Job interview tips

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We are looking for the first job

We are looking for the first job

Let's try to compare finding a job to something more pleasant, like a holiday.

Before we get on the train or the plane, we will certainly know a few important things. We will know what hotel we are going to have, how many days we are going to spend on holiday, we have learned something about the country, people, maybe even habits, etc.

The information that we should know when looking for our future work, can be summarized in several points:

-          The way how the open competition is performed

-          What are the criteria for acceptance of suitable candidates

-          What is the possible further development in the field and in the company

-          Is the job permanent or seasonal

-          Is the job new (newly created) or is anyone leaving it

Where to find such information?

-          Newspaper

-          Professional publications (annual reports, print material of the company...)

-          The Internet

-          Friends and their experience

-          My experience from internships, placements etc.

Each of these sources has its advantages and disadvantages, but if we combine information from them, we will obtain a sufficiently complete picture of the employer as well as the workplace.

Remember that it is always better to get information from different sources, because if we rely only on one source, we cannot be sure, whether our information is sufficiently accurate.

The employer often does not employ the best candidate but the most suitable one.

Allow the possibility that first job will not be completely according to our ideas, do not let this discourage you and success will surely come.

Applying for a job

Applying for a job

The moment you show interest for a certain job, a question appears how to ask for such a job exactly and what documents to prepare for future dealings with the future employer.

It will be in particular:

-        Job application (cover letter)

-        Resume

-        A certificate of educational attainment

-        A certificate of clean record (a listing from criminal records)

It is clear your interest in the job will have to be shown in a form of a written request. We'll show you a practical example how such an application might look like:

Sample Letter of Application:

Your Name
Your Address
Your City, State, Zip Code
Your Phone Number
Your Email

Contact Name

Title
Company Name
Address
City, State, Zip Code

Dear Contact Person,

I wish to apply for the position of Social Worker as advertised on seek.com.au. Please find my resume attached.

For almost two years I have worked as Mental Health Case Manager for Truecare and their Housing and Accommodation Support Initiative. In this time I have proven my ability to work with an interdisciplinary team, and also developed interpersonal skills and strong professional relationships with clients, including individuals, families and community groups. In my work I have acquired a thorough understanding of the Mental Health Act of 2007 in relation to social work.

My duties have included providing psychosocial support to clients, in the form of one-on-one counselling as well as group therapy; developing and overseeing treatment plans for clients; advising family caregivers; and consulting with doctors, therapists and medical professionals. I was awarded with the New Employee Achievement Award for my work on a difficult case in 2007. My strong verbal and written communication skills have been well utilised in this role and I have also demonstrated solid organisational skills in my case management.

I have a strong desire to make a positive difference in people's lives and I believe I would be an asset to St Paul's Hospital if given the opportunity.

If you require any more information please contact me on the phone numbers above. I am available for interviews and hope to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely

Signature

First name, last name

Resume

Resume

An application for a job has been composed and another document the employer must be sent or submitted is a resume.

We will process it in the structured form and split into several parts like this:

Your Contact Information

First Last Name

Street Address

City, State, Zip

Phone (Cell/Home)

Email Address

Objective (optional)

What do you want to do? If you include this section it should be a sentence or two about your employment goals. A customized objective that describes why you are the perfect candidate for the job can help your resume stand out from the competition.

Career Summary / Highlights (optional)

A customized section of your resume that lists key achievements, skills, traits, and experience relevant to the position for which you are applying can serve dual purposes. It highlights your relevant experience and lets the prospective employer know that you have taken the time to create a resume that shows how you are qualified for the job.

Experience

This section of your resume includes your work history. List the companies you worked for, dates of employment, the positions you held and a bulleted list of responsibilities and achievements.

Company #1

City, State

Dates Worked

Job Title

-        Responsibilities / Achievements

-        Responsibilities / Achievements

Company #2

City, State

Dates Worked

Job Title

-        Responsibilities / Achievements

-        Responsibilities / Achievements

Education

In the education section of your resume, list the schools you attended, the degrees you attained, and any special awards and honors you earned.

Education: Private Higher Tertiary Professional Social School in Jihlava

Field of study: Social Work

College, Degree

Awards, Honors

Skills

Include skills related to the position / career field that you are applying for i.e. computer skills, language skills.

Skills:

-        State exam from Typing

-        Systemic training

-        Course of Human Resource Management

-        Working with long-term social case

-        Administrative work

Language skills: English language

Work with PC: Word, Excel, Power Point, Corel

Driving license Category B

Interests: Aerobics, cycling, oriental dance, skiing, swimming

Personal qualities: reliability, thoroughness, diligence, communication skills, initiative, responsibility

In Jihlava, date:

Signature:

Selection interview with an employer

Selection interview with an employer

We were sent your job application, resume and other documents required by the employer, and you have been invited to a selection interview.

Such an interview is not a usual activity, and there is no wonder that it makes us feel apprehensive, anxious and we desire to be through the whole competition and, if possible, successfully.

An invitation to the selection interview is pleasing due to the fact that your documents caught the attention of the employer, and so you have a chance to be the right person, who is sought and needed.

Do not worry, competitions and interviews are not conducted by the people who spend their working time on embarrassing, humiliating, or ridiculing candidates for the job.

The committees consist of people who necessarily need to make the right personnel decisions for their company. They do not want the company to spend more money on re-publication, competition and repetitive training of new workers.

It is up to you to try to convince the committee that you are the most suitable candidate and the right worker. But not to make it easier, everyone else will try to do the same.

