“Tell me a little about yourself.”

That’s a common line in any job interview. It’s something you should know is coming and something for which you should prepare. You should have some idea as to how you are going to answer such a question, so you’re not left stammering or giving a rambling, hard-to-follow answer.

If you are not sure how to answer the question, here are a few tips on how to approach it.
When the interviewer asks a question like this, he or she is trying to determine how good a fit you will be with the company. The hiring manager is trying to get a sense of your personality and attitude. If, for example, you come across as a sober and straitlaced type, and the company or department has a more informal, relaxed atmosphere, that might raise some reservations in the hiring manager’s mind as to whether the company/department is the right place for you.

The irony of the situation is that a hiring manager doesn’t really want to know a lot about you personally.  You can save the biographical information for another time.

What an interviewer is most interested in hearing about is what you’ve achieved in career or job history. And now is a good time to expand on what you have on your résumé, to go beyond the bullet points and talk about what you have done, the contributions you have made, and to do it in a bit more depth. The interviewer wants to know what kind of job you are going to do in his or her company/department and telling him or her what you’ve done in the past will give the hiring manager an idea of how you’ll be able to contribute in the future.

You can also add a little information here about your attitude and personality, how you see yourself, what personality traits define you.

And, while many job applicants are under the mistaken impression that they need to be as brief as possible in their answers, you do need to watch so that you don’t wander off topic. Before you answer, take a little time to collect your thoughts and come up with a general plan as to what you are going to say. And again, it’s perfectly acceptable to talk for a few minutes about your background and experience, but watch that you don’t take any detours from your main point.

Got the job interview jitters? We’ll help calm you and give you some great tips when we send you for an interview with one of our client companies. Call RealStreet Staffing today so that we can help you find temporary and direct-hire positions with some of Washington DC’s top architecture, construction and engineering firms. We look forward to hearing from you!

No matter if you’ve interviewed hundreds of candidates over the years or if you’re new to the “art of the interview,” here are some tips to help you as you work to find your next great hire.

Listen. Really listen. Talk less. A good rule of thumb is to listen 80 percent of the time. Let your candidate be the one who does almost all of the talking. You’ll learn quite a bit that way. Get comfortable with silence — don’t feel you have to rush in and ask another question as soon as your interviewee finishes answering a question. You can use this time to finish jotting down notes or coming up with another question based on something your candidate just mentioned.

This also shows your candidate that you’re interested in what he has to say and that you’re really considering what he’s saying.

Don’t be shy about asking for clarification. If, for example, a candidate mentions he was the project manager for a multi-million dollar project, ask for specifics. What was the actual dollar amount? How many people did he manage during the project? How long was the project? Did it end on time and under or at budget?

Listening more and talking less allows you to get a good idea of a candidate’s personality and will help you ascertain if he will be a “good fit” for your company or department’s culture.

Here are some questions you may want to consider asking:

Why do you want to work here? This question lets you see how much a candidate knows about your firm. The more detail a candidate offers (“I’ve followed how your company is earning more and more government contracts and I want to be a part of a company that’s growing”) shows you that the applicant has done his research.

Why should I hire you over someone else? This question lets the candidate tell you in more detail about his skills and background. If a candidate relays that experience in a way that shows how that experience will help you, all the better.

Tell me a bit about your background. You already know a bit about this from reading an applicant’s résumé. Yet asking this question allows you to see if the candidate couches his work history in a way that shows how it will benefit your business. On the other hand, if the candidate goes on too much about how working for you will benefit him (it would be a great promotion, he could save more for a down payment on a home, it’s always been his dream to work in Washington, DC, etc.), you can pretty much see that this candidate doesn’t understand that you’re hiring him to solve your company’s problems, not his.

When you need skilled and reliable engineering, architecture and construction professionals for your Washington Metro-area firm, contact RealStreet Staffing. We can provide you with top-notch temporary, temp-to-hire or direct hire professionals. We look forward to hearing from you!

When it’s tough to find a job, the tough….write a recession-proof resume!

Here are some tips to help you craft a resume that will help your application stand out from others.

