Tag Archives: Prevalent Group

Goals To Set For 2015: Where To Take Your Engineering Career

With the new year fast approaching, now is a great time to sit down and think about where you want to take your engineering career in 2015, especially if you’ve been feeling stalled in your current position. Goals give you something to strive for throughout the year, and help ensure you’re constantly pushing yourself to achieve more.

Every engineer will have his or her own unique recipe for success. Whether you are a new engineer or a seasoned professional, it’s important to set goals that will keep you moving forward, and goals that are realistic and attainable. While your overarching goal may be to land a new job, it can help to set smaller goals to create the forward motion that will set you up for success. Goals to consider to help you advance your engineering career this year include:

  • Getting out and meeting people in your industry is critical for professional success. Whether or not networking results in a job offer, expanding your professional network is always a good idea. Attending professional networking events, industry association events, conventions, and other functions will afford you the opportunity to meet new people and learn new things in 2015.
  • Document your accomplishments. The most effective resumes quantify achievements. It can be difficult to pull all of your accomplishments out of your memory when you decide it’s time to revamp your resume. If you keep a running list of those achievements as they happen, and update your resume accordingly, you can be sure none will get left out. This year, make it a point to track and document your accomplishments on the job.
  • Know your value. Engineers should always be aware of their value in the marketplace. Research local engineering salaries online so that you know where you fall in terms of your experience and education. You don’t want to find out the day after you accept a job offer that you’re actually getting paid $20,000 less than what you’re worth.
  • Learn something new. The one constant in the world is change. What can you do this year to keep your skills sharp and learn something new? Whether you take a class or attend an industry conference, do something to enhance your skills this year.
  • Focus on work-life balance. Engineers work hard, and getting ahead in the field can mean clocking long hours, often to the detriment of personal time and family time. What can you do this year to give yourself more time for the people and hobbies you love?
  • Partner with a recruiter. Searching for new opportunities can be difficult for busy engineers. Partnering with a recruiter can help you connect with exciting jobs that aren’t necessarily posted on public job boards. A recruiter can also help you set goals, polish your resume, and perfect your interviewing technique so that when the right opportunity comes along, you are prepared to rise to the challenge.

If you are an engineer in northern Illinois looking to grow your career in 2015, the engineering recruiting consultants at The Prevalent Group would love to meet you. We work with market leaders in a variety of industries that are always on the lookout for strong engineering talent.  Our recruiters can connect you with  engineering jobs in northern Illinois that align with your skills and qualifications, and we can work with you to help you achieve your career goals in 2015.

How to Answer Behavioral Interview Questions

Now more than ever before, hiring managers are integrating behavioral questions into their interviews. These questions are designed to help the interviewer determine whether or not an applicant possesses the qualities, skills, and traits to be successful on the job.  It is essential to prepare for these questions so that you aren’t caught off guard during an interview.

What Are Behavioral Interview Questions?

Behavioral interview questions are designed to give the interviewer a look at how you’ve handled yourself in the past. Traditional interviews rely on hypothetical questions like, “How would you handle it if your boss asks you X?” “What would you do if a customer presented you with Y problem?” It’s relatively easy to craft answers to these questions, whether or not you’d actually handle yourself in the manner you describe. Therefore, hypothetical questions actually provide very little insight for employers.

Behavioral questions, on the other hand, ask you for examples of how you handled specific situations in the past. They often begin with phrases like, “Tell me about a time when X.” They may include questions such as:

  • Tell me about a time when you had to take initiative to solve a difficult problem.
  • Give me an example of a time when you had to complete a project when you did not have all of the information you needed in order to get started.
  • Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a particularly difficult customer.
  • Give me an example of a challenge you faced in your current job and how you solved it.
  • Tell me about a time when you had to solve a problem by tackling tasks outside of your job description.

Assessing how you’ve handled specific situations in the past can help the interviewer determine how you will handle those types of situations in the future.

