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An interview is supposed to act as an avenue to sell your skills and expertise to the hiring manager. It is also an avenue to ask relevant questions to the interviewer. According to Ms. Melody Mwendwa, a Professional Interview Coach at Corporate Staffing Services Limited, you should never leave an interview room without having asked a question. It shows a lack of interest on your part in the organization or the job. She advises that you engage the interviewer in a few interview questions related to the job and the company.

Interview Questions you should ask during the interview

1. What are your short- and long-term goals for the position?

Employers will probably ask about your career goals, but you should ask them what they want the person in this position to achieve. Are they concerned with increasing revenue, visibility, leads, improving morale or any number of other things? You want to know that they have a purpose for this position and aren’t just looking for a temporary solution.

2. Can you tell me why the last person left this job?

They might not tell you, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. If the person got promoted or took a better job elsewhere, that’s a sign that the position is a good way to advance a career.

3. Who are the people I’ll be working with on a daily basis?

Where does this role fit in the overall structure of the team and the business? Will you interact with people who can help your career? Will you spend most of your days in silence, typing on a computer? All that matters is that you receive an answer that appeals to you.

4. What do you think is the biggest challenge for a person taking up this role?

No position is perfect. In fact, some jobs are created to address a problem that needs to be solved. That could very well be what attracted you to the job. An honest employer will tell you what struggles lie ahead. That’s your opportunity to turn the answer around as a challenge you’re happy to accept and present some ideas of how you would tackle the obstacles. If the employer makes it sound too good to be true, it probably is.

5. Do you have any recommendations for how I could improve my interviewing skills?

Most job seekers forget to ask this. It helps you work on your failures so that you are ready for another interview. If you don’t get the position, you’ll be disappointed, but use it as an opportunity to improve your interviewing skills. Some employers won’t give you tips, but others might give you feedback that will help you on the next interview.

An interview should be an interaction between the candidate and hiring manager. As a candidate, you are interviewing employers just as much as they’re interviewing you. Have a list of interview questions ready before you start. You don’t need to ask these questions to look good to the employer; you need to ask them to learn about the employer.

Compiled by Lilian Wamaitha

By Susan Gitonga

Passing interviews should be at the top of your list of priorities this year. It is possible to have different employers giving you job offers because of how well you present yourself during an interview.

It is also possible for you to be spoilt for choice, wondering which job offer to pick. The secret lies with how you handle your job interviews.

Have a look at some of the best Interview Tips No One Ever Tells You About!

1. Interviewers don’t take one word answers lightly

When you sit in the interview room with an employer, you can expect to be asked many questions. Giving a one word answer like ‘yes/no’ might come across as being offensive to an employer.

It might also send a message to the employer that you are either shy or not interested in the job.

Example: When an interviewer asks you if you gained any skills in your previous job, don’t give ‘yes’ as the only answer. Go on to expound on what skills those are, and how they contributed to your growth and performance.

Best Tip: The more information you give, the better!

2. The first 5 minutes and the last 5 are the most crucial

They say first impressions are everything! Indeed they are. Walk into the interview with a smile. You might find that the employer is in a bad mood, and your smile will light them up and make them forget what’s bothering them.

Be confident, dress well and be light hearted when you walk into an interview.

The last 5 minutes apply the same concept. Shake hands with the interviewer, ask them for their business card, smile and sum up the interview on a high note by thanking them for their team.

Treat your interviewer as a new friend you have made. Leave them wishing they had interviewed you for a longer amount of time.

3. Believe that you are the best candidate for the Interview

Confidence and having a high self esteem is key.

It doesn’t matter how many people you are competing with for a job. Don’t fear competition.

Having the mindset of a winner is all you need.

If the interviewer invited you for an interview, it’s a very clear sign that you are close to the finish line. You are a great potential candidate for the job.

It’s now your duty to prove yourself in the interview.

You do not prove to the employer why you are better than the other candidates. You prove to the employer why you are qualified for the job.

Believe that you are best, and you will ace the interview!

5. Your personality is more important than your papers!

In an interview you will find that some of the people who end up getting jobs are people who didn’t have all the papers needed. Sometimes, your personality is the best CV you can ever show to the employer.

Are you a positive person? Do you give good responses to the questions asked?

Are you promising the employer to give your best once you are given the job?

Impressing the employer with your personality and your overall presence during the interview will give you an edge over someone who has the right papers but has a very dull personality.

Having a great personality that is welcoming and sociable is all you need, alongside your papers.

With the above tips implemented, you can be sure that you are on your way to landing that job you really want in 2017! All the best.

Jobs in Tanzania

By Florence Mukunya

I know you have probably read a thousand articles on how to write a good CV on what to include and what you cannot dare include. But have you ever asked yourself what employers actually look for in a CV?

