So the first thing that you have to do is get your mind right. You don’t want to feel like you’re above going with an internship. That would just be silly. That just wouldn’t make sense. That would just be something that gets you into the wrong line of thinking. The truth is that companies interview thousands of people in their lifespan. So by the time you get there, they are looking at you in the perspective of everyone else. In other words, there’s nothing that they haven’t heard, and nothing that they haven’t seen. Don’t try to walk into a company thinking that you know everything. An internship, after all, is all about learning. An internship is a space where you get to make mistakes without having them cost you everything.

If you’re going to get a good internship, you need to think about the skills that you are bringing to the table. Have you run a small business in the past? Talk about it. Sharing your experiences can show them that you understand handling multiple tasks at one time. Even if you didn’t make money, it’s a lesson that will stick with you for a very long time.

Don’t be afraid to ask the company offering you an internship questions. That’s what they are there for. In fact, if you don’t get some answers to your questions, that’s a sign that they really can’t handle interns and you will not have a good experience.

Unfortunately, a lot of people think that they have to be completely fake and plastic, agreeing with whatever the company wants them to agree with. Those interns do not serve the company’s highest purposes either. You have to look at things from a different point of view in order to really make sure that you get things taken care of. Why wouldn’t you want to get things handled properly?

If you can help it, get a paid internship. This doesn’t mean that you’re going to necessarily get paid a lot of money, but it does mean that you will still be able to cover your bills. If you are going to go with an unpaid internship, it needs to be top notch. You want to go with a company that really has something that they want interns to do. That way, you will literally be able to get things moving forward.

What about the recommendation? You have to make sure that you are getting a solid recommendation from the company. This doesn’t need to take long to produce, and you can even give them a draft of what you would like to have said and just let them sign off on it. Either way, they’re endorsing you and that’s definitely a good thing.

It can be discouraging to get turned down from your first internship opportunity, but don’t let it get to you. In the world of entrepreneurship, there’s nothing that says that you can’t build your own internship needs through hard work and determination. Good luck!

The way you answer this question tells the interviewer three important things:

1.    Self-awareness: do you actually know what your weaknesses are? If your answer sounds hokey or generic, that tells the interviewer that you might not take criticism well, since you haven’t bothered to do much self-examination;

2.    Integrity: do you have the courage to admit your weaknesses to others? Again, canned answers raise red flags about trustworthiness and cooperation

3.    Confidence: do you believe in your strengths enough to take your weaknesses in stride? A neat answer wrapped in a bow tells the interviewer that you don’t have faith in your abilities.

So what’s the best way to answer a question about weaknesses? The most important thing is to be prepared. This doesn’t mean coming up with an answer you think will impress the interviewer. This means looking inside yourself and truly examining your weaknesses. What would you like to improve? Brainstorm several ideas and pick one weakness that you believe you can overcome. Then, brainstorm ways you have improved already and a plan to improve in the future.

For example, Max was interviewing for a position as a construction site manager. When he was asked about his biggest weakness, he answered without hesitation, “I can be difficult to work with because I tend to assume that I know best. In my last job, I learned this lesson the hard way when one of my crew tried to tell me that we had ordered the wrong materials for the job. If I’d listened to him, I wouldn’t have wasted nearly $1000 of my company’s money.”

Clearly, it took guts for Max to admit this major foul-up. The HR manager interviewing Max was impressed by his humility and honesty. She was even more impressed when he went on to say, “Now, I keep myself on target by asking for feedback on a weekly basis. That gives folks a chance to point out things I might have missed without it throwing me for a hoop.” You can use this approach to connect with the interviewer and leave an excellent impression.

The key is that you focus on how the weakness has hurt you in the past, and then go on to give specific examples of how you’re working on improving. It really helps if you can relate your story to qualities that are necessary to the specific job for which you’re interviewing.

Now that you know how to answer a question about weaknesses, you’ll never settle for the stale “perfectionist” or “work too hard” cop-out answer again!

You really don’t want to go down this road if you can help it. Make sure that when it’s time to actually be a good intern that you know what to do.

