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The job market has tightened, the economy is down, and you’ve got to find a job, now. You have a job interview coming up and you need every possible advantage to win that job. What do you do?

Recent studies have shown that employers will form an opinion of you within the first 10 minutes of the interview. But here’s the kicker, it’s not always based on what you actually say, but it’s on something we term “body language”. For instance, 85% of what you communicate is not with words. It’s through the tone of your voice, the way you sit and a wealth of other messages that your body involuntarily sends. This is according to Greg Hartley, a body language expert who earned his chops with 20 years as an interrogator in the US Army.

With this in mind, here are six do’s and don’ts on the art of non-verbal communication to give you a winning advantage in a job interview.

1) Be Real From the Start

When you greet your interviewer, smile a real smile that engages your eyes, and offer a firm handshake. Say something like, “I’m pleased to meet you” to provide a positive anchor.

Janine Driver, a body language expert also known on the Internet as the “Lyin’ Tamer”, states that maintaining good eye contact shows respect and interest. She advises that in the U.S., 60% eye contact is ideal. She suggests focusing on the upper triangle of the face from the left eyebrow across the bridge of the nose to the right eyebrow. Avoid staring at the other person’s forehead, lips and mouth.

2) Watch the Excess Energy

The more energy you have, the more will need to be vented. This often results in mannerisms Hartley terms “adapters”. What this means is that excess energy gets dissipated into fidgeting, a definite sign that you’re nervous or ill at ease. While it’s easy to say, “watch the fidgeting”, Driver suggests you never touch your face, throat, mouth or ears during an interview. The interviewer may feel that you’re holding something back, typically, the truth. Although this is a false assumption, to try to establish credibility, it’s necessary to avoid touching your face.

3) What to Do With Those Hands and Arms

Driver says that clasped hands are a signal that you are closed off. A palm-to-palm gesture with one thumb over the other thumb sends the signal that you need the interviewer’s reassurance.

To come across as confident, receptive and unguarded, have your hands open and relaxed on the table. When your body is open, you project trustworthiness.

Avoid crossing your arms over your chest. When you do, you signal that you are close-minded, defensive, or bored and disinterested.

4) Crossing Those Legs

Don’t cross your legs. According to Driver, this posture creates a wall between you and your interviewer. It can also become a distraction when you keep crossing your legs back and forth. Crossed ankles are a “no-no” because you are signaling that you want to be elsewhere.

5) Posture

A straight posture is imperative during an interview. Pull your shoulders back and sit up straight. You’ll give yourself a burst of confidence and allow for good breathing. This can help you to avoid, or at least reduce, feelings of nervousness and discomfort.

6) Finger Gestures

Bet you never thought you had to worry about your fingers during an interview. Driver suggests that steepling your fingers makes you look arrogant. She also says to never point your index fingers like gun barrels. These are the types of aggressive messages you want to avoid sending.

Summary

While it’s a no-brainer to focus on how best to answer those typical interview questions, don’t forget to pay some attention to that other 85% of what you’re communicating non-verbally. It can pay dividends after your interview when you realize your body often speaks louder than your words.
By Joe Turner

In a move that is leaving many scratching their heads, Yahoo on Friday announced plans to open two new offices in Nebraska — three days after it reported a whopping 64 percent plunge in third quarter net income and a 10 percent workforce reduction in order to cut costs.

A Yahoo spokesperson said that despite the company’s woes — which include an earlier layoff of 1,000 employees in February — the company is “always looking for new ways to improve our infrastructure.” “It is clear to us that to effectively compete we needed to better align costs but continue to invest in our priorities — our customers.”

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company’s Nebraska operations will be a 150,000 square foot data center in LaVista, and a customer care center in Omaha, said Gov. Dave Heineman in a statement.

According to The Omaha World-Herald, Yahoo is reportedly making an investment of $100 million in the LaVista site. The papers said that the company was not yet sure how many Cornhuskers it will employ, but is expected to initially hire 50 people who will earn an average salary of $50,000 to $60,000 working at the La Vista center.

The company said it didn’t know how many people would immediately be hired for the call center in Omaha. Yahoo is expected to initially hire 50 people, at an average salary of $50,000 to $60,000, for the La Vista operation. Heineman told the paper that the centers could potentially provide hundreds of jobs.

Heineman said that Yahoo reps began looking at sites in January with the goal of locating in the Midwest, and that he and other economic development officials made a case for Nebraska.

