Going for a job interview is always an anxiety provoking event. The best way to control your job interview nerves is to thoroughly prepare in advance. It is important to get advice and tools on how to ease the tension and make the job hunting process easier and the interview more enjoyable. Here are some tips and advice on how to calm those nerves and be composed and confident on the day.
The 5 minute surf
Understanding the organization’s business and the issues it faces will instantly impress the interviewer. A quick 5 minutes web search can throw up a wealth of insight and knowledge. Do the same across their social media channels, most companies at the very minimum are on Facebook and Twitter and allows you to quickly learn about the company and culture. Knowing about the latest company news, award nomination etc. that is readily available through Social Media will impress from the outset.
Put yourself on the spot
Focus on those elements of the interview which are in your control – i.e. you and what you already know. Spend 5 minutes writing down the most challenging questions you could be asked, then focus on answering one each day in the countdown to interview.
Adapting your language
Most organizations have a definite corporate language used to depict the company’s structure and processes. Spend 5 minutes studying the job spec to get a feel for how they describe your role and what you will be doing. If you can adapt your own language to that of the company and include some key phrases in your interview you are instantly going to make the interviewer feel comfortable and illustrate that you clearly understand what it is they are looking for.
Why should I work for you?
An interview is not a one-way affair; it is also your way of finding out more about the company and your employer so it’s important you ask questions too. Spend some time thinking about what drives you ethically, motivationally and idealistically. Developing questions which allow you to test your motivations will very quickly help you work out what sort of organization or department they are and whether they will suit you.
Between February 29th and March 2nd2016, Excel Recruitment welcomed 15 young unemployed jobseekers into our offices in Dublin City Centre. Now in its third year, Feeding Ireland’s Future is an initiative by the Department of Social Protection and the Grocery Retail Industry in Ireland. Participants are aged between 18-24 years of age and facilitated by ECR Ireland. Excel Recruitment serve the Grocery Retail Industry recruiting Sales Assistants to CEO. We command a team of expert consultants and dedicated time to each participant working through CV’s, Interviews, Assessment Centres, and Social Media Profiling. We also outlined to participants the daily routine we do as Recruiters, Trainers and Digital Marketers.
Two Examples
Building from last years success, participants have grown in number. Our consultants sat individually with participants and were paired through interests. Those interested in working in Fashion and Retail learned the tips from Aislinn Lea, talking in detail about previous experience, how the industry works and what employers demand. Sometimes it’s the case of rephrasing certain aspects of a CV. Participants were prompted to expand on their skill sets, skills that they already had, as well as experience, but had omitted or was not highlighted in their CV’s.
Our Digital Marketing Manager Clare chatting about the importance of Social Media and finding a job online. While most peruse Social Media for fun, participants were thought how to exploit Twitter, LinkedIn and even Instagram in a matter of seconds to find jobs. She also elaborated on the importance of privacy settings, how you can adjust these and how to present (and restrict) your Social Media profiles. With a plethora of Job Boards, we also emphasised the importance of Keywords to participants and used some fun examples to put these into action. Generic searching doesn’t benefit anyone and using tighter search terms to pinpoint exact jobs and have tighter search limits saves everyone time.
Every member of the Excel Team took part, giving workshops and CV advice, guidance and leads to all participants, committing time to the group and also individually. Excel Recruitment were delighted to assist in Feeding Ireland’s Future 2016. We are a proponent of Irish Retail and it was refreshing to have new faces, who are encouraged by the industry in our offices for the few days. We wish all participants the very best in their applications and encourage them to keep in contact with each other and Excel Recruitment.
I went through the importance of CV’s and Cover Letters and how they should be presented. Regarding Cover Letters, like your CV this should be specialised to the role in which you are applying for. A cover letter should not be a description of what they will already see in the CV. Try your best to bring in further points about yourself and why you would like to be a part of the company.
Bank of Ireland Business Banking released their 15/16 review and outlook for Irish Hotels, combining data from the CSO, Fáilte Ireland and Savills. Undoubtedly Irish Hospitality remains incredibly positive and proposed figures suggest it is likely to further grow in 2016. The report was led by Gerardo Larios Rizo, Head of Hospitality for Bank of Ireland. You can view the full report from Bank of Ireland, here.
Our consultants see CV’s every single day. Every hour actually. We had a chat around both our offices, both Retail and Hospitality and decided candidates would benefit from a sample CV. CV templates can and will differ on industries, but this standardised CV is applicable across the board when applying for Retail, Hospitality, Healthcare and most jobs.
Some general CV tips.
Word is generally a preferred format by recruitment agencies and employers in the above industries.
