Sometimes a bad job interview doesn’t mean you were a bad job interviewee.

This is a guest post by Will Kerr. If you’d also like to guest post here on JobMob, follow these guest post guidelines.

When you’re preparing to launch yourself into the lion’s den of a job interview, you’ll usually be entirely focused on your own performance, from planning out your dress, to ensuring you’ll look your best, to perfecting your handshake.

While all of these preparations are undoubtedly vital, they make it all too easy to lose track of the fact that an interview is a dialogue and, by its very nature, is not all about you.

Unfortunately, how well you interview is only half the equation. You also have to hope you get an interviewer who knows what they’re doing.

As someone who’s been on both sides of the table, it becomes immediately obvious when you’ve been lumped with an inexperienced interviewer.

This is never ideal, but, as long as you are able to recognize the traits of a bad interviewer, you can take action to make sure that, in spite of them, you still manage to give the best possible account of yourself.

Here are some 3 common scenarios that can arise with a poor interviewer and tips for handling them:

1) An Interviewer That Does All the Talking

If you’ve ever interviewed for a fairly high pressure role, or one that requires a good deal of assertiveness, you’ve probably been on the end of interviewing tactics designed to weed out those who are too passive to succeed.

One classic example of this is where an interviewer remains almost silent, an aggressive technique that can make those of a nervous disposition feel uneasy and lead to them babbling on. Indeed, the police even use this method in interrogations.

Of course, this is the preserve of experienced interviewers who know exactly what they are looking for. At the other hand of the spectrum, as you might expect, you’ll often find an inexperienced interviewer doing the exact opposite; talking endlessly (possibly as a result of their own nervousness) to the point that you’re struggling to even get a word in.

In some cases, you may feel that this is because the job is in the bag and they’re desperately trying to sell its appeal to you, but this a dangerous assumption to make. Even if your interviewer doesn’t seem overly concerned to hear more about your credentials, you owe it to yourself to make sure that they have the necessary evidence to make an informed choice when, hopefully, they offer you the post.

2) An Under-prepared Interviewer

There is nothing more disheartening than going into an interview, only for it to soon become clear that your opposite number isn’t 100% clear on who you are, and isn’t particularly familiar with your resume. Indeed, in some cases, where a department is trying to fill multiple vacancies simultaneously, it’s not unheard of for an interviewer to be a little hazy as to which role the candidate in front of them is actually applying for.

Alternatively, you might be lucky enough to be one of selected few candidates being interviewed for a high level position, a role which requires senior staff to be present at interview. In this case, you can find your interviewer is clearly distracted by their many other concerns, recruitment not being their primary responsibilities.

Either way, you’ll have your work cut out for you. In some cases you’ll have to simply remember that, in giving your answers, you cannot assume the level of knowledge from your interviewer that you may have expected. So, for example, if you give information in reference to something listed on your resume, make sure they actually know what you’re talking about.

If you really feel the situation is hopeless, do not be afraid to ask if they’d prefer to reschedule. As long as you pose the question in a polite manner, it won’t reflect badly on you, and even seem considerate. Besides, if it’s come to that, you don’t really have anything to lose.

3) An Overly Aggressive Interviewer

Many people, when placed in a situation that they are not completely comfortable with, can respond by bluffing bravado. Interviewers lacking in experience are far from immune to this.

This is worth bearing in mind if you’re sensing a combative atmosphere in your interview, if your opposite number interrupts you midway through a response, or openly contradicts you for instance. Whether this is a deliberate ploy, or a sign or nerves, your only option is to keep calm and carry on.

One great way of doing this is to have a glass of water to hand. Even if you’re not thirsty, taking a sip is a great way to give yourself a little time to surreptitiously keep your cool and order your thoughts.

About the Author

Will Kerr has enjoyed a fruitful career in recruitment and writes about his experiences in order to help job seekers progress their careers. You can read more of his work over at www.job-centre-vacancies.co.uk.

Question of the article

What was your most memorable interview with a bad job interviewer? Tell us in the comments.

READ NOW: How to Quickly Recover From Bad Job Interviews.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more ideas on getting over job search obstacles.

Related posts:

• 6 Standout Job Interview Tips From A Professional Interviewer
• 7 Company Research Tips Before The Job Interview
• How To Ace A Walk-in Panel Job Interview
• 10 Tricky Job Interview Questions and How to Answer Them
• How to Quickly Recover From Bad Job Interviews

100+ apps for job search success with your iPhone.

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On to the list…

The apps are categorized for easy browsing and each app includes its official description.

All the apps are free unless their description says “(Paid)”, and all apps are in English unless another language is specified.

