Interviewing is never easy;  even for the coolest of customers it can be a stressful process.  Often times when reliability engineers or predictive maintenance professionals are on an interview, they want to do anything they can to make an impression and get the job.  This may mean answering questions that might make you uncomfortable.  Sometimes, these questions might actually be illegal.  Over on the blog on our sister company Hire EQ, there is a post that links to a post from the Recruiters Lounge that identifies illegal interview questions.

If you don’t want to read the whole post, here are the questions that they identify as being illegal:

• Someone’s age or birth date
• Religious affiliation
• Sexual orientation
• Gender (remember Pat from Saturday Night Live)
• Marital status
• Political affiliation and political views
• Nationality & ethnicity
• Whether a female is married/getting married
• Pregnancy status (just for the ladies)

In addition to having more detail about each of these questions, the original post outlines what to do if you are asked these questions during your interview for that plant manager or PdM technician position. If you are interested, I would suggest checking it.

One of the questions I get is “How am I ever going to get all my work history on one page?”

To which I answer “Why would you even try?”

The one page résumé, (I’m still trying to find the origin of this horrid mythical rule), is really almost ridiculous!

To have a candidate resort to restricting their résumé to only one page means that probably they’ve cut so much content out that you’ll never really see the quality of the candidate, particularly if they are a senior manager or executive OR they have tried to cram so much content onto one page that the font is nearly illegible or the margins and formatting are so crazy that any potential employer would likely just dismiss it out of hand rather than reach for the handy magnifying glass.

I have seen candidates take it to a new level with the 8+page approach. This is not really good either because it is likely that much of your content is redundant and un-necessary.

In the final analysis, your content really rules just how long your résumé should be. If you are concerned that you cannot be frugal with your use of content and MUST include more than the customary 2-3 pages nowadays, then consider adding it in a nicely formatted addendum. This is also the place where you might want to add your publications and editorials, workshop/presentations and keynote appearances etc… In most cases, an unbiased reader will point out some content that you should not include because it just isn’t that relevant.

So, don’t be frustrated when you sit to come up with a several pages if you’re only just getting into the job market and don’t try to eliminate valuable content in hopes of getting down to a “one-pager” if you’ve been in the job market a while. You will find that if you let your content dictate the length of your résumé (within reason), you will have just the right one for you.

Happy Job Hunting
The Resume Lady

In the book, ‘The Personal Branding Phenomenon’, author Peter Montoya deconstructs the basic principles of branding in terms of job search. In the present era of online communication, personal branding is no longer a choice; it is a necessity, particularly in fields such as reliability engineering and predictive maintenance that have very active professional communities. Either you become a brand and organizations line up to hire you or you continue to struggle for a job or career change. This post provides some basics on developing your personal brand.

Social networking websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are the main platforms for personal branding. You can simply create an account, join your friends online and interact with them. You can use these websites to connect with other industry professionals from the field of reliability engineering. Join pages, communities or forums dedicated to reliability engineering or predictive maintenance. These websites are the best to build your general profile. To get started, we suggest using our link directory to find Facebook pages and LinkedIn Groups dedicated to reliability engineering, predictive maintenance and industrial maintenance.

In addition to these well-known sites, reliability and predictive maintenance professionals can get actively involved in a site like Maintenance.org, which is dedicated to our industry. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Maintenance.org can be used to develop professional relations with maintenance and reliability professionals. This site provides access to subject experts, entrepreneurs and authors related to the reliability industry. For job seekers, it’s a great place to meet and network with other professionals.

Use these steps to build your professional brand on Maintenance.org.

• Create your account and complete the profile with full details about your education and experience.
• Expand your network by sending friend requests to other maintenance professionals.
• Use your status as your sales tagline. Write thought provoking status messages.
• Join events or discussions initiated by other reliability engineers or professionals.
• Develop your branding strategy in terms of your long-term career objectives.
• Go a step ahead and use your writing skills to expand your network. You can create your own blog or if you have an existing blog, link to it from your profile. We do.