How to Answer Behavioral Interview Questions

Preparation is the key to successfully answering behavioral interview questions. While there is no way to determine just which questions you will be asked, there are some steps you can take to determine the types of questions that might be likely:

  1. Read through the job description. What are the responsibilities of the role? What challenges might that person face?
  2. For each of those responsibilities and challenges, generate examples from your career that illustrate how you would excel on the job.
  3. For each example, write an outline of an answer that addresses the problem, your response, and the outcome.
  4. Practice your answers with a friend, family member, or with a professional recruiter. Don’t memorize your answers. Simply practice telling your stories out loud in a concise manner.

As a job seeker, it’s important not to fear behavioral interview questions. Instead, look at them as an opportunity to showcase examples of how you rise to challenges and overcome them. If you are a professional in sales, marketing, engineering, IT or operations looking for new opportunities, contact The Prevalent Group today. Our team of executive recruiters can help match you with a position that aligns with your long-term career goals, and we can work with you to help perfect your interviewing skills to ensure that you enter each interview with poise and confidence.

Tell Me About Yourself: How to Develop an Elevator Pitch

Many interviews open with the same question, “Tell me about yourself.”  Many interviewees see this as an invitation to tell their personal life story, but this is not what hiring managers want to hear. “Tell me about yourself,” is an invitation to provide an overview of your career background, your achievements, and where you see yourself in the future. The answer to this question is often a great place to utilize your elevator pitch.

What is an Elevator Pitch?

Elevator pitches are named for a challenge: How would you express your value as an employee if you found yourself on an elevator with your dream employer and you had to describe yourself to that person in the time it took you to reach your floor?

Your elevator pitch should be concise, illustrating who you are and how you can help the listener. It is a sales pitch about yourself that you deliver verbally, which means it takes focus and practice in order to deliver it with confidence. To be effective, an elevator pitch should be compelling and memorable, and it should clearly illustrate your value to the employer.

How to Create Your Elevator Pitch

Developing an effective elevator pitch takes some time. Though it is short, it carries a lot of weight, and determines the tone of the rest of the interview. Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling elevator pitch:

  1. Set aside time to sit down and create a career inventory.

    Write down the things you would want potential employers to know about your skills, achievements, and relevant experience.

  2. Edit, edit, edit.

    Once you’ve got a nice, long list written down, it’s time to edit. Delete anything that is not absolutely critical to your elevator pitch. You want to be left with just a few bullet points. Remember, the elevator pitch is not your life or career story, it is more of a highlight reel of your “top hits” that should leave the interviewer wanting to learn more about you.

  3. Format the pitch.

    Now that you’ve got a list to work with, you can begin to craft your pitch. A solid elevator pitch will answer the questions: Who are you? What do you do well? What are you looking for from your career?

  4. Tailor your pitch to your audience.

    Remember that you are giving a sales pitch, and the listener only wants to know what’s in it for them. Therefore, the message should focus on your benefits as an employee. Instead of saying, “I am an HR professional with 12 years of experience in the finance industry,” it would be much more powerful to say, “I am an HR professional with a track record in successfully recruiting top-level management.”

  5. Practice, practice, practice.

    After you’ve got a solid draft in place, practice your pitch out loud with friends, family, or your professional recruiter. They can help you make any edits that might be necessary, and the more you practice delivering your pitch, the more confident you will be in your delivery.

Professional recruiters can be an invaluable resource when it comes to perfecting your elevator pitch and your entire interviewing technique. If you are a professional in engineering, information technology, operations, sales, or marketing, and you are looking for new and exciting career opportunities, contact The Prevalent Group today. We are a nationally recognized management and executive placement and recruitment agency that works with innovative organizations in northern Illinois and beyond. We can help you locate job opportunities that align with your long-term personal and professional goals.

It May be Halloween, But Applying For a Job Shouldn’t be Scary

October is a time for scary things: vampires, werewolves, monsters, and witches. If you are a job seeker, you might be tempted to add “hiring managers” to that list. All too often, a job hunt can snap a person of confidence. Rejections can feel personal, and if your search drags on longer than you anticipated, it can have a serious effect on your self-esteem. Here are five tips to help you tackle your job search with confidence this Halloween season:

One: It All Starts With Your Resume

Your resume will either open doors for new opportunities, or it won’t. In order to make it work for you, it must be concise, accurate, and appealing. It should cover the scope of each position you’ve held in your career as well as the impact of the results you produced for your employers. When you’ve got a rock-star resume, your confidence will skyrocket.

