Skye Recruitment's Aaron takes silver at Corporate Games

Skye Recruitment consultant, Aaron Williams (pictured, left, receiving medal), made us all very proud this weekend by winning a silver medal in the Queensland Corporate Games squash championship.

This year the Corporate Games had 4940 entrants, from 145 companies, and participation in the Games helps to raise funds for the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.

David Berritta from Skye (pictured, below right) also entered the squash championship this year, and played some great games before being knocked out at the group stage.

We would like to say a big congratulations to both Aaron and David for doing so well. Here's to gold next year!

Employers: Your new hire's first anniversary

Congratulations!

Your new recruit has lasted the course, and you're thinking about the annual appraisal and what matters need to be discussed – and what questions may be asked of you. This will need some serious advance preparation, especially if there are any negative issues to deal with, or you are planning a change of role for the employee.

We must also keep in mind that your new member has worked hard just to be able to last out the year. They have got to know, and become co-workers with, people who were strangers, found their way around the workplace, learnt not only what their job is but also the company way of doing things, and may also have undergone training.

So here, in no particular order, are some thoughts that, we hope, are helpful in creating the right parameters for the first annual review. And, as you will see, many of these are relevant throughout any period of employment, simply because they represent good, sensible, commercial practice:

Firstly, have a look at our blog Love your Staff, dated 18.8.2010. The suggestions made in that are basic common sense, but they work and demonstrate that the company actually cares about its workers and wants them to stay.

Secondly, about two weeks before the review you should arrange for the 'reviewee' to have a copy of the assessment agenda, both to prepare them for what is to come and also for them to flag any points that may be particularly important to them. You can ask to see a copy of their notes, say, a week before the meeting, and it can be a salutary lesson, for both sides, to each to see the employee through the other's eyes. This is an opportunity for both sides to negotiate an agreement about the qualities and shortcomings of the employee, and how the shortcomings (if any!) can be overcome. You also get the chance not only to be proactive, but to be seen to be proactive in dealing with these issues.

It is important that, from the start of the review, the employee is told that he or she is free to raise any issues, whether good or bad, and that any concerns will be treated seriously. (Serious issues or complaints should, of course, be dealt with in a separate meeting). In particular, there should be no fear of any reprisal as a result of what is said. The idea is to create an environment, for an hour or so, during which candour and honesty are encouraged. Only then are you likely to find out what the employee really thinks and feels, and the employee will leave the interview feeling that they, and their views, are actually wanted and respected. Never forget that the new recruit that you hire can, in some circumstances, rise to senior management, and how you treat the employee may well shape how that future employer treats their staff.

You are the one to open, and control the conduct of, the review meeting. By doing this, you will retain control of the agenda you have in mind and so can ensure that you say everything that you need to say, be it good or bad. The reviewee should never be allowed to assume control of any part of the discussion, because to do so will encourage them to feel that they have more power than, in reality, they do, and you will find it difficult to turn the conversation back to your agenda.

Despite the above, you should at all times, even (especially?) if the discussion turns awkward, treat your reviewee with respect and with sensitivity. The fact that you employed them in the first place is enough in itself for them to be treated with respect, never mind any other qualities or achievements they may have displayed. And, for all you know, during the last year they may have been bullied, or suffered a bereavement, or be having any number of other personal issues. You will never know unless you give them the opportunity to open up to you, and you will then never have a chance to help them return to being a 100% member of the team.

When it comes to pay and conditions, you must be scrupulously fair not only with the person you are reviewing but also with the whole of the group or section of people with whom they are working. Nothing is likely to sow the seeds of discontent more than to know that you are being paid less than someone else directly comparable with you for exactly the same work. So it makes sense to tailor the pay award, assuming the reviewee is satisfactory, to what you can justify bearing in mind that the employee will have a fair picture as to how successful their work has been, and that of his or her section of the operation. That award must also, of course, reflect commercial reality, especially if there is a shortage of a particular skillset, but the actual pay that is paid can be adjusted through performance adjustments which have the advantage that, unlike pay, they can (and should) go up and down at short notice if they are assessed at frequent intervals.

In times of shortages of skilled workers, the workers themselves will have a very clear idea of their scarcity, and value to their employer. This can lead to inflated claims about headhunting approaches, to encourage you to pay more than, perhaps, you want to. Before the review takes place, it can make good sense to have a word with your recruitment company regarding current pay levels. The recruiters will have much more experience than you of pay levels around the country and can help protect you from being exploited.

