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I would be interested in case studies, in which those who are working in life coaching illustrate a case they had with a client and then present the solution they offered. It would be interesting to see what other coaches would have suggested to the same case.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Andrew. Not dressing properly (or appropriately for this particular kind of situation) is one of the faux pas that candidates do in a job interview and it is surprising that often they don’t realise it by themselves. But maybe he thought as long as he is wearing brand names, clean ones … he can’t go wrong. Well, it reminds me of an experience I had in Italy as a recruiter seven years ago. There was a guy who walked in our recruitment agency applying for a job. Well, he was wearing a tracking suit. He thought that the interview with us – the recruitment agency – would be less important. He perceived us as job brokers, didn’t take us that serious and he thought that the interview that really counts is in the end the one at the company (the prospective employer). Unfortunately we didn’t take his application further because we knew that if he doesn’t understand to be dressed professionally all the time he might do the same with a company’s clients later on and that is something we didn’t wanted to risk.

Hello Mohit,

Thanks for your interesting question. I’m sure there might be a lot of people who might have the same or a similar question. You said you are from India and I assume the interview you are talking about would take place in India. My advice: Greet ALL of them, four interviewers is acceptable. By the way, how would you feel if you would not be the one in the centre and the candidate would almost ignore you???? So, everyone would feel happy being greeted …. My special advice in this case: If you can even find out their names, get to know who is who (do some google image search in the internet!!!) and greet them by name you would definitely make a great impression right from the start. Other candidates might not do that, so this would give you an edge!

With regard to the female interviewer, remember that in business situations there is no distinction between men and women. Here the concept of “ladies first” is not valid, it is considered as gender neutral, which in social situations would be different. I’m still assuming the interview is in India …. therefore shaking hands with women is a sensitive point in Indian culture, as you might be aware. Here the rule is that shaking a woman by the hand is at the woman’s initiative. Only if she offers her hand, is it acceptable to shake it. In the absence of a handshake, the custom is the greeting of peace “Namaste”- as you will know better than me. So greet her nicely as well, but first start with the most important person from the interview panel – should you know who that is. Best of luck! Hope it helps ….

Hi Meri,

Thank you very much for your feedback, it’s good being praised but as we know, we can only learn from (constructive) feedback if we want to improve. I guess everyone might have different needs in terms of presentation skills. But I agree with you Meri, it should also make it into learners memories in order to be helpful. I will try to put it into 2,3 parts maybe what someone should do BEFORE, DURING and AFTER a presentation. Maybe in form of questions, as a checklist. I’ll see what I can do … hopefully by July.

Good to know that there are like-minded people out there … Dear Meghana, I don’t know if it will help you but what about trying to put yourself at the same level (in your mind) as your teachers. Either imagine being a teacher yourself or imagine your teachers being your fellow students. Still respect them obviously but just think that they are a bit older and more experienced but in the end we are all just human beings. A teacher/lecturer is always a student at the same time too. Your teachers might have felt the same way at your age …. so don’t worry to much about it. But I would suggest you have a look at my lesson “Increase your self confidence today”, it might help you further. Maybe someone else reads your message and might be able to give you other tips too…...

Great to hear that you find it so useful….. well, if you want to see a good presenter I would suggest you watch the audio podcast with Joel Osteen (American pastor) on iTunes or live on TV or on YouTube. I admire his way of talking, presenting, inspiring, motivating ….

That’s absolutely fine. Thanks for your positive feedback.

Thanks for your positive feedback. So, what do you think is the most useful to you personally?

I agree with you Krista. A resume doesn’t allow you to show your personality in the same way as an interview would be able to do. Your body language, your negotiation skills, your interpersonal skills and much more are impossible to be conveyed on paper. You might be the best resume-writer but in the end when it comes to the interview situation you might be the worst candidate. I would also prefer to convince a prospective employer in person rather than just on paper (that I’m the right candidate). And let’s not forget: people love hiring people they like.

I would invest in APPLE (long term). Well, I wished I would have invested in it already in the past …..

That’s a quite difficult question because in the end you need all of them and running a business without one of them would in my opinion be inconceivable. From my gut feeling I would say MARKETING, no matter what business you are running (selling products or selling services). You can have brilliant people inside the company, a competent finance department, an excellent IT system, etc. but in the end the product needs to be sold otherwise you don’t have any customers in order to survive as a company.

I just had a chat with my husband – he thought the most important part in a company would be Research & Development. Well, seeing it from this perspective I would agree. He gave me the example of APPLE, how innovative they are and how much they invested in doing research. Looking at their success and the edge they have compared to its competitors, I must agree but we should not forget that in the end Research & Department would be still considered as part (initial activity) of Marketing. So, looking at the discussion question it looks as if R & D and Marketing are two different units, which I wouldn’t say …... As far as I learnt in my business studies it is considered as one part (an important one) of Marketing besides other parts. If R&D tells you that there is no demand for your product then you better focus on something else before you sell something that nobody wants and you are just wasting your money and time. But I’m curious to see what other people think …..

I would say in the future there will be many more methods available as to how to recruit employees. Good employees will be also found through blogs, video CVs, referrals from internal candidates (as mentioned by you through word-of-mouth), etc. I look forward to your part 5C….

I think that’s a great idea that should definitely be taken into consideration. (Funny name, by the way! It reminds me of the “Chocolate Rain” song …)

I would say it’s okay, but it would be more impressive if in the “experience section” some KEY ACHIEVEMENTES would have been mentioned and in the “summary” one line would have also mentioned the candidate’s strenghts.

I was just thinking two days ago that it would be a great idea if these social networking websites could offer the opportunity to show on a world map where all the members are coming from (customised for each single user). As far as I know you just see pictures in form of a photo gallery but in order to find out where people are coming from you would have to look at each single profile. A world map would show you how world-connected someone is …. don’t you think so?

I wonder whether you would also consider meeting a candidate face-2-face over the internet as well? For example at: www.livehire.com????

I would say it depends on what kind of job you are applying for and what the recruiter’s personality is. If coming up with creative ideas is one of the job requirements (for example for a marketing position) I would say the best way to proof your skill is to create an original resume. Changing the form, shape, delivery etc. Which I did for example some years ago in which I created my CV in format of a leaflet. I got an interview straight away, for the job itself unfortunately I was overqualified….. Nowadays I think you have to think more creatively like this French guy (Alexandre Gueniot) who created a CV in format of a Flash presentation. Apparently he got an internship position at Microsoft afterwards…. you must see this: http://paradoxware.com/alstudio/cv/en.htm. As I mentioned before it often also depends on the recruiter’s personality. I could perceive it as original and creative, my colleague could perceive it as less professional. So, I would say it’s a good idea to find out in advance to what extend the company welcomes creativity. The content of the resume itself should obviously be professional and convincing.

That’s a great idea and offer! By the way, in Germany there is a website (www.joboderflop.de) in which jobseekers can submit their CV pictures and ask other internet users to rate it and to give their opinion whether it looks professional or not. Well, not in all countries CV pictures are actually welcome.

Yes, oLahav, I fully agree with you in this regard….. Word-of-mouth (if negative) is something that can damage a company’s reputation considerably, particularly in the internet and this reaching a huge number of people, fast and for free. On the other hand, positive word-of-mouth (positive job interview experiences) can increase a company’s reputation and being used to hire great people.

Good examples mixed with some personal experience that makes it a bit special. Some more questions can be also found in my free eCourse “Interview Questions & Answers” plus 100+ questions you can ask a recruiter in a job interview. Have a look at my webpage: www.poshmonkey.com