Preparing for the Interview

I had an interview at 11, but I was busy with my job, my father was in the hospital and I was trying to arrange an engagement party for my daughter. I just didn’t have time to bring my clothes to the dry cleaner, and worse than that I had an inch of grey roots showing and I hadn't coloured my hair. I finally decided that they would just have to take me as I was because I didn't have the time to do everything I knew I should be doing to prepare for this interview.

It ended up I did get the job. They mustn't have noticed my grey roots or wrinkled suit, or I completely wowed them with my skills and humour, but this definitely was not the way to go to an interview!

How important is it what you wear to the interview?

The first thing the potential employer will see when you walk in the door is what you are wearing. It is very important to make that first impression count. I have found that a business suit is always appropriate.

How will you conduct yourself during the interview?

Will you be relaxed and confident during the interview or uptight and nervous? How do you get to the place where you are relaxed and confident and how do you make that good first impression?

The key is to be prepared. Go over some possible interview questions and answers. There are some very good websites that give sample questions and answers, but try to make the answers your own. Go over these questions, no matter how silly some of them seem, believe me, they ask them! Get a friend or family member to ask you questions and practice your answers.

You should research the company where you are applying. It is good to be familiar with what the company does. Most companies have a web page that will give you a good idea of what they do.

It is a good idea to read the job posting and determine if your skills match the requirements for the job and if you think you will be able to meet the challenge. If you think you will, then you can go confidently into the interview knowing you can do the job and that will come across to the people interviewing you. If your skills fall short of what is required for this particular job posting, you may want to pass this opportunity by (at least this time around), but you can always take courses and learn the required skills or upgrade your present skills for the next time.

If you try for a job that you know you are not qualified for and just want to be adventurous and take a chance on it and you are accepted for an interview, go with confidence in what you do know and what you lack you can learn.

One thing we tend to forget when we go for an interview is that the company has to sell you on the job as well. Ask questions and find out if this is the job you want.

And of course that all important question, "What salary are you looking for?" You should have a figure in mind before you go into the interview, but it is also OK to ask, "What salary are you offering?"

Anything you can do to set yourself apart from everyone else will help. Send a thank you note or card to the people who interviewed you. It will be noticed.

Whether you are successful or not, an interview is never a waste of time. You can always learn from the experience and see what the expectations are out there and what the job market is like.

Printing PPT slides

If you are printing your PPT slides in black & white, for the best quality you should set your printing quality to black & white.

To do this:

File Print - bottom left see Color/Grayscale, drop down menu, choose Pure Black & White for best copies.

The default is set at Color. You have a choice of Color/Grayscale or Pure black & white.

In Microsoft 2007 instead of File you press the Office Button which is located at the top left-hand corner of the screen.

How to remove the date and time stamp from a PPT printout?

Did you notice there is a date and time stamp on a PPT printout that you may not want. To remove it:

• File > PrintPreview (at bottom left)
• Options (top right)
• Choose Header Footer
• Under Tab "Notes & Handouts" or “Slide” depending what you want to print
• To Remove: Unclick Date and Time (and Page Number if applicable)
• Apply to All
  

In Microsoft 2007 instead of File you press the Office Button which is located at the top left-hand corner of the screen, then choose PrintPreview. Options is on the top left. Then proceed as above.

Outlook Tip when searching for E-mails In Outlook (2007)

Sometimes you file something in a subfolder in Outlook and then later can't remember exactly where you filed it. There is an easy way to do a search in Outlook in all your folders.

In the Search field there is a drop-down menu. Choose "Search All Mail Items". Type what you are looking for and Outlook will search in all your folders.

What a great tool when you can't remember which folder you filed an e-mail.

Ladies First

I have noticed that younger female executives and assistants are not too keen on the ladies first order of things. I pointed out to one of my co-workers recently that I think it makes for order when boarding and getting off an elevator or entering boardrooms or offices.

I appreciate it especially when there is a group of people gathered at the elevator waiting for the one door to open. It is nice to allow the ladies to enter first and then the men enter. There is the odd time a man will go ahead of everyone and not respect that order and I find that annoying as it disrupts what was an orderly flow. Maybe we need a better etiquette so it won't be a male/female thing, but for now it works.

Who goes first?

We were joking at the office the other day about elevator etiquette and who should go first. One person suggested that the tallest should go first. This person is over 6 feet.

Someone else suggested it should be the oldest who goes first. I laughed and said, "Then nobody would want to get on the elevator". I would say, "You go first". Then the next person would say, "No, you go first". Then someone else would say, "I insist, you go first", and another person would say, “I won't hear of it, please you go first". Nobody would want to go first and admit they were the oldest.

Constant Reminders

You’ve heard of telephone tag, but have you heard of reminder tag? Maybe it is just me, but I seem to always be setting reminders. My boss asks me to get him some information, so I send a request to someone and set a reminder to follow up with them. They receive my request and while they are looking into it they set a reminder to get back to me. My boss then sets a reminder to follow up with me to see if I heard back from the other person and have the information for him. We are all setting reminders for the same thing.

Wouldn’t it be nice if once you gave the task to someone else it was just off your plate, without having to set a reminder? I’m going to have to send myself a reminder to remind myself to talk to my boss about reminders.

Bringing our Children to Work

Sometimes we can’t make it to work because our children are sick, the daycare worker is ill or the school is cancelled and there is no backup plan. What do you do? One woman I worked with used to take “snow days”. Because we live in Canada, many times the reason she couldn’t make it in was because of freezing rain or a winter snowstorm. She would use her vacation days whenever she had to stay home to take care of her children. Would a better solution have been to bring the children to work?

A company in the States has a family-friendly policy that allows women to bring their nursing babes to work. Faced with four executives leaving on maternity leave at a crucial time for this company the decision was made to let the new moms bring their newborn babies to work and it has worked out well for the families and the company. Click here for the full story.

With more and more women in high management jobs it is not always easy to let them go for the full maternity leave, which is a greater incentive for companies to look at other childcare options. This of course will filter down to other working women, with us all having this choice. But do we want it?

Other alternatives are daycare centres who are partnering with corporations for backup childcare. The reason behind it is to relieve the parents’ minds when small emergencies crop up so there will be a place for the child to go and the parent can still go to work. It is a win-win situation for both the employer and the employee. Click here for a company that is doing just that.

I have always thought having an onsite employer-sponsored daycare centre would have been a great solution. Offices are not equipped to handle small children, accidents can happen, it can be disturbing to the other workers, and the mother’s would be distracted with childcare needs.

If there was a daycare centre adjacent to the office that was staffed with qualified daycare personnel, with easy access for moms who are nursing, it would provide a safe environment for the children and a good alternative for parents.

As a single working mom that would have been ideal for me. There is a lot of stress getting the children ready in the morning and off to daycare, as well as managing to get yourself to work on time. At the end of the day there is the mad rush to get to the daycare before supper to pick up your child so you won’t disturb the babysitter’s family time. Having a daycare at work would have been a great option.

On the one hand the government is offering longer time off for maternity leave (in Canada it is now up to one year with benefits) and in other cases some companies are giving the option to bring our children to work. I find it is a bit of a mixed message, but we each have to do what we feel is best in our own situation. Some women have even continued to work and their husbands have stayed home to raise the children, with great results.

Whatever works best for the family, and as long as the children are taken care of and women who want to are able to pursue their careers. If it was my choice, however, I would take the year off.