Jesse's Do's and Don'ts About Interviewing

So as some of you may know, Jesse has been majoring in Human Resources. We have been greatly blessed in Jesse finding a job with Kinross Gold Corporation where he is doing an internship and working as a Human Resource Generalist. Basically that means that he does a ton of recruiting and interviewing A LOT of people. It's interesting to hear the interviewer's side of the story. So I decided to get Jesse to take notes of the Do's and Don'ts about interviewing. Basically what he notices what people do that are either annoying, impressive, good or bad. So here it is. Hopefully for those who are looking for jobs, you can put this to good use and that it helps.

• Tell me about yourself really means why should we hire you in relation to the position you applied for, not a biography. Focus on your specific competencies that you
have used or gained in past work experiences for this position.

• Give specific answers with details to back up what you say.
Never stray and beat around for an answer. Ask them to
repeat the question to fully answer what they have asked you.

• Employees are looking for a fit, both technically and
personality. Use emotional intelligence to gain an advantage
to match the company culture.

• Every question should be answered in the STAR format:
Situation
Task
Action
Result

• Show up 15 min and walk in 3 min till: Going in too early
puts stress on your potential employer of where to put you
until they are ready.

• Have a positive attitude. Carry humble confidence.

• Don't babble. Recruiters have ADD. They look at resumes
and interview all day long. Try to wow them with a good
relevant work experience that gets their attention.

• Always, always, always have good questions to ask at the end
of the interview. I always ask candidates to tell me
something about the company not found on the Internet;
Wikipedia and Google.

• By all means have fun and WOW them. Remember when
you walk out the door they will judge you for 5 min, and
you want that judgement to be a positive one

If you have any questions about any of these points or would like further explanation you can email me at akn263@gmail.com. I will then forward your questions to Jesse. You can also email me if you want more pointers!