Resource wants you to put your best foot forward. Your resume is critical to making a great impression, and so is being prepared for an interview. Below are some great tips on how to be prepared and make a great impression.

Resume Tips >
Interview Tips >
Sample Interview Questions >

Resume Tips

List technical skills:

• Use several buzz words to reflect your work and school experience
• List all operating systems and UNIX flavors you know
• List all programming languages and platforms with which you have experience
• List all software you have thoroughly used
• Separate these lists into categories for easy identification

List your qualifications in order of relevance, from most to least:

• Only list your degree and educational qualifications first if they are truly relevant to the job for which you are applying
• Placing relevant skills and experience first helps to highlight these areas and draw attention to your fit for the position

Quantify your experience:

• Cite numerical figures whenever possible
• Monetary budgets/funds saved
• Time periods/efficiency improved
• Lines of code written/debugged
• Numbers of machines administered/fixed
• Demonstrate progress or accomplishments due directly to your work

Begin sentences with Action Verbs:

• Portray yourself as someone who is active, intelligent and gets the job done
• Use past tense, even for descriptions of currently held positions

Sell yourself with your resume:

• Treat your resume as an advertisement for you
• Highlight all of your strengths
• If you have a valuable asset which doesn’t seem to fit into your resume, list it as its own resume segment

Be concise:

• Consolidate action verbs where one task or responsibility encompasses other tasks and duties
• Minimize usage of articles (the, an, a)
• Never use “I” or other pronouns to identify yourself

Omit needless items:

• Social security number, marital status, health, citizenship, age, scholarships
• Second mailing address, references, “references available upon request,” travel history, previous pay rates, previous supervisor names, reasons for leaving previous jobs
• Awards, associations and memberships, publications, and recreational activities that are irrelevant to the position you are seeking

Proofread, proofread, proofread:

• Watch out for spelling errors, grammatical weaknesses, unusual punctuation and inconsistent capitalizations
• Have a friend or relative critique for content and errors

Print resume on plain white paper:

• Don’t waste money on special paper or envelopes
• Your resume will be photocopied, faxed and scanned numerous times

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Interview Tips

1. Learn about the company

It is important to know as much as possible about the company before the interview. Find out about the products and services, management structure, major competitors, latest news reports, size, and culture of the organization.

2. Arrive on time

Leave early enough for the meeting, so you’re prepared for anything that could go wrong (e.g. traffic jams, flat-tire). It is much better to be 15 minutes early than to be 2 minutes late.

3. Dress the part

The clothing you wear in your interview should make you look like you will fit in at your prospective employer. Unless directed otherwise by your recruiter, interviewing protocol dictates:

Men

• Dark, conservative suit and a white, long-sleeved, pressed dress shirt
• Ties should be silk and coordinate well with the suit; avoid flashy patterns on ties
• If you wear an earring, remove it before the interview

Women

• Conservative suit or dress, at or below knee length
• Avoid wearing jewelry and makeup that is showy or distracting
• Nail polish should be neatly done and a subtle color; avoid excessively long fingernails

Everyone

• Avoid wearing too much cologne or perfume
• Hair should be clean and well-groomed
• Shoes should be polished and coordinate with your suit or dress
• Present a professional image with your appearance

4. Be prepared

Think about how your experience in work, classes and activities can relate to the job you’re seeking. Be honest. Don’t try to cover up mistakes. Instead, focus on how you learned from them. Speak slowly and clearly, and don’t be afraid to pause to collect your thoughts.

5. Maintain good eye contact

Maintaining eye contact versus staring at the floor or the wall is absolutely critical. The eyes are one of the strongest nonverbal communicators we have. A candidate who goes into an interview confidently should not have a problem maintaining eye contact.

6. Be ethusiatic – sell youself

Enthusiasm is an infectious feeling that radiates from any meeting where one (or both) party(ies) to the action feels good and excited about being there and looks forward to coming away with more than they had going in. If you sell yourself and get the offer, it is you who gets to make the decision of whether to accept.

7. Ask Questions

You must have an in-depth knowledge of the position and its responsibilities. One of the things that informs an interviewer that you are prepared for the meeting is whether or not you ask intelligent questions. Part of your preparation for the interview should be the generation of a series of relevant, job/company related questions you would like to have answered before you leave.

8. Closing – ask for the job

Each of the above points is important. None of them can be eliminated from an effective interview. However, closing is absolutely the point at which a sale is made or lost. Your goal is to create a desire on the company’s part to extend an offer. For example, a statement or a question like these can show the interviewer that you are interested in making a commitment:

• The opportunity you have is what I’m looking for.
• What is the next step in your hiring process?

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Sample Interview Questions

Prior to the interview, read these questions and think about how you would answer them in your interview.

Work History

1. What kind of job experiences have you had that relate to this position?
2. Tell me about a problem you solved on your previous job. How did you go about solving it?
3. What aspects of your previous job did you like?
4. What aspects of your previous job did you dislike?
5. Describe your boss’s method of management.
6. How do you feel about the progress you have made in your present or previous job?
7. For what things did your boss compliment you?
8. Describe your techniques for getting the job done.
9. What are some of the assignments in your previous job that you found difficult to perform?
10. Why were these assignments difficult?
11. Describe your perfect or ideal job.
12. How would you describe your own feelings toward your job?
13. How would you describe your own feelings toward your supervisor?
14. Tell me about your relations with coworkers.
15. Tell me about any barriers you felt were holding you back from achieving your goals with the company.
16. What kind of job experiences have you had that relate to this position?
17. How would you evaluate your present or previous supervisor?

Behavior

1. Describe a situation in which you recognized a potential problem as an opportunity. What did you do?
2. Give me a specific example of a time when you sold your supervisor or professor on an idea or concept. How did you proceed? What was the result?
3. Describe the system you use for keeping track of multiple projects. How do you track your progress so that you can meet deadlines?
4. Tell me about a time when you came up with an innovative solution to a challenge your company or class was facing. What was the challenge? What roles did others play?
5. What, in your opinion, are the key ingredients in building and maintaining successful business relationships? Give me examples of how you’ve made these relationships work for you.
6. Describe a specific problem you solved for your employer or professor. How did you approach the problem?
7. What roles did others play? What was the outcome? (Decision making)

Attitudes and Goals

1. What are your greatest strengths? Weaknesses?
2. Where would you like to be career-wise in 5 years?
3. Do you believe your talents and abilities are well-matched to this position?
4. What company policies or procedures did you dislike? Why?
5. What do you know about our company?
6. Could you tell me why you are interested in this job?
7. What do you think it takes for a person to be successful in this position?
8. Can you describe for me a typical day in your present or previous job?
9. Why did you decide to go (or not to go) to college?
10. How did you like working for your former employer?
11. What have been your biggest frustrations in your job/career life?
12. What do you like least about this position?
13. How long would you stay if we offered you this position?
14. What do you really want to do in life?
15. What are your 3 greatest career accomplishments?
16. Why do you want to leave your present employer?

Questions for you to ask the Interviewer

Hopefully you have done your homework and already know quite a bit about the company you are interviewing with. Take advantage of the face-to-face conversation with the employer to ask personal and/or specific questions such as:

1. What is the typical workday like?
2. What aspects of your job take the most time?
3. What do you like most (and least) about your job?
4. What skills/abilities are most important to succeed in this job?
5. What specific advice would you give to someone entering this field?
6. What is the path of career advancement in this field?
7. What is the work environment like regarding overtime, hours of work, vacation, office attire?

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