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Archive for interview

Video Interviewing Tips

August 13th, 2020

I was recently ask (along with several colleagues) to answer the following question for the National Resume Writers’ Association’s Expert’s Blog: I’m deathly afraid of video. How can I still do well in video interviews given my fear of the camera? Here is my response and a link to all the responses:

Karen Silins, A+ Career & Resume, LLC

Here are my best tips to help you feel more confident: Test your connection, computer camera and lighting ahead of time. Avoid loud spaces and use an appropriate background. Be early, and have your resume, cover letter and job ad in front of you. Dress as you would for an in-person interview. Look in the camera, not at your picture in the monitor/screen. Have a glass of water nearby. SMILE!

I’m deathly afraid of video. How can I still do well in video interviews given my fear of the camera?
NRWA Experts Blog
Categories Career Coaching, Interviews, Job Search
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Corporate America: Stop Finding Ridiculous Reasons to Downsize, Fire or Replace Employees to Boost Your Bottom Line

November 15th, 2019
Corporate America: Stop Finding Ridiculous Reasons to Downsize, Fire or Replace Employees to Boost Your Bottom Line

Well, it just happened again, and I doubt the trend will stop. Employers firing an employee without cause (they are never told why), or just making up something despite video, performance review, or other evidence to the contrary, to downsize or replace employees. If you are going to downsize, do it formally and publicly and take the hit on your reputation. If you are going to replace employees with someone cheaper, then I encourage those former employees to go onto Glassdoor and have at it in the critique section. The almighty dollar is not so important that you must wreak havoc on an employee’s life temporarily, cause heart-harming anxiety, send them into emergency job search mode, and put them into financial chaos because you want to save a buck. The worst part – it never works out, and the company will always lose down the road in loss of clients, employee attrition due to fear and overwork, and a terrible reputation. 

But Karen, you don’t understand, we have shareholders. Yes, I do, I own stock in companies, but I don’t expect them to treat employees like cattle to the slaughter because they are too cheap to do the right thing. This is never about the average shareholder, it’s about the board of directors and the officers/executives of the company who want to make more money and are the often the largest shareholders. The “for all the shareholders good” is just an excuse.

I was hoping after the economic downturn/great recession, employers would be increasingly mindful of the harm this has done. Apparently, that is not the case.

People are not “resources” or “capital” or whatever non-human reference you use. Corporate America’s consistent exploitation of downsizing, firing and position elimination to save money is both illogical and unethical. You cannot “save” your way to profit, because ultimately you sacrifice your clients and other employees on the altar of “cost saving synergies” and your bottom line.  Complaints of lack of service due to a shortage of employees or inexperienced staff are always signs of a company that only cares about short-term gain. 

Then you must hate Corporate American, you say? Absolutely not, as there are as many companies doing things right, as there are doing things wrong. Many businesses did learn after our great recession, or hired new leadership to create a better environment. I actually love Corporate America, am an avowed capitalist (as socialism creates the ultimate in inequity), and believe in the power of companies to do great good for our society! I am also a Jobseeker Advocate and WILL NOT be silent when I see shameful behavior that negatively effects my clients. I do have the responsibility of using my social media presence, industry standing and bit of a bully pulpit, to make it clear to those employing such tactics that this type of reprehensible conduct will not be tolerated.

Having said the above, there are times where in order to save a company, some employees must be downsized. Likewise, when mergers or acquisitions occur, there could be many duplicate positions and not enough other positions within the company that those duplicates can fill, so some must be laid off. I am not unsympathetic in any way to those realities. Instead, I am going after those that use firings to avoid paying unemployment (I have a list), accuse employees of absolute lies in order to make room for cheaper employees, eliminate positions without putting those employees in lateral (equally paid) positions that need filled, downsize because some board member or hedge fund investor wants to see a little more profit, or any combination of the above.

But you say, Karen, how do you know these things are really happening, couldn’t that just be your client’s opinion? After 20 years in this business, I have executive, internal employee and HR contacts you wouldn’t believe, and I can always get the real story. I then combine that with proof the clients provide me from performance reviews, client letters, awards received, and other documentation to get a clear picture. If you hear the same thing over and over again… Once can be an exception. Twice can be a coincidence. Three times is a trend.

