The Undercover Recruiter - Job Search and Career Secrets

How To Dress for Your Job Interview

Jimmy Sweeney — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:35:19 PDT

Knowing what to wear on a job interview is half the battle of the interview itself. The old adage could never be so true, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression."

When you're going on a job interview, your appearance is extremely important. Whether or not you look professional or sloppy could play a huge role on if you get hired.

Check out the company culture

When first deciding what to wear on a job interview, you should first take into consideration the culture of the company you are interviewing with, and dress accordingly. Are you interviewing with a company where the employees wear suits everyday or do they wear t-shirts and jeans?

Nothing too fancy, nothing to casual

A suit is not always the best choice for what to wear on a job interview. If you show up wearing a suit and tie and all the employees are wearing shorts and flip-flops, you will look out of place, feel uncomfortable and give off the wrong energy. The same is true of the opposite. If you show up wearing shorts and flip-flops to a company that wears professional attire, you will be just confirming that you don't fit into the company.

Match the interviewer

If you want to get the job, your choice of what to wear on a job interview should match or be slightly dressier than the normal work attire of the company. For example, if the normal work attire of the company is business casual, it's ok to wear a suit to impress. If the normal work attire is casual, it's ok to wear a business casual outfit to impress as well. Appropriateness is the most important factor on what to wear on a job interview.

After you decide whether a professional, business casual, or casual outfit the most appropriate for your interview, here are some guidelines you will want to stay with in when deciding what to wear on a job interview. The key is to wear clothing that you feel comfortable and look great in, while at the same time matching the corresponding dress code of the company. That way you'll give off great energy and your true personality shine through.

Here are the guidelines:

1. Make sure your clothes that are neatly ironed and press. Nothing gives away the lack of attention to detail than wrinkled clothing.

2. Make sure your clothing fits properly. If your pants or sleeves are too long or something is too loose or too tight you'll look and probably feel awkward.

3. Don't wear flashy jewelry. You'll want the interviewer to pay attention to you, not your bling.

4. Dress according to the season. Don't wear a stuffy turtleneck sweater in the middle of the summer.

5. Don't wear perfume or aftershave. You never know if your interviewer is allergic and this isn't a good way to find out.

6. Make sure you have a nice, clean haircut that makes you look well groomed.

7. For men, make sure you shave and keep facial hair to a minimum.

8. For women, don't wear anything that is too revealing. It's best to keep your body parts inside your clothing and not be too exposed.

9. Avoid articles of clothing with loud, busy prints. It's best to wear solid colors that flatter your skin tone.

10. For women, make you wear appropriate lingerie and/or pantyhose underneath your clothing. This will give you smooth lines and assure you don't have visible panty lines on your backside.

11. For women, don't overdo your makeup. Wear natural colors and avoid heavy eyeshadow, eyeliner and bright colored lipstick.

12. For pants outfits, make sure you wear a belt that matches the color of your shoes.

Bottom line

So, congratulations on getting the interview. Now, know you know exactly what to wear on a job interview so you can get the job.

For more interview tips, check out the Ultimate Guide to Job Interview Answers, our sponsors.

Top Social Media and Job Search Tips by Bill Boorman

Jorgen Sundberg — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:26:07 PDT

This is the 2nd instalment of the interview with the very insightful Bill Boorman (the 1st part is here). Bill is one of the most omnipresent personal brands you will ever see in the career industry. He has his fingers in many pies (#tru events, blogging, training, consulting, speaking to name but a few) and in this concluding part he shared some great wisdom on social media and how job seekers can harness it to get results.

What are your favourite social media tools?

That is really hard to answer. Channel wise, my preference is always for Twitter and Tweetdeck is the tool that enables me to filter the stream properly. (I have close to 6000 followers.) I also use Hootsuite when I’m out and about because it is entirely web based and doesn’t need any downloads if you are logging in from a P.C. other than your own.

As you probably gathered, I like finding the best ways to use applications in all the channels. At the moment I would pick out the following 12 as being really useful:

1: Blastfollow – For following everyone using a twitter hashtag at the same time.

2: Tweetcloud – For seeing what key words appear most often in tweets for a targeted individual. Great for making conversation.

3: Tweetgrid – For following twitter chats which often overload the API limits and stall tweetdeck. It is also easy to reply and retweet from Tweetgrid.

4: Twittersheep – Which shows the key words contained in a twitter followers bio. This enables me to see if I need to either follow all of their followers by using a tool like Refollow that allows me to follow them all on masse, (remember 50% follow you back) or you can select individual followers that match your target area.

