Job Interview Question Why Did You Leave Your Last Job

Job Interview Question Why Did You Leave Your Last JobJob Interview Question Why Did You Leave Your Last JobWe all have our least favorite interview question. You know the one. Its the one query from a prospective employer that can make a candidates blood run cold. The anticipation alone is enough to ruin many an interview before a single ja is uttered.Were talking about the inevitable why did you leave your last job inquiry of course. Unless youre a recent college grad with zero experience, chances are youll be asked why you left or are interested in leaving a perfectly good paycheck behind to jump ship elsewhere. With that in mind, weve put together a few helpful hints for addressing the situation and helping get over the hurdle and on towards discussing your skills and experience without a grey cloud of doubt hanging over your job-seeking head.First Things First Be ProfessionalNo matter your previous employment experiences, you should always avoid badmouthing a previous employer d uring the interview process. Even if your boss was horrid, the hours long and the work unfulfilling, an interviewer is going to think twice about any candidate displaying disloyalty about their former employer. Need a better and more professional suggestion than throwing your former boss under the proverbial bus? Weve got you covered.Leaving a Current PositionIf youre currently employed the hiring managers in your new company are obviously going to be curious about why youre willing to make a switch. Thankfully there are plenty of ways to address their concerns. Instead of talking about the deficiencies of your previous position, instead, address the opportunities that you see in the current job listing. Room for growth, additional responsibilities or a geographic preference are all examples of perfectly reasonable explanations that put a positive spin on your job search.Laid Off From Prior PositionReductions in staff are common occurrences across all sizes and sectors in todays eco nomy. Instead of using the term laid off or let go, however, be sure to maximize the ordinariness of the action by focusing on the dismissal as a company-wide initiative if able. Let the interviewer know your prior employer had a company-wide reduction, was going through a restructuring or otherwise terminated its part-time or recent employees. Youll assuage any fears and will be ready to move on to talking about the substance of your application in no time.Made a Voluntary ExitIf the reason for leaving your previous place of employment involved an I quit email, you may need to approach your answer with caution. Any new employer will want to know just why you were unhappy to ensure they wont be facing a similar situation a few months down the road. Address reasons that the job and you didnt mesh up and why you think the current opening is different. If possible, be sure to provide references from the previous job to show that your performance was sternbezogen and that you left on go od terms.Fired from Prior PositionSaving the hardest topic for last, it can be hard to broach the why did you leave discussion after youve been fired or let go for cause. Its important to approach this category delicately and be sure to have your answer ready to go as well as be ready, willing and able to address follow up questions. If you were fired for poor behavior, admit to that and then address what has changed in your personal or professional life that will prevent you from making the same mistakes. If work disputes with management were at play, remember to never speak ill but do feel free to chalk it up to personal differences or a poor personality fit as to why you were asked to leave.Whether being fired for cause, let go, or willingly exited, its important to remember to be professional when addressing the why did you leave question. In addition to not bad mouthing a prior employer, this should also include honesty and integrity in your responses. Spill the beans, make the best of the situation to avoid drawing the conversation out and then spend the rest of your interview wooing the potential employer with your skills and experience that would make you just the right fit.

