Interview Tips to Help You Stand Out 

In today’s ultracompetitive job market, even getting an interview is a feat. Yet, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal, recruiters and hiring managers say many unemployed candidates blow the opportunity by appearing desperate or bitter about their situations—often without realizing it.

For example, recruiters have seen job candidates arrive up to an hour early for interviews. Other candidates have alluded to financial hardships while in the hot seat, and one person even distributed bound copies of documents describing projects he completed for past employers. All of these tactics, recruiters and hiring managers say, do more harm than good.

“People are becoming a lot more aggressive,” said Julie Loubaton, director of recruiting and talent management for the Atlanta-based Consolidated Container. “They often wind up hurting themselves.”

Here are a number of suggestions from recruiters and hiring managers to help job seekers stand out during interviews:

For starters, the article pointed out, you’ll need to leave your baggage and anxiety at the door. Wait until 10 minutes before your scheduled interview time to announce yourself. Arriving any sooner “shows that you’re not respectful of the time the hiring manager put aside for you,” Loubaton told the newspaper. “Companies really don’t want someone camped out in their lobby.”

Signal confidence by offering a firm handshake, added Wendy Alfus Rothman, president of Wenroth Consulting Inc., an executive coaching firm in New York. Focus your attention on the interviewer. Avoid looking around the room, tapping your fingers, or other nervous movements.

No matter how you’re feeling, keep your personal woes out of the interview process, asserts Alfus Rothman. Instead, always exude an upbeat attitude. For example, if you were laid off, instead of lamenting the situation, you might say the experience prompted you to assess your skills, and that’s what led you to here. “You want to demonstrate resilience in the face of unpredictable obstacles,” she said.

Meanwhile, show you’ve done your homework on the company by explaining how your background and track record relates to its current needs, added Deborah Marjus, founder of Columbus Advisors LLC, an executive-search firm in New York. This is particularly important if the firm is in a different industry than the one you worked in before. To stand out, you’ll need to look up more than just the basics of the company leadership and core businesses.

Also, be sure to show you’re a strong fit for the particular position you’re seeking, added Kathy Marsico, senior vice president of human resources at PDI Inc., a Saddle River, N.J. provider of sales and marketing services for pharmaceutical companies. Offer examples of past accomplishments – not just responsibilities you’ve held – and describe how they’re relevant to the opportunity.

Be careful not to go too far, though, in your quest to stand out. For example, it may be tempting to offer to work temporarily for free or to take a lesser salary than what the job pays. But experts say such bold moves often backfire on candidates. “Employers want value,” said Lee Miller, author of “Get More Money on Your Next Job…In Any Economy.” “They don’t want cheap.”

Your best bet is to wait until you’re extended a job offer before talking pay. “In a recession, employers are going to be very price sensitive,” said Miller. “The salary you ask for may impact their decision to move forward.” Come prepared having researched the average pay range for a position in case you’re pressured to name your price,” he added.

You might say, for example, that money isn’t a primary concern for you and that you’re just looking for something fair, suggested Miller. You can try turning the tables by asking interviewers what the company has budgeted for the position. In some cases, you may be looking just for a job to get you through so you might consider a less-than-perfect fit.

After an interview, take caution with your follow-up. If you’re in the running for multiple jobs at once, make sure to address thank-yous to the right people, career experts advised in the article. Also look closely for spelling and grammatical errors. In a competitive job market, employers have the luxury of choice, and even a minor faux pas can hurt your chances.

If all has gone well, don’t stalk the interviewer. Wait at least a week before checking on your candidacy, added Jose Tamaz, managing partner at Ausrtin-Michael LP, an executive-search firm in Golden, Colo. Call recruiters only at their office, even if their business card lists a home or cell number. And leave a message if you get voice mail. These days, recruiters typically have a caller ID and can tell if you’ve tried reaching them multiple times without leaving a voicemail. “There’s a fine line between enthusiasm and over-enthusiasm,” he said.

Staying Fit for Your Job Search

Exercise is clearly a key for handling everyday stress, but with the downturn in the economy many of us are working more, trying to find a job or shifting in a new career direction — often paying less attention to staying fit. Lifestyle experts say, though, that it doesn’t have to be this way, according to an article published by the McClatchy Newspapers.

“Fitness should be something that is a habit, something that can’t be negotiated,” Marta Montenegro, editor-in-chief of SOBeFiT Magazine, told the syndicated news organization. Here, according to the article, are some simple steps that experts say can help balance work and fitness and some examples of how people are keeping exercise and healthy lifestyles part of their daily routines:

Create new habits. Montenegro said people often are too ambitious in their fitness goals. She started out small, making one change at a time. Whenever she feels stressed, she takes a 10-minute walk around the office or her neighborhood. “In just 10 minutes you can break a pattern.”

To create a habit of eating healthier, start with breakfast, she said. “Instead of having a muffin at Starbucks, order oatmeal.” Or fill your desk drawer, purse and car with healthy snacks. It’s easy to give excuses about why you didn’t exercise or eat right, she added. “The key is to make it a habit, a priority.”

