Posted on over 8 years ago by John Reid
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Rejection for that dream job, We have all been there before, be it sending a CV for a job we believe is 100% us and never getting a call back or getting to the interview stages only to fall at the final hurdle, we can never overlook the fact there can be someone who is more suited to the role and company than us but the main thing is how you can prepare yourself correctly and we at The RFT Group are experts in our fields and we are here to help prepare you as best we can and as best you can.
Suitability for a role?, You need to be selective where you send your CV and for what role, you may feel you are tired of your current job and feel you want out but here you must make the right selection, before applying for a company it is good if you can find out some information first, do they require qualifications you don’t possess, will you fit in?, is it a reasonable commute, will they offer your desired salary ?, will you have the perfect work/life balance in this company. These are very valid and important questions and all this information can be found by talking to colleagues, online research, in some situations even a call to HR or the agency to ask a couple of brief questions. You must be aware of making applications to companies where you may end up inadvertently spamming HR, you can send a CV for 5 roles that are not a suit and you may look desperate, suddenly a job appears you are an ideal suit for and HR may believe you lack credibility and are not serious about the company and overlook you. It is a small world out these especially if you are staying in the same sector and it is best not to be known as the type of person who is just looking for any old job.
Okay you listened to step 1 and now you have found the perfect job and company that suits you, finding the perfect CV, we at The RFT Group feel that the candidate is the best person to know their CV so we will guide you where best to tailor it, It is perfectly fine to have an updated generic CV for initially sending off to an agency or to use as a template for your experience but it is vital to have one tailored to a certain role, a company may be looking for someone with SAP experience and you have omitted it from your CV or they may want someone who has operated a certain piece of machinery and again this is something you have done but it is missing from your CV, it is in your best interest to study the job specs and if anything is missing from your CV add it in, remember HR and hiring managers have dozens of CVs or applicants and they will not spend five minutes reviewing each one, they are looking for points in the CV that show the experiences they have asked for in the job specs, so provided you have these experiences they should be on the CV and clearly worded as such.
So you are suitable for the role and now have sent off a tailored CV and have been called for interview, this is when preparation is key, you will be expected to know every inch of your CV, you will have to have knowledge of the company you are interviewing with, with the internet and the help of an agency there is no reason not to know a lot about the company’s history and products so research this as much as possible, go through the job specs and find examples in your CV of experiences of having done such duties and have well rounded examples ready to use, find out who will be interviewing you and view their LinkedIn profile or find someone who may know the interviewers and can prepare you for what to expect. Dress to impress and from the minute you enter the building act accordingly as any wrong move even waiting in reception can leave a negative effect, it goes without saying but try and avoid bad language, be sure your mobile phone is switched off, give good eye contact, try and avoid waffling, veering off topic and when the interview is over do not be afraid to ask questions, the company are also under interview from yourself, they too must sell themselves to you so the more intelligent questions you ask the more impressed they will be. Unless spoken by the hiring manager do not discuss salary expectations or holidays pre booked. Be prepared for the unexpected always, an interviewer may throw you by asking a question you are not ready for , it could be a HR question of how would you react in a conflict situation to something personal, how you respond to these questions gives them an idea into what type of character and person you are, you may be qualified to do the role but it is very important for the Hiring company what type of person you are and whether you are a fit for the company.
Most companies these days will have more than one interview so this is again where preparation comes in handy, it is most likely the next interview will have a different member or members on the interview panel so again you need to research this person, if you have gone through an agency or a referral they may have gotten feedback on the first interview and at times there may be some constructive criticism from the first interview, perhaps you made a comment that put doubt in the interviewers mind or you seemed nervous well now is the time to reflect why you made the comment or what causes the nerves and is the perfect opportunity to correct this. However in this interview you must also show a good level of consistency, everything that you said from the previous interview should be repeated, you must be aware of for example saying in interview one you had minimal experience in a product to suddenly in interview two having extensive experience in it. This will severely damage your credibility again and put huge doubt in the interview panel’s minds.
The interview process is now over and should you be offered the role is when you will feel proud of yourself that you took the right path and learned the correct way to make an application and go through the interview process. It wasn’t easy and perhaps more time consuming then you envisaged but the most rewarding things in life usually are. There may be other steps such as contract negotiations or receiving counter offers from your existing employer which I might touch upon on another blog, remember though if you have not been offered the role it can be often be a very small detail that pushed the interviewers to offer elsewhere, this can’t be avoided on your part and you can only legislate for your own preparation and performance. You will have learned a great deal and perhaps an even better opportunity comes along a week/month/ year later.
Should you need any assistance on your career path or willing to discuss any requirements you may have please do feel free to check out the RFT Group website www.rftgroup.ie or give us a call on 01 2302400. We would be more than happy to help you along the way to your dream job.
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail
Benjamin Frankli