Over 100 iPhone job apps

Job Search Tools
1.		Career Search (Paid) – The Career Search App is the most comprehensive career and salary search tool available today. Career Search contains research information on over 1,000 careers including: salary information, number of openings in specific locations, and whether the occupation is expected to grow or shrink in coming years.
2.		IGetAJob (Paid) – IGetAJob will help you stay organized and informed during your job search. Have all the information you need in one convenient app.
3.		Good Job (Paid) – Track your progress with tasks, events, follow ups and interviews. Save an unlimited number of jobs and contacts in predefined categories along with priorities.
4.		Job Search Manager: Get A New Job With Prospector (Paid) – Finding job prospects isn’t the hard part; working through them until you’ve accepted an offer is. Prospector helps you manage your job search from initial contact to accepting an offer.
5.		My Jobs: Job Search Organizer – When I suddenly found myself unemployed I realised that world has changed and job search process is different from what it was 10 years ago.
6.		My Jobs Pro: Job Search Organizer (Paid) – When I suddenly found myself unemployed I realised that world has changed and job search process is different from what it was 10 years ago.
7.		Resume App (Paid) – “Nobody wants to build a resume; it’s daunting, and usually depressing. This streamlines the process for you…”
8.		Pocket Resume (Paid) – Create a stunning resume and send it too!
9.		giga-cv Your tailor-made resume (Paid) – With giga-cv prepare your application files easily, including resume/CV and cover letter.
Job Search Advice
10.		Job Search: Tips to Find the Best Career for You – This app brings you the best free videos about job search and career planning ideas. Find out what kind of job would best suit your personality type.
11.		Interview Pro (Paid) – Are you looking for a new job? Not getting the results you want? Maybe it’s because you’re not saying the right things during your job interview.
12.		JobRadio.FM – JobRadio.FM is the first ever career advice internet radio station. We broadcast career advice interviews advice, information and jobcasts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our iPhone application will let you stream our station on the go.
13.		Great Career (Paid) – You don’t just want a job, you want a great job. Use the Great Career app to help you get that great job and, beyond that, build a great career
14.		vTie Necktie Guide – Easy to use and with a hands-free play function you get step-by-step instructions how to tie the knot.
15.		Feedly – Feed your mind. Get the best content from your favorite websites delivered to your iPhone and iPad. Powered by Google Reader, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instapaper and Read it later.
Job Interviewing
16.		What Color Is Your Parachute? Job-Interview Tool – Stand out, nail the interview, and land the job—with groundbreaking tips from What Color Is Your Parachute?, the world’s most popular job-hunting guide.
17.		Interview Guru (Paid) – “Interview guru is the perfect app to get ready for an interview”
18.		InterviewBuddy – an indispensable tool for finding jobs and getting past the most grueling of tech interviews.
19.		Interview Buzz LITE – Interview Buzz LITE is a free app containing 50+ interview questions with answers and 80 commonly asked practice questions.
20.		Interview Buzz Pro (Paid) – Interview Buzz provides you a wide range of questions that a organization demands from his/her candidates. In short, a COMPLETE KIT for interview preparation covering every intricacies.
21.		101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions – Tough interview questions are inevitable in today’s competitive job market. How will you handle the curveballs that are headed your way?
22.		Free Interview Questions and Answers – Got an interview coming up? Get ready with Free Interview Questions and Answers, from SwipeQ!
23.		Interview Questions and Answers (Paid) – Got an interview coming up? Get ready with Interview Questions and Answers, from SwipeQ!
24.		InterviewWow (Paid) – Smart, helpful and fun to use. The Job Interview Survival Kit is your in-pocket video resource for ensuring you present your best self.
25.		Monster.com Interviews by Monster Worldwide – The Monster.com Interviews app is the ultimate tool to help you through the job interview process. This step-by-step guide provides advice and coaching through every stage of a job interview.
Personal Branding
26.		PersonalBranding (Paid) – Sometimes making a bad impression isn’t always a bad thing. It’s better than making no impression at all. With people, personalities that are strong, regardless of whether they are positive or negative stand out in other people’s minds.
27.		Presenting Your Personal Brand by Tony Jeary – This app gives you access to a 27 minute video with all of Tony Jeary’s strategy on how to best present your personal brand. Accompanying the video is a superb 32 page summary guide of all the points Tony covers in the video.
28.		CloudCard – allows any business person to have their own mobile app on their customer’s phone.
29.		WordPress – It’s easy to manage your WordPress blog or site from your iOS device. With WordPress for iOS, you can moderate comments, create or edit posts and pages, and add images or videos with ease. All you need is a WordPress.com blog or a self-hosted WordPress.org site running 2.9.2 or higher.
30.		Tumblr – Tumblr is home to the most creative people in the world.• Post anything: Share photos, video, audio, quotes, links, and text.• Multiple blogs: Seamlessly manage all of your blogs.• Advanced controls: Save drafts, queue posts, customize tweets, and more!• Address book: Find people to follow from your iPhone’s address book.• Messages: View and reply to messages.New to Tumblr? Sign up from your iPhone!
31.		about.me – a free service that lets you create a beautiful one-page website that’s all about you and your interests. Upload a photo, write a short bio and add your favorite social networks to show the world the big picture of you.
32.		UStream Broadcaster – Easily stream live moments from your device and share with your friends, family, fans, followers and others — anytime, anywhere!
33.		Ego (Paid) – gives you one central—and lovely—location to check web statistics that matter to you. With support for Ember, Feedburner, Google Analytics, Mint, Squarespace, Tumblr, Twitter and Vimeo, you can quickly view the number of visits to your website (including daily, hourly and monthly numbers), feed subscription totals and changes, how many people are following you on Twitter and more.
Networking & Social Media
