Job Preparation

If you are for a nursing job in health care, you will need to read this post. Below are some job interview questions for a General Duty Nursing job. The methods we used to develop these questions are the same ones we used as corporate HR in developing job interview questions for hiring managers. We have developed these questions by analyzing the core competencies or skills, job ad requirements and so forth.

General Duty Nurse Job Interview Questions

To be effective in this job, you will need to be good at resolving conflict. Sometimes you will need to resolve conflict when a patient is uncooperative with treatment or resisting you when you are providing care. Give me an example of a situation where you had to resolve conflict with an angry or abusive patient while you were providing care.

Name a time when you didn’t get along with another nurse or perhaps another co-worker. What was the situation? How did you handle it?  What was the result?

Due to the nature of work in nursing, you will be required to handle medical emergencies.  Tell me about a time when you made had to make a decision within an emergency or stressful situation.  What was the decision?  What did you consider and how did you handle it?

Some polls have shown that Nurses are among the most trusted profession in the community.  Being a nurse will require you to have the highest ethics and integrity.  Describe a situation in which you demonstrated a strong ethical stance at work, despite pressure to do otherwise?

• What were the risks involved in taking the strong stance that you did?
• How did you overcome the pressure to change or weaken your stance?
• How did the position you took affect the relationships that you have with the others involved?

Nursing can be stressful at times dealing with sick patients.  How do you monitor your own stress levels?  How do you manage stress in your life?  What was the most stressful situation you have been in?

List 5 traits of being a good nurse.  Which one would you need the most improvement in?

As a nurse, you will be dealing with members of the public from various different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.  Tell me about a time when you had to communicate to someone who did not speak your language?  How did you overcome this challenge?

Why do you want to be nurse?  Why do you want to serve this community?

More About These Questions

The interview questions in this post assess the essential soft skills for his particular job through its core functions. We focus on the soft skills because we have found that most candidates handle the questions designed to assess their technical proficiency very well only to stumble with the questions designed to assess their soft skills. For example, when we ask a programmer to explain what a certain set of code means or how best to handle a coding issue, most often their answer is a good one. Now when we ask the same candidate to “describe a time when you did not get along well with a co-worker and how you handled it” to assess their interpersonal skills, 9 times out of 10 they stumble. We see the same thing over and over again whether we are hiring for an accountant, teacher, and so on. Most candidates can handle questions designed to assess their technical competencies much much better than questions designed to assess their soft skills

Why does soft skills matter? Because 9 times out of 10 applicants are bypassed due to their soft skills. We hear this all the time when we debrief with the hiring manager to get their feedback on the applicant. Sometimes, the hiring managers will directly state that the applicant lacked the soft skills but more often it will be phrased as “no connection with the applicant”, or “didn’t get a good feel about the applicant” or “don’t think the applicant would fit in well” and so on.

In addition to focusing on the soft skills we have incorporated behavioral based interview questions. We focus on behavioral based interview questions because they are very prevalent in the HR industry. Behavioral questions focus on assessing past behavior by asking you to provide an example or describe a situation that has happened in the past and what you did. So because of the reasons stated and others beyond the scope of this post, you will likely be asked these questions in your next job interview.

How to Answer

Your response really depends on exactly the type of interview question asked. While interviewing skills as a hiring manager or job applicant can be quite an in depth topic and beyond the scope of this post, we have provided a quick lesson on how you can improve your interview skills. We have chosen to briefly cover the behavioral question because this is where we see most people struggle.

To ensure that you provide good answers consistently we advise that you follow a structured approach when responding to behavioral type questions. Two effective techniques to use are “STAR” (situation, task, action, result) and “PAR” (problem, action, result). These techniques are very similar to one another, so for illustrative purposes, we will discuss the STAR method.

To use the STAR technique, simply describe each element in your interview answer. So with the star technique, begin by describing the situation. Here you want to quickly give context to the interviewer (where, when, etc). Next clearly describe your task, that is what were you tasked to do in this situation. Now it is time to describe the steps or action you took to complete your task. Lastly, describe the results that you achieved. Sounds simple right? Well it is simple, but the secret is to practice responding following this structure. By following structure, you will ensure that you provide complete answers and do not omit vital pieces of information. For more information see our articles and courses on interviewing skills.

