Friday, September 13, 2019

How to interview on Skype



Fact: Skype is used not only for employment of nonresident candidates. Despite the obvious shortcomings of online interviews, eychars use remote methods of interviewing to work with “local” ones.

First of all, this is a rational approach to the organization of working time. Especially when it comes to mass hiring. Skype will help you quickly and accurately conduct the initial selection.

How to prepare an employer for an online interview
Start with the main thing - agree with the candidate on the exact date and time of the Skype interview, exchange contacts in advance.

Before the conversation, read the resume, test results again and prepare questions. All information about the candidate should be at hand, so put the printouts in front of you so that you don’t have to spend too much time sorting through the papers on the air.

In a few minutes "before" check the technical side: stability of connection to the Network, sound, picture. Take care of the room - only you should be in the room. Also pay attention to the background - remove distracting objects.

Stages of Skype Interview
The etiquette of the remote interview is not much different from the usual interview, but there are some features. So, here are 3 main steps.

Stage 1: communication setup

After the greeting, the technical communication is set up: as you can see, as you hear - possible interference is eliminated. Everything, you are ready to talk. Try to set up the interlocutor in a friendly manner, help the candidate to relax - ask to tell a little about yourself. Keep eye contact, although it is not easy when communicating on Skype.

Stage 2: main

After a short contact, go to the main questions: about skills, competencies, work experience, plans and further on the list. As a rule, this stage is the longest, but do not get carried away. Stick to the time frame - 10-15 minutes is enough.

Stage 3: final

Leave the last 5-7 minutes of the interview for questions of the candidate about the position, company and other aspects of work. Be sure to warn how long it will take to make a decision and when you again contact the applicant. Thank you in the end for your time and say goodbye.

How to understand that it’s time to change jobs?

1. You have reached the ceiling in professional knowledge and skills, and the company or position does not allow you to grow.

You can safely say that you have reached the ceiling in your current position if:

- You have been performing the same duties for quite some time;

- in order to do your job well, you no longer need to learn anything;

- You perform many tasks on the machine, not including the whole job;

- your company does not organize corporate training, and you yourself do not have professional and material motivation to improve your qualifications;

- Before you for a long time did not set new and interesting tasks that can awaken your potential.

In this state of affairs, you can work in one place for a rather long time, without the threat of losing your job. Some professions suggest such stability, since the industries themselves are growing at a slow pace.


2. You work well, but you are not offered vertical growth.

Not all people are created for leadership work, and not all specialists strive for it. At the same time, many top managers are inclined to the position "a better good employee than a bad department head."

But the situation is changing if it is you who are striving for career growth within your company, feel the strength, potential, and possess the necessary set of qualities and qualifications for the next step, but have not been offered vertical growth for more than a year (or even hinder it).

For such purposes, many companies have a personal plan for the development of a specialist, but sometimes it focuses only on horizontal growth, a slight increase in salaries at each stage and a constant increase in the number of duties, without changing their status.

If you repeatedly had a conversation with your immediate superiors and in response you heard: “there is no budget,” “all posts are occupied,” “we will return to this conversation later” - it's time to think about changing jobs.

3. You do not want to go to work.

No matter how good the work, all people from time to time tend to get tired of it, dream of staying home for a couple of days or take an extraordinary vacation. Your attitude to work may be affected by the time of year, physical health, and fatigue after the completion of a major project. This is normal.

It is worth considering if this condition lasts a long time and does not at all give way to bursts of inspiration and activity.

Bad relationships in the team are an important factor in the treasury of lack of motivation. If you are sure that you have made every effort to establish contact with colleagues, but have not yet become "your" person, this will add a sense of inner tension and increase unwillingness to come to work.

Lack of motivation, neglect of the results of one's labor, a sense of drive, boredom and moral exhaustion are symptoms of burnout.

If it does not pass even after a full vacation, most likely, only a change of work will help.

4. You are not appreciated.

You linger after work, take on the training of beginners, come up with new ideas after the weekend and do more than your plan suggests. But at the same time, you get extreme disapproval from colleagues, and the authorities turn a blind eye to this. Or even gently but persistently asks you to "go about your business", despite the fact that you have good results ...

If this story is about you, you fulfill your duties well and on time, the solution of the main tasks does not suffer from your initiative, then you can safely admit to yourself that you are not appreciated. It is possible that all roles are already strictly distributed in your company; perhaps your superiors are afraid of too active employees; maybe there are no funds in the budget to support your activity in rubles. Quite often, specialists are needed to perform only specific tasks, and the company is simply not interested in your initiative.