Two: Have a Plan and Work That Plan

When you’re applying to random jobs here and there, or to every job you see on a job board, it can have a negative effect on your energy and your confidence. You must have a plan of attack for your job search. Choose the job boards you will use, decide how much time each week you’ll devote to those boards as well as how much time you will devote to LinkedIn, personal networking, cold emailing, etc. Know what types of organizations you want to target, as well as the specific job titles you’re qualified for, and apply only to positions that align with that criteria.  When you have a plan of attack, it can reduce stress and boost your confidence.

Three: Develop an Elevator Pitch

Throughout your job search, you’re going to leave a lot of voice messages and you’ll meet lots of new people at networking events. You must be able to state your purpose and your personal value proposition quickly and effectively. Once you’ve got your pitch, practice it every time you find yourself alone: in the shower, in the car, while walking the dog, after the kids go to bed, etc. The more you practice your pitch, the more confidently you can deliver it in front of others.

Four: Take Breaks

If you’ve been pounding the pavement for weeks with little return, cut yourself some slack and take a break for a week or even two. Stepping away from your search can help you recharge your batteries and return to the market feeling renewed and confident.

Five: Work With a Professional Recruiter

Working with a professional recruiter can help you attack your job search with confidence. Recruiters not only have a line on job openings for which you are well suited and well qualified, but they can work with you to create a strong resume and improve your interviewing techniques. When they recommend you to their clients, they have a vested interest in your success. It’s like having your own personal coach and cheering section encouraging you to succeed.

The Prevalent Group is a nationally recognized management and executive placement and recruitment company. We place executives in sales, marketing, engineering, technology and more. If you are looking for new opportunities in these fields, contact us today.

Do Not be Too Closed Off Nor Too Open in an Interview

Landing a job interview can lead to feelings of excitement and anticipation, but it can also lead to feelings of nervousness. That nervousness can lead people to act very differently in an interview than they would act in a typical professional setting. Some people are too closed off, while other people are too open in an interview. Either situation can not only cause embarrassment, but it can quickly knock you out of the running for a position.

The Danger of Oversharing

When you’re nervous, it’s easy to overshare. Your mind may be going a mile a minute, but being too open can backfire on you. For example, if an employer asks you what your biggest failure is and you answer by telling her about the time you cheated on your fiancé in Cabo, you’ll probably destroy your chances of getting hired. Not because you made a bad personal choice, but because personal information has no place in a professional job interview.

Oversharing isn’t limited to exposing your deepest personal secrets. It is possible to be too open about information relating to your work history and experience, as well. When the interviewer asks you why you’re seeking new opportunities, avoid the temptation to tell her what a jerk your current boss is or how backwards your current company’s processes are. Speaking poorly of former bosses will quickly eliminate you from consideration.

The Danger of Clamming Up

While some people tend to overshare when they are nervous, other people will freeze. That scenario might look something like this:

  • Q: What is your biggest strength?
  • A: I am an excellent communicator.
  • Q: Great! Can you give me an example?
  • A: I like talking to people.
  • Q: Ok, and what else?
  • A: I’m an excellent communicator.

Giving terse answers to questions, or failing to elaborate and provide examples of your successes can make you seem disinterested in the position, knocking you out of the running for a follow-up interview. Even though you may be nervous, try your best to always offer examples that support your answers.

Practice Makes Perfect

The only way to avoid being too closed off or too open in an interview is to practice, practice again, and then practice some more. Study common interview questions and prepare yourself for the interview by pulling examples from your work history. Don’t memorize answers, however. You’ll come off as robotic, and if you panic and forget your “lines,” you’ll wind up stuck, searching for words.  Instead, take inventory of your work history: what are your biggest accomplishments? What are you most proud of in your career? What are some weaknesses that you have overcome in the past? Go over those things with a partner, so that you will know what to say in your interview.

