Are you looking for a job? You have to use your body!
by Robert Ordona, for Yahoo! HotJobs
Savvy job seekers know how important choosing the right words is when we communicate with prospective employers–but what about nonverbal communication?

“You could be saying how great you are,” says image consultant and “Hello Job! How to Psych Up, Suit Up, & Show Up” author Alison Craig, “but your body could be giving your true feelings away.” Mark Bowden, the author of “Winning Body Language” agrees with Craig–and with the highly regarded Mehrabian communication study, which found that if what’s coming out of your mouth doesn’t match what your body is saying, your audience is more likely to believe your body.

Here’s some expert advice on how to effectively let your body do the talking in a job interview:

Making a great entrance to the job interview

Craig and Bowden agree that the interview starts even before you get to the job interview room: “You don’t know who could be in the parking lot with you, looking at you from a window, or standing next to you in the elevator,” says Craig. “Your body should tell anyone who might be watching that you’re confident and calm. It’s not the time to be frantically searching through your portfolio for printouts of your resume.”

Show your good side to he recruiter

Hiring managers often ask receptionists for their take on job seekers who come to the office for interviews, so Bowden suggests letting them observe you without letting on that you know they’re watching. “Sit with your profile to them,” he says. “It makes them feel comfortable, and if they’re comfortable, they’re more likely to form a good impression.”

Craig suggests trying to predict the direction your interviewer will come from, so you can sit facing that direction. It’ll make the greeting more graceful.

Recruiters Look for First impressions

While waiting, don’t hunch your shoulders or tuck your chin into your chest, which will make you seem closed off. Sit with your back straight and your chest open–signs that you’re confident and assertive. “But don’t take this to the extreme,” cautions Bowen. “Elongating your legs or throwing your arm across the back of the chair can make you appear too comfortable, even arrogant.”
Also, says Craig, don’t have so much stuff on your lap that you’re clumsily moving everything aside when you’re called. You want to rise gracefully, without dropping things, so you can smoothly greet the person coming to get you.

Shake it–don’t break it

Job interviews mean handshakes–so what are the secrets to the perfect handshake? The overly aggressive shake (or “death grip,” as Craig calls it) can be as off-putting as the limp handshake, so practice with a friend before the interview to find the right balance.
You’re going to be shaking with your right hand, so prepare by arranging your belongings on your left side. Offer your hand with the palm slightly up so that your interviewer’s hand covers yours. “It’s a sign that you’re giving them status,” says Bowden. And never cover the other person’s hand with the hand you’re not shaking with–it can be interpreted as a sign of domination.

Important steps to the job interview

The walk to the job interview is the perfect time to use body language: “Always follow that person, whether the person is the hiring manager or an assistant, to show you understand the protocol. You’re saying, I’m the job candidate, and you’re the company representative–I follow your lead.’” Bowen adds that you should try to “mirror” that person’s tempo and demeanor. “It shows you can easily fit into the environment.”

You may have heard the horror stories—job hunters who take phone calls or text during an interview, or bring out a sandwich and start chomping, or brush their hair, or worse. You wouldn’t do any of those things, would you? Of course not.

But there are tons of other job interview
no-no’s you may not have thought of. Or that you’ve forgotten. The job hunting trail is long and arduous, and a little refresher course can’t hurt. So for your edification and enjoyment, here are 50 (yes, 50!) of the worst and most common job interview mistakes:

1. Arriving late.
2. Arriving too early.
3. Lighting up a cigarette, or smelling like a cigarette.
4. Bad-mouthing your last boss.
5. Lying about your skills/experience/knowledge.
6. Wearing the wrong (for this workplace!) clothes.
7. Forgetting the name of the person you’re interviewing with.
8. Wearing a ton of perfume or aftershave.
9. Wearing sunglasses.
10. Wearing a Bluetooth earpiece.
11. Failing to research the employer in advance.
12. Failing to demonstrate enthusiasm.
13. Inquiring about benefits too soon.
14. Talking about salary requirements too soon.
15. Being unable to explain how your strengths and abilities apply to the job in question.
16. Failing to make a strong case for why you are the best person for this job.
17. Forgetting to bring a copy of your résumé and/or portfolio.
18. Failing to remember what you wrote on your own résumé.
19. Asking too many questions.
20. Asking no questions at all.
21. Being unprepared to answer the standard questions.
22. Failing to listen carefully to what the interviewer is saying.
23. Talking more than half the time.
24. Interrupting your interviewer.
25. Neglecting to match the communication style of your interviewer.
26. Yawning.
27. Slouching.
28. Bringing along a friend, or your mother.
29. Chewing gum, tobacco, your pen, your hair.
30. Laughing, giggling, whistling, humming, lip-smacking.
31. Saying “you know,” “like,” “I guess,” and “um.”
32. Name-dropping or bragging or sounding like a know-it-all.
33. Asking to use the bathroom.
34. Being falsely or exaggeratedly modest.
35. Shaking hands too weakly, or too firmly.
36. Failing to make eye contact (or making continuous eye contact).
37. Taking a seat before your interviewer does.
38. Becoming angry or defensive.
39. Complaining that you were kept waiting.
40. Complaining about anything!
41. Speaking rudely to the receptionist.
42. Letting your nervousness show.
43. Overexplaining why you lost your last job.
44. Being too familiar and jokey.
45. Sounding desperate.
46. Checking the time.
47. Oversharing.
48. Sounding rehearsed.
49. Leaving your cell phone on.
50. Failing to ask for the job.