First and foremost, you will want to make sure that you actually have an idea of what job duties you’re going to be responsible for. A lot of people get hired as an intern and they only focus on the type of money that they’re going to make. Some interns actually get paid more than a regular person because the position really is so temporary and unstable. However, you shouldn’t let the amount that you get paid keep you from thinking about the type of duties that are waiting for you. If you already have a mentor assigned to you, then this is actually something that’s pretty easy. On the other hand, if you don’t have a mentor, you will want to talk with your supervisor. Make sure that the conversation isn’t cruel in any way — you really don’t want to start your professional relationships off on a bad note.

Overall, the key to being a good intern is just to do your job duties — and anything else around the office that needs tending to. A lot of interns balk at some of the work that they are asked to do, but the truth is that if that work doesn’t get done, it’ll be hard to actually prove that you have what it takes to actually stay there. As long as you focus on being an asset to the organization, you shouldn’t have any trouble moving forward — get started today!

Nervous yet? There’s really no need to panic when you don’t have to worry about it — you will be able to conquer the interview and set a good impression as long as you put a little strategy into the actions. For example, you will need to make sure that you have enough copies of your resume. If you show up with only one copy of your resume, you will leave at least one person without anything to look at. Even though you didn’t mean to, that will send the message that you’re unprepared, and no interviewer really wants to think that someone is going to be unprepared on the job. The way you carry yourself in the actual interview is going to say a lot about the way you take action on the job — at least from the interviewer’s perspective.

If you’re looking for them to tell you that you will be doing a group interview — don’t hold your breath. Most interviewers feel that you should come prepared no matter who you are going to face, and they will look for applicants that really rise above what’s expected of them.

Keeping these points in mind can make you look a lot more appealing to job interviewers — especially in a pretty competitive economy. You don’t want to just assume that there’s no reason to push forward — you’ll have a lot of eyes on you.

In order to make sure that you are doing your best, you should make sure that your answers are clear and to the point. Every story you tell should not only be truthful, but it should have some sort of underlying message that is related to the mission of the company that you’re applying for.

Can it be difficult to keep all of this in mind? Of course it can — that’s why you really need to make sure that you just hang on to your calm as much as possible — don’t let them see you sweat and you’ll be just fine!

When your career could use a little boost, it’s never a bad idea to attend a career networking event. The truth is that a lot of great jobs out there don’t focus on posting publicly — it’s done on a referral bass. You might think that it’s silly, but the truth is that it’s actually smarter to do this than you think. Why? It’s simple — if everything is done on a referral basis, than it’s up to the people that are in the know to refer the best people they know. It becomes a culture of reciprocity that breeds a lot more success than the regular “cold” advertisements. So if you’re thinking about jumping in headfirst, you really need to make sure that you put your best foot forward at the event.

The best thing that you can have on your side is actually a set of business cards. Remember that you’re going to meet a lot of people at an event, and it’s going to be impossible to keep all of the contact information straight. That’s where business cards and a good holder come in handy. You can give out your business card and then make sure that you collect some cards in return. If people think that all you’re about is just handing out your card, they won’t be receptive to doing anything for you.

As you can see, it’s really all about giving and receiving here. If you’re a taker, you won’t get any help. However, you don’t just want to be a giver — make sure that you’re getting something out of the deal as well and you’ll be all set!

A lot of people make critical mistakes when they are trying to change between jobs. First and foremost, they think that they can burn bridges at their old job since their new job looks so great. That might be tempting — especially if you feel like you’re not being treated well at your current job.

Yet there are a few reasons why you might not want to burn bridges too quickly. You see, you will need to make sure that you don’t burn bridges because you never know what the future will hold. That new job could easily turn into a nightmare situation where you want out — and the people at your old job might hold the keys to something a lot bigger, a lot better, and a lot brighter. Holding onto them isn’t a way to foolishly cherish the past over the future. It’s a way to protect your future from short term mistakes.