Most resume writers craft a resume using the standard chronological format, in which they list work experience in reverse chronological order (current or last job first, followed by previous jobs). But if you’ve been out of work for a while, or if you have some obvious gaps in your employment history, you may want to write what is known as “combination” resume. This type of resume places more emphasis on your skills and accomplishments instead of your previous positions and dates of employment.

So instead of just listing where you worked, your job title and a few of your job tasks, break out your resume into different sections. For example, a system administrator may want to divide his resume into “Project Management,” “System Skills,” and/or “Training Skills.”

Combination resumes also work best when you’re looking to change professions because they can help you better highlight previous work experience, education and skills that can transfer to the new career and help you make the transition. You want an employer to see how what you’ve done in the past will help her in the future.

Focus on results and how you’ve contributed to previous employers’ bottom lines. For example, if you’ve worked as a plant layout engineer in the past, state how your review of one project found cost efficiencies not already in place and how your suggestions saved your company several thousand dollars (be specific as possible with the dollar amount), or saved it a certain percentage in construction cost (be sure to provide that percentage number).

One thing many job seekers neglect to do is to customize their resume to each company and position to which they’re applying. Yes, this takes more work than just using the same resume for every position. But you should study each position carefully and fine tune your resume so that it speaks specifically to the employer’s needs.

Doing so will truly help your resume stand out from others.

Check, check and check your resume some more for mistakes. Write it one day and leave it be until another — you’ll see it with fresh eyes. Ask someone to proof it for you.

Your goal is to make the resume mistake- and typo-free. No misspellings. Hiring managers look at mistakes in resumes as an indication that you’re sloppy, don’t have attention to detail and/or don’t care about how you present yourself.

In these days of high unemployment, businesses are loathe to “take a chance” on someone who appears unqualified, lax and indifferent. Work hard to showcase how you can help solve an employer’s problems in your resume and you’re on the right path towards finding a new job no matter what the economic conditions.

Use RealStreet Staffing, as well as a focused, achievements-oriented resume, to help you find a terrific position quickly in Washington Metro construction, architecture and engineering companies. We look forward to hearing from you.

So you’ve landed an interview. Congratulations!

Now you need to prepare for it, and prepare well.

If you researched the company some as you were writing your cover letter and resume (you did didn’t you, so that you could reference your knowledge of the company in your cover letter?), you now need to really dig in so that you’ll be able to discuss thoroughly how your specific skills and background will help the business meet its goals and challenges.

Most of your interview will be filled with you answering questions about your qualifications, your experience and skills and your successes.

But eventually, usually near the end of the session, the hiring manager/interviewer will probably utter these five words: “Do you have any questions?”

Here are some questions you should ask:

• What are the major challenges you see the person who gets the job will face?
• What are the skills and background of the perfect candidate? (Really listen to the answer and then talk about how your skills/background fit the bill.)
• What are the first things you want the person who gets the job to do in the first few weeks of being here?
• Why is the position open? (With this question,  you’ll learn if the position is a new one. Or, if the person who had it before was promoted, you know that this position is a good stepping stone to more responsibility — and pay.)
• You asked me where I want to be in five years; where would you see the person who gets the this job in five years?
• What do you see me lacking for this position? (You can then talk about how, yes, you don’t have this particular skill, but you do have this one, and this one. In fact, you can be very upfront about a skill you lack: “I don’t have the PowerPoint skills you need, but I have excellent Word, Excel, QuickBooks and Publisher skills and I know I can learn PowerPoint quickly and well.”)

As the interview winds up, you should definitely ask what the next steps are. This will tell you if second interviews will be conducted, and when.

Finally, the most important question you can ask is to ask for the job.

When you get up after the interview is over and you’re ready to say good-bye, take the interviewer’s hand, look her straight in the eye and say something like “I really enjoyed speaking with you. I like the opportunity as you presented it and I feel my skills and background are a great fit. I want to work for you and I hope you’ll choose me as the winning candidate.”

Good luck!

If you work in the construction, engineering, architecture and other technical industries in the Washington DC area, contact RealStreet Staffing. We have terrific opportunities with some of the Washington Metro area’s finest firms. We look forward to hearing from you!

As you write a resume, you must remember that its purpose isn’t to get you a job, it’s to get you an interview.

