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Industry Insights

Local Content Lobby 3

Continuing my series of blogs of the Energy Chamber’s Local Content & Capability Development Forum last November, the feature speaker was The Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs, the Honourable Kevin Ramnarine.  The minister was very upbeat about the prospects of the local energy industry, citing the unprecedented number of foreign contracts for deep water exploration and the 32.4% growth in the energy services sector.  Advance planning by Central Bank, to cope with the huge loss of upstream tax revenues during the recent turnaround, was handled so well that the population barely noticed.  The Ministry is aiming for a much needed Local Content bill in 2014 to set up indigenous human resources and improve the industrial capability of the country.  The minister urged local service companies to stand up and deliver to standards at least as good as their foreign counterparts.  The ministry is also working on a Natural Gas Master Plan for the period 2014-2024 to chart the course forward.

This is very encouraging support from the ministry but there is so much to do and an election could reverse all advances made.  Let’s hope that much can be achieved in the coming year.

Posted by on February 10, 2016
Career Advice

Tighten your belt

Susan’s Snippets

To those who were lucky enough to be in Trinidad for Carnival, the “greatest show on earth”, earlier this week – it was fabulous, wasn’t it? Now it’s back to reality.

The downturn seems to be taking effect in the Caribbean with spectacular casualties. The Prime Minister of T&T advised citizens to “tighten their belts” and it seems that the people are heeding his words, thus putting a strain on businesses particularly those in the service sectors. So how do we get through these difficult times? Guest journalist, Amelia Hayes, reports on her impressions from a recent trip to Miami.

 

Tighten your Belt … by Amelia Hayes

With words such as “Recession”, “tighten your belt”, “hard times”, bailouts and companies closing or downsizing …. How severe is the global economic state and how many of us are really thinking before spending our dollars? Can we survive it? As President Obama says, “Yes we can!”

I recently returned from Florida where I interviewed Trini’s living there as well as US citizens as to how they are being affected, if at all and how has life changed for them.

A couple days before Christmas thousands of people flocked to the malls trying to catch the holiday sales following the “Black Friday” sales. At Sawgrass and Aventura malls as with other malls, people were bustling about looking for deals but frivolous spending wasn’t taking place. Business owners complained it was the worst in terms of sales they’ve experienced.

Zorinah of Miami Gardens (a Trini who migrated) said that it hasn’t affected her in any significant way and in fact she earned more last year than the year before and shopped as usual for the Christmas season. She hasn’t changed her lifestyle in any way neither did she decrease her spending power. She doesn’t see the recession seriously affecting her earnings in a way that will significant diminish her quality of life at present.

Realistically, we are all affected in one way or another but for some it’s not significant enough for them to start worrying at present. For some, the value of their properties have dropped and they can refinance paying less on their Mortgage; for others, they are stuck paying more for their homes than it’s now worth. Banks are no longer giving loans in fear of not recovering their money due to loss of jobs and bankruptcy which is expected to happen in large numbers this year. Basically the average person is the one feeling it the most, as is always the case! Those with low incomes, minimal education as well as a household to feed and not knowing what their next move should be; those are the people hurting. They comprise of sales clerks in department stores, administrative staff, gas station attendants, automotive sales people and many more.

It would be wise to do an analysis of where you live, irregardless to what part of the Globe (the Caribbean, US, UK etc) and look at the industries in operation, the areas that bring income to sustain the economy, find out what jobs are in demand and put a plan of action into place from there. E.g. it’s public knowledge that we have a shortage of nurses locally and the news recently highlighted the shortage of pharmacists at the POS General Hospital and the country! Reality is the number of diabetic, hypertension, cancer, and Aids cases have grown tremendously and thousand of persons are currently on medication needing the expertise of a pharmacist.

It will take some thinking and research on your part but it’s beneficial to your future to find other means of income and be versatile to earn a living. No longer is specialization in a field an absolute must. With companies downsizing and employees multi-tasking while doing the jobs of I.T. Manager, database administrator and technical support, it would be wise to acquire skills in varying fields. From the beginning of time man has adapted to his environment and circumstances, the same will occur during difficult global economic times but we will survive and evolve!

