Tell Me About Yourself: Tips To Answer this Tough Interview Question

This is probably the most important question to answer during your interview. It is usually the first one. The key is to prepare yourself for this question. Write down and practice. Time yourself. It should not be a 10 minutes monologue. Here are more tips on how to answer this question from Recruiter.com.

At least once, every job seeker dreads the seemingly innocuous interview question, “So, tell me about yourself.” A standard in the interviewer’s arsenal, this open-ended classic can be scary.

However, just like any other interview question, if you are prepared and practice, it can be a no-brainer.
Start with your name: A no-brainer, many job seekers panic right off the bat by incorrectly assuming the interviewer asked a loaded question. In reality, the interviewer just wants to see how well you can sell yourself. Just state your name and feel free to include a line or two about your passions and hobbies – but don’t overdo it. You need to pace yourself and save precious monologue time for significant details regarding your career. Your total answer should be short and complete.
Follow up with your background: You should include a brief history of your education and experience. Think bullet points and hard facts – don’t waste time on inconsequential details. In terms of goals and aspirations, mention where you came from, where you are currently and where you want to be. Don’t be surprised if the interviewer starts taking notes while you talk. This is a good sign and means the interviewer is engaged and actively listening. They may refer to these notes and ask questions regarding your statements after you finish talking, so make sure you are honest and that all of your facts line up.
Relate it to the position: This is where the interviewer will know if you’ve done your homework or not. Your goal is to recount specific projects and achievements that are relevant to the position you’re applying for and mix them in with in your background history. You’ll want to research the company beforehand and focus on key requirements of the job description. You need to imply that you are the solution to their staffing need.
Turn the question on them: Don’t be afraid to ask the interviewer questions. If you say, “I’m originally from Boston,” follow it up with “Have you been there before?” If you state “I worked on a consumer marketing project,” follow it up with “Does your firm tend to focus on B2B or B2C marketing projects?” These examples probably don’t fit you, but the point is that you have to engage with the interviewer, not just rattle off points. It’s a conversation.
Avoid overexposure: Less is more. Get in and get out. The same rules apply to this age old question. If you sit there babbling on and talking your interviewers ear off with your life story you’re ultimately going to leave a bad impression. Smile, keep a positive and excited tone during your abridged, micro-autobiography and let the rest of the interview commence. You’ll have time to ask your own questions at various intervals throughout the process. Good luck!

Body Language During Interview Part II

There are never enough information on body language during interviewing. Here is another article from Recruiter.com.

There’s already enough to worry about before an exciting interview – the right clothes, the right questions, the right responses…
What about the right body language? If you’ve seen Lie to Me, you already understand that body language and facial expressions matter a lot. On the show, they solve murders and kidnappings. For you, they can help you nail an interview and get a job.
Research suggests that between 60 and 70 percent of human communication is nonverbal behavior – in other words, body language. You should know your interview is actually composed of two conversations at the same time: one with words, the other with subtle social cues. What’s unbelievable is that subtle body cues and social signals comprise more of the interviewer’s impression of you than your resume or what you say during the interview.
While you might be ready to explode with anxiety, here are some quick tips on body language to help you play it cool (or at least look like you are) for when the big interview day finally comes knocking.

1. Start strong: Your interviewer approaches you in the waiting room. What now? Nothing says confidence like a firm handshake. Grasp their hand without crushing it, smile, make eye contact. Above all, remember to make eye contact – it instantly establishes rapport and conveys mutual understanding and attention. Approach the person with an open stance, which signals friendliness and honesty.
2. Maintain Interest: When you sit down to talk, don’t slouch or lean back – both imply disinterest. Sit straight up and lean slightly towards your interviewer, suggesting respect and attentiveness. Be sure to nod occasionally, smile and leave your hands casually in your lap or resting on the arms of the chair. You an also try paying attention to your interviewer’s body language to make sure you are both on the same page.
3. Don’t be distracting: By playing with your hair, rubbing or scratching your skin, you may come off as nervous and untrustworthy. Likewise, don’t cross your arms or lean towards the exit – your interviewer might find you standoffish, distant, or disengaged. Keep the focus on the interviewer and what they are saying – people are naturally flattered by attention.
4. Remember to relax: Breathe, you’re almost there. Imagine yourself at once alert and at ease. Smile. You look great. Answer a couple more questions and ask a few of your own. Stress shows in your face and throughout your entire body. It’s very difficult to feign relaxation – you actually have to be relaxed. To do this, make sure you practice relaxation techniques regularly.
5. End Strong: Wrapping up? Stand up, smile, and shake hands after the interview is over. Be respectful and thank the other person for their time. Exchange the necessary pleasantries and leave slowly, chin up. There is a reason for expressions like “chin up” – our expressions and posture really do indicate important things.

