Here are 8 CRITICAL Interviewing Techniques:

Common Courtesy: Do NOT chew gum during the interview. This seems silly to even have to mention but it happens often. Be on time. Arrive no more than 10 minutes before the interview time. Do not be late but being early can also put the hiring manager in a crunch. Do your homework. You should have researched the company, position applying for and even the hiring manager. Respect their time and title by being prepared.

Tone of Voice: Speak with confidence and authority; do not mumble under your breath. Hold your head up high and speak with clarity. Always pronounce words fully and enunciate. Slang and profanity are NEVER an acceptable form of communication.

Eye contact: Do not look away or stare at the wall, especially if you have an international accent eye contact is critical, it is much easier to understand the words when looking directly at someone.

Posture: Do not slouch, sit up straight and push your shoulders back. Sit still do not fidget, tap tour fingers or talk with your hands it is distracting and annoying. Do not shake your legs or put your hands behind your head like you are about to break out into abdominal crunches (this too has happened).

Facial Expression: This is one of my personal favorite tricks of the trade. It works every time, smile as you talk and see how he or she reacts to you, the mood changes!

Optimism vs. Pessimism: Don’t talk about how you were laid off or that everyone was fired and no one was happy at company XYZ. Explain things briefly and move on to more positive subjects. See the glass half full, not half empty.

Handshake: Extend a strong firm grip with confidence. Again, this is a key non-verbal expression and great first impression. This is another one of my personal favorites!

By following some basic tips you can be calm, confident and completely in control. Lets quickly look at 3 important things that you need to keep in mind at all times.

1. Punctuality
Needless to say, when you are late for your interview you might as well not go. Punctuality is something that is valued by all employers simply because it speaks volumes about your ability to organize your time. Always be prepared for the worse. Plan for that traffic jam and if you use public transport, make sure you plan for the worse. Always arrive 10 minutes early and never arrive 1 hour early.

2. Body Language
Coming across as a confident person is incredibly important. Your body language will however be an easy way to tell if you are not confident. Try and look people in the eye when you talk to them. Don’t twitch with your hands and move slowly and deliberately. Try and relax as nervousness is a trait of someone who is not very confident.

3. Talking About Yourself
Its amazing how most people tend to sell themselves short. We all have this fear of coming across as arrogant and often we sell ourselves short during a job interview. Its important that you speak confidently about your qualifications, your experience and your skills. The important distinction is to not talk up your personality traits too much as that can come across as being arrogant. Talk up your skills, experience and qualifications as much as you can.

They say that people form impressions of each other within the first 5 seconds when they meet. Needless to say that first impressions count – and they count a lot in a job interview. Make sure you present well and do whatever it takes to make that first five seconds count. It can make or break your interview and maybe even your job opportunity and your career.

You should always take the time to review a job offer before you accept it. Here are 5 tips you should follow:

Tip #1: Take Some Time
It is perfectly acceptable, even expected, to ask for some time to review if the offer before you give a potential employer your final decision.

Don’t make the hiring manager wait more than a few business days for your answer, however, and do give them a concrete follow up time that you’ll contact them. This sets guidelines for everyone, so that they don’t think you’re uninterested and offer the job to another candidate.

Tip #2: Review the Entire Offer
When you receive a job offer, it’s tempting to focus on one particular detail: the compensation. You need to review the entire offer, however, from the benefits to the title to the chain of command, to make sure it’s really a good fit for you and your career.

Tip #3: Ask Questions
If there’s something you’re unsure about, now’s the time to ask questions. Let’s say, for example, your position is a completely new one within the company, and you’re not sure exactly what the expectations are and who you’ll be reporting to (and who might be reporting to you). Ask the hiring manager these questions now; it will make your job much easier down the road. And, if you find out the expectations are different than what you gleaned from the offer letter, now’s the time to negotiate (see tip #4).

Tip #4: Negotiate
If there is something about the offer that’s not meeting your expectations, negotiate. Come back with another number and see if your potential employer can meet it. If they can’t give you the compensation you’re looking for but you still want the job, find a way to compromise: see if you can get flex time, additional vacation time, or a better title (which can lead to increased earning potential down the road.) The important thing is to negotiate your terms now, so that you can’t start your new job feeling good about yourself and your new company.

