How to better prepare for interviews??

I had my hobbies on my resume when I was in college and shortly after I graduated. Looking back, it seems just plain silly. I wouldn't include it for the reasons mentioned by other posts...unless you have a short history and are desperate to fill up the whitespace.
 
I have my entire resume to one side and about 1/3 of the back side.... less if you take away the hobbies.
 
I've never hired a pilot before, but I've hired a number of people during the middle part of my career. The few things that come to mind:

Yes, wear the suit.

DON'T ask how much money the job pays. It will come up at the appropriate time. Ask that question and you're instantly labeled as someone who wants a paycheck, but not necessarily wants to do the work.

Do some research on the company ahead of time. If they are public, be familiar with their most recent annual report. Not a requirement, but showing them that you've done some homework usually goes over well. In today's world you can get familiar with almost any company on Earth via the internet. Know as much as you can about them and if an opening comes up to ask a question that shows that you DO know something about their company it will help your cause.

Don't answer your cell phone, in fact, leave it in the car.

A common interview question will be something like, "when did you work for XYZ company?" This is asked to try to determine whether or not your resume is BS.

Another common interview question will be "tell me about the XYZ project that your worked on for ABC company" This is simply to see if you are feeding BS. If you start telling them all about the project it will be apparant that you really DID that project or work. If you hem and haw about it, then it appears to be made up.

Look them straight in the eye. Nothing makes you look shadier than gazing around the room while talking to someone.

Ask intelligent questions about their company (that's one reason you research the company beforehand.) Hiring people want to hear people be interested in what they do or how they do it. Maybe something like "when did you open that terminal?" "Has it worked out well for you?"

When they are giving you the run down on what they do or what they are looking for, it's good if you can relate that to past experience such as; "oh that's the way we did it at XYZ company and it worked well for us."

Be professional! Don't be political! Don't use profanity even if the interviewer cusses like a GI.

No matter how nervous you might be, DON'T squirm in your chair.

Hope this helps. I was just thinking back of the things that I did and did NOT like to hear or see.

Doc
 
I've interviewed so many people for aircraft maintenance positions over the years. Watching what you say is very important. My favorites are "I want to work in general aviation until I can get into the airlines" or "I'm going to work as a mechanic until I can get my ratings and fly corporate jets" Proving that you are committed to be all in is important. Once those magic words are said, I tell myself "this interview is over".

Kevin
 
kmead said:
I've interviewed so many people for aircraft maintenance positions over the years. Watching what you say is very important. My favorites are "I want to work in general aviation until I can get into the airlines" or "I'm going to work as a mechanic until I can get my ratings and fly corporate jets" Proving that you are committed to be all in is important. Once those magic words are said, I tell myself "this interview is over".

Kevin
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So you'd rather them be dishonest with you? I'd much rather someone tell me what their real intentions are and even if their plan is ultimately something different then they are interviewing for that doesn't mean they can't be a good fit.

You can be committed towards a job and want more.

Often times employers forget that things can be done in ways that are good for the employee and for the company, even if the employee's end aspiration isn't what you'd prefer.
 
I've heard advice that the way to get a job is to have the interviewer conclude that you are the solution to his problem. I don't mean some magician, but as was mentioned in many posts above, the interviewer has objectives. Fulfilling those objectives is his problem. To the extent possible, approach the interview and preparation with the interests and concerns of the interviewer in mind and one will, it seems to me, go a long ways to making the right preparation and presentation.
 
Employers also know they want to hire people who want to work at their company rather than at somebody else's company. Any job applicant with a lick of sense would keep his mouth shut about that stuff.

jesse said:
So you'd rather them be dishonest with you? I'd much rather someone tell me what their real intentions are and even if their plan is ultimately something different then they are interviewing for that doesn't mean they can't be a good fit.

You can be committed towards a job and want more.

Often times employers forget that things can be done in ways that are good for the employee and for the company, even if the employee's end aspiration isn't what you'd prefer.
Click to expand...
 
jesse said:
So you'd rather them be dishonest with you? I'd much rather someone tell me what their real intentions are and even if their plan is ultimately something different then they are interviewing for that doesn't mean they can't be a good fit.

You can be committed towards a job and want more.

Often times employers forget that things can be done in ways that are good for the employee and for the company, even if the employee's end aspiration isn't what you'd prefer.
Click to expand...

Probably not the best course of action to tell a possible future employer about your aspirations to move to the next job before you have this one.
 
BellyUpFish said:
Probably not the best course of action to tell a possible future employer about your aspirations to move to the next job before you have this one.
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It's not very likely I'll ever be dealing with a future employer. Sure don't plan on it.

I respect and appreciate candidates that are honest with me about their aspirations. I am more likely to choose someone that is honest but less than ideal on paper then someone that seems too perfect. There are times when I really need to know if an employee is sticking around or will be more short term and I'm not about to be upset about the short term. It takes an open mind but treat people like you'd want to be and it pays off long term.

