If you’ve been made redundant and are following the traditional route of responding to existing vacancies without success, going for job interview after job interview without success is going to be demoralising !

If that’s you, you might find this post on Job interview questions (and how to answer them) really useful.

Tip:

Type Job interview questions and Job interview answers

into Google for loads more help

No point in getting to the interview stage and being floored by an unexpected question, is there?

Go for it!

Linda

Technorati Tags: Job interview answers, Job interview questions

It was interesting to get feedback from Redundancy – Survive and Thrive! the other day.

An extremely capable lady who’d been in continuous employment in different corporations for twenty years in the banking world since leaving school at eighteen until she was made redundant in December. We’ve precised the conversation here:

“Reading the book I realised that  it was the JOB that was redundant – not me!”

And what practical difference does that make?

• “It’s reminded me that I have a combination of experience and value that’s unique to me
• I’ve written down everything I liked about the jobs I’ve done
• And I’ve catalogued my achievements

What’s that done for you?

“I realise from the chapters on building your own business that I’m probably not cut out to be an entrepreneur so I’m matching my abilities to skills gaps that I know from my network are starting to show as a result of redundancy culls.”

So are you going for interviews?

“No. For now I’m targetting specific individual highly placed managers tasked with achieving performance levels in areas of my expertise that I know they are going to be struggling to meet.

They probably can’t recruit for permanent people yet they need help now before they slip so far behind they won’t have a hope of catching up.  I can provide that help.”

How are you progressing that?

“I’ve contacted about a dozen people and have several meetings lined up over the next three weeks. I’m confident that at least one assignment will come out of them. After that – who knows what will follow?”

That’s great! How are you feeling?

“Pretty da*ned good – thank you !”

Now let’s turn this story around and see how you can adapt and apply what this lady is doing to your own situation:

• What is your unique experience and value?
• What do you enjoy?
  
• What are your achievements?
• What can your network tell you and how it can help you?
• Who you can target and how can you help them?
  

If you really get stuck the book will help you…

Let us know how you get on…

Technorati Tags: Banking Redundancy, Redundancy Story, Redundancy Tips

Dye your hair if you want a job (A little light banter 16th January) was about altering appearance to look younger.

Yet it reminded me of a story I heard a few years ago about a guy who had his hair streaked grey.

He’d gone for several interviews with advertising agencies in senior creative roles and believed he was being rejected because he looked too young: That the hirers didn’t reckon he looked old enough to convince clients (and potential clients) that he enough experience to know what he was talking about.

The grey gave him the gravitas and (maybe equally importantly) the confidence he needed when meeting them for the first time.

Dunno whether it worked but, if you like he are a bit too baby-faced for the roles you’re going after, it might well be worth a go…

Meanwhile a bit of fun for the ladies (chaps can have a go, too but it’s a bit ‘girlie’): What’s your hair colour personality?

Technorati Tags: Look different, Look older, Look younger