In any given application an employer is likely to receive from around 500 CVs, says Carolyne Kariuki a Recruitment Manager at Corporate Staffing Services .

“Out of these applications the employer only needs to meet around 15 candidates to determine who is best suited for the job,” She adds

So what do employers really look for in a CV to determine whether you are qualified for the position?

5 Things Employers Look For in a CVs

1. Relevant experience

The first thing that an employer looks for in your CV is relevant work experience. This refers to any past or current hands on experience. Now, the mistake many job seekers make is failing to include some of their past experiences as some tend to favor what they are currently doing either because it pays better or just because they like the company. The number of years you have worked also matters as it’s used to measure the amount of expertise you possess.

Remember, employers are looking for experienced candidates as it saves them time to train and also they know the candidate is likely to bring in some expertise from the companies they are coming from.

2. Companies you have worked for

You might find this not very important, but employers are actually interested on companies you have previous worked with. For example say an employer is in the banking industry, if they are looking for a Sales Representative, they are mostly likely to go with a person who has previously worked as a sales person in the banking industry.

Reason being, the candidates in the industry already possess the knowledge of how the banking industry works.

So the next time you are writing your CV make sure you include the names of the companies you have worked with

3. Consistency

There is no employer who is looking to employ a candidate whose CV does not portray consistency. Now, if you keep changing jobs after every few months the employer might not have confidence in you, Says Ms. Kariuki.

She advises that when writing a CV, candidates should ensure that they point out clearly on the duration they have worked on different companies, that is inclusive of years and months.

For the jobs where one has worked for short periods, for example a contract, she says that one should note in brackets that it was a contract.

4. Age

Well, this might be a point to debate about, but employers are also keen on a candidate’s age. Some positions especially the senior ones are looking for mature people, same goes with entry level jobs, where employers will mostly be looking for young graduates.
When writing your CV ensure you include your age.

5. The CV format

You might agree with me that a good CV may include all the above but then it needs to be put in a neat professional format. Ms Kariuki says that every time she concentrates on well formatted CVs she is sure to get qualified candidates from the batch as opposed to badly done CVs.

She concludes by advising job seekers on keenly scrutinizing their CVs and the jobs they are applying for before making an application. Failure to include details that are relevant to the job will cost you.

She further and gives an example of an employer who is looking for a sage accountant, well, even if you have the experience working with Sage and have not included that on the CV, then employer will just skip your CV to the next.

By Agnes Aineah

Job seekers are taking advantage of new media to make their job search fast and also to keep at par with companies that are using technology to source for employees. Such media platforms include Face book, twitter, LinkedIn and many others. A good LinkedIn profile is bound to turn around your tedious job search so that employers come looking for you.

According to Michael Gacha, Recruitment Assistant at Corporate Staffing Services, it is a common thing for recruiters to use job applicants’ LinkedIn profiles in the course of headhunting for a particular position.

“After I advertise for a particular vacancy I get responses of people expressing their interest to take up the offer couple with many applications. I ensure that I visit each particular job seeker’s LinkedIn profile to check their suitability for the job,” Mr Gacha says.
Mr Gacha says that it is only an impressive LinkedIn profile from an applicant that attracts him to go ahead and extend a job interview invitation.

Here are a few things you need to polish on your LinkedIn profile to make it attractive to employers so that they invite you for a job interview.

Areas To Polish On Your LinkedIn Profile To Get A Job Faster

Unlike other electronic and new media platforms, LinkedIn provides you with an avenue to echo out your relevance in the career field as loud as you can. It goes beyond the CV that limits you to two pages and a cover letter that should be short as well.

Mr Gacha reveals the most important aspects that never escape his scrutiny while headhunting to fill a particular position.

1. Your profile picture
This is the first thing on your LinkedIn profile that you need to polish to show that you are a serious job seeker. It is the first thing that the person viewing your profile sees.

As Florence Mukunya, Career Advisor at Corporate Staffing Services points out, this is not an opportunity for you to use photos that you would otherwise need on social platforms.
“Pick your best official photo, preferable passport size because it is an official platform. Maintain professionalism as much as possible. It is not the time for you to upload selfies,” She says.

2. Your work experience
This is an entry where you fill the places of work you have ever been, the titles you have held and specific roles in your position.

Make your work roles as detailed as possible. Let potential recruiters know your job description by merely looking at your profile. It is the best chance to echo your suitability, so use it. Job seekers err when they only mention their position and just leave it at that so that the person viewing your LinkedIn profile does not know the specific roles you carried out.

For instance, if you were a communications officer at ABC company, go ahead to describe the day to day duties you were charged with while at the company that could include preparing newsletters and press releases, updating the website, representing the company in external functions, taking notes, and so on. Don’t just leave it at Communications Officer.

