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10 Goal Setting Questions

Do you have a goal or a dream that often pops up, making you feel excited, that same sort of feeling you got when you were a child heading out on holiday – a little buzzy feeling, starting in your stomach and rushing through your body like a rush of electricity. And then just as quick your dream or goal fades away, disappearing into the far distance, is the why you never achieve your goals? Is this why you never even start to work towards your dreams, the same reason why you’re in the same place now as you were in a few years ago.

You already know a Life Coach can help you achieve your goals, challenging your personal beliefs about yourself and helping you move forward step by step. To help get you started, read and answer these 10 Goal Setting Questions; read each question one by one, once you have read the question, empty your mind of all thoughts, like having a blank cinema screen in your mind. This way your unconscious mind will search for your answers and you will start them appear, in most cases on the blank screen.

  • If you decided to live your life to the full, knowing you could not fail, what would be the first change you would make?
  • What is the one thing you would start working on today that will make a big difference in your life?
  • If you had a list of 5 things in your life that you wanted to do more off, what would they be?
  • What’s the one thing you would love to do/achieve before you die?
  • What do you really love about your life and how can you make time do this thing more? – What would you sacrifice to achieve your goal?
  • If you were 92 years old, and this older you could give the you now some advice, what one piece of advice what would it be?
  • How do you know you are committed to achieving your goal?
  • If you wrote your goal down on a card to commit to achieving that goal, who would you give it to with purpose of them checking by a certain date, that you have started to move towards your goal?
  • By what date do you want to achieve your goal? – be specific.
  • What would change once you achieved your goal? – What would be the biggest difference in your life?
  • Finally one extra question; What day will you commit to, to start to achieve your goal?

 

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Be At Your Very Best In Every Job Interview – Interview Confidence

Using NLP, the study of Human Excellence, this article will help you be at your very best during every job interview. Imagine you could perform at your optimum during all your future interviews, how would this increase the amount of job offers you receive? How confident would you feel knowing you are at your very best?

These techniques are powerful, to gain a full understanding you will need to commit to practicing them, I would also add for many, NLP techniques will be new and as you read the technique you will not be aware of the power of the technique until you practice the technique for real.

Give a Description.

Grab a pad of paper and a pen and write a description of how you would perform in an interview where you felt highly confident. Start with how you look, what you are wearing, how do you walk, what does your posture look like, are you carrying anything? Do you look relaxed? Calm? Confident?

How do you act, do you start conversations, what are you doing with your hands, do you pay attention to other people in the waiting or interview room? Write it all down “I feel…I  act…I see myself…”

How do you sound when your answering interview questions, write down your tone of voice, the speed you are speaking at, do you sound confident? In charge? Professional?

Write lots of detail, don’t just think it, write it down!                                  

What does your Best Look and Feel like?                                              

To become your best in every interview, you need to know what your best looks and feels like, close your eyes and imagine if you were at an interview performing to your very best. See yourself now; you look and feel great imagine you knew how to word your answers and see an air of confidence surrounding you, as you are being interviewed.

As you see yourself in your minds eye notice the way this confident version of you acts, notice your positive posture and listen to the tone of your voice. Become aware of everything that makes this new you feel good, how do you walk? Is your head held high or looking down? Is your handshake firm or soft? Do you look and sound like you belong there? Imagine you could smell the confidence of this new you, what does your confidence smell like?

Imagine if you could step out of your body, and float across to the body of this new confident you, step into your new body and see the world from the eyes of a confident you. Notice the confident feeling running strongly through your body, where does it start from? Which direction does it spread in? What is the speed? Is the confident feeling warm or cold? Fast or slow?  Become aware of what makes you feel confident right now. If you could give the confident feeling a colour, what colour would it be? If you could double the intensity of the colour, how much more confident does this make you feel?

Become aware of your posture, how you hold your head, your shoulders and how confidently you walk. What positive thoughts do you say to yourself as you feel confident? What else makes you feel confident? What could make you feel more confident?

