6 Things Youll Ask Yourself When Offered a Job

6 Things Youll Ask Yourself When Offered a Job So you’ve been applying for jobs for a few weeks (maybe months) and after a successful interview you’ve finally been given the all-elusive job offer. It should all the plain sailing from there, right? Except that’s not quite the case for most! In fact, for most people, the job offer is only the start to the questions, preparations and worry. And so here we go: 1) “Holy moly I got the job!?” This is the moment of elation which immediately follows the job offer. You’re beyond happy, you’re probably dancing around your living room and you’re smiling so much it looks like someone has drawn it on with permanent marker! At this point in the process, remember how lucky you are and start telling people close to you so they can share your happiness too. Don’t boast though, and be careful who you share your news with! If you’re a recent graduate and have lots of friends who have also been struggling to get hired, then keeping it to yourself for a few days might be a nice idea. 2) “Wait, am I sure this is the right job for me?” For most of us, we do go through a period of doubt shortly after we’re offered a job. The chances are you’ve been interviewing for a few jobs â€" and there is always one you’d prefer to get more than the others. If it was your preference you got the offer from, you’re bound to feel a bit doubtful that you might be saying yes just because of the ‘pressure’ to be employed. But, remember this is just a momentary doubt. Whenever you start to feel like this, remember that great feeling you had when you first got given the job offer â€" and hopefully the negative emotions will subside and disappear into the background. If you do start your job and feel like it isn’t the right fit â€" don’t panic as most employers will have offered you a probation period in the contract somewhere. 3) “Am I sure I can do this job?” Again this self-doubt is just to protect yourself from going in unarmed on your first day! The last thing you want to do is seem unintelligent, inexperienced or unprepared, so making sure you’ve read up on the company and on the industry is something you can do to keep these feelings at bay. Stop doubting yourself, and don’t let any self-doubts get in the way of enjoying your success. Keep reminding yourself that you got the job because of how well you did in your interview and the belief the employer had in your abilities and skills. This should make you feel confident and inspired to start â€" not intimidated or wary. Do some reading and research if you still feel nervous, and then go in with your head held high, ready to show them what you can do. 4) “Will I get on with my colleagues?” The chances are, now you’ve been offered a job role, that your employer sees you fitting well within the company. Employers don’t just look for skills and experience when they hire candidates, they also look for personality traits too â€" which ensures you’ll fit well into the team and be able to work well in the office. If when you start, you feel like you aren’t settling in well with other colleagues, then mention in to your line manager. Usually stuff like that is just paranoia from being the ‘newbie’ so try not to let it bother you too much. RELATED:  Which Type of  Office  Worker are You? 5) “Will I have to relocate?” This will usually have been discussed before they made the offer to you (as it’s such a big decision and life change) but if they offer you the job and then ask you to relocate â€" this may be something you need to talk to the HR department about. If you’re happy moving then it might be an exciting opportunity for you to embrace and lead to a new exciting adventure in your life. But, say you’re not ready to relocate; this needs to be said to your employer as soon as possible. Make it clear that although you’re excited to start work and you’re feeling encouraged about the company and about the role â€" you’re not in a place personally to relocate to another city. Most employers will understand this and try to make something else possible. 6) “What will my boss be like?” This is something you’ll find out pretty swiftly once you’ve started, and something you can’t do much about until that time rolls around. Don’t worry yourself too much with this, just make sure you aim to impress when you turn up on your first day. Be friendly, enthusiastic and willing to muck in wherever possible, and it’ll be hard for someone not to like you, you’re bound to make a good impression. Author: Sean Revell from www.leisurejobs.com  helps employers find the right candidates and applicants find the right jobs within the leisure industry.

