The personal check is one of the most insecure methods of payment.

Consider this test, I call it the internet safety test. If you took an image of a completely filled out of a check, how much of it would you have to black out before you’d feel comfortable posting it on the internet?

I’d have to black out the following:

• Your name
• Your address
• Your bank’s ABA routing number
• Your bank account number
• Your check number
• Your signature

Once you black out those six items, all that remains is the Payee, the amount, and the picture of Winnie the Pooh with his head in the honeypot. When you hand over that check to the cashier, you lose control over almost everything a thief needs to socially engineer your money away from an unsuspecting teller. If you were considering a check, get a debit card from your bank and use that instead. At least with debit and credit cards, you get consumer protection and limited fraud liability.

Don’t use checks unless you absolutely have no other choice.

Don’t Write Personal Checks from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

We made as many dumplings as we had store-bought dumpling wrappers (or are they called skins?) and we still had filling left over, about a cup and a half worth of each. Since raw shrimp and raw pork don’t last very long in the fridge, we needed to make up the rest of the dumplings quickly and pop them in the freezer.

So last night, after an afternoon of football games, I found myself at home with no skins… so I thought I’d try to make skins from scratch.

Easiest Dumpling Wrapper Skin Recipe Ever

OK, it’s just really simple dough.

• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of water

Combine in a bowl and knead until it has a “smooth elastic texture.” If you aren’t familiar with how to knead dough, here’s an Epicurious video that explains the process in two minutes (they talk about bread dough but it’s the same idea).

Once you’re done, roll the dough until it takes on a cylindrical shape. Then you want to cut off a quarter to a half inch piece that you will then roll into a circular shape. I recommend only cutting off one at a time in the beginning until you get proficient enough in the rolling/flattening process to know how much dough you need to create wrappers thin enough for your tastes. Remember to use flour to prevent the skins from sticking to the table/board and to the roller.

Is Homemade Better Than Store-Bought?

When I revealed in my homemade dumpling post that we bought skins from the store, a few readers commented and emailed me that I should try to make homemade skins because they were better. After doing it and sampling my own creation, I have to agree that homemade is tastier because the skins aren’t dry.

The store-bought skins have a bit of toughness, even after steaming, that the homemade dumplings skins didn’t. The edges of the store-bought skins were also drier, which is inescapable. Another benefit of homemade is that you can add spices to the skin dough, which I didn’t do but will probably try next time. A little salt and pepper will add some depth to the skin’s flavor.

The trade-off is that making homemade dough, kneading it, and flattening out skins adds quite a bit of time to the dumpling making process. However, if you have the time and the inclination to try something new, give this a whirl because it’s a lot of fun to add to your cooking repertoire.

(Photo: joygant)

Homemade Dumpling Wrapper Skins from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

When I started looking through the personal finance blogosphere a year ago I was frightened of all the information I was gathering. There was so much out there and I didn’t necessarily understand what I was reading. I didn’t want to make a misstep with my hard earned cash, so I didn’t do anything at first.

Fear is prevalent for all of us when we are dealing with money. However, we can mitigate some of that fear by taking specific steps depending on the situation. Below I’ll outline a bunch of fearful financial situations and at least one step you can take to reduce your fear and help you get through each.