Work With A Professional Recruiter

If you want to perfect your interviewing techniques, it can be very useful to partner with a professional recruiter. Not only can they connect you with new job opportunities, but they can help you prepare for interviews so that you’ll be comfortable and far less likely to overshare or undershare.

If you are an information technology professional or engineer in northern Illinois who is seeking new opportunities for career growth, contact The Prevalent Group today. Our team of recruiters can help you locate tech jobs in northern Illinois that align with your skills, qualifications, and your long-term career goals. We will work with you to help perfect your interviewing technique to ensure you’ll always interview to impress.

How to Successfully Highlight Your Resume in a Digital Scanner

Digital scanners are a new trend in human resources software. Also called applicant tracking systems (ATS), these computer programs scan all incoming resumes for a specific set of predetermined keywords, scoring each resume based upon the number of keyword matches it finds. Resumes that don’t include enough keywords will be automatically kicked out of the system, while those that have many matches are sent on for personal review.

Digital ATS systems are designed to make life easier for HR departments, which are often stretched to the limit. However, qualified candidates who submit a resume that is not optimized can be eliminated before human eyes ever have a chance to see their resume.

In order to have the best chance of passing the scan, here are some tips to follow:

  • Create a master keyword list – You will notice throughout your job search that the same keywords show up in postings again and again. Keep a list of those keywords, especially those that are specific to your field. Be sure that your resume includes all of these recurring terms.
  • Read each job posting carefully – While you will spot trends in job postings, each listing is unique. Be sure that your resume includes keywords from the individual posting that seem important. Words that show up more than once in a list of desired skills and qualifications should definitely be included in your resume.
  • Don’t lie – Though the object is to match your resume to the posting as closely as possible, lying will only hurt you in the long run. Hiring managers understand that not every qualified candidate will have all of their desired skills, so do your best to match your resume to the posting, but don’t falsify your qualifications.
  • Beef up your first page – Many hiring managers save time by setting parameters in their ATS to scan just the first page of a resume. Focus most of your attention here.
  • State the company name in your objective – Some hiring managers will award “bonus” points in the scoring system for resumes that include the name of the organization.
  • Create two versions of your resume – It might be useful to create a resume that is designed specifically for the digital scanner, and keep a longer version that you can send to the hiring team if you’re contacted for an interview. The objective of optimizing your resume for an ATS is to get to that first point of contact. From there, you can utilize your meatier resume to help make your case throughout the hiring process.

Another way to ensure your resume passes the ATS test is to partner with a professional recruiter. They have established long-standing relationships with hiring managers over time, and they will know whether or not those companies use digital scanning systems. If a particular organization to which you are applying does automate their resume screening process, your recruiter can help you tailor your resume to help you pass with flying colors.

If you are on the hunt for new job opportunities, and you’re having trouble standing out in the impersonal ATS environment, contact The Prevalent Group today. We are a nationally recognized management and executive placement and recruitment company that works with experienced managers and executives in sales, marketing, engineering, technology and more. We can help you stand out from the pack and land a job that aligns with your personal and professional goals.

4 Reasons Why It Is So Important To Follow Up And Stay In Touch

Jobs, bosses, colleagues and interviewers will come and go, but connections can last a lifetime.  It is imperative to stay in touch with your professional network, even while you are happily employed, because you never know when those connections may help you in your career.

1. Keep in Touch With Interviewers

It can be frustrating to make it to a final round of interviews, only to lose the position to another candidate. If you made it that far, however, it means that the hiring team saw something in you that they liked. Once you find out that you did not get the job, ask the hiring manager if it’s alright to keep in touch. Connect via LinkedIn, and check in sporadically. It is possible that their needs will change over time, and you may be a better fit for an open position in the future. It is also possible that the hiring manager will move on to another company. When she has an open position that suits you, you’ll have a much easier time getting your foot in the door if you’ve been diligent about remaining on her radar.

