As a recruiter, I am always impressed by candidates who have questions of their own to ask-and I consistently receive feedback from hiring managers all over the country who feel the same way. The candidate who’s asked, “So, do you have any questions?” at the end of the interview better come up with something. One who answers, “No, I don’t think so,” is going to get a big negative mark against them in the hiring decision.

Companies want candidates who have critical thinking skills, as well as candidates who are knowledgeable and interested in the job. The questions you ask demonstrate these things. Not having questions of your own to ask sets you up as a candidate who’s passive, won’t work very hard, and isn’t all that interested in the job-even if you are.

General Questions:

What you are looking for in a candidate?

What qualities did the last person you hired have?

Why is this position open?

What was it that you think kept that person from being successful?

What are the tasks in this job that will make someone in this position successful?

How do I rank among the other candidates?

Can you tell me about the company’s culture/mission/philosophy?

What do you like best about working for this company?

What are the next steps?

When do you expect to make a decision?

Do you have any reason why you would not consider moving me forward during the (hiring) process?

Are there any other folks who will be interviewing me later?

What’s a typical day like?

What stops most employees from being successful?

Are there any more questions you have for me?

Do you see how my past experience translates well for this position?

Questions for sales jobs:

Which product line of yours is your lead line? (i.e. the one that everyone should buy)

Which product line should they probably not buy?

How does the travel program work?

The more research you do on the company and the job before your interview, the easier it will be to come up with questions to ask. Naturally, your questions will be more detailed and they will show that you have done your homework, and that’s a very impressive quality in a candidate. You’ll come across as a hard worker who’s also creative, insightful, and engaged.

The questions you ask will allow you to “get inside the hiring manager’s head,” so that you can tell what they’re really looking for, and what they want to hear, so that you’ll have a more successful interview.

Your questions also do the critical job of uncovering any issues the hiring manager might have with you, so that you can correct any problems before you leave.

Real Mex Restaurants, parent of the El Torito, Acapulco and Chevys Fresh Mex restaurant chains, is scheduled to go up for auction later this month as part of an ongoing Chapter 11 reorganization.

According to court filings last week, bids are due before Jan. 20, and an auction would be held on Jan. 26 with the court expected to make a ruling on the results by Jan. 30.

Cypress, Calif.-based Real Mex filed for bankruptcy in October, saying the move would speed a turnaround. At the time, company officials said they were considering a sale of assets, as well as negotiating with existing bondholders and stakeholders about a possible purchase.

Sun Capital Partners is the majority owner of Real Mex, and sources say the private equity firm may still be interested in the chain. Real Mex also has generated interest from outside parties, although no stalking horse bid has emerged to date, according to two people familiar with potential deals.

Boca Raton, Fla.-based Sun Capital also is the majority owner of Friendly’s Ice Cream Corp., which filed bankruptcy in October and went up for auction in late December — only to be repurchased by Sun Capital in a credit bid deal expected to close this month.

The nation’s largest operator of full-service Mexican restaurants, Real Mex in June of last year operated 178 units under the El Torito, Acapulco and Chevys brands, as well as one-off Las Brisas Restaurant in Laguna Beach, Calif.; and small regional concepts Who-Song & Larry’s, Casa Gallardo and El Paso Cantina.

The Chevys chain includes 30 franchised locations.

The company also operates a food production subsidiary called Real Mex Foods.

Roughly 30 restaurants have been closed within the past six months, according to Real Mex spokesman Rick Van Warner.

Currently, Real Mex operates 144 restaurants, including 60 El Toritos; 50 Chevys; 20 Acapulcos; six El Torito Grills; four Casa Gallardos and the four one-offs: Las Brisas, Who-Song & Larry’s, Siniqual and El Paso Cantina. In addition, Chevys franchisees operate another 24 locations for that brand, the only Real Mex concept with franchise locations.

Most of Real Mex’s restaurants are in California, which was particularly hard hit by economic headwinds over the past few years.

The company said in court filings that revenue totaled $315.5 million through late August, a decline of 3.2 percent compared with the same time frame the previous year, in part because of restaurant closures and declining customer traffic.

Real Mex has been reworking its leadership over the past several months.

