Tie By Tie 22 (More Interviews)

Another long day writing Burberry for the Kids shop for Fall 2010. A promised though here are some more ideas for interviews, more in the stripe department.    As before I left them primarily with navy until the last option which is a slight variation off the navy theme (its navy with burgundy as well.)  Many will tell you that burgundy is a color that can comfortably be worn on interviews and they are probably right, but I would stay away from a strong burgundy that is close to red.  Not because red indicates power or red is a challenging color or an eye attracting color (which it is and you do want them to concentrate on you not your tie) but mostly because out of all the applicants will NOT be wearing red and therefore you should not be wearing red either. :-)

A Boring Stripe/Check in Navy.



A boring small chevron weave:



A boring squares pattern in burgundy and navy.  The navy tones the burgundy down (or the burgundy livens the navy, depending on if your glass is half empty or half full :-) ).



As we are talking about interviews, here is some unsolicited advice.  In a small business one wears many hats and HR is one of my many.  Having read through literally thousands of resumes here are some things that have always either piqued my interest or turned me off.

1) As your resume if your first foot forward and allows your prospective employer to learn about you, PLEASE use spell check to make sure you spelled things correctly. If you are using word or most web browsers, those squiggly red lines under the word means you spelled it wrong :-).

2) Even after you have ascertained that everything is spelled correctly give your resume over to a friend or a professional to proofread so you can get a feel for how it flows and if it makes sense.  It may make sense to you but thats because you know what its supposed to say.

3) The email address you send the resume from or the email address that is on your resume should not be one that you use in a chat room or just hanging with your cronies.  You are interviewing for a job, not trying to get picked up or pick someone else up (I hope).  I cannot tell you how many silly email addresses I have seen resume's come from or containing silly reply to addresses.  Get a gmail, yahoo or hotmail account that has your name in it and nothing else.   Emails that come into my HR box from HOTYOUNGSTUD@AOL.com or the female version thereof, usually get deleted immediately, and for those that dont delete it you are usually stepping up to bat with a reviewer who already has a jaundiced eye of you due to your bad judgement call of email addresses.

4) Many resume builder services tell you to have a paragraph entitled Objective where ostensibly the applicant is supposed to tell you what he wants to gain from the job or his/her career.  I have no idea who made this up but if you ask me its "silly" (I am being nice here).   First of all, everyone does the boilerplate response, "To seek meaningful employment, blah blah blah" .  That means to your employer that you just filled in what you were supposed to.  Secondly,  Your prospective employer doesn't really care at this point how you want to advance your career.  He cares what you can do for him.  Sort of the Ask not what your country can do for you...Ask what you can do for your country.

Here is my suggestion.  Instead of a line about how this job can help you, why dont you put in a summary line of what you can do to help the boss achieve HIS goals, and why he should hire you.  A line to the effect of  "I can bring to the table quality A, B and C to help company XYZ get to JKL."   That shows your employer that you are looking to help him in his goals.  How can anyone ignore that?

5) Arrive to the interview on time.  Nay, better yet early.  Dont make them wait for you.  Leave early enough to get there in time.  Better you wait for them a half hour then they wait for you 5 or 10 minutes.  If you absolutely HAVE to be late, communicate with a phone call (dont leave a voice mail, make sure you get in touch with them) and not only an email (Not all HR personal are attached to their PC at all times) . They are making time for you, be considerate of that time.

6) Make sure your clothing is above all else, CLEAN.  ESPECIALLY your shoes.

7) After the interview follow up with an email thanking them for the opportunity, telling them again that you look forward to putting your skills to work for them and letting them know that if they have any questions you are available to answer vie email and or phone.

Good luck!