Interview Stories

Interview Stories Interview Stories In this post, rather than focusing on HR advice, I wanted to take a break to share some of my more memorable and humorous interview experiences. Some of my best HR stories come from the many interviews I’ve done. Typically interviews involve nervous candidates searching for good answers to my standard litany of questions; however, there are occasional gems that stand out for all the wrong reasons. At a recent job fair I attended, I had the opportunity to conduct quick, back-to-back interviews with job seekers. I met a few good applicants, but I also met a number of people that were not a good fit for my company. This included one applicant who I tried to talk to as his two young children ran around laughing and screaming and a few candidates who couldn’t even make eye contactâ€"not a good trait for the retail jobs I was trying to fill. In the past I’ve met parents at job fairs who are looking for work for unemployed adult children. One parent even told me, “I just want my son to stop being lazy and find a job, so he can move out on his own.” If your son can’t even make the effort to show up at a job fair to meet me, why should I assume he’ll be able to show up to work each day? Interview Stories CELL PHONES INTERVIEWS DONT MIX I was interviewing a candidate for a manufacturing job at my last company. The interview wasn’t anything spectacular, but there had been no red flags, and the candidate answered all my questions without any hesitation. When I was reviewing his references, I noticed some missing phone numbers. The candidate pulled out his cell phone to look up the missing numbers. When we finished that, I began explaining the company’s benefits package. All this time he kept his phone in his hand. As I made my way through the 401(k) and employee discount, the candidate began to lick his phone suggestively as he stared at me! I thought I must be seeing things, but he did it a couple more times. I tried to remain professional, so I finished up my explanation of the benefits package without missing a beat. Needless to say, I did not pass the candidate on to the manufacturing department for a second interview. With a lot of interviews, you can usually get a good hit on a candidate within the first few minutes. Not so in this example. It just goes to show that you should hold out on making a decision about a candidate until the end of the interview. You never know when a candidate’s interesting use of a cell phone could make the hiring decision for you. .ai-rotate {position: relative;} .ai-rotate-hidden {visibility: hidden;} .ai-rotate-hidden-2 {position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;} .ai-list-data, .ai-ip-data, .ai-fallback, .ai-list-block {visibility: hidden; position: absolute; width: 50%; height: 1px; z-index: -9999;} IM NOT A RACIST, BUT It’s never a good idea to start any sentence in an interview with, “I’m not a racist, but…” It’s especially not a good idea if the candidate uttering those words is interviewing for an HR job. At my last company, we were looking to fill an HR administrator position. The job included hiring candidates for production and warehouse jobs, benefits administration, teaching English classes and employee relations. A large number of employees who worked in our production and warehouse departments were from different cultures. We had asked the candidate to tell us about a recent challenge she faced in HR. After introducing her story by letting us know she’s not racist, she proceeded to explain how there were many employees at her last company who were of a different ethnicity than her. She told us how she got frustrated because many of them had two last names, and this did not work well with their HR system. She got frustrated when employees would not choose one last name. She later told us, “And sometimes I have a hard time with the different hygiene practices of people from other cultures.” We never did have to ask her our question about her ideas on encouraging diversity in the workplace. BETTER LATE THAN NEVER? NOT ALWAYS My current company recently opened a new store. We conducted interviews for management positions about three months prior to the store opening. We scheduled interviews back-to-back, so it was imperative that candidates were on time. We had one candidate who did not show up for his 10 a.m. interview. A little after 11 a.m., I got paged by one of the cashiers. I left the rest of the panel to continue the current interview while I went to find out what the cashier needed. The cashier said our 10 a.m. interview had just shown up. The candidate told me that his cell phone battery had died, so his alarm didn’t go off. Then he hit a bunch of traffic on the way to the interview and got lost trying to find the store. I told him we would be unable to interview him because we were already booked up for the rest of the day. He was clearly disappointed as he left the store. .ai-rotate {position: relative;} .ai-rotate-hidden {visibility: hidden;} .ai-rotate-hidden-2 {position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;} .ai-list-data, .ai-ip-data, .ai-fallback, .ai-list-block {visibility: hidden; position: absolute; width: 50%; height: 1px; z-index: -9999;} Later that day, I received an email from the candidate. He apologized and made a case for having a second chance. I don’t usually give people second chances with interviews when it comes to punctuality. I spoke with the other members of the interview team, and we decided that given his qualifications, it was worth giving him a second chance. Well, the joke was on us, because he showed up over an hour late to the second interview and had another long list of excusesâ€"not a good sign for a management candidate. The story doesn’t end there. The candidate continued to call and email us to try to get another interview for any position at the store. He kept saying that it wasn’t his fault he was late. If he’s making excuses about being late for two interviews, what must he be like as an employee? IN THE END The best part of the occasional oddball interview is that the candidate shows their true colors in the interview. They take the guesswork out of making the hiring decision. Plus, you end up with an entertaining story to tell next time you’re hanging out with your HR friends. What are some of your most memorable interviews? Share your interview stories in the comments below. You can also Share Your Work Story  anonymously.

