Tell Me About Yourself Answering the Most Hated Interview Question - CareerEnlightenment.com

Tell Me About Yourself Answering the Most Hated Interview Question It’s that time of the year again and you’re sitting in a dimly lit office, staring down the menacing HR. He throws a question at you, and then another both of which you gracefully dodge answer. You’re almost there, and you can feel it at this point, the job is in your pocket. Until, of course, the HR mutters the unholy words, “tell me about yourself.” Your heart starts beating you’d known this moment would come from the start.“Tell me about yourself” is, without a doubt, one of the most confusing questions a recruiter can ask. It tends to catch you off-guard, especially if you don’t have a pre-thought answer, as it’s not a question with any sort of singular answer. If you, however, do some thinking beforehand, then you can breeze through it like any other.So what do they want from me?First off, no they don’t want your life story. Funny enough, the answer to the “what” is your reaction. The idea is to throw you off-guard. After your first interview, you already get a feel to all the normal questions. “What’s your greatest strength/weakness?” Pretty much everyone asks that, and there’s a good chance you already have a canned answer to it. “Tell me about yourself,” however, can be interpreted in a lot of ways, and the answer can make or break your game.Details, please.As a given, the context of the answer should be relevant to the company and your career. To make it simple, when they say, “Tell me about yourself,” what they’re really asking for is for you to sell yourself. From this point of view, the question makes a bit more sense. Say you’re a door-to-door salesman a client asks you to talk about your product. What do you answer? Well, you talk about the features of the product and on how it’s different from anything else they’ve ever seen. Then, you tailor it to their needs, specifically, and explain why they need the product here and now.When you think about it like this, it seems a lot easier, doesn’t it?Let’s put all that into a framework.How to answer the question?We start with the core of the product. What is it? It’s a vacuum cleaner. What are you? You’re a marketing expert with over 5 years of experience. Want to Read More Articles Like This One?Sign up here to receive weekly updates from Career Enlightenment, and never miss another powerful job searching tip! SUBSCRIBE! You have Successfully Subscribed!We hate spam too. Unsubscribe any time. Answer example: I’m a marketing expert with over 5 years of experience. I started out in a small consulting firm, learning about Adwords PPC. 2 years back, I switched to freelancing and developing my personal client base.Step two, features. The vacuum cleaner is super high-tech, has about 3 times the cleaning power (or however you measure a vacuum cleaner), and is very portable (again, not an expert on vacuum cleaners). You? You excel at online marketing, everything from search engine optimization to content creation.An swer Example: I’ve worked with 10+ clients, helping them develop their content SEO strategies. The goal was creating a personalized plan for their specific industry training their in-house teams. Some highlights include ranking on high-competition keywords for 2 companies, leading to a 40% increase in revenue. On the other hand, I’ve helped companies have their content published in big medias, such as Mashable, Forbes, and Techcrunch.Finally, you need to convince them how you’re relevant for this specific position in this particular company. In the case of the vacuum, you can emphasize how hard it can be to drag around a giant hunk of metal around the house, and how it is easier and faster if the thing’s portable. Now, in human terms. Answer Example: Freelancing caused a big part of my time to be dedicated to client acquisition, that’s why right now, I’m looking for something more stable so that I can use my time to grow my expertise even further. I’ve worked with c lients in your industry and have gone through your blog, I’m confident that within the next few weeks you’ll start seeing results.Over to you.I’ve been on many job interviews and each time it was pretty stressful. The good thing is, I always learned something new. Now that you know what exactly they seek to know when they ask ‘’Tell me about yourself’’ you’ll be prepared and stand out from the other candidates.Good luck!

Getting Over The Ickiness of Selling Controlling the Shifting Business Boundaries A Personal Story

Getting Over The Ickiness of Selling Controlling the Shifting Business Boundaries A Personal Story Here are the links to go with the video!: The Uh-Oh Feeling my VA and friend, Jess Larsen my PR rep, Brass Knuckles Media my e-book illustrator and Declaration of You partner-in-crime, Jess Swift last years scholarship announcement (look for another one mid-March!) And My Word for 2011 Is (in which I explain the need/want in building my platform) A special thanks to everyone who watched this all the way through. I taped it thrice couldnt get it under 9 minutes! Good Lordy Lord Lordy.