Now you have already started to feel more confident, as you repeat this exercise two more times you will notice the confident and positive feelings becoming stronger more quickly.

Set up an Interview Anchor.

As you completed the last two exercises you would have started to feel more confident, this is because when you think about feeling confident you start to become confident. If you could access these confident and positive feelings before an interview, how would this increase your chances of passing the interview? You already know it would, think about feeling confident at an interview – you probably accessed these emotion really quickly this time.

When would it be useful for you to access your instant confident feelings (we will call this the trigger) for an interview? When you walk into the reception? When you shake the interviewer’s hand? When you take your coat off? At what point in the interview or lead up to an interview would you want to access instant interview confidence?

Remember when we asked where does your confident feeling come from? Think about that now, the start of your confident emotion. Many others say their confident feeling starts in their stomach, so we will use this as the example.

Think about the feeling in your stomach, the colour and speed you gave it and the direction it travels in.   Now think about your trigger, did you pick taking your coat off, shaking the interviewers hand or anything else? What ever you picked imagine doing that action now in slow motion, as you think about this trigger also think about the confident feeling starting in your stomach and spreading in slow motion around your body. Do this 8-10 times thinking about the trigger and emotion at the same time, each time make this happen faster and faster until it seems like they naturally happen at the same time, instantly.

Some people prefer to use an NLP Coach to help them master these confident building techniques.

By reprogramming your brain you can access positive feelings to any trigger, giving you in this case instant confidence during your interview. There are many other techniques to help reduce interview fears and increase confidence, keep a look out for upcoming blog articles.  

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Motivating Your Team – Towards and Away From Motivation

When learning about motivation one of the first lessons you will learn is about “Towards or Away From” Motivation, also known as “Pain or Pleasure” Motivation.

This article will help you understand why people are motivated by Towards or Away From language, how to know who is motivated by which motivation preference and which language you can use to motivate both Towards and Away From Motivated People. 

NLP-Meta Model

NLP is the study of excellence, one part of NLP is the Meta Model (this helps us understand how people input, sort and filter information) The Meta Model has helped us learn how language has different effects on different people.  As you may be motivated by the Carrot, others are motivated by the Stick.

Motivation

If you could know which language would motivate your team would you want to learn it? Helping your team achieve all of its goals, moving towards a successful year with a new positive team, knowing each year would bring in better results, is this something you could use to benefit future team moral?

If you could speak to your team, knowing the language that would stop your team from being unmotivated, reducing common errors and to stop the team from wasting time. Would this knowledge move you away from poor results?

It’s not about who is motivated by what language, as we are all individuals, it’s about how you can use language to motivate your team, if you new how to motivate your team, what would you different when you returned to work on Monday morning?

How to know who is motivated by what language?

Ask your staff members “What’s important to you in work?”

They will often give you a list of criteria, example: Training, Reviews, Good Atmosphere, Big Wage, My Own Desk, etc

Secondly ask “why is Criteria important to you?” what ever answer they give, ask “why is this new criteria important to you?”

Listen to their answer: do they use Towards or Away From Language?

Example from a Social Worker Review:

 

Manager “what is important to you in work?”

Staff“erm, I need to know that I am helping other people”

Manager “why is helping other people important?”

Staff “Because I want people to move forward with their lives, to have a good future”

Manager “why is helping people move forward with their lives important to you?”

Staff “I want to feel that I have helped people to achieve something with their lives”

 

You have already stared to notice the thousands of ways you can use language to motivate your own team.

TOWARD MOTIVATION                                              

To motivate people who are Towards motivated use words, such as:

  • Attain
  • Gain
  • Achieve
  • Get
  • Include
  • Towards
  • Can’t wait to get there
  • Accomplish
  • Reward
  • End Result
  • Goals

Towards people are motivated to achieve or attain goals. They have trouble recognizing problems. They are good at managing priorities

AWAY-FROM MOTIVATION

To motivate people who are Away From motivated use words such as;

  • Avoid
  • Exclude
  • Recognize
  • Problem
  • Don’t like…
  • Trouble Shooting
  • Fix
  • Steer Clear of
  • Prevent
  • Solve
  • Fix
  • Prohibit

Away From people focus on what may be and is going wrong. They are motivated to solve problems and have trouble keeping focused on goals

Summary

 

A little goes a long way; as you read this article, many of you will be thinking do words really make a difference? They do and more importantly, words motivate people. As with many good techniques, you will agree you will need to practice, re-read this article and practice listening to your friends and colleagues language, you can probably already start noticing who is Towards or Away from motivated.

