Hi everyone, welcome for all of you to the Professional Branding and Interview Communication course. Let's begin. Hi everyone, my name is William, Strategic Partnerships Manager for Google Search and Google Assistant, and I'll be your instructor for today's course, Professional Branding and Interview Communication. Before we start, in Indonesia we have a saying, tak kenal maka tak sayang, or how can you love someone if you don't know them?
So let me share a little bit of myself. So I did high school in Canisius College in Jakarta, and I was fortunate enough to be able to go for... College in the US.
I started my college journey at the University of Washington and that was my first experience to be an interviewee when I applied for joining the Indonesian Students Organization at the University of Washington. After two years, I then transferred to the UC Berkeley and again got my taste of being an interviewee as a candidate for the president of Berkeley Indonesian Student Association. I lost the election by a very tight margin.
There were two other candidates and our vote differences was only by one vote each, 14, 15, 16 votes. Nevertheless, the elected president invited me to become an event director and I said yes and I managed to let and organize the first ever Indonesian day in the Bay Area. that coincides with Berkeley Indonesian Student Association's 30th anniversary. At the end of my role, I also helped to interview all of the applicants, officers and presidential candidates for the organization.
And I then graduated and started my job search, or what we'd like to call it, fun employment. At that time back in 2015, it was a really difficult time for all chemical engineers as we had a worldwide oil slump. Oil and gas companies We're the biggest employer of KEMEN graduates and even at that time, Chevron in California laid off 20% of all their employees. So around one month into the job search, after employing tens of companies, somehow I got a Facebook message by my friend that happened to be a volunteer in the Indonesian day that I left at the Berkeley Indonesian Student Association asking, William, how are you? So I just answered, doing well and she asked me, Do you want to work at Google?
I said yes, and I interviewed virtually using Google Meet for half an hour. But at the end of the half hour, my interviewer got kicked off from his meeting room, and he ended the call by just saying, we'll continue in the next two hours from now. Not knowing what will be my fate, I waited and waited. The hour came, and the first thing that came out from my hiring manager was, William, I like you.
And from then... I got accepted to Google as Knowledge Engine Localization Lead. Initially, I was an individual contributor, becoming the second person in the team to work on the effort. As time goes on, the team expanded from 2 to 18 people, and I got promoted to be a team lead and got the chance to interview a lot of these new joiners.
After three years, I felt that my learning curve has flattened, so I applied for my current role, traveled back to Indonesia, and got the role, and here I am. Here are the times in Mountain View, Google Headquarter. I was fortunate enough to welcome Pajo Kowi, our Indonesian president, to Google back in 2016. And the middle picture was my full team representing more than 10 countries across China, Japan, Korea, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, you name it.
And on the left, here is an example of the feature that we launched, Knowledge Panel, or the info box that you see when you search at Google. And now in Jakarta as Partnerships Manager in Search and Assistant, my role was to some extent a continuation of the role in Mountain View. Now I do partnerships with personalities and companies to bring richer experience into the knowledge panel.
On the left, I met with one of Indonesia's most prominent journalists, Natswa Shihab, and onboarded her for a Q&A feature in Google, the middle picture. And on the right was my collaboration with broadcasters in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Philippines. to bring SEA Games 2019 livestream to life in these four countries. So, that's it about myself and then the goal for today.
So what? Why are we here today? So my promise to all of you is that by the end of this session, you can get...
These three things nailed down. One, how can you make your resume shine? Second one is how to stand out during networking. And finally, how to age your interviews.
So to put all of this into perspective, let's see this big picture, resume networking interviews. So all of these are here to get the thing that you want. Eventually, right? You want to get a job. You want to get a pay raise, you want to get fundraising, PhD position, soulmate, etc.
Right, so all of these are for this goal, right, to get the thing that you want. And the second point is actually one of the most important point. So don't forget the hard work, right, so all has to begin with the hard work. So from the hard work, you have the resume, right, you can put all of this information in this resume. And from resume, Then you do all of the networking to get the interview and finally get the thing that you want.
And then once you get the thing that you want, you do the hard work again. So it's a full circle. And finally, don't forget that differentiation is key in each of these steps. You are standing amidst thousands and thousands of people that want to get the same thing that you want. Either it's a job, a pay raise, and so on.
