While every tech company asks programmers technical questions to see if they're fit for a job, Apple makes a point to follow up each response with "but how would you optimize that/make it better?" And then there are the questions that really throw you off.
"Tell me something that you have done in your life which you are particularly proud of."
"What are you failures, and how have you learned from them?"
"Describe an interesting problem and how you solved it."
"Explain to a 8 year old what a modem/router is and it's functions.
"What brings you here today?"
"You have a 100 coins laying flat on a table, each with a head side and a tail side. 10 of them are heads up, 90 are tails up. You can't feel, see or in any other way find out which side is up. Split the coins into two piles such that there are the same number of heads in each pile."
"What would you want to do 5 years from now?"
"Why do you want to join Apple and what will you miss at your current work if Apple hired you."
"Describe yourself, what excites you?"
"How would you test a toaster?"
"If we hired you, what do you want to work on?"
"There are three boxes, one contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both apples and oranges. The boxes have been incorrectly labeled such that no label identifies the actual contents of the box it labels. Opening just one box, and without looking in the box, you take out one piece of fruit. By looking at the fruit, how can you immediately label all of the boxes correctly?"
"Have you ever disagreed with a manager's decision, and how did you approach the disagreement? Give a specific example and explain how you rectified this disagreement, what the final outcome was, and how that individual would describe you today."
"Why should we hire you?"
"Are you creative? What's something creative that you can think of?"
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/trickiest-apple-interview-questions-2013-7?op=1#ixzz2aJA9Xj57
http://www.businessinsider.com/trickiest-apple-interview-questions-2013-7?op=1#ixzz2aJ8pWUoj
Showing posts with label Interviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interviews. Show all posts
Why Brainteasers Don’t Belong in Job Interviews
Imagine that you are the captain of a pirate ship. You’ve captured some booty, and you need to divide it among your crew. But first the crew will vote on your plan. If you have the support of fewer than half of them, you will die. How do you propose to divide the gold, so that you still have some for yourself—but live to tell the tale?
There is a correct answer: divide it among the top fifty-one per cent of the crew. If you knew that, you’ve passed what used to be one of Google’s infamous, mind-scrambling job-interview questions, which would have placed you one step closer to a career at the technology giant. (Google reportedly banned the practice a couple of years ago.) In a surprising June 19th interview with the New York Times, Laszlo Bock, Google’s senior V.P. of “people operations,” explained why: the company discovered these brainteasers are “a complete waste of time,” and “don’t predict anything” when it comes to job success. Google shouldn’t be shocked. A psychologist would have known at the outset that tests of this nature hardly ever work, and that there are much better predictors of who will get hired and how they will perform.
Researchers have always tried to use psychology for predictive ends: Can what we already know about a person tell us how she will behave in a given situation? The results of these endeavors have been mixed. While there is some evidence for links between certain personality traits and later outcomes, the correlations tend to be limited, and the predictions that can be made are broad at best. For instance, we can tell when a given person will generally succeed at academic pursuits, but not if she’ll excel in a particular seminar on ancient hieroglyphics.
The major problem with most attempts to predict a specific outcome, such as interviews, is decontextualization: the attempt takes place in a generalized environment, as opposed to the context in which a behavior or trait naturally occurs. Google’s brainteasers measure how good people are at quickly coming up with a clever, plausible-seeming solution to an abstract problem under pressure. But employees don’t experience this particular type of pressure on the job. What the interviewee faces, instead, is the objective of a stressful, artificial interview setting: to make an impression that speaks to her qualifications in a limited time, within the narrow parameters set by the interviewer. What’s more, the candidate is asked to handle an abstracted “gotcha” situation, where thinking quickly is often more important than thinking well. Instead of determining how someone will perform on relevant tasks, the interviewer measures how the candidate will handle a brainteaser during an interview, and not much more.
Interviews in general pose a particular challenge when it comes to predictive validity—that is, the ability to determine someone’s future performance based on limited data. Not only are they relatively brief but also, over the past twenty years, psychologists have repeatedly found that few of a candidate’s responses matter. What is significant is the personal impression that the interviewer forms within the first minute (and sometimes less) of meeting the prospective hire. In one study, students were recorded as they took part in mock on-campus recruiting interviews that lasted from eight to thirty minutes. The interviewers evaluated them based on eleven factors, such as over-all employability, professional competency, and interpersonal skills. The experimenters then showed the first twenty or so seconds of each interview to untrained observers—the initial meet-and-greet, starting with the interviewee’s knock on the door and ending ten seconds after he was seated, before any questions—and asked them to rate the candidates on the same dimensions. What the researchers found was a high correlation between judgments made by the untrained eye in a matter of seconds and those made by trained interviewers after going through the whole process. On nine of the eleven factors, there was a resounding agreement between the two groups.
This phenomenon is broadly known as “thin-slice” judgment. As early as 1937, Gordon Allport, a pioneer of personality psychology, argued that we constantly form sweeping opinions of others based on incredibly limited information and exposure. Since then, multiple studies have shown the truth of that observation: first impressions are paramount. Once formed, they reliably color the rest of our impression formation. The exact same interview response given by two different candidates, one of whom the interviewer preferred, would be rated differently.
Given the failure of typical interviews to predict job performance consistently, what should companies do instead? Two things have been shown to make the interview process more successful. One is using a highly standardized interview process—for instance, asking each candidate the same questions in the same order. This produces a more objective measure of how each candidate fares, and it can reduce the influence of thin-slice judgment, which can alter the way each interview is conducted.
The other solution is to focus on relevant behavioral measures, both in the past and in the future. The ubiquitous interview question “Describe a situation where you did well on X or failed on Y” is an example of a past behavioral measure; asking a programmer to describe how she would solve a particular programming task would be a future measure. Google and many other tech companies may also ask some candidates to write code on the spot, a task that solves the problem of decontextualization by closely approximating what they would do on the job.
To Google’s credit, the company admitted its failure, and moved its interviews in a different direction. Finding the one right candidate in a group is hard, and companies don’t have much time to figure out exactly which questions can help them tell similar-seeming candidates apart. Or, to quote from another of the banned Google questions, “You have eight balls of the same size. Seven of them weigh the same, and one of them weighs slightly more. How can you find the ball that is heavier by using a balance and only two weighings?”
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/06/why-brainteasers-dont-belong-in-job-interviews.html
There is a correct answer: divide it among the top fifty-one per cent of the crew. If you knew that, you’ve passed what used to be one of Google’s infamous, mind-scrambling job-interview questions, which would have placed you one step closer to a career at the technology giant. (Google reportedly banned the practice a couple of years ago.) In a surprising June 19th interview with the New York Times, Laszlo Bock, Google’s senior V.P. of “people operations,” explained why: the company discovered these brainteasers are “a complete waste of time,” and “don’t predict anything” when it comes to job success. Google shouldn’t be shocked. A psychologist would have known at the outset that tests of this nature hardly ever work, and that there are much better predictors of who will get hired and how they will perform.
Researchers have always tried to use psychology for predictive ends: Can what we already know about a person tell us how she will behave in a given situation? The results of these endeavors have been mixed. While there is some evidence for links between certain personality traits and later outcomes, the correlations tend to be limited, and the predictions that can be made are broad at best. For instance, we can tell when a given person will generally succeed at academic pursuits, but not if she’ll excel in a particular seminar on ancient hieroglyphics.
The major problem with most attempts to predict a specific outcome, such as interviews, is decontextualization: the attempt takes place in a generalized environment, as opposed to the context in which a behavior or trait naturally occurs. Google’s brainteasers measure how good people are at quickly coming up with a clever, plausible-seeming solution to an abstract problem under pressure. But employees don’t experience this particular type of pressure on the job. What the interviewee faces, instead, is the objective of a stressful, artificial interview setting: to make an impression that speaks to her qualifications in a limited time, within the narrow parameters set by the interviewer. What’s more, the candidate is asked to handle an abstracted “gotcha” situation, where thinking quickly is often more important than thinking well. Instead of determining how someone will perform on relevant tasks, the interviewer measures how the candidate will handle a brainteaser during an interview, and not much more.
Interviews in general pose a particular challenge when it comes to predictive validity—that is, the ability to determine someone’s future performance based on limited data. Not only are they relatively brief but also, over the past twenty years, psychologists have repeatedly found that few of a candidate’s responses matter. What is significant is the personal impression that the interviewer forms within the first minute (and sometimes less) of meeting the prospective hire. In one study, students were recorded as they took part in mock on-campus recruiting interviews that lasted from eight to thirty minutes. The interviewers evaluated them based on eleven factors, such as over-all employability, professional competency, and interpersonal skills. The experimenters then showed the first twenty or so seconds of each interview to untrained observers—the initial meet-and-greet, starting with the interviewee’s knock on the door and ending ten seconds after he was seated, before any questions—and asked them to rate the candidates on the same dimensions. What the researchers found was a high correlation between judgments made by the untrained eye in a matter of seconds and those made by trained interviewers after going through the whole process. On nine of the eleven factors, there was a resounding agreement between the two groups.
This phenomenon is broadly known as “thin-slice” judgment. As early as 1937, Gordon Allport, a pioneer of personality psychology, argued that we constantly form sweeping opinions of others based on incredibly limited information and exposure. Since then, multiple studies have shown the truth of that observation: first impressions are paramount. Once formed, they reliably color the rest of our impression formation. The exact same interview response given by two different candidates, one of whom the interviewer preferred, would be rated differently.
Given the failure of typical interviews to predict job performance consistently, what should companies do instead? Two things have been shown to make the interview process more successful. One is using a highly standardized interview process—for instance, asking each candidate the same questions in the same order. This produces a more objective measure of how each candidate fares, and it can reduce the influence of thin-slice judgment, which can alter the way each interview is conducted.
The other solution is to focus on relevant behavioral measures, both in the past and in the future. The ubiquitous interview question “Describe a situation where you did well on X or failed on Y” is an example of a past behavioral measure; asking a programmer to describe how she would solve a particular programming task would be a future measure. Google and many other tech companies may also ask some candidates to write code on the spot, a task that solves the problem of decontextualization by closely approximating what they would do on the job.
To Google’s credit, the company admitted its failure, and moved its interviews in a different direction. Finding the one right candidate in a group is hard, and companies don’t have much time to figure out exactly which questions can help them tell similar-seeming candidates apart. Or, to quote from another of the banned Google questions, “You have eight balls of the same size. Seven of them weigh the same, and one of them weighs slightly more. How can you find the ball that is heavier by using a balance and only two weighings?”
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/06/why-brainteasers-dont-belong-in-job-interviews.html
MIT’s new automated ‘life coach’ can help you ace job interviews
MACH, My Automated Conversation coacH, is a system for people to practice social interactions in face-to-face scenarios. MACH consists of a 3D character that can see, hear, and make its own decisions in real time.
The system was validated in the context of job interviews with 90 MIT undergraduate students. Students who interacted with MACH demonstrated significant performance improvement compared to the students in the control group. We are currently expanding this technology to open up new possibilities in behavioral health (e.g., treating people with Asperger syndrome, social phobia, PTSD) as well as designing new interaction paradigms in human-computer interaction and robotics.
Where can I sign up? Click here.
http://web.media.mit.edu/~mehoque/MACH.htm
The system was validated in the context of job interviews with 90 MIT undergraduate students. Students who interacted with MACH demonstrated significant performance improvement compared to the students in the control group. We are currently expanding this technology to open up new possibilities in behavioral health (e.g., treating people with Asperger syndrome, social phobia, PTSD) as well as designing new interaction paradigms in human-computer interaction and robotics.
Where can I sign up? Click here.
http://web.media.mit.edu/~mehoque/MACH.htm
6 Mistakes College Students Make During Informational Interviews
Informational interviews serve as an excellent way for college students to gain insight about their future profession. However, it’s important for college students to be aware of a few things first before they ruin a good networking opportunity.
College students attend informational interviews so they can learn first-hand experience from professionals in their field. Not only can you learn about what it’s like to work in your industry, but also you can learn details about work-life balance and how to advance your career.
Sometimes, college students aren’t prepared for their first informational interview. Either they arrive to the interview under-dressed or they think it’s their opportunity to sell themselves to the organization.
If you’re approaching an informational interview, here are six mistakes to avoid:
1. Not following up after the interview. Don’t let the professional think you disappeared into thin air after the informational interview. Many college students don’t realize how important the connection they make with the professional during the interview is. Even worse, saying you’re going to follow-up and you don’t can hurt the connection you made with the professional, too.
2. Not preparing a list of questions to ask the interviewer. An informational interview is just as important as a real job interview. This is an opportunity for you to learn everything you could possibly want to know about your future career. From drilling the professional with questions about how they achieve work-life balance to asking them about the most rewarding parts of their career, be sure to have a list of at least 10 questions to ask during the interview.
3. Unprofessional attire. Don’t show up to the interview in your khakis, tennis shoes, and a polo. As mentioned earlier, informational interviews are just as professional as a real job interview. When you arrive to the interview, make sure you are dressed to impress. You can never overdress for an informational interview, so when in doubt, wear appropriate business professional attire.
4. Not bringing business cards. While business cards aren’t a necessity, they are very useful to bring to an informational interview. It also helps you look like a driven college student and budding professional in your industry. Business cards serve as a great networking tool and will make it easier for the professional you interview to stay in touch.
5. Giving the interviewer your resume. While it may seem like a good idea to give the interviewer your resume after the interview, don’t do it. (Unless they specifically request it, of course!) When you give the professional your resume, it makes it appear as if the purpose of the informational interview was to seek internship or job opportunities.
6. Asking the interviewer for an internship or job. Never ask the interviewer if they will hire you for an internship or job. Informational interviews are a great way to learn about how to be prepared for internships and to advance your career, but don’t plan on walking out the door with an opportunity handed to you. Just because you attend an informational interview doesn’t mean you are entitled to a position at the company.
It’s important for college students to understand how informational interviews play an essential role in determining career paths. The earlier you can perform informational interviews, the sooner you can discover your passions. As long as you are aware of these informational interview mistakes, you will be on your way to making valuable connections and gaining useful knowledge.
http://comerecommended.com/2013/06/6-mistakes-college-students-make-during-informational-interviews/
College students attend informational interviews so they can learn first-hand experience from professionals in their field. Not only can you learn about what it’s like to work in your industry, but also you can learn details about work-life balance and how to advance your career.
Sometimes, college students aren’t prepared for their first informational interview. Either they arrive to the interview under-dressed or they think it’s their opportunity to sell themselves to the organization.
If you’re approaching an informational interview, here are six mistakes to avoid:
1. Not following up after the interview. Don’t let the professional think you disappeared into thin air after the informational interview. Many college students don’t realize how important the connection they make with the professional during the interview is. Even worse, saying you’re going to follow-up and you don’t can hurt the connection you made with the professional, too.
2. Not preparing a list of questions to ask the interviewer. An informational interview is just as important as a real job interview. This is an opportunity for you to learn everything you could possibly want to know about your future career. From drilling the professional with questions about how they achieve work-life balance to asking them about the most rewarding parts of their career, be sure to have a list of at least 10 questions to ask during the interview.
3. Unprofessional attire. Don’t show up to the interview in your khakis, tennis shoes, and a polo. As mentioned earlier, informational interviews are just as professional as a real job interview. When you arrive to the interview, make sure you are dressed to impress. You can never overdress for an informational interview, so when in doubt, wear appropriate business professional attire.
