1. Every company has its own style and procedures for the hiring process – make sure you learn it and follow it.
2. Phone screens are a common way for employers to weed out candidates – make sure you’re prepared for phone screens and take them as seriously as you would an in-person interview.
3. Be on the lookout as you can connect with someone who can help you find a job practically anywhere – the gym, the library, the train station and even the supermarket.
4. Employers don’t always extend the courtesy of telling candidates when they didn’t get the job – follow up within a week of your interview if you haven’t heard back.
5. In many cases, interest and enthusiasm are as important as job skills and experience – always be positive and enthusiastic.
6. You should study for each job interview like you would with a final exam – learn about the company, the position, the industry and how you fit in.
7. Practice the common interview questions – many people still ask them.
8. If you’re invited for an interview but not really interested, be open minded and go anyway – you might find that you like the people, the duties or the company more than you originally expected.
9. Allow yourself enough time for expected delays when going to your interview – while traffic, late-running trains and other unexpected delays happen, they still make you look bad.
10. Be pleasant to everyone you come into contact with on your way to your interview (including other drivers) – you never know if one of them might be someone that will be interviewing you.

Post from: Overnight Sensation

10 Things You Should Know About Job Hunting

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4. Interview Question: What are your strengths and weaknesses?

So here are ten things that you should know about Public Speaking:

1. The only way to overcome your fear of public speaking is to actually get up and speak.
2. There’s a lot of bad advice out there related to public speaking – and some of it even makes it into best selling books.
3. Toastmasters can be an excellent resource for improving your speaking skills -just make sure you choose the right club.
4. Public speaking is NOT like riding a bike – you need to keep at it to remain good at it.
5. Your speech is should be focused on the audience – it’s not all about you.
6. Content and style are both important – but in the real world, your content is more important that your style (provided your style isn’t extremely bad).
7. It is an absolute must to practice your talk – even if you’re an experienced speaker.
8. When you overdo it with vocal variety and gestures, your audience is less likely to take you seriously.
9. What works best for someone else might not work best for you – try new things, but don’t be discouraged if you don’t get the same result as others.
10. PowerPoint is an excellent tool for presenting – just make sure you use the right way and in the right situations.

Post from: Overnight Sensation

10 Things You Should Know About Public Speaking

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1: Don’t practice:

Yes, many experienced speakers wing it and may get lucky from time to time. But it only takes one time for you to make this most basic of mistakes that you’ll never do it again. When you start giving a talk that you haven’t practiced enough, that feeling of embarrassment hits you like a ton of bricks. It’s something every speaker should do in the early stages of his or her career as you’ll most certainly never do it again.

2: Ignore your audience’s needs:

Many speakers use their speeches as an opportunity to get free group therapy. They talk about their challenges, expecting sympathy in return. Instead of helping the audience solve their problems, the roles are reversed. Remember that the speech is for the audience, not the speaker.

3: Overdo it with your style:

If you want to instantly lose credibility with your audience, overemphasize your gestures and your voice. While it’s fun to show off your amazing vocal variety and run all over the place with enthusiasm, the audience will write you off as a mere entertainer and ignore your content – even if it’s good.

4: Bring up taboo topics:

There’s nothing like speaking to a professional audience and talking about sex, politics or religion. As crazy as it sounds, I’ve seen it at public events, closed events and even at company meetings. Remember: when in doubt, leave it out.

5: Insult your audience:

For some speakers, bringing up a taboo topic isn’t enough. They take it a step forward by assuming everyone in the room agrees with them on a particular topic and bashes those that disagree. I’ve witnessed this more than I would have expected.

6: Insult people who aren’t in the room:

While it’s fun to bash celebrities and politicians in everyday conversation, it doesn’t always go over well during speeches. Double ditto for bashing people that have a connection to the audience and/or other speakers who have addressed the audience in the past – it’s just unprofessional.

7: Don’t check your equipment:

If you’re using PowerPoint, make sure you test the computer, projector and cables you’ll be using – you don’t want any last minute technical troubles. If you need internet access, bring along an aircard just in case the network is down in the building you’re in.

8: Dress inappropriately:

For business presentations, you should be more dressed up than your audience (unless they are dressed in business formal – then you should dress the same). Dressing down during a presentation, even in today’s casual society, makes you look less serious about your talk. There are some exceptions to this rule, so check with the person organizing your talk for the appropriate dress.

9: Veer way off topic:

It’s okay to digress a few times during your talk, especially if the audience is extremely interested in a related topic. But sometimes a speech takes a life of its own and becomes a completely new beast from what was originally planned (and practiced) by the speaker – I know, I’ve done this a few times. Stick with your main points and if you have more to add, do it at the end after you’ve covered your material.

10: Act unprofessional:

We’ve covered some items that could fall under this category but consider this a catchall for everything else. Swearing, being overly sexual, using discriminatory language and being overly sarcastic are all common sense mistakes to avoid. But I’ve seen people yell at audience members (overreacting because audience member walked in late or forgot to turn off their cell phone ringer), belch, pick their nose and spit during a talk. Again, you’d think common sense would tell people not to act this way, but it happens.

Bonus: Consume alcohol before your talk:

Okay, it’s called “Liquid Courage” because it puts you in a state where you mind isn’t fully functional so therefore you’re not afraid. But it also slows down the communication between your brain and your mouth (and other body parts) as well as impairs your judgment (hence the reason DUI is illegal).

So these are some things to avoid when giving a speech. These aren’t rocket science, but I see these mistakes quite often. While avoiding them won’t guarantee you a successful speech, it’ll at least help prevent you from giving a very bad one. Happy Speaking.

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Ten Things That Will Guarantee Your Speech Will Bomb

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Write it out:

The first thing you need to do is write your speech. In most cases, the content of your speech is more critical than your delivery as people will often forgive you for not using a lot of vocal variety, but they won’t forgive you if leave out a critical piece of information. So start with an outline that lists out three to five main points and then fill in the details. I recommend writing out the entire speech if you’re new to public speaking, this will give you an extra bit of confidence and help you remember your speech better.

Should you use PowerPoint?

I only use PowerPoint when I have a lot of visual imagery in my talk. Others prefer to use it all the time because it helps you stay on topic and makes it easier for you to remember the important parts of your speech. If you’re nervous about speaking, then PowerPoint is a great option for these exact reasons, but make sure that room you’ll be speaking in is set up for giving PowerPoint presentations. And also make sure that you practice your presentation on the same equipment you’ll be using for your actual speech.

Practice:

The most important thing you must do before a speech is to practice it. It’s best to practice it in front of a live audience so you can get feedback and practice eye contact. But if you don’t have an audience of friends, family members and/or coworkers to give yourself a test run, then seek out a video camera. When all else fails, set up stuffed animals or pictures and use them for your audience – you can practice your eye contact.

Relax:

Public speaking doesn’t have to be scary. Remember that it’s an honor to get up there and speak to a group so don’t look at it as a chore. Think “I get to do this speech” as opposed to “I have to do this speech.” There are a number of techniques you can use to relax such as listen to music, visualize your success or focusing on the benefits.

So when you’re asked to give a speech, don’t panic. Just take the time to practice and put the effort into making sure your speech is well crafted. There are a number of free articles here on this site to help ensure your next speech is a success. Good luck.

If you need help preparing for a speech I offer both in-person and phone coaching.

Post from: Overnight Sensation

What to Do When You’re Asked to Give a Speech

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4. Public Speaking Success: The 80/20 Rule of Speech Preparation