Career Marketplace Blog

In this article from USA Today College, Billie Streufert breaks down the important elevator-pitch.

USA Today College, Your minute to win it: Elevator Pitch essentials – Read full article

Read an excerpt of Streufert’s article below.

Imagine running into the hiring manager of your dream job. Chances are you won’t be in an elevator. Perhaps you’re like Monica Geller from Friends. She was working as a waitress when a millionaire offered her a chef position. Don Draper of Mad Men was selling fur coats when he introduced himself to Roger Sterling. Chris Gardner from The Pursuit of Happyness was downtown attempting to sell a scanner, but he managed to share a cab with a Dean Witter executive.

No matter where you are, you will need to create and capitalize on opportunities to introduce yourself. Like Hollywood characters, you can stumble on job leads through planned happenstance. From the supermarket to job fairs, you should always be ready to introduce yourself.

The elements of your pitch are simple. Essentially, it serves as your verbal business card and contains the components of any good narrative.

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In this article from The Daily Muse, Jenny Foss writes, Unemployed? The Right (and Wrong) Way to Brand Yourself.

Read an excerpt of Foss’ article below. Read Full Article

I recently came in contact with a former technology executive turned job seeker. He was navigating a lengthy, frustrating job hunt, and not surprisingly, he was mad, depressed, and growing somewhat panicked.

I knew this about him before we’d even talked, because he’d been all over a couple of the LinkedIn Groups I follow, lambasting the world for not realizing how amazing he is.

But interestingly, when I actually talked to him—for as loud as he was coming across via social media—he didn’t seem at all confident in what he had to offer. He wasn’t clear on his target market. And he certainly wasn’t going out of his way to earn favor with the influential technology players in his city.

Instead, the unemployed job seeker was branding himself, all over the Internet, as a difficult, indignant guy who hated recruiters and hiring managers.

That’d be a prime example of how not to brand yourself when you’re unemployed.

So what does the other end of the spectrum look like? As terrifying as it may be when you’re out of work, this is no time to run for the hills or come undone. Instead, consider these key strategies to help you brand yourself well.

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In this article from Simply Hired’s Simply Blog, Tess Pajaron lists, 8 Inspiring Ways to Salvage a Negative First Impression on Your Job Interview.

Read an excerpt of Pajaron’s article below. Read Full Article

Let’s face it. The process of proving your worth against a pool of other candidates is an overwhelming task. While you know you have enormous potential and would be a great fit for the position, you don’t know what your competition is saying or doing to get their foot in the door.

You prepare, buy a new outfit so you can feel your best and walk into the room to face your potential future bosses with confidence. Suddenly, you freeze and everything you remembered about being on top of your game goes out the window. Now, you are left with the sad realization that your first impression in the interview for the job of your dreams was less than fantastic.

Many people struggle with the first few minutes of an interview. The nerves you experience alone are enough to throw off your natural talent and ability to present yourself well.

Fortunately, not all hope is lost. Here are eight ways you can redeem yourself from a negative first impression on your job interview. This can well be applied on face-to-face interviews as well as phone or Skype interviews.

Read more on the Simply Hired Blog

In this article from Lifehacker, Alan Henry explains how, FaceWash Makes Sure Your Facebook Profile is Clean and Interview-Ready.

Read an excerpt of Henry’s article below. Read Full Article

If the prospect of going back over years of Facebook posts to determine whether some of them should be hidden or photos untagged is daunting, webapp FaceWash can help. The service scans your posts, timeline, and tagged photos to make sure nothing incriminating is going on, and warns you if it finds anything.

Read On to find out how it works

In this article for the Huffington Post, Carolyn Thompson explains how colleges are helping students clean up for their Social Media image prior to their job search.

Read an excerpt of Thompson’s article, Google Yourself: Colleges Help Students Scrub Online Footprints, below. Read Full Article

Samantha Grossman wasn’t always thrilled with the impression that emerged when people Googled her name.

“It wasn’t anything too horrible,” she said. “I just have a common name. There would be pictures, college partying pictures, that weren’t of me, things I wouldn’t want associated with me.”

So before she graduated from Syracuse University last spring, the school provided her with a tool that allowed her to put her best Web foot forward. Now when people Google her, they go straight to a positive image – professional photo, cum laude degree and credentials – that she credits with helping her land a digital advertising job in New York.

“I wanted to make sure people would find the actual me and not these other people,” she said.

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In this article from the Simply Hired blog, learn how to “Field Curveball Interview Questions Like a Pro“.

Read an excerpt of Weiler Reynolds’ article below. Read Full Article

So you’re nearing the end of a job interview and so far, everything has been coming up roses. You’ve been able to show that you researched the company and its competitors and through your responses you’ve demonstrated that you clearly possess all of the requisite skills for the position. It seems like a job offer is imminent. But then your interviewer catches you totally off guard.

“What was the biggest failure of your career?” He asks, “and what would you do differently if you got a second chance?” Your palms begin to sweat. Your collar tightens. You didn’t have a chance to prepare for this one. How do your react?

That’s precisely what we employers are trying to judge. As someone who’s interviewed plethora of job applicants over the past twenty years, I’ve come to love curveball questions because they help me get a glimpse of a candidate’s true demeanor by forcing them to think on their feet. I’m not analyzing the answer you give so much as how you give it. With that said, here’s how you can answer these curveball interview questions like a pro.

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In this article from Forbes.com, learn the “4 Essential Questions to Ask At The End of a Job Interview“.

Read an excerpt of Weiler Reynolds’ article below. Read Full Article

“I am always surprised how some interviewees tend to trail off towards the end of an interview instead of finishing strong and leaving a lasting impression,” says Zachary Rose, CEO and founder of Green Education Services, a green jobs training firm in New York City. Whether you’re a senior preparing for campus recruiting or a recent graduate still hunting for a job, here are the top questions experts recommend asking at the end of a job interview to leave a great final impression on hiring managers and establish yourself as a top candidate.

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In this article from U.S. News & World Reports On Careers blog, Miram Salpeter describes how to “Make Your Body Language Work for You During an Interview”.

Read an excerpt of Weiler Reynolds’ article below. Read Full Article

You’ve been practicing what to say at an interview, but have you considered what signals your body language is sending? Research suggests up to 93 percent of communication isn’t transmitted via our words, but is broadcast through our actions and attitude.

Patti Wood, author of SNAP: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma, suggests the following tips to help you wow your interviewer:

In this clip from the classic comedy series, Seinfeld, George quits his job and wonders what he should do next.

Seinfeld – George Costanza ponders about potential jobs

In this article from the Undercover Recruiter, Jorgen Sundberg gives you, 9 Tips to Help You Impress Your Interviewer.

Tips from Sundberg’s article include:

• Ask questions
• Be Enthusiastic
• Work on your handshake

Read full article for more tips