Tip #5: Plan a Timeline and Exit Strategy
As you contemplate accepting a new job offer, you also need to think about when you want to start working. If you’re unemployed, the answer is easy: ASAP. If you’re at another company, however, you need to think about how much time you need to make the transition. Two weeks is the standard amount of notice, but if you’re working in an upper-level management position, it’s respectful to give your current company longer, even up to a month.

If you’re new employer wants you to start sooner, you make have to negotiate between the two so that you don’t burn any bridges. You can offer to help your current company find your replacement through your networks, and also to be available on nights and weekends (for a limited basis) during the transition.

Lastly, don’t forget to add in some time off for yourself in between jobs. Leaving one company for another is an enormous change, and you’ll want at least a few days off in-between to mentally prepare yourself.

Starting with your skills, abilities and desired impact is the quickest way to actually beginning a career you will love.

It simply makes sense to go toward work that uses your strengths and talents. If you are doing what comes naturally, you are more likely to be happy at work. And when you’re happy at work, you’ll be happier in life.

• Job search is a long and sometimes painful slog. You might as well channel that energy to getting the best possible outcome.

•Employers value your strengths, because you do your best work when using them.

•When you look for work that uses your strengths, talents and abilities, you have a better chance of finding it.

Work occupies a huge amount of our time, so it’s desirable to have a job we like.

Job search itself forces you to focus on what you love to do and do well. When someone says “I just want a job, any job,” they also quickly reject many suggestions. Someone recommends applying at a bookstore or for a sales job, and they say “but I can’t do that” or “I don’t want to do that.” They are getting more specific about what they want by first rejecting what they don’t want or like.

Most of us DO know what we want to do, what we’re good at, and what we’re willing to do as a job. It just may be hard to admit it. For a shortcut, start with your strengths and what you love doing as well as the impact you want to have.

Most people can do lots of things. What are the things you like to do more than others? What activities make you lose track of time? What brings a smile to your face? What do you always gravitate to doing even when you don’t have time or patience to do other things? What do people always tell you you’re good at doing?

Now, think about the impact you want to have with your work. What will you do with your skills? What effect will you have? What’s your purpose in using these skills, talents and abilities?

Be honest with yourself, and accept who you are. There’s a lot of “shoulds” surrounding work – I “should” do what my parents want me to do or I “should” like this work because other people do. If you can, stop “shoulding” on yourself and instead look clearly at what “is” rather than what is “supposed to be.” If you fight your natural abilities, you’ll end up miserable at work.

Knowing the skills and abilities you want to use will help with your job search. Essentially, your strengths become your key words in your job and career search.

• You can tell people that you are looking for work that will use these strengths.

• You can network in and explore several industries.

• You can have informational interviews with people in many fields or occupations, to learn more about how you could apply your strengths and talents.

• You stay open to many different kinds of jobs.

• Using your key words, you can discover the many different job titles that could use your strengths.

Soon you’ll be able to zero in on specific fields and jobs that are a good fit. Then it’s time to develop a “must have” list and create a job search plan.

The goal of the resume is to win interviews. The goal of the interview is to win a job offer. The more job offers you have, the more leverage you have in the marketplace.

1) Entice and Excite the Hiring Authority to Call?
Every recruiter or hiring authority has their own agenda to serve. They have supervisors, stockholders, customers, employees and more to answer to. What can you discern your hiring authority needs? What will make them look good to their boss? Do they need a sales performer, someone stable, a specific skill.

2) Capture the Readers Attention Quickly?
Got something good to say? Don’t bury it deep in the job descriptions, say it loud, proud and fast. Get to the point so the reader will be want to know about you. Use a summary to highlight important areas of your background first.

3) Set Yourself Up For Good Interview Questions?
Your resume has the seeds of future interview questions. What you put on our resume dictates the tone and content of many of the questions that will come back to you in upcoming interviews. Share stories, anecdotes and illustrations that you like to about, and can expand upon at great length.