A resume is to pique an employer’s interest in you so much that the hiring manager will call you in for an interview. It’s at the job interview that you can then go into much more detail about how your backgrounds, skills and accomplishments can be of value to the company.

So your resume in many ways is a marketing tool. And what do marketers want the public to do when they read/see/hear an ad? Take action. Buy. Call for more information. Come to the store. Ask for a meeting, etc.

The operative word here is action. And the action you want a hiring manager to do when she reads your resume is to contact you for an interview.

So action must be in your resume. Action verbs, that is, verbs that show what you’ve done for other employers. Verbs that demonstrate your accomplishments, the challenges you overcame and the successes you brought to your previous jobs.

Here are some of the best “action verbs” to place in a resume (be sure you’ve actually done these things; don’t lie on a resume. You could get fired if the company hires you and later finds out you never actually did the things you said:

• Achieved
• Acquired
• Authorized
• Built
• Collected
• Completed
• Devised
• Directed
• Drafted
• Eliminated
• Employed
• Expanded
• Fixed
• Guided
• Improved.
• Invented
• Launched
• Negotiated
• Overcame
• Pioneered
• Produced
• Ran
• Reached
• Reshaped
• Saved
• Started
• Transformed
• Trained
• Undertook
• Volunteered
• Worked

If you’re looking for a new position and feel you’re resume could use some help, bring it to us. We’re experts in helping Washington DC’s workers find great jobs. We’ll look over your resume and give you some pointers. We also may find you a great position! Contact RealStreet Staffing today.

Have you ever met someone for the first time and, after exchanging the usual pleasantries about what a nice day it is (or isn’t), what each of you do for a living, etc., the person launches into a monologue all about him? His opinions. His tribulations. His day. His week. The funny thing his kid said the other night.

Not a pleasant happenstance, is it?

Well, the stakes are even higher during the job interview.

If we can give you just one piece of advice regarding job interviews, it is this: a job interview is not about you. It is not about your needs. Your desires. Your goals.

Yes, these topics probably will come up. But the purpose of a job interview is so that a potential employer can see how hiring you will benefit him.

In other words, what skills do you bring to his company? What problems of his can you solve? Can your sales background bring him (the company) money? Will your personality fit in his business’ culture?

So as you interview, keep the details about your needs to a minimum.  Never ask about benefits, salary, vacation time, etc. until either your interviewer brings it up or until you have an offer.

As you interview, be sure to detail how you’ve solved your previous employers’ problems. Talk about how you solved them not to brag but to show your possible new employer how you can take the skills you used to solve your previous boss’ challenges to solve your new employers’ needs.

We’ve seen it again and again: a hiring manager asks a candidate to “tell me a little about yourself.” And then the candidate launches into a monologue about how it’s always been a dream of his to work for a well-regarded construction firm and so this opportunity to work as a project coordinator is right up his alley, because this is taking him one step closer to his dream and he’s so pumped!

Instead, a savvier candidate will talk just a tiny bit about his background. Then he’ll mention how he read the company’s annual report and found it interesting the firm plans to move into green construction because he helped his last employer research the licensing and certificates necessary to become LEED certified and he’d like to discuss what he discovered with his interviewer, if he may.

May he?!!! He had the hiring manager at “I read your annual report and….”

So be sure to talk about how your skills, background and job history benefits a potential employer. Talk about your successes, of course, but couch them in how they helped a former employer.

Remember (and forget it at your peril): A job interview is not about you. It’s about them.

Need some tips for interviewing? We can help. RealStreet Staffing can coach you in the best interview practices so that you’ll shine before an employer. We can help the Washington Metro area’s construction, engineering, architecture professionals find positions with the area’s best companies. Contact us today.

Many otherwise professional, savvy, mature job seekers turn into puddles of anxiety when it comes to discussing and negotiating their salary requirements when job searching.

The following tips can help you do negotiate a salary with which both you and your future employer will be happy:

Understand that employees cost a business a ton of money. Salaries, benefits, vacation time, etc. creates a huge dent in their bottom line. Many experts, in fact, say that personnel costs make up 70-80 percent of a company’s total expenses!

