Dressing to Impress: top tips for interview outfits

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They say you only get one chance to make a first impression and that’s especially true when it comes to job interviews. You usually have less than an hour to make yourself memorable and to ensure that your best features are highlighted and that you leave them with a positive memory of you, both as a potential employee and as a person. At the same time, as we all know, interviews (and interviewers) are terrifying and unpredictable – sometimes they can go incredibly well and sometimes you can feel like you’ve stepped into the coliseum without a shield. With this in mind then, the last thing you want is for your appearance – one of the few variables in the situation that you can control – to let you down. You might be the brightest legal mind of our generation or a technical wizard but all that’s going to stick with your interviewer if you don’t take care with your appearance is the huge ladder in your tights or how greasy your hair looked. Lest you completely freak out however, I am here to sort you out with my five top tips on what (and what not) to wear to your interview.

1. Business smart and formal-smart are not the same thing. Obviously everybody wants to look their best in and interview and stand out from the crowd, and smart dress is important however there’s no need to go overboard. Unless you are auditioning for the Wolf of Wall Street you should not turn up in a three piece suit – it’s pretentious and out-dressing your interviewer will do you no favours. Ditto bow ties, hats and hipster accessories – your clothes should be the velvet backdrop to your sparkling personality, not the main attraction. Likewise ladies dresses that you would wear to ascot are not interview appropriate – stick with the basics here and try to keep to muted tones with maybe one key colourful piece rather than eye-catching patterns or haute-couture styling.

 2. Read the information they give you and abide by it. Increasingly, many industries are taking a much more relaxed attitude to dress in the office, especially if your role isn’t client facing and this sometimes translates into a recommendation for smart-casual interview wear. This is not a trap – take them at their word. Turning up suited and booted to an ‘informal’ interview is not appropriate and will leave them with the impression that you would not be a good fit for their more casual work environment.

3.   3. Personal grooming is not optional. I’m not suggesting that every interview should be preceded by a spa day or – as one book rather unrealistically suggested – a haircut. Showering, deodorising, trimming your nails and moisturising (guys and girls) however should be mandatory interview preparation. You want to look your best and shiny hair, neatly trimmed nails and well-tended skin are, unsurprisingly, an important part of that. Even if it’s not part of your normal routine, you need to make an effort for interview days.

4.      4.  Pay attention to the details. It can be the smallest imperfections sometimes that utterly preoccupy a person – and this is as true of interviewers as it is of anybody else. So shine those shoes, carry a spare pair of tights and if you’re nail polish is chipped either re-apply or take it off. A friend once told me that her father, who held an influential position in a big company, once told her that he judged interview candidates by the quality of their shoes, so it’s worth taking the time to go over your appearance with a fine tooth comb – and a sticky roller.

5.       5.. Wear something comfortable. Runners will tell you never to get new shoes before a race and the same is true for interview outfits – do not buy new clothes for the occasion! The whole experience is going to be excruciatingly uncomfortable mentally and emotionally as it is – there’s no need to add physical discomfort to the mix. Wear something you love, something that gives you a boost when you see yourself in it. If you feel you need to wear heels (girls) or uncomfortable dress shoes (boys) carry a spare pair for before and after the interview – after all during should be largely sedentary. Make sure you have layers so that you’re not too cold or too hot and make sure your clothes fit you the day before the interview, as there is nothing worse than a last minute, panicked rummage through the wardrobe or run around the shops.

Ultimately, if you follow only one of those rules make it the last one – the way you feel physically will transmit itself through your performance at interview and feeling comfortable will make you look comfortable. For more information about the importance of appearance in interview success check out my article on the halo effect.

Experience: the Catch 22 of job hunting

When it comes to job hunting there’s one element that frustrates and angers me the most – to the extent that I sometimes feel like jeopardising the occasional interview just to get it off my chest – and that’s the issue of experience.

