How to Prepare for a Job Interview

How to Prepare for an Interview
How to Prepare for an Interview
The need to effectively communicate one’s personality, abilities, and experiences to others is important from the day you begin playing with other kids and throughout your childhood and adult life. Your skill in the critical process of interviewing determines your friends, your spouse, your job, and career. Fortunately, interviewing is a skill that can be learned and improves with practice, whether your objective is to get that first job or a promotion in management ranks.
Unfortunately, in today’s business environment, there are often hundreds of applicants for every job opening, and multiple candidates for every promotion. The ability to separate from the competition, to distinguish one’s self from the pool of equally qualified contenders during the job interview process is crucial. Yet, in my experience, less than one in four candidates were adequately prepared to create a winning impression.

The following tips will help you be ready when your next opportunity appears:

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How to Prepare When Making a Career Change

new career aheadMany people dream of a new career earning more money doing the things they love. In fact, labor surveys suggest that four out of five people are unhappy in their careers and want to make a change. We Americans are optimistic with a tendency to accept that the “grass is always greener” on the other side of the fence. Yet few people actually pursue a career change voluntarily. Why? Because age, high income, and debt lock many into their current jobs or fields, making it that much harder to change.

If you desire to make a clean break from your current career and start anew – be it for more pay, personal satisfaction, or a better balance between your personal and work life – prepare yourself for a more difficult transition than seeking a similar job with a new employer. It’s unlikely that you will replicate your current salary or benefits in the beginning of a new career, while it is likely that you’ll need to invest in training or education to be hired. You may even be forced to relocate.

But these and other obstacles needn’t hold you back from your goals. However, they do require preparation in order to surmount. Read more . . .