3. Key words
Wherever there is textual information on your LinkedIn profile, make it as keyword rich as possible. Keywords include terms that are relevant to your career path. Employers are more likely to filter LinkedIn users into the lot they require for a certain vacancy by use of specific search words. Know what your field entails and the relevant jargon that you can use on your profile.

IT jargon for instance is specific to the various professions within the field prompting them to talk about programming, software development, debugging, network architect, cyber security analysis, cyber attacks and so on.

4. Type of people in your circles
LinkedIn is a little more than social sites that people connect with just anyone. For LiknedIn, it should be people mainly relevant to your career goals.

Have people and companies in circles that are bound to add significant to your job search. It is such people that can connect you to a new job or give you relevant career advice.

Even though the number of people in your LinkedIn profile connections make a significant impression to your potential employer, these people are supposed to be those that matter to your job search. Mr Gacha says that he does not pay much attention to the number of connection a job seeker has in their connections.

“It is easy to get people in your connection that you have no idea who they are. Far much easier is to have them endorsing you for skills that you do not have at all. Only skills that match your career path are the ones that I look for when I am narrowing down on specific job’s candidates,” he says.

This could be the time you devoted a little more energy on your LinkedIn profile to get the employers looking for you. Compared to other media platforms, LinkedIn is what recruiters are using more to seek for suitable candidates as companies rush for space on the cutting edge of technology.

In Washington, D.C., political jobs aren’t hard to come by. But landing one is another story.

I was 25 and in the running for a press secretary position with the Department of Transportation (DOT). These are the people who manage billions in tax dollars and make sure trains, planes, and buses get us from point A to point B in one piece. No biggie.

If you’ve never applied for a job in the realm of politics or the federal government, seven interviews may seem insane, but it actually comes with the territory.

By the final one, I’d already gone through a proverbial ring of fire—each meeting with a higher-level person than the last. But as the stakes rose, I grew more and more relaxed.

I figured for the last one, in which I’d be meeting with the chief of staff, I could finally relax and let my hair down. And although research had been a critical part of my prep up until that point, for the final interview I decided to wing it and didn’t do any. Instead I walked in confident and thought “Ursula, you’ve got this in the bag.”

Except I didn’t.

As you might imagine, when I received the rejection email, I was floored. I emailed the hiring manager who had guided me through the entire process and asked if he’d be willing to give me feedback on where I went wrong and what I can do better in the future.

Because people are busy and many employers aren’t necessarily at liberty to offer feedback, I didn’t expect a response—yet I got one. I’ll tell you this: The truth can be a hard pill to swallow. But after such a long process, I knew constructive criticism would serve me (and hopefully you) well.

1. Never Stop Hustling

I wish I could tell you after seven rounds you can stop hustling and take a load off. Unfortunately, multiple rounds typically mean you’re meeting with people higher and higher on the ladder. For example, your first meeting would never be with the CEO of the company, but your third one very well could be.

The process can be physically and emotionally exhausting, and by my final one, I was spent. But the person I spoke with never should’ve been able to sense that. Whether it’s your first or last meeting, you must maintain the same hunger and level of enthusiasm.

In fact, with each round, you actually need to be more prepared than the next. The same hustle that got you there will keep you there.

2. Always Be Professional

For most of my interviews, I had been meeting with men. When my last (and most important) round rolled around, I was relieved it was with another woman.

Upon meeting this very powerful person at the very top of the ladder, can you guess how I approached our introduction? Did I smile pleasantly, give her a firm handshake, and say “Thank you for meeting with me?”

Did I hand her a folder containing my resume, published press releases, and letters of recommendation?

Nope. Instead, I gushed about the giant engagement ring she had on her finger. I overlooked her rank, what she had done to get there, and focused on a personal fact that was absolutely none of my business.

Yep. I made small talk with the chief of staff. And in doing so, I’d presented myself as unprofessional. And I’d shown a certain amount of disrespect too. It’s OK to go off topic if it seems appropriate. Follow the lead of the person you’re meeting with. Let him or her drive the conversation.

3. Never Go in Unprepared

Confidence is great. But it can be dangerous when you’re walking the fine line between arrogance and confidence. Thanks to the internet, most of the information you need to know about the organization and who you’re meeting with is at your fingertips, but that’s no reason to get smug and assume you’ve got it all figured out.

I researched like crazy early on, but then, as my confidence grew, I started to slack off. I figured I didn’t need to keep trying so hard. Boy, was I wrong. My overconfident attitude led to me being underprepared and not on my toes.

After seven rounds, I learned the career lesson of a lifetime: The details matter. As you move further along in the hiring process, rather than getting comfortable, raise your level of preparedness, awareness, and professionalism. Because hiring managers typically can’t offer individual feedback on your performance, I don’t advise reaching out to them each time you don’t land the position. Instead, take a lesson from my experience and apply it to your next search. Because when the time came for a new round of interviews at a new company, I prepped for all three (not just the first one) and got the job.

Credit : themuse.com