a challenge in completing the task.
If you pick an example where your face lights up, you can remember detail and you explain some of the challenges, when you talk about the actions you took after that, the interviewer is more likely to think every action you took was “amazing.”
You have then sold your skills without any chest beating.
No fake superlatives needed!
By Karalyn | Categories: Accounting Jobs Sydney, Career advice, Insurance Jobs Sydney | No Comments
Last year the Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year was “Googleganger.”
Do you know what this means?
A Googleganger is a person with the same name as oneself, whose online references are mixed with one’s own among search results for one’s name.
My Googleganger is a gnome rescuer. In 2009 my rescue operations made headlines in the Penrith Press.
As people post, re-tweet, and share all over the place, you can’t have complete control over how you appear on Google. So it’s advisable Google stalking your Googleganger every so often. You never know who might pop up.
If your Googleganger has some unpleasant habits, here’s a really quick fix.
LinkedIn has a high Google ranking. Therefore your profile reference should appear in a Google search. Go into LinkedIn and check that your headline appears in searches. Include a line about what makes you unique. For ideas take a look at this post by LinkHumans on creative LinkedIn headlines.
When it comes to your good name, there are many things to be mindful of on social media. I’d tell you about these but I’m busy reading the speech my Googleganger made at annual dinner of the Blue Mountains Rotary Club in 2008.
It’s a cracker.
By Karalyn | Categories: Career advice | No Comments
Looking for a job sometimes feels like detective work. You read an advertisement or job description and you think – “yes I know what that means.”
But do you?
Often advertisements list a whole heap of skills, many of them the Hiring Manager would like you to have, rather than require you to have. Sometimes the person advertising has no real concept of the talent available in the market place and writes up a big long list of what they’d like. We don’t of course, we’re experts. 
You also rarely get much context from reading an advertisement. For example, it’s often useful to know the challenges of a role and the real reasons a role has come about. No matter how detailed role description is, a laundry list of tasks does not tell you what you’ll spend 80% of your time doing and why.
Changing jobs is stressful and one of the biggest decisions you make in your life. The more you can find out, the better informed your decision, which when you think about it, works for everyone.
So we’ve put together a list of questions you should ask when you are in an interview, or if you can, before you apply for a job.
1) Can you paint me a picture of a typical day, week or month?
This helps you visualise what you’ll be doing everyday.
2) What will I spend 80% of my time doing in this role?
This gives you a sense of the priority tasks and clues to the challenges associated with a role.
3) What do you see as the challenges in this role?
Emphasise the “you.” Different people will have a different perspective about the role.
4) Why has the role come about?
This will tell you if there has been a restructure, a promotion or a resignation.
5) What type of person succeeds in this company – how does this company define success?
This can give you some clues about the working culture.
6) How do people get things done in this organisation?
This again gives you clues about the working culture. While culture is described as many things, essentially it’s about the way people work.
So that’s our list. We’re sure you have a few more.
What’s your killer question on the job hunt?
We’re very keen to hear what you use.
By Karalyn | Categories: Accounting Jobs Sydney, Career advice, Consulting, Insurance Jobs Sydney | 2 Comments
Here’s my soap box rant on words I see and hear that niggle at me a little. These are my pet peeves only. You could me picky, so you’d better tell me if you agree or disagree, in the comment section down below….
“I’d consider that…”
If someone says in interview “I’d consider a lower level job,” I hear: “I’ll jump ship at the next better offer.”
It’s better to tell someone why that particular job suits you right now.
“Dealing with”
Spoken interviews and used in resumes – “dealing with” customers, staff, people etc.
On resumes you need to use more action words. See our previous post here.
In conversation it sounds like my Dad when he’s mad about something. He’s dealing with Telstra, “dealing with” the Local Council, “dealing with” his local member of government.
“Facilitate”
This always sounds a bit passive aggressive – usually used when someone wants to control something or direct a result, but doesn’t want to be obvious about it. Look in their passive aggressive tool kit and you may find enough post-it notes to start a cold war.
This is term is also frequently used incorrectly.
