Personal appearance is extremely important because as most people know, people will judge you on the way you look. For your interview, you must be dressed professional and look put together. You don’t want to distract your interviewer with your personal appearance so don’t over do it with makeup, perfume/cologne, accessories, clothing, etc. By having these types of distractions your interviewer will be focusing on those items instead of your answers and your personality.

Once you have a professional appearance put together, now you can focus on your body language and what does your body language say about you. In your interview, the first four to five minutes of your body language is extremely important as within that time a strong, positive impression can be formed or also a strong, negative impression can be created. By having a firm positive handshake you inspire a sense of strong confidence and create the tone of the interview as you being a strong, positive and confident applicant. On the other hand, a weak and limp handshake will undermine or affect an otherwise positive interview.

During your interview, your hands should either be placed loosely on your lap or put them on the armrest of your chair. When you use hand gestures during your conversations, the interviewer views you as confident and comfortable with the progress of the interview. It is important not to over exaggerate your hand gestures as that instead shows over excitement and projects apprehension or aggression.

Our body language is important because we not only speak with our words, we also speak with our facial expressions, tone of our speech, and eye contact. A steady, controlled, and clear voice that can be easily heard makes you come across as confident and positive to the interviewer compared to someone who speaks in a low voice, showing nervousness, or unsure about their speaking ability.

How to use your body language correctly:

• When seated, don’t fidget. If you feel uncomfortable, adjust your position slightly and sit up straight to maintain alertness.
• When faced with a difficult question, first breathe, stay calm, and avoid rushing to answer the question. Be mindful of your negative body language habits before answering. This is where it helps to practice answering interview questions before attending the real interview.
• Observe and mirror the interviewer’s gestures (but not over the top), by mirroring their gestures it signals togetherness and you will likely receive a more open response from the interviewer.
• Relax and breathe throughout the interview. You shouldn’t try to rush the interview, allow the interviewer set the speed and instil yourself in a calm and comfortable mind.
• Maintain eye contact with your interviewer, but avert your gaze from time to time to avoid staring.
• Remember to smile! Smiling creates positive emotional responses and re-affirms your enthusiasm and positive attitude.

Let’s quickly review the physical preparation to interviews, as all of these are items you should already be aware of, and hopefully are already doing. It is essential that you always dress professional, which means clean, neat clothing. Even if you just graduated from school, or have been unemployed for a period of time, you can always dress professional. A button-down shirt, nice trousers, and good quality shoes can go all long way if that is all you can manage or afford. Biggest tip for physical presentation is to know your location; what is the typical work attire in your city, find out the culture of the company (by doing your research), and lastly if you aren’t sure, ask! When setting up the interview, ask the person scheduling the interview, “Is business attire acceptable?”

To help prepare emotionally for your interview, first know the answers to the most typically interview questions. Do an Internet search for “common Interview questions” for suggestions, and then this way you have already practised the answers and will be more comfortable when those questions or questions like those come up. Second, to emotionally prepare for the interview ensure you know where the interview is taking place and determine how you will arrive at the interview location. By figuring out these details beforehand and knowing how long it will take to get there, you won’t be rushing to your interview or being stressed about not knowing how to get there. Third, determine what helps you relax, whether it is doing exercise before your interview, listening to your favourite music on the way there, or repeating a mantra or phrase to yourself before your interview. Anything that relaxes you and makes you feel at ease will help you be calmer and help your real personality, enthusiasm and energy for the position come out. Researching the company and the position is only part of preparing as the most important part of the interview preparation is getting yourself prepared emotionally.

Author: Vlasta Eriksson

Check out our Cairns Jobs – Job Board

A job seeker must now be aggressive about the job search which means doing more than just sending off an application or your CV. Of course, you need to ensure that you have a strong cover letter and CV as a HR professional typically only spends seven seconds scanning each resume. Therefore, tailoring your cover letter and CV to each position you apply for will help the chances of land you the next step, the interview.

That said, sending a strong cover letter and CV is integral BUT it is not the only steps you should be taking during your job search. Since you can assume that there are at least ten other individuals applying for the same position, you need to find ways to stand out from the crowd. Once you have applied for a position, follow up with the company to see where your application stands. However, this requires a balancing act, and as a guide you should only follow up once unless otherwise told to, as calling too much will put you in the pile of “bothersome” applicant. Following up and speaking to a HR representative shows that you are truly interested in the position, and going the extra step. When all of the applicants who have applied have similar traits or experiences, calling after submitting your application might help you get into the “to interview” pile.

