The 16 Stages of a Job Interview, as Told Through Cheesy Stock Images

The 16 Stages of a Job Interview, as Told Through Cheesy Stock Images Youve got to love a stock image. Cheesy facial expressions, exaggerated hand gestures and generally awkwardly staged scenarios all round! In fact, when I put it like that, they have a few things in common with a  job interview. Interviews arent exactly the most relaxing experiences. You do your best to come across as charming and confident, while you have a slightly uncomfortable exchange with another individual; but in reality it  probably all appears rather rehearsed and artificial. So what exactly would a job interview look like if it were a stock image photoshoot? 1) You find out that youve landed an interview. Im just so excited Im going to grin ecstatically  and wave my hands in the air! 2) You call your mum/other half/best pal because youre just SO excited. *squeals down the phone* 3) You memorise every word on their website. Interview prep makes me smile. 4) Panic strikes as you realise you have NOTHING to wear. This means one thing: shopping trip! 5) You set off to your interview in your new clobberBut soon find yourself terribly lost. If I scream at my SatNav I will magically arrive in my desired destination. 6) You finally arrive in a fluster 5 minutes before your interview and take a seat awaiting your fait. Why travel by foot when you can FLY? 7) Your name is called and youre filled with terror. The rabbit caught in headlights look is totally interview appropriate, right? 8) You put on your best charming act. “I found that if you have a goal, that you might not reach it. But if you don’t have one, then you are never disappointed. And I gotta tell ya… it feels phenomenal.” Peter La Fleur, Dodgeball 9) Youre caught off guard by a question you cant answer. Yikes! If I look upset he may feel sorry for me and move on. 10) You blag your way through the rest. I can count on my fingershire me. 11) You come out with a witty remark that gets a laugh from your interviewer. Cue the smugness. 12) The interview ends, so you say your thanks and leave. Thank you so much for this incredibly stressful half hour. 13) You mentally torture yourself by reliving the interview word for word. I cant believe I said that, the only thing I can do now is pull my hair out. 14) Still pumped with adrenaline, its time to send a thank you email. PS. Please hire me. 15) Phew thank god thats over! I need a drink. 16) The waiting game begins. Get back to me before I eat my hand. [Image Credit: Shutterstock]

How To Travel The World With A Mortgage

How To Travel The World With A Mortgage Buying a home is a huge investment, and not a decision you’re going to make lightly. If you’re in two minds about whether to travel the world or lay a down payment on a house, then you’re not the only one. It can feel like you have to choose between having one or doing the other, which is, in fact, further from the truth. For those looking to have their cake and eat it too, buying a house and renting it out when you go traveling can be a suitable and probable choice. While there is paperwork involved, many people are able to travel the world for six or so months before retiring to their humble abode. Doesn’t this sound perfect? If so, and you’re wondering how you can do this too, read the following guide on how to travel the world with a mortgage. Rent Your Home Having a mortgage means you need to continue making payments each and every month. Of course, you could find a job while you’re traveling, but the reality is that you’ll have to also pay for your travel accommodation too. Unless you have a large pool of money, this isn’t possible. Instead, you should consider renting your home out. While you may need to check that this is possible, there are many people who manage to do this. By renting your home you will have a monthly income which can go straight towards your mortgage repayments. Ideal, right? Ways to go about this is ensuring you understand the current travel trends and how you can use them to your advantage. For instance, people enjoy minimalistic and modern hotels, so you could update your interior. What’s more, you could also see if your hometown or city is considered a ‘hot’ destination. Once you can utilize these trends, finding tenants and customers is much easier. Rent Storage Space If renting your entire home isn’t possible, then consider making money from it in other ways. If you have storage space, offer to rent that space instead. Many people need storage space and pay high prices to keep their possessions safe, so offer your home as a holding area while you’re away. You can settle particulars and payment with the people who are renting your home, but ensure that they are able to give you cash sums each month. Before you do this though, make sure you’re going to have a return on your investment. You need to make your regular payments, and not doing so could mean you losing your house in the long-term. Exchange Your Home Your home will be appealing to others, so try and find people who wish to vacation within it and swap homes for a while. By exchanging your home, you will not only be able to save money on accommodation, but you and the person you’re exchanging with will understand the reasons behind it. Home exchange is brilliant if you live in a touristy area, and if you’re able to, you could make a profit from your home â€" allowing you to pay your mortgage while also have some extra cash leftover.

