10 Ways to Be Liked in Your Job Interview

10 Ways to Be Liked in Your Job Interview

No matter your resume and talents, if you mess up a job interview you won't get that position. In today's tough economy you need every possible edge. As authors of the new book, "I Hate People! Kick Loose from the Overbearing and Underhanded Jerks at Work and Get What you Want Out of Your Job," we see it as a simple equation: You want to be liked -- not hated. Here are 10 simple things to do that will dramatically increase your chances: from wearing the right expression, to knowing what not to say, to never ever breaking a sweat.
1. Don't be a "smiley face." Excessive smiling in a job interview is seen for what it is -- nervousness and a lack of confidence. A smiley-face person exudes phoniness, which will quickly be picked up by the interviewer. Instead be thoughtful and pleasant. Smile when there's something to smile about. Do a practice run in front of a mirror or friend.
2. Don't be a small-talker. Your job is to be knowledgeable about the company for which you're interviewing. Random facts about last night's episode of "Dancing with the Stars" or your favorite blog will not get you the job. Never feel you have to fill an interview with small talk. Find ways to talk about serious subjects related to the industry or company. Pockets of silence are better than padding an interview with random babble.
3. Don't sweat. You can lose a job by wearing an undershirt or simply a little too much clothing. Sweaty palms or beads on your forehead will not impress. You are not applying to be a personal trainer. Sweat will be seen as a sign of weakness and nervousness. Do a practice run with your job interview outfit in front of friends. The job interview is one place you definitely don't want to be hot.
4. Don't be a road block. Interviewers are seeking candidates eager to take on challenging projects and jobs. Hesitance and a nay-saying mentality will be as visible as a red tie -- and seen as a negative. Practice saying "yes" to questions about your interest in tasks and work that might normally give you pause.
5. Don't be petty. Asking the location of the lunchroom or meeting room will clue the interviewer into your lack of preparation and initiative. Prepare. Don't ask questions about routine elements or functions of a company: where stuff is, the size of your cube, and company policy on coffee breaks.
6. Don't be a liar. Studies show that employees lie frequently in the workplace. Lying won't get you a job. In a job interview even a slight exaggeration is lying. Don't. Never stretch your resume or embellish accomplishments. There's a difference between speaking with a measured confidence and engaging in BS. One lie can ruin your entire interview, and the skilled interviewer will spot the lie and show you the door.
7. Don't be a bad comedian. Humor tends to be very subjective, and while it may be tempting to lead your interview with a joke you've got to be careful about your material. You probably will know nothing about the sensibilities of your interviewer, let alone what makes them laugh. On the other hand, nothing disarms the tension of a job interview like a little laughter, so you can probably score at least a courtesy chuckle mentioning that it's "perfect weather for a job interview!"
8. Don't be high-maintenance. If you start talking about the ideal office temperature, the perfect chair for your tricky back, and how the water cooler needs to be filled with imported mineral water, chances are you'll be shown a polite smile and the door, regardless of your qualifications. Nobody hiring today is going to be looking for someone who's going to be finicky about their workspace.
9. Don't be a time-waster. At every job interview, the prospective hire is given the chance to ask questions. Make yours intelligent, to the point, and watch the person across the desk for visual cues whether you've asked enough. Ask too many questions about off-target matters and you'll be thought of as someone destined to waste the company's resources with insignificant and time-wasting matters.
10. Don't be a switchblade. Normally the switchblade is thought of a backstabber, often taking credit for someone else's work. In an interview setting, the switchblade can't help but "trash talk" his former employer. If you make it seem like your former workplace was hell on Earth, the person interviewing you might be tempted to call them to find out who was the real devil.

by Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon

10 Boilerplate Phrases that Kill Resumes

by: Liz Ryan
The 2009 job market is very different from job markets of the past. If you haven't job-hunted in a while, the changes in the landscape can throw you for a loop. One of the biggest changes is the shift in what constitutes a strong resume. Years ago, we could dig into the Resume Boilerplate grab-bag and pull out a phrase to fill out a sentence or bullet point on our resume. Everybody used the same boilerplate phrases, so we knew we couldn't go wrong choosing one of them -- or many -- to throw into your resume. Things have changed. Stodgy boilerplate phrases in your resume today mark you as uncreative and "vocabulary challenged." You can make your resume more compelling and human-sounding by rooting out and replacing the boring corporate-speak phrases that litter it, and replacing them with human language -- things that people like you or I would actually say. Here are the worst 10 boilerplate phrases -- the ones to seek out and destroy in your resume as soon as possible:

