Top Ten Lucky Charms For Interview

Some more ground breaking research from our friends at employment law firm Peninsula! Apparently 6 in 10 interview candidates wear lucky pants to ease them through an interview

The research found that 84% adorn themselves with a ‘lucky’ item, with six in 10 opting for lucky pants, whilst 73% of respondents armed themselves with advice taken from a horoscope reading of the day.

The top 10 lucky charms are:
- Lucky underwear (sometimes unwashed!)
- Lucky jewellery
- Brooch
- Lucky shoes
- An object from childhood, ie blanket/teddy
- Four-leaf clover
- Key ring
- Lucky stone
- Lucky pen/pencil
- Lucky photograph of someone ie boyfriend/relative

Peter Done, managing director at Peninsula said: "Union Jack underwear is not guaranteed to get you the job, so get prepared, turn up early for the interview, dress smartly and sell yourself. Leave the lucky underwear at home. I'm amazed at how superstitious people are, one employee we spoke to took wearing lucky underwear to the extreme claiming his briefs are so lucky that he refuses to wash them."

Top CV Tips...

A great list of Dont's from the Times when preparing your CV

The neurotic: a candidate submitted a password-protected CV that could not be accessed.
The evangelist: who ended a covering letter with “Jesus loves you”.
The banker: the applicant who put all his confidential bank details on his CV.
The cyber-criminal: who put that his life’s ambition was to be a computer hacker.
The punctual one: a candidate who said “I’m good at timekeeping. I wake up at 6am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” on her covering letter.
The bone idle: a candidate who sent across a generic template, leaving gaps where there should have been information describing the job position in which he was interested, and the company to which he was applying.
The enigma: a CV was submitted with no name or contact details.
The pervert: the CV with an “inappropriate” suggestive e-mail address.
The narcissist: a covering letter from a candidate with one objective: “to please and attain supreme perfection”
The porn star: a CV that included a photograph more suitable for a glamour shoot.

Employers Search Internet for Applicant Information

A recent HR survey referred to by the CIPD identified that employers’ recruitment decisions are increasingly being influenced by information found on the Internet about candidates.

A survey of more than 600 HR professionals by networking firm Viadeo found that one in five have used the Internet to search for information about candidates and almost two-thirds said what they found influenced their recruitment decisions.

Around 25 per cent of employers also admitted to rejecting candidates because of the personal information they found about them online. Reasons for discarding candidates included: “His MySpace website showed a negative side to him, including excessive alcohol abuse and disrespect for his job” and “We found that the candidate was personally into some activities which did not fit ethically into my company.”

Almost 15 per cent of HR managers said their decision to recruit someone was confirmed by positive information found about them online. Examples included: “He showed Internet skills through his own website” and “I found achievements that I might not have known about otherwise.”

CIPD Publish Age Law Guide

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the TUC have published a new guide to help advise on new age laws.

The two organisations carried out a series of focus groups across the UK to find out exactly what about the new regulations was concerning employers and unions. The guide, ‘Developing a new mindset on age and retirement’ is based on what employers and trades union representatives in the focus groups identified as key concerns, one of which was confusion around employees sending each other birthday cards in case these were seen as ageist.

Talking in the Recruiter Sarah Veale, the TUC’s head of equality and employment rights, says: “The new age laws were a long time coming, but sensible employers have nothing to fear from them. The best way of making sure that their workplace is a bastion of good age practice is to work hand in hand with a union to ensure that employees have a say in how things are to be done.”

The guide has been produced with funding from the Department of Trade and Industry and aims to show employers and unions how to develop good practice to make sure that they are meeting the requirements of the age regulations.

Interview questions

In today's job market, the supply of good candidates falls well behind the demand. Consequently the balance of power has switched from the employer to the job seeker.

Gone are the days when job seekers would accept any role with any ordinary company. Today job seekers are the ones asking all the questions of the employers with prospects and salary featuring high on the agenda.

A recent article in The Times features those dreaded interview questions, and presents details of what an acceptable response will be. We consider that the job seekers should be equally aware of the unacceptable responses:

'Where do you see yourself in five years time?' In your job of course

'What are your weaknesses' Men like you and fondant fancies

'Tell me about yourself' Five foot four, blue eyes and green hair

The questions you should not ask the employer include:

'How many days sick leave do I get?'

'What is the talent like in here?'

Got any other interview questions we have missed?