Daily, I work with companies, not just individuals, who treat their employees as people, not numbers, and as valued contributors to their organization. These will be the companies that will ultimately thrive as paradigm shifts beget a new society of workers demanding to be treated as a human being. This will be the greatest gift Millennial’s and Generation Z employees bring to the workforce. However, to the companies using these unscrupulous tactics, you have now been put on notice!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Coaching, Career Management, Human Resources, Job Search, Opinion
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Salary Negotiation Tips

August 7th, 2019

From 60-75% of the candidates who ask for more money, get it.  So, if you don’t ask, you will always wonder if you could have increased your salary from the start.  You can either have a number in mind, for instance:  I was hoping for closer to $55,000 versus $49,000.  What can you do to potentially help bridge the gap?” Or, you can ask them in general what they can do in offering more money, or, you can accept what they offer, no questions ask.  

Many times, they will give you more.  Even if it is only $1,000 a year more, that is an increase the appreciates over time through the potential raises, bonuses, and commission, which are often based on a percentage of your salary.  I have never heard of someone being told their job offer was rescinded just by asking if there was the potential for additional salary.

Categories Career Management, Career Transition, Interviews, Job Search
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Know Your Value

July 8th, 2019

“We often don’t realize our true value until after we negotiate a salary and benefits package.  Know your value, don’t just take that first offer.  Show them you are multifaceted and provide cross functional experience that is worthy of a better offer.  Most companies will give you more, you just need to ask.” – Karen Silins  

Categories Career Coaching, Career Management, Career Transition, Careers, Interviews, Job Search
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Tips to Prepare for a Telephone Interview

September 20th, 2018

Tips to Prepare for a Telephone Interview

My recent feature in the National Resume Writers Association (NRWA) “Ask the Experts” forum 09/10/18

Karen Silins, A+ Career & Resume, LLC

To prepare for a phone interview, have the following items ready: 1. Your resume, job ad, and company research. 2. Question(s) you want to ask. 3. Glass of water. 4. Turn off call-waiting. 5. Talk on headset or landline, no speaker phone. 6. Take notes by hand to avoid typing noise in background. Interview in distraction-free, closed door environment, no children, dogs, television, etc.

Tips to Prepare for a Telephone Interview

Categories Interviews, Job Search, Personal Branding
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What is a Waste of Space, Unprofessional or Inappropriate on Your Resume?

November 29th, 2017

What is a Waste of Space, Unprofessional or Inappropriate on Your Resume?

I found the above picture yesterday in a search for graphics, and it immediately struck me as perfect for my article. While everyone writing their resume is doing so in earnest and with the best information they have, often the person writing it may have received bad resume advice from friends and family, used poorly written sample resumes or just be winging it to get their resume done for a potential job.  There are several items that jobseekers put on their resumes that are unnecessary, take up excess space, and look unprofessional.  Here are a few I see on a regular basis:

–An Objective:  Instead of putting a tiresome, repetitive objective about how you want to work for a company that loves you and hugs you and will take care of you forever, how about the job title for the specific job you are applying for, and for which the resume is tailored.  There will be no doubt by the reader what you are applying for, and the job title is most likely a keyword in their system.  Then add a list of job/industry related keywords, or three bullet points highlighting great accomplishments, or a one sentence statement of purpose.  Make sure anything you use at the top of the document with your job title is also communicated in the body of the resume.

–References Available Upon Request:  The interviewers already know this, just bring your reference listing to the interview.

–Your Picture:  A picture on LinkedIn is great, but not on your resume.  Not only is there a potential for discrimination but the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) don’t work well with pictures.

–Fancy Graphics:  Similar to above; this is great for handing your resume to someone, but not for the ATS.  Chances are the ATS won’t be able to read the document, or it will place a multitude of unrecognizable symbols in your resume.

–Personal Information:  I have actually seen the following on resumes:   person is in “good health,” has 10 children, height and weight numbers,  hobbies that are a little too personal and don’t relate to the job or create interest, and spousal details.  Again, there is discrimination potential, and these items are not appropriate for the document.

–Obvious Skills:  Microsoft Office; it is always better to give the specific programs – like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access.  You can also do the following:  Microsoft Office:  Word, Access, Excel and PowerPoint, and then you have all the potential keywords.  Phrases like detail oriented, email usage, and problem solver can go away too, they are blaringly general.

–Be Detailed:   Never use general information and vague keywords when you can be precise or explain something in a reasonably short bullet point.  However, let’s not use too short of a bullet point.  For instance, I see the following constantly on resumes: “Answer Phones.”  That isn’t a bullet point, it is a very short statement.  Here is a bullet that describes answering phones.  Answer five-line phone system, including distribution of calls to appropriate parties, and fielding of general inquiries.  A five-line phone system is a whole different animal, and tells a potential employer that the company you worked for was probably very busy, and you had a lot phone calls to manage.  The other merely says you know how to answer a phone.  In this case, more is better.  Avoid one and two word bullet points, they tell the reader nothing.

