Ways To Kill Time During Interview Breaks

iStockphoto.com | shironosov

You're invited to interview for your dream job. On the agenda ithere's a 30-minute time slot labelled "Break."  This means that they couldn't find somebody to fill that period of time, and they need to park you in a conference room or the lobby for a while.

You should plan for downtime, and how to use it. Keep in mind that even if you're not in an interview, the company will still be watching how you respond. Here are some suggestions to  occupy your time:

• Prior to the interview, print the job description, the agenda, relevant articles about the company, and the LinkedIn profiles of your interviewers. Bring them. Read them. Should someone pass by, they'll see you're taking your day seriously.
   
• Bring (an appropriate) magazine to read. People will consider what you're reading - if you're interviewing for a job as a fashion buyer, flipping through Vogue won't hurt your case.
   
• Review your employment application for accuracy. Any mistakes can cause problems during a background check.
   
• Take inventory of the business cards you received during your interviews. When you're getting ready to send thank you notes, you'll need names and addresses and you can ask the Corporate Recruiter at the end of the day for the information of anyone you may have missed.
   
• Ask for a nature break. Gotta go? This is the time. Return promptly in case the next interviewer is ready.

A few other things to consider:

• Resist the urge to check your phone. It's tempting – you really want to know what's going on at work while you're out, but don't do it. Your phone should be off from the moment you arrive at the interview. What if you forget to turn it off and it rings during an interview? Even worse, what if you jump on a call during your break, the next interviewer arrives, and you can't get off the phone?
   
• Don't get too casual. Keep a professional posture. Don't assume nobody is watching - the interviewers will be.
   
• Never assume there will be something to occupy you where you wait. Be prepared with something to read. Staring into space because you've got nothing to look at makes you look like you're on a bad acid trip.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website,

Why Do Recruiters Have So Little Knowledge About The Jobs They're Recruiting For?

iStockphoto.com | timnewman

Candidates can get frustrated by a lack of in-depth knowledge on a recruiter's part regarding the job they've called about. You may want to cut the recruiter a little bit of slack. Start by looking at the typical recruiter role.

Recruiters typically work in one of two settings – either within internal human resources departments (filling internal jobs), or at staffing firms (filling jobs on behalf of their clients’ human resources departments). In either situation, it’s important to note the following factors:

1. Recruiters are (typically) not technical experts on the subject matter the individual they’re looking to hire is expected to have. Their job is to fill jobs. All. Day. Long. Their focus is on sourcing and identifying talent to fill the open job. They need to know the right search terms, how to identify a potential candidate, the right things to look for in the resume, and a few key questions to ask the candidate to determine if it’s worth scheduling a conversation with the hiring manager. It’s not their job to know every nitty gritty technical detail of the position they’re filling. That’s usually the hiring manager’s job.
    
2. It is the recruiters’ job to determine whether it’s worth introducing the candidate to the hiring manager. Recruiters should know enough to conduct an initial screen of the candidate’s credentials, general subject knowledge, and skills. They also check to qualify that the candidate’s salary requirements, commute, and personality fit the role and the company. Then it’s time to hand them off to the hiring manager.
    
3. Recruiters are busy as hell. It’s not unusual for a recruiter to be expected to manage a load of 40 (yes, 40) open positions. Each one has a hiring manager screaming for candidates to fill their open jobs. Assuming the recruiter touches every open position once a week, that gives them one hour per open position, per week to source resumes, screen candidates, communicate with hiring managers, and address whatever other matters come down the pipeline. That’s not even close to enough time to do a truly deep dive on the specifics of the job. And sometimes the person recruiting is also working as a human resources generalist managing employee relations issues and other matters, and recruitment is just a component of their job.
    
