{"id":3636,"date":"2011-12-23T13:16:42","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T13:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterindia.com\/career-advice\/use-cleverness-with-caution-in-the-interview-3636\/"},"modified":"2011-12-23T13:16:42","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T13:16:42","slug":"use-cleverness-with-caution-in-the-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/use-cleverness-with-caution-in-the-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Use Cleverness with Caution in the Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><P><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana\">By Tom Musbach, Yahoo! HotJobs<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P class=\"MsoPlainText\"><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">Well-meaning job seekers sometimes get too creative when making their cases to potential employers, such as the candidate who said he was &#8220;allergic to unemployment.&#8221;<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P class=\"MsoPlainText\"><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">The contrived allergy and other wacky pitches were revealed by hiring executives in a survey by Accountemps, a large staffing service for financial professionals.<BR><\/FONT><STRONG><BR><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">Creativity Can Backfire<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/P><br \/>\n<P class=\"MsoPlainText\"><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">The group of 150 senior executives offered several other examples of candidates going too far in their attempts to stand out:<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<UL><br \/>\n<LI><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">&#8220;One candidate said that we should hire him because he would be a great addition to our softball team.&#8221;<BR>&nbsp;<\/FONT><\/LI><br \/>\n<LI><FONT color=\"#000000\"><FONT face=\"Verdana\"><FONT size=\"2\">&#8220;A candidate sang all her responses to<SPAN class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/FONT><FONT size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">interview questions<\/FONT><\/FONT><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">.&#8221;<BR>&nbsp;<\/FONT><\/LI><br \/>\n<LI><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">&#8220;One individual said we had nice benefits, which was good because he was going to need to take a lot of leave in the next year.&#8221;<BR>&nbsp;<\/FONT><\/LI><br \/>\n<LI><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">&#8220;An applicant once told me she wanted the position because she wanted to get away from dealing with people.&#8221;<\/FONT><\/LI><\/UL><FONT color=\"#000000\"><SPAN class=\"Apple-style-span\"><FONT face=\"Verdana\"><FONT size=\"2\">The statements above reflect poor approaches to a<SPAN class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/SPAN><FONT size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">common interview question<\/FONT><SPAN class=\"Apple-style-span\"><FONT size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">: &#8220;<\/FONT><\/SPAN><FONT size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">Why should I hire you?<\/FONT><\/FONT><FONT face=\"Verdana\"><FONT size=\"2\"><FONT color=\"#000000\"><SPAN class=\"Apple-style-span\">&#8221;&nbsp; Career experts offer several alternatives that can help job candidates respond more successfully.<\/SPAN><BR><BR><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><br \/>\n<P><STRONG><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">Break It Down<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/P><br \/>\n<P class=\"MsoPlainText\"><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">Richard Phillips, founder of Advantage Career Solutions in Palo Alto, California, suggests a three-step approach that flows from the job description:<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<UL><br \/>\n<LI><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">Begin your answer by listing the top three to five requirements of the job as you understand them, based on your research and what you&#8217;ve learned in the interview.<BR>&nbsp;<\/FONT><\/LI><br \/>\n<LI><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">Summarize how your skills and experience will enable you to make a significant impact in those areas.<BR>&nbsp;<\/FONT><\/LI><br \/>\n<LI><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">Finish by stating your interest in the organization.&nbsp;Keep it short and sweet.&nbsp;<\/FONT><\/LI><\/UL><br \/>\n<P class=\"MsoPlainText\"><STRONG><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">Tailor Your Story<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/P><br \/>\n<P class=\"MsoPlainText\"><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">Joe Turner, author of<SPAN class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/SPAN><EM>Job Secrets Unlocked<\/EM>, suggests you prepare your best &#8220;story&#8221; to answer the question by showing how you will go the extra mile.<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P class=\"MsoPlainText\"><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">&#8220;Here is where you tell that story of exactly how you worked 60-hour weeks, acquired new skills, or whatever it took to distinguish yourself and meet the challenge head-on to successfully make the sale, save the project, rescue a client or whatever it was,&#8221; he says.&nbsp;&#8220;If you can monetize the end result, your story will only be that much more dramatic.&nbsp;Since no other candidate can duplicate your own personal story here, you&#8217;ll make a memorable impression.&#8221;<BR><\/FONT><STRONG><BR><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">Run With Your Ideas<\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/P><br \/>\n<P class=\"MsoPlainText\"><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">During the process of researching the employer and preparing for the interview, think of what you might do if you had the position, advises Carla-Krystin Andrade, author of<SPAN class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/SPAN><EM>Kick Start Your Job Search<\/EM>.<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<P class=\"MsoPlainText\"><FONT color=\"#000000\" size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana\">&#8220;Perhaps you have an idea for a new feature for their product or a new process that is relevant to the position,&#8221; she says.&nbsp;&#8220;This is the perfect time to tell them about this idea and show them how you would bring value to the position if they hired you.&#8221;<\/FONT><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Tom Musbach, Yahoo! HotJobs Well-meaning job seekers sometimes get too creative when making their cases to potential employers, such as the candidate who said he was &#8220;allergic to unemployment.&#8221; The contrived allergy and other wacky pitches were revealed by hiring executives in a survey by Accountemps, a large staffing service for financial professionals.Creativity Can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-interview-tips"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}