• Asking For a Raise – Before you ask for a raise, you should create a portfolio of things you have accomplished in your position. Additionally, you should look on websites such as Salary.com so you can be armed with more information before sitting down with your boss. If you come into a negotiating session well prepared, you will be ahead of the game and more likely to get the raise you seek.
• Starting Your Own Business – Jettisoning the 9-5 workforce to embark on your own is an ambitious and fearful undertaking. Before making the leap, you should consider trying to spend your free time working on your business as a “side-project” to see if it’s sustainable.
• Finding a Financial Advisor/Accountant – Finding a trusted advisor or accountant is a big challenge. Searching through the yellow pages is probably not the best bet, and it’s possible your parents’ financial advisor might be getting up there in years. Your best bet is to talk to your close friends and have them refer you to someone they trust. Then go through a process of selecting an advisor that is the best fit for you and your goals.
• Putting Money in a Bank – It’s surprising that some people fear banks. I remember co-workers pulling money out of their standard checking and savings accounts after banks started to fail as if they would never see it again. For those that are scared of putting money in banks, I remind you that your money is insured (FDIC) up to $250,000, so feel free to deposit that $1000 in the bank and let it earn some interest.
• In Too Much Debt – It’s understandable to be scared when bill collectors are knocking down your door. My suggestion is to take a seriously look into Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball and see if his method of paying off debt will work for you.
• Asset Allocation – Allocating your investments (after you have decided to make them) is a decision I was scared to make. Without being armed with a bevy of information, it all seems like guesswork. If you are like me and just want someone to do this for you, you should take a look at how Harvard and Yale invest. If you aren’t a fan of their portfolios, look into lazy portfolios.
• Not Knowing Your Inheritance – I know not everyone will have money to look forward to in their future, but I know several peers that expect to have money coming their way eventually. If you are one of these people that have been told by your family that “you will be taken care of,” I suggest having a conversation and finding out what “taken care of” really means. For the best case scenario, you should completely ignore that money is waiting for you, and set yourself up financially as if you had to be independent.
• Investing Your Money – With the market being as volatile as it has been, I understand that fear exists about putting money into stocks. In order to get over this fear is to look at over 80 years of history and know that the market will rebound and that this country will get back on track. Furthermore, you have to look at where you want to be financially in the future. If a slow rate of return from CDs and interest bearing accounts will get you to your goals, then do what works for you.
• Preparing for Children – Finding out you are going to be a parent can be the happiest and scariest day of your life. There are significant costs associated with having a baby. Luckily, you have 9 months to prepare. Preparing yourself with an emergency fund as soon as possible can be beneficial if you and your significant other were not planning on a child (or any life changing event).
• Big Purchases – Big purchases are always scary. Houses and cars represent the largest amounts of money we are likely to spend. Making a bad decision here can impact your finances for years. The best way to mitigate making a mistake is to take your time with the purchase. Do not act on impulse and do as much research as possible until you feel comfortable. Don’t let your emotions of wanting a new car or being a homeowner influence your decision to buy quickly.

What other financial situations have caused you great fear? What are the steps you took to overcome that fear and deal with the situation?

For further reading of the Spectrum of Personal Finance Event, please see:

• Fear at Bargaineering
• Hope at Budgets are Sexy
• Avarice at Consumerism Commentary
• Willpower at Debt Free Adventure
• Death at Free Money Finance
• Compassion at Get Rich Slowly
• Love at Mrs. Micah
• Rage at Poorer Than You

To view a recap of the event, check out the Spectrum Roundup at My Next Buck

How to Kick 11 Fearful Financial Situations in the Face from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

I said it in my review of You Need a Budget but this is one of the only budgeting tools I know of that can take you from the “paycheck to paycheck” mentality and put you in the true budgeting mentality. It has that built into it, which is extremely powerful.

How To Win

I want to give this to someone who will use it, not someone who will sign up after they’ve won, use it for a little while, and then never log in again. I want the winner to tell me, in six months, that because they won this contest, their finances were changed for the better. So, this one will be a little different, you will have to do two things:

1. Go You Need A Budget and sign up for the 7 day trial. You won’t need to enter any personal information, you can just download YNAB, play with it for a few days, and either buy it or it deactivates.
2. After 48 hours, their system automatically sends you a 10% off coupon. If you want to buy it, we can offer participants in this giveaway a special 15% off coupon not normally made available. Just email after the contest ends and I can send you the code.
3. Then, if you like YNAB and want to enter the contest, answer this question in the comments: What is the hardest thing about budgeting? Is it figuring out how much to put in each category? Is it tracking your spending? Maybe it’s hard sticking to it or making the numbers all work at the end of the month? Whatever it is, let us know and you’ll be in the running to win a copy of You Need A Budget.

The point of making you try it beforehand is so that you don’t win and then discover the tool isn’t for you. I don’t want it to go to waste when someone out there can take full advantage of it.

The contest will end on Sunday, November 29th, 2009 at midnight and it is void where prohibited.

Good luck!

You Need A Budget Pro November Giveaway from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

The show will be on live at 6PM Eastern, 3PM Pacific and will be broadcast at this page, if you want to listen to it (it’s also recorded, so you can go to that page to listen in after it airs). As always, you can call in and listen live at 347-327-9144 to chat with us or just listen in the background.

Or click play on this widget (after 6PM on Mondays it will be that week’s show, before then and you’ll get last week’s show):

We are also on iTunes and you can subscribe by clicking on this link, which will open up iTunes.

We hope you get the chance to listen, perhaps call in and chat, or just pop on into the chat room to hang out. It can get a little rowdy in there but it’s good times I promise!