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In the current economic climate experience is prized for two reasons: one, it means that the company doesn't have to train you, nurture you or invest any more money and time in you than is absolutely necessary to make sure you understand the role and two, with the amount of redundancies being instituted across the spectrum of industries, there are an awful lot of experienced candidates out there. Now, in all fairness, you can’t blame companies for this, however it leaves new arrivals to the job market with their very own catch 22: can’t get a job without experience, can’t get experience without a job. 

This is less of a problem if you’re going down the corporate graduate scheme route (although you may still be surprised by the weighting that is given to summer jobs and internships and the expectation that you will have experience of one or the other). If you want to get into any kind of less mainstream career however, the job hunter’s catch 22 can leave you feeling like you’re staring through a glass door that you can’t get through because you don’t have a key – you can see where you want to be, you just don’t have the means to get there.

The unspoken message that companies are sending of course is that you need to get the experience you need in some other way than formalised employment – usually by working for free. It’s unfair, unfeasible for many and ultimately doesn’t do businesses any favours in the long run but these days most graduates without vocational career pathways are resigned to either doing the unpaid legwork, approaching their desired career in an extremely roundabout manner or giving up on it completely.

Unfortunately there isn't a never before heard solution or lifehack for dealing with this problem – if there was, believe me, I would spread the love. However, I do have some ways of dealing with this conundrum that might make the application process a bit easier.

Do the internship but minimise the damage.

Obviously not everybody is able to work for free or has guaranteed parental accommodation but there are strategies for handling the internship to minimise its negative impact on your life. A short-term internship that pays expenses is one option – it doesn’t cost you anything and it can get you on to the next step of your career journey. Alternatively you may be able to work out a part-time internship alongside another, less ideal, job. If you can’t manage a long term internship, at the very least try to get a few days work experience or shadowing in the industry of your choice – anything you can do to inch your CV up the pile makes a difference.

Give them something else they want

Although experience is prized by employers there are other skills and qualifications that you can develop that they may find sufficiently valuable to make up the difference on your CV. Languages are a good example – Spanish, German, Arabic, Chinese and Italian are frequently sought after by employers and there are often adult education classes run by your local authority that are discounted for those not in employment.  Another option is to develop your computer skills – but in a specific area. Everyone is good at MS Office but if you can demonstrate database management skills, knowledge of coding, web design expertise or graphic design abilities you can increase your on paper value to the companies you’re applying to.

Use the power of networking

The adage that it’s not what you know it’s who you know remains true even in 2014 so it’s worth examining your contacts for common ground with your interviewer or the company you’re applying to. If you can manage an informal introduction or meeting with someone before you present yourself formally they will have a face to put with the application – and it’s much harder to reject someone out of hand if they’ve already bought you coffee. Similarly, if you’ve been to the same university as the person in charge of the recruiting or you used to work at the same company or you even support the same football team then you are presenting yourself as someone familiar rather than a complete stranger and they are less likely to focus on your lack of experience if you have a common ground to discuss. Most positions are won or lost face to face, so if you get to that stage, any advantage is crucial. Attending industry events or conferences is another way to build up these connections – even if you don’t manage to meet the people you want to, just being able to talk about the event in cover letters and interviews will put you further up the shortlist.

Obviously, there’s no guarantee that following these paths with guarantee you success but your chances will increase and – most importantly – you will be actively involved in improving your changes rather than feeling increasingly impotent and resentful with every rejection and sometimes attitude is half the battle. Read here for more tips on dealing with rejection proactively.

Interview danger zones: where does it all go wrong?

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So you’re a veteran of the job hunt: you’ve mastered the CV and got your cover letters primed to perfection. Invitations to interview are coming thick and fast but for some reason you’re just not managing to seal the deal. Even when you think it’s gone well things don’t work out and you start to ask yourself where am I going wrong? Feedback from the interviewers is seldom revealing: unsurprisingly they’d have you believe that you were perfect but somebody else was just a bit more perfect – nobody likes to be the bearer of bad news, after all. In reality, few interviews go without a hitch and all we can do is focus on smoothing out as many of the hitches as possible. One of the ways to do this is to identify your interview danger zones.

