How To Make a Positive First Impression

Few business skills are more important than the ability to make a positive first impression.  In a very real sense, your abilities in this area predetermine your level of success.  Everyone you meet is part of a network that you’re building.  A positive first impression starts the relationship on the right foot, while a poor one is often impossible to overcome.  Fortunately, making a positive first impression is a skill just like any other.  Here are six simple rules:

• Rule #1: You only have one chance.The opening minute of any new business interaction creates an impression that is difficult to change.
• Rule #2: Have a confident greeting style. Your smile, handshake and eye contact must all be top quality. Practice until you get it right.
• Rule #3: Have superlative personal hygiene. Shower, shave (if need be), and iron your clothes Wear a black suit (men and women) or at least subtle clothing (brown, beige, grey). Your qualifications should stand out, not a loud outfit or excessive jewelry. Hint: look in the mirror before you head out the door
• Rule #4: Switch your phone off (or at least put it on "Silent"). Do not receive phone calls during your interview! Your prospective boss probably doesn't want to hear a joke ringtone or your son's attempt at rock guitar while he's deciding if you are the right person for the position he's trying to fill.
• Rule #5: Focus on the other person. If you find yourself talking too much about yourself, your firm or your job, then you’re not listening enough.
• Rule #6: Remember names religiously. When meeting someone for the first time, get their name right.  And be fanatical when pronouncing an unusual one.
• Rule #7: Have a positive attitude. Memorable people are genuinely interested, enthusiastic, and eager to help. You can’t fake it, so really feel it.
• Rule#8: Send a post interview email. Send a follow - up email thanking them for their time, and hoping to hear from them soon - this is personal and shows that your keen and also very throrough in your approach
• Rule #9: Don't talk about anything controversial. Religion, politics, your feelings towards a certain company's personâl indiscretions, the first time you meet someone is not the time to bring up anything which is likely to elicit a negative or defensive emotion from the other person. Such things will either do nothing to help your cause or may even harm it.
• Rule#10: Do your research.  Always walk into the interview knowing about the company, their ethos, the core of their business, the groups they belong to etc. All this information can be found on the company's website. Have a note pad and jot down these things and also form 5 questions of your own to ask  the interviewer - This shows that your eager to learn and have a genuine interest in becoming a member of the organisation, and not just trying to secure any position that you interview for

How to Build a Social Business - article by Forbes Contributer Dan Schawbel

IBM’s Vice President of Social Business Evangelism, Sandy Carter spoke to Forbes about. her latest book called Get Bold: Using Social Media to Create a New Type of Social Business. In this role, she is responsible for helping to set the direction for IBM’s Social Business initiative. In 2011, Women in Technology inducted Ms. Carter into their Hall of Fame for the impact she had on the social media and Social Business marketplace. You can read her blog or follow her on Twitter @sandy_carter. In this interview, Sandy talks about what social business is, how to build a social strategy, measuring a successful campaign, and more.


Sandy Carter, Vice President, Social Business Evangelism, IBM


How do you define “social business”?

Ten years ago there was a significant shift in the way people interacted with each other: the web came to the workplace and became a serious business tool for organizations in industries of every kind. Today, the evolution continues with the coming of age of Social Business as social computing, policies, governance and cultures are integrated into enterprise design and organizations are focused on socially-enabling business processes.

A Social Business isn’t a company that just has a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Social Business means that every department, from HR to marketing to product development to customer service to sales, uses social media the way it uses any other tool and channel to do its job. It’s an organization that uses social networking tools fluently to communicate with people inside and outside the company. It’s a strategic approach to shaping a business culture, highly dependent upon executive leadership and corporate strategy, including business process design, risk management, leadership development, financial controls and use of business analytics. Becoming a Social Business can help an organization deepen customer relationships, generate new ideas faster, identify expertise and enable a more effective workforce.


What does the acronym AGENDA stand for and why is it important?

