I Have No Experience, but I Have an Interview. What Do I Say?

If this is you, I am sure you have a few questions concerning the interview. And here are my answers:

      1. Is it a mistake?

    Absolutely NOT. If they called you, and asked for your name on the phone and scheduled you for an interview, then it's you they want to meet. Stop worrying and get prepared. They have your contact information from your CV and since they can see in your CV that you have no experience, then they know about your background. 

2.  Should I go?

Absolutely. Even if you don't get the job, at least it will help you get used to the interview environment and do better next time.

3.  What will they ask?

First of all since you don't have any experience, they will skip that and ask questions about yourself, your personality, your studies, your personal projects, any volunteering activities you may have done, just to see if you were interested in doing something else than just going to school, they will ask about any additional courses you attended, what you learnt. Then they will ask about your future goals, why you want to work for their company, what you know about them , if you remember the job ad and if you have any questions about the company, the job or the team.

4.  Should I ask questions?

Of course. Asking questions means that you are interested. You can prepare a few from home, but make sure you don't get too aggressive. Ask the questions during the discussion without interrupting too often and also at the end of the interview.

5. What do I say about myself?

Read the job ad and see what kind of employee they are searching for. What skills and strengths this person should have. Then tell them which of these you have offering examples and arguments. For example, if they are searching for someone with organizing skills, tell them you are a great organizer and how you managed some projects that you and your team had to do in college.

6.  What do I say about my experience?

Focus on what is connected to the job you are applying for - mention that you don't have experience, but that you were part of an internship in the field, you attended some classes connected to the field (make sure you mention those in your CV), that you came to visit their headquarters when they organized some "Open Doors" events, that you have been interested in their jobs for a while and visited their stand during the last job shop where their employees told you a lot about the company, mention any volunteering you may have done (even if not directly connected - it will prove you are not just an ordinary student who cares just about parties and wasting time with friends). Mention anything you find relevant that will prove you did something besides your regular student activities. It's useful.

7.  How long should the interview take?

Between 15 minutes and one hour. Chances are that since you don't have experience they will most probably keep you there closer to 15-20 minutes than to an hour. More useful details about a first interview here and about how long it should take here .

8.  How should I prepare?

Read the job ad carefully (they will ask about it to see how interested and careful about details you really are), prepare questions and read about their company. Why? Please read about it here.

9. What should I wear?

It depends on the position you are going there for. Please read about it here. 

10.Why did they call me since I have no experience?

Not all positions require experience. Some companies are willing to hire young inexperienced professionals and train them, sometimes even for months for a number of reasons: a fresh perspective, young people are more eager to learn and adapt to change and the last one (not too nice, but it's the reality unfortunately) - young people are willing to work for less money for a while. This can mean serious cost savings for the company. You need to remember that the corporate environment is all about profit not society well-being.

If there is a question that you may have and I missed, please write it to me in a comment and I will reply asap.

Take care,

Geo

Where Can I Find a New Job?

For those of you that are currently seeking for a new job, either actively or just browsing the web for a potential new opportunity I have put together a list of places where jobs can be found. Some ideas like online job portals you know for sure, but not everybody knows how recruitment agencies work or the unemployment office. Since finding a job is taking enough of your time already, I will not waste any more and start the list. Here’s where you can start searching for a new job:

1.       Online job portals – the most famous international ones are: www.careerbuilder.com, www.simplyhired.com, www.indeed.com, or www.monster.com; there are also thousands of local ones – just start searching for the keyword “jobs” and search engines will return local results first; to apply on a job portal most of the times you need an account, then you need to create or upload your CV, search for jobs and then apply and wait to be contacted by companies that you applied for. If they don’t contact you, it means that you probably weren’t accepted. Don’t expect a reply for each CV you send. Companies normally contact suitable candidates only because sometimes they have hundreds or even thousands of CVs for a single position;