So make sure that you differentiate yourself from the other. So? Are you ready to begin?
So let's go to the next section. Alright, so in our first section on how to make your resume shine, before we even begin, so let's start with the first one. Why a resume?
So there are two things, two reasons why we need a resume. First one is to enable a step change in your life. And the second one is to open the door to meet the person that you want to prove.
i.e. to get an interview. And the main goal of a resume is these two things, right? First one, to send a message that is impactful, easy to understand and remember, and difficult to challenge. Again, this is key going back to the beginning that we need to have a differentiation, right?
We need to differentiate ourselves against everyone else in the same purpose as you. And how to build a resume. So these are the two process, right? So we start from expensive thinking, gathering all of the information that you need, and then from there we go to reductive thinking, keeping what's important and delete the rest.
In expensive thinking or capturing everything first, we need to gather all of your achievements, projects, extracurricular activities, certificates, so go back to all of the things that you have done. Recall and list down what you did and achieved. I highlight the word you here because it's really important to make sure that this is what you did to show that your contribution in the resume. Back it up with data and facts on what made it challenging and also show what is the complexity and what is the impact that you made.
And now moving on to reductive thinking. After you have all of the items, you need to make sure that you prioritize. You need to have a ruthless prioritization.
The first one is space limit. For a resume, it's best to have one page, and two pages is max. But make sure that you can get one page for the best. Next one, list high-level description of what you've done or achieved in the scope. Next, put your achievements in descending order, aka reverse chronological.
So the newest thing at the top, and then the oldest thing. at the bottom. Finally, remove the least important items.
Keep three to five only. And in here, I want to give the first golden nugget in our session. So if you're wondering how to write a resume, where can I go from here? There's an easy way to do that.
So go to your favorite search engine and search resume, the name of top university. or career guide name of a top university. There's a good chance that all of the top universities in the world have created a resume guide. So in here you can see like Oxford has created one, MIT has created one, Berkeley has created one, and all of these top universities have created one.
So you can just go there and you can have all of these resources that students from top universities obtain so that you can be on the same level with them. so remember this one so after this one you can immediately try resume let's say oxford or like Career Guide MIT and you will be able to see all of these resources. And moving on to the tips on resume writing. So it's fine to use resume templates as a reference.
However, ensure that you only use them as a guideline, i.e. not copying them word for word. So you can use like the MIT one, the Oxford one, the Stanford one, but you need to make sure that use that as a guideline. And most importantly, think about your career purpose.
Find the problems you want to solve and tailor your resume based on the job you are applying for. So always, always, always tailor your resume based on the job description. Don't make one single resume for hundreds of jobs that you are applying for. And once you have the resume, you have this question. Do I need to go online?
Why is it important? And the answer is yes, you need to go online because job market is highly, highly competitive. In an age where many employers search their potential hires online, you must build a strong and attractive online profile. Make sure that you are searchable, you do your prior research, and you have a greater network.
In terms of the ecosystem of online job platform, there are two categories here. One is social networks. It allows you to connect and share ideas with other professionals.
And some platforms allow you to share projects and collaborate. So these are the likes of LinkedIn and GitHub for example. And the second part is job board. In here, hundreds of companies use job boards as a channel to announce their job openings.
So these are the names that you might have seen in the market. So make sure that you're aware for these two ecosystems. And now let's move on to the anatomy of a resume. So these are the five things that you need to make sure that you have in your resume. First one, identity or personal detail.
Second one, professional summary or objective. Third one, skills and qualification. Fourth, working or internship experience or projects. And finally, educational background.
We will go into deep dive for all of this section after this. So first, I want to show you... A typical resume with all of these five sections appearing.
So first you can see the identity at the top, so you can add your name, your address, where can the employer contact you, right so like email is typically preferred, and the next one is your summary, professional summary. So in here you can take all of the like what's your background, what you need, what you have. Moving on the work experience, so in here again reverse chronological order.
So you put the newest one at the top and then the oldest one at the bottom. And then education is straightforward. You just add your education, your GPA, grade point average, your score. And then finally, skills and interests.