PFHour #28: Double Helping of Thanks & Giving from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Somewhat intrigued, I picked up a copy of the book and read it in about 24 hours. The writing style was engaging and the book really spoke to me. It caused me to sit down and take a long, hard look at where I was financially, a decade plus out of college… The picture wasn’t pretty; a good retirement account, almost no savings, credit card debt, a car loan that was underwater, and incredibly poor spending habits. Today, 11 months later, I am debt free (other than the house) and feel fantastic. If I can change my ways and eliminate more than $25k in debt in less than a year…anyone can.

So how did I do it?

1. Get Angry – For me, the first step to becoming debt free was developing an intense hatred for every penny I owed to my creditors. While I didn’t beat myself up (all the time), I realized that I had made foolish purchases (lots of shiny electronic toys), lived beyond my means, and fallen prey to the consumerism that has defined much of the past 20 years. Reading Dave’s book, and attending his online “Financial Peace University” course, made me realize that the problem wasn’t my debt…it was me.
2. Stop Using Credit Cards – This was key. The day you decide to start getting out of debt, is the last day you use your credit cards. Period. End of sentence. Some folks like to use their cards and pay them each month (right, Jim?), but there is some very strong evidence that people spend 10-12% more when they use plastic, as opposed to handing over cold, hard cash. I was amazed at how many little purchases I didn’t make, because I didn’t want to see the $20 bills in my wallet disappear.
3. Debt Snowball – Say what you want about Dave’s “Debt Snowball” model, but it worked for me. By focusing on small debts first, and then rolling those payments into the larger ones as those were paid off, I saw real results, very quickly. This kept me motivated, and created a great, positive feedback loop.
4. Built a REAL Budget – For a guy with a background in finance, I’m embarrassed to admit that I’d never done a personal budget. By building a detailed budget for each and every month, I knew where EVERY dollar was going before it came in. And by using envelopes with cash for major spending categories (groceries, household, pet, entertainment), I had a build in spending limited: once the envelope was empty, I wasn’t allowed to spend anymore in that category.
5. Share With Friends – Soon after I started Dave’s program, I encouraged several friends to consider doing it as well. We talked about what we were doing and how we were doing against our goals. It was great to share in our successes and to help each other through setbacks. Having a support network of other folks working the program was a huge asset to me.

Sound simple? It really is. It was hard work and required a ton of focus and intensity, but I am now in a position to build up a solid 3-6 month emergency fund. After that, life will get very interesting as I will be able to ramp up retirement savings, accelerate the paydown of my mortgage and, yes, have a little more spending money to buy those electronic toys I love so much…

If you’re in debt, and you want to get out of it, I encourage you to visit Dave’s website, or check out his radio or TV show. He’s controversial, to be sure, but he’s a great teacher…and made a huge difference in my life.

Nick has been a buddy of mine since college, still lives in Pittsburgh, and spends his free time dealing with an insane labrador retriever. He is hoping for swift passage of the HAPPY tax credit.

How Dave Ramsey Helped Me Pay Off My Debt from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

I’m not an master of etiquiette nor do I have extensive experience with the benefits of tipping, but I think the insights I am about to share can change, or reinforce, your thoughts on going above and beyond, financially.

Tipping Creates A Relationship

When you tip someone, you create a relationship with that service provider that puts you ahead of anyone else who hasn’t tipped. Whether it’s just a dollar at the bar, a few bucks for the attendant who brought your bags to the room, or a little bit more than 10-15% on the restaurant bill – a tip puts you ahead.

I used to work as a banquet waiter and I would routinely work parties with a complimentary bar. Guests could go to the bar to grab a drink themselves or their table’s waiter or waitress could get it on their behalf. That particular night (4-5 hour party), I earned about $80 in tips… the majority of which came from four people. They weren’t the heaviest drinkers, they were simply the most generous. One guest gave me a $20 tip to start the night and while he never tipped again, which I expected, I made sure to stop by his table every time I walked by. Another guest would ask for several drinks for his table, then tip me $5 each time. To this day I still remember one guest asking for five shots of Sambuca and then giving me $10 for the trouble. In each case, I always made sure to go back to them and make sure they were taken care of.

On the flip side, we routinely go to a local Pho restaurant that is incredibly affordable and remarkably quick. It’s so affordable, we always tip 20% or more simply because the bill is so low ($15 for dinner for two is about average). It’s to the point where many of the wait staff already know what we like to order, are extremely fast with service, and we can easily have lunch there in under half an hour (yes, while enjoying our food!).