Now, this guide isn’t telling you that you should just blindly accept anything that your boss and coworkers want to dish out — you will still need to stand your ground. However, what you don’t want to do is end up boasting about the new job that you’re going to. You don’t really want to speak about money at work.

One of the things that can happen is that your employer might offer you an even bigger package to get you to stay. Sounds good, right? Well, not really. You see, if your employer realizes that the only way to make you stay loyal to them is more money, they might find other ways to hurt you — like passing you over for a promotion to a department that you really want. These days, moving laterally is better than moving to another organization.

If you really want to try to negotiate for more money, you need to make sure to do it with diplomacy in mind — that’s the real way to success, and you should keep that in mind as you really start looking at your future in greater and greater detail!

The identifying factors of the proper follow up are plentiful:

It should be short and to the point — you don’t want to spend a lot of time gushing about the job. Ask short questions, receive short answers, and thank the person for their time.

It should focus more on getting answers than trying to tell a sob story. You don’t want to make someone feel like they’re obligated to hire you. Even if you get your way, we can almost guarantee that you will not fit well into the company culture — especially if your origin story is revealed around the water cooler.

These two identifiers will be key, so make sure that you keep them in the back of your mind as you read this guide.

There are essentially three steps to building the perfect follow up.

First and foremost, you will need to make sure that you go back and read the original job description. You will want to make sure that the employer did not put the average turnaround time to hear from them in the ad, because this will make you look foolish if you aren’t careful. You will need to make sure that you give the employer enough time to call back everyone. Generally speaking, you can actually contact your prospective employer with a quick follow up about a week or so after your interview.

If they have indicated that they would prefer follow ups by email, you should send your original interviewer or the HR department the email. Make sure that you reference who you are, the job position that you’re applying for, as well as the date that you had your interview. Indicate that you were thankful for the job interview, and you would like to know the status of your interview as well as any next steps that you need to take.

From here, you will want to just sit back and wait. A big mistake would be to constantly hound the interviewer, especially as they’re trying to call back candidates and schedule second interviews. There are applicants that have found themselves out of the candidate pool because they have called the employer too much to ask the same question. When you’re hungry for your next job, it can be hard to wait. However this is a time that you will need to just have some patience. While you wait for your first choice job to call you back, it’s a great time to actually look at other jobs that might be an even better fit. After all, you won’t know until you try!

Finally, you will want to look at sending a thank you note to the interviewer directly if you can. It’s not something that’s required, but if you really want to leave a good impression, this is definitely one of the ways to do it.

At the end of the day, it can be hard to wait on the job that seems to right and so perfect. However, if you follow the tips in this guide, you’ll actually find that you’ll be getting a lot more positive phone calls from interviewers — get started today!

The scoop on workforce centers is pretty simple: it’s a center that uses federal and state funds to provide career training services and other necessary services. For example, everyone has had a job that’s asked them to fax something, or send something by email. But if you don’t have a computer how do you actually do this? This is where the workforce center comes in. Many local employers will use the workforce center’s meeting room to speak to candidates, and even hire on the spot. This is something that can really help you get a job in a hurry, especially if you really want to make sure that you will be able to take care of your existing obligations. It doesn’t get any easier to find a job when you’re trying to figure out how to get the resources you need just to be on the same level as everyone else, but it can be done. The key here is to think about what you need, and find it at the workforce center.

When you step into the workforce center, you will nee dot make your first step to talk with the receptionist behind the counter. They will be more than happy to give you a list of what that particular workforce center provides you, which will help you narrow down exactly what you want to do, and exactly what you don’t want to do. Over time, you’ll also pick up little unsaid things — like the best time to come if you need to use the computers. You don’t want to try to wait until the end of the day when everyone else is thinking about going to the computer lab as well. Long waits will generally make it a lot harder to get your job search parameters completed as you would like.

Using the workforce center is based upon courtesy and respect. Even if you have a walk in career center, you should make sure that you set up an appointment. The last thing that you want to do is take up a lot of time that other people need. Setting an appointment is more professional, and it will lead to a lot more progress for you on the whole. Your career counselor at the workforce center will be a lot more helpful and could even use their own personal network to help you get a job.