Karen Burns is the author of the illustrated career advice book The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use, recently released by Running Press.

Here are the keys to successful phone interviewing. Follow these simple rules and you should achieve success in this important phase of job-hunting.

• Do give accurate and detailed contact information in your cover letter so your interviewers can easily connect with you.
• When in job-hunting mode, don’t have a disproportionately silly or long greeting on your answering machine or voicemail.
• Do ensure that household members understand the importance of phone messages in your job search.
• Do know what job you are interviewing for.
• Do practice, if possible. Have a friend call you to do a mock phone interview so you get the feel of being interviewed over the phone.
• When being interviewed by phone, do make sure you are in a place where you can read notes, take notes, and concentrate.
• If you cannot devote enough time to a phone interview, do suggest a specific alternate time to the recruiter. It’s often best to be the one who calls back so you can be mentally prepared.
• Do consider using a phone interview log.
• Do consider keeping some note cards or an outline in front of you to remind yourself of key points you want to cover with the interviewer. You don’t want your responses to sound scripted, but you don’t want to fumble for important points either. Do also have your resume in front of you so you can remember highlights of your experience and accomplishments.
• Do ensure that you can hear and are being clearly heard.
• Do consider standing when being interviewed on the phone. Some experts say you’ll sound more professional than if you’re slouching in an easy chair.
• Do consider dressing nicely for the phone interview. It may sound silly since the interviewer can’t see you, but you really will project a more professional image if you’re dressed for the part instead of wearing, for example, a ratty bathrobe.
• Don’t feel you have to fill in the silences. If you’ve completed a response, but the interviewer hasn’t asked his or her next question, don’t start babbling just to fill in airtime. Instead, ask a question of your own related to your last response.
• Do create a strong finish to your phone interview with thoughtful questions.
• Don’t panic if you have special needs. If you are hearing-impaired, for example, phone interviews are still possible.
• Don’t snuffle, sneeze or cough. If you can’t avoid these behaviors, say “excuse me.”
• Don’t chew gum or food, or drink anything noisy.

Last week I sent one of my hospitality clients the perfect candidate for a Kitchen Manager position that she had available.  This guy had the exact experience that she was looking for, the candidate was excited about the idea of working for my candidate and I sent her the resume.  One hour later I received the response that every recruiter dreads hearing, “I already have that candidate from another recruiter”.   

I called the candidate and asked him why he hadn’t told me that he had another hospitality recruiter submit his resume to the client.  My candidate swore up and down that he hadn’t.  He said that he spoke to someone about a different position but nothing had come of it.  To his knowledge his other recruiter had not sent the client his resume.   I called my client to ask her who the recruiter was and tell her the story my candidate had told me. 

My client said that the recruiter who sent her the resume had a reputation for sending her candidates without the candidates being aware of it and she also said that she would not interview or hire this candidate because then she would have to pay the other recruiter a fee and she doesn’t like the other recruiter.  When I asked her why she works with him then, she said that she feared that he would take her people if she cut him off completely.   My candidate was devastated. 

The recruiting world is ever changing.  People have 100’s of options on how to find a job and some candidates try to use all of them at once.  They post their resume on Monster, CareerBuilder and Hot Jobs.  They apply to every job on Craig’s List that they see.  They use Linked in and Face Book to tell the world that they are unemployed. 

STOP!!!!!!           BREATH!!!!!!!   RELAX!!!!!!

