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Top Ten Interviewing Tips
- Get to the area where the interview will take place
early, and settle your nerves with a cup of tea or coffee nearby.
- Don't arrive too early. Most interviews run late,
so arriving about ten minutes in advance is sufficient.
- Once you're in the interview room, sit up straight
and stay clam.
- Be yourself. Once the interviewers are satisfied
with your skills, they'll be trying to find out more about you. If
you leave with out them getting a strong sense of your personality
(or at least your best attributes), chances are they won't remember
you when they make their final decision.
- Make appropriate eye contact. This doesn't mean
staring intently at your interviewers, but making sure they feel
like they're making contact with you. If you're being interviewed by
a panel, look at all of them.
- The interview isn't just about you being
questioned. It's also a chance for you to ascertain whether or not
the company is suitable for you. If you're asked if you have any
questions about the company, think of something which hasn't already
been covered in the interview. If you don't have any questions, say
no rather than making up something which sounds vague.
- Ask for permission to take notes during the
interview
- LISTENING! Usually, the best motivator for a source
is your complete attention
- Be direct and honest
- Be modest, even look naive if need be - nobody
wants to talk to a "know-it-all"
Top Ten Networking Tips
- Business Cards
Print business cards with all of your contact
information, including e-mail and Web site address and make sure you
carry them with you at all times. You never know who you might meet
and where you might meet them. Always collect the business cards of
the people you meet or make sure to get their contact information.
You can't always count on others to get in touch with you, so if you
have their information, you're in control of the contact. Make a
note on the back of the business cards you collect to remind you
about your conversation with the person, who they are, what they can
do for you or what you can do for them.
- Follow Up
There is nothing more important to expert
networkers than the Art of Following Up. Once you collect business
cards at an event, make sure you send a letter, card, fax or e-mail
to the people who you'd like to be a part of your network. If you
promised to send them something, then send it in a timely manner. If
you were hoping to get something from them, a friendly note saying
how nice it was to meet them and thanking them in advance for
whatever it was they said they would do is a good way to both remind
them as well as to stay in touch.
- Organize Your Contacts
Nothing is more valuable to an expert
networker than a well-organized Rolodex or electronic contact
manager. Each of us has our own way of remembering the people we
meet. Make sure you add some reminders on each entry such as a
description of what the person looks like, their hobbies, bits of
your conversations with them, anything that will jog your memory
when you are flipping through your Rolodex or when they contact you
and fail to remind you who they are.
- Join
Investigate networking groups and associations
related to your business or area of interest and attend a few of
their events. If you find the events to be interesting and
productive, invest in joining the organization. Although you never
know where your best networking contacts will come from, chances are
some of your best contacts will come from groups of people who share
your interests or have complimentary businesses or skills.
- Attend
Check your local newspapers or magazines to
see what social events or educational events are taking place. Try
to attend at least one or two events a month with the goal of
meeting at least two or three people at each event and collecting
their business cards. Attending seminars, workshops and panels can
prove to be both valuable as networking situations as well as
helpful since you might learn something new.
- Stay in Touch
Almost more important to following up with the
people you meet is to find creative and non-intrusive ways of
staying in touch. If you know that someone you have met is
interested in a particular topic such as technology and education,
why not send a clipping of that article you just read about that
very topic? It just takes a minute to mail the clip or even fax it
with a short note saying that you thought they might be interested
in the article. Now you are back at the top of their mind and
they'll be more likely to remember you when you decide to call them
for future networking.
- The Electronic Business Card
E-mail communications have become a popular
way to stay in touch with people and is perfectly acceptable if
someone gives you a business card with their e-mail address on it.
If you are sending e-mail or even if you are posting messages in
forums on the Internet, make sure to include your contact
information in your Signature File. A Signature File (or Sig File)
is a file you can access in most common E-mail programs that allows
you to permanently enter your contact information, a brief closing
message, your Web site address or anything else you'd like to have
appear at the bottom of your e-mail every time you e-mail someone.
The best use of a Sig File is to put your e-mail address and Web
site address and any other contact information that you'd like
someone to use to reach you. With a Sig File, you don't have to type
it over and over again.
- Organize Your E-mail Address Book
Your e-mail program should have a way for you
to organize your email addresses, so take advantage of this feature.
E-mail addresses have become just as useful as telephone numbers, so
having them well-organized will prove valuable to your online
networking. Some E-mail Address Books also have a feature where you
can create "Groups." For example, you can create a group
for "Local Media" and include the email addresses for all
of the local reporters you meet. Then if you have a reason to email
a press release, you can quickly select the group and your email
will be sent to everyone within that group. This feature is like
sending a broadcast fax.
- The Electronic Follow-up
Have a pre-written follow-up email that
excerpts important information from your regular business brochure
so you can quickly send your company information, when appropriate,
to the people you meet. Remember to keep all of your e-mail
correspondence with people as brief as possible and to always
mention in the first sentence who you are and where you met so the
recipient knows that you aren't sending unsolicited information.
- Digital Networking
There are several ways to network exclusively
online. First, you can attend live chat events on particular topics
such as an evening for entrepreneurs or a chat related to your
business or industry. If you have a conversation online with someone
in a chat room, remember to follow up as if you had met them at a
real world networking event. Also, visiting Web sites related to
your areas of interest and sending a short, introductory email to
the creator or manager of the Web site is a good way to begin a
dialogue. People put up Web sites to get their information out there
and to hear back from other people, so it is perfectly acceptable to
email someone via their Web site.
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