The plan worked: the governor said that Yahoo cited Nebraska’s Advantage program as a major factor in selecting the state. Nebraska Advantage allows Internet Web portal companies to qualify for business incentives, i.e. tax breaks.

As part of the plan, The Omaha World-Herald said that state tax incentives were changed earlier this year to include benefits for “all businesses relating to Web portals rather than just data centers, which allowed Yahoo and Nebraska to tie the two projects together under the same incentives filing.”

The incentives package has attracted interest from other tech companies as well. The Omaha World-Herald reported that PayPal is already located in LaVista.

Yahoo foe Microsoft has also committed to a $500 million operation in Nebraska and Google is building a $600 million data center, the paper reported.

written by Michele Masterson, courtesy of Channel

Relax before the interview

You can cut off the wings of those butterflies in your stomach. You can stop that mouse from running in your chest. Being nervous before an interview is of course very normal. Though you are a well-experienced person when it comes to conversing with people, you would not avoid the fact that you still feel tingles up you your spine before a job interview.

What must be done? You have to be very determined in doing things that make you feel relaxed before being interviewed. The way you answer in the interview is definitely affected if you are too nervous.

The following are the things you could do in order for you to ease those monsters in your chest:

Images for your ease

Imagine a picture of peace or serenity. This would really give you the peace of mind and the atmosphere to think and be relaxed.  Beautiful ocean front or calming forest. You have to give this a try. A couple of minutes with a relaxing image can be huge benefit to any job interview.

Breath and smile

Breathe deeply like you exhale the nervous tension right out of you. Do it for several times until you feel relieved of all nervous tension.

Carry a sweet memory

Choose a picture you like that would remind you of an inspiration. You could paste it in a notebook. Stare at it and recall beautiful memories. This would definitely help you get inspired for the interview.

Oath of esteem

Remind yourself by being in silence, telling your self that you are the best for the job, you could answer the questions and you could be hired. Being positive and motivated can move mountains and it can build your self esteem right before the interview.

These three activities before the interview can definitely ease your emotional burden. You are but human and it is natural to feel those rushing spinal sensations within but hey! This is a once in a lifetime chance that you cannot afford to miss.

Here is a Video of how to answer common job interview questions to assist with completing your Sure Jobs Network profile. You can complete your profile or join us here.

My name is Kim, your Online Job Recruiter for Sure Jobs Network.
You are qualified to apply for jobs in our network once you have completed your profile with Sure Jobs Network.

Login or join us free and start applying for jobs that you qualify for.

Once you have completed your profile you can:

Search the sure jobs network for the exact job you inquired about or other jobs in your field.

After clicking on the job you would like to apply for:

Click the ‘apply online image’ below the job

or simply click ‘apply to this job’

Answer a few short questions

Click the submit button

Choose your profile then click submit

You will know your application has been successfully submited when you see,
‘You have successfully applied to this job’, or when you are taken to our fast track service option screen which is totally optional.  You can use Sure Jobs Network completely free to find the job you are looking for or take advantage of our Fast Track priority service to get a job much faster.

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Thank you for joining the Sure Jobs Network and choose the option that is best for you.

Career Success is Yours,

Kim Spellmon - Online Job Recruiter

What’s the best way to get hired for the job you really want, in any economy?

Prove that you’re the best person for that job. And a great way to do that is to start working — before you’re hired.

How do you do it? Let me explain with three mini-case studies that won jobs …

1) Start work BEFORE the interview

“Six candidates were interviewing for a sales position in Atlanta with an exclusive company that had just received about $83 million in funding,” says Ron McManmon, a former recruiter and Executive VP of Careeradex.com.

“Five candidates were ‘top gun’ sales people who all came from industry leaders … and then there was Tony. He was young, with about five years of experience. But Tony was highly motivated and willing to go the extra mile.

“In his job interview, Tony not only mapped his accomplishments out in a PowerPoint presentation, he demonstrated that he had already started working for the company. He did this by researching, assembling, and bringing with him a list of sales leads and contacts. His presentation consisted of past, present AND future. The other candidates did nothing like this.”

Did it work?

“Tony was hired over five more-experienced candidates,” says McManmon.

2) Start work BEFORE the interview — Part 2

This example is near and dear to my heart – it’s how I landed a job with a marketing communications firm back in the 1990s, when I worked for other people.

