Lunch and Dinner Job Interview Etiquette Tips

Lunch and Dinner Job Interview Etiquette TipsLunch and Dinner Job Interview Etiquette TipsInterviews are often stressful - even for job seekers who have interviewed many times. Interviewing can be even more stressful when you are expected to eat and talk at the same time. One of the reasons employers take job candidates out to lunch or dinner is to evaluate their social skills and to see if they can handle themselves gracefully under pressure. Thats important for many roles, and particularly for positions that are client- or customer-facing. How to Handle Lunch and Dinner Interviews Dining with a prospective employee allows employers to review your communication andinterpersonal skills, as well as your table manners, in a more relaxed (for them) environment. Table manners do matter. Good manners may give you the edge over another candidate, so, take some time to brush up yourdining etiquette skills. Interview Dining Tips If youre feeling nervous, check out the restaurant ahea d of time or visit the restaurants website. That way youll know exactly whats on the menu, what you might want to order, and where the restrooms are located.Arrive early. You can ask the restaurants host if there is a reservation under the interviewers name. If not, wait outside the restaurant for your interviewer to arrive.Wear an interview-appropriate outfit (even if the restaurant is more casual than the company office).Turn off your cell phone or put it on silent. Resist the temptation to check it (even if others at the table are looking at their phones). During the meal, mind your manners. Say please and thank you to your server as well as your host. And, remember what your mother spent years telling you keep your elbows off the table, chew with your mouth closed, sit up straight, and never, ever speak with your mouth full.Is the table full of utensils? My British grandmother taught me an easy way to remember what to use when. Start at the outside and work your way in. Your sal ad fork will be on the far left, your entree fork will be next to it. Your dessert spoon and fork will be above your plate. Liquids are on the right, solids on the left. For example, your water glass will be on the right and your bread plate will be on the left.Put your napkin on your lap once everyone is seated. During the Meal Dont order messy food - pasta with lots of sauce, chicken with bones, ribs, big sandwiches, and whole lobsters are all dangerous.Keep conversationlight toward the start of the meal. You can ask interviewers if theyve been to the restaurant before, chat about the weather, or ask how their day has gone.Dont order the most expensive entree on the menu.When you do order your meal, make it something thats easy to cut into bite-size pieces. During the meal, take small bites, so that its easy to finish chewing and swallow before responding to questions and participating in the mealtime conversation. The polite way to eat soup is to spoon it away from you. There s less chance of spilling in your lap that way tooBreak your dinner roll into small pieces and eat it a piece at a time.If you need to leave the table, put your napkin on the seat or the arm of your chair.When youve finished eating, move your knife and fork to the four oclock position so the server knows youre done.Remember to try and relax, listen, and participate in the conversation. To Drink or Not to Drink Its wise not to drink alcohol during an interview. Interviewing is tough enough without adding alcohol to the mix. After the Meal Put your napkin on the table next to your plate.Let the prospective employer pick up the tab. The person who invited you will expect to pay both the bill and the tip.Remember to say thank you. Consider also following-up with athank you notenzeichenwhich reiterates your interest in the job. More Interview Tips Review these job interview etiquette tips for before, during, and and after a job interview, to ensure that yourjob interview etiq uetteis up to speed and youre making the best impression on the interviewer. Also brush up your interview skills, to make sure that youre a perfect candidate and dont inadvertently make any mistakes. Find outhow to interview,tips,what to wear, andwhat not to do during the interview.

