Friday, November 29, 2019

Grace Under Pressure Giving Interviews that Land Jobs

Grace Under Pressure Giving Interviews that Land JobsGrace Under Pressure Giving Interviews that Land JobsTime and again I hear from jobseekers, Im pretty sure my skills and experience stack up. If I could just make it to the vorstellungsgesprch, Ill be fine from there. Hmmmm, really? The interview itself, in fact, can be the hardest part of the process. Unlike writing a professional resume, being interviewed is a fast-paced exercise under high pressure, and theres no backspace key that lets you change your answers once theyve taken flight. Here are just a few tips for delivering a knock-out interview in order to win an offerKnow the EmployerThere will always be those odd situations where youre called in to interview at the last minute for a company you may have never heard of before, but for the most part, interviews are scheduled ahead of time. Study up on this potential employer and the position theyre offering everything you need is likely to be found on the companys website, Li nkedIn and Google. While youre at it, formulate some smart questions to ask as you move through the interview process. Even if youre not the questioning type, having something prepared makes you appear more engaged and interested in the position.Practice, Practice, PracticeCraft a brand bewertung that clearly, compellingly, succinctly articulates exactly what you have to offer the company. Focus on the benefits you bring instead of the skills you have. For example, you might describe how you can speak fluent Chinese, making the need for an interpreter less familiar with your field unnecessary, rather than simply telling your interviewer that you have foreign language skills.Starting out the conversation right, perhaps by explaining in a polished way how and why youre the right candidate for the position, can easily turn the rest of the interview into a friendly chat.Remember Why Youre ThereUltimately, youre at a job interview so the company can determine if youre going to be a good fit for the position they have available. So, instead of allowing the conversation to meander, start off by asking the interviewer for key characteristics theyre looking for in applicants, and how they hope these characteristics will benefit the company. Make sure that each and every time a question comes up or the conversation starts to go in a different direction that you bring it back around to how you can meet those needs you discovered at the beginning of the interview. Try not to sound like an infomercial, but definitely stay on point. After all, youre there to help the company fulfill a fundamental need so the interview isnt really about you. Its about helping the company as a whole function as a well-oiled machine.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

These interview questions make it harder for some candidates to succeed

These interview questions make it harder for some candidates to succeedThese interview questions make it harder for some candidates to succeedCertain interview questions dont set up all job candidates for the same chances of success.Here some of the things recruiters should stop asking applicants if they want to level the playing field.Tell me about a time when . . .Framing a question in this way may give certain interviewees a leg up - but others may slip through the cracks because they dont have much to share.Adam Grant points outwhy behavioral questions like tell me about a time when . . . are problematic in an August 2017 deutsche post ag on Wondering, a monthly feature in Granted. He argues that theyre biased toward people with richer work experience.Grantwrites aboutthe pitfalls in a post(a) Theyre unfair- they give an advantage to candidates with richer experience. Ask a bunch of applicants how they handled a serious conflict with a colleague, and odds are youll get a better answer from the one who happened to face the biggest conflict.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreHe also goes on to add that these questions dont pertain to a candidates current position or company, are about what happened in the past, not whats ahead, and that theyre too easy to game.Instead, citing research, Grant recommends posing situational questions, such as what would you do if because interviewers can predict the persons best performance and evaluate their leadership and interpersonal skills.What is the fruchtwein interesting technology product on the market today?Natalie Johnson features this question as an example of bias in a HuffPost article. She argues that assessing the answer can be highly subjective, even though its used to gauge if applicants know about their field.Heres one of the questions Johnson suggests asking instead in order to assess the responses objectiv ely and to see how much the applicant understands and is involved in their line of workTell me about a new innovation/new piece of research/new technology youve recently learned about and/or have started using. How did you hear about it? How has it affected your work?What is your biggest weakness?Asking a question about weakness isnt always the strongest tactic when face-to-face with candidates.Alison Green writes about this question in an article for U.S. News World Report, mentioning that it is a clich at this point since almost all applicants have a canned response.She addsIt rarely elicits useful information, and whats more, a good interviewer will be able to make her own judgments about a candidates weakness. Its hardly helpful to hear I work too much, Im a perfectionist, or the other disingenuous responses candidates are taught to give.Off-limits illegal interview questionsKeep in mind that just because you can technically ask someone something, it doesnt necessarily mean you should.Its worth pointing out that its reportedly illegal to ask applicants certain questions - including ones about religious holidays - during an interview.Asking about salary history has also made headlines recently. Employers in New York are losing their ability to ask candidates about their salary history with a law that goes into effect this October, and more than 20 states are deliberating enacting similar legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.Try these tips insteadInstead, here are some tips on asking effective questions during interviews, according to the Harvard Business Review.The article suggests steering clear of questions that are easy-to-practice, citing the classic examples of what are your greatest strengths and weaknesses? and whats your dream job? alongside other queries.It also says to see how well candidates can solve a problem, and to avoid duplication by not picking questions about things that were detailed in a phone inter view or their resume.This article welches originally published on August 14, 2017.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Fundamental Technical What Just Happened to the Stock Market