8 Tips for anger management

8 Tips for anger management People at work are asking me why I am not working as many hours as I used to. I am. But I am working on anger management. Here are seven tips Ive tried using: 1. Face the problem and make it a priority. I used to think anger management problem is a thing for men who are in prison for setting their wives on fire. Now I see its a problem for people who think they will get fired for being unpleasant. Or for people who think their kids will grow up and hate them for being emotionally unpredictable. I am both those people. 2. Focus on your trigger points. The time I most consistently lose my temper is trying to get the kids out of the house in the morning. So I told myself to not lose my temper. That didnt work. So I have been waking up at 5:30 because I need to give myself two hours to be completely organized and calm so that I can get the kids and myself out the door for school and work at 7:30 without screaming at the kids for not eating fast enough because I changed my clothes for work three times and got behind and forgot to make lunches. I thought of having the nanny come in the morning to help me. But I hate feeling like Im married to the nanny, and I hate feeling like I cant do normal parenting things on my own. The mornings with the kids seem theoretically intimate, and making school lunches seems like a rite of passage for moms with school-aged kids. I want all that. 3. Use deep breathing to regulate stress. I have been doing Ashtanga yoga for ten years. I thought I was amazing at yoga, but now I see that the point of yoga, calming, centering, whatever, is lost on someone who is focusing on the routine of fifty push-ups and five headstands. Now the breathing resonates with me, when I do it at 5:30 am as a desperate attempt to keep myself calm long enough to get to work. 3. Have a regular sleep schedule to improve your ability to self-regulate. I pack the school lunches the night before. And I pick out my clothes the night before. The guys I work with think I dont ever change my clothes. This is sometimes true. Especially when Im depressed. But a lot of times I change my clothes but all my clothes look the same so I dont even get credit for having thought about it the night before. To get up at 5:30 am with a good nights sleep I have to go to bed at 9:30pm which means I have to get the kids to bed by 8pm so I can have an hour to do lunches and clothes and washing my face, which, if you are my age, takes ten minutes because of all the cream stuff I use. I do not explain this when a co-worker asks why I dont have twenty minutes to fix home page copy at 8:30 pm. 4. Accept that every day includes unpredictability, and thats okay. So its a regular day where I am insanely regimented in a desperate effort to not be angry but at 7am I realize that I forgot to pack to go to the farmers house. I also realize that its freezing outside, and I didnt put the car in the garage and its going to take ten minutes of warming up the car so I can scrape the ice. Then my seven-year-old cant find socks without holes in them. I change my clothes so I can scrape the ice and I yell from my bedroom that he should look in his brothers drawer for socks. He yells back up that he wants me to sew the socks so that we are not wasting. Its recycling, he yells. 5. Understand the true source of your frustration. Then the boys have a fist-fight about who is wearing whose socks. I do not catch them until theres a cheek scrape which upsets me because now my four-year-old will go to school looking like he lives in a boxing ring. I have prepared myself for a moment like this: I identify that I am not upset with my sons but upset with what the world thinks of me as a parent. I tell myself I am good at self-regulation and I do not take this frustration out on my children. I say, Put on nice socks and lets have breakfast. I want to tell you I used a calm voice, but I worry I used a psycho, calm-before-the-storm voice. 6. Understand the impact food has on your moods. I make waffles. I watch the kids eat squishy, warm, covered-in-syrup waffles. I watch them wash down the drippy syrup with marsh-mallowed hot chocolate. I am convinced that when I eat sugar and bread it makes me crazythat I just want more and then cannot think of anything else. (There is such interesting research on this. Click here: A study about how civilization is based on the opiate effect of grains on humans.) It takes every bit of self-discipline in my body not to steal scraps of waffle from the four-year-olds plate. I need to remember to not give him so much. I need him to feel more protective of his portion. 7. Use solutions-based language in tense conversations. I want so much to be remembered as a dream mom that I put their mittens and coats over the heater so they are warm after breakfast. The kids dont notice warmness because they are punching each other, furtively, like Im not going to see them if its under their jackets. As we walk out the door, my seven-year-old starts crying: the snow pants in his backpack are wrong. I tell him those are to keep at school. I tell him I am streamlining our morning by keeping snow pants at school so we dont have to bring them back and forth. He does not like his other pair. He is crying. I decide I am going to take a firm line because really, its school that makes him nervous and he finds something to cry about every morning and I have to put a stop to this. I tell him I already made a decision about the pants. I tell him I am the mom and I already made a decision. This is good. Kids feel secure when they have boundaries and authority. He screams. I pound the refrigerator with my fist. I scream, Shut the fuck up with the crying. I scream, If you dont quit crying every fucking single morning Im never taking you to school again. Thats how it is. Nearly 24 hours of preparation to get through a morning without me yelling, and still, I break thirty rules of anger management in thirty seconds. My four-year-old says, Mommy, youre hurting me. And he covers his ears. 8. Slow down a tough situation so you make good decisions. I take a time-out for myself in the living room. I say a prayer to the god of anger, if there is one: please let me always pound the refrigerator and not my kids. I take them to school. I kiss them too much when I say goodbye. I tell them I love them like my life depends on it, while other moms, who clearly do not worry about yelling and maybe dont even worry about waffles, casually do drop-off and drive off to the gym. Then I go to work, and everyone is laughing and joking about Pee Wee Hermans new show, and I yell, Arrrggh! Can everyone please shut up for twenty minutes so I can finish my post? I cant think with all the banter. Ryan Paugh tells me that its not that I cant work with talking. I work with talking all the time. He says, Its self-loathing. Take some responsibility. I want to tell him to fuck off. But I need a quiet place to write this post, so I go to his office, and sit on the floor, and I hope he doesnt talk to me, because its 8:30 am and already I am not having a good anger management day.