Relationships Are Rewarded

When you create that relationship, you are separated from the pack in the person’s mind. You’re not a friend, but you’re not a stranger either. So when it comes to pick who to help out next, you always go to the person you’re more familiar with.

If someone is feeling especially charitable one day, they’re more likely to reward you for rewarding them. I do a fair bit of flying on Southwest and take advantage of their drink coupons, which they send along with their frequent flyer vouchers. Whenever I get a drink, I’ll hand over the voucher and a dollar as a tip. One time, the flight attendant, near the end of the flight, dropped off about twenty coupons as a thank you (my wife was there, she can confirm this). The flight itself was five hours, we had at most three drinks a piece, so we got twenty drink vouchers for $6. Can’t think of a better return on investment.

Bribery Isn’t A Bad Word

Finally, let’s not ignore the fact that what’s really happening is that you’re bribing someone to give you favorable treatment. Everyone who leaves a tip knows that it is both a reward and a teaser for the next time. Custom dictates 10-15% on a bill, but you leave 20% for great service from someone you like or someone you know. You do that because you know you’ll be back and that 20% is an investment on your next visit. You’ll get great service the next time you visit because you’ve rewarded great service in the past. I know that even at the end of the party, when I was exhausted and didn’t want to carry over a round of beers, I’d do it because a guest was particularly nice and generous to me (both are important!).

That’s why “palming” a twenty to a gatekeeper can be so valuable. If you want a nicer hotel room, give the twenty dollar trick a try. The twenty dollar trick is used in a hotel where you put a $20 bill, folded inconspicuously underneath your confirmation credit card, as you slide it over to the front desk clerk. While you do this, ask if they have any complimentary upgrades available. Usually, not always, your $20 is returned if there are no upgrades available. On some occasions, they will keep the $20 even if there are no upgrades. Tipping doesn’t always result in a win, but more often than not it does.

If you think $20 for a room upgrade seems cheap, check out this Esquire article by Tom Chiarella: The $20 Theory of the Universe. Tom goes traveling and, armed with a few twenties, finds out what he can get for it. He gets car detailing on the cheap, an upgraded seat (by paying another customer, not from the airline), and a few other more unbelievable twenty-dollar buys. It’s a pretty entertaining read (along with 75 Skills Every Man Should Master, which I think is an even better article by Chiarella).

Hopefully I’ve either convinced you or reinforced the idea that tipping is a very good thing and how a little can go a long way. What I’d like to learn from you is whether you have any tipping secrets or techniques that have worked well for you?

(Photo: burningkarma)

Why Tipping Is The Best Investment Ever from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

However, with a desktop application, that risk is minimized since everything is stored locally. That’s why I thought I’d give Quicken another, closer, look. My wife and I do financial check-ins every month and I figured just using Quicken to pull the data I already pull manually would be of great benefit. Little did I know how powerful Quicken was after I set up all the account information.

Financial Situation Snapshot

I think the reason why Quicken is so popular and why people use it has to do with the wealth of reporting it’s able to produce without much effort. After I entered all of my investment account information, from my broker accounts to my IRAs and 401(k)s, I was immediately able to see my asset allocation. I didn’t have to try to piece it together by logging into four different accounts and making an Excel spreadsheet. I just opened up a report.

Incidentally, I’m 58.92% large cap stocks, 11.62% small cap stocks, 10.62% cash, 9.91% international stocks, 8.55% domestic bonds and 0.38% in “other asset class.” It would take me at least an hour to compile that information manually, yet it and other similar reports are available with a click of the mouse.

Why Pay For Personal Finance Software?

The big reason why a desktop application is still better, and can charge money, comes down to two reasons:

1. Features: Quicken has about everything I need in a personal finance management package and makes the free online tools look thin in comparison. It does it without selling you on a new credit card or bank account at every turn (that’s the business model for those online tools, you get the features for free but they try to sell you on a better products), though they do have places where they will give you offers from their “partners.”
2. Security: One of the biggest dangers of storing your financial data somewhere else is that your financial data is somewhere else. When you have it stored locally, you have greater control over it’s location and then you can at least blame yourself if you lose it. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal to the Facebook generation, where online privacy is irrelevant, it will be once one of the major tools gets compromised.

