Interviews, love them or hate them we’ve got you covered!
OK, so not many people love attending interviews but you don’t have to hate them either. If the thought of attending an interview fills you with dread, makes your palms sweaty and brings on hives have a read below of some of our interview hints and tips to help you breeze through the hiring process.
- 1.Don’t set yourself up for failure – preparation is key!
This is possibly one of the most important tips we can offer, the more prepared you are for an interview the more likely you are to succeed. This means researching the company, size, turnover, ethos and most importantly – what it is they do! Here at JR Personnel we manage the whole interview process for you including a comprehensive email before you attend confirming the location of the company, what they do, a link to their website, who it is you’ll be meeting and their job title, full job specification and the type of interview to expect (panel, competency etc.). The more you know about a company shows you are enthusiastic and interested in becoming a part of their team.
- 2.Dress the part
Think carefully about what to wear to your interview and dress appropriately. What’s the industry you will be interviewing for? Is it a very corporate company or family run business? If in doubt, we would always recommend smart business attire.
- 3.Know where you’re going
It’s so important that you know where you’re going on the day of your interview. If you don’t know the area or the exact location have a trial run there a couple of days beforehand and make sure you allow yourself enough time to arrive. Setting off early for an interview is always advised, that way if you get stuck in traffic or the train is delayed, you’ve still got plenty of time. Plus arriving early means you have opportunity to go through company background and potential questions again beforehand!
- 4.Don’t forget to interview them
Remember, interviews are as much for the client to find out about you as it is for you to find out about them. Having questions prepared not only means you come away feeling more informed about the company and the role but it always impresses clients when you have a couple of questions up your sleeve for the end of the interview. Here are some good examples below:
- Is this a new post or an existing one?
- How would you describe the ideal candidate for this role?
- What opportunities are there for training and progression in this role?
- How long have you worked for the company?
- 5.Body Language
Have you ever thought about what your body language says about you? When you’re being interviewed you want to project your enthusiasm and interest, good posture and eye contact is the perfect way of doing this. If you’re slouching in your chair, fiddling with your hair or looking around the room it can be interpreted as uninterested and rude. It’s normal if you’re feeling a little nervous to over gesticulate, bite your nails or keep touching your hair or face; try to make a concerted effort to keep your hands in your lap.
- 6.Your experience matters
It’s important to not only come across as well informed about the company you’re interviewing for but also about yourself and what is on your CV. Always draw on real-life experiences to emphasize skills you have, particularly if you’ve mentioned them on your CV, for instance when have you shown excellent team work and how did you go about it? How have you gone above and beyond expectations in previous roles?
We hope these hints and tips help you with the interview process but remember, our consultants are always on hand to offer further advice should you need it.
Do you have a friend or a work colleague who is feeling undervalued in their current role, or maybe you know someone who wants to try a new career path or is out of work and wanting a fresh start, why not recommend them to come and register with us here at JR Personnel – we always love to hear from existing candidates friends, colleagues and family and will be happy to help them with finding their new dream role!
They can register their CV on our website or send it to [email protected] or alternatively they can call the office on 01509 211211 to speak to a member of staff.
Clients, do you loathe having to recruit? Let JR Personnel help!
Perhaps you’ve just had a key member of staff hand their notice in, your workload has increased dramatically, you’re now swamped and need an extra pair of hands or any number of other scenarios have cropped up which means you need to focus on recruitment.
When it comes to recruitment time is of the essence, this can be especially nightmarish when you are trying to complete your own workload and find the right candidate at the same time. This is where a recruitment agency can really add value and take away the stresses of the recruitment process.
Our experience has taught us that clients find the following scenarios a struggle when trying to recruit a new candidate:
- Too many applications and you end up wasting time sifting through irrelevant CV’s
- Struggling to get any applications through for the role
- Finding the time to arrange interviews
JR Personnel can help you with all of the above.
We ensure that we meet every single candidate we register with us and we will not send you a CV unless we are confident that they are right for the role, we will also give you a brief breakdown of the candidate including how they came across when we met with them, their hopes and plans for the future, salary expectations and location so full transparency from the beginning saving you a whole lot of time!
Choosing the right job board to advertise your role on can be tricky and can mean that you end up not receiving any applications for your position, here at JR Personnel we only advertise on job boards we have experience of bringing in the best results. Most importantly, we have a large database of existing candidates who are registered with us and who we keep regular contact with, many of whom use us as an agency exclusively and aren’t actively looking on the usual job boards. And of course we can offer a full head hunting solution for those trickier, niche roles which can be particularly difficult to fill.
So you’ve finally managed to get a decent number of CV’s, sifted through and found the best ones but now you’ve got to arrange interviews. Nobody knows better than recruitment consultants how difficult it can be to get hold of a candidate who has applied for a role to arrange an interview. It can mean countless messages left and emails sent but going through an agency means you can pass this workload over to consultants who are well-equipped and most importantly, have the time to chase candidates. A great way we manage this process for you ensuring a quick turnaround is to manage expectations even before we have sent you the CV – this means liaising with the candidate and finding out their availability for interviews; are there specific days or times they can do? Do they have any other roles in the pipe line they may get offered or are holding out for? Managing both client and candidate expectations is something we pride ourselves on at JR Personnel and has proven to eliminate the difficulties associated with the interview process.
Contact JR Personnel now on 01509 211211 or by emailing [email protected] to find out in more detail how we can help with the recruitment headache and add value to your business!