4. Not bringing business cards. While business cards aren’t a necessity, they are very useful to bring to an informational interview. It also helps you look like a driven college student and budding professional in your industry. Business cards serve as a great networking tool and will make it easier for the professional you interview to stay in touch.
5. Giving the interviewer your resume. While it may seem like a good idea to give the interviewer your resume after the interview, don’t do it. (Unless they specifically request it, of course!) When you give the professional your resume, it makes it appear as if the purpose of the informational interview was to seek internship or job opportunities.
6. Asking the interviewer for an internship or job. Never ask the interviewer if they will hire you for an internship or job. Informational interviews are a great way to learn about how to be prepared for internships and to advance your career, but don’t plan on walking out the door with an opportunity handed to you. Just because you attend an informational interview doesn’t mean you are entitled to a position at the company.
It’s important for college students to understand how informational interviews play an essential role in determining career paths. The earlier you can perform informational interviews, the sooner you can discover your passions. As long as you are aware of these informational interview mistakes, you will be on your way to making valuable connections and gaining useful knowledge.
http://comerecommended.com/2013/06/6-mistakes-college-students-make-during-informational-interviews/
The One Thing You Must Do In Every Job Interview
I recently interviewed an excellent candidate for a position at our growing startup, Likeable Local. The woman had an incredible resume, an infectious personality, and, seemingly, a great work ethic. She was dressed for success, with a style fitting our culture. She answered all of my questions well, and seemed like a potential excellent fit for our company. Yet, despite all of this, she didn’t receive another interview, and I absolutely couldn’t seriously consider hiring her. What went wrong?
When I asked her what questions she had for me, the job candidate replied, “None, really. I’ve been following you guys online for awhile and feel like I know everything already.”
That was a fatal error, of course. By not asking questions, she told me she wasn’t truly interested in learning more, in creating value, and in our company. I couldn’t hire an otherwise very-well-qualified candidate because, in her lack of questions, she displayed a lack of passion for, interest in, and curiosity about our company and the position.
The most important thing you must do in every interview is to ask great questions.
The key is to ask great questions- not to ask questions that you should know the answers to already (“What does the position entail?) or questions that make it all about you (“What is your vacation policy?”)
Here are 9 great questions you can use or make your own on your next job interview:
1) Who would make the ideal candidate for this position?
2) How will the work I’ll be doing contribute to the organization’s mission?
3) What were the best things about the last person who held this position?
4) What are three ways I can contribute to the company beyond the job description?
5) How can I best contribute to the department’s goals?
6) How do you see me best contributing to the corporate culture and morale?
7) What do you see as the biggest challenges of working here and how can I overcome those challenges?
8) What is your vision for where the company or department will be in one year? In 3-5 years?
9) How can I best help you and the team succeed?
Of course, the more research you do in advance, the more you can ask specific questions about the company’s recent news, blog posts, product launches, plans, etc. But here’s the bottom line:
Ask questions that demonstrate genuine interest in the organization and how you can fit in to their success.
Remember, also, job interviewing is a two-way-street! By asking questions, you can get a much better sense of the organization you’re interviewing at, and the extent to which you’d even want to work there.
When job seekers come in to Likeable not only with great answers, but with great questions, I get excited about the prospects of hiring them. And hopefully, they can get some great answers from us, and get excited about the prospects of working there as well.
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130606153931-15077789-the-1-thing-you-must-do-in-every-job-interview?trk=tod-home-art-large_0
When I asked her what questions she had for me, the job candidate replied, “None, really. I’ve been following you guys online for awhile and feel like I know everything already.”
That was a fatal error, of course. By not asking questions, she told me she wasn’t truly interested in learning more, in creating value, and in our company. I couldn’t hire an otherwise very-well-qualified candidate because, in her lack of questions, she displayed a lack of passion for, interest in, and curiosity about our company and the position.
The most important thing you must do in every interview is to ask great questions.
The key is to ask great questions- not to ask questions that you should know the answers to already (“What does the position entail?) or questions that make it all about you (“What is your vacation policy?”)
Here are 9 great questions you can use or make your own on your next job interview:
1) Who would make the ideal candidate for this position?
2) How will the work I’ll be doing contribute to the organization’s mission?
3) What were the best things about the last person who held this position?
4) What are three ways I can contribute to the company beyond the job description?
5) How can I best contribute to the department’s goals?
6) How do you see me best contributing to the corporate culture and morale?
7) What do you see as the biggest challenges of working here and how can I overcome those challenges?
8) What is your vision for where the company or department will be in one year? In 3-5 years?
9) How can I best help you and the team succeed?
Of course, the more research you do in advance, the more you can ask specific questions about the company’s recent news, blog posts, product launches, plans, etc. But here’s the bottom line:
Ask questions that demonstrate genuine interest in the organization and how you can fit in to their success.
Remember, also, job interviewing is a two-way-street! By asking questions, you can get a much better sense of the organization you’re interviewing at, and the extent to which you’d even want to work there.
When job seekers come in to Likeable not only with great answers, but with great questions, I get excited about the prospects of hiring them. And hopefully, they can get some great answers from us, and get excited about the prospects of working there as well.
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130606153931-15077789-the-1-thing-you-must-do-in-every-job-interview?trk=tod-home-art-large_0
How Interviewers Know When to Hire You in 90 Seconds
We all fret job interviews and prepare as much as possible but there is little way of predicting their outcomes. Some cool stats in this infographic complied by our friends at Come Recommended:
- 33% of bosses know within the first 90 seconds of an interview whether they will hire someone
- Having little to no knowledge of the company is the most common mistake made during interviews
- 67% of bosses say that failure to make eye contact is a common nonverbal mistake
- When meeting new people, 55% of the impact comes from the way the person dresses, acts and walks through the door
- 65% of bosses indicate that clothes could be a deciding factor between two almost-identical candidates
- The number one question most likely to be asked is: “Tell me about yourself”
- The number one most common mistake at a job interview is: failing to ask for the job
7 things you never say in a PR agency job interview
With or without relevant experience, it’s tough to secure an interview for that first job or next best career step. So when you do nail it, you want to make the most of it.
Employers differ, but I have a mental list of “red-flag” responses that make me wonder if the candidate is a fit for my firm, or even for public relations overall. After a straw poll of other employers in PR, I’ve come up with a short, and subjective, list of things not to say in a PR firm interview.
“I’m a people person.”
It may be a personal quirk, but this one is the most cringe-worthy in my book. It immediately makes me see the candidate in a cruise ship director’s uniform. Yes, relationship- building is important in our business, but “I’m a people person” is facile, smacks of naiveté and does nothing to differentiate. It might make sense in an interview in hospitality or customer service, but I think it’s better unsaid.
“I’m the most qualified person you’ll meet!”
This and similar proclamations could suggest an arrogance that isn’t appealing. It’s better to offer specific anecdotes that illustrate why you’re qualified, motivated, or dedicated. Sweeping statements, in general, are weaker than examples.
“How quickly can I be promoted?”
Ambition is a good thing, as is having set goals. But the timing is wrong here. Save it for after you’ve proven your skills and work ethic. Talking about advancement prematurely, or in the wrong way, can make you look superficial or overly title-conscious.
“What kind of ads do you create?”
You must ask questions, but make sure that they don’t betray a lack of knowledge about the industry or company.
“I wasn’t being given enough independence and creative freedom in my last job.”
For some employers, this translates as, “I’m hard to manage.” While it may be important to offer reasons for your planned move, be careful to speak in positive terms, and whatever you do, be respectful of your current boss and company.
“I have lots of ideas for your clients X and Y.”
This one depends on timing and approach. It’s wise to be ready with thoughts about the company, and, in the case of an agency, its key clients, but feel out the interviewer with some general questions (“What are your key initiatives for client X?) before you share your ideas.
“My last boss and I had a personality conflict.”
This is simply a cliché, and it sounds hollow. You may be better off explaining a poor fit by saying something like, “I discovered that I work best as part of a team, but the agency structure wasn’t developed for that.”
“We just got an RFP from client X.”
I can’t count how many times a junior staffer from another agency has volunteered information that shouldn’t be shared in a routine interview. If you’re working at an agency and interviewing at a competitor, take care not to divulge anything proprietary or inappropriate, including new business pending, confidential client insights, or office gossip.
“You covered everything so thoroughly that I don’t have any questions.”
You must have questions. Even if this is your umpteenth interview at the company, have a question in your back pocket, or ask the interviewer to elaborate on something she said. It’s not fair, but having no questions can make you look incurious, passive, or disengaged.
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/14231.aspx
Employers differ, but I have a mental list of “red-flag” responses that make me wonder if the candidate is a fit for my firm, or even for public relations overall. After a straw poll of other employers in PR, I’ve come up with a short, and subjective, list of things not to say in a PR firm interview.
“I’m a people person.”
It may be a personal quirk, but this one is the most cringe-worthy in my book. It immediately makes me see the candidate in a cruise ship director’s uniform. Yes, relationship- building is important in our business, but “I’m a people person” is facile, smacks of naiveté and does nothing to differentiate. It might make sense in an interview in hospitality or customer service, but I think it’s better unsaid.
“I’m the most qualified person you’ll meet!”
This and similar proclamations could suggest an arrogance that isn’t appealing. It’s better to offer specific anecdotes that illustrate why you’re qualified, motivated, or dedicated. Sweeping statements, in general, are weaker than examples.
“How quickly can I be promoted?”
Ambition is a good thing, as is having set goals. But the timing is wrong here. Save it for after you’ve proven your skills and work ethic. Talking about advancement prematurely, or in the wrong way, can make you look superficial or overly title-conscious.
“What kind of ads do you create?”
You must ask questions, but make sure that they don’t betray a lack of knowledge about the industry or company.
“I wasn’t being given enough independence and creative freedom in my last job.”
For some employers, this translates as, “I’m hard to manage.” While it may be important to offer reasons for your planned move, be careful to speak in positive terms, and whatever you do, be respectful of your current boss and company.
“I have lots of ideas for your clients X and Y.”
This one depends on timing and approach. It’s wise to be ready with thoughts about the company, and, in the case of an agency, its key clients, but feel out the interviewer with some general questions (“What are your key initiatives for client X?) before you share your ideas.
“My last boss and I had a personality conflict.”
This is simply a cliché, and it sounds hollow. You may be better off explaining a poor fit by saying something like, “I discovered that I work best as part of a team, but the agency structure wasn’t developed for that.”
“We just got an RFP from client X.”
I can’t count how many times a junior staffer from another agency has volunteered information that shouldn’t be shared in a routine interview. If you’re working at an agency and interviewing at a competitor, take care not to divulge anything proprietary or inappropriate, including new business pending, confidential client insights, or office gossip.
“You covered everything so thoroughly that I don’t have any questions.”
You must have questions. Even if this is your umpteenth interview at the company, have a question in your back pocket, or ask the interviewer to elaborate on something she said. It’s not fair, but having no questions can make you look incurious, passive, or disengaged.
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/14231.aspx
6 interview questions that will make any employer want to hire you
Common advice among job seekers is that when you attend an interview, you need to interview the employer right back. After all, you're the one who will potentially fill the position. You need to know if it's going to be a good fit, right?
While salary ranges, benefits and schedule flexibility are important details you deserve answers to, hiring managers don't appreciate questions like those until at least your second interview (or maybe even after they make you an offer).
During your first interview, the "impress me" dance is still in full swing. When a potential employer asks if you have any questions, she doesn't want inquiries about parking validation; she wants to see if you're prepared, educated and inquisitive.
Here are six questions to ask at the end of your interview that will help you master the twisted tango of getting hired.
1. "If I were to start tomorrow, what would be the top priority on my to-do list?"
The answer to this question will give you more insight into the current state of the position while showing you're invested and interested in learning how you can start things off with a bang.
The added bonus lies in the Jedi mind trick: You already have your interviewer picturing you as the position holder.
2. "What would you say are the top two personality traits someone needs to do this job well?"
The answer to this question will be very telling. You can translate "creative" and "intuitive" to mean you will be on your own, while "patient" and "collaborative" could mean the opposite.
Not only will this question allow you to feel out whether you'll be a good fit, it will get your interviewer to look past the paper resume and see you as an individual.
3. "What improvements or changes do you hope the new candidate will bring to this position?"
This answer can shed light on what might have made the last person lose or leave the job, as well as tip you off on the path to success. Asking this shows an employer you are eager to be the best candidate to ever fill this position.
4. "I know this company prides itself on X and Y, so what would you say is the most important aspect of your culture?"
This question is sure to impress. It shows you researched the company, and gives you a chance to gain insight into what values the company holds highest.
5. "Do you like working here?"
This question might take the interviewer back a bit, but his answer will be telling. A good sign is a confident smile and an enthusiastic "yes," paired with an explanation as to why. Consider it a red flag if he shifts in his seat, looks away, coughs and starts with "Well…"
Regardless of their answers, employers appreciate the chance to reflect on their own opinions, and it turns the interview process into more of a conversation.
6. "Is there anything that stands out to you that makes you think I might not be the right fit for this job?"
Asking this question can be scary, but also beneficial. Not only does it give you a chance to redeem any hesitations the employer might have about you, it demonstrates you can take constructive criticism and are eager to improve. These are valuable qualities in any candidate.
What other questions wow interviewers?
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/6_interview_questions_that_will_make_any_employer_14122.aspx
While salary ranges, benefits and schedule flexibility are important details you deserve answers to, hiring managers don't appreciate questions like those until at least your second interview (or maybe even after they make you an offer).
During your first interview, the "impress me" dance is still in full swing. When a potential employer asks if you have any questions, she doesn't want inquiries about parking validation; she wants to see if you're prepared, educated and inquisitive.
Here are six questions to ask at the end of your interview that will help you master the twisted tango of getting hired.
1. "If I were to start tomorrow, what would be the top priority on my to-do list?"
The answer to this question will give you more insight into the current state of the position while showing you're invested and interested in learning how you can start things off with a bang.
The added bonus lies in the Jedi mind trick: You already have your interviewer picturing you as the position holder.
2. "What would you say are the top two personality traits someone needs to do this job well?"
The answer to this question will be very telling. You can translate "creative" and "intuitive" to mean you will be on your own, while "patient" and "collaborative" could mean the opposite.
Not only will this question allow you to feel out whether you'll be a good fit, it will get your interviewer to look past the paper resume and see you as an individual.
3. "What improvements or changes do you hope the new candidate will bring to this position?"
This answer can shed light on what might have made the last person lose or leave the job, as well as tip you off on the path to success. Asking this shows an employer you are eager to be the best candidate to ever fill this position.
4. "I know this company prides itself on X and Y, so what would you say is the most important aspect of your culture?"
This question is sure to impress. It shows you researched the company, and gives you a chance to gain insight into what values the company holds highest.
5. "Do you like working here?"
This question might take the interviewer back a bit, but his answer will be telling. A good sign is a confident smile and an enthusiastic "yes," paired with an explanation as to why. Consider it a red flag if he shifts in his seat, looks away, coughs and starts with "Well…"
Regardless of their answers, employers appreciate the chance to reflect on their own opinions, and it turns the interview process into more of a conversation.
6. "Is there anything that stands out to you that makes you think I might not be the right fit for this job?"
Asking this question can be scary, but also beneficial. Not only does it give you a chance to redeem any hesitations the employer might have about you, it demonstrates you can take constructive criticism and are eager to improve. These are valuable qualities in any candidate.
What other questions wow interviewers?
