Why Shine at an Internal Interview?

I have a question for you which I would appreciate your thoughts on. I have a presentation to make to an interview board followed by an interview tomorrow for a position which I am afraid I will not be seriously considered for. I am not being defeatist; it is just that I am fully aware who is ear marked for the job. I have in fact been told as much. I do, however, want to give a good account of myself, but I am finding it difficult to motivate myself. What do you recommend?

Answer: The internal job interview serves many purposes. The employer holds an internal interview to assess the skills and experience of a current employee. The internal interview can be so much more than just a job interview, though. You might want to solicit opportunities to participate in an internal interview. Here's why you'll want to participate enthusiastically in an internal interview.
This is the most important thing you need to remember about an internal interview. Even if the position has someone else's name written all over it, organizations use internal job interviews in multiple ways - ways that you can take advantage of to further your career aspirations. You can use an internal job interview for career development.
Organizations use internal interviews to become familiar with a range of employee skills and interests, in addition to selecting an employee for the current opening. Thus, the internal job interview is your opportunity to have an audience that wants to get to know you and potentially appreciate what you have to offer.
Even if you believe that you are not seriously being considered for the current job, the interview is your opportunity to shine for all of your future opportunities within your organization.
The interna interview is a terrific opportunity to display your talents, skills, interests, and potential to make contributions. Don't blow a wonderful opportunity to impress the interview team with your interest, talents, skills, passion, potential to contribute, and regard for your organization.
Don't think of the internal interview as your opportunity to obtain a position that you believe has already been tagged for another employee. Think of the internal interview as an opportunity to shine for your career. More opportunities will appear. If not, you can always target another employer; the job interviews you experience with your current employer will prepare you to shine for a potential new employer. Practice does make job interview comfort and efficacy improve.
And, just in case you're wrong about the employee that you think will receive the promotion, use the job interview as an opportunity to learn more about your organization and the interview team members, your colleagues. You can put your very best foot forward for your future in the internal job interview.
Is this motivating enough? I hope so. Good luck and best wishes. Don't mess up your time to shine, learn, and practice during your internal job interview.
http://humanresources.about.com/od/career-development/f/Purpose-Of-An-Internal-Job-Interview-For-Career-Development.htm?nl=1

Tips for a Successful Salary Negotiation

You have a job offer in hand. How much leeway do you have to negotiate salary and other conditions of employment? The answer ranges from not much to a lot. One key factor is the discussion of salary, benefits, and working conditions that occurred during the interview process.
You have likely shared your current or most recent salary with the potential employer; the potential employer may have shared the salary range for the position with you. The posted job ads may also have given you an idea about the salary range. Don’t count on this, however, since employers don’t want to lay their cards on the table first. After all, what candidate wants to be offered and accept a position in the low to mid-range of a stated salary range?

Salary Negotiation From the Employer’s Point of View

Consequently, the employer’s salary negotiation leeway depends on these factors:

• the level of the job within your organization,
• the scarcity of the skills and experience needed for the job in the job market,
• the career progress and experience of the individual selected,
• the fair market value for the job you are filling
• the salary range for the job within your organization
• the salary range for the job within your geographic area,
• the existing economic conditions within your job market,
• the existing economic conditions within your industry, and
• company-specific factors that might affect the given salary such as comparative jobs, your culture, your pay philosophy, and your promotion practices.

Bottom line? How badly do you want and need this candidate? If you are too needy, your negotiation strategy will quickly turn into a capitulation. And, capitulation, paying more than you can afford, paying disproportionately to the pay ranges of your current employees, and paying a new employee salary and benefits outside of your comfort zone is bad for the employer and bad for the candidate.
The new employee’s work is scrutinized under a microscope; employer expectations may be way too high. Fellow employees may resent the negotiated salary and think of the new employee as a prima donna. In a win-win salary negotiation, both employer and employee leave the negotiation feeling ready to get started on a long term, successful relationship.
If you’ve ever been involved in an intense salary negotiation, you know that the negotiation can consume your mental and physical energy way beyond its importance. This is because, by the time you reach the stage of making an offer, you have spent the time to develop a pool of candidates. You have interviewed various candidates for weeks.
Your organization has invested significant time and energy in wooing and getting to know your final choice candidate. More sophisticated candidates, higher level candidates, and candidates with significant career progress will counter your initial offer letter, so expect it.
Additionally, expectations and needs of candidates can sometimes blind side the employer. If multiple people have conducted interviews – which I recommend – you have little control over the expectations expressed and what the candidate comes to believe about the position as a result of the interviews. You also have no control over the content of offers from other firms that can occur simultaneously.

Salary Negotiation Tips

While they are not meant to comprehensively detail how to conduct a salary negotiation, I offer you these hints and tips to ensure you conduct successful salary negotiations.

