The Do’s and Don’ts of successful interviewing

Robert Half Technology, a technology staffing organization, offers this simple list of what you should and shouldn’t do in a job interview. My comments are in brackets.

Do:

• Arrive on time.
• Greet the interviewer by name. [Not his or her first name though until you are issued the invitation.]
• Smile and shake hands firmly. [However, making a good impression is not dependent on how many knuckles you crush.]
• Look alert and interested at all times. [Turn off the cell phone and PDA. Somebody’s going to post in the discussion and ask who’d be stupid enough to leave those on in an interview. I’ve been a witness to it; they’re out there.]
• Speak firmly, clearly and loudly enough to be easily understood. [[A good suggestion but you just know someone reading it will go overboard, yelling and annunciating like a tourist in a foreign land.]
• Look the interviewer in the eye while speaking. [If you’re shy this can be hard to do, but it does help.]
• Structure your comments in a positive manner. [If you’re negative in a meeting in which you’re supposed to impress someone, what does that tell the interviewer about how you’ll be on the job?]

Don’t:

• Exhibit overbearing, overaggressive, or egotistical behavior. [You don’t have to be brash or smug to come across as self-confident.]
• Show a lack of interest or enthusiasm about the position or company. [Why even show up if you’re not interested?]
• Appear excessively nervous. [This is easier said than done if you are actually, well, nervous, as most of us are in interviews. Just try to take some deep breaths beforehand and prepare yourself for possible questions.]
• Overemphasize your compensation. [It was always a red flag to me as a manager when a job candidate asked what the salary was in the first 15 minutes.]
• Make excuses for unfavorable factors in your work history. [It’s tempting, I know. But taking responsibility for yourself is the mature thing to do.]
• Disparage past employers, managers, projects or technologies. [This would tell me that you’re going to do the same thing as an employee working for me.]
• Answer only “yes” or “no” to questions. [It’s pretty awkward when you ask what you think is a probing question and get only a one-word answer in return. Don’t rattle on and on but try to expound a little just to show the interviewer that the wheels up there are turning.]

Increase the visibility of your resume with keywords

Have you been submitting resumes and not hearing back? A piece on dice.com suggests it may not be your lack of qualifications but more of a lack of keywords.

Keywords are phrases that communicate your job skills, responsibilities, and/or functions. The more you reference keywords that are contained in the recruiter’s search, the more likely you’ll get calls. Here’s some advice from dice.com:

First, be aware that keywords are best when they refer to hard skills. In other words, “network engineer” and “Help Desk agent” are likely to get more direct attention than “team player” or “multi-tasker.”

The physical location of keywords is also important. Dice says, “Providing a summary of keywords at the conclusion of your resume is an effective way to assure that your resume is selected during database searches. However, to help move you to the interviewing stage, list your keywords near the top.” Career coaches suggest including keywords in the top four to five inches of your resume because the recruiter won’t look beyond that when quickly reviewing a batch of candidate resumes.

And another little tip from the same article: If you’re changing careers and don’t have the relevant experience yet that would allow you to incorporate the keywords, you can include an “objective” that includes a list of skills you want to develop. That way, your resume will come up in keyword searches.