Recruiter's Couch

Panel interviews can be pretty intimidating.  The upside is that you get to see a group of your potential colleagues in action.  It is also an efficient way to move the interview process along.

When are you booking the time and place, try to find out who will be on the panel and what they do. It will give you some insight into their point of view.

Ask if there are any standard questions or scenarios you should be prepared to discuss.  This might be classified but it does not hurt to ask.

Get your examples ready.  Think about the things you have accomplished that will resonate with the group.  You don’t want to be groping in the back corners of your mind when someone says “Tell me about a time when you rescued a failing project.”

Prepare three or four questions for the panel.  Write them down.  Take them with you.

Plan to arrive early so you can settle down and stop sweating before the interview begins.  You can loaf around the corner or in a coffee shop.

Warm up your voice.  Either call a friend or find something catchy on your iPod.  You want to arrive at reception with a voice that is strong, clear not a phlegmy mess.

Use a solid handshake to greet each of the interviewers.  Jot down their names (on the page with your questions).  That way you can refer to them by name during the conversation.

Make eye contact and look for signs of comprehension and connection with each panel member. Don’t just focus on the person who asked the question.  You want them all to be roped in to your compelling story.

When you leave, shake hands again.  Make sure to let them know that you enjoyed talking with them and that you appreciate their time.

Take a few minutes to jot down your thoughts and feelings about the meeting.  You want to be able to refer to them later on.

Now you can just sit back and wait for the feedback.  I am sure it will be great!

You need to have a fresh and up to date resume ready at all times. This is an essential part of career management. Even if you are thrilled and satisfied at your job, your resume should be current.

It is a bit like a business card. You would never go to a meeting with an old business card, would you?

If you only work on your resume when you feel like your job is not working out, those negative vibes will show through. Updating it when you have just finished a big project or hit a milestone will have a far more positive tone.

Top Five Tips

• Use a clear font that’s not too fancy. Fancy fonts get mangled by resume reading software.
• Give us a brief idea of what your company does and how big it is. We need to understand the scope and scale of where you did what you did.
• Try to keep each role or position to three or four bullet points. If you have been in a position for a long time, break the bullets into categories with subheadings.
• Put the year that you graduated. Hiding it does you a disservice. We are going to figure it out anyway.
• When you think you are finished, read it backwards. This is the best way I know to find spelling or grammar mistakes.
• Keep the current version in a cloud drive (Google docs, Dropbox) so that it’s accessible anytime.

So, get out your resume and get to work. Be prepared for it to take a couple of sessions to whip it into shape. It’s a bit like going to gym. A bit of a pain in the neck, but totally worth it when you are done.

We all know that lying on your resume is wrong.  Employers use all kinds of services to verify things like education and employment so don’t even think about making that stuff up.

Lying about your age falls into the same category.  Leaving off experience so that your age is not obvious is not going to work. Employers are going to know that you did not start out as a supervisor.  No one does.  That will just make them wonder what else you left off.

We see resumes with no graduation date all the time.  Trust me. We are going to do the math anyway.

Here is the biggest problem with age-evasion: even if we do get sucked into believing what you want us to believe, when you show up for an interview, it is going to fall apart.

Watching someone’s smile disappear at the beginning of a conversation is not the best way to start.  In fact, it’s pretty hard to recover from that.

Your resume should tell your story.  It should be crisp and give a clear picture of your path and your success.  You can certainly summarize the parts that are less relevant or that are early in your career but don’t leave them off all together.

It’s like a big dating game.  Hiring managers are looking for potential employees who fit their needs.  Experience, education, achievements and salary all have to align to get to the next step.

If you leave out entire chapters of your career, how can we help you find the right match?

If you are like most people, you have not taken a look at your LinkedIn profile for a while.  There is a reason for this:  we are too busy looking at other people’s profiles.

Think of it as getting ready for fall, just like you used to buy fresh pencils and binders.  Set aside 20 minutes this week to hit the edit button and take stock of what the world is seeing.

Let’s start from the top:

Does your picture still resemble you?  If it features your grade eight up-door it’s a badly lit selfi, it’s time for a fresh one.

Do you have a new title or responsibilities?  Let people know – you will be amazed at the messages that roll in after you do a job or title change.

Any new courses or certificates?  Those really add credibility to your experience.  If you put the time and effort in to learning something new, it should be reflected in your profile.

Are you doing any new volunteer activities?  They can be work-based or community-based.  It all counts.

Remember you are doing this so people can find you and learn more about you.  And not just recruiters like me (although it’s good for us to find you) but also peers, neighbours, and anyone else who might benefit from what you know.

In large companies, people don’t use the company directory to find out about their fellow employees, they go to LinkedIn to get the whole story, not just what’s in the directory.

So keep it fresh and real.  You never know who will land in your inbox!

Now that the bitter winds of winter are a distant memory and patio season is here, the temptations are everywhere.

• One Dilly bar or two
• Patio or office
• Golf course or sales calls
• Comfy shirt or pressed blouse
• Resume or romance novel

Don’t get sucked into thinking that hiring stops for the summer.  It doesn’t. Sure it might take longer if decision makers are away on vacation but the hiring process carries on.

In fact, networking can be even more powerful now. When you call someone and invite them for lunch, they are more likely to be free and willing to get out of the office for a while.

Meeting folks while at the cottage or on a stay cation is pretty easy too. The last time I was at a resort in cottage country, I made it my goal to meet one new person each day. I came home with three new connections and a business lead. Awesome.

You can do some surfing to find industry events and conferences taking place in the fall. Beat the rush and get approval now. You will look pretty motivated and forward thinking in the process.

But most of all, pay attention. Check out postings and take calls from recruiters. At the very least, you will know what’s going on in the marketplace.

You might find that  LinkedIn and  Prosecco make a great pair. But only one….. Drunk job apps are about as effective as drunk dialling – no way to start a relationship.