David Goronkin, formerly president and chief executive of Bennigan’s Franchising Co., joined the company as chair, president and chief executive in June. Since then, Edie Ames was named Real Mex’s chief operating officer overseeing the El Torito and Acapulco brands, and Brian Wright was named president of the Chevys brand.

Van Warner said ongoing operational and cultural changes across all brands are taking hold.

“We’re pleased with the progress the brands are continuing to make,” he said. “We’re looking forward to exiting Chapter 11 after the next few weeks and having a stronger platform for growth.”

Driven by positive same-store sales and an increasingly optimistic outlook among restaurant operators, the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) rose to its highest level in five months.

The RPI, a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry, stood at 100.6 in November, up 0.6 percent from October. In addition, November represented the second time in the last three months that the RPI stood above 100, which signifies expansion of key industry indicators.

“The November increase in the Restaurant Performance Index was fueled by broad-based gains in both the current situation and forward-looking indicators,” says Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the Research and Knowledge Group for the Association.

“Restaurant operators reported their strongest net positive same-store sales results in more than four years, while customer traffic levels also grew in November. Among the forward-looking indicators, restaurant operators’ outlook for both sales growth and the overall economy rose to their highest levels in seven months.”

The RPI is constructed so that the health of the restaurant industry is measured in relation to a steady-state level of 100. Index values above 100 indicate that key industry indicators are in a period of expansion, and index values below 100 represent a period of contraction for key industry indicators.

The RPI consists of two components, the Current Situation Index and the Expectations Index.

The Current Situation Index, which measures current trends in four industry indicators (same-store sales, traffic, labor, and capital expenditures), stood at 100.2 in November, up 0.8 percent from October’s level of 99.5.

November marked the second time in the last three months that the Current Situation Index stood above 100, which signifies expansion in the current situation indicators.

Restaurant operators reported positive same-store sales for the sixth consecutive month in November. Fifty percent of restaurant operators reported a same-store sales gain between November 2010 and November 2011, while just 28 percent reported a same-store sales decline.

This marked the strongest net positive sales performance since August 2007, when 54 percent of operators reported a sales gain and 29 percent reported lower sales.

Restaurant operators also reported stronger customer traffic levels in November. Forty-one percent of restaurant operators reported higher customer traffic levels between November 2010 and November 2011, while 32 percent of operators reported a traffic decline. In October, 37percent of operators reported higher customer traffic, while 39 percent reported a traffic decline.

Capital spending activity among restaurant operators trended upward in recent months. Forty-six percent of operators said they made a capital expenditure for equipment, expansion, or remodeling during the last three months, the highest level in five months.

The Expectations Index, which measures restaurant operators’ six-month outlook for four industry indicators (same-store sales, employees, capital expenditures, and business conditions), stood at 100.9 in November, up 0.4 percent from October and the third consecutive monthly gain.

November also marked the third consecutive month the Expectations Index stood above 100, which represents a positive outlook among restaurant operators for business conditions in the months ahead.

Restaurant operators are more optimistic about sales growth in the months ahead. Forty-one percent of restaurant operators expect to have higher sales in six months (compared to the same period in the previous year), up from 35 percent who reported similarly last month.

In comparison, just 12 percent of restaurant operators expect their sales volume in six months to be lower than it was during the same period in the previous year, down from 15 percent last month.

Restaurant operators are also somewhat more bullish about the overall economy in the coming months. Twenty-seven percent of restaurant operators said they expect economic conditions to improve in six months, up slightly from 26 percent who reported similarly last month.

In comparison, 16 percent of operators said they expect economic conditions to worsen in the next six months, down from 22 percent who reported similarly last month.

Restaurant operators’ outlook for capital spending remains positive. Forty-seven percent of restaurant operators plan to make a capital expenditure for equipment, expansion, or remodeling in the next six months, essentially unchanged from the levels reported in the previous two months.

The RPI is based on the responses to the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Industry Tracking Survey, which is fielded monthly among restaurant operators nationwide on a variety of indicators including sales, traffic, labor, and capital expenditures. The full report is available online.

