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March 7, 2017 — 0

How to Negotiate Your Salary

how-to-negotiate-your-salary

So. You’ve aced the interviews and been offered a job. You’re almost ready to advance your career in a new position. But before you sign an employment agreement, you still need to talk about your salary.

Whether you’re having a review, getting a promotion or you’re entering into a completely new position with a new company, your salary is probably one of your biggest motivators. When you feel like you’re properly compensated for your work, you probably feel happier on the job.

Unfortunately, not everyone tries to negotiate a salary that works best for them. Asking for more money can be scary, but undervaluing yourself and your work can be even worse.

Knowing how to negotiate your salary is the best way to ensure you get the compensation you deserve. To prepare for your next salary negotiation, here are a few steps you can take. Read More

February 21, 2017 — 0

35 Most Common Interview Questions and How to Answer Them

common-interview-questions-and-answers

Interviews can be one of the most challenging parts of trying to get a new job. When you’re selling yourself and your skill set, you need to have just the right answer for everything. When you aren’t sure what interview questions you’ll be asked, it can be difficult to prepare.

Luckily, many interviewers ask the same or similar questions.

If you have an interview coming up, you can prepare by drafting responses to some of the most common questions. To help you get started, here are 35 of the most common interview questions and what you should consider while answering them.

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September 9, 2016 — 3

Don’t Make These 10 Cover Letter Mistakes

Top 10 Cover Letter Mistakes

“I’ve now been sending my cover letter as well along with my resume. Just like you suggested to me. But I am still not getting any interview calls. Is it the economy or me?” lamented my friend Tanya.

I had suggested that to her because as per a survey, 87% of the employers were in favour of candidates including a cover letter in their job application. We can debate the actual number, but we can’t deny that a well written cover letter goes a long way in helping you stand out from rest of the applicants.

I had already seen her resume, so I offered to proofread her cover letters.

“Cover letters? I just have one that I send everywhere.”

There you go. Probably the biggest mistake job seekers make with their ‘cover letter’ (pun intended).   

Cover letter is your elevator pitch to the hiring manager on why you are the best person for their particular job opening. If you get it right, you multiply your chances of getting an interview call. But if you make mistakes in it, you’ll be rejected probably without even getting a look at your resume.

Let’s examine some of the most common cover letter mistakes, as well as some techniques you can use to avoid them when crafting your next letter.

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August 3, 2016 — 1

12 Startup Founders reveal their favorite interview question(s)

startup-interview-questions-revealed

Curious about what successful entrepreneurs ask when they interview job seekers? Wondering what it takes to get hired by a high-profile startup? 

We interviewed (ha!) the Founders of some of the fastest growing companies and asked them to reveal the questions they ask while recruiting new team members for their venture.

If you are a job seeker or a hiring manager, either way, you’ll find great nuggets of wisdom in this post. And some of these startup job interview questions will surely surprise you!

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March 12, 2016 — 2

Dear Software Engineer – This is why your resume was rejected

Software engineering resume examples

So you sent your resume to your favorite companies, and never heard back from them?

Guess what, you are not alone. Top technology companies like Google receive over 2 million job applications in a year and hire about 5000 people only. So the average applicant’s odds are 1 out of 400, says Laszlo Bock, head of people operations at Google. Presumably this includes all roles in Google, it is quite possible that odds are even lower for their engineering positions.

Admittedly, this is one of the premier technology companies, but the situation is not much different at other places as well. There is a good chance that your resume is going to be shelved without you ever figuring out the reason behind it. To not end up in the rejected pile, you must avoid the following mistakes in your software engineer resume.

1. Not sending your resume via an employee referral

If you are applying directly via a company’s website or through a job board, please stop!

As per the Impact Group study in 2010, job applications using networking or referrals are far more successful than applying online. 26.7% of external hires made by organizations came from referrals, making it the number one external source of hiring for the participating firms. 46% of men and 39% of women find their jobs through networking. The higher your salary, the more effective networking becomes. (src: julliengordon.com).

How to get referred?

Now that we know that referrals are the single most reliable option of landing interviews, let’s see what you can do about it-

  • The most obvious way – Apply to companies where your friends or ex-colleagues can refer you – See how Steph Jang hustled a job at Khan Academy.
  • Connect with an employee of your target company on LinkedIn and send them a polite and intelligent email. Patrick Mckenzie gave a great example of such a cold email on Hacker News recently.  Here is a modified version of his example:
    “Hey Bob,
    I saw your presentation at $CONFERENCE last year on Youtube. Great stuff; loved what you did with $FOO, in particular $COMMENT_PROVING_YOU_KNOW_WHAT_YOU'RE_TALKING_ABOUT.I'm also a $FOO developer. I noticed that your company is hiring for $ROLE. I’d love to be a part of your team. Do you have a few minutes to chat on Thursday about what you guys are doing?
    Thanks,
    Yourname
    Your website or any public profile link”
  • Sometimes, the ‘earning referral’ strategy also works where you get yourself noticed by other means. See if you can help improve their open source code or report issues with their product/site.

Read More

April 16, 2014 — 0

15 Soft Skills You Should Never Use on Your Resume

Soft Skills to Avoid in Resume | Resumonk

All this talk about how critical soft skills are for inclusion on your resume and, ultimately, your job search success. Employers even list some of these “soft skills” in their job ads. It’s this unyielding catch-22. The employers want to see that you’re a “team player” and “hard worker”, but yet they don’t want to see that information on your resume!

How are you supposed to convey that you can meet the requirements of the position when some words aren’t supposed to be included in your resume? And how are you supposed to even know what those offending words are? Here’s a list of the top 15 words HR does NOT want to see on your resume:

 

  1. Best of breed
  2. Go-getter
  3. Think outside of the box
  4. Synergy
  5. Go-to person
  6. Thought leadership
  7. Value add
  8. Team player
  9. Results-driven
  10. Bottom-line
  11. Hard worker
  12. Strategic thinker
  13. Self-motivated
  14. Dynamic
  15. Detail-oriented

 

The problem with the list is it contains mostly generic soft skills. So what can a job seeker do? You can still give the employer the soft skills they’re looking for, but wait until the interview to show them you’re a great culture match. Focus your resume on showing them you’re a great experience/skills match! Switch it up and focus on keywords, quantifiable achievements, and unique successes.

Also, here’s a list of the BEST alternative words to use on your resume as preferred by HR themselves! Check out this list of the 15 best words to use on your resume on GreatResumesFast.

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