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Two of the Most Common Job Interview Questions

What are your salary expectations and tell us about yourself, are two of the most common job interview questions.

This week's job searching tip addresses two of the most commonly asked questions in job interviews. Of course, this is only an issue if you're already getting called in for interviews . For that, you need to increase your flow of job leads, and we recommend getting your resume posted on all the job sites as a good first step. ExecReg is a service that can get your resume in front of up to 1.5 million employers and recruiters daily by posting it instantly on over 90 job sites. Using their service, you simply enter your resume once and then it gets posted instantly on as many of the top job sites as you like such as Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder, FlipDog, etc. To find out more, visit this web address: http://www.jobwerx.com/execreg_com-res-id=946822.html

What do you expect your starting salary to be?

Discussion of salaries and compensation should not be held until an offer is about to be made. With that said, let's look into the real world when this is not the case most of the time. Employers are shopping, trying to guess your price tag. This is one of those screening questions used to either screen in or screen out so a response is important. Have you done your homework? What is the price for this job in the marketplace? Have you checked out classified ads or online ads for similar positions? Are you within the range, given your level of experience? Pegging yourself mentally to the right price is the first step.

The second step is sharing this information correctly. Do you have enough information about this new job to determine your salary? If not, state it and ask for the information that is needed. "Before I can discuss salary, I would like to know the reporting requirements and how many people I would be supervising. In addition, what are the skill levels and experience of my staff?" You can also ask "What are others in similar positions being paid?" When you can no longer stall or seek additional information..."Based on what you have told me and exclusive of other compensation elements I feel that the position would warrant a salary range of $________ to $__________". Name a range such as $40,000 to $45,000 to give both sides some wiggle room and allow for some give-and-take when benefits and other compensation is considered. If you know what you are willing to accept as salary and what the market pays, using a salary range should permit you to be negotiable.

Tell us about yourself.

Since you know you will get a version of this question, prepare a 1-minute 'infomercial' about yourself. Start off with words to the effect, "to be brief" or "Here is the short version" letting the interviewer know he/she is not going to get a 15 minute discourse on your life and times. Then, state concisely who you are professionally: "Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated with things mechanical and this fascination revealed a talent for mechanical engineering...." or "The first time I visited my aunt's office at Time magazine when I was a teenager, I knew that I wanted to be involved in the business. Taking various writing and journalism classes in high school and college reinforced that belief. I volunteered to work at a local newspaper while attending school and took a succession of more challenging positions after graduation...."

Try to highlight those elements of your professional experience that 'tailors' you to the organization and the position. Conclude with a strong closing statement of how all this led you specifically to this interview. "With my prior experience and your current involvement in ______, I felt that we would be an ideal match." You can end it with, "Is there anything specific you would like me to elaborate on?" and then be silent. Do not feel compelled to rattle on, adding more detail than is needed.

This week's job searching tip was contributed by Gary Wong, author of the job interviewing guide.

Contributed by: Michael Green, Editor, Job Searching Reports, JobSearchInfo

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