Harry’s posterous

Yesterday I spent most of my day doing interviews. I was surprised to see that a lot of the interviewees didn't give a lot of attention to what first impression they made. A lot of them did some mistakes that had they been prepared they could easily avoid. 

Here is a list of comments, from yesterday's experience:

1. Don't bring a bag with you. You'll end up trying to find where to put it and you might end up having it on your lap, which really doesn't look good. If you do bring a bag and give the interviewer a CV then make sure it's stored in a hard sleeve so it doesn't get rumpled.
2. Engage with your interviewers. Interviewing is about selling yourself and your skills to the interviewers. Like any other type of selling or communication you need to get the audience (in this case the interviewers) engaged. So if there are two interviewers, even if only one of them is making the questions, make sure you keep eye contact and talk equally to both of them.
3. Don't bring your morning paper. I know that you just came to meet us this morning and you just got off the tube, but because you were reading the metro it doesn't mean you have to bring it with you. You end up leaving it on the table, distract the interviewers and give the wrong impression.
4. Switch off your phone. This is a no-brainer but I want here to add something else. Whether your phone is switched on or off never leave it on the table. It gives the impression that you are waiting for a call and that the interview is less important.
5. Know what your experience is. You are being interviewed so you will be asked what your experience is. Telling the interviewer that you can't recall your responsibilities from your last job but it's all on your CV, shows that you had no involvement in preparing that CV.
6. Don't stare. Eye contact is important but staring in most social situations is not very pleasant.

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Click here to download:

london-to-paris-AbtCfBjEmjCsykogdyDw.zip (3444 KB)

On September 10th I took my first Eurostar trip to Paris. I must say it is a very pleasant experience. It beats the security queues at the airport and the journey is quiet and comfortable. I'm looking forward to my next trip.

Next destination, maybe Brussels?

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It only took a month but at least it was approved and now available to download from the App Store.

Official post from Spotify: http://www.spotify.com/blog/archives/2009/08/28/spotify-goes-iphone/

For everyone outside the UK, Spotify is an on demand streaming music service. The iPhone version revolutionises streaming audio on the iPhone since it allows downloading albums to listen while you don't have a connection.

Only drawback is that you need to be a premium member (i.e. pay £9.99 per month) to use the iPhone version.

For more info: http://www.spotify.com/

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Passing by this display a colleague pointed out at the web address and told me "Doesn't this say stress-sex-change?".
Whatever you are working on it's necessary to have someone from the outside look at your work and give you feedback. In the above example just a hyphen would have made the domain name clear and protect it from adult humour.
If you are working on your personal or company profile an outsider can tell you if what you are saying is the same to what you are known for.
The same principle can apply to any project you are working on and you should always welcome feedback, either positive or negative.

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