Typical job interview questions—like "What are your strengths?"—are relatively easy to answer. The behavioral job interview takes a different approach, requiring, for example, concrete answers exemplifying your strengths. Without the right preparation, they can catch you off guard. More »
Job interview – Employment – Business – Job Search – Interview Advice
Interview are stressful, especially when the current economic state makes the pool of interviewers so large and the pool of employers so small. Do your research to really stand out in the interview. More »
Business – Employment – Job Search – Interview Advice – Job interview
Freelancing isn’t something you should just jump into, but it makes sense for a good number of workers. If you’re looking into, or getting started with, working on your own, here are 10 resources we think every freelancer can learn from.
Photo by Mat Honan, who is himself a freelancer.
If you’re going to have to entirely ignore your kids and family when you’re working at home, you might as well head into the office. Career columnist and Wall Street Journal writer Alexandra Levit offered up six tips for working parents to spend more time parenting. They were aimed at anyone with a job, but freelancers certainly have an easier time of shifting their schedules back and ahead, taking web meetings instead of traveling for in-person summits, and involving their children in their work. Photo by Amit Chattopadhyay.
Why freelance on the side instead of full time? The taxes are a lot more simple, the income a bit more stable, and, best of all, your day-to-day job provides you with countless opportunities to meet and greet future clients and referral helpers. That’s assuming your side gig is kosher with your boss, of course, but if you want to test the waters of selling yourself on the freelance market, do it without quitting your job.
Becoming your own Accounts Payable department is new to most freelancers, and not very fun. If you run into clients who are hesitant to pay on time, or leave you on the hook waiting for their next order, try offering a discount or repeat business incentives, as suggested by Web Worker Daily. Give clients a 5 percent discount if they pay within, say, 24 or 48 hours of invoice shipment, or whatever you consider prompt—the cash value is almost certainly worth the time you'll spend tracking it down and worrying. If clients make you wait forever for their next order, offer a coupon or discount after receiving payment on a gig, giving them a small bit off if they place another order within a certain time frame. It's easy for small businesses to lose track of freelance people, but they tend to pay attention to dollars and cents. (Original post)
The web is full of freelancers and contractors, and many of them have created better systems for tracking time and sending bills. There are too many free or “freemium” services to try and compile into one list, but, hey, let’s throw out a few. MakeSomeTime is simple, CurdBee handles everything up to the Google Checkout/PayPal payment screen for clients, FreshBooks covers a lot of different aspects of billing, Toggl is a great second-by-second live tracker, and BlinkSale has been generating crisp-looking invoices for years. Any of them are worth checking out, and probably fit the bill better than a gigundo spreadsheet. (Original post)
If you’re starting to get actual, notable income from your freelance work, the first thing you should do is find someone who knows how to handle the taxes of independent contractors. Gina proved the value of a good accountant in her human versus TurboTax.com showdown, but noted that an experienced filer could probably make due with the tax software solution. The Freelance Switch blog also offers 10 easy-to-miss freelancer deductions, like coffeeshop meetings, unpaid invoices, and gig hunting expenses, that any independent worker would do well to look into. (Original post)
Cold calling is not fun, and if you think it might be, watch Glengarry Glen Ross again. A good lead comes from knowing where people are looking. FreelanceSwitch has compiled a monster list of freelance job sites, though some of them are going to be hired-gun-type, low-paying grunt work. On the other hand, a 10-minute call to your clients can get you all kinds of results you weren’t even looking for. (Original post)
Who should you call with a reminder that you’re available, and who needs a quick follow-up on a pitch? Those are questions you should have answers for. Web Worker Daily’s Celine Rogue explains how to set up a spreadsheet with drop-down choosers, collated data, and other tools to become a great pitch, client, and job tracker. Half of life is just showing up, after all, and some extra percentage is knowing exactly where and when to be present with an offer. (Original post)
If you don’t cover the tax burden throughout the year of not having an employer to deduct social security, unemployment, and other taxes for you, the month of April will truly be the cruelest. Read how our own self-employed readers set aside money for estimated tax payments four times each year (or in other installments), and read how Gina automates her finances to always have the money on hand, even when her income is very variable.
Besides having to learn the basics of contracts and work rules, freelancers should try to grab the basics of selling and regulating resalable (and different) stock work, as well as know how to stand their ground on copyright, fair use, and Creative Commons. It is, in short, not enough to simply create cool things—you have to know how to shepherd them through the cloudy worlds of commerce and the web these days. Photo by MikeBlogs. (Original posts: legal resources, stock work).
Not every contract will rely on hourly rates, but you’d best be prepared to offer a price if someone asks. The general advice is to aim slightly higher than you figure you should really charge, because you will always, always aim low when you’re determining the time and administrative costs of getting the job done. If you want a more concrete number to base your rate on, try FreelanceSwitch’s hourly rate calculator, which takes your office and supply costs, experience, and other factors into account. (Original post)
Resume writing is an infrequently used skill, and one with which most of us will take all the help we can get. Keep your resume from ending up in the bowels of a corporate shredder by avoiding these phrases.