Communication. There are two aspects to consider here:

• Your communications with the employee should be clear, concise and as unambiguous as possible. By cutting out the 'waffle', you will help to shorten the review (time is money!), and you will give the employee fewer opportunities to misunderstand or misconstrue what you are are saying. You will also create fewer opportunities for unwanted side-tracking and, by keeping a tighter rein on the words that you use, you will reduce the chance of saying, or revealing, something that you didn't intend.
  
  
• The review is a good opportunity for you to stress to the employee that it is very important to keep the lines of communication open, both ways. It is only by doing this that any criticisms or other issues can be dealt with, before they start to fester, and new ideas or approaches can only be considered if there is a friendly and non-critical way in which these can be communicated up the line.

You may be considering a promotion for your reviewee, or a move to a different position. This will introduce a new element to the discussion, as you may need to 'sell' the benefits of the change to the employee. It may help to look at what really motivates your employee: things such as pay, the benefits package, regular trips home (if appropriate) and so on are nice but they are not necessarily good motivators, as so many workers assume that they will have these benefits anyway, almost as if they were an integral part of the pay package. However, personal satisfaction is, generally, a really good motivator and has the considerable advantage that it can be offered at little if any financial cost to the company.

Well, we touched upon this in February's blog “What do your staff want, exactly?”. If you can find a way to give someone 'ownership' of an aspect of their work – in other words, full freedom and control (within reason) as to how they do a task, or in what order they do their tasks, or are able to come up with creative solutions to problems, etc – they will most likely rise to the challenge because they have been trusted and respected enough to be able to work in the way that they want to, and with the support of their senior staff. In a sense, you will be appealing to the basic qualities of selfishness and self-aggrandisement that are present in all of us, but in a way that benefits both the company and the individual.

Another aid to assessing the employee is the 'reverse role-play' technique. Sometimes used in the promotion board setting, it can also be used, one to one, in the appraisal setting just to help you get a better idea of how the employee thinks on their feet, how creative they can be and how well they cope with reacting spontaneously. 

Most importantly, by the end of the meeting both you and the employee should feel better, and better-informed, and there should be an acceptance of the main points that have been discussed, and how outstanding matters are to be dealt with.

As always, it is vital to record all salient matters in writing for your records (you never know if these are going to be looked at by a court at some point in the future), and for preference a copy should be handed to the reviewee, and a further copy to be signed and dated by him/her and retained as part of the staff records. No one can then argue with what was discussed or agreed on the day.

Of course, we cannot pretend that this is a comprehensive list of the do's and don't's in a review setting, but we hope you have found this interesting. As always, we at Skye Recruitment are always happy to help with any queries or problems you may have.

Employers: Getting off to a good start with your new hire

In recent posts, we've looked at the developing relationship between you, the employer, and your new employee. You've each weighed up the other, found that this is a relationship that you want to continue, and you've tied the knot with the contract. So how do you make sure things get off to a good start?

First impressions count for a lot. We have discussed the first impressions that someone will have when visiting your company for an interview and meeting staff for the first time. However, there are more 'firsts' to come, and there are some things you can do on someone's first few days with the company which will shape their impressions of you, and these can be the difference between them going home and saying "What have I done?" or (preferably) "I made the right decision to join."

1. Before the new employee arrives to start work, you should designate someone from the team with which they will be working to act as a mentor. The mentor should be briefed as to the extent of of his or her responsibilities, but these will always include the initial 'hand-holding', whilst the employee gets to know the ropes, and to act as an ongoing, friendly, point of reference. In particular, the new recruit should not feel that the mentor is there to judge, or to feed information back to management. Of course, this will happen, but it should neither come over, nor be, the main purpose of the mentor's role.

2. Management should have in place some form of induction programme. This will comprise a point-by-point written plan of all the aspects that have to be covered with an employee, and the timescale within which these aspects have to be dealt with. If there are points that cannot be dealt with in one go (reading the office manual comes to mind!) then timescales should be indicated, and each point should be signed off and dated by the mentor or other relevant person when completed with the new recruit. 