4. Hiring managers are busy as hell. “So what?” you may ask. Well, when a recruiter receives a new open position, they typically reach out to the hiring manager to gather information and develop a search strategy. I recruited for 19 years. I experienced countless situations in which I reached out to the hiring manager for more information and they couldn’t be bothered to return my call in a reasonable time (if at all). I was in the no-win position of being forced to decide between waiting for the manager to get back to me before recruiting, or plowing ahead on the search with insufficient data and hoping I was approaching it correctly.

That said, there are always exceptions.

Some staffing agencies or internal recruiting departments focus on recruiting specific disciplines, such as accountants. The intention is to mold these individuals into recruiters focused on that particular discipline, with the understanding that they can build a practice around their specific base of knowledge. It’s a lot easier for a CPA to establish credibility and build rapport with both accounting hiring managers and candidates, and well as to intuit the specifics about the positions they work on.

Also, some companies believe in giving their recruiters smaller workloads, supported by the idea that the recruiters can devote more time to finding the right person for each open position. It’s rare.

Make no mistake, there’s no excuse for a recruiter to be sloppy in their job. It is their duty to effectively source and evaluate talent, and to know enough about their open positions in order to add value to the hiring manager and ensure that the candidate has a positive experience with the employer. With time, practice, exposure to the subject, and after experiencing a few notable mistakes along the way, recruiters do get better at this.

This article originally appeared on Quora.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

8 Great Strategies To Beat The Job Interview Jitters

iStockphoto | Minerva Studio

Job interviews aren't much fun. Quite frankly – they're stressful. You're under the microscope and there's tremendous pressure to make the best possible impression in a short period of time.

The good news is there are strategies you can use to reduce the stress and improve your chances.

1. Dress nicely for the interview. Wear a suit. End of discussion.
    
2. Remember - It's just a conversation. Sure, the people you are meeting with are judging you and they're going to throw some curve balls your way, but in the end, an interview is just as much about demonstrating you can work together as the technical skills you bring. Do your best to remember that you're just having a conversation with the person seated across from you. You're both trying to find common ground. Often the interviewer is looking for reasons to hire you – being easy to get along with helps.
    
3. Do your research. The more you know, the more you'll be prepared to talk about. Learn  what's going on at the company and about their products and services by looking at the company's web page and searching online. Be prepared for the question, "What do you know about our company?" Likewise, if you receive an agenda ahead of time , check out your interviewers' LinkedIn profiles – you should be able to come up with some great discussion material (example: "I see you left General Motors to come work here. There must have been something interesting about this company, what drove your decision?").
    
4. It's okay to bring notes. Most interviewers won't mind if you have a page of notes to job your memory during the interview, so long as it's not a crutch. Prepare short, easy-to-read, bulleted discussion points so that you can glance quickly at your notes without having to study them. Notes can  project an impression of preparedness.
    
5. Prepare your war stories. Behavioral interviews are big. Interviewers will ask you questions about your past actions to determine how you'd behave in the future. The examples you present are an opportunity to shine; choose examples that demonstrate your ability to identify and overcome adversity, collaborate, and build creative solutions to work problems. Have five or six go-to stories about your work successes that you can tell which will show you as a strong potential hire.
    
6. Have questions ready. At the end of the conversation, your interviewer will either run out of questions for you, or ask if you have any of your own. Never be caught without insightful questions to ask. They don't have to be profound, but they should demonstrate that you're engaged and have paid attention. Some good standbys: "What does success in this role look like?"; "What does the average day in this position consist of?"; and "Why is this position open?" Find other effective questions here.
    
7. Put off the salary discussion, if at all possible. In fact, don't bring it up at all. Let the interviewer bring it up, and if they do, handle it delicately. Focus on your interest in the job, and indicate that compensation is a secondary consideration to the job itself.
    
8. Send "Thank You" notes. If you met with somebody during your interview day, send them a brief note (email is fine) thanking them for their time and consideration. I've seen a well-placed "Thank You" note push a candidate over the top. And don't send notes to some people and not to others - everybody has a say in whether you get hired, from the receptionist up through the CEO; don't let anybody feel snubbed and wanting to sabotage your chances.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.