Tell Us What You Think

We would love to hear what you think of this issue of CRS News. And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you would like to share with us, please send those too.

Posted by on January 26, 2016
Recruitment & Job-Hunting Tips

Ethical Recruiting

Susan’s Snippets
For those of you who recently participated in Carnival in Trinidad, I hope you had as much fun as I did. I have graced this issue with a photo of two of our recruiters having a great time.

Warning to those self employed consultants in T&T who are VAT Registered:
WASA is now levying Non-Domestic water rates on all premises where VAT registered businesses operate. In other words, if you have registered your VAT business at your home, then you will be billed water rates at the commercial rate. You can petition the Regulated Industries Commission if you consider this unfair. Their website is http://www.ric.org.tt .

Ethical Recruiting
You are probably thinking that I’m going to talk about how recruiting agencies should operate in an ethical manner. Actually, I want to reverse this thought and explore how candidates and company hirers work with agencies to get the best out of the partnership so that all parties benefit from the relationship.

What does each party expect from each other?
– the candidate expects the agency to provide appropriate job opportunities and present him/her fairly and positively to prospective employers
– the company expects the agency to provide vetted candidates that match their job requirements, arrange candidate interviews, and help with the negotiations for hire, in return for an agreed fee
– the agency expects that the candidate has accurately and completely represented themselves in terms of their qualifications, skills, work experience and future job goals
– the agency expects that the company gives appropriate feedback on candidates submitted and works with the agency until the recruitment cycle is complete

The above arrangement works very well and only goes wrong when any one party fails to live up to the expectations of another. For example, if a candidate agrees with an agency to meet a company for a job interview and never shows up and avoids all the agency’s calls, or if the candidate agrees to the salary and other employment terms with the agency before the interview, then demands much more at the interview, then they are letting down the agency and wasting the hirer’s time.
A more serious example is when a candidate misrepresents their qualifications or experience on their resume.

Now that candidate has destroyed the trust of both the agency and the hirer who will have a negative view of this person should they come across them when considering candidates for future jobs. Remember that the hirer may move to another company and so the candidate’s prospects may become blocked by that company too.

Hirers sometimes also misuse the relationship between themselves and the agency. This could be a simple case of not telling the recruiter why her candidates are unsuitable so that she could adjust her search to find better matches. Hirers who work closely with their recruiter definitely get the best results, as people are naturally more effective when they have a good working relationship.

There are extreme cases where the hirer deliberately misrepresents the facts! For example, a hirer may get the candidate to agree to tell the agency that he/she had already applied directly to the hiring company, so the hirer can avoid paying the agency’s recruitment fees. Another tactic is to get the candidate to tell the agency that their salary is lower than what was agreed, so that the recruitment fee is reduced.

Any act of dishonesty is almost always found out eventually by the agency staff, if they are good at maintaining a relationship with their candidates. You can imagine how badly this reflects on the hiring company’s ethics and I have known cases where the candidate refused the job because of this. Of course this creates an unpleasant dilemma for the agency as to whether or how to deal with that company again, especially if they are giving a lot of business to the agency.

Yes, the agency needs to be honest with all parties as well, and never knowingly submit a candidate with a negative history or inaccurate resume. I strive to live according to the following code of ethics which you may have heard of:

“In all things that I think, say or do ….
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOOD WILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?”

Do you have any experiences to share along these lines?

Tell Us What You Think
We would love to hear what you think of this issue of CRS News. And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you would like to share with us, please send those too.

Posted by on January 25, 2016
Industry Insights

Local Content Lobby 2

At the recent Energy Chamber’s Local Content & Capability Development Forum, Mr. Roger Packer, Chairman of the Energy Chamber, opened the proceedings by warning of the effect of the “Great Crew Change” due to baby boomers retiring in their droves.  This will leave a shortage of skills in the industry (CRS is here to help!).   He praised the service companies for their coordination and successful handling of the 2013 maintenance down time (turnaround) of several plants in Point Lisas, though this exposed a dearth of certain skills.