The RPI is released on the last business day of each month, and more detailed data and analysis can be found on Restaurant TrendMapper (www.restaurant.org/trendmapper), the Association’s subscription-based service that provides detailed analysis of restaurant industry trends.

Industry News | December 30, 2011

Dear Lifehacker,
I heard that a lot of companies use software to weed out “good” from “bad” resumes. How do those systems work, and is there anything I can do to improve my chances of my resume getting through the system and into the hands of a real person?

Thanks,
Resume Revamper

Dear RR,
It’s true: Employers and hiring managers are turning more than ever to resume screening software, thanks to the overwhelming number of job applications they get. It pays to know how these systems (called Applicant Tracking Systems or Automated Resume Screeners) work so you can make your resume more relevant to the job you’re applying for. Here’s a brief overview of how the software analyzes your resume and what you can do about it.

Automated Resume Screeners Score Resumes on Relevancy to Keywords and Experience

Full size
The infographic at right (click to expand) from previously mentioned resume webapp Resunate illustrates the basic process:
1.Your resume is run through a parser, which removes the styling from the resume and breaks the text down into recognized words or phrases.
2.The parser then sorts that content into different categories: Education, contact info, skills, and work experience.
3.The employer’s desired skills or keywords are matched against the results from above.
4.Your resume is scored on relevancy—using semantic matching against the employer’s search terms and your years of experience.

So, clearly, it’s vital to include relevant text in your resume—but rather than just dump all the keywords from the job description in, for best results you’ll need to employ a strategy. (Most savvy job applicants are likely using the same keywords in their resumes.)

How to “Hack” the Automated Resume Screeners

First, don’t just focus on the keywords that are in the job description. Sophisticated resume screeners have gone beyond just keywords to look for semantic matches—related terms (e.g., not just CPA, but also accounting, audits, SEC, financial statements, etc.). Resunate co-founder Mona Abdel-Halim told me that this is how sites like Monster.com and others use technology to help employers find the best candidates (you can see Monster’s concept-matching resume search engine here).

Prioritize the words in your resume. The Resume Help blog recommends auditing the job description to build a list of priority and secondary words to include:

Priority resume keywords: words used in the company’s listed job title, used in the description headlines, used more than twice, called out as success criteria

Secondary resume keywords: mention of competitor companies or brand name experience, keyword phrases (phrases surrounding priority keywords), notable industry qualifications (training, associations)

Consult an insider for help finding relevant words. It never hurts to get friendly with an HR manager or employer in your field—you can go straight to the source and ask them if they could either look over your resume or suggest what kinds of experience/skills they look for in a candidate. Another possible contact to make is a person in a position similar to the one you’d like to have. LinkedIn, which is can be a great resource for job hunters, might be the best place to make these connections, especially in the industry groups forums.

Pepper all the job-related words across your resume. Since the screeners also factor in the depth of your skills (i.e., analyzing your length of experience), it’s also important to place those important words, where appropriate, throughout your resume, in all job positions if possible. Order your bullets in descending order of relevancy to the job description, Abdel-Halim advised.

Create a relevant category expertise section. Make sure your resume matches the special categories for the job you’re applying for. Resume Help gives these examples:

Companies are looking for specialists, not industry generalists, so identifying a category match is a critical first step. One way to do this is by creating a separate section in the top 1/3 of your online resume that captures the relevant category expertise.

Examples of generic category expertise: Management, Operations, Communications, Marketing

Examples of specific, relevant category expertise: Client Relationship Management, Revenue Growth, Risk Management, Negotiation, CRM Program Development

Don’t use photos on your resume. Background images and photos might trip up the system, making your resume unreadable.

Use bulleted lists, not paragraphs, to describe your work. Resume screeners may have a harder time separating long paragraphs. (Bulleted lists are also easier on human eyes.)

Use social networks to enhance your resume. Some resume screeners add other features to check up on you. Reppify, for example, checks your social network posts and how you use sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. So make sure what you post on those networks vibes with what you say on your resume.

Finally, don’t forget the basics: Make sure your resume includes all the job requirements. Your resume should address all the listed job requirements, such as years of experience and education.

Don’t forget, of course, that the ultimate goal will be to get your resume in the hands of a real human. Luckily these tips should also help your resume’s chance of getting past human screeners and hopefully land you an interview.