Your profile on Maintenance.org can truly become another tool during your job hunt and one we suggest getting on board with.

When hiring or looking for a job, there are some fantastic resources out there to find out about people and companies; this is good.  For reliability engineers and industrial/predictive maintenance professionals, there are also great sites like Nextupcareers.com that provide ample tips and resources for finding jobs, handling and interview and negotiating an offer.  However, this availability of information can be a negative as both companies and candidates have utilizing sites like ours and other career/employment resources to raise their games.

How can this be a negative?  Well, if both parties are aptly trained on the others techniques, the interview process can become a game. Employers have been to sites like hireeq.com or reliabilitytalent.com and have found great questions to ask.  Candidates have seen these sites and countless others and are prepared for the questions so they know how to answer the question the way the Company wants to hear and vice versa.  This serves to cloud reality as both company and candidate are putting on a façade rather than being themselves.

Fortunately, there are a couple of approaches that companies can utilize to break up this game allowing both company and reliability/maintenance professionals to have a valuable interview experience.  Based on our experience, here are some great ways to change the interview process:

Get away from the traditional question/answer interview. This method limits the scope of the interview to a set of questions. As we’ve noted, candidates and companies have gotten really good at gaming the Q&A interview because of the availability of internet resources; change it up.

Have a discussion. According to hiring experts, a better approach is to invite the interviewee for a discussion. Such a discussion can take different routes to exploring the knowledge, personality and thought process of the interviewee. For example, the discussion can be initiated with the topic – such as the candidate’s philosophy and approach to Asset Health. Later, the discussion can be diverted to more informal topics, such as family/background, sports, etc. to understand the psychology of the interviewee.

Role Playing.  It is one of the best methods to test what a candidate can contribute to the organization.  There are many ways this can be done; you can develop a case study and have the candidate provide their insight/analysis. You can outline a particular problem that the facility is currently facing and have them provide a discussion of their problem solving process.  The key, and this is absolutely critical to any type of role playing type of interview is to ensure that the approach is not too hypothetical.  Remember to keep it simple.

By taking this approach to conducting interviews, both hiring companies and reliability and predictive/industrial maintenance professionals can secure some real insight into each other, which ensures that a better job decision is made.

I read an article in the Industrial Engineering Jobs website and I thought I would share this with you.

Do you know a man named Chris Bigelow? His post: “Have You Googled Yourself Lately” caught my attention because, I immediately answered “NO”. Followed by the question…”Should I?”

After a little further online searching, I did find myself, or rather, I found entries online that were really about me. My facebook page, twitter and Linked In….my old My Space page were all there for everyone to see. That made me wonder….do I really know how that content will be interpreted by others? I don’t do keg-stands but if I did, I don’t think that is the impression I would want my potential employers to get about me. Photos of you wasted are not really the most flattering and photos of you passed out…..hmmmmm……what are employers to make of them?

Perhaps they should not pry into your personal lives but they likely will and if you aren’t getting work, maybe you should look at your “personal brand” or the name you have made for yourself. Did you save a man from a burning building or are you on the front page of the paper for having donated blood at the Red Cross? THOSE are great items to show you’re a person of good character…..partying (drinking or recreational drug use), scantily clad garments or dancing in provocative You Tube videos is probably going to come back to haunt you.

If you’ve already done this, try to clean it up….if you haven’t done this, DON’T! You risk a future employer making a snap judgment about you regardless of your stellar résumé or other credentials. One way to get around this is to build a personal website and add content to it that you definitely want someone to find. Links to your photo debuts in any newspaper or press releases etc. Do a little exercise and pretend you are a potential employer and google you, then search the online communities, viewing the content through the filter of an employer. Would YOU hire you based on that?