34.		Bizzabo – Bizabbo’s mobile app is designed to help you communicate with your attendees, and give them the best social and networking experience
35.		Bump – Use Bump™ to share contact information and photos by simply bumping two phones together. Just open Bump, hold your phones, and gently bump your hands together — Bump will magically do all the rest.
36.		Hey Where Are You - Hey Where Are You, or HeyWAY, is a new location service that lets you keep track of where friends, family and colleagues are. Send alerts with your current location to your followers, or send “Hey, Where Are You?” alerts requesting their location
37.		ABContacts: Contacts Manager, Dialer, Favorites, Group Text & Email (Paid) – ABContacts: the powerful contacts manager. With call router to easily use more than one app to make calls. With Group Text and Group Email. Use ABContacts features (groups, T9 dialer, favorites) and call with the regular Phone app or with Google Voice (needs supported app) or Skype (needs Skype app) or other supported apps.
38.		BeKnown – BeKnown for iPhone makes it easy to tap into new professional opportunities anywhere, anytime. Check network updates and exchange messages with your connections.
39.		Flickr – Share your photos. Watch the world. Flickr® for the iPhone enables photo-sharing on the go – from your phone, to the world.
40.		Twitter – Follow your interests: instant updates from your friends, industry experts, favorite celebrities, and what’s happening around the world. Get short bursts of timely information on the official Twitter app.
41.		Facebook – Facebook for iPhone lets you stay connected and share with friends on the go. Start a chat, keep up with friends’ photos and status updates, look up a phone number, upload photos to Facebook and more—right from your iPhone.
42.		LinkedIn – Get on-the-go access to your professional network with LinkedIn for iPhone. Find and connect with more than 120M members worldwide, read the latest industry news, keep up-to-date with your groups, and share content with your network from anywhere.
43.		StumbleUpon – Once you have stumbled All Interests, you can choose to Stumble specific Interests to get more of what you want to see
44.		Cisco WebEx Meeting – now a universal app for both iPad and iPhone.
45.		CareerBliss – a career community designed to help you find happiness in the workplace.
46.		AMightyRiver – A Mighty River (AMR) is an online professional networking site that allows African American professionals the opportunity to network and search for career opportunities with companies that value diversity.
47.		Skype – Call, video call and instant message anyone else on Skype for free with Skype for your iPhone or iPod touch.
48.		Nimbuzz Messenger – Nimbuzz Messenger combines the power of internet and smart phone messenger into one, and lets you make free video calls, voice calls, send chat messages, share files, on any mobile device across popular messengers.
49.		Fring – Video Chat, Voice Calls & Texting
50.		SnapDat Digital Business Cards – Get creative and design a digital business card that’s uniquely you! Plus, SnapDat automatically creates and attaches a vCard based on the info you choose for that interaction.
51.		Business Card Reader (Paid) – Instant business card recognition right on the iPhone. Import contact information from a business card directly to your iPhone address book. Native LinkedIn integration: contact creation, contact information, picture import and convenient LinkedIn search.
52.		CardFlick (Paid) – Digital business cards have arrived! With over 75,000 downloads and a top 20 app around the world, CardFlick is the business card you always have with you.
53.		Cardmunch – The free iphone app that turns business cards into contacts.
Job Openings
54.		Job Compass – uses the iPhone’s locator feature to hone in on your position on a map and then gives you the ability to search for a job within a 5 to 100 mile radius.
55.		Jobs Near Me – This Free App finds for you the hottest jobs nearest to your GPS location (30 Miles radius) and allows you to submit applications on the go.
56.		Snagajob – makes finding a full-time or part-time job easier than ever with our free mobile app! See a map of all the hourly jobs near you (or the ZIP code of your choice), then zoom in to take a closer look or click to view jobs and view job descriptions.
57.		TweetMyJobs – TweetMyJobs is an Augmented Reality Job Search tool, enabling jobseekers to find jobs by scanning their iPhone in any direction, and having jobs appear on their screen.
58.		jobtweet – jobsearch – The real-time search of jobtweet brings you the latest jobs on the web.
59.		Real-Time Jobs – Don’t just search for a job. Get a job with this amazing real-time job search App.
60.		Job Frenzy (Paid) – Looking for a job? Use Job Frenzy to find jobs on your iPhone and mail them to yourself.
61.		Now Hiring (Paid) – an application that costs 99 cents, is great for anyone looking for a new job or complete career change. With Now Hiring, you can save your job searches, email search results to yourself or others, filter searches by miles, date, relevance, full/part-time, contract, internship or temporary and search by city, state, province, zip code, or postcode.
62.		Job Finder (Paid) – keeps you abreast of the latest job offers from major job sites by bringing all the job offers to your iPhone / iPod Touch.
63.		iJobs – iJobs™ delivers millions of job listings to your iPhone and iPod Touch.
64.		Beyond.com Search – The Beyond.com app allows you to instantly search and share highly targeted jobs from top employers anytime, from anywhere! Designed to meet and exceed your needs as you search for your next great job on the go, this app will ensure that you are up-to-date with the latest job opportunities in your area of interest.
65.		Jobs by Career Builder – The CareerBuilder.com iPhone application offers a unique and powerful way to search nearly 2 million jobs on CareerBuilder.com, the US’s largest job site.
66.		Indeed Job Search – Find jobs using Indeed, the most comprehensive search engine for jobs. In a single search, Indeed offers free access to millions of jobs from thousands of company websites and job boards.
67.		Monster.com Jobs – The Monster app is the perfect addition to your Monster account. Now you can search and apply for jobs anytime, anywhere. Best of all, the Monster app makes it easy to keep up with the latest job opportunities when you’re on the go.
68.		Simply Hired – SimplyHired.com is the world’s largest job search engine. Our app gives you instant access to 8 million job listings, right from your mobile device. Searching, saving, sharing and applying to jobs is only a few taps away.