5 Ways To Find A Job Online - Margaret Buj - Interview Coach

5 Ways To Find A Job Online The web has made securing position opportunities a simpler procedure. Nonetheless, not many individuals understand that there's something else entirely to jobhunting on the web than looking on Indeed. By utilizing the web to its maximum capacity, you could build your odds of securing that fantasy position. Here are five different ways to get a new line of work on the web. Search work posting destinations There are several activity posting locales out there to look over. The enormous ones like Reed and Indeed are the destinations that the vast majority go to, anyway there are additionally numerous specialty work posting locales where you may discover different opening. There are additionally nearby occupation posting locales, for example, Alexander Daniels. Be careful about joining to paid occupation posting destinations â€" a portion of these case to have promoted employments that you won't find somewhere else, yet this isn't generally the situation and you could wind up going through pointless cash. Join to online enrollment offices Online enlistment offices won't simply list occupations, they'll help you to turn out to be increasingly employable by offering guidance. This could incorporate CV composing counsel or an audit of your LinkedIn profile. Some enrollment organization sites may even contact businesses for you by mass mailing out your CV and getting them to reach you. You should take note of that huge numbers of these organizations expect you to pay to join, so ensure that you confide in these organizations. Utilize web based life Web based life is additionally turning into a significant enlistment and occupation looking for device. You'll discover a lot of businesses leaving promotions on Facebook in neighborhood local gatherings and on their organization pages. You may likewise have the option to promote the way that you're searching for an occupation in a network page and see who answers. LinkedIn is one of the most well known online networking destinations utilized by bosses. Indeed, there are head-trackers paid to scout LinkedIn and find appropriate representatives for organizations. Ensure that you have a LinkedIn profile, else you could be passing up this open door for enrollment. Publicize your abilities on independent destinations Any semblance of Fiverr and Gumtree permit you to publicize abilities that you're willing to offer for cash. While these are basically utilized on an independent premise, numerous businesses will trawl these locales searching for individuals to recruit. By demonstrating that you're willing to independent, it shows a great deal of certainty and activity to expected businesses. Email organizations legitimately Frequently it very well may be advantageous to email organizations legitimately, regardless of whether they're not publicizing opening. On the off chance that they're dazzled by your CV, they may attempt to discover you a space at their organization, or they might have the option to make you mindful of when they're possibly recruiting. Legitimately reaching managers by email can likewise show creativity and may make you more paramount at first than different candidates. Numerous organizations show an email address on their site, while others may have accommodation structures to forestall spam.

5 Tips For Working On A Group Project At Work - Work It Daily

5 Tips For Working On A Group Project At Work - Work It Daily Gathering ventures are and have consistently been, a piece of work for most associations. For a few, they might be a sporadic element. For other people, they are an everyday piece of the activity. What's more, in the present working environment, the mind boggling elements of effectively coordinating the aptitudes required requests much more gathering ventures. Along these lines, for profession achievement, seeing how to be an effective piece of a gathering venture is basic. It's likewise significant for work searchers to see how to successfully introduce their gathering or group achievements during a meeting or on a resume. #1 â€" Knowledge of Group Stages The achievement of pretty much every gathering venture starts, with understanding the task, however understanding the elements of any gathering or group venture. The exemplary model of gathering stages, initially detailed by Bruce Tuckman, is something that anybody relegated to be a piece of a gathering venture must comprehend. It is nearly ensured that a fruitful gathering will progress through all the stages: shaping, raging, norming, and performing. In the event that a gathering isn't fruitful, it may have been destined by botches at one of the beginning times of the procedure. Related: 5 Things To Increase Your Team's Productivity Quickly, at the shaping stage, desires ought to be explained, and administration needs to give bearings. Individuals from the gathering need a chance to get comfortable with both the undertaking and one another. The raging stage is maybe the most critical to comprehend. For certain gatherings, it might last just a couple of moments; for other people, it might end just with the disappointment of the venture. However, it's typical as the gathering battles to explain duties, maybe influential positions, or managing the dissatisfactions of moderate advancement. At the norming stage, individuals from the gathering all the more unmistakably decide their jobs and conventions for progress. At the last stage, playing out, the essential work of the gathering is the center â€" and the work just completes. #2 â€" The Dynamics of the Group Stages Understanding the genuine elements of the gathering stages can be amazingly incredible. It's not simply knowing the stages. It's perceiving some key elements. The first is that there's no set time period for each stage. A gathering may advance quickly through the stages or get slowed down at any stage. A gathering made out of individuals with a great deal of understanding â€" and achievement â€" may move rapidly through the beginning times. A second key dynamic is that an adjustment in the gathering's piece, e.g., a significant change in the task or another individual from the gathering, may start numerous cycles for the stages. A third significant dynamic is the benefit of preparing. It's an ideal circumstance where experiential learning, gamification, can expand the aptitudes of gathering individuals. #3 â€" Leadership It's a piece of the stages, yet authority is imperative to the point that understanding its job in the achievement of a gathering venture is basic. Gathering ventures may have a plainly assigned pioneer, or there might be an express or verifiable suspicion that the gathering will act naturally coordinating. In the event that you are put in an influential position on a venture, you should comprehend that extra obligation, including the likelihood that some in the gathering dislike your administration style. On the other side, you dislike the administration style in case you're not the pioneer. In any case, you can't let that meddle with your presentation in helping your gathering make progress on the task. As the gathering starts work, in that framing stage noted above, it is extremely useful to explain initiative concerns and desires. Understanding the elements of various initiative styles is basic. #4 â€" Strengths Attention to the benefit of concentrating on qualities has expanded throughout the most recent quite a while, with much credit because of Gallup, Marcus Buckingham, and Martin Seligman. The familiarity with qualities can manage a gathering into concentrating on what causes every part to feel those qualities as they do the work. It can prompt the better task of undertakings dependent on qualities not really aptitudes. It can prompt tending to shortcomings all the more viably in light of the fact that, normally, groups are more ready to address them. In the event that an individual in the group has a specific shortcoming, e.g., introduction abilities, the group can concentrate on allotting introductions to the part whose introduction aptitudes are a quality. #5 â€" Interpersonal Style Most gathering ventures include gatherings, much of the time such a large number of with their own arrangement of intricacies and wasteful aspects. One assurance: colleagues will have various characters, various styles for both getting and introducing data. A basic model would be the outgoing people who are probably going to make some noise rapidly and frequently versus the loners to might invest more energy tuning in before talking. It just takes a couple of moments for colleagues to share data about close to home styles. This transparency will obviously upgrade the adequacy of the gathering. End In the event that there's an abrogating message for effective gathering ventures, it's mindfulness and adaptability. The mindfulness is the significance of spotlight on the objectives of the gathering and its procedure. The adaptability is the readiness of the gathering individuals to acclimate to the relational elements of the gathering. Divulgence: This post is supported by a Work It Daily-affirmed master. You can become familiar with master posts here. Photograph Credit: Bigstock Have you joined our vocation development club?Join Us Today!