3. When your new employee arrives, ensure someone (which may be a manager, mentor, or an administrative or HR team member) is there to greet them and take them into a private room. After the 'welcome to the company' introduction, this person should deal with any initial paperwork that may be needed from the employee (visas, licences, medical data, etc.) and hand over any necessary confirmation of engagement letter and staff contract. These will confirm, among other things, the nature of the employee's duties, the nature of their employment (full time, part time, etc.) the pay and benefits package already agreed, and any provisions for review or alteration of these, holidays, etc.

There should be no surprises here for the employee, but it is vital to ensure that there are no misunderstandings on either side. If there are, these will soon fester and may well create problems later on. That is why it is always appropriate to invite the new recruit to take the contract away to study before signing it (which, all being well, you will have already done prior to them starting work with you).

 4. Incidentally, please don't forget to hand over the Fair Work Information Sheet – and log the fact that you have done so. You could even get the employee to sign an acknowledgement to say that it has been received.

5. After the meeting, the mentor should make a record of the salient points of the conversation, note what documents were passed over and identify any matters that need to be followed up. Two benefits, in particular, should arise if the above procedures are followed: the employee should be impressed, and pleased, that they have joined an efficient and open business, and you should feel happy that, if things do go wrong, you have done all you can to be fair to the employee and you have the necessary paperwork to prove this.

 The next stage, of course, is to introduce the employee to the group with which they will be working. The mentor or manager should tell everyone the name of the new recruit, and should impress upon all concerned the need to create a pleasant and welcoming environment for their new team member. If possible the mentor or manager should stay with the group for a little while, or nominate one of the group to take over the role, just to ensure that the pleasant and welcoming environment remains that way. After a while, the internal dynamics of the group will, or should, see the new person successfully absorbed, but you do need to give them a fair chance to achieve this.

What happens next? Well that, of course, depends very much on the employee and their ability to assimilate into the business culture and the competency requirements of the new position. If anything, the latter is slightly less important, because knowledge or job-specific gaps can (within reason) be filled by appropriate training. But if the employee can't assimilate properly, then real problems of morale and dissent can arise, leading to personal frictions and reduced work efficiency. So, for the moment, let us leave the new employee and the existing team to adjust to each other. There is more work for us to do a little further down the line, and we'll be talking about that next time.

Celebrating at Sirromet

At Skye Recruitment we have just celebrated our biggest ever quarter in style at Sirromet Winery with an excellent lunch and a selection of their fine wines.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our clients for making this possible and this quarter we are aiming to do an even better job for you.

 

Employers: The Interview Process

If you have been reading the last few blogs (and if not, why not?!), you will have gained some insight into how to prepare yourself for the interview process. We have suggested how to present yourself, how to deal with the question and answer process, how to conduct yourself throughout and so on. This has been all about how you present your wares to the customer, but what, actually, does the customer want?

The customer, of course, is the potential employer and he or she will have very specific ideas (and, to be fair, personal views) about what the ideal employee will bring to the company. Each side needs to come away from the interview process feeling better than they did before. If they do, then employment is likely to follow. And to help in the process, the rest of this blog is directed toward the employer, i.e., the interviewer.

One problem for companies is that, in times of expansion, a large number of new staff may be needed, but the basic skill set required of a new employee may be suitable for several different positions. The interviewer will therefore need to be well briefed by management as to the intended structure of the new, enlarged, workforce and how the different parts will inter-relate. Only then can the interviewer devise an interview strategy, to enable him or her to identify the candidates that are needed.

Before the interview takes place, the interviewer will have seen the CVs for the various candidates, and initial judgements will, inevitably, be made. Hopefully, he or she will also have read our blog 'The lies that job-seekers tell', dated 25.9.2010.

Of course, each candidate will have polished their CV, often with the help of a recruiter, and whilst CVs are often fairly uniform in style, they can still reveal much useful data, often as much by what they don't say as by what they do.

For instance, you can immediately be suspicious of a work history that has gaps in it and, if the candidate is in other respects attractive enough for you to offer an interview, then you are entitled to, and must, ask probing questions until you are satisfied that you have the full picture.

How should you, as the interviewer, deal with the candidate during the interview/s? Always with propriety, of course, and always bear in mind that, in the candidate's eyes, how you behave is how the company will behave if they get the job. Indeed, in some ways you are the biggest advert for your company during the interview, and whilst the candidate will not necessarily be drawn to the company by your display of courtesy and so on, any rudeness or indifference from you will certainly tell the candidate that yours is not the company to join.