69.		LinkUp – LinkUp’s iPhone application brings the web’s highest quality, fastest growing job search engine to your iPhone. LinkUp’s unique search engine, updated daily, lists only jobs that are found on company website.
70.		Hidden Jobs (Paid) – an organized database of announcements about companies who are hiring, growing, expanding. It lists these articles in a simple state by state dropdown menu so you can find hidden jobs near you. For US residents only.
71.		JobAware: Job search just got smarter – You can now join the hundreds of users who have successful found work using JobAware’s job search tools at no cost. Whether you want Full-time, Part-time, Internship, Contract or Freelance work, JobAware has the tools you need, whenever and wherever you will ever need them.
72.		JobStreet - The JobStreet iPhone application allows you to find jobs easily from JobStreet.com any time and any where.
73.		JobServe Connect – Ultra fast and simple way to find your next job anywhere in the world.
74.		JobServe Connect Local – Georgia Jobs – JobServe Connect Local is the latest in simple, easy to use apps giving you access to the latest jobs in the Georgia State area. Search across many industries.
75.		JobServe Connect Local – California Jobs – JobServe Connect Local is the latest in simple, easy to use apps giving you access to the latest jobs in the California State area. Search across many industries.
76.		Get Apps Done – the first job board for that will help iPhone developers and companies who are looking for them to find each other.
77.		Techcareers.com: Search Jobs & Find A Career in IT and Engineering – The TechCareers.com app allows you to instantly search and share highly targeted technology jobs from top employers anytime, from anywhere!
78.		Legal Jobs Centre – Legal Jobs Centre allows users to search for lawyer and attorney jobs throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
79.		TechVenture Job – Apply to TechVenture Jobs directly from your iPhone or iPod touch!
80.		BeyondExecutives.com – Search Executive Jobs (Paid) – The BeyondExecutives.com app allows you to instantly search and share exclusive executive level jobs from top employers anytime, from anywhere!
81.		Phillyjobs.com: Search Jobs & Find a Career In Philadelphia – The PhillyJobs.com app allows you to instantly search and share highly targeted jobs in Philadelphia from top employers anytime, from anywhere!
82.		AdministrativeJobs.com: Search Jobs & Find a Career in the Administrative Field – The AdministrativeJobs.com app allows you to instantly search and share highly targeted administrative jobs from top employers anytime, from anywhere!
83.		BeyondSanDiego.com: Search Jobs & Find a Career in San Diego, CA – The BeyondSanDiego.com app allows you to instantly search and share highly targeted jobs in San Diego from top employers anytime, from anywhere!
84.		Retail Moves Job Search – RetailMoves.com is the leading retail job search engine for the best jobs in retail across the UK and has been since its inception in 2000.
85.		Careers@Gov – The Careers@Gov iPhone application allows you to find jobs easily from The Singapore Public Service.
86.		HealthcareJobsite.com: Search Jobs & Find a Career in Healthcare – The HealthcareJobsite.com app allows you to instantly search and share highly targeted healthcare and medical jobs from top employers anytime, from anywhere!
87.		JobRADAR – German – Job radar is a web service (or mobile application) to lead to job-seekers and employees together.
88.		Craigster (Paid) – POST and SEARCH anywhere with Craigster
89.		CLBFree – CLBrowser makes browsing Craigslist fun. View posts in large readable type or flip over to see the original.
90.		Google Search – Search the web faster and easier with the latest Search app from Google.
Internships
91.		Internship Seeker – Find internships from your iPhone with Internship Seeker. Internship Seeker provides mobile access to thousands of available internship listings, with new ones updated and posted every day.
92.		CareerRookie – Looking to start your career? The CareerRookie iPhone application offers students and recent graduates the ability to search for internships, part-time jobs and entry-level positions with the nation’s top employers.
Freelancing
93.		BusyBee – Looking for contract/freelance work or possibly looking to hire a local service? BusyBee lets you offer your services or locate workers that fit your needs in a single application.
94.		iFreelancer – Get freelancer jobs on your iOS device with push notification now.
Productivity
95.		Dragon Dictation – an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard.
96.		iAccomplish (Paid) – a new app for the iPhone and iPad that helps you beat back those blues by allowing you to track exactly what you accomplish by keeping a “smart diary.”
97.		Speller – Free Spell Checker – Speller is a perfect tool to check spellings of English or Spanish words and come up with suggestions for misspelled words. Speller is based on Aspell, an open source spell checker for various platforms.
98.		Evernote – an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use.
99.		DropBox – Bring your files with you when you’re on the go
100.		MEO (My Eyes Only) Lite app – Use My Eyes Only Lite™ to safely store information like website logins and passwords, personal IDs, credit cards, membership cards and any note you want to keep safe and secure.
101.		Remember the Milk – Take your to-do list anywhere with this feature-packed app; never forget the milk (or anything else) again.
102.		Bento (Paid) – Organize contacts, track projects, plan events, and manage things – all in one easy to use iPhone personal database!
103.		iTranslate Plus (Paid) – Whether you’re learning a new language, traveling through other countries or just need to translate an email, with iTranslate you’ll never again be lost in translation!
104.		Print n Share (Paid) – Print to ALL printers and any document type via your Mac/PC. Print remotely over 3G and in corporate/other networks where WiFi is not available. View, store & print email, documents, files, attachments, photos, contacts and web pages on your iPad/iPhone/iPod touch – As featured in the Apple “Office” TV commercial.
For Employers
105.		CareerBuilder for Employers – CareerBuilder for Employers allows you to access candidates that have applied to your job postings from anywhere, at anytime through your existing CareerBuilder account.
106.		Snagajob – ForEmployers – Put the power of hiring in your pocket with the Snagajob Talent Management System mobile app for employers.
107.		JobSpeek – JobSpeek is a mobile job posting application and distribution network. Through our app you will create a unique job description complete with a picture and 60 second audio recording called the ‘hiring message’.