And then I also have a sample resume here. So if you go into one of the guides that I shared earlier, this one actually comes from MIT resume. So it has the same section that we discussed earlier.
So we have identity, we have education, we have work experience, we have skills and qualifications, but there is an interesting part here. So we see that in MIT example, they have leadership, right? So in here, as with other guidelines, right?
So if you look into all of these guidelines, you will see multiple perspectives. In here, for example, they add leadership. So This is also one of the differentiators that you can use to improve your chance of being noticed by the employer. And you can have these two questions at the back of your mind whenever you see all of the examples.
What worked and what could be improved? So that you can learn from this example and again use this only as a guideline to make sure that you fine-tune your own resume. So with this we are ready! to go into deep dive for all of these sections.
All right, so let's move on to how to prepare your winning resume. We go to the first deep dive on professional summary or objective. In professional summary, it is important that you do a great storytelling. What is the story that we need to share?
So think about your life journey and how you want to tell your story, but keep it related find keywords and key moments that define you as a working professional it can also be aspirational like what you want or like what you love weave it all together into narrative that makes sense including relevant details. So in a professional summary these are the four steps to prepare a great professional summary. First one concise is best make sure that you have one paragraph maximum.
Second one use a first person narrative always begin with I don't use like we or like third person narrative. Third one use keywords to highlight your specialties And fourth one, show what you love. We're gonna go to the last two in more detail now. So first one, how to use keywords to highlight your specialties. So this is an example, right?
So someone created a professional summary. In here, they have two main sentences and they clearly highlight the specialty, right? You can see Python, MySQL, BigML, Tableau.
And the second one, communication skills, right? So with these, then it's really, really clear. for the employer to see, ah, this candidate has the coding experience that I need.
Like this candidate has the skill, the soft skill that I need. For example, communication. And next, show what you love, right?
So the tips here is like, the key pointers is you can open with, I love or I enjoy, and then determine what you're passionate about. I love da-da-da-da, right? And then finally, think about how your passion relates to your personal and professional life. Then write it out as professionally, da-da-da-da, or personally, da-da-da-da. So make sure that it is still related to the professional or to the job that you are applying for.
So, to put things into perspective, let's look into this example of a professional summary. So, it starts with a passionate writer and a dedicated project manager. So it's good that it has one line summary of the essence of who you are. And then next, it goes to education or like early career progression.
So it clearly say electrical and electronics engineering. It progressed and it manages large scale and complex IT projects. And next, it goes to a pivotal moment or decision. And it pursue my passion in writing and in my professional writing, delivering final scripts of the highest quality.
with correct nuances right and then next is like what happened since then right july 2017 july 2018 like this person eventually started a new position as google indonesian language manager right so as you can see it's it's fine to have multiple sentences right but make sure that you have all of the items nailed down in your professional summary this is yet another example to present your professional summary Previously it's like in a paragraph format, this one you see it in a bullet point format. So again you can fine tune it as you like, but in here the beauty of a bullet point, sometimes it's easier for us human and also for the employer to see and highlight. You can even see in here they put bold, right bold in some of the phrases in the beginning of the bullet points to make sure that you can clearly highlight.
the professional summary for your future employer. So again, it has the one-line summary of the essence of who you are, required skill number one, required skill number two, the strength compared to others in similar positions, so this is key, and finally, other unique skills. And in here, we have the first activity that you can do after our session, right? So you can try on your own to develop your own professional summary using the guides.
thought previously. So after professional summary, let's move on to the deep dive number two, the skills and qualifications. The qualifications, you need to focus on the job description. So there are two things that you need to differentiate here.
First one, minimum qualifications. These are the mandatory qualifications, the must-haves. Second one is preferred qualifications.
It is desirable, not compulsory. But if you have done, make sure to include that in your resume to make sure again that you are differentiating against all of the other candidates. I give you an example case study in here. So this is actually for one of my earliest role in Google, the search localization lead role. So what I do is basically if you type in Google, for example, Sukarno, the name of the first president in Indonesia.
And then if you go to Google, then you see the answer. the knowledge panel or knowledge box on the left hand side, oh no, on the right hand side of Google search. So this is what I'm doing. And this is actually...
