11 Final Round Job Interview Questions to Prepare For

By Biron Clark 

If you’re preparing for a final round interview, this article will help immediately.

We’re going to look at three critical factors:

• The top 11 final job interview questions to know
• Steps for how to prepare for a final round interview and what to expect overall
• My #1 little-known tip for how to succeed in a final interview (based on my experience as a recruiter)

Let’s get started…

11 Common Final Interview Questions and Answers

2. What are you passionate about?

This is another final round interview question designed to dig deeper into who you are as a person and what type of worker you’ll be if hired.

There isn’t one “right” answer here, but you do want to be ready to talk about something specific.

When I recruited software engineers, some would say they’re passionate about making a difference in the world or joining companies that were mission-oriented (usually some type of social mission).

But others just said they want to tackle complex technical challenges and advance their skills. They loved facing tough problems as a programmer.

One of these answers isn’t “better” than the other. The key is to share something that’s true so the interviewer can see the passion in you and believe your answer!

Don’t fake it, but do take time to think about how you’ll respond so that you’re not caught without something to say!

Read more about this interview question here.

3. What motivates you?

This question is similar to the one above. Essentially, the employer wants to know that you’re motivated by something other than money.

We all work for a paycheck. They know this. However, workers who also enjoy the work for other reasons are going to be more resilient, more likely to overcome struggles at work rather than quitting, etc.

So this is something a hiring manager will look for and ask questions about… especially in a final job interview.

As with the question above, there isn’t one best answer.

You can give a variety of reasons you come to work each day — from wanting to make a difference/impact in the world to simply liking the challenges that work provides. You can name many other things too. For example, you could say you enjoy being part of a team and contributing to a team’s effort.

Read more about this interview question with example answers here.

10. What is your desired salary?

If this is asked in a first interview, I usually tell candidates to be careful about revealing a number too soon! (And I explain why in this article).

However, if a hiring manager or other member of senior management asks this in a final interview, it’s time to name your number!

Do your research before the interview, and then confidently tell them what you are hoping to earn! Also, end your response by flipping the question on them and say, “Does that fit what you were hoping to pay? And what type of general budget have you set for the position?”

This is certainly an appropriate question to ask after responding to any interview questions about salary expectations.

Read more about this interview question here.

Read all 11 questions and the complete article

 

 

 

 

 

You Only Need To Do These Five Things To Succeed In Your Job Search — Block Out All Of The Other Noise

Jack Kelly

When you’re in between jobs, it's an overwhelming experience. There’s an overflow of too much well-intentioned advice. Everyone’s telling you what you must absolutely do to succeed in the pursuit of a new job. Your parents offer stale advice that’s 30 years old. Colleagues—who moved jobs two years ago—give unsolicited guidance, but have no idea how out of touch they are with the current Covid-19 job market. All sorts of so-called experts come out of the woodwork and weigh in—for a hefty price tag, of course.

Allow me to simplify the process, Marie Kondo-style. Here are the core basics of what you need to do in the job hunt—without all of the drama and fanfare.

1) Know what you want to do next. 

Too often, people jump into a job search without seriously contemplating their next move. They lack a definitive goal and a system of actions to achieve it. 

You’ll see this on LinkedIn when members post a banner with the #opentowork hashtag on their profile photo. They’ll write something like, “Hi, Covid-19 happened and I lost my job.” Then, they’ll add, “Please help me!” 

I get why they do this, but it's not terribly helpful. The job seeker hasn't clearly stated what they’ve accomplished in their career, the type of job they want next, the reasons why they are suitable and appropriate for that type of role and the specific help they require. 

Tell prospective hiring managers, recruiters, people in your network and random strangers how awesome you are and the specific role you covet. Politely ask if they could please introduce you to the appropriate hiring manager, human resources and decision-making personnel, along with a positive recommendation.

2) Be honest—is this an achievable goal? 

Before you jump head-first into the search, ensure that you possess the appropriate skills, background and experience. This market is too brutal and unforgiving to expect that you’ll get an interview and job offer just because you show up. 

Over 60 million Americans have filed for unemployment since March. On a daily basis, we continue to see major corporations conducting massive layoffs. With all of this competition, you need to possess all of the right stuff to garner attention. 

