At the age of fifty-something, I lost my job.  My company, here in Oklahoma City, was very pleasant when they notified me that I was not being fired, just laid off.  But, you know what?  The end result is the same.The upshot is I am without work, not employed, unwaged, and oh yeah, looking for a job. 

I began my journey to a new job by updating my resume (there was some dusting off involved but I finally got it ready to go).  Next, I got the resume out to as many potential employers as possible.But, I bet you can guess what follows getting your quality resume out there?  That’s right!  You’re called in for an interview.  Another journey I hadn’t taken in 36 years.

I arrived on time for my first interview (I would hope so!).  I sat down with a smiling Human Resources woman who said that she had a few questions for me and she would be taking some notes as I was answering them. 

And so we began.She was asking many questions, all of which I was sure I had the answer for.  I noticed quickly, however, that she would often re-package the question and toss it back to me, even though I felt I had already answered it.  The questions dragged on forever, it seemed.  In fact, a lot of the time the “question” didn’t seem like a question at all but rather it was phrased like this, “Give me an example of a time when you …”.  I left the interview feeling frustrated and a little unnerved.  I was prepared to answer questions like, “Why did you leave your last position?”, “Do you have a strong sales background” or “How often did you figure the sales commissions at your last job?”  No such luck!  These questions never came up.  What were these people looking for anyway?  Couldn’t they trust that I would give them 110% if they would just give me a chance?  The answer:  I guess not!

I went home and, as I had with my resume writing, I looked for information on what makes a good (might I say great?) interview.Let me share with you what I found.  Information that would have been good one short interview ago.  Here goes:

Employers want you to answer questions in the STAR format.  They will ask you a “question” and they want you to answer it by sharing either a situation or a task that you were involved in (either in a personal situation or at your workplace), then include the actions you took and the results you achieved.  Thus the star.  So, let’s break it down by including some examples.

1)      The first question she asked was, “Give me an example of a job you had where quality and/or accuracy was very important”.

·         A possible answer from me should have been (t), “Each month, at my previous job with a furniture store, I calculated the commissions for all of the sales people”.  Here I had placed myself squarely in the middle of a task. 

·         I would then add, (a) “I created an excel work sheet, on the Great Plains software I worked with, that allowed me to input their commissions on a daily basis and have their totals calculated for me by month end”.  All right, that’s a strong action, this doesn’t seem so hard. 

·         And finally, I would finish with, (r) “This saved me time but, most of all it provided a precise accounting of their work and they could be accurately paid”.  Great finish with a result that impacted people’s paychecks.Always a reason to be particularily accurate. 

2)      Let’s try one more example.  Another question I was asked, “Tell me about a time you dealt with a frustrated/upset customer”.

(s) “A woman stormed into the furniture store I worked at angry and complaining about a side lever that had broken off of a La-Z-Boy chair she had just purchased.  The chair had cost her a fortune and she had been assured it was top quality.”

·         (a) “I remained calm while I apologized for this inconvenience and assured her I would do everything I could to help get this resolved.I found the phone number for the La-Z-Boy representative and together we gave them a call.  These kinds of warranty issues have to go through the manufacturer.I had the lever part shipped to our store and then scheduled the Service Department to actually do the repair.  I told her that we would be by to pick up the chair that afternoon but the delivery of the part and subsequent repair would take about 3-4 days.  Again, I apologized for any inconvenience this would cause her.

·         (r) “The woman had composed herself by now and told me that, although it truly was an inconvenience (she had purchased the chair in time for her son’s graduation), she appreciated how quickly and calmly I handled the situation and she would continue coming back to shop at our store in the future.”

Had I answered the questions in my first interview with such thoroughness I know the Human Resources person would not have had to prod me along.  Needless to say, I didn’t get that job but I am now armed with all the information I need to be a STAR in my future interviews.

You have seen them on your favorite CSI or NCISTV shows. They are the criminalists known as the forensic pathology technicians. They are the individuals who work under the medical examiner. What does a forensic pathology technician do? What educational background is needed to become one?

In this article, I will explain the job description of a forensic pathology technician and the educational training needed for a candidate to be successful in this trade.

If seeking a position as a forensic pathologist is of interest to you, but years of medical school causes you to look the other way, perhaps you might want to consider a job as a forensic pathology technician. In this job field, you work side by side with the forensic pathologist and assist him with all of his job duties. You have the opportunity to perform parts of an autopsy, take x-rays and collect samples from the deceased for further analyses in trace evidence, fingerprints, toxicology, serology, microbiology, and histology. You extract foreign objects such as bullets from the deceased, take pictures of the body, remove specimens, and document the chain of evidence. You may be called upon to explain autopsy procedures and do a report of findings with the victim’s family members, law enforcement personnel, and mortuary workers.

To be successful in the trade of a forensic pathology technician, your experience weighs heavier than your education. Most forensics laboratory employers require a minimum of a high school diploma or GED. Having college-level educational experience in any of the laboratory sciences can also be of benefit to you. Furthermore, you might have the advantage over other applicants if you have at least two years of experience in a medical or forensic pathology laboratory. The idea here is to gain working knowledge of general and medical laboratory procedures, medical equipment and tools, and an insight on lab-safety and infection-control procedures.

The efforts of a forensic pathology technician can help bring criminal investigators one step closer to solving a crime, bringing a perpetrator to justice, and bringing closure to the families of the deceased.

One of the best and fastest ways to find the best man for the job is to avail of the services of an executive recruiter. They have the best complete and updated databases of every job hunter in the country who’s looking for a place to work but how do they get these people’s data or information? First of all, most people who are looking for a job today will find it tedious to go from one employer to another in search of that “manna from heaven”, to have a good job. That’s when they ask for the services of executive recruiters, leave their credentials there and pray a company will go to executive recruiters and hopefully, you will be interested in calling him for an interview or an exam. That means, it’s not only employers who are seeking and availing of the services of an executive recruiter but the job seekers as well and what are the advantages that you, as an employer, can get if you ask for help from an executive recruiter directory?

For a job seeker, they can save more time and money in looking for jobs. For a company, they will also save time and money in looking for the best man to do the job. They just need to go online, find a directory of executive recruiters and from there, they will be supplied with all the best applicants who’s credentials and educational background and work experience are in line with the nature of their business.

You are probably right in thinking that who would need to go through an executive recruiters directory when as a matter of fact, a lot of companies today are throwing out their employees because of financial problems. But always remember that there are other corporations who needs additional employees than ever before in spite of the recession. For them, a good number of employees who can work as one team for a common goal can attain good customer satisfaction therefore resulting in even bigger and better financial production.