As soon as you put your resume on online for the world to see, you become a commodity similar to coffee, not Starbucks or Dunkin, just coffee.  If you choose to apply to jobs where no company name is listed then you are applying to a database somewhere in the world that will hold, reuse and possibly sell your information.  If you choose to engage with a recruiter who doesn’t tell you the name of the company that they are sending your resume to, RUN.   

The good news is there are people out there who can help you.  Look for a CPC certified hospitality recruiter who has the knowledge and ethics to get you the results that you are looking for.  These recruiters have sworn an oath the keep your information confidential, to follow the laws of the United States of America and to serve your best interests.  To find one in your area, visit www.geckohospitality.com .

Not getting calls on your resume quicker than you expected?

Are you finding that recruiters tell you they’ll  call you right back only to never receive a call?

Don’t think there’s a blacklist floating around within the restaurant industry? Think Again!

Getting your resume blacklisted is easier than tying your shoes however getting removed is just the opposite. This can be devestating if you are hunting for restaurant jobs, and trying to build a management restaurant career. You have a better chance of having 8-track tapes coming back and becoming “cool” before getting back the respect you rightfully deserve. Will anyone divulge the names contained within this “so-called” blacklist and why? Of course not!  But remember that recruiters within the hospitality industry have feelings accompanied with big egos.

Believe it or not, restaurant recruiters stay connected in one way shape or form and talk more openly than Howard Stern at a wet t-shirt contest. I’ve been recruiting  for fifteen years and if you want to keep your name off of any blacklist, let me give you some advice on how to keep your name and reputation safely tucked away:

1. Never interview with a company to gain leverage on your current employer for a raise or counter offer. Accepting a counter offer from your current employer is the ultimate sin!
2. Never blow off an interview. If you’re not interested in the company, politely decline via voice or email 24 hours before your scheduled time.
3. Never accept a position with a new employer, determine a start date and fail to show up on your first day of work. Bottom line… you’ve wasted everyone’s time!
4. If you’ve left your current employer, never tell the recruiter that you’re still employed. Tell one lie you might as well tell ten more!
5. 95% of all employers do a background check. If your credit stinks- Be Honest! If you have a DUI- Be Honest! If your driver’s license is suspended- Be Honest! In many circumstances being forthcoming pays dividends.

Remember that job interviewing is a two way street. (This is especially true with restaurant jobs. Anyone building a restaurant career needs to pay attention to this advice.)  Simply put you receive a “Dear John” letter that you’re not a fit for the company  or you withdraw your name and accept a position that offers better opportunities. Bottom line if you’re “pretty” happy where you’re presently at, stay there and find a way to make it work! Interviewing is a serious business and should not be taken for granted. Take my word that recruiters NEVER forget a name and certainly never forgive….Period!

After many years in the hsopitality recruiting business, I’ve learned that candidates often lack preparation when facing a career transition or job change.

Here are six simple steps to take before an interview to help you land the job.

1. Prepare Your Story
Throughout your hospitality career, you may pursue different directions. Be prepared to discuss the reasons for which you’re taking your career in a certain direction.

Organize talking points that help you tell your story. It’s important to touch on reasons why you may have left a company without bashing your former co–workers or supervisors. Explain with confidence the reason that you are making or have made a career change.

Remember that a lack of conversation reflects lack of interest. Be prepared to incorporate the storyline of your background into their organizational challenges.

2. Calculate Your Compensation
Know the difference between your needs, your value to the company, and market trends. Your financial needs are of no importance to the hiring manager or the hiring company. They care about your success, but they are not accountable for your financial responsibilities.

Investigate the market trends for the position for which you’re interviewing. The dollar amount is usually defined by what the market will bear for your position. This information can be collected from a variety of websites and market research. Keep in mind that this will also depend on the company’s size, revenues, headcount, geographic location, etc.

The value that you bring to the company is one that only you can define and present to your prospective employer. This will be based upon your demonstrated experience as determined by contributions you’ve made in previous roles. Capture and reflect revenues that you generated, incorporate costs and expenses that you managed, and/or numbers of people or clients that you have supported.

Understand acronyms such as OTE and MBO.

• OTE = On Target Earnings. This is what your total compensation package is, including annual base salary, bonuses etc.
• MBO = Management by Objective. This is typically used to identify a percentage of your annual base and may be paid quarterly or once a year.

3. Articulate Your Value
You need to be able to address the value that you bring to the company. Be prepared to share your skills and accomplishments and discuss how they benefit the company. Articulate these accomplishments in a problem–action–results sequence.

