CRANY

Imagine that you have recently interviewed for the position of your dreams and walked away confident that you would receive a job offer.  Professionally, there are very few greater feelings than sincere optimism about obtaining a role that could significantly advance your career. Now consider that, despite your outstanding qualifications and presentation, you find out that another candidate has been selected for the position. As you contemplate what could have possibly gone wrong, you eventually realize that you never sent a thank you note to the hiring manager.

Often professionals make the mistake of neglecting to follow-up with a thank you note after an interview.  Perhaps the relief of having survived a nerve wracking experience distracts them from completing this essential task, or the overwhelming nature of the job search process directs their focus elsewhere. Some candidates simply overlook the significance of the post-interview thank you note, deeming it an “old-fashioned” practice. Regardless of the motivations for failing to send this imperative communiqué, the error can cause an employer to eliminate a candidate from consideration.  By forgetting to send a thank you note, the candidate indirectly projects a lack of interest in the position, and/or decreases the likelihood of being remembered by the hiring manager.  Therefore, it is imperative that you conclude the hiring process by promptly sending a carefully written thank you note to the interviewer that incorporates the six guidelines below:

1. Show Gratitude
Obviously, the thank you note functions to express your gratitude for the opportunity to interview with the organization. The hiring manager has allotted valuable time from his or her schedule to meet you with you.  Therefore, before delving into the core of your letter, remember to be polite.  The employer wants to know that you truly appreciate consideration for the position and their time.

2. Reiterate Your Enthusiasm
Restate your passionate interest in both the role and the organization with supporting examples. An enthusiastic, high energy restatement of why you want the job will prove that your letter wasn’t written out of mere obligation, but out of sincere ambition.

3. Reflect on Interview Performance
Serving as a self-marketing tool, the thank you letter should emphasize the professional strengths and accomplishments you discussed during the interview.  This is your chance to remind the hiring manager why you are the best choice for the position. Additionally, use the thank you note to address any problematic aspects of your interview performance, such as your lack of qualification in a certain area, and how it will be overcome.  In doing so, you will demonstrate your willingness to eliminate a weakness and alleviate objections to your candidacy.

4. Keep it Short and Sweet
The thank you note is essentially the “home stretch” in the job search process; it’s unnecessary to go overboard, be long-winded or provide new, irrelevant information. After all, you already captured the hiring manager’s interest if you were granted an interview. That said, the thank you note should not exceed three paragraphs, and should only include the most important points possible. An extremely lengthy or digressive note risks the self-defeating possibility of remaining unread or being forgotten. To make the best impression possible, the note should remain concise and, therefore, memorable.

5. Send Electronically
While a handwritten note may seem endearing, a thank you letter sent within one day of the interview via email will help to convey the urgency of your interest in the position. This is especially true if the employer is looking to fill the position immediately, or if the organization’s large size could prevent the letter’s timely delivery.

6. Proof Read The biggest mistake you can make when sending a thank you note to a potential employer is not proofreading it.  Sending a note with spelling or grammatical errors can not only be embarrassing, but it could cost you the potential offer.  When an employer receives a correspondence that is hastily written and filled with errors this shows them that the author lacks the attention to detail and/or professionalism they require.

A conscious effort to implement these suggestions into your next thank you letter can go a long way.  Combined with strong performance in the other areas of the hiring process, the proper execution of the thank you note will help to increase your chances of success.

SSL Certificates, (secure socket layer) security is a must have for any online e-commerce website or any site which that wishes to accept payments. SSL certificates allow you to gain a competitive advantage over other sites by appearing more trusted and more legitimate and are important for IT support to allow monitoring of secure sites.  SSL Certificates/Site seals are an effective way to make sure your customers know your site has the stamp of approval from a leading global Certificate Authority.