Overall, if you really want to get the most out of your job search, you definitely owe it to yourself to check out the local workforce center — you’ll be glad you did!

It’s a phrase that job seekers are starting to hear less of due to the uncertain economy around them, but the truth is that it’s still something interviewers and HR professionals will use with job candidates. It’s very frustrating when you don’t have a job to be told that you’re overqualified and that you will not be getting the position. However, if you’re in this position right now, it’s important to understand a few things.

First and foremost, you have to understand that a lot of employers realize that if you’re applying for a position lower than what your skills demand, there might b a few issues. Some employers feel that this is because you’ve been deemed incompetent, while other employers feel that you will just be biding your time before you actually get into a better position. You will nee to make sure that you step back and really understand what type of position you are applying for. Is it really below what you used to do, or is it simply a lateral move?

Another point that you will also need to think about is the power of your network. If you really want to overcome the overqualified label, you might want to let your friends and co-workers speak well of you. This is why references and recommendations are so powerful. It opens the door for the job interviewer to realize that the potential loss of not having you on staff is a big deal. You want them to feel like there’s no way that they should pass you up and this is definitely a good thing.

In order to really make sure that you have things under control, you might want to have you resume looked at by a career coach. For most people, a career coach is a lot of money to go towards something that isn’t guaranteed. However, when you’re trying to fight something like being deemed overqualified, you will need to use every resource that you have.

To be honest, one of the biggest resources that you will need is all in how you say things. If you practice smart positioning you will be able to move ahead of someone that makes the overqualified label a big deal. You don’t want to let the interviewer have first strike at this. You will need to set up your cover letter indicating why you really want the position. As long as you can make value statements, your chances of getting the job are much higher.

You have to think about the way businesses think. They want to make sure that you’re actually going to stay for a long time — even if you do want to change positions within a year. You will need to really stop and think about where you want to go, as well as what you want to accomplish within that position. Chances are good that ultimately you will find a job where the interviewer sees more than just past performance — they see someone that will make an excellent part of their organization!

Setting up a 30-60-90 day plan is pretty easy, because you are just laying out the things that you want to do within the first 30, 60, and 90 days of your time at the company. Yes, it’s assumptive that you’re going to get the job. This might make the interviewer think that you’re overconfident, which is why you will have to present the plan carefully. If you position it properly, the interviewer will see that you are simply coming in with a clear vision, which is seen as a good characteristic in an employee. You’re immediately focused on providing value, which is far different from the employee that feels entitled to have a job go their way all of the time. It’s about the organization, and coming in with that mentality from the beginning is a strikingly appealing quality.

Avoiding the Little Mistakes

Setting up your plan needs to be something that you do deliberately. It should read like something that is strategic form start to finish. Don’t focus on long paragraphs — your interviewer should be able to skim, skim, and skim. Long paragraphs require intense reading, and intense reading time is something that your interviewer just doesn’t have.

Bullet points with strong action verbs are really the key to making the 30/60/90 work. In addition, you will want to make sure that you’re being realistic. If you’re starting out in entry level management, you’re not going to be able to make big, sweeping changes. However, if you have a training program that you want to implement, you can note that there. Your position type will determine how much detail that you need to include with your plan. If you’re going for a more entry-level role, then you will need to make sure that you keep things shorter.

Presentation is Everything

Presentation is really everything when it comes to getting your plan noticed. You will want to make sure that you put it on clean resume-style paper with the font evenly spaced. Yes, your plan should be typed — a handwritten plan looks very unprofessional. Even if you want to make a notepad to go with your plan presentation, you should type that up as well. There’s nothing that looks more unprofessional than to watch a candidate that is otherwise qualified read from a bunch of folded up, scribbled on note cards. Keep things looking clean, and you’ll project a clean image.

Summary

You should definitely build a 30-60-90 day plan for positions like management and sales, where performance is going to be a huge factor. If you’re being asked to take on a position that involves leadership and delegation then you will definitely find that this type of plan immediately lets the job interviewer really see that you’re someone that can take care of business.