Did the recruiter call and scheduled you for an interview? Here are Five Tips to impress them and land that job.
1.) Polish up your resume
First impressions last, and if your recruiter is sifting through hundreds of CVs a week, your CV will be the first step in reducing that list. So you want to make sure that your CV is perfect. Make sure that it’s updated with your most recent employment including the dates, your position, skills that you have acquired, and what specific tasks and accomplishments you were able to gain with your previous employment.
Also double-check the grammar, spelling, and personal information that is included in your CV. You don’t need to include information like your height, weight, parents’ names, occupation, and religion.
Make sure you save it as a pdf file and under your name (example: JuanDelaCruz CV.pdf) and not simply as resume.pdf. Now if you want to truly impress your recruiter with your tech-savvy skills, save it in Google Drive and simply share the link. That way, any updates you will make with your CV are automatically updated. Just make sure that you adjust the Share Setting to View Only to anyone with the link. Nothing would be more embarrassing than sharing the link but your recruiter can’t view it and will have to ask permission from you.
And when you email your CV, never leave the subject blank, and never forget to put any message on the actual email.
Find out more about writing your resume by checking out our previous blog How to Write a Comprehensive Resume.
2.) Research the company
Nothing would impress your recruiter more than knowing that you’ve done extensive research on the company and the position that you are applying for. Not only does it show that you want to work for the company but you did the research to see if you would be a perfect fit.
Companies have stringent measures to find the right candidate for the position. Because they will have to invest in time and money to train you to get you ready to do your job. Nothing would disappoint a company more than to hear someone withdraw from the training just because they found out that it wasn’t a good fit.
So these would be determined initially during the job interview. Make sure that you can answer questions like “What do you know about OceanClick and what makes you want to work for us?”, or the more important question “What makes you the best person for this position?”.
Click on this blog Ten Most Common Questions Asked by Recruiters and How to Answer Them to get you better prepared for your job interview.
3.) Prepare for everything
Now that you got your foot in the door, you have to make sure that you don’t waste this chance. So if the interview will be done Face-to-Face, make sure you do the following:
- Dress appropriately – power dressing is the name of the game here. So don’t show up like you’re only dressed to go to the mall, or worse like you just got out of bed.
- Show up early – nothing would upset your recruiter more than you showing up late for your interview. Remember, you will not be the only one who wants to get this job, so there will be others to whom the recruiter has allocated time for. If you are unfamiliar with the location of the office, make sure you research it first and find out the travel time to get there. Being early is better than being late.
- Check your signal connection – online or phone interviews are quite common now since the advent of the pandemic, so make sure you are in a quiet place with a strong internet/WiFi or phone signal. The last thing you want to happen is the interviewer can’t communicate with you properly cause of a bad connection or with a lot of noise in the background.
4.) Be confident
It’s quite common that you will feel a bit of anxiety for your interview, but just pretend that you’re speaking to a friend, or if it helps more, an older relative. Being nervous would reflect on how you would be able to handle yourself when faced with an important client. If you are unable to show confidence to your recruiter, what more when it’s a client that is based abroad. Remember, there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, you will have to learn to differentiate between the two.
5.) Ask interesting questions
Impress your recruiter by showing them that you are confident enough to make your interview into two-way communication. But remember to ask intelligent questions that are not found on the company’s website or social media pages.
6.) Be polite and professional
Remember, you are talking to your future employer and not to your friend, at least not yet. So speak with confidence but with proper decorum and professionalism.
To find out what not to say during the interview, read this blog Five Things to Avoid During Your Interview.
About the Author
CHESTER LEE
Chester has had a long career in the service industry dating back to 1998. Throughout his illustrious career, he has worked in several locations around the world and in various settings. He’s had numerous interactions with people from various walks of life and is quite adept in social interactions. He wishes to help others in navigating the job market that has changed drastically with the recent pandemic and the return to normalcy.