SSL certificates also provide assurance to your customers that their data cannot be tampered with. An SSL Certificate helps Web site visitors protect sensitive information and get a better idea of who they are trusting with it. It is an important method of maintaining a high level of IT security on your site. The majority of consumers now expect security to be integrated into any online service they use, as a result they expect any details they provide via the Internet to remain confidential and integral. As an IT product a SSL certificate can provide this.

HTML5 brings a host of new elements and attributes to allow developers to make their documents more easily understood by other systems (especially search engines!), display data more uniquely, and take on some of the load that has required complex JavaScript or browser plug-ins like Flash and Silverlight to handle. Here are 10 new items in HTML5 that will make it easier for you to write your Web sites.

1: <video> and <audio>

One of the biggest uses for Flash, Silverlight, and similar technologies is to get a multimedia item to play. With HTML5 supporting the new video and audio controls, those technologies are now relegated to being used for fallback status. The browser can now natively display the controls, and the content can be manipulated through JavaScript. Don’t let the codec confusion scare you away. You can specify multiple sources for content, so you can make sure that your multimedia will play regardless of what codecs the user’s browser supports.

2: <input> type attributes

The venerable <input> element now has a number of new values for the type attribute, and browsers do some pretty slick things depending on its value. For example, set type to “datetime” and browsers can show calendar/clock controls to pick the right time, a trick that used to require JavaScript. There is a wide variety of type attributes, and learning them (and the additional attributes that go with some of them) will eliminate the need for a lot of JavaScript work.

3: <canvas>

The <canvas> tag gives HTML a bitmapped surface to work with, much like what you would use with GDI+ or the .NET Image object. While <canvas> isn’t perfect (layers need to be replicated by using multiple canvas objects stacked on top of each other, for example), it is a great way to build charts and graphs, which have been a traditional weak spot in HTML, as well as custom graphics. And that is just a start!

4: <header> and <footer>

The <header> and <footer> tags are two of the new semantic tags available. These two tags do not get you anything above and beyond <div> for the actual display. But they will reap long-term rewards for your search engine efforts, since the search engines will be able to tell the difference between “content” and things that are important to the user but that aren’t the actual content.

5: <article> and <section>

The <article> and <section> tags are two more semantic tags that will boost your search engine visibility. Articles can be composed of multiple sections, and a section can have multiple articles. Confusing? Not really. An article represents a full block of content, and a section is a piece of a bigger whole. For example, if you are looking at a blog, the front page might have a section for the listing of all the posts, and each post would be an article with a section for the actual post and another for comments.

6: <output>

The new <output> tag is unique, in that it expects its content to be generated dynamically with JavaScript. It has a value attribute, which can be manipulated through the DOM with JavaScript to change what is displayed on the screen. This is much more convenient than the current ways of doing things.

7: <details>

It seems like every Web site needs to have an expanding/collapsing block of text. While this is easy enough to do with JavaScript or server-side code, the <details> tag makes it even easier. It does exactly what we’ve all been doing for years now: makes a simple block that expands and collapses the content when the header is clicked. The <details> tag does not have widespread support yet, but it will soon.

8: <figure> and <figcaption>

<figure> is a container for content (typically images, but it can be anything), and <figcaption> (which gets put inside the <figure> tag) provides a caption or subtitle for the contents of the <figure> tag. For example, you could have four images representing charts of sales growth within a <figure> tag, and a <figcaption> with text like “Year-to-year sales growth, 1989 – 1993.” The images would be shown next to each other with the text running below all four.

9: <progress>and <meter>

<progress> and <meter> are similar. You use <progress> for a task or a “measure how complete something is” scenario. It also has an indeterminate mode for something that has an unknown duration (like searching a database). The <meter> tag is for gauges and measurements of value (thermometers, quantity used, etc.). While they may look alike on the screen in many cases, they do have different semantic meanings.

10: <datalist>

The <datalist> tag acts like a combo box, where the system provides a pre-made list of suggestions, but users are free to type in their own input as well. There are tons of possible uses for this, such as a search box pre-populated with items based on the user’s history. This is another one of those things that currently requires a bunch of JavaScript (or JavaScript libraries) to handle but that can be done natively with HTML5.

