Top 5 Interviewing Tips for Experienced Employees

Top 5 Interviewing Tips for Experienced EmployeesTop 5 Interviewing Tips for Experienced EmployeesInterviewing can be nerve-wrackingeven for veteran employees. Whats more, if youve been in your job, company, industry or career for a long time and havent needed to do a job search in a while, you may feel pretty rusty when it comes to preparing for and navigating the interview process. As an experienced employee, your track record (if its strong) can certainly help pave the way to your next position. Yet even as a seasoned professional, wowing the hiring committee is still a key step to getting the job you want. Even the most qualified candidate must nail a series of interviews to be considered the best person for the job. If youre not up to date with interview protocol, dont leave your interview performance to chance. Brush up with ansicht five advanced tips for seasoned careerists Open the door. The first step to a successful interview is landing one in the first place. With plent y of experience under your belt, you can outshine your competitors before the interview even starts by crafting an effectiversum. This is not a nice-to-doits a must-do. If yourrsumdoes not reflect your professionalism and your level in the industry, then past successful initiatives cant help you get the job. As an industry veteran, you no doubt have data to draw on that can help support the results you achieved. Cristin Sturchio, global head of talent at Cognolink Limited, suggests getting as specific as possible to showcase your achievements with numbers, percentages or dollar amounts. Made outbound calls to generate donations from alumni tells what you did, she says. Made 150 outbound calls to alumni that resulted in $12,500 in donations tells what you achieved.Once you have these data points nailed down in yourrsum, youll be able to speak to them in your interview as well. Make the link. Another essential component of todays pre-interview process is to utilize LinkedIn to full advantage. If youve been off of the job market for a while, its vital to catch up on the current expectation of most recruiters and hiring managers, which is to have a professional, updated LinkedIn profile. Marketing and branding strategist Karen Leland says that while its estimated that up to 60 percent of the Fortune 100 companies use LinkedIn to check out candidates, the vast majority of job seekers have poor or insufficient LinkedIn profiles. To rectify this problem, Leland suggests drawing on information from the first point during your actual interview andhaving the following items in place beforehandA fully fleshed out summary section that shows rather than tells your valueAn up-to-date and professional photo At least 10 recommendationsKeyword-optimized headlines Demonstrate executive presence.A 2012Forbes article describes executive presence as the ability to project gravitasconfidence, poise under pressure and decisiveness. Communication skills comprise another area of executive presencehow you speak, how assertive you are and how well you understand others. Job seekers with ample on-the-job experience may trip themselves up in the communication departement by trying to convey too much about their background. Executive coach Beth VanStory believes that to demonstrate executive presence, its important to answer questions concisely by creating an outline of your key messages. Experienced executives usually have a lot to say, she says. However, sometimes less is more. Its tempting to want to show everything you know and tell about all of your successes. But that approach can be a recipe for interviewer fatigue. Think ahead. If youve been committed to one role or organization for a while, your self-concept as a professional may be based solely on this role. But to move up and ahead in your career, its important to mentally prepare yourself for your next position. Michele Gorman, managing principal of Leveraged Potential, suggests that many interview ees dont think about where they are headed and thus make the mistake of marketing themselves with their current title and role versus branding themselves for the next move. It is important to define the next career move that you want and brand yourself appropriately, she says. Your answer to Tell me about yourself should reflect this new role versus your current role. To make this work, Gorman recommends thinking through the following questions prior to the interview and crafting your answers into a quick pitch that will resonate with hiring managers for the new roleWhat kind of professional are you? What level are you aiming for?What are your three or four keys areas of expertise that you bring to the new roles? What is something personally unique about you that you bring to the workplace? Understand your past. While your future is about the position to come, its still important to properly analyze and put into context key points from past positions. The longer youve been in the industry, the more possibilities you have about which type of information to showcase during an interview. A good way to narrow your focus is to understand your own strengths and weaknesses so that you can match those against a new jobs particular requirements. Halogen Softwares senior talent attraction manager John Fleischauer advises reflecting on past successes and past performance reviews as part of your interview prep. What kind of feedback have you received from your managers and peers? he asks. Look for trendsfor example, repeat feedback that youre a great team player or very proactive. Take note of feedback youve received around both job-specific skills and soft skills. Interviews can cause stress and nervousness for even the most experienced candidates. Yet taking the time to get up to speed with advanced interview skills can help ensure that you shine like the industry expert you are.Robin Madellhas spent over two decades as a corporate writer, journalist, and communica tions consultant on business, leadership and career issues. She serves as a copywriter, speechwriter and ghostwriter for executives and entrepreneurs across diverse industries, including finance, technology, healthcare, law, real estate, advertising and marketing. Robin has interviewed over 1,000 thought leaders around the globe and has won 20 awards for editorial excellence. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Healthcare Businesswomens Association in both New York and San Francisco, and contributed to the book Be Your Own Mentor Strategies from Top Women on the Secrets of Success, published by Random House. Robin is also the author of Surviving Your Thirties Americans Talk About Life After 30 and co-author of The Strong Principles Career Success. Connect with her onLinkedInor follow her on Twitterrobinmadell.