How do I land 60% offers from all of my interview sessions.

My success rate in interview sessions is not an A, but 60% of the interview I had comes with an offer.

Here are a few tips that I used in landing a job, they might not be entirely correct but may be a good start for job hunters out there.

1. Resume

A resume or CV is very important, this is the first thing the hiring managers will see before calling you for an interview. Every time I refresh my resumes it has to have certain criteria;

• Structure

I arrange them in the following sequence

1. Personal details

The information should be minimal but complete. Full name, current employment titles, address, and contact details. I usually skip the marital status because to me it does not matter, if you are good, you are good.

1. Current and past employment

Be very detailed. I include all of my day-to-day tasks and responsibilities with concise detailed descriptions. The interviewer would like to know what you can offer them. Make the words interesting to read.

List down all of the projects you are involved in and include the description of your role in your projects.

1. Education Background

I am very detail with my educational background with a general description of my major.

1. Skills

Do not just list down your skills, elaborate on how you can contribute, or how you apply your skills in your daily responsibility. This will help the interviewer to have an overview of your core strength. And list down all of your valuable skills even you are not a 10 of 10 experts. For example :

“Supplier Management (8 of 10): Manage suppliers on daily basis by monitoring their delivery performance. And evaluate supplier performance quarterly.”

1. Referrals

Put the name and the contact of the person you trust the most, and the person must understand or work with you in your current or past roles.

1. Know your future employer

Do a little research if the company’s business sparks your interest. Understand their core business, how big their operation is, who are their main customers. Then only you will know how to relate your experience and skills to the company, and

1. An interview session is a marketing session

You are selling your service to the company. They are paying for your service, make your interview session an interesting session. But do not overcook your tales.

The interviewer is a human, they need engagement from you to achieve a certain level of confidence. Elaborate your stories to very little boring details, why? It might be boring to you, but it may be a point that is significant enough for the interviewer to proceed with you to the next level.

Go by the interviewer's mood, if the session starts in a negative or tense situation, you may try to lighten up the mood a bit with the way you are answering the questions.

1. Be honest!

Honesty is one of the biggest value a hiring manager look into a candidate. If they are asking you something that you don’t know, don’t lie tell the truth but instead of just saying you don’t know add on something to your answers. Example,

Interviewer: Do you know how to use Software A.

You: I have very little experience using Software A, but I’m willing to learn if I’m given the chance.

1. Ask a question to the interviewers.

Usually, this will be the last session of the interview session. Be careful and smart when you are asking the question; usually the question I would ask the interviewers are:

1. What made you stay with the company for so long?
2. If I’m joining the company, what will be the plan for me over the next 5 years?
3. How did I do during this interview? I would like to know what to improve if I won’t make it to the next level.

These are a few tips I go by, whenever I’m going for an interview or applying for a job. I wish this will help, especially for the fresh grads that are trying to land their first job! And ask for your parents' blessings, they work like magic.