Mr. Packer spoke about several initiatives of the Energy Chamber, including:

  • the Safe-To-Work-Programme (STOW) which creates a Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) certification to be acquired by all local energy services companies
  •  the Energy Industry Competency Initiative (EICDI) to prove to operators that a local company has a competent workforce
  • the Energy Chamber’s Learning Centre which is a modern facility that offers training and assessments to the Energy sector with an emphasis on HSE.

The Chamber is certainly working hard to ensure that the benefits of our oil and gas bounty are shared by the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

I will be issuing brief blogs on each of the other speakers as well as my personal impressions of the event over the next few weeks.  To read these blogs please follow us on our company LinkedIn page: http://www.linkedin.com/company/caribbean-resourcing-solutions-ltd?trk=biz-companies-cym or subscribe to our website blogs at http://www.crsoilandgasjobs.com/newsletter/ by scrolling down the side bar.

Posted by on January 23, 2016
Industry Insights

Local Content Lobby 1

Last November, I trekked down to Claxton Bay to attend the Energy Chamber’s Local Content & Capability Development Forum.  There was a Who’s Who of T&T’s Energy Services leaders in attendance.  The panelists were eloquent and passionate.   As I am new to the Energy Chamber and not in the industry per se (my company, Caribbean Resourcing Solutions (CRS), provides recruiting services for the sector), I made copious notes.

I will be issuing brief blogs on each of the speakers as well as my personal impressions of the event over the next few weeks.  I know there has already been a lot of reporting on some of the speeches in the newspapers but I suspect some people might appreciate a précis as they don’t have time to read the full article.  Watch this space!

Posted by on January 13, 2016
Other

Jobs in an Uncertain Economy

Susan’s Snippets

Congratulations to T&T’s Soca Warriors for winning the football (soccer) match against USA (first time this has ever been achieved) and hopefully on their way to getting into the second round of the Football World Cup qualifiers. We have eyes on South Africa in 2 years time for the team to repeat their extraordinary performance in Germany in 2006.

What else is there to say except that “we are living in interesting times”.

 

Jobs in an Uncertain Economy

If you are living in Trinidad, then you know that the question on everybody’s mind is whether or not we will be affected by the global roller coaster economy. Our economy is still strong but there’s a feeling that we must be affected somehow by the crisis in the USA, Europe and elsewhere. We are always affected by the price of oil and, more importantly, gas, and these prices have been dropping and rising in an unpredictable manner globally. Nevertheless, the world needs oil and gas and known reserves are depleting, so oil companies must continue to fund increasingly more expensive exploration and drilling in order to meet future demand.

Historically, Oil & Gas companies tend to lay off staff as soon as their profits dip, and this is one reason why many young people in North America and elsewhere do not choose to work in that industry. This has led to a shortage of skills world-wide, with the prospect that this situation is about to become much worse as a large percentage of skilled and experienced oil and gas professionals are due to retire soon. Therefore, I feel that our international energy sector companies are more likely to relocate skilled staff to other countries, if the local situation should warrant this. This could be a great opportunity for our local talent to gain international experience in this industry.

I.T. skills also appear to be in great demand, both locally and internationally. It seems that the dot.com crash earlier this decade caused many undergraduates in North America to avoid the computer industry as a career. Now there is a shortage of I.T. skills and in fact, according to the (U.S.) National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses, I.T. employment in the USA is on the rise, despite layoffs in other sectors. This makes sense – I.T. is integral in ensuring that a company is operating as efficiently as possible, and that product development can continue to keep the company competitive, when the economy is tight.

I have experienced this myself. Many years ago, I was a programmer at British Airways when the company decided to lay off 20,000 staff world-wide. All staff were invited to apply for voluntary redundancy with generous termination packages. About 80% of the computer staff applied (as we knew we could get jobs elsewhere) before they announced that the computer department was to be the only exception and so our applications were rejected. Unfortunately for the company, many staff had already got job offers and left anyway, me included. But this demonstrates how vital I.T. is to any organisation.