5: WTHashtag – Gives you a definition of the common hashtags if they are registered. You can see the number of individual tweeters behind the hashtag and the top 10 contributors. (If the hashtag is in your target area you should follow and get try to engage all of these. If the chat or conference is of particular interest, this also enables you to see and save the entire transcript for later reference.

6: The Twitter application on LinkedIn. This enables me to update my profile from Tweetdeck by using #in and to follow all of my connections that list twitter on their profile. LinkedIn is great for finding people that you want to target, whilst twitter makes engagement much easier.

7: FB140 – Enables me to follow all my Facebook friends on twitter and send friend invites to my twitter followers. Combining followers in all your channels means you can communicate with them where they want to engage and spend the most time.

8; BranchOut – Turns Facebook in to Linked In. you can see where your friends work, group them together by employer or skill set and see where your friends friends work. It also has a neat targeted job board that is free, and allows direct messaging within the network.

9: RSS Feed – I use my RSS feed for receiving questions from Linked In in my target area, Staffing. (You can also set these up for job notifications.) This way I get to answer plenty of relevant questions, which is great for network building in this area and getting noticed.

10: Box.Net – This allows you to add any number of downloadable documents to anywhere. All job seekers should definitely use it to add their C.V. to their linked In profile. The paid for version and it’s quite cheap, allows you to see who has made the download for follow up. This is also great for recruiters who can add Job Spec’s, terms of reference and other documents. You can use Box.Net on any of the social channels in particular Linked In and Facebook.

11: Slideshare – This enables you to share PowerPoint presentations and video in multiple sites. Add a brief welcome video on your linked In profile to stand out (I’m just doing mine,) and any presentations you might have done that will reflect well on you. I have seen recruiters use slideshare for presenting their services and job seekers on “what I can offer.” You can also post Slideshare in Facebook and on twitter via a link.

12: Wordpress – not really an application, it’s the platform I use for my blogs. Blogs are a great way to share your message, whatever that might be, and to get noticed as a recruiter or even a job seeker. Gary Franklyn, an in-house recruitment manager and founder of the FIRM is currently using his blog to chart his job search. This puts him firmly in the shop window and lets everyone know he is looking in a positive way.

These are my 12 of the moment, though I’m constantly adding to the list. Applications now make social media simple (I’m in no way techie), and enable really effective networking whatever the objective.

Your best social media tips for job seekers out there?

I think just to get out there and do it. If you are out of work then you need to be very visible. Make it clear that you are looking for a job and the type of work you are looking for. There is no shame in being out of work. Don’t try to dress it up with phrases like “In Transition,” just say you are looking for a job! This should be clearly listed on your Twitter bio, LinkedIn profile and Facebook Profile.

Use Box.Net to add your C.V. to these places in simple to download format and announce the location via twitter with regular posts, asking your network to retweet. Make sure you attach a relevant # to the type of work you are looking for so that you show up in more than your follower’s stream. The #HFUK (Hire Friday UK) stream is followed and circulated by recruiters and others on a Friday. Monitor this stream as it also contains links to jobs. Post the link to your C.V. and your details in the stream each Friday.

You must be easy to contact. Recruiters lose patience quickly if they have to look too hard to find you. Be sure you include your e-mail address clearly in any of your bio’s, and make sure the e-mail listed isn’t something like SexySister69 @ hotmail.com!

Draw up a list of target companies that you want to work for and find out if you are connected with anyone that works there. You can use LinkedIn and Branch Out on FB to do this. Is there anyone among your connections that could effect an introduction for you?

Join relevant groups on Linked In and post a link to your profile with an appropriate message of the type of work you are looking for in the groups. Post regular comments and questions related to your job search in the groups. The more you post and comment, the more people will look at your profile, and the more people that look at your profile, the more chance you have of getting an opportunity.

The key is getting yourself noticed, and you get noticed by engagement and getting involved. Look for the on-line places that your targets visit or post in. This could be in any of the channels. Get involved in the conversation, look at what your targets are talking about and contribute on both a personal and professional level. Once you are on tweeting or commenting terms with a target you can make an approach. People will be flattered to be asked for help or opportunities and this could open the door for you.

It’s a bit harder if you are employed and looking to move. You need to be more discrete so as not to draw attention to your search. This means building a network first and engaging in order to reach the point where you can make a phone call or communicate via DM, Linked In e-mail or FB Message.

Make sure your profiles are key-word rich and that you are easy to find in searches. You can find the best key-words to use by researching what searches feature highly at google.com/sktool/# which tells you the most common key-words or phrases searched for in Google. It is very simple to use, free (unless you choose to buy links) and works. Your on-line profiles need to be not only well written and presented but easy to find.

Most importantly, social media channels are great door openers but there is no substitute for conversation and face to face networking. Social Media should form no more than a third of your job search strategy. Network at every opportunity, go to events and find opportunities for phone calls and sitting down face to face.