Setting Up Your Email Signature

Setting Up Your schmelzglas SignatureSetting Up Your Email SignatureWhen youre using schmelzglas to job search or network, its important to include a professional email signature that has all of your contact information. This makes it easy for hiring managers and recruiters to get in touch with you. Read on for advice on what to include in your email signature, and how to platzdeckchen one up on your email account. First, make sure that theemail account you are using for your job searchingis a professional one. You should have a simple, professional email handle such as FirstnameLastnamegmail.com.If youre not sure how to set up an email account, review this guide on how to set up an email account for your job search. An email signature appears at the bottom of every email and includes all of your important contact details. An email signature includes much of the saatkorn information that you would include at the top of a typical business letter. The format of an email message is not the same as a written letter. For example, in abusiness letter, you include your name and contact information at the top of the letter. You do not include this information at the top of an email. Instead, it goes in your email signature. What Should You Include in an Email Signature? At a minimum, an email signature should contain your full name, your email address, and your phone number, so that hiring managers can see, at a glance, how to contact you. You might also include your current job title, and the company you work for, and your full address. Including a link to your LinkedIn profile is a good way to give the hiring manager more information on your skills and abilities. You can alsoadd a LinkedIn button to your email signature if you prefer. You might also link to your Twitter account if you areusing it for job search and/or career-related purposes. For applicants in creative fields, such as writers or designers, adding a link to an online portfolio is an excellent idea , or if you have your own professionalwebsite, you can add a link to it. Dont get too carried away and be wary of including too many links in your email signature. Just link to the most important information. Before you add every possible URL where you appear online, consider where youd most like people to click. For example, if your LinkedIn profile encapsulates your career history best, use that. If your Twitter feed showcases career-related skills (e.g., marketing abilities), a link there may be more meaningful. But you dont need both. Also important is leaving things out that dont belong in an email signature when youre sending emails related to your job search, such as inspirational quotes in their signatures. While adding cute inspirational quotes are fine for personal emails, its just not professional enough for a work-related email. Sample Email Signatures See a variety of email signatures below. All of these would be appropriate to use when job searching. If you want to use any of these examples, be sure to change any information so that it fits your personal circumstances. Sample Email Signature FirstName LastNameEmail AddressPhone ExpandSample Email Signature With Address and Employment Information FirstName LastNameMarketing Director, ABC CompanyStreetCity, StateZip CodeEmail AddressPhone ExpandSample Email Signature With LinkedIn FirstName LastNameEmail AddressPhoneLinkedIn URL ExpandSample Email Signature With Twitter FirstName LastNameEmail AddressPhoneLinkedIn URLTwitter Account Expand How to Set Up Your Email Signature Each email server has different steps you must take to set up your email signature. Typically, you can click Settings on your email account, and find a tab that tells you how and where to add a signature. Once you add a signature, this should automatically be added to all of your outgoing messages. This means you do not actually have to write in the signature every time you send an email - it will automatically be added to the end of your email. Job Search Email Etiquette Theres a lot you need to know about etiquette when using your email for job searching. Review this guide to job search email etiquette to learn more about what to write in your job search emails, how to format your email, how to make sure your email message is read, and sample job search email messages.

staffing agency told me to pay for resume help before applying

staffing agency told me to pay for resume help before applying staffing agency told me to pay for resume help before applying A reader writesI just had a question regarding an email response I received after submitting my resume for a job posting I found through a job posting website.It turns out that the posting was from a job agency. The only requirement was to email him a copy of my resume. I did so, and received the following as a responseYou have a lot of strong, relevant experience and are an excellent candidate although it would be best to improve your resume before doing anything with it. I can refer you to a resume writing expert that can improve your resume to the standard we are looking for and I believe he charges around $150 or so. Please let me know if I can forward your resume to the expert so you can get in contact with them. Once your resume has been improved please resubmit it ASAP.Im notlage quite sure how to take this. Is this some sort of scam or is he being legi timate? Or could this scam actually have good merits?I did research the agency, and they do seem legit, but they are definitely not one of the top ones here in Canada.Do you have any thoughts?Scam.Unless your resume is really, truly terrible, in which case I suppose its possible that hes trying to do you a favor. But Id lean toward scam.I then asked the reader if I could look at his resume, which leads to part 2 of the answerOkay, your resume isnt great but its not great in the way that most peoples resumes arent great its certainly not horrific. Get rid of the objective,focus on achievements rather than job duties, and get rid of the personalattributes section where you list subjective traits instead, show that you have those traits by listing accomplishments that demonstrate them. (And read this recent post on improving your resume.)But again, this looks like the majority of resumes out there. Its not doing you any favors, but theres nothing here that should cause a staffing age ncy to refuse to accept your resume until its professionally redone because if thats their standard, theyd need to be telling most applicants that. And while it would actually be fantastic if they were explaining to most applicants why their resumes were weak and giving them pointers on redoing them (because most people do need it), simply directing you to a paid resume consultant is too scammy to seem legit to me.