What’s the conclusion in terms of job prospects? I.T. and Energy sector professionals should continue to enjoy a high demand for their skills with consequent salary increases as companies compete for their talent. However, be prepared to seek opportunities abroad to capitalise on this demand.

 

Tell Us What You Think

We would love to hear what you think of this issue of CRS News. And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you would like to share with us, please send those too.

Posted by on September 26, 2008
Recruitment & Job-Hunting Tips

Hiring Friends

Susan’s Snippets
I am saddened to report the passing of Galba Bright who was a guest contributor to this newsletter about a year ago. He was an expert in Emotional Intelligence and lived in Jamaica. Condolences to his family.

If you, or anyone you know, would like to contribute relevant articles pertaining to recruitment or personal development or the I.T. industry in general, then I would be pleased to discuss this.

Hiring Friends
There’s been a lot of talk and news reports in recent times about transparency in business dealings and the high cost of corruption to a country. You probably skim over these reports thinking that all this is someone else’s experience and of course you wouldn’t behave in such an unethical way.

No doubt that is true when we’re talking about taking bribes and kickbacks on contract allocations, and major misdealings of that nature. Yet can you say that your recruitment practices are entirely above board? If you have ever been in the position to influence who gets hired for a job, and you have favoured a friend or a relative, then you might have been doing an injustice to your company by not hiring the best candidate.

A few years ago, I was asked to be on an interview panel to select an I.T. person for a large organisation. My recruiting company had selected the candidates and I was there on an advisory capacity. The interviews were proceeding well and the panel was interested in one particular lady when one of the more influential panelists realised he had a friend in this lady’s department who he felt would also be suited for the job. To cut an astounding story short, the next thing I knew was that the job was offered to the friend without going through the full interview panel process and my services were no longer required. To add injury to insult, my company didn’t get a sale!

Now the person hired may truly have been the best person for the job, but you could not tell from the process taken. The bias in her favour was extreme. I had a hard time explaining to the original candidate who saw her colleague, whom she thought wasn’t even applying, get the job.

I know there’s a great advantage to recruiting people you know – you know the personalities you’re dealing with, and their attitudes are in line with yours, and of course you can trust a friend, right? Well sometimes not so. It’s amazing how different a person can be in the workplace to how you know them socially.
It’s more important than ever that your friend is put through the same rigorous and open selection process as everyone else so that you can be sure that they are the best fit. You don’t want a mistake returning to haunt you, and this could harm your friendship with that person too.

Relatives are sometimes a different case as family companies may have to hire them even though they are clearly not the best choice. Some large companies like to have members of the same family working for them as that is their culture, and it helps staff retention. But these are known and accepted biases built into the recruitment process, and quite different from hiring the relative as a favour.

I’m not saying that it’s wrong to hire a friend or relative; just that you need to be open and transparent about it and consider other choices fairly too. Always ask yourself “will hiring my friend be the best thing for the company?”.

Tell Us What You Think
(Referring to our last newsletter “”Wait and See” Causes Downturn in Recruiting”)

Congratulations on 12 years of outstanding service.
In my opinion, IT jobs are more in demand in T&T than anywhere else in the Caribbean. The decline you are experiencing may be due to organizations adopting a more direct method of recruiting and/or recruiting from outside. In so doing they are also not doing due diligence regarding the recruitment process and in the end may not have the right candidate. This is particularly common in a booming economy where time is critical and money is not an issue… John

Thank you for this feedback, John. I have found that when times are booming, companies will spend the money to use an agency as they know they get better results. When money is tight they try to hire directly in a mistaken (I believe) attempt to save money. This is far more time consuming for them and they may still have to resort to an agency if they don’t get good enough candidates. We have noticed that the newspaper ads themselves are smaller than usual – a sign that companies are trying to recruit as cheaply as possible… Susan

We would love to hear what you think of this issue of CRS News. And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you would like to share with us, please send those too.