BEFORE THE INTERVIEW

How do you prepare for an interview? If you are an under-preparer then this could be a potential danger zone. Doing your research is an expected part of the interview process these days – you need to know your stuff not only when it comes to the company and your interviewer but also the field in which they work and current market trends. You don’t have to become an expert overnight but you need to sound confident and familiar with the business if you want to work for them!

During a skype interview once, for which I had done fairly cursory research, the interviewer said “if you read the profile on me…” I was forced to admit that I hadn’t and it was clear that that didn’t go over well.

Alternatively you might be an over-preparer, which can be an equally problematic danger zone. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with doing your research, keep in mind that the information you’re busy memorising is stuff that they already know. You’re not going to impress if you simply recite information about their company – if you have a chance to mention any of it at all. A better technique is to read up on some of the more recent developments in the company or one or two areas you find particularly interesting and think of a way to link it to your personal interests or experience. That way not only is it easier to bring up in the interview, you will come across as much more analytical and prepared than you would do simply reciting facts.

DURING THE INTERVIEW

Although you can never predict the direction an interview will take, there are certain questions that are the bedrock upon which such meetings are built. These are the big questions, the broad questions and for many people (myself included) these are where you fall down. Even though it seems like you can prepare for these questions, when they arrive it’s always an unpleasant shock. A lot of interview preparation guides provide ‘slick, professional’ techniques for dealing with this situation but I find that in such moments I can barely remember what I wrote on my CV let alone what I read in a book three days before. My advice would be to recap the progression of your CV (people assume this is redundant but you’d be surprised how little attention it receives from the interviewer once they’ve made the decision to ask you in) and give clear reasons for your decisions in each situation. If you’re feeling brave you can also give some details about your duties in each post and how it contributed to the skill set you’re presenting to them.

More than once I have had an interviewer recapping my CV to me and have had to correct them because they have gotten the timeline completely wrong, despite my helpful dating alongside each position or have failed to take in how my education and experience overlap. It is up to you to direct them to the information you want them to remember.

If broad questions don’t faze you and you are happy to chatter on about yourself ad nauseam then it may be the more specific questions that trip you up. After all, if the worst comes to the worst you can always say something about yourself but if you don’t know how you would deal with a specific situation or the answer to a technical question then you’re in trouble. The important thing to remember in these situatio

ns is that you need to give some kind of answer – any answer – rather than remaining silent. If you think you have an inkling it’s perfectly acceptable to ask for further clarification which may then help you answer the question but if you genuinely have no idea pull a classic politicians move and deliberately misinterpret the question into one you can answer – then talk at length and hope they’ll move on. It might not fool them but it will show them that you can think on your feet and have a good knowledge of topics relating to the one they’re interested in.

AT THE END OF THE INTERVIEW

The final question in every interview – and I do mean every – is the one that strikes dread into the hearts of many “do you have any questions?” The answer by the way is yes you do if you want to have any chance of getting this job. Think of some questions – preferably intelligent and preferably prepared in advance. I intend to write more about developing good stock interview questions in a later post but for now will just content myself with two pieces of advice – make them relevant or interesting and capable of stimulating discussion but don’t overdo. When they ask “is that everything?” they are not questioning the brevity of your inquiries they are simply making sure you have the time to say everything you want to. Do not get sucked into the black hole of trailing out increasingly weaker questions every time that sentence is uttered. Decide on your questions and stick to them.

Hopefully this will be helpful to anybody heading off to interview this week – let me know in the comments if you have any different danger zones or advice to offer for this situation. You can also check out our general tips for interview success here.

The Truth about TEFL: Debunking the misconceptions

Having just returned from a year in Spain teaching English as a foreign language I've decided to let the rest of you benefit from my experience in order that you make the most informed decision possible about this major career choice. Don't get me wrong, there were many things I loved about my year abroad and I will cover the positives as well as the negatives over the coming months, however to start with I want to dispel some misconceptions that people might have about the industry.

 

First of all, You can’t go wherever you want – certainly not if this is your first job in the field. You will be at the mercy of the market in terms of location and you may find that there is a small market for EFL in the area you have your heart set on. I wanted to find a position in Germany, but ended up in Spain because that’s where all the jobs were.