Monthly Checkins

My wife and I have a regularly scheduled monthly financial checkin where we have a quick chat about, you guessed it, the financial state of our household. While I had a copy of Quicken 2009, courtesy of Quicken’s PR, I didn’t use it much and this past weekend I wanted to change that.

For our monthly checkins, I log into each of our financial accounts and record the balance in a spreadsheet. I call it our Net Worth Tracker because it gives us an idea of where our money is, how we are doing against our goals, and puts our finances in context. We don’t budget in the strictest sense of the world, so these monthly net worth checkins are our form of budgeting.

Quicken helps take an hour-long process down to about five minutes once the account information was entered. It’s not 100% perfect though because not every bank or brokerage integrates seamlessly with Quicken. At the moment, Dollar Savings Direct, M&T Bank, and TradeKing do not allow Quicken to connect and download information. However, outside of those three accounts, the rest are updated automagically.

Wealth of Charts, Reports

As I mentioned earlier with the investment asset allocation, the reporting features of Quicken are where I really find tremendous value. Almost every single report I can think of is available, from the basic asset allocation pie chart (that you can click on and break each category down to the specific asset) to security allocation charts to portfolio performance of each account. That’s just in the Investing tab (there are several others).

For each account, depending on its type, you can have a variety of views of the data. For investment accounts, you can see the performance of the portfolio over the last year, compare it with major indices, as well as its current asset allocation and current holdings. Under asset allocation, you can even set a target allocation and it will tell you what you need to adjust to reach your target. The first day I spent an hour just looking all the reports and being surprised at how easy it was to read.

Why So Positive?

At this point you are probably wondering why I’m gushing so much about Quicken 2010. I think I’m this positive because this is the first time I’ve seen an application that integrated data across my investment accounts and put it all in one place, complete with fancy graphs. Quicken Online won’t do this. Mint, when I looked at it, didn’t do this (I heard they started adding it but I never used it). This is the first tool that did this for me and I am surprised it took me this long to find out about it.

At this stage in my personal finances, making sure my investments are in the right order is paramount. I have enough invested that mistakes hurt and I’m young enough that silly mistakes can have a huge impact when I retire in forty years.

I’m a little upset with myself that I didn’t start using it earlier!

I know there are a lot of Quicken enthusiasts out there, what other features are there that I should dig deeper into?

Quicken Premier 2010 Review from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Until Dec 31st, you can get a $50 bonus if you deposit at least $25 and keep the account active for three consecutive months. The $50 is deposited fifteen business days after the third month. There are no other requirements.

With their online checking account you get all the features of any checking account including:

• A visa debit card with 1% cash back, free music or coffee
• Free checks
• No minimum balance requirement
• No monthly fees when you use your account ($4.50 any month you don’t use the account)
• 37,000 surcharge-free ATMs
• Free online banking and bill pay

You won’t earn interest on your money in the checking account but very few debit cards offer 1% cash back rewards.

Added bonus – you can fund up to $500 of your deposit from a credit card and it counts as a purchase. It’s a great way to help bust cashback tiers (at least a little bit) without lugging around all those coins.

Can anyone see any downside to this?

PerkStreet $50 Bonus Promotion from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

For this week’s Your Take, I wanted to ask you to share your best career tip. It can be anything related to career advice from looking for a job to preparing your resume, from interviewing preparation tips to salary negotiation. There are many many topics I didn’t cover in the series, so feel free to cover them here in your best career tips.

I’m eager to hear the great ideas you have! (feel free to leave two or three or five, don’t feel like you need to limit it to just one)

(Photo: krishnade)

Your Take: Your Best Career Tip? from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Published by the Financial Times Press, So What? is relevant, especially today, because when you are a salesperson whenever you’re interviewing for a job. You’re a salesperson whenever you interact with anyone and increase your network. So What?’s core idea is that whenever you are communicating with someone else, you have to always be thinking that the other person is wondering… “So what?”

Specifically, you have to put the needs of your audience before your own.

When you’re sitting in an interview and the interviewer starts asking you questions, like some of these common interview questions, you have to structure your answer so that you preempt the “So What” question.

The book isn’t particularly long, about a 130 pages, and it’s full of examples of the otherwise nebulous “So What” question including a few colorful quotes from well known executives. I enjoyed flipping through it, Magnacca has a very conversational tone, and if you can get your hands on it I recommend taking a look. (you win a copy in the Bargaineering Store until 11/25/09)

So What? by Mark Magnacca from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

J.K. left a great comment on my post about the most common interview questions that I’ll repeat verbatim:

Jim, I think you need to step back and add a “strategic” spin on this.

