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Ace Your Job Interview – 10 Top Tips

Job interviews can be stressful, but it's rare to land a great job without one.  In my work as a staffing professional, I've interviewed hundreds of candidates, and I'm often amazed at how quickly an interview can go downhill with the smallest slip.  Here are my top ten tips to better your chances of acing the interview and scoring an offer.

1. Never be late. Not only does this show disrespect for the people that have arranged their schedules for you, but where else do you have to be? If you get lost, call.
2. No, no, no cell phone. Turn it off or leave it in the car. Period.
3. Dress appropriately. Dress according to the job description or better then the job description. You can always talk you way around being overdressed. But there is no excuse for being underdressed. And keep it simple, they should see you and not your outfit.
4. Sorry, unless it helps you get the job, remove all additional piercings and cover any tattoos. Some people find it offensive. All of that can be revealed after get an offer.
5. Do not talk about the specifics as to why you want to leave your job or are looking for another job. If you were laid off because of the economy, you probably can get a sympathetic ear. But any other reason could be seen as a negative. You can simply say that you would like to grow more in your career.
6. Do not talk about politics, religion, personal pets or your children. Talk only about how you are going to be an asset to this company. These topics can be very polarizing and can eliminate you if they think that your focus will be elsewhere.
7. Do not talk about other job offers, job interviews, places you need to be or time you might need off in the future. You are asking them to be accommodating and you have not been made an offer.
8. Be upbeat and pleasant. You need to be someone that they want to work with, regardless of whatever is going on personally.
9. Give short, concise answers. Their time is valuable and bullet-pointing the highlights makes for a better presentation. If they want more detail, they will ask.
10. RELAX! Sweating, shaking, and being nervous shows how you act under pressure. Remember they called you. So this is good news!

This article may be reprinted when the copyright and author bio are included.
©2010 Catherine Lang-Cline, Portfolio Creative, LLC.

Catherine Lang-Cline is co-founder and owner of Portfolio Creative, a workforce innovation firm that was named the 326th fastest growing company in the U.S. by Inc. magazine in 2009.  Portfolio Creative helps companies streamline and innovate their creative work to save time, energy and money.  www.portfolioiscreative.com.

About the Author

Catherine spent more than 20 years in the creative industry as a designer. She worked for ad agencies, in-house marketing departments and as a freelancer in both Chicago and Columbus. 

With Kristen, Catherine felt that Columbus had a real need to help artists find work and clients find talent. (As a freelancer, she would have really appreciated the help, too!) So, they combined forces and opened Portfolio Creative.

 She has a real love for helping people and understands the needs of our clients. So with that, Catherine's main responsibility became client relationships. She's had a great time providing this service to the creative community.

Catherine is a Certified Staffing Professional with the American Staffing Association. She is also an active member of Columbus Society of Communicating Arts, Advertising Federation of Columbus, Columbus Chamber of Commerce, Women Presidents' Organization, and is a committee member for the National Association of Women Business Owners®. She graduated in the “Home of the Huskies” at NIU.

She resides in Columbus, Ohio with her family and when not working, she enjoys spending time with her family. Catherine likes traveling, cooking, doing home renovation, and riding motorcycles (of course, she rides her own motorcycle).

Hypothetical American Idol "Top 12" - who would win?

Here are your top 12. Assume that each is at the peak of their talents and attractiveness but is totally unknown to America.

Josh Groban has by far the best voice, but does not sing the genre of music that's going to make him as extremely successful as people like Beyonce or Michael Jackson.

If completely based on vocal talent, not commercial talent, David would finish probably 4th. Billy Joel and Josh Groban in the top 2.

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