How to Ask for a Pay Raise During a Tough Economy

How to Ask for a Pay Raise During a Tough EconomyHow to Ask for a Pay Raise During a Tough EconomyHow do you ask for a pay raise when your company has put most raises on hold this year? Alternatively, your employer is offering a 2 percentpay raise across the board, but you believe that you have earned more. What do you do? Whether your company is prudently managing resources or struggling with falling sales, the answer depends on economic circumstances and your perceived value to the firm. You can ask for a pay raise during tough economic times- you may even receive a raise- but your preparation for asking must be thorough and communicate your value. Dont even think about asking for a pay raise at your weekly one-on-one meeting with your manager. Especially when money is tight, preparation is essential. Dont blow your six-month opportunity to ask for a raise. What If They Are on Hold? If pay raises are on hold, keep in mind that you risk looking like youre not a team player when you ask for a raise. You could also receive an automatic turndown because a salary freeze gives your manager an excuse to avoid considering individual requests. Your company may legitimately strive to treat employees equally, a short-sighted strategy if it costs the company its best employees, but it is a strategy some companies often adopt. Especially if your company is in any kind of trouble or laying off employees, no matter your circumstances, you may want to wait a few months to ask for a pay raise. Your chances of success look up as your companys prospects improve. But if your company is simply being prudent, pay raise opportunities may exist for the companys best employees. Steps to a Potential Pay Raise The tried and true continues to work when you ask for a pay raise. Even in tough times, you start by researching your salary against what the market is paying people with your job and your responsibilities. If you are a stand-out contributor and you are underpaid for your market, you have a case for a pay raise. If you have experienced any of these work events, asking for a pay raise is legitimate and expected. In fact, your company may offer you a pay raise when you accept the new position or responsibility. You were promoted to a higher-level position.You took on new and substantial responsibilities, which doesnt necessarily mean more work. In this time of layoffs and negative decisions about replacing staff, everyone is doing more work.The number of reporting employees that you supervise increased, and thus broadened your areas of responsibility.You took over the leadership of a project on which you had been a participant. Without a qualifying work event, you may need these extra pay raise ideas for a difficult economic climate. Make a list of the goals you have accomplished for the company. Determine how their accomplishment has helped the company. Document your contributions. Make the contributions measurable and visible whenever possible.If yo u are the ace developer of new business, a sales professional extraordinaire, the developer of a product that is outselling all competitors, or the employee who saved the company $100,000 in costs, you may qualify for a pay raise, even in tough times. Your company doesnt want to destroy your motivation or lose you to a competitor, but you need to ask for a pay raise. Ask for additional responsibilities and document your success in achieving them. It is a longer-term strategy because you must first demonstrate success. But, depending on the value of your increased contribution, your company may decide to give you a pay raise.Take a serious look at the way you approach work and your communication style. Are you achieving gains for the company that are unmeasured and uncommunicated? Dont assume people notice. You may need to raise your visibility at work and the visibility of your contributions, not obnoxiously, but to help your manager comfortably go to bat for your pay raise. How to Ask for an IncreaseEven in Tough Times Youll want a strategy for asking for that raise- a good policy at any time, but particularly now. Set up a meeting with your immediate supervisor to discuss your compensation. You will not want to ambush this person.If the supervisor is unprepared to discuss a pay raise with you, nothing will happen at the meeting. Your boss will want to do his research with the Human Resources staff and his own industry sources.You may want to rehearse your pitch with a good friend or family member. Come to the meeting with a one-page list of bullet points that you believe will pinpoint your value. Make sure you are prepared to promote your value with examples and numbers. Come to the meeting prepared to demonstrate the value you add to the company. Nothing else matters,especially when pay raises are scarce. Share your documentation and your contributions. The tone of the meeting should be conversational, not confrontational.Never make the mistake of thre atening your boss with the possibility that you will leave the company if you dont receive a pay raise. Under those circumstances, the pay raise will only happen if your company is desperate. But your boss will never forgive you. Nor will your company plan for your presence in their future. Your contribution is not to be trusted long term. You will have burned your bridges. At the same time, recognize the value that you add, and if your current company cannot reward you for that value, find a company that will. You can ask for a pay raise in a tough economy. If you decide to ask, be prepared to support the value that you add to the company. Nothing else matters when economic times are tough.