If you know of any iPhone job search apps that aren’t on the list, please tell me in the comments so we can keep the list as complete as possible.

More iPhone job search apps

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READ NOW: 41 Tips For Using Your Cellphone To Find Jobs

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more job search progress with your cellphone or mobile.

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Here are some ideas to get your creative branding juices flowing.

1. Join a new community

Find a new forum or niche social network and become an active member of the community, participating for at least 15 minutes every single day until you are a recognized expert on the basis of your participation alone.

2. Create a new community

Sometimes creating and building a new community might seem easier than trying to stand out in an older established one, or you might have discovered a part of your industry that is under-served, either online or in the real world.

3. Launch an initiative

In your industry, is there a fight no one is fighting? An issue that you feel isn’t getting as much attention as it deserves? Become the motor for change. In 25 Easy Ways To Grow Your Personal Brand in 5 Minutes, I suggested you “start an industry-related petition” but that’s just one example. Launching initiatives is also a great way to build a community.

4. Go on a speaking tour

Who would be most interested in hearing you speak?

What kind of audiences have you had in the past?

Where else can you find more such audiences?

With those thoughts in mind, plan a tour. Start small, aiming for 3-5 events in relatively close succession, where you can give the exact same talk, tweaking as you get a feel for the audience response.

As you get comfortable, you’ll also have more inspiration about where to speak next. As you impress people, others will come with invitations for where to speak next.

5. Launch a guest post campaign

If you’re a blogger, more comfortable in front of a screen than a live audience, prepare 3-5 blog posts and offer them as guest posts to large/leading blogs in your industry. This is a great way to generate exposure for any new initiatives, communities or websites launched (or that you’re planning to launch).

6. Become a regular contributor to a newspaper, magazine or group blog

Put yourself in front of a new audience on a regular basis, building your brand as they get to know and trust you. The results aren’t as immediate as a guest post campaign, but there’s much more potential over time.

7. Explore other forms of media

Writing online? Try creating an audio podcast series. Already doing that? Go into video. Have that covered too? Try offline content, whether contributing to mainstream media, putting out a press release, or other.

8. Launch a new website

If you’re not yet blogging, start.

If you are blogging already, considering starting another blog, similar but different in its perspective, such as an “ask the expert” type of blog.

Other types of websites you could start are forums, galleries, social bookmarking networks, e-commerce sites, etc. Just remember that the new website should be industry-related or very close to it. You want to grow your personal brand, not dilute it.

9. Volunteer a service

Look for an entity that has either a large audience or an influential one, and then offer a free project or service. Ideal choice if you can get it- the standards body in your industry.

10. Release a free resource

Have an idea for some sort of content that you know people will find valuable? Perhaps a special report or video? Create and release it for free, encouraging people to share it openly with each other, spreading knowledge of your brand wherever it goes.

Question of the article

Have you tried any of these tactics before? Share your story in the comments.

I originally published this article on the terrific Personal Branding Blog.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more ideas on how to brand yourself to a new job.

Related posts:

• 33 Blog Post Ideas for the Personal Brand-Building Blogger
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• 3 Ways To Build Your Personal Brand On The Job Or On The Job Search
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Should we get rid of job fairs once and for all?

This article is brought to you by Tom Tom Jobs. Find your Software Developer Jobs at Tom Tom.

I’ve been to job fairs in Canada, France and Israel but the Techeads Israeli Hitech Job Fair on March 6th 2012 was the first job fair I’d been to in a while.

I had originally planned to go to a recruiting event at the same conference center, just in a different room. When that was canceled, I ended up spending almost the whole day at the job fair instead. And I’m glad I did.

After meeting almost all the company reps at the fair and speaking to well over a dozen attendees, here are some thoughts on that job fair and other job fairs in general.

13 thoughts

1) What’s in a term?

Is it a job fair or a career fair or an employment fair?

They’re all the same. Local culture will decide which one sounds normal to you.

2) Student job fairs but never adult job fairs

If it’s a student/college/university job fair, or just an internship fair, it’s pretty clear who the fair is for- students and graduates. Otherwise they’re usually open to everyone, but why is it that there are no fairs aimed specifically at older/experienced job seekers?

3) Size matters

At large fairs, you almost have to make an effort to not be productive. So many company stands, so many people milling around for you to network with. If you put in the time, your biggest worry should be not getting to see everyone that can help you.

Small fairs are higher risk. You might waste time by going, but at least it won’t be a lot of time. I remember going to a small job fair in Montreal at a motel. I was in and out in less than 10 minutes, and even if I had tried to meet all six companies that were there, I still wouldn’t have been there for more than 30 minutes.

However, the small fairs are usually the very local ones and can be a good place to find a local job.

4) Not all fairs are created equal

Which is why some people think they’re an UTTER waste of time.

Size is not the only differentiator.

Some fairs are organized by professionals who structure the event to satisfy as many people as possible, and not just the event’s clients, the companies who paid to be there. There will be media coverage, a dedicated website, registration confirmation emails and more.

Other fairs are non-regular events created to respond to public demand (perceived or real), e.g. hosted in a church or community center. They won’t attract the same kind of companies or attendees as the more publicized fairs, so keep your expectations in check.

5) Fair organizers don’t do enough for attendees

While it is true that the hiring companies are the paying clients of the fair, without the non-paying job seekers, there would be no fair.

Fair organizers need to do more to respect attendees so that they are less likely to leave unsatisfied and never visit another job fair again. That includes navigating job seekers to the most relevant stands, giving them the tools for success (e.g. pens to submit application forms, option to print/photocopy resumes, etc.) and getting their feedback on how to make the next fair better.

Even just making the fair more upbeat would be a good thing.

6) Attendees just don’t do enough

This used to be me. I traveled 75 minutes from Jerusalem to a Tel Aviv job fair only to waste 30 minutes there before spending another 75 minutes getting home.

At Techeads, I asked most company reps if anyone had impressed them that day, or even just been memorable. Almost all of them replied in the negative.

That’s just wrong. Know your job fair success do’s and don’ts before you go.

7) Everyone loves candy but there’s a limit

Because fair organizers usually don’t do enough to lead job seekers to company stands, the companies try all sorts of tricks to get you in their line. Arguably most common- bowls of candy.

At the Techeads fair, every stand had a different bowl of candy. That’s a lot of candy. It was basically a candy fair.