5 Answers to What Is Your Work Style - Algrim.co

5 Answers to “What Is Your Work Style” - Algrim.co When an interviewer asks you what your work style is, you might be a little thrown off. “What is your work style?” It seems like an arbitrary question and one that can be difficult to answer. Considering you might not be sitting around all day thinking about how you’d describe what your style is. We’ve got the best guide to help you answer this question in a seamless way. Why Do Interviewers Ask “What Is Your Work Style?” Sometimes you’ll hear an interviewer ask this question or one similar to it, like “Describe your work style.” What they’re trying to understand is how well you’ll fit in with the current company culture. For example, at environments like Facebook, they pride themselves on having a “hacker” mentality to their work. Meaning everyone is always trying to do better than the day before. Inventing, creating, improving, moving forward. When they ask this question, they’re looking for you to help them understand whether or not your values are going to fit in with the environment as a whole. Because this interview question is more indirectly asked, the interviewer will be looking at how you answer the question just as much as what answers that you provide them. Why are your values important? Because as companies grow, ensuring that most of the employees have similar values ensures that they are able to work together in a collaborative fashion with minimal amounts of friction. If this line of questioning isn't established early on, this usually puts risk on the HR department. Because it could cause two employees to be in a disgruntled situation which only the HR department can handle. Answers You Want To Avoid Answering this question with your classic “I’m a hard worker” responses won’t do much for you. In fact, even answering with something like, “I pride myself on the way I communicate to others” won’t really cut it. That’s because these are answers the interviewer would expect to hear. And because of that, they lack some enthusiasm and creativity that the interviewer is searching for. Avoid answer’s that: Feel a little dull. Could be classified as “cliche”. Don’t have any personality. Don’t contain any creativity. Would be answers the interviewer might expect to hear. Before Your Interview, Prepare Your Answer To This Question One way that you can get ahead of the question is to spend the time to think about what makes you unique in your working style. It can be difficult to do but think back at your work. Try to recall moments where your colleagues complimented you in ways that you felt stood out. What those strengths were that they mentioned. Write them down on a piece of paper and put them in a bulleted format. Once you have that, you have the makings for what you could start to bring up in your answer that is specific to you. What you’ll want to do is keep your answer within the following guidelines: Keep your answer personal, humble, honest. Give strict examples if you can but keep it brief. Think through the compliments you’ve received from colleagues and what they felt stood out to them. Be sure your answer is only a few sentences at most and one that you can easily memorize. If you are struggling to recall great moments in your past, try to come up with additions to the answer that contain qualities of yourself that you take pride in. Are you particularly organized? Do you feel like you are flexible with the way you work? Are you willing to learn new things? Take the qualities that you feel are going to make you stand out and put them into the answer instead. You can place emphasis on the qualities of your work that you appreciate as well, which being organized and crushing a task list can be one of them. Another thing you may want to consider is what qualities the job specifically demands and how you might be able to position your answer to suite that. For example, does the job function require a lot of team collaboration? If it does your answer could contain the fact that you hold collaboration in high regard and have found ways to be inclusive to everyone yet still move the ship forward. Tip: Keep your answer short so that you can memorize it and deliver it in a smooth fashion. The longer your answer is, the more difficult it will be to keep the script. What Are The Different Types Of Workstyles There really aren't a lot of ways to describe a workstyle when it comes to specific categories of interest. Generally speaking, you'll want your answer to contain qualities versus specifics. For example, there's not a perfect work style that can be defined in a business management book. But your qualities can contain things like the following. Collaboartive Innovative Empathetic Sincere Honest Passionate 5 Best Answers To “What is your work style?” Example one “I take significant pride in my ability to stay on top of all of my tasks at hand. Being organized, taking notes, ensuring that accountability is taken on my end, is the pride I have in my work style. Good communication can follow that, ensuring that there are clear lines of work for each person involved in our initiatives.” Example two “Taking initiative and being open to new challenges has always been part of my work style. If there’s an opportunity to take on new responsibility and be accountable for something significant in the companies timeline, I’m going to be the first one to ask for the opportunity. I take pride in that. And I always strive for greatness when given those opportunities.” Example three “I’ve come from the opinion that speed isn’t just the only thing that matters. Quality of work in combination with efficiency is the perfect “sweet spot” for my work. I always strive to find that perfect zone of being able to accomplish a long task list but also do so in a way that’s going to empower my colleagues.” Example four “I take pride in the fact that I am a dependable person. If my colleagues ask me to do something for them, I am always the first one to try and help. If I can’t personally help, I will go the distance to ensure I help them find someone who can. For this, I feel I can be extremely collaborative with them and help ensure I am apart of the team in a flexible way.” Example five “In terms of my work style, I try to be the best person I can be for each of my team members. Each person is going to need something different in order to achieve greatness with their work. I try to remove myself from the equation and think empathetically about what they need. Then try to be the best support I possibly can be to getting the job done. That means no job is too big and no job is too small. They are all important jobs.” What Else You Can Do To Prepare For This Question If you can, try to take the time to learn about the environment you are about to interview with. Most of the time the company will show how it takes pride in their work on their “About Us” page of their corporate Web site. The values they have as an organization are often portrayed on that page. If you can’t find it there, you can see if they have a blog or some type of written material like a press release which contains some of the environment values. Once you have that, you can use it to your advantage within your answer. Other questions that you might get either before or after this interview question would be “What makes you unique?” or “How would you describe your leadership style?” both are indirect questions which the interviewer is searching to find out how you answer the question more so than evaluating the actual answer you provide them. Good luck with your interviews!