During the interview, you have the opportunity to offer your knowledge and skills, but also yourself as a personality. However, avoid presenting yourself as a personality that has nothing to do with you. An experienced recruiter then certainly realises that you are not relaxed and that you only pretend a lot and his/her final decision will probably not be in your favour.

Selection interview – the last advice

Selection interview – the last advice

1.       Make sure about the place and the time of the interview once more

2.       Bring the copies of the documents you sent to the employer

3.       Make sure that you have prepared appropriate clothing

4.       Before the interview, turn off your mobile phone

5.       Try to have a good mood

6.       Prepare answers to the questions that you are likely to be asked

The question that is usually asked at the very beginning of the selection process is, ‘Tell us something about yourself.’

If so, try to profit from this situation. It is a great chance to highlight your strengths without having to wait for the recruiter who interviews to focus on this area.

Use the information you have provided in the job application and resume. As your other strengths you might mention for example:

-        Ability to communicate with people

-        Ability to solve problems

-        Creativity

-        Diligence

-        Willingness to continue learning

-        Creativity...

A question concerning your interests will be certainly asked.

Try to use this question to inform the employer about your other skills as well. Your sports interests may indicate of the ability to work in a team, the organizational skills, etc.

If you list for example reading as one of your interests, please allow the possibility that future employers will be interested and might ask what book you last read, or are reading.

It may sound unbelievable if you were ‘not able to remember’ any title at the moment.

Do not also indicate a long list of interests and activities. The employer might wonder, whether you are able to perform and manage the company’s business with such a number of activities.

Unexpected questions

Unexpected questions

Tereza prepared herself for the selection interview, took all documents into her handbag, which might help her to be successful, and impatiently but with fear expected to appear before the committee.

She was expecting all sorts of questions, but one of the committee members surprised her with the very first question that he asked. ‘Miss, it is sometimes spoken about human resources, sometimes about personnel management and sometimes about the management of human resources. You have been concerned with this issue. Could you please, briefly explain the problem, before we start discussing other issues related to the work in our company?’

Tereza is starting to explain. ‘Not every organization has the ability to allocate staff specifically for personnel work. In this case, the HR is assigned to an employee’s previous professional activities and we call this form of work personnel administration. Such a designated employee then deals only with personal activities as required by law.

If the organization is more numerous, there is a worker specialized in all activities in the area of ​​human resources, dealing with education, recruitment, retraining, etc. In this case, it is a personnel management.

If prognostication is included in personnel work in addition to these activities, then we speak about human resource management.’

Such an explanation was perfectly adequate for the selection committee and it meant a good start for Tereza to start her career.

Clothes as one of the success criteria

Clothes as one of the success criteria

Although perfect administrative preparation for an interview with the employer and the preparation of the questions that might be asked are the basis for success in the selection process, there are also other necessary aspects, which will be taken into account.

Still, there are a lot of job seekers who waste their opportunity, for example by not keeping the set time and arriving late, not having the necessary and required identity papers, and their clothing does not often meet the requirements of the post.

Among the candidates, there are often concerns about the choice of suitable clothing in the sense that they do not want to give the impression of seeming reserved because of their formal clothes. From practical experience, it is possible to conclude that formal wear is never a problem, whereas too casual clothing may give the impression that you have not bothered yourself by the choice and therefore have not considered the interview to be serious.

What to wear then?

A suit or a jacket and pants, accompanied by a shirt with a tie or open-neck shirt remain the safest option for men.

Women have a more varied selection, starting from different types of costumes or combinations of a skirt and a jacket etc.

We must not forget to select shoes and other accessories properly.

When choosing clothing, we must also carefully consider the organization where our request is aiming. A bank certainly has a different dress code than a software or a transport company.

Work in the nonprofit sector

Work in the nonprofit sector

Many graduates of social schools naturally look for their future career in the nonprofit sector.
This sector is a good choice for someone looking for something more than just daily routine and regular working hours. This is a different type of work than financial or computer technology for instance.

It is true that non-profit organizations can not afford to pay high salaries, but there is much more space, and a chance to do something you enjoy. This is one of the reasons why you should not avoid these organizations as employers.

In case you apply for a job with one of them, it is likely that you will be interviewed by the head of the organization himself/herself performing other HR activities as well.

A nonprofit and social sector is therefore a good choice for those job seekers who are both professionally trained in their field, but are interested in learning new things, solving problems and dealing with a lot of people. Just for those who enthusiastically work in this field.

A kind of value added to the work in this area may be the fact that you can get the job which you would get in another field of work with difficulties.

Personnel decisions

Personnel decisions

The director of a large organization needed to determine the importance of individual managers for the company, which he managed. He was thinking for a long time how to do it. All departments had worked without problems and assignments had been met. The director has therefore decided for the following experiment.

He brought all the leading employees to a sort of monthly holidays. Here they could relax, swim in the sea, invent new concepts of running their teams, and sharing opinions with other chiefs.

However, they were cut off from the possibility of daily inspections of their teams. They did not have any phones, e-mails, Internet, or a carrier pigeon.

After a month of absence of the bosses, the director went through all of the departments. Some departments worked all the time without their boss without any problems, while other departments desperately needed their head for their successful operation in the course of the first week.

Now, think yourself and try to identify with the role of the director of the mentioned company. Which of the programs of his department heads was better? The one when the boss was already indispensable in a week, or the one when the department was self-sufficient and worked without any problems the entire month?