Posted by on June 25, 2008
Other

CRS – The First 10 Years

Susan’s Snippets

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed the long Easter weekend. I particularly loved watching hundreds of kites in the Savannah, some flying more successfully than others. Speaking of success, I’m very proud to announce that CRS is now 10 years old. To commemorate this achievement, I thought I would tell you what it was like in those difficult early days when I started this business selling a new concept in Trinidad & Tobago.

I wish to thank everyone who supported and encouraged me along the way and I especially wish to congratulate my staff, as without them, I would not be here today.

 

CRS – The First 10 Years

“Why don’t you stop talking about it and just do it!” These words were like a slap in my face. Sylvia was right – I had been talking for months about starting this business and never really progressed to make it happen.
Sure, I had done some market research which demonstrated an almost unanimous “yes” to the idea. I had a laptop with the latest Windows 95 and Office software, a printer and some accounting software. I had researched the idea in England and even went on a three day seminar there on recruitment strategies. So what else did I need to start?

I needed moral support. Working out of my home was not an option and I couldn’t imagine being all alone in an office making a go of it. I really wanted my sister, Karen Jackson, to work with me but she had a good job with a salary that I couldn’t match. These thoughts were going through my head when the phone rang. It was Karen saying she had decided to resign her job. Talk about fate!

We cracked open a bottle of wine and toasted to the success of the new company! It was a Friday in March 1996 and Karen agreed to work with me to fulfil my dream of match-making I.T. professionals and companies needing their services. I decided to name the company “Caribbean Resourcing Solutions” as it would operate throughout the Caribbean to provide the best resources for I.T. jobs and thereby solve the problems that I.T. employers have in finding suitable talent.

Why did I think I was qualified to establish the first technical recruiting company in Trinidad & Tobago (and probably the Caribbean)? Well, I was an I.T. person with a Computer Science degree and over 20 years I.T. experience at the time.
I had worked as a Consultant for the previous 9 years, the last 2 years as a free-lancer in Trinidad and the U.K. I knew what kind of quality service I wanted from an agency to find me my next contract job, and I wanted to offer this type of service to make a positive difference in people’s lives.

It’s amazing how things move to facilitate you once you’ve made the decision to do something. That weekend, Karen learnt of a small office for rent in Diego Martin. I went to see it on the Monday and I was in there a couple of days later. Karen didn’t join me as my Office Manager until mid-April as she was working out her notice.

Being an I.T. person, I had contacts to start establishing a Candidate Database, and I distributed brochures at every possible opportunity to attract more. Then I sent out a mail-shot to about 150 companies, following up with phone calls. I’m not a sales or marketing person so this was the hardest thing for me to do. That’s why I needed Karen there – to keep me going.

Not many people know this, but in the beginning, CRS only offered contract services, a new concept in the I.T. world in Trinidad at the time. I nearly starved! I had my first contract job in August with my brother’s company. It was for a 5 hour job and I made TT$400 after paying the contractor. My brother said I should frame the cheque!
We also launched the first version of the CRS website www.crsitjobs.com in August 1996 – the first job site in T&T.

When I realised that companies were asking for permanent staff, I wised up and catered for that as well. Interestingly, these days most of our revenue is from contract sales, but I was a little ahead of the times back then.

While I got quite a bit of interest from various companies there were also many disappointments. What I thought was going to be an easy money-earner turned out to be a lesson in surviving in a tough business world. I tried to make each mistake or disappointment a learning experience.

By November, I had several “sure” projects collapse all at the same time and I was thinking of quitting. That’s where Karen earned her keep. She persuaded me that I’d been very unlucky so far and I should give it at least 6 more months as I had already invested so much effort and money into this venture. Our first Christmas staff lunch was at an Indian restaurant and was funded by 2 vouchers for free lunch that Karen had acquired.

We also had our good times. When I got my first business enquiry in June 1996, I celebrated by inviting all the other tenants in the building to share in some wine and snacks. They couldn’t believe it wasn’t even a sale! Since then, we always celebrate first/big events with wine (bubbly these days).