In interview I once heard someone say they were facilitating communication. When I probed a little deeper I found out that they had made a telephone call.
I facilitated the end of the interview after that.
“Outcome”
I like using the word “outcome” when I’m not really sure what to say. I can sound like I’ve achieved something, but I can be vague about what.
“In relation to”
Stick with about…
“In terms of”
Padding and filler. It either is or it isn’t!
This article first appeared on the www.interviewiq.com.au website.
By Karalyn | Categories: Career advice | No Comments
Behavioural interviews are a common form of interview. Nowadays at least one part of the recruitment process will probably be a behavioural interview, or at the very least, an interviewer will ask you to provide an example in one of the questions they ask. These tips will help you answer these questions.
Behavioural interview questions often start with: “tell me about a time,” “describe a time” or “provide me with an example.” The idea behind these interviews is well founded research that past behaviour is a reliable predictor of future behaviour, that is what you’ve done in the past, will predict what you do in the future.
If the behavioural interview is well constructed, the questions you are asked will come from some solid on the job research. Your interviewer should have benchmarked top performers in a role, isolated in detail the competencies required to perform that role, then written questions to allow you, the interviewee to demonstrate those competencies.
How are you assessed in a behavioural interview?
You are judged on the “quality” of the example you provide.
In general under each competency is a set of behaviours that the interviewer will physically or mentally tick off as you answer each question. You may be asked the same question in different ways to check that your skills are well developed and that you’ve used them consistently. You’ll be assessed highly if you demonstrate all the behaviours required in each competency. Interviewers like this method of assessing people because it’s structured and clear and a good answer is obvious to all.
The challenge for interviewers in this scenario is for them to elicit the best answer out of you to enable you to demonstrate your skills. Your challenge is to understand and clarify the intent of the question properly.
STAR interviewing technique
How do you answer STAR questions: “tell me about a time” or “describe a time” in a behavioural interview?
Describe the situation you faced or the task ahead. Describe how you handled that situation and describe how it turned out. Think of it like a story. The interviewer wants you to give an introduction, describe what you did and what happened in the end.
ST = situation and task. Think of this as “the challenge you faced”
A = the action you took to meet that challenge
R = the result
You need to be specific in answering these questions. Not what you would do. Not what you usually do. Not what you do every day. But something you have actually done, and preferably an example from your work environment.
Why such specifics? If you can provide recent examples that you can easily recall, you are actually demonstrating, rather than just claiming, you have the skills the interviewer is looking for. The more easily you recall these examples the more convincing you’ll be.
You also need to cover all areas however the bulk of your answer should focus on the situation/ task and the action.
How much detail should you give in a behavioural interview?
As you tell the story you need to provide detail about how you achieved something, but don’t provide so much detail that you lose track of what you are talking about. Give enough to be credible which will reassure the interviewer you have the skills they are looking for. If you are confused, remember interviewing does not need to be a one way interaction. You can always ask the interviewer if they need more detail or how much detail they need.
If you think you are providing too much detail, check with the interviewer. Or use your cue from the body language of the interviewer. If they stop writing, then it’s a good idea for you to stop talking, and check back in.
What if you can’t think of an example in a behavioural interview?
It’s not a great idea to pass on too many questions. However it is easy to freeze up under the stare of an interviewer. Don’t put pressure on yourself by trying to think of your best scenario. If you can’t think of your best example, then think of your most recent. Many people take for granted the skills they use every day, yet if you are doing these things every day, you may under rate your competency in that area.
Can you use a general example in a behavioural interview if you can’t think of a specific example?
For a behavioural interview the short answer is no. Try not to. It’s too text book, and just not convincing. You could have made it all up and you will sound just like the next person in line.
What if you can’t provide examples based on a similar role to the job you’re being interviewed for?
One of the beautiful things about behavioural interviews is that they allow you to showcase competencies. You may have developed these skills in a role unrelated to the position for which you are applying. So listen carefully to the question and provide an example that answers that question, regardless of where you have gained that experience. Again if you are not sure whether you can present an answer from another context, ask the interviewer.
