Captivate the Interviewer

An impressive resume won’t get you a job. It will get you great interviews, but not the position itself because employers hire people, not qualifications. You could be the most accomplished, Nobel Prize winning candidate in the world, but if the hiring manager instinctively responds negatively to your physical presentation, you will not receive a job offer. This is not entirely unfair when you consider the fact that qualifications don’t matter much if you are not a strong personal fit for the company, and more importantly, your future boss.

Most employers will admit that they make their hiring decision within a few minutes of meeting you. Some statistics state that it only takes 20 seconds for an employer to size you up. For better or worse, charisma is king during the job interview.

Make the best possible first impression: It is imperative that you establish a personal connection with the interviewer immediately and make it clear that you are a trustworthy team player who will be a good fit for the department. This is very easy to do during the initial introduction. Simply look directly into the interviewer’s eyes, flash a sincere and natural smile, give a firm and dry handshake, and envision being genuinely pleased to meet this person. You’ll know the connection has been made if your smile is returned in a comfortable, natural manner. To follow proper interviewing etiquette, you should not take a seat until asked.

If you make an amazing first impression, the interviewer will likely forgive even slightly jumbled answers because of a good “gut feeling” about you. Regardless, you need to give the correct non-verbal signs throughout the course of your interview to constantly reaffirm your perceived value to the employer. The following tips will help you control your professional image during the course of the interview:

• Mirror the Interviewer: The key here is to mirror, not imitate. Maintain the same overall tone, posture, and pace in order to more effectively communicate with the interviewer. Don’t duplicate gestures or imitate in a way that could be perceived as mockery, but be sure to follow the interviewer’s lead.
  

• Maintain Eye Contact: If your eyes wander aimlessly throughout the interview, the hiring manager may assume that you lack interest, confidence, honesty, or even an attention span. You don’t have to stare the interviewer down, but eye contact should be strong, consistent, and natural throughout the interview, no matter who is talking.
  

• Perfect Your Handshake: Again, your handshake should be firm and dry because a great handshake reflects a strong personality. Ideally, the strength and speed of the handshake should mirror that of the employer’s. There is no absolute “too hard/too soft” rule when it comes to handshakes because the effectiveness of the handshake is defined by the recipient. Get a medium grip on the interviewer’s hand, ensuring that the soft flap of skin between your thumb and forefinger directly touches the same part of the recipient's hand. Then prepare to squeeze with equal strength. Pretend you are the woman in a ballroom dance, and let the interviewer take the lead. Practice with a friend to perfect this technique.
  

• Posture: Mirroring the interviewer is important here too—if the interviewer‘s feet are up on the desk, you should lean back into your chair in a relaxed manner as well (though you should keep your feet off the furniture). However, if you are in a professional environment, you will want to maintain your poise. You can exude confidence by standing and sitting up straight, keeping your head up, and bringing your shoulders back. If this is not your usual stance, then you need to practice sitting and standing in front of a mirror until it feels and looks perfectly natural, because you need to look comfortable and confident at the same time. Ideally, you should lean slightly forward in your chair, with your shoulders back, to demonstrate interest in the conversation. Don’t cross your arms or legs at the knees, as these are negative non-verbal cues, though crossing your legs at the ankles is perfectly fine. Don’t fold your hands in your lap if there is a desk in front of you or you will look like you are shrinking from behind the desk. In this position be sure to place at least one arm on top of the desk to establish a strong presence. Men should avoid spreading their legs out too far so that they don’t seem arrogant.
  

• Overcome Insecurity: Keep in mind at all times that you are an amazing asset that any employer would be lucky to have. Don’t be nervous. Just take a deep breath, and remember that the interview is to determine whether or not this job will be a good fit for both the employer and yourself. If the employer doesn’t extend an offer, then this person was not smart enough to work for in the first place. When it comes to confidence, feel free to fake it until you make it. If you wake up the morning of the interview with a giant pimple on the tip of your nose, you will need to stroll into that interview and rock that zit! Pretend in your mind that the pimple was personally designed for you by Gianni Versace himself, and that everyone who sees you will want one just like it. Employ any mind trick necessary to ensure that you put a little pride in your stride.
  

• Limit Your Gestures: Do not exaggerate your hand gestures or flail your arms about. Using artificial gestures to try to heighten the importance of an issue will merely come off as overly dramatic, the last thing any professional environment needs. Calm your arms down, and make sure all of your gestures are natural and meaningful.
  

• Avoid Fidgeting: Try not to tap or shake your foot, click your pen, or rock back and forth in your chair as though you need to use the restroom. If you annoy interviewers, or make them dizzy, you won’t get phone calls.
  

• Articulate Your Thoughts: Speak clearly, and do not mumble. Limit your use of fascinating words such as "uh," “um,” and “like.” If you don’t know what to say, take a few seconds to collect your thoughts and then respond.
  

• Practice, Practice, Practice: The best way to perfect your presentation during your interview is to practice until it becomes second nature. Practice in front of mirrors, video cameras, and friends. Once you are fully comfortable in these techniques, you can dedicate your focus to the actual interview questions.

Rules for Effective Resume Formatting

When formatting your resume it is important to highlight the most relevant information and design a visually pleasing document. Follow these rules to ensure a powerful impact.

Rule #1 – Keep the most important information first, and the least important information last:

The importance and relevancy of your information should be listed in descending order with the least relevant information at the bottom of the resume. Focus on the top third of the page, as this is the first, and often only, section hiring managers look at. Your most important and compelling information needs to be highlighted here. After an introductory statement or paragraph, you need provide the credentials that employers will be most interested in. Are you planning a career change? List your transferable skills in this section. Did you just earn your degree? Place your relevant education information in this section. Maybe you have a list of exceptional achievements you would like to highlight in this area, or maybe your current job is so important that you should just begin into your work history. Whatever the situation, prioritize your credentials and DO NOT save the best for last.