So while there are a lot of ways to get a job, if you’re concerned that your resume may never actually end up in anyone’s hands, these suggestions are a good starting point. Good luck!

Love,
Lifehacker

P.S. Got your own tips for strengthening a resume and making it more relevant? Help job hunters in the comments.

Brangelina, TomKat…. Twesume?

Just like it sounds, “Twesume” unifies Twitter (your favorite micro-blogging platform) and your resume (yep, the one sitting on your hard drive).

In essence, a Twesume is a short bio or resume condensed into 140 characters or less. Sometimes paired with the #twesume hashtag, the Twesume can be tweeted, messaged or emailed to potential employers.

The great thing about the Twesume is that it’s a completely flexible, living document. Did you get promoted? No problem, just tweet the addition to your resume. Relocate? Totally fine.

What’s the Big Deal?

Like it or not, social media is only getting more influential. In 2011, 89% of companies used social networks for recruiting. As we venture into 2012, you’ll find that social recruiting will become more prominent, edging out job boards as a means to connect employers and job seekers.

Twesumes help job seekers get noticed by companies who use social recruiting. With the Twesume, a job seeker can introduce himself and engage with an employer in less time (and space) than a traditional resume and cover letter could ever manage.

How Can I Write My Own Twesume?

If you’re interested in jumping on the Twesume bandwagon, all you need is a Twitter account and something to say. Once you have your Twitter account squared away (be sure to have a picture, bio and some followers/followees), write your very own Twesume. While the Twesume can be anything you like, try to include this information: what you do, an accomplishment, a goal, skills and/or a link to a detailed profile or website.

Santa Claus: World traveler and toy expert. 300+ years management experience. Looking for position in entertainment industry. http://tinyurl.com/c9ursdp #twesume

Tweet this to your followers, DM to a specific employer or use as your Twitter bio. It really is as simple as that.

What does your Twesume say? Do you think Twesumes are here to stay? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

You have more important things to focus on than, um, focusing. Get back on track with these tips.

By Ilya Pozin | Dec 13, 2011

You probably don’t want to admit it but you love distractions. In fact, just like monkeys, you get a shot of dopamine every time something pulls you in another direction. Why do you think you check your email so much?

Want to be more productive and get your focus back? There are no secret tricks here… do one thing at a time. Stop multitasking—it’s just another form of distraction.

Easier said than done, I know.

Recently I sat down with Tony Wong, a project management blackbelt whose client list includes Toyota, Honda, and Disney, to name a few. He’s an expert in keeping people on task, so I thought he’d be a good person to ask.

Here are his tips for staying productive:

Work backwards from goals to milestones to tasks. Writing “launch company website” at the top of your to-do list is a sure way to make sure you never get it done. Break down the work into smaller and smaller chunks until you have specific tasks that can be accomplished in a few hours or less: Sketch a wireframe, outline an introduction for the homepage video, etc. That’s how you set goals and actually succeed in crossing them off your list.
Stop multi-tasking. No, seriously—stop. Switching from task to task quickly does not work. In fact, changing tasks more than 10 times in a day makes you dumber than being stoned. When you’re stoned, your IQ drops by five points. When you multitask, it drops by an average of 10 points, 15 for men, five for women (yes, men are three times as bad at multitasking than women).
Be militant about eliminating distractions. Lock your door, put a sign up, turn off your phone, texts, email, and instant messaging. In fact, if you know you may sneak a peek at your email, set it to offline mode, or even turn off your Internet connection. Go to a quiet area and focus on completing one task.
Schedule your email. Pick two or three times during the day when you’re going to use your email. Checking your email constantly throughout the day creates a ton of noise and kills your productivity.
Use the phone. Email isn’t meant for conversations. Don’t reply more than twice to an email. Pick up the phone instead.
Work on your own agenda. Don’t let something else set your day. Most people go right to their emails and start freaking out. You will end up at inbox-zero, but accomplish nothing. After you wake up, drink water so you rehydrate, eat a good breakfast to replenish your glucose, then set prioritized goals for the rest of your day.
Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals. Your brain uses up more glucose than any other bodily activity. Typically you will have spent most of it after 60-90 minutes. (That’s why you feel so burned out after super long meetings.) So take a break: Get up, go for a walk, have a snack, do something completely different to recharge. And yes, that means you need an extra hour for breaks, not including lunch, so if you’re required to get eight hours of work done each day, plan to be there for 9.5-10 hours.