Online Business Tools

Online Business Tools At our career coaching firm, we work with a lot of people considering opening their own business. We also network with other organizations like therapists, lawyers, financial planners and so on. Thus, we interact regularly with other people trying to run service-based businesses. We spend a lot of time developing and improving our business and this strengthens our ability to guide people in building their business or just understanding if running a business is right for them. This week we are sharing a few of the technologies and services we use that have made a big difference in our business and we feel can make a big difference in yours. Zoho CRM A CRM (customer relationship management) tool is invaluable to a business that sells to individuals or individual companies. It is the hub of your customer data including contact information, communication history, and appointments (in our case). It is an online service which is extremely handy in sharing all the information with our team and making it readily available from just about anywhere. Zoho is rather affordable theres a free version and a very well-equipped professional edition. The interface is very friendly and comes with decent support. Google Apps Google apps is a suite of related online tools that you helps your employees connect and your business run smoothly. Our calendar system, internal file system and email run on Google Apps. Plus, Google Apps ties into a number of other online applications through their ecosystem, for example, mail chimp, spanning backup, survey monkey, docusign and so on. Gmail Google Apps uses Gmail for its email service. Gmails interface, search ability, talk feature and massive storage is a huge benefit. We found that using our website hosting provider for processing our email was a liability because there was a lot of additional work to setup email addresses if we switched hosts. Also, its great having everything stored online it means our business is with us, on our phones, at all times. Google Drive Its not easy (or cheap) to share files with other members of your company. Its even more challenging to collaborate on documents, spreadsheets and presentations with co-workers and clients. Google Drive has simplified this by letting us store any type of file in a shared, secure folder. Additionally, Google documents and spreadsheets are one of the best collaboration tools available where you can share access to a file and even watch other users edit a file in real-time. Google Calendar Sharing calendars with Microsoft Outlook and an Exchange server is expensive, requires maintenance and isnt fun for business owners. Google calendar makes it easy to see others calendars and allows us to create calendars for resources (like meeting rooms) that make life manageable. The setup is fast and the functionality is very comparable to calendars large corporations use. Spanning Backup After Zoho CRM and Google Apps, we consider Spanning Backup our most important tool. Earlier in the year, we struggled with how to effectively backup Google Apps if we lost that data (calendar appointments, email, documents on drive) we would lose our momentum and countless hours trying to replace it. Google doesnt ensure your data so an additional step is needed. We found Spanning Backup and they take care of daily backups of email, calendar and Drive. It gives us peace of mind. Plus, the tool is very good at making those backups accessible and enabling you to restore individual items. Its really a management tool to make sure we can undo a change we didnt want and verify information from the past whether thats for internal or client purposes. Heres a link to signup https://spanningbackup.com/s5m5/UVNWN7. If you use this promo code youll save $5/license: UVNWN7. These were just a few of the tools we use to run our business. These tools have enabled us to make tremendous strides in efficiently running our career coaching business. We can directly see the positive impact on our bottom line and hope you benefit from these tools as well. What tools do you use that are essential to running your service business?