Naturally, then, an employer is going to try to hire you at the lowest price he or she can.

Your job, and you should accept it, is to get the employer to pay you the highest amount you can negotiate.

Here’s how to do it.

If at all possible, leave any and all talk about your salary requirements until you have a job offer. Spilling the beans before that puts you at a negotiating disadvantage.

If a Washington Metro employer corners you and says it must know your salary requirements before you’re even out of the gate, quote a range, with your stated low figure your actual middle and the high your “if wishes really came true” salary.

For example, let’s say you’ve done your numbers and the absolute bottom salary you can/will accept is $45K, but you tell the employer who insists on a number from the get go that your range is $50K-60K. That way, if the employer says “I can’t pay you more than $45K,” that’s OK with you.

Giving a range higher than your real range allows you lots of wiggle room — it’s easy to negotiate down than up. It also sets the bar high. Chances are good that, if the position pays $50-60K, you’ll get at least $50K.

Again, try your best to avoid any talk of salary until you have a job offer. The above tip is for those times when a potential employer pushes you to a wall and says “Talk price! Now!”

In addition, if an employer says she wants to know your current/last salary, do not give it. Mention desired range, as outlined above. Your last salary should have nothing to do with what this position pays. If you had to take a job that paid $25K annually while you got your life back on track after a personal disaster, but you have the skills for a position that pays $50K, you deserve the $50K. On the flip side, if your last job paid $50K but circumstances are requiring that you’re applying for jobs in the $25K range, telling a hiring manager or HR employee your previous salary will put you out of the running before the gate even opens.

If you’re asked for a salary requirement on an application, write “negotiable.” If the application (or job ad) asks that you include your past salary, leave it blank. Yes, there’s a chance you won’t get called. But employers tend to ignore these missing items in an application if you have pretty much exactly the skills and background an employer seeks.

Remember, it’s the position and qualifications that dictates the salary. Not your wants and past salary history.

With that in mind, be sure you have some idea what a company in this area pays for the type of position you seek. Salaries are much higher in some areas of the country than others, and even within regions. Salaries are much higher in Washington, DC than in cities outside the Beltway, for example. Do your research.

RealStreet Staffing knows the decision makers in the construction, architectural, engineering and Federal communities. We can help you find  terrific opportunities that fit your backgrounds and needs. We look forward to hearing how we can help you create a better future.

Having the right interview approach can be the difference between landing the job and coming in second.

The first step is to cover the basics.  Prepare for the interview carefully and well in advance. Ensure you’ve done your homework ahead of time so you can easily answer all kinds of commonly asked questions–and you’ve practiced your answers.  Make sure your appearance is clean and professional.

Now that you’re thoroughly prepared for the interview, you need to shed the nerves and practice your approach.  On your ride to the interview relax and take a few deep breaths and follow these key steps:

1) Think of the times you’ve been successful.
Think of your victories. Of all your achievements. Your accomplishments. The moments that made you feel good about yourself. Feel your inner confidence boost you up.

2) Think positive thoughts.
Stop all negative thoughts about what might happen if they ask tough questions, etc. Think positively and fill your head with positive thoughts of how you would be a success at the interview, at the job and at your career.

3) Visualize an easy and successful interview.
Visualize yourself answering questions with ease. Visualize a friendly and amicable interviewer or a panel. It helps to alleviate your mood and in turn will make a favorable impression on the interviewers.

4) Think of the interview as an animated conversation.
Stop thinking of the interview as a stress filled interrogation and more in terms of an animated conversation you will be having with people in the same area of business. That will alter your approach from being defensive to being participative and show qualities of teamwork and receptivity in you.

5) Think of your strengths.
Focus on your strengths. Forget about the weaknesses. There is not much you can do about them. If you are forced to discuss your weaknesses, talk instead about the proactive steps you take to overcome those weaknesses.  Use them to your advantage.

6) Be punctual.
Be early at the venue because that helps in acclimating to the environment and in learning or clarifying any bits of information that you may need before your interview.

By following these six steps, you’ll be able to shed the nerves and put your best foot forward.  And please remember–be yourself.  As long as you’ve prepared ahead of time and relax, you’ll do just fine!