10/11/2009
4 Tips to Answering Tough Interview Questions Correctly
From blatant … “Greatest weakness”; “weakest attribute”; “most significant failure” … to soft … “what might your previous employer say …?” … even softer …“you certainly seem to have a lot of strengths, but we understand no one is perfect…” The question will come one way or another, everyone knows it, yet still befuddled by it.
There have been many Rules of Thumb (R.O.T.) developed over the years, from making light of the question with an answer like “Pizza!” (Do not pass go; do not expect a job here) to true confessions, putting a cloud over everyone, to developing a response that actually demonstrates a strength: “I tend to be a workaholic” or “perfectionist” (Yuk!) In principle, Rules of Thumb are meant to have very broad application such as when in doubt, get out. Great advice if you are in the middle of an intersection and the light changes. Would it apply in the final seconds of a game, you’re down 3 points and have the ball? What, you’re going to walk of the floor? I don’t think so. I find many R.O.T. (pun intended) to be off the mark and misleading. What may be good for one may not be for another. That is not to say there are no rules that can be applied; there are. Just choose your medicine carefully.
When Answering Interview Questions, Here’s RULE #1: Stay Positive…ALWAYS!
“What’s your greatest weakness” is your opportunity to shine. One way is to demonstrate that you are a positive person by nature. Everyone likes a person with a positive nature, right? Remember you are in the interview to make yourself desirable for hiring, so you might say, “I rarely sit there and think of myself in those terms, nevertheless, I do want to respond to your question” or something on those lines. Notice by the way I did not say “I rarely sit there and think of my weaknesses”. Okay, I take it back. Here’s a rule of thumb that always applies: Do not use or repeat negative terms, even if the interviewer throws it out there.
Here are three other rules I suggest you do follow:
RULE#2 No Superlatives! Keep it singular. Superlatives such as “weakest” or “worst” or “biggest” indicate the greatest degree of whatever is it describing. “Worst weakness” is the weakness of the highest degree implying there are other weaknesses of varying degrees but weaknesses nonetheless. That begs the question “what are some others?” Likewise, “need most to improve” implies there are others areas for improvement. In any case, try this as an alternative: “If I had to come up with one…” (No negatives; no multiples).
RULE#3 No Absolutes! The absolute, as in “my weakness is…” states that the weakness exists unconditionally: Utterly fixed and not likely to change. WOW! Wouldn’t it be better to be a little less restrictive, something more conditional like “it could be that I am…” Conditional responses suggest you yourself are not completely convinced of it. This type of response also accomplishes what the bungling technique of using a “strength” to describe a weakness consistently fails to achieve – that your “weakness” may not be a weakness after all.
RULE#4 Keep it real! Your “weakness” should be one (singular) that is subjective – of your person. Humanize it! “If I had to come up with one (singular) it might be (non-absolute) somewhat (qualifier) of a lack of internal patience (human)”. Continuing … “I seem (unconvinced) to have strong tendencies to expect the same from others that I do from myself (human). Not just in terms of results – I’m smart enough to realize that not everyone has the same level of skill, abilities and education (real) … I do however, expect others to give their best effort, and if that’s not there, then yes, that might (conditional) bother me to some degree” (Ah! … “bother me to some degree” … human, non-absolute, qualifier, and conditional … Don’t you love it!) Another tact, similarly keeping it real, could be an incident resultant of some area where improvement was needed (potential weakness) that turned out to be a learning experience and later grew into a personal asset, thus giving you, once more, an opportunity to showcase strength.
In Summary…
Do your homework. Think critically and be honest with yourself. Ask friends or colleagues the same: Critically and honestly, what they think may be your one weakness. When you have the answer, internalize it. In other words, take it to heart. If you don’t, your response may come across like a sound bite, no matter how long and hard you practice sounding unpracticed. When you speak from the heart, you won’t sound “rehearsed”, you will sound “aware” – conscious of yourself, a characteristic we all value.
