Things to Know Before a Job Interview

Job Interview is one of the crucial event which changes direction of your life. We don't want to leave any effort in preparing for the interview and try to present ourselves as beautifully as we can. Classes and Careers have created an info-graphic that provides you with some things you wish you’d known before your job interview that may just increase your chances.. or at least prevent you from making a mistake. 

Cover Letter Tips - Do's and Don'ts For An Effective Cover Letter

There is an ongoing debate on whether to or not to include the cover letter along with the resume. Considering cover letter as an important aspect of personal branding, it is always advisable to include the cover letter. he cover letter is your opportunity to introduce yourself to an employer, tell them a little about yourself, and explain why you think you’d be the best fit for the job. So while working on your cover letter take care of the following do's and don't:
Do's for a cover letter
Personalization is the key: Try to find out who is the receiving person and personalize the letter by addressing by name instead of generic addressing. If you don't get any luck, then "Dear Hiring Manager/ Dear HR Manager" will work.

Follow KISS Rule: Don't narate a story about yourself, instead try to make it not more than three to four short paragraphs. Mention from where you saw the job listing, how do fit into the role and what you have to offer to the organization. Use bullet points to explain your skills, and achievements which are relevant for the applied position.

Include your Contact Information: When you end your letter with your name, also include your phone number, email address, current place of residence, and in some cases, your online presence. Include your social footprint, and personal website (if available) About Me page link.

Don'ts for a Cover Letter


Don't use a general template: Your cover letter must be custom made and not copied from online. Customize your resume and cover letter matching the job requirments.

Don't just elaborate your resume: Your cover letter and resume are two different things so don't just copy and paste your resume in the cover letter. Therefore instead of enlisting all the skills just state one or two skills relevant to the job applied.

Don't end on a passive note: Your cover letter should reflect to the employer that you care for the job. So instead of just ending with, "I look forward to hear from you soon", write that yu will follow up within a week and to hopefully set up a time to discuss about the position. Don't forget to follow up.

  

Explaining Your Strength and Weakness at a Job Interview

Irrespective of what position you have applied for one question which is very common to be asked and difficult for the interviewee to manage is: What are your strengths and weaknesses?

It sounds very simple question but requires a very complex and political answer because employer is not really interested in your strengths and weaknesses but infact he wants to know "Tell me how much value you'd bring to my organization and prove to me that mistakes are learning experiences for you". To handle this question follow some advice and you will be able to sail through it easily.

Strengths:
A very important thing to understand is don't confuse strengths with skills. Strengths are personal attributes that you may have been born with and cultivated over the course of many years and life experiences-perseverance in the face of adversity however skills are the abilities that can be cultivated with a certain amount of training.

To understand your strengths work on the following exercise for 2-3 hours:

• Relate with the Job Description: Check the job description and list out your personal strengths which are probably required for this job.For example if the job description includes budget management, a thrifty nature could be a competitive advantage for a candidate.
• Add a story around your strength: For each of the strength necessary for the position, think of an anecdote that illustrates that strength. Let's say you can recall a time when you caught an error in numbers on the annual report, and from then onward you were entrusted with double-checking the financial numbers on all investor communications. 

Weaknesses: 
No one is perfect in this world; you sound suspicious or less impressive when you mention that you dont have any weakness as such. Try to be as honest as you can be in an interview.

Recruiters want candidates who have an ability to learn from their mistakes, imrpove themselves and not repeat those mistakes in future.

here are some key tips to tackle this question:

• Dont make it personal: Remember you are attending a job interview not a melodramatic reality show, therefore your responses MUST be related to your work not your personal life. Do you want your employer to know about how you learned the hard way not to date your coworkers or how you discovered how much more you enjoyed the client problem-solving aspects of website design than the actual coding.
• Relate with your interviewer: If you're in the same line of work as your interviewer, chances are your interviewer might have  experienced some of the same problems you have and will appreciate your graceful handling of a familiar situation.
• Explain the lesson learnt: Don't end up just explaining your weakness and providing an open field for the interviewer to guess. End up with explaining what lesson you learnt from your mistakes, how did you work on those and how much improvement did it bring to your work.

Always remember: Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and interviewers know you are not perfect.  They are not trying to expose your flaws, but rather they are trying to determine what unique attributes you bring to the table and, mostly importantly, how you identify and adjust for your shortcomings.