As an experienced recruiter and interviewee myself, I find this to work best:

1. Before the interview, research the company you are interviewing with thoroughly. This really matters.
2. Next think about what the job opening requirements are and in addition, what the “unspoken” requirements are (e.g. a sales rep should be self-secure, outgoing etc) – using this, create a punch list of traits / experience / expertise that the interviewer is looking for.
3. Then articulate your own “must mention” punch list of things to mention in the interview, to make sure you satisfy all of the interviewers major punch list items. I typically recommend picking 2-3 stories you want to tell, or experience sets you want to emphasize, that put together cover your and the interviewers punch lists.
4. Then write those stories onto index cards and practice them until you can tell the stories, fluently and convincingly.
5. Finally, at the interview use whatever questions come along to tell your stories. Always answer the question, but if possible find a natural point to launch one of your stories. If you did your homework right, his questions will be aligned wuit your stories and it will be easy to weave them in.

That punch list is just like a politician’s talking points. The good thing about a job interview is that the interviewer, if they know what they’re doing, already knows what qualities the company wants and will actively ask you questions to see if you have the unspoken requirements. Sometimes politicians are forced to shoehorn talking points into otherwise irrelevant questions (i.e. “Well, I don’t want to focus on that, I want to talk about …”). By preparing ahead of time, you know how to answer those questions when they come and you know what you want to emphasize.

J.K., over email, later expanded on this idea and said:

Every candidate going into an interview should have an executive summary of what they want to bring across and “plug” during the interview.

E.g. I have 5 key strengths that I bring to this job: 1st great communication skills both written and oral, 2nd intellectual horsepower and creativity – I enjoy cracking tough nuts, 3rd interpersonal skills – I get along with people including “difficult” folks and am usually able to help form a cohesive team quickly, 4th entrepreneurial spirit and experience and finally I am a proven leader who has managed teams of up to 10 people before.

Your mission is to establish your talking points ahead of time and weave them into the interview. While I’ve never done this myself, it seems like such an obvious thing to do that I feel silly preparing only for the questions! It’s like focusing on winning a few key battles in a war, rather than focusing on the war itself.

Finally, J.K. stresses the importance of stories as a way of engaging with the interviewer and “showing” you have skills, rather than just saying “I’m good at XYZ.”

When you tell an interviewer that you have a certain skill / experience / expertise whatever, you are asserting. I.e., you claim to have that what he or she is looking for, but that doesn’t mean that the interviewer is going to believe you. So to make your point you should always provide “proof points” during your interview – this converts a baseless assertion into a powerful evidence-based fact.

For example, if I interview someone and he says: “I am a great leader”, I won’t believe him. But if he says: “I have a strong leadership track record. For example, while in college I was president of my fratenity we had a budget crisis, and my fraternity brothers were resigned to shutting down our fraternity, but I was able to rally the team, galvanize them into action and turn around our finances. And because of what we accomplished our fraternity is still thriving to
this day”, I will tend to believe him. I might ask some probing questions to make sure he isn’t bluffing, but I feel much better about it than what the other guy said.

As an aside, this is one of the reasons why blogs are so powerful and why I think people visit Bargaineering. We have smart and clever people out there, like J.K., who are sharing their successful approaches to an otherwise difficult problem. I appreciate it tremendously when you share your insight and we get the chance to learn and grow as a community.

This article is part of Bargaineering Career Week 2009, a week-long series focused on your career – how to find a job, how to tailor your resume, how to find the job opportunities and how to nail the interview. This article is the third article of day four – the interview process.

(Photo: sskennel)

Interview Like A Politician: Dominate the Conversation from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

In most cases, the purpose of a thank you letter isn’t to help you land the job. The point is to make you stand out since many people won’t write thank you letters. In many organizations, a hiring decision is made very soon after the conclusion of an interview. At one of my former employers, the interviewers of a candidate met minutes after the last interview to discuss whether or not to make a hiring decision. It’s quick by design because you want people to make decisions before their memories have had a chance to fade. So when you write the thank you letter, chances are the decision has already been made.

This article is part of Bargaineering Career Week 2009, a week-long series focused on your career – how to find a job, how to tailor your resume, how to find the job opportunities and how to nail the interview. This article is the third article of day four – the interview process.