Over at our sister site, reliabilitytalent.com we have put up a new post entitled “The Cardinal Sins of Interviewing” which identifies the top three things you should avoid when undertaking the interview process.  The three are:

1. Be unprepared
2. Get Sidetracked
3. Ask stupid questions

Check out the post for the full details on why these three are the cardinal sins of interviewing.

Henry Hartman, famous Illustrator of the 20th century was quoted as saying “Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity”.

This is true of many an endeavor, and certainly so for interviewing. Even if you have the “gift of gab”, going into an interview unprepared is foolish. In most organizations today, interviewing a potential employee is a multi-level process involving different layers within the organization. Do not expect to receive an offer on the first interview. Your goal at the first interview is to get a second interview! Push too hard for an offer in the first interview and you may come off looking too aggressive or worse…desperate! Also, many a major mistake is made prior to coming to the interview that set you up for failure so pay close attention to these very common Good Practices in Interviewing.

There are a few standard practices that you should observe when you do get the invitation to interview with a prospective employer.

Start Ahead of Time. Allow yourself to get to know important facts about the business, time to prepare what you are to wear and what you are to say. Consult the internet, the company’s website, the Chamber of Commerce, The Better Business Bureau and any relevant professional organizations to see what kind of employer they are and how they contribute to their community at large and specifically within their industry. Find out the company’s philosophies and trends and see whether your values match. Remember – this is the biggest selling job of your life – selling yourself!

Know the position title you are applying for and be prepared to answer how you can make an immediate contribution to the organization.

Prepare a few well thought out questions in advance so you can engage the interviewer – it’s not an interrogation so look for natural places in the process to speak up and ask questions about the organizations goals for the position.

Practice answering difficult interview questions with a friend. Role plat as the interviewer too. You might find it’s not the easiest either.

Take with you: pen, paper (notepad in a neat folder or binder, leather is best), 2 or 3 professionally printed (laser printed) copies of your résumé, list of references, samples of your past work (if applicable to the position), and copies of: letters of recommendation, honors, awards and achievements if relative to the position.

Look the part. Dressing for success is only the beginning. Obviously, you want to look very neat and unwrinkled, in properly fitting clothes that are appropriate for the position for which you are applying. Pay attention to accessories, jewelry should be understated, perfume should be light or not at all – same goes for cologne and after-shave. Don’t forget to check your shoes for scuffs and dirt/mud and to ensure that they compliment your attire. Men wearing ties, check for spots; Women wearing hosiery, check for runs in your stockings.

Beyond your attire, physical appearance should convey a “put together” image. Get plenty of rest so you are mentally alert and the bags under your eyes are not noticeable.

This will give you confidence and convey to the interviewer a sense of well-being and health, which can be a big plus. Don’t forget to allow for plenty of time to prepare for the interview. Ladies, use moderation when applying makeup and men, a quick shave leaves your face broken-out. Give yourself just a little extra time to be more deliberate in your preparation for the interview.

Smoking and chewing gum are obviously to be left outside the interview. Interviewers don’t like the scent of smoke or alcohol on your breath so just don’t engage in those activities at all prior to an interview. It is critically important to know your resume, stand or sit straight without slouching and definitely make eye contact when you are speaking to the interviewer. Be very aware of your mannerisms, talking with your hands and pausing using “umm” and “uhh” a lot don’t tell an interviewer you are sharp!

Also, leave early. Leave a lot earlier than you need to to get to your interview. In no instance is it okay to arrive late for an interview. Everyone knows there is traffic so, in preparation for the interview, do a “mock” or trial drive to the interview. Leave at the same time you would actually leave for the interview and this will help you gauge if you have allotted enough time to account for the traffic or potential detours en-route. I know this might sound crazy but, if you show up late for your most important meeting (your interview) then how do you think they will perceive you will show up if they hire you later on? You really can’t be your best if you are hurried from rushing into an interview late and so you will already be stressed out. Allow yourself a leisurely drive to an interview to gather your thoughts and prepare.

