interview tips | Company Jobs Direct

Are Video CVs Better For Your Job Prospects

Thanks to today's obsession with social media culture, it's no surprise that job candidates are looking to vamp up the application process by boosting their paper CV with a video one. You can compose a video CV pretty easily and professionally, and the results can be truly unique. But is a video CV going to land you a job, or will it actually decrease your chances? There are contradictory elements to this argument. Let's examine some: Make Employers Notice You If you apply for a job with lots of candidates, a video CV is sure to make you stand out…

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September 10, 2020

Careers Advice / General

Three Interview Tips You Don’t Hear Everyday

This is the second blog in the series I'm doing on interview tips. As an experienced job seeker, there's nothing I dislike more than ready cheesy interview tips which tell you exactly how to behave. My last post on the importance of body language in an interview offered some useful tips on the non-verbal signals you give out during the interview process. This post focuses on tips which you don't hear everyday. It's common knowledge that you shouldn't chew gum during an interview, but unless you have your head in the clouds you could deduce this using common sense and…

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June 27, 2020

Careers Advice

How to Actually Find a Decent Job

I occasionally scroll back through old blog posts I've written to make sure everything connects and I continue on as promised. Low and behold, the March 2018 blog post New Enterprise Allowance promised an upcoming blog on how to actually find a decent job. A quick glance at the following month's blog revealed that I completely skipped this (accidentally). Thus, here we are. I am going to help you actually find a decent job. You might not like this advice, but this is how I have found work successfully: Less is More Don't fool yourself into thinking that if you…

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July 1, 2019

Interview Tips

What is your Greatest Strength?

This month's blog continues the series of most popular interview questions. So far I've addressed 'What Are Your Weaknesses?', 'Tell Me About Yourself', and 'Why Do You Want This Job?'. Now I'm going to address the 'What is Your Greatest Strength?' question. When you prepare for an interview and want to think of a smart way to answer this, remember the following: The strength you highlight must be relevant to the position you're being interviewed for A lot of interviewees make the mistake of being familiar and transparent when they formulate their answer. For example, you may think of yourself…

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November 1, 2017

Interview Tips

Why Do You Want This Job?

Moving on from Brexit, this month's post returns to the series I started back in May. So far, I've covered two popular questions asked in interviews: 'What are your Weaknesses?' and 'Tell Me About Yourself.' I suggest you go and read those too, particularly if you're preparing for an interview. Now that you' ve come to terms with those two unpalatable questions, here is an even more unpalatable one: Why do you want this job? This is going to be asked at pretty much every interview, because for some reason, employers want to know that you know about their company.…

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October 1, 2017

Interview Tips

Tell Me About Yourself

Before I begin, I just want to take a moment to congratulate England for voting to leave the E.U. My faith in humanity is temporarily restored. Back to the blog: Following on from last month's 'What are Your Weaknesses' post, this discusses another popular interview question and how to answer it. Personally, I hate being told how to do things, and yet here I am telling you how to do things. Anyway, once you've got over your annoyance at being bossed around and given canned answers, it's time to consider the reality that interview questions in general can be…

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June 1, 2017

Interview Tips

What are your Weaknesses?

This month will be the first in a series of posts dedicated to interview techniques. There are some questions that pop up in almost any interview. 'What are your Weaknesses?' is one of them. It's a ridiculous question, but for some reason interviewers love to ask it. Before I give you the platinum answer let me just vent a little about why this question makes my skin crawl: It's a trick question. This is what it's really asking: Are you humble? Are you TOO humble? Do you lack confidence? Are you an arrogant bozo? It's like some kind of Freudian dream…

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May 1, 2017

Applying for a Job

Top 3 Reasons You’re Not Getting the Job

1. You’re over/under-qualified. This is the number one factor that determines whether you get to interview stage or not. It’s no surprise that if you’re under-qualified you don’t have a chance. If the job listing asks for five years experience in an office and you have three, don’t bother applying. It’s tempting to say ‘but I have three years experience, surely this is enough’. Granted, asking for this much experience for a relatively low-skilled office job is a bit much. I see ads like this all the time where the requirements are truly out of reach for the average job-seeker. I find it…

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February 28, 2017

Interview Tips

Number One Interview Tip

Congratulations, you’ve landed an interview! Well done on getting this far. Landing an interview is a confidence-booster for any job applicant. It says that you have the right credentials to complete the tasks outlined in the job description. Now for the final hurdle: convincing the interviewer/interview panel that you will be pleasant to work with, have some initiative and passion, and will fit in comfortably with the team that already exists. Many recruitment bloggers will try to give a top five or top ten list of the best tips for conducting a successful interview. However, some of the points that crop up…

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August 30, 2016