• Negotiation is not about winning – unless both parties win. If either party feels they have capitulated, not negotiated, both parties lose.
• Make every effort to identify the most recent salary and benefits your candidate received. Most organizations ask for salary on their job applications and in their job postings and ads. Some candidates offer W-2 forms and other proof of salary. You can also ask former employers during reference checking. You may not be able to match the salary but you will have a good idea of what the candidate will seek during salary negotiations.

While they are not meant to comprehensively detail how to conduct a salary negotiation, I offer you these hints and tips to ensure you conduct successful salary negotiations.

• Know what your salary negotiation limits are. Base your limits on your internal salary ranges, the salary paid employees in similar positions, the economic climate and job searching market, and the profitability of your company.
• Recognize that, if your salary is not negotiable, and even if it is, superior candidates will negotiate with you in other areas that may be negotiable. These include benefits, eligibility for benefits or paid COBRA, tuition assistance, paid time off, a signing bonus, stock options, variable bonus pay, commissions, car allowance, paid cell phone, severance packages, and relocation expenses. In fact, sophisticated candidates will negotiate in all of these areas and more.
• Even if you are convinced of the candidate’s potential positive impact within your organization, and a negotiating candidate is likely to keep reminding you, most organizations have limits. You will regret violating your limits; even if you have to start your recruitment over, you will save yourself years of headaches and prohibitive costs
  
  In one company, a candidate tried to negotiate a severance package that provided six months of his base salary plus an additional one month for each year he worked for the company. Plus, he wanted all of this money in a lump sum upon dismissal. At $5769.00 per pay, the organization would have had to come up with approximately $116,000.00 upon his dismissal after only three years of employment. I don’t know too many small and medium-sized companies that can afford to negotiate salary in this arena or come up with a lump sum such as this.
• If your initial offer is not negotiable, or barely negotiable, try to indicate that to the candidate when you make the offer. Recently, I made an offer to a special candidate whom an organization had been trying to hire. (They waited to make an offer until the right position opened up.)
  
  I said, "We are offering you $60,000 in base salary plus the potential to earn up to $20,000 in bonuses during your first year. Others who have been with us for up to nine years are within a couple thousand dollars of that base. So, you can see how much we value you. Additionally, as you build your accounts, some of our business developers are making well over $100,000.00." I was trying to tell her that the base was firm and that the upside potential in bonus was high.

By Susan M. Heathfield

Leadership Job Interview Questions

The following sample job interview questions about leadership enable you to assess your candidate’s skills in leadership. Feel free to use these job interview questions in your own candidate interviews.

• You decided to reorganize the department or work unit that you lead. Tell me how you proceeded with the reorganization?
• Have you ever been a member of a successful team? If so, describe the role you played on the team and in its success.
• Give me an example of a time when you played a leadership role in an event, an activity, a department or work unit, or a project. Describe how you led the efforts. Tell me how people responded to your leadership.
• If I were to ask your reporting staff or your peers to comment about your leadership style, your leadership strengths, and your leadership weaknesses, how would they respond? What would this discussion tell me about you as a leader?
• Tell me about a time when you created agreement and shared purpose from a situation in which all parties originally differed in opinion, approach, and objectives.
• As a leader within an organization, you must often build support for goals and projects from people who do not report to you and over whom you have no authority. Tell me about a situation in which you demonstrated that you can build the needed support.
• What are the three most important values you demonstrate as a leader? Tell me a story that demonstrates each of these leadership values in practice within your workplace.
• During your work experiences while attending college, tell me about a time when you demonstrated that you have leadership ability and skill.

Leadership Job Interview Question Answers

You are questioning to determine whether the candidate has leadership skills or potential. You seek to identify the leadership style of your candidate, from his or her perspective and from the perspective of his or her direct reporting staff and peers. You are determining whether the candidate’s style is congruent with the culture of your organization. It is helpful if you have created beforehand a leadership profile that identifies the skills and traits of successful leaders within your organization.
Leadership style is best demonstrated in stories. Self-examination and commentary is self-serving, at best, in an interview setting. Ask your candidates for many specific stories and examples.
By Susan M. Heathfield

how to communicate your strengths in a job interview? see this video...

how to follow up after interview?

If you've had an interview, the last thing you can do to cement your prospect of getting the job is follow up. But what is the best way to contact your interviewer? Should you email her a thank you letter or wait a week to print and send it in the mail? A few tips can help you effectively follow up after an interview.