So, here are a few basic points for you to think about:

• Make sure you have done your research on the interview process itself. Increasingly, companies are having to broaden their approach and be flexible over what they want from the candidate, simply because an expanding jobs market makes it more difficult to get the traditional 'right fit'. You therefore have to look more innovatively at the skill and character sets required because, if you don't, you will find it difficult to keep people in their new jobs. And we all know how much time, money and effort is involved, and therefore wasted, in hiring and training someone who doesn't last the course.

• When you schedule the interview, stick to the date and time unless you absolutely have to change it. If you keep re-scheduling, at best you look disorganised. At worst, you look both rude and uninterested.

• If you receive any pre-interview phone calls or emails from the candidate, you must answer them, for exactly the same reasons.

• If you find that the CV is hard to read, or that it contains significant spelling or grammar mistakes, beware! Remember that this should be the candidate's best attempt to convince you to employ them and, if it really is the best the candidate can produce then what problems are you likely to have when you employ them?

• Just as you will expect a candidate to be courteous toward you, during the interview, so too will the candidate expect similar consideration from you. In particular, be careful to make sure that your questions are relevant, and do not stray into the realms of the over-familiar or inappropriate. In any event, some topics are a definite 'no go' area, such as those dealing with marital status, sexual orientation and the like, and the legal ramifications are both well-known and, potentially, severe.

• If you ask a question, listen to the candidate's answer! Candidates should be well-prepared, but they are sometimes keen to demonstrate their familiarity with key words and phrases, and will sometimes 'twist' their answer to make sure that these words and phrases are included. So if you hear phrases such as “corporate values”, “leadership style”, “team commitment” and so on, you may need to probe a bit deeper, just to ascertain what the candidate's true feelings and motivations are.

• Candidates will, of course, be nervous during the interview and this is good because it helps them to focus better on what is required. Because of nerves, however, candidates will often make a mistake of some sort. This doesn't matter, but it does give you a chance to see how well they recover from the mistake. You will then get a better idea of the candidate's real mettle, and how they are likely to perform in a real-life situation.

• The well-prepared candidate will anticipate that behavioural or situational questions are likely to form part of the interview, and many will have prepared themselves by thinking of examples of past achievements and unique selling points. This need not negate value of this approach, however, especially if you ask some 'what if?' questions (for example, you can describe an imaginary incident and ask “ what if this situation came up? How would you deal with it? What knock-on effects would follow from your actions and how would you deal with those?”)

• Try asking a candidate what they identify as their major weakness, and how they have dealt with this. Ideally, a candidate will be able to demonstrate that, in identifying and then overcoming the weakness, they have become stronger and/or better in some way. This will be another indicator as to how they will conduct themselves in their work, and how they deal with problems.

• In some cases, especially at second or subsequent interviews, role-play can be very helpful. It not only puts candidates into a 'real life' situation, as far as your business is concerned, but it also highlights how they deal with people who may well be part of the team for which they may be working, how they fit into the company's ethos and how adept they are at coping with spontaneous situations under pressure.

We have now reached the end of this series of blogs, and very much hope that you have found it useful and thought-provoking.

If there is anything that we haven't covered, or you would like more detail on anything we have mentioned, then please contact us at Skye Recruitment – we're always happy to help.

Is your application outdated? Job hunting in a modern world.

It may be that you are looking for your first job and relying on advice from parents, teachers, books, or online sources on how to go about it.

It may be that it has been some time since you last looked for a job. Perhaps you are looking to get back into the workforce, or perhaps you find yourself suddenly looking for a new job after a long stint with one employer.

The recruitment world has changed. And, like a lot of change, most of this has happened stealthily and quite unobtrusively. Below are listed some of the biggest traps that will instantly make your application look out of date.

Address

We used to start covering letters with polite addresses such as 'Dear Sirs' or 'To whom it may concern.' This can now be the very thing that puts a potential employer off hiring you.

What was once seen as mannerly is now viewed by many as indicative of laziness. Hirers usually prefer to be addressed by name and, if you don't know the name, there are many tools at your disposal to find out. The professional networking site LinkedIn can be a great help here, and even calling reception to ask is preferable to an impersonal address.

Language

Language is continually evolving, and there are several words and spellings that are rarely used any more. We don't usually put a circumflex or accent over French words that have been adopted into common English usage any more - such as role, or resume. You may argue that the latter now reads as "rezhoom" and the meaning is unclear, but context usually means that it is very obvious which version is intended.