Another way to follow up after submitting your CV is checking your professional network and seeing if you have connections directly to the company you applied for, or if anyone in your network knows someone in the company. Word of mouth and networking events will help achieve this, but also using social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook will make the process even faster. Look on LinkedIn to see if the company has a company page, and look at the profiles of HR representatives for the company you are interested in, and see if you are somehow linked and connected to any of them. Use these social media advantages to find some sort of link or connection to the company that you want to work for, and ask your network for an introduction.

In conclusion, these days a job search requires an individual to spend a fair amount of time researching and following up with positions that they are interested in receiving. A CV explains what you did and what you are capable of, but personally following up and using your networking skills to make connections shows why you are the one that should be selected for an interview and offered the job!

Need Career Advice email us careerhelp@signaturestaff.com.au

Signature Staff also on True Local, click here: HR Resources

It is also true that everybody has issues that turn sour at work. Everyone has to deal with annoying managers, delayed reports, and times when everything seems to go in the wrong direction no matter what. Failing to deal with such situations, makes you a highly unpopular employee at work.

Most employees who more often face such situations need to be more inclined towards their commitment to work and their self esteem. There are several ways to become popular at work, seven of which are as follows.

1. Know people

Unpopular employees often think of what makes the popular employees so likeable. It’s very simple; try to know everyone so everyone in turns knows you. It will be more suitable to call it “Networking”. The best way to develop and grow your network is to know the people you work with and the ones you have worked with.

2. Stay in touch with people

Make it a point to keep in contact with everyone you have worked with. It does not matter if they sit two rows across you. If you were helped by a colleague with any unusual project or task, remember their courtesy and be keen to response well in time.

Don’t ignore people whom you pass by, try saying “hello” and ask about their work. Show interest in their job profile and ask them intelligent and polite questions on how they got there. This way you not only get to tell about yourself but also these people remember you.

3. Try to get to know people

Always greet people in the elevator or in the canteen. Strike a conversation about the weather or anything that would be of interest to both of you. While meeting people for the first time, ensure a firm handshake, and brief a little about your job and department.

4. Dress appropriately

You want people to know you, so you must dress to impress. It certainly does not mean that you need a whole new wardrobe, but be sure that your clothes are not torn or faded. Dress up professionally to represent your position instead of wearing revealing or overly flashy clothes.

5. Talk

Talk as much as required, otherwise you will be avoided because you talk too much. Try to talk about something intelligent or useful. You should not always talk about the same topic such as the weather, or how you are. Bring something different to the table such as pop music, culture, and other things. Intelligent conversations are a great way to become popular at work.

6. Help out people

The easiest way to become popular at work is to help people out. You can volunteer in the organization when there are opportunities or perhaps help a co-worker with a challenging task.

7. Do not try to climb the ladder

One you become popular at work, never try to climb the career ladder too fast. People have already started noticing you but that does not mean you divulge yourself. Remember once you fall from grace, it will take you much time to earn that position back.

For Career Advice please email us CareerHelp@signaturestaff.com.au or have a look on our Virtual HR Resources Department.

Often people badly ignore their personal lives because they believe their work to be the driving force behind running their families, whereas they forget that the primary source of happiness comes from a healthy work-life balance.

These two statements contradict each other on different grounds, whereas management and personnel experts advise on maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Employers can help employees in this regard by offering options such as, paid time-off policies, flexible work schedules, and company sponsored family events and activities.

Here is how you can achieve a constant work-life balance.

1. Analyze work and private life now

You can ask yourself this in two ways: objectively and subjectively. Objectively, you should analyze the number of hours you devote to work. Maintaining a time management log will help you classify the number of hours that you should actually devote to work. Subjectively, you can ask other people in your life what they feel you lack. You might be shocked to hear what people have to say about your work and life balance.

2. Learn to build and limit boundaries

This is the best strategy that can help you build good time management skills. It is difficult to set limits initially, but it will become easier for you to follow up once you commit yourself. Try going back home on set times by starting one day a week. Once you succeed with one goal, make another one and try accomplishing it.

You should apply the same strategy for your personal life. Allocate a specific time for family and friends. There is no purpose of having a lucrative job and not paying yourself first. The collective effects of these goals add up to make you feel more inclined towards living a fuller life.

3. Increase efficiency

Many people can do the same quality of work at all times without ever increasing their quality or quantity of output. This strategy fails in the cases when you struggle to achieve a positive appraisal. A higher designation means increased workload and even greater output in the same span of time.

It will be much better if you start multi tasking to improve time management skills. With the maximum amount of efforts at the workplace in the specified period of time, you will start achieving maximum efficiency with no extra effort.

Conclusion

You can always improve your work life balance because circumstances and priorities never remain the same for long. The flow and responsibilities of our work and our priorities keep on changing. You should assess your management skills and track the improvements periodically.

It is not necessary at all that you will always identify all weak areas at work; many people constantly face issues with family as well. Keeping a balance between the two is the only solution for improvement on both sides.