• Problem – This will reflect the specific problem, challenge, or situation that you are faced with. The way you would describe this is in the form of an overview or summary.
• Action – This represents the steps that you took to address the problem, challenge, or situation. Describe the methodology that you followed to drive results and deliverables.
• Results – This is where you define the success or accomplishment of your action. Use this as an opportunity to share how you evaluate the end result.

4. Determine Your Commute Threshold
Estimate how far are you willing to commute to get to work every day. Some candidates will use this threshold to represent miles and some will use it to measure total road time.

5. Determine Your Willingness to Travel
This will usually depend on the position for which you’re applying. Your previous experiences with work travel will be a true indicator to consider. You should also carefully consider the impact that this will have on your family and personal lifestyle.

6. Articulate Your Management Style
Be prepared to share and discuss the environment or culture where you can be the most productive. Are you most effective in a chaotic, fast–paced, high–stressed environment? Do you bring a calming influence in a chaotic setting? Are you detail oriented, driven by reports in a micro–managed structure? Be prepared to describe your typical activity in a normal work day.

If you do your homework well, you will be extraordinarily successful in your job interview. It will become easy for you to open new doors of opportunity toward landing the job of your dreams! Go get ‘em!

Great video from “Howdini – get yourself a gru”

Website that provides a variety of information.

This video is by  Carolyn Bigda, Money Magazine check it out – How to prepare for a job interview

• Dress appropriately and conservatively. Suits are safe.

• Shake hands firmly.

• Make eye contact.

• Develop a sales pitch about yourself. Use specific examples of your work and mention key points that will appeal to your interviewer.

• Practice this sales pitch until it’s routine and easy to deliver calmly and with sincerity.

• If you were fired from your last job, be honest, but positive. No negative remarks about the former employer.

• Say you’re looking for the next opportunity, the place to take the next step in your career, or that you’re looking to apply your skills in a different way.

What If Your Interview Is Tomorrow? 

Even if you have less than a day before your job interview, you can outshine the competition with a little preparation. The following four tasks will take you about four hours (plus five minutes) to complete, and you’ll walk into the interview confident you’ll be successful.

Conduct Basic Interview Research

Find out as much as you can about the interview. Call the person who scheduled your appointment and ask:

• Who will you be talking to? Will you meet the manager you’d work for, or will you just talk to HR? What are the interviewer’s expectations?
• What’s the dress code? Dress better than suggested. Most times, it’s best for men to wear a suit and women to wear a professional business outfit. You’d be amazed how many candidates show up looking like they’re going to class, not presenting a professional demeanor.
• Get directions to the office. Plan to leave early. Keep a phone number to call if you get stuck on the bus or in traffic. If you arrive late and stressed, the interview will not go well.
• If you don’t have a detailed job description, ask for one.

That’s a five-minute phone call.

Learn About the Company Online

Do some fast Web research, which will give you something to talk about in addition to the job description. Go to the employer’s Web site, or search the Web for information such as:

• How big is the company in terms of annual sales or employees?
• What does the company say about its products or services?
• What recent news (such as a new product, a press release, an interview with the CEO) can you discuss?
• If the company is public, the boilerplate at the bottom of its press releases will tell you a lot.

Basic research should take you about an hour.

Think of Some Stories

Write down and memorize three achievement stories. Tell about times you’ve really felt proud of an achievement at work or school. These stories demonstrate all those hard-to-measure qualities like judgment, initiative, teamwork or leadership. Wherever possible, quantify what you’ve done, e.g., “increased sales by 20 percent,” “cut customer call waiting time in half,” “streamlined delivery so that most customers had their job done in two days.”

By the way, nonwork achievement stories are good too; if you volunteer for the local food pantry, write down a time you overcame a big challenge or a crisis there.

Achievement stories make you memorable, which is what you want. There’s an exercise in Monster Careers: Interviewing called “Mastering the Freestyle Interview,” which helps you develop these stories into compelling sales points.

Take the time you need — at least three hours on this task.

Pick Your Outfit, and Go to Bed Early

Lay out your interview outfit the night before, get a good night’s rest, and always get an early start. The last thing you want is to arrive at the interview flustered and panicked because you couldn’t find a parking spot

Here is the scenario; you are the restaurant manager on duty and in walks your District Manager and a guy from HR. They have a little small talk with some of the hourly staff and then ask to speak with you in the office.
They ask if you know the company policy about (sexual harassment, inventory control, cash handling) and then describe to you an incident where you are alleged to have violated company policy. There is a short discussion about the incident and then you are told you are being terminated for violation of company policy.