The job description for my role. So it has the minimum qualification, bachelor's degree, project management experience, experience with Google Docs, be a native speaker for Indonesia and fluent English speaker. And the remaining is preferred qualification in a technical field, software localization, data transformation, configuring software application, software QA, product management and have lived at least 10 years in Indonesia.
Remember this slide because in the next slide I will show you my resume and I want you to make sure to critically think what is what work and what not work in my example. All right. So here is my resume at that time used to apply for the job.
So looking at the example. Right. So you might have noticed. All right. So William added.
the bachelor's degree it's good william mentioned he's a native speaker of indonesian it's good right so the checklist for the mandatory qualification is there but to the second point right what could be improved you might have noticed like at the bottom oh why there is a chemical engineering and chemistry research right so there is actually one thing that if i were to write the resume for the job now I would have removed it to make sure again that our resume is really really crisp and we can have everything all of the important stuff in one single page. Next we go to experience, right working experience or internship or projects. So in writing your work experience it is really really important to identify and show demonstrate the quantifiable impact. Again, key in distilling your experience is differentiation.
And you need to showcase your uniqueness to stand out from the other candidates. So instead of saying coordinated weekly meetings, you can expand it to like coordinated weekly meetings for a hundred people across 10 different teams in the organization. Now you start showing the scale, right? But then it doesn't show the complexity.
So you can even refine it more. that enables 10k proposal to be generated and approved for funding by the student body for the whole semester it shows a little bit of the complexity but we can do more right what is your role what are you doing right so we put more contacts in the beginning as a treasury enable the organization to win 10k funding and so on right but this is a little bit too long so what can we do then we reach out to the final one As a treasury landed 10k funding, 2x from last year, you show the impact. From student body for 2021, first semester, by initiating and leading weekly things for 100 people across 10 different cross-functional teams, then you show the complexity.
With this, then the quantifiable impact is really, really clear for the employer. So then, again, you can differentiate yourself against all of the other candidates. and then you might have a question what do you write if you don't have a professional experience so actually i took this from my first resume when i applied for my first job at google so this is what i did actually at that time in college you might have joined like organization or clubs or activities extra cultural activities right make sure that you include them in here so in here for example i joined Berkeley Indonesian Student Association, I put all of these things that I did in my resume.
Why? Because employer want to see leadership skills. Can you work in a team?
Do you have the communication? Have you done projects before? So with this, it is really clear for them that, ah, this person have an experience that will be applicable to the role that I have.
All right? Next, we move on to the last one, educational background. This should be pretty straightforward.
I will start with an example. So, which one is better and why? So, we have case A and case B. Look into case A, right? So, in case A, we have elementary school, junior high school, senior high school, university, and then institute of technology.
Whereas in case B, we have... the university one so what do you think is better so i would suggest right let's use case B and you might also think the same because in a resume what is relevant is like your final experience or like your your tertiary education but in this case like the university and also the institute of technology so put this again in a reverse chronological order right case A doesn't put it in a reverse chronological order but case B does it right so we need to make sure that it is in a reverse chronological order and make sure that you only put things that are relevant and you might notice a third thing right they put the gpa so if you have a gpa value put it also in there so that it is really clear for the employer if there is any requirement of the employee need to have x gpa right so make sure that you have that as well so that is our of our first section and that Let's go on to the next section. Alright, so how to stand out during networking, right?
We have three sections in this presentation, but I would argue you need to maximize on this one. This is actually the section that people often forget. They do a resume, they prepare the interview, but they forgot the networking.
Even though, if you remember the first slide, right? Networking is the key to unlock the interview. right make sure you you really really pay close attention into this one right so how to do networking you need to remember first you need to check your college interest club or extracurricular activities right you should have joined one you have people in there that are senior and they will graduate first so make sure that you really really develop your relationship with them because they are the one that will graduate first and go to the industry first right so they will be the referral for you when you want to look for jobs so that's the first one second one leadership organization third one committee for campus event fourth one is linked in right and again as i said earlier the goal is to get someone more senior than you that will be in the job market first so they can get you in the job that you want via referral So come with a purpose, know what you want, and what they are looking for.