I could almost imagine a company rep setting up their stand and pulling their hair out when they notice that a competitor had the same candy. I also wouldn’t be surprised if anything left the fair not feeling well because they ate too much candy.

Other schwag can be very cool too

There are only so many pens one person can take home. Luckily, some companies are more creative than that.

At Techeads, one company gave out fluorescent back-scratchers, a handy desk accessory (pun intended). Google is also famous for giving out cool little gadgets and magnets.

At the end of they day though, unless the giveaway is really special, it’s a sideshow to the real reason people line up at a job fair stand.

9) The psychology of lining up at the fair

One company at the Techeads fair had a very long line of job seekers waiting to speak to the company reps. The line was so long at one point that almost half the attendees in the room were in that line. So I decided to survey some of them to see why they didn’t visit the other stands and come back when the line was shorter.

Typical replies:

• “The line is longer here because the reps are talking to each job seeker and not just harvesting resumes” (they didn’t say ‘harvesting’, of course)
• “They have a lot of open positions”
• “It’s a good company to work for”
• “I just figured there was a reason why everyone else was lined up here”

10) QR codes are in

Everywhere I looked, there were QR codes at Techeads. On posters, on flyers, on business cards, even on a job seeker’s t-shirt (I regret not having gotten a picture of that).

But everywhere I looked, I didn’t see attendees using their smartphones to decode the QR codes and visit the embedded websites.

11) Fair sponsors: it’s not a shopping spree

People don’t come to job fairs expecting to spend money unless it’s to buy lunch or to pay for a ride there.

Regardless, there will usually be at least one fair sponsor trying to sell newspaper or magazine subscriptions, or books, or Internet access, or cellphone packages, and those stands seem to be the least active at fairs.

12) Best time of day to visit the fair

Depends on the hours of the fair relative to the local work culture but in general, it’s towards the END of the fair.

In Israel, people like to get up early. As a result, Techeads was busiest in the morning and so quiet in the early afternoon that they closed the fair an hour early, at 3pm instead of at 4pm. However, anyone who attended from 2pm – 3pm had easy access to any company they wanted, and company reps are more likely to remember someone met at the end of the day than at the beginning.

And it’s not like positions are going to be filled earlier during the fair anyway, so by coming later, you would still be able to get in your resume for a targeted position.

13) Too many people just going through the motions

The common complaint about job fairs is that they’re a waste of time. And for many people there, attendees AND company reps, they are.

On the one hand, most of the job seekers line up to apply at a company stand, maybe ask/answer a question and then shuffle off to another stand, until they ultimately leave.

On the other hand are company reps, there to do a job of taking in resumes, maybe ask/answer a question until the job seeker shuffles off to another stand.

Not enough job seekers trying to really take advantage of the fair, and frankly, not enough companies making an effort to impress candidates into following up after the fair.

The article was inspired by Elliotte Friedman’s 30 Thoughts posts.

If you liked this article, you’ll enjoy 25 Reasons Job Fairs Are Not a Waste of Time.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more insight on classic job search tactics.

Related posts:

• 25 Reasons Job Fairs Are Not a Waste of Time
• Did You Enjoy the Mercaz Job Fair?
• Tel Aviv University Job Fair Wednesday May 26th 2010
• The Orthodox Union’s 2008 Israel Job Fair is Almost Full
• Job Fair for Israeli High Tech Professionals on July 7th 2011

The system will save companies billions of dollars, estimates co-founder Nir Atsman.

QTRecruit™ to be launched later this month after undergoing extensive beta testing for almost a year.

“We were surprised no one else discovered this first,” founder Nir Atsman says.

“We thought of calling it something trendy like ‘iRecruit’ or something obvious like ‘ezRecruit’, but those names have already been taken, explains Yaron Cohen, the other co-founder. And since the manpower commander in our old army unit was a cutie, we thought “cutie = qt!”

Nir and Yaron are both former soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces’ world-renown Unit 8200, rumored to be (partially?) responsible for the Stuxnet virus that damaged Iranian nuclear installations in 2010. While serving in 8200, they designed QTRecruit’s precursor, a system that automatically decides where in the Israeli army to place new IDF recruits.

How does it work?

“Not to get too technical,” responds Yaron, “but the system spiders the Internet, like Google, gathering information about relevant candidates for a client’s open positions. In parallel, the client continuously feeds criteria into the system about the best kinds of candidates. Using some soon-to-be-patented artificial intelligence technologies and machine learning algorithms that we developed, the system learns over time how to find better candidates.”

What is the system’s placement success rate?

“Over 80% and improving all the time,” says Nir. “It hasn’t yet learned to predict how a good candidate will react when they have a competing offer from another company.”

What will happen to all the recruiters that will be replaced by the software?

Yaron answers “if you’re a recruiter, I’m sure everything will be ok,” later adding, “you’ll probably need to retrain but don’t worry, there are always jobs for good people.” He also points out that QTRecruit keeps a few ex-recruiters on staff to help them keep the system up-to-date.

For more information about QTRecruit™, visit the company website at qtrecruit.com. They are currently based in the Tel Aviv area.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more on cool startups in the job search sphere.

Related posts:

• Real World Example: The Logic Recruiters Use To Find Candidates
• An Open Letter to the Recruiters of the World From Job Seekers Everywhere
• Professional Recruiters: Job Seeker Friend or Foe?
• Israeli Job Search Myths Debunked
• Top 60 LinkedIn Groups for Job Seekers and Recruiters

It’s not really a war; it’s a mobilization of innovation and motivated minds — the leaders, the builders, the doers, all the combined skills that make up rocket soup and of course the money that make it all happen, with barriers to business entry lower than the’ve ever been (rocket soup is what rockets needs to run on in one of my daughter’s favorite shows, Little Einsteins).