Once you recognise their motivational pattern, talk “using their language” and look for the difference your language is making; do they respond to you differently? Are they listening to your ideas and suggestions? To increase your awareness of motivational patterns, you can apply for a motivational training course to learn all aspects of motivational language to Motivate the Unmotivated.

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CV Template Word

You can either have a Word CV or a Web CV, it’s not about which CV style you have, it’s about your CV securing you job interviews, how many job interviewers has your current CV gain you?

The percentages of CVs are written on word documents, web CV’s are increasing all the time especially in the ITC and Media job sectors.

When using a CV Template in Word, beware, as some companies will have an old word computer package and when you write a CV in a new version of word your CV may be unreadable to the employer. To prevent this from happening always attach you’re CV as a PDF. As a CV writing service, employment king will always send you copies of your CV in an open and PDF file.

If you need a CV quickly use a CV Template Package, this package will give you the options of several CV Templates, designed in Word, as well as a list of Job Descriptions’, Personal Profiles and Hobbies Paragraphs to copy and paste into your CV template before you personalise it; imagine if you could create a Professional CV in less then 5 minutes, how would that make you feel, to be able to spend more time applying for vacancies.

If you are keen for you’re CV to stand out, use a CV Writing Service and receive a FREE Covering Letter Template. CV writing services will individualise your CV to you and your job goal, helping to secure you more job interviews.

When choosing to write and design your own CV, first read CV writing articles as they are full of tips and hints to ensure your CV gains you job interviews.

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Why Managers should never ask “Why?”

Many managers, supervisors and employees will tell you they are great communicators, you will often see “communication skills” on a persons CV as part of their personal profile and/or skills section.

To be a “great communicator” you will first need to understand the power of “words” and “questions,” you will find many articles on this blog that will help you improve your communication skill’s, to understand language patterns and influencing techniques,  today you will learn about the importance of the question “Why”                                   

Why you should never ask “why?”                             

 Why is the why question so important? This is a good question and this article will explain all you need to know, first I would like to add that in some circumstances the “why” question can be very powerful, but today we look at the reasons, why Mangers should not use the “why” question with employees.

Why, oh Why, oh Why                                                       

Have you ever been asked “why didn’t you meet your targets?” “why is your team under-performing?” “why is that customer storming out?” when asked a Why question, is your first reaction is to feel Accused?

When asked a Why question, you will feel accused and automatically reply in a defensive way and as a manger you now know that your employees will also respond to why questions in the same way.

Why do people respond this way? You may ask a why question not meaning to accuse the employee, just wanting to understand more about the “subject.”As the why question automatically starts a defensive response, your employees will answer trying to justify their actions, often as the employee feels angry and defensive, they will unconsciously show these negative feelings as they communicate to you.

Many mangers will respond to this negative response (remember in many cases the manager was not originally accusing anyone of anything) with their own negative response to the employee “I don’t want to hear excuses..” this can go backwards and forwards, getting quickly out of hand, de-motivating your workforce.

Why Consistency?                                                        

I recently read a scientific book on persuasions skills; the book explained how people like to be consistent. As a manger finds themselves in the battle of the why question, trying to breakdown the reason the employee“didn’t meet their targets” “team is under-performing” “customer is storming out?” the employee will want to stay consistent with their first negative response and will often bring the conversation (or argument) back to this subject.

 Why do you do the things you do?                                  

We do a thousands task each day, why do you do them? The truth is we don’t always have a reason for everything we do; often people work an automatic pilot.