Sample Behavioural Interview Questions
To prepare examples, look at the key competencies listed on the position description. Prepare at least one or two examples to demonstrate your skills.
Example behavioural questions are:
1. Tell me about a time when you managed a customer complaint
2. Tell me about a time when you went out of your way to help a custome
3. Describe a time when you worked under pressur
4. Tell me about a situation at work where you had to unexpectedly change what you were doing to work on something else?
5. Describe a time where you were criticized at work
6. Tell us about a time when you met a goal
7. Can you give me an example of a team that you have managed?
Questions to ask if you’re asked for any questions
Why has this position come about?
1. How would you describe the company/ team?
2. What do you see as the key challenges of this role?
3. What are the plans over the coming year?
4. What will be the next step in the process?
These tips were brought to you courtesy of www.interviewiq.com.au
By Karalyn | Categories: Career advice | No Comments
1) Do nothing. Turn off the iPhone, bury the iPad, give Facebook the flick. Catch up on sleep.
We call Christmas the cranky season, as it is one of the most stressful times of the year. If you’re worried about your career direction, put it on hold during this period. Take a break and give up worrying for a while. – or find something bigger than yourself to worry about. Try volunteering. You’d be surprised at how much perspective the size of other people’s problems can give you about your own.
2) Develop some self-awareness. Do you actually know your strengths, weaknesses, motivations and values?
Most people spend more money on their holidays than they do in evaluating and marketing themselves for their career. Yet your career is where you’ll spend most of your time. You do know the saying, don’t you? “Do something you love and you’ll always feel like you’re on holiday.”
3) Develop some clarity about what you can offer your employer. This comes from the self-awareness we describe in point 1), plus understanding where you sit in your market.
4) Write down a few goals. Make them measurable. Put a time frame to them. This sounds so basic, but you’d be amazed at how well it works. It must be the process of articulating your goals that keeps you accountable.
5) Break down your goals into smaller steps. One huge goal can seem insurmountable. You may find yourself giving up if you feel overwhelmed if you ask yourself to climb the career mountain all at the one time.
6) This next bit is going to sound like dating advice.
Put yourself out there. Make sure people can find you. Put your profile up online. Linkedin is a treasure trove for headhunters. A passive way of being active in your job hunt is to have a very good profile.
7) Look for help. One thing that works for people is an accountability coach. Ask a person to ask you once a week how your job search is progressing. Think of them like your professional nag. They’ll soon irritate you if you have done nothing.
Speaking of professional nagging, if you do find yourself thinking about your next career move, give us a call (02) 8221 0553. We don’t mind doing it. That’s what we’re here for!
By Karalyn | Categories: Career advice, Recruitment | No Comments
Recruitment Consultants are not Careers Counsellors. We can give you advice about the next logical step in your career. We can tell you where others have gone before you. We can match you up to the roles we have on offer. But we can’t really help you, if you have no idea what you want.
Sound like you? Sounds like everyone at some point in their life.
So how do you find a job when you don’t know where to start?
Well, we’d recommend careers counseling, either informally or formally. In fact if we all had this before we began our careers, say in school, it could have saved us a lot of heartache from careers we feel stuck in and jobs we don’t like.
Here’s what a Careers Counsellor can help you identify:
- Your innate strengths
- Your preferred working style
- Your preferred work environments
- The way you like to be managed
- People whom you like working with
- Any barriers you have to achieving your goals
The next step from there is to look at industries or businesses that are growing and any study you may need to do. Part of that process could be talking to people who are employed in the areas you have identified as being of interest. Ask them how they got their first job in that field, what study they recommend the exciting and not so exciting bits about what they do.
The reason I say this is that many people who successfully change careers have started that journey from seeing a Careers Counsellor and talking to others. They have gained a level of self awareness. This has helped them in the job hunt when they’ve been grilled by an interviewer asking them about their career change. They can say with conviction: “I asked an expert, and this is why I know this new career is the right choice for me.”
This site has a list of Careers Counsellors in Australia.
When you choose a Careers Counsellor you might want to ask their experience, the journey they take you on, what you can expect at the end, and their experience in helping people in your area.