How to Write a Resume if You Have Been Stay at Home With Kids

How to Write a Resume if You Have Been Stay at Home With KidsIf you are a stay at home mom, you will want to consider writing a resume if you have been staying home with kids. Whether you have been at home full time or part time, it will be good to be prepared. There are many things that you should consider when you are preparing for a job interview. Before you get started, it is important to know what you are supposed to put on your resume.Make sure you have a proper location. You do not want to appear ignorant. For example, if you are stuck in the kitchen and you see a child crying, it would be helpful to call your husband or someone else who can give you some advice. However, you would want to remember that it is not necessary to have a child of your own to have experience that can help the company. Some employers actually pay part-time employees to work as a nanny or childcare service.It is important to have the correct format and layout. You do not want your resume to look like a list of your education or training that does not reflect the position that you are applying for. While resumes are similar to a resume of a prospective employee, there are certain elements that you must include. In addition, the name and contact information must be included. The last thing you want is to appear unprepared to the employer.Remember that you should plan ahead so that you will have everything that you need to prepare. The more preparation you do beforehand, the better you will be able to accomplish this. This includes purchasing the right size resume, being organized and checking the spelling of your name. If you are unsure about something, seek professional help so that you do not waste your time.If you are writing a resume, be sure to mention anything that you learned while you were working at the childcare center. This can be from someone who has recently moved in to your home, from a parent who worked there before you, or even from a friend who has since moved out of state. Anything that relates to the employment or job that you are applying for will be good to put on your resume.Remember that the best way to get an interview is to present yourself well. This means that you will have to know how to dress well and present yourself properly. You do not want to appear slovenly or unprofessional. Be professional but also approachable.When you are ready to start the process of writing a resume, it will help to have a date when you should begin. You may want to keep in mind that you will have to write several resumes in order to find employment. Therefore, it would be good to start now so that you have everything you need.

Queer Eye How Bobby Berk Climbed Out of $600,000 in Debt

'Queer Eye' How Bobby Berk Climbed Out of $600,000 in Debt “I moved to New York in 2003 with about $100 bucks in my pocket and a suitcase,” Bobby Berk says. So begins the story of how Berk, “design expert” on Netflix’s Queer Eye, left the Midwest for one of the most expensive cities in the world, took on nearly $600,000 in debt, and managed to come out on top. It was rocky, to say the least. For three months, Berk couldn’t find a job â€" he’d held restaurant and retail gigs in Missouri and Colorado, but neither of those industries were hiring anyone without “New York experience” on their resume. Berk persevered and eventually landed a job at the home furnishings store Restoration Hardware. Not long after, an Italian homewares company brought him on to expand its linen line in the states. But it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. “Every time I told them what would work in the U.S. market, they were against it,” Berk says. “In the end, we went our separate ways, with them telling me that I was worthless, and wouldn’t amount to anything. Ever.” Luckily, Berk’s career soon took a turn for the better. One of his old customers, the head of a home furnishings chain called Portico, immediately offered him a job. There, Berk worked his way up to creative director, and built the company’s e-commerce system. After Portico shuttered, Berk acted quickly, cloning the online infrastructure for his own web store, Bobby Berk Home, in 2006. “I thought, ‘maybe I’ll sell a sofa or two online while I look for another job,” he says. To Berk’s shock, his company took off, and quickly became a popular online shopping destinations for home furniture. Business was so good, in fact, that it led to a surprise call from his old boss â€" the owner of the Italian company who had fired him just a few years prior. Sales had plummeted after Berk left, he explained, and the company was struggling to stay afloat. Now, he wanted Berk to buy him out of the business â€" to the tune of $600,000. At just 24 years old, Berk agreed. After the deal was signed, Berk transformed the store into his first brick and mortar Bobby Berk Home, which was a massive hit (and was a jumping off point to outposts in Miami, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, before Berk moved all of his retail operations online). If success is the best revenge, suffice it to say, that Berk sold more than a few sofas. “Within six or seven months, I had completely paid off all the debt,” he says.