We don't often say "I would like to work at your firm" when referring to a business. We tend to say 'business' or 'company', or use the company's name instead.

It is a tricky balance to get right - especially if, when you last hunted for a job, many of these things were the 'right' thing to do, both in terms of grammar and etiquette. We now prefer a more relaxed style, but the emphasis is still on professional conduct - just eschewing some of the more formal practices.

Listing tasks on a CV

Surely that's how you write a CV? You have your job title, company, and dates, and then you write bullet points with your main tasks and responsibilities on them, all in a list. No.

A good CV SHOULD contain bullet points. You only have 2 pages (no epics here, please) and that means they're a good way of breaking up big blocks of text. However, if I am recruiting a consultant to work for us, I do not need to see the job description of Recruitment Consultant wasting valuable space under each job heading (Responsible for client relationships, advertising, etc.). I know what one does. What can YOU do? What did you bill? Why should I hire you? List achievements that are relevant to your next job - not the duties that I would expect someone in your position to do.

Irrelevant information on CV

Do not list your age, marital status, or religion. All are irrelevant and can open you up to discrimination. Do not list family member's names, your height/ weight (unless directly applicable to the job), your hobbies, or casual/ irrelevant jobs. If you are applying for a senior management position then you do not need to list your Saturday job. I am more interested in why I should hire you, than whether you like reading and playing golf.

Only applying to a vacancy

This is how we used to find jobs. We would scour the paper/ hear of an opening somewhere, and write a letter with our application.

The modern world of recruitment is more fluid than that. Social media has had an impact, as it is easy to be connected to anyone in just a few clicks. You can now look on the internet to find your dream company, see who manages which areas, and contact them speculatively without a job ever being mentioned.

Most companies use recruitment agencies to find them staff. If you are only applying to individual jobs that are advertised then you may miss out on a lot of opportunities that are not advertised. A good recruiter will be able to put several opportunities in front of you, and take the hard work out of knowing who to contact. They will already have relationships with all the companies in your field, so you are immediately ahead by talking to them. Just make sure you find a good one! Recommendations from companies can be a great place to start.

Discrimination

We used to use 'he' to refer to either sex. E.g., "When meeting the interviewer, he will shake your hand." That would refer to either sex. It was less clunky than 'he or she' and use of a plural 'they' when referring to a singular was thought (by some) to be undesirable. Now it is thought of as sexist and outdated. So what do you write?

Where possible you can reword the sentence to make it smoother. Using 'he or she' is fine, but can be arduous if used repetitively. Use of 'they' is actually okay on the grammar front, and was once used commonly. Whichever you decide, don't assume that 'he' or 'sirs' includes the female equivalent.

So now I'm more confused than before

And what if I commit some terrible faux pas, when I'm only trying to be polite?

Well, there is no way that any of us can guarantee that we won't do that but, as the adage goes, forewarned is forearmed.

Try to use plain English where possible. Keep it simple, and think about what you want to communicate. Give the hirer a reason to want to meet with you. Speak to recruiters and ask their advice. A recruitment consultant will proof read your CV for you, and offer advice if there are changes to be made. Be sensitive of discrimination issues.

Good luck, and don't be afraid to ask questions!

Jobseekers: The interview (part 2)

Now, at last, you're in the interview room, and all that preparation can start to pay off. In 'Interview Tips' have a look at the section headed 'During the Interview', where you'll find some good and useful tips.

The relationship between you and the interviewer can be an uneven one. Your interviewer may well be formally trained in their role as interviewer – you have no formal training as a job applicant. And, he or she may have the job you want.

So it is important to try to establish a rapport with the interviewer – and you want them to establish a rapport with you as well. This involves finding, and developing, areas of common ground, but you have to discover exactly what the interviewer wants to see, so that you can build on it to your own advantage.

Perhaps he or she wants to see your passion for the job, or your loyalty, maybe your technical or interpersonal skills. Whatever it is, you need to find it. The interviewer's business needs someone to fill a vacancy and, on meeting you, they really want you to be that person. Interviewing is costly for a company, and most interviewees start the interview already having the job. You keep it or lose it over the course of the interview. You have to present yourself in such a way as to convince them that the search is over.