If you think you’re a smart person, can figure things out and succeed in the role, that’s not enough. No one in this environment has the time to deal with someone who isn't a direct on-target fit. They desire a plug-and-play person who can hit the ground running from day one. There are too many other people out there for a company to settle on a less-than-perfect fit. It sounds harsh, but management feels, “Why shouldn't we continue looking until there are applicants that meet or exceed the appropriate criteria at a cost-effective price?”

If you’re chasing an illusionary goal, you’ll waste precious time. Yes, I know. Everyone has a friend who has secured an amazing job without all of the necessary experience. That’s the exception. We are not them.  

Read things 3-5 and the complete Forbes article

 

 

5 Simple Ways To Maximize Your Job Search

Caroline Castrillon

A job search can be stressful and overwhelming, especially in the middle of a pandemic. You may even question whether it makes sense to continue to apply for positions. Yet, the rapidly changing work environment may also bring about new opportunities. Whether you’re looking for a new job or considering a full-blown career change, these tips will help you maximize your efforts during these trying times.

1) Adopt a creator mindset

Even amid a pandemic, it's possible to find professional fulfillment. Successful people understand that there is only one person responsible for their career. That person is you. It's easy to blame external factors for our failures and disappointments, but ultimately you can create the life that you want. Instead of thinking the world is out to get you, expect the universe to support you and bring you opportunities during your job search. Consider this quote by Rumi, “Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor." Once you embrace a creator mindset, you’ll realize that everything you are experiencing is meant to make you a stronger, better human being.

3) Harness the power of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a crucial component of any job search. About 95% of recruiters utilize LinkedIn as a primary sourcing tool to find top-tier talent. If you’ve been in the same career for a while—particularly with the same company—chances are you have been neglecting your LinkedIn profile. Now is the time to brand yourself effectively using these techniques:

• Your headline is one of the most important fields for LinkedIn’s search algorithm. Don’t just list your job title—that’s what 99% of people are doing. You’ll never stand out to recruiters and hiring managers that way. Instead, use all 120 characters to highlight strategic keywords, the value you bring and metrics where applicable. For example, instead of “Finance Manager," change it to "Finance Manager at Dell | Financial Planning and Analysis | Auditing | Managing $30M in Revenue.”
• If you don’t have a photo, add one! Preferably a high-quality professional headshot (not one that looks like a mugshot or where you cut your spouse out of the picture from your cousin’s wedding). Why is this so important? According to LinkedIn, merely having a photo results in up to 21x more profile views and 9x more connection requests. It also goes a long way in making you look trustworthy and approachable.
• Get active! Posting and commenting on LinkedIn will generate attention to your profile faster. Also, join groups. One user increased the number of people looking at her LinkedIn profile by 425% just by starting and participating in a few group discussions.

See all 5 ways and the complete Forbes article

 

 

 

6 Recruiter Tips To Getting Your Resume Seen And Landing An Interview

 Heidi Lynne Kurter

According to the career website, Ladders, recruiters spend only 7.4 seconds reviewing a resume. Meaning, you as a job seeker have less than 8 seconds to make an impression on them. Most job seekers want to share everything about themselves in their resume, therefore, their resume becomes cluttered and overwhelming for the recruiter. Moreover, the resume lacks a clear purpose making the recruiter confused about how a candidate’s skills will translate to the role in which they’re applying.

The career site discovered the resumes where recruiters spent the most time and focus had

• an overview or mission statement at the top of the first page
• a clear flow with title headers and marked sections supported by bulleted lists of accomplishments
• relevant keywords presented in context throughout the resume

Here are six recruiter tips you can implement right away to get your resume seen and land a job.

1) Keep It Stupid Simple (K.I.S.S.)

Most of the time, the people hiring for the role have never worked in that position. For this reason, keep your resume simple and make sure it’s easily understood since they’ll be the ones reading it. To get noticed at a glance, Ben Lamarche, general manager of Lock Search Group, emphasized, “be sure to bullet point your most marketable skills and relevant management experiences. Don't go into so much detail that a reader can't form a quick mental picture of you as a candidate.”

