Preparing for a Phone Interview

Preparing for a Phone InterviewPreparing for a Phone InterviewIf youve ever parteicipated in a work or social conference call, or maybe even tried calling your favorite Aunt Mildred who, due to a youth spent attending rock concerts, is a bit hard of hearing and incessantly yells what into the phone, youre intimately aware of the greatness and fallbacks of modern telephone technology. People rooms, blocks, states or even countries apart can chat at the press of a few buttons. On the other hand, reception can get lost, participants can talk over each other, and Aunt Mildred could forget shes on the phone and keep you on the line while she rants at the mailman wrinkling her magazine subscriptions.When it comes to phone interviews, ansicht benefits and problems are often exacerbated. Phone interviews are much loved by HR departments and hiring managers for their ability to allow for quick assessment of a candidates basic skills. Make a phone interview faux pas, however, and you wont be o n the receiving end of a call back or job offer. Like any other aspect of your job interview, smart preparation is critical to success. Here are some helpful tips for nailing that initial call and moving forward in the job applicant process.Prep for the Most Common QuestionsJust like an in person query, phone interviews tend to take a familiar route. Start out your interview prep by developing answers for these five commonly asked questions and youll be well on your way to success. Its important to remember to keep answers to questions during phone interviews brief and to the point. Call-in interviews tend to last 5-10 minutes max and serve as an initial confirmation of your skills and background from your resume. In addition to answers to common questions, develop a short and succinct pitch of why youre qualified and interested in the given position. Use these preparation hints and youll establish a foundation for quick success.How to Convince ThemOnce youve actually scored the pho ne interview, its time to sell yourself and your specific skills to your interviewer and potential employer. Your main goal during this crucial interview step should be to convince the person on the other end of the line that youre worthy of bringing in for an in-person interview. Research the position using the public job posting, networking and research on the companys goals and culture. Craft your responses based on this information, treating your interview similarly to an exam or other qualification test. Meet the minimum threshold, and youll be well on your way to earning yourself that critical job offer.Prep Before Your CallIn addition to the research leading up to your phone interview, youll want to perform several critical tasks prior to picking up the phone. Of your phone interview will have a video component, test out your tech before its time to answer the call. tischset up a background, review your lighting and choose clothing that will perform well on a digital screen. You may want to skype or videochat with a friend or colleague beforehand to iron out any wrinkles to ensure a smooth interview experience.Whether phone or video, take a few moments ahead of time to relax and focus on the task at hand. Review and re-review your resume and application so that youre fully prepared to answer any questions regarding your work history or education background. Similarly, go over the job description, company website and relevant social media pages and profiles to refresh your recollection regarding the potential employer. While these tasks may seem redundant, repetitive or appear to be meaningless minutia, going through the routine helps prepare for your interview in multiple ways. Much like athletes use muscle memory exercises to train their response time, running though routine questions and answers and familiarizing yourself with common questions helps make your responses more natural, quicker and more on point. Going through the preparation routine can also help reduce nervousness, providing a vital confidence boost that will show in your overall interview performance. While many candidates may dread them, telephone interviews are a vital part of the job-search process and are here to stay for modern employers. Use our helpful hints during preparation and performance and youll be well on your way to nailing the phone interview and moving on to an in-person meeting, a job offer and beyond.

8 Great Websites for Your Flexible Job Search

8 Great Websites for Your Flexible Job Search8 Great Websites for Your Flexible Job Search8 Great Websites for Your Flexible Job SearchTo help you in your hunt, has culled a list of eight great websites for your flexible job search.MyLifestyleCareerDedicated to helping people profit from their passions during second careers and semi-retirement, MyLifestyleCareer is full of career advice, tips, and information to help people transition to fun, flexible new careers. Career consultant and author Nancy Collamer provides services, resources, classes, freebies, and links to help people use their passions to re-invent their careers.WorkLifeFitFor WorkLifeFit, its all about finding the right work-life balance. The WorkLifeFit mission is to offer strategies that help clients and companies make flexible career options an integral part of the career landscape. Working with both employees (Work+Life Fit) and employers (Flex+Strategy Group), WorkLifeFit is seeking to help change the culture of th e workplace by promoting the advantages of telecommuting, reduced schedules, and work re-design.Undress4SuccessTargeting the work-from-home market, Undress4Success provides advice and resources for people looking to start home-based businesses, find home-based jobs, or convince the boss at their current jobs to let you work from home. The focus of Undress4Success is to provide insight on what it takes to be successful at home, in your home-based career.MeetupWith about 16 million members, Meetup is a global network of local groups that get together for face-to-face social, educational, and community gatherings. Meetup aficionados attend nearly 316,000 meetings a month in 196 countries around the world. Meetups goal of a Meetup Everywhere about Most Everything encompasses job search groupsin 131 cities, made up of people who network and share job searching tips and leads.WorkOptionsA key mission of WorkOptions is to help women who already have jobs negotiate for flexible work options , higher pay, and saner days. If you have a job thats unsatisfactory because it lacks flexibility, WorkOptions offers guidance for approaching your boss about flexible options, including compressed workweeks, job sharing, telecommuting, and part-time work. Should your negotiations fail, WorkOptions offers tips on how to find flexible work elsewhere, and how to negotiate for flexibility in your next job.SkillshareSkillshare is an online learning community that offers thousands of web-based classes taught by some of the worlds best teachers. With a goal of providing learning opportunities that provide quality education to anyone, anywhere, Skillshares services are based on a learning-by-doing philosophy, where everyone is a teacher and where learners are engaged because theyre learning real-world skills.WAHMAn online magazine that features information and news about working from home, WAHM (or Work at Home Moms) initially focused on stay-at-home moms who ran home-based businesses. Tod ay, WAHMs mission has expanded to include listings of screened, remote jobs with flexible options and advice on how to avoid scams- while continuing to offer support to entrepreneurial moms who run businesses from their homes.But of course What list of great flexible job search websites would be complete without? A pioneering source for flexible positions across virtually all industries, provides job opportunities for career-minded people who are seeking fulfilling jobs that are flexible, and that allow for healthy work-life balance. pounds the pavement on behalf of job seekers, offering researched, professional job leads designed to help job seekers find flexible work faster.Readers, do you know of other great websites for your flexible job search? Share them with us

25 million old Starbucks cups are new once again

25 million old Starbucks cups are new once again25 million old Starbucks cups are new once againThink about this with your morning joe Starbucks has recently made a statement by recycling their own coffee cups back into their own coffee cups.Confused?Earlier this year, Starbucks sent 25 million old cups to a recycling mill in Wisconsin. The mill recycled those cups, which were old stock cups that would have been otherwise destined for a landfill, into new Starbucks cups, ready to use once again.A solution is needed to tossing 6 billion cups a yearThe act of recycling their own cups allowed Starbucks to make clear that its possible to recycle poly-coated paperboard,which is the kind of paper their cups are made of, in a cost-effective manner. Starbucks cups are lined in a thin coating of plastic to prevent leakage, however, the material isnt widely accepted for recycling due to the process of removing the plastic lining.Not every city is set up to accept such cups for recycling a di fficulty for Starbucks, which wants a national approach to accepting its cups. By getting more recyclers to work with them, Starbucks could begin to eliminate the staggering6 billion cupssent to a landfill each year. The coffee chain has been criticized as a Cup Monster by environmental groups.Currently, a Starbucks coffee cup contains 10% recycled paper the company wants to double that by 2022.