Hope this helps!
list of 100+ job search engines & job portal
Here is the list of 100+ job search engines & job portals with ranking.
Yahoo Jobs
As a leader in the online recruiting industry, Yahoo! HotJobs (www.hotjobs.com) has revolutionized the way people manage their careers and the way companies hire talent. Yahoo! HotJobs' tools and advice put job seekers in control of their careers and make it easier and more cost-effective for employers and staffing firms to find qualified candidates. In addition to its popular consumer job board, Yahoo! HotJobs provides employers, recruiters, and staffing agencies with progressive recruiting solutions.
AOL Jobs
AOL Find a Job offers the most comprehensive listings through its partnership with CareerBuilder.com. AOL Find a Job is the place to go on the Internet for job alerts, information, career advice, tips and tools.
Career Builder
CareerBuilder.com is the largest online job site in the United States
Monster
Monster.com (NASDAQ: MNST) is an employment website. It was created in 1999 by the merger of The Monster Board (TMB) and Online Career Center (OCC), which were two of the first and most popular career web sites on the Internet. Monster has a powerful job search engine which those seeking work can use to find job offers that match their skills and (present or preferred) locales.
Today, Monster is still one of the largest job search web sites on the Internet, claiming over a million job postings at any time and over 41 million resumes in the database. With approximately 5,000 employees in 26 countries, the company has a powerful global brand and unparalleled international reach. Monster is the only pan-European employment website and is growing fast in developing markets such as India
Naukri.com
Naukri.com is a leading job portal in India
In March 1997, as the influence of the Internet was beginning to grow in India
JobsDB.Com
JobsDB is the largest Interactive Recruitment Network across Asia - Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan & USA. It offers job search & posting, career tips & human resources solution to job seekers, corporate employers & recruiters.
Dice
Dice is the leading career site for technology and engineering professionals. Dice’s vertical industry focus provides customers with access to a targeted pool of experienced and uniquely qualified technology and engineering professionals. Employers and recruiters in a variety of industries post jobs and search resumes on Dice’s specialized career site to find the right employee or contractor. Through a variety of strategic affiliations, Dice gives its customers' job postings exposure to the largest engineering and tech-centric audience on the Internet. Job seekers use Dice to enhance their careers by posting their resumes, by searching the database of permanent, consulting and contract job postings, and by using Dice’s career resources, including certification test preparation products and a detailed annual salary survey of thousands of technology professionals.
Indeed
Indeed is a search engine for jobs - with a radically different approach to job search. In one simple search, Indeed gives job seekers free access to millions of employment opportunities from thousands of websites. Indeed.com includes all the job listings from major job boards, newspapers, associations and company career pages - and we continue to add new sites every day.
Times Jobs
Another job portal from India India India
Mediabistro.com
Mediabistro.com is dedicated to anyone who creates or works with content, or who is a non-creative professional working in a content/creative industry. That includes editors, writers, producers, graphic designers, book publishers, and others in industries including magazines, television, film, radio, newspapers, book publishing, online media, advertising, PR, and design. Its mission is to provide opportunities to meet, share resources, become informed of job opportunities and interesting projects and news, improve career skills, and showcase your work.
Vault
Fortune recently called Vault "The best place on the Web to prepare for a job search." Job seekers and professionals have discovered that Vault is the Internet's ultimate destination for insider company information, advice, and career management services. Vault is also one of the Internet's most popular destinations for employers, hiring managers, and HR professionals. According to Newsweek "Vault.com is the most comprehensive free site for employers we found."
Simply Hired
Simply Hired is a vertical search engine company based in Silicon Valley , and Simply Hired is building the largest online database of jobs on the planet. SimplyHired.com is a job search site, aggregating results from major job websites, newspapers, company websites, associations and other online sources. Visitors can search by occupation, job title or location, and results can be filtered by job type, education, work experience, company revenue or company size.
Career One ( Australia
Australian Jobs Search Engine! It includes listings of jobs in Australia
List of 100+ Job Search Engine / Jobs Portal & Ranking
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