Video: Job Interview Tactics

Job Interview Tactics from Frankfurness channel on Youtube

Avoid These Top 5 Pitfalls in Job Negotiation

So you've gone through the examinations and the interviews. You finally have a job offer in the works. And the company wants to know what will it take to get you in the door.

This great article on Monster.com outlines some very clear DO NOT DO items as not to endanger your chances of getting hired and getting the best possible offer for yourself. Avoid the following pitfalls

1) Initiating Negotiations Too Soon

Timing is important here. The appropriate time to negotiate is when a formal offer has been made. If the offer meets your needs, by all means accept it. It's a mistake to negotiate just for the sake of negotiating, but don't assume you can't negotiate at all. There's nothing wrong with asking for time to consider the offer or outright asking if the offer is negotiable.

2) Only Negotiating Salary

While money is the most frequently negotiated piece of the compensation package, it's not the only one. It's also true that many employers have benefits such as vacation time and health insurance coverage that are established by company policy and are therefore nonnegotiable.

But other parts of the package may be negotiable. They include signing bonuses, unpaid leave, relocation expenses, flextime, severance, and predetermined timeframes for salary reviews.

In the end, it's important to maintain some salary flexibility until you've seen the whole package, including benefits. For instance, the job you're seeking may have a built-in profit-sharing plan, a great company-funded health insurance program, or a bonus or incentive program, which all have real dollar value.

3) Mistrusting the System

Many job seekers operate under the assumption that employers will, without exception, try to lowball them, no matter how well-qualified they are for a position. While there are employers who pay employees below industry standard, you should never enter a negotiation with a them-versus-me mentality. And don't assume that just because you've researched a job's market value, you'll get an offer within that range. While market averages are good barometers of pay averages, they're just that -- averages.

The fact is, many companies have a predetermined budget for every position and have pay ranges and benefit packages based on their established compensation hierarchies. An offer may boil down to a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, only because that's all the budget allows for the position, not because the employer is trying to take advantage of you.

4) Assuming Your Degree Entitles You to a Higher Starting Salary

Increasingly, having an advanced education is nothing more than a threshold requirement that enables prospective employers to narrow down the pool of applicants to a manageable size. If you have relatively little real-world work experience, your degree may keep you in the running, but it won't entitle you to a higher salary.

Also, don't assume your degree is all you have to offer the employer. Having significant work experience will probably carry more weight than a degree alone. There's a major difference between job-performance potential, which a degree can suggest, and past job performance, which indicates previous work experience and achievements.

5) Believing Every Negotiation Will End in Your Favor

No matter what you bring to the negotiating table, it's naive to assume you'll always get what you want. Negotiating isn't a win-lose proposition; it's a compromise, and you should expect that going into discussions. Very few of us are in such demand that we can write our own tickets. That doesn't mean you should settle for any offer that comes your way, but sometimes an agreement won't be made. And accepting a job just for the sake of a paycheck could lead to mutual dissatisfaction. Ultimately, it could be better for you to continue your job search.

How to Get Hired: Are You Targeting a Specialist Position or Generalist?

There are different kinds of positions to apply for. One thing to consider when you're looking for a job is to target the company you'd like to join and make sure you fit the position they are looking for. Monster outlines 2 kinds of resume formats - the generalist and the specialist with recommendations on the best approach for you. Read on and discover which one is right for you

The Generalist's Advantages

Positioning yourself as a generalist could be effective if you:

    Target Small Companies: "A company with fewer than 500 employees may see a job seeker with a broad base of skills as giving them more for their money," says Dave Upton, founder and CEO of ExecuNet. At tiny companies or startups, a broad array of skills is often essential due to the need to wear different hats, Upton added.
    
    Target Downsizing Companies: Organizations that consolidate functions will often want someone who can do many things, such as a single HR generalist who can handle compensation and benefits as well as recruiting functions, says Stefanie Cross-Wilson, co-president of recruitment and talent management at Hudson.
    
    Will Take Any Job: Recruiters agree that the scattershot approach yields scattershot results even in the best of times. But if you simply want a foot in the door of a company -- any company, doing anything, anywhere -- selling yourself as a jack-of-all trades could pay off.

The Specialist Positioning

Selling yourself as a specialist is preferable if you:

    Know Exactly What You're Looking For: If you're sure about what you want and know how your skills match up to the requirements, make the case that you're the one they need and don't muddy your resume with a variety of unrelated skills.
    
    Work in a Competitive Industry: These days, employers who used to receive dozens of resumes for a position may see hundreds or thousands. The person who fits the job best, particularly in a competitive field, is more likely to get the job than someone who can do a bit of everything, recruiters say.
    
    Seek a Job Requiring Specialized Skill:  An employer filling a job that requires deep knowledge of industrial automation, forensic accounting or video game design, to name a few, can usually find a candidate with the exact skills to match the job. If you don't have the specific skills, your knowledge of gardening, accounting or music theory, while nice to have, won't make up that deficit.

The Best Approach

Still not sure which approach is best? Recruiters recommend playing it safe by positioning yourself as a "specialist, with breadth." To do this:

1.     Research a job opening and the company to find out exactly what skills are needed and what other skills might be useful.
2.     Emphasize the depth of your expertise in the most necessary job skills -- the ones that actually match the job description -- and add your compatible skills at the bottom of the resume
3.     Don't send out a hodgepodge resume. You're more likely to confuse the recruiter or the hiring manager, who may think of you as a dabbler without depth.

This tactic, recruiters say, will cover your bases by showing the breadth and depth of your skills, and that could be a winning combination in a tight job market.