You can't honestly believe every hire that is made plans on working for you forever- if you do believe that and that is all you hire you're missing out on some of the best talent.
 
I hope you do well on your interview(s). A lot of weight is given to interviews - which is a shame because:

Studies show that there is a very low correlation between job performance and how well an applicant interviewed.

(IQ turns out to have the highest correlation to job performance. But IQ tests generally can't be used by most employers - at least since 1971.)

Many employers don't know how or what they should be looking for in an interview anyway. That may be why there are so many inane questions asked. (Alas I am guilty of having asked what I realized later were inane questions of interviewees.)
 
MBDiagMan said:
DON'T ask how much money the job pays. It will come up at the appropriate time. Ask that question and you're instantly labeled as someone who wants a paycheck, but not necessarily wants to do the work.
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I'm torn on this one. I had a lot of my time wasted in several interviews because I was afraid of bringing up the paycheck. Once I started asking about it, I was able to weed out jobs I wasn't interested in or willing to take really quick. I even had a few interviews that I politely excused myself from after professionally thanking them for the opportunity to meet with them. I was honest about the pay being insufficient for my needs or for what I felt the job should pay, but polite and professional about it. I don't think there's any problem with that.

Also, I do work for a paycheck. Yes, I work hard. Yes, I do a good job. But I don't fly "for the love of flying". Love of flying doesn't pay the electric bill. If someone doesn't want to hire me because I want to make money, have a life (time off), raise a family and all of my other goals then I don't want to work there either. That said, I certainly understand what you're saying about not bringing up money. I just don't think it is a hard and fast rule not to bring it up. I think you have to be willing to accept that bringing it up could result in you not getting the job just based on asking.

When I was conducting interviews, I never minded if someone asked about pay and/or benefits. I would rather everyone be up front about it so I didn't have to interview and hire someone six months down the road. Employee retention in this industry (and any industry) is a huge money saver. Every time we send someone to the sim that's $10k. It's cheaper to pay someone properly, provide proper benefits and make sure they're going to be happy than constantly hire and train new employees.

So, long story longer, I understand the concern with asking about pay but at the same time you can't just blindly go into a job not knowing or caring what it pays. You do have bills and a life to pay for. Good luck!
 
straightwingedjetsrule said:
I'm torn on this one. I had a lot of my time wasted in several interviews because I was afraid of bringing up the paycheck. Once I started asking about it, I was able to weed out jobs I wasn't interested in or willing to take really quick. I even had a few interviews that I politely excused myself from after professionally thanking them for the opportunity to meet with them. I was honest about the pay being insufficient for my needs or for what I felt the job should pay, but polite and professional about it. I don't think there's any problem with that.

Also, I do work for a paycheck. Yes, I work hard. Yes, I do a good job. But I don't fly "for the love of flying". Love of flying doesn't pay the electric bill. If someone doesn't want to hire me because I want to make money, have a life (time off), raise a family and all of my other goals then I don't want to work there either. That said, I certainly understand what you're saying about not bringing up money. I just don't think it is a hard and fast rule not to bring it up. I think you have to be willing to accept that bringing it up could result in you not getting the job just based on asking.

When I was conducting interviews, I never minded if someone asked about pay and/or benefits. I would rather everyone be up front about it so I didn't have to interview and hire someone six months down the road. Employee retention in this industry (and any industry) is a huge money saver. Every time we send someone to the sim that's $10k. It's cheaper to pay someone properly, provide proper benefits and make sure they're going to be happy than constantly hire and train new employees.

So, long story longer, I understand the concern with asking about pay but at the same time you can't just blindly go into a job not knowing or caring what it pays. You do have bills and a life to pay for. Good luck!
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Not asking about pay during an interview is the obvious choice, but obvious does not always mean best. (See any multiple-choice test for another example.)

At most pilot jobs it's relatively easy to figure out how much it pays on your own, as either the job posting tells you, or it's on the internet. In that case, asking at the interview makes you look not just "after the money" but also ignorant. Of course corporate/charter jobs can be an exception.

Some jobs have a wide range of possible pay rates. In cases such as these, I do not think it is wise to waste your own time and the interviewer's time for the sake of etiquette (but it's also pointless to ask during the interview, because you both have already made the time commitment). For this reason, many employers will ask an applicant to put their "salary requirements" in their cover letter. In most cases, this is not a "trick". They really want to know if your requirements are compatible with what they can offer you.
 
I went through an entire round of interviews over the phone with a Canadian company owner who had servers and data-center stuff he needed taken care of here locally... every single thing about the job was great, we had a better than average interview and even hit it off personally a bit with background and interests. This went on via phone and e-mail for about three days, his partner talked to me, etc.

Then at the end of a phone call he offered me a salary that was more than $20,000 a year short of what I was already making at the time.

The entire thing ended up being a waste of both of our time, and I got practice in declining unbelievably bad/out-of-touch-with-reality job offers gracefully... and telling him I'd try to help him find a much more junior person to help him out if that was his range.
 
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