2.      Companies’ websites – make a list of companies you would like to work for, search for their websites and then open the “Career” section. Most websites have such a section – if it’s not visible right away, try on the bottom of the page or in the “About us” menu. Search for jobs in your area or in your field and then follow the instructions to apply. If no job is available or you don’t fit any of the available profiles, try to see if you can apply anyway for their database. Sometimes companies don’t even post a job online before searching their database first – which means that being already in the database can be a big plus;

3.       Social networks – create an account on LinkedIn(www.linkedin.com) or Facebook – these two really work. On LinkedIn there is a dedicated section for jobs or you may register for various groups where local jobs can be available. The Jobs section is not free for companies while posting jobs on the board of a group is, so companies will prefer the latter. On Facebook, try searching for groups related to jobs and hiring. I can suggest a few I am member of: “Now Hiring!!!” or “Facebook Jobs”;

4.       Universities and Student organizations – since most of them are willing to help companies for free in order to get their students or graduates a job and increase the University’s rating, there will be a lot of jobs for students and graduates available there – where can you search? University portals, Facebook groups for students, student forums, student presentations organized by companies, student events;

5.       Recruitment agencies – a lot of people don’t know how these companies work (you can find a full article about them here: What Does a Recruitment Agency Do?). Recruitment agencies can help you for free. They receive jobs from companies (which also pay them to help them find good candidates), search the CVs they already have in their database, post jobs, interview people and try to place the best candidates on all open positions they have. For candidates, being in the database and being interviewed and recommended is free. Just contact them, send them your CV and tell them about your availability. Some recruitment agencies are: Lugera & Makler, Trenkwalder, Manpower or Adecco. Search for recruitment agencies in your area to find more. You will be surprised to see how many they are;

6.       Unemployment agency in your area – in some areas companies have to send all job openings to the unemployment agency; the role of this agency is to send unemployed people in their database to be hired on those jobs (after interviews and a proper selection process of course – companies don’t just have to hire these people if they are not suitable); the point is that the unemployment agency in your area may have job openings available, openings that are not published yet elsewhere;

7.      Public organizations in your area – local town hall, local agencies like the retirement office, the unemployment office, labor office, you know what’s available in your city; contact them and check if they have anything available – sometimes they don’t publish the jobs online, just in newspapers, on their website or just displayed at their headquarters;

8.       Friends, family – ask everybody in your family or among your friends – you may never know who knows useful details about some job openings in their company or a friend’s; some companies offer bonuses for their employees if they recommend good candidates that can successfully fill open positions. Talk to your friends – you may be surprised to see that the company they work for does that and that you can become a great recommendation;

9.       Your personal network -  create a personal network on Facebook, LinkedIn or any other network you use – ask everybody to check maybe someone can help; I personally recommend LinkedIn here – you can see your connections’ CVs and see who has which position and where – you may never know who can recommend you somewhere or tell you about some openings; 

10.   Newspapers and magazines in your area or the area you are interested in – online channels are used more than printed ones, but try the latter as well; you may never know;

11.   Job fairs – local or virtual – get informed about these; their role is to gather companies together and present job openings – you also have the opportunity to discuss with their representatives and ask for more details or make connections;

12.   Conferences, seminars – you won’t see any jobs available there most of the times, but these are a great opportunity to make useful connections in the field you are interested in; sometimes seminars and conferences can be a hidden recruitment event; I can tell you about such an event in my city – a certain company was actually searching for SAP specialists. They organized such a free seminar where SAP specialists were invited to learn about what’s new in the SAP field. The company managed to gather in one room the best SAP specialists in the city. At the end they gave flyers away and asked the participants to send CVs if they were interested in new SAP opportunities. The company I worked for lost if I remember correctly 2 SAP specialists then;

13.   Company or online magazine newsletters – some companies or magazines offer the possibility to register for their newsletter containing company news and job openings – don’t miss these;

14.   Shop windows – if you are interested in working in sales, in a bakery, in a fashion shop or anything similar, sometimes these positions appear on the windows of the shops or offices location. Just take a walk and look around. Windows may surprise you with interesting ads;

15.   Online portals for various ads – they are not designed for jobs only but include jobs as well – Craigslists is a great example;

This is all that I can think of right now. Should you have any additional ideas (maybe unconventional places where you saw job ads), please write them here as comments to the article. Please help me make this article as useful as possible for the job seekers out there.