Deepak Shukla, founder of Pearl Lemon, an SEO agency, said “cut out any fluff or experiences that are not relevant to the position. This puts greater emphasis on the information that actually matters to the recruiter.” Also, try to keep your resume to one page, but no more than two pages. David Reitman, Esq., owner of DLR Associates Recruiting, recommended to “focus on the past 5-10 years.” He said, “anything further in the past should simply be mentioned with no more than one line describing job duties.” Avoid repeating information. If your last job was similar to your current job, don't restate everything you did; instead say, “duties substantially similar to..”

2) Utilize The Words In The Job Description

Job seekers often complain about not getting their resume past the applicant tracking system (ATS). The reason being is because the ATS looks for specific keywords that are already in the job description. As a job seeker, it’s important to tailor your resume to include those keywords that are relevant to your experience.

Yaffa Grace, founder of The Essential Resume, advises her clients to take a yellow highlighter and highlight words that come up multiple times in the job description. She said, make sure you only use those keywords if you have the experience reflected in that keyword. You can do this by supporting those keywords with professional experiences that demonstrate you’re knowledgable. The worst thing you could do is lie about or exaggerate your experience. The interview will uncover those lies. If the interview doesn’t, your performance on the job surely will.

Lastly, if you’re going to claim you are detail oriented, make sure to review your resume for mistakes and have someone else look it over too. The quickest way to land in the rejected pile is by contradicting what you claim.

3) Tailor Your Resume To The Position

Most job seekers have multiple resumes. Each resume is tailored specifically for the role in which they’re applying by using the keywords in that job description. If you have a broad background and are applying for various types of positions, it’s important you tailor your resume to speak to the skills of those positions. For example, if you’re applying to a developer position, you would want to move non-relevant positions to “Additional Experience”, personalize your summary and skills section as well as the bullet points from your current and previous positions.

Chris Waltenbaugh, payment processing expert at Payment Depot, explained “for me, the resumes that stand out are the ones that show the person has taken time to think about the position in which they’re applying and carefully crafted a document that demonstrates their understanding and what’s unique about them that will bring value to the job.”

See all 6 tips and the complete Forbes article

6 Tips To Make Your Resume ATS Friendly

by Amy Elisa Jackson

From resume screening tools to Robot Vera, an AI-based software technology that helps recruit and hire humans, it’s safe to say that the robots have become a necessary evil that job seekers need to contend with. Automation and machine learning have become a recruiter’s best friends, helping to sift through hundreds or thousands of applications. However, for an applicant the influx of tech can be overwhelming, conjuring up images of a robot apocalypse.

But before you panic or head for a nuclear bunker, there are a few things you can do to optimize your resume to get beyond the wall of bots and into the hands of a human recruiter. We spoke to Amanda Augustine, career advice expert for TopResume, a resume writing service that helps you craft a winning CV.

Here are her top tips for crafting a bot-beating resume:

1. Know Your Opponent

While it’s not likely that you’ll know who else is vying for an open position, recognizing what you’re up against is key. In the job application process, you are up against the ATS. “ATS stands for applicant tracking system. In short, an ATS is a piece of software used by employers to scan and rank the online job applications they receive for their open positions,” says Augustine. “These bots were initially created with large organizations in mind, which needed help sifting through the thousands of incoming applications they received on a weekly basis. An estimated 95% of Fortune 500 companies currently use an ATS to manage their applicant tracking process. Today, this software has become popular with employers and recruiting firms of all shapes and sizes.”

Think of ATSs as the gatekeepers to your dream job. You’ve got to get past them first in order to succeed.

2. Word Choice & Keywords Matter

Using action verbs like “outperformed,” “solved,” “led,” and “delivered,” are essential when crafting a resume. These compelling action verbs powerfully show off what you did in each of your roles. However, when it comes to the bots, you’ve got to kick things up a notch.

“The most important element — beyond formatting your resume so it can be accurately ‘read’ and parsed by the ATS — is keyword optimization,” says Augustine. “This is how the applicant tracking system determines if you possess the necessary qualifications to be considered for the position. In addition to listing out a specific term, be sure to also include any common abbreviations to cover your bases.”