1. Makes references to your salary in front of other staff. This is private and confidential information, not public knowledge. Other employees don’t need to know what you’re being paid, and it’s true regardless of the type of comment that’s made. Whether the boss is saying, “I don’t pay you enough” or “I pay you too much,” this type of comment will lead to resentment among staff members. Broadcasting your earnings undermines your position with the rest of the staff. They’ll either think you’re willing to work for peanuts, ruining their chances of earning more, or think that you’re overpaid.

2. Reprimands you in front of other employees. This is a form of bullying, and it’s never acceptable. While you may have made a mistake or error that deserves discussion, a good employer will handle this professionally — and in private. A good boss should never denigrate your skills, either, with comments like, “This job is so easy, anyone could do it.”

3. Has unreasonable expectations. Managers need to communicate their expectations for work performance clearly, assist employees when needed, and set reasonable deadlines for projects. This one can be tricky… at times every employee has probably felt that he or she has been dealt an impossible task. But if you’re consistently receiving unreasonable demands, you need to speak up. It could be a communication issue; perhaps something as simple as unclear directions are bogging you down. Or it could be a case of micromanagement (in which case, you were hired because the boss felt you were qualified to do your job, and it’s fine to remind him or her to let you do it). Just be sure you address it in a courteous and non confrontational manner.

4. Shares too many personal details. This is a work situation, not the therapist’s couch. A good boss shouldn’t share problems or inappropriate personal details. If you find the conversation often veers in this direction, lead the way by being very brief in your responses and then change the subject back to business. And don’t bring your own problems to the office.

5. Makes inappropriate references. Any comment that makes you squirm is one that shouldn’t have been made in the office. This includes water cooler jokes, emails, or comments about your physical appearance. Include in this category any type of implication that the boss is interested in a relationship of a personal nature, even if it’s not something you’re entirely opposed to. Workplace romances are NEVER a good idea, and it’s beyond unprofessional to even make the suggestion. All these things are a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen.

6. Implies that sex, race, age, or religion is a factor in work performance. None of these things have anything to do with your ability to do the job you were hired to do. The suggestion that it might is not only unfair, it’s discriminatory. Address any such implication immediately.

If you find that you’re experiencing one or more of these problems with regularity, you need to speak to your boss about your discomfort. This isn’t always an easy thing to do, but it’s necessary to maintain a professional working relationship. Keep in mind that he or she may not even be aware that it is bothering you. The key is to open up a dialogue that can deal with the issues. Approach your boss in a free, calm moment, and let him or her know that you feel there are some issues that need to be addressed. Then calmly discuss the issues in an open and honest manner. And always keep in mind that having respect for yourself and your needs will allow the boss to see you’re there to do your best work. If discussing with your boss does not change things for the better, then consider going up the chain of command or to HR for help.

When it comes to IT skills and expertise, there are all kinds of “best certification” lists. Pundits are quick to add the safe bets: Cisco’s CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert), Red Hat’s RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer), and other popular choices.

This isn’t that list.

Based on years of experience meeting with clients and organizations too numerous to count, I’ve built this list with the idea of cataloging the IT industry’s 10 most practical, in-demand certifications. That’s why I think these are the best; these are the skills clients repeatedly demonstrate they need most. In this list, I justify each selection and the order in which these accreditations are ranked.

1: MCITP: Enterprise Administrator on Windows Server 2008

I love Apple technologies. The hardware’s awesome, the software’s intuitive and their systems make it easy to get things done fast while remaining secure. But it’s a Windows world. Make no mistake. Most every Mac I deploy (and Mac sales are up 20 to 25 percent) is connected to a back-end Windows server. Windows server experts, however, can prove hard to find.

IT pros who have an MCITP (Microsoft Certified IT Professional): Enterprise Administrator on Windows Server 2008 accreditation demonstrate significant, measurable proficiency with Active Directory, configuring network and application infrastructures, enterprise environments, and (if they’ve chosen well) the Windows 7 client OS.