As a result of this, It’s not a good way to fund your travelling – unless your idea of travelling is to stay in one place for nine months at a time. A TEFL contract is the same as any other contract and schools are looking to recruit staff for classes that take place throughout the school year. This means you will likely work five days a week, 6 or 7 hours a day. It is very difficult to fit travelling around this, even at the weekends and due to the long summer holidays, you receive very little time off during the year. 

That’s because It’s not a paid holiday – in any way. Contrary to popular belief, TEFL teachers actually work pretty hard and usually in residential areas. Forget beaches and big cities, you’re far more likely to be living in a small town with minimal entertainment and transportation. The fun and excitement of living in another country wears off after about three months and then it becomes just another job, only one in a country where you don’t speak the language.

Speaking of language, You don’t automatically become fluent in a language just because you live abroad. This misconception is a biggie but in actuality, it takes very little knowledge of a language to get by day-to-day. If you want to become fluent, you need to make friends, take classes and talk for extended periods of time as often as possible. You won’t learn a language by magic osmosis unless you have an audiographic memory.

However it’s not all bad because many of these things lead to my last point which is that You can save money as a TEFL teacher – even though the salary is often very low. I saved about a third of my money overall simply because I lived in a very small town with low rent and nothing to do.

I hope that this has helped dispel any misconceptions for those of you thinking about going into TEFL. Stay tuned for the second part of my TEFL series, on job applications, next month. Let me know in the comments if you have any further questions or suggestions to add.

It's All About the Money, Money, Money

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The best thing about my job is getting paid. I enjoy my work and I like my colleagues but at the end of the day I'm in it for the money, not the job satisfaction. Getting paid after years of pocket money and student loans is an amazing feeling- for the first time you are truly financially independent, your money is under your sole control.

The downside to all this is that you are financially independent and in sole control of your money. All those bits of paper you used to pass over to your dad? Your's now. All the cash sympathetic relatives would send your way? Gone now- people assume you have plenty of money.

So what to do with your money once you've got it? Obviously for many people a reasonable (or unreasonable depending on your job and point of view) chunk of it goes on rent, transport to and from work and basic necessities (by which I mean food- not beer or shoes!)

Whatever is left over is yours to do as what you want with- save it, spend it, roll around in it, just remember it's got to last you a month. This week we're looking at what to do with your cash and the pitfalls to avoid falling into. 

So, save or spend? Despite the carefree, reckless life young twenty-somethings are purported to lead, not all of us take an ostrich- like head in the sand approach to the future. However, interest rates are at an all time low which can make it difficult to know whether a savings account is worth having. Generally speaking you are always better off with the bulk of your money out of your current account and many banks provide e-savings accounts that allow you to instantly move money back to your current account so you can always access it if you need it.

The main alternative to using a savings account is to put your money into an ISA. This is a longer term option and better for larger sums as it meas you don't pay tax on it. However, your money is less accessible because you can only keep contributing to an ISA up to £5000 and if you withdraw money before you reach this limit, you cannot continue adding money beyond the value you had before withdrawal. This means that before you put money in an ISA you should consider the likelihood that you're going to want it back in the near future.

One option that I adopted is to run both: once I've 'banked' a certain amount in my e-savings, I transfer half to my ISA. That way I have money available but not sitting around unnecessarily accruing tax.

If you decide not to save, you need to make sure you are happy and secure in your current position. Savings are a buffer for when you are in-between jobs so you need to be sure that won't be a situation you find yourself in. When spending, also keep in mind that you need to budget for four weeks: I plan my shopping trips so that I indulge myself as soon as I get paid and then keep my money for socialising and necessities. Then at the end of the month I know I can safely spend whatever is left over without going overdrawn.

Off the back of this is the issue of credit cards: contrary to media scandal-mongering, they can actually be a good idea- within certain limits. For young earners, especially those living at home, a credit card is the easiest way to develop a good credit score- something that is essential further on in life for securing mortgages and loans. Making online purchases and booking flights on your credit card means that your goods and tickets are insured so that if your order doesn't arrive or your flight is cancelled you can get your money back. Credit cards can also be useful if you need to make a large purchase that you can't afford until next payday as you don't have to pay it off immediately. 