5 Hacks to Improve Your Home Office Productivity

5 Hacks to Improve Your Home Office Productivity The experts at GlassDoor.com have put together a list of suggestions to improve your working-from-home productivity! The independence is priceless but the distractions are endlessâ€"these tips will help you make the most out of working from the couch or coffee shop in your sweats.1. Have an Office SpaceThe couch is your enemy when youre working from home. No, hear me out! The couch is where you watch TV, read, snooze, cuddle with loved ones, put your feet up. Your brain is wired to unspool when you feel its comfy embrace.Even if its just a basic dining room chair and a laptop desk, try to carve out a dedicated office space in your home. My husband and I each have ownership of a corner of the living room, and I rearrange my desk and bookcase configuration every 6 months or so to keep it fresh since I get tired of staring at the same walls all day.2. Schedule Your Work WeekThis one has been huge for me as I start a full-time freelance and teaching  scheduleâ€"I have to plot out deadlin es for my classes and fit freelance writing and editing projects in around those. If I dont know whats coming, I wont know when I need to pull a late night and when its okay to knock off early.Every week, take a few minutes to plan aheadâ€"its vital time well-spent that will save you stress and scrambling down the line.3. Have a Regular RoutineThe beauty of working at home is that if I wanted, I could work from noon to 8 p.m. and lounge around every morning. But  Ive found that while I am the worlds crankiest morning person, getting up early, walking the dog, having breakfast and coffee, working diligently from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and then doing smaller, less demanding projects in the afternoon hours is the way to go.Come up with some rituals that replace the morning commute (mine is an extra long shower), and reward yourself with a trip to the kitchen or the corner store when youve accomplished your goals for the day.4. Know Your MotivationThere is something about noise-canceling hea dphones that immediately puts me in a ready-to-work mindset. Even if the apartment is quiet, confining my senses to my immediate surroundings helps me zero in on the work at hand.Figure out what motivates you to buckle down. Is it consistency? Variety? Do you need a different coffee shop table every day of the week or are you better off wearing a groove in your home office floor from sitting in the same spot?5. Get in a Working MindsetA tricky part about the omnipresence of Gchat or texting when you work from home is that you can actually stay just as connected to your friends at work as you could when you shared office space. Sometimes my husband works from home and I wind up relocating to the bedroom because Ive gotten so used to the empty space around me.Figure out how to filter out the distractions that might derail youâ€"and remember, you are the only one responsible for getting your work done! Be gentle with yourself as you adjust, be realistic about what you can take on, and dont be afraid to draw firm work-life boundaries. Just because your home office is right next to your couch station is no reason you have to be on call 24/7!And truthfully, working from home isnt for everyone. There are likely co-working spaces near you where you can set up shop on a weekly or monthly basis if you find you need a background hum of things happening.