• Results-oriented professional
• Cross-functional teams
• More than [x] years of progressively responsible experience
• Superior (or excellent) communication skills
• Strong work ethic
• Met or exceeded expectations
• Proven track record of success
• Works well with all levels of staff
• Team player
• Bottom-line orientation

You can do better. What about adding a human voice to your resume? Here's an example: "I'm a Marketing Researcher who's driven by curiosity about why people buy what they do. At XYZ Industries, I used consumer surveys and online-forum analysis to uncover the reasons why consumers chose our competitors over us; our sales grew twenty percent over the next six months as a result. I'm equally at home on sales calls or analyzing data in seclusion, and up to speed on traditional and new-millennium research tools and approaches. I'm fanatical about understanding our marketplace better every day, week and month -- and have helped my employers' brands grow dramatically as a result." You don't have to write resumes that sound like robots wrote them. A human-voiced resume is the new black -- try it!
Liz Ryan is a 25-year HR veteran, former Fortune 500 VP and an internationally recognized expert on careers and the new millennium workplace. Contact Liz at liz@asklizryan.com or join the Ask Liz Ryan online community at www.asklizryan/group. The opinions expressed in this column are solely the author's.

5 Fatal Job Search Errors

by: Liz Ryan

The other day I received a resume attached to an email message. The email message itself was lovely, but the attached document was labeled "BrittneyRoxYall.doc." Evidently young Brittney (let's hope Brittney is young) forgot what she'd titled her resume and sent it off as an attachment, without changing the document's name.
It is fantastic to see that Brittney has healthy self-esteem. That's a big plus for Brittney in her job search. However, I couldn't consider Brittney a candidate for the job I was filling, once she'd made that unfortunate clerical error. Little items like a mislabeled resume can hurt a job seeker, so take note of these five fatal job-search errors:
Mislabeling Your Resume
Brittney learned the hard way that a resume on your hard drive must be labeled BrittneyJonesResume.doc or some other simple and obvious name when it's sent to employers via email. Even better is to label each resume with your name and the name of the employer it's going to, a la BrittneyJonesResumeAbbottLabs.doc. That way, if you tweak your resume for different job openings (and I hope you do) you'll always know which version of your resume you've sent to each employer.
The Shotgun Approach
A resume that starts out "Objective: to make a contribution to my next employer in any Marketing, PR, Product Management or Operations role" is bound for the trash bin, whether the job in question is a Marketing, PR, Product Management or Operations job. These days, you don't go to the print shop and order resumes in boxes of 100 anymore. You can and must customize your resume as often as needed, and very possibly for every job you pursue. So why would a prospective employer want to know about your qualifications for jobs you're not applying for? Take out the extra roles and focus your resume on just the job you're applying for today.
Ignoring the Job-Ad Instructions
I wrote a job ad that said, "Please send me an email message that answers these three questions." Then, I listed three questions that job applicants should answer in a paragraph or two. Oh dear! Of 95 applicants, only a handful answered the questions. That's an easy way for employers to screen out candidates, so it's worth your time to read and re-read the job ad carefully, and respond to it in the way the ad specifies. No sense being dropped out of the pipeline before you've had a chance to shine!
Failing to Customize
When a job opening gives you a chance to write a cover letter, write a good one! Take 15 or 20 minutes to research the employer online (visiting the company's own website and news sites, for starters) in order to say something company-specific in your cover letter. "I am interested in the job because it sounds interesting" doesn't cut it in this job market. Try, "Given your recent acquisition of Sun Microsystems, I'm guessing that the IT Integration Specialists you're seeking now should be folks who've been through data-integration projects in the past, as I have. At IBM, I ..." and so forth.
Drowning in Boilerplate
A good 2009 resume or cover letter is strong and human-sounding, not dry and full of corporate-speak fluff. Take out the "strong team orientation," "results-oriented professional," and "bottom line focus" before you send another resume into the market. Replace that awful stuff with mini-stories that point out your best qualities, like "At ABC Graphics, our team won the President's Award for on-time delivery."
Don't let a basic job-search error slow down your job search!

Liz Ryan is a 25-year HR veteran, former Fortune 500 VP and an internationally recognized expert on careers and the new millennium workplace. Connect with her at www.asklizryan.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely the author's.