However, you DO need to be careful: if you don't pay it off on time your credit rating can go down just as easily as up and worst case scenario you could end up getting phone calls from the bailiffs (this happened to me once when my paypal was hacked and it was really scary). To avoid getting into too much trouble I advise you to set your own credit limit: the bank will offer you far more than you actually need, so choose a limit that will allow you to make the purchases you need but that your paycheck or savings could conceivably cover in a worst case scenario.

At the end of the day, enjoying your money while you're young is the most important thing but don't overdo it: its worth buying sensibly and planning in advance for big or extravagant purchases. You might like spending but you WON'T like debt.

Love in the Time of Computers and Commuters Part 2

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At the moment my life comprises of work and sleep and as I live with my parents, fitting a boyfriend into the latter isn’t really an option. My situation isn’t an uncommon one in today’s house and job market which is why so many people opt for the former option: finding a person at work.  40-60% of marriages started from a meeting at work and speaking from experience not only my parents but also a ridiculously large section of the staff at my school have successfully exploited this proximity-driven opportunity to find long term relationships.

In terms of meeting people, work is probably the environment that most closely approximates that of university: there are a lot of people around, quite often of a similar age to you and who you have something in common with. For people with jobs in professions that require a lot of shift work, dating colleagues is often the only way to maintain a relationship as irregular hours can otherwise place stress on a couple.

However, clearly there are some major drawbacks to dating co-workers: breakups can be messy and unless you’re prepared to find another job when it ends, you’re going to have to see them every day and possibly face the fact that they’re with you 24/7 meaning that it can be difficult to keep a healthy work-life balance.

Clearly a work relationship is not always ideal or even possible: some work environments are predominantly one or the other sex and unless you work in a large company or department there might not be anyone your own age. However, it can work as statistics and experience have shown.

Below is another hastily put together interview with a co-worker who has been in a committed work relationship for nearly a decade.

Q Have you dated more than one person from work?

A Yes, but there was a long period in between and it wasn’t really dating as such. Both times it was somebody I was in the same department as.

Q Did you have reservations about dating someone from work?

A Yes

Q What made you decide to do it anyway?

A Love (laughs) it has to be doesn’t it?

Q What do you think is the advantage of a relationship at work?

A You have a better understanding of each other and the pressures of work and you’ve got something in common

Q Did you try other ways of meeting people?

A Yes, for example the internet wasn’t really about, but I did use papers ads and just sort of relied on chance. I went to an 18-30 social group and had quite a few boyfriends from there.

Q What advice would you give people contemplating a work relationship?

A Think carefully about it before you jump in because you get very emotionally attached- my first relationship at work, when it ended and he went out with somebody else from work I went and handed in my resignation.

Meeting Through Friends

This in my opinion is the best way to make people; one of the great things about leaving university and everybody getting jobs is that although your friendships remain as strong as ever, people also make a new lot of friends and acquaintances that you can meet through them.

The advantages of this are numerous: people who are friends of your friends of your friends are likely to have things in common with you, they are ‘vetted’ by your friend (you would assume they don’t befriend creepy weirdos) and should things go horribly wrong you don’t have to suffer through regular awkward social encounters.

However there are drawbacks: meeting someone ‘through’ your friend means that that friend will become an important part of the equation and if your friends are anything like mine they will not just sit passively by. Also any breakup scenario will inevitably cause problems for your friend as the middle man: you might not have to see them every day but for your friend it might be a different story.

Meeting people through your friends becomes increasingly feasible as you grow up: housewarming party, milestone birthdays, marriages, christenings, reunions, work parties, the opportunities are numerous. One of my work colleagues met her partner at a friend’s birthday pub crawl and my aunt met my uncle because she worked with my mum, who was married to my dad, who was my uncle’s brother (did you follow that?).