The Questions Are In Your Resume

Remember that another good source of job interview questions is your resume. Hiring managers will ask you questions based on your resume. For some people it’s hard to recall what you did last week, let alone what you did at work a few years ago. So it pays to review your resume before you go to your job interview.

For more see our online job interview and resume writing courses. So until our next post, we wish you much luck and success in your career search.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

If you would like to see job interview questions for other positions, just let us know by leaving a comment here or contact us directly by email. If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to subscribe by email or RSS feed.

Email us at:

Popularity: 32% [?]

Generic Resumes Don’t Work Well

As a resume writer and HR professional, mot targeting your resume is one of the number one mistakes I see often made.  When I say targeting, I mean tailoring your resume to speak to the employers requirements.  A well-written resume is one that at a glance speaks to the job requirements, and the ideal candidate.  Despite this, I see many resumes that contain tons of information that has absolutely nothing to do with the job or what the employers looking for.

Tossing Your Name In the Hat

When a hiring manager comes across an resume that is not tailored, the impression is that the candidate is not serious about the opportunity.  A good resume writer creates the impression that the candidate is focused in their career.  Hiring managers can spot when the applicant took the old, “throw your name in the hat” approach.

It takes a lot more work to tailor and to customize your resume to the specific job requirements, but the effort can be well worth it.  It could mean the difference between landing your dream job for getting bypassed.  I know it’s a lot less effort to write a generic resume, and then far them out. But let me tell you something when you take this approach, it’s obvious that it does not impress.

Doesn’t Have to Be Pulling Teeth

While it looks labor-intensive to customize your resume for each job application, it doesn’t have to be.  Even small changes to customize can make a huge difference to your chances of getting a job interview.  And it doesn’t matter what level or what industry you’re in, resume tailoring can help.  We have worked with entry-level management to CFOs, and the concept still holds.  Even for those who are just entering the workforce need to customize their resume speak to the job requirements.  By doing so, you will be communicating to the employer that you are serious about the job application, and that you are the person that they need to call in for an interview.

To illustrate, let me give you an example that at even the lowest level tailoring makes a difference.  My niece, is looking for a summer job in retail.  She went malls and shopping centers, and completed job applications and handed to resume out.  A few weeks had gone by and she did not get any calls.  When I looked at her resume, it was a classic situation of a resume that was not tailored and did not sell all of her wonderful qualities.

I’m not just saying this because I’m a proud uncle, but she really is an outstanding young person.  She’s the oldest of three sisters entering grade 10 and she’s very bright.  She’s an honor roll student who achieved all A’s except for one B on her report card.  She’s on various sports teams and is pretty good at all of them.  Most importantly, she competes with wonderful sportsmanship (while I can take credit for her jump shot, unfortunately, I cannot take credit for the sportsmanship award).  She won an award for best school citizen in elementary school.  And when she is not studying at practice she volunteers with veterans and seniors.  Okay, my point is not to brag about her accomplishments (well, just a bit) but my point is to show you an excellent candidate who got bypassed because of a poor resume.  I see this all the time, whether or hiring for an Project manager, a programmer, or a customer service manager - people undersell themselves with a poor resume.

So how did our resume writer help this talented young job seeker, my niece, who was entering the workforce?  Her competition was other high school students students, her own age with no experience.  She also competed with older students, who perhaps has had their first job.  So in a labor pool that appears homogeneous, with an applicant that has no work experience, what could she do with her resume to help her stand out from the crowd?

In other words, how can I customize her resume to make it unique, to make it stand out from the crowd, and get her an interview?

Although covering the entire resume, let me demonstrate how making even a small change to tailor your resume to make a difference.  I inserted a resume summary or profile as the first paragraph on the first page and highlighted her achievements.  Here’s how it looked before and after:

Before:  The first half of the first page

EDUCATION

2006-2008    Willow Secondary School·

• Grade 9 Completion: June 2008·
• Straight A Student·
• Principal’s Honour Roll: 2007 and 2008·
• Work Habits Honour Roll: 2007 and 2008.