After the Interview 6 Tips for Success - Classy Career Girl

After the Interview 6 Tips for Success So you nailed the interview and think you did a pretty darn good job! Whats next? What you do after the interview can make as much of a difference as what you do during the interview. Dont miss these key steps to getting a job offer. 6 Worth-It Steps For After The Interview 1. Get Their Contact Information One of the most important things you can do during an interview is asking for your interviewer’s contact information. Even if it is awkward, you are meeting this person and you never know how your paths might cross in the future. Even if you aren’t hired but this is a dream company that you want to work for, you should definitely stay in touch. As long as you aren’t annoying them weekly, there is no reason that they shouldn’t be willing to give out their contact information. So, each person you interview with, ask them for a business card. Or if they don’t have a card on them, ask them for their email address and write it down. Yes, I know it is weird and awkward especially when they are the ones in control but you want to be able to stay in touch after the interview. As much as possible, never leave the interviewer’s office without getting their contact information. Usually at the end of the interview they will ask you if you have any questions. That is the time to ask them for a business card if you have any follow-up questions. If they don’t have a business card, ask for their email address. If they say that you can’t contact them, they are probably  not someone  that you want in your network anyways. 2. Send a Thank You Email Immediately A simple thank you email can make a big difference because so many people forget about this one really simple last step! The best way to follow up is to send an e-mail within 24 hours after the interview.  Reiterate why you’re the best choice for the job. If they specifically say “We will contact you” and give no info, how do you thank them for the interview? Even if they say “We will contact you,” that doesn’t mean you can’t simply thank them for the interview. Every interview you go on you will learn valuable information about the industry and what you can offer by asking questions. You should be thankful for every interview, even if you disliked the possible job and interviewers. I know I always learn something about myself or what I really want to do in the future after an interview. Plus, every interview you go on, you will find yourself less nervous the next time around. I promise! 3. Send a Thank You Letter To show the interviewer how serious you are, make use of the snail mail. While emails and phone calls can come across as somewhat cold forms of communication, handwritten notes are warm. In your note, thank them for their time and address a dew things you discussed in the interview. Make sure to tailor the letter to the company you’re sending it. 4. Call for a Status Check If it takes a while to get a response after the interview, consider following up again. A week after the interview, call the interviewer’s office and, nicely, ask about the status of the job search. If you can’t get a hold of the interviewer, leave a voicemail. And a week after that, send an email basically saying the same thing. [RELATED: The 6 Best Ways to Prepare For Your Interview] 5. Keep Notes After the interview, write down who you met and the date of the meeting, what you talked about, what you learned, your impressions, and any concerns you have. It’s important to keep to keep track and to stay organized with the contacts you made. 6. Never Overdo It Whatever you do, don’t keep calling. It is possible to come off as overly pushy. Don’t cold call or email more than once a week. Give them time to respond and be courteous when you’re on the phone with them and do not simply ask, “Did I get the job?” Make sure you download our free cheat sheet with the answers to the top 10 interview questions too! What success strategies do you have for after the interview? Share in the comments below!

