Ten Reasons The Interview Process Can Take So Darn Long

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You interviewed for the job weeks ago, and you still haven't received a definitive answer – welcome to the world of corporate bureaucracy. Here are 10 reasons the interview process can take so darn long:

1. Company protocols dictate that the team interview at least five candidates. Although you're the most qualified, interviews continue.
    

2. The team is expecting a particular highly-qualified internal candidate to apply. But the internal candidate hasn't decided whether to apply.
    

3. After defining the requirements for the job, the team started interviewing and a new project came up. They're rethinking the job specifications.
    

4. Decisions simply move slowly at the company.
    

5. Your hiring manager contracted mononucleosis just after your interview. He's convalescing at home.
    

6. While all the candidates they've met have had the technical skills for the role, the hiring manager is, "just not feeling it."
    

7. The CEO has decided to take a "special interest" in the role.
    

8. The interview team is split - half of them loved you, the other half wish you the mumps. The hiring manager is trying to build consensus.
    

9. The company is distracted with new and changing priorities, so they're not sure that hiring is the priority at the moment.
    

10. They can't decide between you and another candidate. You've accepted another job.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

4 Great Ways To Get Professional Training On The Cheap

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Are you looking to learn some new job skills to advance your career, but your boss is telling you there's nothing left in the training budget?

Great news! High-quality training has never been more accessible – or more affordable – than it is now. And if you're looking to change your career path, get a promotion, or make your resume more appealing to potential employers, you won't need to break the bank to build new skills, enhance your marketability, and fill out your resume.

Here are 4 great ways to get professional training on the cheap:

1. University-Led Online Courses (also known as MOOC's – Massive Open Online Courses): Many colleges record and put their classes online – the very same classes degree-seeking students pay good money to take. If you're more concerned with gaining the knowledge these classes offer than you are with getting college credit, you can take these classes online for cheap – or even free. And a lot of these e-learning classes cover cutting-edge topics. Check out Coursera (which has classes from top-tier schools including Penn, Michigan, Stanford, and Duke); edX (MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley, Texas); and FutureLearn (dozens of leading global universities). There are many, many other MOOC's, which can be found listed here.
    

2. LinkedIn Learning: I'm a huge fan of LinkedIn, and there are many great reasons for job seekers to upgrade to a premium subscription. LinkedIn recently gave users another really good reason to pony up for a subscription, LinkedIn Learning. There are tons of prerecorded online courses, ranging from business topics (leadership, project management, finance and accounting) to creative (3D animation, CAD, graphic design) to technology (IT, web development, data science), and more. There's even training on Microsoft Office and other major software packages. The courses are pretty high quality, and the system all you can eat for a single price. NOTE: In case you were wondering, I am in no way affiliated with LinkedIn other than as a paying user, and for my subscription I pay rack rate. But I've been using the system since its early days and while there are things about it I don't love, I firmly believe in its power as both a job search and recruitment tool.
    

3. Continuing Education: Many school districts and community colleges offer adult-oriented classes and training on a variety of topics at a very low cost. For example, Miami Dade College, the community college serving the Miami, Florida area, offers a variety of classes through their School of Continuing Education on everything from GED and ESOL certification classes, to business courses, to technical training, and hobbies.
    

4. YouTube. Just search for "How to... (your topic)." Want to learn how to rebuild an automotive transmission? Or perhaps you'd like to better understand coding in Python. True, YouTube is an informal environment, but if you're looking for down-and-dirty instruction on a topic, it's a great resource.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

How To Nail The Interview Question, "Tell Me About Yourself!"

"Wait, wait, I know this one!" / iStockphoto.com (Wavebreakmedia)

The interview question, "Tell me about yourself," is painful for so many reasons:

• It's vague, and wide open to interpretation.
• It's unclear what the interviewer wants to know about you. Are they interested in your work history? Or are they interested in knowing your golf score? Your inability to read the interviewer's mind can toss you out of the running.
• It is, quite frankly, a lazy question. It requires no imagination or planning on the part of the interviewer, and places the burden squarely on you to make of it what you can.

When I was a recruiter and I had to run into an interview with acandidate with little time to prepare, I asked this question, too. Sorry.

Regardless of how the interviewer asks this question, you should really be hearing the following question:

"Why should I hire you?"

The best strategy here is to toss out your best "elevator speech." In case you haven't heard the term, an elevator speech refers to a short sales pitch that can be delivered during a brief elevator ride with your intended target.

As an example, let's say you devised an incredible new chemical process for converting lead to gold, and you find yourself in an elevator ride with the president of a chemical company. The ride in the elevator might last two minutes, at most. How can you sell your idea to the president in that time?

You only get one chance to make a first impression, right? How can you open your interview as strongly as possible? You need to load your answer with your qualifications, and give the hiring managers reasons, to hire you.

Let's say you're a teacher interviewing for a tenure-track educator position at a school district. The conversation might look something like this:

Interviewer: So, tell me about yourself (yawns).

Job Hunter: I would be glad to. I am a highly skilled and experienced educator, with over ten years of experience in changing the lives of young students for the better. My teaching methods have been recognized as highly advanced, and I currently hold the latest state certifications. Over the last three years, my classes have consistently ranked in the top tier of standardized test scores. In addition, I have experience mentoring students in not just the classroom setting, but through my leadership in extracurricular activities such as coaching the soccer team and academic tutoring.

Interviewer: (Perking up) Very interesting! As you know, we have a teaching position available, but we also lost our last soccer coach last week.

Think about what makes you unique and exciting to a hiring manager. Then polish it into your own elevator speech. Then you'll be ready the next time an employer asks you to, "Tell me about yourself."

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.