And to prepare yourself for networking, you need to have an elevator pitch. So what is an elevator pitch? So elevator pitch is a short, like 30 seconds or less, pitch of yourself. And it typically have these things.
Who am I? What is my objective? What are my strengths and accomplishments?
What is my passion? And how to conclude the introduction? Right, so write it down, refine, and iterate.
So have all of these five things ready. Why do they call it elevator pitch, you might ask? So the reason they call it elevator pitch is because in the pitch, you need to make sure, so let's say you are going to an elevator and you meet the CEO of the company. You need to make sure that you are able to pitch to the CEO from the time the door closed until the door opens for the CEO to go to his or her floor. So this is the reason why it's called elevator pitch.
And make sure that you have all of these five things in your pitch to differentiate yourself from the other candidates. And also going on, this is the second activity that you can try after this one is to create your own elevator pitch. and record it. So to create one you can use the guidelines from the previous slide and recording it you might ask William why do I need to record?
Recording is key here because once you record then you can see things that you might not have seen initially and you can easily identify where you did well and where you can improve on. So use this to your own advantage and make sure that you can have a great elevator pitch to open your door to network and finally get the interview that you need. So once we have this, we're ready to go to the next section which is interviewing.
All right, so we're going to the final section of this presentation, how to ace your interview. Before we begin, let's answer this first question, what employers look for in an interview so employers in an interview they look for relevant experience or knowledge critical thinking judgment initiative flexibility Adaptability, resilience, resourcefulness, positivity, team player, and results. If you might notice, hard skill is only on the first bullet point, whereas the other bullet points are actually soft skills.
So I want to emphasize this so that you also know this perspective from the employers, right? So that in your time in college, don't just focus on the academic, but... Also join all of the clubs, join all of the activities, join all of the leadership opportunities, so that you have all of these opportunities to sharpen and fine-tune your soft skills, so that you can have a complete requirement that the employer is looking for. And then the lay of the land, right? So who is my interviewer?
It can be someone in a similar role, it can be a manager, or it can be a panel. meaning multiple people interviewing you at the same time. In terms of the time slot, typically it's like 60 minutes discussion and the question types can be behavioral, hypothetical, or case-based.
We will go into these three types of questions in more detail in the following slides. And bonus, I can also share a little bit on remote interview or phone or video call also in the following slides. So in a 60 minutes of an interview, it typically begins with the interviewer telling you welcome to the interview and they will tell you what to expect. So let's say in the beginning of 45 minutes, we will have all of the questions and then at the end, I will give you a time for question and answer. So that can be an example of welcome or what to expect.
Next, it's typically the questions to the candidate and then overview of a company or department. overview or expectation of the role, and then questions from candidates. So this is actually the most important section.
You need to have questions to the interviewer to show that you are interested. I will give you some example of really really powerful questions that you can use for the interview. And finally it's closing our next steps.
They will tell you please wait for x weeks before you receive a callback let's say. So What are the interview types at Google? So in Google, these are the four types of interviews.
So general cognitive abilities, role-related knowledge, leadership, and Googliness. So the question type number one, behavioral. So what is a behavioral question? So behavioral question looks at how you've handled a specific challenge in the past to assess if you will be a good candidate for the role.
And interviewers are looking for what you have done and how you have done it. So it's looking for your past experience. And how do you know that it's a behavioral question or interview, right?
So it typically begins with tell me a time when or give me an example of or describe a decision you made, right? It's made, not make. So a past experience that you have done.
And how to tackle this is with the STAR-R method, right? You should structure your answer by telling you what is the situation, what is the task that you are given or the problem, what is the action that you have taken, and what is the result. And also a bonus one, relationship.
What are the teams or people that you are working together to get that result. So, to go into more detail into the STAR method, let's go into seeing this video of STAR strategy. Have you ever been caught out by a competency-based question in an interview? One that begins with, tell us about a time you...
or describe a situation where... The STAR technique can help you structure an answer to these questions. So without further ado, here is our Guardian Jobs guide on how to use the STAR technique. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. And if used correctly it can help anyone answer an interview question.
from first-time jobbers to senior managers. When put on the spot with a competency-based question, It can be all too easy to dry up and give a short vague answer, or go the other way and ramble to your interviewer. To prevent this happening, 81% of recruiters who are familiar with the STAR technique recommend using it to plan for potential questions and answers in advance.