The Four Worst Hiring Mistakes

The problem might be you.

5 Ways to Spot a Bad Boss In An Interview

Stephanie Taylor Christensen, Contributor Forbes.com

A boss can literally, make or break your career. Here are five ways to spot the bad ones before they become yours.

A great boss can make you feel engaged and empowered at work, will keep you out of unnecessary office politics, and can identify and grow your strengths. But a bad boss can make the most impressive job on paper (and salary) quickly unbearable. Not only will a bad boss make you dislike at least 80% of your week, your relationships might suffer, too. A recent study conducted at Baylor University found that stress and tension caused by an abusive boss “affects the marital relationship and subsequently, the employee’s entire family.” Supervisor abuse isn’t always as blatant as a screaming temper tantrum; it can include taking personal anger out on you for no reason, dismissing your ideas in a meeting, or simply, being rude and critical of your work, while offering no constructive ways to improve it.  Whatever the exhibition of bad boss behavior, your work and personal life will suffer. Merideth Ferguson, PH.D., co-author of the study and assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Baylor explains that “it may be that as supervisor abuse heightens tension in the relationship, the employee is less motivated or able to engage in positive interactions with the partner and other family members.”

There are many ways to try and combat the effects of a bad boss, including confronting him or her directly to work towards a productive solution, suggesting that you report to another supervisor, or soliciting the help of human resources.  But none of those tactics gurantee improvement, and quite often, they’ll lead to more stress. The best solution is to spot a bad boss—before they become yours! Here are five ways to tell whether your interviewer is a future bad boss.

1. Pronoun usage. Performance consultant John Brubaker says that the top verbal tell a boss can gives is in pronoun choice and the context it is used. If your interviewer uses the term “you” in communicating negative information ( such as, “you will deal with a lot of ambiguity”), don’t expect the boss to be a mentor.  If the boss chooses the word “I” to describe the department’s success—that’s a red flag.  If the interviewer says “we” in regards to a particular challenge the team or company faced, it may indicate that he or she deflects responsibility and places blame.

2. Concern with your hobbies. There is a fine line between genuine relationship building, and fishing for information, so use your discretion on this one. If you have an overall good impression of the potential boss it may be that he or she is truly interested in the fact that you are heavily involved in charity work, and is simply getting to know you. On the other hand, the interviewer may be trying to determine whether you have too many commitments outside of work. The interviewer can’t legally ask if you are married, or have kids, so digging into your personal life can be a clever way to understand just how available you are.

3. They’re distracted. The era of email, BlackBerrys and smartphones have made it “okay” for people to develop disrespectful communication habits in the name of work. Particularly in a frenzied workplace, reading email while a person is speaking, multi-tasking on conference calls and checking the message behind that blinking BlackBerry mid-conversation has become the norm of business communications. But, regardless of his or her role in the company, the interviewer should be striving to make a good impression—which includes shutting down tech tools to give you undivided attention. If your interviewer is glancing at emails while you’re speaking, taking phone calls, or late to the interview, don’t expect a boss who will make time for you.

4. They can’t give you a straight answer. Caren Goldberg, Ph.D. is an HR professor at the Kogod School of Business at American University. She says a key “tell” is vague answers to your questions. Listen for pauses, awkwardness, or overly-generic responses when you inquire what happened to the person who held the position you are interviewing for, and/or what has created the need to hire. (For example, if you are told the person was a “bad fit,” it may indicate that the workplace doesn’t spend much time on employee-development, and blames them when things don’t work out).

You should also question turnover rates, how long people stay in given roles, and what their career path has been. All of these answers can indicate not only if the boss is one people want to work for, but whether pay is competitive, and employees are given a career growth plan.