At the end of the day though, there are no guarantees in Romance, as in life: you could try all these things and end up along or you could trip and fall into the arms of your soulmate walking down the street tomorrow (we’re hoping for the latter). In the meantime, its sensible to make the most of every opportunity to meet people. If there’s someone out there for everyone you don’t want to miss yours by staying at home with the cat.

Let us know about your dating experiences and advice in the comments below J

Love in the Time of Computers and Commuters Part 1

I spent this Valentine’s day with my grandmother. Several of my friends spent it with work colleagues or at home on the sofa. Even some of my coupled up friends didn’t have plans.

Why was this?

Because this year Valentine’s day was a Tuesday in half term and everybody had work or family obligations.

At university dating was very much a matter of choice and convenience- social life was easily available, everybody was your age and it didn’t really matter anyway because you were young.

Subconsciously, we all assumed that we would meet our long time partners there at some point (for some reason I persisted in this belief right up to graduation). 

Once you graduate and this hasn’t happened you realise two things:

  

    Your free time and social life almost completely disappear once you start work

                 

                    Other people are starting to get married

These two things can induce panic and/or despondency but they also bring about a dawning realisation that the way we go about looking for relationships is going to have to change. Setting aside chance meetings, fated lovers and kismet, most workers and postgrads meet their partner through work, mutual friends or online dating. Over the next couple of posts I will be examining the efficacy of these three methods using first-hand experience, dubious statistics and the hastily collected testimonies of my friends and co-workers.

Online Dating

Over the last few years the acceptance and utilisation of online dating as a legitimate form of courtship has grown exponentially, blossoming from the last resort of the truly desperate to the smart choice for the modern working girl or boy.

 As interest has grown, so too has the number of websites catering to the singles market and you can now find sites catering to the love-minded for almost any hobby, physical trait or idiosyncrasy you can think of, alongside more corporate mainstream forums such as match.com (For an amusing look at your options check out podcast- The Complete Guide toEverything and their episode dating part one).

Just how valid is the choice to go online with your love life though? Do the results support its apparent popularity? Well according to my survey of Wikipedia, 17% of married couples in 2010 had met online, and as soon as I mentioned the topic of online dating at work I was inundated with tales of success from friends and family, far outweighing any disaster stories that might have occurred. In fact, aside from the lingering prejudice that online dating is a bit ‘desperate’, few people had a bad word to say about it.

As I shamefacedly admit to an irrational dislike of online dating as an option for my own love life (despite enthusiastically championing it for other peoples’) I have ‘interviewed’ a friend who has regularly used online dating for a couple of years, albeit to date unsuccessfully, about her experiences with love online (Names withheld to protect the embarrassed).

Q When and why did you decide to start online dating?

A I started when I was still at uni because it wasn’t proving very successful. It just wasn’t very easy to meet people because when I went out I was drunk and the men I met only wanted one thing.

Q Do you think online dating is a better method of getting to know someone then?

A Not properly knowing someone. It gives you a start and it’s a way of meeting people you wouldn’t normally meet. (It’s more) checking the basics, checking you’re compatible.

Q How successful do you think online dating has been?

A For me personally not very, although it’s nice to speak to people. But my friend found her long- time partner that way and I’m quite picky.

Q Do you think online dating is a good option when working full time?

A Yes because there’s less time to get out and it’s nice to meet people outside of work.

Q Have you tried other methods of meeting people?

A Yes, work- its awkward when you split up though. Friends have been good (for meeting people) but again I’m picky

Q What’s your worst story from online dating?

A I’ve got two: one is meeting up with guys and them not looking like they should (from the picture) and I’m picky about looks, the other is the guy who was much keener than me and didn’t leave my house for five hours.

Q What advice would you give to people starting online dating?

A Be open to different kinds of people, be completely honest on your profile, message as many people as possible and when you write a message be interesting- don’t just write ‘Hi, how are you’.

So that’s the lowdown on online dating- a reasonable chance of success and a way to fit your search for romance around your schedule. It might not be the most romantic story to tell the grandchildren but it’s better than never having grandchildren at all… Tune in next time for all the information you need about meeting people through work and making the most of your friends and relatives.