At least, that’s the way it felt as I walked through Cruzioworks from my co-working office to the restroom and past the packed day-long classroom on covering HTML5. Or maybe it was jQuery. Or C#. Or PHP. Or Ruby. The times I went past the classroom when they were all on break I heard the buzz of “open source” and “cool new idea” and “the next big thing.” This is all happening in the heart of Santa Cruz, the laid back little surfing community in the backyard of traditional Silicon Valley. Remember hearing “Silicon Beach” back in the dot-com day? That tide pulled back and supposedly never returned. Not true. I live and breathe it almost every day.

Now according to one of my favorite tech columnists at  the San Jose Mercury News, Chris O’Brien (San Jose once being the heart of innovation):

After years of drawing a sharp circle that included Santa Clara County as well as southern San Mateo and Alameda counties, this newspaper is expanding the geographic boundaries that it considers to be part of Silicon Valley to include the five core Bay Area counties: Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa. This is recognition, perhaps overdue, that the kinds of entrepreneurial companies and industries once tightly clustered in the South Bay can now be found throughout the region.

Just a smidge over an hour-and-a-half drive time (as long as it’s moving), the new heart of SV innovation is San Francisco. In fact, in 2011 companies in San Francisco raised $2.87 billion in venture capital, and San Francisco has led the world in venture capital since at least 2009. But I’d still argue that Silicon Valley proper should extend as far south as Santa Cruz and Monterey, and it will someday.

Startups abound across many industries, and if the upcoming HRO Today Forum iTalent Competition and the Recruiting Innovation Summit Startup Competition are any indication of how hot the HR and recruiting technology spaces are getting, then the world’s going to catch fire.

We can only hope.

Sure there is intense competition for the right combination of folks, but let’s stop calling it the war for talent. Really. Again, this is a mobilization of innovation and motivated minds — the leaders, the builders, the doers, all the combined skills that make up rocket soup and of course the money that make it all happen. These are the job creators, whether they be full-time, part-time or freelance (and just check out how tech is pulling up the Bay Area).

Innovation is the heart of job creation. Let’s make it happen.

Did you miss this week’s preview? Click here — and check out the slideshow below of yesterday’s #TChat tweets. Thank you for joining us. We’ll see you next week.

image credit: Silicon Beach, by Lachlan Hardy

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href="http://storify.com/TalentCulture/tchat-insights-the-five-w-s-of-innovation"
target="_blank">View
the story "#TChat INSIGHTS: The Five W’S of Innovation" on Storify]

#TChat INSIGHTS: The Five
W’S of Innovation

Storified by TalentCulture · Wed, Apr 25 2012
22:54:27

A5 Why not TRY tech as a lever, eg
whitebds everywhere? If it fails u learn something. Ur applying innovation to the inno process
#TChatExpertus

I’ve frequently talked not only about the necessity of creating a personal, humanized brand statement for job seekers and employees in general, but also about how a company’s employer brand becomes key in the talent acquisition and retainment process. < NOTE this post is mine from 2010. I’m still here talking about this topic I’m passionate about. Why – You ask? Because we have more work to do. Our next Social Talent Show is tomorrow with the one and only Libby Sartain, former HR executive for Yahoo and Southwest, who will focus on these topics and share tips on how to align employee and company brand. One of my very favorite topics for many reasons.

Very often, leaders believe a company’s brand is just a marketing tool, and that it doesn’t have to do with the people working for the company. That’s exactly the opposite. The best talent will be attracted to your business because of its appealing brand, the image it conveys to the public, and your employees will want to stay and give their best because of your workplace culture.

The big tech companies understood that very early: The talent war is rampant in technology, and engineers are now attracted not only by financial aspects, but mostly because of a brand’s name, and when they do join these companies, the workplace culture is so strong, every little detail embodies what the company stands for –  that employees all feel part of a kind of family.

Now I’m not saying you need to build a cult or anything like that, but workplace culture and the employer’s brand go hand in hand, becoming the best ways to attract and retain talent that is slipping away.

And that leads me to my second tip: If you have both, great, but it’s incredibly important for the employer’s brand benot only to be appealing, but also to genuinely reflect “what it’s like” to work there; otherwise, after a few months or weeks, employees will feel fooled and start looking elsewhere.

In the same manner, when a company “oversells” their employer brand in the recruiting process, leaders run the risk of losing talent in the long run due to poor communication in the recruiting, hiring, on boarding process.

So how to avoid that? As a company, build a brand that is true to you, to what the company is really about, nothing more, and then LIVE your brand. It will be that much easier if it’s genuine, and workplace culture will get reflected in everyday life at work.

It’s a little bit like the story of a pet store that wouldn’t allow employees to bring their dogs in. Not very authentic. But if the pet store’s brand promise is the love of dogs, then everybody working there should feel that love: The company can even have a dog sitting system, or employees’ dog contests, to truly live the brand.

Build a workplace culture that is consistent with the brand displayed to the public. You can win!

That’s my take. For more on these topics, join us tomorrow with Libby Sartain, HR expert and employer branding guru, at 2pm EST and 11 am PST – Register here! Share your story and join the conversation to build the future of work!

In business we’re always looking for trustworthy answers from leaders and employees, so why not borrow a method that’s worked well in another industry? Bloggers, writers, journalists — they learn a few things early on or along the way: how to write pyramid style, how to interview, the right questions to ask, and so on. There’s a standard set of questions: the who, what, when, where, why and how. It’s a simple approach with a little magic, and it usually elicits trustworthy answers. For this week’s World of Work #TChat, we’ll look at the five Ws that can lead to a culture of workplace innovation.