Criticism comes in many different ways; it can be subjective, harsh, polite or humiliating. The final outcome to any criticism reflects your ability to distinguish between the useful and hurtful criticism and how you accept subjective criticism.

Subjective criticism refers to reasons that have their origin in their subject rather than in their object. Usually there are people who merely have opinions to express, whereas on the other hand there are experts. These experts are not experts only because they have absorbed a lot of external data, but because they have the intellectual capacity to transform the external data into useful information. This process of transformation takes place through logical interpretations and subjective reasoning of opinions.

Subjective criticism can be wisely conceived as constructive because it is experienced, reflective and systematic. If you have been ever subjected to such criticism, you should learn to use it with the same intention. It will immensely help you advance your career and self esteem.

Always take notes when you are given subjective criticism. Listen and absorb it whether it relates to the quality of work or your interaction skills with co-workers. More often you will feel difficult to take on criticism probably because you might take it as too harsh or disrespectful. Here you ought to evaluate the circumstances that led to such a level of criticism on your behalf because you could be the sole reason for it. If you don’t find a suitable reason for being criticized; then never let it drain or shake you. Use your positive points and disregard the undue ones.

You should look upon subjective criticism as your new personal agenda at work cairns. Take all the criticism very humbly and work upon it very closely. Evaluate the best criticism and assess it against the quality of your work and other areas. You will have to understand the fact that subjective criticism is a great opportunity for you to evaluate and improve yourself from an expert’s point of view and use it wisely.

For some people it is source of joy to continuously criticize and evaluate everyone. Have a sense of humor and laugh it off because it might give you a whole new perspective about you. Remember, if not for a good reason, you will be criticized anyways.

For Career Advice email us CareerAdvice@signaturestaff.com.au and put “Career Help” in subject line

Workplace harassment not only includes sexual harassment against women or men, but it is widely defined by the federal laws. The emotional and verbal abuse includes bullying, intimidation, put downs, harassment, coercion, shame, lying, exerting values of power, being overworked to extreme, condescension, excessive demands of perfection, creating feelings of powerlessness, being made to feel insignificant or inferior, excessive demands of perfection, not providing employees sufficient information to perform, belittling depriving of rights and benefits, unsuitable nonverbal behaviors, talking down to another, and setting up circumstances for failure.

According to the federal law, there is a lot of importance of reporting workplace harassment. These laws apply to employees, applicants, and former employees. Part time, full time and temporary employees are equally protected in this regard.

You should comply with the importance of reporting workplace harassment because you have the right to work in a harassment free environment. If you are harassed by the employer for a job, you can report it because the law states that no employer can make job decisions based upon color, race, religion, origin, sex, genetic information, marital and parental status.

Mostly women complain about sexual harassment at workplace, but they don’t feel appropriate to report it because they fear they might be led down or fired from work. Federal laws clearly state that sexual harassment should be reported immediately to the concerned authorities with suitable evidence. The law also asserts severe punishment for employers or employees who indulge in such acts. Such punishments depend on the nature of harassment.

You must have sound knowledge of the harassment laws and the importance of reporting workplace harassment because this will help you take the best action in case you are harassed.

You can report harassment very easily if you have enough evidences. A safe workplace will ensure better staff retention and satisfaction, whereas it will also enhance the reputation of the organization. It creates a professional environment and increases the willingness of employees to speak up confidently on such issues.

Many workplaces do not provide much information or completely ignore the employment rules and harassment reporting. The ignorance of these matters increases the confidence of such employees and employers who are responsible for harassing both genders equally.

If you are among the employees who are not satisfied with their daily accomplishments, follow these simple tips and you can increase your productivity at workplace instantly.

1. Waking up early

Getting up early in the morning is a great way to start your day. It does not matter anymore whether you are a morning person or not. Similarly, waking up early will help you to get a good night’s sleep.

2. Prioritize the tasks

Make yourself clear about everyday goals. If you are not able to jot them down early in the morning, do it the night before. Usually many successful people schedule their tasks beforehand. By prioritizing your tasks you can complete them quickly and save a lot of time that would otherwise go astray.

3. Make your workplace clutter-free

A cluttered place not only looks bad to the eye, but it also makes you feel uncomfortable, anxious and unorganized. Allocate some time every week to clean the space depending on how much mess invades your desk.

4. Turn off the distractions

This clearly means that you ought to shut your radio, Mp3 player, and the social networking websites. All these modes of communication have known to be the most distracting objects for employees. Keep your phone silent and let people know that you are working.

5. Carefully monitor your progress

Set some everyday goals and at the end of the day counter check them. If possible track your daily performance on a weekly basis. This will help you identify your weaknesses and strengths. You can now easily work to overcome these areas to increase your productivity at workplace.