Attaching a PDF of your CV also is advised. (File > Export > Create PDF/ XPF )
Avoid over complicated templates, boxes and Excel sheets.
Personalise your CV/cover letter. While the majority of the content will stay the same, there is nothing more unprofessional when the same Cover Letter is send to multiple employers/agencies listing a different job than the one you actually applied for.
We see CV’s every single day. Every hour actually. We had a chat around the office and decided candidates would benefit from a sample CV with advice from all our consultants, their frustrations and what gets a CV noticed. CV templates differ on industries, this is a standardised CV that is suitable across the board when applying for Retail, Grocery, Fashion and Non-Food jobs.
Some general CV tips.
Word is generally a preferred format by recruitment agencies and employers in the above industries.
Attaching a PDF of your CV also is advised. (File > Export > Create PDF/ XPF )
Avoid over complicated templates, boxes and Excel sheets.
Personalise your CV/cover letter. While the majority of the content will stay the same, there is nothing more unprofessional when the same Cover Letter is send to multiple employers/agencies listing a different job than the one you actually applied for.
The 2016 Checkout Conference took place on Feb. 2nd in The Round Room of The Mansion House. The 2016 theme was ‘Think. Learn. Evolve’ with some notable industry professional speaking on the challenges and changes facing Irish Grocery Retail, with our MD Barry Whelan in attendance. There was some interesting observations from the top retail professionals, their plans for 2016 and how they envisage retail changing. Here is our take away points.
Julian Baldwin
Sales Effectiveness Director, Nielsen UK & Ireland.
The consumer wants personalisation. Targeting the consumer with personalised offers is a powerful way to drive sales. Since the recession the Irish consumer has traded down well beyond the European and global average. 51% in Ireland versus 31% in Europe.
Recommendations
Be shopper centric.
Prioritise personalisation.
Consider your online shopping experience.
Be nimble and build prototypes.
Maggie Timoney
Managing Director, Heineken Ireland.
Maggie has been Managing Director for Heineken Ireland since 2013, having worked for the brand for 17 years. Maggie addressed the importance of acting quickly and the crux of her speech correlated closely with the Checkout Conference theme of Think, Learn, and Evolve. Timoney highlighted Orchard Thieves as an example, the highly successful Cider that went from idea to product launch in just six months.
Her summary:
Get your organisation ready.
Be responsible together.
Collaborate between supplier and retailer.
Know your consumer.
Maggie also showcased Heineken Ireland’s new ad aimed at curtailing heavy drinking and titled ‘Heineken | Moderate Drinkers Wanted’.
Andrew Yaxley
CEO, Tesco Ireland.
This was one of our favourites. Appointed Chief Executive of Tesco Ireland in 2015, Yaxley was previously Managing Director of Tesco’s London business. Yaxley gave a highly informative talk, addressing Tesco’s priorities, the key levers that influence these and how Tesco will change their customer offering to better reflect business.
Regaining competitiveness by serving customers better.
Protecting and strengthening the balance sheet by creating a more simple operating model
Build trust and transparency by working better together.
They will concentrate on achieving these through concentrating on Customer, Product and Channel.
Customer
To the customer, Tesco need to show that they will deliver value for money and care about food. Another concern was the local community that each Tesco operates in. The introduction of the Tesco Community Fund has resulted in €1 million being donated directly to 3,500 local charities. The Tesco club card may be changed to a ‘thank you’ as opposed to a promotional tool. Some very interesting insights coming directly directly from the CEO himself.
Product
The Tesco range is too big and will be reduced by 15%. Fewer, more simple promotions, less multi buys, more half price are rounded euro offers are favoured by consumers. Tesco can have up to 5000 promotions every week. Too many. An emphasis will be placed on pushing the Tesco Brand, particularly the ‘Finest Range’
Channel
Yaxley commented on the need to invest in Service, continual investment in stores and driving the convenience store channel.
John Callan
Country Manager, dunnhumby.
Callan, the Country Manager for customer trends and insights agency dunnhumby spoke about the concept of altered value and frictionless interaction.
New Value: There have been shifts in attitude regarding the concept of what ‘value’ means following the recession. Discounters have affected the market and contributed vastly to this point.
Frictionless: Customers want a frictionless engagement with the retailer and the brand. They want things quick, easy and simple. Customers need and want connections to your business on a one to one.
Simon Twigger
Trading Director, Poundland.
Simon Twigger is Trading Director for Poundland, trading as Dealz in The Republic of Ireland. His most notable comment we found? ‘You don’t need to compromise on quality for the right price’. He talked about the brands trajectory from a single UK store, Dealz in Ireland and plans over the next 2 years.
Main Points:
Dealz launched in Ireland in 2011.
At least 10 new stores will open in 2016, a €6million investment.