4) Tell the “So What” of your Abilities and Accomplishments?
So What!? Great, you got employee of the month…so what!? Oh, you put in an employee training and scheduling plan that reduced payroll by 10% and increased productivity and profit by 8% earning the employer an additional $150,000 per month. Make the hiring authority think, what if he/she could do that here! Subsantiate your work with clear illustrations.

5) Make Vague, Ambiguous and Uninspired Claims?
Improved customer service; helped sales team; work well with people…That all sounds nice, but everybody will make the same or similar claim. Show some enthusiasm for your work. Share some detail!

6) Use Proper Language, Etiquette and Grammar?
Well, this seems obvious, but most don’t do this. Resumes are written in 3rd person. (Don’t use “I” or “my”). Start sentences with an Active verb. “Motivated,” “Led,” “Sold”… Use present tense verbs if the statements still applies like a current job. Use past tense if it applies to something you did in the past.

7) Have a Defined, Clear Message and Objective?
What do you want? What is your goal? Show passion, dedication and commitment to your chosen career path. If you try to be everything to everybody, you will dilute yourself and come across weaker than your competition.

Work for Resume Scanning/Searching Databases?
Resume scanning and searching is about Keywords. Use the critical industry lingo or accomplishment phrases clearly and specifically. When possible use them more than once.

9) Be Formatted Properly for Emailing?
Virtually 100% of all resumes under any sort of serious consideration will be emailed. Submit your resume in MS Word 2004 or under version (.doc) This is the most universally accepted format as virtually all programs open MS Word.doc files. Fact: No matter what you do some formatting will be lost. Defer to more simple layouts and formatting options. The more complex the format, the more likely it will not be viewed as intended on the other side. The best format for email only is pdf, but that is not a searchable file format.

10) Oversell or Share Too Much?
The job of the resume is to get an interview. Thats it. Nothing more. If you get an interview you’ve most likely beaten out 95% of your competition. Share just enough information on your resume to get the interview. Share too much, and they might make a decision on you based on overly thorough resume. You want them to call you. Save something for the interview!

Most HR Departments use a variety of interviewing techniques. Being prepared for any of these interview methods could ensure you succeed to the next step in the hiring process.

When they ask specific interview questions, what are they looking for in your answers?

Traditional Questions

There are the traditional interview questions – you can search the Internet or your local library to find out how to answer these pretty confidently. These include some common ones like:

Do you prefer to work alone or with a group?

What are your greatest strengths or weaknesses?

What did you enjoy most about your last position?

Next, the situational questions become a bit harder to answer. Applicants are evaluated on how they would handle specific situations, such as:

How would you handle making a decision in a situation where you had conflicting information?

What would you do if your supervisor instructed you to do something unethical or illegal?

Competency-based behavior questions help interviews learn whether a candidate has the technical skills and knowledge, the functional skills and abilities to do the job, and can show their individual competencies.

A competency is a skill or ability that describes the expected performance for a job function. Thus, this interviewing technique is developed through an extensive process of evaluating the job functions, developing questions based on that competency-based information of the job, and training the interviewers in properly administering this questioning technique, to include using an objective rating scale.

These questions focus on actual behaviors rather than hypothetical scenarios, and would help the interviewer determine how well you actually handled situations, rather than how you might handle them if they came up.

One of the best ways to prepare for an interview is to make sure your resume sells the value that you can bring to the next employer. That type of resume will give you the confidence you need to answer interview questions effectively.

If you need to get a good job then you need to do something a little different in order to stand out from the other applicants without appearing like someone who could cause problems in the workplace.

The best action you could take regardless of your age or the financial climate is to really think about what your dream job would be. Don’t settle for second best or just take something for the money. In the short-term this will put money in the bank but in the long-term you will become bored and wish to leave for somewhere else.

Once you have decided on the job you want then do some research about this job sector and get some careers advice to make sure that you know what is required to apply. You may also need to update your skills and take a course or two to obtain the qualifications relevant for this career.

Another good way to get your foot in the door is to start making your own interviews with people in this career sector. All you need is a video phone or inexpensive video camera and even a laptop with a webcam will suffice.