After mailing in my resume, I was called by a receptionist to schedule an interview. During our conversation, I asked if he could send me back issues of their corporate publications. I explained that I wanted to research the writing styles of the magazines and newsletters I would be editing if I got the job.

He agreed, and had a nice package of materials couriered over to me the same day.

It turned out to be a gold mine.

I found three typos in one back issue of a magazine I would be proofreading in the position I was interviewing for. Here was proof that I could do the job.

Two days later at the interview, the subject of proofreading skills came up. I pulled out the magazine (with post-it notes marking the typos), slid it across the table and said: “I’ve been researching your publications and found these three errors. If you hire me, I can improve your image by preventing this from happening again.”

They hired me.

3) Start work AFTER the interview

This lesson in perseverance is a variation on the first story, about the candidate who brought a list of sales leads to a job interview.

“Robin, a woman from Los Angeles, had been interviewing with the same company for three months. She felt she was a perfect for the position, but the hiring manager was not responsive — he wouldn’t tell her yes or no about a decision to hire her,” says Ron McManmon.

So Robin called McManmon to discuss her dilemma. His advice?

“I suggested that she REALLY demonstrate her skills to the hiring manager. I encouraged her to call 100 potential customers and ask them, ‘Would you be interested in looking at a technology that would solve your problem with X and save you Y amount of dollars?’” says McManmon.

The next day, Robin walked into the manager’s office, put her contact list on his desk and said, “I’ve already started working for you. In fact, I have 100 customers who are interested in you technology.”

What happened next?

“Robin was hired on the spot,” says McManmon.

Now. These three examples all illustrate a common point.

Do whatever you can to research your target company and “start working” for them before you’re hired, or even interviewed. Because, it’s one thing to claim you can do the job. It’s quite another — and much more powerful — to prove it.

Now, go out and make your own luck!

Kevin Donlin

Company: The Simple Job Search

Website: http://www.TheSimpleJobSearch.com

Kevin Donlin is creator of TheSimpleJobSearch.com. Since 1996, he has provided job-search help to more than 11,000 people. Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Radio and others. His free report, The Simple Job Search Manifesto, is found at www.TheSimpleJobSearch.com

“We’d like you to come in for an interview,” are THE words every job seeker wants to hear. But, it is important to respond with two questions:

“With whom will I be interviewing?”
This is an attempt to learn more about the job, duties and their interviewing approach. Is it a person or a panel? You’ll not only want to know the person and their title, but get a job description if you can.

“Certainly! May I ask what dates and time you have available?”
Try to be the first or last person on any given day. When you are sandwiched between others, the interviews often get hurried, with less time between interviews for their important notes about you!

Making an excellent first impression, and effectively closing the interview often dictates who lands the job. Perhaps they thought you were the wrong candidate from the very beginning. Or maybe you bored the interviewer into NOT hiring you with verbose, lengthy and indirect answers. Never use more than 60 seconds on any answer!

Robin recommends you use the “60 Second Sell”, which is a finely-tuned interview technique that effectively communicates to employers that you are the right person for the job. Most employers remember only a few things about any given candidate after the interview. Using the 60 Second Sell focuses the employers attention to remember your most important attributes. Analyze the job duties that the employer needs done, then select your top five selling points - the strongest abilities to do the job. Link these five points together in a few sentences that are said in one minute - this is your 60 Second Sell. Using this tool early in the job interview to answer the request “Tell me about yourself” will engage the employer’s interest without boring them with your life story or wasting precious minutes which will not effectively marketing your skills.

Probing with the previously mentioned two questions may help you anticipate the ’style’ of interview you are about to undertake. The most important styles to plan for include:

The Screening Interview

This interview is designed to narrow a pool of candidates and is usually conducted by Human Resources or a company recruiter. Often it is conducted on the telephone, catching you off-guard and unprepared. It is a good time to take control, tell the interviewer you are just finishing something and will call them back in ten minutes. Use this time to collect your resume and prepare, then make the call.

Panel Interview

The primary challenge in the panel interview is to determine who has the ultimate decision-making power. Be prepared for topics to change quickly and randomly, disrupting your flow. Try to determine the decision maker, typically that will be your boss. The best way to learn this is to simply ask when you are first introduced to the panel who the potential boss would be. That is the most important person to impress.

