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Recruiting and interviewing in 2013

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Written by: Kathy Dean, former HR Director (Nashville, TN)

The world of recruiting has changed drastically over the past 21 years since I began my career with Holladay Properties. Back in the 90’s, a company would place an ad in the newspaper and have hundreds of applicants call the office or mail nice, crisp copies of their resume to be considered for an interview. In 2013, companies place an ad on Career BuilderE, LinkedIn and other social media sites; correspond via email and then phone to schedule an interview. Most supervisors are going to be checking you out on LinkedIn and even Facebook so make sure you don’t have anything that you would not want a potential employer to see posted there. For those applicants out of state, Skype is a wonderful tool versus a phone interview.

Some things haven’t changed. The fact still stands that you only get one chance to make a first impression. That impression starts with your resume and it needs to be professional and error free. It’s amazing how many resumes are received referring to other positions that the individual hopes to get or full of grammatical errors. Needless to say, those resumes get by-passed rather quickly. If you are really interested in a position, you need to try and schedule an interview as soon as you receive the request, rather than trying to schedule the interview more than a week later. That allows other candidates to come in for interviews and possibly get an offer before the employer gets a chance to meet you.

When interviewing even in our casual society, it is important that you make a good impression at the interview and be professional. Wearing jeans, shorts, tennis shoes or carrying a beach bag is usually not going to get you called back for a second interview. Yes, these scenarios have been encountered in interviews over the past year.

Interviewing can be very nerve racking for some people, while others are great at interviewing but not as good at being a great employee. Remember to be yourself and let the individual interviewing know why you are the best person for the job. You should research the company prior to the interview. Don’t hesitate to let the interviewer know what intrigued you about the company. You should always have questions that you have prepared based on the job description, company website or general interest.

The personal touch of sending an email or note to the interviewer following the interview is always important. This lets the interviewer know that you are interested. A candidate should mention something that intrigued them about the position as a personal touch. Holladay Properties is often interviewing for accounting, maintenance, administrative assistants and Property Managers all over the country for our Healthcare portfolio. We are very interested this year in building a portfolio of qualified candidates for these positions to be available. If you are looking for a great company to be a part of and help shape a better future, give Holladay a try. Visit our careers page and maybe you will be our next STAR employee.

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