When you ask an employee “why” they did something, they often won’t know why, as their automatic pilot was in play. An employee when asked why will look for an answer and may not be able to find it, in some cases the employee’s subconscious will create a reason, why they might have done what they did.

Why the Cause, why not the solution?                                      

When asked a question the mind will look for answers, when asked why? The mind will look for the cause not the solution

  • “I never get any support”                                          
  • “The targets are not realistic”                                    
  • “The customer was never interested from the beginning”          

What if you could use questions that change your employees mind from looking for the cause to look for the solution? Would this help you and your team to communicate in a more productive way? Would a solution focused question help you move forward? Would looking at solutions instead of problems, put your employee in a more productive and positive mood?

Let’s re-look at the original Why questions – how could you re-word these question to direct your employees mind to be more focused on the solutions?

  • “Why didn’t you meet your targets?”
  • “Why is your team under-performing?”
  • “Why is that customer storming out?”

I agree in some cases the “problem” needs to be addressed, but as a manager would you prefer to be able to communicate with your employees in a way that motivates them to achieve your outcome? In this way you can look at the problem as an area of development.

  • “What can you do different next week to help you achieve your targets?”
  • “How can you manage your team differently to ensure they perform well?”
  • “If you could re-wind the tape, and handle the situation with the customer differently, what would you do to ensure the customer left with a smile?”

As you can see by re-wording the Why question you can gain a better response from the employee, we all work better when our emotions are in a positive place. With the second question, I have added a presumption, “how can you mange your team differently..” the mind will automatically presume you can manage your team differently. Compare this to an alternative question “can you manage your team differently?” Now you have a choice and you may choose to say “no” – you can already start to understand the power of words, how can you use this new knowledge to improve your Management Skills.

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Does Your CV Secure You Job Interviews?

As a Careers Advisor Manager in a previous role, I have received and read hundreds of good and bad CV’s. Why is it that some CVs secure job interview while others secure a quick trip to the garbage bin?

This article is not about what you need to add to a CV, but how to make your CV stand out.

Attention Grabbing

This is common, but I will say it again, over 300 people can apply for every advertised job, even when the number of applicants is reduced to 200 or 100 hundred, employers will not read every CV in detail – Why? Because it takes up to much time, and “Time is Money”                                                   

The design of your CV needs to stand out and grab the employer’s attention. You will agree, it is easy to make a CV stand out, by using a hundred different colours and fonts. You will also agree, these over creative CVs will not secure you any job interviews. Many of you will agree and know that a CV needs to visually look good and be able to catch the employer’s eye.

Opening Line

Once you have a good CV design, you next need to think about the CV content. Employers will often look for reasons to “like” or “not like” your CV. To have your CV added to the “like” pile, add an attention grabbing opening line, as an example “Doubled profits in the first year of joining a declining company by…..add lots of reasons” For a sales position, you will agree this line will increase your chances of your CV being added to the “like” pile.

Avoid Common Phrases

We have already discussed this in previous articles, job hunters who continue to use common phrases, with the mis-belief, that if it works for others it will work for me, fail to secure job interviews. The secret is, these common words, worked in the 80’s not the 00’s. The common phrases used, do not secure job interview, you need to evidence your skills and qualities; Why are you a great communicator? How can you meet targets?  

Is a CV a Sales tool?

Yes, the CV is a sale tool. Your CV is in most cases the first impression the employer makes of you, your CV needs to say “out of the 300 applicants you will want to interview me” as with all sale strategies, you need to sell your strengths, your positives and what it is you have that others don’t?

The Employers Perceptive

One of the biggest mistakes made by other CV writers, is they don’t look at the CV from the employers perceptive. Read the job advert, research the website and investigate the employer. From this you will have a better idea of the employers perceptive, what is it they are looking for in an employee? What skills and qualities does the employer value above others? – You can find lot’s of clues in the job advertisement and on the company website. If you truly understand what the employer is looking for on a CV, and you posses the employers essential criteria, you will secure job interviews from every CV application, every time!