Thanks a lot and take care,

Geo

What Is Headhunting? Beginner’s Guide…

Most of you have probably heard about this term. It’s actually not new in recruitment. Headhunting has been used for several years now and sometimes successfully. But did you know that headhunting is not accessible to all recruiters, that some hate doing it and that you need some special skills (similar to those used by sales people) to actually be successful? Did you also know that not all candidates are on the list of headhunters?

Well, in this article I will tell you about headhunting from scratch – my goal is for every potential candidate to be able to identify headhunting when they are facing it. In order to do that I have decided to reply to a few common questions about headhunting for you to get an idea:

1.       What is headhunting?

Headhunting is a form of recruitment and selection where the recruiter finds the contact details of a specific candidate that has some specific skills and contacts him/her in order to convince him/her to participate in the recruitment process. Headhunting doesn’t mean that the recruiter is calling you to make an offer. Just to convince you to participate in the process. They may have liked your CV, but they need to test you, so don’t be super excited. However, if they have called you without you applying for the job, your chances for the job (considering that you do have the skills you mention in your CV), are higher than those of some other regular candidates that applied directly. Headhunting means that the recruiter has done some research concerning you and that they are interested in your knowledge and experience. So, is them calling you a good thing? Of course… if they are interested, it means you are able to have higher demands.

2.       Why do recruiters do it and when?

Recruiters normally use headhunting when they have listed a certain position on the market and nobody interesting applied, when they are looking for certain skills and don’t want to waste their time placing ads that useless candidates would apply to, when a certain position is rather confidential and they don’t want to list it publicly on the market or simply when filling a position is critical and needs to be done fast and they don’t have the time to wait for candidates to apply.

3.       Who is usually on the list of headhunters?

Not everybody of course – just those candidates that have special skills, employees from the competition most of the times. If you are a fresh graduate, don’t wait for recruiters to call you because they won’t. Apply yourself and hope to be called later when you get those special skills they need.

4.       What skills does a headhunter need in order to be successful?

As I said earlier, not all HR people can be headhunters. You need to have some skills similar to those of sales people:

·         you must be tough and don’t take rejections personally (this time the candidate is rejecting you as a company not the other way around);

·         you must have a vivid imagination concerning how to get contact details (candidate’s email and phone number don’t just sit there waiting to be discovered – you must search the internet, call people you know that may know the candidate you are interested in, sometimes invent stories over the phone or email – believable and professional stories - to get to the ones you are interested in);

·        you must be persuasive (to convince the candidate to accept to come meet you or the hiring manager);

·         you must be shrewd sometimes – I told you earlier that sometimes you have no idea how to contact someone; that someone may be a key resource of a competitor, a manager or who knows what important person that won’t just give their contact details to just anyone; you must have believable stories for their secretary, their colleagues who may be answering the phone; sometimes you have to lie, to invent details and all just to get some contacts. If you feel you’re not up to it, just give up;

·         you must be fast – sometimes there may be other headhunters interested in the same candidate – you must be there first;

5.       How should a candidate behave if approached by a headhunter?

Nothing special. If they are interested in the position – ask questions and agree to come to the meeting; if not, simply thank the recruiter for the call or email and explain that they are not interested either at the moment or at all. If some specific project is not allowing you to change jobs right now, it’s fine to accept that the recruiter keeps your CV for later use. You don’t have to be suspicious and ask questions like “Where did you get my phone number?” or “Who gave you permission to call me?” This will only look bad. Just be polite as you may never know what great position they may be offering you in the future.

6.       Is headhunting illegal?

Well, it depends on what the recruiter does with your contact information which should be confidential and protected by law. If they don’t make it public and just use it to contact you while explaining how they got it and what they need from you, then it’s fine. Making headhunting illegal or not depends on how professional the headhunter is.