They will seek more local suppliers.
Aim of 500,000 customer a week by 2018.
Tom Keogh
Managing Director, Keoghs.
The Story: Tom Keoghs story is pretty unique. From farmer to marketer, Keogh describes himself as a farmateer. Keogh faced a pretty surmountable challenge. Between 2002 and 2013 fresh potato consumption feel by 50%, and to succeed they would need to reinvent the potato. The family owned potato growing company expanding into a dedicating crisping business by:
Branding them.
Create new and innovative products.
Market the hell out of the brand.
The Success:
Keogh became the brand and is one of the most recognised nationwide.
Focused on in-store marketing explaining to consumer varieties the cooking process.
Launched national potatoes day
Launched a cook book.
Now there is a 2 year running increase in the sales of fresh potatoes
So what about crisps?
Tom found out the only way to export potatoes to the US was that they needed to be cooked. By launching a quality crisp, harvesting and crisping on the same day, they have made a unique and successful product with amazing quality.
Twitter is often the preferred methods of job searching particularly for the younger demographic. It can serve as an important tool for you regarding networking and presents you with an expansive base of people and information. It is also somewhere you can fall down on if expected etiquette is not adhered too. Every major company and prospective employer is on Twitter and it is an essential resource for understanding their company culture and how they interact with their customer base. It offers exponential information but you should waver an air of caution as a potential jobseeker when conducting yourself on the social network.
Twitter is a platform that affords everyone the ability to construe an opinion and also allows complete strangers to engage with each other. Hiring Managers and Recruiters rarely care about your personal or political ideologies, what they do care about is how you fit as a candidate. However they do care immensely bout how you engage with others, particularly when something contentious is being discussed and the levels of diplomacy you maintain through the discourse.
If you are regularly partaking in heated debates via twitter they will have no choice but to take them into account. It is impossible to know what someone might take offense too, so the best option is to keep quiet while on your job-hunt. The same applies to your current job. Avoid saying anything professing your love and adoration for your current job. It may be a deterrent for a Hiring Manager in considering your candidacy for a new job. Likewise avoid saying anything rude or slanderous about how much you detest it.
While pretty self-explanatory, your social life should be kept to a minimal. By all means engage and be an active user, Hiring Managers favour someone who is competent on Social Media. What they don’t favour is someone advocating their drink fuelled stupor that happened last weekend. We all like to have fun but just be careful in what you post and avoid glorifying what could be seen as any unprofessional behaviour.
Twitter is no different to any other Social network. It offers a plethora of information and results and you can optimise this by using some useful hashtags and following relevant accounts. All of the main recruitment agencies use Twitter to advertise jobs under the #Jobfairy hashtag. You’ll find us at here at @ExcelRecruit for our Retail division and here at @ExcelJobsIRL for Hospitality, Temps and Medical.
Useful hashtags include #Jobfairy, #Nowhiring, #DublinJobs and #YouJob. Happy Tweeting!
Your first day in a new job will amalgamate excitement, nerves, stress and could perhaps be one of the most memorable days in your career. The job search can be particularly taxing having spent hours constantly retouching your CV and making sure it gets to the right people. Employers have hired you for a reason and have expectations that they expect your talent and skills to adhere to. Most of us feel high levels of excitement but also trepidation when we begin a new job. There are ways to elevate some of this stress however by adapting the same meticulous approach in your first day as you did in your job search. The first day sets the tone for the rest of your career with those you’ll be interacting with. While first days are usually consumed in formalities with very little specific responsibilities it is vital to adapt a proactive response to your new role rather than a passive one.
Chances are you will be inundated with the same question by new employees. ‘What is your background?’, ‘What did you do before this?’ ‘What exactly will you be doing here’. Often it can be a little overwhelming when people ask outright very specific questions. Considering these will be the people you converse and deal with every day it may often be a genuine interest as they have only been fed a vague understanding and simply want to strike up a conversation. Having a prepared piece will make this process a little less daunting.
The recommended buffer time to show up early is about 15 minutes. If you have not done the route before familiarise yourself with it on different occasions to gauge how long it takes including peak times. Showing up early is almost a given that employers expect nowadays. While no doubt determined to make a great impression remember to relax in order to optimise your productivity. Make sure you are well rested the night before and can maintain concentration. If you are adapting from an entirely different routine make sure you have condition yourself in the days preceding your first day. Set your alarm to your wake up time to condition yourself and see how you adjust. Eat a breakfast and set your outfit the night before. While these may seem very minimal they will all ease the stress involved and will help you towards a smooth first day.