So, how do you prepare for using the STAR technique in an interview? We recommend you make a list of the types of questions you might be asked, based on skills and behaviours listed in the job description, and prepare some answers to these using STAR. to frame your experience. Let's think about what the STAR technique really means.
Firstly, you describe the situation. Paint a backdrop for your workplace anecdote. Not literally, but give a bit of context.
What was your job title? When did this happen? What was the obstacle or situation that arose?
For example, whilst working as a troll hunter last summer for Patrol Limited, our department were tipped off about a troll migrating to a new bridge that none of my team had guarded. Next you explain the task at hand. What was required of you in this situation? For example, I was given the task of minding the new bridge alone without the aid of my colleagues or my manager.
I knew I had to conquer my fear of the dark and learn how to work effectively at night time. Then comes the action. This is a chance for you to prove to your interviewer that you can handle a crisis and have good decision making skills. Don't be afraid to be the hero of your story. However, be wary of fabricating details or sounding like you're showing off.
What did you do in this situation to overcome the task at hand? What made you act the way you did? For example, I took it upon myself to do some research on working at night time, practice being nocturnal for a week ahead of the job, and used my initiative to find someone in the company to teach me how to use the most up-to-date head torches and UV lights, as I knew these would be useful in my hunt.
Finally comes the result. What was the outcome of the situation? How did your actions resolve the matter? For example, by the time it came to the job I had overcome my fear of the dark and felt confident about working alone at night.
I caught the troll in record time for my department and my efforts won me the title of Troll Hunting Champion of the Year. Not a troll hunter? Why not click here to download our Guardian Jobs Star Technique template, featuring some of the most frequently asked competency-based questions. as advised by top recruiters.
Alright, so now you have seen the STAR method videos, let's put that into action. So after this session, make sure that you also do this activity. So here is an example of behavioral question. Tell me about your experience dealing with pressure or working under stressful condition. So try to answer this question using the STAR method.
So moving on to the question types number two. Hypothetical. So in a hypothetical question, it evaluates how you would handle a challenge you might not have encountered yet. The reason the interviewer asks this is they want to know your approach to a problem or scenario, and it's designed to assess your thought process, and there is typically no particular right or wrong solution. So the focus here is the process, not the right or wrong solution.
And the giveaway phrases or like imagine that or like let's assume that so this is a takeaway for like hypothetical interview and question number three is case-based interview right so these are typically found on consulting firms and it evaluates your thought process through line of questionings and framing of your solution similar to hypothetical the difference is like in case-based interview it's typically a little bit longer And it is broken down into like framework and then going to all of these framework into more details. And again, I want to give you a golden nugget, right? So this is the second golden nugget of the day.
I want to share the highly cited external resources that you can use to prepare for case-based interview. So these two books, Case in Point and Case Interview Secrets, are really, really commonly used by people that are going to consulting firms. So if you... are also wanting to go to consulting firms, these are the two resources that you need to have.
Because with this, Then it will break down all of the nitty-gritty details of case-based interview that you can use to your own advantage to prepare and ace the interview. Next, how to approach the interview. So for approaching an interview, first one is preparation. Preparation is key.
You need to tailor your preparation accordingly for the company and the role that you're applying for. So look for the job description. And for the company what you need to know is like the vision and mission and the objective of the company and also the future goals of the company so that you can make sure you tailor this to these points for the interview be on time right it's much much better to come early and give some extra space for the preparation including but not limited to travel time setting up video call if it's a remote interview etc Have your important documents ready.
For example, resume, references, cover letter, copy of transcript, if the interviewer asks you on the spot. And finally, have a good rest before the day, eat healthy, and avoid things that might cause physical disruption. So don't do anything different before the interview day.