7.       Where do headhunters find your contact data? Are you allowed to ask how they did it?

First of all, yes, you are allowed to ask. Just be natural and open if you really care so much how they got it. In terms of where they get the data, there are several sources – they may be a connection you had not noticed on LinkedIn, Facebook or other social network, they may have your details from one of their contacts who knows you, they may have bought it from job portals who allow recruiters to unlock your CV after paying a certain amount of money, they may have found it online somewhere if you have a personal website or are a public person, you may have applied at some point in your career to the company they work for and have forgotten since, or you may have applied to some position in another company they worked for and they have saved your contact details just in case (this one is a bit on the edge of illegal, but it’s possible), they may have told someone that knows you a story and convinced them to give them your details, you may have exchanged business cards at some meeting you no longer remember – the possibilities are multiple and they only depend on the imagination of the headhunter;

8.       What are the risks of headhunting?

For the candidate there’s the risk of being heard by someone while answering the phone and accepting to meet a headhunter. So if someone calls you and they tell you they are interested in your CV, just ask them to call you back if you can’t speak and are really interested in finding out more. For the headhunter the main risk is that the candidate rejects the proposal and that the position doesn’t get filled in on time – this is just time wasted. There’s also someone else at risk – the company the headhunter works for – if the candidate is being part of a headhunting process, they may get the idea that they are highly desirable (which is true) and ask for more money than the company intended to pay or can afford.

All in all, is headhunting a misleading black practice? Well, not really. It may be perceived so because headhunters must sometimes turn to almost illegal ways to contact candidates. However, headhunting proves sometimes even more efficient for both the company and the candidates than regular recruitment and selection. Headhunting must be taken as it is and must be practiced in a professional manner.

Take care,

Geo

*** Video version of this article available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKel3cQ4INs&feature=youtu.be

  Enjoy!

Recruitment and Selection: 10 Things Recruiters (Me Included) Hate about Candidates

After working for several years in the recruitment field and after talking to fellow recruiters, here are 10 most annoying items that we hate about candidates. This list should be useful for candidates also as it will help them understand our point of view and will prevent any silly situations in their job seeking activities:

So here they are:

1. Inappropriate CVs - CVs too short, CVs too long (I've received one one that had 14!!! pages), CVs that have no connection to the job, CVs without contact details, CVs with stupid email addresses, CVs with silly names (candidates that don't offer their real name like "Poker DJ" - Guys, do you even hope that anyone will contact you for a serious job if you put such a name on your CV?, CVs in other languages than those requested, CVs that mention "gsgdyuue" for current company name, CVs that instead of responsibilities for a certain current position mention only the description of the company (I received a CV once of someone working in a hotel - they didn't mention their responsibilities there but considered suitable to tell me how many rooms the hotel had, what an amazing sauna, WI FI and similar crap - Guys, are you applying for a job or selling me a vacation?), ugly CVs that nobody bothers to format and put in a nice and readable template - I received CVs in .txt format, without any fonts or alignment, CVs that lie (fake studies, wrong level of languages, fake courses), the list can go on but I will stop here...

2. Not replying when contacted - this is a great waste of time for the recruiter, wasting time with useless phone calls or writing emails nobody answers. Imagine that nobody will ever call you again after 3-4 tries. If you are available only during certain hours or on certain days, please mention that in your CV, don't let us call like crazy. Thanks :)

3. Not showing up for interviews and not calling to reschedule or explain- this is driving us crazy because the recruiter's time is completely lost - you can't schedule someone else in just a few minutes, you have to sit there and wait for at least 15 minutes before you give up, you have to start making phone calls; not to mention the time you have already wasted reading the CV and going through previous stages of the selection. Guys, if you don't want a certain job, be brave enough to say so. "I am sorry, I am no longer interested." You can even give us a nice lie that you have already received a better offer. Just letting the recruiter wait will probably send your CV directly to trash. Chances to be called again are almost zero - you have attitude problems, even if you may be good for another position later in the future.