We got our first permanent sale in January 1997 and then they started pouring in! It was like I had been humbled and been taught lessons so now success was coming my way. By July I was so swamped with work that I hired an HR person, Peter Gregoire, as a Recruitment Consultant. Pretty soon, we had to move to a much larger office in the same building and hire more staff. In December 1998, we moved to brand new and much larger premises in Woodbrook, and that is where we are still located.

We continued to learn lessons and adjust our business practices to suit. In 2003, we expanded our services to include technical recruiting (engineers, drillers, geologists, technicians, etc) in the Oil & Gas sector with its own website www.crsoilandgasjobs.com.
This was the next step in my dream to establish a quality recruiting service specialising in sourcing technical professionals of all kinds, not just I.T. This has naturally expanded to include the petrochemical and construction sectors as they employ similar skills.

While we don’t market our services regionally, we still get quite a few I.T. jobs for other Caribbean islands from referrals. Over the years we have placed Jamaicans in Jamaica, a Bahamian in the Bahamas, and Trinidadians in Barbados, St. Vincent and Mustique Island. We’ve had enquiries from islands as far apart as the Dutch Antilles, the Cayman Islands, the Dominican Republic and Grenada. We’ve been approached by several North American agencies to supply talent to their market.

Our success has been a result of the efforts of our staff (currently Susan, Karen, Amelia, Stacey, Sonja and Keisha) who strive to ensure that our clients and candidates like the way we do business and deliver results, and therefore choose CRS to give them the service they need.

So where do we go from here? Let’s just say that CRS has eyes on the world! Watch this space.

 

Tell Us What You Think

Letters to the Editor:

I believe that the newsletters provided by the CRS are essential and much needed in fostering awareness for the potential of IT/IS, as only IT has the power and capability in modern society, to facilitate communication and collaboration among all individuals to aid the development of our country, the region and more importantly, the world. I would like to commend your work once again. Keep up the good work … Paul

Thank you for your kind words, Paul … Susan

We would love to hear what you think of this issue of CRS News. And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you would like to share with us, please send those too.

Posted by on April 26, 2006
Recruitment & Job-Hunting Tips

10 Tips for the Interviewee

Susan’s Snippets
Thanks to those who responded about the regularity of receipt of this monthly newsletter. Remember, if you do not receive it every month, please click on reply to let me know this, giving a reason you suspect is the problem, if possible. Many thanks for your help with this. Note – I have found that many subscribers have full mail boxes.

For those who have added its email address to your contacts list or white-list/safe sender’s list to avoid this newsletter being rejected, then please note that the email address has been changed to crsnews2@crsitjobs.com. I apologise for any inconvenience caused.

P.S. I can’t resist mentioning what a great Carnival 2006 all of us at CRS had in Trinidad. I couldn’t find a photo that did justice to our collective beauty!

10 Tips for the Interviewee
There are many sources of tips available for the job seeker. They provide excellent information on how to find job opportunities, write resumes, present oneself at interviews, etc. A good example is http://www.rileyguide.com/. I don’t wish to repeat standard advice but rather focus on what makes the difference between being just OK at the interview and being outstanding. This assumes that the interviewee is actually qualified for the job.

1. Be prepared. Make sure that you know what the company’s business is all about, so you can ask intelligent questions and prove that you are really interested in working for them. You can check their website or even search the Internet for news information on them, if they are a large company.

2. Dress for success! This is so important and often underestimated by the interviewee. The style of dress will vary by company. For instance, be conservative for a bank or insurance company, but stylish for a media or advertising company. Never go in jeans, revealing clothes, slippers, or dirty/old clothes.
Make sure your hygiene is impeccable. Don’t smoke for the morning before the interview as the smell of tobacco will linger in your hair and clothes, and many people are turned off by this.
For conservative companies, wear your hair in a tidy style; women should wear closed-in shoes and perfume should be discreet; men should not wear ear-rings, and any visible body piercings are a no-no.
The interviewer will form a first impression from the moment they see you, and the rest of the interview will be simply to provide support for that first impression.