Photo by Muffet.
The last thing you want to appear like to your future employer is a resume writing drone—unless of course that's your target market. At The Savvy Networker blog, they assembled a list of the worst canned phrases in resume building:
- Results-oriented professional
- Cross-functional teams
- More than [x] years of progressively responsible experience
- Superior (or excellent) communication skills
- Strong work ethic
- Met or exceeded expectations
- Proven track record of success
- Works well with all levels of staff
- Team player
- Bottom-line orientation
What approach would they suggest you use? As the trend shifts away from bullet-based soundbite resumes it will be more important to write your resume to sound less like a ticker tape and more like you’re actually describing the work you do.
For an example of a “human voice” resume entry, check out the full article at The Savvy Networker. If you’ve recently been polishing off your resume and have some resume-writing resources to share, sound off in the comments.
It is inevitable that you’ll be leaving your present job at some point, whether by your choice or your boss’s, and it’s important to leave with relationships and contacts intact. Photo by Conner395.
Given the recent economic climate and the wave of job cuts that has swept through the country, it isn’t a surprise that some extremely frustrated employees are throwing out the traditional routines when it comes to quitting time. Burning bridges between your former company, managers, and fellow employees never benefits you, even if it feels good at the time to stomp out the door.
At MSNBC they’ve written up an article highlighting ways to make sure you keep important connections with your old place of employment. From the article, excerpted from Sandra Naiman’s book “The High Achiever’s Secret Codebook: The Unwritten Rules for Success at Work”:
- Give two weeks’ notice. Both your past and future employer will consider it a plus.
- Explain that you are leaving because of growth opportunities with the new company, not due to dissatisfaction, even if it’s not true.
- On your last day, write your boss and colleagues a thank you note via e-mail about how much you enjoyed working with them.
- Offer to train your replacement, and if possible, be available after you leave to answer questions.
- Make sure your work is caught up before you leave and write notes, when relevant, to guide and inform your replacement.
- If you have external customers, collaborate with your boss on how to transition them to your replacement.
- When telling customers you are leaving, say only good things about the company and your experience there.
- Let them know you only want to leave the job, not the relationships you have built.
It can be tough to put on a chipper face when you’ve just been pink slipped, or to hold down the fort for those extra two weeks when you’ve found a better job, but if it means keeping professional contacts with your previous coworkers and employers it’s worth it. If you’ve found yourself in a similar situation recently and have some tips and tricks to share, sound off in the comments below.
It’s nerve-wracking enough worrying about how best to answer interview questions. Unfortunately, it’s also important to ask questions during the exchange. Weblog Lifehack.org details how best to turn the tables with a list of seven noteworthy questions to raise.
Photo by brymo.
Apart from inquiring about your day-to-day responsibilities and opportunities for career advancement, Lifehack suggests you ask the following: “How do you feel that I measure up to your requirements for this position?”
The author argues that far too many candidates take a passive role during job interviews, and though it may come across as pushy, it’s better to know upfront if there’s any reason you might not be offered the job. By extension, if it turns out that you really want the job, you can then use the opportunity to counter any holes in your resume by detailing relevant experience or other skills you have. Taking a more proactive role during interviews is also important because it allows you to steer some of the conversation, and therefore leave more of the impression you want.
Hit up the post for their full list of questions to ask prospective employers, then let’s hear any other questions you’d suggest posing in the comments.
Last week we talked about how to answer an interviewer who asks what your current salary is, and the floodgates opened with strong opinions and extremely helpful advice from Lifehacker readers. Here’s what you had to say:
Photo by star5112.
Most of the debate centered around whether an interviewer could figure out your current salary by calling your HR department—with plenty of readers on either side of the fence, and a few readers outside the US that noted it's standard practice in some other countries to freely divulge that information. Whether your current job is allowed to give out your salary or not, there were quite a few interesting comments that we felt deserved a little more attention.
Reader William writes in with two ideas for what to say when directly asked for your salary information. The first pads your salary numbers without *really* lying about it:
Whenever I’m asked for my salary, instead of padding my base salary and lying outright, I tell them that I make x salary with regular bonuses for a total of around X. This has the benefit of being potentially true and fairly unverifiable as long as you don’t go overboard.
The next tactic is a great way to push them to pay you a little more:
When the subject of money comes up, I find a way to mention that my performance review is coming up shortly at my current job and so I'll be making 4-6% more in a month. It increases your salary number without really lying, and also indicates to the interviewer that you must be worthwhile if your current job is going to give you a raise—and if you are a hard worker it has the benefit of probably being true.
my secret identity used a great tactic to both answer and side-step the question, and although it might not work for everybody, it’s a useful way to answer the question and also show that you are willing to work with them.
Anyway, they did ask what I would like my salary to be and I replied: “Well, the most I’ve ever received per hour is (blank), but that was in a completely different field. Honestly, I would be good with anything you give me, because I respect your decision.”
kenposan had a simple solution for what to answer when they ask what you want, not what you make:
If I am asked ‘what kind of salary are you looking for?’, I always says “it’s negotiable”. Or I turn the question around and ask what they are offering. That has worked for me.
