Staffing Advice

Having conducted many #interviews over the past 15 years, one of the greatest obstacles that I have to overcome is the applicants’ nervousness. Also, very often, during an interview, a job applicant is trying to impress us as much as possible as this can mean the difference between them having and not having a #job. Therefore, it is understandable to why they can be so nervous, as they are relying on obtaining this job for financial means, etc.
It is important for us, the hiring managers, to insure that the applicant feels as comfortable as possible, as their nervousness often skews our image of the person. If we are expecting to be able to get the best read on a perspective employee, we must enable them to be as relaxed as possible so that we can find out their true personality. This way we assure ourselves that a seemingly perfect applicant did not disqualify themselves because of their inability to communicate properly because of their nerves.

Interviews are not only for the job seeker as it is also for us the hiring company who is trying our best to find the right individual for our organization. And just as we are looking for the person that best fits our company, the job seeker is, hopefully, also seeking an organization that best suits him.

It would be beneficial to us as the interviewers to attempt to make the atmosphere friendlier by offering a warm greeting and ask how they are doing to break the ice. We can further lighten the atmosphere of an interview if we were to talk in more of an informal manner and not as if we are interrogating a candidate, as this would help our applicants to lower their shields and respond more as if they are having a conversation. Having a friendlier interview atmosphere would benefit us the recruiter, because we would not only be able to find someone who actually wants the job, but we would also be able to make a better assessment to see if we would be able to find a person that is compatible with the people we already have. Because lightening the mood in an interview is so beneficial to both the applicant and us as it something that I would highly recommend it be something that all of us would add to our interview methods.

Advice to Job Seekers over 50

The job market is very competitive now. We are seeing many people who retired several years ago, believing that their pension and 401K would be sufficient to live on.  However, with the recent downturn in the economy many of those individuals are forced to try to re-enter the workforce to make their ends meet.

The job strategy for a seasoned employee re-entering the job market needs to be different because the job market has changed dramatically.  These workers have so much to offer employers, but getting a foot in the door can be a challenge.

Here are some tips for the more seasoned employee re-entering the job market:

Resumes are very important.    

-Make sure your resume does not look dated.  It should look neat and be printed on fresh, crisp paper.

-It should be no more than 2 pages- if you have more experience than fits- have a heading listing jobs prior to 1990.

-A resume should be printed on a computer- a typewritten resume is NOT acceptable.

-The skill set should be current: for example, very few companies use Word Perfect anymore- so it is not to your advantage to put that skill on your resume, because it makes you seem out of touch with the current business environment