We hope this article helps you create a positive CV, if you need any support Employment King Offers a CV Writing Service and a Down-loadable CV Template Package for your use. Finally Good luck with both your job hunting and future career.

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Telephone Scripts for Telephone Applications

You’re searching on the Internet, looking for a job and you find a vacancy that really suits your employment criteria – well done. As you read through the job advert you come to “how to apply” section and it requires you to telephone the employer! How does this make you feel?

To pass the telephone application you need confidence and you need to prepare, this article will help you prepare for the telephone interview by giving you a script to follow; it is not just about having a general script to follow, it’s about how you can personalise the script to suit your background and the job position you are applying for.

 

The Fear of Telephones

 

When you read the line “to apply, telephone…” You will either take a deep breath, start to feel panicky, while thinking “there is no way I’m going to telephone an employer” or feel confident about telephone applications, knowing that you will pass this stage of the job application.

Why do many of us become scared when you have to telephone an employer? By now, you will know that many job hunters are more nervous about telephone applications then attending a face to face job interview. Before you telephone the employer you have learn how to be confident on the telephone, there are many techniques to help you with this.

Telephone Applications

 

When asked to telephone an employer, many people believe they will have to undertake a telephone interview; this is often not the case. In many instances all you will have to do is leave a message on the employer’s answering machine and to make this process even easier, we have added an additional script for leaving an answer machine message, for your use.

When an employer is interested in interviewing candidates over the telephone (this is a common interview process for telephone sales team jobs) they will give a clue on the job advert: “please allow 30-40 minutes for your phone call”

Like all interviews you need to prepare what say and how to act, if you are still concerned about telephone interviews read the Secrets of Employment and like many other successful job hunters use the techniques included to overcome telephone fears and learn how to pass all interviews.

If you are not required to leave an answer machine message, once you get through to the employer they generally only want to take some basic details and maybe ask you one or two questions, to get an idea of your background before asking you to complete an application form or to send your CV.

 

Telephone Scripts

Below are two scripts; one for an answer machine message and the second for when you are put through to the employer.

The script below are basic to help you get started and can be used across all job sectors, you need to add your own answers to the blanks and then reword the whole script to make it your own and relevant to your background and the job sector.

Answer machine Message for Job Application:                                                   

Good Morning my name is add your name, I recently seen your vacancy for a job position on the job website/newspaper.

I have over add years of experience as a add job position and feel my experience of add one essential job criteria will add additional value to your company.

Can you please forward me a job specification and application form to add address and e-mail, to repeat that is repeat address and e-mail.

 

Thank You                                                                                      

Speaking to an Employer                                                                            

 

In most cases a receptionist will initially answer the telephone call.

Good morning, my name is add name, can you please put me through to named person on the job advert.

 

If asked what it is regarding;                                                                                 

It’s regarding a job application I recent seen advertised.

 

Once you have been put through to the named person;                                              

 

Hello named person on the job advert, my name is add name I am telephoning to apply for the position as a add job position that you recently advertised on add website/job paper.

 

When asked about your employment experience;                                                                

 

Overall I have over add years experience of working in add sector name industry. This experience has taught me to add a really life experience that hits one of job roles essential criteria. In addition I am qualified to add industry qualification.

 

The question above is the most important section of the whole telephone interview, the example we have used is very general designed to cover all job sectors and reader’s abilities, for a full breakdown of answers to interview questions and over 60 Interview Questions and Answers you will want to read Tricky Interview Question, Killer Answers.

The employer may ask you one or two more questions, you can use the Tricky Interview Questions, Killer Answers E-Book to effectively answer all the employers questions to guarantee you a face to face interview. If possible add to one of your answers the reason why you are interested in their vacancy and company.

 

End of Conversation                                                                                 

 

Thank you for your time and I look forward to meeting you soon, Good Bye.

You will need to re-write the script 3 times to ensure you have worded the script perfectly and highlighted your essential skills needed for this position. You will also find it useful to complete a mock telephone interview with a Careers Advisor or Friend.