3. Be on time. Better to get there an hour early than be 5 minutes late. You may be required to fill in an application form so it’s best to be there at least 15 minutes before the interview. If you are unavoidably late, then please call the company with a good excuse and offer to reschedule the time if they can’t wait for you.
Remember that employers often line up several interviews one after the other. So you being late will impact on the whole day, and this will be noted.

4. Be polite. Smile and shake hands with everyone (if possible) while introducing yourself. Remember to stand when someone important comes into the room, even if it’s a man and you’re a woman – we’re all equal in business. It’s so easy and makes an essential good impression.

5. Don’t fidget – it’s annoying and makes you look nervous. Don’t cover your mouth while speaking. Speak clearly and pay attention to your diction and grammar. Never chew gum in an interview. Never slouch in your chair, no matter how relaxed the interview may be.

6. Don’t monopolise the conversation. It’s important that you present your achievements well, but you must also listen to what the interviewer wants to tell you about the job and company. You could come across as overbearing if you take control of the conversation.

7. On the other hand, make sure that you get to say your piece too, should the interviewer be very talkative. He/she may well consider you a great conversationalist if you let them do all the talking, but you want them to learn why you are the best candidate for the job. So, make sure you get a chance to sell yourself too.

8. Be prepared for tricky questions like “if I told you that you are not suitable for the job, what would you say?” Listen to the question carefully before you get angry or upset. The interviewer said “IF I told you …” You reply very calmly that you would be surprised and disappointed and then go on to say why you are perfect for the job. The interviewer was trying to see how you would react.
In all cases, be calm and always steer the answer back to why you should get the job. Have a good answer for that age-old one “what do you consider your faults to be?” Come up with some (genuine) faults that could also be considered attributes.

9. Keep your sense of humour. It’s only a job and others will come your way. So, don’t be too serious and anxious. Show that you are a happy, confident person and people will want to have you on their team.

10. Never, never bad talk your previous employers or anyone else. This will actually reflect worse on you than them. You can make it obvious that you were not happy with a company or a situation but don’t make personal, negative remarks about anybody.

Also check out “the Magic Wand”, a very effective interview technique I wrote about in a previous newsletter. Note that any jobs listed there are no longer available.

I remember one disastrous job interview I had years ago with a certain cola company. The interviewer told me how he encouraged his children to drink bottles of this stuff every day, especially when they were ill. The look of horror on my face must have killed it for me and we both couldn’t wait for me to get out of there.

Remember that an interview is an opportunity for both sides to establish that there is a fit. You are also sizing them up, and these days it’s very much an employee’s market. So know that you are worthy, and enjoy the experience.

Tell Us What You Think
Letters to the Editor:
(referring to our last newsletter – Loyalty – to Career or Employer First?)

Employers need to step out of the box and not only think of the business from their point of view. I have even had that statement “you need to be more loyal to the company” directed at me when I did an assessment of problems a company I worked at was having with an accounting system and I produced evidence to show the problems were more internal than external (the vendor).

But employers need to look at the employee’s perspective….what is it the employee wishes to gain from your company. Is it just a salary or does he/she want to develop themselves personally as well? What is all this training if there is no room in the company for the employee’s growth?

They also need to look at how they treat their employees. They cannot always expect the IT person to always give, give, and get nothing in return. IT people usually have to work long days/nights sometimes with very little remuneration.
If IT persons were not loyal, wouldn’t the very systems they work on never be working?

In some businesses the training of employees only leads to them getting more work/responsibilities with the same pay. Then employers are surprised when there is a high turnover. Employers need to do a proper assessment of why IT persons are really leaving their organisations.

A lot of companies hire IT persons with skills and assume that they would not need to further train them to upgrade their skills. Just as Shelly-Anne said, they incorrectly perceive that training these employees is an expenditure rather than an investment in their human capital.

So it is a two way street. If employers give, they will receive in return … Dwight

It would be interesting to hear an employer’s viewpoint on this loyalty issue … Susan

We would love to hear what you think of this issue of CRS News. And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you would like to share with us, please send those too.

Posted by on March 25, 2006