Whether you get the job or not, at least you went in to the interview with style and grace, and communicated your intentions with confidence and professionalism. With a bit of luck, your body language will have been the icing on the cake. Your interviewer will remember you as a confident, assertive, friendly, and honest applicant – all the important things that get you the job.

5 Ways You’re Wrecking Your Career

From Recruiter.com.

No career is bulletproof. It doesn’t matter if you’re the boss or the intern, it’s easy to fall off the right track and jeopardize your position by making poor decisions.
You might be here one day, gone the next. It happens all the time. But there are good reasons why it happens.
Fortunately for all of us, career breakers come on slow and have little to do with day-to-day accountability. More often then not, a real career breaker will start off with a serious slump and get worse over time. It might slip by unnoticed for weeks, even months before you realize something’s wrong. These are five signs you might be setting yourself up for long-term disappointment, frustration and negativity:

1. You’re rusty: You let your skills dry up and now you are outmoded by the new guy or a flashy piece of tech. Continuous learning used to be a way of life, but recently you’ve settled into quiet redundancy.
2. You’re too comfortable: You assume you’re invincible. You think things will stay the same (and try to keep them that way). You shun creative criticism and never challenge yourself with new ideas. The longer you stay at a company, the more likely you are to succumb to this.
3. You’re burnt out: Just thinking about your job fatigues you – physically and intellectually. CareerBuilder just performed a survey that looked at employee’s stress levels. The results confirmed that 77 percent of workers say they are sometimes or always burned out in their jobs. So most people are burned out – chances are you are too.
4. You never take any credit: You forget to keep track of your accomplishments. It seems like you don’t care and your outdated resume shows it.
5. You take all the credit: You’re not a team player anymore. You act as if you’re job owes you something and you play the bad guy around your peers.

If any of these symptoms sound like you, then it might be time for some serious self-reflection. Sometimes the best move is to surround yourself with a fresh environment or even a complete career change.
If one or two reasons sound like you, it might be time to do something a little different (take a class, take a vacation, ask for a different assignment, etc…) If three or more sound like you, it’s time for either a new job or a new career – polish off that resume, buy a new suit, and start hitting the interview circuit proactively.

Training I want to attend

Peter D. Leffkowitz

CEO

Since 1986, Peter Leffkowitz has trained 60,000 recruiters worldwide and has been invited in-house, to evaluate, gut and reposition 700+ search firms, into what many consider to be the Who’s Who of the staffing industry. In addition to leading Morgan 20/20 Search, he is the Founder and CEO of the Morgan Consulting Group (www.morgancg.com), the most respected international training firm to the world of high performance contingent and contract consulting firms, having mentored some of the highest billing producers in the executive search industry.
In 1986, after 5 years of record breaking performance at one of the largest Midwestern search firms, Peter developed Morgan Methodology. He realized that techniques in the placement industry were primarily based on “pitching people jobs”, rather than gathering honest candidate opinions and career wish lists, prior to exposing them to an opportunity. It was “bait and switch”, rather than listen and fulfill. He did the same thing on the client side, developing empathy for the long term goals of a department head, then bringing them the human tools necessary to reach their personal managerial goals inside their firms. It was all about “healing” personal career and corporate wounds. Blending this with his reputation of brutal honesty and acute people reading skills, he magnetized a group of clients, now 2,700 staffing firms, strong.
He is the first and only consultant to the industry that has established a training campus designed for corporate and 3rd party recruiters and their management. Tall Pony Ranch, on the outskirts of Kansas City, hosts a 75 acre executive retreat visited by an average of 1500 Talent Acquisition specialists per year. For 3 days, they are trapped in log cabins buried in an oak forest and don’t come out until they are meaningful recruiters. From that point on, their success depends on their companies’ managerial follow through.
Now, at 54, Peter has decided to return to the front lines of search and has let the industry know of his intentions. Some of the strongest players in the industry have come out to become a part of his legacy team. He has chosen his partners in Jennifer Spicher and Phillip Guillen to launch Morgan 20/20 and support them in the building of a totally unique offering of advanced skills to our clients.
Peter is one of the most sought after speakers for corporate Talent Acquisition teams in North America and Japan and offers his training services to the search clients of Morgan 20/20, as a compliment to their trust in Morgan 20/20’s search services. He has the ability to razor sharpen the interviewing edge and non e-boarding sourcing skills of a corporate recruiting team, allowing them to skillfully compete with the 3rd party world.
Peter and his wife, Cindy, parents of 3 sons and a daughter, live in Kansas City, Missouri, on their 75 acre Tall Pony Ranch. Peter has had a lifelong commitment to training and selling, gaited, mountain trail horses and enjoys working his ranch with teams of draft horses.

