7 JOB HUNTING TIPS YOU SHOULD DO BEFORE A JOB INTERVIEW

Job hunters should do specific actions before each job interview.  Here are seven job hunting tips that you should do before every job interview – to help you get job offers.  When you use this pre-interview job hunting advice you will stand out as enormously more wonderful than other job candidates competing for the same job.  And that is what you want, isn’t it?

1.  MAIL LETTER to INTERVIEWER to CONFIRM YOUR INTERVIEW APPOINTMENT

Here is job hunting advice you will not get anywhere else – and it will dramatically help you look fantastic in the job interviewer’s eyes before you show up:  The same day the potential employer schedules you to come in for interview, type a brief letter confirming your interview’s (a) day, (b) date, and (c) time. 

Guarantee:  No other job hunter will do this pre-interview confirmation letter – so you immediately earn “points” and start with a deliciously unfair advantage. 

2.  PRINT 2 - 4 ITEMS of USEFUL INFORMATION about THE COMPANY

Job searchers easily can do this by (a) looking at the company website’s News Room or Press Room, (b) doing online search about the company, and (c) phoning the company and asking it to mail you its product/service brochures and, if publically traded, annual report. 

Before your job interview, study these items.  Later, at your job interview, make sure the interviewer sees the informative materials you wisely obtained – and studied.  This instantly gives you many “points” from the interviewer – plus makes you stick out as preferable to other job candidates who did not pre-gather company info.

3.  FIND OUT TYPICAL ATTIRE of COMPANY’S MANAGERS – & DRESS LIKE THEM

Job hunting tip on how to dress:  Every company has ‘unwritten’ dress code followed by its managers and executives.  So, find out what that is – and dress like the managers and executives who, ultimately, may make job offers to you.  Discover how formal or informal – or how businesslike or casual – those decision-makers dress.  Then dress similarly – and they instantly will get the impression you may “fit in” their company’s culture.

How do you discover the ‘unwritten’ dress code?  Two ways.  First, you can sit in the company’s parking lot 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. – end of workday – and observe how the professional-looking people are dressed when they leave for the day.  Second, on the company’s website, look at photos of managers and executives.  How businesslike or casual is their attire?  Copy that level of formality when you dress for your job interview.

4.  BRING EXTRA COPIES of YOUR RESUME + TESTIMONIAL LETTERS

In my JOB HUNTING MADE EASY book, I explain how to make your ‘attention-grabbing’ 1-page resume that noticeably highlights 4-6 of your measurable “Achievements.”  So, make that sort of resume, and bring extra copies. 

Also, bring color copies of all your testimonial letters.  In my JOB HUNTING MADE EASY book I tell you how to easily get knock-your-socks-off testimonial letters.  Under 1% of job hunters get testimonial letters.  Join that elite group – and you will stand out high above other job candidates. 

5.  IN WAITING ROOM, CHARM THE RECEPTIONIST

Job hunters advice few job hunters know:  Everyone who sees you before your job interview may say good or bad things about the impression you made on them!  You can make sure they say you seem magnificent!!

Start with the receptionist.  They sit 40 hours/week observing everyone in the waiting room.  Most people treat receptionists impersonally or like ‘human robots.’  But, you must treat the receptionist like gold.  Smile, make friendly eye-contact, compliment something about the company’s office, and do everything to make you shine in the receptionist’s heart.  Doing these charming actions increases your likelihood the receptionist will make a compliment about you to the job interviewer.  Again, you earned “points” from job interviewers – even before they start talking to you.

6.  IN WAITING ROOM, HIDE YOUR CELL PHONE + DO NOT USE IT

Job search advice:  You are ‘on-stage’ starting the moment you enter the building!  So, focus on the company interviewing you – and abandon all use of your cell phone.  Making or getting cell phone calls or texting or anything you do with your cell phone shows you are NOT focused on the company interviewing you.  Instead, you MUST do the next job hunting tip in waiting room . . .

7.  IN WAITING ROOM, NOTICEABLY READ INFORMATION about THE COMPANY

Again, job search tip:  Job hunters’ every action is observed – and discussed.  So, do the following job hunter ‘theatre’:  Extremely noticeably make sure everyone sees you reading company (a) brochures, (b) annual reports, and (c) online information you printed. 

You will stick out as the job hunter who ACTS seriously interested in the company’s business – and a possible career there.  While other job applicants are playing with their cell phones or fidgeting or reading non-company materials, there you are 100% absorbed in soaking up info on the company that may make a job offer. 

SUMMARY:  JOB HUNTING ADVICE & TIPS – for BEFORE YOUR JOB INTERVIEWS    

Remember this job hunting advice:  Successful job searchers start earning “points” from interviewers even before the job interview starts.  You can use these job hunting tips to make you stand out as immensely superior to the 99.9999% of job hunters who do not know – or use – these pre-job interview job hunting tips. 

COPYRIGHT 2011 MICHAEL MERCER, PH.D., www.JobHuntingMadeEasy.com