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Plain notecard
• Contact information of interviewer

1. 1
   Ask for a business card during the interview. Use it to glean a mailing or email address so you can contact the person directly. You can save it long after you follow up, since you never know if you'll need to get in touch with that contact in the future. Chances are, all of the interviewer's contact information is on the card.
2. 2
   Send a printed note. While some people prefer email (and that works too), others swear by a handwritten note for a more personal touch. In the note, write a few lines thanking the interviewer for taking the time to meet with you. Bring up something somewhat personal mentioned in the interview. For example, if you found out that the recipient of your note is an avid kayaker like you, add something like, "Hope to see you paddling on the Adams River this spring."
3. 3
   Drop an email. Email is less personal, but the concept of following up really helps you stand out--regardless of what medium you use. In the email be brief and note the same thing you would in a written letter. Include a professional signature under your name with your phone number, address and email address. In the subject line, make sure you stand out so your message won't get locked in a spam folder. Something such as "Adam: Following Up on Our Interview" or "Adam: Your Interview with Kristen Fischer" or "Adam: Interview Follow-up."
4. 4
   Choose the right language. With a follow-up letter, you want to thank the person for spending time with you and reiterate your interest in the position. You could say that you feel you'd bring a lot to the position and list the name of the job. Or you may want to add that after meeting with the person, you got some ideas to improve sales or productivity in the office--or something else related to the job--then offer up an idea. Provide a more personalized salutation such as "Dear" and use a personal closing line such as "Sincerely," "Warmly" or "Best." These are still professional, but offer a more personal touch.
   
   Stay away from the use of colons in greetings and closings and use commas instead. Never command the recipient to contact you back; you're just saying thank you and showing more interest in the job. That's enough. The most important thing is to be polite and brief--and timely.
5. 5
   Watch the clock. It's never too soon to send out a follow-up note. You can email or mail the note just a few hours after the interview or the next day. Aim to send all follow-ups within 24 to 48 hours to make the best impression. If you use U.S. mail, send the letter out that day. If you email, send the letter within the 72-hour span, tops. If you interview later during the week, try to send out the follow-up message before the weekend. Some people say you may grasp the attention of the interviewer more by hitting him up on a Monday morning, but it's likely that your note could get shoved over in chaos.

By Kristen Fischer

Interview Questions and Answers

even for job seekers who have gone on countless interviews. The best way to reduce the stress is to be prepared. Take the time to review the "standard" interview questions you will most likely be asked. Also review sample answers to these typical interview questions.
Then take the time to research the company. That way you'll be ready with knowledgeable answers for the job interview questions that specifically relate to the company

• Name of company, position title and description, dates of employment. -
• What were your expectations for the job and to what extent were they met? -
• What were your starting and final levels of compensation? -
• What were your responsibilities? -
• What major challenges and problems did you face? How did you handle them? -
• What did you like or dislike about your previous job? -
• Which was most / least rewarding? -
• What was the biggest accomplishment / failure in this position? -
• Questions about your supervisors and co-workers. -
• What was it like working for your supervisor? -
• What do you expect from a supervisor? -
• Who was your best boss and who was the worst? -
• Why are you leaving your job? -
• What have you been doing since your last job? -
• Why were you fired? -
• What is your greatest weakness? -
• What is your greatest strength? -
• Describe a typical work week. - 
• Do you take work home with you? -
• How many hours do you normally work? -
• How would you describe the pace at which you work? -
• How do you handle stress and pressure? -
• What motivates you? -
• What are your salary expectations? -
• What do you find are the most difficult decisions to make? -
• Tell me about yourself. -
• What has been the greatest disappointment in your life? -
• What are you passionate about? -
• What are your pet peeves? -
• What do people most often criticize about you? -
• When was the last time you were angry? What happened? -
• If you could relive the last 10 years of your life, what would you do differently? -
• If the people who know you were asked why you should be hired, what would they say?
• Do you prefer to work independently or on a team? -
• Give some examples of teamwork. -
• What type of work environment do you prefer? -
• How do you evaluate success? -
• If you know your boss is 100% wrong about something how would you handle it? -
• Describe a difficult work situation / project and how you overcame it. -
• Describe a time when your workload was heavy and how you handled it. -
• More job interview questions about your abilities. -
• More job interview questions about you. -

job Interview Questions About the New Job and the Company

• What interests you about this job? -
• Why do you want this job? -
• What applicable attributes / experience do you have? -
• Are you overqualified for this job? -
• What can you do for this company? -
• Why should we hire you? -
• Why are you the best person for the job? -
• What do you know about this company? -
• Why do you want to work here? -
• What challenges are you looking for in a position? -
• Are you willing to travel? -
• What is good customer service? -
• Is there anything I haven't told you about the job or company that you would like to know? -
• Interview Questions: The Future
• What are you looking for in your next job? What is important to you? -
• What are your goals for the next five years / ten years? -
• How do you plan to achieve those goals?
• What are your salary requirements - both short-term and long-term? -

By Alison Doyle

job interview skills see this video