Be as professional as you were in the interview process and however in doubt you may be take the conservative approach. Your first day is not a time to establish yourself as the joker of the office or to describe your weekend social life. You will establish the culture of the company or office environment quite quickly and it’s important not to disrupt this. The urge to impress can veer you off track, but it’s important to remember that you’ve already been hired so you don’t have to wow your colleagues straight away. Your first day is not the time to have a strong and strident opinion, but more about listening, observing and learning. In time you will impress naturally, and more so when you understand the ropes.
Visit the company website and social media pages to get a good understanding of the business and think of some questions.
Plan your route to the interview so you don’t get lost and turn up late!
Prepare your clothes the night before- chefs should look neat.
Look at the existing menus and have dishes in mind that you would add to it.
Have a number saved in your phone that you can ring should you get lost.
Aim to be there 10 minutes early.
During the interview:
When the interviewer enters the room stand up and shake their hand.
Have your mobile off and put away.
Listen to everything the interviewer says and never interrupt them.
Always say thank you and please if you are offered something like a class of water.
If you are given a tour of the kitchen, walk alongside them, not on front and not behind.
Keep slang and abbreviations for more casual conversation- you’re not a CDP you’re a chef de partie, unless they use the former.
Working interviews:
Some chef interviews require the potential candidate to showcase some of their skills in a “working interview”. They are usually in one of the following formats.
Ready Steady Cook: Some interviewers will give you some product on a tray and ask you to cook a dish within a certain amount of time. This is to test your creative side and to see how well you work under time pressure.
Trial: Sometimes you will be asked to work a full or half shift in the hotel, bar or restaurant. Make sure that you ask if you are unsure how to cook something and make it apparent that you are part of the team. Look interested and ask for jobs if you run out of things to do.
Menu: Some businesses will ask you to prepare a menu prior to the interview and cook it there. Ensure that the dishes on your menu fit into the theme of the restaurant- don’t cook enchiladas if you are interviewing for an Indian place!
Trade test: This one is favoured by a lot of places. You might get asked to cook a classic or basic dish with your own twist. The purpose of this is test out your knowledge of how different foods work together and how they can be amended for modern tastes.
Questions:
You don’t get away with not having to answer questions about your career in a chef interview so we suggest you think about the following questions and how you would answer them for the formal part of the interview.
Why do you want the job?
What has been your biggest achievement in cheffing?
What are your weaknesses?
How do you manage time during busy periods?
What do you think you could add to our kitchen?
After the interview:
When you leave make sure you thank the people who have interviewed for their time and for asking to meet with you.
If we have set the interview up there is no need to go back to the company to ask for feedback, we’ll get it for you. Call us when you are finished your interview and let us know how you think it went; we’ll then get in touch and get some feedback on the other side.
Companies are still remaining cautious about hiring staff on a permanent basis and temporary roles and contracts have seen a particular sore in popularity, particularly suiting seasonal employment (Christmas, Summer Sales etc. ) Temporary employment can suit people for many reasons particularly those in the interim of finding something more permanent where both employer and employee are happy where they stand on a temp. contract. Here are a few reasons why temporary jobs can be of a major benefit to you.
Flexibility
The most distinct and major advantage to temporary work is the flexibility it caters for. At all times you remain in control of your career and often it is easier to maintain the flexibility that daily life requires around this. It’s important to remember that as a temporary employee you still have rights and are entitled to benefits like sick pay, holiday allowance and regular pay. You are also required to be given the same quality of working conditions as your permanent colleagues. Unlike a more traditional role, temping can afford you with greater flexibility and control over your schedule. You can choose to work in short term, long term, or contract assignments to fit in and around your chosen lifestyle.
Fill your CV.
Often employers can be overtly and unfairly critical of extended periods of unemployment. Keeping relevant skills fresh is imperative for career progression and taking on a temp. role allows for these to stay up to date and close any gaps in the interim. Maintaining a solid timeline of employment where possible can give you a competitive advantage in the job market.
Networking
The company you’re temping with may not have a vacancy when your assignment ends, but if you have made a good impression, you may leave with solid references. These connections may lead to other longer term positions in the future. Whether it’s for references or meeting like-minded people who may be able to help you further down the line, temping can really lengthen your contacts book. Word of your work from a reputable and esteemed reference can pitch you in front of another candidate even if they pitch you in experience. While temporary contracts can seem unfavourable to some, the connections made may favour you towards permanency. Many temporary jobs can lead to permanent positions, particularly if you prove yourself to be invaluable to the company
New Skills
Temporary assignments may allow you to quickly learn new skills, be exposed to a range of systems and procedures, and trial different companies and industries to see what is right for you before committing to a permanent role. By spending time temping across various roles you can learn new skills and see how different companies operate, making you far more employable and really enriching your CV.
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