Dealing with Homepagelessness

Dealing with Homepagelessness Dealing with Homepagelessness He may bedrngnis have a home, but he does have a home page of sorts- at LinkedIn, where he has posted a resume that mentions two degrees, from Dartmouth and Purdue and experience as a Senior Research Engineer at Lockheed Aerospace and Applied Physicist at Aerodyne Research Corporation. He is also the featured interviewee in a YouTube video that has attracted the attention of some heavyweight online-news organizations, such as Huffingtonpost.com and Time.com.Inconsistently reported in mainstream media as an unemployed and homeless Ph.D. in plasma physics (www.theblaze.com) with two masters degrees (one in engineering and one in acoustics) or as having just the two masters degrees (Huffington, Time), Johnson has become a poster child for the un-and underemployed. The details of his story, including the well-publicized YouTube Boston interview, can be found all over the Net, with the Huffington Post article and video about hi m serving as a good sample treatment.musiknote In a call to one of Lockheed Martins corporate affairs spokespersons, Jeff Adams, I requested verification of employment and credentials and was surprised that my call was the first regarding Johnson. Adams helpfully said he would look into the matter upon receipt of my emailed query and details. (Should that information become available, it will be posted as an update.)Homepagelessness and RecruitmentEven though blogosphere response to his tale has been intense, the focus of this report is something other than the vivid and poignant details of his employment and housing challenges or their accuracy and veracity.Its the issue of homepagelessness.Homepagelessness can afflict not only the unemployed and homeless, but also employed recruiters. Although almost certainly a rarity among recruiters, the homepageless recruiter, viz., one with no online presence whatsoever- either in the form of a LinkedIn profile, a Facebook page, an independen t agency website, a YouTube video or an umbrella corporate website- needs to catch up with the 21st century and Maurice Johnson, whose YouTube video interview and LinkedIn profile have plucked him from the masses of the unemployed and obscure and propelled him into Net celebrity (even if not on the scale that similarly discovered Justin Beiber enjoyed after his amateur(ish) Stratford, Ontario sidewalk debut videos on YouTube got noticed by promoter Scooter Braun).fremdartig from the tactical and strategic commercial and professional benefits of having an online identity, there are a number of psychological onesReminder that you and your professional expertise still exist, even if not currently utilized. Even for those who are not homeless, having a home-page or other online professional presence serves the same psychological purpose as the Star-Spangled Banner- a reminder that your personal flag and you are still there.Reassurance that, no matter what, you still have a secure base- one you can call home or at least home page. Such a sense of security, however tenuous, can be crucial to staying emotionally afloat.Reinforcement of your values, value and goals With the home page as a personal mirror, you can validate yourself and reinforce your identity.Recognition that you dont need a fixed physical space or address to run your business It is psychologically, as well as professionally liberating, to know that you can reach out and be reached anywhere in the world.Regular proactive behavior, to the extent that you have to monitor, update and beef up your page(s). This can be a subtle, but valuable, morale mainstay during professional dry spells.Real-time and readily offered input and feedback from others that allows you to adjust and align your efforts and enjoy reality checks on your situation, challenges, opportunities and prospectsReintegration and integration- into a community, virtual or otherwise of renewed, sustained or expanded contactsYou can be absolute ly certain that Maurice Johnsons YouTube and LinkedIn homes are providing him with not only valuable, helpful professional and media exposure, but also with all of the foregoing psychological benefits, including a comforting, perhaps inspiring, sense of place in the scheme of things, if not yet a place he can literally call home.If, as is virtually certainly the case, you have both a home and some kind of home page, you can still note, appreciate and cultivate the listed benefits of overcoming homepagelessness. Whats more, you may want to consider setting up an additional home, e.g., a YouTube video or an additional social media site.Having a second or third home is not just a luxury for the rich. Online, it may be a necessity for those who want to be rich.As for those who are truly homeless, having at least one online home may make the difference between being psychologically or otherwise able to home in on a job (and a home) and being forced to hit real highways instead of the wha t then Vice-President Al Gore memorably and presciently called in 1993 the information superhighway.Master the art of closing deals and making placements. Take our Recruiter Certification Program today. Were SHRM certified. Learn at your own pace during this 12-week program. Access over 20 courses. Great for those who want to break into recruiting, or recruiters who want to further their career.