Job Interview Tips For Those Who Lack Experience

Every job interview is unique. But there are certain guidelines that are applicable in every interview and they will assist you to build a first good impression always. For any post, remember a few things in mind before you talk about yourself or your work experience.

-Provide the solution. Organizations seek to hire people because they have specific problems and issues which they want to solve with efficient staff. Prepare a detailed program about how you will be solving the company’s problem by mentioning  a list of problems that you have effectively solved in the past.

If you are switching your career path then always bear in mind that some problems are not a specific just like teamwork issues and project management skills. Providing solutions to these issues covers the lacks in straight experiences.
-Precision. Do not attempt hollow clichés. Be precise about your experiences. For instance if you are claiming that you word well with the teams then don’t just leave it like a fancy statement, provide valid explanations by mentioning the types of teams you have worked with and what experiences that you have gained.

-Get ready with your sound bites. I have read about this term which I found really effective. Sound bites are actually the highlights of your past triumphs. They are straight and extremely helpful to make people remember about your interview. For instance “I have designed website for five Fortune 500 firms. These are statements which must focus on the points which makes them unique and better from other candidates.

- Build your confidence about your resume. Resume and cover letter usually comprises a portion of your interview. As resume is a brief introduction about your professional background so there are many points that have to be explained and elaborated.
- Your body language speaks for you. Remember that non-verbal cues are a great source of personality evaluation and thus matters a lot in an interview. Maintain a positive and confident posture with direct eye contact when answering questions. Sit straight without leaning forward. A gentle and warm handshake is an optimistic sign.

-Be positive, always. Adopt a constructive thought when talking about your former loss or experiences. Do not blame anyone as it gives an impression of disloyalty. Always use statements that make the interviewer believes in you for potential hiring.

Avoid Three Signs of Fed-up Job

I just read a book entitles, “ The Three Signs of a Miserable Job” by Patrick Lencioni. I liked it because it covers comprehensively about all the factors that can lead to job related miseries or boredom and how to eradicate them. So I thought to share the findings of a good book with all of you.

The book’s emphasize is about the functional view of a manager’s job. According to the writer, the basic source of job misery and the probable prevention from that misery lies in the power of the individual, the manager!

A substantial part of the staff’s efforts are utilized on the project in matrix organizations, therefore Lencioni wisely advised project managers to take the charge of eliminating the boredom among the staff.

The three major signs of job misery have been identified by the writer which are:

1.     Inappropriateness

2.      Inability to gauge one’s performance/triumph

3.       and Vagueness

Let’s see how project managers can deal with these conditions.

We know that we live and grow among human beings and we have to be a sociopath. As our actions and decisions effects other human beings in one way or another. Projects are a means for generating worth through modifying, and if that alter is predictable to optimistically impact some stakeholder community, then that is amazing to feel good about.

Social Networking for Project Managers

Technology is the most powerful tool today in every aspect of our lives. It has altered the way in which we conduct our business and manage today.  Even in our daily socializing we rely on Skype, Smatphones and numerous social networking sites.

When we talk about Project Management, social networking has another useful form of productive outcomes as the project manager and the team members may not work under the same roof and within different country and region. Here in this blog, we are going to see different social media networking tools that might be beneficial and to increase the efficiency of the project.

Internal Project Blog

Use a SharePoint to upload your project  development progress. This is a great way to get and provide feedback online with project managers and team members instead via phone which is quite expensive and time taking. By the use of blogs, project managers can instantly convey the updates regarding project for instance the manager can use the RSS feed update to keep up the checking state. Also with the use of blogs, a team member can check the past posts to get an instant project update anytime and can get views and help on the project related issue within seconds and without any time restrictions.

Using Skype for collaboration

Skype is a tremendous tool and can help project managers to collaborate their capabilities and allows an efficient way to send instant message with video conferencing. It helps them to conduct a quick virtual  meeting with all your team members without moving anywhere.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – Maintain personal relationships

Relationships are as important to maintain good projects as there is any other important factor in management.  These social media sites are being used widely now in order to develop and flourish relationships that yields beneficial project results. The project manager can create communities with closed groups and can become a cooperative system of feedback, communications and collaboration which ultimately leads to fewer mistakes.