What You Should NOT Include in Your Resume

What You Should NOT Include in Your Resume Photo Credit â€" time.comWhether you are applying for a job or for college, your resume is an essential tool to prove your skills. It is the first thing employers or recruiters look at, and unfortunately, it is the factor that influences their further decisions. Are they going to offer you an interview?Companies or big schools do not have time to evaluate everybody personally. You have to stand out from the crowd from the first moment they read about you. And one of the ways to do that is having an amazing resume.Nowadays, there are so many unemployed people with great qualities. That’s because people are sometimes bad at promoting themselves. They are under the impression that their prospective employers will offer them interviews anyways â€" but most of the times they are wrong.evalTime is money, and employers know that well. So they choose to spend their time wisely and interview people who would make perfect candidates since the beginning.I have put up a list on what to avoid i ncluding in your resume. Be honest, but do not overuse your honesty in a damaging way.Take a look at my list and leave me some feedback, whether positive or negative. Thanks!1.Grammar or Spelling MistakesHaving typos in your resume shows negligence and disrespect to the reader. It shows carelessness, and it absolutely says something about your skills. You do not pay attention to detail, and your job might not always be perfectly done.Is this the first impression you want to give to your employer?There are a lot of free services you could use in order to perfect your grammaror correct your spelling. All you have to do is find the one that fits your needs the best.Melinda Johns, former freelancer shares her experience. “Before I started working for my current company, I was so anxious about my lacking grammar skills. I was not confident on my English at all, since all the teachers I had before were pretty bad. Step by step, I realized I have to change this, so I started practicing m y writing every day. I ended up a CEO for a writing company â€" not bad at all I guess, huh?”2.Being VagueevalEmployers have to be aware of your accomplishments. Having a good resume does not equal bragging â€" it just proves how valuable you are as a worker. So make sure you present your accomplishments accurately and clearly.What you’ve done is very important for your future employer, because it shows the level of involvement you are willing to bring into his or her company. The following example is a good way to show your worth.I worked for Oaks Crab Company between X and Y period of time. I was supervising 20+ employers while working there.During my stay, the company has increased sales by 15%. My personal contribution was 13%. They have to know how valuable you are, OK? Never ever forget that! Be specific and show your great results.3.Including Irrelevant InformationEach company has its own rules, restrictions, and qualities they want to see in their future employees. Do not try to use the same resume for ncompanies. That means you are being lazy â€" it might work once, but it will not work forever. One size does not fit all, remember.evalIncluding irrelevant information is irritating for an employer. It means you are not paying attention to what they are asking of you- so you are not as interested in the job as you should be. Excuse my harshness, but then why should they waste any more time with you?4.Underlining Your Duties Instead of AccomplishmentsLet me give you an example so you can understand this better.Showing duties:I attended group meetings and held presentationsI worked with impoverished people and helped with daily choresI answered calls and talked to different clientsThe above duties show what you hadto do, not what you have learnedafter you have done your duties. Employers are less prone to care about what you’ve done â€" we can all do so many activities, right? â€" and more interested in what you’ve learned. Look at the next e xample.Showing accomplishments:Attending group meetings made me expand my teamwork abilities and developed my courage and initiativeWorking with impoverished people taught me how to handle difficult situations and understand other cultures Talking to clients helped me develop my communication skills and made me much more sociable5.Being Visually Too BusyIt is great to show all of your accomplishments and past activities, but make sure you do not overload your resume. Reading a piece of paper that is visually too busy will give your employer headaches.Make sure you include everything that is relevant to the job you are applying for, but as I’ve said before, including too much can be very harmful.Select your fond and style carefully, and do not use other colour that black and maybe dark blue. Do not include your photo or any kind of odd item that is not proper in your resume. Keep it visually attractive,but simple and clear. Stay brief, but explain what needs to be explained.6.Using Passive VerbsYou have to show power and strength in your resume â€" and you have to do that in writing. Your best choice is to use action verbs. Do not use phrases such as “responsible for answering questions” or “in charge of X or Y.”evalTry to change that into “Resolved important user questions and helped over 5,000 students.”See the difference?7.Omitting InformationWhile it is wrong to add too much to your resume, it is not smart to forget adding important information either. People tend to forget to add details about how one experience or another made them feel. They concentrate too much on the result, rather on the experience itself.Do not forget to include that! It is important for your employer â€" it shows you are human, and you care about developing emotionally too.8.Including Incorrect Contact InformationHowand why would you do this? If you do not pay attention to your contact information,you might risk losing everything. Please double-check your e-mail, phone number, and Skype details. You never know who might be interested in you and trying to reach out.eval9.Including IntentionsI have seen so many resumes that begin with a “purpose paragraph.” Job applicants simply write down the reason for applying, what they expect to learn, and how this job will affect their futures. I honestly believe that writing all that down is wrong.For me, it shows too much planning. You haven’t even had an interview with your employer, and you are already planning your career in their company. You should be able to go with the flow, and make up goals as you go. Otherwise, what is the beauty of living life?Wrap-UpBefore you submit your resume, double-check your grammar and spelling mistakes. Do not be vague, and show how much value you brought in your former company; do not include too much information if it is not necessary.Make sure you highlight your accomplishments rather than your duties, and use action verbs to do that.Be careful not to omit impor tant information, and stay away from including boring “purpose introductions.”Good luck!