Rule #2 – Choose the best way to format your work history:

The three most common resume formats are Chronological, Functional and Combination. Chronological resumes list your professional experience in chronological order, starting with the most recent job first. In this case, your professional background would begin immediately after the introductory objective or summary because your best achievements and skills were demonstrated through a solid work history. This is the best format to use if you have enjoyed relevant and consistent employment with no significant gaps in between jobs. This is also a great format for demonstrating career growth if you have moved up through the ranks with each new job.

Functional resumes focus more on your skills by providing special categories in which to showcase them. A good strategy is to list different job functions of the position you are applying to (ex: Team Leadership, Office Management, Organizational Development, etc.), and write paragraphs or list accomplishments that support your expertise in those areas. By sectioning off and creating more content regarding your best strengths, you can shorten your work history significantly. This is a helpful technique for those who are seeking a career change, or for those who have gaps or inconsistencies in their work history.

Combination resumes combine chronological and functional formats. On some level (no matter how subtle), most resumes end up being a combination format. After the header there will usually be an introductory objective or summary paragraph, followed by a section that advertises specific skills or achievements, which is then followed by a chronological work history.

Rule #3 – Break up the monotony:

No one likes to read giant paragraph blocks or long bullet point lists. It’s overwhelming to look at and boring to read. Therefore be sure that your paragraphs and bullet lists don’t exceed six lines. When your entire resume looks like a bullet list with a couple of titles, add some paragraphs. If resume is nothing but paragraphs, be sure to add some bold titles and consider adding some bullet lists where appropriate. Mix it up to create visual interest.

One effective technique is to break up your job descriptions into two parts: day-to-day duties and achievements. Write out your duties in paragraph form, and highlight your achievements with bullets or bold face for maximum impact.

Rule #4 – Make sure the text fills the page appropriately:

Many people make the mistake of using left title formats or generic Microsoft templates for their resumes. The left title format, where you use almost a third of the left hand page to list titles or dates, is a good way to fill up page length when you don’t have enough content. Therefore this format is best suited for entry level candidates. If you have significant experience, you should use the entire width of the page to describe your background rather than adding pages unnecessarily.

On the other hand, be careful not to overload the page with text. Your resume should have enough white space to keep your text readable. To keep your document printable, frame all of your text (including the header and footer) appropriately by keeping all indents at least .5” wide.

Just remember that resumes are like snowflakes – no two are ever exactly alike. Make sure that you present your unique credentials in the most flattering way possible.

WHY GENERAL RESUMES DON’T WORK

These are scary times as entire industries seem to be collapsing all around us. Every day, we encounter job seekers who are fleeing the fields of real estate, finance, automotive sales, retail, and manufacturing. The problem is that most of these job seekers only know what they are running from without a single clue as to where they are running. Although this may be a good time to be flexible and explore all possibilities, your resume must always be clearly focused toward a specific goal.

Unfortunately, many job seekers make the mistake of relying on one resume to get interviews for different position types throughout several industries. This is almost always a losing strategy, because it only serves the purpose of being convenient to the job seeker, rather than focusing on the employer’s interests. There really is no such thing as an effective “general resume” for several reasons:

==> GENERAL RESUMES CAUSE CONFUSION

Each resume you send must be focused on the job you are applying to. If you don’t give the hiring manager a clear idea of your career goal, you will leave doubt about your level of professional focus. Employers are not career counselors who will carefully evaluate your skills and match you up with good jobs at their firms. HR representatives will not read through every detail of your resume and struggle to imagine how you will contribute to the job at hand. In fact, the initial screening of your resume will only take about 10 seconds. That’s all the time you have to make your point.

==> GENERAL RESUMES UNDERESTIMATE THE COMPETITION

Statistically speaking, HR offices will be accepting hundreds (these days, even thousands) of applications from other candidates who are hungry for the available position. If you are vague or unimpassioned, your resume will not normally pass the initial screening. So rather than worrying about the time, effort, and possible money involved in resume development, you need to think about your competition, which is now especially heavy in this economy.

==> GENERAL RESUMES PERFORM POORLY IN ELECTRONIC SCANNING

Most employers rely on scanning devices to locate your resume through online job sites or their own databases. Let’s say you are sending your resume to a sales position for a shoe manufacturer. The employers may search keywords such as “manufacturers’ representative” or “Nike Air” if they want to find candidates who have experience with their products or selling on behalf of manufacturing firms. When they conduct these searches, they will get good piles of two types of candidates, ones who have a lot of manufacturing sales experience and ones who don’t but are still selling themselves specifically to this opportunity.

A sales resume can avoid mentioning industries, though it’s still not the most successful process. By focusing on the skills, keywords, and achievements that are specific to selling, you may get your resume through the initial scannings. Still, if the initial scannings also pass 60 other resumes, the employers will scan again, using more targeted, industry-specific keywords to shrink the piles of resumes even further to just the resumes they’ll actually want to read. Ideally, you should target your resume to a job type and industry. Failing that, the resume should at least be clearly directed to a type of job.

SO BE SMART

Never, never, never rest on a general resume objective. If you just load up a resume with a bunch of strengths, it will impress few employers, bore the reader, and come across as “white noise” when compared with the hundreds of resumes that are currently following the same failing strategy. Today’s resume must sell you to a goal. If you don’t sell yourself towards a clear goal, then your resume may realistically be a waste of any time or effort that you put in.