That’s an incredibly strong skill set that everyone from small businesses to enterprise organizations require. Add this line to your resume, and you may be all set to find another job should your current employer downsize.

Honorable mentions for the top spot include the MCITP: Virtualization Administrator on Windows Server 2008 R2 and MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator on Exchange 2010. Microsoft Exchange owns the SMB space. Virtualization initiatives are only getting started and will dominate technology sectors for the next decade at least. Administrators who can knowledgeably navigate Microsoft’s virtualization and email platforms will only grow in importance.

2: MCTS

Not everyone has time to sit as many exams as an MCITP requires. The MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist) certification is among the smartest accreditations an engineer can currently chase. As mentioned above, it’s a Windows world. Adding an MCTS certification in Exchange, SharePoint, Virtualization, Windows Client, or Windows Server will strengthen a resume.

There is no downside to any of these MCTS accreditations. Each of the above tracks provides candidates with an opportunity to demonstrate proficiency with specific technologies that organizations worldwide struggle to effectively design, implement, and maintain every day.

3: VCP

Virtualization is all the rage. It makes sense. Hardware manufacturers keep cranking out faster and faster servers that can store more and more data. Tons of servers sit in data centers using just fractions of their capacities. Virtualization, which enables running multiple virtual server instances on the same physical chassis, will continue growing in importance as organizations strive to maximize technology infrastructure investments.

VMware is a leading producer of virtualization software. Tech pros earning VCP (VMware Certified Professional) certification give employers (both current and future) confidence they can implement and maintain VMware-powered virtual environments. And if you talk to the techs responsible for maintaining data centers, you’ll frequently hear that VMware remains a favorite over Microsoft’s Hyper-V alternative, although most sober IT pros will have to admit Hyper-V is improving and closing the gap.

4: CCNA

The next politically correct certification to list is the CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert). However, that’s a massive exam that few professionals realistically will ever have an opportunity to obtain. And while Cisco equipment frequently composes the network backbone, fueling numerous medium and large organizations, most organizations don’t need a CCIE and don’t have the resources to pay one.

That’s why I believe the more fundamental CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) certification is a smart bet. A CCNA can help technology pros better familiarize themselves with the network OS’s fundamentals, while simultaneously strengthening their resume. Particularly motivated candidates can proceed to earn a CCNA Security certification, as the network security focus is a critical component of enterprise systems.

5: CSSA

In early 2012, Dell announced its pending acquisition of SonicWALL. There’s a reason Dell is buying the hardware manufacturer: SonicWALL has made great strides within the SMB unified threat management market.

Someone needs to be able to configure and troubleshoot those devices. The CSSA (Certified SonicWALL Security Administrator) certification not only proves proficiency in installing and administering the company’s devices, certified professionals receive direct access to tier two support staff and beta testing programs.

Organizations are always going to require network devices to fulfill firewall, routing, and threat management services. SonicWALL has carved out quite a bit of market share — so much so that it will now have the marketing might of Dell helping fuel additional growth. Knowing how to configure the devices will help IT pros, particularly those who support numerous small businesses.

6: PMP

Too many chiefs isn’t an IT problem I hear or read much about. Instead, it seems there’s a lack of IT pros capable of sizing up a project’s needs, determining required resources and dependencies, developing a realistic schedule, and managing a technical initiative.

The Project Management Institute is a nonprofit group that administers the PMP (Project Management Professional) certification. The exam isn’t designed to earn a profit or motivate IT pros to learn its product and become unofficial sales cheerleaders. The PMP certifies candidates’ ability to plan, budget, and complete projects efficiently, on time, and without cost overruns. Those are skills most every medium and large business needs within its IS department and such ability isn’t going to be replaced by an app or third-party developer in our lifetimes.

7: CISSP

If you want to specialize in security, the (ISC)² (International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc.), which administers the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) accreditation, is your organization. Its vendor-neutral certification has a reputation as one of the best vendor-neutral security certs.