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/6_interview_questions_that_will_make_any_employer_14122.aspx
How to speak body language during an interview
Controlling the message isn’t just about knowledge and words. It can also be about controlling your body—and imparting the right body language.
When it comes to the in-person, one-on-one interview there are some important things to put into practice to keep yourself in control. They are the finishing touches to a successful interview.
The eyes tell a thousand lies: For the duration of the interview look at the person you’re talking to. No one else. Try watching an interview where the subject is looking all over the place. You will probably miss his or her message, let alone believe it.
The hands have it: Your hands will want to do distracting things during an interview. So let them. But little things—not big things. Keep them low, no higher than your chest, and move them naturally to express yourself. It can be a useful release of nervous energy. Otherwise they’ll want to plant themselves in your pockets, run themselves through your hair, touch your face, command your arms to fold, or force other parts of your body to start moving around uncomfortably. Give your hands a little air, but keep them low.
Fashionista blister: Ever been distracted by someone wearing really bad clothes? Seriously out of style? Colours and patterns that have an epileptic flaring effect on the TV screen? When dressing for an interview keep the flares, big shoulder pads, and prized mustard safari suit on hold for your next big social occasion.
I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date: You can be the greatest expert around, but if you’re running late your interview could be a calamity. Don’t risk becoming a bundle of nerves. Give yourself plenty of time to get to the interview—getting out of the office, through the traffic, and settled in well before it starts. You don’t want to start your interview with high blood pressure and a racing pulse.
Artificial intelligence: This is the opposite of being late. It’s about feeling good. For you, that might be going to the gym ahead of the interview, getting a haircut, or having your favorite breakfast. It may simply be doing your normal routine, but ensuring you arrive for the interview at least 10 minutes early, having done your practice. But it certainly shouldn’t involve having a drink or three ahead of the interview.
Mirror image: The three best ways to get better at interviews are to practice, practice, and, yep, practice. The best way to practice is in front of a mirror. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a TV, radio, newspaper, or website interview. Whatever. Close the door, leave your ego outside, and talk about your key points and anecdotes while looking yourself in the eye. You will automatically critique and improve your performance as you go along. When the interview is on for real, you’ll be glad you looked yourself in the eye so many times. You’ll know how you’re coming across. http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/13860.aspx#
When it comes to the in-person, one-on-one interview there are some important things to put into practice to keep yourself in control. They are the finishing touches to a successful interview.
The eyes tell a thousand lies: For the duration of the interview look at the person you’re talking to. No one else. Try watching an interview where the subject is looking all over the place. You will probably miss his or her message, let alone believe it.
The hands have it: Your hands will want to do distracting things during an interview. So let them. But little things—not big things. Keep them low, no higher than your chest, and move them naturally to express yourself. It can be a useful release of nervous energy. Otherwise they’ll want to plant themselves in your pockets, run themselves through your hair, touch your face, command your arms to fold, or force other parts of your body to start moving around uncomfortably. Give your hands a little air, but keep them low.
Fashionista blister: Ever been distracted by someone wearing really bad clothes? Seriously out of style? Colours and patterns that have an epileptic flaring effect on the TV screen? When dressing for an interview keep the flares, big shoulder pads, and prized mustard safari suit on hold for your next big social occasion.
I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date: You can be the greatest expert around, but if you’re running late your interview could be a calamity. Don’t risk becoming a bundle of nerves. Give yourself plenty of time to get to the interview—getting out of the office, through the traffic, and settled in well before it starts. You don’t want to start your interview with high blood pressure and a racing pulse.
Artificial intelligence: This is the opposite of being late. It’s about feeling good. For you, that might be going to the gym ahead of the interview, getting a haircut, or having your favorite breakfast. It may simply be doing your normal routine, but ensuring you arrive for the interview at least 10 minutes early, having done your practice. But it certainly shouldn’t involve having a drink or three ahead of the interview.
Mirror image: The three best ways to get better at interviews are to practice, practice, and, yep, practice. The best way to practice is in front of a mirror. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a TV, radio, newspaper, or website interview. Whatever. Close the door, leave your ego outside, and talk about your key points and anecdotes while looking yourself in the eye. You will automatically critique and improve your performance as you go along. When the interview is on for real, you’ll be glad you looked yourself in the eye so many times. You’ll know how you’re coming across. http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/13860.aspx#
5 Questions You Should Never Ask in a Job Interview
Hiring managers and HR pros will often close out a job interview by asking an applicant if he or she has any questions themselves. This is a great opportunity to find out more about the job and the company's expectations, but you can't forget that the interviewer hasn't stopped judging YOU. Here are 5 questions that can make a bad impression on your interviewer, scuttling your chances for getting the job.
1. "When will I be promoted?:
This is one of the most common questions that applicants come up with, and it should be avoided, says Rebecca Woods, Vice President of Human Resources at Doherty Employer Services in Minneapolis. "It's inappropriate because it puts the cart before the horse." Instead of asking when the promotion will occur, Woods says a better approach is to ask what you would need to do to get a promotion.
2. "What's the salary for this position?"
Asking about salary and benefits in the first interview "always turns me off," says Norma Beasant, founder of Talento Human Resources Consulting and an HR consultant at the University of Minnesota. "I'm always disappointed when they ask this, especially in the first interview." Beasant says the first interview is more about selling yourself to the interviewer, and that questions about salary and benefits should really wait until a later interview.
3. "When can I expect a raise?"
Talking about compensation can be difficult, but asking about raises is not the way to go about it, Woods says. So many companies have frozen salaries and raises that it makes more sense to ask about the process to follow or what can be done to work up to higher compensation level. Talking about "expecting" a raise, Woods says, "shows a person is out of touch with reality."
4. "What sort of flextime options do you have?"
This kind of question can make it sound like you're interested in getting out of the office as much as possible. "When I hear this question, I'm wondering, are you interested in the job?" Beasant says. Many companies have many options for scheduling, but asking about it in the first interview is "not appropriate," Beasant says.
5. Any question that shows you haven't been listening.
Woods said she interviewed an applicant for a position that was 60 miles from the person's home. Woods told the applicant that the company was flexible about many things, but it did not offer telecommuting. "At the end of the interview, she asked if she would be able to work from home," Woods says. "Was she even listening? So some 'bad questions' can be more situational to the interview itself."
With the economy the way it is, employers are much more choosy and picky, Beasant says. Knowing the questions to avoid in an interview can help you stand out -- in a good way.
1. "When will I be promoted?:
This is one of the most common questions that applicants come up with, and it should be avoided, says Rebecca Woods, Vice President of Human Resources at Doherty Employer Services in Minneapolis. "It's inappropriate because it puts the cart before the horse." Instead of asking when the promotion will occur, Woods says a better approach is to ask what you would need to do to get a promotion.
2. "What's the salary for this position?"
Asking about salary and benefits in the first interview "always turns me off," says Norma Beasant, founder of Talento Human Resources Consulting and an HR consultant at the University of Minnesota. "I'm always disappointed when they ask this, especially in the first interview." Beasant says the first interview is more about selling yourself to the interviewer, and that questions about salary and benefits should really wait until a later interview.
3. "When can I expect a raise?"
Talking about compensation can be difficult, but asking about raises is not the way to go about it, Woods says. So many companies have frozen salaries and raises that it makes more sense to ask about the process to follow or what can be done to work up to higher compensation level. Talking about "expecting" a raise, Woods says, "shows a person is out of touch with reality."
4. "What sort of flextime options do you have?"
This kind of question can make it sound like you're interested in getting out of the office as much as possible. "When I hear this question, I'm wondering, are you interested in the job?" Beasant says. Many companies have many options for scheduling, but asking about it in the first interview is "not appropriate," Beasant says.
5. Any question that shows you haven't been listening.
Woods said she interviewed an applicant for a position that was 60 miles from the person's home. Woods told the applicant that the company was flexible about many things, but it did not offer telecommuting. "At the end of the interview, she asked if she would be able to work from home," Woods says. "Was she even listening? So some 'bad questions' can be more situational to the interview itself."
With the economy the way it is, employers are much more choosy and picky, Beasant says. Knowing the questions to avoid in an interview can help you stand out -- in a good way.
Job Applicants' Cultural Fit Can Trump Qualifications
At a recent job interview at Summit Partners, a private equity firm in Boston, an applicant was asked, “If you could pick one person to play you in a movie, who would it be?” An audit staff applicant at New York accounting firm Ernst & Young was asked, “What are the top five cities you want to go to and why?” An online magazine asked an editor, “Where do you vacation in the summer?”
Job interviews are becoming more like first dates. The employment site Glassdoor has collected 285,000 questions asked by hiring managers, and the following four rank among 2012’s 50 most common, though they have little to do with work: What’s your favorite movie? What’s your favorite website? What’s the last book you read for fun? What makes you uncomfortable? Over the last couple of years, spokesman Scott Dobroski says, the site has found “a significant rise in questions asked about cultural fit.”
In the December issue of the American Sociological Review, Northwestern professor Lauren Rivera concludes that companies are making hiring decisions “in a manner more closely resembling the choice of friends or romantic partners.” Rivera found that apparently off-topic questions have become central to the hiring process. “Whether someone rock climbs, plays the cello, or enjoys film noir may seem trivial,” she wrote, “but these leisure pursuits were crucial for assessing someone as a cultural fit.” As a result, Rivera argues, “employers don’t necessarily hire the most skilled candidates.”
The phrase “cultural fit” may summon up obnoxious images of old boys clubs and social connections, but it’s a powerful buzzword among human resources professionals. A cooperative, creative atmosphere can make workdays more tolerable and head off problems before they begin. “I used to work for an e-commerce company that spent a lot of time refining its culture,” says Mercedes Douglas, now head of recruiting at Kikin, an Internet search startup. “I hired someone as a manager, and it created a lot of tension because he didn’t fit in. People tried to alienate him because they weren’t interested in him as a friend,” she says. And it also goes the other way. “I once hired a woman who really didn’t have the right background or experience for the job, but who I hit it off with during the interview,” says Rebecca Grossman-Cohen, a marketing executive at News Corp. (NWS). “And because we got along so well, I was able to train her easily, and she ended up doing great things for us.”
Especially in this slow economy, more employers are asking “Star Trek or Star Wars?” (as a programmer was recently asked by an employer) because fit is believed to be a strong predictor of employee retention. The longer employees stay around, the more companies save in hiring and on-boarding costs. For instance, the online retailer Zappos (AMZN) offers new employees who are struggling $4,000 to quit after a week’s work, rather than waste resources to train someone who doesn’t gel with the group. The sandwich chain Pret A Manger even goes so far as to have potential employees work for one day, after which they’re either voted in or out by the existing team. Applicants who don’t get along with others are paid for their time and asked to leave.
Glassdoor’s Dobroski reports that job seekers cite company culture as their second-highest priority, “almost tied with salary.” In an employment market in which many first-time employees relocate for work, offices are becoming surrogate families and social communities. New hires, especially young workers, want the secret Santa gift exchanges, the karaoke nights, and, increasingly, like-minded colleagues who share their values.
“These trends are being driven by millennials because they care about culture,” says Dan Schawbel, author of Me: 2.0. “Research shows that millennials typically stay at a job for about two years—and they have different priorities. They’d rather have meaningful work over more pay, or work for a company that gives back or cares about the environment. They want a culture that’s less hierarchical, more flexible, and more understanding of difference, because millennials are the most diverse generation.”
This last point presents a modern quandary: How do companies value diversity and cultural fit, especially if hiring managers are often biased toward hiring people much like themselves?
“A lot of times, cultural fit is used as an excuse” for feelings interviewers aren’t comfortable expressing, says Eric Peterson, manager of diversity and inclusion at the Society for Human Resources and Management. “Maybe a hiring manager can’t picture himself having a beer with someone who has an accent. Sometimes, diversity candidates are shown the door for no other reason than that they made the interviewer a little less at ease.”
In Rivera’s study, one Indian woman says hiring based on cultural fit “seems to me a very [shakes her head] American thing. But it’s what [companies] want.” Yet this idea of tightly knit cultural affinity seems to run counter to the U.S.’s melting-pot ethos, as well as our glorification of diverse cinematic superteams—from The Magnificent Seven to Ocean’s Eleven, and onto Star Trek, Star Wars, The Matrix, and The Avengers. “In all of these stories,” says Sean Howe, author of the history Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, “it’s not just the accumulation of complementary abilities that makes the group succeed, it’s the ways in which each individual is challenged and transformed by the very environment of diversity. Which, come to think of it, is really what society is all about.”
Hiring is the moment when these American ideals about team diversity collide with the reality of building a cohesive, practical staff. For the manager, it’s also the time when abstract notions about corporate culture collide with instinct and bias. We may aspire to model our workplaces after the Starship Enterprise but in reality they often look more like the Borg Cube. Most companies have elaborate systems of checks and balances and executive-level diversity officers who work hard to ensure inclusiveness of race, gender, and sexuality. And working exclusively with your pals can also have a major competitive downside: groupthink.
“It’s probably human nature to generally like to hire people who look like us, sound like us, act like us. But you get a culture of sameness,” says Randy Hains, managing partner of Atlanta’s Bell Oaks Executive Search. “People lack an understanding of how to go out and recruit for a diversity of thought—those people who break the rules but are great for the company. An EBay (EBAY) or a Google (GOOG) will hire those intellectual guys who won’t fit into most Fortune 500 companies, whereas a Home Depot (HD) or a Coca-Cola (KO) will hire a guy because he fits in perfectly, not realizing that he’s not going to move the needle—not even a little bit.”
Numerous studies have proven that diverse workforces give companies competitive advantages in skill, employee retention, innovation, and profits: A 2009 study by University of Illinois sociologist Cedric Herring found that companies with the highest levels of racial diversity reported, on average, 15 times more sales revenue than those with less diverse staffs. And the American Sociological Review survey warns that a focus on hiring employees with the same hobbies and backgrounds can limit diversity. To avoid this tendency, companies now struggle to codify what, exactly, they mean when they talk about cultural fit.
“A skilled recruiter can override those biases,” says Amy Hirsh Robinson, principal of workplace consulting firm Interchange Group. “Sometimes you need to change your culture because there might be that one person who has a different thought that could have saved a business.”
The trick to building a creative, modern workforce might be asking all those silly questions—What’s your favorite movie? What’s your favorite book? What makes you uncomfortable?—and valuing most highly the answers you’ve never heard before. “It’s quite possible to define that office culture as one that’s open to diversity, so that you’re looking for openness in an employee,” says SHRM’s Peterson. “You just have to decide if you’re hiring for the culture you have or the culture you want.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-03/job-applicants-cultural-fit-can-trump-qualifications
Job interviews are becoming more like first dates. The employment site Glassdoor has collected 285,000 questions asked by hiring managers, and the following four rank among 2012’s 50 most common, though they have little to do with work: What’s your favorite movie? What’s your favorite website? What’s the last book you read for fun? What makes you uncomfortable? Over the last couple of years, spokesman Scott Dobroski says, the site has found “a significant rise in questions asked about cultural fit.”
In the December issue of the American Sociological Review, Northwestern professor Lauren Rivera concludes that companies are making hiring decisions “in a manner more closely resembling the choice of friends or romantic partners.” Rivera found that apparently off-topic questions have become central to the hiring process. “Whether someone rock climbs, plays the cello, or enjoys film noir may seem trivial,” she wrote, “but these leisure pursuits were crucial for assessing someone as a cultural fit.” As a result, Rivera argues, “employers don’t necessarily hire the most skilled candidates.”
