WORLD'S LEADING INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Q & A with Brad Karsh – President and Founder of Job Bound

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Question:  What are some tips for preparing for a job interview? What are some common mistakes to avoid?

There really aren’t too many things in life more awkward than a job interview.  You are dressed in a formal business suit, sitting across from a stranger.  This stranger has the right to ask you anything from the most elaborate to the most mundane questions, and you have to spend an hour talking about nothing but yourself.  With that in mind, there are a few things you need to know:

1. Don’t try to outwit or outguess the interviewer.

Most candidates go into a job interview thinking it’s a contest where the goal is to defeat the interviewer in some type of battle of wits.

“A ha, Brad has asked me this question.  Clearly, that is some type of trick question.  I just don’t know what the trick is yet.  Here’s how I would normally answer the question, but here’s what he’s probably after, so here’s what I’m going to say.”

That is when good interviews go bad.  Sit back, relax, and pretend it is a conversation with a friend.  Those are the best interviews.

2. Read the job description

I call the job description the “cheat sheet” for the interview.  Chances are the items listed on the job description will come up in the interview.  For instance, if the job description says, “looking for creative problem solvers” one of the questions you will receive is, “Give me an example of when you creatively solved a problem.”

3. Have reasons for everything you’ve done

Most companies conduct behavioral interviews.  It means they are more interested in the hows and the whys as opposed to the whats.  They want to know what makes you tick.  An interviewer is not simply going to say, “Oh, I see that you worked as a sales rep in your last job.  Cool.” 

That interviewer may spend about 10 minutes asking questions about the job: “What did you like about the job?  What were your accomplishments?  What were your biggest mistakes?”  And on and on.  Be sure you have answers.

4. Ask questions

There is nothing more damaging than not having a single question at the end of an interview.  It shows that you have no curiosity or interest in the organization.  Almost every interviewer will leave about five minutes at the end of the interview to answer questions.  Make sure you have a couple.  Two or three questions is appropriate, and they can be either personal questions – “What do you like about working here?” – or they can be business questions – “How has the internet affected your business?”

There you have it.  Four quick ways that you can make sure you ace the interview.

Question:  What do you recommend is a great way to get your foot in the door of a major company where your resume and application for an internship or job could easily get lost in the shuffle, being one among hundreds or thousands?

You need to jumpstart your job search now to ensure you can land that internship or dream job after graduation.

1. Network, network, network. Eighty percent of jobs aren't posted.  Sixty percent of candidates get a job through networking.  The single best way to get a job is to know somebody. Yes, it should be based on merit alone, but unfortunately that isn’t how it works. Tap into as many connections as you can. School alumni are a great one. They love to hear from current students about life on campus.  Start emailing the graduates highlighted in your school’s alumni newsletter. Congratulate them on whatever got them listed and let the conversation—and relationship—begin.

Don’t forget you can network with your parents’ friends, older siblings’ friends, etc. The Thanksgiving and winter holidays are a great time to make this happen.

2. Get your resume in order. Since this one piece of paper determines more than anything else your ability to get the job you want, it better be good. Focus on accomplishments instead of job descriptions. Most recruiters will tell you that a majority of resumes don’t sell a student hard enough because they simply list the activities that anyone holding that position has ever done.

If what is written on your resume can be written by the person who had the job before you, after you, or next to you, then you haven’t done yourself justice.

3. Be professional. As a recruiter, you don’t want to call a student at school and hear the following message, “Yo dude, the K-man is rockin’ hard at the moment, so leave your digits and I’ll give you a holla when I can.”  Nor do they want to send emails to puppylover@yahoo.com or studmuffin@hotmail.com.

Now is the time to find other ways to express your individuality.

4. Start reading "trade" magazines. Every industry has publications specifically targeted to professionals in that field. Usually they have online versions as well. In addition to learning more about the industry itself, you can also typically find job openings. For instance, if you read that Ajax consulting just won a huge account, chances are they may be staffing up.

There are scores of these magazines, and your career center or your professors can help you find the right ones.

5. Research job openings. Sounds exciting doesn’t it? Fact is, you have to do it.  Start looking for      companies and industries that really interest you. Comb over their websites.

Some may be hiring now, but many employ “just in time recruiting.” That means they don’t hire until they have a need. And since you can’t quit school right now to take the job (even though you’d like to), they won’t start looking for college students until April or so.

But knowing how they hire and getting contacts at the companies can only help. Also, some may offer internships for college graduates, which is not a bad way to get your foot in the door.

If you tackle these five steps, you’ll be on your way to landing a great job! 

Question:  It seems there is a cycle in which experience is necessary to land a job and you need a job to gain experience. How do you land that first big job without much experience?

This is a great question and certainly one that plagues many college students.  I hear comments like “Every job or internship I apply for, says they want someone with experience, so how can I ever get that first job or internship?”

The key is to expand the definition of what is considered experience.  Most students think experience comes only from working at a paid job.  The truth is you can get great real-world experience from a variety of areas including extracurricular activities, coursework, and even mundane summer jobs.

When you write about your experience, the key is to focus on those transferable skills.  Almost any company out there is looking for college students with leadership, initiative, problem solving and the ability to work with others.  They can teach you the details and hard skills for the job; they want to find students with strong raw materials.