10 Questions to ask (From Monster.com)

Own the Interview: 10 Questions to Ask

By Larry Buhl, for Yahoo! HotJobs
For many job seekers an interview can seem too much like an inquisition. That's usually because they're doing all the answering and none of the asking.
"Somewhere in the interview you have a chance to impress the employer on your own terms and see if the job is a good fit for you," says Florida-based career coach and executive recruiter Jonathan Milligan. "And you absolutely should take this opportunity. By asking the right questions you can determine if the job is right for you and also show you're engaged and interested in the job."
Employment experts identify five key question areas where you can gain insight, put yourself in a good light and take some control in the interview.
Identify Their Pain:

• "What is one of the biggest problems the company faces that someone with my background could help alleviate?"
• "If I started in this job tomorrow, what would be my two most pressing priorities?"

Find Out Where the Company Is Going:

• "Where do you see this department/company in five years?"
• "What are the long- and short-term goals of the company/department/work group?"

Determine Whether You'd Fit In:

• "How would you describe your company's culture?
• "What tangible and intangible qualities attracted you to the organization?"

Show You're Really Interested:

• "What additional information can I provide about my qualifications?"
• "What are the next steps in the selection process?"

Ask Follow-Ups:

• "Can you clarify what you said about...?"
• "Can you give me some examples of...?"

"By requesting clarification or examples, you show interviewers you care and that you're thinking deeply about the issues they brought up," says learning and development consultant Bill Denyer. He suggests taking notes in the interview, using keywords to jog your memory of what was discussed but not burying your head in your notebook.
What you don't want to ask are questions with obvious answers, according to Susan RoAne, author of Face to Face: How to Reclaim the Personal Touch in a Digital World.
"You really need to do your homework," RoAne says. "Before the interview, go to the company Web site and use search engines to get up to speed, and browse social networking sites to see who knows what about the company."
And never, never ask an interviewer, "How long is the vacation?" or "What does your company do?'" RoAne added.
Some experts suggest waiting for the inevitable "Do you have any questions for us?" at the interview, while others recommend looking for conversation openings to ask appropriate questions.
"It depends on the situation," Milligan says. "If the interviewer seems to be reading from a sheet of questions, don't interrupt. If it's a more casual conversation, you may have chances to turn the questions back on the interviewer."
RoAne advises job seekers to remember "the job interview is a two-way street."

Body Language During Interview

 

It is important what you have to say during job interview, but it is also imperative to be conscious about your nonverbal communication- your body language.  

Here is a great article reminding us about the proper body language during the interview. 

From Monster.com. 

 

Body Language Can Make or Break a Job Interview

Are You Looking for a Job? You Have to Use Your Body

By Robert Ordona, for Yahoo! HotJobs
Savvy job seekers know how important choosing the right words is when communicating with prospective employers. But what about nonverbal communication?
"You could be saying how great you are, but your body could be giving your true feelings away," says Alison Craig, image consultant and author of Hello Job! How to Psych Up, Suit Up, & Show Up. Mark Bowden, author of Winning Body Language, agrees with Craig -- and with the highly regarded Mehrabian communication study, which found that if what's coming out of your mouth doesn't match what your body is saying, your audience is more likely to believe your body.
Here's some expert advice on how to effectively let your body do the talking in a job interview:

Making a Great Entrance
Craig and Bowden agree that the interview starts even before you get to the interview room."You don't know who could be in the parking lot with you, looking at you from a window or standing next to you in the elevator," says Craig. "Your body should tell anyone who might be watching that you're confident and calm. It's not the time to be frantically searching through your portfolio for printouts of your resume."
Show Your Good Side
Hiring managers often ask receptionists for their take on people who come to the office for interviews, so Bowden suggests letting them observe you without letting on that you know they're watching. "Sit with your profile to them," he says. "It makes them feel comfortable, and if they're comfortable, they're more likely to form a good impression."
Craig suggests trying to predict the direction your interviewer will come from, so you can sit facing that direction. It'll make the greeting more graceful.
First Impressions
While waiting, don't hunch your shoulders or tuck your chin into your chest, which will make you seem closed off. Sit with your back straight and your chest open -- signs that you're confident and assertive. "But don't take this to the extreme," cautions Bowen. "Elongating your legs or throwing your arm across the back of the chair can make you appear too comfortable, even arrogant."
Also, says Craig, don't have so much stuff on your lap that you're clumsily moving everything aside when you're called. You want to rise gracefully, without dropping things, so you can smoothly greet the person coming to get you.
Shake It -- Don't Break It
Job interviews mean handshakes -- so what are the secrets to the perfect handshake? The overly aggressive shake, or "death grip," as Craig calls it, can be as off-putting as the limp handshake, so practice with a friend before the interview to find the right balance.
You're going to be shaking with your right hand, so prepare by arranging your belongings on your left side. Offer your hand with the palm slightly up so that your interviewer's hand covers yours. "It's a sign that you're giving them status," says Bowden. And never cover the other person's hand with the hand you're not shaking with -- it can be interpreted as a sign of domination.
Important Steps
The walk to the interview is the perfect time to use body language. Always follow that person, whether the person is the hiring manager or an assistant, to show you understand the protocol. You're saying, 'I'm the job candidate, and you're the company representative -- I follow your lead.' Bowen adds that you should try to "mirror" that person's tempo and demeanor. "It shows you can easily fit into the environment," he says.
At the Interview Desk
In the interview room, it's OK to place a slim portfolio on the table, especially if you'll be presenting its contents, but put your other belongings on the floor beside you. Holding a briefcase or handbag on your lap will make you seem as though you're trying to create a barrier around yourself, cautions Craig.
Avoid leaning forward, which makes you appear closed off, Bowden says. Instead, he advises sitting up straight and displaying your neck, chest and stomach area -- to signal that you're open.
When gesturing with your hands, Craig says, you should always keep them above the desk and below the collarbone. "Any higher and you're going to appear frantic," she says.
Bowden advises that you keep your hands even lower, in what he calls the "truth plane" -- an area that fans out 180 degrees from your navel. "Gesturing from here communicates that you're centered, controlled and calm -- and that you want to help," he says.
It's fine to sit about a foot away from the table so that your gestures are visible, he says.
The Art of Departing
At the end of the interview, gather your belongings calmly, rise smoothly, smile and nod your head. If shaking hands with everyone in the room isn't convenient, at least shake hands with the hiring manager and the person who brought you to the interview space.
You may be tempted to try to read your interviewers' body language for signals about how the interview went, but don't, cautions Bowden -- because they're likely trained not to give away too much. "Don't allow any thoughts into your mind that may [cause you to] leave the interview in a negative way," he says.

From Recruitier.com. Ten Questions for your Recruiting Career

After reading thousands of resumes, interviewing tons of candidates, and talking to hiring managers every day, a good recruiter learns what makes a solid career. Recruiters can usually tell if a career move helped or hurt a candidate, or if the candidate’s career has stagnated. However, recruiters are notoriously bad at shining this light on their own careers.
For an agency recruiter, of course, if sales are going well and you are earning good money, there isn’t really any reason to change jobs. It’s difficult to get established in a new agency, and particularly hard to work with an entirely new candidate profession or industry. Once you have been successful in one form of recruiting, for example technical, accounting, or financial recruiting, it’s usually easiest to stay in that industry and leverage your candidate and client contacts that you have built over the years. If recruiting sales are going well and your commission plan is at least market rate, there really isn’t any reason to change firms.
For a corporate recruiter, career transitions are also difficult to make. Corporate recruiters build up relationships and a kind of “political capital” with hiring managers very much like agency recruiters do with their clients. Corporate recruiters who stay with the same company for quite some time can become the “go to” people for hiring managers as well as developing influence with senior executives and business strategy. It’s easy to settle into the corporate recruiting job and get comfortable.
Many recruiters think that career progression within the recruiting profession is a fallacy. Some people view it very much like a real estate agent or a stockbroker – can you be a more “senior” real estate agent? Does your title, position, or standing really matter? Is a recruiter with three years of experience really any less “senior” than a recruiter with fifteen years of experience? There is some truth to the argument that career progression for recruiters is difficult and hard to discern. However, instead of using this as a reason to give up on career progression, it should instead be a reason that recruiters should be particularly mindful of their careers.
Just like any other profession, a career in recruiting should be consciously planned and developed. A recruiting career like any other should develop a trend of rising income, increased stability, and positions of greater responsibility.
Ten questions for your recruiting career