6. Invest in yourself

Increased productivity at workplace should not only be confined to hard work on your desk; you also need to invest some time and a little fraction of your paycheck on yourself. Always celebrate your accomplishments with your family and friends.

7. Meet new people

Take out some time to visit the library or the coffee shop to meet new people, explore new ideas and learn new things. With notebooks and other communication devices, these places are a great way for the workaholics to enjoy change in a productive environment.

8. Engage with other employees

It is good to engage with other employees at workplace to indulge in meaningful conversation during work. You can discuss new ideas and share plans, and similarly discover new things that you might not have known.

9. Read quality press

Reading is a rich source to update your knowledge about the latest happenings. You must subscribe to quality periodicals, journals and newspapers that will help you to increase productivity at workplace. You can also follow our Signature Staff Fanpage or Recruitment Cairns blog.

10. Utilize the productive hours of the day

Everybody has a particular time of the day in which they are most productive than during the other hours. Identify your productive hours of the day and maximize your output. This way you can also save up a lot of time at work.

Require Career Help email us CareerAdvice@signaturestaff.com.au

Recruitment, like any other industry has its own share of bad press and there are thousands of appointments and valuable professional relationships built. However, there are many tips over the internet to get the best out of your recruiter, some of which are as follows.

Choose wisely

The first step is to spot the recruitment agencies that appropriately suit your career search and are pertinent in the market. For example, it is useless to talk to a marketing recruitment specialist to secure an architectural job. Usually the most useful way to find active recruiters in the market is to go through their websites. Some recruiters often advertise vacancies on their websites and ask you to contact them through an email or a call. If you find any recruitment agencies particularly posting on the vacancies of your interest, then they might by the easy catch to go for.

Develop a strong network

There is no such person who has all the professional contacts and networks in town. It is worth investing some time meeting different recruitment consultants that suit your job area. You can get the best results with the recruiters who are actively involved in your area of specialization. However, there is no point in meeting people who have nothing else than to ensure you.

It is very important that you maintain control of your resume and know the recruiter who is representing you. You should know that over representation and working with too many recruiting agencies without any particular purpose or consent destroys your brand image and gets you nowhere.

Be professional

When a recruiter calls you for an interview, prioritize it as a top job interview. This interview will help the recruiters to know you as how you will present yourself with the clients i.e. the employers. Therefore, it is very important to have a great interview with the recruiter because the recruiter will present you on new opportunities.

Be honest and clear

The recruiter wants to meet you to understand your demands, aspirations and goals to help you to achieve your target job and offer you professional advice, recommendations and referrals. Always be honest clear about all the specifications and avoid bragging about your career achievements and aspirations. The recruiter wants you to be open about career choice with genuine information. This will help you a lot to get the best out of your recruiter.

Communication rules

A reputed recruiter deals around 10 to 20 candidates every week. Each of the candidates is unique in some way or the other and wants sufficient time to communicate with the recruiter. All this makes a very busy schedule for the recruiter. So you must set a certain level of communication that is appropriate for the recruiter. Always remember, an unprofessional behavior will never help you to get the best out of your recruiter.

Gone are the days when a hand delivered resume did it all. Today, it sounds pretty vague even hearing about it. Although the email facility has contributed much to the ease of prospective job seekers, but the media improvements have brought in many different sources of powerful communication and networking. This is not about any advanced email function; it’s about the social media hype that has literally taken over human lives by storm.

Social media has transformed the traditional communication role. Today when you are struggling hard to get a job, social media has the power to deliver it to you. It is very common now to use social media to land that interview. Some very popular social networks include Twitter and LinkedIn.

Twitter

Networking experts are very keen on joining Twitter, because though it’s a micro blogging site, it helps building great networks with a diverse range of activities. Here you are not required to provide an update on specific questions such as “What are you doing?” You can post links to articles, web pages, photos and promotional information. On Twitter, it is the power of your words that gets you in the popular circles. Image branding is best achieved on Twitter after LinkedIn that is another professional network.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a very committed and professional networking website where you can connect to your co-workers, classmates, professional acquaintances and other people. Firstly, you should complete your profile and add all your classmates and current and ex co-workers. This will give a great start to network building. Now you will be able to get recommendations from former and current co-workers and bosses to enhance your network and chances of meeting new people from different organizations and roles.

Blogging

If you are tech savvy enough to use social media to land that interview, you must also invest some time blogging. Maintaining a blog is a very rewarding experience and can be fun too if you love to write. Consider joining communities such as Blogger.com and MyBlogLog to assist you in learning and promoting your blog.

All these tools are a great way to use social media to land that interview. If you are tech savvy, then it is not a difficult task for you accomplish.