Organizations’ data, networks, and systems are increasingly coming under attack due to the value of personal, corporate, customer, and sensitive proprietary information. So individuals who demonstrate measurable success and understanding in architecture, designing, managing, and administering secure environments, developing secure policies, and maintaining secure procedures will stand out from the pack. In addition, the knowledge gained while earning the certification helps practitioners remain current with the latest legal regulations, best practices, and developments impacting security.

8: ACSP

There’s more to the energy surrounding Apple than pleasant tablet devices, intuitive smartphones, and a stunning stock price. The company continues chewing up market share and shipping computers at rates 10 to 12 times greater than PC manufacturers.

The ACSP (Apple Certified Support Professional) designation helps IT pros demonstrate expertise supporting Mac OS X clients. Engineers, particularly Windows support pros and administrators increasingly encountering Macs, will be well served completing Apple’s certification rack for technical support personnel. Benefits include not only another bullet for the resume but an understanding of Apple’s official processes for installing, setting up, troubleshooting, and maintaining Mac client machines.

9: Network+ / A+

Yes, CompTIA’s Network+ and A+ designations are, technically, two separate certifications. But they’re both critical certs that test absolute fundamentals that every IT pro needs to completely understand.

In fact, there’s an argument to be made that all IT pros should have both of these accreditation’s on their resumes. CompTIA is a well-respected, vendor-neutral (though vendor-supported) organization that continually develops and administers relevant certifications. The network, hardware, and software skills tested on the Network+ and A+ exams are basics that every self-respecting tech professional should master, whether they’re performing budgeting tasks, deploying client machines, managing site-wide migrations, overseeing security, or administering networks and servers.

10: CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician

With an aging population, U.S.-based IT pros (in particular) should consider earning CompTIA’s Healthcare IT Technician credential. Obviously, if you work in manufacturing, the credential may be a stretch. But manufacturers frequently lay off staff. And many others produce material for health-related purposes.

See where I’m headed?

The interest surrounding health-related technology is almost unparalleled. Look around the city where you live. During the recession, where have you seen growth? Are there lots of new bookstores opening? How about new single-family home developments? Seeing lots of new manufacturing centers?

Doubtful. Like many, you’re probably seeing new medical services offices, immediate care centers, hospitals, outpatient facilities, dental practices, and similar health-related businesses.

They all need IT support. Support technicians, administrators, engineers, managers, and especially consultants who want to position themselves well for the future will do well to demonstrate their proficiency with health care technology’s regulatory requirements, organizational behaviors, technical processes, medical business operations, and security requirements. IT pros could do worse with their time, that’s for sure.

The IT job market is usually a seller’s market, even in tough times like these. But some IT roles are especially difficult to fill. Here are 10 jobs that typically send companies into fits when they need to hire for them.

1: IT trainer

IT trainers play a unique role in the IT world, and they need a unique skill set. By itself, this position would be hard enough to fill. But add the fact that being a trainer differs in many ways from the typical IT job, along with the frequent need for travel, and you have a recipe for “tough hire.”

2: Project manager

The biggest problem in hiring project managers is usually self-imposed: the “requirement” of a PMP certification. Why does that make it hard to hire? It isn’t just that folks with PMP certification are expensive and tough to find. It’s the difficulty of obtaining the certification in the first place. The certification has a “chicken and egg” logic to it: To earn it, you need to be managing projects… but it can be hard to get project management work without the cert. As a result, the talent pool is artificially small, and many otherwise well-qualified candidates get filtered out.

3: CIO/CTO/director of IT/etc.

IT leadership roles are extremely difficult to fill. Like IT trainers, leadership positions require the candidates to have skills that just are not learned in the typical IT job. Companies are forced to hire good leaders with weak (or nonexistent) technical knowledge or to hope that a technical person can learn the leadership and business skills required to be a success. It is difficult to find someone who has good “crossover” skills and whom you feel comfortable with, making leadership positions hard to fill.