In your experience section, don’t limit your experience to retail jobs.  Did you ever hold a leadership position in a college club?  I don’t care if it was student government, a sorority, or even the comic book club.  The fact that you were selected by your peers to lead an organization is significant.  What you did as a leader is also key to this experience.  Did you increase membership?  Did you overhaul the finances?  Did you create a publicity plan that generated coverage by a local paper?

These are the types of skills employers are craving.  Don’t be afraid to tell them what you accomplished.

The same goes for meaningful course projects.  I’m not a big fan of just listing your classes under a section called “Relevant Coursework.”  I am a fan of picking one or two cool class projects and highlighting them in your experience section.  Again, don’t just list the project, but write about your accomplishments.

By expanding your definition of experience and by really highlighting your specific accomplishments, you’ll be able to set yourself apart and land a great internship!

Question: In your opinion, what are some bold moves that a young person may take to land a position within a company?

Finding a job is a lot like dating.  Let’s be honest, nobody really likes looking for a job. And although the task of finding a job may seem tough to tackle, it’s really quite simple when you compare it to one of your favorite pastimes: dating.

Just like burping out the alphabet or talking to your ex at the dinner table are sure-fire ways to blow a date, there are some things you just don’t want to do when trying to find a job.  As the President of JobBound, and one of the nation’s leading experts in landing your first job, I found that if you apply these dating guidelines to the job search, you’re sure to find a dream job that’s a perfect fit for you.

1.  Don’t be afraid of rejection.  It’s going to happen.  You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince/princess.  Just like dates, there will be some companies that just aren’t that into you.  Don’t get discouraged; the right one is sure to come along.  Rejection is just part of the game.  Sure it hurts the first few times, but just like striking out when asking someone out, you tend to get used to it.

2.  Don’t use the same old line.  “Do you have a map? Because I am getting lost in your eyes.”  Guess what pal, it’s been done before!  Sadly, most cover letters I read had been done before too.  Just like a good pick-up line, a cover letter should leave the recruiting director begging to know more.  No one is going to read a full page four paragraph, single spaced cover letter that repeats what is already on your resume.  For your cover letter, short, catchy, and non-cheesy is the best way to go.

3.  Don’t tell them what you think they want to hear.  Just like a smart date, recruiting directors can see through your answers that are too good to be true.  Your date won’t buy the fact that for fun you save baby whales from haphazard environments, and the recruiting director won’t buy the fact that being a perfectionist is your worst “weakness.” Be honest, interesting, and yourself.

4.  Don’t be a stalker.  There is a fine line between being persistent and being a stalker.  If the recruiting director hasn’t gotten back to you, don’t call every 5 minutes and then hang up.  They probably have caller ID, and they’re officially scared of you.  After calling once, leave them a message telling them how to reach you.

5.  Don’t always listen to your mom.  Just because your mom says the blue sweater makes you look handsome, doesn’t mean you should wear it on your first date.  When it comes to resumes and interviews, your parents mean well, but they don’t always give you the best advice. 

If you keep these tips in mind, the job search won’t be half as grueling.  Sure dating can be tough, but it definitely pays off when the right match is there and the same can be said for the job search.

Question: How do you answer the interview question, “What are your long-term career goals?”

Ah, the old, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” question.  This certainly ranks up there as one of the most vexing probes an interviewer can ask.

Like many interview questions, it’s less important what you say and more important how you say it.

Students often think there’s a “right” answer to this one – something like, “I’d of course like to be the VP of Sales at this company in 10 years, and then COO by the time I’m 33, and naturally President of your organization in the year 2037.

The good news is that no interviewer is looking for a response like that.  Instead, they are just trying to get a sense of your overall goals and aspirations and see if those may fit into what the company can offer.  They don’t expect that you’ll be working at the company for the next 35 years, but they also don’t want to hear that you are planning to “give it a shot” for three months.

In fact, in my more than 1,000 interviews I heard some pretty bad responses to this question.  Here’s what you DO NOT want to say:

• I’d like to work here for a little while, get some experience, and then go make some real money.
• I just need to get some experience on my resume before I go to grad school next year.
• Heck, I barely know what I want to do tomorrow, let alone what I’d like to do in the long term.

The way to properly deal with this question is to think about it in more broad terms.  What are your goals?  What do you want out of your career?  Even if you have no idea what you want to do, you probably have a sense for the type of work environment you like.  Then take some of those thoughts, tie them in with a few strengths you have, and speak generally.  Here’s a good response:

• I love working with people and I consider myself a fairly competitive person.  That’s why this job in sales appeals to me.  At some point in my career, I’d like to be in a manager role since I’ve had success in college as a leader.  Ultimately, it would be wonderful to be running a company, but that will be quite a ways down the road.  As long as the company feels like I’m contributing and as long as I continue to develop and grow, I can see myself in a career like this one for a while.

You haven’t made any commitments to them, and you also haven’t said you’re planning to walk out the door in a year.  What you have done is shown them that you’ve thought a bit about your future and that you could be a good match for their company.

For more information, please visit www.jobbound.com