The First Six Things Interviewers Notice

We know our interview attire is immediately acknowledged by interviewers, but there's many other things interviewers take note of during an interview.  In a survey of employers across America, 6 things were identified as common things noticed first when interviewing.

Arrival Time.  It should go unsaid that arriving on time is a must for an interview.  Arrive around 5 to 10 minutes before your scheduled interview. If you arrive earlier than 15 minutes for your interview, take time to review your resume and gather your thoughts.  You may also want to run to the restroom in the lobby before checking in to freshen up. 

Attire. Dress neat and clean and accessorize minimally.

Body Language.  When meeting your interviewer, shake his or her hand firmly. A firm handshake shows you’re genuine and confident. Position yourself towards the interviewer. You don’t want to slump in your chair or look too relaxed; however, you should carry yourself with confidence.  It is also important to resist the urge to fidget with your hands out of nervousness.

Speaking Style. Speak concisely and minimize the use of filler words or ramblings.  A good practice is to mimic the speaking rate of your interviewer; people subconsciously identify with people that operate like they do.

Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. Do your homework before your interview. Research the company in-depth. Some notes you may want to take to bring with you to the interview may include the company’s mission statement, values, and any recent company press releases.  Interviewers can tell how prepared you were for the interview based on your responses and questions you have for them.  Always come prepared with a list of questions to ask at the end of the interview. This reflects both your level of preparedness for the interview and your level of interest in the position.

Your qualifications. While everything else listed is very important to establish a rapport with a prospective employer, your ability to sell your qualifications for the job is the last and most important note your interviewer will make.

Ready to explore opportunities with Paladin? Contact us today!

 

 

Dress to Impress:The Business Professional Interview

Seven seconds. That is the amount of time you have to make a first impression that could determine the entire course of your interview.  Like it or not, those seven seconds are based strictly on appearance and professionalism.  One of the most common mistakes job seekers make is in their wardrobe choice for an interview.  Here are a few guidelines that should be followed when dressing for an interview where the culture is business professional. 

Guidelines for Women	Guidelines for Men
Suits, Dresses: Conservative business suit, pantsuit, or dress of natural or woven-blend fabric; skirt length should be at your knee. Choose a color that complements your skin tone and hair color; beige, black, navy, or gray. Make sure your clothes are not too tight or too loose.	Suits: Preferred dark blue, gray, or muted pin-stripes. Muted brown or black also acceptable. A quality woven blend of natural fibers looks professional. Avoid bold pin-stripes, contrasting slacks and sport coat, or light colors.
Blouses or tops: Simple style. Avoid low-cut necklines or very frilly styles.	Shirts: A nice quality white button-down or white classic collar is preferred. Oxford blue or a muted stripe is also acceptable. Be sure it is ironed.
Shoes: Polished pumps or medium heels in a neutral color that matches your outfit.	Ties are a MUST
	Shoes: Highly polished slip-ons or laced dress shoes; brown, cordovan, or black.

 

A good rule of thumb: Dress for the job that you want, not necessarily the job that you are interviewing for. If you are interviewing for an entry level position, dress like you were interviewing for a more senior position. Why? Because employers like to hire people that they believe can grow in the company. Someone who presents sloppy doesn’t exactly scream a go getter. Nailing a good impression in the first seven seconds will set the tone of the interview. Don’t let something as simple as your choice of clothing get in between you and your dream job. 

Looking for a new job? Check out opportunities available with Paladin!

                                                                                                                                                       

Employee Recognition

Building employee morale is arguably the most important task for a company. High employee morale can boost productivity, participation, retention and opportunities.  Employee recognition is a conduit for employee morale and if done effectively can change the entire culture of a company.

Be thoughtful. Sometimes it is better to give an employee a small token of appreciation that doesn’t involve a company t- shirt or coffee mug.  Putting in that extra thought will not go unnoticed by the employee.

Be intentional. While it is great to recognize all your employees for their hard work, when recognizing individuals or a specific team, make sure you recognize the specific accomplishments that led to recognition. Employees like to know their hard work isn’t going unnoticed. By bringing their accomplishments to the limelight, you are demonstrating that you pay attention to their work.