Companies around the world are now focused on becoming Social Businesses, estimated to be a $100B market by 2015. But perhaps the most daunting part of becoming a social business is how to start the journey. That’s where creating an AGENDA plays a vital role. In order to become successful in social business, an organization needs to create its own personalized Social Business Agenda that addresses the company’s culture, trust between management and employees and the organization and its constituencies, engagement behind and outside of the firewall, risk management, and of course, measurement. So what does AGENDA stand for…
A – Aligning your goals and culture to be ready to become more engaging and transparent. Do not underestimate the task ahead of you! Take a look at IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines as a way to get started!
G – “Gain Friends through Social Trust” focuses on finding your fans, friends and followers, and forming best friends from your tippers or most influential clients or outside parties. It dives into what social trust is all about and how you instill it.
E – Engage through experiences focuses on how a company can engage its clients and employees and dives into gaming, virtual gifting, location based, mobile, or other stellar experiences to drive that engagement.
N – Network your processes. Since this is about business, figuring out how to add social to your processes is critical. Think about customer service — adding in Twitter to address your customer’s concerns. Or Crowdsourcing for product innovation, or Communities for incrementing your marketing processes around loyalty.
D – Design for Reputation and Risk Management! This is the #1 areas of focus for the C-level — managing the risk of having your brand online, your employees being your brand advocates, and even your clients becoming your marketing department! I think the value outweighs the risk .. but see how to develop a Disaster Recovery plan as you plan for the worst, and expect the best!
A – Analyze your data! Social analytics are the new black! You need to see the patterns of sentiment, who your tippers are, and listen daily.



How do you measure the success of social media over time? How do you know if you’re doing it right?

Measuring social success depends on how social media serves other campaigns and business processes. Social media’s impact from a marketing perspective has created a lot of buzz and measurement is still being fine tuned. Does having 100,000 Twitter followers help to drive sales? Still a difficult figure to measure.

But, with social business there are several areas where the adoption of social impacts the business and measurement is much less convoluted. For example:


1. Social business increases productivity
Free up sellers’ time to generate revenue
Faster on-boarding of sellers & acquisitions
Process complex deals faster


2. Social business help to enhance innovation
Develop better solutions faster
Reuse assets from best practices


3. Social business reduces cost
Travel, email, phone calls reduced
Reduced system complexity and maintenance

When hiring for your organization, do you look at how many fans/followers someone has and if they are influential? Across the company, does this matter?

It certainly shouldn’t be the only thing an employee is judged on when applying for a new position, but establishing a social reputation is absolutely an important aspect to anyone’s career in today’s business environment. And it’s growing in importance for organizations who are on their social business journey and are encouraging employees to become the voice of the organization like at IBM. It’s important to remember, if you aren’t active over social networks now, it’s never too late to start!


At IBM, we’re dedicated to helping every IBMer engage over social networks and establish their online reputation. This year we launched an internal, interactive, educational and of course, social, resource called Social Business @ IBM on our intranet that educates IBMers about social media and various social initiatives taking place internally while enabling them to participate. We host modules that provide the IBMer with an introduction to the social web. They learn how to use social computing tools to foster collaboration, disseminate and consume news, develop networks, forge closer relationships, and build credibility. As a result, they’re better informed and prepared to take action on behalf of IBM. We’re

providing the tools to help IBMers establish their digital reputation and two-fold, helping to enhance IBM’s brand

What are your thoughts when it comes to employees social network use inside and outside of the office?

It’s a must-have, competitive advantage! Using social media is a requirement in today’s business climate and has become fundamental to getting real work done, to collaborating with colleagues, customers, partners, etc. According to IBM’s 2010 CEO Study, 57% of companies who have invested in social business tools have out performed their peers citing collaboration as having a direct impact on their organization’s growth. In order to compete in today’s business environment, you can’t opt out of social.


Dan Schawbel, recognized as a “personal branding guru” by The New York Times, is the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, LLC, a full-servicepersonal branding agency. Dan is the author of Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future, the founder of the Personal Branding Blog, and publisher ofPersonal Branding Magazine. He has worked with companies such as Google, Time Warner, Symantec, IBM, EMC, and CitiGroup.

10 Experts Share 10 Tips: Looking Great at the Office by Forbes Women Contributer Samantha Ettus, personal branding expert and bestselling author

When it comes to personal branding, the outer you reflects the inner you. Putting care and thought into your style will help you stand out in all the right ways.

For some expert advice in this arena, I approached 10 leaders in the beauty and fashion worlds and asked them each for one tip for looking your best at the office:

1. “I love to see a woman go to work in a dress that can take her from day to evening so that she looks appropriate in the office, but can head straight out for a night on the town.”
- Erin Fetherston, designer
@ErinFetherston

2. “Keep an emergency beauty bag- a second makeup bag at work with a brush, tooth brush, lipstick, mints, a mirror- whatever your essentials are to keep you feeling good.”
- Shoshanna Gruss, designer
@Shoshanna_Gruss

3. “Find your work uniform. An easy go-to look is a pencil skirt, button front blouse and cardigan or a simple sheath dress. A blowout always helps too!”
- Liz Lange, designer
@lizlange

