Author: Barbara A. Adams

• Why haven’t you found a new position before now?
  Finding a job is the easy part but finding the right job is much more difficult. You are trying to be “selective.”
• Have you ever thought of leaving your present position before? If yes, what do you think kept you there?
  Challenge is what kept you in your current position but it is not there anymore. Any other time you considered leaving it was due to lack of challenge and growth.
• What do you think of your boss?
  This is a question that can make or break an interview every time. The person talking to you might be your boss either today or in the future and does not want to hear you trash your current or past boss/employer. NEVER talk negatively about this and always try and stay as positive as possible.
• Describe a situation in which your work was criticized.
  Make sure the example you give is a positive one, meaning that even though there might have been a problem with a certain task or project you were involved in, you came away from it and learned something. Always be positive.
• What other types of jobs or companies are you considering?
  If you are going to talk about this subject then make sure that you mention ONLY jobs related to this field or industry. Interviewers do NOT want to hear that you are thinking of becoming an accountant when you are applying for a Web designer position. It tells them that you might not be as serious about staying a web designer. Nobody wants to hire someone that is already interested in changing careers before the position is even accepted.
• Where would you like to be 5 years or 10 years from now?
  This is a tough question unless you have otherworldly powers. Your answer should reflect what you want the interviewer to know about you. Example: ” I see myself continuing to learn and grow and take on new challenges.” This tells the interviewer that you are interested in moving forward in your career and want to build upon previous success.
• What are your weaknesses?
  This is a very common question. If you say you have no weaknesses then you come off looking arrogant. If you try and use humor then you may appear too dismissive. This is a difficult question and the interviewer wants to see how you handle it. Use a weakness that can otherwise be seen as a strength. Never fall into the trap of seeing the interviewer as mother/father/confessor and offer up something that is important to the job.

  A good example can be, “One of my weaknesses is that I can sometimes take on to much work and it can get me into trouble meeting deadlines but luckily I have learned to manage my time and commitments much better by utilizing a task manager and budgeting my time more accurately.”

• If I spoke with your previous boss, what would they say is your greatest strength and weakness?
  Emphasize your strong job related skills and turn your weakness into a positive.

  Example: “My boss would say my strengths are my ability to problem solve and manage a project through to completion. He would then tell you that my weaknesses are that I have had trouble budgeting my time and saying ‘No’ to coworkers but that I learned to better manage my time once he pointed this out to me.”

• How much are you looking for?
  This is when your preinterview research comes in handy. Take a look at salary guides for the particular position in your region. These should provide accurate ranges for you to go by. Do not name a specific number but do state that, “The research I have done shows that a person with my experience is usually paid in the X range for a job such as this one.” If you are unsure of what the range is then an answer of “I care much more about getting myself the right opportunity then a certain dollar amount” should get you through this question.
• 10. What important trends do you see in our industry?
  Keep your answer to just a few examples. Do not go into any longwinded explanations about why you think that something is inevitable in the industry. Since you do not know what the interviewer believes to be the trends or what direction the company believes the trends will go keep all answers in a positive tone.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/interviews-articles/ten-unexpected-interview-questions-5551861.html

About the Author

Barbara Adams, President & CEO of CareerPro Global, the parent company of www.careerproplus.com has been a member of the careers community for the past 23 years she and holds four prestigious industry certifications. CareerPro Global, Inc. is the first business of it’s kind in the careers industry to earn ISO 9001-2008 Certification in July 2010. CareerPro Global is one the fastest growing Military, Federal and Civilian Resume Writing and Careers Coaching companies in the industry. Barbara’s team of Certified Professional and Federal Writers assist thousands of veterans applying for and gaining Federal employment each year.

Image by Free Stock Photos Library

OK, so you’ve submitted a polished, professional resume and a carefully crafted cover letter for your dream job.

BUT, did you put the same amount of effort into creating, updating, and managing your virtual persona?

Today’s job seekers must assume that they will be pre-screened online. A scenario may unfold as follows… as resumes pour in for the dream job you recently applied for, the hiring official sorts the resumes into three groups: the Yes’s, the No’s, and the Maybe’s. Great, your Print effort paid off and you made it into the Yes group! But, so did six other top candidates. The hiring official now becomes “virtual detective” and goes to the internet to valid their Yes selections, prior to scheduling interviews. Unfortunately, you may be removed from the Yes group if you didn’t represent yourself well online.

Here are some suggestions on how to showcase your virtual persona and make the cut.

• Make sure you have an online presence. None, or too little online presence can hurt you. At a minimum create a profile on a professional networking site such as LinkedIn (other professional networking sites).
• Using a major search engine… find yourself online. Is it easy or hard? Your potential future employer will not want to spend more than a few minutes tracking you down. Ideally, you want to show up on the first few pages of the search results. If you have a common name, this can be challenging. Read on for ways to help them find you.
• Think how an employer might try to search for you. Likely, they will use your name, geographical location, and your current/past employer names as keywords when searching. Other keywords they may use include your job titles, projects, and awards/honors received. You should shape and edit your online content to include keywords from your resume.
• Beat’ em to the punch! One way to make sure the employer finds the right you, is to do the detective work for them. You could include URLs throughout your resume, pointing to past relevant online work examples. Consider this approach if the online content adds value to, or embellishes a particular job or skill noted in your resume. Another approach is to include a bibliography of your online work (with URLs) at the end of your resume, or on a separate page. Examples include: recommendations from peers and former colleagues on LinkedIn, a website re-design that you spearheaded, or an article you authored that spotlights your expertise.
• Verify that your online job begin and end dates, job titles, and former employers match exactly what’s on your resume. Keep the red flags down.
• If you actively use social networking websites, it’s important to manage your information that’s publicly available. If you decide to use social networking sites for professional networking, look carefully at your content from an employer’s perspective. Anything offensive? Any joking that may be misunderstood? Too many cryptic instant message abbreviations (OMG)? Too much information about your personal life? Typos? Keep it professional!
• Promote yourself! Start a blog related to your chosen profession or field of interest. Participate in professional online forums, message boards, and newsgroups. Doing so, will build your reputation, credibility, and increase your search engine visibility.
• Create a professional portfolio. Showcase your life’s work online in one central place. A good example of this is Interfolio’s Portfolio product. Highly customized pages allow you to include documents, videos, pictures, links and text to help you present your online identity in the best possible light, all in one place.
• Control your tweets! Don’t post the blow by blow details of your job search on Twitter or other micro-blogging sites. The last thing a prospective employer needs to read is how your other interviews went, how desperate you may be feeling in your job search, or that their position is not your first choice, but you’d take the job anyway because you really need the money.
• Review the search results for your name periodically to monitor your online “reputation”. There are a number of reputation management tools. One such tool is Google Alerts, a free and simple service that automatically sends you an email or RSS alert when there are new Google results for your search terms (e.g., your name, your works, employer, etc.). This is also a good way to make sure the major search engines are indexing your latest works. If you are relying on organic searches to be found by employers, you may need to work on search engine optimization and/or link building to increase your online visibility.
• Remember, what you post online today may be around for many years, even if the original source content is deleted. In particular, blogger content can have a long shelf life – thanks to article syndication, RSS feeds, and Creative Commons licensing (increases sharing and improves collaboration). So post thoughtfully today, and increase your odds of getting that next dream job!

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