Situational Questions Interview

This is become a very common interview style where every candidate gets asked the same question requiring you to explain a specific situation, i.e. ” Tell me about a time you were criticized at your current job. ” These questions require thoughtful answers. The questions use past behavior to anticipate future performance. This style is very difficult to succeed if you are unprepared.

Robin Ryan

Website: http://www.robinryan.com

Robin Ryan is considered America’s top career coach with over 1000 TV and radio appearances including Dr. Phil Show, Oprah, Fox News, CNN. She is the best-selling author of: What to Do with the Rest of Your Life; 60 Seconds & You’re Hired!; Winning Resumes; and Winning Cover Letters; and also the creator of the DreamMaker, Interview Advantage and Salary Negotiation Strategies Audio Programs. Robin has a busy career counseling practice providing individual career coaching, resume writing services, interview preparation and salary negotiations consulting to clients nationwide. A dynamic national speaker, Robin frequently teaches audiences how to improve their lives and obtain greater success.

 First impressions are often the most lasting in any situation, be it meeting a new friend, speaking in front of an audience, going on vacation or in the job search. Most job seekers think that the first impression is made when you’re in an interview setting, but it begins much earlier when you first make contact with a prospective employer.

Here are different areas where you can make a good or bad first impression on a prospective employer:

Picking up an application- a couple of years ago I spoke with the manager of a women’s chain store about what she likes to see when women stop in to pick up applications. She gave the example of two women who came in on the same day at a time when they weren’t doing a lot of hiring.

Woman A: looked like she had just come from cleaning her garage. She asked for an application and was given one but was also told that the store wasn’t hiring at this time.

Woman B: was dressed in the type of clothing sold at this store, fitting their image. She asked for an application, was given one and also told that the store wasn’t hiring at this time, but she did get to speak to the manager for a few minutes to get information about when they would next be hiring.

Woman B got further in the process because she came across as a serious job seeker who knew what kind of image the store wanted to sell.

Voicemail Message- some people like to be creative on their voicemail, playing their favorite song, quoting a philosophical or spiritual passage or having their children record the message. None of these are appropriate when you are looking for work. You need to have a business-like message on both your landline and your cell phone if you have one. The best kind of message gives your name and phone number, letting the prospective employer know that they have reached the correct person. An example is “you’ve reached the Smith household at 612-555-5555. We cannot take your call right now so please leave a message.”

My Space and Facebook sites- these sites have become popular with younger people as means of sharing experiences with friends and family. What many people do not realize is that employers are also viewing these sites looking for information about candidates. You don’t want an employer to see pictures of you partying, goofing off or engaging in any other kind of behavior that may be acceptable in private but probably shouldn’t be shared publicly if one is in a job search. You have some choices with these sites- you can make your site private while you’re looking for work or you can clean up the content and use it as a way to promote yourself.

Resume and Cover Letter- spelling errors and poor grammar speak volumes about your communication skills and attention to detail. Objectives like “I want to work for a company where I can grow” are outdated and tell the reader you may not have a clear idea of your goals. Focus instead on writing a summary of your skills and accomplishments. Check out resume books for examples of summaries.

Filling Out Applications-

Bad: writing “see attached resume”, not having names, dates and contact information for at least the five most recent employers, asking to borrow a pen, asking why you need to do this when you have a resume

Good: having all of your employment information- the names, dates and contact information for your five most recent employers ready in a notebook or on a typed sheet, bringing two pens in case one runs out of ink, understanding that an application is a way of seeing how well you write and follow directions

Pre-Interview Etiquette:

Have your calendar near the phone so that you are prepared to set an appointment when a company calls. Be sure to ask how many people you will be meeting with and for how long. Even if you know where the company is located, get directions and ask about parking options and security check-ins just so there are few surprises on the day of your interview. Ask for the phone numbers of key contact people in case an emergency comes up. Expect to pay any parking costs yourself for downtown companies. Print out extra resumes and get a portfolio in order. Make sure that every piece of your interview outfit is clean, pressed or polished to show respect for the interviewer. Do about an hour’s research on the company to ask thoughtful questions.

Bad impressions are made when: you don’t have the information you need about who you are meeting and how to find the office, show up late, are dressed inappropriately and haven’t prepared for the interview.

So to make the best first impression on each potential employer, examine each of these tips to see if what you’re doing is helping or hurting you in the job search. Remember, an employer can form an impression of you even before you come in for a formal interview.