What should you do after an interview - Jane Jackson Career

What should you do after an interview - Jane Jackson Career You walk out of the interview and think, “Whew! I’m glad that’s over!” What do you do next?  Do you ever follow up after your interviews? Or do you simply wait and hope?When I was working in recruitment, I was amazed at the number of people who failed to continue to sell themselves effectively by providing a thank you email after their interviews. They must have thought, “I did all I could do during the interview, now I can sit back and relax.” No, no, no â€" there is more to be done! Here are some suggestions to consider.Take notes immediately after the interviewAfter you leave the interview, I suggest that you go somewhere comfortable, sit down and, while everything is fresh in your memory, write down what transpired.Take note of the date and time, whom you met, the tone of the interview, the focus of the questions, what went well and what didn’t go so well. Write down what the interviewer/s said were the next steps so you know when to follow up if you don’t hear ba ck from them.If a recruitment consultant organised the interview, give them a call to debrief and provide feedback on your take on how things went. They will also want to know if, after the interview, you are still interested in the role.Send a ‘thank you’ emailCraft an effective thank you email to the interviewer as a follow up. This shows them that you’re able to take the initiative to do something above and beyond the norm, and by taking the extra step that many candidates don’t, you continue to set yourself apart. This will demonstrate your attention to detail, provide an effective finishing touch to the interview and give you one more opportunity to sell your qualifications and relevant experience (according to your analysis of the interview). This will also provide an opportunity to demonstrate your gratitude for being considered, your continued interest in the role, and leave a positive impression on the reader. Finally, it’s just a lovely thing to do.You should sen d the thank you email as soon as possible after the interview. If you don’t have the interviewer’s business card, do some research to find out their email address. If you are working through a recruiter, you must first check with the recruiter if it would be all right for you to send an email to the interviewer. The recruiter may prefer you to send the email to him or her and then your email will be forwarded to the interviewer on your behalf.What should go into a follow-up email? It’s simple to remember the four Rs:  R                           Remember me (get your name noticed one more time!)R                           Reinforce the positivesR                           Recoup your lossesR                           Reminder of the next steps  This puts your name in front of the interviewer one more time. The first paragraph gives you the opportunity to express your enthusiasm and reinforce all your positives that are a match to the role, the next paragraph gives you a ch ance to redeem yourself if you totally messed up a response, as you can mention your capability in that specific area of concern, and in the final paragraph, if you were provided with a date by when you might hear back, mention that you are looking forward to discussing this position further by that date.It might seem obvious, but it’s so important to: proofread before sending! Then, keep up all of your other job search activities to open up as many leads and opportunities as possible. Good luck!For more career tips find me at www.janejacksoncoach.com download my free ebooks on ‘How to find the job you’ll love’ and ‘Dress for Success in Business.’

Tips For Saving Time When Writing a Resume

Tips For Saving Time When Writing a ResumeAre you looking for tips for saving time when writing a resume? You are not alone, because there are many other job seekers like you out there. Although the job market is tight, there are still many jobs out there that need to be filled, so you should make sure that you write a great resume.Now that you have decided to write a resume, you should also know what to include on it. There are a few tips for saving time when writing a resume that you should follow in order to get the job that you want.The first tip for saving time when writing a resume is to create your resume in a way that is unique and different from the rest of the competition. This means you should use different types of formatting in your resume, and you should think about including some type of a special emphasis on the skills that you have that will be able to help you get the job.The next tip for saving time when writing a resume is to include a strong introductory paragrap h. This will allow you to get yourself recognized and it will also establish who you are as a professional.A tip for saving time when writing a resume that you should follow is to avoid using any type of slang or funny phrases in your resume. Instead, you should use clear and simple language so that the employer will be able to read your resume more easily.Another tip for saving time when writing a resume is to save your personal information in the appropriate place. If you are still able to find this information, you should try using your social security number, since this is usually a legal document and you should be sure to keep it up to date.The final tip for saving time when writing a resume is to save yourself time by making sure that you do not spend too much time writing your resume. You should write one page, but you should make sure that you get it right the first time.Now that you know some tips for saving time when writing a resume, you should put them into practice and do not take too much time writing it. Remember that the first impression counts, so you should make sure that you make a good first impression.