Getting a job is time consuming and energy draining. Long hours of searching and applying are then followed by long hours of waiting for that one phone call for an interview. What type of interview you will be taking part in is essential to know, for each requires a specific response from you and each looks for different qualifications or personality traits that you may possess.

Now that you have read some tips for your interview, I have compiled the top 5 interview types, taken from a seminar I attended at school, to help you prepare.

1. Screening interviews

As the name implies, this means that the interview is to weed out unqualified or unsuitable candidates. Whether it be because of your educational background or personality, as examples, human resources usually have an idea of what to weed out or what type of person would not work. For example, it is highly unlikely that you will be hired to be a doctor without a medical background. Therefore, before the company, in this case the hospital, wastes their time, or yours, they disregard your application.

What to do? Research the qualifications asked by the company and add them to your C.V. or your resume. And, if you do not possess the qualifications, e.g. the medical background, and possess no other qualifications that would make up for this, do not waste your time and energy applying.

2. Stress interviews

Here the company wants to see how you handle stress. This is usually used when you are applying for a highly stressful job. What is the goal? To see how you deal with, or solve, the stressful situation they place you in.

One way they can test you is by making you wait a long period of time in the waiting room to see if you will lash out at the secretary or politely ask if there is any paperwork you can fill out while waiting.

Another stressful situation you may find yourself in is being bombarded with questions from your interviewer to see how you react to those in power stressing you out.

3. Testing interviews

This is quite simple, do you possess the needed qualifications of the job. Applying to a computer company as a programmer? They may ask you to code something in specific to see what you come up with. This can be done at home or on site. One important point here is that if they give you something to do on your own time and you do not get to finish the task, hand it what you have anyways! It is better than nothing, and that way you won’t have entirely wasted your time. Besides, they may be impressed with what you actually got completed and either give you a second task, or call you in!

4. Group interviews

This is usually used when you will be working with a group or if the company is mass hiring. Usually, problem solving or discussions are used to see how you work in a group, how you lead and let lead, and to see what kinds of issues are raised/solutions are discovered.

My pain tip here is to immerse yourself but at the same time encourage others to do the same. It is all about balance.

5. Panel interviews

Here you will find several interviewers asking questions and deciding whether you are a suitable candidate for the position. The biggest thing to remember here is to not only concentrate on the highest ranking interviewer but to give everyone equal attention. That is if you know who the highest ranking is. For example, if you know the CEO is there do not only “suck up” to that person and answer their questions first, or only their questions!

It is crucial to know what type of interview is used for different situations.

For example, you may not know that the long waiting time is in fact a part of the interview, or that group dynamics and interactions are being tested even before the interview formally starts. Be aware of what is going on around you and always respect everyone in the process, including the office manage, secretary and the competition.

Going for an interview is stressful. As it should be. This one meeting could define the rest of your life. The following hints and tips will help you to maximize your success during an interview and to put your best foot forward because first impressions last.

1. Dress the part. Depending on where you apply you will want to dress accordingly. If you are applying to a gaming company you will obviously dress differently than if applying for a managerial position. How you dress defines how you wish to portray yourself and how serious the interview is to you. Never wear jeans and/or a t-shirt. Semi formal to formal is the best way to go. Professional and serious.

2. Arrive on time. Early even.. This is perhaps the most important tip. Obviously, being late is the worst thing to do. This gives the impression that you are not taking this as seriously as you should be because you should have plotted out your travel route and estimated time travel beforehand. Sometimes being late cannot be avoided, but honestly try hard to be on time or even early even if it means leaving an hour before you should. Also, arriving early, but not too early, will show that you are eager and interested in the interview.

3. Wait and do not get impatient in the waiting room. You are there for yourself not for them. Even if they are a half an hour late do not get impatient, unless the job doesn’t mean much to you. Some companies like to test how you handle stress or how you handle not being the center of attention. As long as you announced your arrival to the secretary they will come for you. And never ever get snarky with the secretary or office manager. Career buster. Even if you do manage to get the job they can make your working life a living hell.