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Killer CV Templates

Employer Requirements

Imagine you want to take your partner out for a romantic meal, you have chosen two restaurants and can’t decide between them both, you look at the pictures on the website, one of the images shows a romantic scene of a couple looking lovingly at each other while drinking a glass of wine, the second image is of some expensive looking fine dining, the pictures of the food making your mouth water, they both look amazing, so which one would you choose?

It’s a hard choice, 50% would of choose the romantic meal as you wanted a romantic night out, the other 50% would choose the mouth watering food, as the taste of food is important.

As you will agree, depending on your theme (or what you feel is more important) directs your choice. The same principle happens when employers look at your CV.

Remember employers receive around 300 CVs for every advertised job, they initially spend around 30 seconds skimming through the CV and you need your CV to stand out.

CV Image

As when you chose the restaurant, you had an idea of what you wanted – your requirements, the employer has their own requirements for a new employee (often recorded as the job specification). Some employers are looking for a professional; does your CV represent a professional image? Other employers require some who is creative; to gain an interview here you will need a creative looking CV.

As you will agree, the image of your CV is highly important as this is the first document the employer will see and your CV is the employer’s window to who you are and what you represent. As expert CV designers we have the experience to design you a CV relevant to your career and job sector.

Remember content is king, your CV has to look good visually and needs to stand out from the crowd and I would add that your CV has to sell your skills, qualities and experiences the employer is looking for; do you know what your future employer is looking for on your CV? Often people fail to land job interviews as they don’t understand what the employer wants recording on the CV.  

Killer CV Templates

Employment King have a brand new range of Killer CV Templates, we possess the expertise to design an eye catching CV. We will match your skills, qualities and employment history to the position you are applying for and target the CV against the job specification, guaranteeing you job interviews. If you need a Killer CV use our CV Writing Service today. It not just about how good your CV looks, your CV needs to have relevant content because research has shown that having a Targeted CV is more important then the CV image.  

If you have several hours of free time and are happy to write your own CV, we can help and reduce all those hours you was going to spend writing a CV, with our CV Package to help you create a new CV; full of CV Templates, Personal Profiles and Job Descriptions, designed so you can quickly create a CV in minutes.

Need more help we have lots of articles on writing a CV for your use, just follow the links below. Need more help? E-mail info@employmentking.co.uk with your query.

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How to Pass Every Interview

How to Pass Every Interview

 

If you knew the secrets on how to pass every job interview, what would you do with this new information? How can knowing techniques to influence the interviewer’s discussion help you win your dream job? Go, back to those two questions and take your time answering them, imagine you could pass every job interview you went to, how would this feel, would it be exciting to know you can’t fail? As with everything nothing is free, how much would you pay to learn these secrets?

Today I will teach you how to pass every job interview, you do not have to pay with money, but you have to pay with time. It’s not about what I am about to tell you, It’s about how much time you will put in to learn and practice these extremely powerful techniques?

First you need to promise not to pass this article to anyone, don’t e-mail the article below to anyone or everybody will be using these secrets and I will have to write new persuasion techniques to influence interviewers.

Before we start, you need to know how to answer tricky interview questions, how to understand job requirements and how to predict interview questions, this e-book is expensive but from time to time we offer massive discounts so wait for a sale before you buy.
 

Essential Criteria

 
OK, here’s the first secret, if you can control the interview in a confident, calm and natural way you will walk out with job offers. Your attitude makes a difference in interviews, you can easily come across optimistic, professional with good rapport and I would add if you don’t know these basics I will shortly be adding more articles to the blog to help you, if you feel you cant wait, you may have interviews lined up, the Secrets of Employment has several confidence building techniques to help you.

Today though you will learn how to control the interview and influence the interviewer to offer you the job. By now you already have a good CV, Application Form and know how to find jobs, if didn’t you would not have several job interviews lined up. If you don’t have several job interviews lined up you need to learn The Secrets of Employment, or wait for several months before you start to gain offers for job interviews.

If you’re like me, you want a job now, so let’s get on with the technique…and teaching you how to pass job interviews.

