Careego Career Management Blog

For any company, the entire interview process is a costly activity. If using an internal recruiter or Human Resources (HR) representative the number of required man-hours is often under estimated.

Before interviews even begin, HR spends considerable preparation and research time. They are involved with:

- meeting the hiring manager and understanding the position requirements,
- writing the job description,
- posting the opportunity,
- collecting resumes,
- performing the initial resume paper screening.

With the increase in resume submissions for each position, HR is constantly looking for methods to streamline the hiring process.

One time saving strategy is to conduct pre-screening telephone interviews, allowing HR to make quick qualifying assessments in a much shorter period of time.

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Making it to the interview stage is a huge accomplishment so it’s important to prepare for this meeting.

1. Do your homework

Research the company and find out as much as you can. If you’re interviewing for a finance role, it will be important to review the company’s financials in their annual report. You will also want to know who the company’s direct competition is and where they stand in the marketplace. “What do you know about us?” is a favourite question among interviewers so make sure you’re prepared.

2. Confirm meeting arrangements

The day before, call and confirm the meeting time, place and the length of the interview. Ask if there is anything you need to know about, parking, the office location and number of people expected to be in the meeting, etc. You don’t want to be surprised and walk into a panel interview scenario. This is also a good time to ask about the company’s dress code.

3. Dress appropriately for the interview

The day before decide what you are going to wear. Depending on the company, industry, location, and position level you may need to adjust your interview wardrobe. A good standard rule is to dress one level above the normal dress code of the organization.

What is your personal tag line or motto? Do you have one? Is there a phrase you commonly say, or live by? Many individuals will often cite a favourite line from a movie, or a book. Some lines have become so popular they are now apart of every day language and culture. Some famous movie quotes include:

“I’ll be back” – Terminator
“May the force be with you” – Star Wars
"If you build it, he will come” – Field of Dreams

Other memorable quotes:

“Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value." – A. Einstein

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”– W. Churchill

Sometimes a particular phrase will strike a chord and resonate with what you believe, are striving for or how you want to be seen.

Organizations understand the power of tag lines. They want to differentiate themselves from their competition and have their customers see them in a certain way. Read the list below and note which company’s former or current tag lines catch your attention:

Many recruiters use telephone interviews as a method of pre-screening candidates for face-to-face interviews. This normally happens when there are a large number of applicants or when there is a large distance to travel to the interview. Telephone interviews can be tough because you can’t see the person who is actually interviewing you. As such, interviewees tend to be even more nervous for these types of interviews. Below are some tips to help you prepare for a telephone interview.

Always agree on a convenient time
If you’re called for an unscheduled telephone interview, don’t feel pressured to proceed if you’re not prepared, or don’t have enough time. It’s important to make a good first impression, so if the timing is inconvenient, ask to reschedule the meeting suggesting a number of alternate times/dates.

Research, preparation and practice are an integral part of any job search. Creating useful marketing tools is a key part of your job search preparation and personal marketing strategy. While updating a resume is often the first thing that comes to mind, depending on your position and job target, a few other marketing tools may also be useful.

Resume Preparation

• Remember, the sole purpose of a resume is to get you a face-to-face interview. It will not get you the job, only in the door.
• While your resume is a personal document detailing your experience and skills, it has to be written from the position of what the prospective employer wants and needs to see versus what you’re personally proud of.
• dentify what types of positions you’re targeting. They may be identical to what you previously held, or may be something very different.
• Review your past skills and experience. Which ones are the most relevant to your current target position?
• If you’re an experienced professional, review your core accomplishments and achievements from the last 7-10 years of work experience. Detailing older work experience is not necessary and will take up too much room on your resume.
• Review how to create a solid accomplishment statement and build your resume using a critical eye of what the reader, or prospective employer needs to see.