Be inclusive. When recognizing a team, recognize each team member’s contribution as well as the accomplishments of the team as a unit. As a member of a team, it is easy to feel lost in the group. By recognizing each team member, you are affirming their value to the team.

Be a culture of encouragement.  A great tool to achieve this is to develop a colleague recognition program. Allowing employees to recognize what their coworkers are doing creates camaraderie among employees.

People like to be praised; it’s human nature. By taking the time to recognize employees, you are reaffirming their efforts, thus encouraging them to keep up the hard work.  Encouraging employees significantly build employee morale.

 

What we can learn from St. Patrick

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, and in America the festivities have been in full swing since the weekend. When people think of St. Patrick’s Day, most think of a sea of people decked out in green, packed pubs, and festive parades.  While the festivities are fun, there is much more to St. Patrick than these fun traditions.

St. Patrick was kidnapped and sold into slavery as a teenager. For six years he worked tirelessly, never losing hope that one day he would be free and get a chance to pursue his dreams. One night, St. Patrick fled and found a ship. He asked the captain for passage, but was denied. After telling his story to the crew, the crew convinced the captain to grant him passage. When St. Patrick got back to his homeland of England, he spent the next seven years studying to become a priest. After becoming a priest, St. Patrick traveled back to Ireland, where he was a slave, and realized his dream of bringing Christianity to Ireland.

St. Patrick’s story can serve as a model for reaching your dreams. We may live in a different time and have different goals but there are a few lessons that everyone can learn from St. Patrick.

1.       Persevere. When you have a dream, you will undoubtedly have challenges you must overcome to achieve your dreams. When you face adversity (and you will), you must persevere and not give up just because you were told no by one person. St. Patrick was denied passage by the captain, yet he ended up on that boat due to his persistence.

2.       Be prepared. St. Patrick was prepared for the day that he would find the right time to make his escape. You must be prepared to seize opportunities when they are presented to you. No one ever reached their goals without preparation.

3.       Reach out to people. Relationships with people can be your greatest asset to have. You never know when someone will be inspired by your dream and eager to assist you.  

Have a desire to reach new career heights? At Paladin, we strive to partner with you in finding your dream job. Contact us today to find out more about opportunities available with Paladin.

 

There's No Time like the Present

One mistake many people make today is failing to save and invest early in their career.  The typical excuse these people have is that they don’t make enough money to save early in their working lives.  Individuals just starting their career should set aside the maximum contribution they are able to make.  To give an example of just how valuable time is let’s look at two scenarios: Person A starts investing at 25 and is planning on working for 40 years before retirement. She starts investing $250 per month at a 12% rate of return. By the time she enters retirement she will have approximately $2.9 million. Now let’s imagine a second scenario where Person B delays investing until he turns 30. At age 30 he starts investing $300 per month and plans on retiring in 35 years. When he enters retirement, he will have approximately $1.9 million in investment income. As demonstrated, even if you invest more monthly than someone who started five years earlier, you will be worse off in the long run. If Person B had invested even a fraction of that $300 earlier and then increased his contributions in five years, it would have had a profound difference in his funds available at retirement.  Investing early has more benefits than the obvious time value benefit.

Investing early in your career when there is less disposable cash available, you learn to be more disciplined in your finances. When you include investment spending in your budget, you have to trim your spending in other areas, forcing you to be more frugal when spending.

Learn from your mistakes; a young investor may make a bad decision when investing. The good news is that young investors have a lot more room to take risks, hoping the payoff is high but able to absorb the loss if it is not. The added benefit of making a mistake early in your career is that you will have plenty of time to recover. If someone made the mistake later on when they had much more money in the game, the loss could be devastating.

Build a comfortable cushion. When you begin to invest early, you can have a peace of mind that your savings will be of good use in the event of an emergency. Having that cushion adds greater security and quality of life which will help you achieve your financial goals for the long run.

