Job Offer - Defending your career path and choices during an interview
13 September 2012
Read by 1995 persons
In a recruitment interview, you will be asked to discuss your past, your professional background, and your future, your career choice. Stepstone.fr tells you how to defend both.
Your value lies in your skills but also in your background in the eyes of a recruiter. Without lying, working on the strengths and coherence of your professional journey without appearing as a careerist will make you an unbeatable candidate!
Defend your background
Whether you are a recent graduate or experienced, undertaking a job search means preparing to attend several recruitment interviews. And there's no question of showing up empty-handed, head in the clouds (or stars)! No, an interview requires preparation. The recruiter is a client and you are a product to sell.
What you will try to sell is your know-how, stemming from your experiences, your background, and what it can bring to the company. Highlighting your skills is a must to land a new or first job.
After a brief introduction, the recruiter will ask you to introduce yourself. The opportune moment for you to embark on a description, not only of your personality, but also and especially of your various past professional experiences. Don't go on, stay concise, let your interlocutor bounce off your words. From training and diplomas obtained to jobs held (detailing the tasks), including extracurricular activities while developing the skills acquired, you must review your professional and personal background.
Detail the actions taken with the results obtained. Do not omit your most modest experiences, the recruiter may always detect some skills implemented in them. Describe the working conditions for previous jobs. If you have worked in a team or not (and if you like it), if you are independent, organized, methodical, if during your career you have encountered particular difficulties, and if you have resolved them, in what ways. A career path, whatever it is, can be defended, tooth and nail!
Defend your career choice
During an interview, you may be asked this question: "How do you see yourself in five years?" The recruiter will thus test your ability to project yourself in terms of professional future. A tricky question, because if you unpack a concrete career plan from A to Z, with rapid evolution and responsibility projects, you will cool down your interlocutor for whom you will appear as a candidate with too much ambition. They will think that as soon as the opportunity arises, you will not hesitate to leave the company. Conversely, if your professional project is too vague, poorly defined, they will have difficulty understanding you, understanding your expectations, your desires and the degree of involvement within their company.
Instead, present a short-term projection, in line with what the job offer proposes, deadlines for gradual evolution, corresponding to your current skills. If you are looking for a job in sales for example, say that your aspirations are for now to have a substantial client portfolio and not to immediately claim marketing responsibilities.
Stepstone.fr
Posted on September 13, 2012.
Your value lies in your skills but also in your background in the eyes of a recruiter. Without lying, working on the strengths and coherence of your professional journey without appearing as a careerist will make you an unbeatable candidate!
Defend your background
Whether you are a recent graduate or experienced, undertaking a job search means preparing to attend several recruitment interviews. And there's no question of showing up empty-handed, head in the clouds (or stars)! No, an interview requires preparation. The recruiter is a client and you are a product to sell.
What you will try to sell is your know-how, stemming from your experiences, your background, and what it can bring to the company. Highlighting your skills is a must to land a new or first job.
After a brief introduction, the recruiter will ask you to introduce yourself. The opportune moment for you to embark on a description, not only of your personality, but also and especially of your various past professional experiences. Don't go on, stay concise, let your interlocutor bounce off your words. From training and diplomas obtained to jobs held (detailing the tasks), including extracurricular activities while developing the skills acquired, you must review your professional and personal background.
Detail the actions taken with the results obtained. Do not omit your most modest experiences, the recruiter may always detect some skills implemented in them. Describe the working conditions for previous jobs. If you have worked in a team or not (and if you like it), if you are independent, organized, methodical, if during your career you have encountered particular difficulties, and if you have resolved them, in what ways. A career path, whatever it is, can be defended, tooth and nail!
Defend your career choice
During an interview, you may be asked this question: "How do you see yourself in five years?" The recruiter will thus test your ability to project yourself in terms of professional future. A tricky question, because if you unpack a concrete career plan from A to Z, with rapid evolution and responsibility projects, you will cool down your interlocutor for whom you will appear as a candidate with too much ambition. They will think that as soon as the opportunity arises, you will not hesitate to leave the company. Conversely, if your professional project is too vague, poorly defined, they will have difficulty understanding you, understanding your expectations, your desires and the degree of involvement within their company.
Instead, present a short-term projection, in line with what the job offer proposes, deadlines for gradual evolution, corresponding to your current skills. If you are looking for a job in sales for example, say that your aspirations are for now to have a substantial client portfolio and not to immediately claim marketing responsibilities.
Stepstone.fr
Posted on September 13, 2012.
