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You would think that candidates have their answers to the most common interview questions nailed down, right? I have found the opposite to be true. Most people do not even know the proper way to handle this simple statement: “Tell me about yourself…”

The truth is all of us can have a tendency to be a little lazy when in comes to interview preparation. We would rather just take the questions as they come and hope we can think of some good examples of the top of our heads. My goal today is to give you a few simple answers to the most common job interview questions.

Isn’t that what we all want to know? The truth is everyone is hiring. Now, wait…before you click to close this page let me explain.

From my experience, companies hire all the time. Even when it appears that they have zero positions listed on the company website and there appears to be no openings on the major job boards. Sometimes positions do not make it that far in the process. Other times HR is too busy to take take to list positions. What you need to remember is that just because there appears to be no open jobs does not mean that there is not. I have personally seen companies hire people in the middle of a recession without ever posting the job.

I was contacted this past week by a reporter from HotJobs.com who want to interview me for an up-coming story they are writing. They are running a story on how the candidate can empower themselves in an interview. I don’t think that anyone would argue that companies have the ball in their court when it come to hiring. They call the shots. With all of the available talent that is out there, how do you stand out from among the crowd?

I read a statistic this week that was quite shocking! A nationwide survey was taken, and out of all of the respondents only 50.7% were satisfied with their jobs.  These numbers have been rapidly declining since the 1990’s. Why is that?

For many professionals, work has just become a way to collect a paycheck. While it is noble to support your family even if the work is miserable for you, is that really what you were born to do? It is a sad day in America when the norm is to hate our jobs and belittle management on every decision that is made.

Current economic conditions can be especially difficult for those seeking entry level accounting jobs. You may even feel that there are two major obstacles you are facing:

• No Job Openings
• No Job Experience

While these are challenging days, it is important to remember that everyone gets their start eventually. I firmly believe that your time is just around the corner. Time and chance happens to them all. It will happen for you as well.

For those wondering about career direction, there are basically four career directions you can take in accounting when starting off:

Making a good impression in the job interview is one of the most underrated skill sets for career professionals. Statistics bear that the average professional is spending 3.2 years before making an employment change. Some of this frequency of change is due to mergers, reorganizations, and down-sizing.

You must remember that you are self-employed. Whether you think so or not, you are. You have to manage your career like an entrepreneur manages his business. One skill is understanding how to handle competency based interview questions. This interview type is much more structured then the traditional method of asking questions.

Being involved in a mock interview is a very helpful tool in preparing you to land that dream job. Many of us have all the answers in our head but sometimes they do not sound as good once you speak them into existence in an interview. Going through a mock job interview will help you to nail down your story, your strengths, and better state your weaknesses.

Mock interviews can be performed with a friend, family member, or even a career agency for a minor fee.  Meeting with employment rescruiters is a great way to go through mock job interviews. Recruiters want you to represent them well in an interview so if you demonstrate to them that you are coachable, they will be glad to give you both positive and negative feedback.

Many people ask me for resume advice from time to time. We all want to have a competitve advantage over our competition. One of the major problems that I see many candidates make when it comes to their resume is that they build their resume blindly. At best, they take their old resume and add just add the most recent employer.

Besides targeting your resume to a position before you sent it, there is another important activity that you can engage in.

Observing an Accounting Resume Sample

Many people get quickly discouraged when it comes to making a resume. While it does take time, there are a few important principles that can make the process much easier.

Do a research online about resume tips and you will find a lot of conflicting advice. People that argue for and against objective statements, career accomplishments, and listing references. The truth is if you can get a few things right on your resume, you will be just fine.

How to Make a Resume That Gets Results

What makes a successful accounting resume? The sooner you can speak to your target audience the better chances you will have at getting your foot in the door. Many job searchers fail to realize that the goal of a resume is to design a marketing brochure that sells you. It is not meant to be a long, boring job description that lists out every possible job duty that you had on a daily basis.