I’d also recommend you read this terrific article by Kate Southam in her blog: Cube Farmer. She writes on talk she gave to school leavers on how to find your first job. It’s actually great advice for people of any age.
The last thing to think about, is that a change is often a journey not a leap. Rarely do you hear of people who’ve gone straight from being acrobats to astronauts. That’s much too much of a jump.
(Lame joke, I’m sorry)
By Karalyn | Categories: Career advice | No Comments
Many people freeze up in interview due to panic and nerves. Most of us can relate to that experience. But did you know that your nerves can actually make you do other things apart from forget your answers?
It’s a harsh reality, but some interviewers see the way you handle yourself in interview, as an indication of what you will be like under pressure in real life. The theory is that you give at your weakest points.
Here are a few things we’ve seen our candidates do when they are nervous.
To be honest on our side of the desk, this behaviour can be quite distracting.
Jumping in to answer a question before an interviewer finishes asking it
This is annoying. We read this as poor listening skills, or that your desire to impress is bigger than your desire to listen. Think of it like this. If you are having a normal conversation with someone, and they interrupt you, it feels like a verbal knee-capping – both unexpected and painful.
Not answering the question
If we as interviewers have to repeat the same question in several ways, we figure you don’t understand the question, or don’t have the skills we are looking for.
Talking too much
Some people don’t seem to breathe in interview. This is all good if you are engaging, amusing and can confidently tell a good tale. However remember to check in to see if the interviewer is actually listening to you.
The tricky thing here is to know whether your interviewer is a person who likes detail or who a person who likes bullet points. It’s also difficult to know if interviewers are actually listening. Some interviewers, particularly experienced interviewers, are professional at looking like they’re listening.
If you are worried about this, you can always ask if an interviewer needs more detail, or invite them to stop you talking if you think you are giving too much.
Odd phrases
Are you guilty of these: “Like,” “like you know,” “do you get what I mean?”
This kind of verbal stuffing can completely detract from your appearance as a competent professional. The public speaking group, Toastmasters, is good for eliminating this kind of thing, in a very gentle way. So is recording yourself in an interview practice session.
Forgetting to listen
Sometimes people launch into an answer that they want to give, rather than listening to what a question is actually asking. The danger in this is that it may take the interviewer a couple of minutes to realise you are off-tangent. If your interviewer is short on time, or simply impatient, you may have missed your chance to present the best of yourself.
Are you guilty of these? Leave a comment below and we’ll see how we can help.
By Karalyn | Categories: Career advice | No Comments
Should you talk about your weaknesses in interview?
Why yes, you should.
Here’s why.
People want to hire people they can relate to and who are self-aware. Interviewers do know that you are not going to reveal your worst character flaw. But they do want to get a sense that they are talking to a real person, not an automation who cannot talk about anything other than their strengths.
For any of you who are tempted to Google “perfect interview answers to the weakness question” – please don’t. Interviewers can actually tell if the answer you are giving has been pulled off the internet. They also don’t really want to employ someone who dodges the question with a cliché answer.
Think about it this way.
You are in an interview because the skills and strengths you have lend themselves to that profession. A weakness you may have may not actually be the huge deal-breaker you think it is. We all know software engineers, accountants or analysts who are not people-people. They are not being hired for that. They are being hired mainly for their technical skills.
So our advice is to keep it real.
If for example you’re an analyst and your role is to get deep into the numbers and standing up in front of a group of people and presenting is not your first favourite activity, then you can actually tell the interviewer that. You can then talk about what you are doing to improve your skills, and how you know you have.
In the workplace, team work rarely runs smoothly.
Employers would rather hire people who understand their both their strengths and their weaknesses, rather than someone who does not acknowledge where they may have issues and is not prepared to work on those.
PS: Please don’t ask say that your weakness is that you care too much about the job, or you eat too much chocolate. We get kind of cranky!
By Karalyn | Categories: Career advice | No Comments
Second job interview tips
We all know the interview process can be lengthy these days. Given the economic uncertainty, we can confirm that our clients are taking their time to make their hiring decisions, particularly the big ones.