OK, the fact of the matter is interviewers have a list of essential criteria in their mind, some employers want someone who will follow orders and procedures while other prefer someone who is creative and flexible, one manager may be looking for someone who can start many task at one time, while a second manager may be searching for someone who starts and completes each individual task before moving on to the next one. Some employers hold time keeping and meeting deadlines as a high value while other employers hold more value on the quality of the work rather then the deadline.

How will you know what your interviewer is looking for? I would add once you do know the employers essential criteria you have the key to the door of your new job offer, all you have to do is add the essential criteria to your interview answers.
 

Inside Information

 
Take control from the beginning, while most people go to an interview, give their name to the receptionist and sit down worrying about the coming interview, they are all missing a big opportunity – INSIDE INFORMATION!

When you give your name and sit down, make small talk with the receptionist “how long have you worked here?” “do you enjoy it here” and then ask “what is the manager like?” you start to learn the mangers likes and dislikes; the receptionist might respond with “the manger is great but you need to get your work in on time he’s a stickler for deadlines”

As you can see you are getting valuable information, when you’re asked questions in the interview, ensure you add your new information within your answers

Manager “tell me a little about yourself”

You “I have 5 years experience ..blah, blah, blah and I understand the importance of meeting deadlines” now you are talking in their language, the manger might if respond with a big smile saying “yes, I agree” extra interview points for you!

  • Find 3 pieces of useful intelligence from the receptionist that you can use in the interview to sell yourself.

 

 Ask, Listen and Repeat  

 
As you shake hands and introduce yourself to the interviewer, you will often be asked an opening question such as “did you find us OK?” or “how was your journey?” these are general questions designed to get you talking and to put you at ease before the real interview questions start.

As you answer, slip in your own question; “yes I found the building easy I came down yesterday so I new I would be on time I hate to be late for anything” (this has started to build up the picture of you meeting deadlines-remember the receptionist?) as you sit down at the desk, ask “have you been interviewing all day?”

After they have answered “yes” you can follow this up with “it must be hard trying to choose the right person (you could add a sneaky point at yourself here, as we have added an embedded command – more on that later) how do you know who to pick?”

The interviewer may say “I just have a gut feeling” if you leave a gap (don’t say anything) they might add, “I can tell when someone is…Essential Criteria” all you need to do now is repeat the essential criteria as part of one of your answers “One of my personal strengths is that I Essential Criteria”

So, basically all you do is Ask, Listen and Repeat – easy

Remember you need to be confident and have good rapport for this to work well and to go unnoticed.

The interviewer will often start by discussing the company history, duties and benefits, here is a great chance to ask more questions and listen for the skills, qualities and essential criteria the employer is looking for and then use these to answer the coming interview questions. Ask:

  • “How long has the company been in operation?”
  • “What is the company mission?”
  • “What type of person are you looking for?”
  • “Where do you see the company being in the next few years?”

These questions have to be put to the interviewer in such a way that it seems like a conversation not a question and answer session. You have to listen to what the interviewer says especially to the question “what type of person are you looking for?”  and use their replies to answer your questions.

I agree, it does sound easy doesn’t it? And I would add it is easy if you take some time to practise asking questions as part of a conversation with friends and family. As you know practice makes perfect, pick a certain “thing” you want to learn about a friend (maybe there routine to before going to work) and start a conversation asking questions to unpick the details; do they use the same routine everyday or prefer to have variety? etc
 

Overview

 
With this technique you can pass any interview without even preparing, even though I strongly recommend everyone prepares in advance for interviews. You first need to know the basics of answering interview questions and you need to feel confident in interviews.

For the technique to work ask the receptionist and interviewer questions, you can also find clues in the job advert and job specification. When asking question they should come across as a conversation not a question and answer session, remember the employer’s key essential criteria and add these to your answers.

Finally practice makes perfect, practice asking questions in family and friends (have a goal in mind) good luck with your future job interviews and career.