A hiring manager is going to scan your accountant resume much like you would a marketing brochure. Make it easy for them to see your best skills and get more interviews.  

The question that I receive on my blog more often then not is: “Where are all of the entry level accounting jobs?” There is no doubt that as I write the job market is tight and it is especially taking its toll on those coming out of college. To some it seems unfair to work hard for four years, pay for an education, and when you are ready to launch out there are no jobs in sight. Still others are tired of hearing “Sorry, but you have no experience” line as well.

So, what do you do?

Today we will conclude our series on the top 10 worst mistakes that lead to a bad interview. If you take time to review all of the mistakes, then you will notice that some are not as obvious as it might seem. What candidates get frustrated with most is when they are failing at interviews but have no idea as to what they are doing wrong.

Writing your own resume can seem like a daunting task in the beginning. Many people decide to outsource the entire process from the outset. The truth is that writing your own resume is not as difficult once you have some basic guidelines established. Taking a little bit of time in the beginning to really understand what makes a resume stand out can not only save you time but money as well. Of course you will need to decide which is more important to you: your time or money (because you will need to spend one or the other).

The goal of this latest series has been to help you in avoiding simple interview mistakes. In today’s economy, every single face to face interview is valuable. You need to give each one your best effort. Even if you are going into the interview thinking that you probably will not take the position if it was offered, you still need to go. Confidence, wisdom, and know-how builds with every single interview process that you go through.

We have been doing a countdown to the worst interview mistakes and we are down to the final two. Today’s interview mistake that I want to discuss is one that seems so simple yet is violated more then any other interview mistake (in my opinion).

In this article, I want to talk about the importance of presentation. By presentation I am not necessarily referring to your communication skills although that is a important aspect of the interview process. I want to specific refer to your physical presentation. If you have been following along on the blog we have been doing a countdown to what I believe are the top 10 fatal mistakes that candidates do that cause bad job interviews .

This list of top 10 items would be good for you to review the day before you are to go in for a job interview. Let’s dive in and take a look at #3 on our top 10 list.

First impressions really are everything. In fact, it is absolutely critical that you nail today’s topic if you are going to avoid a bad interview . I would even venture to say that 80% of a hiring manager’s mind is made up in the first 5 minutes of a interview.

Sure there have been times when I was not initially impressed with a candidate and they persuaded me to the good side by the time it was over. However, I would still say that you need to nail the first few moments in a interview if you are going to succeed.

The longer I am in the recruiting business the more I am convinced that the most important thing in a job search is a face to face interview. Some may argue that it is about who you know or the experience you have gained, but I have seen plenty of examples of people less-qualified getting the job over the better candidate on paper.

That is why in your job search you need to really understand the art of interviewing and avoid bad job interviews altogether. Today’s topic may seem a bit silly to discuss, but I have a few important angles to bring up that I believe are relevant.

Interviews can be a tricky thing. It is like showing up to a party where you know no one. You are not sure what to expect. You are wondering if you are going to be able to fit in or not.

We have been doing a rundown on the top 10 fatal mistakes that cause bad job interviews.

Here is what we have covered so far:

Fatal Mistake #8: Bad-mouthing Another Employer

I hope that through these recent posts you are beginning to see and understand some of the more common interview mistakes that can lead to bad interviews . Many of these mistakes fly under the radar of the average job seeker as they do not even realize that what they are doing is actually hurting their chances and not helping.

If you have missed the first few fatal mistakes that lead to bad interviews then go here for a recap:

Fatal Mistake #10:  Providing too much information
Fatal Mistake #9:  Trying to answer a question that you do not know an answer for

Are you making silly mistakes in the interview? There is nothing worse then having a bad interview and blowing your chances for a job you really want. It is true that we all learn from bad job interviews and grow from them.

At the same time, we should be striving to get better with each interview. The truth is you are a professional at what you do and probably have no desire to be a professional interviewee. I get that and understand it completely. That is why this blog is dedicated to the most straightforward talk when it comes to job searching. I will not leave anything out.