4: Help desk staff

The basic problem with filling help desk jobs is that they usually pay far less than the person you really want to hire will accept. Plenty of people can do a perfectly fine job with the help desk position, despite the technical skills required and its challenges for workers (the stress of metrics they have little control over, like “average time to answer calls” and ticket closure rates, dealing with angry people over a phone, etc.). But how many of them are actually going to work for what the help desk job pays?

Most companies see the help desk as a necessary evil, a cost center to be contained. And in a way, they are right. With razor thin margins in many industries, the cost of support can make or break the profitability of a company. So it is natural for them to squeeze the salaries as hard as they can. But for managers looking for well-qualified workers, those tight budgets make it impossible to get the right help, unless they find a diamond in the rough or someone with a tough job situation.

5: Specialized programmer

Device drivers, operating systems, and mobile applications: Any idea what they have in common? The developers who know how to write those kinds of software and do a good job of it are exceedingly rare — or there is a high demand for a relatively small number of developers. Some of these positions are just so specialized that only a handful of developers are doing it. Others (like mobile applications) have lots of developers out there, but the demand is just so high that the companies looking to make a hire have positions unfilled for months at a time.

6: Pre-sales engineer

Pre-sales engineer is another IT-related job that requires a diverse range of talents beyond the technical. To make it an even harder position to fill, it is a job that requires a lot of travel. Simply put, nothing can substitute for the hands-on demonstration when it comes to closing a deal. And on top of that, the job is almost pure customer service, often in person, which many IT people do not want to deal with, especially considering that they have other job options. A pre-sales engineer needs the heart of a salesperson wrapped in the mind of an IT pro, and that’s a tricky mix to find.

7: Technical writer

Now, I’m not talking about bloggers and their ilk, but the folks who do things like write product manuals and help files. There is a reason why these tasks often fall on the shoulders of the developers, even when the company is willing to spend the money on hiring a technical writer: It is hard to find people who can write coherently, in a language that the end user can grasp, and who understand the technical side of things! This isn’t a matter of hiring an English major who is “tech savvy” like people assume, either. Technical writers are hard to find, and good ones are even tougher.

8: Product evangelist

The product evangelists are the “face of the company” when it comes to the technical side of their business. They are the ones giving presentations at technical conferences around the world, hanging out in forums answering questions, constantly blogging, reaching out to folks on social media… and at the same time, they need to be on the cutting edge of their industry’s technical knowledge. Few IT jobs involve as much travel as product evangelist. The right person needs to have an absolute passion for the work and for the company and its specific products, as well as the technical knowledge and soft skills to handle the job. This means that even if someone is a great evangelist at one company, he or she will probably be a poor hire for any other company doing the same job.

9: IT author

Writing technical blogs and articles is often seen as an easy job, and most of us are doing it as a secondary job. (Only a few folks can put a roof over their head with this work.) There are plenty of technical people out there who can use some extra money. All the same, it’s a bear to find people who are not only willing to give it a shot, but who will stick with it long enough to really become “part of the team.”

There is a lot of churn, as folks are bursting with great article ideas when they are hired, and a month later they have written everything they wanted to write and are stuck with a lack of article ideas. This is why you see certain names pop up in so many places. The number of IT authors who can consistently produce high quality content year in and year out is shockingly small. And that is just for the “magazine” style writers! Book authors are even more difficult to find, since the role combines the details needed for a technical writer with the ability to produce a multiple-hundred page tome, typically for just a few thousand dollars.

10: Maintenance/legacy programmer

Most programmers have seen these jobs before; they are typically disguised as something else, because so few developers want them. What are they? Jobs involving the maintenance of existing applications, often ones that have been around a long time and written in a legacy technology. Few programmers are willing to take these jobs because they are the kiss of death for a career. In an industry where “cutting edge” today is “obsolete” in a few years, working with technology already considered “legacy” means that you are likely to be stuck with the job for a long, long time unless you are willing and able to reinvent yourself outside the workforce.