WORK EXPERIENCE

2007 - Current:             ABC Pizza, Kingsway, Burnaby BC·

• Cashier·
• Food preparation·
• Clean up·
• Provide outstanding customer service.

After:  The first half of the first page

Summary

Responsible and hardworking student with work experience in hospitality.  Experience includes cashier, food preparation and customer service.  Proven ability to learn quickly, take direction, work efficiently in a fast-paced environment.  Customer service focused, energetic, good communicator, flexible to work mall hours, enjoys working in team environment, neat and punctual.

“Her maturity, her enthusiasm to learn, her ability to get along well with others and work independently are all qualities that I expect from an older student.  Emily is clearly the type of student that in everything that she tries.”

Jane Smith, High School Teacher, Willow Secondary

Education and Achievements

• Willow Secondary School – Currently completing Grade 9.
• Girls Volleyball Team City Finalist (some team sport).
• Outstanding School Citizen Award 2003/2004 – Little River Elementary School.
• Achieved all A’s on report card.
• Principal’s Honour Roll and Work Habits Honor Roll: 2007 and 2008.

So what I did there was simply paint a picture of a young and talented student, who is hardworking and a high achiever.  Someone who does well at whatever she tries not for extrinsic reasons for is internally motivated.  But even making small changes like flexible to work mall hours, the resume now speaks to her target job of retail mall position.

What I showed you, the principles apply whether you are a CFO or looking for your first retail mall job.  Create a resume as unique as you and speak to the job and employer’s requirements and you will have success more times than not.

Until next post, we wish you much luck and success with your career.

Popularity: 50% [?]

Introduction

With the high gas prices and no relief in sight, have you ever thought wished you could just scrap the commute? Have you ever thought that the work you do can be done from home or from almost anywhere?  How would working from home improve your life?  Unfortunately, not all employers are open to the idea of allowing the workers to work from home.  More and more, employers are considering the option of telecommuting and all the benefits that come along with it.

Factors Affecting Telecommuting

Whether you have the option to work from home or work remotely, largely depends on a variety of factors including:

• Nature of the work
• Relationship with your boss
• Company culture

Some jobs are more suited to telecommuting than others.  For example, telecommuting is not suited for work that has to be performed on-site typically with special equipment like in construction.  Likewise, it is not suited for jobs like for example, retail where do you need to have contact with customers.  However, many office jobs can be done, wherever there is a computer and Internet connection in a telephone.

The relationship you have with your boss can really determine the likelihood of a telecommuting arrangement.  There has to be enough trust between you and your boss to make this kind of arrangement work.  Many management employees think that they should be entitled to be able to telecommuting.  Some view the decision to work from home or remotely as a natural extension within their management discretion.  The argument here is considering all the overtime, responsibility, and accountability that most managers have, and considering the kinds of decisions they are authorized to make, you should have the authority to decide to work from home.

Many employers, even though they may be open to the idea.  Do not see this as a management title.  For these employers telecommuting is a right and a privilege that must be earned.  Based on an employee’s track record.  The granting and maintaining of such privilege will be based on track record as well as performance.

Company culture is also a large factor in the ability to telecommute.  In some companies, your boss may support your desire to work remotely, and the nature of your work allows you to do so, but the concern is the company culture.  In these kinds of companies face time is everything.  There is pressure on both you and your boss to be visible.  We all know that the amount of hours you put in does not equate with the qualify of your work and your productivity, nonetheless these kinds of work cultures do exist.  (It is this kind of work culture that likely inspired the Seinfeld episode where George leaves his car parked outside Yankee stadium all the time so that his boss thinks he is putting in long hours. But then George travels far away from work and has to have Jerry go to Yankee stadium to remove old fliers and other incriminating evidence which indicates that the car has just sat there).

Making Your Case

As mentioned, telecommuting can provide many benefits for both the employer and the employee. For employers, it can help reduce absenteeism.  If employees have the ability to work remotely, it will reduce the need for time off to take care of elderly parents and children and so on.  Also, the ability to telecommute during flu season will help prevent the spread of colds by letting employees might be coming on with a cold to work from home.