The phrase “cultural fit” may summon up obnoxious images of old boys clubs and social connections, but it’s a powerful buzzword among human resources professionals. A cooperative, creative atmosphere can make workdays more tolerable and head off problems before they begin. “I used to work for an e-commerce company that spent a lot of time refining its culture,” says Mercedes Douglas, now head of recruiting at Kikin, an Internet search startup. “I hired someone as a manager, and it created a lot of tension because he didn’t fit in. People tried to alienate him because they weren’t interested in him as a friend,” she says. And it also goes the other way. “I once hired a woman who really didn’t have the right background or experience for the job, but who I hit it off with during the interview,” says Rebecca Grossman-Cohen, a marketing executive at News Corp. (NWS). “And because we got along so well, I was able to train her easily, and she ended up doing great things for us.”
Especially in this slow economy, more employers are asking “Star Trek or Star Wars?” (as a programmer was recently asked by an employer) because fit is believed to be a strong predictor of employee retention. The longer employees stay around, the more companies save in hiring and on-boarding costs. For instance, the online retailer Zappos (AMZN) offers new employees who are struggling $4,000 to quit after a week’s work, rather than waste resources to train someone who doesn’t gel with the group. The sandwich chain Pret A Manger even goes so far as to have potential employees work for one day, after which they’re either voted in or out by the existing team. Applicants who don’t get along with others are paid for their time and asked to leave.
Glassdoor’s Dobroski reports that job seekers cite company culture as their second-highest priority, “almost tied with salary.” In an employment market in which many first-time employees relocate for work, offices are becoming surrogate families and social communities. New hires, especially young workers, want the secret Santa gift exchanges, the karaoke nights, and, increasingly, like-minded colleagues who share their values.
“These trends are being driven by millennials because they care about culture,” says Dan Schawbel, author of Me: 2.0. “Research shows that millennials typically stay at a job for about two years—and they have different priorities. They’d rather have meaningful work over more pay, or work for a company that gives back or cares about the environment. They want a culture that’s less hierarchical, more flexible, and more understanding of difference, because millennials are the most diverse generation.”
This last point presents a modern quandary: How do companies value diversity and cultural fit, especially if hiring managers are often biased toward hiring people much like themselves?
“A lot of times, cultural fit is used as an excuse” for feelings interviewers aren’t comfortable expressing, says Eric Peterson, manager of diversity and inclusion at the Society for Human Resources and Management. “Maybe a hiring manager can’t picture himself having a beer with someone who has an accent. Sometimes, diversity candidates are shown the door for no other reason than that they made the interviewer a little less at ease.”
In Rivera’s study, one Indian woman says hiring based on cultural fit “seems to me a very [shakes her head] American thing. But it’s what [companies] want.” Yet this idea of tightly knit cultural affinity seems to run counter to the U.S.’s melting-pot ethos, as well as our glorification of diverse cinematic superteams—from The Magnificent Seven to Ocean’s Eleven, and onto Star Trek, Star Wars, The Matrix, and The Avengers. “In all of these stories,” says Sean Howe, author of the history Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, “it’s not just the accumulation of complementary abilities that makes the group succeed, it’s the ways in which each individual is challenged and transformed by the very environment of diversity. Which, come to think of it, is really what society is all about.”
Hiring is the moment when these American ideals about team diversity collide with the reality of building a cohesive, practical staff. For the manager, it’s also the time when abstract notions about corporate culture collide with instinct and bias. We may aspire to model our workplaces after the Starship Enterprise but in reality they often look more like the Borg Cube. Most companies have elaborate systems of checks and balances and executive-level diversity officers who work hard to ensure inclusiveness of race, gender, and sexuality. And working exclusively with your pals can also have a major competitive downside: groupthink.
“It’s probably human nature to generally like to hire people who look like us, sound like us, act like us. But you get a culture of sameness,” says Randy Hains, managing partner of Atlanta’s Bell Oaks Executive Search. “People lack an understanding of how to go out and recruit for a diversity of thought—those people who break the rules but are great for the company. An EBay (EBAY) or a Google (GOOG) will hire those intellectual guys who won’t fit into most Fortune 500 companies, whereas a Home Depot (HD) or a Coca-Cola (KO) will hire a guy because he fits in perfectly, not realizing that he’s not going to move the needle—not even a little bit.”
Numerous studies have proven that diverse workforces give companies competitive advantages in skill, employee retention, innovation, and profits: A 2009 study by University of Illinois sociologist Cedric Herring found that companies with the highest levels of racial diversity reported, on average, 15 times more sales revenue than those with less diverse staffs. And the American Sociological Review survey warns that a focus on hiring employees with the same hobbies and backgrounds can limit diversity. To avoid this tendency, companies now struggle to codify what, exactly, they mean when they talk about cultural fit.
“A skilled recruiter can override those biases,” says Amy Hirsh Robinson, principal of workplace consulting firm Interchange Group. “Sometimes you need to change your culture because there might be that one person who has a different thought that could have saved a business.”
The trick to building a creative, modern workforce might be asking all those silly questions—What’s your favorite movie? What’s your favorite book? What makes you uncomfortable?—and valuing most highly the answers you’ve never heard before. “It’s quite possible to define that office culture as one that’s open to diversity, so that you’re looking for openness in an employee,” says SHRM’s Peterson. “You just have to decide if you’re hiring for the culture you have or the culture you want.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-03/job-applicants-cultural-fit-can-trump-qualifications
9 Creative Ways Job Seekers Have Impressed Prospective Employers
recently laid out the most outlandish résumé mistakes job seekers made in 2012, based on a survey conducted by CareerBuilder. One job candidate said his main objective was to “make dough,” another talked about her family being in the mob, and one even claimed to speak a nonexistent language.
So, why would job seekers include peculiar content like this on their résumés? At least in some cases, they were probably trying to stand out from the crowd. While these candidates did succeed in catching the attention of their prospective employers—it wasn’t for the right reasons.
OfficeTeam, a global staffing firm that specializes in the placement of highly skilled office and administrative professionals, found that creativity can work for job seekers, if it’s done right.
“Those who have tried to make inroads and haven’t been successful may want to take a risk, [which can work] as long as what they choose to do is in good taste,” says Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. “Applicants who decide to use creative job hunting strategies should learn as much as possible about the company and the hiring manager in advance to make sure the approach fits. Anything that could potentially offend or disconcert a potential employer, or disrupt the office, is not a good idea.”
In a recent survey conducted by an independent research firm on behalf of OfficeTeam, human resources managers were asked to recount the most impressive action they have seen or heard an individual take to try to land a position.
The survey is based on telephone interviews with more than 650 HR managers in the U.S. and Canada. Here are some of their responses:
“An applicant walked in with coffee and donuts, and her resume underneath.”
“I’ve had someone outline what he planned to do for the company in his first six months.”
“One job seeker sent a handmade get well card when she heard the hiring manager was under the weather.”
“We had a candidate who contacted our board of directors to try to make his case for being hired.”
“I recall applicants who have impressed me with their overall marketing approach. A few have sent in fancy CDs that contained a video message explaining why they should get the job.”
“Someone applying for a position as a car detailer brought in his own vehicle to demonstrate his skills.”
“I was impressed by a candidate who prepared an elaborate online portfolio and presentation.”
“One woman showed up with, literally, a suitcase full of binders containing letters of reference, certificates of achievement and other accolades.”
“A job seeker brought in a performance review from his past employer.”
“Unusual job hunting tactics can sometimes help professionals get a foot in the door, but they do carry risk,” Hosking says. “Trying to be too creative can sometimes backfire, as the approach can either be construed as strange, inappropriate or cliché.”
That’s why some professionals shined by going back to basics. “Job seekers who want to play it safe should probably forgo the unusual strategies and focus on more traditional tactics, such as networking and creating a targeted resume,” Hosking says. “Often, perfecting job search basics can get you noticed. There is much to be said about showing up on time for interviews, dressing in professional attire and doing your homework.”
Here’s what impressed hiring managers about applicants who took a more conventional approach:
“One applicant explained what he knew about our company. I was very impressed with his knowledge and research.”
“I had a follow-up email from a candidate immediately after our meeting.”
“I liked the way one job seeker explained his skills in a way that correlated directly to what we needed for the position.”
“A candidate gave me a thank-you note right after the interview.”
“One woman didn’t just recite her skills — she provided many examples of her work.”
“The candidates I recall most are the ones who were persistent in calling to make sure they got the position.”
“An entry-level job applicant arrived for the interview in a three-piece suit.”
“I am impressed when a job seeker arrives on time and is well-dressed. It’s that simple.” “The most impressive thing to me in any applicant is honesty.”
Consider your field when deciding whether to take a more creative approach or the traditional route, Hosking says. “In a creative industry such as advertising, for example, unorthodox strategies tend to be perceived more positively, but that doesn’t mean unusual tactics are required.”
Ultimately, most employers hire for substance over style. “That’s why it’s so important for applicants to focus on their qualifications,” Hosking says. Candidates should ask themselves, “What do I have to offer this potential employer?” and then look for ways to effectively convey those strengths.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/10/18/18-ways-job-seekers-have-impressed-prospective-employers/
So, why would job seekers include peculiar content like this on their résumés? At least in some cases, they were probably trying to stand out from the crowd. While these candidates did succeed in catching the attention of their prospective employers—it wasn’t for the right reasons.
OfficeTeam, a global staffing firm that specializes in the placement of highly skilled office and administrative professionals, found that creativity can work for job seekers, if it’s done right.
“Those who have tried to make inroads and haven’t been successful may want to take a risk, [which can work] as long as what they choose to do is in good taste,” says Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. “Applicants who decide to use creative job hunting strategies should learn as much as possible about the company and the hiring manager in advance to make sure the approach fits. Anything that could potentially offend or disconcert a potential employer, or disrupt the office, is not a good idea.”
In a recent survey conducted by an independent research firm on behalf of OfficeTeam, human resources managers were asked to recount the most impressive action they have seen or heard an individual take to try to land a position.
The survey is based on telephone interviews with more than 650 HR managers in the U.S. and Canada. Here are some of their responses:
“An applicant walked in with coffee and donuts, and her resume underneath.”
“I’ve had someone outline what he planned to do for the company in his first six months.”
“One job seeker sent a handmade get well card when she heard the hiring manager was under the weather.”
“We had a candidate who contacted our board of directors to try to make his case for being hired.”
“I recall applicants who have impressed me with their overall marketing approach. A few have sent in fancy CDs that contained a video message explaining why they should get the job.”
“Someone applying for a position as a car detailer brought in his own vehicle to demonstrate his skills.”
“I was impressed by a candidate who prepared an elaborate online portfolio and presentation.”
“One woman showed up with, literally, a suitcase full of binders containing letters of reference, certificates of achievement and other accolades.”
“A job seeker brought in a performance review from his past employer.”
“Unusual job hunting tactics can sometimes help professionals get a foot in the door, but they do carry risk,” Hosking says. “Trying to be too creative can sometimes backfire, as the approach can either be construed as strange, inappropriate or cliché.”
That’s why some professionals shined by going back to basics. “Job seekers who want to play it safe should probably forgo the unusual strategies and focus on more traditional tactics, such as networking and creating a targeted resume,” Hosking says. “Often, perfecting job search basics can get you noticed. There is much to be said about showing up on time for interviews, dressing in professional attire and doing your homework.”
Here’s what impressed hiring managers about applicants who took a more conventional approach:
“One applicant explained what he knew about our company. I was very impressed with his knowledge and research.”
“I had a follow-up email from a candidate immediately after our meeting.”
“I liked the way one job seeker explained his skills in a way that correlated directly to what we needed for the position.”
“A candidate gave me a thank-you note right after the interview.”
“One woman didn’t just recite her skills — she provided many examples of her work.”
“The candidates I recall most are the ones who were persistent in calling to make sure they got the position.”
“An entry-level job applicant arrived for the interview in a three-piece suit.”
“I am impressed when a job seeker arrives on time and is well-dressed. It’s that simple.” “The most impressive thing to me in any applicant is honesty.”
Consider your field when deciding whether to take a more creative approach or the traditional route, Hosking says. “In a creative industry such as advertising, for example, unorthodox strategies tend to be perceived more positively, but that doesn’t mean unusual tactics are required.”
Ultimately, most employers hire for substance over style. “That’s why it’s so important for applicants to focus on their qualifications,” Hosking says. Candidates should ask themselves, “What do I have to offer this potential employer?” and then look for ways to effectively convey those strengths.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/10/18/18-ways-job-seekers-have-impressed-prospective-employers/
Meet the New Boss: Big Data
When looking for workers to staff its call centers, Xerox Corp. XRX -1.94% used to pay lots of attention to applicants who had done the job before. Then, a computer program told the printer and outsourcing company that experience doesn't matter.
The software said that what does matter in a good call-center worker—one who won't quit before the company recoups its $5,000 investment in training—is personality. Data show that creative types tend to stick around for the necessary six months. Inquisitive people often don't. "Some of the assumptions we had weren't valid," said Connie Harvey, Xerox's chief operating officer of commercial services.
After a half-year trial that cut attrition by a fifth, Xerox now leaves all hiring for its 48,700 call-center jobs to software that asks applicants to choose between statements like: "I ask more questions than most people do" and "People tend to trust what I say." For more and more companies, the hiring boss is an algorithm. The factors they consider are different than what applicants have come to expect.
Jobs that were once filled on the basis of work history and interviews are left to personality tests and data analysis, as employers aim for more than just a hunch that a person will do the job well. Under pressure to cut costs and boost productivity, employers are trying to predict specific outcomes, such as whether a prospective hire will quit too soon, file disability claims or steal. Personality tests have a long history in hiring. What's new is the scale. Powerful computers and more sophisticated software have made it possible to evaluate more candidates, amass more data and peer more deeply into applicants' personal lives and interests. Some companies are screening for such variables as attitudes toward alcohol use or the distance an applicant lives from the job. The process could get companies into legal trouble if it ends up excluding minorities or the disabled. Even if it doesn't, it might come off as unfair, or even creepy.
"The public gets less comfortable when you're using extrinsic or personal factors," said Dennis Doverspike, a professor of industrial and organizational psychology at the University of Akron in Ohio. The new hiring tools are part of a broader effort to gather and analyze employee data. Globally, spending on so-called talent-management software rose to $3.8 billion in 2011, up 15% from 2010, according to research firm Gartner. Big tech companies are jockeying to serve the growing market. Last month,International Business Machines Corp. IBM +0.99% agreed to pay $1.3 billion for Kenexa Corp., KNXA 0.00% which uses data analysis to help companies recruit and retain workers.
Oracle Corp. ORCL +0.91% acquired job-applicant tracking system company Taleo for $1.9 billion in February, and Germany'sSAP AG SAP.XE +0.33% bought SuccessFactors, which specializes in performance tracking, recruiting and compensation, for $3.4 billion in December. Xerox is being advised by Evolv Inc., a San Francisco start-up that helps companies hire and manage hourly workers. By putting applicants through a battery of tests and then tracking their job performance, Evolv has developed a model for the ideal call-center worker. The data say that person lives near the job, has reliable transportation and uses one or more social networks, but not more than four. He or she tends not to be overly inquisitive or empathetic, but is creative. Applicants for the job take a 30-minute test that screens them for personality traits and puts them through scenarios they might encounter on the job. Then the program spits out a score: red for low potential, yellow for medium potential or green for high potential. Xerox accepts some yellows if it thinks it can train them, but mostly hires greens. Though hiring is a crucial business function, conventional methods are remarkably short on rigor, experts say. Depending on who decides, what gets candidates hired can vary wildly—from academic achievement to work experience to appearance. Managers who go with their gut might get it right sometimes, but their hunches generally have little value in predicting how someone will perform on the job. Companies peddling a statistical approach to hiring say they can improve results by reducing the influence of a manager's biases.
