Your Guide to Interview Greatness

It all comes down; it seems, to this moment. You’ve been granted an interview with the hiring manager for your dream job. You have a week to prepare and you don’t want to blow this chance. What do you do? How do you prepare? What do you focus on? Keep these tips in mind and you will likely get a lot farther down the road.

1.  Be prepared…to ask great questions! If you come into an interview and just expect to answer questions fired your way, you will likely look very average. So what are you to do? Prepare a list of 5-6 great questions. Not just any questions, but what are called interrogative questions. Interrogatives are designed to solicit detailed answers that require thought from the person in order to be answered. They start with our old friends who, what, why, how, and when. For example, be prepared to ask a question like this: “what are your performance expectations for this position in quarterly increments over the next 12 months”? Another great question might be, “what would this territory (sales) look like with maximum market share”? This question will force your interviewer to paint a vision in his / her mind as to what this territory will look like at full capacity while you are sitting in front of them! And another great question for a sales territory that will yield some good answers and opportunity for follow-on questions is, “how is this territory performing now compared to where you want it”? Sit back, listen and take notes! The answers will give you the opportunity to dig deeper and show your ability to get to the bottom of a situation and provide a solution…which is why you are there in the first place! Take your time and think through 5-6 good questions that you would like to know the answers to going forward. Your ability to ask good interrogative questions will set the tone in your favor. Always remember that the one not talking is actually in control of the process!
2. When the conversation does dictate your need to give an answer, be prepared to speak professionally and be prepared to back up achievements and past accomplishments with facts and figures. Growing a business unit by 20% per year over the past 2 years is much better information than “we grew the business”. Further, and most important, be prepared to elaborate on how you were able to pull off this amazing feat! The deer in the headlights look won’t cut it here! If it is on your resume, be prepared to talk about it in detail. The more relevant details the better. 
3. Give some thought in advance as to how you would handle certain situations related to you’re job. If you’re in sales the question, “how would you handle losing your largest account to your competitor” is fair game. My advice is to give these potential questions some thought in advance.” If a product launch is late (which most are) how will you hold your customers off while it is being readied for market”? If you work remotely (away from the office) how do you organize your day, weak, month, year, etc.? This is not hard, but you will be better prepared to talk intelligently about these questions if you have ran them through the old gray matter first. 
4. The old standbys are still solid today: show up early, dress a notch above the position, call a day in advance and reconfirm the time, place, etc. Have all the materials you feel you will need with you including paper to take notes and a pen that works! 
5. Finally, don’t leave the interview without asking what the next step is. Remember to use our old friend the interrogative question. An example might be “Mark, I appreciate your time and I like what I have heard thus far, what do you envision the next steps being? Shut up and listen from this point forward as the answer should let you know how you’ve done.

 Good luck, and don’t hesitate to contact us here at Ag 1 Source for more great tips and excellent career opportunities.

What Employers are Looking for in a resume, or not

Most employers are looking for one of two things, whether to screen a resume in, or to screen a candidate out based on what they see in that first review. Most resumes are reviewed in about 1-2 minutes and some sort of conclusion is made on whether the prospective candidate is what they are looking for or not. This can be a good thing if your resume is being screened in, and can cause you to be screened out if your resume does not contain what they are looking for, or has content that gets you screened out.


You may very well have had a great career record, yet haven’t properly portrayed your experience. So, let’s look at must have content, and common factors that can get you screened out.

Must haves in your resume:

•  Accurate, correctly spelled information – double check your phone number and email address 
• An unbroken chronological history of employment – missing dates cause questions
• Key words relative to your industry – If you’ve been in sales, then the word must be in there. Many database programs search for your resume based on keywords
• Quantitative records of accomplishments-List not just what you accomplished, but how much and how broad
• Complete information on the company worked for, division, dates of employment, and title of position, followed by how successful you were in that role
• Education, licenses, and certifications 

So, maybe your resume has been screened in by the database, but now it’s being viewed by someone. What gets you knocked out? What must you avoid?

•  A resume that looks like a job description – In other words, you’ve written what your responsibilities were supposed to be, but have no description of what you actually accomplished
• Confusing or overlapping dates in your chronological history
• A resume that looks like it was “professionally” prepared by someone else, and lists you as an expert in many different areas – We’re not all experts in our field
• Your experience record totally unrelated to the position you are applying for. If it’s not clear somewhere in your resume that you have experience in the field that you are applying for, then it must be explained somewhere, even if that is in a cover letter.

 So, you’ve determined that your resume needs some work? Start by really deeply thinking about what your real objectives were in each of your past experiences, and just what you did to make a contribution or participate in the position’s main objectives. Actually, while you are employed, this can be one of those daily/weekly tasks, to reflect on what you accomplished that day or week. If you felt like you were really doing well towards the job’s objectives, then document it. Quarterly, semi-annual, or annual reporting periods are good times to get the bigger picture review how you are doing. Then write it down. Someday you may need it to add to your resume. It’s best to keep track of this on an ongoing basis, rather than be rushed to update your resume and have to scramble to track down the numbers.