1. Have you worked for five years at the same employer without a change in title? You’ve probably given this advice to candidates before, but do you apply that thinking to your recruiting career? Of course, title doesn’t matter (in theory), but responsibility does. If you are an agency recruiter with the job title of “Sr. Recruiter,” for example, you may not be able to change (or want to change) your title. However, think about your career like a resume – segment responsibilities instead of titles. Are you doing exactly the same thing year after year? Do you work with a different segment of clients or take over some training functions? If your total compensation is great and you wouldn’t want to change companies, make sure that your responsibilities and/or function continues to progress.
2. Have you ever held a position in management or training? Many recruiters wouldn’t ever want to manage other recruiters. There is good reason – the compensation can be lower and the frustrations can quadruple. However, like any other career, if you have never managed people before, it leaves a gap on your resume. Adding management to your list of accomplishments opens up possibilities for the future and lends stability to your career. If you haven’t managed people before, try to work in some aspect of leadership into your role – take on training assignments, steer a technology committee, or do an activity outside of work in a management capacity.
3. Has your income or potential for income increased over the past five years? If the answer isn’t yes, ask why.
4. Have you performed work in different capacities (employee, consultant, management, independent)? Jobs have different functions, of course, but they also have different structures. If you can demonstrate work in different capacities, for example being a consultant to external clients and also progressing in an internal employee role, it shows that you can adept and be successful in radically differing work environments. Most recruiters look at their different functions and responsibilities (Question #2), but ignore varying types of employment. For example, if you have started your own business, consulted with clients under a parent firm, and managed other recruiters, it demonstrates flexibility and a highly successful personality.
5. Have you crossed industries or focus for which you recruit? It is very easy to get locked into one particular industry and cast as one particular “type” of recruiter. Recruiters should not, of course, think that the grass is always greener – hopping from one industry to the next. In general, it’s a good practice to develop strong roots in one particular industry. However, know that if you stay in one industry for your entire recruiting career, you become increasingly unemployable to another. If you can cross industries at least once in your recruiting career, it demonstrates a strength as well as commitment to the profession of recruiting.
6. Do you have equity or compensation which is compounding independent of your performance? If you are working at an independent agency, do you have equity? Are you building someone else’s career or your own? If you work as a corporate recruiter at a company, do you have options, a vested 401K program, a stock purchase plan? Because recruiting tends to be rather flat – recruiting professionals are generally performance driven – it is imperative that your financial condition consistently improve and tend toward increased stability. Your recruiting job is measured by performance – your long term financial position should not be. Make sure that you have some ownership, equity, or incentive that increases without your work.
7. Are you constantly developing new relationships? One sign of stagnation in your recruiting career is if you consistently fall back on the same clients, candidates, and hiring managers. Look to consistently develop new relationships – these relationships are your future. If you rely too much on your background, you are living off your past work. Be sure to continue developing new recruiting relationships – always work toward making your future easier than your past.
8. Is your industry progressing? The particular industry that you recruit for actually shouldn’t matter too much. Oftentimes, being at the tail-end of an industry life-cyle is actually better than being at the forefront. However, you should pay attention to the state of your industry and know exactly where you stand in relation to its progression and hiring cycle. If you are recruiting in a mature industry and you have a well developed client base, it might be a wonderful place to be. However, if you are entering into a dying industry without connections, the entrenched players might have all of the business. in general, recruiters might wish to ensure that their career position roughly mirrors the industry for which they recruit. If you are just starting out, getting into a rapidly growing industry with a bright future might be a good idea.
9. Is your understanding of business increasing? Recruiters have the difficult task of ensuring that their knowledge and tactics of recruiting always progress, but also that their knowledge of everyone else’s business always advances as well. If you have worked in the same industry for quite some time, you likely understand that industry from a practitioner’s perspective. For example, if you recruit software developers, you likely understand certain aspects of technical architecture, common frameworks and problems, and the business function of different types of software. However, make sure that your understanding of the underlying business for which you recruit is always advancing. Your thirst for business and industry knowledge should increase as you work in an industry longer. If you find the opposite, it’s time to either find an industry more exciting to you, or do something that radically advances your understanding (like taking courses, etc…)
10. Are you happy? Recruiting should be exciting. Recruiters get to talk to people, develop relationships, learn about different businesses, and be rewarded for performance. If your recruiting job is not exciting, if it doesn’t inspire you and make you want to get up in the morning, it’s a definite sign that you need to move on. Only you can judge whether another job in recruiting is right for you or if the entire recruiting profession is not the right one for you. But just like any other job, if you aren’t inspired, it’s time to look for something new.

A recruiting job may just be a job to you, but once in a while you have to step back and look at the totality of your recruiting career. A recruiter’s career needs to be nurtured and planned just like any other. In fact, because of the “flat” nature of many recruiting jobs, it’s all the more important to consciously manage your recruiting career and make sure you keep moving forward. Recruiting should be one of the most exciting careers out there, but it takes some work to develop a consistently improving career path.