Benefits for Employers

Office Space.  Employers can reduce the cost associated with office space with the idea of telecommuting.  Allowing employees to telecommute can help manage the high costs associated with commercial space.

Improved productivity.  Employers can enjoy improved productivity throughout the year.  Work disruptions and absences due to extreme weather are no longer a problem.  In the North during winter, people are sometimes snowed in or roads become too icy for employees to commute to work.  In the South and in most places in Asia, there are certain times of the year when employees cannot commute to work due to rain and flooding.

In some cases, employees can even improve their own productivity because they feel the need to prove that they’re doing work.  In addition, there is more time in the workday, from the time saved in commuting.

Going green.  The biggest new buzzword for corporations is the green strategy.  Environmental responsibility has become important to corporations.  Supporting telecommuting is an excellent way to demonstrate environmental responsibility.  By allowing employees to work 2 to 3 days a week from home, corporations can reduce auto emissions by half.

Improve employee engagement, recruit and retain talent. With the competition for talent in the current labor market, offering employees the ability to work remotely, can help an employer’s strategy to recruit and retain talent.  It can also help with improving employee engagement since employee surveys often indicate workload, work-life balance and stress are important issues and telecommuting can offer a way for employees to better manage their work-life balance.

Benefits for Employees

Teleworking can provide many benefits for employees.  Benefits include reducing the amount of personal time you take, improved for activity and efficiency from reduce commuting time, improved work-life balance and so on.

Reduced expenses.  The high price of gas is making news almost every day.  For those workers who must commute, especially those with a long commute teleworking can reduce your costs significantly.  It can not only reduce the cost for gas and other costs such as parking, vehicle maintenance, and so on.

Worklife balance.  When surveyed it is not uncommon for nearly 50% of employees to cite that they feel that their work stress is unmanageable and they cannot maintain their work life balance.  Again, teleworking can provide the flexibility needed to achieve and maintain worklife balance.  Just think what you can do with all the time that you save commuting.  A former colleague of mine, who lives in the suburbs, but works in the city once calculated the amount of time she spent commuting to work and from work in her 15 year career.  With the commute of nearly an hour each way.  She calculated that  the time she spent in her car equated to about 300 days!

In summary, telecommuting can provide many benefits for both you and your employer.  It’s good for the economy, the environment and can help you better manage your work life.  It’s time to wind up this post.  Before you pitch your employer consider if your work is suited to telecommuting.  If so, then make your pitch explaining the benefits to your boss.  Until next time, we wish you much luck and success in your career.

Popularity: 58% [?]

So what’s with all this hype about creating a resume on video, is it for real? Many large job boards such as Monster and Careerbuilder seems to think this is a new trend catching the job search community by surprise. Yes, it is a great tool to consider, but will it last and will the human resources market welcome this new trend with open arms? Although we can’t speak for all employers, we can tell you from our own experience of screening thousands of resumes that the video resume is just a short term fad and we aren’t the only ones who think so. Speaking with our fellow HR colleagues and reading various articles online, it doesn’t seem like the market is fully ready to embrace the video resume. Most employers continue to support a traditional resume over the video resume. So if you are considering creating one of these youtube like video resumes, think twice. Here is an article that points out some of our not so positive thoughts about the video resume.

View Article

Popularity: 71% [?]

Well David Aplin is making news again in the staffing industry by acquiring Absolute Recruitment, a staffing company specialized in the placement of permanent and temporary administrative office personnel.  Absolute Recruitment was named one is one of Profit Magazine’s ‘Canada’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies.  A good fit not only financially, but culturally as Absolute has a solid reputation for staffing quality and customer service.  You may recall David Aplin Staffing, was recently named in a the very prestigious 50 Best Employers list.  Now they are making news again, but this time it is in the world of mergers and acquisitions.

This acquisitions strengthens David Aplin’s already strong national presence and broadens their portfolio and creates immediate opportunities in the placement of permanent and temporary administrative office personnel.

Click here for the company’s press release.

Popularity: 70% [?]