Laszlo Bock, a senior vice president at Google Inc. GOOG -0.90% and an Evolv director, said software will supplement, if not supplant, many of the personnel decisions long made by instinct and intuition. "The initial thing companies like Evolv are looking at is people as they get hired, but over the years this can help companies pick who to advance, who to promote," he said. "Even at the best companies there's still a lot of guessing." It isn't just big companies that are turning to software for hiring help. Richfield Management LLC, a Flint, Mich., waste-disposal firm that employs 200 garbage collectors, was looking for ways to screen out applicants who were likely to get hurt and abuse workers' compensation. About a year and a half ago, Richfield turned to an online test developed by a small firm called Exemplar Research Group. It asks applicants to pick between statements like "When I'm working for a company I take pride in making it as profitable as possible" and "I'm only concerned with how well I can do financially in my job," then rate how strongly they agree or disagree. The goal is to gauge an applicant's emotional stability, work ethic and attitude toward drug and alcohol. Those who score poorly are considered high disability risks. Richfield said its workers' comp claims have fallen 68% since it has used the test, and it now requires managers to use it to eliminate unsuitable applicants."If the person scores low on the test, we don't make an exception for that person," said General Manager Fred Vezzetti. " Data-based hiring can expose companies to legal risk. Practices that even unintentionally filter out older or minority applicants can be illegal under federal equal opportunity laws. If a hiring practice is challenged in court as discriminatory, a company must show the criteria it is using are proven to predict success in the job.
Matthew Camardella, a partner at employment law firm Jackson Lewis LLP, specializes in determining whether companies are in compliance with equal opportunity laws. He said an increasing number of them are asking him to evaluate new software tools. Bigger data sets can raise the risks of violating the law by increasing the number of statistical relationships that could unwittingly screen out protected groups, he said. But they also could make it easier for companies to prove that the factors being measured are relevant to the job being filled.
Evolv is cautious about exploiting some of the relationships it turns up for fear of violating equal opportunity laws. While it has found employees who live farther from call-center jobs are more likely to quit, it doesn't use that information in its scoring in the U.S. because it could be linked to race.
But Kenexa, which tested 30 million applicants last year for thousands of clients, has found that a lengthy commute raises the risk of attrition in call-center and fast-food jobs. It asks applicants for call-center and fast-food jobs to describe their commute by picking options ranging from "less than 10 minutes" to "more than 45 minutes." The longer the commute, the lower their recommendation score for these jobs, says Jeff Weekley, who oversees the assessments.
Applicants also can be asked how long they have been at their current address and how many times they have moved. People who move more frequently "have a higher likelihood of leaving," Mr. Weekley said.
Bon-Ton Stores Inc. BONT +3.31% began using Kenexa in 2009 to screen applicants for hourly wage jobs in its stores and distribution centers. The retailer was looking in part to weed out candidates who might have a tendency to steal or miss work due to injury, said Denise Domian, its senior vice president for human resources. Kenexa's roughly 40-minute survey, she said, asks questions that the software scores for honesty. "People who are trying to fool the system are going to get tripped up," she said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443890304578006252019616768.html
The software said that what does matter in a good call-center worker—one who won't quit before the company recoups its $5,000 investment in training—is personality. Data show that creative types tend to stick around for the necessary six months. Inquisitive people often don't. "Some of the assumptions we had weren't valid," said Connie Harvey, Xerox's chief operating officer of commercial services.
After a half-year trial that cut attrition by a fifth, Xerox now leaves all hiring for its 48,700 call-center jobs to software that asks applicants to choose between statements like: "I ask more questions than most people do" and "People tend to trust what I say." For more and more companies, the hiring boss is an algorithm. The factors they consider are different than what applicants have come to expect.
Jobs that were once filled on the basis of work history and interviews are left to personality tests and data analysis, as employers aim for more than just a hunch that a person will do the job well. Under pressure to cut costs and boost productivity, employers are trying to predict specific outcomes, such as whether a prospective hire will quit too soon, file disability claims or steal. Personality tests have a long history in hiring. What's new is the scale. Powerful computers and more sophisticated software have made it possible to evaluate more candidates, amass more data and peer more deeply into applicants' personal lives and interests. Some companies are screening for such variables as attitudes toward alcohol use or the distance an applicant lives from the job. The process could get companies into legal trouble if it ends up excluding minorities or the disabled. Even if it doesn't, it might come off as unfair, or even creepy.
"The public gets less comfortable when you're using extrinsic or personal factors," said Dennis Doverspike, a professor of industrial and organizational psychology at the University of Akron in Ohio. The new hiring tools are part of a broader effort to gather and analyze employee data. Globally, spending on so-called talent-management software rose to $3.8 billion in 2011, up 15% from 2010, according to research firm Gartner. Big tech companies are jockeying to serve the growing market. Last month,International Business Machines Corp. IBM +0.99% agreed to pay $1.3 billion for Kenexa Corp., KNXA 0.00% which uses data analysis to help companies recruit and retain workers.
Oracle Corp. ORCL +0.91% acquired job-applicant tracking system company Taleo for $1.9 billion in February, and Germany'sSAP AG SAP.XE +0.33% bought SuccessFactors, which specializes in performance tracking, recruiting and compensation, for $3.4 billion in December. Xerox is being advised by Evolv Inc., a San Francisco start-up that helps companies hire and manage hourly workers. By putting applicants through a battery of tests and then tracking their job performance, Evolv has developed a model for the ideal call-center worker. The data say that person lives near the job, has reliable transportation and uses one or more social networks, but not more than four. He or she tends not to be overly inquisitive or empathetic, but is creative. Applicants for the job take a 30-minute test that screens them for personality traits and puts them through scenarios they might encounter on the job. Then the program spits out a score: red for low potential, yellow for medium potential or green for high potential. Xerox accepts some yellows if it thinks it can train them, but mostly hires greens. Though hiring is a crucial business function, conventional methods are remarkably short on rigor, experts say. Depending on who decides, what gets candidates hired can vary wildly—from academic achievement to work experience to appearance. Managers who go with their gut might get it right sometimes, but their hunches generally have little value in predicting how someone will perform on the job. Companies peddling a statistical approach to hiring say they can improve results by reducing the influence of a manager's biases.
Laszlo Bock, a senior vice president at Google Inc. GOOG -0.90% and an Evolv director, said software will supplement, if not supplant, many of the personnel decisions long made by instinct and intuition. "The initial thing companies like Evolv are looking at is people as they get hired, but over the years this can help companies pick who to advance, who to promote," he said. "Even at the best companies there's still a lot of guessing." It isn't just big companies that are turning to software for hiring help. Richfield Management LLC, a Flint, Mich., waste-disposal firm that employs 200 garbage collectors, was looking for ways to screen out applicants who were likely to get hurt and abuse workers' compensation. About a year and a half ago, Richfield turned to an online test developed by a small firm called Exemplar Research Group. It asks applicants to pick between statements like "When I'm working for a company I take pride in making it as profitable as possible" and "I'm only concerned with how well I can do financially in my job," then rate how strongly they agree or disagree. The goal is to gauge an applicant's emotional stability, work ethic and attitude toward drug and alcohol. Those who score poorly are considered high disability risks. Richfield said its workers' comp claims have fallen 68% since it has used the test, and it now requires managers to use it to eliminate unsuitable applicants."If the person scores low on the test, we don't make an exception for that person," said General Manager Fred Vezzetti. " Data-based hiring can expose companies to legal risk. Practices that even unintentionally filter out older or minority applicants can be illegal under federal equal opportunity laws. If a hiring practice is challenged in court as discriminatory, a company must show the criteria it is using are proven to predict success in the job.
Matthew Camardella, a partner at employment law firm Jackson Lewis LLP, specializes in determining whether companies are in compliance with equal opportunity laws. He said an increasing number of them are asking him to evaluate new software tools. Bigger data sets can raise the risks of violating the law by increasing the number of statistical relationships that could unwittingly screen out protected groups, he said. But they also could make it easier for companies to prove that the factors being measured are relevant to the job being filled.
Evolv is cautious about exploiting some of the relationships it turns up for fear of violating equal opportunity laws. While it has found employees who live farther from call-center jobs are more likely to quit, it doesn't use that information in its scoring in the U.S. because it could be linked to race.
But Kenexa, which tested 30 million applicants last year for thousands of clients, has found that a lengthy commute raises the risk of attrition in call-center and fast-food jobs. It asks applicants for call-center and fast-food jobs to describe their commute by picking options ranging from "less than 10 minutes" to "more than 45 minutes." The longer the commute, the lower their recommendation score for these jobs, says Jeff Weekley, who oversees the assessments.
Applicants also can be asked how long they have been at their current address and how many times they have moved. People who move more frequently "have a higher likelihood of leaving," Mr. Weekley said.
Bon-Ton Stores Inc. BONT +3.31% began using Kenexa in 2009 to screen applicants for hourly wage jobs in its stores and distribution centers. The retailer was looking in part to weed out candidates who might have a tendency to steal or miss work due to injury, said Denise Domian, its senior vice president for human resources. Kenexa's roughly 40-minute survey, she said, asks questions that the software scores for honesty. "People who are trying to fool the system are going to get tripped up," she said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443890304578006252019616768.html
In California, It's Now Illegal for Employers and Universities to Ask for Your Social Media Passwords
California just passed legislation that will prevent employers from demanding the social media passwords of employees current and potential -- and, at the same time, prevent institutions of higher education from demanding the same of their students. Yesterday, Jerry Brown signed two bills into law. The first, AB-1844, prevents employers from asking their staff for their social media usernames or passwords (and, in another iteration, from logging into social media in their presence). The second, SB-1349, extends that protection to students at California's many private and public colleges and universities. As Brown put it in a Facebook post, "California pioneered the social media revolution. These laws protect Californians from unwarranted invasions of their social media accounts."
While it's unclear how widespread the problem the new laws are addressing actually is, the author of the one of the California bills says that more than 100 cases currently before the National Labor Relations Board involve employer workplace policies around social media. And there are the high-profile cases: the Maryland Corrections department applicant who had his password demanded, the Michigan teacher's aide who was suspended after she refused to provide access to her Facebook account. Facebook, CNET notes, has also said it has experienced an increase in reports of employers seeking to gain "inappropriate access" to people's Facebook profiles or private information.
Here's the relevant language of the Assembly bill:
(a) As used in this chapter, "social media" means an electronic service or account, or electronic content, including, but not limited to, videos, still photographs, blogs, video blogs, podcasts, instant and text messages, email, online services or accounts, or Internet Web site profiles or locations.
(b) An employer shall not require or request an employee or applicant for employment to do any of the following:
(1) Disclose a username or password for the purpose of accessing personal social media.
(2) Access personal social media in the presence of the employer.
(3) Divulge any personal social media, except as provided in subdivision (c).
(c) Nothing in this section shall affect an employer's existing rights and obligations to request an employee to divulge personal social media reasonably believed to be relevant to an investigation of allegations of employee misconduct or employee violation of applicable laws and regulations, provided that the social media is used solely for purposes of that investigation or a related proceeding.
(d) Nothing in this section precludes an employer from requiring or requesting an employee to disclose a username, password, or other method for the purpose of accessing an employer-issued electronic device.
(e) An employer shall not discharge, discipline, threaten to discharge or discipline, or otherwise retaliate against an employee or applicant for not complying with a request or demand by the employer that violates this section. However, this section does not prohibit an employer from terminating or otherwise taking an adverse action against an employee or applicant if otherwise permitted by law.
The Senate bill, a companion bill to its Assembly-originated counterpart, added to that by extending the rights of nondisclosure to California's college and university students:
(a) Public and private postsecondary educational institutions, and their employees and representatives, shall not require or request a student, prospective student, or student group to do any of the following:
(1) Disclose a user name or password for accessing personal social media.
(2) Access personal social media in the presence of the institution's employee or representative.
(3) Divulge any personal social media information.
(b) A public or private postsecondary educational institution shall not suspend, expel, discipline, threaten to take any of those actions, or otherwise penalize a student, prospective student, or student group in any way for refusing to comply with a request or demand that violates this section.
(c) This section shall not do either of the following:
(1) Affect a public or private postsecondary educational institution's existing rights and obligations to protect against and investigate alleged student misconduct or violations of applicable laws and regulations.
(2) Prohibit a public or private postsecondary educational institution from taking any adverse action against a student, prospective student, or student group for any lawful reason.
The laws come on the heels of similar legislation passed in Delaware, Illinois, and Maryland. And a social media-oriented federal bill, the Password Protection Act Of 2012, is under consideration in Washington.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/in-california-its-now-illegal-for-employers-and-universities-to-ask-for-your-social-media-passwords/262990/
While it's unclear how widespread the problem the new laws are addressing actually is, the author of the one of the California bills says that more than 100 cases currently before the National Labor Relations Board involve employer workplace policies around social media. And there are the high-profile cases: the Maryland Corrections department applicant who had his password demanded, the Michigan teacher's aide who was suspended after she refused to provide access to her Facebook account. Facebook, CNET notes, has also said it has experienced an increase in reports of employers seeking to gain "inappropriate access" to people's Facebook profiles or private information.
Here's the relevant language of the Assembly bill:
(a) As used in this chapter, "social media" means an electronic service or account, or electronic content, including, but not limited to, videos, still photographs, blogs, video blogs, podcasts, instant and text messages, email, online services or accounts, or Internet Web site profiles or locations.
(b) An employer shall not require or request an employee or applicant for employment to do any of the following:
(1) Disclose a username or password for the purpose of accessing personal social media.
(2) Access personal social media in the presence of the employer.
(3) Divulge any personal social media, except as provided in subdivision (c).
(c) Nothing in this section shall affect an employer's existing rights and obligations to request an employee to divulge personal social media reasonably believed to be relevant to an investigation of allegations of employee misconduct or employee violation of applicable laws and regulations, provided that the social media is used solely for purposes of that investigation or a related proceeding.
(d) Nothing in this section precludes an employer from requiring or requesting an employee to disclose a username, password, or other method for the purpose of accessing an employer-issued electronic device.
(e) An employer shall not discharge, discipline, threaten to discharge or discipline, or otherwise retaliate against an employee or applicant for not complying with a request or demand by the employer that violates this section. However, this section does not prohibit an employer from terminating or otherwise taking an adverse action against an employee or applicant if otherwise permitted by law.
The Senate bill, a companion bill to its Assembly-originated counterpart, added to that by extending the rights of nondisclosure to California's college and university students:
(a) Public and private postsecondary educational institutions, and their employees and representatives, shall not require or request a student, prospective student, or student group to do any of the following:
(1) Disclose a user name or password for accessing personal social media.
(2) Access personal social media in the presence of the institution's employee or representative.
(3) Divulge any personal social media information.
(b) A public or private postsecondary educational institution shall not suspend, expel, discipline, threaten to take any of those actions, or otherwise penalize a student, prospective student, or student group in any way for refusing to comply with a request or demand that violates this section.
(c) This section shall not do either of the following:
(1) Affect a public or private postsecondary educational institution's existing rights and obligations to protect against and investigate alleged student misconduct or violations of applicable laws and regulations.