Ninja007 side-stepped the question entirely by claiming it’s confidential information:
I always say that I am not allowed to disclose that because of a contractual agreement with my former employer. This usually throws them off. However I would not be making as much as I got if I told them what I really made before. You should never ever tell them how much you made before.
Whether you choose to lie, dodge, or answer truthfully, one thing is certain: you shouldn’t go into an interview without doing your research on what salary to ask for, and reading through some simple negotiation tips for getting a better salary.
We posted yesterday about 50 side businesses you can start in spare time, but it’s not always apparent which sideline works best for your time, or career. Marci Alboher offers some advice on that front.
Career writer Alboher writes at Manage Your Life that your part-time job, or freelance gig, or even casual pick-up work should benefit you in more ways than just bolstering your bank account. Find work that doesn’t conflict with your main revenue earner, and hopefully find it in a growing field. She also advises:
- Keep in mind that part-time work doesn’t have to be a “job.” Working as a freelancer or consultant will likely give you more flexibility than will a position that has fixed hours and a fixed location.
- Recognize that not all jobs are advertised. Often, positions are created when a person shows up with the right set of skills and the moxie to propose herself for the position (see Jennifer Bergeram’s story in this post.)
What part-time job or freelance work have you found that meshed well with your career goals? Give us all a bit of inspiration in the comments.
Whether you're suddenly unemployed or just looking to change up, starting out in a new career is daunting. Take our advice on how to write—and plan—your way into a new field.
Photo by Yo Spiff.
Blogger, career writer, and Brazen Careerist founder Penelope Trunk knows from jumping ship. From her own ups and downs at work, both office-based and freelance, she’s compiled a (relatively) low-stress approach to making the switch. More important: She lists reasons why you should and shouldn’t move on:
Here are some bad reasons to switch careers:
1. You hate your boss. (Switch jobs, not careers.)
2. You want more prestige. (Get a therapist – you’re having a confidence crisis, not a career crisis.)
3. You want to meet new people. (Try going to a bar, or Club Med. What you really want is to get a life. Pick up a hobby.)Here are some good reasons to switch careers:
1. You want a role that is more creative, more analytic or more management-oriented.
2. You want to live in a location that does not accommodate your current career.
3. You want more flexibility or fewer hours.
Now that you’ve set your mind to making the big move, let’s talk text.
Alexandra Levit, career specialist and author of How’d You Score That Gig?, graciously offered to provide some guidance on writing a resume for a new career path:
For example, if you spent a few years working at a toy store, but you want to get into architecture, you might highlight a project management skill and say that you managed a semi-annual special parents night, which included activities geared toward 150 regular customers. You should also focus on results you've achieved rather than job responsibilities—so instead of just saying that you sold infant-related toys and merchandise, you could say that you were named as the top infant toy salesperson, generating revenues of approx. $20K. By doing these things, you show that you have the right combination of talent and skills to get the job done, even if you don't have specific experience in that industry.
If you do have a history of moving around a lot, I suggest removing the months from your chronology line. For example, saying that you worked at a place from 2007-2008 sounds a lot more palatable than November 2007-March 2008. Also, if you have JUST quit a job or have been laid off, say that you have been at your last position from 2006 to present.
As for the rest of your text, we’ll recommend one of the five tactics we’ve suggested to rebuild your resume: Start with a list of reasons why you’re great, then distill it into your resume. All the other stuff—fonts, vertical bars, exact wording of "coffee-grabbing intern"—is just finesse. Start with a blank text editor or sheet of paper, and start throwing down whatever skills you have that the others don't. By doing so, you form the basis for a punchy, concise resume, and (bonus!) you hone your talking points for your interview. Photo by emdot.
Now onto the cover letter, often as important in getitng a hiring manager’s attention:
Cynthia Shapiro, career strategist and author of What Does Somebody Have to Do to Get a Job Around Here?, points out to the Wall Street Journal that taking the time to explain your layoff not only wastes cover letter space, but won’t win you many sympathy points these days, as there are a lot of layoff stories to be told.
When applying, avoid expressing bitterness or self-pity. Many layoff victims send cover letters that blame the economy for their job loss, says Ms. Shapiro. There’s no need to even point out the fact that you’ve been laid off. “If your last work day was in October, your résumé will say that,” she explains.
Photo by sunshinecity.
In the same article, an IBM hiring manager notes that in a crowded, competitive group of candidates for a consulting job, what helped her pick the winner was a “can-do attitude.” More importantly, that applicant didn’t make a lot of requests, requirements, or pitch themselves for an exact job doing a precise thing. Get the job first, then work your way into the working environment you dream of.
Not to keep hitting on the suck-it-up nail, but crossing into an entirely new realm of experience and work probably requires a bit of sacrifice. To jump-start a stalled job search, you might have to start humble and work your way into career confidence.
Career specialist Levit explains that process in detail for us:
If you've successfully gone from apples to oranges in your career, or even just from apples to different-colored, slightly sweeter apples, by all means—tell us how you got there in the comments.
