New Year, New Interviewing Skills

New Year, New Interviewing Skills Recently I taped a segment for an upcoming HGTV show.  The focus interviewing successfully.  It seems that this economy is requiring all of us to become interview pros.  With a plethora of candidates to choose from, hiring managers are looking for reasons to weed people out.To avoid this fate, its imperative that you Soul Search, Research and Job Search before your next interview. If you do, youll not only have more job offers but have more fun interviewing!  Yes, fun!Follow these tips to get beyond the interview and land the job:-Soul Search and go after jobs that fit.  Most people check the want ads or online job boards and choose positions that fit their past experience.  But what if you didnt like your last job(s)?  If your hearts not into it, dont even waste the interviewers time.  Spend that time instead on making a list of the skills you have that you WANT to utilize and the industries or fields that are of truly of interest.  Even if you havent worked in a particula r field before your skills can transfer so dont be afraid to go after what you want.  Not sure where to start?  Try the Occupational Outlook Handbook which lists various careers across various industries!-Research to target the right employers and positions.    It sounds difficult but finding employers in a given field can be as easy as an internet search.  Online job board Indeed.com lists job openings by industry as well as by location so you can see which industries are hiring and where.   Once youve found a potential employer go to their website and learn as much as you can about the products/services they make, the # of employees, how long theyve been in business, recent news about them and corporate goals and objectives. This will help you not only target the right employers for you but also help you answer the dreaded interview question What can you tell us about our company?-Job Search with the right attitude.  Its not enough to just dress the part, have a copy of your resume, be on time and prepared for the standard why should I hire you question.  Youll need the attitude x factor to land the job. That means, being someone the interviewer wants to work with and better yet, someone the interview cant imagine not having on the team.  To do that takes presence.  You need to relax in the interview and approach the situation as if youre making a new friend a friend youll want to keep whether or not you get the job.  Understand your new friends biggest challenge that he/she would most like the person hired into this position to solve.  Offer ideas and support to the interviewer (and even follow-up with relevant articles) on that problem to demonstrate that you are already a resource even before being hired.By Soul Searching, Researching and Job Searching you can get better interview results and not only land a job but also a job you can be excited about!  With the Wall Street Journal recently reporting record job dissatisfaction, its time we al l did our part to reverse this disturbing trend!Share your favorite interview tips below and post any questions you have about how to interview effectively.  You can also check out my free video on How to Ace the Job Interview.  I look forward to your comments!  You can also tune in live Tuesday Jan 12th at 3:30pm EST to SIRIUS 112 / XM 157 where Ill be answering career questions live at 1-866-675-6675!