Tag: Job interviews

Note Taking During Interviews

To take notes, or not to take notes: that is the question.  Many job seekers might have been wondering about what to do about note-taking during job interviews.  On the one hand, you want to write down important items that come up during the conversation.  On the other hand, you don’t want to seem inattentive and distracted, or miss out on other important things your interviewer said while you’re busy writing down her last sentence. Read More

The Importance of Stories During Interviews

Imagine you ask your friend about her recent vacation. She says “We spent a lot of time on the beach.” Sounds fun. Now imagine instead she says, “We were out on this beautiful powder-white sand beach watching dolphins out in the surf. We jumped in the clear blue water and floated in the gentle waves, then came back to the beach where we sipped tropical cocktails and watched the sunset.”  Which is a better answer?  Read More

What I Learned from 50+ Mock Interviews

Today’s guest blog is by Bilal Aslam, who recently launched WiserProfile, giving you personalized feedback on your LinkedIn profile.  Bilal is a technical visionary with 5 years of experience at Microsoft, currently an engineer on Windows Azure. Recently, Bilal was the VP of Engineering at emptyspaceads, a seed-stage startup. His passions include data mining and distributed systems.

One of my friends Gayle runs an awesome company (CareerCup) which provides phone and in-person technical interview coaching for A-list companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon. I have been doing mock interviews for CareerCup for more than two years now. While I don’t remember the exact number of mock interviews I have done, it’s in the neighborhood of 50+. Candidates have run the gamut from hopeless to brilliant. Read More