4. Showing up far too late for interviews - please don't unless you have called before to explain that you can't find the location or that something really serious has happened. Being late means most of the times a change in the entire schedule for the entire day and for the rest of the candidates too. Your risk is to go through a superficial interview or to lose the job to someone who was there on time.

5. Showing up uninvited for interview- don't do it, no recruiter will change their schedule to meet with you especially that not being invited can mean having a rejected CV. Your risk is to seem desperate and this is not seen as a good thing. Especially if you are a pushy type and insist on being seen. They may meet with you just to check what's so great about you, but remember that the exam will be extra strict and most probably it will take 10 superficial minutes. Recruiters have hundreds of CVs to read and tons of other activities on their mind - ads, promotion, job fares, reporting, other interviews - messing up their schedule will not be appreciated. You feel you are amazing and someone overlooked your CV, better send an email or call and politely ask for an interview. You have better chances that showing up uninvited.

 

6. Acting important - nothing is more annoying for a recruiter that a candidate that keeps bragging about how amazing they are, about how many people they know, sometimes I get candidates that feel the need to tell me that they know important people. So what? You are here to be tested and show us what You are worth. We don't care about your important connections. Remember, a really smart person is only that one that is modest too. They impress by their personality and their knowledge, not by their connections and political skills. Also, lying about your responsibilities drives us crazy too. I've had a candidate once that told me what an amazing manager he was and that he managed a team of 20 technicians in France bla bla bla. He was interested in management only - no team member position - he specified that several times. When we asked for references, he proved he was no such thing as a manager. He was just a simple team member and the 20 technicians were just his colleagues.

7. Inappropriate dress code for interviews - guys, always dress for the position you are being interviewed for - try to imagine what you would be asked to wear on the job on a daily basis and use that. If you simply can't imagine, ask the recruiter - it's not silly to do that. I had once a guy for interview and I even remember him now after a few years - he wanted a sales coordinator position (position that involved working with doctors and medical center managers) , but instead of a suit he came dressed in a T-shirt that wasn't even ironed, his hair was a big mess and at 10 am he looked like he had just woken up. Imagine what happened to him...Sorry, guys, but for certain positions appearance is key as you represent the image of a company.

8. Not being able to evaluate your market value correctly - this is what I personally hate the most - students or fresh graduates that have some general knowledge in a field, have never worked in their life, haven't done any volunteering, no internships, but apply for management positions and ask for a fortune. People, wake up and grow up! You have graduated college, good for you...So did hundreds of others. Now look around and compare your real value with that of others. Do you really offer what the company you are targeting wants? If not, lower your expectations and see where you really position yourself.

 

9. Accepting a salary offer, then rejecting it one day before start date - this is a great waste of time for HR - we waste time with the CV, we waste time with the interviews and tests, with all medical checks, with all the crazy paperwork, we stop the process because we have found the candidate and then, one day before we are told we have to start everything all over again. Guess what, we have deadlines and targets also and not filling a position on time is very bad. For people like you we need to come up with backups and we have to take risks. Dear candidates, please be so kind to tell us bravely when you are not interested. This will give you other opportunities with us in the future. Giving up one day before start date with no real reasons will probably delete you forever from the database, no matter your abilities.

10. Showing up for start date then telling the manager that you are no longer interested - this is a variation of no.9. I've had this recently and I can tell you it is not fun. Besides all the time wasted before, you have now wasted a day of Induction training also and you have tons of paperwork to prepare for the leaver. Not nice, candidates, not nice. I've recently had one guy who came for just one day then told us he had to leave to another country to prepare his master's degree as it was the requirement of the University. Really? And you have found this out Today?

I hope this sheds some light on the difficult life of the recruiter. So, dear candidates, please read this article carefully and try not to make our life a living hell :)

And for the other recruiters out there, I am waiting for you to share your thoughts or to add more items to the list.

Take care,

Geo  

Also read:

10 Things Candidates Hate about Recruiters 

https://human-resources-faq.blogspot.com/2013/02/10-things-candidates-hate-about.html