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Time Management

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April 7, 2011
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Typically, when the title “Time Management” is used for a blog, one might think they are going to get some tried and true techniques on how to better manage their personal and professional schedule throughout the day/week/month.  However, that’s not what I am going to talk about.  What I’m talking about is how to make sure you are effectively managing the time you are spending with a recruiter or Indianapolis Staffing firm.  This is important for a couple of reasons.  First, you don’t want to use more time in a recruiter’s day than they have allowed for you.  Second, you want to make sure that the time you are spending with them is relevant and impactful.

I had a situation a few weeks ago where both of these items became an issue.  In my verbal and e-mail confirmations to a candidate I had told him to be prepared for a 1 hour initial interview with me.  That interview ended up lasting 2.5 hours.  Needless to say I was a tad frustrated when I walked out of the meeting and the rest of my day had been derailed by this 1.5 hour blunder.  I made every attempt possible, including blatantly interrupting him (which I hate doing), to try to get him back on track.  Nothing was working.   For the most part his answers to the questions were good once he got to the point, but it took forever for him to get there.  This person could have been a strong candidate for an opening for which I was recruiting, but all of the good answers were drowned out by fluff and irrelevant information that essentially lead to his demise.  At the end of the interview I was not only mad at him for not following time guidelines that I had set forth from the intitial conversation, but I also didn’t have as solid of an understanding of his expereince and capabalities as I could have if he would have kept his answers on track.

So what can you do to avoid this issue if you are in an Indianapolis job search?

  1.   Ask the recruiter interviewing you how much time to allocate for the entire interview process.  You will need this for your own planning purposes, as well as for ensuring that you are respectful of the time of the people involved in the interview process.
  2. If you run out of time in an intervew and aren’t able to discuss everything you would’ve liked, don’t try to cram everything in during the last five mintues.  Instead, wrap up the conversation effectively, then afterwards follow up with the recruiter to ask for an additional phone conversation as a follow up.  That way you will have had time to gather your thoughts and cover any pertinent information that wasn’t covered in the interview in a clear, concise manner.  It’s also a good way to make another good impression on them.  However, don’t make the conversation all about you.  Make sure to ask a couple of questions pertaining to the company and/or position as another way to show your interest in continuing in the proccess for their Indianapolis job opening.
  3. If you are in an interview and you realize that you are running close on time, you can (if the timing is right) bring that up to the recruiter so they have the option of continuing the interview or scheduling a time to finish up.  You can say something as simple as, “I am very much enjoying our conversation, but I also know we are probably running close to the end of the time that you had alotted for the interview and I want to be respectful of your time.  I am fine to continue, but just didn’t want to throw off your schedule.”

Of course there are going to be those times where the recruiter is the one to prolong the interview, which can be just as frustrating.  It’s not a secret that Central Indiana jobs are still a little difficult to come by, so make sure that you don’t allow your lapse in time management be a reason for losing out on your ideal Indianapolis job opening.  Here at That’s Good HR we are happy to role play situations like this with our candidates that we are assisting in their Indianapolis job search.  Practice makes perfect!

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