So why should you write a thank you letter? If you stand out in the interview but aren’t necessarily the best fit for the open job, an interviewer might remember you for another opening when it comes up. If the interview was just the first round and someone drops out of the second round interview, they might call you to jump in because you stood out. Thank you letters won’t land you the job but could give you a small edge.

Writing a Follow Up Thank You Letter

Follow up thank you letters are very simple to write and you should send them within two business days of the interview. Follow the same business letter format you would use for a cover letter, it will be the same for this thank you letter. In the letter itself, be sure name the interviewer by name, thank them for their time and the opportunity, express your excitement for both the position and their organization, and include anything you may have missed in the interview. You can find some sample thank you letters online but that’s the general gist of the letter. Most importantly stay positive and don’t be pushy, the goal is to thank them and show good manners, not sell them on anything.

There’s a little debate over whether you should email the letter or send one through postal mail. In general, you should do whatever feel comfortable to you and the situation. Postal mail will take a few days to get there so you need to take that into account for your timing. There’s also debate as to whether you should type or handwrite it, I think that typing is usually the best approach because it’s more professional.

Finally, all the same warnings I had in the article on cover letters also apply here. Use professional language, avoid typos, misspellings, and incorrect grammar. Have someone look it over if you’re unsure.

Do you have any tips for writing a proper interview follow up or thank you letter?

(Photo: gi)

How To Write an Interview Followup Thank You Letter from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

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In the course of my career, I’ve been involved in over forty interviews. More than half have been in the capacity of the interviewee and the rest were as the interviewer, with an even mix of on-site and on-campus interviews. I’m by no means an expert but having navigated so many, several common themes emerged and hopefully I can pass along that information to you, prospective interviewee or interviewer, to make the whole process easier for you.

When it comes to interviews, there are two types – the soft qualitative interview and the hard quantitative interview. The soft qualitative interview is one where the interviewer is trying to get a feel for how you’d fit in the team and the organization. It’s designed to learn more about you, your goals, and learning whether those goals are in line with the goals of the organization. The hard quantitative interview is designed to figure out if you are able to do the job by testing you on your domain knowledge and expertise. This post will try to help you with the qualitative questions, the ones designed to find out more about your personality and see if you fit with the company, because the quantitative questions will change from field to field.

This article is part of Bargaineering Career Week 2009, a week-long series focused on your career – how to find a job, how to tailor your resume, how to find the job opportunities and how to nail the interview. This article is the second article of day four – the interview process.

Most Common Interview Questions

Tell me a little about yourself. This is probably the most common of all the interview questions because it’s an easy icebreaker. Whenever I asked someone this question, I just wanted to hear them talk, see what their personality was like, and just get to know them a little more. As an interviewee, my approach to answering this question is to let it be my opportunity to direct the conversation. If I know there’s a bullet on my resume that matches the job very well, I’d highlight it by saying “in the last year, one of my favorite projects was …” and mention it by name. Most interviewers will, consciously or unconsciously, take that cue and ask me about that project.

Where do you want your career to go? This question is usually designed to figure out two things: 1) have you given much thought to your career and how this job fits in that plan; 2) does that career match the needs of the company. If your goal is to earn as much money as possible regardless of who its for, then they might not want to hire you if you will jump from company to company. To prepare for this question, you need to have an idea of what you want to do in five or ten years and see where this job fits.

What would you consider your greatest strengths? This is an opportunity for you to mention a strength that may not be reflected on your resume. If you have a lot of team projects and you’ve talked about team work a lot, don’t mention it as one of your greatest strengths because the interviewer already knows you are strong here. Maybe you’re extremely persistent and attentive to detail, things that are hard to display on a resume, mention that and give an example from your resume.

What would you consider your greatest weakness? I don’t think an interviewer ever expects an interviewee to honestly answer this question and actually give their greatest weakness, so don’t exceed their expectations. And don’t say you have no weaknesses or try to frame a strength as a weakness, people see right through that. My approach has always been to find a weakness you have and show how you’ve taken steps to try to overcome it, preferably highlighting projects on your resume that substantiate that claim.

What motivates you? This is another tricky question that most people would honestly answer “money,” (money may not be motivation #1 but it is always in the top 3, everyone has to eat!) but you can’t say that in an interview because it points to greed. You’ll want to answer honestly so try to find some projects you worked on that you really enjoyed and think about what motivated you to do a good job. Perhaps you were motivated to do good work, so you volunteered at your local soup kitchen. Keep it positive and use it to point to one of your accomplishments.