–Use of Responsibilities or Duties include:  Okay, I will come find you and tear up your resume if you use these phrases to begin a bullet point.  HR hates them, recruiters hate them, resume writers hate them.  Why, because they are overused!  Enough said, find a thesaurus for better action verbs.

–Unprofessional Email:  I actually saw this email address on a resume at a career fair – CMYNPPLRNG, yes, it says “see my nipple ring” in vanity plate parlance.  Also avoid your name and the year you were born – let’s not just give things away.  How about using your name and the last four digits of your phone number or the numbers in your home address?

–Professional development or civic and professional memberships:  Want to provide meaning to your professional development, and professional and civic involvement, put a year, or year-to-year with it.  The date offers context to the reader as to how relevant and recent it is in your career.

–Outdated professional development:  Do you really remember that 1995 Project Management course – probably not.  So, instead go with the last 10 years, and only list the best of the best.  You can always take an addendum to the interview with a comprehensive listing of professional development, if in the last 10 years there are copious amounts.

Space is precious on a resume, whether you have a one-page or three-page document, you want everything on the document to be useful to the reader.  Remember, if your resume makes it past the ATS, and the initial 10-15 second screening, it will be read – make it all count!

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Careers, Job Search, Personal Branding, Resume Writing
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Answering the Question: What Makes You More Qualified Than the Other Candidates?

November 16th, 2017

Answering the Question:  What Makes You More Qualified Than the Other Candidates?

 

This is a common question my clients are regularly asked in an interview.  There is worth to the question, despite what you read online, and I do understand the logic behind it.  So, here is how you handle it:

First, tell them you don’t know the other candidates’ qualifications, nor do you have their resume, so all you can speak to is your own qualifications for the position.  Not only is this true, but you avoid saying anything negative about the other candidates – this is one of the reasons an interviewer asks the question.  Be careful to address this at the beginning of your answer, as you don’t want the interviewer to feel as if you ignored a portion of the question.

Second, before you ever walk into that interview, fashion an answer.  Being perceived as caught off guard by an inquiry that is commonly used will certainly be a negative.  This is essentially another way of asking “what makes you qualified for the position.”  It doesn’t matter which of these questions you get, the answer will be primarily the same except for what I provided in the “first” part of the answer.

Speak concisely about how your skills, education and experience, with a couple of pertinent examples, relate to the job the interviewer is hiring for specifically.  Keep the answer to less than 90 seconds, so you have enough time to share some details, and connect them to the job, but not so much you bore the interviewer(s).

Use your biggest and best skills and experience, and only relevant education (if used at all) in the answer.  This is not the time to talk about your phone prowess as an IT Director, or how you helped your frat organize a “party” for an entry level bank teller job (or any job for that matter).

What is the organization truly looking for in this position regarding experience and skillset?  What will your typical tasks be day-in, day-out?  What unique capabilities, education, certifications, or experience are they desiring that you already possess?  Depending on the level of, and detail provided about the position, you can offer quite a customized answer to the interviewer(s).

Keep a cheat sheet on hand of this answer in your notebook or portfolio for the interview.  Now you will be prepared, and have a great answer that truly offers value, while setting yourself apart from the competition in a professional and likeable way.

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Interviews, Job Search, Personal Branding
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11 Interview Tips Experts Say Will Make You Stand Out

October 26th, 2017

11 Interview Tips Experts Say Will Make You Stand Out

I was honored to recently participate in a colleague’s article interviewing 11 experts on how to “stand out from the crowd” while in an interview.  Below is my tip for jobseekers, and a link to the full article.

“Craft answers to Behavioral Interview questions prior to the interview.  I take every one of my clients through an exercise to develop these before walking in an interviewer’s door.  Go through performance reviews, your own resume examples of success, think about projects you have worked on, documentation you have created, how you contributed to cost savings or profit and revenue development, and how you increased customer service.  Write these in a format of Challenge, Action and (successful) Result and take them with you in a career portfolio to the interview.  Now you will have an arsenal of perhaps 20 or more examples to refer to if necessary.  You can write them in a brief synopsis (three sentences will be sufficient) but can share and expand on during your interview session.