However, you must resist any temptation to lie, or significantly embroider the truth. Nor should you pretend to know what you don't know. Lies will always catch up with you, and honesty can be disarming. If you don't know the answer to a question, try saying something like “I'm sorry, I just don't have an answer at the moment. Can I get back to you in 5 minutes/ a day when I've had more time to think?” The interviewer will be impressed by your honesty and unwillingness to be forced into an instant answer – but you do, of course, have to follow through with your answer! And, in reality, there should be very few questions to which you cannot provide an answer. You have prepared for this moment, but won't look as if you have if you keep saying “I don't know ...”

Many interviews are based around behavioural or situational questions. The theory is that past behaviour (in a candidate) is a good guide to future work performance. This leads on to three particular types of question for which you should be prepared:

1. What have you achieved? Here we want details, backed up by documentary proof if possible, of what you have done, of significance, over the last few years, what significance your actions had for the employer at the time and how these actions demonstrate relevant core strengths that you can bring to your new job;

2. What is/are your unique points/s? You need to identify what makes you stand out from the herd, and where you can add significant positive value to an employer. You also need to work out how best to communicate this, both in the CV and the interview;

3. Tell me about a time when this (situation) happened. What did you do? What would you do in a particular hypothetical situation? What have you done previously in a particular situation?

We've already stressed the need to prepare for your interview/s, and to do your research. But you also need to beware the trap of being over-prepared. On the internet you can find a lot of advice about how to answer different types of interview questions, and some of this advice may be very sound.

However, interviewers commonly report a high level of stock answers to questions, and these are not what an interviewer wants to hear. They would much rather hear about you, even if your own, personal, answers are less 'perfect' than the stock answer. After all, the company will be hiring you, not the stock answer!

When you think the interview is over, it isn't! You remain on view and under scrutiny, potentially until you can no longer see the company premises. So, you should behave with decorum (no smoking, down-dressing, etc) until you are certain that no-one from the company can see you and, therefore, report back to your interviewer with an adverse comment.

When you get back home, sit down, relax and write down as much as you can recall of the interview, any follow-ups that are needed, any aspects that you think could have gone better, and so on. Use the notes you made in your notebook during the interview to help you with this.

So it's all over now, and you can just sit back and wait for your recruiter to deluge you with offers.

Wrong!

You may not have been the only person to shine in an interview, and the company might want you to undergo a second interview. This is really good news (OK, not as good as a job offer) because it shows you have successfully negotiated the initial hurdles and have been shortlisted for the position.

Also, a second interview will give the company a chance to assess you in more detail, perhaps by including, as part of the interview team, other people such as more senior staff, or staff with whom you may have to work if you get the job.

So now is the time for you to re-appraise your first interview. You know it went reasonably well, because if it hadn't you wouldn't be getting another one. But the first meeting will not have been perfect, and you need to be self-critical, albeit realistic, about what took place as you can learn from this analysis to do better second time around. That, of course, is one of the reasons for preparing your notes after the interview.

When the date of the next interview is getting close, do some fresh research on the company and its market. Things can change very quickly, in the commercial world, and the fact that you are aware, and remain aware, of current events can only impress those whom you need to impress.

If, at the next interview, other people are to be present then you should be told about this in advance, and you should have some idea of who they are and their status within the company. It will not be so easy to establish a rapport if more interviewers are present, but you should try to prepare some questions for everyone who is there (we suggest that broadly-based questions, rather than those addressed just to one individual, are preferable) so that you have a chance to demonstrate your ability to mesh in with a team of people, and that you can adapt to the prevailing culture within the business. This is also an opportunity for you to assess the image the company is presenting to you – is this an environment in which you would like to work, if given the chance?

All the same do's and don'ts apply to a second interview as to the first. In particular, you should not appear to be over-confident – you are just as much under judgement this time as you were last time. And don't forget to maintain the dress code, because you still have to impress the interviewer to get any further with your application.

The final comments on this part of the process involve what not to say during the interview, and we can do no better than suggest you look at our blog entitled 'What not to say in an interview', dated 23.2.2010. There is nothing complex here, just good common sense on how to avoid some basic blunders, so that the interviewer can concentrate on all the good aspects you're presenting.

If you've followed all of the suggestions in this series of articles, you, with the help of your recruiter, should have little difficulty in securing one or more job offers.

However, you might want to read the next (and last) in this present series, which is addressed more towards employers and how they can (or should) deal with the interview process. That will give you a different perspective on the process, and perhaps more of an insight into what will be required of you.