Get moving. Walking and stretching are the easiest ways to cram exercise into a busy schedule. Both are something you can do with your spouse, friends or children.

Donna Marie Seffer, a schoolteacher, wears a pedometer to work every day and aims for 5,000 steps. While teaching, she walks around the classroom. During breaks, she walks through the halls. When she gets home she walks around the block. “When I walk, it releases my stress because I can just put my mind somewhere else,” she said.

Take advantage of employer wellness programs. More companies are embracing the wellness trend, realizing it’s less expensive to prevent rather than treat most medical conditions. Even as employers cut benefits, a growing number are offering on-site yoga classes or weight loss programs — some even offering incentives to participate.

Learn to relax: David Posen, a stress management expert, said in his “Little Book of Stress Relief,” that unlike the stress reaction, which is involuntary and triggers automatically, the relaxation response has to be brought forth voluntarily and intentionally.

Jodi Cross, who works from home as a director of a women’s organization, starts her day triggering the relaxation response by reading for 30 minutes by a pond in her backyard. She alternates with walking for 45 minutes around the neighborhood. Cross admits it takes discipline: “If I don’t do it first thing in the morning, and just figure that I will read a few e-mails first, the next thing I know it’s late afternoon and I’m much more stressed.”

Stop sacrificing sleep: Karen Koffler is a busy working mom. She’s also the medical director at a luxury hotel and health spa. Koffler often gets up early and rides her bike to work. But she also makes sure she goes to bed early, tucking herself in by 9 p.m. Koffler believes adults should get seven to 10 hours of sleep a night. “If you are shaving time from sleeping to get things done, you’re going to be less efficient in your day-to-day life.”

Consider fitness part of your job description: Exercise helps you take a global view of a situation or conflict. It can spur creativity and even help you find solutions that wouldn’t occur to you when you’re in front of a computer. Tadd Schwartz knows this all too well. That’s why he makes sure he takes time to run, even though his clients want more of his time because of the economic downturn. As a reminder, he puts his running shoes next to his bed to ensure he uses them each morning instead of gravitating toward his computer.

Check out the deals: The upside of the recession is that fitness professionals and health clubs are responding to new budgets — offering discounts and showing more willingness to bargain. Some fitness centers are offering free classes and short-term memberships for the newly unemployed.

“The best anti-depressant is exercise,” Cheryl Patella, a fitness expert, told McClatchy. Patella has been working with small groups of women at parks who come to exercise with their children. “Just do whatever your time will allow you to do,” she advised.

MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR LUNCH HOUR          

With increasing workloads, more employees are eating lunch at their desks or even forgoing it altogether, according to an article published by The Wall Street Journal. But passing up a proper midday break may not be a wise decision—either for your health or your workplace efficiency.

That because the attention it takes people to focus at work drains them of psychological, social and material reserves, leading to stress and lower productivity, said Chris Cunningham, professor of Industrial-Organizational and Occupational Health Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

“Taking a lunch break away from the desk lets people separate themselves from the source of that drain,” Dr. Cunningham told the newspaper. “And that offers the opportunity to build back some of those resources in the middle of the day—rather than just at the end when work is over.”

There is no hard data on how much of a break the body needs to fully recover its resources, Dr. Cunningham said. He believes, though, that it’s person-specific; some people might need a 10- minute break, while others might need an hour.

With so much research showing that parking in a chair all day puts a drag on productivity, mood and physical health, Dr. Cunningham suggests ditching the desk at least once at midday to do something energizing: “At least go for a walk down the hall.” If possible, he said, use the full break to switch focus to something uplifting—instead of, say, online shopping, reading email or running to the bank. “I wouldn’t call that a resource-replenishing moment,” he added.

Dr. Cunningham cites psychologist William James’s 19th-century concept of passive attention, which suggests that people can restock their inner resources by focusing on something that fascinates them and draws them in, seemingly without effort, according to the article.

The easiest way to replenish, research shows, is to interact with nature. “Just changing your environment relieves you of the need to decide what you want to attend to, and that in itself poses a sort of relief,” said Dr. Cunningham.

Studies have also shown that connecting to colleagues socially throughout the day can be very energizing. “If you’re a service rep or a call-center employee, I could understand why you wouldn’t want to take a social lunch,” said Dr. Cunningham, “but for some of us, it’s different enough from what we’ve been spending our day doing, and we get a lot out of it.”

He is a fan of going out with co-workers for lunch frequently—and not talking about work. “That is a resource-replenishing activity,” he told the newspaper. The only downside: “You can’t write that lunch off your taxes.”

In a recent exploratory study, Dr. Cunningham asked medical residents to rate the degree to which they found each of their daily activities to be stressful, resource-straining and resource-replenishing. “Eating during work hours was the one activity that was rated only as replenishing, and tremendously valuable to them,” he said.

According to the article, nutritionists have long asserted that eating small amounts throughout the day helps maintain a level metabolism. And most people have experienced the sluggishness that follows a heavy midday meal.

“It’s certainly not advised to have a Thanksgiving feast for lunch,” added Dr. Cunningham. “Then again, you should give yourself a chance to be fascinated with the world around you—and enjoying your food can do that.”