And then, during the interview, make sure that you dress professionally. or as per company style be confident and make a good impression it is much much better to overdress rather than underdress right so that you can show that you are ready for the role frame your answer so that it relates with the job remember your preparation take your time don't rush this is your time to shine right so even if you don't know the answer of a question right so it's the last point it's okay to stall so let's say they ask you a really hard question right so there are two ways to stall one you reiterate the question so let's say oh so you are asking me on like a time when i need to resolve a conflict and how did i do it is that correct that can be one way second one if you really need more time it's fine to say something like this oh there is actually a really great question I might need some time to think of the answer. Is it okay for me to do that?
And then they will say, oh, it's okay. And then you proceed. Use the time to think before answering. It is important to think because, especially for a complex question, because this is your only chance. You only have one chance for the interview to show a good impression to the interviewer, right?
You don't have a second time. You don't have a time to reset. So make sure that you prepare, get some time to think, to give the best answer for the interviewer.
And also ask a clarifying question to the interviewer if you are unsure on what being asked. So that is the first point that I mentioned earlier. And for remote or phone interview tips, so be ready for the call, speak slowly and loudly, right?
It is important to speak not too fast. We sometimes... tend to speak too fast but in an interview we want to make sure that the interviewer get everything that we say sometimes the interviewer need to type your answer or take notes so by speaking slowly you are also helping the interviewer in this sense and the other tips that sometimes people don't know is stand up so even during this presentation i am standing up right so if you're sitting It will have a totally different energy versus standing up. So make sure that you stand up so that you can deliver all out of the energy for the interview.
Fourth one, this is something not obvious, but make sure that you also smile, right? Show enthusiasm. Have a mirror behind the camera or something.
And people can tell. People can tell. Even though it's a phone interview, if you are not smiling, then it's a totally different energy. So make sure that you also smile to show enthusiasm.
And then silence. Use silence to your advantage to clarify for understanding. And then finally take notes. Use your notes. So you can use pen and paper, have a pen and paper or even your resume ready so that you can write down the question and use that to clarify if you have any question for the question that they ask for you.
After the interview, ask questions. Express your gratitude and say thank you and then connect with your recruiter for next steps if applicable. And interviewing tips Q&A. Right, so now...
Let's look into the tips that you can use for your interview. Tip number one, communicate your agenda. So list your top three job-related qualities or talking points.
For example, for customer service supervisor, the three important points are supervisory experience, able to meet tight deadlines, and strong computer skills. So make sure that you have these three job-related qualities as your talking points. And tip number two. Memorize 5 to 7 success stories.
Go to your resume, go to all of the previous experience that you have. Apply the behavior-based question, star R method, to all of these stories that you have, and make sure you have the answer prepared. So that whenever the interviewer asks you, you have all of these stories ready to be used. So in here, as an example, the situation you can tell the company needed 20 people in 30 days.
As a recruiter, I need to fill the roles. And then what I do is I schedule and arrange two open house events yielding 100 interviews and the result, we made 21 hires in four weeks. So that can be an example of the story that you have. And how to come up with success stories, right? As I mentioned earlier, go to your resume, go to your past experience and use these guiding questions.
What are you proud of? What have you done that you can measure? What big things have you accomplished?
When did you deal with difficult calling? This can be a question like, oh, when do you have conflict and how do you resolve it? And finally, what have you done in your field? And tip number three, ask great questions. This is really important so that you show interest or focus on future success.
Okay, so we have all of these questions. You can take some time to look into these questions. But one of the most powerful question is actually the second from the bottom.
This is a question that I personally always use in all of the interviews. Is there anything else you need from me in order to move this forward? All right, now you can see why it is so powerful, right? It's powerful because you can ask, you can give a chance to the interviewer if they still have doubts on you.
or they still have question that you haven't clearly answered. To ask you again and then you will have the chance to prove yourself and cover your bases. Right? So use this to your advantage.
And now to wrap up. So for today we have discussed three things. First, preparing the resume.
So resume allows you to enter the interview. After you have a great resume, then networking. Make sure that you do networking in your clubs, with your seniors, in LinkedIn, to get your resume at the top of the stack.
And finally, for interview, take action. There is no other simple shortcut other than taking practice. So practice makes perfect.
So that's it from my side today. Hope that this has been really helpful for all of you. And I hope only for the best for your future resume building, networking, and interviewing.
Hope you have a great day, everyone. Thank you.