The news arrives, you have been shortlisted for interviews. It a great feeling. You were really nervous, but it all worked out.

The CV writing tips we gave you lived up to their expectations and passed the 5 second test, granting you an interview.

Firstly, congratulations on getting to this stage!

The interview is an extremely important part of the journey to securing your new job as your prospective employer will use your presentation to decide “yay” or “nay”.

Today I want to talk about how to do well in an interview. So, here are a few tips you can use to make sure that you stand out from that competition.

Pre-Interview

Prepare, prepare, prepare. I cannot emphasize this enough.

Research

Do a lot of research on the organization. You should scour the internet to get any information you can arm yourself with (programs, financial status , thematic areas and geographical location of the work the org does).

Reach out to your professional network and see if there is anyone with “inside scoops”.

Review any public information like websites and relevant articles. 

Interviewers like to see that you were interested enough to look up the organisation  so this will be a feather in your cap if you can show some of this knowledge.

Be very familiar with the job description so that you are able to match your skills/qualifications to the requirements of the job.

Review your CV

Be able to talk about your key skills. Identify some success stories in your CV that you can refer to during the interview.

Make sure you identify examples that can show your suitability for the position and for the organization and be able to talk about these success stories in the SAR method (Situation-Action-Result).

Do some mock interview sessions

Ask someone to interview you and practise your responses to some of the standard interview questions like;

• Tell us about yourself?
• Why are you the most suitable candidate for the position?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?

I will go through some of these questions and tips on how to answer them during my next discussion.

Do a dress rehearsal

Make sure your outfit is suitable and still fits. (What to wear and when is an important topic we will discuss at another time.)

If you are having a Skype or phone interview make sure you plan to have a good internet connection and that all your devices are working and charged.

You don’t want your phone battery dying during that important call.

If you have a face to face interview make sure the logistics are well planned in advance… you know how to get there and you have reliable transport.

During the Interview

You will not have another chance to make a first impression so your presentation is very important . If you have prepared you will do well!. Remember you are presenting your brand. Be confident .

Make sure you are on time

Being late for your interview is not a “good look” and gives the impression that you are disorganised and maybe are not very good at managing your time. You would rather be early …

Listen carefully

Do this to answer the question you were asked. Keep your responses short and do not ramble.

Ask the interviewers specific questions

This will give you an idea of the work environment and the job.

• What do you like most about working here?  
• Is this a new position or a replacement?

This is a two-way conversation because you also want to know if this is the kind of organisation you can be happy working for.

Always ask the interviewer about the next steps.

Post Interview

You can continue to make an impression after the interview

Don’t forget to send a ” Thank you ” note to the interviewer(s) reiterating your interest in the position and highlighting once again why you are the best candidate.

You can also reiterate some of the highlights of the interview and you can use the note to mention anything critical you may have omitted to mention in the interview.

Feedback loop

In the end, you should also do a post-mortem of the interview and give yourself honest feedback on what you did well and what you can do better next time.

Keep the job search going and keep going until you get that job offer.

Interview sessions are available in our Gold package. Email batje@humhr.org with enquiries.

Have some time on your hands?

You may be in-between jobs or simply on vacation from college or school. Or taking a gap year.

Finding something but fulfiling and relevant for you, in the long run, may be difficult to do.

If you are aspiring to help heal the world and apply your self in different nations, you may be interested in this.

Keep reading.

I am a great proponent of volunteering one’s time to a worthy cause. In my view, it is servant leadership and gives you an opportunity to give back to the community that has given to you in one way or another.

Volunteering is a great way to get much-needed work experience

Before getting your dream assignment or work in that organisation you badly want, the first place to start in building your resume is by volunteering for other organisations. They may be smaller or for shorter periods, but it helps you perform better in the long run by preparing you for the contract you want.

Volunteering can help you earn a living and support your family

In exchange for your time and dedication, you will receive allowances that can help you meet your saving goals, investment goals or to support your loved ones back home.

It provides you with an opportunity to gain a fresh perspective of life

Living life in someone else’s shoe, experiencing the factors surrounding them that have shaped them can bring light to your mind. Help you count your blessings and teach you to appreciate the simple things in life. Hearing of other people’s stories can also help you to make better life decisions.

Has the capacity to enhance the lives of the people you are helping

Seriously, you can change someone’s life. And not only that you can change the world. One assignment at a time. So many pandemics globally rely on humanitarians to step in and help heal the world. You can be a part of that story as well.

Teaches you something new different every day

The perks of travelling come when you are completely immersed in one’s culture. You get to appreciate their social structures, tradition, fashion, food, skill and even language. If you love the experience of learning something new this is a great way of keeping your life exciting.

There are a whole lot more reasons out there. Find what you love and keep offering yourself up for leadership. The world needs you.