4. Greet the person formally with a firm handshake. Use Mr./Mrs./Miss etc…for it is a sign of respect. Use a firm handshake to introduce yourself. A firm, but not too firm, handshake gives off an aura of confidence.

5. Do not sit until they indicate to do so. Do not go into the office and ‘plop’ yourself down like you own the office. Sit when they indicate to do so or sit when they sit.

6. Sit halfway from the back of the seat, slightly forward. This will give the appearance of you leaning in and “being extremely interested” in everything that is being said.

7. Be warm and friendly but not overly so. Smiling can go a long way. It means you are happy to be there for the interview and that you are at ease and interested.

8. When asked a question do not go off topic unless it is pertinent. No one wants to hear your life story.

9. Before going to an interview make two lists. One list of your positive qualities that will be beneficial to you working at that specific company and another list of your faults that you wish to ameliorate. Seriously, some companies ask this. Be honest, which means do not make something up to sound better.

10. RESEARCH. You need to find all the information possible about the company you are going to see. This will also help you prepare a list of possible questions that the interviewer may ask you.

Going for an interview can be stressful, especially if you really want the job. Collect as much information on the company as possible before the interview. Smile and show how you are interested in the company during the interview. And never ever ask about the salary during the interview unless they bring it up. This is a topic for when they call you back. And finally, most importantly never be late.

photo from ianbwarner

Giving speeches and presentations is an inevitable part of life. Whether it be at school or at a conference, speeches and orals dominate most fields of study. What is worse is that over three quarters of the population fear presentations in front of people even though, eight times out of ten there is nothing to fear or be anxious about.

For the remaining 20 percent, the following tips will help you better prepare for a public speech and to better deliver, starting today.

photy by D’Arcy Norman

1. Be prepared and practice.
Part of being nervous during an oral or presentation is due to the fact that you feel like you will forget critical pieces of information or that you will get up front of everyone and forget everything. Practice, over and over, until you are able to do your presentation with the minimal amount of cue cards. Practice in different settings, in front of different people.

2. Pick a topic that interests you.
It is hard to speak passionately and with conviction when you are talking about something that you couldn’t care about to save your life. Pick a topic that you know about so that you will be able to inject a little charisma into your speech. When questions come around at the end, you will be more equipped to answer them if you love what you talked about.

Also, picking a topic that interests you, but that you don’t necessarily know a lot about, makes information found regarding that topic easier to encode into long term memory and then to retrieve it! Easier to remember makes for an easier performance.

3. Don’t leave the audience out.
When the audience is pulled into your speech, or is forced to interact with you while you are giving your speech, their curiosity and attention will be on you. When you do not interact with the audience, you are giving them a huge opportunity to daydream, doze off and not listen. Why spend all that time on a speech to have your audience fall asleep?

4. Know your audience.
Know who you will be speaking to and tailor your speech accordingly. If you are talking to medical students you can use medical terms more liberally than if you were talking to sociology majors.

5. Make it simple to understand.
Not everyone will understand what you are saying and not everyone is interested in what you are saying. Especially when the topic is difficult to start with. Even when you define difficult terms they may not keep up. No one cares about how smart you sound. Losing your audience is not ideal either, which is inevitable if they don’t understand. If you have to use complicated terms, complement them with an easy to understand example of what you mean.

6. Complement your speech with visual aids.
Use power point slides or projectors. Illustrate your examples and put definitions of difficult concepts on simple slides. Some people learn better visually.

7. Dress properly.
Do not dress like you are staying in for the day, i.e. sweat pants…Dress like you mean it and are interested in what you are doing. Dress like you are taking this seriously. What you wear says something about you and people take those who dress seriously, more seriously and think they are more competent.

8. Keep your audience hanging and thinking.
Close your speech by leaving your audience thinking. This will perpetuate your speech and cultivate curiosity in others. It will also leave you and your speech more memorable.