On top of that, the work is miserable! You have to wade through endless amounts of poorly documented code that someone who is long gone wrote a decade ago. What usually happens is that companies hire junior and entry-level developers who are struggling to find work, luring them in with an ad that promises that it doesn’t matter what they know (because of course, anything they know isn’t old enough to be applicable anyway) and a “willing to train” clause. Experienced and intermediate programmers tend to stay far, far away from these jobs, unless they are also niche jobs. And the people who do get hired often they realize what a mess they’ve gotten into and see that the longer they stay, the harder it will be for them to get out — so they quickly head for the exits.

Equally important to the hiring process is the employer’s thorough understanding of best practices associated with conducting phone screens. Given that phone screens function as a simplification tool, employers must administer them effectively to ensure that the most promising candidates are invited to face-to-face interviews.  The primary objective of the phone screen – to reduce the number of candidates – is entirely missed if the employer cannot adequately discern anything of value about the candidate’s qualifications and personality. In order to utilize phone screens to facilitate the candidate selection process, employers must familiarize themselves with the following strategies:

1. Create a single introductory script

Before you begin a series of phone calls, prepare an overview of the organization and a description of the position’s duties and requirements. Together, they will constitute a standardized, introductory guideline that can be used when speaking to each candidate. It’s helpful to compose descriptions of the organization and the position in your own words – rather than to read them verbatim from another source – to provide the candidate with a more personal understanding of both the culture of your firm and the objectives of the role. By explaining the organization and the position to the candidate in simple language, the conversation will flow more naturally, allowing you to better assess how well the candidate will fit in the role.  In addition, the process of preparing this text in advance will help reinforce the profile of your ideal candidate. Note that your introductory speech should not last more than a few minutes, as you will need to allot the majority of the phone screen to asking questions.

2. Carefully craft a list of relevant questions

Your major objectives include both confirming the candidate’s qualifications and determining if he or she will successfully fulfill your organization’s needs.  To do so, you must create a list of standard questions to allow yourself to objectively assess each candidate. Begin with basic questions in order to eliminate any candidates who overtly lack the experience or skills necessary to succeed in the position, including questions involving:

•  Verification of past positions, duties and employment dates
•  Verification of particular technical capabilities
•  Verification of certain industry experience
•  Explanation of current organization’s business

Once the candidate’s basic qualifications have been confirmed, you can proceed to asking questions related to their achievements and professional goals, focusing on:

•  Major accomplishments in current or previous role
•  Challenges faced in current or previous role
•  How current co-workers would characterize the candidate
•  Reason for leaving current position
•  Reason for seeking available position
•  Management style
•  Ideal work environment

3. Consistently ask additional open-ended questions

When asking the questions listed above, constantly follow-up with additional questions such as, “Why did you do that?” in response to the candidate’s decision to pursue a career in a different industry or “What did you learn from that?” after the candidate discusses key involvement in a particular project. By consistently pressing the candidate for information, you will ascertain many important qualities, namely, their ability to think beyond standardized answers, their level of articulation and their capacity for responding quickly under pressure.  Additional probing also helps to ensure that you are receiving the most honest answers possible.

4. Don’t rely on your memory; take notes!

Since you are likely to be screening multiple candidates in one sitting, you’ll benefit tremendously from taking notes about each person with whom you speak.  To facilitate your note-taking, print multiple copies of your interview questions with blank space to jot down each candidate’s answers.  Additionally, take notes about the candidate’s level of enthusiasm, including whether or not he or she had any questions for you at the end of the screen.  Finally, it’s helpful to include a brief “scorecard” section for the candidate on each sheet of paper, in which you can quickly evaluate his or her performance in various areas (communication, technical knowledge, experience, etc.) on a scale of 1 to 5.  By preparing sufficient notes both during and after the phone screen, you’ll save time and effort in determining which candidates should be further pursued for the position.