In any case, it is worth starting to look for a new company, where instead of condemnation and restrictions, you will receive a field for activity, emotional support and reward for your work.

5. You are not sure about your company.

In the life of any organization, there are crises when it is necessary to suffer a couple of months without bonuses, work on the weekend or take on the job of an employee who has been reduced from his post. If the management has a clear plan to get out of the situation, and you see that it is improving day by day, maybe you should not hurry to massively send out your resume.

It’s worth worrying if the work in the company is like a roller coaster, the falls are deeper and the ups are harder.

An alarm may also be technological stagnation of the company, due to a lack of funds for new projects or updating the equipment park.

If you notice that the best employees leave the company, if for a long time you don’t know the exact date of salary issue, and the industry is “shaking” in general, it is better not to wait for a critical point and start looking for a new place.

6. If you are offered a job in a more successful company with better conditions and promotion.

It would seem that when this happens, one does not have to persuade anyone for a long time, but in fact, it is not so easy to decide to take a step forward. Especially if everything suits you at the current place. Self-confidence, reluctance to change something, and doubts about a new company can interfere with career growth. With the latter, information collection will help. Do not rush to say no, ask potential employers to give you time to think things through, but do not delay too long. Having made sure that your competencies are suitable for the new position, and there are no negative reviews about the company, feel free to decide on changes.

According to forecasts of the Rabota.ru service, staff shortages in 2019 will continue in the IT and digital segments, where there are especially not enough professional and knowledgeable employees in almost all directions.

Return to your resume regularly to replenish it with new achievements. If you have a need to change jobs, this will help you not to spend a lot of time filling up your portfolio. In addition, to see the whole path you have traveled is useful for motivation.

Periodically monitor vacancies - this will give the correct idea of ​​the level of salaries in your area. Perhaps it’s time for you to justifiably ask for an increase in salary. From vacancies you will also learn about how you meet the current requirements for specialists of your level and one level higher.

The decision to change jobs in any case should not be made in one day. It is worth carefully weighing everything, asking yourself the question about the objectivity of your own judgments. Too frequent job changes repels employers from the candidate no less than his long stay without development in one place.

From an employee with extensive experience working in one company, new managers expect loyalty, serious attitude to the business and stable results, but conservatism, lack of initiative and motivation can be written in the negative.

At the same time, even the most loyal employers are not ready to invest in "flyers" (often changing jobs), because there is no certainty that these investments will pay off. The minimum time in one place is a year, the ideal is 3-5 years, and the maximum is determined by your desire and capabilities.

Google Resume Rules

Google HR Policy
Google HR manager Laszlo Bock said in his blog that every week 50,000 letters from candidates come to the company. With such a stream of applicants, it was necessary to develop a strict policy for selecting applicants. Therefore, the resume goes through several stages of selection, the first of which is a check for 5 “deadly mistakes”.

Top 5 Google HR Resume Mistakes
Spelling mistakes

According to a study by CareerBuilder, an American job search site, 58% of resumes are made with gross misspellings. Just imagine, this is more than half!

In Russia, things are no better - 63%. Be sure to check the resume before sending it to the employer or uploading it to the site.

Length

Laszlo Bock developed the ideal resume formula - 1 page for every 10 years of experience.

There is no need to paint your birth story in three pages - in Russia, by the way, they also do not like this. In addition, a short summary perfectly demonstrates the candidate’s ability to clearly express thoughts.

Remember, the main purpose of a resume is to convince an invitation to an interview where you can “tear your soul” and tell each step of your professional development.

Structure and Design

Design is important. The Google HR manager admitted that he immediately rejects the resume with a “sheet” of text.

The questionnaire should have a neat appearance - the correct font size, paragraphs and semantic blocks.

Privacy violation

In the United States, it is not customary to disclose the names of companies for which a candidate has worked in a resume. Usually they write about posts, responsibilities and achievements.

Laszlo Bok says that every 10 resumes contain confidential information, albeit through hints. For example, one Google jobseeker wrote that he worked for a very famous person in a black turtleneck. Although the name of Steve Jobs was not announced, everyone understood who they were talking about.

Lying

Every second applicant in Russia indicates false information in a resume.

Google is also faced with a “labor lie” - as a rule, such candidates are not given a second chance.

Lying in a resume is always a stupid undertaking, and here's why:

in 90% of cases, the lie is revealed. Before offering a job, eychars conduct a serious investigation and raise all the information that they can find: social networks, former employers, friends and parents. Someone must slip out;
even if your little fraud "swept" - fear will haunt and will not allow you to relax;
after all, it's just not good.
Yes, more than half of applicants in Russia make 3 out of 5 of the above mistakes. But there is good news - now you know how to get a resume to work.

