Simply Hired Blog

The Interview Questions that Haunt You

In honor of Halloween, we’re going to focus on possibly the most frightful part of the job search process: the interview. Similar to sitting through a horror movie, interviews may induce heavy breathing, uncontrollable sweating, and flashbacks to moments that make you cringe.

To help you prepare, here is a list of some of the common questions that an HR Manager may ask you during an interview.

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Why did you leave your last job (or why are you planning to)?
3. What are you looking for in a new job?
4. Why do you want to work here?
5. What relevant experience do you have?
6. What would your previous coworkers/manager say about you?
7. What motivates you?
8. What are your strengths?
9. What are you weaknesses?
10. What are your salary requirements?
11. Tell me about a time you… implemented an idea, had to deal with a difficult customer, came up with a successful solution to a problem, etc.
12. What is your greatest accomplishment?
13. How well do you work under pressure?
14. How well do you work on a team?
15. Why should I hire you?

 
Arriving with answers prepared for these questions will transform your interview from a fright into a delight!

Happy Halloween!

System Administrator Appreciation Day

Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day everyone!

If you’re like me, you might not know exactly what a system administrator or IT specialist does. You just know that it’s important, technical and anytime something goes wrong with your computer, he/she is the person who ends up fixing the problem.

Today, I tried asking one of our sysadmins exactly what he does, so I could be more appreciative of him and his work. Now, I’m not the most tech-savvy person by any means so his response went completely over my head, besides a few words that I caught: servers, managing accounts, and maintaining networks. It left me in an even more confused state than before.

What I do know is that no matter what the problem is, no matter how silly or trivial, our sysadmin can fix it (and usually doesn’t give me too hard of a time because of it). The time my mouse froze, he unplugged it and plugged it back in again and it started working. The time my password stopped working, he pressed the caps lock button and gave me a disappointed look. The time I got the blue screen of death, he set me up with a new computer. And it’s because of his work that the site is up and running and that I’m able to post to this blog today.

So thank you to all the system administrators and IT professionals out there. Without you, I would have gone Office Space on my computer a long time ago. And speaking of which, my computer thanks you too.

Take your dog to work today!

Today is Take Your Dog to Work Day, when many employees across the nation bring in their furry little family members to their workplace. If you wish this day could last forever, why don’t you look for a job where you can bring in your pooch every day?

In partnership with Dogster, Simply Hired brings you a Dog-friendly Companies search filter which allows you to search for jobs only at companies that are pet-friendly. You can also find the filter through the Special Searches page or listed under the Special Filters on any search results page.

Happy Limerick Day!

Today Simply Hired is celebrating Limerick Day, in honor of Edward Lear who popularized the humorous poems in English during the 19th century. In honor of the day, here are a few work-related limericks:

There once was a man named Bob
Who wanted to find a new job
But the work he could find
He thought unrefined
And Bob realized he was a job snob!

The man I sat next to at work
Always would drive me berserk
One day the fellow
Put my stapler in Jell-O
And looked at me with a sly smirk
(from Dwight’s perspective on NBC’s The Office)

Do you have a job-related limerick? Send them in!

Mother’s Day Spectacular

Hey all you working mothers out there! Whether you are changing careers or getting back into the workforce, Simply Hired has a lifestyle search filter that caters specifically to you! The Mom-Friendly Companies filter returns open positions at employers on the 100 Best Companies list that Working Mother magazine releases. These companies are named as the best employers for working moms based on the areas of workforce, compensation, child care, flexibility programs, leave policies and more.

There are plenty of open positions at the companies on Working Mother’s list. With the Mom-Friendly filter, you can find for example, Bank of America jobs, Bristol-Myers Squibb jobs, and IBM jobs.

Happy Mother’s Day!