Phone round some of the companies in your area and tell them that you are researching their type of work and would like to do some video interviews. You will be surprised how many of these companies will welcome the free publicity.

In choosing your career path, try to be as contemplative as possible. Make sure that you are already certain before you actually make your final decision.

You are still on the beginning of the career planning process, here are some tips you can use to help you decide.

Create a checklist of the things you like and you don’t. This might sound very elementary, but this technique is very effective. In choosing a career path, your happiness and interest must be your priority.

Several studies have already proven that even the brightest people fail simply because they are not happy with what they are doing. They might seem to be doing well, but deep inside; they do not like the spot that they are at the moment.

If you want to have a truly successful and meaningful career, it should be in line with your fields of interest. When you have seen that in your checklist there is a particular field which is dominantly against your will; then don’t choose a career related to it.

Try to cross out the fields which you are certain you will not excel at to limit your choices.

Be realistic. In as much as you want to really follow what you want, learn also how to look at some other aspects.

Enjoy the career planning process so that you make the best choice out there.

Start planning your life and narrow your choices when it comes to your career by taking a career planning test.

Choosing a career can be easier for you if you use a tool such as career placement test. You can avail this kind of test from different schools, books that you can buy from stores and even through the internet. You will need to answer set of questions and after that you will be able to determine what kind of field wherein you excel. You will be able to find out the type of career that suits your personality, your knowledge and most especially your skills.

The types of career search test can vary. There are exams which just ask simple multiple choice questions that will rate your intelligence on specific areas. There are also other kinds which will include essay type of questions that you have to answer briefly. You will have to answer questions from different categories and at the end of the test, once you get your result, you will be able to see where you are good at and what your weaknesses are. It will be a good basis once you make your decision as to what career to take in life.

These kinds of tests specifically evaluate your skills when it comes to areas like communication, computers and technology, math, science, art, and a lot more. If you got a good score in the field of communication, then you might want to consider taking courses related to it. You will also determine what working areas you are good at. If the answers show that you want to work alone, then try to consider job listings which have this kind of qualification. You will also determine if you have good leadership and management skills through this career planning test.

Getting this kind of test will give you direction and enlighten your mind when it comes to your options. It would be the best tool that will help you if it is your first time to look for a career. It can also help you when you want to have a change in your career and still you do not know where to go. Moreover, it can also aid in your decision when you want to get a course in college. It can be very difficult especially when there are a lot of courses to choose from. By knowing your strengths through the test, you will have a good direction in your career.

This is a good tool that you can use once you are not sure of what career to choose in life. It will be your sole decision and use the result in your career placement test as the best guide.

Career counselling tests are not meant to replace the role of a career counsellor. Rather, career counselling tests are actually one of many tools used by counsellor’s to help start clients on the path to career exploration.

Although not always an important or essential part of the process, career counsellors can find use of a career test useful when they encounter a client that is very “stuck” and who is unable to bring out career ideas or interests. Perhaps for example the client has a hobby which could potentially translate into paid employment or a career, but because they are so stuck in their position they are unable to see this possibility. The role of a counsellor however I often not to provide the answers and tell people what is right for them, but rather to empower them through the process to arrive at their own decisions.

A good quality career test would flesh out and bring to the surface such interests hobbies and factor these into career options to find the persons ideal career path. It’s not necessary to see a career counsellor to start this process however. People can take a career test on the internet, and this can be extremely useful if they focus on taking quality career counselling tests rather than any of the many often free and poorly constructed assessments available.

Look for a career test for which you are able to see the reliability and validity data provided by the test developer. Although understanding reliability and validity issues for psychological tests can be quite difficult and complex it’s important that any test you are taking is able to back up their claims with solid research, and unfortunately you’ll find that for free career quizzes this will usually not be available.

Only not the only tests, two of the more popular career counselling tests that do make their reliability and validity data available are the Strong Interest Inventory and Myers Briggs (MBTI) Career Report. Also available for these tests are sample reports so you can see the level of detail in the assessment and report prior to making a purchase.

A career counselling test is often a great way to start the process of career exploration, but don’t takes risks with cheap career quizzes and make sure you use only quality career counselling tests such as those listed above.