We don’t blame them.
In any economic time, hiring people is risky. If you’re looking for a job you may well find that you’ll go through an interview with us, and most likely at least two interviews with a client.
So why do clients do second or third interviews?
Clients do second interviews for many reasons. Hiring is not an exact science. Apart from testing your skills, employers will want to see how well you fit their team and their company culture. Culture we all know is difficult to define. So for your fit alone, a few perspectives are useful.
Second Interview Tips #1
Treat each interview as if it is the first.
Prepare to sell yourself each and every time you are interviewed. Do not assume that the interviewer knows much about you, even if they have your resume and our briefing. You would be surprised by how little communication can happen between internal parties in large organizations, pre-interview. Sometimes, if employer’s interview processes are sophisticated, they do what’s called a “data-integration process.”
This means each interviewer will gather separate data on you. They rate it, and come together to a mutual conclusion post interviews. But they won’t speak to each other about you prior to your interview. So our biggest tip here – is to prepare for each interview as thoroughly as if it was your first. Plus be prepared to go over old ground if the interviewer requests it.
Second Interview Tips #2 Use your first interview to ask as many questions as you can about the role, the employer, their expectations, possible career-paths, challenges, priorities etc. Use this information, not just for making up your mind about a role, but to think more deeply about relevant examples you can present in your next interview to highlight your skills.
Second Interview Tips #3
Preface your answers in the second interview, with the insights you have gathered from the first interview. That way you show you have listened and understood.
For example, you could answer a question this way: “I understand from my first discussion with so and so, that one of the challenges in this role is abc – I have actually worked on something similar in a previous role…”
Second Interview Tips #4
Be patient.
We know this is hard when you are anxious about a role, but for everyone’s sake, including yours, you want you and your future employer to make the right decision. It’s better to get things wrong at this stage, than when you start a role. Please don’t ever say to a second interviewer “we’ve already discussed that!” or “I told so and so that.” Respecting the interview process and showing some flexibility will take you a long way towards securing a role.
Second Interview Tips #5
An interview is always an interview, even if it doesn’t feel like one.
You’d be amazed at how people make hiring decisions, and some of the tricks of the trade interviewers use to try and make you feel relaxed.
One of our clients assesses your small talk in the reception and lift. She says that’s because her current team are “people-people” who need to quickly build rapport with almost anyone. So she asks a few random type questions about current affairs or the news as she is bringing people up to the interview meeting room.
Another employer we know shuffles his interview papers at the end of the interview as if to say the interview is over. Then he slips in a few questions when the interviewee is off-guard. He thinks he’s more likely to get an honest answer that way.
In coffee interviews, we’ve heard of people looking at the way you speak to waiters as an indication of your people skills and how you might treat people who report to you in your team.
Second Interview Tips #6
Sometimes with a second interview, you will find that the interviewer does all the talking, but asks no questions. They tell you about the company structure, the future direction, who is in the team, the challenges and priorities of the role and so on and on.
With this kind of “interview” go back to point 5. It is still an interview. We suggest you take this opportunity to learn as much as you can, and if the interviewer appears in for a chat, seize the opportunity.
Remember, not all interviewers are trained in interviewing. They may think they are interviewing you, even if they are just giving their information. However you may be being judged on the quality of the questions you ask, so fire away.
Second Interview Tips #7
Ask to see where you may be working. While talk is talk, we much more absorb by looking, feeling and visualizing. If you can actually see yourself at the desk, in the role and in the working environment, you’d be surprised how much more real it feels.
Second Interview Tips #8
If you really want the job, then tell the interviewer that – and why.
When it comes down to it, it might come down to a choice between you and someone with exactly the same skills. If that’s the case the person who wants the role the most, who shows the most enthusiasm, is the person who will get it.
Second Interview Tips #9
Remember you can always ask us what you can expect from a second interview. That’s actually what we are here for.
Does any of this sound familiar? We’re keen to hear what you have experienced or any of your questions.
Please feel free to comment below.