(2) Prohibit a public or private postsecondary educational institution from taking any adverse action against a student, prospective student, or student group for any lawful reason.
The laws come on the heels of similar legislation passed in Delaware, Illinois, and Maryland. And a social media-oriented federal bill, the Password Protection Act Of 2012, is under consideration in Washington.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/in-california-its-now-illegal-for-employers-and-universities-to-ask-for-your-social-media-passwords/262990/
10 ways to make your journalism job application better than everyone else’s
Dear Applicant,
The first time I finished a hiring process, having settled on a stellar candidate, my boss patted me on the shoulder and said, “You know, your first time really shouldn’t be this easy.” I took it as a straightforward compliment to me and the person I’d found. The position had attracted a solid pool of talented people, but the candidate I’d recruited and ultimately chosen had clearly stood out above all the rest. We knew we’d made an impeccable hire.
It wasn’t until years later that I realized my boss’ words had a double meaning — they were a compliment, yes, but also a piece of advice. Hiring — often the most important decision a manager has to make — should be hard. You want to have to make an excruciating choice from an impossibly talented pool of applicants.
So, I’m in the midst of hiring for this wonderful job you’ve applied for. It’s an extraordinary opportunity, and it’s drawn an equally extraordinary response. With the help of my colleagues on the hiring team, I’ve been poring over applications and talking to your fellow candidates for months. When I get a spare minute, I pull a few more resumes and cover letters off the pile to review, adding the most interesting candidates to a spreadsheet with notes and links to their work and social media profiles.
During most of my interviews, I realize two things: 1) Even though I feel like I’m moving at breakneck speed, to you this process feels mind-bendingly slow. 2) You have no idea how much I want you to rock — how excited I get when I read a terrific cover letter, encounter a superlative clip, or find myself engrossed in an interview. Or what a heartbreak it is when you seem great on paper, but present lackluster work or a dismal demeanor.
So to make this process harder on me (in the best possible way), here are 10 things I’m wishing for from you — and for anyone applying for a job in journalism.
Read between the lines of my job description. Yes, I know the prose is hardly gripping — wordsmithed, as it almost always is, by committee. But there are secrets buried in our bureaucra-speak. If you see an adjective twice, pay attention, we’re probably trying to tell you something. Even the boilerplate can sometimes speak volumes.
I know it’s hard to discern which of the approximately 300 “essential” skills and characteristics we’re most concerned with, but read them all twice. Highlight the ones that apply most strongly to you, and underline the ones that pose a bit of a problem. In your cover letter and interview, I’m going to want you to emphasize the former and give me reasons not to be concerned about the latter.
When there are multiple positions posted for the same team, look for which elements they share, and which are distinct to each. The former will tell you the qualities we’re focusing on most carefully, and the latter will give you a good hint about how we think of this particular opening.
Get your vanity search in order. You know I’m Googling you, right? Of course. Before I get there, take a look at what I might see and try to make sure your best material is easily findable. (Tip: Because Google and other search engines personalize their results, it might be helpful to do the search in your browser’s private or incognito mode. This should give you a good approximation of a generic search.)
If that vanity search still yields that ill-advised, gratuitously provocative screed you wrote for your college paper freshman year, it’s not a disqualifier. You don’t need to call up your alumni office and threaten legal action if they don’t take it down. Just make sure that your own site shows up at the top of the results and showcases your best work.
Speaking of which, please have a personal site. If your cover letter and resume are solid, this is what I’m looking for next. Make it clean and easy to read, with links to your best work, and a nice, readable copy of your resume. A crisply written bio couldn’t hurt either. Unless you’re a stellar designer (or you’re applying for a design job), no need to develop anything crazily distinctive; an about.me page or a nice, simple WordPress.com site is perfectly fine.
My strong recommendation is that you make it easy to find your best clips. If you use a blogging engine like WordPress, you can literally write a post titled, “My best clips on [topic you'd be covering]” and link to it somewhere prominent. (Heck, feel free to make a short URL out of it and stick that in your application materials.)
Your cover letter should tell me two stories, and both should be fascinating. First, as concisely as you can, tell me the story of how your experiences have shaped you for this position. Then, with similar economy, tell me the story of what you’ll do with this position if you land it.
Remember, these are stories and you are their protagonist. Hook me with them. Don’t just narrativize your resume, although the first story should probably include some of its relevant bits. You can rattle off as many superlatives about yourself as you’d like — “I’m a first-rate storyteller with an eye for detail and a passion for telling the untold story” — but do you really think that’s how great characters are crafted? (I loved that part in the Harry Potter books where J.K. Rowling was all, “Hermione Granger is a dedicated wizard with a passion and an instinct for all kinds of magic, as well as a loyal and compassionate friend to elfkind.” Oh, wait.)
And this should go without saying, but please — please — proofread.
There’s more than one way to skin a resume. I know what a pain it would be to customize your resume for each job, so I have no complaints with a reasonably generic resume format. But do make sure to emphasize the aspects of your experience most suited to the jobs you’re applying for. Hierarchy in a resume is all-important; the stuff you want me to notice most should go at the top.
If you’re fresh out of school and your academic accomplishments are your calling card, lead with them. If you’ve been a longtime freelancer for a variety of high-quality news outlets, the names of the organizations may be most important to emphasize. If you’ve steadily moved up in seniority from job to job and held some impressive positions, then foreground your titles and make that progression stand out.
Remember: the more of your background you include, the less I’m likely to remember. A comprehensive C.V. is unnecessary. Foreground your five most impressive credentials, and tuck the rest into aftermatter, or excise it altogether.
By the way, the Web software we use for job applications and hiring tends to render resumes unrecognizable. So unless you know for certain that the system is going to deliver the resume to me with formatting intact, make sure that it looks wonderful in a plain text editor (like Notepad on Windows or TextWrangler on Mac). If you have the option of both uploading a PDF and submitting a separate plain text file, do both.
Even if I’m not following you on social media, assume I am. You probably don’t work for my organization yet, so you’re not covered by our social media guidelines. But I’ll be trying to assess from your feed whether you could accommodate them. So try not to go too far out of bounds.
Also, if you signed up for a Twitter account a few days before applying because our job description asked for social media skills, I can probably tell. Newbie Twitter feeds are almost unmistakeable. Here’s a secret: As much as I’d love to see your witty, informative stream of 140-character bursts of insight, I can also very much respect folks who listen more than they talk on Twitter. If you don’t say much yourself, but are following an interesting bunch of people (and do interact when appropriate), that’s perfectly fine in my book. If you’re new to a social media community, there is no shame in signing up and listening. I’ll be thrilled if you demonstrate to me that you understand the dynamics of the community, even if you haven’t shared much yet yourself.
Don’t hesitate to get one of our mutual colleagues to recommend you to me. I value a good recommendation; it’s one more piece of information I can draw on in my evaluation of your work. But the mere fact that you and I know someone in common doesn’t really help me out at all.
The best recommendations have a few qualities in common: 1) They come from someone with a genuine, first-person sense of how you work. 2) They come from someone with a decent understanding of our aims for the position. 3) They don’t just tell me that you’re great, they tell me why and how.
A little follow-up at any point in this process doesn’t hurt. A lot might. If you haven’t heard from us a month after you’ve applied, there’s no harm in sending an email to check up on where we are in the process. And after an interview or test, a gracious follow-up note is always appreciated, especially if you note some ideas that struck you afterward. If we close the position and you still haven’t heard from us, again, feel free to write.
Beyond those few occasions, be gentle. There’s probably an optimum level of persistence that can slightly help your prospects or speed the process along, but it’s unlikely to make a significant difference in our decision.
The very best interviews feel like great conversations. This may be one of my quirks as an interviewer, but I’ve found this to be true both as an interviewer and as an interviewee. Interviews often start out as interrogations — a back-and-forth series of questions and answers. But great interviews don’t tend to end that way. With the interview, I’m not merely trying to unlock the bits of knowledge in your head, and I’m certainly not trying to see how well you anticipate the answers locked in my head. I am trying to assess how you think, what you’re passionate about, how we gel as colleagues.
If I veer away from asking questions and start riffing off your ideas or telling stories of my own, don’t wait for the interrogation to resume — join in. Your questions, reactions, asides, brow-furrowed musings and rejoinders are all just as interesting to me as your answers, and if I’m trying to elicit them, it’s a good sign.
Every hiring manager is different. At the risk of negating everything I just wrote, I’ll be honest: Nothing in this post is universal. You’re probably going to encounter hiring managers who don’t Google anyone, couldn’t care less about your personal site or Twitter stream, disregard recommendations, hate follow up and don’t truck with idle chit-chat in interviews.
The other members of my hiring team probably have different approaches and interests. If you have an interview with someone else on my team, feel free to ask what I can share with you about them; I want you to impress them too.
Again, when I wish you the very best of luck, I mean it sincerely.
Matt
http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/career-development/189491/10-ways-to-make-your-journalism-job-application-better-than-everyone-elses/
The first time I finished a hiring process, having settled on a stellar candidate, my boss patted me on the shoulder and said, “You know, your first time really shouldn’t be this easy.” I took it as a straightforward compliment to me and the person I’d found. The position had attracted a solid pool of talented people, but the candidate I’d recruited and ultimately chosen had clearly stood out above all the rest. We knew we’d made an impeccable hire.
It wasn’t until years later that I realized my boss’ words had a double meaning — they were a compliment, yes, but also a piece of advice. Hiring — often the most important decision a manager has to make — should be hard. You want to have to make an excruciating choice from an impossibly talented pool of applicants.
So, I’m in the midst of hiring for this wonderful job you’ve applied for. It’s an extraordinary opportunity, and it’s drawn an equally extraordinary response. With the help of my colleagues on the hiring team, I’ve been poring over applications and talking to your fellow candidates for months. When I get a spare minute, I pull a few more resumes and cover letters off the pile to review, adding the most interesting candidates to a spreadsheet with notes and links to their work and social media profiles.
During most of my interviews, I realize two things: 1) Even though I feel like I’m moving at breakneck speed, to you this process feels mind-bendingly slow. 2) You have no idea how much I want you to rock — how excited I get when I read a terrific cover letter, encounter a superlative clip, or find myself engrossed in an interview. Or what a heartbreak it is when you seem great on paper, but present lackluster work or a dismal demeanor.
So to make this process harder on me (in the best possible way), here are 10 things I’m wishing for from you — and for anyone applying for a job in journalism.
Read between the lines of my job description. Yes, I know the prose is hardly gripping — wordsmithed, as it almost always is, by committee. But there are secrets buried in our bureaucra-speak. If you see an adjective twice, pay attention, we’re probably trying to tell you something. Even the boilerplate can sometimes speak volumes.
I know it’s hard to discern which of the approximately 300 “essential” skills and characteristics we’re most concerned with, but read them all twice. Highlight the ones that apply most strongly to you, and underline the ones that pose a bit of a problem. In your cover letter and interview, I’m going to want you to emphasize the former and give me reasons not to be concerned about the latter.
When there are multiple positions posted for the same team, look for which elements they share, and which are distinct to each. The former will tell you the qualities we’re focusing on most carefully, and the latter will give you a good hint about how we think of this particular opening.
Get your vanity search in order. You know I’m Googling you, right? Of course. Before I get there, take a look at what I might see and try to make sure your best material is easily findable. (Tip: Because Google and other search engines personalize their results, it might be helpful to do the search in your browser’s private or incognito mode. This should give you a good approximation of a generic search.)
If that vanity search still yields that ill-advised, gratuitously provocative screed you wrote for your college paper freshman year, it’s not a disqualifier. You don’t need to call up your alumni office and threaten legal action if they don’t take it down. Just make sure that your own site shows up at the top of the results and showcases your best work.
Speaking of which, please have a personal site. If your cover letter and resume are solid, this is what I’m looking for next. Make it clean and easy to read, with links to your best work, and a nice, readable copy of your resume. A crisply written bio couldn’t hurt either. Unless you’re a stellar designer (or you’re applying for a design job), no need to develop anything crazily distinctive; an about.me page or a nice, simple WordPress.com site is perfectly fine.
My strong recommendation is that you make it easy to find your best clips. If you use a blogging engine like WordPress, you can literally write a post titled, “My best clips on [topic you'd be covering]” and link to it somewhere prominent. (Heck, feel free to make a short URL out of it and stick that in your application materials.)
Your cover letter should tell me two stories, and both should be fascinating. First, as concisely as you can, tell me the story of how your experiences have shaped you for this position. Then, with similar economy, tell me the story of what you’ll do with this position if you land it.
Remember, these are stories and you are their protagonist. Hook me with them. Don’t just narrativize your resume, although the first story should probably include some of its relevant bits. You can rattle off as many superlatives about yourself as you’d like — “I’m a first-rate storyteller with an eye for detail and a passion for telling the untold story” — but do you really think that’s how great characters are crafted? (I loved that part in the Harry Potter books where J.K. Rowling was all, “Hermione Granger is a dedicated wizard with a passion and an instinct for all kinds of magic, as well as a loyal and compassionate friend to elfkind.” Oh, wait.)
And this should go without saying, but please — please — proofread.
There’s more than one way to skin a resume. I know what a pain it would be to customize your resume for each job, so I have no complaints with a reasonably generic resume format. But do make sure to emphasize the aspects of your experience most suited to the jobs you’re applying for. Hierarchy in a resume is all-important; the stuff you want me to notice most should go at the top.
If you’re fresh out of school and your academic accomplishments are your calling card, lead with them. If you’ve been a longtime freelancer for a variety of high-quality news outlets, the names of the organizations may be most important to emphasize. If you’ve steadily moved up in seniority from job to job and held some impressive positions, then foreground your titles and make that progression stand out.
Remember: the more of your background you include, the less I’m likely to remember. A comprehensive C.V. is unnecessary. Foreground your five most impressive credentials, and tuck the rest into aftermatter, or excise it altogether.
By the way, the Web software we use for job applications and hiring tends to render resumes unrecognizable. So unless you know for certain that the system is going to deliver the resume to me with formatting intact, make sure that it looks wonderful in a plain text editor (like Notepad on Windows or TextWrangler on Mac). If you have the option of both uploading a PDF and submitting a separate plain text file, do both.
Even if I’m not following you on social media, assume I am. You probably don’t work for my organization yet, so you’re not covered by our social media guidelines. But I’ll be trying to assess from your feed whether you could accommodate them. So try not to go too far out of bounds.
Also, if you signed up for a Twitter account a few days before applying because our job description asked for social media skills, I can probably tell. Newbie Twitter feeds are almost unmistakeable. Here’s a secret: As much as I’d love to see your witty, informative stream of 140-character bursts of insight, I can also very much respect folks who listen more than they talk on Twitter. If you don’t say much yourself, but are following an interesting bunch of people (and do interact when appropriate), that’s perfectly fine in my book. If you’re new to a social media community, there is no shame in signing up and listening. I’ll be thrilled if you demonstrate to me that you understand the dynamics of the community, even if you haven’t shared much yet yourself.
Don’t hesitate to get one of our mutual colleagues to recommend you to me. I value a good recommendation; it’s one more piece of information I can draw on in my evaluation of your work. But the mere fact that you and I know someone in common doesn’t really help me out at all.
The best recommendations have a few qualities in common: 1) They come from someone with a genuine, first-person sense of how you work. 2) They come from someone with a decent understanding of our aims for the position. 3) They don’t just tell me that you’re great, they tell me why and how.