Best advice I heard recently was to use the 9.00 – 5.00 for getting out and about, and network on-line out of these hours. Make finding a job your full time job and don’t rely on anyone else to do it for you. Social media won’t get you a job, but used effectively it will open doors to opportunities, the rest is down to you!

Is it true that you are known as @BillBoorman in real life?

Anyone that knows me would describe me as a twitterholic, and I’m not yet recovering. It was natural when I launched my new business that I called it by the name I am best known as, @BillBoorman. It’s on my business card and my Bank Account. Lloyds Bank announced that I was their first @ account!

Bill Boorman has always worked in and around recruiting as a Recruiter, Trainer, Operations Director, Consultant and Coach. He has spent more than 27 years in this industry which sadly qualifies him as a veteran. (substitute old!) During this time he has worked in most markets and has been responsible for the full H.R. and Training function for a recruitment business that grew from 6 to 147 branches. He has implemented I.T systems, designed performance management and appraisal systems among most other things.

Over the last 5 years he has been working as a consultant and trainer to growing recruiting firms across Europe. The last 18 months saw his introduction to social media and social recruiting. He claims to now be best known as @BillBoorman on twitter, and have been described a twitterholic that never sleeps, omnipresent and even a whirling dervish! (Thanks @fishdogs!)

10 Classic Job Interview Blunders You Must Avoid

Jimmy Sweeney — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:31:59 PDT

There are certain common job interview mistakes that you want to do your best to avoid. Making any one of these can hurt your chances of getting the job or have the employer hire another candidate who didn't make these common job interview mistakes.

1. Looking sloppy or having a stain on your clothing.

Wrinkled or stained clothing will be noticed a mile away. No matter how nice the rest of your outfit is, if you have a stain on one part, it will ruin your entire look. Plus, it's a dead giveaway for you lack of attention to detail. If you've ever hear the saying, "how you do anything is how you do everything," it could hold more true in this situation.

2. Not being prepared with your questions and answers.

Before you go into your interview, you should always go over some questions you think you could be asked. While you don't want your answers to sound rehearsed, you definitely want to sound prepared. If you are asked a question and don't give an intelligent answer to it, the employer will most likely move on to the next candidate.

This includes your resume as well. If the interviewer asks you about a previous job you have listed on your resume and you can't remember because it was so long ago, you will only make yourself look bad and unprepared. Brush up on everything that you have listed on your resume - it's fair game for your interview.

3. Talking about salary too soon.

Don't jump the gun regarding salary. Wait until the interviewer gets to know you a bit and or asks you about it before you start talking about it. If you only want the job because of the money, it will show and hurt your chances of getting the job. Most often there are several candidates who are competing for the same position you are. The company isn't going to give the job to the person who is only in it for the money.

While it is completely reasonable to negotiate your salary, make sure you do it at the right time.

4. Being late.

Always be on time for your interview. Make sure you have the right directions and allow plenty of travel time including traffic to get there. If you are late for an interview, your employer might see that you will probably be late showing up for work. Of course, there are some exceptional situations where you might be late and if one of those arises, make sure you call and let the interviewer know.

5. Lying.

Always tell the truth about your past job history and anything that is asked of you at your job interview. If you lie, it will be a matter of time before the employer finds out.

6. Gossiping about a former boss.

Nothing will make you look worse than talking badly about a former boss or place of employment. If you talk badly about your previous employer, chances are you will talk badly about this company if you get hired. Nobody likes a gossip. Plus you never know who knows who so it's best to keep your personal business personal.

7. Having a bad odor.

Bringing a strong odor into an interview can be very distracting. Don't wear any perfume or smoke a cigarette right before your interview. You never know what kind of allergies the interviewer may have and this is not a great way to find out. Try not to smell like anything so your interviewer can concentrate on you instead the smell.

8. Being fidgety.

If you are fidgety and anxious, the interviewer will sense your lack of confidence. Before you go into your interview, take a few minutes to collect your thoughts and take a few deep breaths. Make a point to make eye contact with the interviewer to create a good non-verbal connection.

9. Not listening carefully.

If you don't listen to what questions the interviewer is asking you, you are basically saying that what you think is more important that the question they are asking. Make sure to listen to exactly what they are asking and answer the right question. If you don't listen carefully during the interview, you will probably not be great at following direction on the job.

10. Appearing desperate.

Interviewers can pick up on this right away. It's ok to be enthusiastic about wanting the job, but there are limits. Keep your emotions out of the interview and focus on the skills and experience you can bring to the table.

For more interview tips, check out the Ultimate Guide to Job Interview Answers, our sponsors.