In any organization or workplace community, even one with a less-than-ideal culture, you can often find one person, sometimes more, who can contribute to a culture of innovation. That person might not be who you’d expect. It might not be the CTO, tasked with understanding the affects of technology, or the VP of HR, responsible for building and nurturing culture. A leader must be prepared to look beyond the usual suspects to find the person who can galvanize the organization to choose innovation. It might be the person sitting in the corner who never talks. Stay curious and listen and you may just find out.

Of course, innovation requires more than the efforts of one person; the organization (AKA Workplace Culture) must provide an environment with the conditions to spur innovation. Location, technical systems, and access to information, mentors and coaches rather than micromanagers — all are important. Innovation happens when the right conditions come together. This can be a very exciting and rewarding experience.

While leaders must be willing to create conditions to encourage innovation, and able to hire people with the skills to innovate, it’s not always a leader’s job to be the innovator. Sometimes you have to step back, stop micromanaging and let success happen, with a few deft nudges in the right direction.

Naturally, too, there are always obstacles to innovation. Some are cultural, some are organizational, and some have to do with timing. We’ll discuss where obstacles tend to crop up, and also what to do about them.

Finally, lots people believe you can’t have a culture of innovation without technology. I’m unclear this is true although it certainly fosters easier adoption. While we think technology facilitates innovation it seems unlikely to be the whole story.

And we haven’t even gotten to how!

So join us for this week’s #TChat on Wednesday, April 25, from 7-8 pm ET (6-7 pm CT, 4-5 pm PT, or wherever you are). Joining me (@meghanmbiro), as I moderate, will be Kevin Grossman, KC Donovan, Sean Charles, Salima Nathoo and Maren Hogan. Following is the list of questions that’ll kick-start our conversation:

Q1: Who among an organization’s many stakeholders can contribute to a culture of innovation?

Q2: What are the conditions that give rise to actionable workplace innovation?

Q3: When should leaders help bring together innovation’s bits and pieces – and when should leaders let go?

Q4: Where do teams and leaders encounter obstacles to innovation? Why?

Q5: How does technology help to facilitate workplace innovation?

image credit: Newspaper fire orange, by Jon S

This week’s “Top 5 Trends in the World of Work” are brought to you by Seinfeld words of wisdom. …

1.         A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking – Jerry Seinfeld

Enterprise Investment in Social Media

Social media is the digital brain that lives, breathes and thinks through multiple, globally situated minds. This thought in itself could be the imperative for adoption, yet many businesses are still undecided. An article at Inc.com gives a 007-style breakdown of the basic business case for enterprise social media engagement: information gathering, trend reconnaissance, target profiling, and making contact. If you’re still not convinced, SocialMediaToday.com does a fine job of outlining the tangible and intrinsic definitions of social media success. Yes, enjoyment is one – at the end, of course (business before pleasure).

The Trend: Grow social or go extinct – or a bookstore will truly be the only evidence that YOU are still thinking.

2.         To me, if life boils down to one thing, its movement. To live is to keep moving. – Jerry

Mobile Technology

Harvard Business Review did some serious schooling this week on toddlers and tech: Twenty-five percent of 2 – 5 year olds use the Internet, and 33 percent of 4 – 7 year olds have used an iPhone or iPad. These are Re-Generationals “… the first unconscious participants in an era when everyone has access to everything, everywhere, at every time… the generation of mobile technology, wireless communication, and clouds of constant content.” We are indeed moving, and across generations, too. In a survey of adult tablet users, 50 percent said their tablet makes them feel happier and 40 percent stated that their tablets bring out the best in them. You can’t make these things up, folks.

The Trend: Mobile is literally on the “grow.” Better get moving in the right direction.

3.         A two-year old is kind of like having a blender, but you don’t have a top for it. – Jerry

Born This Way in the Business World

Q: When does it help to be a little nuts? A: In today’s world of work. This week we read about the business case for crazy. According to the article, what it takes to win big “…is a commitment to originality, a willingness to challenge convention and break from standard operating procedure…” This popular post on the qualities of remarkable employees lists being eccentric as a success factor. Listen to your unhinged childhood imagination. You have to be original to lead original.

The Trend: Different is a catalyst for development and success; dare to be it.

4.         “You know what they say, ‘You don’t sell steak, you sell the sizzle’” – Kramer, in The Bizarro Jerry

Personal Branding

People either dismiss this term or don’t know how to define it. What it means is opportunity: the chance to give potential employers, clients and the world itself the very words to describe you. In the absence of a personal brand, you’re giving your power away to the public (like Google search results), to talk about you on their terms. Building your personal brand is influencing, inspiring and integrating your personal values with your identity. It’s owning who you are and what you want to be known for.

The Trend: You don’t have to have your name in lights to be an iconic brand; you just have to shed positive light on your authentic self.

5.         “It pains me to say this, but I may be getting too mature for details.” – Jerry, in The Deal

Business Etiquette

If you want to be memorable, make courtesy your calling card. That’s what this surprisingly popular post told us this week. It teaches us a few simple lessons: buy cool stationary, express gratitude, remember people (real people not screen names or twitter handles), and if you don’t have anything nice to say, it’s better not to say anything at all. Yes, that’s very “Leave it to Beaver,” but also clever and current. Details in professional connections never go out of style.

The Trend: If you want to stand out, be thoughtful, it’s where the magic really happens.

What hot’s and happening in YOUR world of work? Tell us here:

Listly Link: http://list.ly/list/15t-top-trends-in-the-world-of-work-april-20-2012

image credits:
Seinfeld - The Complete Series, by Mikael Johansson
Seinfeld!, by Lauren Manning