A little follow-up at any point in this process doesn’t hurt. A lot might. If you haven’t heard from us a month after you’ve applied, there’s no harm in sending an email to check up on where we are in the process. And after an interview or test, a gracious follow-up note is always appreciated, especially if you note some ideas that struck you afterward. If we close the position and you still haven’t heard from us, again, feel free to write.
Beyond those few occasions, be gentle. There’s probably an optimum level of persistence that can slightly help your prospects or speed the process along, but it’s unlikely to make a significant difference in our decision.
The very best interviews feel like great conversations. This may be one of my quirks as an interviewer, but I’ve found this to be true both as an interviewer and as an interviewee. Interviews often start out as interrogations — a back-and-forth series of questions and answers. But great interviews don’t tend to end that way. With the interview, I’m not merely trying to unlock the bits of knowledge in your head, and I’m certainly not trying to see how well you anticipate the answers locked in my head. I am trying to assess how you think, what you’re passionate about, how we gel as colleagues.
If I veer away from asking questions and start riffing off your ideas or telling stories of my own, don’t wait for the interrogation to resume — join in. Your questions, reactions, asides, brow-furrowed musings and rejoinders are all just as interesting to me as your answers, and if I’m trying to elicit them, it’s a good sign.
Every hiring manager is different. At the risk of negating everything I just wrote, I’ll be honest: Nothing in this post is universal. You’re probably going to encounter hiring managers who don’t Google anyone, couldn’t care less about your personal site or Twitter stream, disregard recommendations, hate follow up and don’t truck with idle chit-chat in interviews.
The other members of my hiring team probably have different approaches and interests. If you have an interview with someone else on my team, feel free to ask what I can share with you about them; I want you to impress them too.
Again, when I wish you the very best of luck, I mean it sincerely.
Matt
http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/career-development/189491/10-ways-to-make-your-journalism-job-application-better-than-everyone-elses/
10 Ways To Win A Job In TV News
By Carlton Houston, KTUL News Director
This is not a rant about young people. It's a must-read for any recent college graduate seeking a job in television. I've had the fortune of meeting some of the best and brightest in recent months. It gives me confidence that our industry will be in good hands. Those meetings inspired me to compile a personal top-ten list that is worth sharing with anyone competing for work these days.
It's Not Just Television Anymore: Writing skills are critical in the digital age. To develop these skills you have to be an avid reader and writer. Expect a writing test - under deadline - if you get the interview.
Professional Courtesy: The winners arrive early for the interview, use a firm handshake... power off your cell phone. All of these tips sound basic right? Trust me, they are not.
If You Want The Job, Say So: Expressing enthusiasm for the job can go a long way. Would you hire someone who seemed bored or disinterested? Always assume there is another strong candidate competing with you for the same gig.
Google May Not Be Your Friend: Google led one applicant to misspell my name. Another job-seeker tried to Google the answer to a question that stumped him during the interview. In a follow-up email he still got the question wrong.
Practice Being Interviewed: The best and brightest typically show a high level of maturity. They ask questions, smile and laugh when appropriate. Can you hold a conversation with many different types of people?
Be Nice To The Receptionist: I ask our receptionist every time, "What did you think?" She has worked at our station for decades and she has a good radar. Treat the person at the front desk like you would treat the CEO of the company.
Carry A Notebook And Printed Copies Of Your Resume: At our station, the interview process involves multiple meetings. Having your resume stored on your smart phone is great... but not for someone who only has five minutes to meet you during their busy day. Be prepared.
Emails Versus Texting: If you are exchanging emails with the hiring manager, do not type them as you would text a friend referring to yourself with a lower case "i". Email a prospective manager with the same care you would use to post a news story to a website.
Be Direct About Your Availability: If you land another job offer, or you are waiting for another opportunity - say so by calling the hiring manager - during business hours. Be professional and upfront about your situation. Practice the conversation with a parent, friend, or an adviser.
Thank You Cards: Call me old-fashioned - I still appreciate a hand-written thank you note. It demonstrates professionalism in a industry that is always engaged with the public.
Carlton Houston is the News Director at KTUL - Tulsa's Channel 8. He also serves as the Region 6 Director for RTDNA.
http://www.rtdna.org/pages/posts/10-ways-to-win-a-job-in-tv-news1647.php
This is not a rant about young people. It's a must-read for any recent college graduate seeking a job in television. I've had the fortune of meeting some of the best and brightest in recent months. It gives me confidence that our industry will be in good hands. Those meetings inspired me to compile a personal top-ten list that is worth sharing with anyone competing for work these days.
It's Not Just Television Anymore: Writing skills are critical in the digital age. To develop these skills you have to be an avid reader and writer. Expect a writing test - under deadline - if you get the interview.
Professional Courtesy: The winners arrive early for the interview, use a firm handshake... power off your cell phone. All of these tips sound basic right? Trust me, they are not.
If You Want The Job, Say So: Expressing enthusiasm for the job can go a long way. Would you hire someone who seemed bored or disinterested? Always assume there is another strong candidate competing with you for the same gig.
Google May Not Be Your Friend: Google led one applicant to misspell my name. Another job-seeker tried to Google the answer to a question that stumped him during the interview. In a follow-up email he still got the question wrong.
Practice Being Interviewed: The best and brightest typically show a high level of maturity. They ask questions, smile and laugh when appropriate. Can you hold a conversation with many different types of people?
Be Nice To The Receptionist: I ask our receptionist every time, "What did you think?" She has worked at our station for decades and she has a good radar. Treat the person at the front desk like you would treat the CEO of the company.
Carry A Notebook And Printed Copies Of Your Resume: At our station, the interview process involves multiple meetings. Having your resume stored on your smart phone is great... but not for someone who only has five minutes to meet you during their busy day. Be prepared.
Emails Versus Texting: If you are exchanging emails with the hiring manager, do not type them as you would text a friend referring to yourself with a lower case "i". Email a prospective manager with the same care you would use to post a news story to a website.
Be Direct About Your Availability: If you land another job offer, or you are waiting for another opportunity - say so by calling the hiring manager - during business hours. Be professional and upfront about your situation. Practice the conversation with a parent, friend, or an adviser.
Thank You Cards: Call me old-fashioned - I still appreciate a hand-written thank you note. It demonstrates professionalism in a industry that is always engaged with the public.
Carlton Houston is the News Director at KTUL - Tulsa's Channel 8. He also serves as the Region 6 Director for RTDNA.
http://www.rtdna.org/pages/posts/10-ways-to-win-a-job-in-tv-news1647.php
When A Potential Employer Asks for Your Facebook Password
Could you imagine a job interview during which your interviewer asks you for your Facebook password? Well folks, it’s happening and you should know what to do when it happens to you.
The reason why companies are doing this is to get better insight into who you really are. They will strategically ask you to look at Facebook with them — right there, on the spot. You would think there would be some type of HR regulation in place to prohibit this type of conduct during an interview, but currently there is not — although the state of Maryland is starting to take action in a case regarding the Facebook profiles of student athletes.
With that in mind, what about job applicants in all the other states? Maryland is the first to do anything about this (and it’s currently concerned with student protections), so how long will it take for the job applicant process to be evaluated? Will asking for social networking account passwords be prohibited? The answer is, “There is no answer.” But you do not have to give the information as a condition of employment.
Let’s go over some things you can do to protect yourself on a job interview. Don’t forget: You have the right to a personal life and your privacy!
1. Put it Eloquently
If you are asked for your password, here are some things you can say, in an eloquent and respectful manner, to show you will stand your ground:
“I am very careful with my personal, private online persona and do not feel comfortable giving out any passwords. But you can feel free to look at my profile as it appears to you as a company right now, if you would like.” “I would never participate in social media on the organization’s time and ask that the organization will respect my personal social media rights outside of work.” “My LinkedIn network is a great place for you to review my professional experience and see the professional connections that I have that may be of benefit to your organization.” “Is that something that is required to move forward with this job interview?”
If you don’t like the prospective employer’s answer to the last question (or any of the statements above), you can decide if you would not like to move forward with the interview. It is your profile and your privacy, and you have the right to protect it. So, take control and make it your decision.
2. Evaluate the Situation
You may feel obligated to provide your password, but is it really worth it to you to have a job where you will be watched all the time?
The answer is probably “no.” It would be extremely stressful to feel like your personal life has the potential to be picked apart by your employers at any time. It will already be enough that they will monitor you while at work in other ways.
3. Take Steps to Protect Your Personal Life
If you plan carefully and strategically, you can separate business and pleasure. Set up your social media profiles to be only obtainable or known by your friends and family. Here are some things you can do:
Disable a public web search on your Facebook profile. The default setting allows search engines like Google to pick up your Facebook profile. Change your name and go by a nickname that only your friends and family would recognize. Take advantage of the new Facebook Timeline to illustrate the personal brand you want to project as a job seeker.
Once you have a job, you should be careful not to jeopardize it by putting ill-willed comments up for all to see. What you say could get you fired if it sheds a bad light on your company. You represent your company, so keep your personal social networking about you and not about work.
Now you know it is okay to take a stand and say “no” when asked for your social networking passwords. It is ultimately up to you to decide what you are comfortable with.
What would you do if your interviewer asked for your password? Let us know in the comments. Social Media Job Listings
Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!
http://mashable.com/2012/04/08/employer-facebook-password/
The reason why companies are doing this is to get better insight into who you really are. They will strategically ask you to look at Facebook with them — right there, on the spot. You would think there would be some type of HR regulation in place to prohibit this type of conduct during an interview, but currently there is not — although the state of Maryland is starting to take action in a case regarding the Facebook profiles of student athletes.
With that in mind, what about job applicants in all the other states? Maryland is the first to do anything about this (and it’s currently concerned with student protections), so how long will it take for the job applicant process to be evaluated? Will asking for social networking account passwords be prohibited? The answer is, “There is no answer.” But you do not have to give the information as a condition of employment.
Let’s go over some things you can do to protect yourself on a job interview. Don’t forget: You have the right to a personal life and your privacy!
1. Put it Eloquently
If you are asked for your password, here are some things you can say, in an eloquent and respectful manner, to show you will stand your ground:
“I am very careful with my personal, private online persona and do not feel comfortable giving out any passwords. But you can feel free to look at my profile as it appears to you as a company right now, if you would like.” “I would never participate in social media on the organization’s time and ask that the organization will respect my personal social media rights outside of work.” “My LinkedIn network is a great place for you to review my professional experience and see the professional connections that I have that may be of benefit to your organization.” “Is that something that is required to move forward with this job interview?”
If you don’t like the prospective employer’s answer to the last question (or any of the statements above), you can decide if you would not like to move forward with the interview. It is your profile and your privacy, and you have the right to protect it. So, take control and make it your decision.
2. Evaluate the Situation
You may feel obligated to provide your password, but is it really worth it to you to have a job where you will be watched all the time?
The answer is probably “no.” It would be extremely stressful to feel like your personal life has the potential to be picked apart by your employers at any time. It will already be enough that they will monitor you while at work in other ways.
3. Take Steps to Protect Your Personal Life
If you plan carefully and strategically, you can separate business and pleasure. Set up your social media profiles to be only obtainable or known by your friends and family. Here are some things you can do:
Disable a public web search on your Facebook profile. The default setting allows search engines like Google to pick up your Facebook profile. Change your name and go by a nickname that only your friends and family would recognize. Take advantage of the new Facebook Timeline to illustrate the personal brand you want to project as a job seeker.
Once you have a job, you should be careful not to jeopardize it by putting ill-willed comments up for all to see. What you say could get you fired if it sheds a bad light on your company. You represent your company, so keep your personal social networking about you and not about work.
Now you know it is okay to take a stand and say “no” when asked for your social networking passwords. It is ultimately up to you to decide what you are comfortable with.
What would you do if your interviewer asked for your password? Let us know in the comments. Social Media Job Listings
Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!
http://mashable.com/2012/04/08/employer-facebook-password/
9 Common Interview Questions That Are Actually Illegal
During job interviews, employers will try to gather as much information about you as possible, so there's bound to be some questions that will require you to think.
But it's the simple questions that are often most harmful, and even illegal.
Any questions that reveal your age, race, national origin, gender, religion, marital status and sexual orientation are off-limits.
"If you look at the broad picture, the [interview] questions you're asked have to be job-related and not about who you are as a person," Lori Adelson, a labor and employment attorney and partner with law firm Arnstein & Lehr, told us.
[Related: Things You Shouldn't Say in an Interview]
If you are asked any inappropriate questions, Adelson advises not to lie, but, instead, politely decline to answer.
"Could they not give you a job because of that? Sure," Adelson says. "But if they do, they would be doing exactly what they're not supposed to do."
We asked Adelson to provide us with some illegal interview questions that are often mistaken as appropriate and judicial.
Have you ever been arrested?
An employer can't actually legally ask you about your arrest record, but they can ask if you've ever been convicted of a crime.
Depending on the state, a conviction record shouldn't automatically disqualify you for employment unless it substantially relates to your job. For example, if you've been convicted of statutory rape and you're applying for a teaching position, you will probably not get the job
Are you married?
Although the interviewer may ask you this question to see how much time you'd be able to commit to your job, it's illegal because it reveals your marital status and can also reveal your sexual orientation.
Do you have children?
Again, the employer may ask you this question to see your available time commitment with the company, but this question is inappropriate.
However, they are allowed to ask you directly if you have other responsibilities or commitments that will be conflicting to your work schedule.
What country are you from?
If you have an accent, this may seem like an innocent question, but keep in mind that it's illegal because it involves your national origin.
Employers can't legally inquire about your nationality, but they can ask if you're authorized to work in a certain country.
Is English your first language?
It's not the employers lawful right to know if a language is your first language or not.
In order to find out language proficiency, employers can ask you what other languages you read, speak or write fluently.
Do you have any outstanding debt?
Employers have to have permission before asking about your credit history and, like a criminal background history, they can't disqualify you from employment unless it directly affects your ability to perform the position you're interviewing for.
Similarly, they can't ask you how well you balance your personal finances.
Do you socially drink?
Employers cannot ask about your drinking, or even legal drug use, habits because these inquiries are protected under the American Disability Act.
For example, if you're a recovering alcoholic, treatment of alcoholism is protected under this act and you don't have to disclose any disability information before landing an official job offer.
How long have you been working?
This question allows employers to guess your age which is unlawful. Similarly, they can't ask you what year you graduated from high school or college or even your birthday.
However, they can ask you how long you've been working in a certain industry.
What religious holidays do you practice?
Employers may want to ask you this to see if your lifestyle interferes with work schedules, but this question reveals your religion and that's illegal.
They can ask you if you're available to work on Sundays.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/secrets-toyour-success/9-common-interview-questions-actually-illegal-201733303.html
But it's the simple questions that are often most harmful, and even illegal.
Any questions that reveal your age, race, national origin, gender, religion, marital status and sexual orientation are off-limits.
"If you look at the broad picture, the [interview] questions you're asked have to be job-related and not about who you are as a person," Lori Adelson, a labor and employment attorney and partner with law firm Arnstein & Lehr, told us.
[Related: Things You Shouldn't Say in an Interview]
If you are asked any inappropriate questions, Adelson advises not to lie, but, instead, politely decline to answer.
"Could they not give you a job because of that? Sure," Adelson says. "But if they do, they would be doing exactly what they're not supposed to do."
We asked Adelson to provide us with some illegal interview questions that are often mistaken as appropriate and judicial.
Have you ever been arrested?
