Like preparing a great meal, interviewing requires preparation. Get good ingredients and give yourself time. Prepare the food on the plate to make the meal attractive. All of these go into a great meal. Taking the time to prepare for an interview will give you a huge leg up on your completion.

1. Schedule interviews at times that work for your metabolism. Are you a morning person? Why would you accept a 6PM interview? If you are a person who functions best in the afternoon, try not to accept early morning appointments. If you are a person who needs to be conscious of their blood sugar, try to schedule your appointments at times when you are at your peak. If forced to accept one of your less ideal times, have a quick bite prior to the interview to avoid “fading.” Avoid overeating.

2. Give yourself extra time to get to their offices. There are few things worse than getting to an interview late.

3. Arrive at the office building 7-10 minutes early. If it is summer, you want to wait in the lobby to cool off; no one likes shaking sweaty hands. If its winter, warm up; you don’t want someone’s early impressions of you formed by shaking a cold hand. Take a few minutes in the lobby to get focused on what you will say. Allow a few minutes to get through building security so that you actually arrive at your interview on time and ready to go.

4. Properly introduce yourself to everyone you meet by saying. “My name is __________ and I have a 1:30 interview with ________________.”

5. If you are asked if they can hang your coat, accept the offer; if offered a beverage, accept a beverage. You don’t have to drink coffee or tea. Soda, bottled water or water is fine. Thank whoever helps you. Declining the offer may be rude in some cultures.

6. Take your seat in order to face the greatest number of entry points into the room so tat you can see someone approaching you. Being startled is not a good way to start a meeting.

7. If you are given an application, complete it and complete it accurately and neatly. Do not attach your resume and write, “See attached resume.” An application is a legal document and failure to complete it accurately can be grounds for termination.

8. If you are not sure about the month you started a job or your exact salary, write “approx” (for the word approximately) next to the item. If asked, indicate you are not absolutely certain of the exact month and don’t wish to deceive anyone. Obviously, if you can ascertain your salary or starting date prior to interviewing, do so; for some people, the date or salary may be so far in the past to make it impossible to determine.

9. Write legibly (or as legibly as you can). This may be the twelfth application you’ve completed, but it is the first of yours that they’ve seen. In many professions, sloppiness is seen as a flaw.

10. When you hear your name announced, stand, and smile, shake the hand of your interviewer and immediately size them up as a person. Are they smart (or not). Aggressive (or not). If you were meeting this person socially, I’m sure your instincts would be right. Unfortunately, because people think interviews are important, they think they have to feel the interviewer out. Doing that is a mistake. Hard and fast impressions of you will be formed during the next ten minutes that will be difficult to change. If you tend to be right in social situations about the people you meet, trust your instincts in professional ones, too.
Using these ten steps as a check list will get you started well than your competition. What you do after that is up to you. Good luck.
By: Muhammad Sadiq Javed – Sameers
http:www.constructionjobsnet.co.uk
Construction Jobs Network – The easiest way to find your next UK construction job.
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Most small business owners are very busy people who dont have a lot of extra time on their hands. They will happily outsource some of their daily time-consuming tasks to a telecommuter. One of these time consuming tasks is setting appointments. Appointment setting is a perfect occupation for a telecommuter. The employer doesnt necessarily need a full-time employee to set his appointments, but at the same time needs someone that is available the majority of business hours in case his clients call in, or to make calls at different times of the day.

A telecommuter is the perfect candidate for this position. As a telecommuting appointment setter you can work with your employers schedule. If he needs a few calls made in the morning and then wants you to be available for callbacks in the afternoon, you are there to help. Best of all, you are not limited to just one employer or client. You can easily work as an appointment setter for several business owners at the same time. This will allow you to make a fulltime income while allowing each employer to only pay you for a few hours per day or week.

Setting appointments is something you can easily do from home. All you need is a phone and some way to organize yourself. A computer with Microsoft Outlook, or an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of your clients schedules would work well. You could even do this with a good paper calendar at first.

You should have good telephone and written skills to work as an appointment setter. Previous experience as an administrative assistant or secretary is not necessary, but is definitely a plus when it comes to the skills you need and when you are approaching prospective employers or clients. You should also be fairly organized to be able to keep up with multiple appointments for multiple clients each day.

As an appointment setter you will be spending a lot of time both on the phone and on email. You will be checking in with your clients (the small business owners) on a daily basis and then spend the rest of your time contacting their clients, setting up and later confirming appointments. Of course you will also keep your own clients or employers informed of any changes or cancellations throughout the day.

If this is something you are interested in doing, heres how to start. Determine your hourly rate. You should take the going rate for a task like this in an office setting into consideration and then up it from there. Your employer does not have to provide you with an office, a computer, telephone or any other equipment. You are also most likely going to be an independent contractor, which means he does not have to pay for any of your benefits or taxes. You will be responsible for all this, keep that in mind when determining your rate.

Now its time to approach small business owners in your area with what you have to offer and start building a client base. Once you have a few happy clients, word of mouth advertising should start to bring you even more business.