2. Don’t Lose Contact with Former Bosses

Hopefully, you’ve resigned from your former positions on a good note. If you parted ways amicably with an old boss, it’s not out of the question to keep in touch. Connect on LinkedIn, and when you see your former supervisors out and about at professional events, take some time to say hello and catch up.  Why? You never know where your career, or your former supervisor’s career, will go. Your old boss may move on to a new company, your old company could expand, each providing opportunities for you to return in a new capacity.

3. Follow up with Connections Made at Networking Events

People attend networking events to make connections. In order to make those connections work, you have to stay in touch. After each event, make time to sit down and email those people who made an impression on you – or those people you hope to impress. The emails should be short, but friendly and professional. Remind each person who you are and what you discussed at the event. Follow up by sending a LinkedIn invitation. Keep those people on your touch-base list and be sure to check in regularly.

4. Don’t Go Overboard

Staying in touch means sending an occasional email or placing an occasional phone call. Each point of contact should have a distinct purpose. You might attach or mention a news article about your connection’s company, or a piece of industry news they might find interesting. Don’t reach out once a week asking for a job. That is a surefire way to make yourself known as a nuisance. The point of networking is to establish professional relationships, not to hound people into doing things to further your career.

If you are actively seeking new career opportunities, the recruiters at The Prevalent Group would love to connect with you. We are always on the lookout for talented professionals in sales, marketing, engineering and technology. As a nationally recognized recruitment and executive placement agency, we work with some of the most innovative and forward-thinking companies in the country. We invite you to visit our job board and then contact us to learn more about current openings and potential opportunities. We look forward to meeting you.

What You Should And Shouldn’t Ask As You Start Your Job

The first days and weeks on a job are the most critical when it comes to establishing a positive perception, learning the ropes, and building trust among your colleagues.  It will be important to ask questions along the way, but it’s equally important to know what not to say as you start your new job.

Questions for Your Boss

In order to have a good working relationship with your new supervisor, you’ll need to get a feel for the type of manager you’re working with. It is also essential to be clear about your exact responsibilities on the job.  It is appropriate to ask your new boss questions like:

  • How often do you prefer to receive project updates?
  • Do you like those updates to be made via email, telephone, or face-to-face?
  • What are your goals for my first month?
  • How will you measure my success in that first month?
  • How does this position fit into the “big picture” of the organization?
  • If I get stuck, who on the team is easily approachable for help?

Questions for Co-workers

Current employees can be wary of a new team member. They may wonder if you will upset the rhythm of the office, if you’ll get along with everyone, or even if you’ll upstage them. You’ll want to get to know your new colleagues and build a rapport by asking questions that show genuine interest in who they are and what they do. You might ask:

  • Tell me about your experience working on (project that you are assigned to).
  • What types of projects do you head up?
  • Do my responsibilities overlap with yours? In what ways?
  • What types of qualities do you like to see in your teammates?
  • What can I do to assist you and the team in achieving our goals?

What Not to Say

While it is important to ask questions as a new employee, you don’t want to be seen as needy or slow to learn. Asking too many questions, or asking the wrong types of questions can start you off on the wrong foot with your new colleagues. Avoid the following:

  • Don’t ask the same person the same question more than once. Keep a notebook and write things down.
  • Don’t bother people if they look extremely busy, unless it’s an absolute emergency.
  • Don’t ask your co-workers what happened to the person who held your job before.
  • Don’t ask how often you get to leave early, or if your boss cares if you show up late. It shows a lack of motivation.
  • Don’t ask anyone out on a date.
  • Don’t ask anyone how much they are paid.
  • Don’t turn down lunch invitations in your first few weeks. Be approachable and friendly at all times.

Always remember that your first few days and weeks on the job are going to be stressful. You will probably make some mistakes. Don’t be hard on yourself if you hit a few snags along the way.  Prepare yourself, ask questions, and do your best. There is always the next day to start over and get it right.

If you are looking for job search guidance, contact The Prevalent Group today. We are a nationally recognized management and executive placement company that works with experienced professionals in sales, marketing, engineering, technology and more. We look forward to working with you.