Everything from dressing to the way you deliver your speech is important. It is through practice that you will be able to relieve a bit of the anxiety and fear that accompanies public speaking. Speaking slow and with conviction will captivate the audience and leave them wanting more. Remember, anxiety is normal, but if you work through it you will find that it is not as bad as you make it out to be.

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Recently I had the opportunity of judging someone’s actions and see if that someone did a good job or not, if the tasks have been completed and how. I am talking about a small legend in my country, an ethical person with high spirits that had to run a team.

It’s not easy to be “almost perfect” in your niche and to be forced to work with common people because you will ask them to perform just like you. They won’t be able to do it and the team will be drawn back.

Reasons why you shouldn’t do it

If someone experienced, is asking me to deliver something that I can’t or that I never did before, chances are for the job to remain undone and I could develop a bad sentiment of inferiority. This is what makes your team members to lose faith in their own powers or lose interest in doing something they consider not to be suited for. This is a no-return point from where you cannot motivate your team further to listening to you.

What should be done?

1. First thing to do in such a problem is to make a realistic assessment of the team. Unless you know what each member is capable to do, you won’t know what to ask from them and you may ask either too much or too less.
2. This is something I learned from my father since I was a little boy, if he doesn’t know, teach him. We learn things until the very last seconds of our lives. Teach your crew the best you can.
3. Another thing you should consider is winning the trust of the person, by maintaining a warm discussion. A low and calm tone in the voice tells a lot about a person and people tend to listen. You need to make sure your ideas are being heard and making them believe in your tactics and experience is a big step in reaching your goals as a team.
4. Be progressive. For this one I will use an example from fitness or sports in general. Do you know why you start slow when you go for the first time at the gym? The body needs to become aware of what’s going to happen, it needs to understand to send more energy to your arms to support weight lifting or into your legs if you’re running, but you need to do it gradually or you may get a big REJECT, translated in pains. Train your people one step at a time, because they need to be confident of what they can deliver.

Even if you managed to improve your team, don’t expect them to be as good as you are. Only ask things that are “askable” and start over with point #1 if needed.

Hi, I’m Bud Bilanich, The Common Sense Guy. I am very pleased to be guest contributor to socialpacks.com. Alex suggested that I do a post on career advice – especially for those of you who have just received your degree and are beginning your career.

Over the past several years, I have developed a model of career and life success that I call Star Power. The Star Power model holds that all successful people are skilled in five major areas: Self Confidence, Personal Impact, Outstanding Performance, Communication Skills and Interpersonal Competence.

I have identified three sub components for each of the five points on the Star Power model which means that people will have at least three things in common:

Self Confidence

1. Self confident people are optimistic.
2. Self confident people face their fears and deal with them.
3. Self confident people surround themselves with positive people.

Personal Impact

1. People with powerful personal impact develop and constantly promote their personal brand.
2. People with powerful personal impact are impeccable in their presentation of self.
3. People with powerful personal impact know and practice the basic rules of etiquette.

Outstanding Performance

1. Outstanding performers are technically competent.
2. Outstanding performers set and achieve goals.
3. Outstanding performers are organized.

Communication Skills

1. Good communicators are excellent conversationalists.
2. Good communicators write in a clear, concise easily readable manner.
3. Good communicators are excellent presenters – to groups of two or 100.

Interpersonal Competence

1. Interpersonally competent people are self aware. They understand themselves, and as a result they understand others.
2. Interpersonally competent people build solid, long lasting mutually beneficial relationships with the people in their lives.
3. Interpersonally competent people are able to resolve conflicts with a minimal amount of problems and upset to relationships.

It is my experience that people who are a success in their careers and lives are competent in all of the components of the Star Power model and really good at one or two of them.

You can learn more about my thoughts on career and life success by reading my ebook Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success. You can get the ebook by going to www.SuccessCommonSense.com and clicking on the cover of the Star Power book on the right side of the page. This will take you to a place where you can sign up for my Common Sense Ezine and download a .pdf of the ebook.

You have my best wishes for your career and life success.