15 Common Thoughts That Mentally Strong People Learn to Avoid

15 Common Thoughts That Mentally Strong People Learn to Avoid Mental strength takes time to build, and becoming a mentally strong person doesnt just happen overnight. Encountering setbacks and still pushing through helps people increase their mental strength. parte of achieving success involves recognizing thought patterns that get you off course and derail the path to victory. Here are 15 thoughts that mentally strong people avoid1. If I ask for help, everyone will think Im weak.Mentally strong people know that people rarely accomplish everything alone. They ask for assistance when they need it to avoid getting too overwhelmed.2. Ill deal with that tomorrow.People often put things off because they dont want to have to confront unpleasant feelings that can be associated with completing certain tasks. Confronting these feelings and getting the job done is a sign of mental strength.3. Im not as good as ___.Comparing yourself to others can be toxic. Dwelling on your own perceived insuf ficiencies compared to others often does mora harm than good.4. Im just not good enough.Defeatist thinking patterns cause can lead to inaction. Part of being resilient means pushing through unpleasant outcomes and keep working toward your goals.5. If I fail at this, my life is over.A big part of being mentally strong is striving to keep things in perspective. Remember that one misstep doesnt mean everything is wrong.6. If its meant to happen, it will happen.If you sit back and wait for the things you want in life to appear out of nowhere, youre more likely than not to end up disappointed. Being proactive and working toward what you want is a must for the mentally though.7. Nothing good happens to me, so why even try?Dont let a few setbacks keep you from getting back up. When those with mental strength are knocked down, they shake it off and keep striving.8. Some people just have all the luck.Because part of mental strength involves practicing gratitude, those who possess it are happ y when those around them are successful. Being envious of others breeds negativity and uses up energy that could be used toward achieving goals of your own.9. If it hasnt happened yet, it probably never will.Reaching a goal often takes longer than expected. Instead of throwing in the towel when obstacles appear, the mentally strong keep faith in themselves and keep working hard.10. Since ___ rejected me, everyone else will.The mentally strong dont let one no squash their vision. Rejection is a part of life, and though facing it may sting, its important not to take it to heart.11. If it doesnt work out this time, I give up.Instead of experiencing failure as an end, mentally strong people experience it as an opportunity to grow. Giving someone else the power to take your dream from you is a sign of mental weakness.12. Once I get___, Ill finally be happy.Believing that reaching a certain milestone or attaining a certain material possession will lead to happiness is a recipe for constan t dissatisfaction.13. Its important that everyone likes me.Its trueyou cant please all of the people all of the time. Trying to make everyone like you is an energy drain, and the mentally strong understand this.14. They hurt me, so I hope someone hurts them.Wishing badeanstalt things onto others is a major waste of mental energy. The mentally strong accept and move on instead of letting negative people take up space in their minds.15. Its better to stay comfortable than take a risk and be let down.Because rejection and disappointment are painful experiences, settling for less than you want can be tempting, but the mentally strong know that amazing things live on the other side of that discomfort.--Kayla Heisler is an essayist and Pushcart Prize-nominated poet. She is an MFA candidate at Columbia University, and her work appears in New Yorks Best Emerging Poets 2017 anthology.

Resume Writing with No Job Experience Explained

Resume Writing with No Job Experience Explained When you do good work, you are going to observe that the quantity of referrals you get from happy clients is sufficient to keep you with an abundance of work (a lot of the moment) Find out more about the prospects of the particular job you need and know the hiring practices. While you might not have had a great absprache of qualified experience, youve had the chance to connect and leave an impression on others. Your rich, extensive expertise in the area will be interesting to employers, therefore it ought to be highly visible. The Lost Secret of Resume Writing with No Job Experience Even if you believe your teaching experience is minimal, its likely greater than you believe For instance, if youre asking for a job as an administrative assistant, you dont will need to discuss the way your position for a babysitter helped improve your childcare skills, but you might share the way the experience helped you cultivate time management a bilities and the capacity to juggle several tasks simultaneously. While comparing the JD, you shall discover the vital skills needed for your intended job. As an example, as a waitress youre guaranteed to build skills in customer support, sales, and multi-tasking, all which may be very valuable to a prospective employer. When seeking to land that first job, you will end up faced with the job of demonstrating that youve got the background to be successful despite your lack of job history. Do not invent a work history that you dont have. You dont have to incorporate every job you have held, especially when you have many years of expertise or have worked in unrelated fields. Field jobs and advertising jobs are given to folks who havent any experience or little experience. To begin with, it may be an effective method to show employers about your work ethic. Unfortunately theres no one true way to compose a resume. The expert experience or employment history section is among a couple of vital sections employers will appear at to establish whether you may be a superior fit. Bear in mind, your resume is just the very first step. Most Noticeable Resume Writing with No Job Experience Learning how to do a resume when dont have any work experience is much simpler if youre able to demonstrate some seasonal or short-term work experience. Area of proficiency Here you can mention all of the job profiles which youre good at. If youve got to compose a resume with minimal or no experience, dont worry Possessing no work experience doesnt mean that you are unqualified.