6 WAYS TO SECRETLY SABOTAGE YOUR JOB INTERVIEW

1: If You’re The Last Interview Of The Day

Consciously or not, hiring managers average out their ratings of applicants over the course of the day–so you want to be the first one in.

2: If You Talk Way Too Much

“Talking over your interviewer is the biggest mistake that interview candidates don’t realize they’re making,” career development coach Stacey Hawley tells LearnVest.

Interview jitters cause the un-gift of gab, she says, leading candidates to talk over their interviewers. That nervousness nips any chance of active listening, making for a boring, one-sided conversation--the kind that doesn't lead to the interviewer investing in you.

3: If You Trash Your Old Job

No one wants to hear how much your last job sucked. But if you are going to criticize your last gig, sketch out the organizational roadblocks that led to dysfunction–as we’ve noted before–rather than carping about how much you hated your boss.

4: If Your Cover Letter Sucks

The cover letter primes the interview. Hawley, the career coach, says that a cover letter should link your stellar work history to the potential gig and show how much you know about the company and how you can enhance it–without, we may add, being a boilerplate career recap or weirdly direct confessional.

5: If You Negotiate Like A Galoot

We tend to get anxious around salary talks when they come up, Hawley says, which can lead us to blurting out our best guess (or hope) of potential pay.

A better play is to let an open-ended inquiry like “What range do you have in mind?”hang in the air and wait for them to answer, she says–and doing your compensation research ahead of time will help, too.

6: If You Don’t Follow Up

No matter how qualified you are, the person that hires you is still doing you an act of kindness. To

help get you there, Hawley says to follow up with a personal, non-formulaic note or email–another sign of how graciousness is a part of a growing career.

BY: DRAKE BAER

How To Make Internships Translate To Employers

Maximize your opportunity on your internship/externship/clinicals. This article gives 6 great steps to reaping the benefits of your time practicing in the field.

1. Set Up A Planning Meeting With Your Boss

On your first day, it is important to sit down with your supervisor to facilitate a brainstorming session to learn about their pain points and set up some structure to what exactly it is that you’ll be working on for them

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2. Suggest Specific Projects That You Will “Own”

Having some kind of start-to-finish project ownership will give you something to wrap your arms around and also provide a concrete example of your abilities. Future employers appreciate seeing some kind of specifics in your resume, so the more you can take on and successfully complete, the more you’ll have to talk about to potential new companies.

3. Determine What Your Project Outcomes Should Be

In order to know whether the project that you work on is successful or not, you should work together with your supervisor to determine what the outcomes should look like so you have measurable targets.

4. Learn New Skills

Proactively plan through your internship experience to include opportunities where you can learn new skills to add to your career portfolio. Ask your supervisor about rotating into different roles in the office, find out if you can attend meetings, or even job shadow. The more you learn, the more diverse your skill sets become to make you a better candidate.

5. Build Networking Contacts

Tap into your supervisor and co-workers to start building your professional network. Leverage your time at the company and ask to be connected to key industry people or thought leaders – they can turn into powerful advocates if you treat them right.

6. Schedule An Internship Exit Interview With Metrics Measurements

Your last day should end with a giant slab of cake and ice cream; you should have a specific sit-down meeting with your boss to go over what you learned, what you accomplished, and how they felt you performed in the internship.

By taking these steps, you can have a much more fulfilling experience which will translate into meaty connections that will build your employability and credibility with future potential employers.

Article By Dawn Rasmussen

What Does It Take To Be Great? 5 Attitudes in The Workplace to Be Great!

 

There are many positive attitudes that can help you be great. In fact, the value of these attitudes is they make you more motivated and hence, give you a career boost.

1. Enthusiastic

I know, how can you ever feel enthusiastic about work? It is precisely this reason I ask you to be enthusiastic. To be enthusiastic at work is about a mental state. You need to make the decision to be enthusiastic. Start by saying, “I will be an eager participant in this project or task.”

Attack your task with energy. Do not drag your feet. The more you tell yourself, “This is so boring,” or whatever the excuse maybe the worse you will feel. Get interested in the work and the energy will come naturally. Being enthusiastic and energetic are attitudes in the workplace that can get you ahead. You cannot get ahead without energy.

2. Efficient

Strive to be the most efficient worker in your team. When you are effective, you are producing the intended result. When you are efficient you do it with the least waste of time and effort. That means you are capable and competent. If you carry with you the attitude in the workplace of constantly striving to be the most efficient worker, then you will sooner or later get ahead in your career. You will get a career boost because you are the most capable and competent on the team.

3. Excellence

Strive for excellence in everything you do. Do not be contented with good. Go for great.

Exceed expectations by knowing good is sometimes not good enough. Give everything your utmost best. You will naturally see how this becomes your career booster. When you strive for excellence in everything you do, you quite naturally surpass others in your work. That gets you ahead.

4. Early

Have you ever thought about being early as an attitude in the workplace that can get you ahead? They stroll in and out at their own pace, not knowing they have probably wasted productive time. Start early at work. Some of my most productive days are those I start early before the phone rings and before my staff walks in with questions. Clear your e-mails from last night, craft that important e-mail when there are no disturbances.

5. Easy

Make every effort to be the easiest to work with in the office. Now, I am not saying compromise on your need for excellence. For example, this means not to complain and grumble each time there is a team meet. No one likes to work with someone who nags all the time. When you are easy to work with, you make working enjoyable for the rest too. Such attitudes in the workplace is welcomed everywhere and you make yourself a competitive edge of any team. This competitive edge is your career booster.

There is no need for complicated plans to get a career boost. Simple steps with these attitudes in the workplace can get you ahead in your career.