Since nearly every interview has Behavioral Interview questions, this exercise will pay huge dividends in your success.  Don’t be stuck trying to think of an answer for every interview question that comes your way, prepare ahead and reduce your stress while you impress.”

To see the full article, please go to the following link: https://www.offtheclockresumes.com/blog/11-interview-tips-experts-say-will-make-you-stand-out

 

Categories Career Management, Interviews, Job Search, Personal Branding
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Proofing Your Resume and Cover Letter

September 26th, 2017

Proofing Your Resume and Cover Letter

Proofing a resume or cover letter both for the writer or the numerous friends and family who often review, can be a daunting task. You want that document to be perfect. You’ve heard that one mistake could cost you a job. First, let’s do away with that myth. Thinking that someone is taking your one, two or three-page resume and cover letter, reading it, and then dismissing you from consideration for one error somewhere in the middle the document typically doesn’t happen. Nearly every resume I review for client companies or at career fairs has a couple of errors in it, and this is after a person has typically done multiple reviews and had others review it multiple times. Most hiring managers and HR personnel reading the document are first doing an initial scan if it gets through the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Then, only if you make it into the “qualified” pile they will actually read it. To be truthful, that reading, while more detailed, is not for spotting every error in the document unless those errors are jumping out at them!

Most people reading your resume understand there may be a minor error or two. I assure you their resume probably has typos in it too. Add to that some of the strange things an ATS can do to the document, like inserting weird characters where they don’t belong, or changing all you letter “d’s” to “g’s,” which does happen, and now your potentially perfect document is inaccurate, or at least peculiar looking! That is not your fault and something readers on the other side of the ATS need to understand.  What they don’t want to see are glaring errors, like your name or the company name misspelled, bad grammar, missing or incorrect punctuation, erroneous or misspelled industry terminology and acronyms, and overused action words.

So, how do proof your own writing? First, walk away from that document. It doesn’t matter if it is a resume, cover letter, reference list, reference letter, or any other career related information, you need to step away before reviewing it. Don’t write a resume that can impact your ability to get a job and then feel the need to send it out the same night. You will regret it most every time. Come back the next day and read it again with fresh eyes. Then walk away again for a few hours, come back and reread. Now walk away again, come back and read that document to yourself out loud. This allows you to catch syntax errors – those sentences and phrases that just don’t “sound” right.  Sometimes what sounds great when reading it “in your head” doesn’t quite work when you read it out loud. Lastly, read it backwards. Yep, I said backwards. Certainly this seems laborious, but it actually allows you to catch additional errors like missing punctuation, misspelled industry or technical terminology, company names, and occasional repeated words like “the the,” more easily. When you read it back to front, the “reading what you think you wrote” issue goes out the window. How it sounds isn’t important at this point. Reading in reverse is all about spelling and punctuation.

As a final thought, know that regardless of how many times or how carefully you read your resume or cover letter for errors, we are still human, and so are your family and friends. You still just might have missed something. My feeling is that if a person reading your resume doesn’t understand that every once in a while we make errors – then that person or organization may have larger issues. Primarily having a mindset that says you can’t ever make an error. Typically these organizations will also give you the work of three people, demand you get it done with no overtime or constant forced overtime, or put you on salary so you can work 90 hours a week. If you misspelled your name, company name, or something painfully obvious on the resume, like writing HIPAA with two “p’s ,” then take your medicine (sorry, couldn’t resist the healthcare pun). However, if in the middle of the document you used “united” and accidentally spelled “untied” or Microsoft Word just didn’t catch a misspelling, and that is their major determining factor in an interview or hiring decision, consider yourself lucky. They may have saved you another job search.

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Management, Job Search, Resume Writing
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No Negative, No Complaining

December 22nd, 2016

No Negative, No Complaining

 

When interviewing new hires and even in coaching clients I have seen a little bit of everything.  From talking about how a boss works someone too hard to a person answering a behavioral interview question that didn’t call for negative outcome with an incredibly troublesome answer.  I agree that sometimes a little bit of “not so positive” can be appropriate to explain why you left a job or for when a behavioral question calls for a negative result, but notice I said a LITTLE BIT.

Many interviewees seem oblivious to the fact that they are even giving a critical response to many an interview question.  Often my clients will say, well I just want to be truthful.  Trust me, there is a difference between truthful and damaging in an interview, and if you don’t know the difference, you may have a very long job search.

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses.  After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm.  Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals.  She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area.  She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Interviews, Job Search, Uncategorized
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