The Psychology of Job Interviews How To Prepare Mentally

The Psychology of Job Interviews How To Prepare Mentally Preparing for a job interview in any circumstance requires a lot of foresight and forward thinking; many care free applicants have taken the liberty of turning up to an arranged interview without a pre-set ‘game plan’ and failed miserably when questions or tasks arise that they did not expect. Taking the time to plan some pre-emptive measures such as research and gathering qualification certificates can make a huge difference towards your performance in job interviews, and also allow you to make a positive and lasting impact on the interviewers themselves. So with this in mind, let’s look at a few tried and tested tactics that can improve your confidence, sharpen up you CV and make you stand out from the crowd. Curriculum Vitae Revising and sculpting your CV to suit each individual job application will help you in a number of ways; firstly, it will make your CV more appealing and specifically well-suited to each job role in question, it will make for a great conversational piece in interviews and lastly it may help to indicate (or even provoke) which questions you can expect to hear in the interview. When revising your CV, take into consideration the experience and qualifications you have, and select which aspects of each apply to that job role. Going into more detail about certain aspects of past job roles may not seem like a big deal to you, but it will highlight the key features of your experience that prospective employers are looking for. For example, if an applicant has experience in retail or hospitality and is looking to apply for jobs in administration then they would certainly have to highlight the key areas of their previous experience to show they are an ideal candidate for the job. If the candidate were to detail the intricacies of their organisational skills, customer service expertise, telephone manner and competency with computers then they would stand out as a more suitable candidate than they would have previously. The key to reworking a CV is to pick out key aspects of your previous experience and qualifications and detail them comprehensively to show how well-suited to each job role you are. The Interview A great way of being psychologically prepared for a job interview is to feel confident in your ability to answer the questions that are likely ahead of you; this may seem a little obvious, but many people go about it the wrong way. Avoid rehearsing questions that you expect to come up; instead, research the company, who they are and what they do; this will give you a good indication of what you will need to know and allow you to come up with a few questions of your own. If you have sourced job applications from online vacancies or online recruitment companies then going that extra mile to find out as much as possible about your prospective employers is a must; a simple digital advert will give only a brief description of the job role and you must look into the company and its products/services to discover exactly what your job role would be. There are certain things all prospective employers are looking for in interviews, some more obvious than others. It goes without saying that interviewers are certainly looking for the most competent candidate possible, but an enthusiastic candidate who is willing to give 110% to the company is much more alluring than an equally qualified candidate with no enthusiasm or ‘drive’. Coming across as an enthusiastic and eager candidate is easier than you may think; by asking the right questions and adopting the right attitude, it’s fairly simple to come across as a bright and likable person. Often interviewers like to ask: “Where do you see yourself in ‘X’ years’ time?” and many candidates would commonly answer with an overconfident and unrealistic answer such as “I’d like to be a manager” or “I’d like to be head of my department”. Interviewers love modesty alongside competence and answering questions with modest answers which show you are still hardworking and ambitious, yet do not overestimate your abilities is a much more attractive quality. An answer along the lines of “I believe that if I continue to develop my skills and learn as much as possible from my peers then those opportunities will present themselves in time” is much more effective. Obviously it’s wise to put your own personality and spin on this template attitude but finding the happy medium between modesty and ambitiousness is an attractive quality indeed. Upon the interview, you will likely have an opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the company or the job role; this is a fantastic chance to show that you have done your homework and researched the company. Mention certain products or services the company provide and ask for finer details surrounding them, and certainly ask if there are any steps you can take to better prepare for the job role just in case they decide to give you a call. Conclusion So there you are, some key tips to help you better prepare for job interviews and applications. Remember, do your homework and act with modesty and your competence and likability will shine through! Related: The Psychology of Networking: How Some Appear Natural While Others Stutter. This post was written by Danny Travis-Brown on behalf of Blue Octopus online recruitment. His job interview technique involves donning a waistcoat to stand out from the crowd and wow his interviewers.