However, Augustine warns against keyword stuffing or packing your resume and cover letter with buzzwords. “If the ATS can’t sift through the B.S., I guarantee the recruiter or hiring manager will — and then promptly dismiss your application.” Instead use keywords sparingly and intelligently.

“To make sure your resume is compatible with [any ATS] system, incorporate the best keywords throughout your resume 2-3 times, with at least one of those references falling within your Work Experience or Education section. It’s one thing to state that “SEO (search engine optimization)” is among your core competencies, but it’s another thing entirely to show where in your employment history you leveraged that knowledge to add value to an organization.”

3. Keep It Simple

While beautiful resume templates, custom cover letters, and charts may wow a human recruiter, chances are that the ATS bots won’t appreciate the extra effort. Here are Augustine’s fast few tips for keeping it simple:

• Use a simple, clean design. Embedded charts and other images, custom font styles, and intricate bullet styles will get scrambled or simply skipped over when the ATS scans your application.
• Avoid submitting your resume as a PDF unless the system specifically lists PDF files among the acceptable options. Some ATS software scans a PDF as though it were one big image, essentially missing all the information contained in your resume. Stick to a Word document that is compatible with all ATS systems.
• Don’t include important details like your contact information in the header or footer. Again, not every ATS is able to read the information placed in these sections of a Word document.
• Most importantly, customize your resume with keywords that represent the required soft and hard skills found in the job listings. Incorporate these terms throughout the resume, particularly in the “Key Skills” and “Work Experience” sections.

Read tips 4-6 and the complete article

 

 

Never put these 3 ‘outdated’ sections at the top of your resume, says career expert

 J.T. O’Donnell

Landing your dream job is all about making a good first impression, and much of that has to do with what you put at the very top of your resume. Unfortunately, too many job seekers don’t utilize this space to their best advantage.

One of the biggest mistakes job seekers make is starting their resumes with long-winded, boring and self-important paragraphs about how great they are. But guess what? Everyone applying for that position thinks they’re great and worthy of a recruiter’s time.

Here are three outdated resume techniques that no longer work with hiring managers:

1. Summary statements: The responsibilities and accomplishments listed in the job history section of your resume should already paint a picture of what you bring to the table, so there’s no need to amplify it with a long preface.
   
2. Objective statements: This doesn’t offer any new or useful information. What’s the point of spelling out the obvious fact that you’re interested in the position?

See all 3 things PLUS what to do instead

 

10 Ways to Ask for the Job at the Interview

 By Robin Madell

Wondering how to ask for a job? If you really want a particular job, then simply asking for it at the end of your interview may help seal the deal. Hiring managers like hearing an interviewee say they want the job – it shows an enthusiasm for the role and confirms that you’re invested in earning it. It would be a rare manager who wouldn’t be flattered by someone expressing that they sincerely want to be awarded the position that the company is offering.

While it may feel uncomfortable to come out and directly ask for what you want, it’s important to remember that you’re bringing something valuable to the table: your skills and experience. If you keep this in mind, it can help level the playing field and boost your confidence as you prepare to ask for a job in person.

While you shouldn’t fear hearing “no” or feel that it’s presumptuous or too forward to indicate you would genuinely like the job, you should be sure that you indeed truly want the position. If you have any hesitation or uncertainty or think you may be applying for the wrong reasons, then don’t lead the employer astray by suggesting otherwise.

Assuming you really want the opportunity, keep in mind that the way that you go about phrasing your ask can make or break whether or not your request is effective. Consider this list of potential phrases to say when asking for a job at the end of an interview – without sounding like you’re begging.

10 Ways to Ask for a Job at the Interview

• “After hearing you discuss the position, I remain confident that I’d be a great fit for it. I’d love to join your team to help you reach your goals.”

• “The position sounds amazing, and I’m very excited about what the company is doing. I’d love to be seriously considered for this position.”

• “After talking with you, I feel like we’d work really well together. Is there anything else I can tell you about my background to help convince you to hire me?”

• “I’m very excited about what you’ve explained you’re looking for in this position, because I feel I’m a perfect fit for it. Do you have a sense yet of when you’ll be making a final decision? I’d love to work with you and your team.”

See all 10 ways and the complete US News article