4. “Wear heels to an important meeting or presentation. They will make you feel empowered and will help you to project confidence.”
- Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Founder, Gilt Groupe
@GiltAlexandra

5. “Embrace your own unique style. Focus on a timeless and classic look that suits your personality rather than following the trends.”
- Frederic Fekkai, stylist
@HairbyFekkai

‎6. “Don’t ever walk into a meeting without lipgloss or lipstick. ‎It gives a polished, confident aura.”
- Alison Brod, beauty PR guru
@alisonbrodpr

7. “A fitted blazer always adds polish to even the most casual look.”
- Lauren Merkin, designer
@LaurenMerkin

8. “A pop of color is a great way to spice up your work wardrobe. I love jewel tones like red, purple and green.”
- Elie Tahari, designer
@elietahari

9. “High heels and red lipstick on call under the desk at all times!”
- Stacey Bendet, designer
@staceybendet

10. “Even if you wear no other makeup, always groom and set brows. Clean brows make you look pulled together.”
- Wende Zomnir, Founder, Urban Decay
@UrbanDecay411

This article for me reflects on the different characters of women in our society whichever style suits you best, you compass it into your own personal style and make it your own, be comfortable in your own skin so that you ooze confidence in the workplace that compliments your intellect.

Women should be seen and heard for all the right reasons.... let's pave the way for women enpowerment!

External vs. Internal Recruiting: Who Does it Better?

It has been debated many times, but the question of whether recruitment is best done with internal or external resources can only be answered at an organisational level, based upon a cost-benefit analysis.

When doing this analysis, consider which method of recruitment scores higher on the following metrics:

1. Quality of hire
2. Time to fill
3. Culture fit
4. Candidate experience/impact on EVP
5. Cost

It’s time to take a close inspection of each of these areas.

Quality of Hire

Most internal recruiters, at least in medium- to large-sized companies, rely on Web-based systems to do the initial screening and culling of applicants. They lack incentives, and also lack penalties, for how well they recruit. With external recruiters, there are often no metrics in place at all, other than time to fill. If metrics for quality of hire are clearly tracked and compared between internal and external recruiters, it can help identify the best recruitment model for your business because you will be able to tell who is providing the highest-quality candidates.

Linking recruiter pay to quality of hire is a critical step in ensuring that recruiters make solid recommendations to line managers, who ultimately make the hiring decision. Agency recruiters can be measured based on client feedback and the number of times roles have to be re-filled at no charge to the client, which can happen if the wrong hire is made and if the client organization does not have a formal way to measure its recruitment suppliers on this metric.

If you use a hybrid model, consider measuring and comparing both your internal and external recruiters on the quality of new hires. After implementing such a metric, measure them upon their first placement, at six and 12 weeks, again at six months, and then at regular intervals.

Time to Fill

Jobs can often be filled faster by using agencies (particularly within specialized industries) because they have large applicant pools. Good recruiters will always have warm candidates they keep in touch with.

Often, when external recruiters are pre-screening and presenting candidates, it’s internal recruiting teams that hold the process up. It’s not necessarily their fault, as priorities sometimes change, putting recruitment on hold, or as role requirements are revised, but it speaks to a core challenge facing the recruitment community today.

One key reason recruitment is delayed is that budget for a role has not been approved prior to beginning the search process. As everyone knows, you shouldn’t go to market until you’re certain you need to fill a role and that money is available to do so.

It seems that many companies still retain search firms, spend money on advertising positions, and start seeing candidates without a confirmed internal agreement. This has a decidedly negative impact on both the brand and the relationship with any candidates you have engaged if you withdraw from the process.

A second reason for delaying the process often has to do with how companies operate internally. While a new role may be budgeted, conflicting schedules, agendas, or priorities can mean delays in seeing candidates, or extending the number of interviews or assessments beyond what was originally planned.

Not only does this increase cost and time to fill the role, it also antagonizes candidates and may mean you secure the runner-up instead of your preferred applicant, or worse, you’re left with no suitable candidate at all, forcing you to begin the process anew.

If you’re using agencies that have pre-screened candidates for you, move those candidates through the internal process, make decisions about individual applicants, and follow up quickly. Given the shortage of candidates in the market, this should be a given.

The need for speed in recruitment, to manage costs and to fill roles, especially empty ones, must be balanced with the need to find the best candidate for the role, considering all aspects, including culture fit.