So you get your resume, contact the Gecko Hospitality recruiter and start your interviewing.

The toughest question is: Why are you no longer with your last company?

How you answer that question will determine how successful you will continue in the interview process.

What I usually hear is, there were differences between the District Manager and me, there was no room for upward growth, the company has gone through cultural changes that I wasn’t comfortable with and a bunch of other stories.

I usually listen to those and then ask, what really happened? This is the time when it is important to tell the truth.

I recently placed a manager who had been terminated for violation of company policy regarding fraternization. Of course, that wasn’t what the manager told me, he said “I just wasn’t happy there any more and it was time to move on”.

I got a list of references, and after the first call found out about his termination was for fraternization. I had already sent his resume to a recruiter for a national company, who I have a great working relationship with.

I called the recruiter and let him know what I found out. The recruiter really liked my candidate and decided to continue him in the process. He was then interviewed by a District Manager and was offered the new position.
The District Manager understood that sometimes mistakes happen and he saw a candidate with great potential who made a mistake.

The truth will set you free, be honest with your recruiter and explain your circumstances. We might be able to help you talk about your separation from your last job that still puts your skills in a positive light.

Marty Tarabar

A fellow Recruiter sent me this great article!________________________________________________________________________

While most big hospitality companies (and many small ones) have a formal policy about job references, not everybody abides by it. Heidi Allison, president of reference checking firm Allison & Taylor, says about half the calls her staffers make turn up unexpected trouble.

Even if a reference doesn’t say anything definitely damning, he or she will often use a lukewarm tone of voice or vague, terse comments to put down a candidate, or to hint at less-than-stellar performance. As one former boss told a reference checker recently: “I’d rather not comment. You can take that however you want.”

Have you ever suspected that your former boss was giving you a bad reference? Leave your comments at the bottom of this story.

“The fact is that most people have no trouble talking and, with a little prodding, they will often be surprisingly candid,” says Allison. “You’d be shocked at what some references have said about candidates.” Then again, maybe you wouldn’t.

The first step in resolving the problem: Use different references. This was your first job out of college, but aren’t there other bosses from previous part-time jobs whose names you could give instead? What about former colleagues who could say good things about your work? And this time, be sure and check with them first. Just in case they’ve forgotten how great you were, you can even give them a short list of accomplishments you’d appreciate their mentioning when employers call. If you decline to give your old boss’s name as a reference, and a hiring manager asks about it, you can say you never hit it off with this person and you doubt he’s a fair judge of your skills and achievements. Then move the conversation on to the (far more interesting) topic of what you have to offer.

“At some point in their careers, many people run into a boss who just isn’t a fan,” says Allison. “Most hiring managers understand that — and better you should say it up front than have them discover it in a reference check.” In the meantime, in case some prospective employers might still try to contact your old boss, consider hiring a lawyer to write a cease-and-desist letter. Jim Abrams, an attorney at Allison & Taylor, frequently writes such letters — usually marked “personal and confidential” and sent by registered mail to the reference’s home rather than his office. Why? “The purpose isn’t to punish the bad reference by embarrassing him or her at work,” says Abrams. “The goal is just to make the negativity stop.”

What does a typical cease-and-desist say? It might point out that giving out information about a former employee beyond dates of employment and job title is in violation of company policy and — depending on state law where you live — possibly also a violation of the employee’s privacy rights.

“Companies don’t give out job-performance information about current employees to any stranger who calls on the phone, especially if the information is negative,” Abrams points out. “So why do it to ex-employees?” He adds: “One legal principle that applies here is ‘intentional interference with economic relations.’ Your skills and employability are property rights that a bad reference is taking from you. So we remind people of that, and of the fact that just because someone did not work out in one position at one company does not mean he or she won’t be just fine somewhere else.”

A stern letter from a lawyer is usually enough to make a bad reference change his tune, since no one wants the expense and embarrassment of a lawsuit.

If the letter doesn’t do the job, you could get an injunction against your old boss, but that could also be costly and potentially awkward for your job hunt. Instead, Abram suggests, “consider going back to your old employer and requesting an internal dispute-resolution process like arbitration, which is usually available to both current and former employees.” This strategy will work in your favor if you ever decide to sue your old boss, he says, since “the courts tend to look harshly on companies that refuse access to these alternative methods.”

For more advice on how to fight negative references, please visit AllisonTaylor.com.