List of interview questions - employer cheat sheet

Main questions
There are several groups of questions, and each has a specific goal - we talked about this in detail earlier. Let's go through the main ones.

Standard:

Why did you quit your previous job?
What would you like to do if you could choose any activity?
What work is fun?
Who do you see yourself in 5 years?
What are your weaknesses? What are the strengths?
What did you like at your last job?
What didn’t you like?
Why are you the best candidate for the position?
What do you know about our company?
Did you know about us before?
What do you want to know about us - about work processes, evaluation, schedule?
Behavioral:

Tell us about the moment of your professional triumph - how was it and what did you achieve?
How do you cope with the task? Tell your actions step by step.
Have you had to make difficult decisions? What kind?
How do you deal with failures? How do you explain the failures of management?
Projective:

What are you guided by when choosing a job?
Good employee - what kind of employee do you think he is?
What is your main motivation?
What do you think they usually get fired for?
Tell me, does everyone need a successful career?
What should a person be like in order to quickly “join” a new work collective?
Provocative:

Do you like modern technologies - social networks, for example?
Imagine you are a superhero - what is your strength?
Why are you our company?
How much is your work? Why?
Teasers:

What is our company associated with?
How's your sense of humor? Tell your favorite joke.
The company has run out of money and there is no salary - continue to work? Why?
It is impossible!
But there are a number of questions that cannot be asked. Even if you really want to.

The interview does not need to ask about personal life, future children, religion, nationality, parents and living conditions. It would seem that this is obvious, but there are still HR managers who do not see “nothing like that”, continuing to embarrass and scare the candidates. Remember, this is only ugly, but also contrary to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

Prohibited Issues:

What is your nationality? What is your parents nationality?
What is your marital status?
When do you plan children?
What guarantees that you will go on maternity leave in a year? Why are you so sure?
Where does your spouse work?
What is your family’s income?
Do you have physical disabilities or health problems?
Allowed questions exclusively about the professional activities of man. In general, only this is important when choosing a candidate for the position.

How to get an interview

No matter how many times an interview is necessary, it is always stressful. Old complexes are being rolled up, insecurity, elementary things are forgotten - in general, the nervous system is failing completely.

How to pull yourself together and demonstrate stunning professionalism - read on.

A bit of intelligence
To get started, try to find out as much information as possible about the employing company: what it does, how many years in business, what it has achieved. Firstly, the information will give a more complete picture of potential work. Well, and secondly, in an interview you can beautifully “show off” your awareness.

Also, specify the interview form - group, personal, “sell yourself-interview” or something else. Ask about the dress code and things you may need, for example, a passport to pass the checkpoint or a diploma of education.

We advise you to find out in advance where the office is located. Maybe even go there the night before. Remember, being late for an interview is unacceptable.

Repetition
Try to answer the most common questions. We have already compiled a list of compulsory questions at the interview, so use it.

Speaking the answers out loud will help you understand the weaknesses and prepare thoroughly.

In addition, in a homely, relaxed atmosphere, more successful answers will come to mind that you can memorize and feel at the interview as a student-know-up - knowing the answers to all questions.

Full self control
Speech is not the only thing that needs to be monitored in an interview. Studies have shown that more than 60% of employers decide on a candidate based on behavior, gait and clarity of gestures. That is, on the non-verbal.

Non-verbal communication is not always something uncontrolled. The body can be subordinated, the main thing is to calm down and know how to behave.

You can’t cross arms and legs, mumble, look at the floor, get involved in fine motor skills (twist a ring on a finger, for example) and much more. A complete list of non-verbal communication errors is here.

Self-presentation
Often it is the ability to tell about oneself that is limping on both legs. Applicants begin a long autobiographical story: born, lived, friends, studied, a long and tiring monologue.

What you should not say at the interview:

about personal goals (buy a car, a fur coat, get married, etc.);
about irrelevant skills and places of work (I sing well, make tasty barbecue, there is an uncle in the prosecutor's office);
about failures that discriminate against professionalism.
The employer is interested in only 2 facts of their life as a candidate: places of work and real professional achievements. The story about yourself should not exceed 15 sentences and fit in 3-5 minutes. And yes, it is also impossible to retell the resume.

Do not be silent
At interviews, this moment always comes when the recruiter's questions end and silence sets in.

To avoid social embarrassment and demonstrate unwavering competence, prepare questions for the HR manager in advance. Usually this concerns the schedule, design, process features and salary, of course.