Practice smiling. People are much more attracted to happy individuals and not sullen, desperate or worried looking prospects. Practice and preparation will make it easier to smile and be your best professional self.

There are loads and loads of tips out there and nothing is new under the sun but if you prepare and if you use common sense and display good judgment, that is a great perception to leave with a potential employer.

Are you a searching for a job in reliability engineering or predictive maintenance, but don’t  know how to hunt for a better job?

In the broader context of the engineering world, reliability engineering is a bit of a niche segment. Although there is huge scope for reliability engineers across different industrial sectors, the intake is limited as compared to the other segments of engineering. This can make searching for reliability engineering jobs a daunting task. Fortunately, the Internet can help us find jobs in a relatively quick manner. Here are some simple steps that you can follow to search for jobs online:

• Register with online job portals: Create a profile with online job portals such as netupcareers.com and upload your latest résumé. These job portals send matching job profiles to your email IDs on a daily basis. This saves the time and effort needed to physically search for a job.
• Use industry resources: Visit industry resources, such as blogs or websites of industry experts, knowledge portals and dedicated online platforms. Join communities, forums or career resources related to reliability engineering. This will not only keep you updated with the latest trends, you can also find leads to job vacancies.
• Use LinkedIn: Take a U-turn from the traditional job hunt methods and join LinkedIn to develop your professional network. Use this platform to exchange contact details and information with people who are working in the same profession. Once you have a good network of people on LinkedIn, searching for a new job will never be a daunting task.

While employees can use internet platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn for their job hunt, employers also use them to their advantage as well. Recruitment experts advice candidates looking for a job change to maintain quality social networking profiles, since HR personnel may visit profiles of potential candidates to get an impression of their out-of-work life. Who knows, a good Facebook update or Tweet just might get you the job you are looking for.

I spend way too much time surfing the web and getting sucked into random articles and products.  Every know and then I come across something that needs to be shared.  One of these is the site doyoubuzz.com. According to the site:

DoYouBuzz is a powerful and unique service that allows professionals to create an effective and beautiful online resume. Simple and free, DoYouBuzz is useful to everyone looking for opportunities or managing a career.

What I think makes the site pretty cool is that it not only provides a “pretty resume” but it provides an opportunity to get your resume ranked higher in Google and it has some great distribution capabilities as it broadcasts your resume across your networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and anything else you use. I also love the analytics – yes, you can monitor the traffic your resume receives.

I’m not sure that pretty resumes are an ideal for professionals looking to land a reliability engineering job, (I’ll leave that to the Resume Lady), but of all the resume tools we have seen out there, this one seems to really deliver value. I gave it a shot and built a quick resume for myself, even though I’m not looking for a job.  Click here if you want to see what a resume looks like.

If you decide to use doyoubuzz.com, let us know what you think of it.

We came across this post “15 job search tips from a guy who got a job” this morning over at workcoachcafe.com and thought it would be particularly helpful for all the reliability engineers and industrial maintenance professionals who are still trying to find a job.  We know rumor has it that things are picking up in the market, but its still tough to find a job as companies continue to be hesitant in making a hiring commitment.

If you don’t have time to read the entire post, the tips that we thought were really helpful for job hunters in the reliability engineering and predictive/industrial maintenance industry are as follows:

1. Opportunities occur when you least expect them. Never been truer words spoken.  I met my wife this way and found my first job when I was least expecting it.
2. Follow every lead.  You never know what might happen by having a conversation.  The job being offered might not be a perfect fit, but it gets you in front of a decision maker who might find a better fit for you.
3. At the end of the interview ask about the process & time frame for a decision. Its always nice to know; just remember that any time line and process is bound to be pushed out
4. Interviewing can go on for weeks and weeks.  Its sad but true, getting together an interviewing team and going through the hiring bureaucracy can be time consuming.  Be patient.
5. Always send thank you notes and follow up. Its just good business  to do this, plus it gives you a way to provide after the fact information and demonstrate  your writing skills.