What interests you about this job? Why do you want this job? You’ll usually be asked a version of this question sometime during an interview because the interviewee wants to understand your motivations more. This also helps them understand how much you understand about the job. Maybe the job has high turnover and is high stress, be sure to address it and say how you would overcome it. Maybe the job is mundane and boring, why are you interested in it? The answer is never “for the paycheck,” but you can always find something about it that interests you. Even a retail job folding clothes or staffing a cash register is a stepping stone into a managerial role in the retail industry.

Are you willing to travel? This question is one of the few that you should answer honestly because if you are unwilling to travel, get the job, and are forced to travel then you will be miserable. If you are willing to travel, say so. They will usually ask what percent, just give a slightly higher percentage than you think you’re actually comfortable with. In general, unless it’s 100%, you won’t travel as much as you think you will.

What are your salary expectations? If you can, defer. A safe bet is always to say “That I don’t know, I’ve been focusing on learning more about the position and whether it’s a good fit for the both of us.” Usually you aren’t asked this question until you are interviewed by someone in Human Resources, usually in an information gathering step, but if you can’t defer and are pushed for an answer, do research beforehand and give a range you are comfortable with.

How soon do you need a response? This is usually a gauge of how in demand you are. If you have pending offers with deadlines, give a day or two before those deadlines as a response. If you don’t, give it about a week. Most decisions are made within a day or two and, judging on the size of the company, an offer within a week depending on how responsive the HR department is with managing approvals and whatnot. You don’t want to say “whenever,” because then they realize you have nothing else pending… which isn’t good.

Do you have any questions for me? This is where the interviewer is trying to gauge your true interest in the job and the company. What you want to do is make sure that you ask questions that show you are interested in the company. I like to ask what the “next steps in the process are” and more pointed questions about the culture of the company, what it’s like to work there, and what the interviewer enjoys about the company.

If these ten weren’t enough, check out this list of the 50 most common interview questions and recommended answers. They are excerpted from The Accelerated Job Search by Wayne D. Ford, Ph.D.

Is there a common interview question I left off the top ten? If so, what is it and what is your recommended response?

How to Answer the 10 Most Common Interview Questions from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

This article is part of Bargaineering Career Week 2009, a week-long series focused on your career – how to find a job, how to tailor your resume, how to find the job opportunities and how to nail the interview. This article is the second article of day four – the interview process.

Check Ahead of Time

Check the clothes you’re going to wear at least two days ahead of your interview. You might realize that the suit you want to wear needs to be dry-cleaned or the pants no longer fit properly. You don’t want to discover a stain on your tie an hour before the interview, you want to find out with enough time to react.

Wear A Suit

No one will fault you for wearing a suit to an interview, so if you have one or can borrow one, do so. If you’re ever in doubt, you should always dress on the conservative side because no one will ever fault you for it. Don’t wear anything provocative and don’t wear anything flashy, you want your abilities and your accomplishments to shine, not yourself.

Drive By’s

If you aren’t sure what you should wear and you don’t want to wear a suit unless you have to, drive by the company’s office. Take a look at what the employees are wearing and wear one step higher. If people are working in jeans and t-shirts, go business casual with a button down shirt and khakis or slacks. If people are business casual, go in a full suit or put on a tie. When it doubt, wear a suit.

Look Professional

Since I’m a guy, these “look professional” tips are going to be a little male centric but the theme is the same – look well groomed and presentable. I think that having a neat and clean hairstyle is important, whether you’re a guy or a girl, and guys should make sure you’re clean shaven. You don’t want your suit to say professional but the 5 o’clock shadow to say you’re too lazy to bring a razor to your face. Shower before your interview, clip your nails, and go easy on the perfumes, colognes, and aftershave.

Big Don’ts…

Whatever you do, don’t…

• Chew gum – You can’t answer clearly if you have gum in your mouth.
• Bring your cell phone – You don’t need it in the interview, so leave it in the car.
• Drink coffee or soda beforehand – Coffee can give you bad breath, soda will make you burp.
• Flaunt tattoos or wear excessive piercings – As I said earlier, let your accomplishments do the talking. People have preconceived notions about people with “too many” tattoos or piercings.

And good luck on that interview!

(Photo: matt512)

How to Dress for an Interview from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.