Share your views with us. 

Prioritizing Projects

Every organization or managers are always concerned about prioritizing their project with individual approach.  Prioritizing tasks can be a great challenge for project managers as one project may be a priority for one, but little priority for others.

Today I am going to share some tips about effectively prioritizing of the project.

-          First of all, have a clear objective and what you want to achieve in life. In other words, your mission statement should be crystal clear.

-          Evaluate the resources which are available to complete the task. The most important of them being time and money.

-          The project manager  needs to make a list of requirement and rank them according to their importance. ( High = Is a must, Medium = would be useful, Low = relax )

-          The project reaction of the organization need to be calculated before prioritizing. What impact might it cause on the organization if proceeded.

-          Approximate the difficulty of the project along with a cost estimate.

-          Allocate a weight scale for the projects as 1-10, 1-High to 10-Low. Sort out to decide ranking.

Further, I would like to share a project prioritizing technique that I have learned recently. It is called as “CARVER”. It is originated as an acronym in military terminology  for selection of any target. It has also been used in project management to help in prioritizing tasks.

C- Critically A- Accessibility R- Return V- Vulnerability E- Effect R- Recognizability

Make a rank sheet on the basis of these characteristics and rank each project in marks as 1-5 ( High – Low) . Then simply the sum the points given to each project and you will a have a clear way of prioritizing the project.

Let us know if you have any further tips or techniques that can help in prioritizing the tasks.

Leadership Talk

Another important notion while demonstrating leadership within your project team, the expanded consultation about leadership within several teams, but the core team which has the control over all has to remain focused on the goal. It will help in making complex decisions made easier and with minimum risk of failure.

Leaders must engage much in the discussion and talk with the team but too much democracy is not good either. In achieving realistic goals, it is important to have maximum control within a core team as a small group with effective control can do a lot better than too many committees talking. This tip is extremely powerful tip for regional, cross regional and global projects.

Some common mistakes that managers often commit is to take a decision and then start their discussion over it. Also they sometimes fail to keep the team focused on the desired goal.

Remember:  “The Romans did not build an empire by having meetings. They did it by killing all those who opposed them.”

Keep An Eye On The Progress

First of all a tip that I want to share as a good practice and that is to update the plan every week as you will get to know about many new tasks that will help to reach the goal faster.

Plans are very important in the project building and completing. Why? Well, the answer is simple but really crucial to fathom the real significance of being vigilant about it. Without planning a project will never get anywhere. Planning enables an organized form of your implementation plan and it gives the path to move on. And the path has to be checked regularly in order to make sure that you and your team are heading in the right direction and without loosing any prominent aspect that must be done.

Many projects fail simply because of poor check over the progress which leads to unidentified threats and problems.  Secondly, setting irrational goals with vague concepts and vision leads to a definite failure.

-          Progress of the projects must be monitored not less than once a week. It can generate many new possibilities in the long-term benefit of your project.

-          Setting the goals with specific details and a comprehensive approach of getting through it.

-          Low level tasks should also be given importance and their progress must also be checked with 100% satisfaction.

-          Do not depend upon a blind hope that everything will be fine at the end, stay vigilant and prepare well to get the success.

Clearly Define Roles & Responsibilities

It is the duty of a project manager to build concise and clear goals for its team members. Similarly, the responsibilities have to be clear as well with well defined structures and plan.

I am going to discuss a little about the roles which are supposed to be  of crucial importance.

-      One who supports the business and get all the day-to-day activity report and updates for keeping a track of the whole project/business.

-      A regulating board that is responsible to organize meetings, take necessary decisions.

-      There must be a team under the regulating board for reporting performance. There has to be representative and an expert to perform this role better.

-      A group that is managed in user’s end.

Beside some of these roles which are mostly adopted by project leaders, something goes wrong. Let us take a look at some usually occurring mistakes.

-      Possession of the project is vague.

-      The regulatory board often lacks the amount of dedication and commitment that is required.

-      When the roles are not clear, there is a chance to hit the wall blindly.

-      Lack of proper communication between the two major components of the project, the team and the committee.