On the Job by Anita Bruzzese Sabotaging Your Own Career

On the Job by Anita Bruzzese Sabotaging Your Own Career I've spent two decades writing about career challenges and how to get ahead. I've interviewed hundreds of experts and read thousands of pages of research material, trying to find the best information I can to help others be successful in their careers.And here's the one thing I've come to realize: Some of you simply don't want to get ahead.That's right. There are those of you in the workplace today who are afraid, for one reason or another, of success.So, while there can be the best career advice in the world out there (ahem), there are still some people who are just going to ignore it because they're afraid of what might happen if they try.It's time to own up to the fact that your not getting ahead is not the fault of the boss or your co-workers or even the economy. Nope...it rests squarely on your shoulders, my friend. And while I certainly would never attempt to provide the psychological reasoning behind your fears, I can certainly point out some of the fastest ways to derail your career:Being late. While some work environments have become more flexible, bosses still don't like it when a worker shows up late, whether it's for a meeting or for work. When businesses decide to cut costs, you can bet some of the most vulnerable to the pink slip will be those who have shown little respect for the boss or co-workers by being tardy so many times. You know deep down that being late is a problem, yet you continue to do it, right? So, why are you doing something so obvious that draws so much attention to you in a negative way?Procrastination. You put things off as long as you can, and then scramble to get a project done on time. The result is that other team members are truly pissed that they are forced to scramble to get the work done right along with you, and the work you turn in is not really quality stuff. You've known for a long time that this work was due, and several team members offered you help, but you declined. Congratulations! You're now officially conside red a bottleneck. Don't count on getting that corner office any time soon and don't be surprised when your team members TP your car.Being unprofessional. This can range from wearing sloppy, inappropriate clothes to work to talking like a surfer dude to telling dirty jokes at staff meetings. If you come off as immature and unprofessional -- whether you're 23 or 43 -- then the boss will have serious reservations about putting you in any kind of situation where you will be representing the company. (For the record, that can range from answering the phone to attending a key meeting with clients to working a company-sponsored charity event.)Acting like a jerk. When you don't use basic manners that were drilled into you since kindergarten, when you put others down for the way they look or when you act like a pompous, inconsiderate ass, then you're officially acting like a jerk. These kinds of behavior are like an invisible force field that cause people to stay away from you as much as pos sible. Kiss success buh-bye.Finally, let me stress that while there are many other ways you can dig your own career grave, the point is to realize that you may need outside help to understand why you are so clearly setting yourself up to fail. If you consistently fall short in meeting your goals, if you don't take advantage of opportunities that come your way -- then it may be time to figure out not just what you're doing wrong but why you're doing it. del.icio.us

Best Executive Resume Writing Tips for 2014 - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

Best Executive Resume Writing Tips for 2014 Alison Doyle of About.com recently put out a call through their Group for resume writing tips for the new year, to help  you get  noticed and land your next great gig. Among the top tips from 15 careers experts, Sara Sutton Fell, Founder CEO of FlexJobs.com, contributed one on matching your resume to your profile, for social proof: Make sure your resume is online! Once you have your perfect document in place, update your profile so it matches, include your job information on