Contributing to a 401K plan is a great start to securing your financial future. At Paladin, we recognize the importance of investing for the future. That is why we offer competitive 401K plans for all of our employees and match contributions of our employees. To go beyond 401K plans, you may want to consider contributing to an IRA, where your money grows tax free. A traditional IRA is a tax deferred retirement account. You pay taxes when you start making withdrawals from it at retirement. A Roth IRA is a retirement savings account that is funded with after tax dollars. This means at retirement, you pay no taxes. Like anything else in life, starting a behavior early will help to build a lasting habit. When you invest early, you also get the added benefit of time value; allowing your savings to grow. There’s no time like the present to begin building a strong financial future. 

Boosting Retention Rates

The average employee stays at his or her job for 4.4 years according to the BLS. That means an average working individual will work for approximately 10 different employers over the course of their career.  These statistics were based on the current work force; the next generation of workers is expected to stay at their job for less than three years. This downward trend is not expected to go up any time soon. So what’s the significance of this data and what difference does it make? From an employer perspective, it is quite troublesome because employers invest on talent acquisition and training and development, only to lose an employee before there is any significant return on investment. For an employee, job hopping can be caused by a variety of reasons, but according to a survey by Net impact, these younger workers are seeking a job that brings happiness and fulfillment in their career.

How do employers fight the job hopping statistic released by the BLS?

Establish a connection

The first thing employers can do is make their new employee’s feel welcomed from day one. When an employee feels connected to other employees, it makes their time at work more enjoyable.  Making that first impression goes a long way to establishing a connection to the employee.  A well connected employee that feels like part of the company is less likely to actively seek out new employment.

Reiterate Company’s Mission statement and values

Present the company’s mission and values to each employee and reiterate the values whenever possible. When employees are reminded of their company’s mission and values, it provides them with the bigger picture of “why they do what they do”.  In a recent survey, researchers found that 58 percent of respondents said they desire to work with a company whose values are like their own and would be willing to take a 15 percent pay cut in order to work for such companies.  A company should first make sure they have clearly defined their values and then communicate these values to candidates during the recruiting process. Values will help the candidate and the employer determine if they are a good match for each other. 

Keep lines of communication open

Employers can survey their employees to measure morale, see areas where they’re succeeding in and areas where they can improve. A company committed to their employees makes for a happier, more productive workplace.  Happy employees and employee retention rates are heavily correlated.  On the other hand, employees must speak up and communicate with their employer. According to this same research study done by Net Impact, Gen Y workers ultimately desire to contribute creatively and have their ideas heard in the workplace. Employees must speak up in order to be heard. It sounds like such a simple concept, but one would be surprised at just how often employees are silent when it comes time to discuss these ideas with their employer. 

At Paladin, we value our employees and have expanded our employee relationship initiatives to deliver uplifting satisfaction to our employees.  We welcome employee input and listen to every comment given to us.  Looking to contribute your talent at a company that values your contribution? Contact us today.

Benefits to earning a professional certification

Want to stand out among a pool of candidates? Although there is not a clear cut answer to this question (the answer depends on the industry and specific job) gaining a professional certification is a valuable asset to have.  Working toward a professional certification will help your resume.  Work experience is a great indicator that separates candidates, but it doesn’t always showcase a person’s expertise and skills.

Getting a relevant professional certification carries credibility

When you earn a professional certification, it establishes credibility to your skills. Employers appreciate the extensive coursework and testing behind the professional certification. Earning a certification provides proof that you are a highly qualified individual for the job.

A certification is an indicator of a dedicated professional

When you work toward receiving a relevant certification, you distinguish yourself as a person who possesses a strong work ethic and a desire to enhance your skills.  The fact that you were willing to spend extra time and money to invest in your career says a lot to recruiters, employers and colleagues. Certifications indicate that an individual keeps up with new developments in one’s area of expertise and furthermore is determined to reach new heights in his or her career development.  

Having a professional certification next to your name, is a great recognition to have whether you want to establish more credibility in your career, are seeking a promotion, or looking to land the job of your dreams.