Culture Fit

Internal recruiters will be able to articulate and respond to questions about what it’s really like to work in your company in a way that external parties won’t. External recruiters will never know your business as well as your own staff, try as they may, because they don’t work in the organization on a day-to-day basis, experiencing all its nuances and political challenges. As a result, many organizations think that recruitment can be done better by an in-house team who know and live the corporate culture and understand stakeholders best.

In the model where external recruiters are placed on-site, they work with your teams every day, but they are still removed from the employee experience to a large degree. For them to hire for culture fit is a particularly difficult task.

One way to track success in this area is to measure culture fit, and there are a number of ways to do that. Compare success rates between your internal and external recruiters to see who is making better assessments of culture fit.

Candidate Experience/Impact on EVP

Every time you go to market under your own brand or someone else’s, you send messages about your organization to potential candidates. How you do this could impact the way your firm is perceived by candidates, so understanding the impact of what you do is important.

If you use blind ads through a recruitment firm, you won’t build or add to your own brand recognition. Any external agency efforts to co-brand or represent your business must be handled correctly or the brand can be damaged. For example, if external recruiters don’t respond to candidates, or not quickly enough, people will forever tie that response to your brand, leaving a negative image in their minds about your company.

Pointing would-be employees to agencies through your careers website makes an impression on candidates about your organization, good or bad. Investments in a career website are better realized if you make the effort to engage with candidates directly at some level. This direct communication puts you in control of your candidate pool and is particularly helpful when there are jobs in the pipeline that haven’t been advertised yet.

Cost

An important cost consideration is related to the number of recruits. If you don’t hire a lot of people each year, it’s probably not worth having in-house recruitment staff. If you do, it’s worth measuring the cost effectiveness of outsourcing against the cost of having an in-house team and a well-developed career site with a front- and back-end recruitment system.

Using external recruiters can be expensive if you are a small company and do a large number of hires per year. Invest in some sort of recruitment technology, as well as a good recruiter or two on site who know your business, your brand, and your culture.

Whichever method you choose, or if you use both internal and external recruiters, the most important things to remember are that you need great people for your company, you need them now, and you want to spend as little as possible to get them.

Great candidates don’t need your job. Making the process as smooth as possible will go a long way to building relationships with candidates for the long term. Star candidates often have multiple offers, and will move on if you can’t make decisions quickly enough, even if they would rather have worked for your firm.
By delaying the process, cancelling searches, and not replying at all, you are sure to damage your employer brand and your reputation in the market.

"Working" Recruiters - Get them to work for you not against you

One of the many attributes a recruiter must have is diplomacy, you will find job-seekers seeking favour and and Client's seeking priority. The trick to be successful in managing all expectations is to be able to multi task and always priortise accordingly.

As a candidate, trying to "work" a recruiter to your advantage may actually work against you, even though that wasn't your intention..

An article by Dennis Nishi of the Wall Street Journal reports about an event that took place between a job-seeker and recruiter, in this article the recruiter and other experts share pointers on how to engage with recruiters so that they work with you instead of pushing them away from you.



Laurie Ruettimann does not want to be sent flowers. Ever

The human-resources professional from Raleigh, N.C., remembers getting an expensive bouquet while working as an in-house corporate recruiter years ago. The arrangement had been sent to her by a hopeful job hunter but the overture actually made her angry.

"Gift giving means that you're somehow indebted, and when you force that on somebody it's inappropriate, even offensive," says Ms. Ruettimann. "I responded like I would with any other candidate. When we didn't move forward with his résumé, I just sent him a note, automated through the system."

 

In the current tight job market, cold calls and gimmicky gestures are the worst ways to approach recruiters—especially if your skills don't exactly match the job. Instead, experts recommend old-fashioned networking as the best way to get onto a recruiter's job-candidate list, but the effort requires more than just a LinkedIn invitation.

Find the recruiters who service your specific niche and try to meet them face-to-face at trade events. Getting an introduction from a colleague is another good way to get in.

"But don't launch into a sales pitch upon meeting," says Ms. Ruettimann. Try throwing the recruiter some business. Offer an introduction to somebody within your network who's having a hard time filling a job. The recruiter may return the favor by keeping you in mind for future jobs.

Recruiters prefer working with employed job candidates, so make your connection while you are still employed or immediately after being laid off.

There are exceptions, says Tim Honn, president of Fortis Recruiting Solutions in Lisle, Ill. If you took time off to care for an ill parent, companies will understand that. But it's important to show that you stayed active while unemployed, and this includes pursuing extra career training, consulting or doing volunteer work.

