1. Plan and Prepare

Before any contact with employer, sit down, think about, and write out approximately five scenarios about yourself in which you felt successful about your accomplishments. Try to think of examples that highlight a wide range of skills such as organizing, prioritizing, task completion, correction of task, and problem resolution. While many seeking employment have extensive work history, it may also help to use some examples from your educational experiences.

2. Narrate – give examples
For example, someone that has always been a student might discuss an experience about a team project. Team projects in an educational setting are particularly difficult because some team members rely on the rest of the team to carry them. Motivating others in these situations is especially difficult because of lack on monetary considerations.
Prioritizing and organization go hand-in-hand. In a question about the approach to a challenging or difficult project, you would want a response that explains dissecting the task. My preferred answer to this is always; start with the most difficult first then work toward the easiest until you reach total completion. Skirting around doing the easiest portions of any project first is a sure fire way to miss a deadline.

3. Restate the question
Paraphrase the question in your answer to help remember more lengthy, two-part questions. Knowing the difference between a quick answer and answering quickly is also important. Responding to interview questions with well thought-out answers quickly demonstrates the speed of your thought process. Most employers now want worker who can perform well and do it quickly. The pre-work done in your preparation phase will pay off here.

4. Incorporate
Previous work history and work references can be incorporated into discussions. With detailed preparation, you can highlight the most important parts of your resume and use it as a reference tool during the interview process. This will show that you have invested time preparing a well thought out interview, hence problem resolution.

5. Don’t Discount
Utilize teachers and part-time jobs in your references and work history if necessary. You do have to have something to talk about in the interview. You will need to demonstrate basic conversational skills. With their permission, list teachers whom you have developed a rapport with as references if needed. These could be used in place of business references and would be preferred over personal references. Additional talking points in this category could include the best time of day that these references would be available to answer the employers questions. Want to know more? Go ahead: Definitive Guide to Job Hunting: 10 top tips for bagging that interview

1.Don’t use a fancy font; choose clear and easy to read characters.
2.Insure your contact information is up to date; employers that can’t reach you may not call back.
3.Write a strong objective or mission statement for the job in which you are applying; don’t indicate you want a position with a design firm if you are applying to a retail store.
4.Spell check – most employers will dismiss any resume with even one spelling error.
5.Format you resume in a newsworthy style; put the most vital employment related data, including skills, on the top half of the page.
6.Insure your resume has rhythm, human resource departments will spend less than 20 seconds scanning your resume, make sure it flows and is not stilted when read quickly. Conversely, do not make it too wordy, use concise sentence structure.
7.Create a qualifications section toward the top above the employment history section highlighting your qualifications for the position.
8.Include comprehensive job history and areas of responsibility within each position.
9.If you stocked fruit at the local farmer’s market, don say you were a “Perishables Manager”, tell the truth; honesty is the best policy.
10.Do not put personal information that is not relevant to the position, do include references whenever possible.