If you are interested in Volunteer activities or would like to find out more about volunteer opportunities at HumHr you can get in touch with me at batje@humhr.org

Tips for “the attention grabbing resume”  – If you prefer audio you can also listen to the tips here

I get a lot of requests to give people feedback on their resumes and because this is a time consuming exercise I usually cannot do justice in one sitting . I have come up with a few general tips that I would like to share with anybody who may be asking “Is my resume any good”?. The general rule is that your resume must pass ” the five second rule”. It only takes five seconds to make a first impression and you can only make a first impression once so make those five seconds grab the recruiters attention. I will give some tips on how to do this shortly but before I do that I would like to discuss the question ;

” What is the difference between a resume and a curriculum vitae (cv) “? ” A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet” (Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet).

Resume is a French word for “summary”- This is a snippet of one’s education, skills and employment and is usually about 1- 2 pages.

Curriculum Vitae is latin meaning “course of life” and is a more detailed narration of one’s professional experience and is generally about 2-3 pages but can be longer.

In my professional opinion though this is just semantics and the difference does  not really matter and usually a prospective employer will tell you what they want you to submit when applying for a job. The most important thing in my view is the content so focus on that .

5 second rule tips

Professional Summary

In my opinion this is the most important part of your resume as this is a summary of who you are , what your skills are and basically tells me why I should look at the rest of your resume. This section of your resume will either ” grab ” my attention or not.

Errors

Nothing will kill your chances for an interview faster than a resume or cover letter with an error or errors. Proof read and spell check your documents … whatever you do make sure that when you submit that resume there are no errors.

White Space

A resume without white space suggests clutter and chaos so make sure that there is enough white space around your paragraphs to make it easier on the eye.

Formatting

Alignment – make sure that all text , headers, bullet points and paragraphs are all aligned correctly. Even if one is slightly out it will be noticed immediately. Make sure the page margins are the same through out the document.

Font type – There are literally 100’s of different type of fonts to choose from . I recommend you choose simple and conservative . The most common types are Arial and Times New Roman.

Font style– be consistent in your font style . You can use bold , underline , italics , caps to attract the attention of the reader to key points- just be consistent

Font size – For easy reading always use one font size throughout your resume ( 10-12 points). You can increase these to 14 points for the headings.

Pictures? 

I do not recommend photos – they take up valuable space, serve no purpose and can be a hit or a miss!

For a deeper insight into your resume and individualized tips you can contact me on batje@humhr.org.

I just wanted to highlight this USAID Microlinks Webinar taking place today , Tuesday (10th November) about Economic Recovery and Resilience in Crisis Environment. 

https://www.microlinks.org/events/mpep-seminars/economic-recovery-and-resilience-crisis-environments​​

When: Tuesday 10 November 2015, 09:00 AM – 10:30 AM​​

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US and Canada)​​

Description:Today we face an unprecedented refugee crisis in Syria and recurrent natural disasters in places like the Philippines and Nepal. In this context, the SEEP Network is working to revise the Minimum Economic Recovery Standards (MERS). These standards articulate the minimum level of technical and other assistance to be provided to enable economies and livelihoods to recover after a crisis.

In this month’s Microlinks Seminar, we will discuss the MERS and learn from other fields practitioners’ lessons from a variety of complex operating environments.

Topics to be discussed:​​

(a) How have humanitarian agencies promoted economic recovery for affected populations in Nepal, Syria, the Philippines, and Haiti?
(b) What lessons are most useful to practitioners regarding what constitutes an effective response?
(c) What are some of the key lessons we need to focus on when revising the MERS?

The MERS were developed in 2009 and revised in 2010 with input from hundreds of practitioners on effective assistance to disaster-affected populations. The SEEP Network is updating the MERS with support from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. This provides  a unique opportunity to discuss the latest advances and challenges in global development and disaster relief.

The value of partnerships is oft times underestimated but there is strong merit in acknowledging the need for symbiosis as humanitarian organizations pursue their missions in an effort to do good. We often try to do too much by ourselves and in the process compromise the standard and quality of our work. When dealing with the most critical resource for mission effectiveness, the human resource;  we cannot “cease from exploration”. We have to constantly review , update and test our ideas, processes and “way of doing things” as we recruit, develop, mentor and retain staff.

Intriguingly, the department that works for the good of human resources is often ignored, relegated and in some instances non-existent. It is often one of the first departments to face cuts when things go south. All to often there are not enough people in the HR department to adequately meet the organizational needs and HUMHR believes that partnership can fill that gap in a cost effective manner.

HumHR (pronounced “Humor or Humour” – [(h)yo͞omər]) was founded to serve the humanitarian world through a well-connected network of partners in the United States, Africa and the Caribbean. We harness the power of partnerships to provide a dynamic boutique service that places high quality candidates while developing a continuous talent pool.

The mission of HUMHR  is to provide a seamless value-add service to our clients in a simple, ethical and transparent manner. This blog will be used as an interactive forum to chat with you about the services we offer or share with you insights from our experiences in the HR world.

We look forward to “partnering with you to do good”!