"You never want to give the impression that you're just sitting around and waiting for calls," says Mr. Honn, who also advises job hunters to never omit anything that can be uncovered with a Google search. He recently uncovered résumé inconsistencies while doing reference checks on a job candidate. The omissions killed the job hunter's chances with the company and Mr. Honn.

Be strategic with your job search. Plastering yourself all over the Internet and on every job site and database can make recruiters suspicious, says Ms. Ruettimann. "It makes you look desperate, and recruiters don't want to waste their time if you've already been turned down by a bunch of companies."

Expert Blogger Dayna Steele 5 Things to do Everyday for Success

I came across this article by expert blogger Dayna Steele a member of  the Fast Company (http://www.fastcompany.com/) expert blogging community and expressing her views on everyday activities that can enhance the success of your business.

"You get up at what time?"

I hear that a lot, along with "You are so lucky." So, I'm going to help out here and let you in on the secrets of my success. Well, not all of them--but enough to show you the foundation I build on every day.

1. Wake up early. For the next week, get up a half an hour earlier that you normally do--and get going. If you get a few more things done, then get up even earlier the next week. Early in the morning is a great time to get work done because most of your associates have not started emailing, tweeting, IMing, or posting yet.

2. Read the headlines and watch the news. Not only should you know what is going on in the world, you will also be the first to recognize opportunities (if you followed #1) for you and your business--long before the competition has even had their first cup of coffee.

3. Send something to one person who can hire you or buy your product--something you promised to follow-up with, a quick email with a link to something relevant or a "Hey, just checking in to see how thing are going" email.

4. Touch base with an old friend or associate you haven't talked to in ages. Ask how they are, what are they working on and ask or suggest how you might help. You'll make their day.

5. Write a handwritten note to someone. Seriously. It is a lost art and makes quite an impression. There is always someone you can send a thank you note to--or you aren't doing things correctly.

A simple yet highly effective list. Try all five every weekday for a month. Then, tell me I'm right. If I'm wrong, I'll buy you a cup of coffee. When you finally wake up ...

Office Romance Yay or Nay?

The size of an Office generally determines if an affair is deemed fit or not. Personally, I'm not the greatest fan of Office Romances, but that's just my opinion I'm going to blog from a diplomatic point of view.

Why I say size matters is because if you both work for a multi- national or global organisation it’s not so intimate, you still feel as though your other half works for another company because they are not 'in your face' but if your sharing an Office space i.e. sharing a desk or sitting across the room from each other, I find that it can be quite intense.

You wake up together, have breakfast together come to work together, work together, go home together have dinner together go to bed together, you never have any "me" time.

When everything’s' smooth and peaceful I guess it can be nice being around your partner all the time,  the opportunity to even act out your fantasy of a sneaky office rendezvous, or your handsome boss – sexy secretary affair, however but if you have a lovers' tiff at home and you come to work, everybody will know your business.

No matter what anyone says it’s not easy to switch off, and live your problems at the door, especially if your partner shares an office space with you.

The environment is tense, work colleagues are asking...

"Jen, are you ok? Do you want to talk about, I'm here if you need to talk"

The tiff may not be that serious, but for the mere fact you have no space at all to cool off can either magnify the situation or defuse it, either way your relationship is no longer private and you feel as though your life has turned into a soap opera with different characters i.e. colleagues acting out their different parts.

Another scenario that you may come across is if your partner is in a more senior position at your company, this believe it or not can affect your professional growth. No matter how much you excel in your job and you are good at what you do, your work colleagues would say "well she/he is shagging the boss is that's the reason for the preferential treatment" and any project/task to complete successfully will not get the merit it deserved either for the same reason.

This can de-motivate anyone in this situation that they cannot receive the praises, the pat on the back for a job well done, that promotion they’ve been dying for, all based on the professional ranking of their partner, eventually someone has to give way as they say “there is only one captain in the ship”

Transquisite's final word: If you love your partner more than you love your job... Do Not Work Together!

Agency Repetitive Calls - The Ins and Outs

There’s that point in the year when everyone puts their CV's online.
Whether you’re actively looking for a job or not your CV goes up there as someone who is actively seeking a new position.
You need to be careful when doing this is and ensure that you don't get caught because some employers actually use the same job boards when they are looking for new hires and it won't be funny as your manager puts in your skill set in the search engine and up pops UR CV. Your bosses search for a new employee may change for a search for your position lol

This puts the fear in employees to use job boards, however don't be fooled they have probably done one of the following

A - registered their CV but just adjusted their settings to 'private' so it can't be viewed.