An employer can't actually legally ask you about your arrest record, but they can ask if you've ever been convicted of a crime.
Depending on the state, a conviction record shouldn't automatically disqualify you for employment unless it substantially relates to your job. For example, if you've been convicted of statutory rape and you're applying for a teaching position, you will probably not get the job
Are you married?
Although the interviewer may ask you this question to see how much time you'd be able to commit to your job, it's illegal because it reveals your marital status and can also reveal your sexual orientation.
Do you have children?
Again, the employer may ask you this question to see your available time commitment with the company, but this question is inappropriate.
However, they are allowed to ask you directly if you have other responsibilities or commitments that will be conflicting to your work schedule.
What country are you from?
If you have an accent, this may seem like an innocent question, but keep in mind that it's illegal because it involves your national origin.
Employers can't legally inquire about your nationality, but they can ask if you're authorized to work in a certain country.
Is English your first language?
It's not the employers lawful right to know if a language is your first language or not.
In order to find out language proficiency, employers can ask you what other languages you read, speak or write fluently.
Do you have any outstanding debt?
Employers have to have permission before asking about your credit history and, like a criminal background history, they can't disqualify you from employment unless it directly affects your ability to perform the position you're interviewing for.
Similarly, they can't ask you how well you balance your personal finances.
Do you socially drink?
Employers cannot ask about your drinking, or even legal drug use, habits because these inquiries are protected under the American Disability Act.
For example, if you're a recovering alcoholic, treatment of alcoholism is protected under this act and you don't have to disclose any disability information before landing an official job offer.
How long have you been working?
This question allows employers to guess your age which is unlawful. Similarly, they can't ask you what year you graduated from high school or college or even your birthday.
However, they can ask you how long you've been working in a certain industry.
What religious holidays do you practice?
Employers may want to ask you this to see if your lifestyle interferes with work schedules, but this question reveals your religion and that's illegal.
They can ask you if you're available to work on Sundays.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/secrets-toyour-success/9-common-interview-questions-actually-illegal-201733303.html
Ace the interview
Think the way they do.
Before the interview, think about what company problems you might be asked to solve. Write down 10 questions that you would ask a candidate. "Phrase them in 'situational' types of queries, like 'How long would you give a new VP of sales to hit quotas in a new market?' " says Colleen Aylward, president of search firm Devon James. Construct your own answers.
Do your research.
Find out how the company is structured and funded, the background of management, and information on competitors. Sites like Zoominfo, Hoovers, and Glassdoor.com can offer insights, as can interviews found on YouTube. Tapping LinkedIn connections close to the company can prep you on the people you'll meet.
Show up with stories.
Once you know the company's potential problems, come up with relevant anecdotes about what you did at another company. This way, you're less likely to be caught off guard.
Turn questions into conversations.
Keep up on current world events, industry news, and legislation and be prepared to relate them to the company. If asked, say, how you would reorganize a division to boost productivity, you can ask questions to create a more comfortable conversation. Says Aylward: "You could politely say, 'Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about this division? I noticed you had a plant in Ireland. Is your business affected by the political unrest?'" That peer-to-peer conversation tells the interviewer that you are thinking beyond the job.
Attack your homework.
Never decline any take-home assignments, and don't skimp on the time it will take -- even if you feel a company is taking advantage of your labor. It may be testing to see how much you want the job. The good news: Those assignments are typically reserved for the top three to six candidates.
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/14/job-interview-free-work/
Before the interview, think about what company problems you might be asked to solve. Write down 10 questions that you would ask a candidate. "Phrase them in 'situational' types of queries, like 'How long would you give a new VP of sales to hit quotas in a new market?' " says Colleen Aylward, president of search firm Devon James. Construct your own answers.
Do your research.
Find out how the company is structured and funded, the background of management, and information on competitors. Sites like Zoominfo, Hoovers, and Glassdoor.com can offer insights, as can interviews found on YouTube. Tapping LinkedIn connections close to the company can prep you on the people you'll meet.
Show up with stories.
Once you know the company's potential problems, come up with relevant anecdotes about what you did at another company. This way, you're less likely to be caught off guard.
Turn questions into conversations.
Keep up on current world events, industry news, and legislation and be prepared to relate them to the company. If asked, say, how you would reorganize a division to boost productivity, you can ask questions to create a more comfortable conversation. Says Aylward: "You could politely say, 'Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about this division? I noticed you had a plant in Ireland. Is your business affected by the political unrest?'" That peer-to-peer conversation tells the interviewer that you are thinking beyond the job.
Attack your homework.
Never decline any take-home assignments, and don't skimp on the time it will take -- even if you feel a company is taking advantage of your labor. It may be testing to see how much you want the job. The good news: Those assignments are typically reserved for the top three to six candidates.
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/14/job-interview-free-work/
10 Interview Questions Designed to Trick You
For the long-term unemployed or those workers looking for a change, getting an interview in today's market may feel like a win in itself. But once you're in the door, interviewers often put you through an obstacle course of deceptive questions with double meanings or hidden agendas. Do you know how to read the subtext?
"On the other side of the desk, hiring managers spend countless long hours interviewing candidate after candidate," says Joyce Lain Kennedy, a nationally syndicated careers columnist and author of Job Interviews For Dummies. "A tricky question may be used as a time management tool to quickly eliminate a less qualified candidate."
Kennedy says that even if job hunters have rehearsed anticipated topics, an unexpected question may jar loose an authentic answer that exposes hidden problems. She outlines the top 10 most common questions designed to trick you.
No. 1: Why have you been out of work so long, and how many others were laid off?
This question may also be followed by the more direct, "Why were you laid off?" Kennedy says it is an attempt to figure out if there's something wrong with you that your former company or that other potential employers have already discovered. The interviewer may be trying to determine if themes of recession and budget cuts were used to dump second-string employees, including you. Rather than answering the question directly and chancing an emotional response or misinterpretation, Kennedy advises punting. Respond: "I don't know the reason. I was an excellent employee who gave more than a day's work for a day's pay."
No. 2: If employed, how do you manage time for interviews?
"The real question is whether you are lying to and short-changing your current employer while looking for other work," says Kennedy. The interviewer may wonder: If you're cheating on your current boss, why wouldn't you later cheat on me? She suggests placing the emphasis on why you're interested in this position by saying you're taking personal time and that you only interview for positions that are a terrific match. If further interviews are suggested, Kennedy advises mentioning that the search is confidential and asking to schedule follow-ups outside of normal working hours.
No. 3: How did you prepare for this interview?
The intention of this question is to decipher how much you really care about the job or if you're simply going through the motions or winging it. Kennedy says the best way to answer is by saying, "I very much want this job, and of course researched it starting with the company website." Beyond explaining how you've done your homework, show it. Reveal your knowledge of the industry, company or department by asking informed questions and commenting on recent developments.
No. 4: Do you know anyone who works for us?
This one really is a tricky question, says Kennedy, because most interviewees expect that knowing someone on the inside is always a good thing. "Nothing beats having a friend deliver your resume to a hiring manager, but that transaction presumes the friend is well thought of in the company," she says. Because the interviewer will likely associate the friend's characteristics and reputation with your merits, she recommends only mentioning someone by name if you're certain of their positive standing in the organization.
No. 5: Where would you really like to work?
"The real agenda for this question is assurance that you aren't applying to every job opening in sight," says Kennedy. She advises never mentioning another company by name or another job title because you want to highlight all the reasons you're perfect for this job and that you'll give it all of your attention if achieved. A good response would be: "This is where I want to work, and this job is what I want to do."
No. 6: What bugs you about coworkers or bosses?
Don't fall into this trap. Kennedy says you always want to present yourself as optimistic and action-oriented, and hiring managers may use this question to tease out whether you'll have trouble working with others or could drag down workplace morale and productivity. "Develop a poor memory for past irritations," she advises. Reflect for a few seconds, and then say you can't recall anything in particular. Go on to compliment former bosses for being knowledgeable and fair and commend past coworkers for their ability and attitude. It will reveal your positive outlook and self-control and how you'll handle the social dynamics in this position.
No. 7: Can you describe how you solved a work or school problem?
Kennedy says that, really, no one should be too taken aback by this, as it's one of the most basic interview questions and should always be anticipated. However, all too often interviewees either can't come up with something on the spot or miss the opportunity to highlight their best skills and attributes. Kennedy says what the interviewer really wants is insight into how your mind works. Have an answer ready, like how you solved time management issues in order to take on a special assignment or complicated project, that showcases an achievement.
No. 8: Can you describe a work or school instance in which you messed up?
This one is a minefield. "One question within the question is whether you learn from your mistakes or keep repeating the same errors," says Kennedy. Similarly, the interviewer may be trying to glean whether you're too self-important or not self-aware enough to take responsibility for your failings. Perhaps even more problematic, if you answer this question by providing a list of all your negative traits or major misdeeds, then you're practically spelling out your insecurities and guaranteeing you won't get the job. So you don't want to skirt the question or make yourself look bad. "Briefly mention a single small, well-intentioned goof and follow up with an important lesson learned from the experience," she advises.
No. 9: How does this position compare with others you're applying for?
"The intent is to gather intel on the competitive job market or get a handle on what it will take to bring you on board," says Kennedy. There are two directions to take: Coy or calculated. "You can choose a generic strategy and say you don't interview and tell, and respect the privacy of any organization where you interview," she notes. Or you could try to make yourself appear in demand by confirming you've received another competitive offer, which may up the bidding for your services. Always bring the focus back to this position, by asking: "Have I found my destination here?"
No. 10: If you won the lottery, would you still work?
Admittedly, this one's a little silly. Even so, it's another opportunity to underscore your motivation and work ethic. Kennedy advises acknowledging that you'd be thrilled to win the lottery but would still look for meaningful work because meeting challenges and achieving make you happy. And say it with a straight face.
If at any point in an interview you're uncertain or caught off guard, don't panic, Kennedy warns. Deflect a question by saying you'd like to mull it over and come back to it, or by being honest that you don't know the answer and, as a careful worker, would prefer not to guess. "If you've otherwise done a good job of answering questions and confidently explained why you're a great match for the position," she says, "the interviewer probably won't consider your lack of specifics on a single topic to be a deal breaker."
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/secrets-toyour-success/watch-10-interview-questions-designed-trick-194733833.html
"On the other side of the desk, hiring managers spend countless long hours interviewing candidate after candidate," says Joyce Lain Kennedy, a nationally syndicated careers columnist and author of Job Interviews For Dummies. "A tricky question may be used as a time management tool to quickly eliminate a less qualified candidate."
Kennedy says that even if job hunters have rehearsed anticipated topics, an unexpected question may jar loose an authentic answer that exposes hidden problems. She outlines the top 10 most common questions designed to trick you.
No. 1: Why have you been out of work so long, and how many others were laid off?
This question may also be followed by the more direct, "Why were you laid off?" Kennedy says it is an attempt to figure out if there's something wrong with you that your former company or that other potential employers have already discovered. The interviewer may be trying to determine if themes of recession and budget cuts were used to dump second-string employees, including you. Rather than answering the question directly and chancing an emotional response or misinterpretation, Kennedy advises punting. Respond: "I don't know the reason. I was an excellent employee who gave more than a day's work for a day's pay."
No. 2: If employed, how do you manage time for interviews?
"The real question is whether you are lying to and short-changing your current employer while looking for other work," says Kennedy. The interviewer may wonder: If you're cheating on your current boss, why wouldn't you later cheat on me? She suggests placing the emphasis on why you're interested in this position by saying you're taking personal time and that you only interview for positions that are a terrific match. If further interviews are suggested, Kennedy advises mentioning that the search is confidential and asking to schedule follow-ups outside of normal working hours.
No. 3: How did you prepare for this interview?
The intention of this question is to decipher how much you really care about the job or if you're simply going through the motions or winging it. Kennedy says the best way to answer is by saying, "I very much want this job, and of course researched it starting with the company website." Beyond explaining how you've done your homework, show it. Reveal your knowledge of the industry, company or department by asking informed questions and commenting on recent developments.
No. 4: Do you know anyone who works for us?
This one really is a tricky question, says Kennedy, because most interviewees expect that knowing someone on the inside is always a good thing. "Nothing beats having a friend deliver your resume to a hiring manager, but that transaction presumes the friend is well thought of in the company," she says. Because the interviewer will likely associate the friend's characteristics and reputation with your merits, she recommends only mentioning someone by name if you're certain of their positive standing in the organization.
No. 5: Where would you really like to work?
"The real agenda for this question is assurance that you aren't applying to every job opening in sight," says Kennedy. She advises never mentioning another company by name or another job title because you want to highlight all the reasons you're perfect for this job and that you'll give it all of your attention if achieved. A good response would be: "This is where I want to work, and this job is what I want to do."
No. 6: What bugs you about coworkers or bosses?
Don't fall into this trap. Kennedy says you always want to present yourself as optimistic and action-oriented, and hiring managers may use this question to tease out whether you'll have trouble working with others or could drag down workplace morale and productivity. "Develop a poor memory for past irritations," she advises. Reflect for a few seconds, and then say you can't recall anything in particular. Go on to compliment former bosses for being knowledgeable and fair and commend past coworkers for their ability and attitude. It will reveal your positive outlook and self-control and how you'll handle the social dynamics in this position.
No. 7: Can you describe how you solved a work or school problem?
Kennedy says that, really, no one should be too taken aback by this, as it's one of the most basic interview questions and should always be anticipated. However, all too often interviewees either can't come up with something on the spot or miss the opportunity to highlight their best skills and attributes. Kennedy says what the interviewer really wants is insight into how your mind works. Have an answer ready, like how you solved time management issues in order to take on a special assignment or complicated project, that showcases an achievement.
No. 8: Can you describe a work or school instance in which you messed up?
This one is a minefield. "One question within the question is whether you learn from your mistakes or keep repeating the same errors," says Kennedy. Similarly, the interviewer may be trying to glean whether you're too self-important or not self-aware enough to take responsibility for your failings. Perhaps even more problematic, if you answer this question by providing a list of all your negative traits or major misdeeds, then you're practically spelling out your insecurities and guaranteeing you won't get the job. So you don't want to skirt the question or make yourself look bad. "Briefly mention a single small, well-intentioned goof and follow up with an important lesson learned from the experience," she advises.
No. 9: How does this position compare with others you're applying for?
"The intent is to gather intel on the competitive job market or get a handle on what it will take to bring you on board," says Kennedy. There are two directions to take: Coy or calculated. "You can choose a generic strategy and say you don't interview and tell, and respect the privacy of any organization where you interview," she notes. Or you could try to make yourself appear in demand by confirming you've received another competitive offer, which may up the bidding for your services. Always bring the focus back to this position, by asking: "Have I found my destination here?"
No. 10: If you won the lottery, would you still work?
Admittedly, this one's a little silly. Even so, it's another opportunity to underscore your motivation and work ethic. Kennedy advises acknowledging that you'd be thrilled to win the lottery but would still look for meaningful work because meeting challenges and achieving make you happy. And say it with a straight face.
If at any point in an interview you're uncertain or caught off guard, don't panic, Kennedy warns. Deflect a question by saying you'd like to mull it over and come back to it, or by being honest that you don't know the answer and, as a careful worker, would prefer not to guess. "If you've otherwise done a good job of answering questions and confidently explained why you're a great match for the position," she says, "the interviewer probably won't consider your lack of specifics on a single topic to be a deal breaker."
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/secrets-toyour-success/watch-10-interview-questions-designed-trick-194733833.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)