5. They’ve got a record. Ask the potential boss how long he or she has been at the company, in the role, and where he or she worked before coming to it to get a feel for his or management style, and whether it’s what you respond to.  For example, bosses making a switch from a large corporation to a small company may lead with formality. On the other hand, entrepreneurs tend to be passionately involved in business, which can be a help or a hindrance, depending on your workstyle.

Goldberg also recommends searching the site eBossWatch, where you read reviews that former employees have given to a boss. If you’re serious about the position, she also suggests reaching to the former employee whose spot you are interviewing for, and asking for their take on the workplace. (LinkedIn makes this task easy to do). The former employee’s recount may not necessarily reflect your potential experience, but it can help you to determine whether his or her description of the job and company “jibes” with what the potential boss said.

Jobless rate drops to 8.6 percent, hiring picks up

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The unemployment rate fell to a 2-1/2 year low of 8.6 percent in November and companies stepped up hiring, further evidence the economic recovery was gaining momentum.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 120,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, in line with economists’ expectations for a gain of 122,000.

The relative strength of the report was also bolstered by revisions to the employment counts for September and October to show 72,000 more jobs created than previously reported.

While part of the decline in the unemployment rate from 9.0 percent in October was due to people leaving the labor force, the household survey from which the jobless rate is derived also showed solid gains in employment

The unemployment rate had been expected to hold at 9 percent. It last dropped by 0.4 percentage point in January.

“The really good news is that employment has grown for four months running — in large steps. There was a solid increase in private employment. Everything there looks steady, but clearly healthy and positive,” said Pierre Ellis, a senior economist at Decision Economics in New York.

However, retail accounted for more than a third all new private sector jobs in November.

U.S. stock index futures added gains after the report, while Treasury debt prices briefly extended losses and interest rate futures held steady. The dollar extended gains versus the yen.

The report is unlikely to take much pressure off President Barack Obama, whose economic stewardship will face the judgment of voters next November. The outlook for the U.S. economy is also being threatened by Europe’s deepening financial crisis.

The report could temper the appetite among some Federal Reserve officials to ease monetary policy further.

In forecasts released earlier this month, the Fed said the jobless rate would likely average 9 percent to 9.1 percent in the fourth quarter. It did not expect it to drop to an 8.5 percent to 8.7 percent range until late next year.

Data ranging from manufacturing to retail sales suggest the growth pace could top 3 percent in the fourth quarter, in contrast to China, where growth is cooling and the euro zone, which many economists believe is already in recession.

While the economy’s growth pace appears to have accelerated from the third quarter’s 2 percent annual rate, unemployment remains too high.

At the same time, U.S. fiscal policy is set to tighten in the new year, even if lawmakers extend a payroll tax cut.

Taken together, some analysts believe the headwinds facing the U.S. economy will lead the Fed to ease monetary policy further by buying more bonds.

“We still have a very long way to go. I would favor the Fed going for a third round of quantitative easing,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “It’s the only powerful tool left, even though it’s losing some of its bang.”

Analysts say the economy needs to create at least 125,000 jobs every month just to keep the unemployment rate steady.

But there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic.

While the government’s survey of employers has shown a still tepid pace of job growth, its separate poll of households that is used to calculate the unemployment rate has shown robust jobs gains for four straight month.

At the same time, a broad measure of unemployment that includes people who want to work but have given up looking for jobs and those working only part time for economic reasons dropped to a 2-1/2 year low of 15.6 percent in November from 16.2 percent in October.

PRIVATE SECTOR SHOULDERS BURDEN

All the increase in nonfarm payrolls in November again came from the private sector, where employment rose 140,000 after increasing 117,000 in October.

Government employment fell by 20,000. Public payrolls have dropped in 10 of the past 11 months as state and local governments have tightened their belts.

Outside of government, job gains were almost across the board, with retail surging 49,800.

Elsewhere, construction payrolls fell 12,000 after losing 15,000 jobs in October. Factory jobs edged up 2,000, with most of the gains coming from automakers.

Health care and social assistance hiring rose 18,700 after adding 30,300 job in October. Temporary hiring — seen as a harbinger for future hiring – increased 22,300 after adding 15,800 jobs last month.

The average work week was unchanged at 34.3 hours, with hourly earnings falling two cents.