Or

B. decided to register with an agency.

I have mixed feelings about agencies being that my business incorporates that concept I call my business a consultancy.

Have you ever received that call from an agency?

He/she introduces themselves, state where they found your CV and then has an in-depth conversation about your career history, expertise, your challenges, success, weakness, company environment then the other half of the conversation id then spent discussing what you would like in your next role etc, salary, your preferences to working for a large corporation or a boutique sized company.

By this time you’re expecting to hear about a specific role that they have in mind for you that matches your skill set and environment preferences, and then he next sentence you hear is...

"I'd like to meet with you face to face to put a face to the voice and we can talk in more detail"

People, what that really means is
“I want to see you to make sure you don't have a blue Mohawk and purple shoes with a tattoo on your face before I present you in front of my client, I don't actually have a position in mind, but when I do I want to be reassured that you do not disgrace me"

Now let me focus on the actively looking employees,  the ones that display their CV online because they are unemployed and looking for they are opening seeking a new position because  my friends is another kettle of fish.

Think about a time where you were seeking employment and actively job hunt....... 7 out of 10 calls your receive are from Agencies, and not direct employers.

There is nothing wrong with using an Agency, it’s the consultants within the agency, and they like to ASSUME which is a downfall because it makes an ASS out of U and ME lol.

Consultants don't actually know what you are looking for in your next position just like we humans are not physic. The problem is they don't ASK.

The most common scenario goes like this.

“Hi Jennifer, I saw your CV on a job board and looking at your CV I can see that you have worked as a financial analyst for Barclays Capital and was there for 5 years and also in 2004 you worked for Citigroup and you were there for a year and a half, I have a fantastic role with one on my clients Standard Chartered Bank, they are looking for a financial Analyst which matches your skill set shall I put you forward?"

WOAH WOAH WOAH!!! HANG ON!

A. How do you know what I think is FANTASTIC, your fantastic and my fantastic are totally different! and you don't know what my fantastic because you haven't ASKED!!

A. How do you know I want to remain as a Financial Analyst I may want to specialise in one area i.e. Profit/Loss, Spread betting financing etc. or try mu luck as a Business Analyst

B. How do you know I want to stick with Investment banking? I may want to move out of Investment Banking sector and work in FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods)

C.  How do you know what my salary is currently and what I would be looking for?

How do you know I’m not leaving the country and looking for international positions????

Then consultants will get annoyed when their candidate doesn't turn up for an interview or the deal falls through because they DIDN'T ask the basics.

Another fact is when different consultants from the SAME company ring you within the space of five minutes... It makes you wonder if they are sitting on different ends of the planet.

It makes me loose respect and credibility for the Agency, so Transquisite's final thought is short and sweet!

“KYC - KNOW YOUR CANDIDATE!!!!"

Misleading Interview Processes

Why is it that the interview process for certain jobs make you feel as though your applying to work for the FBI (for those who don't know FBI is Federal Bureau Investigation lol)? Without discrediting some organisations especially those that fall under the Public Sector, Financial Institutions, or the global corporations that we know are household names there really is no need to drag it out.

You get that first call from the organisation, they go through the whole telephone vetting script, ask you to talk about yourself, your experience, and why you have applied for the position then they turn around and say they want to schedule you in for a TELEPHONE INTERVIEW ARRRGH! What for???? you've just kept me on the phone for 45 minutes what else could you possibly want to know after that????

Ok, because you like the job and you were flowing with the interviewer, felt you built up a great rapport you agree to the scheduled telephone interview only for the telephone interview to come and you cover over the SAME things you did in the initial call with was another 45 mins to an hour after the call they tell you they wnat to invite you in for a face to face interview immediately you'll think 

"yep!after that its a done deal if i'm successful at the face to face interview i've got the job".......  Unfortunately it doesn't end there, when you arrive for the face to face interview, you'll feel like your doing speed dating one interviewer will come in for the initial Q&A session he/she will then go out and grab another interviewer she/he will come in another Q&A session by the time they are done they tell you they want to progress you to second stage interview after 2 HOURS of Q&A, which will be with the MD by that time you're worn out.

You come back at a later date to see the MD you would have thought the MD would have been briefed about you, your experience etc, but noooooo your going through it AGAIN! 

He then tells you one or two things

1. We have other people to see so we will be in touch by the end of the week

or

2. We'll get back to you when there isn't a specific time DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH!!!!  

Transquisite's Final Thought

"Get straight to the point make the interview process clear, concise ands less painful and you'll hire a lot quicker!"