Email Heather Issacs

Heather Isaacs has thirteen years experience helping students and dislocated workers uncover their career goals.

In the landmark Elks movie theater in Rapid City, S.D., 200 people have turned out for a job-strategies workshop. The speaker asks the participants to pair off and alternate role-playing employer and job seeker. The employer has one question: “Why should I hire you?” Nervous laughter breaks out as the job seekers fumble for the right words. More than one blurts out, “I need a job!” Ginny, a laid off researcher, can manage only, “I’m good at what I do.”

Ed, a $75,000-a-year telecommunications specialist who’s been out of work for 10 months, wants his old job back. Unfortunately, there isn’t much call for what he used to do. He needs to look at alternatives and envision a new future for himself.

At the nearby South Dakota School of Mines, 30 career consultants are discussing this problem. They wonder how to support clients who are totally unprepared for the future. “People are afraid to look for what they want” because they haven’t learned to think that way, says Peggy Schlechter, dean of student services at National American University. “Their fear gets in the way, and they’re looking for someone else to make the choices for them,” she says. Another consultant comments that many people spend more time researching a new car than on the direction to take in their careers.

What’s Your Future?

Most of us are like Ed. We rely on past job titles and try to build our future out of our past, using traditional job-search approaches. In a rapidly changing world, we need to find a better way.

We must stop the job-search madness and think about our futures. “What future?” you say. “I’ve got a more serious problem. I’ve got to find a job. The future will take care of itself.”

Actually, it won’t. The work world is an ever-changing, dynamic phenomenon. New opportunities are being created constantly that require new skills while organizing traditional skills in new ways. Relying on your past to build your future and looking in the same places as you once did for openings–the way most people search for jobs– won’t work.

Like a powerful story or screenplay, a job search must be a focused search for something, not a random quest. Preferably, something you’re passionate about. If you only want to get back on the carousel where you left off, you likely won’t demonstrate enough energy to interest anyone who’s breaking ground and hiring in this economy.

Create a New Blueprint

Still, it isn’t surprising that many job seekers resemble the Rapid City folk. Many experts in job-search-related stress say the pressure of being unemployed often spurs people to take the least demanding course of action. They hastily crank out ill-conceived mass mailings, employ expensive resume services and make thoughtless phone calls. These tactics keep them from what they really need to do to create a satisfying future, which is to create a coherent plan focused on your future.

If you wish to stop doing more of what doesn’t work and focus on what will lead you to your long-term future goals and address your immediate needs, you must understand certain principles. You then need to follow them up by answering important questions and taking suggested actions. This three-part series provides a blueprint to help you achieve this career victory, starting with three principles that can improve your short- and long-term odds of being successful.

Principle 1: There is no scarcity of opportunity.

How can there be no scarcity of opportunity when thousands of people are being laid off? The short answer is that at its most basic, a job is an opportunity to solve a problem or add value to a situation. There’s no shortage of problems in the world now, and so, by definition, there’s no scarcity of opportunity. What is scarce are people who know how to convert problems into tangible opportunity and to express this ability convincingly to problem owners.

The longer answer is that the economy and its work opportunities come from the ground up, not from the top down. Before today’s 25 million Web sites were built, only the ideas and problems involved in creating them existed. Now the Internet is the fastest growing human-communications system in the world. Use it as a model. As the Internet grew, people hooked on at different stages. What’s happening now that offers you the same potential?

The $10 trillion U.S. economy employs 146 million people, up from 144 million in 2001, the Labor Department reports. The overall turnover rate is about 20% annually. That means that last month more than 2 million jobs were filled or refilled. The unemployment rate is about 6%. The employment rate is 94%. How often do you get 94-to-6 odds in your favor? There’s better than a 90% chance that in six months you’ll be working. Will you choose the opportunity or will the opportunity choose you?

Consider the entire landscape of opportunity as your shopping field; advertised jobs are only a small percentage of the total. Don’t join in or succumb to discussions about job scarcity, the bad economy, lack of responses from employers, bad luck and other negative thoughts. These fears can be paralyzing. You want just one out of the 146 million positions, and you want to be able to choose it for yourself. Choice leads to satisfaction. You can have a choice if you’re willing to go beyond the scarcity myth and shift your approach.

Tom Jackson
Website: http://www.careervictory.com