Pass every job interview by giving Killer Answers to Tricky Questions

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CV – Power Words

Power Words are essential for your CV as the words the employer reads help them to create a picture of you and you need this image to be positive. If I tell you “Don’t think of a horse on a beach and a giant bell!” You first have to picture these images to not think about them – when you read this did you picture the horse, beach and bell, even though I told you not to?

This article is about “power” words and how words are turned into images by the reader. The key point to remember is that your CV needs to create a positive image in the employers mind, how can you do that?  

Why is this Important?

I agree, why is this important? Because creating pictures from words happens all the time. When you read a description about a character out of a book, as you read the authors description you start to create an image of this person, don’t you? An employer goes through the same process when they read your CV (your description) they create an image in their mind, if the employers picture of you is positive, you will be invited for an interview.

As you read this, preparing to write your CV, you have already started to notice how powerful words can be.  It’s not about using power words, it’s about which power words you should use, what skills and qualities will your new employer be looking for?

Take a minute to think about the job or career sector you are looking for work in, what skills and qualities will the employer being looking for? Write them down:

 

Skills and Qualities Needed for My Job and Career:

  • Think about all the skills needed:
  • What skills are needed for each duty?
  • What qualities do you possess that are needed for the job?

 

You now have a list of skills and qualities your employer is looking for, how many of these are essential? All the essential criteria from a job specification need to be added to your CV, as long as you possess them.

Re-read your list and notice the words you have written, which words can you change to make them sound more powerful? Do this 3 times; you can change a single word to a sentence if needed or the other way around.

“Being on Time” to “I am Reliable” to “I have Never Had a Day of Work”

“Good at Team Work” to  “An Excellent Team Player” to “Possessing the Ability to Increase Team Moral”

Keeping adding and changing the words and phrases you use until you have a large list of power words and sentences, from this you can choose the most powerful words and create your personal profile. If you feel you need some example Personal Profiles, use our CV Template Pack to ensure you know you have a good powerful CV to impress the employer.

To help you have a powerful CV we have listed below a list of Powerful CV Words for your use, once you have wrote your CV, use our CV Review for a Free CV Appraisal.

We have recorded the Power Words under headings to make things a little easier, but the words can be used across the board and is designed to start you thinking about words.

Creative

 

 Management Organisation

 
  • Edited
  • Imagine
  • Future Vision
  • Designed
  • Illustrate
  • Ideas
  • Describe
  • Picturesque
  • Representation
  • Vision
  • Observation
  • Examine
  •  
  • Advised
  • Analysed
  • Approved
  • Arranged
  • Achieved
  • Delivered
  • Expanded
  • Forecast
  • Negotiated
  • Offered
  • Presented
  • Rapport
  • Targets
  • Won

 
  • Administered
  • Arranged
  • Budgeted
  • Categorised
  • Collected
  • Compiled
  • Corrected
  • Redesigned
  • Incorporated
  • Identified
  • Organised
  • Logged
  • Maintained

 

 

Achievements

 

Team Work

 

Action
  • Accomplished
  • Achieved
  • Attained
  • Displayed
  • Established
  • Expanded
  • Founded
  • Identified
  • Implemented
  • Lead
  • Managed
  • Reduced
  • Solved
  • Processed

 
  • Assisted
  • Co-Operated
  • Communicated
  • Earned
  • Encouraged
  • Established
  • Facilitated
  • Listened
  • Motivating
  • Operated
  • Organised
  • Share Ideas
  • Together
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
  • Achieve
  • convene
  • Bench marked
  • Build up
  • Delivered
  • Ensured
  • Generated
  • Go For
  • Performed
  • Planned
  • Prepared
  • Targets
  • On Time

 

 

 

To finish with, you will need to use “opening lines” to add your power words to, here are several examples:

“Others say…”                                                                                

“I am…”                                                               

“My experience proves…”                                                                                             

“My ability to…”                                                     

“As you can see from my CV….”                                

“In addition…”                                                             

“I have learnt to…”                                                          

“Willing to….”                                                                

“Interested in….”                                                                

 

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