Fundamental Technical What Just Happened to the Stock Market Fundamental Technical What Just Happened to the Stock Market Between January 26 and February 9, the Dow lost more than 2,400 points, a 9 percent decline. This rapidfall in a short period of time has taken many of us back down memory lane to the financial crisis of 2008. Are we headed to a new crisis? A recession?When the stock market starts spiraling downward for more than a couple of days, we understand there is something more to the story than a mere flash crashor correction. What is actually going on behind the scenes, however, is not easy to uncover.Financial markets are complex. They are affected by many forces macro events, politics, fundamental information and news, technical movements of the market, market structure and instruments, spill-over effect from weltweit markets, andso on.How can one decipher the main causes of a decline amid the noise?Could all factors be equally responsible?This most recent fall began with news on inflation and future interest rate hikes. This is good news. Inflation has been one of the Feds carefully watched benchmarks for economic recovery since the financial crisis. If the Fed is on the trajectory to increase interest rates, then the Fed is confident that the economy is strong enough to sustain the increase.This news welches followed by more economic news which supported the Feds outlook Jobless claims were down, productivity was up, unemployment was low, and wages were increasing.But havent we been expecting that inflation would rise, and so would interest rates? Why the surprise?As much as we have expected ansicht things to happen sooner or later, no one was sure about the exact timing. Its not the news about inflation and rate hikes that spooked the market. The implications of behauptung indicators for the economy are what caused uncertainty among traders.One of inflations implications is that the real value of an asset, such as a company, is less (as the p urchasing power decreases), which may be interpreted as investors looking for a higher real rate of return.Interest rate hikes may have an effect on the value of companies with high levels of debt on their balance sheets (e.g., Netflix). Such companies would need to pay higher interest on their debts, which would increase their interest costs, resulting in lower profits.The macro indicators of inflation and interest rates do have tangible implications for the economy, which we shouldkeep in mind and examine carefully in general and on a case-by-case basis per company as events unfold in the coming months.But thats not the end of the story.Unfortunately, the uncertainty among traders triggered machine algorithms that amplified the spiral downward. The majority of trades today are done by algorithms. Since these algorithms are triggered by certain signals, even a small decline could set the market to a sell-off.The dominospiel effect did not stop there. Market sell-offs tend to incr ease market volatility. another indicator of market uncertainty. This in turn caused the volatility index (i.e., VIX) to spikemore than 200 percent. This is a normal reaction. When markets are down, volatility goes up. Therefore, the VIX spiking was not a surprise. The reactions of the instruments based on the VIX, however,were surprising.It seems Wall Street is not lacking in creativity when it comes to constructing trading vehicles that have the potential to blow up when things go haywire.What is the problem with these instruments? Lets take for example VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term ETN (XIV). Market volatility has been dormant for many years. Since the financial crisis, we have not experienced any major volatility spikes except for the summer of 2015 or early 2016, which subsided quite quickly. Wall Street professionals managed to find ways to make extra money out of this low VIX situation by betting against it, and the XIV is one example of that. Inverse VIX means that when the VIX is low (i.e., volatility is low), the instrument is going up (i.e., making money). Hence, as long as volatilitywasdormant, whoever held this instrument made money.One volatility spike, however, and these instruments can go almost to zero. Thats exactly what has happened to XIV it has declined bymore than 96 percent in a couple of days.Money managers who have invested in these instruments had to sell other assets (i.e., stocks) in order to cover for these losses, which created another domino effect. How much are money managers invested in these VIX instruments? We dont know. So, the sell-off could continue for a bit longer. (This type of instrument would be on our watch list as a barometerfor understanding the full extent of the sell-off.)Lets recap the trail of eventsThe macro indicators will take several months to a year to unfold. The technical indicators, however, are usually short-lived, and hopefully will subside soon.Dr. Merav Ozair hasmore than 12 years of business and consulting experience and more than 15 years of teaching experience with both graduate students and financial professionals. Contact her atmr649nyu.eduorHoliSym.